Page 3 of Sonata
2
Lucien
Muttering under my breath and glaring at the cobwebs stretching across the dark tunnel, I could hear my feet sloshing in the murky, ankle-deep water. Anger was better than feeling anything else, at least for me. Unlike Étienne, who overnight turned into a pushover, doing everything his mate asked, and didn’t ask for, I had a plan. With a grin stretching my lips, I tapped my fingers over the pocket of my pants where the rubber earplugs waited patiently to be used. I’ll be damned if I allow a female to muddle my brain with her whims.
I neither needed a mate nor did I want one.
What I do need, however, was to get back in the world and search for more information on who the fucker was that killed my father. Granted, there had been decades since his murder, but that didn’t mean anything. It only told me that I needed to try harder. Someone, somewhere, knew something about it; I just had to find them. It was only a matter of time; I felt it in my bones. Precious time I was wasting strutting through dark tunnels with murky waters saturated with stench no amount of showers will remove from my skin.
All for a descendant of a Muse, of all things.
My shoulder brushed against the moss-covered walls too narrow for me to pass through freely, and my teeth clenched. My brothers thought I was having the time of my life among the humans, enjoying human females and partying from dusk till dawn. It suited me just fine, so I let them believe it, allowed them to think I’ve given up. I haven’t, and I never will. Our lives were snatched under our noses, and those that sniffled at our feet for centuries were now pointing accusing fingers our way, calling us murderers.
I did not kill my father. Neither one of us did.
But I will go down in history with the highest body count before all this was over.
I will kill them all.
For a long moment, I thought the rage my thoughts provoked was the reason for the red coloring my vision until blues, yellows and greens joined the threads forming in front of my eyes. The pitch-black tunnel, which suited my mood just fine a moment ago, became alive around me within a blink of an eye. My feet faltered, and I stopped my progress, glancing around me in confusion. I couldn’t remember if my oldest brother mentioned anything about this before he sent me on my merry way with a dumb smirk plastered on his face. Also, I might not have paid full attention to what he was saying, the presence of his mate messing with my head.
Not like I envied Étienne.
Because I didn’t.
“My brother has a mate. A Muse of all things.” Muttering under my breath, I scrubbed a hand harshly over my face a few times, regretting it the same second. Shit was clinging to my skin where it brushed against the cursed rocks closing in around me. “And instead of laughing and leaving him to deal with it himself, here I am, squeezing my stupid ass in narrow tunnels looking for another one of those.”
The only bright light in this situation was the fact that there was a magic-user in this old building. I might not have control over how things are unfolding in my life right now, but I will take it out on the witch. Killing one of those would surely improve my mood. That idea put more pep to my steps, and I pushed forward determent to see this through before the sun was up. If I deal with it quickly, I’ll never have to step foot here or see the female ever again. I’ll dump her on Étienne and Moël to deal with, and I’ll leave to search for answers on things that matter.
I kicked my foot when something small bumped into my leg and bared my teeth at the damn cat. Melody didn’t just insist on coming along like this was something mates did on their daily routine. She also dragged the annoying creature with her, consulting it as if it had an intelligent brain for strategy. And my fool of a brother set back, letting it happen. I’ll chew my own throat out before I turn into him. The fact that my heart was thumping hard against my bone and I struggled to keep the hope and eagerness of seeing the Muse behind these walls was not lost on me. Or imagining my cock buried inside her. I just refused to acknowledge such foolishness.
I was a vampire from a royal bloodline, for fuck’s sake.
Thestrongest royal bloodline in the world.
The cat hissed at me, showing its now long fangs as if to warn me. After I healed it, a few things changed in the creature, which I didn’t want to examine too closely. Like the long fangs that made it look more feral or the size of it that doubled overnight, along with an occasional blue color matching mine staring me through its eyes. Yet another thing that shouldn’t have happened but I had to deal with. All because Étienne didn’t know when to stop and take a step back from something he saw as a challenge. I missed the days in court, where all I had to do was listen to words that were whispered in my ear and point my youngest brother in the right direction. It was always the order of things. Étienne was the judge, I was the jury, and Moël, the executioner.
How far the great have fallen. From heirs to the French throne to cowards hiding in the Americas and crawling through nasty tunnels searching for a female descendant of a Muse. The cat bolting ahead and disappearing around the curve in the tunnel made me cuss up a storm. Each word I spat out made me feel slightly better, knowing I don’t have to bite my tongue to protect female sensitivities, or Etienne’s, for that matter, with the stick stuck up his ass. Rushing after it because I wouldn’t leave it past the fucker to think it’s a good payback to get me stuck in the murk for hours, I almost tripped over my own feet when a soft melodic voice floated to my ears from behind the wall I was now facing.
“Hey, buddy. You came again.” Came the soft whisper pebbling my skin and forcing my fists to clench at my sides. “I missed you for a few days.”
With everything in me, I knew I should reach in my pocket and take out the earplugs I brought with me, but like an idiot, I stood there hoping she’ll speak more just so I could hear the tone of her voice. Red flags were blaring in my head, but all I could do was breathe and strain to listen to any sound. The creature’s shriek of pain made my lips twitch until after a long moment, she spoke again.
“You are imagining things Viola, get a grip.” My gut tightened when the tone wobbled as if she was fighting tears. I didn’t give a shit about tears that females wielded as a weapon against morons like my oldest brother. “Snap out of it woman, you are your worst enemy. You are hearing things.”
A plan formed in my head as I stood like a lovestruck fool basking in her tone. She thinks she imagines things, and all I had to do was scare her more than she already was. If I kept her freaked out, she wouldn’t be able to use her powers, whatever they may be on me. Survival had a strange way of making everyone act more on instinct than plan what to say or do next. If I used her fears against her, she wouldn’t be able to pay attention to me or any bond that might be tugging at us. With a firm nod to myself, I tried to step closer, and my boot caught on some idiotic rock I didn’t see. Cusses spilled from my lips in a long string, my teeth grinding from the sharp pain that spread through my whole foot. I’ve been stabbed in my torso many times and kept fighting as if it was not more than a graze, and here I was, eyes crossing because I stabbed my toe on a rock. I’ve never been more embarrassed in my life.
Good thing no one could see it.
Taking a deep breath, I reached with my hand and pushed through the wall that Étienne assured me was an illusion. The strings of colors around me started shivering and writhing like a living thing pausing my movement for a long second. Was it a warning or an encouragement? My brother said he found Melody on the other side of the building, so after her rescue, who’s to say that the witch didn’t change things? But the fucking cat was gone, so that must’ve been a good sign. With a harsh glare at the wall in front of me, I punched my hand through it almost to my elbow.
A shrill shriek made me flinch before a menacing grin spread across my face. Étienne was right about the wall being an illusion, and my plan of scaring the female was already working. That was until a sharp pain stabbed through my forearm a moment after the female on the other side shouted “Aaaaa saaaa” with a very strange squeal at the end of each sound. I was ready to pull my appendage back before I lost it when knuckles thumped against my forearm, followed by a shrill “Yaaa haaa.” That’s when I realized what she was doing.
“For fuck sake, stop hitting me, crazy female.” I snarled in frustration, hoping the witch didn’t hear all the asinine noise she was making.
“Oh my god,” her faint voice came from way too close than I expected it to be, “it talks…”
Not wanting to give her more opportunity to continue with her squealing, I stepped through the illusion into a tiny, barely furnished room with no windows, just in time to see the female crumble to the dirt floor like a marionette with cut off strings. My body took over with a mind of its own, and I had her in my arms a foot before she hit the ground. A jolt of electricity pierced my body, and I dropped to my knees with a gasp, cradling her body to my chest like I’ve never held anything in my life.
“Fuck me…” the cursed cat was preening and gloating at me from across the room, and I had every intention to skin the creature as soon as I could find my feet.
