Chapter 42

"I told you not to come here," Pavel snapped, furious as he arranged the babies in their baskets.

"Uncle, Maria asked me a question a few days ago," Luara said as she walked to stand behind him. "She asked me how I would get Samuel to accept me with the babies!"

"That’s your problem. The girl will be dead, and you’ll have the children," he replied, wrapping the babies in blankets. For a moment, their crying subsided.

"Exactly. I know it’s my problem. That’s why I remembered something you’ve always told me."

"And what’s that, Luara?" Pavel turned to face her with impatience.

"That I need to have the courage to do what’s necessary. You made me someone capable of anything. Thank you for the lessons, Uncle! Samuel will only take me back if he believes I killed you and saved the babies."

Luara swiftly pulled a pair of scissors from her bag and stabbed Pavel in the chest.

"Argh! Are you insane?" he shouted, stunned, trying to grab her hand.

Luara screamed, striking him with furious blows to his abdomen. Pavel tried to defend himself, but she pushed him to the ground. She climbed on top of him, stabbing the scissors into different parts of his body, blood spurting onto her white dress.

"Die, you bastard!" The once-perverse Pavel looked at her in horror as he agonized slowly.

My body collapsed in terror onto the pillows as I lay there in complete shock. Pavel had just been devoured by the very demon he had created. Luara grabbed the gun from his waistband and stood up. She wiped her blood-soaked hand on her designer white dress, staining it completely. Furious, Luara pointed the gun at Dr. Zima.

"Kill her now! Right now!" she ordered.

Dr. Zima quickly prepared a syringe.

"I want to see her heart stop. Be quick about it!" she demanded.

The doctor moved toward me, and I tried to get up, but I was still under anesthesia. I swung my arm to hit him, but he grabbed me firmly. I screamed uncontrollably as he injected the liquid into my vein through the IV.

"No, no, no! I don’t want to die!" Gradually, my vision blurred, becoming slightly hazy as my body grew weaker.

I could hear the sound of my heartbeat in my own ears. I couldn’t react to anything, just watched everything unfold through tear-filled eyes. Dr. Zima leaned in close and whispered in my ear:

"I wish for you to live fully and happily…"

Luara shot him in the head, and his body fell to the floor. Everything started to feel distant, and the sounds began to fade, but it was enough time for me to see Samuel, John, and Iurih burst through the door.

Samuel drew his gun and shot Luara in the arm, making her scream wildly. Her eyes fell on me, and everything seemed so far away.

"Tatyana…" Samuel ran to me, holding me tightly in his arms as if he could save me.

His face pressed against mine as I heard him scream. Screams filled with pain and anguish as he watched my life slowly slip away. I tried to speak one last time, my voice weak and choked by the pain.

"Did… I save you?" I asked faintly.

He sobbed, clutching me tightly to his chest.

"No… my love, no… you can’t leave me!" he cried out, desperate.

I just wanted to stay a little longer, but everything was slipping away. I had always wondered what it would feel like to die—if it would hurt, if it would be peaceful or agonizing. It felt as if my body was plummeting into an abyss, into the depths of darkness. I could hear my heartbeat pounding in my ears, each beat growing slower with every painful breath leaving my lungs.

The fall was free, solitary, and sent chills down my spine. The taste of death was bitter and acidic in my mouth. The darkness consumed my soul, and I remembered that night at the club when I met Samuel and John Colt, never imagining they would be my end.

In the midst of the fall and the conflict, I began to float. Within seconds, I saw Samuel before me. He approached me like an angel in the sky, gently holding my hands.

"I didn’t want to leave you," I confessed, heartbroken.

"You can’t go, can’t leave me alone, destroyed…" he pleaded, shaken.

I lifted my right hand to his face, feeling the softness of his skin beneath my fingers.

"Here, I can have my happily ever after—no suffering, no pain, no fear…"

"But you won’t have life!" Samuel implored, distressed.

I looked into his deep blue eyes, as vast as the ocean.

"I dove so deeply into your pain, into the feelings we have for each other. A dark angel losing her soul, cast into eternal darkness. Samuel Colt, tell me what I need to hear before I leave—did I save you? Did I pull your soul from the darkness, from the deep, devastating pain?"

I pressed my lips to his, feeling the clouds begin to envelop me.

"Answer me, Samuel… Did I save you?" He remained silent, and I saw a tear roll down his face—a tear filled with pain and sorrow.

"I’m just your imagination, a mere creation of comfort…"

"I know, my love!" A bright light began to shine, flooding my eyes, and everything turned white and radiant.

My body started to dissolve like smoke…

"You saved me!" my dark angel confirmed.

Everything vanished, as if it had never existed.