Forty Nine

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1st Person POV

My head felt like it was about to split into two. Countess De Ville led the operation. One of the oldest, most powerful supernatural creatures in the world needed me to convince 124 humans to change their minds.

None of this made any sense.

Soon after I'd made that revelation, she'd escorted me back to the doors I'd stepped through. She'd then called for Raphael, who'd come to the foyer, miraculously unscathed. Her eyes were glued to my back with all the intensity of a laser as I followed Raphael through the door.

Before I could step through though, she grasped me by the wrist and leaned down to whisper in my ear.

"To sweeten my offer, I can kill him if you wish it, for what he did," she said.

A full shiver wracked my body as she let go of my hand. Her eyes drifted over to Raphael with devious intent and she raised a single brow. I shook my head mutely, dumbstruck by fear at this point, before yanking Raphael out of there.

We'd actually gotten out of her lair alive.

"What did she want from you? Who is she," Raphael asked.

"You don't talk to me," I said lowly.

He shut up immediately but glanced my way every ten seconds. The woods surrounding her house didn't seem to have an end in sight and both of us were dead on our feet. It was close to sunrise as well, judging by the small amount of light in the sky.

"We'll stop somewhere here, continue in the morning," I said curtly.

He nodded and settled at the base of a tree. I took up a similar position across from him, feeling a weariness that ran deep into my bones. When would all of this become too much?

It was a miracle I hadn't reached my limit already.

"Why didn't you kill me on that roof when you killed Laura," he asked.

I debated not answering but I needed this conversation to keep my mind off of the Countess, even if the conversation was with Raphael of all people.

"You were Cassius' to kill if he wished it," I replied coldly.

"You think my brother would actually kill me," he asked.

He sounded afraid and I realized he still thought he could fix this, regain his brother's affection. He didn't even realize the depth of the wound he'd struck. Cassius had always been fiercely loyal, and he put the people he loved and trusted above everything else.

He'd do anything for them regardless of what it cost him, and Raphael had been so incredibly lucky to be one of those people. But to throw that in his face, to make a mockery of the loyalty Cassius offered so generously, wasn't something Raphael could crawl his way out of easily. Cassius may forgive him but I didn't think the two of them could ever go back to the way they'd once been.

But I couldn't look at those green mournful eyes, identical to Cassius', and say those words.

"You hurt him far more than you hurt me," I replied.

"I know," he replied.

I heard the unspoken words. And it's killing me. But I couldn't muster anything more than the barest sympathy, too starkly reminded of all the damage he'd done. He was part of the reason I was sitting in these damned woods after all.

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