Fractured Darkness Read online

  “He could come home at any minute,” she murmurs against my mouth.

  I run my tongue across her bottom lip and she moans quietly when I whisper, “Right now, I don’t care.”

  Our breaths mingle when Mica pauses to speak, "I shouldn't be here, but staying away from you is so damn hard, Jace. You're all I have."

  I breathe her in and give her one last kiss. “You need to get out of here before he catches us.”

  I push her out into the hallway and wait for her to go back into their room, breathing deeply to compose myself before I do something foolish like follow her. She sends me a look filled with longing before she closes the door and separates us. When I close the door to my room, I throw myself down on the bed, rubbing a hand up my face and into my hair.

  I hear the front door slam shut and footsteps pounding up the stairs...Caleb! Fuck. That was close. If I hadn't pushed her to leave when I did, he would have caught us this time. He nearly did before, and that wasn't pretty. We were in the kitchen at the time, and he flew off the handle at our proximity. He’d gone out but came back almost instantly for something he needed, and flipped when he saw us sitting together at the table and talking.

  It kills me knowing she's still with him, but the balance between what's happening now and full-blown hell is teetering precariously toward the latter. I don’t know how long we can keep this up before Caleb catches us or figures it out. Fuck, knowing him he probably already has and is just waiting for the opportune moment to strike. We are so, damn, fucked.

  20

  Caleb

  They think they're pulling the wool over my eyes, but I'm not fucking stupid. I know something is going on between them. When I get home from running errands and find Mica's tight little cunt is wet with arousal, I know right then she isn't wet for me. It doesn't stop me enjoying her slick cunt while I fuck her into a mess of tears and my cum, forcing pleasure on her body for my own amusement.

  Mica has no fucking idea how much more vicious I can be, but Jace does. It’s the main reason he still hesitates from stopping me. Not that he could, but the little shit doesn’t even try.

  That’s what I whisper in Mica’s ear when I fuck her. When I hurt and use her sexy body. The words that make her sob so beautifully: ‘Keep on screaming, baby. I fucking love the sound of you begging me to stop. Just remember, Jace can hear your screams; he knows what I’m doing, and he isn’t coming in to stop me. He isn’t coming to save you from me. You’re fucking mine, and he knows that’s never going to change. Jace won’t ever go against me; he knows better than to try and fight me because I will win every single fucking time. He knows who has the control in this house, and it isn’t him. It’s about time you realized that. My house, my rules, and if either of you try to break them then you’ll pay the goddamned consequences.’

  I’ve been keeping my trips away from the house unpredictable, to keep them on edge and in fear that I’ll come back home and interrupt them. Their fear gives me the power, and I abuse every inch of the control I force them to relinquish.

  When I fucking catch them together, I will make them suffer for going behind my back. The moment I find them, I want Jace and Mica to see the look in my eyes, and for them to know what's about to happen. I won’t stop until there is nothing left but ruin.

  My lip curls in anger at the thought of Mica and Jace being intimate together, touching and fucking one another behind my back. I’m the only one permitted to give her pain and pleasure. Jace is getting more reckless, and he wants to save her from me. But I won’t allow him to. I will take her over and over until she breaks beneath the force of my will and possession and there is nothing left for Jace to salvage.

  I’ll go to any lengths necessary to keep them under my thumb but not together, I’m tempted to start locking her in my room when I’m away. I’m the master in this game of manipulation and control, and the players don’t get to dictate the rules.

  Stepping out of the shower, I dry myself off before wrapping the towel around my waist. I go back into the room and see Mica closing the bedroom door quietly behind her.

  “Mica,” I say in a low voice, and she jumps, turning to me with fearful eyes.

  Her hand flies to her chest, and I can hear her gasping breaths. I narrow my eyes as I take in her flushed cheeks and the nervous way she's biting her bottom lip.

  I approach her slowly, prowling toward her like a predator. She's my prey, and I fully intend to consume Mica Kiernan. She steps backward, but I follow until there is no space between us, and a wall is trapping her in place. She turns her face away, but I grasp her chin and force her to look at me.

  “Were you with him?” I growl.

  Her eyes won't meet mine, and that tells me all I need to know. I fist her hair, and a whimper falls from her lips, then grabbing her bottom lip with my teeth I bite it hard enough to draw blood. I shove my hand down her panties and find exactly what I expected...she's wet. My face twists and her expression is one of pure terror as I drop the towel.

  21

  Jace

  I hear muffled voices coming from their room while I'm lying on the bed. Longing settles in my stomach as I think about how Mica's lips and body felt against mine a moment ago. I can still taste her in my mouth, and I let out a groan. My cock is hard as I free it from the confines of my pants. Gripping the shaft, I start to move my hand, thinking about how good Mica's lips would look wrapped around it.

  I can feel my release approaching, and when I hear Mica scream, “Jace!” I come, and I come hard.

  I barely have time to recover when I hear Mica scream again, only this scream isn’t like any I’ve heard before, it’s a full-blown screech, and I’m surprised it doesn’t rattle the damn windows. I get off the bed while yanking my pants up, and then I’m out of my bedroom door and bursting into their room without thinking about the consequences of doing so.

  “What the fuck!” I roar when I take in the scene before me.

  Caleb is stark fucking naked and has Mica pressed up against the wall with her hair in his hand as he takes her ass from behind. The look on her face will haunt me for the rest of my life. Tears are streaming down her pale cheeks, and she's whimpering in pain, her eyes are stricken and terrified: a blend of agony, fear, and shock swirl in their icy blue depths.

  My blood burns with a mixture of disgust and desire. I want to turn away, but I can't bring myself to break eye contact with Mica. Her eyes are begging me to save her, and Caleb's eyes, which suddenly flash to mine, are blackened pits leading straight to hell.

  He leans forward to speak to her, “See, he won’t fucking save you. He wants this too. He wants to be right where I am, buried deep in your ass and making it hurt.”

  Caleb emphasizes the last word with a forceful push of his hips, and I cringe when Mica squeals.

  “Beg him to save you...see if he does,” Caleb snarls, picking up speed until he's driving into Mica with such force that her body is being pressed hard against the wall.

  “Jace, please!” she cries out, and her pained pleading tugs at my heart, making it ache.

  I step forward, and Caleb glares at me, making me falter a little, but I keep going. I reach out to pull Caleb off her even though my hands are shaking with a combination of fear and anger. Before I can get close enough to grab him, he backhands me across the face, and I stagger backward. Mica's frightened eyes find mine again, tears trickling out of the corners onto her already damp cheeks.

  “You’re fucking weak, little brother. If you had the balls, then you’d really fucking try to stop me, but the sound of Mica’s sweet screams gets you off. You’re just too fucking pathetic to stop me and do it yourself.”

  Caleb thinks I'm as fucked up as he is, but it couldn't be further from the truth. There are things I want, which I'm not proud of, but I would never want any part of this. This, does nothing but disgust me, and I want to get him off her. Before I can get my bearings enough to try and save her again, Caleb drives into Mica one last time, holding her in p
osition as he finds his twisted release.

  22

  Mica

  I feel like my body is on fire and being ripped apart every time he pushes back into me with his cock. I've given up pleading with him...it just seems to make it worse. When he started playing with the arousal between my thighs and demanding to know if it was for Jace, I couldn't answer. I knew in my heart no matter what I said to him it wouldn't make any difference. I've come to realize the man I love isn't real. I've unknowingly fallen for a monster, not a man.

  When he entered my pussy, I didn't stop him, but then after pumping into me a few times he pulled out, spun me around, and pressed his cock against the entrance of my ass. I didn't believe he would do it. I turned to look at him, and my breath caught at the cruel look on his face. Without prepping me for his cock, he pinned me against the wall with his hand and penetrated me with a single punishing stroke. I couldn't hold back the screams.

  "He won’t come to save you," he growled in my ear when I began to sob.

  The pain, it was unlike anything I've ever felt, and when Jace's name left my lips on a screech after a particularly brutal drive of his hips, he paused. Then his fingers found my clit and started rubbing until I couldn't fucking breathe through the pain and the forced pleasure he was inflicting on me. Eventually Jace did come for me, but what took him so long? Why didn't he come for me sooner?

  I lie curled up on the floor where Caleb left me, having filled me with his cum and stormed out of the house. Broken, bruised and legs bleeding from where I dug my nails into the cuts in an attempt to divert the pain. Was Caleb really telling the truth about Jace? I don't want to believe it, but a small seed of doubt takes root in my mind. Hands touch me, and I flinch at the contact. "No more, Caleb. No more. Please," I beg weakly.

  "Shh," a voice that isn't Caleb whispers.

  Jace. I clutch at him as he gently lifts me and carries me into the bathroom in the main part of house, not the one Caleb and I share. I'm crying into his shoulder, and when he sits down on the edge of the bath he squeezes me to him, whispering soft words of comfort to me

  "Let me take care of you," he murmurs, leaning back to start the water running.

  I feel like I'm shattering into pieces, Caleb is destroying what little remains of my cracked and bleeding heart. Struggling to get air, shudders wrack my body, and my sobs become trapped in my throat. I'm suffocating.

  "Mica, look at me. You can breathe. I’m not going to let you drown," he says, breaking through the haze and darkness I was spiraling into.

  I look at him, brown eyes meeting my blue ones, and I let myself sink into their warm depths. All I can see is him; I focus on his deep breaths, trying to match mine to his while he rubs soothing circles on my back.

  His eyes never leave mine as he turns off the faucet and lowers me slowly into the bath. As the water hits my damaged skin, my ass and legs throb and sting from the contact, causing me to hiss and clench my teeth. I’m not even completely naked; I'm still wearing the t-shirt I had on before when Caleb ripped the rest of my clothes away, baring my body and my soul with his hands.

  23

  Jace

  Jace

  I can barely contain the anger. All I want to do is to hunt down Caleb and beat the living shit out of him. Seeing Mica like this is a punch to the fucking gut, and it doesn’t matter how many truths or lies were in Caleb’s words, this right here is too fucking far. I can see clear as day she's barely holding on, and how much it's hurting her inside that he's doing this to her.

  If I wasn’t so worried about what could happen to her, I’d confront him again, but I know it won’t make a damn bit of difference to how he treats her; in fact, it would only make things worse. How can you reason with someone whose delusions rule every thought? How do you make someone like Caleb care about the hurt he's inflicting on Mica...on me?

  Snapping myself out of musing about pointless crap, I focus my attention on Mica who needs me to be calm. I remind myself I’m not the gravel Caleb has tried to beat me into...I’m a rock for her to hold onto in the wake of destruction he leaves behind. I’m not him, no matter how hard he has tried to mold me into his replica.

  I grab the washcloth and carefully bathe Mica, taking care not to be too rough with her and cause her any more discomfort. I can feel her eyes on me the whole time, but I don’t make any moves to take it further, knowing right now she needs comfort, not the raw desire burning through me I can barely temper down.

  “Take your top off,” I murmur to her unable to hide the huskiness in my voice.

  There’s nothing sexual about this, but something passes between us in the few seconds we maintain eye contact before she nods and obliges. The long sleeves of her shirt hide the bruises forming on her wrists from Caleb’s hands, but apart from the scars on her legs, the rest of her skin is unblemished and smooth.

  My eyes have a mind of their own as they wander up her beautiful form, and my hands trail over the soft skin as I wash the rest of her body. Caleb might not have defiled this part of her today, but I want to do this for her. I need her to see I won’t harm her. I’d never hurt her unless she asked, and I'd never abuse that permission as Caleb has. I have no doubt she asked him to do it in the beginning, but this is beyond any consent she may have given him.

  We don't speak, falling into a comfortable silence, which wraps around us like an embrace. The small space is untainted by his presence. It’s just us, and a moment of calm fills the room. When I'm done, Mica's demeanor is more relaxed and seemingly more at ease. I lift her from the bath, not caring she's making my clothes wet. Right now it's all about her.

  Mica watches me silently, her gaze soft but unwavering. I wonder when she was last taken care of like this? When she last felt any semblance of peace? I wrap a fresh towel around her and pull her back into my arms, pressing a soft kiss into her hair. I don't want us to leave our small haven in this house of horror, but if we don't, Caleb will hunt us down, and we’ll never have this again. He will drag us farther into his hell until we succumb entirely to his control, and hope becomes a meaningless concept.

  I still remember the moment my world got smaller, when Caleb took over everything in my life, becoming the center of it. The exact instant, nearly six years ago, when I realized I was never going to be able to escape my brother’s influence.

  “Get out!” I hear Caleb snarl.

  I hurtle down the stairs in time to see Mom flinch at his words, and behind her I see a bag, full of her things. She looks sad as though she's going to cry when he says it. Lately, it seems Caleb is always angry at everything, spending hours locked in his room and doing fuck knows what. If he isn't in his bedroom, he's out, and I'm left alone until he comes home. Mom is almost never here anymore, and when she is then her and Caleb are arguing.

  “Caleb, honey, why are you doing this?” she pleads.

  “You’re never here anyway. Jace and I will be better off without you,” he snaps.

  She catches sight of me at the bottom of the stairs. “Jace, I’m leaving. Come with me.”

  I run toward her, but Caleb puts an arm out, blocking my path. I glare at him, and he looks at me with an expression on his face, which makes me pause and take a step back.

  He focuses back on Mom again. “If you ever try to take my little brother from me, you’ll be fucking sorry.”

  "Caleb, I want to go with her," I say, and he pushes me back so hard I fall, landing on the hallway floor.

  “Jace, you aren’t going anywhere with her. Don’t make me hurt you,” Caleb threatens, gritting his teeth as he looks at me from over his shoulder. Then turning back to our mom he says in a low, angry voice,

  “Don’t come back, Mom. If you do, I'll fucking kill you. Jace is my little brother, and if you interfere with us, then you’ll be sorry. I fucking promise that if you return, you'll never walk back out of that door alive."

  I've never seen Caleb like this before, and it scares the shit out of me. I’ve seen him angry, but this is more than
anger. I'm scared to do anything, to even move right now. I don't want Mom to go, but if he kills her, I'll never see her again either. I don't understand why he's doing this. I know she isn't here much, yet, she's still our mom.

  “Caleb,” she starts, but he slams the door in her face before locking it and sliding the bolt home.

  He storms past me up the stairs, and I hear his bedroom door bang shut so hard the windows rattle. I stare at the front door, listening to the sound of Mom sobbing on the other side before slowly getting to my feet. I glance up the stairs, ensuring he isn't there and make my way to the front door. Undoing the bolt with shaky hands, I’m just about to turn the key when Caleb's voice behind me, causes me to stop.

  “What the fuck are you doing, Jace?” he asks, and his voice is rough and harsh.

  “Opening the door, I want to see Mom,” I say, sounding braver than I feel.

  “NO,” Caleb responds, and the word is a sharp command. I drop my hand defeated.

  “She wanted to take you away from me. I’m not about to let that happen. No one will ever come between us. I’d kill them before I’d ever let anyone take you from me. You’re my little brother, you’re mine,” Caleb says, his voice moving closer as he approaches me.

  I hesitate but lift my hand once more to the bolt. I feel Caleb's hand on my shoulder closely followed by a blinding pain in my head.

  When I wake up, it's dark, and my head is throbbing. Lifting a hand up to where it hurts, I feel stickiness from a small cut and as I put pressure on it, I wince in pain. Looking around, the hallway is empty, and I'm alone. Mom is gone, and she's never coming back. I wrap my arms around my legs and feel a few tears escape. It's just Caleb and me now, and if he gets his way that's how it's always going to be.