Page 72 of Our Little Monster
I wanted him to forget about her and the rest of the Velika line and any other hunters out there that did well to keep the balance of things. But we all knew nobody would get in the way of his goals. No matter how many of the Vampires he had changed over the past year, it was hard to get any of them on our side.
The ones who decided to help us did their best to stay in line but the ones who didn’t, well, they met their end while we would be out on a patrol or in some other way, a completeaccidentof course.
We ensured it didn’t look like we were the ones taking them out.
But Nox made a grave mistake. The pub was the second meeting where everyone in the group was killed by Serina, and someone had reported him there.
It made him look bad. It made him look like he knew the hunter responsible for the killings, putting Victor back on Serina’s trail.
Granted, I couldn’t blame him. I would have done the same to protect Serina, but the mistake he made was to bring her with him in the first place. All of this could have been prevented if he would have just left Serina home.
Now Victor wanted answers, and I refused to let him torture them out of Nox or Thorne, so I decided he could take out his frustration on me instead.
I had a feeling he would kill Nox without a second thought, and I wouldn’t let him have the opportunity to murder one of the only people I considered a brother, considered family.
Victor wouldn’t kill me, not unless he knew with absolute certainty that I had backstabbed him and even then, I didn’t know if he would be strong enough to do it.
I was the first he ever turned. Victor had treated me like a son, tucking me under his wing like a bird who had fallen out of a nest. And although he was a cruel beast, I knew he wouldn’t be able to kill me. Though, he had gotten me very close to death during my time here.
The chains dug into my wrists and ankles, and the ache from the hunger, the thirst, set in the strongest on the third day in here. Now that it was day six, the hunger had gotten so strong that I would feast on a Vampire at this point.
There was nothing reflective in this room, but I was sure my eyes were black from the need to feed. I was no longer able to hold back the beast behind my skin.
Every day Victor came in and asked the same questions with his ability to compel me—compel anyone. The stupid ability that came with his age.
And every day, he got the same lies because before he would come, I would pinch off a small piece of vervain from the hiding spot I kept it in and force myself to eat it as it scorched my throat and burned the whole way down. The plant only weakened me further, but it would keep Victor from being able to compel me into giving him any answers.
He would ask all of his questions, and I could lie through my teeth.
The vervain was the only reason I couldn’t rip out of these chains and destroy all of them myself. Well, all of them except Victor.
Admittedly, I wasn’t sure I could defeat him. He was older than I was. I certainly couldn’t defeat him with vervain in my system, but it was the only way to keep him out of my head.
A few months before her dad died, we had been compelled to watch Serina. We watched her long enough to know she was capable of anything, even being the delicate human she was.
Unfortunately, it took us too long to get out from under Victor's compulsion, and we weren’t able to save her father.
And now Victor had his own little puppet army and we’ve been playing along with his games.
Waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike.
Victor had kept me in this room for days, and the only reason I knew it had been days was because of the shift change.
He was only allowing those closest to him to monitor me while he was away, ensuring I didn’t escape, but with how starved I was on top of the vervain, I wouldn’t be getting out of here until he let me go.
Which he would. This wasn’t the first time I had seen him torture someone to get his point across, however it was the first time that I was the one being tortured.
But I preferred it this way. Unlike him, I was willing to sacrifice for those that I loved.
Love for Thorne and Nox.Lovefor Serina…
Is that what had been stirring in my chest for all the time she was spending with us in the house? Or was it there even before then when we had been watching her from a distance?
All the pent-up tension burning between the four of us as we spent days and nights together cooped up in that house… I couldn’t stop myself from kissing her that day; I could practically taste her want for me in the air, and I couldn’t hold back.
I needed her to know that I wanted her just as much and that I’d wait however long it took for her to figure that out for herself.
But I also didn’t know for sure when I’d be back.
