I looked over at Michael, kneeling on the ground beside me, hands bound behind his back just like mine. He looked back at me, and grinned that same little mischievous grin that we would share when we were thinking the same thing. I smiled back, and knew for sure then that he did. Neither of us feared death, not at this moment, not even with pistols pressed to our skulls.
No, we had light hearts, even in the face of betrayal. We looked up at our current captors, our executioners, and just smiled. We weren’t afraid. There was an uneasy murmur among the crowd of vampires that had come to watch. I bet we looked guilty as hell, just sitting there, staring down the barrels of a couple of pistols, grinning our asses off, but we couldn’t help it. We knew we were innocent, and we knew that we weren’t going to get a fair hearing, but we’d be damned if we weren’t going to go out with a few last words.
We shared a glance again, our own little personal countdown so that we’d be in sync. Kro had given us a lot, taught us a lot, shown us a lot, but there was one thing that ran in this family. I wasn’t talking about the determination, the stubbornness, the trustfulness, or the devotion. No, I was talking about this, the good ol’ family motto.
“Voices can be silenced, but actions will echo into infinity.”
We said it in unison, just like everything. He may not have been a brother in birth, but he was definitely my brother in blood. And just like twins, we stared up at our executioners with anticipation, just waiting for the bullet to fly, both wearing the same expression, both saying the same words.
I couldn’t help but glance into the crowd, though, wondering exactly who would be remembering our final words. Of course, Niko was there, smiling like the rotten bastard he was, wearing his fancy, expensive pinstriped suit with the matching fedora. He looked like some sort of mafia boss, and for all I knew, he probably was. For all I cared, he could be the boss of every mafia in the world.
All I needed to know was that he’d betrayed Kro, betrayed me, Michael, this entire family. And one day, he was going to pay. Michael and I both knew that. So we just kept on smiling
“Because, Niko, you’re going to rot in Hell.”
YOU ARE READING
Memory
Short StoryThis is a short story depicting the highlights of Kro's life as seen through the eyes of Teyla as she remembers him. She tells the story of how they met, and how he became a father to her by more than just vampire law. She describes their relationsh...
