Escaping Death
Chapter 8

Surprise Bonus Update!

I have a love hate relationship with New Year's. I used to do the resolutions, and give them up somewhere between February and March.

But what I've come to realize is that so many of my resolutions only pertained to one single aspect of my life. And it felt easy to give that one up in favor of things I deemed more important. E.g. I can skip the gym today... I can eat that cookie... just this once.

Famous last words.

This year though I'd like to think big picture. I'd like to find a routine — one that satisfies everything I need in my life.

Rest, passions, family, work

My Self

A daily or weekly schedule that can allow me to focus on all of those things so I'm not floundering or wondering "when"?

When will I get "me time", when will I be able to do the things I want, when will I have the time to be present for my family and balance the demands of a full time job?

So if you've read this far I guess what I'm saying is be patient with yourself, be gracious to yourself. There's a lot we need and want to do... and in time you'll get there...one day, one hour, one minute at a time. We'll get there.

Happy New Year! 🥰

God sent me as karma - Emlyn

God sent me as karma

To take you for a ride

You'll think you've reached Nirvana

I'll drive you out your mind

I'll bring the drama

And in time you'll find

God sent me as karma

Baby, I'll fuck up your life

— — — — —

Nightshade

Next on the chopping block is Dana Hayes.

I'm always intrigued by the stories that lead to women ending up on my list. Not because they don't commit as many crimes, and not because they don't deserve to suffer for those crimes, but because men of our species tend to handle their own business without resorting to me.

Maybe you were worried you'd kill her too quickly, that she wouldn't get the painful, prolonged death that she deserves — which she does, I won't argue there.

Dana Hayes is elusive. She is very good at what she does. Reminded me of me - leave no trace. But she became sloppy, eventually she did leave a trace. As her confidence in her work grew, so did her arrogance that she was infallible.

You and I know differently.

Finding her took me five days. Not a personal best but I enjoyed the hunt. She's a real piece of work. If I were to venture a guess I'd say that 90% of what comes out of her small, thin-lipped mouth is a lie. She lies to everyone around her, strangers, friends, and family alike. She even lies to herself...because at this point I know that she can't distinguish between what's true and her own lies.

That's the danger with lies. Repeat them enough and you'll start to believe them as truth.

Dana knows this. She just thinks that this phenomenon, among other social norms, doesn't apply to her. In fact, she counts on it working on you. Because without it, she has no power and without power she wouldn't be able to do what she did to you and the countless others before you.

If there's anything besides lying that Dana does well, it's playing the poor, innocent, damsel in distress. She's not innocent by any stretch of the imagination. She's a predator. And guys like you, good ones who would do anything for the ones they care for, are her prey.

She has this routine down to a science. She'll hang out at the most expensive and exclusive clubs in the cities she darkens with her presence and scope out a young bachelor, such as yourself.

She'll capture your attention and intrigue, that's her gift. A she-wolf with powers like a siren's call. Dana doesn't go straight for the kill, though. The longer the con, the bigger the payout.

Her first known victim was a guy named James Keating. Human. Barely out of college but he had inherited a tidy sum from his grandfather's passing. Unfortunately for James, this was around the time he met Dana. She lured him in like a fish, dangling a love and support that wasn't real as bait.

James was easily hooked. It began with little asks like buying her new clothes and expensive shoes. Then she swindled him into paying her rent and buying her a car before she went for the grand prize. In a performance worthy of an Oscar, she lamented that she'd never have the money to go to university and make something of herself like he had.

Being the good guy James is, he wired her every penny of his inheritance to help the woman he thought was the love of his life pay for the education she desired and deserved.

See where this is headed?

Dana wiped James out for every dime he had, and made off like a whisper in the wind with his money leaving him shattered and his life destroyed.

She repeated this act a handful of times before moving on to her own kind, knowing that packs, especially Alphas, had fatter bank accounts than the humans she hooked.

Again and again, guys fell for her act. Again and again she took and took and took, leaving behind husks of men with hollowed pockets.

Then she met you. You had a lot more to offer someone than most. You're the Beta of your pack, looking for a strong beta female to complete you and start a family with. You thought perhaps Dana might fill that role.

If the character Dana pretends to be ever truly existed, then she would have checked every one of your boxes. Beautiful, cunning, independent. A mate you could be proud of.

Despite your reservations, and against your better judgment, you turned a blind eye to Dana's increasingly expensive demands. Like those before you, she made off with every penny you had saved including what was supposed to be a temporary loan from the pack account.

She made a mistake with you though. She knows that you and your Alpha feel very strongly about honoring and cherishing women, even when they deserve to be punished —or worse. Your moral code prohibits you from killing a woman.

But here's her mistake. Your moral code doesn't say shit about getting someone else to do your bidding.

That's where I come in. Lucky for you my moral code doesn't discriminate between men and women, human or supernatural. The universe demands balance— if you hurt someone, you deserve to pay the consequences.

Finding her took a little longer than I expected. Guys aren't exactly shouting from the rooftops about a woman who conned them out of their fortunes. But there were enough whispers and breadcrumbs for me to follow and finally find Dana starting her search again in an exclusive new club in the town over. Sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ FɪndNovᴇl.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

She's been scouting every weekend from what I've picked up from the bartender. He didn't use the term scouting, but that's what she's doing.

I'm dressed to impress tonight. Dana isn't the only one fishing. I order their most expensive scotch, earning me more than a few inquisitive looks, succeeding in gaining Dana's attention.

She sits two seats over from me at the bar, trying her best to look casually disinterested. I become rather loose-lipped with the bartender as I sip my drink, making sure to speak just this side of loud so she can hear everything I'm saying.

She hears me tell him about my new business venture and all the money from investors I've already received. I brag about how many millions, billions, I'll make once my faux company finally takes off next month.

Dana is extremely interested. She moves to the seat next to me in a well rehearsed maneuver, and offers to buy my next drink. I obviously refuse and instead order two of what I'm having, shooting her a shit-eating smirk when I hand one to her.

And just like that she's mine. The predator has become the prey.

She pretends to take interest in my company. Wouldn't you know she's been looking for a company just like mine to invest in.

I lead her to a quieter, more private section of the club so we can talk more about bullshit that will never happen, both of us playing a game only one of us will win. Only she doesn't know that this time she'll be on the losing end.

As she gets comfortable on the couch I offer her another drink.

"Are you this generous all the time?" She asks me, shooting me her fuck-me eyes and un-crossing and re-crossing her legs so I get a peek at what's under her too-short skirt. Her efforts are entirely wasted on me, she's not my type.

She fixes her eyes on mine, attempting to use her gift to draw me to her. I'll let her believe that her pull is affecting me when in reality my mind is a locked vault. Years of dedicated practice has enabled me to block out any who would seek to violate my mind.

She sees me breathe in sharply, she watches my body stiffen with repressed desire, but what she doesn't see is me dipping my favorite poison into her drink before she takes it from my hand, grazing her fingers over mine as she takes the glass from my hand.

"I like to think that I'm a generous person, but I have to be careful. There are many in this world who would take advantage of someone in my position." I bait her. She shifts by a fraction in her seat but her smile never dips.

"That's despicable." She brings the glass up to her lips to cover the sinister smirk working it's way up the corner of her mouth and downs the scotch in one swallow.

She'll regret that.

To be fair, she'll regret ever having met me. That regret will only last another minute or two, seeing as how she'll be dead. But she'll regret drinking it so fast because she could have prolonged the last remaining minutes of her life a little had she nursed her drink slowly.

But, what's done is done.

"I couldn't agree more. It is despicable. Tell me, Dana Hayes, have you ever done something that despicable?"

Her mouth pops open, unable to school her surprise fast enough. She leans over to put the glass on a nearby end table but comes up short as the paralytic begins to take effect and the glass shatters to the floor.

I pull her back so she's leaning against the couch and able to look me in the eye. She makes groping movements with her mouth and throat attempting to speak, but no words come out.

"You're wondering how I knew your name, aren't you, Dana Hayes? But that question was quickly replaced with what's happening to your body."

Her eyes track wildly around the room, desperate to catch someone's attention and siren them over to help. I can hear her heart beginning to beat rapidly, thundering against her chest in double time to the beat of the music.

"Unfortunately for you, Dana, you've chosen to live a despicable life with no regard for the feelings or well-being of others. You've been so focused on the shallow and material things of this world that you've become blind to the people around you. You will die here tonight, Dana Hayes, surrounded by all the glamorous and beautiful things you so desperately craved, and not one of those glamorous and beautiful things will come to your rescue."

Dana's eyes shift around more frantically now, her heart beginning to race at an unsustainable pace.

"Was it worth it, Dana?"

I push her over on the couch so that she is laying down and I close her eye lids. She won't be able to open them again because of the paralytic, but she can still hear me...she's not dead yet.

"On behalf of everyone you've conned and the lives you've destroyed, fuck you, Dana Hayes. Enjoy the darkness."

To any passerby she would appear to be asleep, passed out drunk on the couch from too much expensive scotch.

They'll attempt to wake her and be met with no response, so they'll shrug and leave her to sleep it off overnight.

It won't be until tomorrow, when she's in the same spot, now ashen and cold, that they'll realize she's dead. Another of the world's elite youth taken too soon by greed. Officially it'll be listed as a heart attack, but we know better.

Now all that we have to settle is your price. You obviously won't lose sleep over her death, that's not a price you mind paying.

Your price is shame. You'll pay it every time you meet a new woman, every time your Alpha hesitates to trust you with pack funds, and every time he reminds you and the pack that they don't condone killing women.

You knew my price. But there's a big difference between seeing the price tag and coming up with the funds.

— — — — —

I don't know about you but Nightshade gives me life 😍

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