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I can’t stand leaving this place. It aches in every corner of my soul as we begin to depart the sanctuary of forest and isolation, making our way from gravel onto tar-sealed roads before finally emerging into the outskirts of civilization.
I detest where we’re going even more.
But this is my reality. The fate my brother and I have been cursed with simply by being born into something that exists outside of the bounds of reality for the vast majority of people. I’m as much of a product of this system as I am a part of it. I hate that I don’t want to leave and go live in normal society with their white picket fences, forty-hour cubicle work weeks, and once-a-month missionary position. Nothing about me will ever be able to conform, and for all the faults of the Anguis, I want a life that means something.
If there’s only one thing I do with however much time I have left, it’s to rid this underworld of the evil it breeds. Sex and pleasure and allowing people to feel comfortable as themselves is honorable work. It’s all the other twisted, grotesque shit that the likes of the Noire lineage has perpetuated over the years. Neither Hawke nor I will stop until it’s been dismantled.
In this world, you can be born in, initiated, or bought. No matter which way it occurs, once you are deemed to be part of the Anguis, you do not get to leave.
The men and women of the council have been called to meet, and as the heads of security for the Households, both Ky and I have to be there. When a room full of the world’s most elite and powerful assemble, there can be no risks taken.
All of them have their own security teams who travel with them, of course. Each has been trained and assigned by us. That’s our role that we uphold within the clandestine group we are part of.
It’s no accident that I worked my way up to this position. Eating shit and pushing down my monsters, and having to spill blood over and over to gain the level of trust required, but it has given me everything I needed to be able to dismantle the infected parts of the Houses from the inside. To tear them apart piece by fleshy piece.
For the most part, the Anguis are thirsty for power and control. However, there is a hidden subset that feast on the lives of those who are most vulnerable and innocent.
They are the ones who you might have the misfortune to be bought into this rotten world by.
Today shouldn’t be anything out of the ordinary, but the murder of one of their own has every single member of the Gathered on edge. I’ve been fielding increased requests for security left, right, and fucking center as they all arrive in the city tonight, and there are only so many times I can smile through my teeth and grant their wishes.
When all I want to do is line the rot hiding amongst them up and ensure they meet a shallow grave.
These are the council members, leaders who come together and meet like this in clandestine operations, deciding the fate of the world through heavily planned and choreographed moves.
The Gathered are the nameless and faceless entities behind everything that happens, and if there is a whiff of power to be had, you can guarantee they’ve already sold their soul in exchange for it.
A world that the vast majority of people have no idea exists.
In order to dismantle Andreas Noire’s operations hidden within the underbelly of the Anguis, we have to play a part. My brother and I, we have to stay inside the walls, no matter how much it slowly kills us to do so.
Our moves are made from the shadows, too.
We swing into a back street behind a warehouse-style block of high-rise buildings. One that is about as unmemorable as it gets. No signage. Nothing but glass frontages and steel beams. Ky steers us into a parking garage on the left, following the curve downward as we leave street level and head for the basement. To get down here, you need double security clearance, and Ky stops at the barrier to supply both his thumbprint against the small monitor and his swipe card.
My fingers drum impatiently on my thigh, and my knee bounces.
As we pull into the darkened lower level, there’s only a faint glow in a handful of spots coming from a broken light here and there. The empty level is gloomy and oppressive. It always feels like the air down here is filled with sulfur instead of oxygen.
I can’t stop my mind from drifting back to the moment in the kitchen earlier before we left. Thoughts of Foxglove Noire and the plan we are so close to executing.
What I don’t need is for the handsome asshole sitting beside me to go getting any ideas. The car has barely been put in park before we’re moving, as if it’s embedded in every fiber of our muscles after so many years. I climb out my door and glare at him as he gets out on the other side.
We haven’t said a word to each other since leaving the compound, but that’s nothing out of the ordinary. Besides, he has spent long enough around my brother and me to know by now that we won’t waste time on small talk if it isn’t necessary.
I grunt in his direction. “Keep your hands off the girl. Keep your cock in your pants.”
He gives me a shit-eating grin over the roof of the vehicle, blowing out a low whistle.
“That’s what you’ve been stewing over for that whole drive? Thinking about my dick?” Ky shakes his head and touches his tongue against his front teeth. His eyes glint brighter green with mischief.
Christ. I pinch my brow.
His charm works on just about everyone except Ven and me, which is undoubtedly why he’s managed to keep his head for this long. That boy would have gotten himself into God knows what trouble if it weren’t for his ability to flash a devilish smile and turn on the charisma.
“You know what I mean.” I shove my earpiece in.
“And what if I do…or don’t…listen to either one of your rules?” He checks his piece, adjusting the holster at his side, before slamming the driver’s door shut.
