The Finisher (Dark Verse, #4)

by RuNyx

To everyone who ever made a cocoon of their blanket, and never wanted to leave the bed. This is for you. There is a rainbow beyond the gray. Just wait for the clouds to part.

They called him the Fortis Finisher. He preferred ‘Lord of Death’, but nobody really called him that.

My love… shadowman.

The Shadow Man, a bigger monster than him, was real.

"Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind." -William Shakespeare

:(

“He has no one else?” The woman shook her head sadly. Her heart broke. Everyone should have a family. Zephyr jumped down from the bed, her side hurting a bit, and wobbled over to the older woman, extending her pinkie out. “I can be there for him. I promise. What’s his name?” The woman laughed again, a tear trailing down her face, and hooked her rough pinkie with Zephyr’s. “You’re a sweet child.” Zephyr nodded. She liked being sweet. “His name?” she asked, stuck on the boy who didn't have a family. “Alessandro. Alessandro Villanova. Alpha.”

She wanted to feel adequate. She wanted to feel beautiful. She wanted to feel desirable.

"What's a little rainbow like you doing in a shithole like this?" he murmured as he inhaled the side of her neck, so softly she felt his words more than heard them. She knew she had a colorful personality, but she'd never been called a rainbow before, and the way he said it was nice, really nice.

He was her love at first meeting. And she didn’t know who he was now, but he was hers. He’d always been hers.

Her mama always said her stubbornness would bite her in the ass, and she was probably right. But destiny had brought him back to her, and she'd be damned if she let that go. They deserved this chance, and he couldn’t fight for them, so she would.

“A girl like you can have her pick of men to marry. There must be another reason.” “Maybe we’re meant to be.” She winked.

“You’re a twisted beast. I’m a twisted beauty. We’re totally meant to be, handsome. It's written in the fairytales.”

“You’re playing with the beast, little rainbow.” His grip on her chin tightened. “I bite.” She exposed her neck, keeping their gazes locked. “I was hoping you would,” she whispered. “Fuck.”

"I will scar you." "I might want it," she replied, puzzling him even more, passing whatever tests he kept throwing her way.

She’d wanted the romantic tale that she could tell her kids and make them believe in love, the story of two lovers who loved so deep they couldn’t be without another, flaws and all. Perhaps that was why as a little girl, she’d subconsciously seen that capacity of love in the pained, violent outburst of a boy, and claimed him for herself from that day forward.

“So, do you want me to get on my knees here or should we go to your office?” She heard someone choke on something, but kept her eyes on the man before her. A

body. “I don’t know how, rainbow,” he murmured softly, “and I don’t know what secrets of mine you have, but I want them all. You’ve sealed your fate now. Welcome to my hell.”

So she’d hug him. Every day, she’d hug him until he returned it, until he accepted that it was normal, until he began to crave it from her. She’d break down his defenses, one hug at a time. All in good time. Happy birthday, Zephyr Villanova.

“No. Your daughter… she’s like a ray of sunshine in my very dark life.” What the fuck just came out of his mouth?

'You are hope, sunshine. Hope for a better life.'

She raised her glass of water to him. “To chemistries that lie.” He raised his. "And hearts that die." Oh boy, he had no idea the CPR she had planned for him.

She was surprised by the openness of his affection for his wife-to-be. The men she’d encountered rarely wore their love with the kind of pride he did and still managed to pull off the self-assured, cocky vibe that was kinda hot. Damn, the girl was lucky. He had an interesting personality.

‘One day, when I have money, I’m going to buy you the prettiest ring, sunshine.’

No. The ugly was old insecurity, one she’d fought off for years and thought had laid to rest, an insecurity that maybe she wasn’t enough. Maybe she’d never be enough. Maybe anything she did wouldn’t make a difference. She loved too much, trusted too easily, got hurt too often, and maybe she needed to harden herself. But she would lose the essence of who she was if she did, and so she never did. Feeling hurt was more acceptable than feeling dead. The ugly in her head got awful.

“Don’t look at me with those stars in your eyes, Zephyr. You’re fooling yourself if you think I’m anything but a beast under this skin.” Zephyr raised her wine glass to him. “Then the world needs more beasts like you.”

“I’m not a savior, Zephyr. And it’s best if you don’t think of me as one. The most I can give these women is a choice—to join me and be safe, or remain unsafe. And once they join me, they’re free to leave any time. But I’m not a good, moral man. I can kill you as easily as I can make you orgasm. Blood or cum, my hands wear them both well.”

"And in the end, we were all humans, drunk on the idea that love, only love, could heal our brokenness." -Christopher Poindexter

now that she stayed silent and forced him to face what thickened the air when they were in the same room, something was building, activating, like a volcano, dormant from the outside, bubbling with lava, waiting for the right moment to erupt and cause destruction. She stood at the mouth of the volcano, watching the lava come forth from the mantle of the earth, knowing it could wreck her, but waiting for it. She wanted to be the rain that fell upon the magma and sizzled, drenched it until it became rich. She wanted to seep down to his dried roots, nourish the soil of his heart, and fill him with life again.

We tracked down twelve of them. Nine are dead. Three are under the Syndicate. Three are missing.”

“It’s going to be your neck the next time I see you near my wife,” Alpha growled softly. “Are we clear?”

But another part, a darker part, mocked the girl with the love and taunted the hope. It told her she was a fool for thinking it could be possible, an idiot for trying, and she’d done nothing but set herself up for more hurt

"I want to eat your smile, sunshine," he said against her mouth. "Swallow it whole and light up my insides with it."

"Don't let the best thing that's happened to you slip away." Zenith took

She wished emotions were like flowers, pretty and color-coded so she could pick and choose which ones she wanted at what time. For some, maybe they were. Not for her. Her flowers had thorns, and they made her bleed.

“Say that again,” he dared her, his voice the dangerous edge of a blade. Zephyr blinked, confused. He leaned closer, brushing her blue locks with his fingers. “I cut the hand of a man who touched your hair, Zephyr. What do you think I’m going to do to the one you move on with?” Her breath caught.

“I might not remember you,” he whispered, his lips almost at hers. “But you’re my wife now. Mine. And I’d bathe this whole city in blood before I let you change that.”

“I’m not letting you go, Zephyr.” His hand simply traced her hip, his words tender in the space between them. Her heartbeats escalated. “But—” “You know how a rainbow is made?” Zephyr frowned. “When sunlight passes through a raindrop.” “My life has been nothing but gray for as long as I remember,” he told her softly. “Rainstorms and thunder clouds that never went away. You filtered through that, all bright colors and exuberance and life. And the clouds are still there, but my eyes can’t leave the rainbow long enough to see them. You changed things. And I’m not letting that go, Zephyr. I’m not letting you go. Get that out of your head right now.”

"You cannot save people, you can only love them." -Anais Nin

That was the thing about a depressive episode. She bounced back usually, but sometimes, she didn’t. Sometimes, it changed her just enough for her to notice. Sometimes, she just wanted to stare at the wall and let everything pass by, no matter how good things seemed to be going. A weight settled on the bed with her.

“I didn’t realize how much I missed your touch. You gave a starved man a feast every day until he forgot what hunger felt like, and then took it away.”

Katelin had been with The Syndicate,

Little by little, she’d shifted things in his life, minuscule bit by minuscule bit, in a way he’d not even been aware of it happening until it had stopped. And now she was a part of his lifeblood, vital to his functioning.

He's My husband !!!! :)

“Okay. Give my love to Zephyr.” And now he was blowing raspberries. Alpha looked at her. “I’ll give her your greeting.” “I said, my love.” “Fuck off.”

She brushed his hair away from his face, straddling him, taking the eye patch off, exposing the scarred tissue underneath. She loved that he let her see him like that, at what he felt was his ugliest. Idiot man. His ugly was her beautiful.

"Don't leave me again, rainbow," he spoke quietly in the space between them. "I don't know if I'll ever remember anything. I don't know if what I feel is love. I don't know what the future holds. But I know I want you by my side. I know I don't want to forget you now." Zephyr melted, her heart softening. She pressed a soft kiss to his lips. "I'm not going anywhere, handsome. I've loved you as a boy, and I love you as a beast. All of you has always been loved by me." They shared the air for a long moment. "Remember when I told you my heart was a dead scar tissue?" "Hmm." "I feel it pumping again with you. My lifeblood. My little rainbow."

“Your luck must have been golden. You ran away, straight to the cops, and got adopted by a normal family. You got a new name. All traces of 5057 erased from existence. Did you know what your real name was?" Zen swallowed visibly. "Morana Vitalio.” Morana?

This is Luna …!?

Wtf …who…?