Chapter 18 - Ashes on the Sound
Vittorio’s scarred face twisted into a grotesque mask of fury.
"Kill her!" he roared, pointing his cane at me.
"Drop the hammer!"
In that fraction of a microsecond, the universe seemed to fracture.
Aiden moved faster than human reflexes should permit.
He didn't draw a gun; he launched himself directly across the surgical table like a panther unleashed from iron chains.
His left hand seized the wrist of the mercenary holding the detonator, snapping the bone backward with an audible crunch.
Before the detonator hit the floor, Aiden caught it in midair with his right hand.
Gunfire erupted in the sterile chamber, deafening and blinding.
I dove behind an overturned stainless-steel instrument tray as bullets chewed through the ceramic tiles above my head.
James—torn between his guilt and his fear—froze in the crossfire, screaming as a stray round caught his shoulder.
Aiden rolled across the floor, coming up with a sidearm he had stripped from the fallen guard.
*Bang. Bang. Bang.*
Three shots rang out with mathematical precision.
Three mercenaries collapsed instantly, their weapons clattering across the floor.
Vittorio, howling in feral desperation, drew a snub-nosed revolver from his overcoat and aimed it directly at my head.
"If I burn, Arthur’s blood burns with me!" he screamed.
I didn't cower.
I seized a heavy carbon-dioxide fire extinguisher from the wall mount beside me and threw it with all my strength.
The canister struck Vittorio’s wounded shoulder, throwing his aim off by an inch.
The bullet tore through the air, shattering the glass cabinet behind me in an explosion of sparkling shards.
Aiden closed the distance between them in a single, earth-shaking stride.
He grabbed Vittorio by the throat, lifting the frail, scarred old man clean off his feet and slamming him against the reinforced concrete pillar.
The air left Vittorio’s lungs in a wet gasp.
Aiden’s face was inches from his uncle’s, his eyes completely pitch-black with righteous, untamed wrath.
"Twenty-two years," Aiden growled, his voice vibrating through the very foundation of the room.
"Twenty-two years I waited to look into the eyes of the man who put chains on a seven-year-old child."
Vittorio clawed weakly at Aiden’s iron fingers, his face turning a deep, suffocating purple.
"Do it..." Vittorio choked out with a demonic grin.
"Become the monster I made you... nephew."
"Show your little nurse... what you truly are."
Aiden’s fingers tightened.
May you like
The cartilage in Vittorio’s throat began to crack.
The darkness in Aiden was rising like a tidal wave, ready to drown out every ounce of healing and redemption we had fought for.
