AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I kick open the door to my mansion, and I’m hit by a sudden wave of wrongness. What was once a lavish fairy tale for Yulia’s party is now a ghost town, the golden balloons sagging, chandeliers dimmed. All the guests have scattered – thank fuck they’re safe, but the high-class décor now looks like a sick joke.
I stomp through the marble-floored hallway, my boots thumping loudly in the emptiness. Making a beeline for the east wing, I ride the elevator up to the third floor. My private library’s up here, a fortress of knowledge and my personal sanctuary.
“He is still there,” Ollie’s voice calls out.
The elevator dings, doors slide open, and I step into a darkness that shouldn’t be. The library is a cathedral of literature, usually warmly lit, but now it’s more like a damn cave. High bookshelves stretch toward the ceiling like monoliths in a moonless night.
Where is he?
Then, a shadow moves, quick and low to the ground. I lunge toward it, but before I can even take a step, an earsplitting crash rings out. Books and whole damn shelves topple over like dominos.
I sidestep just in time, and there he is.
Aleks.
Our eyes lock, hate burning in them.
Simultaneously, we both draw guns and pull the triggers.
Click.
Click.
Empty chambers.
“Suka,” Aleks spits, echoing the curses in my own mind. Aleks sneers, his face contorted with malice. “You think you’re fit to lead the Bratva? You’re just as weak as your father.”
The venom in his voice pushes me over the edge. “You done?”
Fuck talking. We’re past that. Both of us draw knives – nasty pieces of work, serrated, designed to not just kill but mangle. My blade curves with the presence of a fucking machete. Pull this baby out, and it’ll drag your guts with it.
Our knives meet with a grating clash of metal on metal. Sparks fly, mirroring the ferocious energy between us. He lunges, aiming straight for my heart. I sidestep and swing, my blade singing as it slices through the air and cleanly severs three of Aleks’ fingers.
He screams, clutching his mangled hand to his chest. But I’m far from done. Before he can recover, I swing my knife again, slashing the blade across his legs, tearing through the fabric and flesh. He crumples to his knees, but I lift him by the collar, holding him up like a limp doll.
My knife is now at his throat, and I press just enough to let a trickle of blood stain his collar. Our eyes meet – his wide with terror, mine narrow with finality.
“Do it then, you sniveling coward!” Aleks laughs with false bravado, each chuckle filled with a malice that only amplifies his pain. “Prove you’re as worthless as your father!”
His words are like splinters under my skin. Every fiber of my being screams to end this – to slice through the thin skin of his neck and put an end to the years of torment. And yet…it’s the blood we share that gives me pause, the same blood that courses through my veins and flowed through my mother’s.
I hesitate. Blyat! I can’t do it.
He’s my uncle, my family – twisted as it is.
His own blood, my mother’s blood.
Reluctantly, I lower my knife and release him, stepping back to put distance between us, between what we were and what we’ve become.
“You’re not worth the dirt you’ll be buried in,” I growl, almost a whisper.
I turn to walk away.
“Yob tvoyu mat! You don’t walk away from me, stupid, useless boy! You are just as useless as both your mother and your father. Finish what you’re supposed to do!” Aleks screams. With the ferocity of a wounded animal, I can sense him lunging at me, aiming his own knife at my back.
Yob tvoyu mat? Nobody…nobody gets to insult my mother.
In one smooth motion, the same knife that spared him now becomes his doom. Before he can react, my blade swings through the air, quick and precise.
