Bat Wings and Motor Oil (Bonesaw Brothers #2)

Chapter 1

Once Upon a violent break up

~Katarina~

*TW- Domestic Abuse, violence, and slut shaming*

“Where the fuck do you think you’re going?” It was barely even six thirty in the morning, and Katarina Elizabeth Hurley, née Witchbane, was dragged by her ponytail out of the car. She hissed in pain, her fingernails immediately scratching at his hand.

“Gill!” She roared, but that didn’t stop him throwing her into the front yard.

In the early dawn light, she tasted the dew-covered grass first before she tasted blood.

He’s never been this bold before…Katarina gasped for air as she tried to get up, only to feel the sting of his steel toe boot against her ribs.

Her back hit a patch of dirt, and she stared up at her husband in confusion.

What…the hell…happened? Then she saw him wrench Isabella’s door open and her body seized. “Gill! No! Stop!”

“Mommy!” Isabella, no more than six years old, cried out as her car seat was throttled by the cruel hands of her father.

“Gill!” Katarina snapped, climbing to her wobbly legs.

She’d hardly been awake for more than 20 minutes.

This was her routine. Monday through Friday, she got up at six, threw Isabella in clothes, and put her sleepy child in the car seat.

They would grab breakfast on the road and roll into pre-school.

From there, Katarina ‘woke up’ officially and got ready for work.

All this so that Gill didn’t have to get up early, and they would arrive at work at the same time.

It was no different than any other day. But, as per usual, she couldn’t tell what the fuck was going on inside his skull.

She grabbed him by the back of the shirt and tugged. That was her mistake as one of his skinny hands flung backward and struck her across the face. It spun her into the grass again and the world went quiet. He stood still, staring down at the wife he’d knocked down for the last. Damn. Time.

Katarina had threatened to leave him several times. First was five months into dating, he got too possessive at a work party that she didn’t want to go to in the first place. He accused her of flirting with the bartender despite the fact she’d spoken maybe two words to the poor soul.

Then he spent a month apologizing by taking her on an extravagant vacation out in a cabin in the forbidden forest. That was his pattern.

He’d show his true colors, she’d get fed up, then he’d love bomb her back into submission.

When that wasn’t working as well anymore, he proposed in a public setting where she felt weird asking for time to think on it.

Then it was the honeymoon…then it was the anniversary…

and then I got pregnant. Every time she got ready to go, something else kept her tied to that man.

Seven years in a hellish cycle. And Katarina would know hellish.

She was a succubus, and a damn fine one if she did say so…

something she used to say. It’s been a while since I’ve been me.

For the longest time she was just a person trying to get through the motions.

Get the kid to school, get through the day at work, get food on the table, and finally get some sleep.

When are you going to wake up, Katarina? When are you going to finally see this piece of shit isn’t worth your breath? When are you finally going say you’re done.

“Katarina, I’m so sorry, baby…” he breathed, kneeling beside her, but she was done. Done. She scrambled to her feet and shoved him aside. Unbuckling Isabella, she set her child on her hip and stormed toward the house. Gill called out, “Kat! Wait!”

“No!” Katarina shrieked, whirling to face him.

A crowd formed on the sidewalk. Despite everything, no one was doing a damn thing about it.

They never did. Everyone was so happy to watch a dumpster burn instead of trying to put it out.

But Katarina was done. Done with him. Done with the bystanders.

Done with his hypocritical mother and blasé father and the abusive son they raised to never take accountability for his actions.

“I’m done.”

“You’re not fucking done!” Gill flipped from shock to intense rage.

“Oh, I’m done. I’m going to stay with Sera.

” Katarina stormed toward the house. Done.

There was a duffel bag in the back of her closet full of her ‘just in case’ clothes for her and Isabella.

Somehow, that didn’t seem like a sign until now.

Who keeps a runaway bag in the closet of a house you share with your husband, that didn’t include anything of his?

She’d packed it so many times that she just stopped unpacking it at one point. “I want a divorce!”

Katarina was already in the house, ignoring Isabella’s pleas to be let down.

There was no time to explain to her baby why they weren’t going to school that day.

It was for the best, because the second she grabbed the bag, she heard the first crash.

Shatter! Crunch! Crash! Her heart skipped a beat as she rushed back to the front door.

Her and Isabella stood in absolute shock as Gill took a bat to every inch of the car.

He swung wildly. No mercy for her windows as they shattered into the seats.

No care for her hood that was dented and bent back.

No survival for her dashboard as he caved it in.

Tufts of cushion fluff flew out of the car as he carved up the seats with a giant hunting knife.

Where the fuck did he even get that knife?

Katarina stumbled forward onto the lawn, her mouth ajar.

Gill popped holes in her tires, and the hissing was so loud she didn’t hear him screaming at her.

He’s…lost his fucking mind. Isabella cried out, and that’s what finally snapped Katarina from her shock.

“You’re not going to fucking leave now! Are you! You’re not about to take our kid to some shitty hotel so you can feed off some stupid sap like a low-grade whore! I won’t let my wife sleep around. You can fucking stay here! With me, the only man who’s going to love you, you fucking dirty…”

Katarina rushed to cover her daughter’s ears. “Gill!”

“No! Fuck you!”

“Gill!” Her voice cracked. She couldn’t just put Isabella down; she didn’t know what was going on. Katarina was stuck between a rock and a hard place.

So that’s what all this was about? Her stomach dropped out of her feet as Gill finally stepped away from the wreckage of her car.

I’m the villain because I’m a succubus. I’m the bad guy because he can’t take care of me.

I’m the problem in the relationship. It’s me.

It’s always been me. His nasty twist of words filled her skull as the dots connected.

“You’re pissed because Luca said you weren’t feeding me enough?” she scoffed.

Gill snarled, storming around the back of the busted vehicle. He jabbed a finger in her direction. “I told you! No one else fucks my wife.”

Katarina squeezed Isabella to her chest, hands over her poor baby’s ears.

The crowd on the sidewalk was all wide eyed and opened mouth.

Like trout, sucking up air and doing nothing productive!

Her fangs flashed as she snarled, “This isn’t about sex, Gill!

You feel so incompetent as a man that you can’t take a little constructive criticism from my healer? !”

“He’s a slut quack!” Gill roared.

“Oh yeah, go on, tell me how you really feel about me! You’re the one who proposed to me!

The one who wanted a kid you hardly see!

The one who begged me to stay!” Katarina knew she’d taken it a step too far when he surged forward.

Normal Katarina wouldn’t flinch. She used to sock guys who slapped her ass on public sidewalks.

Katarina Elizabeth Witchbane wouldn’t tolerate a fucking thing.

But Katarina Elizabeth Hurley, mother of the cowering bundle of joy currently curling up against her chest…

she had other priorities. Her heart stopped as she rushed backward.

The door hit her back, and she gasped for air.

Katarina shifted, putting Isabella against the door and giving Gill her other side.

He grabbed her by the ponytail again, but she held her ground.

Even as he tugged and screamed into the side of her face, she kept her baby pressed against the door.

Gill swung and got her in the ribs, but she wasn’t budging. Tears welled in her eyes. Just go away!

Why couldn’t you just let me leave!

You don’t even fucking like me!

You don’t even fucking want me!

Gill and Katarina hadn’t been intimate in over a month.

He was all but starving her as a punishment for being put in the hospital…

all because he couldn’t sustain her anymore.

Succubi have a unique diet. Much like any other living thing, when starved, the body will hurt itself.

Her healer, Luca, an incubus, was worried.

Paid a house visit after her latest labs and told her point blank—if she didn’t feed more aggressively, she was going to get sick or worse.

Gill didn’t like that. Accused her of cheating or wanting to, called her everything in the book to her face.

Then, just like he always did, tried to kiss it all better.

But he ruined the taste of him in her mouth and she couldn’t feed off him. Even if she wanted to. He tasted of burnt cigarette smoke and wet metal; it only made her stomach roll. That made him angrier.

I should have left earlier. I should have done something sooner. I should have…I should have…I should have… Life was full of should haves and could nots, but she was faced with the reality. Katarina Witchbane was done. And Gillian Hurley wasn’t.

“Gillian Hurley!”

Katarina froze as Gill turned away. He growled, “Who’s… The fucking Lord Commander? Are you serious, Katarina? You called the Enforcers on me!”