never been said. It wasn’t me talking. But this is me talking now.” I run my fingers up over his face, brushing a strand of dark hair off his forehead. “I need a favor from you.”
His jaw tightens, his eyes growing in intensity. “Anything. I’ll do anything for you.”
“I need you to possess me. So that nothing else can.”
His brows come together. “Possess you? Don’t I already possess you?”
“I don’t mean in the fact that you’re mine and I’m yours,” I say, my hand falling away. I move past him to the knife rack. “I mean in the most literal way.”
I pull the smallest knife out, which also happens to be the sharpest.
Turn around to face him, holding it up in front of my chest.
His eyes go to the knife to my eyes, and back again. “Baby, what are you doing?”
“You have to trust me.”
“I’ll trust you if you tell me what you’re doing.”
I put the knife on the counter and then fish out a bottle of disinfectant from the medicine drawer. I pour some of it on a clean towel and rub it over the knife.
Dex watches my every move. “Perry? That thing I said earlier about how you’re scaring me? Well, that still stands.”
I look over at the bedroom. It would be too messy in there. Then I look down on the kitchen floor. Then the island. It would be uncomfortable, but it would be easy to clean up the blood. And more than that, it holds importance. That counter was where Dex and I first had sex.
I remember it like it was yesterday.
How he felt.
How we felt like together.
I remember a shimmer enveloping the entire apartment, bending and warping, and not really knowing what it meant at the time. Now I do.
That was our energy finally coming together. A hint of what it can do, of what we can do as one.
Now we’re going to test it like it’s never been tested before.
Four years later.
To…wait a minute.
To this very day?
My mind flips back, seeing the dates line up, the night of the Shownet company Christmas party.
Holy shit.
There are no such things as coincidences.
“Perry?” Dex prompts me.
I look at him.
“Why did you just disinfect a knife?”
“Take off your clothes,” I tell him.
He balks. “What?! No.”
“Fine,” I tell him.
I take off my sweater and my shirt underneath, throwing them to the floor, then I pull off my leggings and socks, until I’m just in my bra and underwear.
I pick up the knife and hold it out for him.
“Take this,” I tell him.
He blinks, and I know he’s trying to make sense of this, scared that I’m going to make him hurt me. And he will, but only a little.
“Take it,” I repeat.
He takes it from me by the handle, his fingers wrapping around mine, not letting my hand go.
“Tell me what we’re doing.”
“I need you to possess me.”
“Tell me what we’re doing.”
“We need to create a blood bond. A blood pact. A way to tie ourselves to one another, a thread that can’t be broken no matter what. In that blood bond, while having sex…” I close my eyes, trying to find the words. “I invite you in. You possess me. And once you possess me, no one else can. Not Samantha, not anyone. This is the plan. This is the only chance we have, as crazy and fucked up as this all sounds. This is what we have to do.”
I open my eyes and look at him. He’s breathing hard, a war raging in his eyes, still holding onto my hand and the knife. “A…like blood play? Like we cut each other up?” He’s vaguely horrified.
“Yes. You know how when kids were young they’d slice open their palms and shake hands? A blood bond.”
“Fucked up kids!”
“Don’t kink shame.”
He almost laughs. “Kink shame? Baby, I am all for whatever the hell you want to do in the bedroom, but come on, give me a minute here before I start slicing you up with a knife, okay?”
“I know this sounds nuts,” I tell him, pulling my hand away from the knife and cupping both sides of his face. “But I believe in it. This makes sense for us. Think about it.”
“You’re asking me to actually literally possess you? This is witchcraft.”
“That’s exactly right. It is witchcraft.”
“You’re not a witch.” He narrows his eyes. “Are you?”
I shake my head. “It doesn’t matter though. Anyone can be with the right energy.”
“And if it doesn’t work?”
“Then Samantha wins,” I say, trying to ignore