AllFreeNovel
Share Us
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
I’ve not moved since hearing the screams of Blake fade until the man is nothing but a lifeless body lying in a pool of his own blood. Unconscious, Nick is carried out by the hooded men. Dead or alive, I can’t be sure. I’m still not moving as Milton removes something I can’t make out from a distance from his pocket. Bending over Blake’s mutilated body, he does something I can’t see before standing again—
“Come,” Maxim breaks my torrent of thoughts. He’s now beside me, hand on my shoulder that I didn’t feel make contact. “It’s time we left.”
My legs shake, my body numb, as he leads me out of room six and thankfully away from the tunnels. He takes me back into the foyer with the three X’s and up the stairs to more rooms. I take nothing in, other than Francesca sitting on a sofa, in a T-shirt and jeans. Her eyebrows draw together, but she doesn’t dare question why I resemble a shade of death. The question’s there, though. Why wouldn’t it be? If it’s not by my appearance, then it’s Maxim’s.
“Sit,” Maxim orders me, and I sink down without feeling the edges of the other sofa beneath my legs. Before I know it, something is thrust into my hands. A glass, with an amber liquid inside. “Drink it.”
Lifting the glass to my lips, I sip on whatever it is. It’s strong, and I cough, wincing from the fire trickling down my throat. But oddly, it helps shift things back into realness for a moment. The door opens behind us, but I don’t have it in me to turn around to see who it is. I know.
“Thank you,” Milton says to Maxim, who nods and grabs Francesca by the hand, leading her out of the room without another word. Seconds later, there’s a touch on my shoulder, and Milton’s there, bending in front of me, face calm and eyes returned to their usual dark-green shade. No longer black or tinged with anger. How long will that last before the blackness returns? “Look at me.”
My eyes lift to his. There’s worry on his face now, and I know why. He’s wary that I’ll think him a monster after what he did tonight. Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t. Though, I know for certain that I never want to see him do that again.
“Are you okay?” I shake my head, and his forehead creases with concern. “I’m sorry—”
“Please don’t.” Standing, I move away to put distance I’m not sure I really want between us. I just need to do something other than sitting there like I am. Shocked and confused. “Don’t apologize for…for that. It’s just—fuck, I don’t know.”
“It’s over,” Milton says, coming up behind me and resting his hands on my shoulders. “Blake’s gone for good.”
“What did you feel when you watched Anaya die?” I question, ignoring the way his fingers slightly grip me for saying her name.
“I won’t lie to you,” he says, pausing momentarily, as if what he’s about to say won’t help the spinning of conflicting emotions within me. “Watching her die, even though it wasn’t by my own hand, was grounding. She always made me believe that I was the one with the evil inside of me. That my blood ran black instead of red. It was her so-called duty to rid the evilness inside of me. Watching her gasp her final breath, seeing her going through something sohumanwhen she always acted far beyond it, was enlightening. To no longer be that scared boy cowering before a woman who wanted to destroy me from the inside out. She was bed bound, withering away while fighting to breathe in oxygen. I decided that it was the perfect ending for her. Nothing I’d have done to her would’ve given me that satisfaction. To know she wasn’t being saved. Where was her God while her organs where being eaten alive by tumors? I stayed to watch her die. I sat in a chair next to the bed and watched. Before she took her final breath, she still called me Satan, and I laughed.”
“You laughed?”
“I laughed watching the woman who put me through hell die. I stayed in that room for an hour with her body. I can’t describe the feelings I got. But I do know that I felt free. Like an invisible chain that bound me to her had snapped and I could run again.” He turns me to face him. “What I’m trying to say is that there’s no set way on how you’re meant to feel after seeing something like that.”
“It was hard to watch. What about Nicolas? Is he…?”
“He’s not dead. I wasn’t sure if you wanted me to kill him.”
“He wanted to be free of Blake as much as I did.”
“Which is why I’ve left it up to him.” Milton’s eyes darken a shade. “He’ll either wake up or die. I’m not helping him to do that. He still hurt you.”
I nod. He’s right, he did. “Where’s Nicole?”
“Locked in a room downstairs. We picked her up along with Blake and Nick.”
“She’s pregnant. Seven weeks. I don’t know if it’s Nick’s—he wasn’t sure himself. But the baby needs to be safe. I think she might hurt herself if she gets the chance, I don’t know. And Sammy—a girl that was in the new clubhouse. I want you to make sure she’s okay. She needs help, Milton. She was close to being another me.”
“I’ll get Lucius to look for her. And I told you that your mother and sister are yours to do with as you want. I’ll make sure the baby is okay.”
“What now?” I ask the question that’s been burning my tongue to ask. “There’s no more threat. You don’t have to protect me anymore—”
He frowns. “There’s something we should discuss. Maybe you should sit down.”
Oh, God. “What?”
“A few weeks ago, I took blood from you and your hair strands while you were asleep. I sent it off to be analyzed, as well as samples from your father.” My heart starts pounding. “I should’ve told you, but…you got taken…and I only got the results back tonight. Vadim put the idea in my head, and I had to follow through.”
“And?”
“You aren’t a match.”
Oh…
