Echoes (Dance With My Demons, #2)

by Steph Macca

What an unhinged good fucking reader you are. I knew you'd be gagging for the monsters under the bed… Begging them to drag you down to hell and rearrange your insides. Welcome home.

I'll paint the hallways red and string Christmas lights up made of intestines."

Emotions are useless. Unless, of course, you have perfect control over them. If you can manipulate them, you can do anything. It's why I don't fear anything—why I don't feel sadness. It's weak, pathetic… some emotions do not deserve recognition. I don't care if we're supposed to be human—some make us vulnerable, and the second that happens, you give people the opportunity to control you. Which is why I love to control.

"I could die right now," I growl, looking into her gray orbs. "It would be the best death. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else except in you."

If anyone lays a single finger on her, bruising her perfect skin, I'll soak them in gasoline and make a bonfire.

"You're not going to avoid me any longer, Avery. I don't care the reason why. Whatever it is, I promise that I'm the bigger threat."

I'm fucking possessive. I'm dangerous. I'll fucking kill for what's mine. And that extends to her.

When Avery's involved, I want everything. Life. Death. Torture. Pleasure. Pain. Every-fucking-thing she can offer me.

"Say my name," I grunt, feeling her cunt tighten around my fingers as her orgasm approaches. "Look at me and scream my fucking name."

"Who. Do. You. Belong. To?" I ask her between thrusts. "You," she breathes out. "You, Grey." "Damn fucking right," I growl in response, impaling her deep.

"This is what you do to me," I breathe out, growling as her finger presses into my flesh harder. "You tear me apart from the inside out in the best fucking ways possible. You make me kill for you, you make me want to die for you. I'll burn this whole place down to ashes and paint you with them like the muse you are."

Some might say I'm a masochist. And I guess they would be correct. Of all the places I could have picked for this discussion, I chose here. The fucking morgue. Well, at least they won't have to take his body far when I gut him.

A smile appears on my face at his blasé attitude. If anyone is going to be unimpressed or unthreatened by the situation, it would be Theo.

He leans down, brushing his lips against my ear. "You're my only reason for anything. And I think you're theirs, as well."

"When you go to heaven one day, I'll drag you back down to hell to join me. Because I'm never leaving you, Avery."

"You're possessive too," I shoot back. "Leaving fingers on my bed." He shrugs. "I gave you a flower. Girls like that shit." "Oh, that's the part you are focusing on," I scold playfully. "Here's the finger of your enemy… it's in a rose though." "I'm nothing if not unique," he smiles.

It was like I was standing inside a glass box, watching the world around me. I was trapped, but I could see the normal world passing by, while no one looked into the box and noticed that mine wasn't the same."

But that's the problem with people. They are so caught up with their own lives they forget to look around. Selfish, egotistical vultures, only looking out for themselves.

There's not a single tear in her eyes—just sadness. I know she's numb recalling it all, blaming herself.

"Your favorite place is an asylum?" she mutters in amusement. "You must be as fucked up as I am." "Worse," I reply with a smirk. "I'm so much worse, baby."

A simple word has rocked her, malfunctioned her existence and everything she's ever known. Well, it's not hard when all you've ever known is fucking disaster. You know things are bad when someone is surprised and delighted by the bare minimum.

She's spent her entire life in a box, studying people, watching them… so she sees it.

I nod. "You like being alone." "It's peaceful. I don't have to deal with people."

Seeing her covered in someone else's blood, snaps something inside. It's not the usual calming effect that blood has on me, it's monstrous. It's the devil in me, acknowledging my two loves. I pull her mouth to mine, hand firmly planted on the nape of her neck. Kissing her,

"We're bonded by this blood. Together, the King and Queen of the Unhinged."

Mine. No one is going to take that away from me. I'll kill every last person until we're the last two left. And then we'll burn the world down together.