How To Tame An Empress (BOOK I)

Chapter 42- That Innocent Blood

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The few seconds of silence stretched into a few minutes and with every beat of the ticking clock that was time, my heartbeat became more and more rugged, like that of a wild animal becoming more and more aggravated.

"Why...?" Ria eventually breathed out, squeezing her eyes shut in an attempt to will the tears away and biting the inside of her cheek to will herself to keep from screaming.

"No matter how good I am to you, no matter how hard I try to live by your rules, no matter how hard I try to make you realise that you are in the wrong... All this time that I've passed on, wasted on you, is something I will never get back... If I think about myself then those I love will die, if I anger you then those I love will die... What do I need to do to be able to breathe again?"

I turned away from her and to Claud who was still crouched down on the ground beside us, trying to stay as quiet as possible. It is as if he believed that if he kept quiet enough then he would not only disappear but I would forget about his very existence.

But every time I see him, I see that he is the man I used to be... The one that Ria used to smile at. But we are different people and if I can't have Ria, then out of everyone in this damned world, he is the last man that I want her to be with.

"I am telling you now, Anastacius... If you hurt a single hair on any one of my people, then I will no longer sit still..." I turned back to look at Ria as she glared at me, a foul glare.

My fingers twitched and from the corner of my eye, I looked at Claud and then the knife that was hanging on his belt.

Ria... Doesn't love me anymore.

"...Wanna bet?" I quietly uttered out in a whispery breath.

I realize now that if Ria doesn't love me anymore... Then what is the point? Nothing is holding me back from doing as I please.

I have come too far. I've lost her love but that doesn't mean I'll let myself lose her. All this means now is that if I get rid of anyone annoying me or standing in my way, then I can live with her empty shell standing by my side for the rest of my life.

Yes, like I said before... I guess I'll just become the villain.

"Watch me, my love..." I smirked a small, tired smirk at her. And then, I turned to the side, walking over to Claud's kneeling figure, his head tilted down but the look on his face was as clear as day, the look of a man who has accepted his fate.

Pulling out the knife from its sheath, I admired the blade for a short second, almost unaware of Ria's panicking and screaming self that was pulling me back and away from Claud but her hold was as useful as a bug's. It did nothing.

Kneeling in front of the man, I placed a hand on his shoulder and he slowly looked up at me and I took the chance to lean forward, whispering in his ear.

"You should have known better than to get close to her," Pulling back, he was staring right back at me, eyes not shaking in fear as I had expected. It seems that, unlike Linus, this man was prepared for the consequences of his actions.

"Anastasius! Stacius... Please, no! Don't do this!" Sighing a deep sigh, I pushed my elbow out and it landed on Ria's abdomen, causing her to fall on the ground and she gasped at both the impact of my hit and the ground's.

I stared at her surprised and pained figure for a short second, at the way she cradled her stomach and then I turned back to Claud.

"May you rest in peace," Smiling a bright smile at him, I thrust the knife forward, making sure it went through his chest and came out the other end.

"No!" Ria's scream was like a farewell to Claud from this world and to the next.

For a short second, before death engulfed him, the man looked at me, those dead brown eyes of his darkening and being filled with so much... pity?... Not hate or anger?

I couldn't find out though, after coughing up some blood and wheezing for a little bit like some sort of constipated pigeon, he fell forward and I caught him just in time, having the decency to at least put him on the ground before standing back up and brushing my clothes down of the imaginary dirt.

Walking away from his pool of blood before it could reach me, I stood back and stared at Ria as she lay on the ground, cradling her abdomen with one hand and staring at Claudius's dead body, her hand which had been outstretched for him, fell to the ground with a quiet thud.

"There's one pest out of the way..." I drifted off, staring at my wife.

No tears lined her vision, no sadness, no anger. For all it was worth, she just looked... empty. She wasn't crying or screaming for the so-called 'innocent' life I had just taken, she just numbly stared at him, shellshocked and frozen, looking like she just woke up from a horrible nightmare and was paralysed in fear, too scared and confused to do anything for a moment.

"Darling, do not look so broken for a man that..."

"-No," She whispered, cutting me off.

Crossing my arms, I stared at her now trembling figure on the ground. This is quite a different reaction from the death of Linus, isn't it? I wonder which one she was closer to? Claudius or Linus?

"W-What have you done?... Anastasius," Her voice cracked.

Raising a brow, I took a cautious step closer to her. "You are the one that aggravated me, love... I killed him, what does it look li-" She cut me off again but unlike last time, this time was somehow different. With wide eyes, filled with fear, not for herself but for someone else, she confused me.

"-No, what have you done?"

And I watched as one of the tears fell out of her glossy eyes.

"What are you-" I cut myself off this time.

Kneeling down beside her figure, my eyes slowly trailed down from her crying face to her stomach that she cradled and I croaked out a gasp... B-Blood?

Blood... But I didn't stab her or anything... Where is this blood coming from?

"Ria... Why are you bleeding... there?" I quietly asked.

With ragged breathing and trembling lips, she shook her head, her sobs getting louder by the second as the realisation of the reality seeped into her mind. "No, no... Please no... Oh, gods," She sobbed, her other hand going to protectively hold her abdomen.

"I don't want this... I can't do this... Don't do this... no, no," She cried. A loud scream followed her cries as she cradled her stomach. "Don't do this to me!" She screamed, looking up at the ceiling as if cursing the gods.

"Don't take him... My baby... No..."

What...?

And then my past actions flashed through my head for a split second, putting all the pieces together, I realised what I had done.

Ria... Was pregnant... Or rather, she had been... Until I elbowed her in the stomach hard enough to make her fall and now... Now...

That blood on her abdomen, that innocent blood...

I had... I killed our child.

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