The door is pushed, and it opens slowly, so slowly, the hinges creaking and then there he is.
Lex stands in the threshold, eyes wide but not in fear but with a crazed sort of rage that makes everything simmer rather than boil. There are blood spots on his face, on his shirt and his gun dangles loosely in his grip.
His head cocks to the side as he takes us both in, eyes scanning me from my feet, all the way up my body, checking for injury. His eyes snag on the blood on my throat and when he finally meets my eyes, the man I know is no longer there.
No, the man staring back at me is the very one that is whispered on the wind. The devil in this concrete jungle. His eyes slide from me to Valentine slowly, casually.
“Here’s what’s going to happen,” Valentine says, his voice shaking with the fear I can feel pounding against my spine. “You’re going to leave. Both hereandthe city, once I know you’re gone, I‘ll send Wren back.”
“You believe me stupid, Valentine?” Lex cocks his head again in that way of his that makes him look like a predator sizing up his prey. There is no hate or anger masking is tone, everything about him is just so measured. Easy. Like I don’t have a knife held to my throat and he didn’t just kill two men.
“You have no choice.” Valentine presses the blade harder into my neck and I wince, squeezing my eyes closed.
“Let her go and I might consider not killing you.” Lex says, and my eyes home in on him, pupils blown so wide his eyes appear black.
I hope he’s fucking bluffing.
Even so, there was no way I was letting my father leave here alive.
Keeping that blade to my throat, Valentine pulls a gun, aiming it at Lex, “OrI’lljust kill you both.”
Lex is quick to level his own gun, eyes pinging to me where I stay trapped against Valentine, a silent message.Stay very, very still.
We stand there for minutes, no one talking, no one moving, “Let her go.” Lex growls.
Pain explodes in my right ear, travelling through my skull as a gun is fired right next to my face. It’s so sudden, so abrupt Lex just stands there, his brows pulling low whilst blood blooms like a growing rose on the front of his shirt, and then he stumbles, legs barely able to hold him up as he droops and drops to the floor.
He shot him.
“NO!” I scream.
A rage I’ve never felt before fills my body, turning the blood in my veins to lava as I see red. All my training, every ounce of it comes back to me in a flash and I use it, managing to get Valentine’s blade away from my throat. Legs and fists fly as he tries to take back his advantage, all the while, Lex lays there on the ground, moving, trying to get up, his blood dripping onto the carpet.
I kick the gun out of Valentine’s hand and he lunges for me, slicing the blade towards me. I dodge the knife, managing to avoid it penetrating but the edge slices across my arm, cutting through the fabric of my sweater and then across my flesh.
The pain barely registers as I rip my own knife out, holding it out in front of me as he circles. My fingers flex on the hilt, I am so ready for this.I am so ready.
He lunges forward but I dodge again, managing to come up the side of him and I don’t think, only act as I plunge the knife into the side of his throat, straight through the artery and then the windpipe.
My father stills. Blood coats my hand, my arms and the front of my clothing as Valentine drops the blade he was holding to favor holding his throat.
I pull the blade out, watching the blood spurt from the wound, coating me even further.
I thought killing someone like this would do more. I thought I’d feel quilt, sorrow, grief, but all I feel is fucking powerful. I took him. I killed him.
I got my revenge, for me, for Rory and for Lex.
I watch him sink to his knees, his blood spewing down his front and onto the floor. His eyes meet mine, so similar to my own and he reaches forward, fingers curling into the front of my sweater whilst his other hand still holds his throat. He’s so weak the tug barely even moves me. I lift my chin, my breaths coming heavy as I look down my nose at where he is dying on his knees in front of me.
I reach down and take his hand, pulling it away from me and stare at him. His mouth forms the word please and I smile, “Goodbye Valentine.”
Lifting my leg, I press the sole of my shoe against his chest and kick. He tumbles back, landing with a loud thud into the dirt. I watch the remaining bits of life drain from him, pooling in puddles around his throat.
Dead. Finally fucking dead.
“Little bird,” Lex rasps.
My head snaps around and I rush towards him, dropping down to the side and looking for the damage. A bullet hole, straight through the upper section of his shoulder, a through and through. It hasn’t hit anything major but there is a lot of fucking blood, but I had to wonder, how much of it actually belonged to him.