Page 36 of Madness

I didn’t nod or protest. Instead, I let him carry me as I listened to the steady beat of his heart. I inhaled his smoky scent. Let the warmth of his body soothe me.

My savior. My demon.

20

Maddox

The demon inside me swiped out. Wanting to be released. Wanting to maim and kill as I looked down at Kincaid’s bruised face. Only I can bruise her porcelain skin. Only I can touch her. Hurt her.

She’s curled in my lap in the backseat of my car as Tristan drives us to her apartment. She hasn’t moved since I picked her up from the filthy floor in her boss’s office. Former boss. He made a mistake when he thought he could touch what I wanted. When he called the little dove a whore, a bitch.

He’d forgotten who was really in control. In control of his job. His life. They rested in my hands even before he’d touched her. He worked in the business I owned. His power was given to him by me. He’d fed off that power like a fungus believing his association with the family could protect him. Instead, it made him mine to ruin.

Kincaid shifted in my arms but didn’t try to escape like I suspected she would. After tonight I thought she’d try to run harder from me. After she saw what I was truly capable of. What I could do to her if needed. But instead, she clung to me like a lifeline. Like I was her salvation.

I wasn’t. Like the man who waited for him, I was her ruin. The demon that would taint her soul crush her until there was nothing left. Bring the death she craved.

Only me. No one else.

The car slowed as we approached the run-down building she lived in. Tristan opened the back door as I lifted Kincaid in my arms. She opened her eyes when I shifted her to open the door to her apartment.

“Maddox.”

Cazzo.Why did I like my name on her lips so much? Why did it arouse me as much as it soothed the monsters inside?

“Thank you.” She whispered.

I walked through the door and placed her on the only piece of furniture in the room, her bed. Neither of us spoke as I stripped off her bloody and ripped clothes.

Any other night she would’ve fought. I would’ve used this lapse in judgment to hurt her. To run my hands along her porcelain skin. To sink my cock into her tight body. But tonight, I wouldn’t. Couldn’t.

Using weakness was what I did, but I couldn’t find it in me to do it now. I refused to determine why. Refused to acknowledge that maybe my plan to break her was shifting. Into what… I didn’t know.

But I didn’t have time to process it when my eyes locked on the marks left on her skin. Fury raced through my veins as I traced the bruises on her thigh. I turned away so she couldn’t read the emotions on my face. I’d already scared her enough tonight.

“Sleep.” I ordered as I walked back towards the door. I had unfinished business to take care of. I had a fungus to destroy. I heard rustling behind me and her powdery scent reached me before her hand closed around my wrist.

I stilled. This was the first time she’d initiated any physical contact between us. I absorbed the feel of her delicate fingers touching my skin. I inhaled her scent, letting both work their way through my system.

They were like a drug. She was a drug. Calming the rage inside me. Making the demon lie down and sleep.

“W-will you stay for awhile?” She stuttered as if she’d surprised herself by asking.

She knew it was an invitation for me to become closer to her. She was letting me in. She had no idea I’d already been here before. Watched her sleep. I was evil enough to latch onto this momentary weakness. She never would’ve asked me if she’d been in her right mind. But she wasn’t. She was afraid and vulnerable. I’d take the advantage.

I turned to face her to see she’d donned a holey t-shirt that was three sizes too big and a tiny pair of shorts. I wanted to tear them from her body. I wanted her soft skin touching mine. For the first time ever, I pushed down the urge to have her. To take.

“Sleep. I’ll stay until you do.” She gave me a small smile as she walked back towards her bed, taking me with her.

Kincaid let go to crawl under the thin blankets. Losing her touch shouldn’t hurt, but it did. It was like losing a piece of me. Like someone had cut off my finger.

I narrowed my eyes at the little dove. Why was I feeling this way? Why was I feeling at all? I thought myself incapable of any feelings beyond rage and a sick satisfaction at administering pain.

She tugged my hand until I sat on the bed next to her. She tucked her hand away under the blankets again like she was afraid if she touched me too long, I would corrupt her. She rolled to her stomach, burrowing into the bed. Kincaid closed her eyes and let out a soft sigh of contentment.

“Maddox?” She said after a few minutes of silence while I argued with myself for staying.

“You’re safe from me tonight, little dove.” I sighed.