Chapter 16 Because I Can Be A Monster Too
Because I Can Be A Monster Too
Ariel
My dad had found nothing of importance at the storage unit and he radiated his frustration off of him in waves.
He also seemed to be avoiding me and it filled my chest with dread. I felt like I was an anchor ready to sink and get lost at the bottom of the ocean for the rest of my days.
It was horrible and I hated to think I’d disappointed him with my choices.
Rain had the man who’d claimed to have fucked with my head magically bound to a chair in the center of the living room in the cabin up the road from the one I was staying in with my bodyguards.
He was wide awake but he’d yet to have spoken a word. He was very watchful and on guard though.
Probably waiting for the first chance to make a break for it so he could run.
I had a feeling he wasn’t going anywhere ever again. And I was actually more than okay with that. I didn’t care in the slightest what that said about me or the kind of person I was. I had given up on caring about that a very long time ago.
I had a hard time looking at the damage I’d done to his face. Not because I was ashamed of my actions or regretted them but because they reminded me too much of a time when my face had been carved up in a similar fashion.
No one had attempted to clean up his face or doctor it.
And not a single person in this room judged me for my actions in the slightest.
Romero was a little bit crazy and because I’d saved him from living out the rest of his days in that fucking cell I didn’t think there was much I could do that would upset him. It also didn’t hurt that I was his one and only daughter-in-law and always would be.
Finn had questionable morals and he wasn’t my biggest fan, but he understood how family worked. Him being in my father’s coven made us family for the rest of our days and that meant we’d have each others backs forevermore.
My dad was arguably the biggest psychopath in the room.
And Simon and Trenton were simply mine for the rest of eternity.
There might still be a threat in the room but physically I was as safe with these people surrounding me as I could possibly be.
It was the damage to my emotional state that the man could wreak that likely had everyone on edge. Because that shit was hefty and could potentially wreck me.
There was no armor in the world that could save me from that potential train wreck.
That was just my life but the train always left the station and moved forward no matter the weather.
The man cleared his throat and everybody in the room went on alert.
“I want to make a deal,” he spoke directly to me and ignored everyone else in the room.
“The time for deals is past,” Rain spat out at him.
I wasn’t entirely in agreement with my dad. There was still plenty of time to make a deal before he died, and he was stupid if he thought he’d be walking out of here. The only deal I could make with him was how much pain he had to suffer before he met that fate.
The man looked directly at Rain and if my dad was creeped out by his eery white eyes he didn’t so much as show it. My dad didn’t so much as flinch.
“Please, we all know it’s her I’m talking to here and not you.
You might be the boogey man but she holds all the real power in the room.
The Council chose her for a reason and I said that earlier about them fucking her to get under her skin.
And it clearly worked. It’s her I want to make a deal with. Not you.”
Bile climbed up my throat at his second mention of the Council wanting to have sex with me.
He’d certainly hit his mark and accomplished getting under my skin.
“What kind of deal do you want to make?” I asked him as I crossed my arms over my chest and ignored all the angry vibes filling the room at the moment.
“I can’t guarantee you’ll get all of your memories back. It’s been too long and it was meant to be permanent. They might be fuzzy at best, I’m not sure. I’ve never done this kind of spell reversal before.”
Alright.
Well…
That was better than anything I had honestly ever expected to get from this man or actually ever at all.
The real issue here was the potential harm he could cause me by messing around in my head any further. And clearly he couldn’t be trusted at all.
“What’s to stop you from making it worse?” Romero questioned him.
My dad looked too angry to speak and I was almost glad for it because I didn’t want him to snap and maybe do something serious like break the man’s neck in a fit of rage.
“My word won’t mean anything to you and that’s understandable. But I’m sure her guards, if I’m reading them correctly, have a link to her that’ll be able to protect her from further harm.”
Hmm…
I hadn’t thought about it like that before. I also had no idea how he would have known about my link to Simon and Trenton because most people who didn’t know wouldn’t ever have been able to tell just by looking at the three of us together.
It’s not like their tattoos had flashed silver in front of him.
“We can both keep her mind safe from any further harm with our soul connections.” Simon assured everyone in the room.
“And what do you want out of it?” Finn asked a question I was sure most of the men in the room wanted to know.
But I already know what the man wanted. His fate was sealed and he knew it as well as the rest of us did.
“She knows what I want out of it and only she can promise me whether I’m going to get it or not. Do we have a deal, Ariel Kimber?”
More blood on my hands.
Another permanent mark on my soul that no amount of good deeds could ever wash off.
Would it be worth it?
Maybe not.
Was I going to do it anyway?
Yes. Absolutely.
“We have a deal.”
“Fuck,” Rain hissed harshly under his breath.
“It has to be by your hand or I’m not agreeing to anything.”
“No. Not a fucking chance,” Rain snarled, getting angrier by the second.
I knew what the man was doing. He thought he was going to make his life matter by haunting me for the rest of mine.
Whatever he thought he knew about me? Well, he didn’t know jack shit.
I leaned down and stared into those frighteningly white eyes.
My voice came out level, steady, and everything I needed it to be.
“Your death will be by my hand, this I swear to you. Your mistake is in thinking it’s going to bother me.
It won’t. Your death means absolutely nothing to me.
Maybe that’s part of why the Council picked me.
Because I can be a monster too, and I’m absolutely okay with that. ”
“We’ll see.”
I would.
He wasn’t going to be seeing anything but okay. He could think whatever the fuck he wanted to.
The man looked at my dad and arched an eyebrow. “I’ll need the use of my hands so I can touch her.”
Rain snapper his fingers and the man slouched back in his chair. He reached his hand out towards me and I didn’t hesitate to walk forward and take hold of his hand in mine.
I didn’t walk alone though, I never did.
I felt the ropes of my links to Simon and Trenton wrap around me protectively before sinking into my body.
The man’s eyes shown brightly and I was slammed with memory after memory. I dropped down to my knees before him as he held on tightly to my hand, not letting me go.
My mind was overwhelmed but I had enough sense about me to do what I had to do before my world faded to black.
I freed my knife from where it was hidden in my wrist sheath.
I pulled it out, reached up, and slit his throat.
And then I passed the fuck out.