TOXIC BLOODLINES: PARADISE - BOOK 2/4

WHAT DO YOU WANT!

KIMBERLY

Memories from that night flashed before my eyes with each step Andras took toward me. It was difficult to grasp what I felt. Dread? Fear? Rage? Or all of the above. My heart pounded with anticipation. I had thought of this moment a million times. How I would not hold back. How I would hurt him the way he hurt me. I clenched my fists, feeling the fire beneath my skin. This was my chance. I stepped forward, ready to strike him down. Then I heard him cough. It was a sickly wheezing sound.

I halted my assault.

As the light slowly revealed Andras's face, I was met with the embodiment of karmic retribution. The man I saw before me was barely alive, unrecognizable to the monster I knew and feared as a child. Andras was frail, dried up, his cheeks hollowed. His fiery hair was now dull and limp, bold patches exposed as if he had pulled his own hair out.

The stench of rot that came off him turned my stomach. I had to cover my nose to dull it.

Andras was covered with festering sores and wounds. Some I could tell were self-inflicted. The others were painful-looking blisters from where the molten shackles around his wrists pressed into his flesh. I could hear his skin crackling and sizzling.

If he were not a murderous bastard, I'd have shed a tear and run to him to save my dear father from his fate. But I couldn't stop the gleeful smile that appeared on my face.

Andras was suffering.

He has been suffering for ten years.

This was a fate worse than anything I could have imagined. My plan was to kill him. But locking him away to rot for all eternity never crossed my mind.

"Does it make you happy to see me like this?" Andras asked with a weak, dry voice.

"It is what you deserve," I answered.

"What I deserve, hmph." Before Andras could get any closer, the chains fastened. I heard him wince from the pain as they tugged him back. "That was your mother's dress," he pointed. "You were in hell, smell like it to." He spat at the ground.

"What do you want, Andras?"

He raised his arms. "Out of these chains," he rattled them.

"And why would I ever do that?"

"Because I'm the only one who can save you and your precious mortals," he answered.

"I'm not freeing you, Andras."

He huffed. "Still stubborn." Andras dragged himself back into the dark. "Good luck trying to escape this place," he chuckled. "After an hour, it will not matter what you do. Everyone you know will be dead, and you will be trapped here, with me, for all eternity as time flies by." He looked back. "The choice is yours." Andras smiled with rotted teeth.

Under any other circumstances, I would have planted my feet and done this the hard way. The thought of Andras being the answer made me sick. That and the possible risk that came with his terms. But I had no other option. So, I took a deep breath. "If you try anything."

Andras extended his hands with an eager grin as I slowly approached him. Reluctantly. I took a few seconds to study the symbols carved into the shackles. "These are Uri's symbols," I took a few seconds to study them. "How do I know I can trust you?"

"The same way you trust the man who put me here," he grunted.

I placed my hands on the shackles and began to undo the magic. I could hear the locks breaking. All the while, I stared into Andras's eyes, fearing what he would do in the split second it took me to blink. The shackles broke off. And he grabbed my arms. Andras began to siphon my power out of me. "LET GO!" I blasted him off, but the little he took was enough.