Chapter 16: Were you gonna rehab him too?
Then she went limp—eyes fluttering shut, body slack. Dreck paused, crowbar hovering, grin spreading. "Down already?" His laugh rumbled, bending closer—fatal slip. Her eyes flared open, amber burning, and her teeth sank into his wrist—vicious, deep, blood welling as she tore free, spitting red. Dreck screamed, arm flailing, and she lunged—tackling him down, pinning his shoulders with her knees, scarred hands clawing his throat.
Kael hauled up, blood dripping, and struck—fist crashing Dreck's cheek, Resonance igniting, pain searing through the thug's skull like a blade. Dreck howled, thrashing, but Rhea held—knees grinding his arms, t-shirt stained with sweat and blood, her grip iron. Kael punched again—jaw, ribs, chest—each hit a pulse of agony, Resonance twisting nerves, Dreck's bellows breaking into whimpers.
Blood smeared the tiles, slick and dark, and Rhea's hands shifted—fast, feral—grabbing his head, twisting hard.
CRACK
A bone crunching sound rang out, crisp and final, his neck breaking under her scarred fingers.
Silence slammed down, heavy and thick, broken only by their gasps—ragged, wet, filling the wrecked kitchen. Dreck's body slumped, eyes blank, crowbar limp beside him, blood pooling slow around his head. Kael sank back, chest heaving, blood crusting his knuckles, nose throbbing, shoulder a dull roar. Rhea knelt there, crimson hair plastered to her face, t-shirt clinging damp, black panties stark against her trembling legs—dust and blood streaking her skin. Her amber eyes burned, wide and fierce, flicking from therpse to Kael, breath shuddering out in bursts.
The kitchen lay in carnageunter dented, stove crumpled, tiles cracked and red-smeared, glass glinting like scattered stars. Kael's pulse hammered, adrenaline bleeding out, leaving a hollow ache, and Rhea's hands shook—scarred, slick with Dreck's blood—as she wiped them on the t-shirt, crimson blooming across white. They stared, the weight crashing in—death's stink, their hands' work, a line crossed in the chaos.
Her voice sliced through, low and rough, laced with a jagged edge. "Were you gonna rehab him too?" She didn't look up—eyes locked on the body, chest still heaving, defiance masking the tremor beneath.
Kael exhaled, a harsh rasp, swiping blood from his nose with a wince.
"Hadn't decided," he muttered, voice raw, hazel eyes glinting with a dark, bruised humor. He met her gaze, steady through the pain, and the air thickened—death a bridge between them, their bond forged in its heat, unspoken but unbreakable.
Blood hung thick in the air, a metallic tang thatated Kael's tongue with every breath. It pooled slow around Dreck'srpse, dark and glossy, seeping into the cracked tiles where his body sprawled—head lolled at a sick angle, neck twisted sharp, dead eyes gaping at the ceiling like he'd caught a glimpse of hell on the way down.