Page 93 of Tempt Me

“Think about it, you dumb meat sack. Who would see little ole’ me? Did you think a brilliant mastermind would be alone? Even you have to know that they may have called me the Reaper, but there was neverone. Just like death itself. I have many names.”

Breathing became tough…I felt suffocated.

“I have many faces and many extensions to my work. Did you think killing me would be the end? No, no, silly boy. It was the beginning for another to rise from my ashes.”

I looked at the man in the seat. His features were so similar to Joe’s. In his days of not looking like a sprouting potato, he was a high classed fucking asshole. This kid…he was…related to Joe.

“The great Reaper of Hospital Twelve was my grandfather. I had to take my mother’s name to prevent people from connecting those pesky dots. You see, his work was unfinished. The mother falls, but so too does the child.”

I vomited on the ground. His words were incomprehensible to my ears. He couldn’t…

No.

“You…you killed Ariah,” I said, the strength completely depleted from my limbs. “Why?She was so pure!”

Joe’s grandson lifted his broken body to rise above me. His chains hanging off him but not anchoring him. He was too scrawny. He could free himself if I didn’t get the fuck up.

“So pure and trusting…sweet, dumb, Pharaoh. She welcomed me into your home. She listened to my pleas to help my grandfather. Fed me a delicious meal. She even had me holding your daughter. Such a fragile, breakable little thing, wasn’t she?”

My blood went cold. I felt numb. Tears streamed down my face, but I was not able to say a word. Hearing my daughter spoken about in past tense hurt more than anything I had planned for this man.

“Your betrothed was my practice for the big event. She’s the one who locked my grandfather into that hole. Deeming him insane and dangerous. It was only fair to lock her in the hell of her making.”

I couldn’t move, frozen with the destruction of my heart.

“I couldn’t kill your little rugrat that day. Your wife had made far too great an effort to hide her from me, even going as far as offering me…a deal.”

No. No. No. Please…not Xenia. No.

“Unlike you, your wife was smart enough to bargain for something I wanted far more than a screaming infant’s blood,” he continued. “My dearest Gemmy and her beautiful mind and influences were causing her to become quite sick. She was going to face the same fate as her sister. Ariah Morgan had access to treat my Gemmy.”

Who the fuck is Gemmy? Did he mean the twins?

“If I do recall, Goliath Masters was the excused cop for the unfortunate death of the previous warden, right? It was quite difficult to free my grandfather, of course, but it was worth the blood bath of that night. I only wish I could have partaken. Hmm, oh well.”

His smile turned bitter, nearly deadly.

“A lot of good that did in the end because none other than your bumbling brother killed my Gemmy. So, you see, sweet Xenia’s life was a circle of reciprocity.”

Xeny bug…

“Sadly, it was not my hand to end your little bundle nor my brilliant grandfather. No matter, though. Death is death, after all, and the result is the same.”

He kicked me in the ribs, and I felt the cracks, but I simply couldn’t respond.

“Weak,” he taunted, kicking me again. “Useless. Broken. Man.”

His words and assault knocked me to my stomach. My inability to fight back was just a confirmation of his truth.

This man killed Ariah, tried to kill Xenia, and framed one of my brothers while somehow corrupting the other. Between him and his grandfather, this…demon created a shattered picture of my family.

Ariah…

She was tricked and stabbed in the back. Inadvertently, her love for our daughter was what trapped us all in the asylum. Her desperation to spare Xenia damned us all, including the one thing she wanted so desperately to save.

I coughed, trying to pull myself up. The man kept kicking me. The blows to my face and chest knocked me down, and again, all the while, he was finding a way free of the chains that bound him. I should have known a snake would be able to slither out of hell.

“I would love to stay and chat, dear boy. It is magnificent seeing that dumbfounded look on your pretty face, but unfortunately, I need to bid thee farewell.”

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