Children of Blood ✔️

Chapter Thirty Three

I lung towards Lady, spurred by my grief and rage.

Lady swings her fist, I duck and grab her wrist. Pulling her arm down, I jab my elbow into her nose. Her eyes water and she grunts, kneeing my stomach as she grabs my arm and throws me to the ground. I roll over and groan, staggering to my feet. It feels like someone crushed my insides with a hydraulic press.

Lady spins and her leg wizzes past my nose. I back away and stare daggers.

"Know this little mouse," Lady growls, "when I kill you; it will be slow and painful."

I charge again and throw another punch, but she catches my arm and uses my momentum to toss me to the ground. I slide across the marble floor, the skin on my face peeling off.

Rolling over I sit up and watch her approach, venom dripping from her lips, "Oh, little mouse. Maybe I should keep you alive to the very end. So you can watch me kill everyone you care about, their screams will haunt you, and their souls will torture you."

"Why are you like this?" I dryly cough and push myself to my feet once again. My legs shake and my arms lay limp at my side. "What happened to you?"

"What happened to me?" Lady smirks, "Life happened."

I block a punch and counter it with one of my own. Lady ducks. Jabbing her fist into my diaphragm, I back away and gasp. It's like she sucked all the air out of my lungs. She kicks my chest and I smash into the ground. I bend and hold my stomach, coughing and desperately trying to breathe.

Lady bends down and brushes a piece of hair from my face, "I wasn't the son he wanted." She pinches my cheeks tightly and scowls, "My father beat me because I wasn't a boy. He beat my mother too because of it. He wanted me to be tough, a warrior, a leader."

I pull my face away and kick her feet from beneath her. She tumbles back before jabbing her knee into my chest and punching my face. My eyes water and I cough violently, trembles crumple my body.

"You think I'm messed up?" Lady asks through her clenched jaw, her hand finding its way to my throat. "Let me tell you the story. After 13 years of torture, my father killed my mother and forced me to bury her dismembered body."

I stare into Lady's vengeful eyes. If eyes are the windows to your soul, then I'm afraid Lady doesn't have one. It died long ago.

"At 16 I left my father and lived on the streets before they forced me into a brothel where my body was exploited for years." Lady's breath is fast and shallow, her grip slowly tightening around my throat, "Then I saw him. Alaric's father. He took me from that wretched place and saved me, he nurtured me back to life when everyone else thought I was dead. But my father found me again and threatened to kill him if I didn't leave and use my beautiful body for good."

I struggle against Lady's grip; I grab both of her forearms and slam my elbows down. Her release on my neck loosens and I flip her over, smashing a fist into her throat. She chokes and jabs her fingers into my eyes. I flinch and she kicks me off of her and jams her foot into the back of my kidneys. When her hands find my neck again, she squeezes much tighter.

"I found Windsor, married into power and promised him a son. But I never pleased my father, he knew I bore a child who was not Windsor's. So he murdered the only man I loved. He killed Alaric's father because I gave birth to him. So I left."

I wriggle my arms out from underneath Lady and swing her off of me, "So you abandoned your son? The only person you had left of him was Alaric."

Lady snatches a dagger and plunges it into my thigh and rips it out. My scream is cut short as Lady squeezes my throat with intense power. "I left Alaric because he's the reason for my misery."