Grey III - Revelations

Chapter 30 - Forgive, Forget, & Sweet Revenge

Grayson stood behind his desk, his eyes bouncing between Malachi and me, the inklings of apprehension in their movements. I let my eyes darken as the door clicked shut, and turned the lock. Malachi Shifted a moment later, well within the bounds of Abby's rules now that I was present. He moved like a snake striking and was in front of Grayson faster than I could track. He had always been fast, fast to anger, fast to decions and plans, fast to violence. He pushed the old man back into the large bookcase that spanned the wall, holding him there by his shirt. His hands shook with the restraint he was using, careful not to hurt the mage and break the rules of his collar.

"Remember when I promised I would kill you for what you did to me? When I swore I would be the last thing you ever saw? Your time's up, old man." His voice was ground out from behind pointed teeth, low and strained from his fury.

But Grayson didn't show fear, some small redemptive trait in the despicable mage. Instead, he replied calmly and evenly, a smile stretching his old, wrinkled lips. The same smile he had worn so many times decades ago as he stood over Malachi and me, watching us writhe on the floor from his talent, smiling as our pleading changed to screams. My Shift tried to tip higher at the flooding of memories, at the black hatred that filled me every time I saw the man before me, but I pushed it down, gritting my sharpened teeth, knowing I wouldn't be able to control myself if I released it.

"You forget your place, both in the pecking order of the world and within this institution. I can not only reduce you to the same whimpering, pathetic child you were under my tutelage, I can also have you thrown out of the Vault and the protection it grants. I can have you banished and delivered back to Master Darke, just as you deserve. You are not a part of the prophecy, you are not needed. You are nothing here, worthless. So do not try to threaten me, especially when I know that shining stone at your throat is connected to a leash, that you are finally being treated like the feral animal you always have been. Yip all you want, dog, you have no bite here."

Grayson leveled his beady eyes on Malachi and his body stiffened. He let go of Grayson's shirt and slowly stepped back, but I knew it was all for show. Malachi had grown in many areas under my father's supervision, but none further than his tolerance for pain.

Sure enough, Malachi raised his black eyes to his mentor a second later, gazing through his white hair like a reaper. He straightened smoothly, dropping the act that Grayson's talent was too much for him.

"Ooh, that tickles," he purred the words in his low, rough voice before advancing on the mage once again and wrapping his hands around his throat.

But Grayson was just as quick, and I saw lines of concentration crease his old face. With his fists balled at his side, I saw his efforts begin to work as Malachi's grip loosened, authentically this time. He looked to be fighting the tremor as every nerve in his body was alight with Grayson's talent.

Grayson leaned in then, a triumphant look on his face.

"I know you cannot hurt me, you are not allowed to hurt me, but that does not mean I cannot hurt you, you filthy bastard child."

Malachi seemed to almost lose his balance at that, as if the venom of Grayson's words stoked his power higher. Malachi swayed as a new wave of power and pain washed over him, and Grayson took the opportunity to place a hand on his head, pushing him down until Malachi was on one knee, his hand steadying him on the ground. His body shook despite his strain to fight it. And when he let out a gasp that sounded too similar to the noises that used to escape him when he was being 'disciplined' by Grayson, I knew he was losing ground, slipping under the influence of the pain. Which meant it was time for me to play my role, to follow the path I had chosen.

I was in front of Grayson within the breadth of a blink, replacing where my childhood cohort had just been. I shoved our old tutor back into the bookcase, not worried about hurting him, not worried about him at all.

"Perhaps he cannot hurt you...but I can."

Before the old mage had time to switch his pain from Malachi, still kneeling on the floor, to me, I thrusted my hand into his chest, parting skin and bone alike, and closed my fingers around his heart. I would have liked to cherish his killing more, to revel in this long-awaited, sweet revenge, but I knew with his talent, speed was my only advantage.

I pulled my arm back, stepping to the side so he would have an unobstructed view of Malachi, so his black eyes would truly be the last thing Grayson saw before death overtook him. Just as promised. When his body hit the floor, a permanent look of shock was frozen into the features of his evil face, his eyes staring emptily where Malachi still knelt.

I left for my room to go shower, washing the blood of all the day's victims from me, and feeling no remorse.