~Editor's Pick~
The raven.
It’s a bad omen.
Chad calls it superstition, but Romeo knows it’s a warning specifically for him. He calls himself a god among men. That’s the feeling he gets when he kills, like he’s more than everyone else.
But even gods have their weaknesses.
Romeo only has one.
The man that put a heart in his chest.
The one that made it beat.
But the Chad he clasps eyes with doesn’t recognize him anymore.
An accident cherry-picks Romeo from Chad’s memories and losing him is a pain he struggles to bear.
He doesn’t want to be without Chad, he can’t be, which means he has to reunite the monster and the magpie by any means necessary.
But his magpie has been keeping secrets.
Unforgivable ones…
Be Warned: m/m sex
“You…” Dean said.
His brow furrowed.
“Me.” Romeo replied.
Then he was across the room, monster snarling so loud he thought Dean might be able to hear it too.
Some people struggled and fought, Romeo never felt their blows, the adrenaline rush was too intense, and others were so shocked by what was happening, they didn’t react, they immediately went into a helpless state.
Dean was the latter.
He froze, wide-eyed, as Romeo closed his hand around his throat and squeezed.
It felt good, so good, Romeo’s lashes fluttered and his blood burned.
He didn’t need to use two hands—he’d perfected strangling the life out of someone with one. He had enough strength he could lift Dean off the floor. It put strain on his whole body. Chad thought Romeo held their victims like that to show off his strength, and it was partly true, but he liked the stretch, and the burn rushing up his arm into his chest. His heart had to double its efforts at the same moment someone else’s was stuttering to a stop.
Dean spluttered.
Fight and flight seemed to kick in, but it was far too late for that. He gripped onto Romeo’s arm with both hands, but it was weak, pathetic even.
It only increased Dean’s panic when he realized he couldn’t save himself.
His life was now Romeo’s, and Romeo slowly distinguished it, watching with heated dark eyes as Dean’s rolled back. Dean’s face turned red, his cheeks bulged, and his paling lips opened with his last desperate gasps for air.
It was addicting, no doubt about it, power inducing in a way Romeo could never describe with words. You could only feel it, through hands, through arms, through the thudding heart in the chest. It was a physical thing, like something rising up within him.
Then he looked back over his shoulder. Or the monster looked back. Romeo didn’t know which part of him made the decision or why, but for some reason he looked back expecting to see Chad behind him.
Chad’s dark eyes, heaving chest, and twitching fingers. His look of want so palpable Romeo could feel his lust in waves.
He wasn’t there, and it wasn’t the same.
His high at taking a life had evolved to include Chad. He was part of it, the ritual, the moment.
It was still there, the rush, but Romeo knew it could be more, it should be more.
He wanted more.
The monster did too.
“What … what are you doing?”
Romeo let go.
Dean hit the ground.
Romeo turned to face the man he’d paid to watch the door. His bottom lip trembled in reply to Romeo’s expression. He’d stepped into the toilets, but kept his back to the wall, flashing looks at Dean motionless on the ground.
Romeo didn’t wait to see if he was dead or not.
It just wasn’t important.
He dropped the remainder of what he owed on the toilets floor, then strolled away.
Let me go.
He couldn’t.
He’d tried to do the right thing and let Chad go, but his right didn’t coincide with everyone else’s.
Before Chad had become his Juliet, before they’d moved to Bardhum, before Romeo had realized how deeply he loved Chad, there had been him, a barn, and a handcuffed Chad.
There was a rake, and an incapacitated little magpie.
Because that’s all Chad had been in the beginning, just another magpie...
