Chapter 220 Masked assassin
Chapter 220: the masked assassin
Milo pov
One moment it was there, solid oak reinforced with iron. The next it was all splinters and twisted metal flying through the air like shrapnel. One doctor almost had himself impaled by a flying chunk of metal.
The doctors screamed like ladies, ducking, covering their heads.
But no one came through the doorway.
The opening stood empty, darkness beyond it somehow deeper than it should be. Smoke from the explosion curled around the frame like grasping fingers.
"Who is there?" the lead doctor called out, trying to sound authoritative and failing miserably. "Show yourself!"
Silence.
Then, from that darkness, something flew.
A blade. Spinning end over end with deadly precision. It caught the lead doctor in the throat before he could even register what was happening. He made a wet, choking sound and collapsed, blood spraying across the sterile white walls.
All hell was let loose. The other doctors tried to run.
More weapons flew from the darkness. Throwing knives. Small blades that moved with impossible accuracy. They found throats, hearts, the spaces between ribs. No strike was wasted.
“Everyone to the emergency exits!!” The female doctor screamed. She made it three steps toward a side exit before a blade took her in the spine. She fell with a cry that was cut short.
The younger doctor tried to hide behind equipment. A blade found him anyway, catching him in the eye. He dropped without a sound.
One by one, they fell. And through it all, I could only watch in paralyzed horror, strapped to my table, unable to move or help or even properly defend myself.
Until only one doctor remained.
He stood frozen in the center of the room, surrounded by the bodies of his colleagues, his white coat splattered with their blood. His hands were raised in supplication or surrender…I could not tell which.
"Please," he whispered to the darkness. "Please, I was just following orders…"
The secret figure then moved. Stepped from the shadows so smoothly it was as if the darkness itself had taken form. A hood obscured their face almost completely, as they crossed the distance with lethal grace.
A blade flashed in the emergency lighting…longer than the throwing knives, curved and wicked.
The doctor tried to speak, to plead, to explain.
The blade took him across the throat. Clean. Quick. Almost merciful in its efficiency.
He fell.
And then there was silence.
Complete, suffocating silence broken only by my own ragged breathing and the distant sounds of battle somewhere outside these walls.
The stranger stood perfectly still, the back facing me. surrounded by death of their own making. Blood dripped from the blade they held, each drop hitting the floor with a sound that seemed impossibly loud.
I could not breathe. Could not think. Could not do anything except lie there, strapped and helpless, waiting for my faith.
The stranger turned, then moved toward me, and every instinct screamed at me to flee, to fight, to do something. Even if I wanted to, I was trapped and helpless. Completely at the mercy.
They stopped beside my table. I could feel their gaze on me, assessing, calculating. Up close, I still couldn't recognise the person under the hood
"Please," I whispered. "Please do not hurt my baby."
The stranger tilted their head slightly, as if considering this request. Then, with movements so smooth they seemed choreographed, they reached up and pulled back their hood.
I had expected... I did not know what I had expected.
Even in the dim red emergency lighting, I recognized the mask.
The courtyard, The vial, The whispered warning to trust no one.
"You," I breathed, my voice barely audible.
We stared at each other for a long moment. Me, strapped and terrified. The assassin, surrounded by corpses of their own making, blood still dripping from their blade.
"The vial," they said finally, his voice just like the night before. Distorted by the mask, for me to guess right who it was. The assassin extended a familiar vial on the metal I was laying on.
It was at that moment it dawned on me that during my struggle in the throne room with Aldrich, I had lost the vial I was given. And now, the same person was giving it back again.
It took me several tries to find my voice. "I... who are you…”
They didn't respond.
"What is it?" I dared to ask. "What is it for?"
But instead of answering, the bloodied sword, raised, my eyes caught the flash before it landed.
"Not yet." The stranger sheathed their blade in one smooth motion. "When the time comes, you will know. Until then, tell no one. Trust no one. Not even those who seem to fight for you."
"You…you free me.” I tugged at straps that came loose this time.
“I don't understand…"
"You do not need to understand. You need to survive." They moved toward the door, then paused, glancing back at me. At that moment, something flickered across their face. Almost like recognition. Almost like... regret. "This is bigger than you know. Bigger than Damon. Bigger than even the qu…Millen. And you are at the center of it whether you wish to be or not."
"Wait!" I called out as they reached the doorway. My voice almost desperate. "Who are you? Why are you helping me?"
The stranger stood silhouetted against the darkness beyond, a figure carved from shadow and violence.
"Someone who cannot afford to let you die. Not yet."
And then they were gone, vanishing into the smoke and chaos as if they had never been there at all.
Leaving me alone in a room full of corpses.
Someone was fighting for me. But I had no idea who, or why, or what they ultimately wanted.
But now was not the time to think,
The restraints were off now, there is a war going on, and I am finally free.
I stared at the open doorway, at the darkness beyond. My heart was still beating fast from the rush of adrenaline. I felt it…
at that point when I thought it was about to die.
I thought I would never be able to feel it…but I did.
I rose, my hands clutching my chest, like I wanted to touch it. Tears streamed down my eyes, but this time, it wasn't tears of sorrow.
I had felt the mate bond flickered to life.
Even though the wolfbane continued to pump strongly into my system, making me weaker than possible… I didn't need a soothsayer to tell me what to do next.
I moved.