Page 136 of Requiem
The knife slides from the sheath at my side in one smooth motion, the blade catching the light as Alexei’s eyes widen in terror. I drive the blade into him hard enough to force a broken gasp from his lungs, burying it deep beneath his ribs while blood spills hot across my hand.
His body flinches against the chains. But I don’t stop. I fuckingcan’t. I rip the knife free and drive it back into him again. And again. Each impact forces another horrible sound out of him while blood spurts onto the floor.
I wish I had more time. I need him to feel pain. I need him to fucking suffer.
“You,” I snarl, slamming him back against the wall between strikes, “donotget to hurt me anymore.”
Alexei’s strength begins failing fast after that. His head tips forward.
But I’m not done yet.
I grab his jaw roughly, forcing him to look at me one final time. Blood runs down my hand now, dripping onto the floor between us.
“Youlost,”I tell him quietly.
I sink the knife into his throat before he can take another breath. The sound that leaves him is wet and abrupt, cut short as blood pours down the front of his chest. My grip on the knife is iron as I now cut in jagged pulses, hitting that spot that has his life draining in bursts. His body convulses once against the chains before finally going slack.
I stand there breathing hard, staring at his body while adrenaline slowly drains out of me. Blood drips steadily from my knuckles, and the knife still hanging loosely in my hand.
Then Emma says my name softly.
And just like that, the demon recedes enough for me to turn toward her instead of the corpse hanging from the wall behind me.
My beautiful girl reaches out to me, her hands lightly cupping my face. “We need to go now, Jude.”
We’re out of time.
I nod, allowing her shaky fingers to stroke the jaw of my mask. My gaze finds Alexei’s body one last time before I turn toward the stairs, Emma following close behind me. I yank the mask off my face and tuck it back into my jacket.
In the kitchen, I snatch a lighter off the dining table before grabbing the nearest bottle of vodka and smashing it hard against the counter. Glass explodes across the floor.
The sharp smell of alcohol floods the room as I pour it over the furniture, the curtains, the hardwood floors, soaking every inch of the place that ever belonged to him. Every room feels haunted. Every wall feels poisoned with memories I can still fucking see. I dump the rest of the bottle on the dining chair where Nolan died.Fuck you, too.
Emma watches from near the doorway, and when I flick the lighter into the living room, the flames catch instantly.
Fire races across the alcohol in beautiful golden waves, climbing the furniture and walls with terrifying speed as heat slams into us. Smoke curls upward along the ceilings while glass begins cracking somewhere deeper inside the mansion.
We turn toward the front door—
And a gunshot explodes through the room.
Emma’s body jerks beside me.
For a moment, my brain refuses to process what I just saw. Then her body sags against me with a sharp cry, blood already spreading rapidly beneath her ribs.
“Emma.” The word leaves me completely hollow.
She collapses, and I catch her before she can hit the floor, dropping to my knees so hard pain shoots through them. Blood pours through my fingers the second I press my hand against the wound, hot and horrifyingly fast.
“Emma, Emma, Emma.” Her name loops over and over, falling from my lips in pure terror.
No.
Across the room, Vlad stands near the shattered back entrance, his gun still raised. His expression twists into cruel fucking amusement as he watches me realize what’s happening.
“You don’t get out of this without losing something,” he says calmly.
A feral rage claws inside my chest, and I start to rise.
