"Wow, you really blew away the guy responsible for creating vampires," Ethan said, looking down at Marcus's ruined body.
Selene didn't comment.
She just looked at Ethan, her expression stripped of confusion now. The hesitation that had flickered in her eyes earlier was gone. Marcus had admitted it himself. Viktor had ordered it. There was no misunderstanding left to cling to, no comforting lie to retreat into.
For centuries, she believed she was avenging her family.
For centuries she had been protecting their killers.
"Why would I listen to the man who killed my family?" Selene said, her voice low and steady.
Ethan gave a small nod. "Yeah. You're pretty decisive. Some might hesitate. After killing a vampire elder, living here won't be easy."
Selene didn't even glance at him. Her eyes stayed on Viktor's coffin, cold and focused.
"Doesn't matter," she said. "I didn't give my life for the coven. I didn't give it for politics. I gave it for revenge."
Whatever Viktor had been to her—a father figure, a mentor—that illusion had shattered. What remained was a Death Dealer who had just learned she had been used.
"And now," she added quietly, "I finish what should have been finished centuries ago."
Silence hung in the chamber for a few seconds after Marcus fell.
Then—
A wet, choking sound came from Viktor's coffin.
A harsh inhale.
Another.
Viktor surged upward, only to falter immediately, one hand gripping the edge of the coffin as his face twisted in revulsion. His expression wasn't regal or composed like an elder awakening—it was furious.
"Fuck—" he snarled, spitting thick, dark fluid onto the floor. "What is this disgusting blood?"
He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, glaring at the crimson smear as if it had personally insulted him.
"Who used this… to wake me up?"
His eyes lifted, blazing with fury.
They landed on Selene.
Lucian stepped forward into the light, his expression calm but his eyes burning.
Viktor's gaze locked onto him instantly.
"Lucian…" he said, voice low and venomous. "You beast. What are you doing here?"
There was genuine surprise beneath the anger. He had been told Lucian was dead. Kraven had assured him of it. His eyes flicked toward the side—and there was Kraven, sprawled on the floor, leg twisted unnaturally.
"Pathetic," Viktor muttered coldly. "Serves you right, fool."
Then his attention shifted to Selene.
"Selene," he commanded, his tone sharpening into the authority he had used for centuries. "Kill the beast beside you."
She did not move.
She did not even glance at Lucian.
She simply looked at Viktor—silent, unreadable.
That stillness unsettled him more than open rebellion would have. The Selene he knew would have reacted instantly. She would have fired before he finished speaking.
His eyes narrowed.
"Selene," he repeated, slower this time. "That is an order."
Nothing.
No obedience. No hesitation. Just that cold stare.
Viktor felt it then—something had shifted.
Before he could press further, Ethan's voice cut in casually from the side.
"Quick question," he said lightly. "How did the blood taste?"
Viktor's head snapped toward him, fury igniting instantly.
"You," he hissed.
"I was the one who prepared it," Ethan continued with an almost proud expression. "Special blend. Very exclusive."
Viktor's lip curled in open disgust.
"You dare," he said, rising to his full height despite the lingering weakness in his limbs. "You dare defile an elder with filth?"
His eyes burned with ancient authority now, cold and merciless.
"Do you have any idea who I am?"
Ethan tilted his head slightly, unbothered.
"Oh, I know exactly who you are."
Lucian stepped forward slowly, his expression hard and controlled, satisfaction barely restrained beneath it.
"Viktor," he said, voice low but cutting, "it seems you're as arrogant as the last time I saw you. Still believing the world revolves around you. Still believing everything bends to your will."
He gestured slightly around the chamber. "Look around. You're not sitting on your throne anymore. You're standing in the middle of your own hall like a weak old man who just woke from a coffin."
Viktor's jaw tightened.
Then his gaze shifted.
He finally noticed the body near Marcus's coffin.
Marcus.
Still.
Head ruined beyond recovery.
Viktor's eyes widened—not with grief, but with shock.
"Yes," Ethan said lightly. "That's Marcus. One of your precious elders."
Silence pressed heavily into the chamber.
Viktor's attention snapped back to Selene.
"What is happening here?" he demanded, his authority cracking slightly at the edges.
"What's happening," Ethan answered before Selene could speak, "is that she knows the truth. The truth about who killed her family."
That struck cleanly.
Viktor's eyes widened just enough to confirm it. He looked at Selene again, and now he understood her stillness. The refusal to obey. The gun still in her hand.
"Selene—" he began.
But there was no warmth left in her gaze.
Lucian stepped closer, claws extending slowly with the faint metallic scrape of bone shifting under skin.
"Finally," Lucian said, voice thick with restrained hatred, "I get the opportunity to take your head myself."
Viktor straightened despite the weakness still lingering in him, pride refusing to let him bow.
"You think you can stand against me?" he said coldly. "You are nothing but a slave who forgot his place."
Lucian's lips pulled back slightly—not a smile.
"Not tonight."
*****
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