Page 53 of The Villain

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry,” I’m muttering. He’s wiping tears from my face.

“You aren’t sorry yet,” he tells me. “Not yet.”

His touch is gentle, his words calmly spoken. No anger.

“I am. I really am.”

“You need to learn, my violent little Allegra. You need to learn that mine is the hand that feeds you and when you bite,” he starts, pausing, bringing his mouth to my ear. His breath is warm when he whispers the words that send a chill through me. “I will bite back. And my bite is infinitely more painful than yours.”

14

CASSIAN

“Cassian? Cassian!” she calls after me as I ascend the stairs, my hand on my side. She opened the wound, and I need to take care of it. “You can’t leave me here. Please!”

I won’t leave her for long, but she is too wild. Too violent. She needs to learn.

“You’re bleeding,” Enzo says once I’m upstairs. He must hear her, but doesn’t comment. I pull the door closed behind me, lock it and set the key back above the frame.

“It’s fine. No one goes down there.”

He nods once, doesn’t ask questions. He rarely does. Enzo and I grew up together, his father often more a father to me than my own. I think I spent as many nights at his house as I did mine. He is respectful of our positions within the family, though, which is very different to Jet. Jet and I are not blood, but he feels very comfortable inserting himself where he doesn’t belong.

I hear my phone ring as I approach the bedroom.I must have left it in there. It stops before I reach it. I’m not through the door when it starts again. I rush to answer because it’s Vivi’s ringtone and I know in my gut that something’s wrong.

“Vivi?”

“Cassian. Shit, Cassian.” She’s crying.

“What is it? What’s happened? Are you all right? Is Gage?”

She sniffles and it takes her a minute to speak. I can almost see her inhaling deeply, telling herself to pull it together.

“He’s okay. We’re both okay, but?—”

I exhale, but don’t miss the panic in her voice. “What’s happened?”

“Someone came to my mom’s.”

“What?”

“I was going to drop Gage off like I always do, but when I got there, she said his uncle had just left.”

My heart begins a slow, echoing throb. Vivi’s mom babysits Gage twice a week while Vivi works. Although she doesn’t need to work, she knows I’ll look after her and Gage, she’s as stubborn as Seth was. So far, she’s refused protection and although I haven’t been comfortable with the choice, I’ve tried to respect it. Now, I think that may have been a fucking stupid thing to do.

“What uncle?” I ask, my voice tight.

“I don’t know. She just said he had dark hair, was pretty tall and he was wearing a suit. She didn’t know him. It was early, whoever it was rang the bell when she was just getting out of bed. I think he caught her bysurprise and was gone before she could even ask him his name.”

“Is she all right?”

“Everyone’s fine, but…”

I sit on the edge of the bed, look down at the drying blood on my hand, peel my shirt which is sticking to it, away. I swallow the pain, letting it remind me the difference a few inches would have made. Letting it remind me that Allegra may look like she can’t do much damage, but it’d be a mistake to underestimate her. She’s a Moretti. And spending a little time in the crypt might be good for her.

“But what?” I ask.

“He left something. An early Christmas gift for Gage he said.”