Echoes (Dance With My Demons, #2)

by Steph Macca

"Love and forgiveness are two separate things."

"Had to bring your lapdog with you?" he snarls. "Scary dog privilege," Damon corrects casually. "He needed some cheering up. But I'd take his advice and watch your tone. He's out for blood."

Oh, please try me. Please, please… push me over the edge. I'm begging you.

Out of sight, out of mind they say. But that's just bullshit. Now that I know she's in the same building as me again, the tether between us pulls. And I'm going to take that tether and wrap it around her soft body—whether that's to fuck her or kill her, I don't know yet.

It's no secret that there's another ruler of this kingdom, but even kings can be lost in wars.

Theo squeezes my arms to guide me to the ground, a tiny whine escaping my mouth. He instantly lets me go, eyes honing in on my arms. Reaching forward, he lifts the sleeves of my gray shirt up, spotting the bruises. "Who the fuck did this?" he asks, fingers skirting around the marks. "Guards and police officers," I answer in a standoffish tone. "You know what they are like." His eyes narrow on the bruises for a second before he lowers the material back down. "Point them out to me. I'll deal with them." "No," I quickly say. "It's fine, really." "It's not fucking fine," Theo growls.

"I would have killed him. I would have gutted him without hesitation. But that would have meant leaving you. And I'm not prepared to do that.

I don't give a shit about people like him. Frankly, the world is better off without him. After what he did to you, he deserved every single bit of misery. I'm just sad someone else took care of it." "But you didn't want to leave me?" I repeat, changing the subject as my heart flutters nervously. Theo looks away, smiling. "Don't get all mushy on me.

"Listen to me. There's nothing you can say or do that will make me run."

people get defensive when they are in charge of their decisions and feel like they need to justify them. The fact that she's nervous about this conversation says a lot. This isn't her choice.

She tastes like Heaven. My fallen angel.

And now she's stuck with me. I don't care about anything else, as long as she's with me.

She could end me in a single minute if she wanted.

There's so much potential for her, locked up in a mind cage. She deserves better, she deserves to be free.

eyes sparkling with that light again. It's been dimmed the past few days, and I'm ecstatic to see the return.

"You're so fucking beautiful,"

"You are," she answers, making me pause. No one has ever told me before in my life that I'm beautiful. And if you'd asked me before today how I'd feel about it, I'd be indifferent—repulsed even. But hearing her say it, sends a rush through me.

"Do you have any idea what you do to me?" She shakes her head, and it makes me want to kiss her. She's so naïve, so blind. It's no wonder she has people falling to their feet over her. In her mind, she's at rock bottom, watching as people hit the same level too. But in reality, she's far from that lie. She's a fucking powerhouse, bringing even the most broken, lost souls to salvation.

"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."

She's mine and right now, that's all that matters. I'll kill anyone who takes this from me. They will never touch her again. They'll never take her away.

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

She's the drug of my choice and I need this as much as she does.

"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.

"Don't play with fire," he warns, and I know it's aimed at me. "But the pain feels so good," I taunt back.

I am playing with fire—I want to burn.

I want everything. Life. Death. Torture. Pleasure. Pain. Every-fucking-thing she can offer me.

"Kings are meant to be powerful though," I mumble back. "A good king would never allow himself to be caught."

People perceive the world in different shades of color.

He's targeting you to get back at us. We don't let shit like that slide."

"When I find out who framed you, I'll make their nightmares seem like a happy place. I promise you that,

I ended it. I ended that sad, pathetic excuse of a man because he touched you. He tried to hurt what's mine."

We didn't frame you. I killed for you.

You do have a hold on me."

He knew everything about me… and still wanted me. Me. Flaws and all.

"Maybe I fucked up too. Maybe that's the string that ties us together."

I'd kill just to make you smile."

"You're fucking mine, Avery," he growls into my mouth. "This lifetime and the next one too."

She looks fucking perfect. It makes me want to rip her into tiny pieces just so I can put her back together again.

"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."

Her expression changes instantly when the chocolate reaches her mouth, a look of pure happiness. It's everything.

I hate that I've had to accept that she makes him stronger.

"I'm yours," I reply. "And you're mine too."

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

I guess the reality is fires are powerful, but not necessarily evil. They keep us warm and alive, just as much as they can torture and kill us. Burning with the aesthetic of them, I'd happily die a million times.

"It's better because of you."

"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.

When are you going to realize that we're a force not to be fucked with.

"You're the exception, Avery. If I feel anything, it's because you put it there."

That's the beautiful thing about her—even with the darkest souls, she tries to find light.