Lucy’s POV
The stench of captivity suffocated me, and the thread of realisation had wrapped around my neck, choking me. But regardless of how I felt, the triplets likely felt a thousand times worse.
Vladimir stood before us, holding up the silver knife he was about to use to kill one of us, just like he had been planning from the very beginning.
My heart raced in my chest, and thoughts of all the things I hadn’t yet done started to rush through my head.
I hadn’t told Shaun how I felt about him.
He was on his knees, right beside me and tied up as well. His head was bowed, making his hair fall over his face like a blanket. It occurred to me then that his hair had fallen out of its usual low ponytail.
If anyone saw into my mind and found out how much Shaun had consumed it, I would have been reduced to a laughingstock. I never thought one person would have consumed my every thought so fervently that the thought of losing them made my heart hurt.
I couldn’t bring myself to speak at that moment, but there was no way the heavens and the earth wouldn’t have known the truth that I felt inside of my heart concerning Shaun.
Like clockwork, he turned to me. His eyes softened just the slightest bit-just enough for me to know that he didn’t want any harm to come to me as well.
The nights before flashed through my mind. The two nights that we had spent together, had brought us closer together even though nothing physical occurred. So much for seeing him as an enemy.
“I was expecting you guys to have started telling yourselves your final goodbyes as you go to join mummy and daddy,” said Vladimir, languidly pointing his knife at the triplets one after the other. “This . . . pointless growling and silent glaring isn’t going to solve anything, my dear nephews.”
“You are not our uncle,” Seth spat, looking angrier than I had ever seen him. At that moment, he and Shaun looked almost identical. “Family wouldn’t have done something like this. I just want to know . . . why? Why kill her? What did she ever do to you?”
Vladimir tilted his head slightly to the side. “Hm. Why?” He folded his arms, carefully tucking the knife between his arms so that it didn’t hurt him. “Well, there wasn’t any reason, actually. She was just a means to an end. Your father loved her deeply-even turning away from his self-destructive habits just so that he could win her approval. She became his crutch. His . . . Saviour. And everyone knew that. I knew that if anything happened to her, it was going to be very easy to take him down.”
“You’re a bastard!” Seth said, getting up to his feet and raising his clawed hands in front of him in a fighting stance. His bindings had come off him, and now, he stood free. He must have freed himself somehow.
But as always, anger was usually never the best way to get things done. I wish right then I could have known that. I wish I had done something, anything, to stop Seth from making a terrible mistake.
Seth didn’t completely shift, but he morphed just enough to supposedly give himself the upper hand in the fight.
Gertrude screamed as Seth lunged for her father and pinned him down to the ground with such a force that would have been impossible for a normal human being to survive. The two struggled against one another, and rolled dangerously close to the edge of the cliff.
Gertrude stumbled away from the fight, eyes wide with fright. “Father!” she screamed hysterically. She turned to her brother, who had also been frozen in place, watching everything unfold. “Will you stop standing there like an idiot and do something!”
“I-I didn’t expect anybody to escape from those ropes!” he shouted back, his long face red with embarrassment.
Gert looked like she would have preferred to slap him across the face and throw him off the cliff, but she shook her head and got up to her feet, bringing out another dagger from within the folds of her frilly golden gown.
Sickening realisation dropped into my belly like a rock. “No!” I screamed, trying to free myself from my binds. “Seth! Seth!” I called after him, hoping that he would lift his head for just one moment and allow my message to sink in.
Gertrude stepped closer to the struggling men, lifting the knife up at an angle; ready to strike at any given moment.
Seth, blinded by rage, continued trying to rake his claws over Vladimir’s face, but each of his attacks were either blocked or evaded, even though the man was pinned underneath him and had nowhere to go. This had been Seth’s mistake-allowing anger to blind him to the extent that his attacks had become wild and uncoordinated.
Gert roared and brought down the knife on his back, pushing the blade deep into his flesh. Blood poured out of the wound immediately, spreading and turning that portion of his shirt from light blue to a deep red.
Seth lifted his head with a painful growl and shook the very ground we were on. He lashed out in a wild flash, and caught Gert right in the neck with one sweep of his powerful claws. The squelching sound of ripping flesh momentarily cut through the air.
Once again, blood filled the air, spilling out of Gert’s neck with powerful force. Her eyes went wide, as she could only be shocked with what just happened to her. She placed her hands over the wound, trying to stop the bleeding, but right from the moment the injury had been inflicted, it was obvious that she wasn’t going to have survived.
She made gurgling, choking sounds, reaching out for her father like he was going to save her. Tears started to spill from her eyes as it must have dawned on her that her life had been snatched from her so quickly. I didn’t want to feel an ounce of pity for her, but the scared look in her eyes reminded me of a past I could never forget. The look some of my people had worn on their faces right before they had been slaughtered like pigs.
She staggered forward, past Vladimir and Seth, and lost her footing against a rock. This threw her body forward, and in the twinkle of an eye, she fell past the cliff, and into the waiting darkness below.
Seconds passed before the unmistakable sound of something shattering deep below echoed through the night.
Vladimir roared, and suddenly found his hands free. Before any of us could recover from the unexpected death of Gert, he retrieved his silver dagger and plunged it into Seth’s chest once with enough spite to last centuries.
But that wasn’t all. He pulled out the knife, and stabbed him again.
And again.
. . . And again.
Five times, he stabbed his own nephew in the torso with the silver knife, eyes flashing with undisguised fury.
“Die!” Vladimir had screamed as he did it, not caring as every stab brought a splash of blood to his face and chest.
Seth howled, his pain evident in his screams. He lifted his head to the skies and tried to stop his uncle from doing further damage, but the damage had already been done. His eyes closed, and he slumped over his uncle, deathly still. It didn’t sink in until his transformation regressed, and his claws and extra muscles disappeared.
“No! Seth!” Shaun screamed, and I could tell that his heart was absolutely shattered.
Just as mine was.