Chapter 35 - Blood and Thunder
The grand ballroom of Blackthorn Keep was an imposing Gothic chamber with arched stained-glass windows looking out over the raging ocean. The storm flashed outside, casting jagged lightning silhouettes across the vaulted ceiling.
Standing in the center of the hall, illuminated by the periodic strobes of lightning, was Victoria Thorne.
She had abandoned her corporate facade. Clad in black combat leather, twin titanium blades drawn and gleaming in her hands, she looked like an executioner waiting for her quarry. Around her lay the bodies of four Vance security guards who had tried to breach the room ahead of them.
"Nathaniel, go to the command tower," Rose said, stepping out from the shadows into the open floor, her submachine gun slung behind her back as she drew her own combat knife. "Eleanor is up there. You finish your mother. I’ll settle this."
Nathaniel hesitated for a fraction of a second, his eyes locking onto Rose’s fierce, unwavering gaze. "Don't die, Rose."
"I have too much to live for," she replied softly.
Nathaniel nodded, bursting through the service door toward the spiral stairs of the central spire just as Victoria launched herself forward with blinding, serpentine speed.
"You should have stayed a maid, little orphan!" Victoria snarled, her right blade slashing down in a vicious diagonal arc.
Rose parried the strike with her forearm guard, sparks flying as steel met reinforced composite. The force of the blow drove Rose back two steps, but she used the momentum to drive an upward knee into Victoria’s ribs. Victoria grunted, spinning away and slashing with her left blade, leaving a searing red slice across Rose’s shoulder.
They traded blows across the rain-swept marble, the clash of steel echoing against the thunder outside. Victoria was faster, fueled by aristocratic arrogance and psychotic rage, but Rose had been forged in the crucible of survival—every fight in her life had been for her very breath.
Victoria lunged with a lethal thrust aimed directly at Rose’s throat. Rose didn't try to block it; she leaned her head to the side, letting the blade graze her cheek, and trapped Victoria’s wrist between her neck and shoulder. With a vicious, bone-snapping twist of her torso, Rose broke Victoria's arm.
Victoria screamed in agony, dropping the blade. Before she could recover, Rose swept her feet from under her, driving her hard into the marble floor and pinning her with a knee to the sternum, the razor tip of Rose’s blade pressed directly against Victoria’s jugular.
"Checkmate, Victoria," Rose panted, blood dripping from her cheek onto Victoria’s pale, sweat-streaked face.
Victoria let out a ragged, bloody laugh through clenched teeth. "You think... you’ve won, Sterling? You think this was about money? About corporations?"
Rose pressed the blade deeper, breaking the skin. "Where is the override code for Project Eclipse?"
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"Ask Eleanor," Victoria choked out, her lips twisting into a grotesque grin of pure malice. "Ask her about the fire twenty years ago... Ask her why Julianne Sterling didn't run from the flames. Ask her... who your real father was, Rose!"
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