Page 76 of The Black Lotus
As much as I want to barge in, I keep my feet planted, no matter how badly my body fights to push forward. I know that would be the wrong choice. We’re dealing with Cynthia and she’s smart, smarter than either of us realized. The only way any of us will get out of this alive is by working together. I just hope Zephira will snap out of the state she’s in and help me help Serena.
I know she just killed Jason, which means she’s alone with Serena.
I don’t have much time.
I grip Zephira’s shoulders. “Look at me,” I whisper, dragging us out of earshot. “You heard all of that, right? Cynthia doesn't care about us. She let those terrible things happen to us to create the monsters she was unable to.” Her lip trembles, tears streaking down her cheeks. “I need your help, Sister.”
Her glassy eyes look at mine, surprise drawing her brows together. Her eyes clear as I tell her my plan, determination straightening her posture. I squeeze her shoulders, making my intent clear. “Can I rely on you? Will you help me save Serena?”
She nods, and I sink into the shadows, leaving her to play my part in this mission.
I step through the door, holding up my ticket between two fingers and forcing myself to walk further into the room despite seeing Serena tied, bleeding, and beaten behind Cynthia. Every instinct in my body screams at me to run to my vixen’s side, to wrap her in my arms and get this over with, but I know that is what Cynthia is expecting. Ineed to stay calm. I need to follow through with the plan.
“Wanting to reunite at the place I’ve made my own, with my girlfriend's head on the line? You have a lot of audacity,Mother.”
Cynthia spins around, her bloody knife streaking through the air, looking like she hasn’t aged a day while locked away. It’s unnerving considering all the years that have gone by.Seriously, was she getting injections of youth in prison?She looks exactly the same as the last time I saw her minus the small crinkles around her eyes and a few strands of grey hair.
“My little fox, you came!”
“What did you do to Serena?” I ask, not taking my eyes off the predator challenging me.
She looks over her shoulder, then back at me. “Your little girlfriend has quite the mouth on her; she needed to be taught not to talk back and only speak when spoken to.” She twists her blade, her eyes softening at the glittering red hue. “It tooka couple of punishments, but she eventually learned to keep her mouth shut.”
Don’t look at her. Don’t look at her.My hands ball into fists at my sides, my fingernails piercing my palms as I grit my teeth, and watch my mother’s every move. If she sees I care about Serena as much as I do, things will get worse for her. The quick glance I got at her when I came in showed me she isn’t in too bad of a shape. The wound on her leg looks like the worst of what Cynthia has done to her.I hope she hasn’t lost too much blood.
“That’s not the way to get her to listen.” My eyes darken as the memories of making Serena submit to me play through my mind.
“I am your mother, Aster; I don’t need to be hearing about your sex life with one of your little lambs.” She walks behind Serena, placing the tip of the blade against her neck and my body twitches forward. “Do you fuck all your lambs? Take after Mommy and Daddy with that, too? That was my favorite part, besides the kill, of course. Getting to fu-”
“No. I don’t fuck any of my victims. Never have. Never will.”
She picks up a strand of Serena’s hair matted in her blood. “But you did. She is living proof.” A cheshire grin lifts her cheeks as she inhales her scent.
“She was never meant to be a lamb.” I grit out, my fingers twitching with the need to snatch that knife and plunge it into Cynthia. “Serena has been, and always will be, my vixen. She will never fall to the same fate as the others. Not by my hands or yours.” I steal a glance at Serena, her eyes shining with love and unshed tears.
“That, my dear son, is where you arewrong.” She steps away from Serena and walks closer to me, my body bracing for the moment her hand lays gently across my cheek. The little boy who wanted this from his mother for so long wants to leaninto her touch, but the man I became when I was abandoned, overpowers that boy and instead moves away.
She frowns, but steps back, allowing me my space. “Serena was always meant to die by your hands. She brainwashed you, my little fox. You were perfect until you met her.” She steps behind me, whispering across the back of my neck, “Think about it.”
I do. I think about the moment I first laid eyes on Serena. The moment we shared our first kiss. Our first touch. Our first fuck. The moment my heart started to beat and I felt more alive than I ever have before. I think about every single moment, good and bad, spent with the woman who shows me every day what it means to be loved. Loved in our dark, twisted, fucked up way.There isn’t a thing I would want to change.
“You started to change when you met her. You started breaking your rules.”
She knew I didn’t fuck my lambs yet asked me anyway just to try to get under my skin.Calculating woman.
“You let her into your home, tainting it, changing it. Changing you.”
She stands in front of me, her back to Serena.The moment I’ve been waiting for, the distraction I needed.I knew she would want my full attention while she tried to sway me with her words. Which gives Zephira the moment she needs to enact her side of our plan.I just hope she does.
“Serena helped form me into the man I was destined to become. Helped steer me away from the killer you wanted me to be.” Cynthia’s brows crease as her lips purse. “You want me to kill the woman I love. You want me to be alone again. Do you know what your rejection did to me?” I slam my hand against my chest, the ache growing as I let out the words I’ve been dying to tell her for so long. “Do you know how long I waited to see youand Dad only to be turned away? Told my parents didn’t want to see me? Is that true? Did Dad turn me away, or was it all you?”
“It was us both.”
“I don’t believe you.” I sneer hovering over her until our chests touch. “Now because of you,” I spit, “I’ll never get the chance to ask him.”
Her eyes widen for a fraction of a second before her calculated mask smooths her features. “I killed the man responsible for your father’s death.” She glances at the dead body behind me. “Jason killed your father, he was desperate to have me all to himself, and when I found that out, I had to get revenge.”
“Cut the shit. I heard your confession. I know you told him to kill Dad. I know Dad didn’t want me to be a killer, so he teamed up with Kara to set the trap that took you both down. I know he wanted me to be happy with Serena.”
