Page 26 of His Last Will

Aiden shakes his head, “No, if anything he seems pretty normal. Little boring if you ask me.”

Ash frowns at that assessment. “Okay, well, I just administered another dose. Maybe fucking try to remember this time to take it easy, yeah? The last few have been a little… bloodier than normal. It would be nice to obtain static results.”

Winking at me, he turns to leave just as suddenly as he came.

“So this is what you do every night?”

He looks over at me. “Arianna, have you ever had the pleasure of feeling a knife slice right through someone’s skin?”

“No.”

“Well, now is your chance.” I blanch at that. Aiden nods toward a wall of instruments like it’s a buffet of food to choose from.

I hesitate before he gives me a push, and walking over to the wall, I look at the array of tools. Knives, saws, scissors, box cutters, branding irons. There’s even a goddamn pitchfork. Who does he have working for him, Goody Proctor? Needless to say, if it could do any bodily harm, it was on this wall.

I pick up a knife from the bottom and grip it in my hand. I never really thought of knifing someone before. I just watched people do it over the years, like Anthony and Brodie. Usually from afar. Never up close and personal like this. Eventually, you become a little immune to it. And hell, maybe I won’t like it, but if I could feel anything in my body other than grief, I would take it at this point.

Aiden eyes the knife I chose as I approach Ian—the body, probably shouldn’t really think of him as human at this point—and smirks, like he approves. “Nice choice, Ari. Do you know what that is?”

“No, should I?”

His gray eyes twinkle with laughter, but he doesn’t explain it to me, just prompts me over to the body, “Why don’t you try it and see what happens?”

I am a little confused, having used knives before. How different could one really be? You just point and slice as far as I am aware. Coming up to the body, I look into his cold eyes. They are really almost black-looking, and his hair is wet with sweat; plus, there is a stench about him. It’s all really gross work if you ask me.

I remember Ashton saying something about keeping this one cleaner, so when I pick up the knife, I hover it over his stomach.

Aiden steps up behind me and places his hand on top of mine, “There you go, little venom.” He kisses my cheek and urges my hand down until the knife breaks skin. The knife slides through his skin like butter. A lot smoother and easier than I thought.

Hmmm, that was a little anticlimactic. Aiden made it seem like the knife would do a little more. Aiden removes his hand from mine and, as he steps back, he whispers, “Enjoy the show.”

The body beneath me seems to struggle for air momentarily. Interesting. I didn’t think we punctured a lung this low in his body. Pulling, I release the knife from his stomach, and then there’s a loud pop, almost like a small explosion. Blood and what I am assuming are guts rain out of him and onto me. The thick liquid lands all over my black silk nightie and chest. A few splatters land on my face.

“What was that?” I gasp when the blood stops exploding and turns to a light bubbling.

Taking the knife from me, Aiden examines it closely. “That, my dear Ari, is a wasp knife. It emits CO2 into the bloodstream and then expands and explodes when it’s released.”

I should feel disgust. I know this. That would be any other rational person’s reaction. Harming another human being has never really been my modus operandi.

But shit.

Watching this man beneath me, this scum of a human—if I am to believe Aiden, which I do—bleed out beneath me doesn’t make me feel grief. It doesn’t make me feel weak or sick or helpless.

In fact, feeling the knife in my hand makes me feel fucking powerful. It’s like I can finally see the woman I was before death destroyed me. Almost like getting a small piece of the old me back.

So, without thinking, I snatch the knife right back from Aiden and start stabbing.

CHAPTER

NINE

AIDEN

She’s a goddamn beautiful, bloody mess.

Blood covers her, and some even drips off me. The feel of it is electric, the way the liquid carves a path down my skin. The man beneath her stopped screaming a few stabs ago. Ash is not going to be very happy, but he can fuck right off. Ari seems to have found some catharsis in this.

When she asked what I’ve been doing, I didn’t really have an answer for her because, truthfully, this is nothing new for me. But after Ash mentioned the last few bodies had been bloodier than usual, I realized I had been taking out some of my anger on my patients. Oops?