Chapter 200 HASMIK

Chapter 200 HASMIK
"So... you are my foolish little brother's crush." A voice slid through the noise, coiling around me like smoke.
The words slithered into my ear, cold enough to freeze my blood. I spun toward the sound, every muscle snapping taut.
He stood there, a vampire. Not like the others who tore through the room with bloodlust in their eyes, no, he was composed. He stepped closer, and the low light carved sharp edges into his face. He was striking in a cruel, almost beautiful way, angular jaw, pale skin stretched tight over high cheekbones, eyes like pools of onyx reflecting nothing but malice. His hair was dark as oil, falling across his brow in disheveled waves, but his smile was the kind that stripped the warmth from the air around him.
"Pretty," he murmured, tilting his head as though studying me from every angle. "I see why Yuren was so pathetically taken with you."
The name hit me like a lash. My stomach lurched. Yuren. Has a brother?
The vampire's gaze roved down me. "I have a bone to pick with you," he seethed. "The rumored descendant of Aeryna. How quaint." His words dripped venom. "Seems undeserved, though." His eyes narrowed, gleaming with malice as they traveled back up to meet mine. "To imagine all that power trapped in such a pathetic, fragile body."
I stumbled back a step before I even realized it. My thoughts scattered, ricocheting between panic and disbelief, between Sargis's absence and the monster before me.
Calm.
Avaline's voice flickered in my head like a candle's flame. Be calm under pressure, Narine. Panic is a weapon you hand to your enemy.
I tried to breathe as she had taught me, slow and steady, though my chest felt strangled by fear. I tried to keep my face blank and unreadable, though my skin crawled under his gaze. I dug my nails into my palms because every instinct screamed at me to run.
But I couldn't. His eyes told me he would enjoy the chase.
And so, I stood there, every muscle trembling, and heartbeat pounding loud enough for him to hear, fighting to remember that I was not a prey.
I forced my voice past the tightness in my throat. "This doesn't have to be the way," I whispered. "It isn't too late to stop this madness. There can still be an agreement... peace, if you'd just-"
A low, humorless laugh slithered from his lips, cutting me off.
"The reign of the Lycans is finished," he sneered. "Your kind Lycans and wolves alike are mongrels who howl at the moon and pretend at kingship, your time has rotted. This world belongs to us now. We will bathe in your blood and dance in your ashes."
I forced myself to stand straighter, though my knees quivered, and my chest ached with every shallow breath.
"You don't have to do this," I pressed, softer now, as if lowering my voice might tame the beast in front of me. "Killing won't crown you. It'll only leave you with more enemies."
"Enemies?" His lip curled back, revealing sharp, gleaming fangs. "Do you not see? We are not the ones outnumbered. Every scream in this palace is proof. Every drop of Lycan blood spilled is a victory. And you..." He leaned in, so close I could see the faint blue veins beneath his porcelain skin. His breath was cool, sweet with decay. "You are the greatest insult of all. Aeryna's blood, trapped in such a pitiful vessel. Power wasted in flesh so fragile I could snap it between two fingers."
My lungs refused air. His words pressed down on me heavier than the smoke thickening the halls, and the weight of the battle pounding against the walls.
And then, from the corner of my eye, movement.
Hasmik.
She was a shadow slipping between chaos, her steps were soundless despite the shrieks and the clash of steel surrounding us. Her expression was carved of ice, her gaze locked on the vampire's back with a predator's intent. When our eyes met, she raised one clawed finger to her lips. Shhh.
I swallowed my gasp, clinging to silence as my pulse screamed in my ears.
"Dogs," he snarled. "That's all you are. Dogs dressed in crowns, gnawing on scraps of kingdoms you'll never deserve." He flashed his teeth. "Your thrones? They'll crumble into dust beneath your claws. Your bloodlines will be nothing but a cautionary tale of extinction!"
I forced my lips into the barest curve, tilting my head as though his performance enthralled me. "Hmm," I murmured, feigning thoughtfulness. "A bold vision."
His chest heaved with something close to ecstasy, spit flecking the corner of his mouth. "Bold?" His laugh cracked like bone. "It is inevitable! The world does not bow to beasts, it bends to those who hunger without restraint and devour without apology. That is power and dominion."
"Of course." I nodded carefully, every muscle tightening as I resisted the urge to glance behind him, where I felt Hasmik's presence stalking closer, quiet as the grave.
"And when the last wolf howls, and the last of your kind is broken on their knees, I will stand on their carcasses and remind the world who rules the night."
I let my gaze linger on his teeth, then back to his eyes, pretending fascination while my pulse thundered. "Quite the speech," I whispered. "But speeches have a way of ending... abruptly."
In one brutal, fluid motion, she struck.
Her claws drove through the back of his skull with a sound I will never unhear, a wet, cracking rupture, like brittle wood splintering under pressure, only magnified with gore. His eyes went wide, lips freezing mid-word, and his body convulsed as the life inside him shattered.
Before his body could fall, she plunged her other hand into his chest, and then she yanked free a heart still twitching between her blood-slicked fingers.
The vampire crumpled like a marionette with its strings severed, his mouth still open in a silent mockery of a scream.
I couldn't move. The image seared into me, burned into the back of my eyelids, even though I couldn't look away. His body hit the ground with a dull, heavy thud, like a sack of stones, but the sound of it barely reached me through the deafening rush of blood in my ears.
Hot blood sprayed across my face, my throat, and soaked into my clothes. It dripped down in warm rivulets down my body, painting me with his end. The scent hit me, and it was overwhelmingly suffocating, seeping into every breath. The warmth of it was wrong, so wrong, because it wasn't mine.
My stomach lurched violently. Air wouldn't come fast enough.
I started gasping like a fish hauled onto dry land. The battlefield around me blurred, screams bent into an indistinguishable roar, my vision tunneling as panic dragged me under.
Hasmik stood tall in front of me, his heart clenched in her claw, her chest rising and falling with terrifying calm, as if tearing out a heart was no different to her than snapping a twig.
My knees weakened.
I couldn't stop staring at the body. His eyes, once bright with hatred and mocking cruelty, were glazed now, staring past me into nothing. His mouth hung slack, blood bubbling at the corner, dripping onto the stone floor where it pooled in a dark, spreading stain. His chest was nothing but a gaping cavity, ribs cracked open like brittle branches.
Hasmik finally turned to me, her eyes sharp and unyielding, but I flinched, unable to meet her gaze.