Page 46 of Ashes
“Remove the towel and lie down on your stomach.”
There’s something commanding in his voice that I do as he says without even thinking about it.
My bottom still aches, and I still have marks on my skin.
Something cold drips onto my ass, and I flinch.
But then I feel Victor’s hand as he gently massages my sore cheeks.
“This is going to help your skin heal faster,” he says softly as his fingers keep caressing me while he spreads what has to be some kind of lotion over my skin.
It feels so damn good that I lean into his touch.
“Have you ever thought about what you’d like to do if you were free to choose?” he asks.
“When my brother was alive, I actually had a plan.” A smile tilts my lips. “Alex promised that once he was in charge, he’d let me do whatever I wanted. We were hoping that would be sooner rather than later. He thought I might want to go to college, and I believed I wanted it too, but then I realized I wanted something else.”
“What was it?”
“I wanted to be my own boss. Alex agreed. He said we could both rule. We wanted to divide our family territory between us. First, he’d teach me everything I needed to know, and then, I’d take over, and we’d grow stronger and more powerful as we worked together.”
“And after he was gone?”
I should just stop talking, but I don’t want to. “Now, I only want to find the person who killed him and end their miserable existence.”
“Once you do that, then what?”
“I haven’t really thought about it,” I admit. “I guess I never really thought I’d survive after that. Either my father would kill me for what I did or someone else would.”
“If you survived through all that, would you still like to rule?”
“If I had anything to rule, then yes. I guess I would like that.” But it’s a silly dream.
Nothing else.
“What about you?” I ask. “What was your plan?”
“I was supposed to be helping my father and then my brother,” he says.
“And now?”
“And now I know what I want. I’ll take over one day. I just have to decide when that will be.”
“Have you ever thought about doing something else? When I was a kid, I wanted to be a teacher because I had this wonderful teacher who would come to my house. She was really nice.”
“Yes. I wanted to play soccer. I was just a kid, and I thought that I was free to choose and that it was easy to leave this life.”
“Would you still like to do that?” I push myself up and look over my shoulder at him.
“Not really. I haven’t played in years.”
“I don’t want to be a teacher either anymore. I don’t even like kids.”
We both burst into laughter.
When we’re like this, I’m almost... happy, I guess.
It’s the strangest of feelings.
