This certainly wasn’t how vampires tended to kill, but I couldn’t lie and say I didn’t get satisfaction watching him suffer.
I remembered all the times the humans had hit me, bruised me, or this one in particular wrapping his meaty hand around my throat until I couldn’t breathe.
“Ada. Baby, come here.”
I heard gunshots in the distance and hurried over to Sebastian. We had to get out of here. We didn’t have time for this, but I couldn’t tell my mate to stop. I didn’t want him to.
“Pick up the knife, sweetheart, and give it to me. He doesn’t have wings, but I’ll cut out the next best thing.” He leaned in and snarled against the human’s ear. “His lungs.”
I found myself bending down and gripping the handle of the blade before bringing it up and staring at it.
It was bloody and dirty, and I wondered how many helpless Otherworld creatures this asshole had hurt with it.
When I looked up, Sebastian had shifted V so his front was to the rocks and his shirt was ripped off, his back now bared.
The human was mumbling, pleading and asking for us to stop. His words fell on deaf ears.
Sebastian held his hand out to me, but I shook my head and faced the human who’d die down here just like so many other innocents had.
“If we had time, I’d want his lungs cut out,” I murmured. “Turn him around, Sebastian.” My mate did what I asked instantly. “You don’t deserve an easy death. You deserve to suffer for days, weeks. But we don’t have time for that.”
I took a step closer and saw Sebastian tighten his hand around the human’s neck.
“You broke a part of me, tainted the full happiness I could have had. You deserve torture and pain.” I didn’t realize tears rolled down my cheeks until I tasted the saltiness of them at the corners of my mouth. “But I’m not a monster. Not like you,” I whispered. “Today you get mercy.”
As if Sebastian knew my plans, he adjusted his hold so he had a heavy hand on V’s chest. The man flared unsuccessfully, but his time was up.
And with that thought, I brought the blade across the human’s throat, slicing his neck from ear to ear until the wound gaped open and blood gushed out.
Sebastian let him fall to the floor. The human’s hands immediately went to his neck. He was making wet, gurgling sounds as if he were trying to close the wound.
But there was so much blood, the carotid artery having been severed so there was no hope for him.
We didn’t wait to watch him die. Sebastian took my hand, and we left, running back down the corridor to the exit. If anyone got in our way, Sebastian easily took them out. He snapped necks, ripped out tracheas, or broke their backs and let them suffer. No human or Otherworld was safe from my mate’s wrath if they got in our way.
I felt like we ran and ran and ran and there was no end in sight, the smoke filling the tunnels so thickly I was having a hard time breathing. Then there it was, twenty feet ahead, the large bay-style doors burst open as if massive bodies had slammed against them over and over again.
A crazed-sounding sob tore out of my throat at the sight and we ran faster.
The metal hung off the hinges, bent and broken. Finally our way out.
We burst through the exit, and I stumbled, twisting my ankle and crying out. A second later Sebastian lifted me easily into his arms, cradling me so I was pressed to his chest and his mouth was at my temple.
“Almost. Almost there. You’re almost safe.” He kept saying that over and over again as if like a mantra, as if trying to convince himself that we were truly going to get away.
It was only when we broke through the tree line that he slowed and finally stopped. But he didn’t put me down right away as he turned to face the burning facility.
The majority was underground, but there was a small shed-type structure, ordinary enough that a passerby would never know the true horrors that were underneath.
I squirmed in his arms, and he let me down but kept his arms wrapped around me. My ear was pressed to his chest as I stared ahead, hearing the rapid beat of his heart and the rush of air in his lungs.
The flames and smoke billowed up toward the night sky.
Otherworld creatures were pouring out of the building, and any humans stupid enough to try and escape were swiftly dealt with in the most brutal ways.
We stood there and we watched. And only when the embers started to fade did Sebastian look down at me. He cupped my face, smoothing his thumbs over my cheeks, and I knew it was finally done.