Chapter 10 #2
Theo sighed. “I just can’t place that Charlie with the one I…
the adult version. It’s the same for everyone.
I remember Dad not being a fucking devil, Mum being there for us.
But… I think it was wrong. I think it was all wrong.
” He sighed. “I remember you being kept away, you know, I didn’t get you that phone for nothing, didn’t sneak you out for picnics and shit because I thought you were happy.
But I… I never realized how fucking abusive and dark it all was.
They were good parents. Distant but good. ”
“They were never like that with me,” I said, my voice hard.
“Never, Theo. I was always raised for what I was for Rafe. I was always a tool, a device, and I’m sure that’s what Margaret and Amaryllis are feeling now.
It was always there, but when I was fourteen it shifted so suddenly, so harsh.
From then on, for those four years, I wasn’t even a daughter to them.
Just a tool.” I sighed. “At least before you left, they pretended a little. With you gone, the only times I got decency was when you came back.”
“Yeah.” Theo’s grip on my thigh turned harder, his fingertips digging into my flesh. “I suspected as much, on reflection. Charlie and I got the best of them because we were supposed to turn into him.”
“And we got the worst because we were supposed to turn into her.”
Theo moved all of a sudden, grasping my chin and turning me with a little force, making me look him in the eye.
There was a stoniness there, a hardness, but softened at the edges, just for me.
I resisted the urge to sweep his hair back from his forehead to see him better.
“Let me get something straight, Violet.” He paused, his jaw tensing.
“I will kill you before I let you be her. Let you be his. We will go into a fiery grave together before that happens.”
The words were harsh, shocking, but comforting, too. There was safety in what he was telling me. No matter what, I wouldn’t be back in that room, back in Rafe’s hands. I trusted Theo to make sure that never happened. He was my cyanide pill.
I nodded, kissed him, and then, bolstered, said, “Come on, let’s kill this bastard.”
Breaking into Damon’s house was easy, so easy that Theo scoffed when the door swung open in seconds.
Damon was cocky, with few security or safety measures despite his role in the church, or maybe because of it.
I half expected a dog to come charging at us, or an alarm to blare, but there was nothing.
Not even the creak of a door to alert him or a video doorbell to make his phone buzz for attention.
It was… too easy.
In careful silence, we collected knives and kitchen tools, stuffing them into our pockets, before making our way through the house to find our victim.
We had our own weapons in the car, but it was always better to use some from the scene.
At least, that’s what Theo told me as he tested the weight of a large chef’s knife he’d pulled dirty from the sink.
Theo walked ahead of me, moving through the house like he’d already been there, so at ease with the stalking, with hunting a man down. The layout was simple, but the place was filthy. Cluttered and gross, with old food and musty towels. I wrinkled my nose.
“Holy shit,” I muttered, stepping over a moldy pizza box. “Are we sure he’s even alive in here?” My voice was only just above a whisper, but still, Theo frowned.
“I’ll go check.” He nodded his head up the stairs, and I watched him, in his element, as he stealthed his way from step to step, not making a single damn sound. Impressive. Sexy. I licked my lips to chase the flavor of him still sitting there. My belly squeezed.
Deciding to follow him, I was a few steps behind, halfway down the stairs when he reached the landing. He disappeared around the corner. Then. A grunt. Then. A shout. A scuffle. Panicked footsteps.
Damon appeared at the top of the stairs, panic frantic in his eyes as he bounded down them, like he didn’t even see me in his desperation to get away.
He shoved past me, and Theo yelled out my name.
I grasped my knife tight as I fell, skidding down a few steps, my chin scuffing on the carpet, my ankle bending at an awkward angle with a sharp stab.
But Damon wasn’t getting away. Not a chance. I swung out the knife as I tumbled, cutting right through the back of his ankle with a hideous tearing sound.
As the demon man screamed and plunged down the final bottom steps, I glanced up at Theo, who was at the top of the stairs, disheveled but whole.
I sat up, pushed my hair back from my face, and observed the monster my brother could be.
Knife in hand, a dark look across his handsome features, jaw tense as he looked from me to our victim.
He dipped his chin and dropped his shoulders, beginning his descent to me.
“Good girl.” He gave me a wicked grin. And I returned it. The fun was only just starting.