Butterflies and Vampires

CHAPTER 26

He wanted that?

Our demise?

As we played around and he told me stories and I trusted him with stories of my mother he was fake all along! Laughing at me from behind.

I ran, seeing red in my vision as I returned to the other tower. I had to find Agnes and ask her—many, many things. About my bloodline, the boys they killed, and that hateful women called my mother living in the outside world!

I ran, bare feet slapping the cold floor, and in my night dress red with blood I reached the hall again. Yves gave a yelp when he saw me splattered with blood. He raised his gun but I bawled.

"Open the door!" I cried, desperately. "Right now! I don't care, I'm going to talk to Agnes! Open it, damn it!"

Yves went still before he moved and then unlocked the door. "Agnes? Agnes?"

"Agnes!" I yelled, running into the room.

I couldn't find her for the first few seconds, then I saw it.

I gaped at the body.

Agnes lay on the floor, her neck arteries split by a piece of glass in her hand. The blood had seeped deep into the floor, creating a dark purple puddle. Her hair was matted due to the wetness, and I knew from such a scene there was no more hope.

"No. No. No!"

Was she gone just like that?

"Agnes?" I whispered. I walked into the room, slowly, hoping she's jump up and it'd all be blood from bottles she kept hidden or she'd open her eyes slowly.

She couldn't die that easily, before I killed her. Before the rifle and our plans and my apology for planning on killing her this whole time, blind sighted by a man.

Yves crept up behind me as I sobbed quietly. "She's dead?"

I shook my head. He ignored me.

"Agnes is dead!" Yves started running, shouting it down the hall.

No. Don't die.

Not now. Not after I finally knew who Elsie and Edith were and how I was only a tool. Not now, when I'm trying to leave and search for them. She couldn't die before telling me where Elsie and Edith were, if I had a brother outside, if I had a family.

Agnes wouldn't have let me. Even against all the men she'd keep me, her only pureblood treasure. I was her most precious trophy, a mix of the best vampire genes.

So it was good, a sign, maybe, that she had died and I could choose my own path and leave. I could follow the men and look for my family—no, the people had had birthed me.

I looked down at the matriarch I'd hated my whole life and yet in her last moments, I'd needed more than ever. She was still pretty, drenched in blood, and she was suddenly so much more likable. I remembered the dungeon, but I also remembered her coming to the tower with dresses for me. The earrings she gave me that she used to wear, the smile she had when I bragged to her about my first few kills, all my kills, in fact. I always wanted her approval.

Funny how I knew despite my promise I wouldn't have killed her. The rifle scared me, and the thought of killing Agnes was akin to killing Sabine and Primrose.

Even with Yves's rifle right there today, I chose to lock her up.

I wouldn't have killed her.

I held her corpse in my arms, as I've done to many corpses many times. I watched her face, skin smooth besides a few frowns; she looked like she always did. The corpse was cold quickly unlike the humans. The face was beautiful, unlike the men.