It can’t have been long after I slipped into unconsciousness that the sound of an explosion and splintering wood snapped me back out of it. My heavy lids cracked open just in time to see Austin step through what remained of the door, and a rush of relief washed over me.
Gray stood at the foot of the bed, brandishing his pliers with his pants open and his hard dick in his hand. He went slackjawed as a mess of wood chips showered the floor and my enraged guardian stood there like an avenging angel.
Austin raised a hand, just like Yoshi had done that day in the apartment above his shop, and just like Yoshi, Austin spoke one word. The language wasn’t one I’d ever heard before. The word was subtly different from the one Yoshi had used and had a considerably different outcome.
Time seemed to elongate, and the result of Austin’s spell appeared to play out before my eyes in slow motion as Mr. Gray—Richard Liath, high-powered businessman, billionaire, sadist, and rapist—split open down the middle and exploded from the inside like a fucking tomato in a microwave.
His skeleton held his mostly human shape while the edges of the wound torn from throat to crotch flew apart and tore off, sending chunks of blood, tissue, and flesh splatting all over the room. Miraculously, not a single piece landed on me. Next, his eyes burst in his skull like rotten grapes, leaving oozing streams of blood and fluid seeping down his cheeks as his lifeless form crashed to the ground and disappeared from my view.
The whole process couldn’t have taken any more than a second, but I enjoyed every last nano-second of it. My only wish was that it could have been dragged out for longer so he could feel every tiny ounce of pain he’d delivered upon me since walking through the door of Suzette’s foster home some eight years ago.
“Princess, hey,” Austin murmured, dropping to his knees beside the bed and yanking the blood drain from my vein. “You still here with me?”
“Fucker,” I managed to croak out of my hoarse, dry throat, and he raised his eyebrows at me.
“I hope you mean him and not me?” he asked, flicking a knife through my bonds to release me. Not that I was going anywhere in a hurry. I still had three daggers protruding from my flesh, multiple broken ribs, a gaping hole through the middle of one foot, and three missing toenails on the other. Not to mention I was severely depleted of blood. In short, I was in a bad fucking way.
“No. You. Fucker,” I whispered out, my eyelids drooping as I tried desperately to hold them open. My body had passed the point of pain and was now just cold.
“Me? What the fuck did I do?” Austin demanded, circling to the foot of the bed and kicking what remained of Gray’s corpse out of the way before cutting free my ankles. He paused when he saw the damage done to my feet, and his mouth tightened to a hard line.
“I had plans for him,” I responded in a weak groan. “You made it too quick. Too merciful.”
“Take that back,” he gasped, looking offended. “Did you not see what I just did to that sack of shit?”
“Saw. Too fast.” I tried sucking in a deep breath, but the knife in my belly and the various cracks and splinters of my ribs digging into my lungs made it difficult.
“I just... ripped him apart from the inside!” Austin exclaimed. “And then liquefied his remaining internal organs!”
“I know.” I winced, trying to slowly move my fingers to work some feeling back into them. “You could have made it hurt more, though.”
He stared down at me for a moment, his jaw clenching and one eye twitching slightly. “I can’t decide,” he finally ground out, “if you’re the most twisted bitch I’ve ever met or just the hardest to please.”
Against my better judgment, a laugh shook my body, pulling at the blade in my stomach and making me groan in pain once more.
So much for being past the pain threshold, Kit.
“Jesus fucking Christ, Princess,” Austin muttered coming back around to sit gently on the edge of the bed beside me and eyeing up the biggest knife lodged just below my rib cage. “Can’t believe you just laughed at that. I literally saw your stomach slice further open.”
My mind tried to form a snappy retort, but inside I was falling to pieces. Hell, I was on the outside too, and I didn’t just mean from my various injuries.
“Shit,” Austin swore, “You’re not… come on, Princess. Don’t cry. I don’t know how to handle normal crying girls, let alone you.”
My eyes stung and I could feel the tears pouring down my face, but I was too damn weak to wipe them. Fucking Austin. He was being normal, and I fucking loved him for it. He always seemed to know exactly what I needed, even before the whole dianoch bond.
“I’m not crying,” I sobbed, so clearly bawling my eyes out. “It’s just hayfever or something.”
“Princess…” Austin groaned, looking pained. Like he was the one with knives protruding from his flesh. I knew my rare display of emotion would make him uncomfortable, but it wasn’t like I’d made a conscious decision to start crying. It just… happened.
“I’m fine,” I insisted, my voice strangled and weak, but a shuddering sob contradicted that statement and pulled at my stomach wound, making me cry harder.
Austin frowned, reaching out a hand to touch my face but hesitating and pulling back before he made contact. “You’re not fucking fine, Christina. And nor should you be.”
He said it quietly, but the fury and passion in his voice resounded through me.
“He almost had me, Aus,” I whispered, my eyes so clouded with tears I could barely see him, so I squeezed them shut instead. “He almost broke me.”
Austin said nothing, he just simply let me cry silently for a while. He did, however, place his hands firmly on either side of my waist, holding my body still against further injury while I sobbed.
“Almost,” he finally said when my tears subsided, “but he didn’t. Don’t ever forget that.”
I needed to swallow a few times to clear the lump in my throat before replying. It also gave me a minute to formulate coherent thoughts and process the fact that this incredibly personal, intimate moment was with Austin. And strangely, it felt right.
“Yeah, well,” I croaked, “it wasn’t for lack of trying on his part.” I looked down at the knife in my gut and Austin’s palms flat on either side of it. “Are you going to pull that out of me or just sit there staring at it?”
Austin’s gaze darted to my face, and he raised one eyebrow in a decidedly naughty sort of expression before he said words I never would have expected to come from his mouth. “That’s what she said.”