Kill Me, Kiss Me

NINETEEN

"NO." The words shivered from Alexandr's mouth, a tendril of smoke eclipsing from the depths.

"No?" Keir raised an eyebrow, dark eyes roving back over Theo, piercing through the cover of the night, almost. Almost, but not quite, "Oh..." He sighed with a rising sensuality.

Alexandr's hands spasmed, clenching and releasing without pattern.

"Then it's decided." Keir smiled, a ragged slice of amusement ripping across his face, "I will have him. In fact," He lifted the knife and tapped the bloodied edge to his chin, splattering red all over his cheek, "I'll forgive you too."

Those trembling fingers finally fixed into a solid fist, but Alexandr said nothing. The loss of power rippled through the air like fading waves; there was nothing left to say. He couldn't say anything either. He couldn't say anything! His stomach roiled, his limbs burnt cold and heavy, but his words, his words had slipped down the drain to Nowhere. It took everything in him not to gag right then and there.

The knife spun silver in the navy as Keir twirled the handle between his fingers lazily, digging his leather shoes into the dead man's spilt guts, cocking his head to one side, all emotion draining away until what was left was just flesh moulded into that of a human, "Say something, pet."

And oh, how the single word of endearment twisted like a curse between his lips even though it carried through the air so softly, so gently, an angel's feather drifting to the floor.

Theo clenched his chattering teeth, ripping his fingernails through the skin of his palm until the pain mingled and over-competed some of that, that throbbed in the pits of his abdomen and traveled up his chest with every spin of the knife, every breath of that man.

"I don't have any say in this." It floated weak and untethered from his deadened pool of words. But nonetheless, it made it through, it resonated.

The knife stopped abruptly, slanting a white arc of light onto the dead man's expression of utter terror, "And that you don't... clever boy." Keir's eyes lifted slowly, a riveting little ache of interest kissing the edges of his black gaze, "That voice, I like. I like very, very much."

He tapped his chin with his knife again, once, twice, thrice, "Shall I take pet home now, or should I let you say your farewells?"

"He's my PA." Alexandr cracked hoarsely, a tinge of desperation working through the cracks in his voice.

Keir lifted a brow, cleaning his shoe against the plush carpet methodologically, smearing the congealing liquid on the fibres, left, right, heel, toes.

Alexandr sank to his knees, his suit jacket crumpling against the floor.

No, the force within Theo cried, don't bow to this psycho. Do not kneel for someone as broken, as deformed as he.

But Alexandr kneeled, and he bowed the crown of his head to the floor, and he begged, "Please."

"Please." Twice.

"Please." Thrice.

Keir stared down at Alexandr's collapsed figure with disgusted delight, and it was an expression that... Bile rose up in Theo's throat, burning a hell within him as if that'd help him fight this hell outside. Who was that? Surely not a fellow human? Surely not a being with the same features of existence as him? The very idea sickened him to the guts.

He did not belong on this earth.

He shouldn't have existed at all.

Those wild, wild eyes roved over the bowed form, carving out each detail of the folded limbs, crushed fabric, dishevelled hair, exposed neck and pressing all, all into a monument of victory within the tissue of his brain. Wide eyed with wonder, Keir stared at Alexandr as if it was a sight he'd never forget, and that was a sight Theo would never forget. Even later, when Keir clutches at his legs and begs him not to be scared, he'll still see that single gaze, fixed before him, night upon night upon night.