BREAK ME (Teased and Broken Book 3)

by Ashley Black

  Jacob whirled to face us. “Came looking for you, saw your car on fire on the road,” he coughed, wiping at his mouth. “It’s your dad.”

  “What about dad?” Thorn barely whispered.

  Shit.

  The man sounded so broken.

  “Some military folk stormed the place, scared the shit out of him, that’s what. They came looking for you and her.”

  Jacob’s black eyes glared accusingly in my direction.

  “You better come now, he’s asking for you. I think he’s about to die, Thorn. He’s not in a good way. I am so sorry.”

  Twenty Two

  “Take the bike,” Thorn snapped, pointing at it lying on the side of the road.

  “Elena and I will take your piece of shit car.”

  “Hey, don’t knock my car! We can’t all be billionaire rock stars like you, can we?” Jacob smirked, looking delighted at the chance to ride the black beast.

  Thorn impatiently pulled on a pair of black jeans that had been torn off his body and abandoned, alongside his coat, on the road.

  I was so terrified for him.

  Of what was coming.

  He yanked his coat off the ground and wrapped it securely around my shoulders. He held onto me a breath too long.

  I realized he was holding onto me for support.

  “Thorn?” I twisted in his arms, hands flashing up to his face.

  Shit.

  He looked terrible.

  Of course he looks terrible, Elena! He’s drug fucked and has lost a lot of blood. And as if that isn’t enough, he’s about to lose his dad.”

  “Can you,” he said thickly, jiggling the keys, “drive, love? Follow Jacob, I can’t promise I won’t pass out.” He stumbled away from me.

  “Thorn?”

  He fell to his knees.

  His hands gripped the back of his head as he roared senselessly.

  He became a blur of crazy black mayhem as he pounced upon a figure lying broken on the road.

  Ryan.

  I heard a sickening crack of bone.

  A squelch.

  No! Not this again!

  “I need power. I need to heal,” he spoke with his mouth full.

  Full of one very fucked up dead zombie heart.

  My eyes widened in horror.

  No!

  What would that do to him?

  That was some bad energy right there.

  And he was taking it into himself, like a damn fool.

  “There must be another way.” I protested. I strode up to him and took hold of his shoulder

  “Actually,” he mumbled through a mouthful of fucked up. “There is.”

  His body snapped around. He licked his bloodied lips as he pulled me onto his lap.

  Fuck! The heart was gone!

  He had inhaled the fucking thing!

  His appetite for the fucked up was clearly insatiable.

  My shaking hand gripped his jaw as I peered into his face. It had healed, not completely. His lips were no longer black, and the his determined nose was no longer caved in on one side. The black seething mass of cracks beneath his ivory skin however, remained.

  He pushed me backwards, one hand rubbing over my skull. Muscles rippled against my back from his outstretched arm my body balanced precariously against. His tongue slid from my belly up between my breasts. He rolled his tongue ring over my nipples, lips closing on them, pulling urgently. He snarled as he lifted his warm wet mouth from my tingling skin. He was panting, nostrils flared. He dropped his head and his lips fell hungrily all over my breasts again, licking at the place my heart throbbed beneath the skin.

  “You want to eat my heart?” I whispered. Terrified.

  I remembered Aaron had warned me that Thorn wanted to eat my heart.

  I thought it had been a cruel joke.

  Now?

  Not so much.

  “No, love, I don’t want you to die. Eating your heart means you will die. I want to lick it. That is all. It would help me. It would heal me. I need it. I need it now,” he groaned desperately and the pressure of his tongue increased as he lapped urgently. I could feel my skin beat furiously against the vile savage rub of his tongue.

  “You are not licking my fucking heart!” I said hotly, pushing him away.

  “Thorn, what the actual fuck?” Jacob rumbled up beside us on the black beast of a bike. “You choose now to lick her tits? Priorities! Your prick can wait. Your dad is not good man. We need to hurry.”

  Thorn’s blood streaked mouth turned down at the corners. His green eyes blazed with flame again. He bobbed his head in a nod of agreement, issuing a grunt as he rose to his feet.

  He pushed Jacob roughly from the bike.

  “What the fuck man!” He protested angrily, falling on his ass.

  “I take the bike. You take Elena, meet me at the villa,” Thorn growled.

  “You are fucking insane you know that?” Jacob accused.

  Thorn’s powerful legs straddled the bike and a small smile curved that sinful mouth of his as his eyes flashed at us. “Yes. Yes, I am.”

  Jacob sped after Thorn, pushing the power and limits of his ‘piece of shit car.’

  He kept flicking worried glances at me.

  I realized I might be going into some kind of shock thrall.

  My hand had not moved from where Thorn’s tongue had been.

  I was studying the energy imprint he had left. Tying to figure out whether this man would kill me.

  Because he had surely lost his fucking mind.

  I picked up something disturbing from the lingering trace of his energy.

  He had given up.

  He was giving me every reason to end him.

  To not want him.

  He was so scared.

  Of himself.

  When we pulled up at the Villa, Jacob pulled me after him. A quick glance told me the villa wasn’t far from the infamous pier Aaron and I talked shit on drunk wherever we got the chance. I saw Thorn’s sleek luxurious boat, the Black Eagle at its private moor, bobbing gently upon the restless waves.

  I felt like a morbid onlooker intruding on some one else’s tragedy.

  Seeing a man like Thornton Darko breaking like this was my tragedy.

  I was so scared for him.

  I was so scared of him.

  I waited outside a door to a room that offered a jaw dropping view of the darkened bay foaming uneasily below the stormy night beyond.

  Thorn had certainly kept Bob very comfortable.

  I hoped they had spent their time together fishing, if Bob’s health was up to it of course. I hoped Thorn had had long conversations with him into the night over a fine whisky. I hoped Bob forgave his son for inadvertently hastening his illness out of an act of love. I hoped Thorn could forgive himself.

  It was three minutes I waited.

  It felt like three hours.

  Jacob shuffled out of the room.

  His eyes were hooded and haunted.

  “They want to see you,” he said softly, pushing past me, sniffing loudly.

  “Elena,” Bob’s voice was a thin, rattling rasp.

  Death was wringing the life out of him.

  Fuck death.

  Fuck it very much.

  My gaze fell on Thorn kneeling before Bob. He was propped up in a huge bed, swamped by pillows.

  Thorn’s head was bowed. His hands clasped in prayer position.

  A single tear rolled down his white porcelain cracked face.

  My heart flipped for joy. It wasn’t black.

  Just a normal, very human looking tear from the beast.

  And that was my worry wasn’t it? Bob had been an amazing father to a troubled, mentally unstable young man. He had made the beast human. Who would do that after he was gone?

  “Elena,” Bob called again.

  “I’m here,” I offered softly.

  Thorn’s head snapped up.

  He made to rise, but Bob patted his shoulder. “Stay. What I have to say, you both c
an hear.”

  “I don’t want to be near her right now dad,” Thorn’s voice was pleading. “Please.”

  “I can go,” I choked out as a small cry crawled into my throat.

  “No!” Bob’s scratchy voice rose. “Come,” he patted a chair. “Sit.”

  I dropped into it.

  Thorn would not look at me.

  He was blushing I realized.

  His face dripping with shame.

  He was ashamed his tongue had attacked my tits with the fucked up intention of licking my heart.

  “I have something very important to ask you Elena,” Bob’s big cold red hand clasped my arm and squeezed.

  I nodded.

  “Can you please allow my son to take you as his wife?”

  Twenty Three

  “Dad!” Thorn face palmed and groaned. “Sweet Jesus.”

  The hopeful look in the old man’s eyes slayed me.

  “Bob, I am about to elope with Brett. We’re going to Hawaii. I love your son, but I can’t marry him.”

  Bob’s face fell.

  “You really love him? You’re not just saying that?” he asked.

  “I love him,” I assured solemnly. “With all my fucked up heart.”

  “He hasn’t had a lot of luck with ladies of the magical persuasion,” Bob added, his mouth lengthening in a grimace.

  “For fucks sake dad” Thorn protested angrily.

  Bob sighed and shot a look at his son. “Shut your big fucking mouth, will you?”

  My eyes widened at Bob’s language.

  He shrugged. “Who do you think gave my son such a filthy mouth?”

  I felt a faint smile tug at my lips as I stared pointedly at Thorn’s mouth that curved into a reluctant smile.

  “It is a dirty, dirty, dirty mouth,” I agreed.

  “All right, so you love him, you sound like you mean this. Then marry him, please. You must.”

  His desperate gaze flicked to Thorn. “You haven’t told her have you, son? Are you a fucking imbecile? Do you want to die?”

  “What?”

  “If you marry each other, the curse is dissolved. It’s the most powerful sign you can give the magical community of your love. You would be committing to wanting this man forever. Unlike the mortal world, getting hitched in the magical world is a big fucking deal Elena.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me this?” I whispered at Thorn who stood, back to me, arms folded. He looked like he was trying to stab the window with that pointed stare of his.

  “Let’s do it!” I told him impulsively.

  He spun around, a sneer lifting his lip. “I don’t think you quite know what you’re agreeing to, love.”

  “You said you wanted to take me as your wife,” I challenged. “So take me. If it means you will live Thorn, I will do it. I don’t want you to die. I love you.”

  “I am happy for you Elena. I don’t trust that GI Joe fucker you’re with.” Bob burst out.

  “Brett?” I frowned, confused.

  “I didn’t like how he referred to you when he stormed in here with all those other GI Joe’s and nearly gave me heart failure. He didn’t sound worried Elena. He sounded really fucking angry. There’s so much anger in him. Surely you’ve felt it? I worry for you.”

  “He was different before the fire,” I insisted softly. Doubt had me chewing on my lip.

  “Was he?” Bob challenged. “He hid a whole other part of his life from you didn’t he, when he served in Afghanistan?”

  “Brett wouldn’t hurt me. Brett doesn’t hurt people.”

  “He hurt me,” Bob groaned, rubbing his side. “Knocked me on my ass, and left me there when he couldn’t find you and Thorn.”

  “What?” Thorn’s voice trembled with rage. “He just left you on the floor?”

  “Yeah, Jacob found me and helped me into bed. Let’s not speak of that fucker anymore.” Bob clapped his hands, blue eyes shining with joy. “You agreeing to marry my son, makes me so very happy.”

  Thorn’s jaw tensed. His brows rose quizzically. His gaze roamed my face, searching for clues of my inauthenticity, lips parting on a sigh. “You’re serious,” he finally choked out, looking overcome.

  This was a strange look for a man like Thornton Darko.

  I was serious about saving this man’s life.

  If that meant marrying him, I could live with that.

  It didn’t have to be forever.

  Shit.

  I was not a details person.

  Maybe I should check that one.

  It seemed important.

  Particularly, if I was to have any kind of future with Brett.

  But fuck this, I wasn’t going to crush an old man’s joy on his death bed.

  The look on Thorn’s face though.

  Shit.

  Fierce, ferocious, possessive love.

  His dark green eyes scorched me with intense adoration.

  ‘The things I will do to your body as my wife.’

  He was nowhere near me, yet his silky lips brushed over my ear as this promise trickled into my mind warming all of me into a senseless puddle of longing.

  “Dad?”

  I blinked, snapping out of the cock thrall.

  “Dad!” Thorn gripped his Dad’s wasted shoulders and shook them.

  The man had died with a smile on his face.

  A smile I had put there with a lie.

  Twenty Four

  Thorn didn’t want me to leave his side when he gathered his Father’s dead body to him and wrapped it up in a fierce embrace.

  He buried his head in Bob’s neck and breathed hard, choking back the enormity of the sobs that he refused to allow spill over his lips.

  His big body pulsed with misery.

  I stood there awkwardly.

  I was hopeless with this kind of shit.

  Even for people I loved and cared about the most.

  Thorn laid his father down on the bed and tenderly stroked his forehead. Staring down at him with such reverence. I felt everything inside of me ache.

  He wrapped his hand around my wrist and pulled me from the room.

  “Can we talk?” he asked softly. Shyly. His gaze curiously downcast.

  “Of course.”

  Thorn reached behind him, grabbed a black CELLRAGER hoody off a hook in the wall and pulled it on.

  A faded beat up beanie I recognized as Bob’s, followed. “Outside,” he muttered.

  “I will light a fire,” he added. “Can’t have you freezing your lovely tits off.”

  Thorn gathered some drift wood on the strip of sand in front of the villa . He threw it in a pile. He hissed an incantation, hands trembling outstretched as flame ignited.

  I was grateful for the warmth of the fire; it was freezing out here. I wished he would stand beside me. He was wary, keeping his distance. I didn’t pretend any of that had to do with me. Losing the only person in your life that truly gave all the shits about you, would hurt. You might, I don’t know, want to be alone with that realization and bawl like a baby.

  “I am so sorry about your dad Thorn,” I managed after the longest, most awkward pause.

  “Yes,” he agreed. “So am I, particularly because I killed him.”

  “Don’t say that.”

  “I did,” he insisted in a quiet voice teeming with fury. “His medical team was confused. He had a year Elena. A fucking year to live. I had so many plans for that year with him. We were going to go the Caribbean. To warmth and fun while he still had his health. Like I said, he had a year, and then,” Thorn stabbed his forehead. “I am such an arrogant fuck, I slashed that to months, to days, to hours, to minutes, to death!”

  He stuffed his hands into the pouch at the front of his hoody and tipped his head back, releasing a frustrated, pain soaked roar.

  I started to close the distance between us. He held up a warning hand. “Don’t.”

  “Thorn?”

  “It is sweet you want to marry me to save me from the curse,” he was shaking hi
s head. “But there is only one problem with that love.”

  He was sounded so despairing. So incredibly bitter.

  “What is that?”

  I was almost too scared to ask.

  “I’m fucking broken. Too broken to marry you right now.”

  “Did I not say tonight that I want you exactly as you are Mr. Darko?”

  Thorn glowered into the fire. “But you don’t know who I am, Enchantress. Not really.”

  “Tell me,” I invited.

  He waved his hand batting away my question like an annoying fly. “That will take too long. Let me explain why I’m a bit more fucked in the head than usual instead.”

  “I’ll take it,” I said warmly.

  “When your punk ass GI Jo fucker emptied his gun into my skull I lived, but I needed to heal. I hit up a lot of bad stuff Elena to do that. Some days,” Thorn groaned softly. His hand sped into his dark hair, mussing it up. “I think I am going insane. I am not well. I need to go away for a while and heal myself the way I was taught by the old lores, the old ways. Snake Father offers instant gratification healing but it’s all designed to trip me over into hell.”

  “I am sorry Brett did that to you,” I muttered, feeling helpless. “It was cruel and unnecessary.”

  Thorn’s dark eyes sizzled as they met mine. “This is why it makes me so very happy you have agreed to marry me Elena. Because that soft cock is cruel and unnecessary. You will be mine. Forever.”

  “Forever?” I arched a brow, my voice sounded far away.

  “Well of course,” Thorn went on. “An Enchantress marrying a Warlock is a big fucking deal. Committing to such a union means we are for life. If either of us renege on that without agreement. Or without some repugnant sex crime by the other upon the other or with some other, we die together. “Because we are,” Thorn twisted his index finger over another, “twined, forever.”

  “Sweet Jesus!” I choked out and backed up a step.

  Thorn looked amused at my response. “That is why I said you don’t know what you are agreeing to, and yet,” he smiled widely. “Here we are.”

  My eyes went wide when he pressed his alarming physicality against me. His hands rubbed urgently over the back of my skull. “You are mine, forever.”

  “No!” I shook my head. “I didn’t know what I was agreeing to. Fuck it Thorn, no!”