Tabitha had come to wake me and with the news that my mom was here. I was little terrified, actually, worried that I’d disappoint her again but mother seemed to be impressed with how far I had come. She had always seen me as a naïve and foolish young man but she saw that I had amassed some bit of power in this small rural town. I’m so happy to see her up and about and on her feet again even if those stares she gives you can chill you to the bone. It’s something about those moon white eyes, it’s as if she’s not only seeing into your soul but pulling it out of you bit by bit. It’s great to have her back either way!
“Are you sure three wives is wise? Any of these three women can destroy you,” Lenore warned. She thinks I’m underestimating them. “And you should kill Violante, behead her, send her head to her old hunting group and-”
“Mother, it’s fine. Jana is having my child and Tabitha? She is mines completely, I own her soul and heart and the last of them, Violante, she is a puppy with no bark.”
“A puppy that almost killed me,” she grimly reminds me, noting with a nod of her head that she had bested me there. “All it takes is one mistake Julius-”
“Mother, things are fine, really, and-”
“I have a granddaughter out there, Julius, how are things fine? What metric are we going by here, my son? Is this a metric set by your lust alone?”
“Mother I...” she had me there. It was true. Laverne was taken from me and in the end that falls on me. “She’ll be found and returned safely mother,” I lied just to get her to turn her eyes elsewhere. That had worked. “Violante is no trouble. She mumbles and jokes and insults but that’s all she has. Besides, killing her is far too easy an out, it’s what she wants. I’ll break her, I’ll make her crawl to me and beg for my attention, I’ll make a pet of her-”
“And she’ll play the pet until she can slit your throat. Hate is a strong emotion, my son, never underestimate it. That woman hates you. She will die attempting to hurt you in any way she can.”
My mother is wrong here. I’m stronger than even she realizes. I’ll be able to get into Vio’s head and..
“Ah, here comes Jana,” I announce, hearing her right outside the door.
