Chapter 47: Sadistic showdown

“Dante… what have you done!” I yelled out as the flames began to engulf the outskirts of the house.

He frowned and shook his head, “You don’t look nearly as impressed as I expected you to be. Did you want it grander?”

“Grander… you’re a sick bastard!” I said before spitting on the floor next to him. Then, I attempted to near the house to head inside, grab Nicholas and drag him out. But just as I reached the door, Dante grabbed my arm and yanked me back. Immediately I retracted my free arm, ready to punch him in the face. But someone else beat me to it, smacking him in the side of the head and causing him to fall onto the ground.

“K-Kiyan?” I gasped out.

“No time for questions! Let’s get your fiancé out of there before the rest of them come!”

*The rest?*

But he dismissed my words and ran into the house immediately. I followed suit, rushing towards the bedroom.

“Can you stand?” he asked Nicholas who seemed half asleep still.

“Sort of… what the hell is going on… and what’s that smell?” he asked.

Kiyan grabbed him and propped his one arm over his shoulder before asking me to take the other side. I did and we immediately helped Nicholas up.

“Dante threw gas all over the house and set it alight. He was trying to kill you,” I said as we walked towards the door. The growing fire began to cast an orangey hue and provided us light to navigate towards the door.

“Dante? But Dante’s dead…”

And just as he said that, the three of us froze at the doorpost to the front door. The house was surrounded by a large mass of people, all standing around with weapons in hand. It was a mob, and they were plenty bloodthirsty. Standing right in front of them, bleeding from his head was Dante. I hadn’t noticed it before, but he wore a cloak around himself with a bright purple flower on it.

“You made the wrong choice, Ariya. Now, you’re going to suffer the consequences! I did think we’d need a lot more people to take the mighty Lycan King down. But I see now that he’s too weak to fend for himself. So, I’ll do you a favour and kill you quickly. Perhaps then Ariya will change her mind,” he said with a wicked smile on his face. The glow of the flames only made his facial expressions that much more sinister and I couldn’t help but shiver.

“Dante… why are you doing this?” Nicholas asked. It was then that I realised that perhaps I should have told him everything earlier when I still had the chance to.

“She didn’t tell you?” he uttered almost deviously, his eyes meeting mine, “You killed my mother, Portia Knight.”

Now it was Nicholas’ turn to gaze at me, a look of clear disbelief in his eyes. I felt guilty at this point. Guilty for not telling him sooner and that this was the way he had to find out.

“Sh-she was y-your mother?” Nicholas whispered out. And then a look of realisation sunk in and he raised his hands up almost as though he were surrendering. “What you think you know isn’t true Dante. It was never my intention to−”

“Oh please Nicholas. You’re a killer, born and bred into it. You can’t expect me to believe that you didn’t intend to kill my mother, depriving both my brother and I of a mother. You’re a sick bastard.”

That was when I saw a dark look appear on Nicholas’ face and a smug smirk appear on his face, “And I’m the killer? Tell me then Dante, what happened to your brother?”

The air was heavily hung with tension and the even heavier weight of the silence that ensued.

“I don’t like what you’re insinuating. My brother gave his life as the leader of this humble society. You killed him, leaving me behind to pick up the pieces of what he left behind, Wolfsbane.” He said, without even a blink.

I was still unsure about what had happened the day of Dante’s supposed death, but there was one thing I was dead certain of− Nicholas had nothing to do with it.

But it was too late, the damage was already done. He’d rallied the members of Wolfsbane and now they were out for bloodshed. As they charged towards us, Dante wore a wicked grin on his face, his eyes narrowed as the flames that engulfed the grand abode behind us glinted in his sadistic eyes.

“Grab onto Kiyan!” Nicholas yelled. I could see his irises trying to change colour, but each time they did, they’d almost immediately fade back to grey until finally, they glowed an almost gold colour.

“Y…you can’t, you haven’t recovered yet!” I yelled out.

“I’m strong enough. Now brace yourself…”

I grabbed onto Kiyan immediately and wrapped my arms around him. Suddenly, the air felt… static. My hair began to float in the air, Kiyan’s too. And then there was the rumbling in the sky. I could see Dante’s eyes glint and his smile deepening as his face contorted into a look of pleasant surprise. This was what he wanted all along. He *wanted* Nicholas to react, and I was almost certain he had something up his sleeve to help him remain unscathed.

“Nicholas don’t! This is what he wants!” I yelled out.

“Don’t worry, just trust me!” Nicholas said.

His eyes were now completely yellowish gold and the entire sky seemed lit by the sudden strikes of lightning. Then, the light became blinding and I felt this enormous amount of pressure on my body before the light became even brighter and a loud *bang* sounded. My eyes were shut, unable to withstand the brightness outside. Once the yellow glint of the blinding light had turned to complete darkness, I finally opened my eyes. Every single person was on the floor except for Nicholas. He hovered on his feet for a moment before collapsing to his knees and then falling down onto his side.

Kiyan immediately ran up to the closest person nearest to us, touched at their neck and then nodded to himself.

“We don’t have much time. They’re unconscious, not dead. Let’s grab Nicholas and get the hell out of here,” he yelled in a pant.

It was then that I realised that the clash between the bracelet and Nicholas’ powers were to blame for these unconscious members of the bloodthirsty mob.

I neared Nicholas and gathered half of him into my arms while Kiyan had the other half in his arms.

“Where are we going?” I asked as we trudged away from the house and further into the darkness of the night.

“Theo is meeting us at the airport. We’re going to Bouvardia.”