“We’re not going anywhere near him anyway,” Elliot said, but he must have been a bit too loud, because Laurent pushed away his hair and looked back with a frown as he started to pee.
“What in all hells, Elliot? Are you following me? What next? Will you bring me apples?”
Elliot sneered at how pretty Laurent was. His only flaw was that he was short, but that hardly mattered when he had skin like porcelain and the hair of a prince. But before he could answer, William’s invisible hand squeezed inside his chest, and it felt as if he were physically holding Elliot’s heart between his cold fingers.
“It’s you!” William’s voice spat through Elliot’s mouth so abruptly he couldn’t fight it. “You should be burning in hell, you murderous cunt!”
Elliot struggled for breath, oblivious to any other activity within his body until his hand, pushed by William’s will, squeezed on the neck of an empty bottle. The glass smashed against the wall, and the impact left a sharp crown in Elliot’s hand. His mind struggled to even force words through his own mouth as panic weaved itself into every fibre in his muscles.
“Don’t!” he yelled, struggling against the hold William had on his body. “Let go!”
Laurent’s eyes went wide and he stumbled back drunkenly, trying to tuck his dick back into his pants. “Put that down!”
William laughed, and the same dark grimace pulled on Elliot’s unwilling face as the man inside Elliot pushed him forward. “You made a pact with him too, haven’t you? You’ve managed to evade justice. But you haven’t run far enough,” William hissed and dashed at Laurent with Elliot’s hand raised to deliver a powerful blow.
Laurent’s scream echoed against the white tiles, and in his effort to run from danger, he tripped over a piece of brick on the floor and dropped to his knees.
Elliot wanted to stop this.
Needed to stop this.
He never imagined he’d have to struggle against William. Wasn’t Elliot the host and William just a guest in his body? Laurent had never been nice to Elliot, and Elliot had imagined many gruesome deaths for him, but now that one of them was just a slash of glass away, he didn’t want it to happen. He didn’t want blood on his hands.
William spun Elliot around, growling like a madman and desperate to deliver the fatal blow, but someone else burst in. Quick and agile like a cheetah, Gray pounced on Elliot, grabbing his waist and slamming him down to the floor. William writhed and swore, managing to stab the bottle into Gray’s arm, but a solid punch that left Elliot’s head ringing made even William drop the makeshift weapon.
With his cheek rubbing against the grimy floor, Elliot opened his eyes wider, staring straight at Laurent, who sat on the floor by the nearest wall and frantically buttoned his jeans. His usually elegant hair was now plastered to damp skin, and dark eyes stared at Elliot as if he’d seen a ghost.
Another blow knocked Elliot’s head against the hard tiles, but then he was hauled back to his feet, facing the mirrors with Gray twisting back his arms.
“Are you fine?” Gray asked Laurent, whose chest worked up and down so rapidly as if he were about to suffer a heart attack.
Laurent gave a brief nod but seemed to still be in shock and unable to voice his answer. William stood right next to him, repeatedly pushing his phantom hand against Laurent’s head but unable to do any damage without the aid of Elliot’s body.
“You useless cunt. You had glass, and he’s intoxicated, yet there’s not enough strength or speed in you to make the tiniest of cuts!”
“I didn’t want to hurt him!” Elliot whined. He didn’t understand what was happening. His head felt bruised from the inside, and William’s words echoed in it again and again. And why had William said something about a pact to Laurent? He must have been confused. Elliot glanced at Laurent with a heart filled with guilt. The guy could be an asshole, but he didn’t deserve to be assaulted this way.
Laurent pulled himself up, studying Elliot as if he were seeing him for the first time, but before he could speak, the door burst open, and Beast rushed in alongside Knight. He ran past Elliot and pulled Laurent into his arms.
“I heard you scream. What—” he uttered, only taking his time to look around once he made sure his lover was fine. His gaze eventually reached the broken glass, and then everyone’s eyes were on Elliot, who wanted to just curl up and cry in a dark corner somewhere.
Knight exhaled, stepping closer. “Shit.”
Gray pulled on Elliot’s arms even harder. “He attacked Laurent. I followed them and saw it happen.”
“I didn’t mean to!” Elliot couldn’t bear looking into anyone’s eyes, but when his gaze swept over the floor, he noticed drops of blood on the white tiles.