Lucas' POV
That fucking warlock looked up at me with disbelief.
I couldn't tell if he had bought anything I had just sold him. I couldn't see the burning hatred and anger in his fucking eyes as I expected.
What the fuck was on his mind?
So I decided to give him another push.
"Go ahead," I said. "The window of opportunity has already opened. You're one step away from what you want. Pick up the knife and stab me. Come on, do it."
The warlock picked up the knife, turned back, and looked at me.
"Master..." He whispered as he was stumbling towards me. "All these years, I always told myself that by killing you, I can put everything, all this pain, sorrow, and humiliation, to a stop. But the truth is, I have my doubts. Master, you're an unstoppable force of nature, a horrible manipulative creature. But you don't kill people around you. That's why people follow you. You chose my brother to be with you for a reason. He was a good companion. He was... full of life when he was alive. He was inheritedly happy and I know happiness has always been what you're missing in your life, Master..."
Fuck. This is complete bullshit. I drink a lot and fuck a lot. I take people's lives and they can't do anything about it. Life's fucking good and what the fuck is happiness?
I grabbed his shoulders and said, "Shut up, warlock, before I permanently shut you up! Who the fuck do you think you're to know me? What the fuck do you think you're talking about?!"
He didn't shut up.
He continued like a broken record -
"All these years, even though it's so convenient to blame you for everything, I still know that you didn't kill him. I know my brother wasn't a lunatic. Someone must have driven him mad. I know he wouldn't kill himself. Someone must have taken his life. But Master, you're not the one to be blamed. The reason I'm still alive is that I want to figure out who's behind my brother's killing. He might be nothing to this person, but he is everything to me. Master, I wish I could bring your happiness as my brother once did, but I'm not my brother. I'm inheritedly sad. I'm incompetent to give you the happiness you want like my brother once did. And then, Louisa came. I fall in love with her almost instantly. She's irresistible to me. You must have felt the same, Master. Strong, warm, tender, and benevolent, she reminds me of my brother in every single way. I wish I could be with her, but she only sees you in her eyes. She's your mate, Master. This is a game I can never win. You know, last night, when I was with her, she was calling your name in her dream and it broke my heart. Master, you don't know how much she's in love with you and you don't know what people will do when they're in love. So here I am, showing you..."
He lifted the knife and said, "I have never wanted to kill you, Master. The only one who should be dead in this room is me. I'm worthless. I can't find my brother's killer. I can't ease your pain and anger. I can't win a woman's love. So the last thing I can do before I go is to make you see what love really is..."
Unexpectedly, he lifted his arm and stabbed the knife into my chest.
At almost the same time, I heard a scream -
"No! Darren! No!"
The warlock's raised hand froze.
The knife in his hand dropped to the floor.
He turned back, and I saw the she-wolf's comb knife stabbed into his back.
The she-wolf standing in front of me. She was completely petrified.
She stabbed the warlock to stop him from killing me.
Is this what the warlock wanted to show me? Love?
"Fuck! No!" I bent down and held the fucking warlock in my arms. His eyes were closed. His body started to turn cold and frigid.
I lifted my head up to look at the fucking she-wolf.
"What the fuck have you done?!" I shouted at her. "Save him! Save him now! He can't be dead!"
The she-wolf seemed to be woken up by my shouting and kneeled down on the floor.
"Darren! Darren! Stay with me!" She screamed, trying to use her hands to stop the bleeding.
"Lucian?!" I yelled.
Lucian ran into the tent with the she-wolf's potion box in his hands. He passed the box to the she-wolf. She tried to open the lid, but her hands were trembling too hard to open it.
Fucking useless piece of trash.
I opened the box for her and looked at the fucking potion bottles in the box.
"Which one do you need?! Tell me!" I exclaimed.
"I don't know... I don't..." she murmured.
"What the fuck do you mean that you don't know?!" I roared.
Lucian said, "Luke, you're not helping. Just hold Darren and give her some space. Don't say anything."
The she-wolf started to take out potion bottles and apply some powder to his wound.
I looked at the warlock's face. It's slowly turning gray.
I immediately recognized the color.
That was the sign of life fading away from a person's torso.
My mind went blank for a moment and memory kicked in.
This fucking warlock... This fucking stupid piece of shit...
I used to hold his brother Derek's dead body in my arms, and his face was like this.
Prior to that, I used to hold my younger brother's lifeless body in my arms, and his face was like this.
My own fucking younger brother passed away in my arms when he was six.
Some fucking kids in the tribe took him to a snow-covered frozen lake and left him there.
He liked snow and ice. He used to play with them all the time and he would beg me to play with him.
"Make me a snowman, Luke." He used to pull my sleeves and said. "The largest one!"
Fucking snowman. Fucking lifeless corpses that lose a bit of themselves whenever they feel the slightest warmth of breath.
I had never made one for him.
Fuck. I was never available for him.
On that day, when I found my younger brother on the ice, there was a fucking half-made snowman standing next to his lifeless body.
My name was written on its chest.
At that moment, I realized that he wasn't making a snowman.
He was making an elder brother that would play with him.
He was still thinking of me at the last moment of his life. And I wasn't there.
When I first saw Derek in the brothel, I didn't want to take him away.
He was just another fucking male whore to me.
But after we did it, he was lying in my arms and lifting his hands, showing off his stupid fucking trick in front of me.
He snapped his fingers and there were crystal ice flakes coming out of his fingers. They were so delicate and fragile, dancing in the translucent flow of light.
"What do you want me to make, Sir?" He looked at me and smiled, "Anything you like, Sir."
"Make me a snowman," I stared at him and said. "The largest one."