Blood Purple (Blood Series)

by Ashley Nemer

CHAPTER TWENTY

 

  Waking up in a cold sweat, his heart pounding and his mind racing, Dominic looked around the room. He couldn’t remember when these dreams started happening, just that they had been going on for as long as he could remember. At least two hundred years. He lay back on the pillow and closed his eyes; he knew what the dream was from. He remembered what his abb used to do to him.

   “Dominic damn it, what is wrong with you? Can you do nothing right?” Haydar yelled while smacking his ebn’ in the head. “You are such a disappointment. All you had to do was kill her. How fucking hard is that. You’re bigger, you’re stronger and you’re a fucking Algula!” He hit the back of Dominic’s head harder; this time causing his neck to whiplash.

  “Abb, I couldn’t. Nothing I can do to change that. The woman was nice and I can’t kill someone; I’m not like everyone else. I’m not a monster like you.”

  Haydar grabbed Dominic by the throat, lifting him off the ground and shaking him. “Boy, you listen to me. If you do not grow a pair of balls and take your place in this family, you will be out on the streets. You can go live with your bitch amma for all I care. Live up to your blood line! We are killers. We do not let people live. We seduce, we eat, and we kill. End of story. Stop sniveling like a baby. Derrik! Get in here now!” 

   Derrik came in from the other room and saw his akh being held up in the air by his abb. He knew what was going to come next, what always came next. He went to the closet and grabbed their abb’s most valued possession, his whip. “Here you go, abb.” Dominic looked at his akh; his arms started to flail, trying to free himself from his abb’s grasp. “Stop this, abb. You have to stop; you can’t do this! It’s not his fault. Don’t hurt him!”

  Haydar tossed Dominic to the ground while he begged for his akh’s safety then signaled for Derrik to turn around. He cracked the whip in the air next to Derrik’s head. “Dominic, you want to be a leader? You want to control others? You need to kiss compassion goodbye. Maybe this will show you what compassion gets you.”

  Dominic watched as his abb took the whip and cracked it against Derrik’s back. Derrik clenched his hands, cringing as his abb whipped him over and over. “Abb stop!” Dominic yelled as he charged at Haydar. Haydar grabbed Dominic’s shirt, pulling him to his chest staring him in the eye.

   “Do you think I should stop?” he asked, spitting out the words. Dominic nodded and tears streamed down his face. “Derrik, take the whip now. Come over here. We are going to teach your akh how to be a man.” Dominic watched Derrik approach slowly and hesitantly, both of the boys’ souls breaking inside and neither aware of how to help the other. Only one of them was showing the fear they both were feeling. Haydar ripped off Dominic’s shirt, exposing his bare flesh. “Derrik, you are to beat him till he bleeds on every inch of his back. If you stop, you will be next.”

   Dominic lowered his head. He knew his akh had no choice, but he hated him just the same for doing it. Derrik took the whip, and with a flick of his wrist, the snap in the air chilled the room as the flesh was broken and the first drops of blood were exposed. Dominic’s body shivered as the pain flowed through his bones. Haydar grabbed him and moved Dominic onto the whipping post. “You aren’t man enough to stand still without running are you?” Locking his hands in place, he went and sat on the couch and watched Derrik, the only ebn’ he could be proud of, beat his useless ebn’. Hopefully teaching him that compassion would get him killed.

  Derrik felt the tears starting to form, but he fought himself. He knew if he showed their abb any weakness, he would be next. Taking the whip and swinging it over and over at his akh’s flesh, the singing sound of the whip in the air killed him as his arm started to tire. His akh couldn’t stand. Nothing on his back was clean; nothing was free from blood and welts. He looked to his abb for direction. “Derrik, go put the whip up and clean yourself off. We will go hunting later tonight.

  “Yes, abb.” Putting the whip away, he left the room without looking back. 

   “You see what weakness gets you, Dominic? Pain. Nothing but pain.” Dominic couldn’t talk, his voice tired from the screaming and crying. Haydar took out his knife and waved it in front of Dominic. “A boy has to learn at a young age that he should always listen to his abb, so I’ll leave you a memory of today… Every time you see it, you’ll know I am watching, and I am always right.”

   Haydar took the knife and pressed it into the flesh of Dominic’s left arm, engraving an H so he would always remember abb knew best.

   Dominic opened his eyes, blinking two tears out as he heard the phone ring. Who the hell wanted to talk this early in the morning? Reaching over and looking at the caller ID, he said, “He really is the fucking devil.” 

  Reluctantly he answered. “Hello, abb.” 

  “Dominic, tell me you have the bitch locked up and in custody,” Haydar said through the phone, his tone full of venom and resentment.

  Dominic took a few breaths, trying to organize his thoughts. “No, I don’t, but I know that Zayn has also lost her and doesn’t know where she is. I’ll get her, don’t worry.”

  “Don’t worry? You have never had any skills that were useful, and you tell me not to worry? You were supposed to just stay back, and I’m sure somehow you fucked this up too for Hamza and Derrik. I just don’t know how. I’ll be there in 24 hours. If you don’t have her for me to feed on, I’ll be draining your blood in her stead.” 

   Dominic heard silence on the line. His abb always was one for the dramatic approach. He couldn’t ever do anything rational. He tossed the phone, relishing how it crashed into the wall. He wouldn’t need to communicate with his abb anymore. After he killed his bitch bent amty, he would kill his abb and take over the charge against the King.

   Getting out of bed, he slipped on his pants then moved to the bathroom. Looking in the mirror, he saw the H on his shoulder. He slowly counted to ten, trying to regain his composure. He was glad Derrik was dead. He was a useless akh, always siding with the asshole. If they just let him do what he wanted they would have killed everyone back in 1777, but no, Haydar always had to do it his way, and Derrik always followed along. They had both blamed him, like he had control over mama dying. Like it was his fault she bled out while giving birth to him. His abb always reminded him how he was a let down from the start.

   “You are nothing but a burden on this family! All you do is drain it of anything worth having. Get out of my sight. I don’t want you to come home for a week. Useless fucking ebn’!” Dominic looked up at his abb, not understanding what he had done wrong this time.

  “But Abb, I didn’t do anything. Where am I supposed to go?” Dominic ducked as a bowl was hurled at his head. He heard it break against the wall behind him.

  “She is dead because of you. You just had to be born. You have always been ass backwards. You had to come out that way. You killed my Sarah!” Dominic started crying. He looked for someone to help him, but no one was in the room.

  “Abb, I’m but a child. Where do you want me to go?” He sniffled and wiped away his tears.

  “I don’t care where you go, just get the fuck out!” Haydar grabbed Dominic by the collar and threw him out of the door.

   Dominic heard his abb lock the door from the other side, his heart crushed. Ten years old, what was he supposed to do for a week out alone with no family? 

  Coming back to reality, Dominic decided the only thing to do was set a trap for his abb and Zayn, kill them both at once, then take over everything. There was no better way to take over than if both his male competitors were out of the way. He pulled out his computer to do research on the local area and where to best set the trap. He had to decide though… He knew one thing for certain; he was going to make sure his abb’s death was slow, bloody, and intensely painful.