Chapter 6 - Velra #2
It was also good to know that many of his supposed facts were skewed. And even he didn’t know that Lazriel was Remnant’s son.
His revelation about the mind-meddling was extremely disturbing.
While he was still in a rage and now pacing and smashing his fist into the bench, I went on, “And mom and dad? They’re capitulating to your leader as well now?
That Light Fae trying to spout off orders to your beloved Victor during the attack at Sylas’ place?
” I cocked my head to the side. “Let me guess, they’re both on their knees servicing him, whoring themselves out for more power and influence? ”
He bolted toward me again. “Shut the fuck up! Cunt!” he bellowed. “You revolting half-breed!”
I slapped my hand to my heart in mock offense. “Cutting deep, brother.”
“Stop! Don’t ever fucking call me that again!
You’re nothing to me! You’re a stain on my legacy.
On our parents! They’re fighting to rise above that, above you dragging the Tenebris name down, working with Gregor Varsellis, our absolutely revered leader.
They don’t kneel and he’d never do that to any of us.
He’s above that. He’s pure in every way.
How dare you even suggest that? Mom and Dad are providing him numbers and access to high-level Dark Fae mind-meddling, which he’ll spread all over the place, through the Covens and the schools and academies, so anyone can be infected and controlled soon.
Unless they do Mom and Dad’s bidding. That’s extreme power in their hands! See? You don’t know a fucking thing!”
Gregor Varsellis.
He’d just revealed the name of the leader of Puritas, something that wasn’t even known to the likes of the Guardian Movement or the Unity Council.
Holy. Hell.
I kept my expression unchanged as he continued cursing at me.
The Dark Fae plot had also been made a lot clearer.
“You’ve been extremely helpful, Sorin.”
He came to a sudden stop, his hateful cursing getting caught in his throat.
I saw the second he realized what he’d done, what he’d let slip.
“No,” he choked. “No.”
I pulled a special pair of black gloves from the back pockets of my pants and slipped them on, beneath his viewpoint due to the height of the barred window in his cell door.
“You can take comfort in the fact that your last act was to assist the persecuted.” I smiled. “Your information will protect so many.”
He went to charge the door again, but I teleported through it, my purple power sparking through my right glove as I slammed my hand to his chest and sent him flying into the opposite wall of the cell.
He landed hard against it, his back jarring brutally, and he slid down the wall in a heap.
I pulled Sylas’ dagger free and ripped off the sheath, my gloves protecting me from the burn of iron against my skin.
His eyes widened and he scrambled against the wall, but failed to get to his feet due to both his panic and shock.
“You’re gonna kill me? In cold blood?”
“In cold blood? You’re an active threat. There’s no cold blood about it.”
He threw up his hand. “Wait. I know that Cassius made it where I can’t hurt you in here, so I can’t defend myself. That does qualify as in cold blood. I’m helpless, Velra.”
Wow. “Helpless? You’ve murdered me twice.
You’ve hunted me for years. You took so much of my life.
” I spun the dagger in my hand. “As if it wasn’t horrific enough that I was kidnapped and experimented on by Chimera Circle.
It took me a whole year not to replay every moment of what they did to me anytime I closed my eyes.
Do you know that? And instead of being given care and an environment to heal in, not only did you and our parents kick me out, you came after me, marking me for death.
” I hissed at him. “So tell me again that you’re helpless. ”
He went to speak again, but I silenced him by slamming my knee into his face.
Blood exploded over my pants as it broke his nose and he flailed against the wall, spluttering.
Enough of this.
It was done.
He was done and I was done with him.
Fanatic.
Tormentor.
Hunter.
Thief of my joy and my fucking life.
That was all that he was to me now.
Not a brother. Not family.
An abuser and a fucking threat.
A genocidal maniac.
I lunged forward, fisted my hand in his hair and wrenched his head back.
And then I brought the blade down toward his heart.
A violent rush of wind ripped through the cell and then the blade was suddenly snatched from my hand, Sorin tossed across the cell onto the bench before I could blink.
What the—
I spun to see Lazriel standing there now holding the dagger. “Not the kind of therapy we thought you were immersed in, love.”
The—wait… we?
Bright white light erupted with that comforting familiarity and Cassius materialized.
“This isn’t the sort of closure that will sit well with you in the aftermath, little shadow.”
He held his hand out expectantly and Lazriel tossed him the blade, which he snatched from the air.
“You don’t understand. He needs to be eliminated. There are things you don’t know yet.”
“Yet? So you were going to tell us at some point?” Lazriel spoke.
“Once you stopping me from doing what needed to be done was no longer an option,” I bit back.
“You’re right,” Cassius said. “It does need to be done.”
“Yeah, it does,” Lazriel agreed. “But not by you.”
“He doesn’t care about you. It’s just duty to Remnant because that old fool wants to fuck with Puritas,” Sorin seethed at Lazriel, his eyes blazing, while he frantically fought to wipe the blood from his face with his sleeves, and stagger to his feet at the same time.
Truly insane that he was focused on Victor and his jealousy and insecurity where Lazriel was concerned even though we were discussing his murder.
“Who?” Lazriel barked at him.
“Victor Halrow.”
Lazriel flinched.
“He’s gonna play with you, torment you, but it won’t mean anything! I’m the one he cares about! He just likes breaking his enemies. That’s what it’s about with you!”
“Shut the fuck up,” Lazriel grunted, kicking at the underside of the bench with his vampiric strength that sent it ripping across the cell and slamming into Sorin, essentially pinning him beneath it.
“Venomous snake,” Cassius hissed, before refocusing and taking my hand, his other grasping the dagger down at his side.
“Velra, this isn’t about morality or some overarching ethical argument regarding just kills.
This is about you. Your family has impacted so much of your life.
Like Chimera Circle has. Like Puritas is now.
So many others have forcibly influenced how you live, how you operate, even how you feel.
You’ve fought so hard to rise above all of that.
You are not a killer. It has been your choice not to become that.
Do not let him take that from you now. Do not let our enemies and the overarching threat push you into taking action that will become one more thing that is so heavy to live with. ”
“You’re gentle and understanding,” Lazriel spoke, coming to my other side.
“You care about people, value life and choices. Shit, you’re the glue that holds our foursome together.
But if you do something like this, so against your nature, it’ll change you.
And that will also change us.” He smiled with a glint in his eyes.
“And we’re too fucking awesome together as a unit to let anything—or anyone—fuck with that, right? ”
I shoved my free hand through my long hair, looking between the two of them, absorbing their pleas.
They really didn’t want this for me. They were so afraid of me going down this path. We’d already been through so much together. I didn’t want to add to that. I didn’t want to be the cause of them being burdened with more. I didn’t want them hurting.
I shook my head at Lazriel and spoke his own words to me when I’d talked him down months ago concerning his initial harsh stance against Kelsana, “Well, if you’re gonna be all mature and reasonable about it, what leg do I have to stand on?”
His lips lifted and I saw him recognize the words for the callback that they were.
“Exactly.” .
A commotion came from Sorin and I swung my head from my men to see the maniacal fool now out from beneath the bench and staggering forward as he brandished a stake, his eyes on Lazriel.
“You think I can’t feel that, motherfucker?” Lazriel spoke coolly, his back to him.
“This cell was only imbued with protection for Velra against me. Not you.”
“Yeah, a makeshift stake against a wolf hybrid with Ancient vampire blood running through his veins… scary as shit, dumbass.”
“A makeshift stake made from a bench created by Celestial magic,” Sorin corrected him.
I tensed and called my power.
Lazriel spun around.
Sorin faked us both out and pretended to go for me, so Lazriel reacted to shield me.
Then Sorin dodged, working around Lazriel’s vampire speed by facilitating a delay with his fake-out, and he lunged at Lazriel with the stake, screeching, “He won’t get the chance to play with you! I’ll give Puritas your head on a fucking spike, hybrid cunt! Die! Die! Fucking die!”
Lazriel thrust his foot back in a blink.
As it knocked Sorin back, the stake clattering from his grasp, Cassius was there snagging his throat.
Sorin didn’t even get the chance to flail before it happened.
Cassius plunged the iron dagger into his heart.
Sorin choked, eyes shooting wide.
“This is how she felt,” Cassius snarled at him. “Twice. Relish the unbearable burning pain as the last thing you know before you perish.” He twisted the dagger and Sorin lurched, panting wildly.
That escalated to a shriek as Cassius jerked the weapon free with a brutal finality.
Sorin collapsed into a heap, clutching frantically at his chest where blood now soaked through his turtleneck.
He looked out at me, our gazes connecting.
His eyes were wild, fear bleeding as uncontrollably as his wound.
“S…sister,” he uttered with that same derision as usual.
Irredeemable until the very end.
And it was the end within the next few moments as his eyes lost all focus and his body went still.
Lazriel turned his head slightly, indicating that he was listening intently.
“He’s dead,” he reported. “Another depraved madman bites the dust.”
I swallowed hard.
It was no small thing to try to reconcile.
Sorin Tenebris was finally gone.
He was—
“Go,” Cassius urged Lazriel. “Get her back to campus.”
“Cassius—” I started.
“Brandise Parker is still on Wraeven Academy grounds.”
“I don’t need to—”
“You do. Even without currently being able to feel you through the Soul Brand due to some sort of muting spell you’ve cast upon yourself, I can absolutely register that much.”
Crap. This was as close as I’d ever seen Cassius come to being pissed at me.
Lazriel grasped my hand. “Let’s go, love.”
All I could do was nod.
And then he was sweeping us up in a burst of vampire speed.
We hadn’t gotten far.
Just a few feet from the hidden entrance to the pocket dimension a wave of intense nausea had assaulted me, and Lazriel had needed to come to a jarring stop.
Then I’d been on my knees throwing up all over the ground.
It wasn’t the vampire speed—he’d carried me away with his speed several times before.
And I wasn’t sick or poisoned, nothing like that.
At least not physically.
I knew what it was.
It had happened before.
A trauma response.
There’d been a lot of this when I’d first been liberated from the Chimera Circle lab, and then again after the attack on the Guardian Compound where I’d died and been tethered back to life by Cassius.
It was ridiculous and aggravating. I should be able to deal with it, to stop it from becoming physical.
“It’s okay. It’s all okay, Velra,” Lazriel was saying as he both held my hair back and stroked it at the same time. A real sweetheart with me through and through.
“I’m sorry,” I managed to utter, although on a strained breath. I grasped his arm tightly and sucked in much-needed unchallenged deep breaths. “I love you so much, and I’m sorry that I went around you all.”
“This was your turn.” Off my look, he explained. “We’ve all acted unilaterally and you had to deal with all that bullshit from each of us. So, this is just your turn.”
Oh my God. “You’re amazing. You know that?”
“Right back at you.”
He went to sink into me, but then he jerked sharply, his head swinging around, scanning our surroundings rapidly, the urgency of it and the worry in his eyes making my stomach drop.
“Lazriel? What is—”
He was slammed into from the side so viciously that it had me screaming as he went flying across the area.
He landed on his back with such brutality, I could hear distinct snaps and cracks even without the benefit of vampire or wolf hearing. He coughed up blood, spluttering.
“Lazriel!” I screamed, forcing myself to my feet and starting over to him.
But then a behemoth powerhouse figure clad in a charcoal suit with that severe black buzz cut burst in front of him, cutting off my view.
Victor Halrow.
I gasped as he crouched down and ran his fingers over Lazriel’s cheek in a creepily faux tender way. “Missed me, precious?”
Lazriel lurched as he tried to move and ended up choking up more blood instead. “Go… fuck… yourself.”
Victor laughed like the maniacal bastard that he was. “Aww… so much ferocity and passion. I’m going to enjoy taming the former and taking utmost advantage of the latter.”
“Get back!” I yelled, calling my purple power, as my shadows wove rapidly toward him.
He turned his head and grinned at me with twisted amusement.
“Perfect. Killing you will work wonders to sever him from the ties of his former life. The necromancer is already being pulled into The Shadowed and away from you. And the Immortal will be dealt with shortly—gloriously enhanced Dark Fae mind-meddling will see to him.”
I thrust my palms forward.
His incredible speed had him evading me and I gasped as I only just narrowly missed hitting Lazriel directly.
In a blink the madman was right in front of me.
He dropped his fangs.
White light exploded between us before he could lunge, and then Cassius materialized.
Victor burst back at the last second, Cassius’ power missing him only by a hair.
And then he sped toward Lazriel in a blink, snatched him up, then tore away with him.
Cassius bolted after them, but a glimmer of white caught my eye just as Victor tossed something behind him.
In the next second, a portal erupted and Victor sped into it.
I fired my power, trying to grab Victor or Lazriel.
They were out of range, I couldn’t get a hold on either of them.
And then the portal was swallowing them.
It closed up before Cassius could reach it in time.
Cassius roared, his voice thundering through the area.
“No!” I yelled. “No!”