Page 137 of Burn for Her
Son. Dorian kept his gaze locked on the monster, but when Stryx came forward, hobbling and panting, he noticed things he hadn’t earlier.
Stryx was nothing more than bones and skin. During their beatdown upstairs, Dorian managed to rip Stryx’s hoodie and shirt to shreds. Beat his face in a good bit too. But he was slower because he was dying… and by the look of Stryx’s chewed up, bruised body, he wasn’t much better.
His father was abusing Stryx the way he used to abuse Dorian. He was also calling him son.
Lena swayed, suspended in the air with chains. Her eyes were dead as she stared straight ahead and offered the monster nothing. No fear. Good girl. He prayed she stayed strong until he got them out of this nightmare.
“Let me,” Dorian hauled his tired, drained, dying ass up and stumbled forward. He slipped on his own blood and crashed to his knees again.
“You’ll get your turn,” his father purred. “When I say you get your turn.”
Lena sucked in air through her nostrils. She was starting to panic, and Dorian couldn’t make her stop. Not from this level of uselessness. His gaze darted around the delipidated house. It was set up similarly to what he grew up in.
Old habits die hard…
“If she flies, I want to be the one to give her wings.” The words flew out of his mouth, but it felt like someone else saying it. Dorian was floating again. Detached and cold. Numb and emotionless.
His father chuckled, deep and bubbly. “I should think you would since you are so fond of her.”
“I don’t care about her,” Dorian lied. “She’s just a whore I’ve been feeding from.”
“Your heartbeat betrays you when you lie, son. Did you know that?”
Yes, he did. Shit. “I have no heartbeat, father. Nor a soul.”
“I dare say, you seem to be knocking on death’s door.” His father wouldn’t come closer to Dorian, he realized. He was keeping his distance. That made him smile on the inside. His father was afraid of him, as well he fucking should be.
“Teach me how to cheat death then, father.” Dorian hobbled closer to test his theory, and hope flared in his chest when he saw his father take a step further away. They could play ring around the motherfucking rosy in this tiny house all night long, Dorian was still going to catch him.
“Careful, son. You’re losing blood faster than you can make it.”
Dorian didn’t care. He just needed to get this bastard away from Lena so she wasn’t caught in the bloodbath Dorian was about to start.
In his peripheral vision, he saw Stryx dart forward, his breathing labored. He was going for Lena. Dorian turned his focus on him, because the little shit just picked something up from the counter. Dorian didn’t need to look to know that counter would be loaded with tools to use on a woman’s body. He darted forward, still too weak to flash.
“Stay!” his father commanded.
Dorian obeyed.
He tried to move. Tried to fight. Tried to break free.
But his boots remained pinned to the ground.
Lena took lessons in self-defense. She was also a damned good boxer. When she started kickboxing and judo, her mind became a vault of defense moves. Bane being one of her teachers, she had a few tricks up her sleeve too. All she needed to do was figure out how to use those lessons from this position.
And keep her fear locked down tight.
The thing in her head, those twisted ribbons taking up residence in some bizarre part of her brain, weren’t dancing at all, she realized. They never had been. Those ribbons moved in a series of exercises she’d learned over the years, only they jumbled and knotted all together.
Ignoring Dorian and the monster talking to each other, she narrowed her focus on those damned ribbons. Tilting her head up, she calculated how much force it would take to yank the eyehook from the ceiling.
This place was broken and weak.
She wasn’t.
“I dare say, you seem to be knocking on death’s door.” The monster teased, bringing Lena’s attention back to her mate. Dorian was bleeding out, fresh blisters exploded down his arms. His face was drained of color.
If she could reach him, feed him somehow, he’d be strong enough to beat this guy.