“Shh now, little bird, you will have your vengeance.”
I picture it, I taste it on my tongue. Valentine,my father,bleeding out before me, not from a gun shot or an easy wound but a wound that would cause a slow, painful death, I taste the copper tang of blood on my tongue and feel it running over my skin. It’s the only thing that stops the tears. Knowing that his days are numbered and it is only a matter of time before I have him before me.
“Promise me.” I say suddenly.
“What little bird?”
“That when the time comes, I get to kill him.”
“Wren…”
“Lex, I need to do it. For me. For you. For your mother.” I stare up into his silver eyes, seeing the confliction there, the need to protect, “he took so much from me, so much from you and I want to do it for you andme.”
“We will see.”
I don’t push him, as much as I want to, this is something that will need to be discussed. I laugh at myself, had I thought this would become of my life only a mere few weeks ago? Planning a murder? Planning vengeance for both me and a man I deemed a devil but became so much more than that between then and now?
He presses the most tender of kisses to my forehead and then steers me towards the stairs, “Let’s eat.”
I agree and follow him down the stairs, watching all his glory move and ripple, the muscle and the sinew, an unleashed fury buried not so far from the surface.
And he was mine.