Chapter 37 Nocturne #3
The crunching and juddering of bone beneath my grip spikes the wrath in my blood.
My fist slams into his face as the other wraps around the hilt of the knife between his gasps, dragging it right through his abdomen.
The unforgiving and sickening slap of internal organs hit the cold concrete floor, steam billowing between us as his intestines spill out.
A poetic gurgle claws its way from his throat, and it makes me feel like a barbarian.
His only functioning hand clutches at his torso as he tries-and-fails to keep his innards contained within his stomach walls.
My boot collides with his chest, slamming him back with a thud, his knees bending at an awkward angle.
I can feel my own eyes darken as he shrivels onto the ground, body trembling with the soul-wrenching pain that’s likely setting his entire anatomy on fire.
I snatch his blood-soaked hand, slapping it flat on the ground, the blood flickering into the air like red fucking confetti.
My movements are swift - reaching back to grab the knife, raising it above my head, then plunging it down over his wrist. Every muscle in my body is used for the force, as I take his hand clean off.
A shriek roars from his lips, the first one he's made since he's pushed past the shock. The sound makes me grin like a psychotic fool. My hand wraps around his jaw as I force him to look into my eyes when I rasp, “That’s for touching what's fucking mine.” The blood-soaked metal plunges into his groin. “That’s for thinking you could take her away from me.” My dick shrivels up at the unhinged and deranged move.
I've brought this man down to nothing, exactly how he should be.
If I had more time, I'd draw this out for days.
I lean back on my haunches, harsh breaths hurl from my lungs as the adrenaline continues to spark like a live wire through my veins.
I shift my torso round to get Brodie - we’re getting the fuck out of here.
But when I see her, the beats of my heart cease at what I witness, it feels like I’ve sunk to the depths of the ocean around us, and I can’t get up for air.
“Brodie!” My body throws itself towards her, knees cracking off the concrete as I collapse beside her, a small pool of blood gathering on her left side - now coating my hands.
My fingers slip across the radio as I send my voice thundering down it.
“I need medical, now! Bring that fucking chopper here for evac.”
My red dip-dyed hand goes to her chest, feeling the slow rises of her breathing.
She’s breathing. My gaze darts over her body; she’s covered in so much fucking blood already I can’t work out where she's been shot.
“Brodie? Brodie, come back to me beautiful.
You're ok. Where does it hurt?” My hand strokes the hair away from her angelic features, she truly was carved by a supreme being.
The only one of her kind. And I won't fucking lose her - Not again.
Those haunting green eyes flicker open briefly, captivating mine when she manages to keep them open, but she's struggling.
With the bullet and Graves cutting off her air supply, she'll feel weaker as her own adrenaline comes crashing down.
“Lev?” Her voice sounds so small, so fragile. And my chest feels like serrated talons are clawing their way out, tearing at my bones and flesh to make their way to the surface.
“I'm here, I'm not going anywhere, and neither are you.” My hand grazes her side, and blood instantly makes it wet.
FUCK. I grip the radio, my voice sounds like a broken man, a desperate man, as it bellows across the factory floor - shaking the very ground beneath us.
The ocean seems to retract at the velocity of it, “Get here fucking now!”
My hand falls from the receiver, and a deep, rhythmic thumping grows louder, the sound of rotator blades chopping through the air.
The drums match the pounding in my chest. “I love you, Lev.” Brodie’s hand squeezes mine, and she may as well have been squeezing my heart.
“Don't start that shit, Brodie. They're almost here. You don’t get to fucking leave me. Ever. Do you hear me?” The emotion swells up at the end of my words, and I force a swallow, but my throat feels like it's laced with gravel.
“I'll drag you fucking back to me if I have to.” My voice now barely manages a whisper, the words burning through my eyes.
Boots hammer towards us, the sound of the thumping footsteps and echoes of muffled shouts cloaking around us.
The words ‘Virginia is safe’ pierce through, but all I can do is stare at her.
Watching her, watching me. Her skin is pale, and cold.
I’m telling myself it’s because of the bitter air coming from the ocean, and the moonlight hitting off her ethereal features, dimming her usual apricity.
Because that’s what she is to me. She’s the warmth to my frost. The fiery chaos that sparks my crazy.
The other half of my fucking soul. We didn’t go through all this shit for it to end like this.
I don't even register the bedlam that unfolds around us, only the seeping chill that bites through my skin when her hand loses its grip in mine. The piece of my heart that she’s claimed, follows her into the darkness, leaving an agonizing hollow dent in my chest. The world feels like it's gone black.