I could tie her naked to my bed, and keep her there for all eternity, for the mere purpose of scenting my sheets. My own living potpourri. She could have other uses, tied to my bed…
My thoughts turned dark as death, and I pushed them away.
No. What was I thinking? I couldn’t take another living being to my realm. I swore I never would again, not after Catherine. It would be best to kill her alongside her mate. Quick and easy. She wouldn’t suffer.
I watched as the girl shoved the stone lid of Catherine’s sarcophagus and managed a few inches of clearance, enough to wiggle her hand inside. Her nose scrunched up on her face as she pawed around the corpse. Her mate seemed to gag and turned away. Clearly the female had the stronger nerves out of the pair. Good. She’d need them.
I shouldn’t have been studying her in the way I was. What did it matter if I was going to kill her? I couldn’t help it. I needed to imagine the look of shock that would pass behind her chocolate brown eyes as I plunged my hand through her chest to claim her heart. I wanted to know what that raven black hair pulled up into a ponytail would look like down, matted with blood.
Why couldn’t I picture it? A beat later, my question was answered. The girl’s eyes lit up as she found something of interest among Catherine’s remains. With a sharp tug, there was the sound of snapping bone and the crackle of centuries old flesh. She held up a ruby amulet that caught in the beam of light that poured into the mausoleum’s singular window. It had been ages since I’d seen it.
The amulet was of a silver skull, with two tear-shaped garnets fastened below the skull’s eye sockets, made to look as though it was weeping blood.
“Nice,” the little thief murmured before tossing the ancient relic into her sack of filched goods like it was nothing but a common trinket.
Unadulterated fury thrummed through my being. The amulet’s chain could only be broken by its creator. So when the thief tugged it off Catherine, she’d snapped her neck in two.
All resolve to spare this little human from my boundless cruelty withered in an instant. She’d desecrated Catherine’s body. She didn’t deserve a quick death, she didn’t deserve to die at all.
Whatever punishment I’d deem worthy of her crime, I’d draw it out.
In my clutches, this little thief would suffer. To start, I’d make her watch me disembowel her soft, nervous mate.
I slowly approached them. As I passed the various coffins, my heavy footsteps roused the bones of the dead. They stirred to life, moaning and banging on their lids in hopes of catching the attention of their lord and master.
The thieves stopped their task of stuffing their bag, their eyes going wide. They wouldn’t see me unless I wished it. For now I’d remain hidden, and rouse their fear until they were pissing themselves with terror.
“What the fuck was that?” the male asked, his voice shaking.
Another step toward them. Then another, until the air in the mausoleum was deathly cold. The female swung her eyes in my direction. She must have caught a glimpse of my shadow, something frightening enough to make her scream.
“Let’s get out of here,” she yelled, and they bolted outside.Ha.As if the night could protect them.
There was no escaping death when it came to call.
I followed behind them, pausing at the mausoleum’s entrance and watching them run for a moment. The male was faster, leaving his woman behind to fend for herself as she carried the bag of stolen goods over her shoulder. She’d abandoned her mask at the base of the mausoleum, and her dark hair was whipping behind her as she ran away.
My gaze flicked back to the male, who was putting more space between him and Catherine’s tomb with every second that passed. What kind of pathetic excuse for a male left their mate behind?
Surely he sensed the danger? Coward.
Normally I didn’t revel in such brutality, but I’d take pleasure in stripping the bones from the flesh of this miserable welp.
I was in front of him in a blink, sure to remain hidden as I took hold of his throat and hoisted him into the air. His eyes bugged, desperately searching the darkness for his assailant, only to find none. His feet thrashed the air, his hand coming up to pull futilely at my fingers.
I grew bored of the male’s reaction within seconds, so I turned my attention to the female to find her staggering backward, the look of horror on her face making my cock stir to life.
With one claw still firm around the male’s neck, I sunk my free hand into his hair and gave his head a sharp tug. I snapped his neck—making us even—and pulled his head clean off. A torrent of blood painted the grass and a sickening plop echoed through the graveyard as I threw the male thief's head to the ground.
I plunged my claw into the body's gaping neck hole and got a good grip on the spine before tugging it out with a sharp flourish of my wrist. With the spine clutched in my fist, I trudged over to the female.
All she could see was the floating spinal cord of her dead lover, slowly approaching her. This was the part where she should have run. She didn’t. Perhaps she was in shock. Or maybe a part of her knew running was pointless.
It was only when I was towering over her, my black boots inches from her feet—they weresosmall in comparison—that I revealed myself.
I leered down at her, the moon at my back painting a shadow of my horns over her trembling form. Her soft, feminine features were painted in heavy, black as night makeup, and she had a silver ring looped through her nose, like a bull’s. Had I not been so set on causing her pain, on inflicting misery upon her until she begged for the sweet release of death, I might have admired her delicate beauty.
Instead, it only fanned the flames of anger burning through me.
