CH.110

The gathered press corps seemed to sense the shift in the air as well. Their shouted questions died down to an uneasy murmur of confusion and speculation between the Montgomery family, which stood like a united front of seething hatred, and the Glovers.

Their eyes bore into Serena with an intensity that could melt steel.

Alex, his father Vaughn, his mother Sylvia, and a veritable army of aunts, uncles, and cousins formed a wall of barely contained rage. Even Kayla’s father, Governor Glover known for his cool demeanor in the face of political crises, looked ready to spit nails.

He stood stiffly beside his new wife - a woman young enough to be his daughter with a face that owed more to skilled surgeons than genetics.

The governor's second daughter, Kayla’s little sister hovered nearby, her own children fidgeting in their somber black attire while her husband tried to keep them quiet.

The atmosphere was saturated with a powder keg of emotions, ready to explode at the slightest spark.

They had all gathered on this gloomy, overcast day to say their final goodbyes to Alex's younger sister, Brittany, and her fiancé, Jason Glover.

Two lives that were snuffed out in what seemed to be an endless cycle of violence surrounding the Bolting and Montgomery families.

In their minds, Serena Bolting was solely responsible for this tragedy.

If looks could kill, Serena would have spontaneously combusted right there on the cemetery's lawn. But both the deceased families had to maintain their public facade as the devastated, pitiful victims - at least while the vulturous media circled like a flock of starving buzzards.

Microphones and cameras were poised at the ready, hungry to capture any morsel of drama to plaster across the internet and tabloid pages.

Alex stepped forward with a look of pure, unadulterated loathing twisting his once-handsome features.

His face was gaunt, eyes red and haunted - the perfect image of a grieving brother gutted by unimaginable loss. Yet Serena could see the calculated gleam lurking beneath the surface.

"You went way too far this time, you psychotic bitch," he spat out, his voice trembling with barely contained rage. "I get you had some kind of demented vendetta, some score to settle…. it should've been between you and me. Brittany was innocent in all of this! She didn't deserve to get caught up in your sick mind games and power plays!"

Alex leaned heavily on the crutches supporting his right leg - the same one Serena had put a bullet through just days earlier during their violent confrontation at her father's villa.

He limped forward until he was mere feet from Serena and jabbed an accusing finger at the bright cast on his injured leg. "Shooting me wasn't enough to satisfy your sadistic urges? You had to go and order your sugar daddy's hired muscle to execute my baby sister and her fiancé too? Your own cousin! What'd you do, get one of your boy toys all riled up by flashing those fake tits and spreading those legs until he was willing to straight-up murder two innocent kids for you?"

The gathered press immediately descended like sharks scenting blood in the water.

It was like a frenzied swarm, surrounding Serena as hateful insults and wild accusations rained down from every angle. Whatever fear they might have initially felt from Killian's threatening glare or the imposing presence of the hulking bodyguards was long forgotten.

They were in full-blown feeding frenzy mode now, their journalistic ethics tossed aside in favor of sensationalism.

"Murderous whore!"

"Gold-digging man-eater!"

"Black widow skank!"

The slurs lashed out alongside the bright, disorienting flashes of camera bulb. It was a dizzying barrage of noise and light as microphones were shoved towards Serena's pale face.

Her hurtful eyes and parted lips made for the perfect salacious image - one that would undoubtedly be plastered across trashy tabloid covers and gossip websites within hours.

Kylie and Kayla were really hamming it up for the cameras too. Their heavily made-up faces were contorted into dramatic masks of anguish as they sobbed and wailed about how Serena had threatened their lives at their villa before.

It was a performance worthy of a daytime soap opera, and the reporters were eating it up.

"She said she'd have us killed if we didn't hand over our father's assets to her!" Kylie shrieked, her mascara leaving inky black trails on her cheeks. "She threatened to make it look like an accident. This vile woman even went so far as to have her wealthy, influential sugar daddies threaten our top investors to withdraw from partnering with any family related to us. Our stocks have been plummeting after that unjust ruling."

Kylie paused to catch her breath, her chest heaving with the force of her sobs. "As if that wasn't enough, she went after Brittany and Jason too! We can't even retaliate or hurt her because she's got powerful people backing her up, threatening all of our lives. They've made it clear they'll destroy us if we try to fight back against her."

Kayla nodded vigorously, adding her own hysterical embellishments. "She's crazy! Totally unhinged! I always knew there was something not right about her, but I never thought she'd go this far!"

The histrionics only continued to escalate as Sylvia Montgomery, Alex's mother, finally reached her breaking point.

“Serena!” The woman let out a primal scream of grief and fury that sent chills down Serena's spine before lurching forward like a wild animal.

Her delicate hands were outstretched, eyes blazing with the crazed intent to claw and slap at the woman she blamed for her daughter's death.

"You evil soul!" Sylvia shrieked. "You killed my baby girl! I knew from the moment you slithered your way into my son's life that you'd bring only misery and destruction to this family! I warned Alex to stay away from you and your whole rotten, depraved Bolting clan! But the fool was too scared, blinded by your vicious manipulations and that hot little body you're always flaunting around to listen to his own mother!"

The distraught woman's words dissolved into incoherent wails as Serena's bodyguards moved, forming a human barricade to block her attack.

Not that it mattered - Sylvia was so far gone in her devastated rage that her tiny fists merely pounded ineffectively against the wall of muscle restraining her.

Killian sidled up alongside Serena. “Sister-in-law,” his tone was conversational as if he was discussing weekend plans rather than a woman's mental breakdown happening just feet away.

He had enough of these theatrics!

"Shall I take care of this raving lunatic for you?" he murmured. His eyes glinted with a look that made it all too clear he was not speaking metaphorically. "One word and I'll gladly put the grieving mother out of her misery. Could be a mercy killing at this point, really. Save her the trouble of living with all that pesky grief and rage."

Serena felt a fresh wave of horror crest over her at Killian's dark offer.

She shook her head numbly, feeling sick to her stomach. Enough innocent lives had already been lost. Enough blood spilled because of her mistake. That was, to have ever trusted the wrong man.

She didn't want any more senseless death and violence staining her hands.

Serena released a weary sigh that seemed to come from the very depths of her soul and turned to head back toward the sleek black convoy of cars idling nearby.

She was suddenly desperate to escape this entire spectacle, to flee from the accusing eyes and hateful words being hurled at her from all sides.

She'd made a grave mistake in coming here in this misguided attempt to play the role of a mourner.

There was no point when everyone had already cast her as the cruel, heartless mastermind behind Brittany and Jason's murders.

But just as Serena went to leave, the cemetery's heavy silence was shattered by the loud CRACK of a gunshot.

A bullet whizzed past. The shooter's intent was clear.

And then, faster than her eyes could track, Seven's massive form was suddenly there. He moved with speed, his inhuman reflexes allowing him to interpose his body between Serena and the incoming bullet.

The lead buried itself deep in Seven's broad shoulder. But the vampire didn't so much as flinch. Seven whipped out his own pistol and fired a single, well-aimed shot in a blur of motion too fast for the human eye to follow.

The bullet struck its target with deadly accuracy, and time snapped back to normal speed as a body crumpled to the ground.

A rapidly spreading pool of crimson stained the grass, the gunshot wound gaping obscenely in the center of the shooter's forehead.

Time seemed to slow to a crawl as Serena's brain struggled to process what was happening.

She saw the look of shocked horror on Alex's face.

For a moment, everything was deathly still. And then pandemonium erupted.

A collective scream of shock and terror tore through the crowd as Sylvia Montgomery's lifeless body struck the earth, her face frozen in a rictus of hatred even as the spark of life was extinguished from her eyes.

The gathered press scattered in abject panic, fleeing the scene like cockroaches when the lights get switched on.

Screams and shouts filled the air as people trampled over each other in their desperation to get away from the gruesome scene.

Cameras and microphones were dropped and forgotten in the chaos.

Killian, on the other hand, remained utterly unfazed by the sight of the fresh corpse. He chuckled darkly, sadistic amusement glinting in his eyes as he surveyed the panicked crowd.

"Well, I suppose that rather neatly solves one problem," he drawled. "Though it does create a few new ones that will require some... delicate handling, doesn't it?"

Killian immediately took charge, barking out orders to the security team.

Seven’s eyes were burning with fury. He looked ready to snuff the life out of all these humans for daring to shoot at Serena and penetrate his body with a bullet, even if his wound had fully healed.

Within moments, the rest of the bodyguards had surrounded the terrified group of reporters and camera crews who hadn't managed to flee, forcibly seizing every potential recording device.

Killian stepped forward, his handsome face twisting into a look of chilling menace. "Listen up, you worthless parasites!" he growled. "If so much as a whisper, a single blurred photograph, or ten seconds of shaky cell phone footage of what just occurred here makes it out into the public realm, you'll be joining Mrs. Montgomery in the afterlife. And I can guarantee your deaths will be far more drawn-out and agonizing than the relatively merciful end she received. Do I make myself perfectly clear?"

The vultures gulped nervously and nod in fearful agreement.

Killian's eyes gleamed with cruel satisfaction to see them cower. "Excellent," he purred. "Now, I suggest you all run along home and pretend this little... incident never happened. For your own sakes."