Page 49 of Sassy Embrace
Leigh felt nothing, no pull or desperate need for obedience. Claude looked down at her though, ensuring that she was indeed fully in control.
Leigh replied by barking at Kim, snarling her anger.How dare she make me into a murderer.she thought.How dare this woman use me as a bloodthirsty pawn in her sick game.
Leigh swore Kim wouldn’t get away with it.
“How interesting. I suppose your dose may have been faulty. Oh well, it doesn’t matter now. My massacre is complete, and soon enough there’ll be no witnesses left. Just a pile of dead bodies, and the faulty vampire leadership who let it all happen.” Kim shrugged as if all of the death and violence was an inconvenient little errand she had to run.
“At least, there’ll be no witnesses who will say anything.” Kim crouched down, brandishing that knife against the pale throat of a young woman. “Swear your loyalty to me or die. That goes for you too, Claude.”
Claude put his hand out, signaling for Leigh to back down slightly. The situation had become more desperate, dangerous.
“Anyone who swears an oath of loyalty to me and my son, you’re rightful leader, will come out of this alive.” Kim dug the side of the blade into the girl’s throat, letting the slightest bright red trickle of blood seep out. Tears welled in her eyes, her lip quivering. “Answer me!” Kim screeched.
Claude, seemingly lost in finding his opening, found it. He moved with a swiftness and grace Leigh had never seen. Before she could tell what was happening, Kim was pinned against a dumpster with a blade stuck in her shoulder. She dropped her own weapon in the confusion, leaving her vulnerable.
Leigh didn’t need permission. She took off, lunging over the lineup of hostages, and pounced on Kim who’d just snatched the blade out of her flesh.
The vampire slashed it at Leigh, but not hard enough to pierce the flesh beneath her thick coat. Leigh sank her teeth into Kim’s wounded shoulder, causing her to scream out in agony and fall back against the ground.
She was there, helpless and vulnerable, and Leigh felt the instinctive urge to clamp her jaws around the vampire’s exposed throat. She hesitated, though, as images of the dead scattered around the club flashed through her mind. Even as Kim readied the knife again, this time aiming for Leigh’s face, she struggled to give the finishing blow.
I’m not a killer, she told herself desperately.I’m not! I’m not like her!
“Well, I am,” Claude said out loud, answering Leigh’s cries through their bond. He snatched Kim’s wrist in his grip, squeezing so tightly, she cried out and dropped the knife. Claude caught it and, in one swift and brutal motion, ended the woman’s life.
Certain the threat was finally over, Leigh shifted back. She shivered out of a mix of adrenaline and stress, but Claude took off his coat and draped it around her shoulders.
There was so much she had to say to him, so much explanation and questions and gratitude she needed to express.
They could do that later. For the moment, she simply nodded at him and grabbed the other knife. Together they cut the hostage’s bindings and helped them get their bearings back. Leigh’s heart broke as she watched a young couple grip onto each other, both certainly sure they were meeting their end that day.
The Wolfe brothers found them alongside Claude’s men.
“We’ll get them medical attention,” Tristan said reassuringly.
“Along with their witness statements,” Aric added.
Claude and Leigh remained behind, watching over Kim’s corpse as they waited for the authorities to arrive and take over.
“Fuck,” Leigh said, studying her wide and lifeless eyes. “I can’t imagine how deep her grief must have been to do this.”
“That’s a charitable way to view her actions,” Claude replied, sounding somewhat annoyed. But he reached out and took Leigh’s hand, comforting her.
“How could she leave her son like this? Fuck, her son!” Leigh cried. “He’s an orphan now.”
Claude nodded. “Demetrios is going to be a point of contention now. There’s no avoiding that.”
“He’s a child,” Leigh said. Though she fully understood the consequences regardless.
“A child who will either grow up with shame for his parents, or a desire to avenge them. Either way isn’t healthy.”
Leigh shook her head. “Is there anything that can be done for him? Any way to help?”
“Well,” Claude said with a sigh, gripping Leigh’s hand tighter. “That’s for Aria to decide.”
As the flashing lights of emergency vehicles filled the dark alleyway with blue and red, Leigh contemplated everything that had brought them here. The grief, rage, violence, all wrapped in a need for power.
And how it all ended, cold and dead on a paved street next to a dumpster.