Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 93412 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 467(@200wpm)___ 374(@250wpm)___ 311(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93412 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 467(@200wpm)___ 374(@250wpm)___ 311(@300wpm)
Gabriel’s lips twisted. “I don’t know—I mean, Mrs. Knight gave me a book about it a few years ago, and we had a talk, but the man in this movie was violent, and he put it in her… in the wrong place. Let’s not talk about it.” He got up, turning away from the light.
Sympathy flooded Abaddon’s heart, and he picked up the blanket Gabriel had dropped earlier. He draped it over the boy’s shoulders and crooked his head, looking for the dark eyes. “Some people like it like that. But the mechanics… well, it’s similar.”
Gabriel turned to him, tugging the blanket around himself. “Who likes it like that?” He raised his voice, and it needed to lower as fast as possible if they were to stay hidden. It was time to take him upstairs.
“Some people… they must if recordings like this one sell,” Abaddon muttered, increasingly uncomfortable. He put his arm around Gabriel and led him to the entrance to his hideout.
“Maybe they like to watch, but not do it,” Gabriel whined, but melted into Abaddon as tightly as he could while they walked.
Abaddon’s heart sank. He knew what Gabriel had been through, and while a part of him had hoped the boy wouldn’t remember some of his torture, the violent reaction to a scene of rough anal sex suggested otherwise.
“N-no. Some people just like it.” There was no point in selling him lies if he was to go out into the world once the Keys were no more. Even if he ended up not wanting penetration, he needed an awareness that it might be proposed to him. But it was hard to discuss such things with a young man who seemed fragile like a house of cards about to collapse.
“Well, some people are pigs, and bastards, and fucking… awful, okay?” Gabriel choked out.
Abaddon pulled him close and buried his face in the damp hair that somehow still smelled like vanilla cookies. “I know. I know everything, Gabriel. They won’t hurt you anymore,” he uttered in the near-complete darkness.
Martinez would pay for the pain he’d caused.
Gabriel was quick to reciprocate the hug, grabbing at Abaddon’s T-shirt with shaky fingers. “For all these years, he was coming over and talking to me like it never happened. Like he hadn’t held me down even though I was crying for him to stop. He’s even been making uncomfortable comments to me. Asking me nasty questions when I was growing up. I don’t know which one of them I hate most, because they all watched it happen and did nothing.”
Anger was hot in Abaddon’s heart, but it wasn’t the time yet. He would make every single one of Gabriel’s tormentors pay for their sins, but if that was to happen, caution was necessary. So he didn’t rush to the nearest exit from the tunnel to end Father John’s life, and instead pulled the boy closer. “I will make him cry in agony.”
Gabriel’s gaze was full of fire. “I want to be there. I want to see him beg for mercy and be denied.”
In movies, sweet boys like Gabriel never had a thirst for blood, but it was natural to want to watch one’s tormentors suffer. See that the world was just after all.
Abaddon had been sent here to make it so.
“Yes. And he will know that the gates of heaven will be forever locked to him.”
Gabriel was all shivery when he got to his toes and kissed Abaddon on the lips. “You understand me. I don’t even have to tell you what he did because you know.” His fingers slid up Abaddon’s forearms in a languid caress. “A part of me is ashamed that you do, but I’m glad I don’t have to tell you.”
His touch was like a spark, and Abaddon swallowed, confused by this sudden change of mood. Gabriel’s experiences had been so traumatic it might have destroyed a weaker person, but he was not only still here, but also unafraid of the energy buzzing between the two of them in this darkness. “I understand,” he whispered and rubbed Gabriel’s chin with his thumb.
“You make me feel like anything is possible. Like I could actually have a life.” The sweet lips moved down to Abaddon’s jaw. “Stubble,” he said with a chuckle. The touch of his fingers was tender like the first drops of summer rain.
“Yeah… the Earth birthed me without a razor,” Abaddon quipped and, after a moment’s hesitation, pushed his fingers into Gabriel’s hair. “Do you like it?” He definitely enjoyed how Gabriel’s small, warm body felt alongside his.
“Yes,” Gabriel gasped without hesitation as his lips tickled the sensitive skin of Abaddon’s neck. “Let me know if I’m too much, I can’t get enough of you. It’s as if God formed your earthly body with me in mind.”
Relief made Abaddon’s knees weaken, and he pulled the boy’s face closer to his neck, moaning at the touch of his soft mouth. “He might have. I want to give you all the pleasure you need. Be your teacher in all this.”