13. Chapter Thirteen
Chapter thirteen
I made my way to the church. My head was throbbing in tune with my heartbeat as Demarco gave me a look when he opened the door to the chapel.
“Do you often let your hunts get the best of you, boy?” he scolded. “Why is that woman not bound and prepped for the ritual?”
I ignored him, accepting the cloth in his hand and downing some medication for my head.
“Where is she?” I said, removing the mask and blinking to try to see properly. My vision danced. She clocked me a fucking good one. I was still seeing stars in my view.
“She waits upstairs for you,” he said. I looked at the sawed-off rifle in his grip and laughed.
“I’m guessing she didn’t do that willingly.”
His lips hardened in a fine line as an answer. I laughed again and saluted the dumbass, making my way upstairs. Before I opened the door, I slid the mask back on.
The man she knew was gone. She would learn what this symbol represented. Vivian was in the attic, sitting in the corner, crying.
“Oh, c’mon, you can’t have lost your fight that easily.”
She ignored me, unwilling to put her head up. She must have put two and two together.
“You know now, don’t you? You can’t escape your fate any more than I was able to.”
Vivian looked up and pointed an accusatory finger at me. Her words brought me back to a time so long ago.
“You are the one who is supposed to choose your fate! Not them!”
I blinked, stunned, my hand reaching my heart. Those words…
“You are the one who is supposed to choose your fate! Not them!”
My sister had followed me out to these woods. She was seething, staring at me, huffing and angry. The woman was just a few paces ahead, but I stopped to face her.
“Libby, I can’t fight this! Don’t you understand? It’s them or myself. If I don’t follow the orders of the Elders, they will come after me, or worse, you and Hayes.”
Liberty walked up to me, her tears nearly frozen on her freckled cheeks. “Then let them Maddox. Don’t do this. Please. You have to choose yourself. You can’t let them control you like some kind of puppet. We can find them—you, me, and Hayes. We can run away and be free of the Divine and St. Valentine's for good! You only need to make that choice. Please.”
I shook my head. She always did this. For so many years, she acted like I had a fucking decision in my life. I gripped my gun in anger, looking through the scope, trying to find the girl who continued to run.
“It’s too late for me, Libby. You run if you want to. This woman saw my face. I have chased her through the woods for hours. I have to end it. If I don’t…”
Libby shook her head. “No, Maddox! You do not have to kill her. We can get her passage out of here. We can pay her to keep quiet. This isn’t set in stone.”
I was becoming angrier, my grip on my gun near the point of cracking my fingers.
“I don’t have a fucking choice!” I roared, slamming my gun down, and shots rang off into the night. A bullet hit a tree in the distance.
“Fucking hell, Libby, you’re making me lose my mind!”
My sister’s face was a blank slate, her eyes wide. I stared at her, unable to understand why she looked so pale. Her white jacket began to pool with blood, and she placed her hands over her stomach.
My eyes widened, and I realized the gun…one of the stray bullets had hit her.
“Noooo!” I ran to my sister and held her bleeding body in my arms.
“Liberty, what have you done?”
She forced a shaky laugh as blood seeped through her lips.
“I guess you’re right, Maddox…You can’t…escape your fate…as a Valentine.”
I let the tears fall, my body shaking as hers stilled. I shot my sister. She was dying, and it was my fucking fault.
“No!” I roared to the air around me. I could see the woman far away now. She was nearing the cliff. My sister faded in my arms. A haunting smile on her face as she took her last breath.
I was a killer…
I knew for so many years that I would be a murderer. But I never dreamed it would take the life of those who mattered most to me.
“Libby…I am so sorry.”
I laid her down in the snow, wiping my tears and grabbing my gun. I had to catch that fucking woman. I couldn’t ruin this. Libby’s death would be for nothing if I failed.
I ran toward the cliff. The woman was breathing heavily, her back against the cold air with me in front of her.
She whimpered, backing up as far as she could.
“Stop,” I said, my entire torso and arms covered in blood. “I am sorry it has to be this way. I really am, Abigail.”
“What the fuck is wrong with you, Maddox!” She screamed at me.
“It’s not my choice. I have to do this. For the Elders. For my sister. For the Divine...I am truly sorry.”
She shook her head, sniffling and looking behind her at the windy cliff’s edge.
“If I’m meant to die…” she said, with dead defeated eyes. “Then it will be on my own terms!”
Before I could even respond, she turned her body and jumped off the cliff. I ran, but it was too late. She was gone, disappeared into the oblivion of the mist and darkness below.
“Fuck!” I fell to my knees beside the rocks.
“All of this was for nothing? My sister died in vain!” I screamed to the sky. My target was gone. The woman who resembled my sister was gone…
Wait.
The woman looked like Liberty.
I felt sick, staring at a pile of large rocks beside the craig. My hands shook, holding my midsection and jerking forward to vomit into the abyss. I cried out angrily, snatching one of the larger rocks from the ground and heading back to Liberty’s body.
“No!” I screamed, disgusted at myself and what I had become.
Libby looked so much like the woman who jumped…there were just a few features that were different. I couldn’t let her death be in vain. Two souls were taken tonight by that fucking man. St. Valentine.
I cried, audibly letting out my anger and grief as I smashed the rock down onto the face of my dead sister. I contorted her flesh until she was unrecognizable.
“Fuck you, St. Valentine! Is this what you want of your precious Divine? Broken, mindless soldiers existing only to kill those you deem fit?”
I couldn’t look at Liberty’s face. My cell phone chimed, and I scrolled my blood-covered fingers to see it was my father. He demanded my presence at the ritual. The Divine order called to me. It was time to present them with my chosen sacrifice.
“My blood is your blood,” I cried, agonizing at my own hand. “You have my back…and I have yours.”
Throwing her dead mangled corpse over my shoulder and placing the mask over my face, something clicked inside me. You couldn’t escape your fate, could you? You could only accept it or lose more of what you loved.
“I am Maddox Nathanael Valentine…” I said weakly, walking toward the tombs beneath the university with my sister in tow.
“I belong to the Divine…” I continued the mantra, arriving in a blur at the arena where everyone waited in black cloaks. The elders stood at the front, their crests adorning their heads with skulls, masking their features.
I threw Liberty onto the slab, stripping her clothes from her body, picking up the dagger, and stabbing it into her heart. I stared at her broken body one last time, a sob escaping my throat as I roughly dragged the weapon down.
Her blood spilled, following the channels of the stone, draining down to meet in the center pool of the ceramic bowl.
Barely able to see through my tears, I fell to my knees before the altar.
Covered in my sister’s blood, I looked through the crowd at my brother. Our father held his shoulder, and I wondered if he would be able to tell who this was.
I wiped my face, reaching an unsteady hand to rest on Liberty’s. These words would brand my soul eternally, awakening the spirit of my powerful ancestor.
“And you Chosen One…feel the power within the Divine…”
I choked back a sob and forced myself to continue. To utter the words I had dreaded my entire life.
“You are…my bloody…valentine.”
“Have you always been such a monster that can’t make his own decisions?”
I blinked, coming back to the present. The answer to her question was no… I hadn’t. But all that changed the night I found out firsthand what happened when I denied my fate. There was still death. Still pain. It wasn’t a matter of choice but whose pain and suffering it would be.
“We can’t escape the fate we are given. When will you realize that?” I sat opposite?her, watching as her tears fell down her pale cheeks.
The door opened, and the priest brought in the crucifix and binding rope. Vivian turned her back to me, crying harder. I sighed and stood up.
“I can make this painful or pleasurable, Little Virgin. But either way, this will happen.”
The fact that I offered a kind option showed the cracks in my foundation. She earned it with her wit. She didn’t need to be in pain for the time left before the ritual. She could enjoy this last night together.
I never cared about my sacrifices, never got to know them or who they were. I didn’t want to…their life was only created to serve the purpose of the Divine…
Why did it have to be Vivian?
“Fuck you,” she said, and I smiled.
I would actually miss her when she was gone. She brought a game that I would likely never have again. I mourned that as much as I would grieve her.
I gripped her hands and began wrapping the silk around her wrists. The loops on the cross allowed the silk to be linked to the metal. She watched me, angry tears streaming down her face as I adjusted her on the rod tree and followed the path of the silk with the rope.
Her feet were bound to the bottom. I preserved her skin as best I could by using the silk straps before using the rope. Partly for the ritual and partly for me. I wanted her whole.
When I finished, I lifted her head up to look at me. “You are beautiful,” I said.
She truly was exquisite. Her black dress flowed down past her feet, resting at the base of the cross. Her arms were raised above her head, hooked with the metal loop to anchor to the top.
“I hate you,” she said sadly before yanking her chin out of my grip and letting her head hang again.
“I expected more fight from you, Vivian." I challenged, spinning her around on the mechanism to be upside down. Her pouty lips were right where my cock was, and I vibrated at the anticipation of her mouth on me.
“Why bother? My fate is set in stone, remember?” she seethed and turned her face away from me. Her hair fell like a dark waterfall, and I watched it in awe.
“I want to enjoy your last night. I don’t need you sulking,” I said, unzipping my pants and letting them fall down my legs. My cock was right in her face, bobbing before her and lightly touching her cheek. She gasped, looking up at me.
“Don’t you fucking dare? I will bite it off.”
I let my dagger from my pocket slam into the area directly next to her face, reveling at her little squeak. Leaning down, I moved her falling hair with my hand, whispering in her ear, “I don’t recommend that, Little Virgin. Be a good girl and open wide.”
She growled at me, hesitantly opening her mouth. I thrust into her throat, enjoying how she gagged instantly on the head. I didn’t give her time to breathe. I kept thrusting my hips forward, pulling free just for her to inhale rapidly for a second before plunging back inside where I fucking belonged.
I could see the outline of my cock in her throat, and I fucked her harder.
“Oh fuck, Vivian. You take my cock like a fucking whore. It looks as though you can be a good girl after all.”
She moaned, and the vibration was enough to make my balls tighten. I yanked the knife out of the wood and gripped her dress, watching her tits fall out of the bodice as the blade sliced through the fabric like butter. I continued to pull at the seams until her pussy was visible in those silky panties.
The cross was elevated on the base and flipped upside down like this. She was in the perfect spot for my mouth. I stood up, leaning forward, and pushed up my mask.
She whimpered around my shaft as I began biting her clit through her panties. Her sound grew louder when I used my tongue and teeth to move the cloth out of my way.
She sucked my cock harder, her own pleasure causing mine to amp to the max. She tasted like honey, and I took long savoring licks of her cunt.
I wanted to memorize her pussy. Be able to envision this moment for years to come. If I couldn’t keep her, I could at least keep this mental image of her so wanton for me in my mind forever.
“I fucking hate you,” she said around my cock, and I fucked her throat harder, bringing my hands up to rip off her panties and slap her pussy.
“What is your fascination with fucking hitting me?” She growled.
I ignored her and instead slapped her soaked cunt again, harder this time. “Be a good girl if you don’t want to be punished. Wider, Little Virgin. Open wider and show me how well you can suck my thick cock.”
She choked again, and I pulled my dick out of her mouth long enough to grab her head and let my saliva drip down my tongue into her mouth. Her eyes widened, those pretty lips parting further.
I brought my hands back up to her delicious cunt, slipping a single finger into her tight little hole. Her body bucked off the board, and I pushed deeper fucking her soaking pussy while returning my dick to the warmth of her throat.
Her clit was begging for my tongue, and when I sucked it into my mouth, I didn’t want to leave. I kept toying with her, groaning when her sounds turned to panting.
“Hate…Oh fuck…hate…” She moaned, and I smiled, continuing my movements, going a little deeper every few thrusts, sucking a little harder.
She was close. She was shaking on the cross, and I was vibrating because of my own needs. I could feel my come begging to be released.
I slammed my fingers into her cunt harder, faster, using circles with my tongue just like she loved. Sure enough, she convulsed, her lips freezing on my cock as she came all over my chin, her orgasm dripping down to run over her face, leaving a shallow pool on the ground.
I pulled out of her throat long enough to watch her wide-eyed expression be absolutely painted in my come.
“Fuck, you are the best work of art I have ever created. I wish I could capture this moment on a canvas to keep it forever, but for time’s sake, this will do.”
Taking my phone out of my pants pocket, I snapped a photo. She was breathtakingly broken. Once I put the device back in my pocket, I spun her around to be right-side up. I watched her cheeks return to that ivory color while using some of the extra silk cloth to wipe her off from the mess.
“I don’t understand you,” she said quietly after a moment. “You can be so cruel, but there’s more to you. You have some light in you. You used to be a good person. I don’t know what changed you, but you weren’t always a monster. It was them, wasn’t it? The Divine. They made you into the monster you are.”
I thought about her words. She wasn’t wrong. The night I killed my sister, I ran. I didn’t want to be what the Divine forced me to be. I ran as far as I could, not turning back to accept what I had done. But just as fate always does…They caught me.
“Maybe,” I admitted as I finished cleaning her from the mess. “I suppose my humanity died along with the ones I love.”
Vivian forced me to look at her and wouldn’t take those blue eyes from mine. It was like staring into a reflection of myself. Broken, defeated, and yet still trying to find some way to survive. I sighed and leaned forward to place a soft kiss on her lips. She didn’t fight me. She tasted faintly of my come and salty from her tears.
“What do you know about love, Maddox,” she said accusingly. “You have taken so many loved ones from others. They didn’t get a choice. My mom would miss me if I were gone, you know. I am loved, and you know what?”
I waited for her to continue, not realizing why I felt such a need to hear her words.
“I think you would miss me too.”
Was my intrigue for her so obvious? That was dangerous. If the Divine knew…
“I don’t care about you, Little Virgin. I only care what you can do for me.”
The hurt flashed in her eyes, and I tried to ignore it, the look reminding me so damn much of that betrayal of Liberty’s. The haunting stare that demanded I fight my destiny.
“You’re lying,” she said softly. “You can lie to your little underlings all you want, but you can’t lie to me. You plan on sacrificing me anyway, right? What’s the harm in letting me in? Make me understand where all this cruelty comes from.”
I sighed and turned my back to her, not wanting to feel this vulnerability latch onto my insides. Being gutted like a fish is the only way I knew how to ‘open up’ to someone, but with my Little Virgin, I felt like, if nothing else, I owed her this.
“Very well,” I said, letting out the breath I didn’t realize I was holding. “I will skip my dead mother and abusive father controlling my upbringing and start with something more…impactful.”
She waited for me to continue.
“My first kill was my sister.” Saying that out loud after nineteen years felt strange. I hid this secret of my first sacrifice close to my heart, Hayes never knowing of my indiscretion. “It was an accident. I loved her. She wanted me to betray our family, to run away and never look back.”
“What happened?” Vivian asked, encouraging me to speak.
“I was stupid. I didn’t know how to use the weapons thrown into my hands, and I made a mistake. I hit the trigger when we were arguing, and the stray bullet struck her.”
My cheeks felt cold, and I saw water droplets after running my hand over them.
“I’m sorry,” Vivian said, bringing my attention back to her. I hated the fate of my sister. I hated that she chased me on that futile task to save my soul.
She knew that there was no soul to save. Our father sold it to the devil on my very first breath. Yet still, she tried. Her hope was a lot like Vivian’s—that glimmer of light in the vast black sea around them.
I scrubbed my face, angered at the memories plaguing my mind. “After her death, I ran.”
“So they caught you,” she said, putting two and two together. I laughed without humor, pulling my shirt over my head and baring my back for her eyes. She gasped out loud, and I knew she was frightened and disgusted by the scars adorning my back and shoulders.
“Beneath the mausoleum,” I continued. “The Divine Order meters the justice of the council.”
She was silent, soft sobs the only thing I could hear.
“I was there nearly a year. Everyone believed I was traveling, and St. Valentine University had me on leave. I was whipped daily for my betrayal. Cracks of that leather became my only constant in the dark tombs. I couldn’t even hear my own voice after a while. The sacrifice was complete. I belonged to the Divine. My mind was plagued with the commands of my ancestors. Our ancestors.”
Vivian gasped again, and I turned to look at her.
“St Valentine was…in your thoughts?”
As if on cue, the bastard surfaced in my mind. His regal tone was a sinister, cold hiss.
You play with your prey, Maddox. Aim true with your responsibility. Never forget Your soul belongs to me. I am Divinity.
I shook my head, squeezing my eyes shut to block out his words. This, too, was secret. I never told anyone that the moment the knife entered the heart of my sister, the angry soul of our founder entered mine.
Vivian’s expression was unreadable, and she refused to meet my gaze.
“Take me there,” she said at last, and I looked at her in confusion. “My last wish is to see the final place where the real Maddox existed.”