Page 49 of Rose and Shadows
I steeled myself.
He was just inches out from me when Victor made a move.
Jesse was lurching in the next second as Victor punched his fist through his back, all the way to his front, making me choke as his heart was torn from his chest from the brutal move.
It landed at my feet with an awful squelch.
“Shit,” I rasped.
Victor tossed Jesse’s now dead body across the room and it ricocheted off the wall with a thud, ending up in a macabre heap.
“It was far from done,” Victor told me. “It never is with bigots like him. Mercy cannot be allowed. It’s much too dangerous. Mercy is for the deserving, the repentant—not those like him.”
“You shouldn’t get to decide that,” I uttered, grimacing and looking away from both the heart and the sight of Jesse’s corpse.
Wind whipped around me, and then moments later, Victor was right in front of me again. “It’s gone,” he told me, tipping my chin up with his index finger. As he guided my gaze to his, I saw in my peripheral vision that the body and the heart were no longer in the room with us.
“Why would you—”
“It was making you uncomfortable.” He looked confounded. “Your mother may have hid it from you, but she is known to her enemies as decidedly savage and ferociously brutal. Yourfather is a calculating and ruthless force who strikes fear and dark reverence into the hearts of everyone. Yet you…” He smiled. “You are gentle. Your battles at Graverun, being known as the Halfblood Hound, seemed to indicate the direct opposite. And then there’s your performance in actual combat with true enemies that I’ve both witnessed and been on the receiving end of… but those are just survival reactions. Aren’t they? Your Graverun antics are just playtime. Your actions during true battle are far from relished by you. You don’t care for it. You wish only for peace and love with just enough ferocity thrown in to satisfy your wolf and vampire.”
“Stop,” I said, trying to jerk my head away.
But he didn’t release me, so consumed was he with running his fingers through the stubble along my jawline. Kind of like he was in a trance.
And then he murmured,“They are zealots, their beliefs twisted also by notions of power and dominion. It is a rot deeply infecting them all. That cannot simply be cut out, nor cured. It must be terminated in its entirety.”
A chill rolled down my spine.
Those were my dad’s exact words to me a few weeks ago.
He doubled down, quoting yet more from the night my dad had decimated thatPuritasrecruitment summit.“I’ve erased madness to protect innocent lives. Unfortunately, extreme measures are sometimes the only viable options. Especially when it comes to these sorts of bigots. There is no reason prevalent amongst them. And without reason, diplomatic means are impossible. There is only definitive action.”
“Those were Remnant’s words to you, I believe. The night of his massacre that he not only had you bear witness to, but also participate in.”
“How did you—”
“I keep an eye—or ear—on my enemies. And those I covet.”
“I didn’t kill anyone. I wouldn’t just—”
“But you felt guilty, maybe evenless thanfor not being able to do so? Knowing that he had to do it for you instead? The father you’ve craved for so long, whose approval means a great deal to you also?”
I jerked my head to the side.
This time he released me.
But he was still up so close, his eyes fixed on mine so… invasively. “Lazriel, you will not do well in the care of somebody likeRhodric Vallant.”
I jolted. “What? What was that—”
“That? That is his real name.” He shook his head sadly. “You thought you were bonding with your father, developing a relationship with him, but he didn’t even tell you his name. You’re his son, yet you only know him by his alias.”
“I know why he had to keep his identity secret.”
“Yes, his work with The Shadowed. But you’re not just anybody, are you?” He cocked his head to the side. “Or, are you?”
“Shut up,” I seethed.
