Little lady?The guy’s a creep, but I don’t have time to throw him an insult before the Hellhound is unleashed.
He dives on top of the guy, wrestles him to the ground, and punches him square on the jaw.
The guy is out.
The Beast turns to me.“You okay?”He hasn’t even broken out in a sweat.
Clutching my shopping bag, I nod.“Yeah.I’m fine.Just some weirdo, that’s all.”
The Beast checks that the guy is still out, then takes a step towards me.He lowers his head, and I wonder if he’s going to put his arm around me or stroke my back, but he does neither.Instead, in a low, heavy voice, he says, “Don’t pull this shit with me, Hayami.This isn’t a fucking game.You want to play games, I can play all day long, but not here, not now.Do I make myself clear?”
I should be furious.I should be punching him, telling him he has no right to talk to me this way—that I can do whatever the fuck I want.But those words have been doused by the arousal pooling in my stomach and the fact that all I want to do is ask,What games?
Trying to salvage the situation, I salute.“Understood,” I say as he glares at me.We make our way back to the car, and it’s in this moment—whilst I’m brushing myself down as if I’d been the one to dive onto the ground—that an idea begins to form.
A way that I can spoil my father’s plans.
Like the Grinch, my grin must elongate my face.Why the hell didn’t I think of this earlier?But it’s going to be difficult.Impossible even.Not with the likes of the Beast on my back.
He’s not going to like it.He definitely won’t be happy.But fuck him.It isn’t his future on the line.It’s mine, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to play ball.
NINE
FENRIR
PRESENT
“It’s pretty basic,but it’ll do the job.And I’ve packed you a few extras.”Markus pats a large duffel bag.“There’s a semiautomatic rifle in here along with a sniper rifle and an assault gun.”
I raise an eyebrow, wondering what Markus knows that I don’t.I already have my handgun, a Colt .45—a government model that’s never let me down—and my personal gun, which only I know about.It’s a Glock 19 9mm compact that I never go anywhere without.
“You think we’ll need them?”I ask.
“I’d rather you didn’t, but the mountain is home to all sorts of… animals.It might not just be the Castros you need to protect yourselves from.”It’s not the wordanimalsthat unnerves me but the pause beforehand, as if that wasn’t quite the word he was looking for.
“Understood.”When I stoop to pick up my bag, Markus puts his hand over mine, stopping me momentarily as he stares from under his baseball cap.
“Don’t hesitate out there, Therion.Trust your instincts.You think something isn’t right, you act on it.I’m not sure what the Wi-Fi will be like, but there are radios and our internal coms system.Someone will be on the other end, day or night.You keep in touch.Regular on-the-hour debriefs, do you understand?”
I’m used to Markus giving me the low-down, treating me like the newbie I still am.But this speech is different.His eyes hold me as if gripping my chin to make sure I’m listening to every word, words that sound like they mean something entirely different.Immediately, I’m reminded of Belial House, the way Junko reacted just an hour ago when Devall said its name.The way the blood rushed from her face, leaving it pale and lifeless, not dissimilar to the shade Markus is now.
Markus has been with the family for years.He started as a bodyguard, just like me, but worked his way up to head of the security team.
Has he been to Belial House?Does he know what awaits us?
“Yes.”There’s a brief second that I consider asking him why this place has such a bad rep, but the last thing I want is to feed my imagination.We’re already bringing two shadows of death with us —my own dark mark along with Hayami’s.There’s no room for any more strangeness.
“I want to know everything that goes on out there, Therion.Everything.Because the last thing I need is the boss breathing down my neck when I’m in the dark as to what’s going on with Hayami, do you understand?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”He takes his hand from mine and slaps me on the shoulder.“Don’t let me down.”
There’s something final in his tone, like he’s sending me off to war rather than up a mountain.
No more words are exchanged.
We load up in silence, the weight of whatever awaits us clinging to the air like static.The drive to the private airfield is uneventful, but my thoughts aren’t.Markus’s warning keeps circling in my head, echoing louder than the roar of the engines as the plane warms up on the tarmac.
