CHAPTER 124: INHUMAN

Hours went by and Cain only grew more irritable, especially when it became painfully obvious that Violet was nowhere to be found.

The guards searched as though their lives were on the line, desperately interrogating all the servants. Yet almost all of them swore they hadn’t even seen her come downstairs. This only infuriated the guards more. The more terrified they became of Cain’s wrath, the more ruthless they were willing to become to extract the truth. No one wanted to go back and report to Cain without any progress. The fact that Bari’s screams could be heard even from downstairs—as though Cain had deliberately left the door open—only heightened their dread.

"Did you know it’s almost 12:00 a.m.? A couple more minutes, and the next day is already here," Cain sighed, his voice calm but laced with menace, as he stared at the terrified man in front of him. The man hung from the ceiling, wailing like a child.

The only semblance of control the man retained was over his bladder—a small mercy—but his tears, already pooling on the floor, irked Cain enough. After all, he’d only pulled off a few of his fingers.

Blood sprinkled on the ground in crimson droplets, but the response was always the same.

The man insisted he hadn’t seen Violet, insisted he hadn’t done anything wrong. Cain, however, refused to believe him. He knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that almost everyone in the mansion was spying on him for someone. The only person he half-trusted was Frank and his elite team of guards. To Cain, everyone else was disposable.

Walking closer, Cain held a bloody knife in his hand, its blade gleaming dully in the dim light. He pointed it directly at the man’s eye, letting the cold steel plunge through the squishy surface. Slowly, Cain pressed, watching as the man’s screams grew shriller, louder, clawing at the walls of the room. The sound only fed the darkness within Cain, urging him to twist the blade deeper into the man’s skull.

He stopped himself, barely, before his inner demons could take over entirely.

"I’ll give you until tomorrow night," Cain growled, his voice low and dangerous. "Decide which is better: your life or your family’s life." He was confident that the man’s silence stemmed from a fear greater than Cain—a fear for his family’s safety. But that wouldn’t save him for long.

The man’s screams continued, filling the room with their echo, but Cain didn’t so much as flinch. He watched as blood streamed down the man’s face, glistening as it slid from the puncture wound near his eye. The man’s body jerked in spasms, his feet barely brushing the ground, bound in unforgiving chains.

With a final cold glance, Cain turned and left the room, heading toward his quarters. His steps were heavy, deliberate, as though each one was a struggle to contain the beast clawing at his insides.

Cain could feel it—the familiar pain surging through his bones, the telltale sign that his transformation was imminent. He could take the potion, of course. It would help him revert back to his human form sooner. But Cain had long suspected that the potion was doing something far more sinister to him—something he refused to allow any longer.

’I don’t care if I have to suffer until dawn,’ he swore under his breath, dragging himself to another room in his wing—one far from where he’d left the guard hanging from the ceiling.

He’d barely taken a few steps forward when a grating voice reached his ears. It made his skin crawl, his fingers twitch. The sound, soft and cool to anyone else, grated against him like nails on glass.

"You seem a little tired," Fiona’s voice drifted from behind him. She stepped closer, glad to find him alone. Most of the others had gone on a frantic search for Violet.

For the first few hours, Fiona had been terrified that Violet’s dead body would indeed be found. But as the hours dragged on and there was still no sign of her, Fiona’s confidence grew.

’If even with their superior sense of smell they can’t find her, then Reddrick must have done a good job,’ she told herself, mentally congratulating the men she had relied on. Roddrick and Howie had never let her down before.

"Have you taken your potion yet?" Fiona asked, her tone light, almost sweet. "I know it doesn’t stop the transformation completely, but it has to help with the pain." She pulled a small vial from her purse, the liquid inside shimmering faintly. She’d laced it with a bit of aphrodisiac, confident it would only take effect once he returned to his human form. She had no intention of dealing with a beast in heat.

Fiona continued, her voice smooth. "The guards are doing their best. I’m sure she’ll turn up. Unless, of course, she decided to run away for whatever—"

She didn’t get to finish. Cain’s head snapped toward her, his gaze sharp and furious, his teeth bared in a snarl.

"...so you’re saying my guards colluded with her?" Cain’s voice dripped venom, his words a hiss that made Fiona instinctively recoil. "Or are you saying they’re so incompetent they completely missed her?" Cain snapped, his tone rising with each word. His fury was palpable, an oppressive force that made Fiona’s heart race.

Her eyes widened as she noticed the change in him. One of his golden honey-colored eyes had turned fully red—a trait only ’Reds’ were capable of. Panic clawed at her chest.

’What the—this isn’t normal,’ Fiona thought, backing away from him. But Cain’s smirk only widened as he closed the gap between them, step by agonizing step.

"Fiona," Cain drawled, his grin wicked and cruel. "You look terrified... almost like you’ve never seen what the curse inside me is capable of." His voice was deceptively light, but every word dripped with malice.

Fiona’s retreat was instinctual, her steps faltering as Cain advanced. He loomed over her, his presence suffocating.

"You like me, right?" Cain’s voice was mockingly soft. "Then you should like this part of me too."

As he spoke, the sound of bones breaking filled the air, a sickening symphony of transformation. Cain’s arms elongated, fur sprouting from his skin. The grotesque limbs were too massive to support him upright, forcing him onto all fours. The beast in him was unleashed.

Fiona was frozen in terror, her gaze locked on the monster before her. Tears welled in her eyes as she mumbled incoherently, her voice trembling.

"M-my father..." she gasped, trying to summon the courage to threaten him with her family’s power. But her words died on her lips as the sound of more bones snapping echoed around them. Cain groaned, his body convulsing as the transformation consumed him.

In a blur of motion, Cain dashed past her, slamming a door shut behind him. He knew he was a monster. But the way Fiona had looked at him—with fear, yes, but more than that, with disgust—awoke a new rage within him.

In that moment, Cain understood why he hadn’t killed Violet. She had been afraid of him, but never had she looked at him as though he were something unworthy of existence...something that shouldn’t be allowed to live...something inhuman!