Page 91 of High Stakes and Soulmates
His hand slackens and his body grows heavier as a sob escapes me. “You’re going to watch her grow. I bet she won’t be as proper as you were. You were so boring growing up, always doing just as Father said. I bet she’ll get into everything because you’re not going to be tough enough with her. You’re going to be such a better father than the one we had. You’re not going to be…”
Valley stops and I realize that we’re at the barn. The sudden movement pushes Lorenzo’s weight onto my crushed hand and I start to lose him. I can’t lose him. I can’t drop him. I can’t let him down.
“It’s going to be okay,” I whisper, trying to slide off while holding him. My wounded leg gives out and I crash to the ground, Lorenzo falling onto me. “It’s going to be okay. It’sgoing to be okay. She’s going to meet her father. She’s going to love you.”
But I know that everything I’m saying is nothing more than lies. He’s never going to see her laugh. He’s never going to see her cry. He’s never even going to be able to see her at all… because he’s never going to see anything ever again. And it’s all my fault, isn’t it?
“No, no, please,” I beg.
He’s my only family. He’s all I have. If I don’t have Arturo, and I don’t have Lorenzo, I don’t have anything. I’m just locked into this darkness where I sink deeper and deeper.
“Lorenzo, please,” I beg, but I know better than anyone that once someone is dead, they’re not coming back no matter how much you beg.
A sob escapes me while I dig my fingers into his arm and bury my head against his chest. All I can smell is blood… it’s choking me. I’m drowning in it.
Stefano rushes out. “What the fuck happened? Who did this? Is he dead?”
“That fucking monster,” I whisper. “That fucking monster.”
The other soldiers in our unit flood out as Stefano hovers above me.
“I’m going to kill him,” he snarls.
“No!” I plead. “He’s a monster. He is not human. You can’t kill him.”
The noise they make drowns me out. I struggle to push Lorenzo off my lap and grab for Stefano. “I said no!” I snarl. “He will kill all of you.”
“He is one man.”
“He has many others! They are all monsters! They aren’t human! Lorenzo shot him in the head with a bolt and he healed. I stabbed him again and again and he healed.”
“If he’s that hurt, he should be easy to dispose of,” Stefano says.
“He is a MONSTER,” I yell.
“Monsters are nothing but fairy tales.”
“No! He will kill you! Stop!” I cry. And when he mounts his horse, I lunge for the horse closest to me. I try to pull them to a stop but I’m pushed off. “He will kill you. He will kill all of you. Please! I beg of you. Please don’t go.”
I try to reach for Valley. I need to stop them, but how?
My leg goes out from under me and I hit hard on my knees while they disappear into the darkness, no matter how much I plead.
“Fuck. Fuck. FUCK,” I scream. I know I need to get up. I know I need to stop them, but I can’t even get my leg under me. And even if I could… I realize I’m a coward. I don’t want to go back out there. I don’t want to face that monster again, not like this. Not when I can barely stand.
I don’t have long to contemplate any of this. I’m still sitting in front of the barn with my brother laid out before me when I see someone walking out of the darkness. It’s like the shadows envelop him as I hear his footsteps, and a part of me knows that the only reason I hear him is because he wants me to, which chills me.
He’s carrying something, and it takes me far too long to realize that they’re bodies. He carries them like they weigh nothing and doesn’t stop until he’s standing right in front of me. Slowly, I look up at him as he drops three bodies onto the ground before me.
“Do you want the rest?” Louis asks, voice so casual as he glances down at the three dead he dropped. “If you do, I can cover you in the bodies of your people until you realize how weak you are. They’re all just beyond that last house. Every lastone of them, blood soaking into the earth. I can still hear one of them choking on their final breath.”
Then he kneels down and presses his lips close to my ear. “I’m going to destroy your life. I’m going to make you wish you were dead.”
A part of me already does.
Louis stands up and pats me on the head before turning around and disappearing into the night.
Dawn is coming, and I know I have to do something with the dead. But more than anything… I know every second counts.
