Norman blinked innocently. Suddenly, everything fell into place. No one had known what caused her car to stop that night, or why she’d gotten out. Had Norman lured her out of the vehicle? Had he blocked her in somewhere? Had he hauled her out kicking and screaming and then attacked her?
She’d known him, so maybe she had trusted him. Maybe she had known something was wrong, but it was Norman, so she’d thought that he was there to help her. Had she realized something was amiss? I had to admit that my brother had done a wonderful job making her death look like a random act of violence. I’d never suspected him.
That was it.
I was done hearing him talk about this.
“You tried to cause chaos, so I’d come running to you,” I finally said. “But it didn’t work.”
“Didn’t it? Your people don’t trust you anymore.”
“That’s not true.”
I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. My brother’s humans had sneaked into the room quietly. One of them gestured for me to remain silent about their presence. Something about their mannerisms let me know that I needed to listen to that request.
He’d been a dick to me, so there was no doubt in my mind that he’d been cruel to his human slaves, as well. Why he’d ever thought it was a good idea to keep people around as food, I didn’t know. They needed to have a choice. They needed freedom.
“It will be after today,” he said. “When I’m done, they won’t even remember your name.”
“You have a lot to learn, brother.”
“A lot to learn? Well, I-”
But his sentence was cut short.
The humans rose up at the same time and brought two stakes down into my brother’s back. One of them must have hit his heart, because one second he was talking, and the next second he was dust. I wasn’t sad at all about this turn of events. I simply nodded to them in silent gratitude before racing over to Juliet, who was lying on the floor. She was lifeless and her body was limp. Still, I reached for her body.
“It’s too late,” I murmured, pulling her onto my lap. “She’s gone.”
I started sobbing before I even realized what was happening. My entire body was filled with pain as I realized I’d let her down. I’d brought her to the mansion to play with, to have fun with. I hadn’t brought her here so she could die.
The only thing I wanted from Juliet was love.
The only thing I wanted was her heart.
Now I wasn’t going to be able to claim that.
Oh, we’d only had a few days together, but they’d been good days. We’d laughed, and we’d played, and we’d had the most intense sex I’d ever had in my life, and I was going to miss her. It wasn’t fair. None of this was fair. My body hurt from crying. I hadn’t sobbed like this since my wife died. It wasn’t fair. Nothing about this was okay.
“You tell him.”
“No, you tell him!”
“I don’t want to tell him.”
“You should.”
The humans were whispering from behind me, but I ignored them as I held Juliet and wept for her. I went for the life we could have had. I cried for the dreams that we’d shattered. Perhaps most of all, I cried because even though I was certain it made me seem weak, I knew that I was going to miss her. She had been incredible.
I felt a tentative tap on one of my shoulders, and I looked over. The human who was touching me looked scared. Despite having just slaughtered my brother, the human was afraid of me.
“Thank you for killing him,” I said. “Thank you.”
“It’s not about that,” the human told me. “It’s something else.”
“You can still save her,” the other one said.
“I can’t,” I whispered. “Norman is dead. He’s the only one who could have brought her back.”