Pretty Things Bleed Too

Bruises Under Sleves

I couldn’t stop thinking about the kiss on my head. Not even when Luca was yelling at me during breakfast. Not even when Dad threw his empty beer can at me for spilling a little juice. The spot where Damian’s lips touched my hair still felt warm, like a secret brand only I could feel. I kept touching it in class, smiling to myself like an i***t. A stupid, hopeless i***t.

But pretty boys like me don’t get to stay happy for long.

It was during gym class — the worst class ever because we had to wear short sleeves and I couldn’t hide anything. I tried to stay in the back, arms wrapped around myself, but the teacher made us do partner stretches. Of course I got paired with nobody because who would want to touch the freak? So I just sat on the mat pretending to stretch.

That’s when Damian showed up.

He wasn’t even in this class. He had some special senior permission or whatever, but suddenly there he was, leaning against the wall in his black gym shirt, watching me. My heart did that crazy flutter thing again. I looked down fast, cheeks burning. But I could still feel his eyes on me. Burning. Protecting. Possessing.

After class, while everyone was rushing to the locker rooms, he caught up to me in the empty hallway. His hand wrapped around my wrist gently — too gently — and pulled me into a quiet corner behind the bleachers.

“Kai,” he said. His voice was low. Serious. The kind of voice that made my knees feel weak.

I looked up at him. God, he was so tall. So scary beautiful. “H-hi…”

He didn’t say anything at first. His fingers were still around my wrist. Then his thumb moved slowly, brushing over the skin there. I froze. The fresh bruises from Luca this morning were right there — ugly purple fingerprints where he’d grabbed me too hard when I tried to leave for school.

Damian’s whole body went still. Like a predator who just smelled blood.

“What the f**k is this?” he growled. His eyes went from soft to terrifying in half a second. He pushed my sleeve up higher, revealing more marks. Old ones fading into new ones. Blue. Purple. Yellow. A whole rainbow of pain I’d been hiding for years.

I yanked my arm back fast, pulling the sleeve down. “It’s nothing,” I lied. My voice came out all shaky and small. “I fell. At home. It’s stupid, really. I’m clumsy.”

Damian stepped closer. His jaw was so tight I thought it might break. “Don’t lie to me, Kai.” He cupped my face with one big hand, forcing me to look at him. His thumb wiped under my eye even though I wasn’t crying yet. “Who did this to you?”

My heart was pounding so hard I felt dizzy. I wanted to tell him everything. About Luca’s punches. Dad’s words that cut deeper than any slap. How they called me disgusting and worthless every single day. But if I told him… what if he got hurt? What if his family got involved and everything got worse? What if he finally realized how broken I was and left?

“Nobody,” I whispered. Tears were starting now. I hated how easily I cried. “Please, Damian. Just… forget it. I’m fine. I’ve always been fine.”

He didn’t believe me. I could see it in his eyes. Those dark, intense eyes that looked like they wanted to burn the whole world down if it meant keeping me safe. He pulled me into his chest suddenly, wrapping his arms around me. I stiffened at first — nobody ever hugged me like this. Not gently. Not like I mattered.

But then I melted. I buried my face in his shirt and breathed in his scent — dark cologne, danger, and something warm that was just him. My hands fisted in his shirt as I tried not to sob.

“You’re not fine,” he murmured against my hair. “And I’m not gonna let this keep happening.”

We stayed like that for what felt like forever. His hand rubbed slow circles on my back. Every time I shivered, he held me tighter. It was the safest I’d ever felt. But safety with Damian felt like standing on the edge of a cliff — beautiful, but one wrong move and I’d fall forever.

When he finally pulled back, his face was scary calm. The dangerous kind of calm. “I’m sending someone to check on your family tonight.”

My eyes widened in panic. “What? No! Damian, please don’t—”

“Too late.” He brushed my hair back gently, but his eyes were steel. “Nobody touches what’s mine.”

Mine.

The word made my stomach flip and my chest hurt at the same time. I wanted to be his. So badly. But I was also terrified of what that meant. What if his “someone” found out how bad things were? What if Luca got angry and made it worse?

The rest of the day, Damian was extra protective. He sat with me at lunch again, pushing another strawberry milk toward me. He walked me to every class. People didn’t even whisper anymore — they were too scared. The Devil had officially claimed his pretty little doll.

After school, he walked me home again, but this time he stopped farther away. He looked at my house in the distance like it was his enemy.

“Text me if anything happens,” he said, slipping a piece of paper into my hand with his number. “I mean it, Kai. Anything.”

I nodded, clutching the paper like it was gold. “Thank you… for caring.”

He leaned down and kissed my forehead again. Longer this time. His lips stayed there for a few seconds, warm and soft. “Get inside, pretty boy.”

I walked home with my heart full of butterflies and fear. Luca was already home, pacing like a caged animal. The second I closed the door, he was on me.

“Where the f**k were you?” he snarled, grabbing my wrist — right on the fresh bruises. I whimpered in pain. “With that Valenti guy again? You think you’re special now? Huh?”

He slammed me against the wall. Hard. My head hit with a thud and stars exploded behind my eyes. Dad watched from the couch, laughing like it was a TV show.

“You’re disgusting,” Dad slurred. “Parading around with some rich boy like a little whore.”

Luca’s face was too close. His eyes were wild. Angry… but also something else. Something dark and hungry that made my skin crawl. “You belong to us. Not him. Never him.”

He squeezed my wrist harder. I cried out. Tears streamed down my face as I tried to push him away, but he was too strong. He finally let go and shoved me toward my room. “Go cry like the little b***h you are.”

I locked my door and slid down to the floor, hugging my knees. The bruises on my wrist throbbed. Everything hurt. But in the middle of the pain, I remembered Damian’s arms around me. His voice saying “nobody touches what’s mine.”

I crawled to my desk and opened my laptop. Logged into VelvetGhost with shaky fingers.

I drew something new. A boy with bruises turning into black roses on his skin. A tall shadow figure standing behind him, protective hands covering the worst of the wounds. Strawberry milk spilled like blood on the ground.

Caption:

“he saw the bruises today.

called me his.

i’ve never been anyone’s before.

it feels like flying and falling at the same time.

pretty things bleed too… but maybe this devil will kiss the wounds better.”

I posted it and closed the laptop. Then I cried myself to sleep, holding the piece of paper with Damian’s number like a lifeline.

---

Meanwhile, across town in a huge mansion that looked like it belonged in a movie, Damian Valenti was on the phone.

“Investigate the Reyes family,” he said coldly to whoever was on the other line. “The adoptive brother and father especially. I want everything. Photos. Records. How bad it is. Tonight.”

He hung up and stared at his phone wallpaper — a secret photo he’d taken of me when I wasn’t looking. Me smiling shyly while drinking strawberry milk.

His jaw clenched.

“Kai…” he whispered to the empty room. “I’m going to burn them for touching you.”

He didn’t know how deep the darkness went. He didn’t know about the mafia blood already running in my veins. He didn’t know that saving me was going to drag both of us into a war we might not survive.

But in that moment, all Damian Valenti knew was that the soft, pretty boy with glossy lips and sad eyes had become his whole world.

And he would destroy anyone who tried to break him again.

Even if it meant becoming the monster everyone already thought he was.

---

I woke up in the middle of the night to my phone buzzing. Unknown number.

But I knew who it was.

**Damian:** You okay?

I smiled through my tears and typed back with bruised fingers.

**Me:** Yeah. Thank you for today.

**Damian:** Good. Sleep, pretty boy. I’ve got you now.

I fell asleep with my phone clutched to my chest, heart full of dangerous hope.

Little did I know… someone had already started digging into my past.

And the truth they would find was going to destroy everything.