Another's Demise

Darkening the Sky

Alara

A shot of cold bristled through me as I closed the stolen cars door, lightly enough to not make a significant sound but hard enough to ensure it's closure.

It was cold night, nothing like the warmth of the day, the spilling sunlight I had seen on the drive here, it was a far off alcove, a dilapidated building out of commission, with signs older than I had ever seen, advertising a new building project which must have gone into remission.

It was the perfect place to take a life, in the darkness once swift knife, or a silencer bullet. It was suicide to go in there alone, but I had this gnawing feeling in my gut that this would give me the answers I needed.

You are just looking for a distraction.

That wanning voice in the back of my mind cut through my thoughts, as my boots crushed the fallen leaves beneath. Italy was beautiful in the day, but the night belonged to the Underworld, the crimes that could happen under the blanket of night. A whisper of a last breath lost in a chasm, hidden before morning.

I had learnt it all, under Vincent's instruction, but there was always the ghost of him, the man who had first taught me to hold a gun, who had raised me to be lethal, even when I ran from it Damon Mortello made sure that I would be able to defend myself, even if it was motivated by a need for me to remain alive, just so he would get the riches of the Blood Diamond.

I had hated it, wanting to disappear into my books, my studies but the Gang life is not a choice when your family is entrenched in it.

This was in my blood, and you could not run from the thumping liquid in your heart, the substance you would spill to protect the ones you love.

Isolation would do nothing but fester in the depths of your heart, and make you everything you wanted to escape.

I felt better after embracing what I was, what I was made to be, the Blood Queen, lethal and poised and ready to defend her family.

I never had an interest in the diamond, but I knew one thing, I would use any means necessary to make sure no one ever laid a finger on it.

I stalled a moment, a creaking branch snapped in half, a fools mistake and far too purposeful to be the real direction my phantom was waiting at.

I pressed myself against the tree, watching the murmured wind, sway in the direction the sound had been, and nothing. A pause a moment, waiting me to follow such amateur luring techniques.

A few more beats, and there was a low sigh, "Too easy for you isn't it Ma Cherie."

My face twisted, as I pulled the gun from my waist, clasping it tightly between hands that would not hesitate when faced with Dane Laurier.

I did not reveal myself, only holding tight to the biting metal, finger hovering over the trigger.

"Not coming out to play then are you?" a mocker of me always.

Of course it was Dane Laurier who had wanted to meet with me. Who else was so desperate for this diamond.

"I do not forget when we first met," I felt the breath leave my body, anger soaring through me as I remembered when he had held me captive, I seethed, keeping my head low as I tried to locate his arrogant figure, "How defiant you were but how very different. Afraid, alone, not one ounce of assuredness in you. And now look at what you have become, the greatest metamorphosis I have ever seen."

I tried not to lurch forward and shoot through his damned body.

He was in the clearing now, surveying the disarray around him, the crumbling bricks, the peeling paint of the walls, the groaning trees that had seen it all in this part of the woods, "France is so much more elegant. I shall take you there some time Ma Charie, as soon as you give me what I want."

He knew I was here, knew that I was hiding beneath these trees, he spoke as though he could see me, and I hated every ounce of him. He had ruined everything for Cameron and I. We were fine, happy, in hiding but together, until he had tracked me with a device he had slipped into the food I was forced to eat by his lackey Cole.

"Not going to speak are you? A shame, I would have loved to hear that voice of yours. Delicate, and assured, I wonder how it would sound for you to scream my name,"

My blood rose at the insinuation and the irrational side of me would have shot him square in the chest for that remark.

I felt a sudden chill down my spine, a thought so wretched pulling me back to reality.

Would I kill a man, without thought?

Even if it was Dane Laurier, I would not allow my emotions to take over me.

I closed my eyes, only seeing the conviction in Cameron's eyes when he had shot my father. He had no reservations, he probably felt the same burn in his chest as I had.

I turned, knowing that there was nothing Laurier could tell me that I didn't already know this was a ruse to capture me again and I wouldn't bite.

I turned only to feel a hand smothering my mouth, I kicked out, a breath so violent tearing through me, before I heard a low whispered hush, "Shh it's just me,"

Cameron.

My eyes widened in the darkness, as his hand loosened from my mouth, hand raising to his lips as he gestured for me to be quiet.

"He's got men all around, he is just the distraction."

Just a distraction.

I was a fool to think he had come alone.

"What are you doing here?"

"Saving you from your own recklessness, now we need to go, darling."

I froze, and he realised his own mistake, I palmed my gun, "I'm fine on my own Grayson."

"No." and he didn't say anything more, as a spray of bullet rang out through the clearing.

"There they are."