Blood on Velvet
378 Words
Chapter 19 – Blood on Velvet
Nico’s mood had shifted.
That morning, he left the estate early with three of his most trusted men. Alesia watched from the bedroom balcony, arms crossed over her chest, wrapped in one of his black silk robes. She could feel something brewing—something dark and violent. The calm before a storm.
By nightfall, it came.
Gunshots echoed through the estate’s east wing. The guards scrambled. Shouts in Italian. The scent of gunpowder in the air.
Alesia didn’t run. She walked, barefoot, down the hall like a ghost. The lights flickered. Blood trailed along the edge of the rug—fresh, red, and wrong. She followed it.
In the grand hall, Nico stood over a rival's body, blood soaking his sleeves, a cold, terrifying calm in his eyes. His blade was still in hand, dripping.
She had seen him violent. She had seen him cruel.
But this… this was him unhinged.
“They touched my gate,” he said without turning to her. “They thought I was distracted. They thought because I’ve been… wrapped up in you, that I’d gone soft.”
His voice cracked with fury.
“You’re bleeding,” Alesia said quietly, stepping closer. She reached for his arm, but he yanked away.
“Don’t,” he growled. “You don’t get to touch me after letting me feel weak.”
Alesia froze, but not from fear. From something worse—guilt.
Nico finally looked at her. “You want to be strong, Alesia? Then don’t just lie in my bed. Stand next to me. Be the queen you pretend you’re not afraid to become.”
She stepped closer, hands trembling, heart hammering in her chest.
Then she touched the blood on his cheek. “Then teach me. Or kill me. But stop holding me in between.”
His breath hitched.
Then—he grabbed her by the waist and kissed her.
It wasn’t soft. It was pain and fire, possession and punishment.
And she kissed him back, tasting blood and power.
They made love on the bloodstained floor of the grand hall.
Not because it was beautiful—but because it was real. Because it was war. And because love, in this world, always came dressed in violence.
- Writer
