Weird.
Yep. This was definitely strange.
And when he stood and spoke, it came out a growl. And that growl had all kinds of messed up images running through my head. “I told you not to leave this fucking room, but you come and go as you please, like an entitled toddler. Fuck what your very presence on the streets is doing to your family.”
Oh, yeah. He was pissed.
My beautiful brother was mad at me.
Oh, no. I did not like that. “Van,” I started slowly, a frown marring my delicate brow.
“No,” he snarled, and when I took a step away from him, his face turned expressionless. His tone much the same. “This was a mistake. I thought you were ready, but you’re not.” He took in a deep breath. “Which is why we’ve decided that you’ll no longer be leading The Dragons.” My mouth gaped as he went on. “The vote has been cast. I’m taking over, Ling.”
I blinked over at him, my gut clenching hard with suppressed anger.
Like hell he was.
Holding myself like the queen I was, my face remained void, when I stated, “A mutiny, Van?” A soft laugh shot out of me. “Really?”
But the Van I loved was nowhere to be seen. Instead, Van the douche took his place. “Call it what you will. I’ve already started damage control.” His cold stare held me fast. “I never should have listened to you. But that’s my fault. I trusted you, and I should have known better.”
His words cut me deeply.
This fucker.
Panic flared deep in the core of my very being. “Van, think about this.”
“I have.” He nodded. “I am.” He looked me up and down. “What a shame you turned out to be, Ling. You’ve taken us from being one of the most prominent and trusted firms in the southern hemisphere to being your own personal playthings, treating our men like children then punishing them when they misbehave. Our reputation has suffered in your command. Your ‘I don’t give a fuck’ attitude has cost us more than you’re worth, I’m afraid.”
What the fuck? He’s never spoken to me as such.
“So here’s what’s going to happen.” He took a step closer to me, and I didn’t trust the peacefulness in his tone. “You’re going to sit here, in this room, like the doll you were born to be, and you will listen to whatever it is I say because you know I have your best interest at heart.”
That was the plan? He was locking me away like a retarded sibling?
My blood began to boil.
Did he even know who I was?
That was so not happening.
“You will no longer have anything to do with The Dragons. You won’t see them; you won’t talk to them. You won’t even see our brothers anymore because I know how great a manipulator you are. When the time is right, you will live at my house with me, where I can keep an eye on you at all times.”
My anger rose to hot, heavy rage.
He took another step forward. “And when you invite me into your bed,” he spoke low, “I will come to you.”
My heart started to beat faster.
The rage turned to white, blistering fury.
No. None of this was working for me.
“We aren’t normal, Ling, and I’m sick of trying to be something I’m not. So I’ve decided to stop fighting the darkness inside me and embrace it instead.” And he smiled so viciously that I saw my father in that hollow grin. “It’s quite freeing. I can see why you live the way you do. I think you’ll find I make a half-decent king. And, in private—” Another confident step closer. “—you can be my queen.”
My insides twisted painfully, and when I lowered my eyes, my brother mistook my position for one of submission.
I heard pride line his voice as he reached out to cup my cheek warmly. “My pretty little doll.”
We were royalty in our own rights, but I had something my brother would never have. Tenacity. It was something you were either born with or you weren’t. It couldn’t be taught. Lucky for me, I had the shit in spades.
Playing the role he very clearly wanted me to play, I reached up slowly to smooth his lapel and I kept my eyes lowered, as I asked a hushed, “Come to bed with me?”
Van wrapped his arms around me, resting his hands just below the small of my back. “Do you want me, Ling?”
Did I want his highness?
No. “Yes,” I muttered quietly, and when he moved us towards the bed, a calmness I’d rarely felt flowed through me, radiating warmth in a cold situation that would not end well no matter how it played out.
At the side of the bed, I ran a hand down his chest to his stomach, lower still until my fingers rested just under his navel. “Lay down.”
As his eyes fixed on me, he did as I asked, and when I climbed over him, I put my hands to his chest and sat low on his stomach. I leant in close until my front met his and I could feel his heart thumping in his chest. He was excited by this, our shame. His heart called to mine; it beat for me and me alone, and I slid my hands under the pillow, pressing myself into him in a purely sexual way.
My brother’s eyes hooded in pleasure, and I smiled coyly in return. “Are you sure you want this? I’m a dangerous woman, Van.” My voice turned breathy. “Once you have me, you’ll never be the same.”
Van’s soft smile made my stomach ache, and when he uttered a rough, “I love you,” I came to realize he did.
He really did.
Van thought The Dragons would thrive under a king, but he didn’t appreciate what The Dragons had when they had it. I know he thought he was doing what was best, but he was already making terrible decisions, and regretfully, I wouldn’t stand for it.
“You think The Dragons need a king, brother mine?” I asked sweetly, trailing kisses along his jaw.
“I do,” he grunted out as I ran my tongue along his chin.
Did I want my brother?
I wanted a lot of things.
I wanted him to understand me.
I wanted him to realize his error.
And most of all, I wanted him dead.
Kissing his cheek, I spoke against his stubble-rough skin, “My beautiful brother, you have been the sunshine in my darkness. You have picked me up every time I fell, and I thank you for that. But I need you to hear me now, and hear me well.” I moved then. My lips a hair’s breadth away from his, I looked Van in the eyes and whispered viciously, “I am the motherfucking king.”
In a move he did not see coming, his eyes widened as I sat up, lifting the hunting knife out from under my pillow, up over my head, and as I brought it down into his chest, my eyes widened and my lip curled. The surprised sound he made when the seven-inch blade entered his body was music to my ears. I brought it mechanically down over and over and over again, and every time the knife slid into him, a harsh grunt escaped his mouth. Wet warmth splattered my face, over my eyes, but I didn’t dare shut them. I needed to see the exact moment the light faded from his eyes.
I counted every blow.
My steady hand stilled only when I reached sixty-three and Van’s chest looked like minced meat.
My white covers now colored red, I sat back and pursed my lips, looking down at my brother, panting lightly. He wheezed and coughed, and as his body shook, I took the hunting knife and slowly licked the blade. As I did this, our eyes met.
The expression he wore was an equal mixture of shock and pain, and I didn’t give a solid fuck. “I’m sorry, Van, but I guess you could say my answer to everything you just offered is...” I paused a second, my face darkened, and I spoke slowly, “No.”
He opened his mouth and attempted to speak, but all that came out was a sickening gurgling sound.
I should have just slit his throat, but I didn’t want to. I wanted to watch.
“This could have gone differently. You know that, don’t you?” When he didn’t answer, for he couldn’t, I took his head in my hands and moved it in a slow nod. “That’s right. I didn’t want to do this.” I cupped his cheeks, and he gasped for air as I moved his head from side to side in a shake of th
e head. “But our visions clashed, and one of us needed to go. And it sure as fuck wasn’t going to be me, Van. You know I’m too selfish to share what’s mine.” His harsh wheezing got weaker. “This right here? This is what makes me a good leader. Nobody’s safe, Van. Nobody. I guess what I’m trying to say is—” I held him fast as he took in a short, stuttering breath. The exhale never came. And when I dropped his head, I blinked down at my bloodstained hands. “—long live the king.”
The silence started to turn on me as my actions played in my mind on repeat. And for some unknown reason, sitting over my brother’s dead body, I just couldn’t find the will to care.
This was my castle, yes, but I’d never rule again. When it was found out what happened here, my life was forfeit. Luka Pavlovic would put a bullet between my eyes.
Because that’s what you did to sickly animals.
You put them down.
I thought about what to do now, but only one option stood out.
If I was going out, I was going out with a bang. And when I finally detonated my atom bomb, the explosion would be felt all over. I would shake every fucking window in this shithole of a town.
A bloodstained smirk stretched at my lips as I slid off the bed and stalked out of the room, barefoot and painted red.