Page 138 of Poison Vows

An acute cold chill enters my bones.

“You lost, cousin,” Vaughn grits out, glaring at Emmett. “Before you rudely interrupted, we were about to complete the wedding ceremony. She’s marrying me, now back off!”

Emmett remains silent, not acknowledging him, but this enrages Vaughn further.

“She doesn’t want you either! If she did, she would’ve chosen you!” he snaps.

This finally changes the expression on Emmett’s face.

“Is that so?” he asks softly, but it doesn’t feel like he’s asking a question.

It sounds more like a dare.

The kind you never make unless you’re tired of breathing, and it seems Vaughn knows that too.

“I’d stand down if I were you, cousin,” Vaughn says slowly, but the strain in his voice is clear. “Being a sore loser doesn’t look good on you.”

Something is about to go extremely wrong.

I’ve known Emmett for years and I can sense when he’s truly angry and right now, he’s beyond that.

Emmett’s posture is still casual, not defensive or in combat mode, but the look he’s giving Vaughn is like millennium-old icicles wreathed in violent flames.

I can’t help but step back from the potent murderous aura emanating from him.

Vaughn is the one holding the gun, but for some reason, it feels like Emmett is the one who has all the power to kill.

“Go ahead,” Emmett says ever so softly, as if goading Vaughn to pull the trigger. “Don’t you want to finish your surprise for me? The ambition of an illegitimate legacy is very interesting.”

Vaughn visibly shifts, affected by Emmett’s seemingly simple words.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but you defied Grandfather’s order. Your appearance tonight doesn’t change anything that has already been agreed upon!” Vaughn states, his tone sounding off, like someone struggling to stay calm.

“And if I dare to change everything?” Emmett suggests sardonically. “Will you finally grow a pair and kill me? But then again, that’s too high an expectation for a dog that still gets commands from hisdaddy, the man who brutalized and then murdered his own mother?—”

An guttural growl from Vaughn cuts Emmett’s insulting words and before anyone can react, Vaughn launches at Emmett with force and speed.

But it seems Emmett was waiting exactly for that reaction as he meets Vaughn directly, without moving out of the way.

Vaughn swings out violently, intending to punch Emmett, but Emmett doesn’t give him the opportunity.

Moving faster than I can see, I hear flesh being pounded hard with sickening force.

Blood splatters onto the ground, then the labored grunts of a wounded man sound around garden.

When I blink, I see a sight that stuns me.

Vaughn is on his knees, with a busted, bleeding lip, and a rapidly swelling eye that’s also bleeding, but the strangest thing is how he’s clutching the left side of his torso, as if cradling his left ribcage.

Vaughn’s face blanches with pain. When I look at the man towering above him, I see a completely expressionless look that makes my heart jump with terror.

Emmett doesn’t look human at all!

He doesn’t look like he feels anything, nor care for anything.

Satisfied by this, Emmett pulls me away from Vaughn.

Vaughn is about to reach for my hand to pull me back, as if I’m the rope in a pissy tug-of-war contest.

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