Her Bodyguard

Chapter Thirty-Six

"Papa! Papa... what's happening?" The little girl asked frantically, "where's Mama?"

"Ascolta, prendi tuo fratello e vattene. Vai da Rocco. Non tornare mai più. Vai, nasconditi!" The older man said as he shoved a boy into the girl's arms. He was a smaller version of the man and his sister.

"But Papa..." The girl tried to stop him.

"No, Calida. Devi promettere di tenere tuo fratello al sicuro. Devi restare vivo. Promesso?" The man asked, holding out his hand for Calida to take.

She placed her hand on his palm and he kissed it, leaving a golden ring on it when he took his hand away. He hugged her for what he said was the last time and pressed a kiss to her and her brother's forehead. He pushed her away so she could hide in a corner when they heard voices and footsteps approaching.

"Check the rooms... he'll be in here somewhere! Get him! Don't let him escape!"

That voice belonged to uncle Pedro. The doors sprang open loudly and the voices grew closer. An uproar, gunshots, voices she didn't recognise, and an argument between her father and her uncle. Calida held on to her brother. He'd always been a deep sleeper and she was grateful for that. How else would she have kept him safe. The room went quiet. They'd left, taking her father along with them. She followed slowly, hearing the sounds of gunshots, the screams, the cries.

A noise caught her attention and she slipped into the Library, hiding her brother. Just as she wanted to take cover, someone walked into the room. Joachim. The smell of alcohol and blood permeated the air, staining it.

"Hey brat, your Mama and Papa are gone. It's time for you to join them," he chortled.

Calida just stared at him, before her eyes fell on the Champaign bottle on the table. She was swift, grabbing the bottle and breaking it. Joachim sized her up before exploding in laughter.

"What are you going to do with that? Huh?" He leaned in, bring himself to her height.

Calida took a step back and smashed the bottle on the table, the sound of glass breaking echoed through the room and Joachim laughed louder. She lunged at him, stabbing his left eye with the sharp, jagged ends of the broken bottle.

Joachim let out a louder scream and before he could react, she pulled the bottle out and stabbed him again. Joachim roared in pain, but Calida had grabbed her brother who was awake and confused. She left the room, taking the private stairway that mostly the servants used.

It was cold outside, she had blood splattered across her face and clothes. But she couldn't stop. Calida escaped into the darkness with her brother in her arms. She'd run as far as her legs could take her, finding the gates to the academy. She'd waited patiently for the doors to open, for Rocco to stand before her. That night, they took her brother away from her, and the next day, she started the journey to becoming a different person.

Calida stared at her cousin, she wasn't smiling or smirking, her face was blank. Her memories were back now, everything that she'd long forgotten. They were no longer echoes in the back of her mind, reminders of the pain she experienced.

"You used to be competitive like your father. You still are. He wanted everything my father owned, even though he had been the one to walk away from his own home. He was greedy and wanted what he didn't work for. I see time didn't make you change. Tua nonna si starebbe rivoltando nella tomba, Marcus," Calida said, staring at Diablo.

She knew he hated his name. Their grandmother gave him that name and he hated her just as much as the name. She was the first one to call him the devil. He set a dog on fire and stood while it burned to death, and Calida had hated him since then. He boasted about it for days until she became fed up with his antics. Calida gave him a good beating before letting him go and that angered his father.