Chapter 25 #2
“Hush now, Zellie,” Pearlie said from where she stood in the shadows, using the same tone I’d once found so soothing. “Henry won’t be harmed as long as you cooperate.”
“Go to hell,” I spat, my voice breaking.
Pearlie stepped out of the shadows then, giving me a reproachful look. “I hope you’ll change your mind.”
I turned my face away, refusing to acknowledge her, blinking away the tears that stung my eyes.
She sighed. “Perhaps Whit can persuade you.”
“What have you done with him?” I demanded, panic seizing my heart. But then a rush of warmth flooded my veins and the tug in my chest grew stronger. He was nearby, but where?
Pearlie gestured toward the shadows. My head snapped in that direction, hope surging only to come crashing down again.
Earl emerged, dragging Whit by one arm, leaving a sickening smear of blood on the floor. Once they were in the center of the room, Earl flung Whit’s arm away, rolling him onto his back. Whit arched off the ground, sucking air in through his teeth, clearly in pain.
It was then that I saw the full extent of his injuries.
He’d been savagely slashed across his chest and abdomen, his wounds gaping, so I assumed his back was in similar shape.
A flash of white ribs showed where his shirt had been ripped open.
His arms and legs bore more wounds, his clothes torn and blood-soaked.
And a jagged cut ran from his temple to chin, the wound recent, blood trailing down his cheek to his neck.
My chest tightened painfully, the sight of him suffering both breaking my heart and filling me with rage.
I clenched my jaw, biting back the tears that strangled me, refusing to give the others the satisfaction of knowing how deeply it affected me.
Well, except for my fury. I wanted them to see every single fucking ounce of that.
I turned my murderous glare on the woman I’d loved like a mother and whose betrayal absolutely gutted me. “I’m going to kill every damned one of you for this.”
“I think that might be bit difficult, given your circumstances, darlin’,” Earl drawled.
“And I think I’ll start with you, Earl, you pretentious prick,” I ground out, perfectly fine with Earl knowing that I planned to rip his throat out as soon as I was free of the restraints.
“Settle down, Zellie,” Pearlie soothed. “We don’t want to kill you or Henry. We love you. You’re family.” She sighed and cast a sorrowful look toward Whit. “I had hoped we could all be happy together. But betrayal can’t go unpunished, no matter how much we love the betrayer.”
I looked to Whit, my desperation ratcheting to a new level. They were going to kill him. Right there in front of me.
“No, please,” I pleaded. “Pearlie…”
She offered me a sad smile. “It’s up to you, Zellie. I will give you a choice, but it’s one we can only offer once.”
“What choice?” I asked, dreading the answer.
She stepped closer and took my face in her hands, her eyes gleaming.
“You’ve been consuming our blood for months in everything we’ve ever fed you, every sip of tea, lemonade, priming you for this.
Dottie probably gave you a bit too much today, but it won’t matter soon.
We want you to become one of us, Zellie. ”
This must’ve been the offer Dottie was talking about.
“You are so strong,” Pearlie continued, “such a good mama to Henry. And your abilities… Well, there’s no telling what you’ll be like once you become! You’re already feeling it, aren’t you? That surge of power?”
I continued to glare at her, refusing to admit to anything. Even if it was true.
Pearlie stepped back and drew a dagger from the folds of her robe. She held it out to me with both hands. The blade was covered in an intricate design that I immediately recognized. It was the same as what decorated the elevator and the blade of the dagger June had given Henry.
“All you have to do,” Junior said, stepping up to stand near where Whit lay, “is make your first sacrifice to pledge your loyalty to the family. Then we can share our blood openly and you yours. You will fully become. And it will be glorious.”
He gestured toward Whit. It was then that I realized Earl had dragged Whit into a circle formed by ancient symbols carved into the floor, the concrete darkened by the blood of countless before. The implication was clear. If I didn’t kill Whit, we both would die.
Whit lifted his eyes just enough to meet mine, his expression filled with love and an unspoken plea for forgiveness.
He’d resigned himself to his fate. After all, he’d sworn to me that he’d do anything to keep Henry and me safe, that he’d die for us.
And now he intended to make good on that promise.
I broke our connection and lifted my chin, attempting to make my expression as stony and disinterested as possible while I tried to determine if the offer was actually sincere or if they were just bullshitting me, hoping to entice me to murder my husband as a particularly shitty fuck you to the man who’d betrayed them.
“If I do this,” I began, carefully enunciating each word for emphasis, “do you swear to me that Henry and I will be safe?”
“Of course, darlin’,” Earl responded quickly. “You’ll officially be family, Zellie. You’ll have everything you could possibly want. All you have to do is kill the son of a bitch who killed my June.”
I turned to Pearlie who nodded, her kind and loving smile absurdly ironic.
I searched the rest of their faces again—Junior, Iris, Chase—trying to stall, my mind racing.
There was no escape. No other way. That’s what Whit had tried to communicate to me in the look we’d shared.
He wasn’t just asking for my forgiveness for everything that had happened.
He was letting me know he’d already forgiven me for what he knew I had to do to save our son.
I just hoped he could read what was in my eyes as easily as I could his.
My heart pounded, my blood rushing in my ears as the full realization of what was about to happen hit me. I swallowed hard and nodded. “I’ll do it.”
“Sorry, Cousin,” Chase drawled with a wicked chuckle, coming forward to release my hands.
As he unlocked the manacles, the others’ eyes began to glow amber, their excitement and blood lust growing in anticipation of what was to come.
I caught motion out of the corner of my eye, and fixed my attention elsewhere, focusing on my captors.
But that glimpse of movement had been enough for me to see Whit slowly dragging himself to his feet, his face twisting with rage.
I inhaled deeply as I reached for the dagger in Pearlie’s hands, my gaze briefly meeting Whit’s where he was creeping in the shadows, unnoticed, then exhaled slowly and stepped past Pearlie into the circle.
At the same moment they all realized he wasn’t where Earl had dropped him, Whit lunged forward, ripping out Earl’s throat in one swift motion.
But before Whit could turn toward me, Chase tackled him, taking him down, his talons slashing at Whit, who parried his arm away, barely managing to avoid his own throat being torn open.
“Kill him, Zellie!” Pearlie commanded, her voice edged with maniacal fervor.
I took a quick step forward as if to join the battle between Whit and Chase, but pivoted back toward Pearlie, swinging my arm as I spun and slashing her throat with the dagger she’d handed me.
Pearlie grabbed her neck with both hands in a vain attempt to staunch the blood spurting from the artery I’d opened, the hurt and betrayal in her eyes opening up a wound deep inside me that I doubt will ever close.
But not waiting for her to recover from the unexpected assault, I slashed again, tearing open her stomach, spilling her entrails.
Her eyes bulged and a gurgle of blood sprayed from her mouth as she stumbled back, knocking over one of the candelabras. The fire caught her robes in a flare of light. Her scream was so shrill, I winced and covered my ears, but the distraction was enough.
A hand grasped my hair and jerked me off my feet, flinging me to one side, and sending me slamming into the bench where Henry had been. It upended, tipping over as I fell, catching me in the ribs and stealing my breath.
I pressed a hand to my side and pushed myself up with the other.
As I turned to intercept Iris’s next attack, I saw Junior had rushed to Pearlie and was trying to strip her robes from her, but the material had melted to her skin, was melting to his hands.
He roared with pain from the fire and heartache as Pearlie dropped to the ground, completely consumed by flames.
But by then, his own robes had caught fire.
He flailed wildly, trying to extricate himself from the burning mantle, but stumbled, knocking over another candelabra, the candle’s flames catching his robes and racing up his back to meet the fire already consuming him.
It all happened in the space of a few seconds, but it was enough.
A searing pain in my ribs as talons ripped into my skin drew a scream of agony from my lungs, and I reflexively spun around, slicing with the dagger.
The blade caught Iris across the abdomen.
Not deep enough to disembowel her as I’d done Pearlie, but enough to bring her up short.
I lunged for one of the candles in the circle and tossed it at her feet, the flame fizzling at the hem but not catching as I’d hoped.
When she screamed in rage and lunged at me, her face twisting with hatred, I rushed toward her instead of standing my ground, the move catching her by surprise. I brought the dagger down with both hands, burying it in her chest.
She gasped and blinked at me several times as if she didn’t know what had occurred, then dropped to her knees. I pulled another candelabra over, this time igniting her robe. Within seconds, the flames spread up to her shoulders before completely engulfing her as she fell to one side.