Chapter 18 - BLOOD AND FIRE
Seraphina threw the motorcycle helmet onto the ground.
She sprinted through the pouring rain toward Isabella.
Julian groached on the wet asphalt, reaching blindly for the fallen wrench with his uninjured arm.
Seraphina didn't hesitate.
She kicked the iron wrench far down the alleyway and stood directly over Julian.
She aimed the handgun straight at his forehead.
"Do it," Julian gasped out, rain mixed with blood dripping down his face.
"Pull the trigger, you orphan freak!"
"Shoot me!"
Seraphina’s finger tightened against the trigger.
Her heart pounded against her chest like a heavy war drum.
Twenty-five years of rage, pain, isolation, and torture boiled inside her blood.
This was the man who had ordered her death just hours ago.
This was the family that had treated her like a spare part.
"Seraphina... don't!" Isabella gasped out from the ground, reaching up to touch her sister's boot.
"Don't become like them!"
Seraphina looked down at Isabella.
Isabella's face was covered in blood, but her eyes were filled with pure desperation.
"If you kill him..." Isabella choked out, "They win."
"They make you a monster."
"You are better than them, Seraphina."
"You've always been better than them."
Seraphina stared into Julian's terrified eyes.
The silence between them was heavier than the falling rain.
Slowly, deliberately, Seraphina lowered the barrel of the gun.
She drove her heavy leather boot violently into Julian's jaw, knocking him completely unconscious.
"He's not worth the bullet," Seraphina growled.
Seraphina dropped to her knees beside Isabella.
She carefully lifted Isabella up into her arms.
"Can you stand?" Seraphina asked, her voice shaking with rare emotion.
"I think my ribs are broken," Isabella whispered, wincing in severe pain.
"Where is the phone?"
Seraphina picked up Isabella's shattered phone from the puddle.
The screen was cracked, but the display was still flickering.
The digital countdown timer was flashing red:
00 HOURS : 06 MINUTES : 42 SECONDS.
"The secondary confirmation code!" Isabella gasped.
"We have less than seven minutes!"
Seraphina looked at the motorcycle.
"Hold on to me," Seraphina said, lifting Isabella up onto the back seat of the bike.
"We are not losing this war."
Isabella wrapped her arms tightly around Seraphina's waist.
Seraphina started the powerful engine.
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The rear tire spun violently against the wet asphalt before catching traction.
The motorcycle roared out of the alleyway, cutting through the dark, stormy night like a missile aimed straight at Vance Tower.
