I wish I’d been there to help her.
I wish I hadn’t driven her to it.
And despite how terrified I am right now, despite how dangerous everything is…
Pandora is so fucking beautiful like this, bent over me with her knife, licking the drops of blood from my chest.
“What the fuck is going on here?” comes a voice from the door.
River.
He’ll get me out of this mess.
“River! Grab Pandora!” I order.
Pandora sits up to look in his direction, and somehow her grin gets even wider. “River! I figured it out! I mean, not all of it. Blaze won’t tell me the details. But I found the profiles of the girls, the ones they probably send to their clients. Rachel must have been one of them! Help me cut Blaze up so he’ll finally tell me what I need to know.” She traces one of my ribs with her fingers. “I can make a new charm out of his bones.”
Bile threatens to rise in my throat.
“You want my rib?” I ask, my heart hammering in my chest. “That’s too big for a charm.”
Shit. Where did River leave his finger bones? I can get them back to Pandora to make peace with her. That would calm her down, right?
“Yeah, a little too big,” River says, and he sounds so rational when he continues, “I’m sure he’ll talk.” He crosses the room to look down at me. “Wow. Looks like you got wrecked.”
“Asch!” I plead.
Asch huffs out a laugh. “Oh,nowyou want my help?” he asks, finally seeming to unfreeze from the moment.
This is why I don’t want you near Pandora, I think.
Asch doesn’t know how to handle the real violence, the true darkness of the world.
River wraps his arms around Pandora, and she lets him easily. She even turns in his arms to kiss his jaw, knife still in hand.
“River, River,” Pandora murmurs. “You’ll help me, right? You want revenge for Rachel too.”
“I don’t know who Rachel is!” I shout. “But if you let me go, I’ll find out, okay? I’ll figure out what happened to her!”
“I do want revenge,” River agrees, his hand sliding down her arm until his fingers encircle the wrist of the hand holding the knife. “But I want revenge on the person who did it to her. If we carve Blaze up, we’ll never find out who that was.”
“Exactly!” Pandora presses her head against his chest, her eyes still on me. “You’re being a big scaredy cat for no reason, Blaze. I wasn’t going tomurderyou.” She lets out a soft sigh. “I knew you didn’t want to hurt me. Perfect Blaze. And now you’ll help me!”
I nod quickly. I also give River a pointed look, imploring him to untie me already.
Never mind that I’m here with my cock out and my shirt pushed up my chest.
“There we go,” River says calmly. “Let me have the knife, Pandora. I’ll trade you your charm for it, yeah? Then we can all settle down and talk this out.”
Asch’s eyes are intent upon me, but he doesn’t speak.
“Oh! Yes, please!” Pandora trails the knife along River’s arm. “I’ve missed it so much. Having a piece of you, with me… I wish I had a piece of all of you.”
She really is insane.
I stay perfectly still while River leads Pandora out of the room… with me still cuffed and tied to the bed. Once they’re out, I shimmy upright and glare down at the rope. I could probably untie the end attached to the bed. The cuffs have a snap that’s difficult, but not impossible, to reach while they’re on.
I glare in Asch’s direction. “So are you helping me or just standing around?”
