Venomous Gaze - Chapter 5 - Toxic (Patreon)

The maid quivered as I slid the head of one of my hatchets under her chin and forced her to look up at me. “Where’s Dimitri?” I asked. 

“W-When he arrived at the house, he went straight into the office, and he’s only left half a dozen times since,” she stuttered. 

“To do what?” I prompted. 

“T-To get alcohol mostly,” she replied. “But he’s also talked to his assistant a couple times.”

I could tell that she was on the brink of tears, so I withdrew my axe. “Which way to the office?” I growled. 

About halfway down the hallway, a heavy wooden door squealed open, and a familiar figure staggered out. “What’s the ruckus? You’re aggravating my headache!” he yelled towards back of the house.

I looked down at the maid, then nodded towards the door, before striding down the hallway. Dimitri staggered around, scratching his head through his dishevelled auburn hair, and taking an embarrassingly long time to turn around.

When he finally turned around and looked my way, his eyes went wide. “Helena… you’re not supposed to be here,” he whimpered, as he slowly backed away from me. 

“Really? Why not? Perhaps you thought I’d be too busy to meet my least favourite cousin? Or maybe it’s because you sent someone to poison me, and expected me to be writhing around on the floor somewhere,” I said, raising one of my hatchets to point at his face while resting the other on my shoulder. “I warned you back in Brighthome that if you came after me or your sister again, you’d better kill us, because otherwise there’d be consequences.”

“You can’t kill me, I’m a member of the family,” he smirked. I raised an eyebrow; this was the first time I’d actually seen the worm stand up to me. He usually ran off the instant anyone got mad at him. He must have really have been drinking heavily to have enough courage to stand up to me.

“But for how long? You’re already on your mother’s shit list. That’s how you ended up here,” I replied, before showing him a toothy grin. “Besides, the rule is: ‘No killing family,’ There’s nothing about beating someone within an inch of their life. That’s why you felt confident enough to send someone to poison me. However, unlike you, I’m not afraid of getting my hands dirty.”

Dimitri’s confident grin fell. “You wouldn’t dare,” he muttered. 

I flashed a copy of the same cocky, self-assured smirk he’d shown me only seconds before, then lunged forward, pulled the hatchet off my shoulder and tried to sink it into Dimitri’s neck.

Dimitri had been through the same hellish education that the rest of the family had, so I knew there was practically no chance that blow would kill him. Still, his reaction time was laughably slow; he just barely managed to yank open the nearest door and kick it towards me, causing the hatchet to embed itself in the heavy wood door.

“You’re crazy!” he shouted, retreating down the hallway. “Aden! Get the pistols.”

“And you haven’t been maintaining your training,” I muttered. 

I really didn’t want to chase the bastard around the house, so I flipped my free hatchet into my free hand and squeezed the heavy lever at the top of the handle. The heavy gearworks rattled and clanked until the braces behind the blade retracted. Once they had, I wound up and threw the hatchet as hard as I could. 

Dimitri sprinted towards the far end of the hall. I don’t know if it was due to the poison tolerance we were required to build up as children, or the sheer panic, but he somehow managed to get down the hallway without stumbling once. 

As he approached the other end, the final door was thrown open, and a relatively slim man in a well-tailored suit stepped out brandishing a pair of pistols. He began to turn towards me, but before he could get a bead on me, the hatchet flew between the two men and slammed into the wall at the end of the hall. 

The hatchet embedded itself in the wall with a meaty thud, and even though it was loud, I could still make out the unmistakable crack of glass breaking. 

A thick orange gas exploded out of the hatchet, completely filling the end of the hallway in seconds. 

Aden, who was closer to the source, fell instantly, never quite able to bring his weapons to bear. Dimitri, on the other hand, managed to turn around and get a couple of steps away before he succumbed to the toxin. 

I strode forward, casually ripping my other hatchet out of the door as I passed, and stepped into the rapidly thinning gas. The familiar scratching feeling behind my eyes immediately flared up, but I ignored it as I stepped over Dimitri, standing on Aden as I yanked the other hatchet free. After flipping the switch on the side of the handle, I pulled the trigger again, re-engaging the supports, before tucking the axe back into its sheath and finally returning to my cousin.

Dimitri gasped for breath, his breathing ragged. I stuck the toe of my boot into his side and kicked him over onto his back. 

“Do you know what you just inhaled?” I asked, sweeping the nicknacks off a nearby cabinet so I had a place to sit. “It’s aerosolized Lacertatoxin. Now I know you’ve been far more focused on drugs than toxin since you graduated, so let me enlighten you to what that means. Lacertatoxin is refined from swamp dragon saliva, and it causes both paralysis and extreme hypersensitivity,” I said. “So for the next three or four hours you’ll be stuck here, unable to move, and even the most minor sensation is going to cause you extreme pain.”

Dimitri groaned, drool leaking out of the corner of his mouth. 

“Let this be a lesson to you. I’m done putting up with your little schemes and constant attempts at backstabbing. If you try anything like this again, I’ll not only give you a full-strength dose of the toxin, but I’ll bring a couple vials of fire ants so you can feel the same agony as the people I interrogate, got it?” 

My cousin let out a pained gargle, which I took as a confirmation, so I hopped down and kicked him over on his side so he didn’t choke on his own spit, then walked over to his assistant.

“And you,” I declared, kicking the man in the side. “I know you’ve served that idiot for a long time, but I suggest you rethink your loyalties. If you can’t stop him from doing things that’ll anger the rest of the family, then you should either get as far away as you can, or be prepared to face the consequences.” I crouched down, hovering over the man’s head. “And let me tell you, my aunts and uncles aren’t as forgiving as I am.”

Aden shuddered. Hopefully that meant he got the message, because this was going to be both my first and last warning. I pushed myself to my feet, rolled my shoulders, then reached up towards the ceiling to stretch.

“Well, I’d say this was fun, but the truth is I’m kind of disappointed. I was expecting more of a fight; I wouldn’t even call that a light workout,” I said, slowly wandering back to the entrance. “If you somehow manage to get back into Aunt’s good graces, you should really brush up on your fighting techniques. It was embarrassing. I didn’t even need to use a serum to beat you that badly.” 

Dimitri groaned in response, but with his vocal cords paralyzed, there was no way he could give me a coherent response, so I ignored him.

Once I got to the front door, I pulled out one of my hatchets and smashed the hinges, causing it to topple over and letting a brisk wind blow in.

“There you go. It’s not much, but this little breeze should be more than enough to keep you two occupied,” I said. “Enjoy it while you can, because while this might feel torturous now, the next time will be a hundred times worse. Don’t mess with me or Kathrine again.”

As I stepped outside, I noticed the maid standing beside a nearby tree, anxiously watching the entrance. “You can go back in now,” I said, not even looking at her as I walked by. “Don’t touch those two idiots inside until they get up, and if there’s anyone else working here tell them the same. Trust me, they won’t thank you for the help.”

I didn’t think I’d taken long, but as I walked back I realized how low the sun had gotten. I needed to get back fast if I wanted to get cleaned up before dinner, and if I didn’t… well, my aunt wasn’t very forgiving when it came to manners.

I sighed and broke into a jog. I’d only been back for an hour and I was already falling behind. “It’s always something,” I muttered.