Chapter 34 Unholy Baptism
Unholy Baptism
PREACHER
“You know there’s a bedroom upstairs.”
Raphael’s lying on the couch, one hand behind his back while he scrolls through his phone. It didn’t take him more than an hour to make himself at home.
“Nah, I don’t want to be anywhere near what you two freaks do at night. Probably drink each other’s blood, or use it as lube or some shit.”
He makes an overdramatically disgusted face.
“Nasty.”
“Your brother’s a fucking cannibal cowboy, but drinking his girlfriend’s blood is where you draw the line?”
Raphael tilts his head, that shithead smirk returning with a vengeance.
“You sound like you’re a fucking teenager, I think it’s the way you say girlfriend.”
I gave Ripley a couple of Valium and sent her upstairs to take a bath, partially so that she could get her mind off of all this shit, but also to hopefully avoid her killing my brother in a fit of rage.
Her head needs to be clear if we’re going to put this plan into action, and his needs to be attached to his body.
“What are you trying to say, it’s out of fashion to call someone your girlfriend these days?”
“Nah, it’s just… You meet this woman and then a week later you decide you’ll try your hand at love?” He chuckles to himself. “That’s rich coming from you.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You’re not capable of love, Preacher. Nobody who comes out of this fucked up family is. I thought that’d be obvious by now.”
“Is that why you pushed Wren away?” I bite back.
“Fuck you.”
“Don’t dish it out if you can’t take it, little brother.”
“I said fuck off, Preacher. Leave it.”
For a minute there I thought he might haul off and punch me in the face, but it never happens, and silence settles in the room as he glowers at his phone.
He just sits there.
Scrolling.
Scowling.
He never did tell me what happened between them.
One day, they were married, and the next his wedding ring was gone.
But he still thinks about her, I know he does.
I remember he left his phone out on the kitchen table one night when he went to take a piss, and she was everywhere.
Messages, photos he couldn’t let go of, and he still had a picture of the two of them as his fucking wallpaper. I’d never seen my brother look so…
“She said I didn’t know how to open up, said it was fucked up how I never talked about my feelings.” He shrugs. “I don’t know how to talk about what I don’t have.”
To her credit, she wasn’t really wrong. The Blackthornes aren’t good at heart to heart shit. We usually end up fighting it out, or in my case, coping in more disturbing ways.
I’ve gutted and skinned my father so many times in my mind it’s become routine, like putting a new bandaid over a gaping wound over and over again, but every time I slip that knife into a guilty man’s belly and watch the light leave my father’s eyes, I feel like I get a little piece of myself back.
I get to calm that angry little boy inside of me who only wanted justice.
Maybe that’s what healing is.
“Maybe we can learn though, what love is, what it looks like. What it’s supposed to feel like.”
“But we’ll never really know,” he replies. “And just wanting it doesn’t make it real.”
“I said I’m trying to learn, I didn’t say I was a fuckin’ magician.”
Raphael snorts.
“God, now I can’t stop picturing it. You, in a stupid robe, and one of those dumbass hats too— actually, that’s not far off from the dumbass hat you already wear.”
“You wear hats too, asshole.”
“Yeah, normal hats. I look better in them too,” Raphael snickers.
I grumble, running my fingers through my hair and draining the last of my whiskey.
I was only supposed to lay his bedding out for him and then crawl back upstairs, but something about his demeanor was bothering me.
I can tell when Raph’s hiding something.
He always thinks he’s real slick when he’s got a secret, but simply put, my brother’s the worst poker player I’ve ever met.
“She tore in here with that tornado and fucked everything up,” he mutters. “And you just let it happen.”
“She didn’t fuck anything up.”
“Are you serious?” He laughs. “Look at the shit I’ve gotta deal with now!”
“Look, I admit she’s a little unstable, but—”
“I’m sorry, did you just admit I was right? Hang on, I want to savor this moment.”
He closes his eyes and takes a deep, soothing breath, and I can’t help but grin.
“Don’t make me hit you, asshole.”
The sound of the floorboards whining above shuts the two of us up, as Ripley closes the bathroom door upstairs and heads for the bedroom. I wait to hear the obvious sound of the door clicking into place before continuing, albeit with a lowered tone.
“Look, I know bringing her into the business was a risk, but I can mitigate it— hell, I already am.”
Raphael raises a brow.
“You’re… mitigating risk? Jesus, Preacher. Did you buy word-of-the-day toilet paper or something?”
“Raph, for once can you just—” I sigh, cooling myself down. “I know her. I know what she’s capable of.”
“Christ, maybe you are in love after all. Gotta be something that’s made you so soft all of a sudden.”
“And maybe that’s not such a bad thing.”
“Yeah? Talk to me in a few months once the shine wears off.”
“Ain’t gonna happen.”
Raph chuckles assuredly to himself, but I know he’s wrong. Ripley isn’t just a casual fuck, she’s someone who pried my ribcage open and clutched my heart in her hands. She’s seen the bruises, the atrophy, and the rot that’s growing within me and she’s loved me anyway.
She’s a brand new world for me to explore.
“Well, good talk I guess, but It’s late, which means you need to get the fuck outta my face. I need some rest before I have to see Wren and her cloven hooves in the morning.”
“You think she’s grown horns now, too?”
“Probably,” Raph snickers, reaching over to turn off the light on the side table.
I get to my feet, leaving him in the darkness as I make my way up the stairs. When I reach the landing, I spot the dogs snoozing in the hallway, guarding the bedroom. They don’t move as I step over top of them, opening the door to the faint smell of lilacs, and her.
She’s sprawled out on the bed with nothing but a sheet clinging to her waist, her damp hair surrounding her like an ominous aura.
As I get closer, I realize just how exhausted she must have been; I watch the slow rise and fall of her breath, her lips barely parted as she sighs in her sleep.
She looks so peaceful, nothing like the beast who slit a man’s belly open in my barn last night.
Ripley lets out a soft sound as I climb into bed, and I slide an arm around her waist, moving in close. My mumbled name spills from her lips— honeyed, sweet, and just a little slurred.
I start to nip at her neck, working my way up to her earlobe, biting down gently and tugging playfully with my teeth. Her body’s already starting to move with mine, and I’m certain that pretty soon the friction is going to be unbearable.
“More,” she breathes.
I feel my heart jump in my chest.
“You awake?”
“Barely. Don’t stop.”
I was a little tentative before, but now I’m free to let my hand wander below the sheet that’s bunched around her waist, teasing the soft hair that surrounds her sweet little cunt. Ripley’s back arches, and she spreads her legs wider as if in response, but her eyes stay shut.
My fingers brush against her clit, stiff and slick with arousal as I start to work my way down her neck at the same time.
Biting gently. Sucking. Never able to get enough of her.
I can’t help myself from giving her a particularly sharp bite as I slip a finger inside of her.
Her rich moan sends a tingle all the way down my spine, and my cock is screaming at me to get things started, but I want more than just to fuck her.
I pull my fingers out of her sweet pussy and find them coated in a thin sheen of crimson. I lick them clean, iron cascading along my tongue.
“Fuck, rabbit.”
Tasting her like this is a privilege.
I slide down her body until I’m nestled between her thighs. I can see the marks I’ve made over the past few weeks. Bites, bruises, and of course the surgical line from my straight razor that sliced her open. I run my fingertip over the faint red scar.
“You are so beautiful.”
I place gentle kisses along her thigh, one for each bit of damage I’ve done, taking my time as goosebumps rise on her skin. I’m not sure how long I can last like this, but I never did get my dessert.
I spread her lips, feeling her clit throb gently between my fingers. I flick it with the tip of my tongue; feather-light strokes, just enough to keep her body clinging to that cliff’s edge.
She’s the perfect treat, both sweet and sharp, with her blood giving her just a little bit of extra bite. Ripley’s introduced me to a hunger that only she can satiate.
Her body.
Her soul.
I groan, swirling my tongue around her entrance, lapping up as much of her as I can get until I start to explore further inside.
She lets out a whine, cupping her breasts as she grinds hard against my mouth, but I make sure to move with her, anticipating every peak and valley as I fuck her with my mouth.
In and out, up and down, and everywhere in between.
Her juices drip down my chin while I hump the mattress like a pathetic fucking dog.
She’s turned me into something desperate.
I can still feel the sharp sting of humiliation as I crawled toward her with her panties between teeth, barking like a dog in that barn. I’d never been so turned on by someone else’s power. In that moment, I knew I had created a fucking goddess.
Her pussy tightens around my tongue, beating like a heart. I hear fragments of my name desperately trying to claw their way out of her throat.
She’s getting close.
And I need her.
Now.
I push the sheet aside, crawling over top of her and wrapping my fingers around my cock. I can feel it pulsing as I start to tease her, making certain my piercings bump playfully against her dripping cunt. I want this to be sweeter than before. Softer.
I want to show her how much I love her.
Ripley’s lips part and I dip my head, capturing them in a tender kiss as I slowly push inside of her. This is what I’ve been missing out on my whole life.
“Good girl,” I purr, grasping her wrists and pinning her to the mattress. “Fuck, it’s like you were made for me.”
I move slowly, gazing into her eyes and searching for the humanity I lost so long ago. I feel like I’m falling, shrouded in her warmth. Protected by it.
I would burn everything down to keep you safe.
My toes dig into the mattress as her cries grow higher and higher pitched. I don’t give a fuck if my brother hears it or not. In fact, I think I want him to.
My spine feels like it’s coiled like a spring. Tingles wrap around my hips, stretching down my legs. I’m so fucking close, chasing that high with each vicious thrust until her voice breaks, and suddenly…
“Come inside me, baby.”
She sounds so gentle. Practically pleading.
“I’m gonna make you mine,” I rasp.
My orgasm rips through me, its claws and teeth sinking into my back, tearing me to ribbons as I feel fireworks going off in every nerve.
In that moment, I see our future, clear as day.
Everything.
Adonis’s body hanging from the hook in my barn.
The two of us bathed in blood.
Our unholy baptism beneath the moon.
And a golden ring on her finger.