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She had been there when the elevator doors had slipped open that night, arms open wide to draw him in as he’d folded down, into her, around her. Accommodating the new size and shape of a life that had been shrouded so thickly by the curse that it had felt as though everything were tainted by it. Even Leah. Malcolm’s blood pumped in her veins as much as it had his and it changed you, no matter how much you liked to claim that you were better than it, better than him. The weight had drained from him as he’d rinsed the dirt, ash and blood mix from his hands before he’d returned home. As soon as Tanner followed the druid into a shallow grave it would be gone from both of them. Finally they’d be able to live in the light.

For what felt like the thousandth time since they’d started planning on it, Grey ran through the entire thing in his mind again. Tanner wouldn’t have the space to run the same way the druid had tried to, but he wasn’t about to believe that this would all go as smoothly as they could hope. Tanner was a snake, he’d try to bite before they cut his head off.

Dark brows drew together as his own fell for a moment. Lips a thin line, ears straining, but not for some divine intervention that would stop them from cutting this weight that shackled Destiny, but for her. He’d held her as the memories that infested the rental they’d returned to – somewhere new might have been wiser, one that wasn’t overlaid with those images of what had been, what had almost been. His hand had settled on her stomach as he’d held her as the tear tracks had dried on her face, remembering the swell of it the last time they’d waited here to see that son of a bitch. Leah had been the one to steal that chance from them ultimately, but Tanner had his part in it, the scars he’d left on her likely contributing to Destiny’s body not being able to hold onto Petyr as she’d tried to protect their son.

He could map each scar that had left on his heart and was glad that Tanner wouldn’t get to see a single one that he’d left on either of them as that garrot snapped tight around his throat. His presence in both of their lives would be done with his death.

Grey turned as Destiny slipped close for the trip, everything packed into the bag that stretched across his back. He gathered her in, brushed his lips over her forehead, touched them to her temple for a whispered reassurance. Power thundered through his body on that wave of righteousness, taking them from the light and space of the rental to that place. The fetid little cell Tanner had been rotting in. Soon he’d be free of it, but not in the way he ever would’ve imagined.

It was a relief that Destiny was facing the wrong direction for that first moment. Grey stared at the huddled figure in the bunk over the top of her head, his eyes as cold as the concrete and steel that shrouded the place. He drew in a deep breath, damping the desire to just open up his throat, the sacrifice set aside in the name of revenge. There was no way he could do that to her though, the strength Destiny would gain from this was retribution from all that he’d stolen from her, all the pain he’d carved into her skin. Smoothing his hand down Destiny’s back as he clung to him, he tried to soothe her.

Drawing back, just enough, he searched her face for some sign that she couldn’t do this – he wouldn’t blame her if fear bit too deep. Grey nodded, reassurance, the certainty that she could do this, that he had faith in her gleaming in his eyes with that silvered sheen of the low light in the claustrophobic little space. ”Already there,” he breathed. One hand peeled from her back, fingers spread in the air like a magician producing a card. The connections shrouded in a darkness that would hide the cell and its occupants from the beady eyes watching the inmates, even in sleep.

Tanner’s voice rose suddenly, the corresponding stiffening of Destiny’s body sending a wave of anger rolling up through him, to stopper in his throat. He wanted to tear away each hold the arsehole had on her, ripping it from her flesh to let it all heal clean without the stain of him left behind. Grey slid his hand down Destiny’s back, another small reassurance as she stared up at him. ”He can’t hurt you here,” he breathed softly as the man grumbled and sat up. He wouldn’t hurt her again.

This even real. He would’ve laughed if Destiny hadn’t been here, revealing to this coward just what nightmares were out there, all those evils that were far beyond his tiny, violent imagination. Pain metred out in tiny vicious portions until it felt like it was all Tanner had ever known.

Sliding a hand away, Grey let Destiny turn. He stood close at her back, one of her hands still on him, maintaining that connection. The hand he still had at the small of her back pressed lightly. That strength was in her, like the wood of a bow – she could be bent, but when that pressure released it wouldn’t leave her broken.

The laugh bubbled for a second as Tanner cut right through the announcement of his impending death with that outraged little question. ”Trynna hold your place,” he drawled, throwing Tanner’s accent right back at him as the man puffed up like a pigeon, all ruffled feathers and tiny pea brain that wouldn’t see the danger coming because he believed he was the predator in this room. ”Grey Maddox. Pleasure to meet you … although, it’s gonna be brief.” The smirk settled on his face, going brittle around the edges as all those empty threats shifted to Petyr. This time he was the one to freeze, like all the air in the room had suddenly been sucked out, leaving only a vacuum behind.

His hand slid from Destiny as he took a step towards Tanner. Power rippled out of him, tossing the pathetic little rat back at the bed without laying a hand on him. ”She was never yours, neither one of them will ever be yours. You got to put her hands on her once, but that’s done. You’re done and you’re lucky it’s not me who’s gonna be doing it.” Grey lifted a hand, curling his fingers into his palm once at a time, his telepathy rippling through the move, through the air to snap each of those fingers that had incised the scars into Destiny’s flesh like brittle twigs. ”She won’t even remember your name when we’re done. You’ll just be something that gave her the power to make sure something like you can’t touch her again.” Another guardian, the third of those who had failed to take care of her when they should’ve done. Wiped away, leaving just the blessing that could come from their deaths behind. Bad for good finally exchanged.

Tagged: DESTINY BACCARI * Word Count: 1218

Gravity swallowed up everything in the end, crushing you down until there was nothing left but dust. He’d felt himself drifting closer to that for years, drawn in by the need to eradicate the curse that hung around his neck like an anvil. Then she’d been there, looking down at him with astonishment in eyes as clear and as blue as the horizon and his orbit had changed. He and Destiny were binary stars, circling each other, avoiding the pull of the things – like this sorry excuse for a human being – that would otherwise drag them in and destroy them.

The touch of his hand on her back, hers on his bicep, were that connection for now, holding them clear of any gravitational pull Tanner might still have had on her. His touch had once littered her body, leaving behind those savage reminders of his belief that she was his – the belief that was wrong. Grey swept his thumb in an arc over the dip of Destiny’s spine, a small comfort that would do nothing to really erase those marks, but this would. A sacrifice to bring something worthwhile out of Tanner’s miserable life. If they were blessed again, then their children would have that added layer of protection in place, a shield against the only evil they would have left. Leah.

Would she end up dragged here to scoop up Tanner’s soul and take him down to burn in Hell? Karma might have said yes, but the thought of her touch ending up layered over this in filthy smears left him feeling as sick as Tanner’s mention of Petyr had.

On legs as stiff as twigs, Grey started forward. It wasn’t his kill to make, although he would’ve done, breaking every bone in this son of a bitch’s body one at a time, instead of the select few he started in on as Tanner slumped there against the wall, groaning like this was pain. He wouldn’t have known it, not when he was the one in control, the big man who controlled a sweet, vulnerable girl with praise and pain and tried to take everything from her just so she wouldn’t leave him. A hollow shell didn’t have the strength to do what Destiny had in the end. That was where Tanner had always underestimated her, never seeing what was right there in front of him.

Crack! Another finger, The joint reversing itself, the digit no longer capable of reaching out and touching Destiny.

Protests filled the air, the words stuttering on the wave of pain that he hoped was breaking something far deeper inside of him than his fingers. Grey felt his throat tighten, the burn starting in his sinuses that he wouldn’t allow to spill up into his eyes. Those tears were for Petyr, for Destiny and the life that they should’ve had together.

Grey bared his teeth as Destiny stepped towards him, kneeling on the edge of the bed, crawling towards him. She’d done that in their bed before, something loving, seductive in the gesture. There was nothing of that about it this time, although Tanner reached for her all the same. ”You know what you did,” he said tightly, taking slow steps closer as Destiny shut Tanner up instead of waiting for him to get the idea himself. His head bounced off the concrete wall, one, twice, probably doing little damage to what rattled around in his skull, although he was too dazed to fight against the manhandling as Destiny started to move him.

Setting the bag down beside the bed, Grey reached for Tanner’s ankles, shattering more bone, hobbling him as he dragged him to the edge of the bed, dropping those broken ankles down onto the concrete without a second thought. ”You’re lucky you’re goin’ this way,” Grey breathed, his voice rough, cracking at the edges as Destiny pulled down the collar of her shirt to reveal all that she usually hid. He’d seen the scars before, had laid fingers and lips on them to erase the claim that lingered. If it wouldn’t have taken something from Destiny, he’d have done just as she said – broken Tanner one strip of skin at a time, carving her name into the bones that would be all that were left when he was done.

His eyes cut from the already breaking man slumped on the floor, one corner of his mouth lifting in replacement for the touch he wanted to lay on her. They were in this together and every step of this he would take at Destiny’s side, the same way she had when he’d killed the druid. Grey dropped to one knee, fishing the garrote from the bag – each step of this sacrifice gone over a dozen times before, the plan settled. Nothing to screw it up this time, no mistakes. Just death. ”Enjoy the trip,” he muttered, watching the blood waterfall from the wound Destiny had carved across his throat, stealing away any last words he might have whimpered, as though anything would’ve brought him salvation at this point.

The knife was wiped off against Tanner’s bedding as they exchanged weapons, scarlet streaks like the letter that should’ve been stamped on his forehead. A – not for adulterer, but asshole, abuser. As he began to thrash against the bite of the wire, Grey stood, bringing his foot down on one knee, pressing with his weight and the power in him to have the joint popping, the sound a hollow undertone to Destiny’s hissed words.

Gradually he went still, some of the darkness seeming to go out of the room despite the shadows that clung thickly to its corners. They hid what had happened here, but eventually the lights would come back up, yells filling the hallway, although none would be tinged with grief. He didn’t think there was anybody out there that would mourn this son of a bitch. Like there had been before, there was a shiver of power in the air, one that barely lifted the hair on his arms. The sacrifice was Destiny’s, the power that was the only gift from all of this going to her.

Slowly, he reached for her as she stood, fingers offered to her. Eyes on the woman he loved, not the shell at her feet. Grey laced his fingers with hers, not even feeling the stickiness of the blood that glued them together. His other hand went to the nape of her neck, guiding her in as she stepped towards him. ”I’m so proud of you, a ghra,” he said softly, stamping his lips against Destiny’s temple before he lifted his head to meet her for a kiss. His thumb stroked the side of her neck, brushing her hair back. ”I know you had it in you to stop him from good. Baby, he’s never gonna be able to touch you again. You’re free.” Another chain falling away from their necks. Just one left now – Leah, their third – and then it would be done for good.

Drawing back enough to meet her eye, he slid his hand down from her neck, over her shoulder, down the curve of her chest that he could barely see in the dark, tracing the parts of her that were wholly hers now that the piece of shit was going cold on the floor. ”I love you … for everythin’ you are, everythin’ you’ve become. You’re stronger than anybody I’ve ever met and nothin’ is goin’ to take that from you now.” He began to turn them, away from the tableau at their feet, nudging Destiny back towards the wall as his grip settled at her hip. ”You’re incredible … and I need you.” Those last words puffed out against her throat as he dipped his head, his mouth latching onto the spot beneath her jaw where her pulse pounded. He could feel every beat against his mouth, drank them in as though they fuelled his own heartbeat, kept alive by the connection that had sprung into life when he’d come to in the street with his saviour standing over him.

Tagged: DESTINY BACCARI * Word Count: 1351