Page 133 of Live To Tell

“I see you, little hybrid, strangling the sense from Violet. You want to kill me? Go ahead, but you won't kill the roots of our crusade to get rid of your father.”

You can't kill Viktor.

But he can't live.

Viktor can't survive and leave to hurt more people. Madison. The shifters. Kai. And how many more past or future?

No. You can’t kill.

He'll disappear. If I let Viktor go, he’s gone forever.

I suck in a breath. I'm not the hybrid arguing with Violet in my mind. Rowan. He's below us, trying to break Viktor’s wards.

Wait, Violet.

Low snarls come from me as the hybrid tries to shove away the interfering voice.

“And do you know who's next?” he whispers, stupid enough to point the blade tip at me. “Not tonight, or when you expect, but soon.”

“Kai,” I spit back. “And you’ll fail again.”

“Trent couldn't remember her name, but I know who she is.” The malevolence in his grin—in every ounce of evil surrounding him blinds any remnant of control, because before he says the name I’ve already unleashed. “Holly.”

I scream in his face, baring my teeth, veins filling with furious energy. I’m unaware if the injuries the hybrid plans are memories absorbed from Dorian, or stories he's told me, but as I hold Viktor to the wall with both hands all I can see is his skull smashed open, the mess he'd leave on the wall as he slid to the ground. How I could be the one to take his heart and watch its final beat.

For the first time, Viktor’s arrogance switches to fear, face draining of color and eyes flickering with a terror that the hybrid loves.

“Too far, Viktor,” I say, calmly, and clamp my hands on either side of his head until he cringes in pain. “You’ve threatened my guys, who can protect themselves. But now you’ve threatened Holly, and I've no choice but to end your life first.”

“Then you'll lose,” he rasps out. “The first time you kill, you’re lost, Violet Blackwood.”

My arms shake as my clawed nails dig into his scalp, ignoring his desperate slicing at me with his tiny knife. A few fateful seconds is all it would take to pull him back, smack his head, and destroy the brain of a man who's a curse to this world.

I take a deep breath, relishing the terrified knowledge in Viktor’s eyes that he’s about to die. My father’s best kills happened when he had control, when he soothed the savage and bent his hybrid to his will.

As I can.

“Dorian takes pleasure in killing, let's see if I do,” I whisper.

Shards of glass splinter across the room as the window above shatters, and I'm torn away from Viktor. I scream out, guttural, furious, as Grayson holds me to him, and I slash at his hands, thrashing from side to side.

“He has to die!” I scream again.

“You made me promise not to hurt anybody because that's not the way,” he pants out as he struggles to keep his grip on me. “Viktor knows things.”

“Let me go!” I scream, the seething rage switching to Grayson.

I'm a dervish of arms and legs, but the Petrescu proves his point that they're superior to me physically, as Rowan and Viktor are magically.

Viktor snatches his chance and I wail, 'no' as he charges down the steps. Rowan will be there. He'll stop him.

As Grayson's grip loosens, I spin around and circle my hands around his neck instead. He looks up, impassive, as I throw him to the floor and kneel on his chest. “You stopped me killing Viktor and now Holly will die,” I scream.

“Choking me to death won’t change anything. Calm the fuck down, Violet.”

I press fingers harder into his throat, eyes blurring with the tears replacing the mists of fury. This time the blood from the glass cutting Grayson doesn’t affect me, the fear for Holly creating an overriding acrid scent in my nostrils.

“Surely you won’t half-kill me a second time, Violet,” he croaks out. “Once, okay, but twice? I’d take that personally.”

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