Page 47 of Be My Sinner

“We are…not here…to hurt you, Atasi. We…don’t want…to harm you.” I try to convey the truth of my words with my expression, and lower the blade to my side. My breathing is coming harshly into my chest. Fear is starting to fly through my body for Zeke. I have to get to Zeke. I can’t let that fucker hurt him.

A murderous rage fills my bloodstream at the thought of never seeing Zeke again. No! I won’t let that happen. He is mine, and I am his, and no one gets to take him away from me. He’s all I have left in this world.

What about Atasi?My mind questions.

My eyes meet hers, blue-gray clashing with amber. I can see destruction glaring back at me. She is not my Atasi anymore. If she forces my hand, if Zeke’s life depends on it, I must take her life, as much as it will destroy me. My heart clenches painfully in my chest with the mere thought of that light in her eyes dimming, and then vanishing from this earth. Her features are so similar to her brother’s, a man I loved, whose death nearly destroyed me.Can I really kill her?

“What a shame, Abraham, ’cause I definitely want to hurt you.” She snickers, her fingers tightening around the gun and her stance widening. She’s just barely over five fucking feet, but she looks terrifying. An angel of death standing before me.

“We came here to protect you, Dinah. To stop you from killing any more members of the Brotherhood before they realize it’s you.” I want to beg her to stop. I want to drop to my knees and ask her to be my Atasi, not this person she has become, but I can’t. I can’t show her any more weakness than I already have. She is a predator now, and I am her captured prey.

She lets out a high-pitched snort that would be adorable in any other setting. “Stop me? Protect me? I don’t need you to do either. Where were you when my brother needed protection? How about my mother, Abe?”

Her words pierce like daggers, inciting a tumult of emotions I struggle to contain. Once unleashed, they threaten to spiral into a red-hazed fury that could consume everyone, even her. The beast within me yearns to break free, seeking retribution for the pain she’s inflicted, and the venomous words she spews.

“You have no idea what you speak of,” I snarl back at her, my voice sounding animalistic and feral.

“No?” She questions with a raised, condescending eyebrow. “How did it feel when you saw my brother’s lifeless, battered, naked body hanging from that beam, Abe? Or did you string him up there with that coward, Ezekiel?” She fires the gun again, this time just past the side of my knee, so close that I feel the material of my pants give way under the bullet’s grazing.

“Ezekiel is not a coward. We had nothing to do with Gabriel’s death. We loved him. He was our best friend. How could you even think that?” I roar, no longer caring about my own safety, as I take a step towards her.

“Did he find out what sick, deranged fuckers you both are? What the both of you do to poor women, to women conditioned not to fight back? How about what you do to each other? Is that what happened? Is that why you had to silence him? Or was it because he spoke out against the treatment of women, and you needed him to stop trying to bring change?”

Her finger tightens on the trigger once more, and I know her aim will be true this time. She’s going to try to kill me, as I stand here listening to these blasphemous words leave her mouth. I lunge just as she fires and tackle her to the ground using all my weight.

The shot hits me in the side of my abdomen, and a sharp cry leaves my lips. The pain instantly burns through me and makes me clutch at my side with my already bloody hands. The blade I had is long gone now. I groan in intense pain as Dinah pushes me off of her and scrambles away from me. Her breathing is loud to my ears, along with the sound of my own blood rushing through my body.

FUCK! I can’t believe that she actually pulled the trigger. She shot me without the slightest hesitation. Part of me is filled with pride for how fierce she has become. The other part rages that we are about to die at the hands of a mad woman. One who we adored for a good portion of our miserable life. It’s almost comical that this is how I will leave this cunt of a world.

My vision dims momentarily as I try to blink the darkness away and grit my teeth. I press hard into the wound to stem the blood leaving my body in a rapid river. “I loved Gabriel,” I grit out between clenched teeth. “Loved…him. Not…as a…brother.More.”

My breathing has picked up, and I can barely get the words out with all the pain wracking my body simultaneously. My vision is getting dimmer and dimmer even though daylight is all around us. Sunlight shimmers off the green leaves before me, surrounding Dinah’s form, weaving patterns everywhere it touches. It’s beautiful here.Peaceful.

All the blood loss from my various wounds is finally catching up to me. I can feel my body getting heavier and heavier. My eyes try to meet Dinah’s, but she’s more shadow than anything else now.

Is this the end for me?Do I die here on this forest floor, murdered in cold blood by a girl I used to care for deeply? By the sister of one of the men I have loved the most in my life but betrayed. What a fucked up slice of fate I have been served.

My last thought, before darkness takes me is of Zeke. Is he, too, lying on the forest floor dead by the hands of her guard? Will the two of us be finally joining Gabriel in the ever after?

“Love him,” my words slur out of my mouth as oblivion calls to me.

Chapter 23

The Forsaker

Zeke

Imoveslowlythroughthe thick foliage, a sense of dread invading my already battered and weary body. All the hairs on the back of my neck and arms stand on end. I can feel eyes on me, but I can’t pinpoint what direction it’s coming from. Is it Dinah getting ready to kill me or her protector?

The fucking white knight who thinks she belongs to him. The one whose guts I’m going to rip out of his body and strangle him with, while I make my little Snow watch. So she realizes what kind of monster she’s playing with.

Does it fucking matter?My mind screams.They are both trying to kill us!

It matters. She could have killed me before, but she hesitated. Will she attempt it once more, perhaps this time see it through? I want to believe she could never go through with it, never genuinely inflict harm upon me. Alas, I know such thoughts are mere fantasies. Wishful thinking of a boy who once adored a little girl, a princess who looked likeSnow White.

I don’t know her anymore, the woman she has evolved into. This killer who is going around ending men’s lives. She is no longer my little, untainted Snow. Her image in my memories is of a pretty girl with a gorgeous sun-filled smile that used to bring nothing but warmth to my life. Now, I have to replace that image with one of a ruthless killer.

She is a murderer, a vicious one at that. Not only a cold-blooded killer but a serial killer. One who tortures her victims and leaves their bodies mutilated, and in grotesque forms. This is who she is now; this is my Snow. The sooner I make peace with it, the easier it will be to do what I know I might have to do. I can’t allow her to continue to kill members of the Order, regardless if those fuckers deserve it or not.

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