Captive (Demonic Games Book 3)
Page 16
He turned to Abe, finding him just as blood-soaked and beaten as he felt. But there was one manner of pride. He carefully held up a button from his shirt between two massive fingers.
“Had to improvise,” he said with a soft smirk. Even that small gesture seemed painful.
“The demon?”
“Doppelganger’s dead,” Abe said. “It had to leave. This, well, this is Frank.”
He directed the words at Draciana. It seemed that this was something Mihail wouldn’t have to explain to his friends. They both seemed to understand just what bargain Mihail had made. Without Frank, without the power she could draw from the castle or the dead, Draciana came to the same bitter conclusion. She looked from Abe to Mihail, ignoring everyone else that filled the room, the castle. Her victims.
“So, how is it to be then, dear grandson?” she asked. “Poison? A noose? Or will you smash my head in like you did that boy?”
“We’ll take you outside,” Mihail said, his stomach tying into knots. “I can’t risk you getting trapped here with us.”
“Exile?” she laughed. “What a lovely word for murder.”
Radu was the first one by her side. He looked broken and exhausted, but his eyes blazed with the desire for vengeance. After passing Mihail the button, Abe approached her right side. Before Radu could grab her arm, Draciana pulled herself away and fixed him with a deathly stare.
“I walk on my own every day of my life. I can make it the final few feet.”
Head held high, hands gently clasped before her, Draciana stalked across the demolished foyer as if she were royalty destined for the guillotine. Abe and Radu followed, the ghosts drifting closer as if vying for the best position. It was Mihail who stepped forward and blocked her path. Lifting one hand, he offered to accompany her. Not lead, but escort her for her final walk. She studied the digits for a moment before fixing her gaze straight ahead and walking on without him.
“You killed grandfather,” Mihail said as he fell into step behind her.
“Is that what he told you?” she smirked.
“Yes.”
“His choices led him to his fate,” she said. “His choices are not my responsibility.”
Rage like he had never felt simmered his blood and clenched his jaw. He balled his hands into fists, desperate for something to hold him back, to help him regain control. His fingers squeezed until his knuckles threatened to pop and his arms shook.
“I didn't survive in this world for him to destroy me,” she continued. “Though I guess it’s fitting that you do.”
A hard lump of burning coal had formed in Mihail’s throat, but his voice came out clear all the same. “Your choices led you here. Not mine.”
A small, cruel smile curled the corner of her lips. “I did what my environment demanded of me. But this hardly needs to be discussed right now.”
“Now is all we've got,” Mihail cut in.
An indefinable expression claimed her face. All Mihail could tell for sure was that shame and remorse were never once featured. She honestly believes she’s done nothing wrong. The thought opened up the pit of his stomach to a gaping, gnawing fear. For the first time, he saw her for what she was. Dangerous. Vindictive. Cruel. And completely blind to anyone else’s humanity.
They approached the drawbridge all too soon. Draciana turned abruptly, her dark eyes meeting Mihail with an intensity that stilled his breath.
“Are you sure that this is what you want to do?” she asked, her voice devoid of fear but sharp with defiance.
“I don’t think what I want has ever mattered,” Mihail said. “The castle is mine. These people are my responsibility. I can’t have you here. I can’t let you keep going like this. And we both know you won’t stop on your own.”
“Does this make you feel powerful?”
“No,” he whispered. It was getting harder to speak as the promise of tears clogged his throat.
“It won’t take long,” Abe promised.
Draciana smiled and turned to walk the final distance. The courtyard was full, their silent witnesses growing restless with their impatience. Still, Mihail couldn’t help but say the few words that plagued his mind.
“I want you to know, that this isn’t how I’m going to remember you. When I think of you, I’m going to remember the woman who laughed and smiled the first day I came back. The little girl who faced a cruel world, a horrible abuse, and fought back. I’ll remember a warrior who battled every day for a better life. And it will haunt me, until my last breath, that you could have been so much more than this if only you chose to be.”
“The only choice I ever made was to survive.”
Abe shook his head. “Do you really want those to be your last words?”
Chin high, she scanned the crowd. She didn’t raise her voice for all to hear, but her words were crisp and precise. “I regret nothing.”
Mihail’s throat swelled shut as hot tears burned the backs of his eyes. He refused to let them fall. Straightening his spine, he glanced to Abe and gave a slight nod. Abe stepped forward, towards Draciana. She hesitated to turn. And in that one lingering moment, she whispered something to Abe that Mihail couldn’t hear. Then she turned and walked, alone, to the edge of the bridge.
Her foot touched the soil and her scream filled the sky.
Abe had been right. It was quick. But it was also painful. She twitched and trembled as her flesh withered over her bones and her eyes sunk into her sockets.
One scream. That was all it took.
She hit the snow the moment it died and that was it. Mihail stared at her frail body. It seemed like there should have been more. Thunder, or lightening, or the mountains themselves joining her in her death throws.
“How could it all mean so little?” Mihail whispered.
He didn’t dare raise his voice any higher. Tears still threatened to break free. He knew well enough that he couldn’t afford to shed them. They’d eat him alive. Mihail drew in a staggered breath as Abe appeared by his side. Gently, with one hand a solid comforting weight on his shoulder, he handed Mihail the music box.
“When you’re ready,” Abe said. “I’ll take care of her.”
“Take care of her?” his voice sounded flat even to his own ears. “How? A ditch? A fire? How do you propose to properly deal with her remains?”
“I was thinking of the field behind my house. The one where wild flowers grow in the spring. Seems a nice enough place as any.”
Mihail swallowed thickly and the lump in his throat but didn’t dare to meet his friend’s gaze.
“Seems more than she deserves,” Radu muttered. “She was a monster.”
“No,” Mihail said. “Only human. Just like the rest of us.” He rushed on before anyone could say anything more, “I need a moment. Alone.”
Abe’s squeezed his shoulder. “Yeah. We’ll be waiting inside. There’s a lot to do. And you should probably eat something.”
“I’ll be in shortly.”
Abe’s fingertips hadn’t left his shoulder before Mihail stopped him again. Keeping his eyes locked on his grandmother’s corpse, he asked the question he didn’t know if he wanted the answer to.
“What did she say to you?”
Abe cleared his throat and seemed to stumble over the words. Finally, with his hand firmly in place, and his face close to Mihail’s so they wouldn’t be overheard, he said.
“Take care of my boy.”
“Only decent thing she said, and she didn’t let me hear it,” Mihail hissed through clench teeth.
“Easier on ya this way.”
Easy, Mihail’s brain struggled with it as if it were a foreign word. Nothing is ever going to be easy again. A few solid pats on his shoulder signaled Abe’s departure. Radu left with him. So did the spirits. He hadn’t realized how much he could feel their presence until they were gone.
When the world had become quiet and Mihail was about to turn away, Draciana’s body gave a small twitch. The first was barely noticeable. But it was f
ollowed by another, sharper one.
Mihail froze in his place, watching. A chill much stronger than the winter cold dug deep to his bones.
The twitching continued, and within seconds, Draciana was lurching to her feet like a puppet pulled up on strings. Her flesh didn’t fill out though, leaving her face mummified, her eyes vacant, her jaw hanging slack and in a silent scream. The creature animating his grandmother couldn’t gather complete control. It walked on her ankles and it flopped around to face him. Her head lobbed back and to one side like it didn’t have the strength to hold itself up. But it smiled. Like twin hooks had caught the edges of her mouth and yanked. It grew until her lips split in the middle, the gash traveling down to the tip of her chin.
“You’ve got what you wanted,” Mihail said to the demon possessing the decomposing remains of his grandmother. “Leave. There’s nothing else here for you.”
“All the souls belong to me.” The demon couldn’t work her throat. Her once soft and reserved voice twisted from a resounding grunt to glass breaking shrill at random.
“No. They’re mine now.”
The demon stepped forward. Mihail held his ground, refusing to give an inch, to look away, as it lumbered over the drawbridge. They were only inches apart when it paused. Its smile died and it glared at Mihail in both confusion and rage. With one hand, Mihail dug into his pocket and pulled out the plain little button Abe had plucked from his own shirt.
“I still have Frank. And with Frank here, the house is strong. I’m strong. We won’t let you enter.”
“They’re mine.” The hiss made fresh blood bubble from between the severed lips.
Mihail safely returned Frank to his pocket and held up the music box. “This is what you’ve been looking for. The coven. Well, most of it. Tereza is in the forest back there, along with her own collection of fledgling demons. You can have them.”
Milky eyes flicked longingly to the box Mihail carefully held beyond reach.
“Take them. And get the hell off my property.”
“Or what?”
“Or go without,” Mihail said. “This isn’t a negotiation. It’s my final and only offer. Take your due. Be satisfied. Leave. Or remain empty handed.”
“I can kill you,” it grinned.
“Probably,” he shrugged. “But you’ll still be empty handed. And I’m pretty sure my friend in there will know a few ways to mess your existence up, even after my demise.”
For a long moment, there was only silence. The silence, the cold, and the hollow feeling inside Mihail’s gut. Then the demon laughed. The amused cackle bounced off of the battlements of the castle and echoed back to him like a thousand voices.
“You really are her flesh and blood,” it grinned. Sobering slightly, it held his gaze and added, “Deal.”
Mihail tossed the box to the animated corpse. It caught it with more dexterity than he would have given it credit for. It gave him another smile, and then it was gone. As if it had never been there to begin with. Simply vanished within the space of a blink.
Mihail turned and cast one look at the ruins that loomed up until the broken spikes were concealed in the night sky. It would take some time, and a lot of effort, but there was hope now that Castle Vaduva could be something beautiful.
A slender hope. Barely there.
But enough to draw Mihail back home again.
* * *
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Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapte
r 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
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