Page 304 of Fatality

The inside of my cheek splits beneath my teeth, blood flooding my mouth.

I barely feel it, the pain dampeners are a fucking miracle—a miracle that cost me a thousand Ghost Credits.

“You're a pervert!” She shouts, turning her back on me.

Before I can grab her and turn her back to face me, she walks over to the couch and drops onto it.

I follow.

Without asking, I dump myself beside her, shift until my head is resting on her bare thighs, cross my arms over my chest, and stretch my legs across the armrest.

“Next time you turn your back on me,” I yawn “I will rip out the towel, bend you over the back of the couch and fuck your ass.”

“The hell you will.” She looks down at me, furious.

I just smile.

“You want to bet?”

She scoffs, her blush deepening.

“Now, speak,” I order. “Make it interesting.”

She sighs and rubs her temples.

“Chop chop.” I add, deadpan.

That earns me a few seconds of being strangled and shaken in her lap.

I laugh.

When she finally lets go, she leans back into the couch, letting her head fall against the backrest.

“I’m a Laordie, right? Everything is for the city, for the people, for the image, for the credits. I wasn’t wanted. My mother wanted to get rid of me, but my father convinced her not to because it would’ve affected the Central Authority—the government—and his image there.”

Her jaw pulses.

I don’t talk for once.

“So, they never loved me, never saw me as a human being. Kyle was. But after Kyle died, I became an absolute nightmare. Being blamed, rejected by my parents my entire life, it finally exploded.”

She pauses.

“I met Charlie and Jules that same year, and we—mostly me—started fucking everything up. For years, I got expelled from multiple academies because if someone looked at me wrong, hit me, bullied me... or worse, one of my girls... I'd beat the shit out of them. I'd slam their heads into lockers before dragging them down the hallway by their hair.”

My eyes widen.

“So my little troublemaker was already feral back then?” I grin. “Isn't that perfect? The monster and the troublemaker?”

“Fuck off. I hate you.” She looks away.

“Makes it even better.” I purr.

She clears her throat.

“I burned down some of my father's cars and other shit he owned. Then I got my tattoos. The one on my back is for me. The one here...”

She taps the tattoo over her chest.