Indeed, between a little money and raping a woman like her, human to boot, was probably too unequal a weight. But all the same, she would never forgive him and she didn't feel sorry for him at all.
Let him tremble with all his being and die of terror. But in the end, it wasn't terror that will be his doom.
In response, the beast laughed a taunting cackle before hurling himself at his pursuers, who shrieked in surprise and fear.
Obviously, she was careful not to say it out loud, or even move at all, so as not to attract the attention of this monster, about whom she knew nothing except that he was furious at being disturbed and disrespected by uninvited guests. And she was one of those guests.
"Stooges, eh," pointed out the beast before shutting up and creating a silence that didn't bode well. "Since I now know the full meaning of your stooges to you, then the best I can do is bring them in."
The beast irradiated a little more, then muttered something in an incomprehensible language, like some kind of spell.
And soon the stooges who'd stayed outside came in, even the white-skinned lover who'd fled as far as he could.
At first, Nicole thought they were in some kind of trance, but, no, when she saw their faces, she understood that they were perfectly conscious, but their whole bodies were under the total sway of the master of the house's magic.
"Everyone's here," he declared.
The chief looked at his enemy and his henchmen in turn, swallowing hard before inquiring.
"And what are you going to do now?"
The beast sneered. "What do you think I'm going to do?" And he addressed the minions. "Because you had the delicacy not to enter despite the order of your boss, who by the way doesn't give a damn about you, I'm giving you a chance to live."
Even Nicole, who was naive in many ways, understood what he was demanding, and she swallowed her saliva, trying to hold herself still.
He was cruel.
The subdued light accentuated everyone's expression all the more, and the young woman also grasped the decision of the stooges, who stared at their leader as the beast stared at them all.
The leader tried to reason with them.
"Stop it! I'm your boss! You'll be long dead without me. You and your families! Stop…"
The minions pounced on their chief, who still had the merit of fighting to his last breath. It was a most intense, savage, red-hot spectacle.
Nicole had put her hand to her chest, struggling to breathe, the disgust, the terror, the ugliness of the scene pounding into her bowels, turning her stomach. She could have closed her eyes, or turned away, but she was unable to.
Never had such dark emotions collided inside her, for she hated them and pitied them at the same time. Part of her wanted to spare them, and part of her wanted to make them pay to death.
The chief managed to kill half of his former henchmen before dying.
When it was all over, she forced herself to look up at the beast who, like her, had followed the show to the end without wasting a single moment, and unlike her, was watching purely for pleasure.
When the surviving henchmen went to kneel before him, he smiled, then indicated the door. "Go on, you deserve your reward."
They didn't ask for anything else, and were gone in a second disappearing into the night.
Nicole was pleased to find that the white-skinned lover was one of the victims. Nicole couldn't stand it any longer and puked her guts out, which made her host laugh. A laugh that did nothing to assuage her disgust, but it did assuage her fear…
She felt his gaze on her. Was it her turn? There was only one way to find out.
If it hadn't been for that laughter, she'd never have dared try her luck, she'd only have waited for her fatal destiny to strike, but something had sounded in it , so…
She took a deep breath, then slowly, softly, trembling like a dead leaf carried away by the wind, she looked up at him, and it took her some time to assimilate again, so chaotic were her emotions, but what she saw finally reassured her. At least, a little.
"Are you all right?"
She was still unable to utter a sound, but she nodded.
He smiled again, still mocking, but without murderous intent, and was about to add something, but alas, that wasn't the end of it. The chief wasn't as dead as they thought.
Suddenly, he leapt up with a sword in his hand, intent on plunging it into the creature's body.
The latter, whose reflexes were extraordinary, dodged the dangerous attack, at least according to what the young woman saw , before crushing his enemy under his giant paw.
Nicole would have liked to intervene, but her legs couldn't carry her any more due to too many accumulated emotions, so she only uttered a faint cry of surprise in an attempt to warn the beast, as if he needed it.
It was obvious that the repulsive figure had used his last strength to carry out this attack of hatred and despair before dying, but fortunately, he failed.
It only lasted a few seconds.
The cheif had known he was doomed from the start, from the moment he set foot in the building. He was pathetic. Nicole felt his last screams through every fiber of her body, then his despair and, finally, resignation, as his body was crushes, his skin torn, his muscles ripped, and his bones shattered. He died as he undoubtedly lived, in the most savage and violent fashion. Now it was time to forget him.
However, before he died, Nicole distinctly heard the chief screaming with the last of his strength. "Damn you, you Ozak bastard!"
Then it was over.
A new deathly silence settled over the hall. Nicole considered the pile of corpses without really knowing what she was feeling. She seemed to have become a neutral spectator. So, she waited. She waited for this monster who happened to be her host, this beast scornfully nicknamed Ozak's bastard, to address her.
Somehow, she wasn't afraid anymore. She felt him turn toward her, then slowly move forward.
This time, she was really the only one left. She straightened up and faced him, closing her eyes at the last moment, having already recovered her deepest doubts and fears, which was to be expected, given what she had just witnessed, and thought that he, too, was going to finish her off. The only thing she wished was that it would be brief. But in the end, nothing happened. She waited some more, but nothing happened. Then she felt some hope returning. She felt her breathing slowly ease and her muscles relax.