Page 32 of Bathed in Blood

My princess stalks over to the table, jerking off the first thing she finds: a blow torch. The device roars to life as she aims it at his stomach, being sure to get it close enough to make the skin bubble but not render him useless too soon.

“Sir.”

“What?” I snap, spinning on him.

His eyes widen slightly, lowering his head before speaking. “It appears a homeless man wandered onto the back lawn. He was very intoxicated, looked like he’d been out in the woods for a few days. Your father is out, so I—"

“I don’t care. Let him go.”

“Sir?”

But I’ve already turned back, barely registering the man anymore as Lana giggles. It's not the cute, endearing one she usually sets loose during her streams. No, it's wild, breathy. She’s not okay, and the idea of her being locked in there is suddenly too hard to swallow.

When I take a step forward towards the doors, the sound of their master locks sliding into place halts my steps, my headslamming to the man at my back. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

“You cannot stop her. Sir, your fath—"

“Never knew you had a death wish, Kallen. I’m more than happy to help you out with that.”

He takes a deep breath, nodding towards the door. “She is fine. Stopping the stream now will only further damage the Vanegas name. You may not like it, but I’m not wrong.”

The cart crashes to the floor, making me jerk again towards the screens. Lana’s hands shake violently as the man wails. His stomach and chest bubble in nasty burns, burned and charred flesh and blood masking his torso. The air filtration system takes care of the singed smell long before it reaches the ducts. When the blade she picked up slams into his gut, I stare, everyone in the next room too rendered stunned by the sheer brutality of everything that comes next.

Lana screams, making the organ in my chest clench painfully. She shreds him, slashing and stabbing in a frenzy. I see it the moment her blood covered hands slip down the blade, cutting herself. It doesn’t slow her down as she vents everything at the now lifeless man. With the heretic’s fork fully embedded in his throat, the camera zooms in on his gaping mouth, showing the prongs poking out on the inside. I’m at the control panel in the next second.

“Cut the fucking stream now!” I bellow.

Luca’s voice fills the room. “Not yet! They’re loving this!”

The sound that leaves me is nothing short of a battle cry as Kallen’s hands attempt to jerk me back from the panel.

I see red.

Lana is bloody, and now she’s screaming. The sounds are so different from her gentle, delicate demeanor, they inject ice into my veins. They’re the type of screams born of agony, years of it.I feel the guilt fully as it settles on my chest, making me work for every breath, something I haven’t felt this purely in years.

My fist hits him roughly in the face before I even fully turn, snapping his head back. When he goes down, I follow him, adding another flurry of punches.

I barely hear Lucas' voice, unaware his hand is still on the control. “Fuck, get Jesse down here now!”

My hands wrap around my friend’s jaw, slamming his head into the polished floor. “She is mine! The Vanegas name is mine! You will not undermine me again!”

“Sir,” he croaks from underneath me. I drive my fist again into his face, knocking him out as I shove to a stand, jerking the master control from beside him.

My eyes land on the tech room, my suit crumpled and bloody as the doors to my room fly open, Jesse panting on the other side. My gun is out of my waistband aimed for Lucas' head. “Cut the fucking stream, or I paint the back wall with your brain.”

Immediately, the green light indicating we’re live goes red, one of the stunned man’s helpers cutting it for him. I don’t bother turning to my brother. “Take him to medical. He’s not allowed to die.”

“Chris—"

“Leave me.”

“What has gotten into you, man?”

I take a deep breath, trying to steady myself before I got to her, still not looking at my brother. My brain throbs with the rush of bullshit that floods it. Kill them, myself, her, blow it up. I want her; I want her so fucking badly. I want her to be okay, to be the one whomakesher okay. I want them all dead, the Sullivans, myself for pushing her into this before she was ready, for not fucking her when she offered. Not holding her tighter, not saving her. Not fucking saving her long before I knew her.

For watching every stream she made and not realizing she was mine.

“She’s mine,” is all I say before I unlock the doors.

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