Broken (The Captive #5.5)(71)

"Forever my soul," he whispered against her mouth before slipping the ribbon into his pocket. He went to pick her up but Camille stopped him.

"Wait." She knelt beside Genny and kissed her forehead. "I love you."

She sat back and folded Genny's hands demurely upon her belly. A flash of the moonlight against the gold band encircling Genny's finger drew his attention to the symbol of promises unfulfilled and his failure. His thumb brushed against the matching ring on his finger. He'd do everything he could to make sure that he, and countless others, were made to pay for that failure.

Camille stepped away and Atticus lifted Genny once more. Carrying her to the hole, he jumped inside and settled her body carefully into the grave. It took everything he had to release her and climb out of the grave again. Sweat beaded across his brow, the muscles in his arms shook but he finally forced himself to lift the shovel and throw the first scoop of dirt onto her still form. Tears and fury burned his throat as Genny disappeared beneath the dirt. When the last shovelful fell on top of her, he tapped it down with the broad side of the shovel then snapped the tool in half and heaved the pieces into the river.

The choking sorrow left him as he stood staring down at the freshly turned earth. Madness whispered through his mind, beckoning to him to murder, to kill, to destroy everyone and everything he came across. As much as it called to him he knew he couldn't give into it, not yet. There was a long road to absolution ahead of him. In order to travel it he was going to have to tread carefully, to appear as sane as possible if he was ever going to succeed in making them all suffer.

He'd been infuriated enough and stuffed enough on blood and death to take down all those humans and his father tonight, but that wouldn't be enough to carry him through the rest of the humans on this planet and the aristocrats. No, he would have to bide his time, make allies, and gain strength. With age and friendships would come more power than any vampire had ever dreamed of possessing.

There were going to be countless, heinous things that he wasn't going to want to do over the coming years but he would do them. He would do everything he could to destroy the world that had taken Genny from him.

"She told me to tell you something," Camille whispered. Atticus threw back his shoulders and turned toward her. Her blond hair appeared silver in the moonlight; the tears on her face had a star-like glow to them. She was so unlike her sister yet she was the only connection he had left to Genny. "She said, 'you tell Atticus he's my heart.' Those were her exact words for you."

Words failed him as he stared at her for a long moment. Not knowing what to say to her, he slipped Genny's ribbon from his pocket. His gaze was riveted to it as he ran it over his fingers.

"Now what?" she asked tremulously.

"Follow me." He turned away from her and walked back through the woods. They walked parallel to the snapping flames consuming the village. It would take some time but the fire would eventually burn itself out.

***

Camille slumped into a chair at the table. Her hand went to the lopsided blanket folded on top of it, the one that Genny had recently finished. Atticus refused to allow himself to give into the sadness that the memory of Genny working diligently on that blanket provoked. He remained standing in the doorway, away from Camille and the blanket.

"No one can ever know what I did tonight," he said bluntly.

Camille's head turned toward him. "They never will."

"I mean it Camille."

Her hand slid away from the blanket as she turned toward him. "They killed my sister, Atticus. Genny loved me, she loved you, and she cared for others but she was the only one that I loved and they took her from me," she said vehemently. "No one will ever know what I saw tonight."

Atticus stared at her before walking into the room and settling into the chair across from her. "I understand."

Her sky blue eyes pinned his. "Yes, you do. So what do you plan to do now?"

"I plan to make them all pay, every single last one of them. Humans have kept us hidden in the shadows for too long. Vampires have created this world of constant infighting and seclusion that has put us at the mercy of a species that is far inferior to us. I don't care how many years it takes, or what I have to do, but the human species will learn their inferior place in this world and I will destroy any vampire that gets in my way of making that happen. They'll pay for what was done here tonight, they'll all pay."

"Good."

He lifted his eyes to meet her steely gaze. "I'd expected a, 'that isn't what Genny would want', from you."

"I think we both know that revenge isn't what Genny would want, but she's not here anymore and that's what I want," Camille said fervently. "It's their fault and they deserve to pay. I'm not my sister, I'm not forgiving."

"No," he said. "You're not."

She was nonplussed by his words. "I'll do whatever I can to help you, just let me know where to start."

"You'll start by leaving, for good."

"What?" she blurted. "But I can help you!"

"The best way for you to help me is for you to leave. After the events tonight, The Council is going to make all vampires leave England for at least fifty years so we will all be leaving anyway. But I can't have you around me."