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Lana Del Rey’s “Young And Beautiful” played and the soft melody drifted through the crowd like a narcotic. Couples swayed around me, dancing to the beautiful tune as I closed my eyes and moved like I was the only one here. I twirled and spun out wide, allowing the wind from my movements to gather under my arms before I brought them close to my body and caressed myself. It was as if I’d been transported to a place of the in-between. A place beyond time or space where I could feel this beautiful song as viscerally as I felt my touch against my skin.
“You should be here, Rían ,” I whispered to the phantom that danced with me inside my mind.
He responded, so easily as if he was truly here, “I’ll always be with you, Lessie.” I could still hear his voice, but he remained faceless.
I knew that if I opened my eyes, it would become impossible to keep the pain from chipping away at my heart that beat too slowly inside my chest. I couldn’t withstand any more anguish, so if this was all I could have, this was all that I’d take.
When a lone tear fell from my eye and trailed down my cheek like a crystallized raindrop, I knew it was time.
Inhaling deeply, I drew on my strength and straightened my spine. Tonight, was the night I’d truly become a woman, and the first night I’d get the sweet cherry-like taste of revenge.
Opening my eyes slowly, I took in my surroundings. My gaze traveled across the dance floor and scanned every face here. When I saw him, I exhaled and glided across the floor until I passed him. I made eye contact, and his dark hungry eyes followed me as I made my exit. Walking down the hall, I pushed open the double glazed doors and stepped out onto the balcony that overlooked the woods. The stars shined so brightly tonight and I upturned my head, breathed in the fresh air and allowed the wind to kiss against me.
“You’re a woman now, darlin’. How do you feel?” his dark voice grumbled from behind me but I gave no inclination that I’d heard him.
Instead, I stayed basking in the kiss against my cheek that cooled my burning skin. “Like the world is mine to take.” I breathed slowly, before I gently turned to face him.
The past eight years hadn’t been kind to him. He was never a looker, more of the bulldog type, but those added crinkle lines now made him look more like a mastiff. “You’re a woman. A beautiful one at that. You’ve always been feisty, Alessia. Always been one I’d die to taste.”
“You would,” I whispered back breathlessly. “If my father found out, he’d kill you.”
“That’s why this will be our little secret.” He stepped closer, shoulders hunched as his head hung. Dark, beady eyes leered at me from beneath his lashes.
“Morals. They’re lost to you, yes?”
He smirked and it was anything but kind, “I have no soul, darlin’. Morals weren’t a part of the package.”
“So you never felt it?” I asked, hardly a whisper this time as it was my turn to step forward. I placed my hands on his chest when he looked at me in confusion. I tilted forward, bringing my lips to his ear. “The horror as you watched my father slit a seven-year-old boy’s throat?”
He drew back, staring down at me with a cloud of anger and disinterest on his ugly mug. “You still hung up on that?” he growled and now it was my turn to smile.
“Not at all, I was just curious how it felt.”
“Empty. I felt nothing, love, because he was nothing but a runt. Those are easy to kill, they should stay away from the beasts.”
I shuddered and my smile grew wider. “I couldn’t agree more,” I mused as I whispered into his ear. Stepping around him and caressing his chest until I feathered my touch across the backs of his shoulders. With my free hand, I withdrew my blade that had been sheathed to my thigh and pushed myself up against him, reaching up on my tippy toes to reach around his broad frame. “You should have stayed away from the beast.” I slit his throat.
The rotten wet sound of death assaulted my ears as he turned in shock, hands wrapped around his throat to stem the bleeding. It didn’t work, the crimson rivers bled through his soaked fingers and sprayed against me. My heart beat frantically inside my chest, it ached and I felt cold but not out of fear.
It was excitement.
Victory.
I lifted a trembling hand and shoved him in the shoulder, watching as he tumbled to his death, straight over the balcony.
“Alessia?” My father’s voice echoed down the hall and I turned, standing a little taller so he could see me in all my glory.
When he rounded the corner and made it to the still open doors, he gasped, “What in the devil? What happened?”
“I killed Elliot,” I breathed and he stopped short of touching me. For a moment, he just stared. Taking in my cherry-covered face and my red gown that was now darker, covered in the essence of one of his men. After he sought my eyes for some kind of answer, he nodded, breathing out deeply as he caressed the side of my dark head. “Is it done now? Will you put this nonsense behind us? Forget it happened at all? You cannot live in the past, Alex. It will kill you. I did what was necessary. For you, for this family. I won’t hear another word on it. You got your revenge. This is the end of it, alright?”
I nodded once and uttered, “Yes, Father.”
Tonight I became a woman old enough to make this night the beginning of the end.
CHAPTER TWO
Killian
