“I haven’t f**ked her,” Lucien replied truthfully and I thanked God at that moment that it was, indeed, the truth. Then, presenting more evidence he was the demented sort of vampire, Lucien finished with, “Yet.”
Her fisted hands slammed into the walls at her sides breaking clean through the drywall before her body started thrashing wildly to gain release.
In a delayed effort of self-preservation, I took several hasty steps back.
Settle, pet. I’ll not let her hurt you. You’re safe. Lucien’s voice sounded in my head and it was just his voice, not a command, my body was at my will.
Even so, I stopped moving.
Suddenly, Katrina tensed from the top of her head to her toes. She tilted her head back and let out a wild screech that hurt my ears and it felt like it even shook the windows.
After she was done, her eyes sliced to me.
“I’m going to kill her,” she screamed.
My body grew tense but I stayed still.
Lucien’s voice was a snarl. “You touch her, f**k, Rina, after this you even look at her, you’ll f**king burn.”
Her gaze moved to Lucien and she changed her threat. “Then I’m going to kill you.”
Instantly, to my shock and despair, he dropped her and stepped back. His hands went out to his sides and he issued a one word invitation.
“Try.”
A roar of fury tore from her throat and she lunged.
That was pretty much all I saw with any clarity.
They were too fast, too powerful, all their movement was a blur. Every once in a while Lucien would pin her and they’d come into focus but she’d escape and their movements would become indistinct.
The table in the hall was turned over, the vase on it shattering into pieces, those pieces kicked wildly about as they moved.
I took two more steps back, these up the stairs when I heard Lucien again in my brain, Still, pet.
I stilled. I didn’t want to. I didn’t even know why I did. I just did.
Even though I didn’t see it I knew it was brutal, savage even. The noises they made, her grunts of pain and effort, Lucien’s grunts solely of effort, the sounds of fists against flesh, the noise of bodies colliding, all of this slashed through the air.
I had felt a great deal of fear in the last few weeks but I’d never been so terrified in all my life than I was at that moment.
This was because I was witnessing something extraordinarily vicious.
This was also because I was witnessing, no matter how indistinct, Lucien beating the shit out of his wife.
If he ever got physical with me in that way he’d kill me in seconds.
My body started trembling and I wanted to run, I really did, but my fear rooted me to the spot.
Finally, Katrina came into focus, her body slamming against the door making its heavy, solidness shake.
She stopped, as did Lucien facing her but slightly turned to the side. I could see bloody, angry scratch marks marring his chest and neck.
She was far worse for the wear, her nose bleeding profusely, her lip cut, angry red marks at her neck and wrists.
At the sight of what Lucien had done to her, a violent tremor shook through my body nearly bringing me to my knees.
“I got the Severance papers this morning,” she spat at him as she wiped the back of her hand under her nose, smearing the blood across her face.
Her words confused me.
“You don’t say?” he retorted carelessly.
Her face twisted with rage. “You’d throw me away for a mortal?”
My astonished, frightened eyes moved to Lucien.
“Look at her, Rina, she’s no mere mortal,” Lucien clipped.
Katrina didn’t look at me, instead she snapped, “Yes, I forgot. She’s life.”
What did that mean?
Any of it!
Lucien took an ominous step closer to her and I watched her quail, her bravado slipping, she’d learned her lesson far faster than any he’d ever taught me.
“I lost you the minute you laid eyes on her,” she accused, her voice turning small.
“You lost me two seconds after The Claiming and you know it,” he returned sharply. She flinched because clearly, whatever the hell that meant, she did know it.
I flinched for her. It was hard not to feel sorry for her. She wasn’t pathetic, she was just broken.
Her gaze shifted to me and it narrowed.
“Are you enjoying this?” she asked, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
It was safe to say I was not.
I was saved from having to reply when Lucien gritted out, “Look at me, Rina, don’t look at Leah. She no longer exists for you.” When she didn’t obey immediately, he thundered, “Fucking look at me!”
She did, so did I, anyone would.
“Keep her safe, Lucien,” she whispered, her tone disturbing, so disturbing it sent a chill straight through me.
“You touch her, you’ll burn.” Lucien’s voice was just as disturbing, more so.
I didn’t know Katrina, her threat could be empty. I knew Lucien, his threat was not.
“Yes, but you don’t get it Lucien. I’ll be happy to burn because while I burn I’ll know you’ll be facing eternity without your precious life.”
Lucien’s body tensed the way it had done earlier, his muscles coming into sharp relief, menacing, sinister.
I held my breath. Then I heard the backdoor open.
“Yoo hoo!” Edwina called. “There’s a car in the drive! Do we have… oh!”
Edwina stopped speaking. The backdoor had a direct shot to the front door down a wide hall off of which four rooms led. Edwina couldn’t see me but she could likely see Lucien and Katrina. And you didn’t have to have extra sensory perception to feel the crackling animosity in the air not to mention Katrina’s face was a bloody mess.
“You backed a losing horse, Edwina,” Katrina called apropos of absolutely nothing. “Everyone knows about Leah. He kissed her at the bar at a f**king Feast for all the world to f**king see.”
This too confused me and I heard Edwina’s shocked gasp from not too far away so I knew it surprised her which confused me all the more.
“The Council will investigate,” Katrina went on and I saw Edwina come into my vision at the side of the stairs.
Her face was pale.
“Investigate?” Edwina asked the question on the tip of my tongue.
“You know they will,” Katrina stated, her eyes sliding to Lucien. “I’ll make sure of it.”
Lucien was standing with his arms crossed on his chest like he was watching a vaguely annoying street performer who had roped him into his routine.