Page 98 of Rose and Shadows
And now… he’d fully accepted his vampire side and reconciled it with his wolf in such a powerful and poignant way. He’d fought through his abandonment fears and formed this familial unit with us. And he was building a strong relationship with his father.
With a burst of speed, Arthur, one of Remnant’s top lieutenants arrived with a feeder in tow for Lazriel. Although Lazriel would be escorted by Cassius to Rhyza, who was at the headquarters of the Shifter Stabilization Unit under heavy wards, before our Immortal then headed out with Velra, Remnant and I weren’t taking any chances. He needed to feed properly, to be at his strongest. Although the Victor threat had been nullified, there was stillPuritaswho wanted Lazriel buried. Him being taken once was fucking bad enough—never again.
I watched Remnant say goodbye. Lazriel waved over at me.
And then Remnant burst over to me. “Let’s make haste.”
My eyes narrowed at what was coming—dealing with that demented motherfucker.
“Yes.Let’s,”I ground out, before sweeping us up in a cloud of crimson teleportation.
Bound and broken.
More mess than monster now.
And the most darkly delectable part of it was that we hadn’t even truly started yet.
There Victor Halrow was, his head in his cuffed hands as he sat on the dirtied, damp floor of the cell that had once been home to Sorin—before Cassius had done the world a favor and ripped that twisted fucker’s life away.
The creak of the cell door as Remnant and I stepped inside and I sealed it closed behind us, had his head jerking up.
He’d been drowning so deeply in his thoughts that he hadn’t even registered our approach, something decidedly shocking for an Ancient.
Good.He was damaged. And clearly feeling that damage painfully.
His gaze flicked between us, then went to the door, trying to see into the corridor. Heavy disappointment played on his features when he realized nobody was there.
I gritted my teeth when it became immediately apparent to me that he’d been expecting Lazriel.
That fury was given further breath when he actually dared to fucking voice it.
“You didn’t bring him?” He ran a shaking hand through his mussed up shock of ebony hair, his chains rattling.
The shaking was a result of us drying him out. He hadn’t fed for days, but that wasn’t enough to weaken an Ancient so I’dsped up the process with magic. Right now he would be feeling like he hadn’t ingested a drop of blood for decades.
The chains were essentially for degradation’s sake. Fucking payback for what he’d done to Lazriel—chaining him up like a possession, one he’d wanted to warp to his liking.
Sick piece of—
“My pretty thing.”
My eyes flamed with my power at the broken emotional plea spilling from him for Lazriel.
Remnant stepped in front of me and strode toward Victor.
He crouched down before him and then snagged his jaw in a vise-grip—flipping one of Victor’s signature moves against him. “He was never yours, could never be, and will never be.”
“Because he’s your son,” Victor struggled to utter against Remnant’s brutal grip.
“No. Lazriel is not my possession. He has agency, his own wants and needs, hopes and dreams, his ownwill. He doesn’t exist to serve. He belongs only to himself.” He hissed. “He is not a doll, not a plaything. Not a mind to warp into a version that pleases you down to every minute detail. That is not love. It’s projection and empty, dangerous obsession.” He tightened his hold and I heard a crack of bone as Victor grunted. “What you did was beyond control, beyond being a supposed apex predator as you have been so unduly fixated on for too many years. You did what filth does. You proved that is truly what you are now, how very far you have fallen.” Remnant’s fangs dropped and he jerked Victor to him, just shy of driving them into his throat. Victor trembled under the authority of his sire up so close and personal as Remnant seethed, “You took away his choice.”
He released him abruptly, but remained crouched in front of him. He had such a powerful physical presence, that even not standing or looming, he served as a mammoth threat anddominating force. “In this life, without choice we are nothing. We have nothing.”
“I wanted him to be mine. It wasn’t just—”
“You wanted him to beme.”
“I—”
