Bleeding Heart

chapter three

The distance between us lessened with each passing second, the ticking of microseconds like a timebomb, and my heart stuttered in my chest as he headed towards me.

Blake coming towards me.

I was stunned, shocked, alarmed. But most of all, I was furious. Anger curled up my spine, racing along with my heartbeat, and I didn't--couldn't look away from him, from Blake. But it was also a surprise because I had expected many outcomes from this situation but I hadn't expected to find him here of all places. I hadn't expected to see Blake, and so it didn't stop me from backing away hastily, my spine digging uncomfortably into the kitchen drawer behind me.

"Don't look so charmed to see me, do you?" He mused, nearing. "Makes me think that you weren't really expecting me."

"I wasn't." I snapped, felt the sharp edge of it before continuing, "Don't. Don't come any closer."

Blake had the nerve to look affronted. "Why the fuck not?"

"If you take another step towards me, I swear to God--" He took a step closer. I grabbed another ceramic mug, stumbling away from the drawers, and hurled it at his face. He made a surprised noise, ducked, and the mug flew over the blond mess of his head.

That didn't stop him from advancing, nothing seemed to be doing it, and I desperately wanted to gut him and his stupid face alive.

"Jesus fucking...fuck," He grunted when a glass plate hit him square in the chest, clattered on the floor and shattered. He pushed the glass shards aside with his boot and then gave me a disappointed glare. "Are you trying to kill me?"

I tried grabbing for something else, anything to throw at him and gain myself even a few measly seconds to get the hell out of there, but I could only feel the thin air. I staggered back, the back of my feet hitting the small potted plant that had always been sitting there by the kitchen wall for no reason other than Uncle Misha just buying the strangest things. I snatched it up, glowered right back at him, and gritted out, "Back. Off."

He was close, so close, just a few steps away, and I could see the glass shards glittering and stuck on his t-shirt, the same silver shards reflecting in the pale blue of his eyes. They glinted. And I only got the starting of a shit-eating smirk on his lips before he--

I shoved the potted plant between us, at him, at his chest with all the adrenaline rushing through me, panicked when that too didn't stop him from pushing closer, and headbutted him. A litany of curses left his lips and I grabbed the tiny moment of distraction, dashing around him and towards the opened kitchen drawer, and unsheathed another knife from the wooden block.

It was a second, two, a heartbeat too slow and dread in its wake, just right before I swung around to keep him away with the sharp point of it, when a hand grabbed my wrist, warm fingers tightening around my bare skin, and gave a sharp yank. My face met the nearest wall and my forehead slammed into it, a groan escaping me at the impact. Blake pressed close behind me.

No, I cursed at the universe. I squeezed my eyes close, my heart beating in my throat, and winced when he held my wrist against the wall at an angle that hurt.

"Not so clever now, Lexi," he hissed close to my ear, all smug and warm--burning.

"Fuck. Off." I growled into the wall, trying to shove him off me, but then he grabbed my other wrist as well and pinned it to the wall on the other side of me. "Blake."

"What?" He mocked, then pressed close. I felt his nose in my hair. "Will you behave, Lexi? I didn't run all the way here only to get myself decapitated."

I clenched my jaw so hard it hurt--pain lancing up my skull--more than his mere presence behind me.

He tightened his hold on my wrist until my grip on the knife went slack. "I'll take that." And then the knife disappeared.