Page 79 of Vows of Silence

I cracked my neck, first to the left, and then to the right, and then tipped my head back, closing my eyes, rolling out the tight, tense muscles.

And then I focused on the door.

Crossing the hallway in two strides, I lifted the blade once more and tapped on the wood with the metal side of the knife.

“Silas,” my grandfather said as he opened the door a crack. “What the fuck do you—”

His words ended with a shocked gasp, his face paling, his eyes immediately dropping down to his torso. He stumbled slightly, his focus locked on the wooden handle between our bodies, the blade lodged in his stomach.

I withdrew the knife, grabbed hold of his shoulder and plunged it back in, twisting as I did so.

This time when I withdrew, I allowed him to pull back from me.

I allowed him to cover the gaping wound with his hands. I watched as he pushed against his stomach, blood spilling between his fingers.

With every step he took backwards, I took one forwards, following him into his room and calmly closing the door behind me.

“What the fuck have you done?” he whispered, his face paling, his breathing betraying the amount of pain he was in.

“I’ll kill you for this,” he spat at me, stammering over his words. “I’ll fucking bury you alive next to that useless mother of yours. I’ll—”

I slammed my knife into him again, the sticky, wet sound filling the bedroom, followed by a vulgar squelch as I pulled it out again.

“Why?” he asked, stumbling even further back.

I cocked my head at him.

“Is this because of her?” he asked me. “You fucking idiot. Do you think she’ll stay once she knows what you are? You think that girl will ever truly belong to you? She’s fucking terrified of you.”

She was terrified of the man she thought I was.

She knew better than that now.

My only response to Rafael was to plunge the knife back inside him.

And this time, I didn’t pull it back out. I twisted and pushed, deepening the wound. Making it fatal.

His knees crumbled, and I lowered him to the floor, holding him under his elbow as blood pooled at his lips.

“Y-you ungrateful little bastard,” he spat weakly at me, words trembling. “I g-gave you everything. I raised y-you when nobodyelse w-would even l-look at you after what hap… happened to your f-face. I m-made you useful.”

He was whispering by the end, his words barely audible.

He hadn’t made me useful to anyone other than himself. He shaped me into what he wanted me to be and reaped the rewards of my brutality.

Now he was learning just how far gone I really was.

I stepped over him, looking down at his pathetic form. His face paled even further, seeing his own demise reflected back at him through my mask.

“I sh-sheltered y-you. I t-took you in. You’re des-destroying everything we b-built for a wo-woman.”

Not just any woman.

Mywoman.

And I wasn’t destroying anything.

I was building our empire. The one we would share together.