*Excerpt*
"Boss, we found one of the killers," Kaelen's voice crackled through the comms.
A cold smile touched my lips. "Good. I've been waiting to dissect someone all day." And I ended the call.
"You are more brutal than I thought," Valerius murmured, leaning against the doorframe.
"I am always brutal," I replied, not looking up.
"Hmm. That's why I love you."
I looked up at him"I don't do love."
"So what if I fall in love with you anyway?"
"Then you're wasting your time."," I said, my voice dropping to a whisper. "In my world, love is a liability;a hemorrhage that if I let it start I will bleed before I complete the final stage of the surgery. It's a weakness that will destroy my life."
He looked away, but I caught the hurt in his eyes before his mask slid back into place. "My little Mon Amour, you look beautiful when you're threatening people."
"Who are you calling 'little'?" I hissed, but my heartbeat betrayed me. A feeling I hadn't been trained for and wasn't prepared to have.
"I'm sorry boss".
I watched him walk away, his words repeating itself in my ears and disrupting my thoughts. He still doesn't understand. He sees the girl he was supposed to fall in love. I'm his boss and he is my advisor but he didn't see that. He was an advisor to my father before his death but he still doesn't see the heiress he was supposed to only advise. He sees a girl worthy of his love and attention severing all ties of being only his boss.
*****************
A name is the first thing you get before you even know the meaning.
Alessia.The name I was given by my mother.She called me the defender because of it's meaning not knowing she was raising one and it was going to have an impact in my life. In the boardroom they see the girl with suits and silk. They don't see the girl they turned into a woman so early that knows where the carotid and femoral artery are .
Lyra. The name I was given by my father. He gave me that name not because I was pretty but he wanted me to show the world that I am star in the void of space and a heiress who will lead the Vicenzo empire.
I was fast. The last thing a man about to reach his end sees. I was born to dissect men who think the world revolves around them. The feeling of killing those men are undeniable it's something that only surgeon turned assassin could understand.
To others I'm an innocent surgeon. To the high council I was an heir born to being in the commission even though I didn't choose it because of ancient ties. But what they don't expect I'm the Spiritus Cheetah born not just to treat patients but to dissect the wrong doers.
But the underworld ? They don't care about my name or doctor degrees. In the Devil's Nation I am woman they fear. My presence alone instill fear into the heart of the strongest men.
My father gave me the training necessary to to be a cheetah and my mother she gave me the heart to know when to kill and to know the lives worth saving in a world of blood.
My name is Alessia Lyra Vicenzo, and I have come to take back my throne.
*Twenty Years Earlier*
The suffocating smell of gunpowder was a contrast to the smell of my
five-year-old birthday cake. I was just five and I got to understand that sweet and sugary don't last for long. But the bitter ones with taste of quinine stays in our memory forever.
I learned those lessons in a painful way no child should ever go through. My birthday was being celebrated in our Vicenzo estate ( Sotto L'etna).
That day was supposed to be one of the best days of my life but instead it became the worst.
It should have been filled with laughter, celebration, bouncing castles and confetti but instead everything was replaced with blood.
"Stay under the table Alessia don't come out until I tell you to." My mother whispered. Her voice wasn't shaking but her hands were. She was trying to be bold because of me but the fear in her eyes couldn't be ignored.
She shoved me into the bottom part of the table filled with my birthday cake,food and sweets.
We were alone because the party hasn't started and my father attended a meeting.
"Don't make a single sound no matter what you see." And she turned away. Those were her last words to me.
And everytime I remember I want to kill everyone without wasting so much time.
Then I saw blood. A scream and a thud.
I didn't make a sound. I remembered what my father told me few weeks back when I fell from the stairs and I began crying. He said: Silence is your only true friend anytime. After he said that I stood up and cleaned my eyes.
I watched through the pink lace as a pair of black boots walked pass the place I was hiding.
A symbol was etched into side of his gun holster. I didn't look at the face of the killer instead I let my eyes linger on the symbol. A mark I will spend the next twenty years.
I was under the table for five hours. You will think I cried but no I didn't.
My mother's blood flowed like a stream soaking my pink floral dress.
The doors swung open and my father came in. His eyes were like a volcano and his face emotionless.
He found me under the table staring at the woman who was my place of warmth and always sings me to sleep every night with her melodious voice.
My father looked at me and shook his head. He reached out his hand and spoke his voice like the chilly wind.
"Your mother is gone because she was too soft for this world.Do you want to be soft like her or be the one who holds the gun to their head?"
I looked at my blood stained dress and the lifeless form of my mother.
I stretched my hands forward holding onto my father's hands. My hands were very small in his but I held it like it was a lifeline.
"I want to learn. I want to be the one who holds the gun to their head."
I spoke up with a voice I didn't know I had because that moment of trauma changed my entire perspective of life.
My father studied me for a moment and nodded his head. He looked at me with pride; the kind of pride that shows a man is proud of the decision made by a child.
"Then I will teach you everything you need to know. From this day onward these are the three watchwords you live your life by : Pain is for the weak, kindness is for those seeking death and you fight till you defeat everyone standing in your way. Do you understand everything I said?.
"Yes father I understood everything and I will live by them."
That day was the last time I ever felt sorry for killing anyone. The last time I ever celebrated my birthday.
My birthday ended in loss but the next day started in victories.
That was the day the Spiritus Cheetah in me woke up.
A Note from the Author 🥀:
And so it begins. This was a heavy start, but I wanted you all to see the exact moment the "Devil's Queen" was born. No more dolls, only cold steel.
I'm so excited to share this journey of blood, vengeance, and a romance that shouldn't exist with you all!
This story is a journey of vengeance, power, and a love that was never supposed to happen. Alessia is a character close to my heart-a woman who had to become a monster to fight monsters.
Question for you: What do you think of Alessia's father's three watchwords? Would you survive his training?
I have another question for you: Do you love it and you want more ?
Let me know in the comments! Don't forget to vote with your power stones and Add to your Library if you are ready to hunt so you don't miss the next drop. 🙈❤️
Stay Lethal,
--Cruentis.