24. Novak
Chapter 24
Novak
A my slept soundly after I truly wrung every last possible orgasm out of her. But even after she had pleased me so well, I couldn’t relax.
I paced the bedroom, trying to convince myself to just run downstairs, stab my brother, then come back here and drag her warm body against me. It could all be over within minutes.
And yet every time I looked at the door, my feet felt cemented in place. Then I looked at the bed and could have flown across the room to be next to Amy. It was so much easier to stay in the comfort of this room, the comfort of her, and ignore the world outside.
When she stirred, I looked away from the window and toward the bed, not wanting to miss how adorable she looked when she woke.
“How long was I out?” she asked on a jaw-cracking yawn.
“About an hour.” I went to the bed and rested my arm on the foot post. “How do you feel?”
She tried to hide her grin behind the sheet, but I saw the apples of her cheeks and her eyes twinkling. “How do you think?”
“Tell me. I want to know.”
Amy pushed the covers down and stretched with a groan. I heard bones popping, and then a massive sigh of satisfaction.
“Like a brand-new woman,” she admitted. “I’ve never felt so… refreshed, and just so good . Like I’ve slept for a hundred years and I needed it.”
My chest swelled with pride. “I’m glad to hear that.” Not only had all the orgasms released pleasure from her, I hoped they released much of the tension and self-consciousness that she carried about her body. I had meant every word that I said to her as well, and hoped she took them to heart.
Amy seemed to notice something in my expression and her smile fell. “What’s wrong?”
When I couldn’t answer her right away, she crawled across the bed and came up to her knees in front of me. Her arms looped around my neck and mine automatically slid around her waist. As my head lowered, she kissed my brow before letting her forehead meet mine.
“I have to get this over with,” I whispered.
She nodded, understanding. “Do you want me to come with you?”
I wanted to tell her no, that she should wait for me here. It would be safest, even though there was no risk of Evin escaping the basement. I didn’t want the sight of him frightening her.
But more than that, I didn’t want to give him the privilege of seeing her.
When he wasn’t outright tormenting me, Evin’s favorite pastime was seducing any female I got close to, even if we were just friendly. If I talked to anyone with romantic potential, he’d slap me on the back in congratulations then turn around and made sure I’d walk in on them fucking a week later. Usually in my room.
It was an irrational fear now, I knew. But if there was anything left of my brother in that monster, he would see how much Amy meant to me and even though he couldn’t, he would want to use my feelings for her to hurt me. Maybe even more than before, considering I’d kept him prisoner for the last fifty years.
What I realized though, as I had paced the room and watched Amy sleep, was that I couldn’t go down there alone. I needed her with me.
“Please?” My arms tightened around her waist. “Will you?”
She brushed a soft kiss, all lips and no fangs, against my mouth. “Let me get dressed.”
I released her, watching her slide from the bed and walk barefoot to my walk-in closet.
My brother, my father—hell, anyone in my clan would have seen emotional support from a woman as weakness. The men of Rathka’s Order saw any female as only good for blood, sex, and occasionally, children.
Naturally, that begged a question. If they were so strong and I so weak, why was I the only one left?
Survival was the ultimate measure of strength, was it not? In the end, everything came down to that, a simple binary of yes or no. You survived or you didn’t.
I did. They didn’t.
I had the power to shape my own life, to create my own legacy. They could only control me from the grave if I allowed it.
Tonight, I revoked that permission.
Amy returned wearing a different T-shirt and a pair of leggings. “Do you want to get dressed too?” she said, blatantly eying my bare chest. “Or has the shirt famine become even more dire?”
I laughed, grateful to her for breaking the tension as I reached for yesterday’s shirt on the floor. “Things could get messy. I’d rather not get anything on my skin, so this one might become a casualty.”
“How sad. We’ll have to throw a funeral. For the shirt, not your brother.” I chuckled while fastening my buttons and Amy winced. “I’m sorry. Was that too far?”
“No, it’s okay. But I should do a death ritual in front of Rathka once it’s done. He oversees death and the afterlife, the opposite of Temkra. She’s all about life, vitality, fertility.” I was rambling, stalling. “But anyway, I can’t focus on any of that right now.”
I finished with my buttons and then fiddled with my sleeves, rolling them so they were secure just above my elbows. Amy took my arm, wrapping her hand around my bicep while she stood calmly at my side.
“I know this isn’t easy, but you’re strong enough, Novak. You always have been.” She gave my arm a gentle squeeze. “And I’ll be right there with you.”
Just like that, my fidgeting nerves left me. A resolute calm washed over me, like I had slipped beneath the surface of a glassy lake.
One final act of duty. One more sacrifice until I could wash away the stain of Rathka’s Order and start anew.
“Let’s go,” I said, heading for the bedroom door.
The smell always hit first. Rotting leaves, rotting flesh. So much death and decay. I gave Amy a folded handkerchief from my pants pocket.
“Cover your mouth and nose with that,” I said. It had traces of my cologne that would hopefully be easier on her senses.
A low, rattling growl came from the darkness, the noise startling Amy.
“He can’t hurt you,” I assured her before flicking the light on.
Evin was already pressed up against the bars of his cell. He probably scented Amy the moment she walked in. She was a fresh meal in his curse-stricken mind.
“Oh my God.” Amy’s voice was muffled from the cloth over her mouth. “He’s...he used to be a vampire?”
“Not just any vampire,” I said flatly. “The heir to Rathka’s Order. A devastatingly handsome bachelor who had everything.” I swallowed the lump in my throat. “And yet it was never enough.”
The creature bared his teeth, long rows of jagged broken fangs, and let out a screech as he swiped a skeletal-thin arm through the bars. His claws were long, black, and filthy. Probably riddled with infection that had nothing to do with the Curse.
“He was your bully.” Amy stated it matter-of-factly, all traces of fear gone from her voice. “Seems like his outsides finally match his insides.”
She wasn’t far off from a prevalent theory about Rathka’s Curse. Many believed the sickness was divine retribution for all the harm they had caused. The biggest offense being forcing draitrium on lower-class vampires and sending them off in broad daylight to fight the werewolves centuries ago. Those who didn’t burn from sun exposure became hopelessly addicted to the drug.
Some believed Rathka was so angry about this mindless slaughter of his sister’s children, in his name no less, that his curse was simply a revelation of our true natures. He pulled back the curtain on our attractive features, our wealth, our pride, and genteel manners, and revealed Rathka’s Order for the cannibalistic monsters they tried to hide.
I didn’t fully buy into all that. My mother came from a different clan, and there were a few others not of my bloodline that were affected by the Curse.
But Amy was spot-on as far as my brother was concerned. He had been an awful, ugly person to everyone in his life, and now his exterior matched his personality.
That still didn’t make him any easier to kill.
My hand went to Amy’s shoulder and gently squeezed. “Don’t come any closer than this.”
“Okay.” She grabbed my hand, holding on as I left her side until the last possible moment.
Evin snarled as I approached his cell, his twisted spine cracking as he followed my movement. A long black tongue licked his teeth, because he didn’t have any lips to speak of.
I looked away only to grab the silver dagger from the shallow drawer of my work table. When I unsheathed it, Evin let out a long, wailing screech that made my eardrums ache. He grabbed at the bars and pulled, scrabbling as if to climb his way to escape, but it was no use.
“You know what this is?” I held out the blade, letting it catch the light. “So you are still in there.”
The monster screamed again, chomping his jaws like he wanted to devour me right then. I had never seen him act this erratically before, and a knot of guilt formed in my gut. After fifty years of observations, tissue samples, and examinations, I never truly attempted to communicate with him.
Amy seemed to sense my hesitation, her eyes catching mine from where she stood in the entryway. I saw no judgment there, only support. Even if I couldn’t bring myself to use the blade, she would remain at my side.
The reminder of her quiet strength made me resolute. I held the dagger next to my thigh, watching the monster watch me.
“Even if I did try to communicate with you, what would we talk about?” I said. “You never said a single word to me that wasn’t belittling.”
His jaws clenched hard enough to crack some teeth, but those sunken eyes were dull, lifeless. Evin always had a glimmer in his eye, an arrogant light twinkling from his dark, filthy soul.
“I didn’t think about what I should say,” I admitted. “If saying anything would even get through to you.” I tapped the blade against my leg. It wouldn’t burn me as long as it didn’t touch my skin. “For what it’s worth, I don’t hate you. Not even after everything you did. This… this isn’t out of anger. Or revenge, or anything like that.”
The creature quieted as if he were actually listening, his breaths making a soft, rattling whistle.
“I’m hoping that doing this is a kindness,” I said. “I remember how you suffered in your final years of losing yourself as a vampire, how the hunger for flesh pained you. I can only imagine how you’ve suffered since. And I want to… apologize for my part in that. I’ve kept you down here for fifty years, with good intentions, yes, but… that doesn’t make it right. No matter how much you enjoyed my suffering, I would never wish this upon you.”
I brought the silver blade up to examine the metal surface, and the creature’s breaths became low growls again.
“In some ways, I’m sorry I failed to find a cure. In other ways,” I steeled myself with a breath, “I’m glad you never got a chance to come back.”
Evin snapped his jaws with angry grunts and bellows, reaching through the bars to swipe at me again.
“I don’t know if you deserved this curse or not. That’s not my place to decide. But you’re a danger to the outside world, and I won’t condemn you to an eternity down here. So consider this your escape, brother.”
“Novak, be careful.”
Amy had edged closer, probably without realizing it, to move near me. At the sound of her voice, Evin pressed into the corner of his cell closest to her and slashed his claws through the air.
“Get back!” I cried.
She wasn’t fast enough and those filthy claws snagged on her T-shirt, pulling her forward.
I moved without thinking. One moment I was yelling at her to stay back, the next, my silver blade was embedded to the hilt in my brother’s neck.
Time stopped for an agonizing eternity. And then foul-smelling, black blood spilled from the wound in the monster’s neck.
I released the handle and dragged Amy into my arms, pulling her away from the scene. “Did he touch you? Hurt you at all?”
Her shirt had ripped from his claws and I lifted the hem with a shaking hand to check for injuries. There was nothing, not even a scratch. Just clean, bare skin, thank fucking Temkra.
I was so relieved that I barely registered Amy snatching her shirt from my grip and pulling it down over her stomach. I just hauled her to my chest, bringing my lips to the sweet-smelling hair on top of her head.
“Why did you get closer?” I demanded. “Fuck, akra, he could have killed you.”
She had been tense but slowly relaxed, arms going around my waist. “I’m sorry. I was worried about you. The more you talked, the more agitated he seemed. Do you think he understood you?”
I sighed, resting my chin on top of her head. “I don’t know. I guess it doesn’t matter anymore.”
A kiss grazed my throat. “How do you feel? Are you okay?”
“I don’t know. I don’t think it’s sunk in yet.”
My gaze drifted to Evin’s lifeless form, crumpled in a heap in a corner of his cell. He was meant to die in old age with dignity, with his eldest son taking the helm of Rathka’s Order. Either that or in a blaze of glory on a battlefield. But his death and the final years of his life had been… disgraceful. Unremarkable.
I couldn’t look away, couldn’t do anything but sink into the reality of what I had done while clutching Amy tighter to me.