Page 60 of Darkest Kiss

Kathleen's smile turns genuine. It's the ugliest thing I've seen all night.

"You always were quicker than your mother, Noemi. She never worked it out. Right up to the end."

Noemi goes pale as a ghost, staring at Kathleen with horror. “You… you murdered them, didn’t you? Mom, Dad. Maybe even Grandma.”

“So what if I did?” Kathleen tosses her head and leers at Noemi. “I got away with it, didn’t I?”

Andreas gets up from where he was cowering on the floor, brushing off his suit. He clears his throat. “Let’s kill them both and be done with it. There are more of them outside. We can escape down the servants’ passage and start over wherever you want.”

“Like hell you can,” Noemi says.

Kathleen laughs, pleased. "You always were the smart one. Smarter than your mother. Back in the day, I liked your father. Did you know that? But Marisa got the looks and the man. Too bad she didn’t get the fucking brains and balls." She laughs. “In the end, I won. I got her.”

"What?” Noemi whispers. “They died in a hit-and-run.”

Kathleen’s eye roll is exaggerated. “Your father was weak. Your mother was a fool. And I wanted the building that they’d invested in. Your little bookstore.” Her lips curls. “I’m going to burn it to the ground once I kill you both. Take the insurance money and start somewhere new."

“Oh, Aunt Kathleen. How could you?” Her voice is tearful, but her expression doesn’t show any of that sadness. She seems to be scheming at a time when it could cost her life.

For fuck’s sake. I keep my eyes on Noemi the whole time. She darts her eyes to the right, quickly. Either to Andreas or Kathleen. I give her a puzzled look.

Noemi loves you, Beast says, low. He isn't pushing now. Don't let this woman take her.

"So what's the move." Noemi keeps her voice level. "You shoot me here and he does to you what he was about to do to Andreas. That's the whole plan? It’s terrible."

"The plan," Kathleen says, "is to make him watch."

Her eyes flick off Noemi for half a second. They land on me, because the watching is the point. It was always the point.

Noemi drops.

She doesn't grab or lunge. She just lets her knees fold. All her weight goes straight down out, of Kathleen's grip. Her hand knocks the muzzle wide on the way. Kathleen fires on reflex and the round buries itself in the doorframe. Noemi hits the floor and rolls clear.

As she curls into a ball, protecting her head, I summon Beast. “Save her,” I say.

The world goes red at the edges. and then

knuckles. hot. a scream, a sharp snap.

a sound that isn't coming from my mouth, except it is.

the rope. the rope is in my hands. when did⁠—

copper washing my tongue. a woman's voice screams. Andreas gurgles⁠—

mine, the thing in me snarls, ours, she's ours, this is what happens, this is what happens to the ones who reach for what's

dark.

* * *

I come back to myself with my chest heaving.

"Fuck," I gasp.

My lungs saw in and out. My arms ache the way they ache when I've used them a long time. There's a weight in my hands and I look at it without understanding, and it takes me a long, swimming moment to work out what I'm holding in my red, slick fingers.

I open my hands and let it drop. It hits the floor wetly. A piece of someone. May they rest in fucking piss.