Chapter 9

Strauss

T he serpent slithers toward me slowly. Each step she moves in her slippers is calculated and divisive. But what a beautiful snake she is. Ripe, pink cheeks, and innocent eyes. Floating white dress, tightening across the mounds of her womanly curves. Angelic, virginal, and pure.

It will bring me pleasure to destroy it.

Sev nods at me from behind the garden hedge, monitoring her movements carefully in case she tries to run. Though, if she did, it would be much worse for her to be caught in these woods. Owls love to eat snakes.

Once she approaches, she places her delicate hand in my waiting palm, a breath held in her chest. I escort her to the arbor.

She won't look at me. Not fully. And the fact she's so nervous infuriates me. Her bright blue eyes bore holes into my chest even when I dip my forehead toward her to gain her attention. She refuses to give it. Anger tightens my neck muscles until it's difficult to swallow.

Surrounding her waist with my forearm, I haul her into me, then use my fingers to lift her chin so she has no choice but to gaze at her new master. An involuntary huff leaves her as I squeeze the air from her lungs. When she inhales, her thick bottom lip juts out, and my head tilts with a momentary distraction at how perfect it is for biting.

"No ignoring this," I command. Straightening up, I maintain my eye contact with the angel and instruct the minister. "We're ready to take our vows now. Proceed."

The child seems enraptured by me, a dazed glaze hovering over her broad eyes as we repeat phrases of eternal devotion. Her voice is like a lullaby, spoken so softly that it almost vanishes with the fall breeze as soon as it leaves her lips. Perhaps her intrigue is mirroring my own.

I don't like children. And she is much too young for me, but the thought of corrupting her into the weapon I need her to be causes a stir in my loins until I'm sure she can feel it against her stomach.

But she never departs her eyes from mine.

With every word spoken, something utterly strange happens in my chest. I mean the oaths I promise.

Love? No, not that one.

Fidelity? No.

Until death do us part…yes. That one.

She won't depart from me for one moment until the end.

"You may kiss your bride."

I pull her closer and tilt her face up to mine once again. She's so small that I have to lean over to brush my lips to hers. As I do, she quickly inhales and flushes with embarrassment. The heat from her skin could sear mine.

So, not only a virgin, but completely untouched…

An absolutely uncontaminated specimen. I haven't met one of these in a long time.

Gently, I soothe her concern with a tap of my mouth against hers before sliding my tongue carefully inside. She tastes like candy and drools more than she can contain. Gathering it with my lips, I instruct her silently with my vast experience of handling women. Her body melts into mine and molds into the motions. An utter willingness to please me emanates from her soul, which sends my cock surging through my pants like a sharp sword searching for its sheath.

It has been too long since a kiss alone aroused me.

Breathing carefully across her face, I shake her chin slightly to help her focus. She stumbles back dizzily, but I catch her, holding her tight to me. "Was that your first kiss, angel?"

Nodding, her long lashes lift as she says, "Yes, sir."

Releasing her completely, she drops her arms, then clutches them to her chest. With a smirk, I tell her, "Better get used to disappointment, then."

Her big eyes widen as my comment stuns her into a frozen state. But her blush lips are bruised with the fervor of my kiss, so much so, an urge to do it again almost overwhelms me. I hate it.

I shove my hands in my pockets so I don't touch her any more, then waltz toward the conservatory and motion with my head toward Dilan. "She can go back to the tower for now."

My fingers grip the linings of my pockets as my self-control wanes. And that is not a good thing. If my fingers could latch around the girl's neck and break it, I would. But I must put my seed in her womb.

It's my life's duty and will be my greatest accomplishment.

Strolling into the large glass building with my hands clasped behind my back, I take a deep inhale of the humid air, ripe with the scent of roses and a bitter undertone of deadly nightshade.

Sev enters with a shuffle behind me and clears his throat.

"Yes?"

"Sir, this part of the grounds is awfully close to the west woods. I'd feel more comfortable if you'd come back to the house."

Spinning on my heel, I face him and spread my arms wide. "Isn't the perimeter set with explosives?"

His eyes shift to the stone floor. "It is, sir."

"And weren't you the one telling me to get out more?"

With a deep inhale, he relaxes. "Yes, I did. You're right." He saunters alongside me, as anyone who could be called a friend of mine would. "I'll be making a supply run with the men today. Meats and cheeses. The cooks have plenty of breads and cakes with their flour stocks. We're doing pretty well. Unless…" Dark eyes scramble up the side of my face. "Unless you take more in."

"I don't think that will be possible anymore. They know my trafficking pattern and where the girls are entering from." With a wave of my hand in the air, I show him how little it now means to me. "I got as many out over the years as I could. Even the Donovan girl. But Franklin Von Dovish was insistent on keeping her for himself. Well, he and the Johns were. Another of my failed bridal attempts."

"But they didn't thwart this one. You succeeded, sir. You're married now. Shouldn't you be, um…working on the heir?"

Victory feels hollow, much like everything else. Even my father's death was nothing to me once I found out what it meant. Everything…except for that kiss. "I will once she turns eighteen tomorrow." Pulling out a weed from the tomatoes as I pass, I shuck it into the bin nearby. "Go. I'll be fine here. I need to busy my hands."

And my mind.

As I scan the vast lines of vegetables and fruits, enough for our manor to live off of, I spot the mounds of soil prepped for new plantings by the gardeners. The old stalks yellowed from the summer's heat and died on the dirt hills, waiting for rebirth in a different form.

A pair of hedge clippers lies next to a few of the gardener's machetes. Picking up one, I chop down some of the overgrowth, then lay it on the brick edge of the raised bed. It feels good to work in the dirt.

My gaze catches on the back fields with some wistfulness. There was a time I'd escape into the shadows of corn, taller than my head. Outside was a new world, different from the dusty gloom of the House. A welcome reprieve from the horrors happening inside. The gardeners let me plant seeds while my father wasn't looking. Every plant told me a different story depending on what words the nature spoke over it.

If only I had been tainted by the soil on my skin instead of the blood in my bones. Maybe things would be different. But nothing can change my name.

Once I clean off my hands, I hurry to the solarium and my pipe organ, still needing to keep my thoughts from venturing into vengeance before the time is right. As soon as I strike the first chords on the ivory, however, the sound triggers all the memories. Like a movie playing across my eyes, I watch as my fingers dance along the keys.

"Hurry, let's get to the grandstand for my swearing in," I tell the men as we leave my father's building.

"Sir, are you sure you don't want to clean that off first?" One guard points to the blood sprayed over my clothes.

"Not at all. It's a new era and the old one died the way it should have."

Approaching the stage in my limousine, the guards clap me on the back. Everyone is decked out in tuxedos for the event and a smile reaches my face for the first time in a very long while.

"Congratulations, sir." As I wade through the crowds, all I hear is my accolades. My heart soars with pride. I did it. I ended the monster's reign and will instill something new.

The men are ready to follow my every command, their proud eyes scanning me as I rise to make my commencement speech. Murmurs and hesitant mumblings ring through the masses, still divided up by family. So many ideas surge through my mind that the sun is as blinding as my visions when I gaze out upon the sea of Gnarled Pine Hollow's citizens.

"Ladies and gentlemen. As you all may have heard by now, I am wearing the blood of your last consort. A terrible man, he—" I stop. Some of my guards near the stairs huddle up and pull on black gloves and masks. Swallowing, my brow furrows. That wasn't a command I issued.

"He is no longer." The crowd collectively gasps and questions dart out like a riot of voices as I wave my arms to quiet them down. "Please. There is a new leader here and a new day. Some of you have been corrupted by my father's ways." Glancing toward the west, I try to find Franklin, but he's not there. My pulse rate climbs when I don't find the leaders of the other houses here either. Something strange is happening.

A sharp wind kicks up dust and the noises dull, replaced by a deadly silence.

I hear a stampede of footsteps far in the distance. Turning my head, I spot several men in black rushing over the hill from the north. My father's men. All of them. Even the ones who were with me at his office just now…

They all hasten toward the citizens of Gnarled Pine Hollow who stare in awe at the force coming toward them like a tsunami. Even as I take a breath to tell them to halt, one is next to me with a gun pressed into my lower back. "You're ours now, master." He spits out the word like it's a joke.

I stand at the podium, taking my crown as victor with a weapon pointed at me as the herd of my father's men gore all those from the East Side in a tidal wave of horror. Blood gushes like crimson fountains as women's throats are sliced and men's heads are chopped off. One rolls like a tumbleweed, landing at my feet until I realize…

These were never my father's men.

They were never mine.

All I can do is watch as the people of what I thought was my city die at the hands of whomever has taken over.

The guard in charge of me smirks and laughs. "Congratulations, Consort…

You're the monster now."