Chapter Thirty
………………………….
Henri
I BOLTED FROM THE SLAUGHTER.
Blood dripped down the walls from where I’d slashed my way through the mansion.
Bodies lay where they’d landed. Four guards and seven bastards. Some I’d shot. Some I’d stabbed. All of them wiped off my brother’s dwindling list.
Spotlights flicked on, scanning the swimming pool deck as I barged through the patio doors and headed toward the fence I’d climbed over.
The two guards patrolling the perimeter hadn’t been enough to stop me.
However, the dogs almost did.
Scowling at my shredded arm, I cursed the two Dobermans that’d decided to dine on me tonight.
They’d taken a decent bite.
I felt a pang of guilt for shooting them.
They weren’t at fault.
I hadn’t wanted to kill them.
But they’d been brainwashed by their Masters, just like I’d been brainwashed by Victor for a time. I didn’t have long enough to recondition them to see the error of their ways.
“ There !” The spotlight arrowed on me. “Shoot him!”
I hurled myself over the high metal fence. My automatic rifle caught on the fleur-de-lis at the top. “Fuck.” Slashing the strap with my dagger, the webbing gave way and I dropped to my feet.
I staggered as the quiet pop of a silenced bullet sounded.
Shit.
I ducked and ran.
I hadn’t parked far.
The car I’d stolen from the last prick I’d exterminated in his villa in the Italian hills waited at the end of the looping drive. My hunt had been rather successful in Europe. I barely slept. I ate just enough to get strong enough to fight if it came down to it.
Nothing else drove me but madness.
Sheer and utter madness to slaughter as many of these cunts as possible.
The monster inside me was completely off its leash, and fuck, it felt good.
Better than good.
I was free.
Another pop.
The red-hot poker of being shot.
Fuck!
My leg tried to give way, but I kept running. Blood oozed out of my black slacks, my thigh throbbing with agony.
I should go back and murder the guard who shot me, but…with my arm gnawed on and my leg now quickly becoming useless, I wasn’t exactly ready for another fight.
No matter.
Just a minor inconvenience.
I barely even felt it.
Pain.
What was pain?
All of it had switched off the moment Ily had died.
She’s dead.
I’ll join her soon.
Who knew…maybe tonight I would finally get my wish.
Perhaps I’d bleed out and this could all be over.
Hop-running the rest of the way to my stashed orange Lamborghini, I threw myself into the driver’s side and cranked the engine.
I wouldn’t be able to drive this car come morning.
It might already have been reported stolen by anyone who went to the house and found five men with their hearts carved out.
I wasn’t proud of what I’d done up there.
I put it down to the black insanity slowly creeping over my mind.
Victor had wanted me to perform a Diamond Kiss to fully initiate me into his realm.
Well…last night I’d finally done it.
Five fucking times.
And I had to say, it was hard work.
Breaking their rib cage, hacking through gristle and muscle.
My hands had been bright crimson by the time five fat-riddled hearts lay on the mantle, lined up like gruesome Christmas stockings waiting for Santa to stuff them.
Blood pooled on the tan leather of the Lambo as I screeched down the hill, drove like a fucking maniac around the twisty, turny lanes of this quaint Tuscan village, then shot down the main drag out of town.
This entire place looked like a pretty postcard.
Yet it housed despicable monsters just like everywhere else.
My hands slipped on the steering wheel, smearing blood.
My blood or theirs?
Looking down, I snickered as yet more scarlet stained the car. The cleaning bill would be horrendous. My eyesight faded a little as streetlights vanished, and I turned on the high beams, slicing through the countryside.
It felt like I was the only one alive.
The only one who didn’t want to be.
I chuckled as I swayed. I blacked out for a second. The wheels juddered over the edge of the road, making the steering wheel dance beneath my fingers.
Whoops.
How funny would it be if I drove myself straight into a ditch?
Would it kill me quickly or slowly?
I grinned, feeling a lightness in my chest that hadn’t been there for so long.
Tonight.
I felt it.
Tonight was my last night on this earth.
Checking the address of my next victim, I almost drove into a rock wall.
“Whoopsies.” I laughed.
It felt so good to laugh.
So fucking good after so much fucking misery.
Ah, Ily…
I’ll see you soon, little nightmare.
I just have one more home to visit, and then I’ll join you.
I stomped on the accelerator. My thigh blazed, my torn arm dripped, and I smiled with twisted happiness.
Driving into a ditch wouldn’t kill me quick enough.
But the next beast I put down most likely would.
I had a few hours left judging by the dark pool glinting on the car floor.
Just a few hours to get there, kill as many cunts as possible, and then… I can sleep.
A deep, wonderful sleep…with her.