A Classic Blunder

Chapter 2-1

Chapter 2

Elizabeth drops her knee down on Victor’s throat. The tension in her eyes reveals everything; fear and rage, loathing and despair. Victor struggles under her. Between his injuries and her leverage, he cannot free himself. His handsome face twists into a grimace of pain. His eyes bulge and his flesh turns brilliant red as he is suffocated under her weight.

Just before it is certain that he will die, she stands up. Victor writhes on the ground, coughing and choking.

“I chose not to kill you, Victor,” Elizabeth says. She rubs her hands together, smearing blood and mud across her fingers.

Incoherent with rage, Victor glares at her from his supine position on the ground, blazing eyes daring her to do it, to finish it. Begging her to end it.

“I love you,” she says softly. Her face is remorseless, pitiless, but her eyes well with unshed tears. “I always will.”

“Why?” Victor croaks. “Why tell me that now?” He coughs; a mouthful of blood sprays down his chin and he can’t wipe it away.

“You needed to know.” Elizabeth shrugs. From the bloody, muddy ground, she retrieves her machine gun and sword. She carefully wipes the blade clean against her jeans, leaving behind a smear of crimson. Machine gun held casually in one hand, she balances the muzzle against her shoulder. “But you make monsters, Victor. And I won’t let you make me one.”

She walks away, her hips moving slow and sweet, her high-heeled boots stepping neatly over the casualties of their battle.

Elizabeth Lavenza doesn’t look back. Victor knows this because he watches, without blinking, until she is out of sight.

The season finale was over. The credits scrawled over the seventy-inch television and the audience burst into applause. The show had already been renewed for another season; Victor was breaking viewing records for the network, and they were eager to keep that gravy train rolling.

Kate Belz grinned at her cousin. “I am so badass!”

“Yes, yes, you are,” Beau agreed, his voice a perfect mix of amiable admiration and not-quite-condescending agreement.

“f**k you, Boo,” she said, punching him lightly in the arm. She stood up, joined hands with her co-star, Randal Lattimer, on her left, and they bowed to the applause. Piper Cole, the brilliant redhead who played the feisty but dippy sidekick, Maggie Seville, was already being swamped by fans eager to get her autograph. Piper had gathered quite a stack of admirers among the Rainbow Connection students and the LGBT movement everywhere for her blatant bisexuality and her rampant campaigning for equal rights everywhere.

“Hey, Pipes,” Randal bellowed across the room, his stage-trained voice projecting beautifully. “Save some fresh ones for us.”

Piper rolled her eyes expressively. “Don’t worry,” she said, scrawling her name in Sharpie across a glossy eight-by-ten. “They’re all pretty damn fresh.”

“Too bad Aris couldn’t have been here,” Kate mused. “He likes college-aged girls.”

“In this crowd?” Beau asked, laughing. “They’re more apt to go home with you than Frank’s monster.”

“Under that makeup, he really is a sweet guy,” Kate protested.

Beau coughed, put his arm around his cousin. “I’m very happy to be related to you, dear. You’re a wonderful person, and I’m proud of you for all that you’ve accomplished, but you are f*****g clueless. You know that, right?”

Vin snuggled up against Beau’s back, a warm and welcome embrace, and dropped a soft kiss on his neck.

“Be nice to your cousin, love, she’s throwing a hell of a party.”

“This is as nice as the mannerless bastard gets,” Kate said. Beau shuddered and tried to control his flinch. She didn’t mean it as anything more than smack-talk; Kate wasn’t spending much time in Tennessee these days either. Truthfully, he wasn’t a bastard—his parents were all nicely legally married and all that stuff that didn’t really matter anymore—but according to Lisa, his brother Lee had started referring to him as “the bastard” to drive the obscure point home. Lisa meant well, or at least Beau hoped she did, but she viewed the whole thing as “us against them.” Complaining about her parents and grandparents was part of how she was dealing with the situation. Beau couldn’t find it in himself to shut her up. Too many people had been doing that to her already.

Vin, ever astute, gave him a quick glance and a quirked eyebrow. You okay?

Very comforting, Beau thought, the expressive language of a couple in love. Knowing, intimately, what your partner was thinking from a few gestures or expressions. He forced his mouth into a grin.

Beau twitched a shoulder. Maybe. “Let’s turn on the music and party, people!”

As the DJ cranked up the music, people dragged the chairs to the side of the room. Kate and her co-star hit the floor to the raucous cheers of other party-goers.