A Promise of Torment (A Violent Agenda)

VIOLA

Dino is looking at me like I’m about to bite his head off and eat him for dinner. I might just do that. The darkness inside of me is a fucking storm brewing. If I don’t let it out, it’ll consume me. But unlike all the times before when the Devil has come knocking, demanding blood—I’m calm.

Dino doesn’t leave until I pick up the crossbow and point it at him. Finally, he gets it and leaves down the side pathway. As soon as we’re alone, I drop the bow. The floor of the church is filled with debris and dead leaves which rustle as I kneel down. I tilt my head, breathing in deeply and out as I close my eyes.

The whispers inside my head are the loudest they’ve ever been.

This kill is mine, all mine. I’ve earned it.

I don’t bother trying to move Kristian again. I wanted him at the altar, a fitting end to him, in my mind—it was a wedding he wanted after all. But my wrist is still broken. I just use what I have. He’s drugged. He’s not going to be able to move. Shame. I like my men to be awake when I carve my love into their hearts.

As the trees rustle and the cold of the night draws in, I bend down and get to work with my knife.

Blood, blood, and more blood.

Against the dirty tiled floor of the church, it’s pretty.

He wakes up halfway in, screaming as I dig my nails into his flesh. He’s begging me to kill him.

“Shhhhhh,” I say, pushing a slick, wet, red finger against his lips. He’s crying. Crying isn’t enough. I shove the blade in deeper, making him scream again instead. The release comes like a tsunami as soon as I see the fear in his eyes.

I haven’t killed him…yet.

But I’m close.

He knows it too.

“I’m s…sorry, Viola. I can’t let you do this to him,” says a choked-up voice behind me. “I can’t ignore the dice.”

What dice?

I spin around at the sound and see my savior like a white knight I don’t fucking need or want. “He’s still my brother,” he says, eyes gleaming in the moonlight, wet with tears.

I don’t understand what he’s saying until it’s too late. He raises the gun and pulls the trigger, blowing a hole in Kristian’s head, killing him outright.

That was my kill.

Rage chokes my chest, and a scream erupts from my throat. I launch myself at Dino, slashing and screaming…anything to take the pain away. And he just stands there and doesn’t try to stop me, embracing me.

It takesall of them to pull me off him. He’s soaked in blood. Eyes closed. And he’s not moving.

Dino.

No, no, no…

A strong arm locks around my waist, and a firm hand circles my undamaged wrist preventing me from moving it. Someone hauls me to the other side of the church carcass, squeezing hard so I drop the knife. The sharp tang of blood sticks in my throat as I try to speak. No words come out. None.

My chest is tight, my heart raw. Chlorine and ash, the smell of it, draws sanity back from somewhere lost inside.

“V, you need to come back to me.”

It’s Dante who has me.

“Dino,” I croak, feeling a dam burst in my core and all the pain flood into every part of my body. I’m limp in his arms. Lost in them. “Dino?” I ask, desperate, watching Lorcan pump his chest and give him the kiss of life. There’s blood on Lorcan’s hands and face. There’s blood all over Dino.

And me.

There’s blood everywhere.