“You are beyond foolish, Balthazar.”My voice was honed to a lethal edge, slicing through the thick, rotting air between us.“How can you betray everything we stand for by crawling into bed with the enemy’s daughter?You claim to be different from Mathias, but your actions scream otherwise.You were supposed to destroy his legacy, and instead, you fucked his daughter, and what—thought that would make her yours forever?”
His nostrils flared, a muscle jumping in his jaw, but I wasn’t done.
“Are you so deluded to think that fucking her would make him suffer?Mathias wouldn’t have cared.Not one fucking bit.You didn’t ruin him, Balthazar—you became him.”
The air between us crackled.
In a blink, his hand shot out, slamming into my chest, shoving me back hard against the cold marble of the fireplace.
The impact sent pain ricocheting down my spine, but I barely felt it—because his next words detonated like a bomb between us.
“I’m going to kill your beautiful Elizabeth.”
And just like that—humanity shattered.
We became monsters.
A snarl ripped from my throat, deep and guttural, as my body shifted, bones elongating, skin stretching as darkness consumed me.
Balthazar mirrored the change, his form warping, his frame growing broader, more monstrous, eyes flaming red like a beast starved for blood.
We circled each other, muscles coiled, jaws clenched, the room shrinking under the weight of our rage.
“You dare put a hand on her,” I growled, voice now a low, guttural warning—a death sentence hanging between us.
I felt the poison surge beneath my skin, black and deadly, itching to be unleashed.
“And I will send you to a place worse than hell.”
I stepped closer, slow, restrained, the air thick with the scent of war.
“I will use poison so dark your skin will melt from your bones.”
Balthazar lunged first, and I met him with equal fury.
We collided, claws and wrath entwined, our monstrous forms tearing into each other with a force that shook the foundation beneath us.Teeth bared, talons slicing through flesh, the room became a blur of snarls and shadows, of unrelenting violence born from centuries of hate.
His roar shook the air, a sound laced with unbridled rage—one that threatened to consume everything.
“You dare threaten me, Amir?”His voice was a growl, his breath hot with venom.His claws raked across my ribs, but I barely felt it.The raw power surging through me made me stronger, made me faster.I forced him back, slamming him into the wall with a thunderous crack, but he only laughed—that cruel, jagged sound of a man who relished the fight.
His eyes burned into mine, an inferno of unholy hatred.
“If you ever cross me again, I will make sure Elizabeth suffers a slow and agonizing death at my hands!”
The words hit me in the chest—swift, merciless, and unrelenting.
A snarl ripped from my throat, my claws tightening around his neck, ready to end him?—
But in an instant, he was gone.
Vanishing in a thick, sulfurous cloud of smoke.
I stood there for a single heartbeat, my breath ragged, my pulse hammering, the room still vibrating with the violence we had unleashed.
But then—Elizabeth.
A new kind of terror seized me that had nothing to do with Balthazar or the monster I had just battled.
