207

Damon

I "Don't tell her," I said as I pushed myself to my feet, staggering from shortness of breath. Alessandro helped me stay on my feet and guided me up the stairs. By the time we reached the main floor of the City Hall, Alessandro received the status report.

"Baby, we intercepted everything," he said. Just as I opened the door, I was faced with a large beast.

"Leo, there's no need for you to be like this anymore," I said. Leo was a strange crossbreed between a lion and a tiger, standing on hind legs shaped like an animal's but with hooves instead of claws.

 "Did you rip your clothes?" I asked him, taking off my jacket. Leo nodded, and I asked Philippe if there were spare clothes in the car.

"Here," Philippe said. Moments later, we were climbing down the stairs. It happened quickly; Leo flinched and then curled in on himself as his body began to contort back into a man.

"Ah," he said as he stretched his arms and his back. He picked up the clothes and wore them quickly.

"Where to?" Philippe asked as we all entered the van.

 "Martinez. Well, whatever the heck her name is," I said with a snarl as I clutched the mask. "She's hiding Patricia and her mother."

"Are we going to kill them?" Leo asked, leaning towards me.

"Not this time," I said as I pushed his face back. "That's not my choice to make. It's Isabella's choice. This is not my vengeance. It's hers."

We pulled up all the 10 vans at the Martinez secondary Estate. Clearly, the property was not as large as the primary one, but it was just as grand.

Philippe rammed into the gate, and based on the argumentation that Ted had made on the van, it had no resistance. Even though there were cars blocking our way, the van rammed through them until we reached the front steps of the simple mansion.

"Let's make things a bit extravagant, shall we?" I said, feeling much better than when I left the City Hall. We stepped out of the vans and flooded the property.

 There wasn't much resistance from the men who fought against us; after all, most of them were sent to the tunnels to plant the explosives.

I reached the master bedroom and kicked down the wall instead of the door. Patricia, at least the one I guessed was Patricia being that she was the youngest of the three women, was still looking at the door with a gun pointed at it.

Surprised, she turned to look at me, but it was already too late. I grabbed the gun from her hand and snapped it in half.

 "Stay away from us, you monster!" Martinez yelled at me.

I pulled the chair and sat in front of the ladies.

"You have two options," I said from behind the mask, in a low tone intended to scare people. The women visibly flinched and huddled closer, with the one I guessed was Patricia hugging a woman who looked like her.

"I can knock you out and take you with me, or you can surrender and come with me."

"That's not an option," Patricia said, her eyes burning with hatred.

"Don't look at me like that," I said to her.

"And why would I not? You're the monster that killed my father!" Her voice practically screeched in my ears. I flinched and covered my ears in the process.

"You don't need to shout," I said. "Your father tried to take over the city. Your father tried to kill Montenegro. Your father sided with the wrong people and faced the consequences of his actions.

I didn't kill him. He killed himself. He wouldn't have done that if you weren't there in the first place. If you... you nameless scum. If you weren't there in the first place, my father would not have sided with the mad woman. But your brother... and what excuse do you plan to give for his crimes?"

The girl bit her lips so tight I thought it would draw blood. I pulled off my mask, suddenly feeling stuffy and the need to breathe in fresh air. Patricia gasped, as did her mother. "Few are you?" her mother asked.

My eyes found Martinez. "And what's your excuse?" I asked, pointing the mask at her.

"My husband... my house. My property, my allies, everything you have taken from me," she said.

I shook my head and ran my fingers through my hair as I leaned back in the chair.

 "Famous misconceptions about me. First, I'm not a monster. As you can see, I'm a man. Second of all, everything that you want to get revenge for was done intentionally.

You are not in the right. You're in the wrong. Especially now that you plan to explode the entire city. What did you think was going to happen, especially when you failed?"

"It wouldn't have mattered. We weren't supposed to fail," Patricia said.

"How did you find out?" her mother asked, with puzzlement in her eyes.

"Let's just say that, um, like your brother," I said with a smile. Her face fell as her eyes shone with understanding. "And you," I pointed to Martinez. "I didn't take you to be the suicidal type."

"It wasn't about committing suicide," she said. "It was about getting the revenge I wanted from the start. It was about teaching you that nameless scum like you cannot come into the city and rule it.

 That it would be better for the city to sink into the ocean than to fall into the hands of the likes of you." She suddenly pulled out a detonator and pressed it.