Chapter 46

Niklaus:

“Did she speak?” I asked Lorenzo who had just sucked Rosetta dry.

He was in charge of this task after his brother’s death, knowing that nothing would avenge him for the death of his brother except this. I assigned him to do this, he knew that Verone’s death would be on my hands, as I couldn’t give him that, I offered to allow him to kill the one person for who Verone would die, and though Lorenzo was initially against it. He was not one to lay his finger on a woman, he knew that this was the closest thing to killing Verone that there was.

“Not a word. I’ve killed her twenty-eight times already, the woman just keeps coming back to life and says nothing as she smiles and waits to see what I have on my sleeve for her. She would taunt for a while, but she knows the fate that would hit her eventually” Lorenzo said and I nodded looking at Rosetta who was coming back to life once again, this time the woman seemed drained of energy. Her body was exhausted and her eyes had black circles under them as she looked at both me and Lorenzo. I raised an eyebrow at her and she took a deep breath trying to process what happened but I crossed my arms over my chest before walking toward her.

“You know, you can end your misery and just tell us what it is you’re giving Verone. It would save you the time and energy” I said sitting on the chair which was in front of her, the witch was tied up with a spell. Therefore, even if she did untie the rope that was around her hands, she wouldn’t be able to get up from the chair or move her hands if she tried. She may or may not end up getting burned if she did try to get up from the chair too.

Rosetta spat on me and I raised an eyebrow at her, nodding my head and leaning closer to her, my eyes meeting hers and she shook her head. Her body was already drained from the previous blood she had in her, I knew that, if there was anything she was drinking, it would have been cleared out. The exhaustion in her eyes showed it, her eyes had turned from light blue, a color that radiated with power to a dark shade of brown, one that could only mean that the woman losing her powers “Verone’s life would end eventually, dear Rose”

Using her nickname, it was one that I came up with years ago when we were friends. Her head jerked up and her eyes met mine as tears filled them, my eyes softened for a second at the woman, in all honesty, I felt bad for her. She was a powerful witch, she had potential that no other witch her age had, both now and when she was young. The choices she made turned her into what she is now, the threat she felt toward Verone leaving her made her possessive over him, giving him whatever he desired, whenever he desired. The woman didn’t realize that even her spells of keeping his mate away from him can’t truly keep his mate from him. He was eventually to find her, that is of course if he lived to tell the tale. Rosetta was just going to be a mere history in his memory.

“You should know to save yourself from a man who could just go after another woman if you die. He would look for someone or something to give him power and you would be nothing but a simple memory for him, he might not even remember you” I played with her mind using the one thing I know she feared. The woman knew that she had no one but Verone, her mother disowned her when she chose Verone claiming that the man was no good for her. Her mother had a vision of Verone, she knew that the man was bad news, she even tried to warn me once. But Verone and I were close then, we were born of the same stomach, I would have never turned against him because of words from another woman. Oh, how I regret my choice now.

“No, Verone wouldn’t…”

“Do you believe so? You have been here for the past three days, did Verone show up? Did he come looking for you? Did he ask about you? Send me a message? Anything?” I asked the questions knowing that they would trigger something in the witch, maybe torture wouldn’t work with her. It proved pointless now, my next method was going to be mind games. I was to play with her mind until I got what I wanted, reaching the darkest points in her brain.

“He must be looking for me…”

“He’s not stupid, love. He was well aware that you never left the palace since that night. He doesn’t care to know where you are or whether or not you’re dead or alive. The man simply cares about power, and I’m sure that you gave him enough for him not to worry about you anymore…”

“STOP!”

“Why? Is it because I’m speaking sense to you? Rosetta, I’m trying to spare you the pain, but you are insisting on protecting a man who never gave two seconds of interest in you unless it benefitted himself” I said looking at Rosetta. That wasn’t necessarily true, I knew that Verone loves Rosetta, or loved her, I’m not sure about now. The man would have died for her once upon a time, he chose her over everything, but I couldn’t recognize my brother anymore. Whether he lost his humanity, still had it, nothing, I was completely blank when it came to him. However, the one person who knew him more than anyone, who has seen him change from the man that he was to the monster that he is now, was Rosetta and she was sitting right here in front of me.

“You’re just trying to get in my head, you know that Verone loves me, you know that he wouldn’t let me go…”

“Then where is he? Where is the man that loves you so much that he wouldn’t even ask about you? That he wouldn’t search for you? The second I found out that Verone had Kiara, I rushed to find her, did Verone do the same thing to you? No, we can’t see him approaching or searching, do we?” I asked making Rosetta shake her head as tears fell from her eyes. She trashed in her chair and both me and Lorenzo frowned in confusion at her reaction, but I knew not to stop here, we HAD to get this done. The woman had to give us what we wanted if we were to win this and I didn’t want to break her heart while saying what I was, sometimes a heartbreak was a lot worse than being tortured or killed. The woman has devoted her life to serving Verone because she was in love with him, her being told that the man wasn’t in love with her. Just the possibility of it made her go wild.

“Get back from this while you still have the chance, Rosetta. Help us save these innocent people. Let us help them out, we can’t watch them die in front of us and not do anything about it. You can be remembered as a hero rather than a dark witch, bring honor to your family’s name…”

“I have no family, in case you forgot. I lost them all for your brother!” Rosetta said glaring at me, her body seeming to become weaker by the second though none of us was touching her. I looked at Lorenzo who shared the same confused expression, the two of us were confused about what was happening, the woman looked like she was dying. Rosetta coughed and even she frowned when she saw blood on her lap, the woman was choking on her blood.

“Rosetta?”

“It’s the dragon,” she said trying to catch her breath “Verone’s dragon is his lifespan, he’s doing this to me. The man truly gave me up…”

I vampire sped toward her before her body gave out on her and bit my wrist making her suck my blood but Rosetta shook her head and spat the blood from her mouth “kill the dragon, Niklaus. Your little one, Aiden, is the key to doing it. Kill the dragon and V-Verone is dead”

I could hear her heartbeat racing for a second before it stopped completely as the woman died, Verone chose his power over her. He chose to kill her despite her fighting to keep him safe, this proved to me that he truly did lose his humanity. I took a deep breath and gently closed the woman’s open eyes, her body was completely limp and her once blue orbs, which turned into a dark shade of brown were now black. Her whole eye was black, there was no distinguishing in color, no pupil, or retina, just simply black.

“Send the witch’s body to her mother, tell her that I ordered that she get a proper funeral and that her body was to be honored. She is dead, disrespecting a dead person would be against us, and I wouldn’t allow that” I said looking at Lorenzo. He nodded at me and bowed, his eyes looking at the woman’s dead body. He had watched her struggle to protect a man who gave her up the second he felt a threat to him or his plans. Walking out of the basement, the two of us closed the door and both me and Lorenzo frowned when we saw that the sky was suddenly red. A dark shade of red had everyone in the castle stopping their duties looking out the window.

“ALL HAIL QUEEN KIARA!” One of the guards announced, the guards and maids turned to face my wife bowing at her as she approached me. Her eyes worried as she studied my expression, but I shook my head not understanding what was happening.

“The dragon, he’s coming,” Aiden said growing to half his size standing beside me and Kiara, his expression worried. I frowned in confusion before my eyes widened as I related to Rosetta’s words. I looked at Aiden then out the window to the sky which was now filled with fire, people were looking up at the sky as they caught sight of the horror that was coming out of it, my eyes went wide as I feared the next thing that was to happen.

Verone hadn’t made it this far the last time, I’m assuming that his dragon was still a hatchling back then and wasn’t as strong as he was now. He couldn’t fight a battle like this one, but now, the dragon would be one of the strongest, he had killed any dragon that would have apposed him and the rest have fled with their lives as they feared being killed or harmed. Knowing that their new ‘king’ was going on a killing spree for power, he was simply killing for pleasure and power. None of the two, Verone or his dragon, had a reason why they were killing the innocent creatures that they were.

“Kiara, you need to get out of the kingdom”

“What?” Kiara asked wide-eyed.

“Kiara, you can’t question me, but you have to leave. This kingdom is going into a war…”

The ground shook making both me and my wife lose our balance for a second, I wrapped my arms around my wife holding her tightly before her body hit the ground if she fell and the two of us looked out the window to find a red dragon standing in front of the window, Verone by his side as they looked at us through the now shattered window, a devious smirk on his face as he approached us without fear. His dragon walking beside him.

“Well, well, well, what do we have here?