Chapter 32
Yejun stumbled and fell onto the dais, slapping his palm against the wound in his thigh to staunch the bleeding, even as he stared down the barrel of the blaster now aimed at his face.
Demitrious hadn’t waited long after Lake had gone to make his move, and injured as he was, June had appeared an easy target.
“At least tell me why before you do it,” Yejun drawled, and his lack of fear clearly pissed Demitrious off, because the man’s brow furrowed.
“Come on. Lake is already gone, and my guess is he won’t be back for a while.
You have time to give me an explanation.
I used to do my homework at your house after school. ”
Admittedly, Yejun was a bit caught off guard that the man who’d sort of helped raise him was taking it this far.
He’d known Demitrious had issues, that he was power hungry and no doubt desperate given his current state with the Order, but still.
Murdering a Demon? That sort of thing didn’t go unpunished, and the punishment was severe.
It also kind of sucked that the last little bit of faith he’d had in the older man died. He felt bad for West, knowing what he knew now. No one should have a parent like Demitrious Corleone.
Yejun made a note to sit his mom down and have an open, honest conversation with her after this.
If he survived, of course.
“Rase was supposed to take care of you for me,” Demitrious said. “I hate getting my hands dirty, and now I’ll have to come up with something believable to convince Lake of my innocence.” He glared at the body. “Worthless piece of trash.”
“To be fair, you did choose a guy who only has one eye.”
Demitrious wasn’t amused.
“No,” Yejun continued, mostly to fill the time, “you’re totally right. That wasn’t cool of me. Lots of sharpshooters only have one eye. You don’t really need depth perception for that sort of thing, do you? To be accurate, I mean? If you’re a sharpshooter, that is. This model of blaster—”
“Shut up.”
“Yes, sir.”
“That mouth of yours is always getting you into trouble. I told your sister to deal with you. Did you know that? She should have listened, but they’re too soft on you.
Tried to say all this crap about how you have the right to make your own decisions.
I tried to do this humanely. Believe it or not, I didn’t want it to come to this either. ”
Sure. Yejun totally bought that.
Not.
He needed to focus. This wasn’t what he was here to listen to.
“You brought Rase here and told him to shoot me? Why?”
“I’m doing it for the good of the planet. Lake is about to become emperor. He can’t be distracted. The three of you have had your fun, now it’s time for your childishness to end.”
“By….killing me?”
“Don’t worry. You won’t be alone. Hendrix should be finished with the Monroe boy by now.”
Yejun went numb, his hand slipping off his thigh as his mind momentarily blanked before zooming in on Demitrious with more attention than he’d been paying him prior. “What did you just say?”
Hendrix? He was really here? With Nix?
“Where are they?” June demanded, but Demitrious merely laughed. “If anything happens to Nix, I’ll—”
“You’ll what?” He shook the gun. “You’ll be too dead to do much of anything.”
“He’s the Royal Consort!”
“So what? It’s not like it’ll be my first time killing one of those.”
He froze, mouth gaping open before he could help it. “Did you just confess to poisoning the late emperor and her Royal Consort?”
“How’d you know it was poison?” He hummed in appreciation.
“Oh, because of that thing with West? You boys are smarter than I gave you credit for. Too bad. If only you were as loyal, I never would have felt the need to drug my own son in the first place. Lake’s always been so suspicious of those around him, I felt it was only safe to build myself a security net.
It had the added benefit of ensuring he rushed home, where he belongs. ”
It became obvious why he was comfortable sharing all the sordid details of his past misdeeds. Demitrious seemed to be done talking, so he didn’t bother asking if June had any last words. Didn’t even hesitate before pulling the trigger.
Once.
Twice.
A third time.
Nothing happened.
Yejun was on his feet and howling in a flash, taking Demitrious down to the ground hard enough that he may have even cracked one of the old man’s ribs. He snatched the blaster and slammed the barrel into his face, breaking his nose in the process.
Working on his anger issues to take a back seat.
“Tell me where the fuck they are!” he screamed. “Where is Nix?!”
If they were too late, he’d never forgive himself.
Or Beck Bardin.