“And, three,”—she held up three fingers—“if you get hurt, injured on the job, we have mages in all of the major cities on standby to heal you up nice and quick. No paying any medical bills or seeing mages on the black market. These are all trained professionals. This also extends to any family you have. Your kid gets hurt? Bring them in. Your wife is giving birth? They can handle that, too. All medical care for you and yours is taken care of, courtesy of the Syndicate.”
This had eyes widening and mouths dropping open before she laid the last bomb on them. “And, lastly, you and your families will be considered Syndicate. This means that any businesses your family owns will be protected. You won’t have to worry about thieves or robbers. You won’t have to worry about ever going out of business as long as your family is the one running it. This extends to your children.”
Her voice dropped low, and her whole body stiffened as she growled out, “And if anyone touches your family, any tragedy befalls your loved ones, we will be raining down hell on earth, using all of the tools available to us to make sure that they understand not to mess with you. Not to ever fuck with your family because we at the Syndicate stick together.”
I stood in awe of her. I couldn’t believe that she was my mate. This smart, gorgeous, fearsome woman with a bloody past and future was the love of my life, my mate, who loved me and all the cracks that made up my soul. This was the queen she was always meant to be, the woman who could bring down any man, topple any opposing forces, and yet, fight for what was hers with everything she had. Her soul might be dark, but her spirit was that of a golden warrior, one that would win at every turn just because she willed it. She was the Syndicate’s ace in the hole, and when I glazed over at Ternin, a smile the size of the Texas spread across his face as pride flooded his eyes, I knew he knew it, too.
Everyone’s eyes were glued to her as she put her hand down and shrugged. “Or you can die. It might not be tonight, you might be able to run from us for a day or two, but we will catch you, and you will die. Of that, I can vow to you here and now.” She glared around at every demon, making sure they understood the gravity of their choice tonight. She stood straighter as she lifted her chin. “It’s your choice.” Turning, she stepped down, giving me a nod before she worked her way over to her father and the Glovefoxes, all beaming as the crowd parted for her.
I clapped, grabbing everyone’s attention, and yelled across the room, making sure every demon could hear me. “You heard what the Syndicate had to say. Now, it’s up to you. You can keep following Vincent, which will earn you a death sentence, or you can not fight tonight and join up with the true Devil clan and the Syndicate.”
There was a hush about the room for a second, the air standing still until the old guy from before said, “I ain’t dumb. I would sign my life over for those benefits. Sign me up for the Syndicate.” More demons stepped up until none were left, all wanting to join my side.
This time, Ternin spoke up, “Now this place is going to be demolished, so if you are needing housing or a place to stay while we get the Devil clan organized, please head over to the Desmond estate. We have hotel rooms and food available for all of you.” With his arms out wide and a jackal grin on his lips, he said, “Welcome to the Syndicate.”
I quickly appointed a few people I knew I could trust to take everyone out the back way quickly and quietly to the Desmond compound. Ternin made a few calls to ensure his men were ready and would take down names and create contracts for each person. I was about to thank him when he shoved his phone into his pocket. “Okay, kid, show us the way to Vincent so we can wrap this all up.”
As we rounded a corner, we bumped into the others who looked a little worse for wear. Ax and Manic were naked and totally fine swinging their dicks every which way. I could never be a werewolf.
“Through these doors is the war room, but it’s more like a command center. He has all his monitors and systems in place to be able to watch things happening. Since Falcon put a loop on, he shouldn’t have picked up on anything too quickly, but, by now, he might be wondering why his people are not showing up to their stations right on time, so be cautious. He likes to catch people off guard. Be on the lookout for anything weird or out of place.”
They nodded, and I turned around, taking Rayla’s lead and being the first one in. I also knew if he saw me first, he might think nothing of it until the others followed me in. It would give me a split second, but it might be all that I needed.
We walked up to the pinpad, and I put in the code, saying my name as it asked. As soon as the green light beeped, the doors whooshed open, and I walked in. My hand went to my knife at my side, immediately sensing that something was off since it was all dark. Something wasn’t right. My uncle should be sitting in a chair at the center, watching the screens, but everything was off. The feeling of spiders creeping up my spine had me spooked, and I turned around. “Let’s get out of here, I don’t like—” The floor underneath us lit up with massive amounts of electricity. Pain rippled up my legs, and my body shook violently as my eyes squeezed shut. The others cried out in pain, and my mind went to Rayla. I needed to get to Rayla, make sure she was okay. Hold her hand. Something.
Then a familiar, threatening voice filled the air. “I’m disappointed in you, Lex. I thought you were made of stronger stuff than these lowlifes, but now I know you are just a simple idiot like the rest of them.” The pain was almost unbearable, going on and on as it raced up and down my spine. I bit my lip to keep from crying out, but I choked on the blood that filled my mouth.
Heavy steps sounded toward me, and my uncle cooed in my ear, “But don’t worry, Lex, I will show you the error of your ways. I will give you one last out before I dice you up and get rid of you like I did your father.”
My eyes flew open, I tried to look at him, but the pain was taking over as I couldn’t prevent the darkness closing in on me. All I could think of was my mate and how I wanted to kill my uncle, then my eyes shut, and my body gave up.
Chapter 31
Everythinghurt,andnotin a good way. I was lying on a smooth, cool, wet surface. I tried to move, but my limbs were stiff and lifeless. Peeling my eyes open, my mouth was filled with a dry cotton feeling, which had me grimacing. I turned and looked at the wetness, a pool of liquid on the concrete floor had me wondering what it was until I realized it was from me, I was fucking drooling.
That’s it. I didn’t care how much it hurt, I was going to sit up because I was not the type of girl to drool on herself. Nope. No. Not me.
Rolling my shoulders and pulling my elbows, I tried to pull my arms around in front of me to help me sit up, but a rough metal circled my wrists, making it impossible. I glanced around and saw Avery lying on the ground, also drooling, but it looked adorable on him. Like when parents said their child was a demon when awake but an angel when they slept.
Trying to crane my neck, I saw Lex and Syris on the floor next to me, then the back of my dad’s head and one of Manic’s legs. I scooted my legs forward, and pain skittered up my thigh as I wiggled as much as I could to get some leverage. The more I moved, the more it hurt, so I clenched my teeth and tried to ignore the pain, telling myself I needed to get up. I could do anything as long as I got up.
I worked my shoulder against the concrete, stretching my arms out for more leverage when I felt a wall.Yes!I scooted backward farther, finally having something to lean on and inch up against until I was in a seated position with my hands cuffed behind my back, but I wasn’t drooling. That had to count for something.
I thought back to when we entered the room, and I had the icky feeling, alarm bells went off in my head just as Lex turned around, but it was too late, the floor lit up and pain seared my veins. That at least made sense as to why we were all on the floor.
Now that I was sitting up, I could see everyone on the floor of this large bare room with a metal door at the end. There was some moonlight coming in from a high window, shining down in a circle on us, but that was all I could see without my vampire eyes. I bit my lip as my eyes traveled around the room, trying to find anything that would help us and not make me focus on the worry working its way through my chest.
I narrowed in on a flash of yellow and focused on the cuffs that tied our hands behind our backs. I saw some writing on Lex’s cuffs while leaning forward and squinting my eyes, I read, “Anti-magic Cuffs.”
Great!So not only did I get electrocuted like an idiot and drooled on myself, I also got cuffed by anti-magic cuffs, which made my vampire skills useless. Ugh, I was practically human.Gross.
A moan came from my other side, and I whipped around to see Avery twitching awake. It was more like he was humping air. Yep, you couldn’t unsee that. It would be burned in my memory forever. “Avery?” I whispered, not knowing if Vincent was watching us. “Avery?!”
His eyes opened as he grimaced, opening and closing his mouth like a fish.I feel ya, cottonmouth was gross.I called his name again, and his head snapped up. He winced in pain but said, “Rayla?”
I heard a few more moans and body movements, letting out the breath I didn’t know I was holding.They aren’t dead, I repeated in my head. There was nothing to worry about.
“Okay, this is official, I’m going to fucking kill Vincent, and no one, not even Rathe’s ghost, will be able to convince me otherwise.” My lips wiggled at my dad’s proclamation.
