Page 49 of High Stakes and Soulmates (Fanged Mistakes #3)

EZIO

Facing someone as you kill them was never something I was good at. It was more honorable, for sure. I had many who screamed at me, told me that my methods were cruel, dishonorable, a coward’s way.

But it’s what I was told to do. It was how I was trained.

And it’s proven again that it’s the only thing I’m good at.

Louis doesn’t even realize I’m in the room.

He has my blood on him, as well as the blood of others, that drowns out his senses.

The moment I move, he’ll discover I’m here and kill me.

And honestly… it’s only luck that I got here before him.

I think he was curious to see the extent of the massacre that took place outside of the warehouse.

He wanted to know how many of his children made it, but I’m starting to believe there weren’t many because he returned alone.

The wineglass of blood sitting on the table was prepared for him by a human servant or slave.

And the moment he sees it, he downs it like a starving man.

The blow Casimir delivered to him hurt him, but of course it wasn’t enough, though it’ll work in my favor.

So I knew I had to strike tonight if I was going to strike at all.

As I lean against the wall, tucked in the shadows and out of sight, I realize that the likelihood that I’m going to die here is significant. And won’t that be horrible of me to leave Cyrus without another word.

Cyrus… or is it Arturo?

Can I believe the words this man spit out? And if I can… the idea that I left Arturo alone for hundreds of years tortures me more than anything this man could have ever done to me.

Louis snarls something under his breath before sinking onto the bed. I’m sure he’s scheming up some plan to get Cyrus back, to kill him, to make me suffer.

But they’ll be his last thoughts… if I don’t fuck up.

Because I have to be quiet enough he doesn’t hear me. I have to move on feet that make no noise, not even a noise that this man would hear. And I have to wait until the very moment he least expects it in the safety of his room where he’s let his guard down.

He stands suddenly, and I hear him as he turns toward the door. “Jack, get your ass up here,” he shouts.

Louis staggers and catches himself on the door before he leans over and throws up the blood he’s just consumed.

“You son of a bitch. I will fucking kill you,” he growls before he heaves and throws up more of the blood, his body rejecting what I’d put in it.

It’s not like it’ll kill him, but I just need something to distract him.

Something to knock him off guard long enough I can finish what I started so long ago.

I step up behind him and as he’s throwing up, I reach around and slit his throat. “It wasn’t Jack,” I say.

He jerks back from me while he grabs his neck in an attempt to keep the blood in, but I rush forward and drive the stake I’d stolen from one of his children into his chest. He’s not young enough to die instantly.

He tries to tear it out, but I ram it in deeper.

He claws at me, slicing into my flesh as he rips my cheek open and cuts across my eye, blinding me from the right side.

Louis appears almost in shock that I’ve gained the upper hand, and he doesn’t seem to know what to do about it.

“This is what I’m good at,” I snarl as I pull the stake out and drive it in again.

“I’m good at sneaking in when no one is looking and tearing them apart when they’re in their weakest state of mind.

” I slam it into his chest again. “When the fight is not fair, but it was never fair when it came to you.”

I slam the stake in again and again, even though Louis isn’t moving any longer. It almost seems too simple. Anticlimactic for a monster who I thought could never die. I’d built him up to be this untouchable nightmare… but really, all I needed was for him to not expect me.

“I just needed that single moment when you were distracted. That single moment when you’d let your guard down. And that’s all it’d take. Because in their home is when someone is most vulnerable.”

His hand claws me on the way down, but I stake him again as I hold him against the ground, pinning him down with my body.

Still, I stab him again and again while his blood sprays out.

I don’t know what I hope to accomplish, but even watching him die doesn’t fix everything.

It doesn’t fix the pain; it doesn’t fix the mental torture.

But I know that everything in this moment decides how safe Cyrus will be.

Still unable to see out of my right eye, I don’t see the person, but I hear him when he rushes up to me, and the sound of his footsteps is unbelievably familiar. I can close my eyes and just feel Arturo running up to me.

“It’s okay. He’s dead, it’s okay,” Cyrus says as he pushes the stake out of my hand and wraps me up in his arms. “It’s okay.”

My body is wound tight. I want to drive the stake into Louis until I can’t even identify him anymore. I want to rip his head off. I want to burn him and spread his ashes and?—

“It’s okay, it’s going to be okay,” Cyrus murmurs, voice gentle when he takes my outstretched hand that still seeks the stake. “He’s dead. He’s dead, and I’m okay.”

“Are you really Arturo?” I whisper.

Cyrus is quiet as I reach for his face, but do I even deserve to? What I did to him was worse than anything Louis could have done. I don’t deserve to touch him.

He sets his cheek in my hand since I’m unable to extend it to him. I don’t deserve to.

“I… I don’t know what I remember… but I remember screaming for you. I remember the sea and I remember knowing you were dead. But I don’t know… I really don’t know, Ezio,” Cyrus says, voice so soft.

I never told him about the day Arturo died. Unless Louis did… how else would he know that? “I left you. I left you behind. I’m so sorry. I can never forgive myself.”

Cyrus squeezes my hands. “I don’t understand it. I don’t… I know you would never leave me on purpose. Don’t you even dare act like it was your fault, Ezio. It wasn’t your fault.”

“I left you,” I whisper. “How can you even still care for me?”

“I love you. I love you. I love you so much. So please. How could you have ever known? If you saw Arturo die… if you saw me die… why would you ever think I was still alive?”

“I don’t understand, though… what are you?” I ask.

Atticus stops examining the body to look over at us, and I realize that Cyrus didn’t come alone. The whole group is here witnessing the awful person I’ve become. “Hold on… are… you… you guys don’t know what he is?”

Casimir looks at him sharply. “You know?”

“Of course I know. He’s a dhampir. I could tell the moment I met him. Jesus, have you just been wandering around starving yourself to death? No wonder you’re so damn weak. I thought you were just dissing the blood I gave you at my house.”

“I’m… a what?” Cyrus asks.

“You never thought to tell any of us ?” Casimir hisses. “As we ran around assuming he was human, you never stopped and thought, ‘Maybe I’ll tell him’?”

“Did I turn to you and go, ‘Hey, did you know you’re a vampire?’ Of course not! Why the hell would I tell a clearly older dhampir what he is? I didn’t know he didn’t know!”

“I don’t even… I’m a what? I’m…” Cyrus stares at Atticus before looking over at me. “What’s that mean?”

“You’re half vampire,” I say.

Cyrus’s eyebrow shoots up. “How?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t heard of any who are even alive… Casimir?”

Casimir shakes his head. “Never met one.”

Atticus shrugs. “I’ve met one. Dreadful fellow. Almost as dreadful as Borick.”

“Excuse me? Says the man who was all, ‘How dare you stab my sexy Yorick, I must avenge you!’” Yorick says. I do notice he’s in his boxer briefs, having ditched his unbelievably tight pants at some point. “It was slightly sweet but it still doesn’t mean I like you.”

“That’s just because if anyone is going to end your life, it’s going to be me,” Atticus decides.

“Can we go? Please? Just in case Louis has another hundred vampires waiting for us?” Julian asks. “And then you’re going to tell us about this dhampir shit. So… he obviously lives a long life, then?”

“They do age, but it slows the older they get. Like the first twenty years or so is pretty normal aging and then it slows after they reach adulthood. I guess I honestly don’t know how long he’d live, but certainly hundreds of years. Hell, could be thousands.”

“Let’s go, we can talk about it later,” Casimir says as he ushers us out, but I want to destroy the body. I want to burn it. I want to… but when I look down at what I’ve done, I realize there’s no way Louis would live through that.

Cyrus pulls me away. “Come on. It’s okay.”

I nod, feeling uncertain about every part of this, but Cyrus guides me into the vehicle and tells them to take us to his house.

“Is your eye okay?” Cyrus asks as he gently touches my cheek.

“Fine,” I assure him, even though I still can’t see out of it.

“Are you lying to me?”

“It’s fine. It’ll heal.” I honestly don’t know if it will heal because if it was going to, wouldn’t it have already? But I don’t even care what I lost to make sure that monster could never touch Cyrus again.

Cyrus takes my hand, squeezing it tight while I feel like I’m drowning, and I don’t know why.

I should be happy. I should be so fucking happy, and instead, I sit here feeling like my world is crashing down around me.

And when the door opens, I question how an hour has already passed.

Cyrus tries pulling me out, but I hesitate.

“Why doesn’t Julian stay with you?” I suggest.

“Ezio, come on,” he says as he drags me out of the car. He pulls me away from the others and into his house. “He’s dead. You should be so happy that he’s dead.”

I don’t make it two feet into the house before I sink down to my knees, unable to even hold my body up any longer, and a sob escapes me.

Cyrus slides in and gathers me up in his arms. “Why are you so hard on yourself?”