35. Briar #2
I watch the fear enter his eyes as he realizes just how thoroughly fucked he is.
He underestimated the strength of the force we would bring with us, or maybe he was na?ve enough to think that his own family wouldn’t pass along every little detail we needed to ensure our victory is decisive and swift.
Rage twists his face and blots of red fill his cheeks as he breathes heavily. “You think killing me will change anything? There are more compounds and people beneath me to run them. We will always fight back against the vermin infiltrating our world.”
A low, humorless laugh bubbles up from my stomach and it only further drives his anger as he spits, “This world will always know how weak you are! How your body looked naked and broken, your skin and hair burned away, helpless to our weaponized scientific advancements.”
The reminder of that violation causes a cold feeling to seep through my limbs, but I don’t let it drag me under.
I allow it to remind me exactly what I owe him in return.
I could have killed him by now, but part of me isn’t ready for that yet.
The bloodlust and thirst for vengeance won’t be satiated with a quick death.
He deserves to suffer, to be played with, and to be mocked.
He rushes in once more, bleeding from cuts on his legs, stomach, and cheek. Each time his knife flashes, my daggers answer. The room is alive with the thud of our boots against tile and the hiss of our breath as we circle and strike. He doesn’t land a single one on me this time.
This isn’t his room anymore. It’s mine.
When he missteps, I surge in. My elbow slams into his jaw with a crack, Lyra ripping his knife away while Kael drives deep into his shoulder.
His body crashes to the ground as I rip Kael out, blood spilling hot and dark onto the white tile as his head hits it with a sickening thud.
He goes still, chest heaving, eyes fluttering shut.
I raise my blades high, breath ragged, ready to deliver the final strike. One clean cut to end it. To finish what he started and never let him rise again.
But my arms lock up and that thirst for more pulls me back, the voice of the most broken pieces of my soul that want him to understand what it’s like to feel owned and humiliated. To make him feel like a pet that will heel to me.
My gaze snags on the trays he left behind, metal glinting beneath the sterile lights. A long steel bar rests against the edge and I quickly shove Lyra and Kael into their sheaths once more.
Their energy is wary as they wait to see what I do, but neither of them try to talk me out of my plan yet.
I snatch up the bar and deliver a swift kick to his ribs as he tries to roll to his side and get up. A spurt of blood flies from his mouth as he gasps. I plant my boots on either side of him, muscles straining as I bend the bar, the metal screeching in protest before yielding to my strength.
I shove it around his throat and push the ends of it backwards until they meet at the back of his neck. His eyes are dazed as he weakly tries to push me off, murmuring, “Release…the mist. Guards.”
As I stand to my full-height and stare down at him, I realize I’m not done yet. What’s a collar without a leash?
From the wall I tear down a length of heavy chain, the links clattering loudly in the silence. I fasten it to the twisted collar and then curl the other end around my fist. One hard tug and the chain jerks his body toward me at my feet, his head lolling with the sudden motion.
Did he pass out right when my fun is just beginning?
“Wake up,” I snarl, yanking the leash again until his eyes flutter open. Fury thrums in my veins, hotter than any blood. “Wake up and meet your new owner.”
The sound of rushed boots pounding on tile comes just as his eyes flutter open. Voices I recognize shout from the hallway before I hear metal shrieking as the door is shoved open more.
And then my fathers are there as I glance up, their frames filling the inside of the doorway like a wall of fury.
Dante is right behind them, eyes wild as they drift over me and to his father.
Elias’s lips and cheek are bleeding as he breathes heavily, but his eyes radiate a quiet confidence as he nods at me.
Callum looks like anger incarnate as his fists curl at his side and he takes a step toward Terrance.
Elias’s hand darts out to hold him back.
For a second the room is full of everyone I’ve fought to keep together.
My mother stirs faintly as my fathers dart to her.
Dante goes to a control panel next to the table, his fingers and eyes flying over the buttons as he releases the restraints on her.
She groans as her body falls forward, but my fathers are there to catch her and whisper sweet words of encouragement.
Her eyes flutter open and find mine, and the whole world narrows to the way she looks at me– half-terrified, half-hopeful. My throat seizes so hard I can barely form words.
Terrance lets out his own groan of pain as he rolls to his hands and knees.
He scrabbles to try to flee and I yank his collar until he falls uselessly back to the floor, sick satisfaction rolling through me as his chin clips the tile and the knowledge that others are here to enjoy the show fills me.
This is what I needed. I needed Terrance to feel the weight of eyes on him as he is reduced to the most useless version of himself he’s ever been.
He rolls to his side and his lips peel back in something that wants to be a sneer but ends up being a strange grimace.
“Move,” I command as I crouch next to him. “Like a dog. Walk on all fours and maybe I’ll make your death quick.”
He looks at me with all the fury he can muster and for a heartbeat he does nothing, and in that frozen second every memory I’d tried to bury flies to the surface. The scalpels, the cold table, the strips of flesh and my nails ripped from my body.
“What did I say?” I ask harshly.
I yank the chain and his body jerks forward on obedient knees in front of me, the motion grotesquely sweet in its humility.
Angry tears spill down my face, hot trails that fall from where they gather at the edge of my jaw to the floor. When his eyes lock onto mine, I point up at the cameras, my arm steady even as my hand shakes.
“Don’t worry,” I say, voice breaking around each word.
“Just like the pictures you distributed of me, I have video proof now of you being my new pet.” I drag the chain so he jerks his head up and looks at every set of eyes in this room around me.
I make him meet the faces of those he crushed.
“I’ll make sure everyone sees this and knows exactly who came out on top. ”
“You…bitch,” he breathes out.
He lets out a strangled cry and lunges, but my fist finds him before his hands can close around my throat.
The punch lands heavily against his jaw and he falls back to his side.
He scrabbles to rise, a reflex drilled into those who learned to fight and get back up, but I’m already over him and I press the bottom of my boot to his chest to pin him to the tile.
I bend down until my face is inches from his, the light catching the contempt in his gaze.
I whisper harshly, “You will never, ever hurt anyone again. I just needed to make you feel a fraction of what you did to me before I put you in the ground forever.”
My soul feels at peace now, at the thought of ending him.
His mouth opens and sputters–some protest or denial likely forming in his rattled brain–as I find Dante’s gaze across the room.
I pull Lyra and Kael into my hands after dropping the chain. I’m giving him the chance to tell me not to kill his only remaining parent. If he shakes his head no, I will hand Terrance to the agents and let him rot in a cell. But if Dante nods, then this ends here and now.
A decisive, small nod answers me.
I lean down and position the point of Kael at the hollow of Terrance’s throat.
He tries to push away, to roll, to leverage himself free, but I drive the tip of my dagger slowly, measured, inch by inch. I want him to look into my eyes and understand for the last remaining moments in this life who is ending him.
That there is no hope.
He gurgles as the blade slides in further, slicing through the muscles of his throat. His eyes widen as blood pours from his neck to the floor, soaking him in the proof of his life ending.
I push the blade further until the point is buried enough that his body tenses and jerks in the way people do when they are finally made to meet their end.
He gurgles again and reaches up with shaking fingers as if to beg, to plead, to bargain with anything left in him, but there is no bargaining left between us.
I close my eyes for the smallest moment and let go of all of my rage as I hear his hand fall to the floor, lifeless.
It’s over.
The moment washes over me and the knowledge of his death makes it feel like the force of gravity itself is suddenly lifted from my shoulders. I pull the dagger free as my eyes open and I step back. Tears fall freely down my cheeks and I’m helpless to the surge of emotions rushing over me.
He’s really dead.
Dante steps close and presses his palm against my shoulder, an anchor that says what his nod already promised–that I did not stand alone for one second. Elias and Callum quickly spread to my back and free side, their touch light as they trace paths over my body in quiet support.
“He’s gone,” I whisper and look around the room where all of my most haunted memories occurred, daring myself to soak these new ones in instead.
My parents look at me with more pride than I’ve ever seen as my mom wipes her own tears away with a shaky hand and offers me a small nod.
“It’s over, Briar patch,” she croaks out before sweeping her gaze over the three humans who made true to their vows to me. “Let’s go home. All of us.”
Salty tears find their way into my mouth before I bite down on my bottom lip and nod in return. A deep, shuddering breath fills me as I turn to glance at the three men who turned my entire life upside down.
“There’s no reason for you to hide away in Sanguis now,” I begin on a shaky breath, looking between them, “but I was hoping you’d return with me anyways.”
Callum is the first to reach for me once more, threading his hand through mine. “You’re the only reason I need.”
Dante’s towering height looms over me as he leans down to press a kiss to my forehead before murmuring against my skin. “I’m beginning to realize that home can be wherever you are.”
The rush of my tears only increases with their proclamations and I can hardly see through the blur of them filling my eyes as I turn to look at Elias.
The warmth of his hand presses against my cheek before he wipes the tears away. “You can’t get rid of me now. But are you sure you want to have us all? We’re quite the handful.”
A true laugh bursts from my chest as I nod furiously, looking into each of their tender gaze.
“You all are the silver lining in this, and I’ll be damned if I let you all walk away now.”