Chapter 153 Blindfire
RAVIAL
“My lord, how do we dispose of the body?”
Lucius’s voice came from somewhere behind me. He wouldn’t look at what was left of Jim. Few men could even when they were used to such.
I didn’t turn. I kept my gaze on the ruin at my feet.
Jim had lasted longer than most mortals would have. Two full days. I’d kept him conscious through every layer of agony the human body could endure, skin peeled in slow strips, joints dislocated one by one, nerves exposed and teased with fire and steel until the flesh finally gave up.
His heart had stuttered to a stop only an hour ago, lungs collapsing under the weight of screams he no longer had the air to make. What remained now was barely recognizable as a man: a broken, swollen thing, limbs twisted at impossible angles, face a mask of blackened blood and split tissue, eyes wide open in the last frozen moment of terror.
I tilted my head, listening to the wet rattle of what was left of his breathing fade completely into silence.
“Burn it,” I said, voice flat. “Until there is nothing left but ash. Scatter the ash in the river and let the current take what little mercy I allowed him.”
Lucius nodded “As you command.”
I stepped over the remains without a second glance and walked toward the warehouse doors. The air outside was cooler, carrying the faint metallic tang of gun oil and the distant smell of diesel from the idling cars. My men waited in formation, weapons low but ready.
The moment my boot crossed the threshold, I felt it.
A prickle at the base of my skull. Intention. Malice. Metal warming in a distant barrel.
I moved.
One fluid sidestep.
The bullet cracked past where my head had been a second earlier and buried itself in the concrete wall with a dull thunk.
Chaos erupted.
“Ambush!” someone shouted.
“Get him inside the car!”
Gunfire exploded from the tree line, automatic, disciplined bursts. My men returned fire instantly, muzzle flashes lighting the night like dying stars.
I didn’t run.
I looked up.
There, silhouetted against the moonlit branches, the shooter. The one who’d aimed for my skull.
I smiled then I was gone from where I stood.
Unnatural speed carried me across the open ground in a blur no human eye could track. One second I was beside the warehouse; the next I was behind him, silent as death.
He felt me but it was too late.
He spun, rifle swinging.
I was already smiling down at him.
The blindfold was still in place, but he froze anyway, some primal part of him sensing what waited behind the fabric.
Before he could raise the weapon, my hand closed around his throat.
I lifted him off the ground like he weighed nothing. His feet kicked uselessly, rifle clattering to the leaves.
I leaned in close.
“You aimed for me,” I murmured, almost gentle. “That was… unwise.”
He choked out something incoherent, fear, or a curse but it didn’t matter.
I reached up with my free hand.
And pulled the blindfold away.
My eyes opened and he saw it.
Not just eyes.
An INFERNO
Burning fields of flame where souls writhed, endless screams layered into a single, eternal howl. Faces melting, bodies twisting in fire that never consumed, only tormented. The weight of every torment I’d ever inflicted, every soul I’d dragged into the abyss, reflected back at him in perfect, merciless clarity.
His own scream started high and raw.
Then higher.
His eyes began to smoke.
The whites turned red, then black. Veins burst. The irises boiled, and popped like overripe fruit.
His face blackened in seconds, his skin blistering, peeling, and charring down to muscle and bone in a grotesque, accelerating decay.
He convulsed once, twice.
Then went limp.
I let him fall.
A wet heap of ruined flesh and smoking hair hit the ground.
I stared down at what I’d made of him for a moment.
Then I was gone again, flash of motion, back among my men.
They didn’t flinch when they saw my face.
No one spoke.
The blindfold was missing. Blood streaked my cheeks, warm and sticky. My eyes still glowed faintly, the hellfire dimming but not gone.
They simply parted.
I walked to the waiting car, and slid into the back seat.
The driver floored it.
Bullets pinged off armored glass and chassis as we tore away. I didn’t notice.
I turned my head toward the window.
Moonlight caught my reflection in the dark tint.
Blood smeared across pale skin. Eyes still smoldering. pools of living flame, promising horrors no mortal should ever witness.
Disgust rolled through me, slow and heavy.
Not for what I’d done.
For what I could never undo.
She would never see these eyes.
Even on the day death finally took her from me, I would keep them hidden.
Because if she saw it…….
I could not bear that.
I looked away and reached into the side compartment.
A dozen spare blindfolds waited there, black silk, and neatly folded.
I pulled one out and held it.
My fingers tightened.
The fabric smoked, then burned to fine gray ash that drifted between my knuckles.
Anger at the thing I was, at the thing I could never stop being, curled hot in my chest.
I exhaled once and reached again for another. I tied it carefully around my eyes.
The world went dark once more for a second.
I leaned my head back against the seat.
And stared at nothing.
The car sped into the night.
Behind us, the warehouse burned.
Ahead of me, the lie waited.
And somewhere in that house, my lamb stayed, innocent, warm, carrying our child.
The house was quiet when I got there.
I stood in the hallway outside Leitana’s temporary room, one hand flat against the doorframe, listening.
Her heartbeat was steady but faster than usual, excitement mixed with the faint edge of worry. I could smell her through the wood: warm vanilla, the faint citrus of her shampoo, and that new, delicate undertone that was ours. The baby. Still so small, but already changing everything about her scent.
I shouldn’t be here.
The plan was clear: I stay in the master suite with Avery. Leitana stays here alone
But the longer I stood outside this door, the more the pretense felt like acid on my skin.
I turned the knob slowly. No lock, she’d left it open. For me.
The room was dim, lit only by the soft glow of the bedside lamp. Leitana sat cross-legged in the center of the bed, wearing one of my old black shirts that swallowed her whole. Her damp curls were pulled into a messy bun, a few strands clinging to her neck. She was reading something on her phone, lips moving silently as she sounded out the words.
She didn’t look up right away, but the corners of her mouth curved.
“Mi knew yu would come,” she whispered without lifting her eyes.
I closed the door behind me with a soft click. “You left it unlocked.”
“Mi left it unlocked for mi husband.” She finally glanced up, eyes sparkling with mischief. “Yu took too long. Mi almost fell asleep waiting.”
I crossed the room in three strides and dropped onto the edge of the mattress. She immediately crawled forward, climbing into my lap like it was the most natural place in the world.
“Careful,” I murmured, hands settling on her hips. “You’re supposed to be heartbroken and abandoned tonight.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Mi no good at pretending to be sad when yu right here.” Her fingers traced the edge of my blindfold, then slid down to rest over my heart. “Yu heart beating so fast, mi Ravial. Yu miss mi that much already?”
“More than you know.” I pressed my forehead to hers, inhaling deeply. “This charade… it’s intolerable.”
She giggled softly. “Yu sound like old man complaining about weather.”
I nipped at her jaw in warning. “Watch it, lamb.”
She shivered, but the grin stayed. “Yu no scare mi. Yu only scary when yu pretending not to want mi.”
I pulled back just enough to “look” at her—head tilted, studying the way her lips curved, the faint flush on her cheeks.
“You’re enjoying this too much,” I said quietly.
“Maybe.” She leaned in, brushing her nose against mine. “Mi like knowing yu can’t stay away. Makes mi feel… powerful.”
“You are powerful.” My voice dropped lower. “You have me wrapped around your little finger, and you know it.”
Her breath hitched. “Then prove it.”
I didn’t need more invitation.
I kissed her, slow at first, savoring the way she melted against me, the tiny sounds she made when my tongue brushed hers. Then deeper, hungrier, one hand sliding up her back under the shirt to press her closer while the other cupped the back of her head.
When we broke apart she was panting, eyes glassy.
“Yu gonna get us caught,” she whispered, but she was already tugging at my shirt buttons.
“Let him catch us.” My thumb traced her bottom lip. “I’d rather burn this house down than spend another night without you in my bed.”
She laughed, a soft, breathless sound that did weird things to my stomach. “Yu so dramatic.”
“I’m serious.”
“I know.” She sobered a little, searching my face. “But weneed to be careful. Then tomorrow we sneak out, see Leroy family, come back before Charles notices anything.”
I exhaled through my nose, the sound almost a growl. “One more day feels like a century.”
She cupped my face with both hands. “Mi promise, when this over, mi no let yu out of mi sight for a whole month. Yu can bite mi lap every night, no complaining.”
A low chuckle escaped me. “Deal.”
She kissed me again, quick, playful then pushed at my chest. “Now go. Before yu tempt mi too much.”
I didn’t move.
“Mi Ravial…” Warning tone, but her eyes were laughing.
I stood reluctantly, adjusting myself with a grimace she definitely noticed.
“Evil woman,” I muttered.
She flopped back onto the pillows, grinning up at me. “Yu love it.”
I leaned down, bracing one hand beside her head, and stole one last kiss, harder this time, deeper, like I could pour every unsaid thing into it. When I pulled back, her lips were swollen, eyes glassy, breathing uneven.
“Sleep well, my lamb,” I whispered against her mouth. “Dream of me.”
“Always do.”
I forced myself to straighten. Forced my legs to move. Forced my hand to the doorknob.
I paused there, my fingers curled around the brass, door half-open.
“Leitana.”
“Hmm?” She propped herself up on her elbows, head tilted, curls falling over one shoulder. The lamp light caught in her eyes, warm hazel, trusting, so impossibly bright.
The words were right there.
I love and adore you more than you will ever know.
Three simple syllables that should have been easy. I’d said them before, quietly, fiercely, in the dark after she fell asleep, into her hair when she wasn’t listening. But tonight they were stuck.
Like admitting them out loud would make the universe notice and take her away just to punish me.
She watched me, patient, soft, like she could hear every word I wasn’t saying.
Then she smiled, small, knowing, so full of love it cracked something inside my chest.
“Mi love yu too, mi Ravial,” she whispered.
Like she’d plucked the thought straight from my skull.
My throat closed.
I looked at her.
At the way her smile trembled just a little at the edges because she was trying to be brave for me. At the faint freckles across her nose and cheeks. At the way her fingers still clutched my shirt sleeve like she was afraid I’d disappear again if she let go.
I loved her so violently it felt like violence against myself.
I loved her so completely that the idea of a single day without her made the concept of eternity feel like torture.
I loved her so much that even now, standing here, blindfold hiding hellfire eyes, hands still faintly stained with the memory of what I’d done to men, I wanted to drop to my knees and beg whatever was left of the Creator not to take her from me.
But I didn’t say any of that.
I just stared.
And she kept smiling, gentle, steady, like she could see every fracture in me and loved them anyway.
I turned and walked out.
The door clicked shut behind me.
I leaned against it, forehead pressed to the wood, both palms flat beside my head.
My breathing wasn’t steady.
My hands weren’t steady.
The thought of losing her made something ancient and monstrous inside me shake.
I looked up through the hallway window at the night sky.
Stars. Cold. Distant. Indifferent.
“Please,” I said to Him.
Just one word.
Please.
Don’t take her.
Not yet.
Not ever.