Destructive Embrace (20 page)

It was what I knew would be best for
her, if we all came out of this alive. She needed to be able to
live her life without feeling guilty about having feelings for her
dead Mate’s brother, and I hoped that my decision would free her
from such guilt.

“We’re coming,” I called back to
Dmitri. Stepping away from Elyssa, I made my way back to the double
doors of my dungeons, not hesitating in throwing them
open.

As I took the first few
steps down the stairs, I wondered what I would find. Was it truly
Annibel that was being possessed by Tywin now? Or was it someone
else? And who was he beating using
my
weapons?

Elyssa and Dmitri were following me at
first, but the sudden drop of a body told me that Dmitri’s allergy
to silver was more severe than I’d ever known. He hadn’t even made
it a third of the way down my staircase before dropping.

The knowledge of it made me
sick.

But I had no choice but to keep going.
In my moment of hesitation, I glanced over my shoulder to see
Elyssa kneeling next to Dmitri, who was sweating profusely and
arching his back in pain.

Elyssa looked up at me. “Go!” she
hissed. “I’ll bring him down.”

I nodded and turned around once more to
resume my descent into my domain. I wanted to hurry, but at the
same time, I dreaded knowing the truth.

There was no sound of whipping meeting
my ears, which I took to mean one of two things: either Tywin had
already killed his victim, or he knew we were there and was waiting
for us so he could have an audience.

As I made it into the dungeon area, my
heart dropped into my stomach, and I knew that he was just waiting
for us.

Or, rather…

Tywin was waiting
for
me
to show
up.

Roxann was strung up on a wall in the
smaller cell, bleeding from various wounds.

“Well, now.” The voice came from my
office door, and I whirled around to look for its owner, though the
voice itself told me who it was all on its own.

Annibel stood in the doorway of my
office, holding a whip with two hands. The look of sheer hatred on
her face wasn’t suitable for her, and I sneered.

“Hello, Tywin,” I growled.

He smiled, the despicable grin on his
face marring the natural beauty that belonged to Annibel. “You came
sooner than I expected, son. Though I suppose you’ll now save your
precious fiancée from a slow, torturous death,” Tywin said,
Annibel’s chiming voice not matching the ugly words that came from
her mouth.

The hatred I felt for the old man at
that moment could never be matched by any other individual, even if
I were to cross the devil himself.

Tywin’s desire for immortality had gone
too far.

He’d first overstepped the boundaries
by possessing my baby brother. Then by taking that control and
using it to scared and abuse Elyssa.

For making us kill Reid.

Finally, for not dying, taking over
Annibel’s body, and for capturing and harming the third woman whose
safety I actually cared about.

“Prepare to die, old man,” I said
calmly.

The pain was ridiculous. I’d been
around silver plenty of times to know what it felt like, of course.
But somehow, this was different than simply being exposed to a
silver blade or two.

I was
surrounded
by silver objects, and it
felt as though my body was trying to kill me.

“Dmitri!” Her voice was keeping me
conscious. She repeatedly called out my name, keeping me from
falling victim to the pain.

“Dmitri, he’s down there alone with
Tywin. We need to go,” she said. Her cold hands were on my
shoulders, and she was gently shaking me in an attempt to make me
open my eyes.

Of course she was worried
about him. Even though
I
was lying on the floor, practically dying from
the amount of pain I was in, she still cared more about
Zeke.

“Give me a second,” I rasped out,
coughing uncontrollably as I fought to sit up.

A few moments later, I was
finally upright, and I opened my eyes. She was there, her face
directly in front of mine. Worry was etched into every feature, and
I felt mildly guilty for being so bitter just a moment ago. She
wasn’t
just
worried about my oldest brother.

She wound her arm around my waist and
helped to haul me to my feet. Suddenly I was extremely grateful
that she’d stayed behind with me instead of following Zeke
downstairs. Otherwise, I might not have been able to make it
downstairs to witness my father’s ultimate demise.

We eventually made it, though, and as
soon as my feet were on the solid flat surface, a hand thrust a
vial under my nose.

“Here,” Zeke muttered. Even though he
spoke at a low volume, I could hear the guilt in his voice, and
slowly took the vial from him with my shaky hands.

Elyssa’s free hand wound around mine to
help steady it. “What will it do?” she asked. Her voice shook as
much as my hands did, and once glance up at her face told me there
was something I was missing.

She looked horrified as she looked
around the dungeons.

“It will make your body numb to any
pain you’re feeling,” Zeke whispered. “You will hurt like hell
later – possibly even more than you would have normally – but for
now, you will be able to tolerate being down here for
this.”

I was intensely grateful that Zeke was
supporting my idiotic decision to stay instead of telling me to
leave. Elyssa uncorked the vial and helped me to lift it to my
mouth so I could drink it.

It took a few moments for the
concoction to kick in, but when the pain subsided, I wiped my brow
with my sleeve and stood up straight once more.

“Thank you, Elyssa,” I murmured
gruffly, setting one hand on her shoulder.

It was all she could do to just nod
once, so I followed her gaze to whatever was bothering her so
much.

What I saw made
even
my
heart
stop, and immediately I looked over to Zeke.

Roxann. How in the hell had the old man
gotten ahold of her? Of course, Annibel’s body was vampire, just as
Reid’s had been, so he had an advantage over the poor human woman,
but at the same time, I couldn’t fathom that Tywin had somehow
gotten around Zeke’s protective custody.

The tortured expression on Zeke’s face
was hard for even me to bear, and I quickly looked away before it
ate at me.

Just because we'd gone for so long with
negative feelings between us didn't necessarily mean that I longed
to see my brother suffer.

Sure, at times, I didn't want to see
him get whatever it was that he wanted, but a majority of the time,
that didn't equate to wishing for him to be put through the hell
that he was going through right then.

The utter defenselessness of his
expression tore right through my hardened exterior, and I turned my
eyes toward the body of Annibel.

It was the first time that I'd come
face-to-face with someone who I for-sure knew was possessed by our
father. I had no idea what I was expecting, but the confused hatred
that ran through me was definitely not it.

"Ah, and my killer has finally
arrived," Tywin said, smiling devilishly at me. "The first of them,
at least," Tywin finished, cutting a glare at each of my
comrades.

"If you provoke me, I might just be
inclined to do it again, old man," I replied, smirking at the pale
blonde before me. It was a slightly awkward feeling, addressing
such a petite beauty as 'old man', but I knew what was lurking just
beneath the surface.

Tywin scoffed, flipping Annibel's hair
back over her shoulders. I couldn't help but notice blood smeared
across her face, arms, and matted into her hair. I looked toward
Roxann once more. While still alive, Tywin had done a number on
her, and she was losing a lot of blood.

"You don't have the power or the
weapons to defeat me, my boy," Tywin said, shrugging at me. "So
your so-called threats mean nothing to me. Absolutely nothing," he
hissed, glaring at me.

While I wasn’t positioned near any of
Zeke's weapons, that was the only thing that Tywin was right about.
Thanks to Zeke's little numbing potion, I was feeling great, and if
it came down to it, I could certainly take Tywin down.

If only I was close to something that I
could chop his head off with.

"How did you even possess Annibel?"
Elyssa piped up, addressing something I hadn't even thought to ask.
"You had to leave Reid with bits and pieces of your demented soul
over the years in order to take over his mind and body. You only
had access to Annibel for the short time that she has lived at the
castle."

Tywin glared at Elyssa, clearly eager
to get to the 'fun parts' of the show. "She had a weak mind, and
was passing by just as you pierced your Mate's heart with your
precious silver Kodachi." He paused, sneering at Elyssa cockily.
"How did that work out for you, my dear? Is your darling Reid at
ease now? Is he safe from little old me?" Tywin winked at her, and
I had to catch her quickly before she could lunge at
him.

"Ooh, such a feisty one,"
Tywin teased. "Maybe I should have tried to possess
you
instead."

I snarled at him, protective of my
friend no matter how difficult she made it to be on her
side.

A gleam shone in Annibel’s
eyes, and I waited for the old man’s next jab. “Don’t tell
me
you’ve
fallen
for this little tramp as well. My, and I thought you were smarter
than that, Dmitri…”

The moments following
Tywin picking on Dmitri were tensely silent, aside from the
occasional
drip
as
poor Roxann’s blood fell to the floor.

The three of us were at a loss for
what to do.

We couldn’t very well do anything
without first knowing how Tywin truly came to possess Annibel.
There was no way we could kill her, if there was a chance that he
would just transfer himself to another host.

“
You’re such a parasite!” I
spat at him. He just arched one of Annibel’s delicate eyebrows at
me and smiled.

“
With all of you present,”
the sinister voice chimed elegantly from the pale vampire’s mouth,
“I shall tell you everything. But first…” Tywin broke off, reaching
out to stab his hand into Roxann’s chest.

Her brown eyes flooded with tears as
she stared at Zeke. I turned my gaze to Zeke just in time to see
the tears fall from his eyes. Then, a squelching sound met my ears
as Tywin snatched Roxann’s heart out and tossed it to the
floor.

I tore my gaze away from Zeke’s face,
tears clouding my own vision, to look back at the vile creature
standing before us.

He brushed his hands together as
though swiping dirt off, and then proceeded to wipe the excess
blood off that pale skin and onto the dark clothes adorning
Annibel’s petite form.

I trembled with anger and fear at the
sheer cruelty displayed by the person in front of us. As my knees
began to give way beneath me, Dmitri grabbed me by my waist and
held me up.

Annibel’s cold gaze swept
over me and I tried to hold myself together under that stare. “I
thought you were much stronger than this,
Ely
,” Tywin taunted, managing to
deepen Annibel’s voice just enough to make her tone match how Reid
used to call out to me.

I hissed at him angrily, blinking the
tears from my eyes as I struggled to get away from Dmitri so I
could tear out the bastard’s throat.

“
Elyssa, no!” Dmitri
whispered into my ear. “He just wants to goad you on. If you come
at him, he will know how to defend himself, and you will lose. It’s
what he wants!”

Despite knowing that, I could hardly
keep myself from tearing free from his hold in order to go for
Tywin with my bare hands. Dmitri began to stroke my hair, and after
a few moments, I calmed down enough to make him think I wasn’t
going to go after Tywin.

Dmitri released me.

As I prepared to spring forward,
Zeke’s hand on my elbow stopped me.

I looked up at him sharply, my heart
breaking at the look of pure torment on his face. “Zeke…” I
whispered, half-turning my body away from the enemy in order to
make sure my ally was alright.

“
Don’t give him what he
wants, Elyssa,” he breathed, looking back over to his father. “He
wants to make us pay. For me, he killed the woman I was engaged to…
For you, he made you watch my suffering… He’ll come at me again in
another way.”

Not understanding, I glanced over at
Annibel, whose expression gave nothing away but an air of
confidence that was hard to deny.

Zeke reached out to gently turn my
face back toward him. “He will take your life next,” he
whispered.

Silently, I heard him tack
on:
You made a promise to me.