The tiny apartment Caruso had secured for them reeked of bleach and despair.The beeping of monitors filled the dark like a countdown.Klarissa sat hunched at the desk, notes scattered, her eyes raw from sleepless nights.Her mother lay in the bed only feet away, skin pale, breath rattling.
“Klarissa...”Her mother’s whisper broke the silence.“Don’t let him—take you too.”
Klarissa squeezed her hand, fighting tears.“I won’t, Mama.I swear I’ll fix this.Just hold on for me.”
The door opened.Caruso entered, his suit immaculate, his disdain sharper than any blade.“Still scribbling?Still failing?For all your genius, your mother gasps like a dying dog.”
“Don’t you dare talk about her like that!”Klarissa snapped, rising, fury shaking her voice.
Caruso prowled closer, eyes cold.“You forget who you answer to.Results, Klarissa.I don’t care about excuses.You’re mine, and so is your work.”
Her mother stirred, her voice a rasp.“She’s not yours.She’ll never be yours.”
Caruso’s lip curled.He drew a pistol with deliberate calm and leveled it at the bed.
Klarissa’s scream tore through the room.“No!Please, don’t!I’m close, I can save her!”She rushed to shield her mother, but he shoved her aside like a ragdoll.
“Enough weakness.”
The shot thundered, deafening.Red blossomed across the sheets.The monitor shrieked one long note and then went silent.Klarissa fell across her mother, horror clawing her chest as her mother’s eyes glassed over.
“No!Mama, no!Please come back!”She shook the lifeless body, sobbing until her throat was raw.
Caruso seized her by the hair, yanking her head back until she whimpered.His voice was venom against her ear.“You will finish what you started.Perfect your virus.Deliver me a weapon.Or I will line up innocents in front of you and spill their blood one by one.You will know every death belongs to you.”
Klarissa collapsed, broken beyond measure.She had meant to heal.Instead, she had birthed death.
And now Caruso had removed the one anchor she had left.Her mother was gone, the only tether keeping her obedient severed.In the ashes of her grief, resolve ignited.She would run.She would escape.And when she did, she would find a way to stop—no,kill—her father.
****
Five Years Ago
“Kamon, she’s gone.”
Their father’s voice cracked with grief, heavy with age and heartbreak.“Your sister Boonsri is dead.”
The words hit harder than any blow.Kamon’s knees gave out, and he landed on a bench with a force that rattled through his bones.Across the cafeteria, Rune felt it instantly, his twin bond thrumming with Kamon’s devastation.Rune was already at his side, eyes wide and stricken.
“What happened?”Kamon’s voice shook.“How?”
“She was taken from school late last night,” their father said, choking on the words.“Before we could even act, one of her classmates found her body.She was thrown into a ditch like garbage.Some kind of chemical that was injected into her, they think.My baby ...killed and discarded like rubbish.”His voice broke entirely.
Kamon bent forward, his fists clenching until his nails cut into his palms.Rune dropped to his knees in front of him, their foreheads pressed together as if sharing strength.The ache in Rune’s gaze mirrored his own.
“No,” Rune whispered fiercely.“Not Boonsri.She was just a kid.Who would dare—”
“Someone who will wish they had never been born,” Kamon growled, his tiger surfacing in the rasp of his tone.
Their father’s voice hardened, fury burning through the grief.“You boys will find who did this.Bring them to me.We will bleed them.”
“Father,” Kamon said hoarsely, lifting his gaze.“I vow to you, with every drop of blood in my body, Rune and I will find them.”
Rune clasped his brother’s hand tightly, eyes burning.“And when we do, they will beg for mercy and find none.”
Their father’s silence was thick with anguish, but pride flickered through the bond.“My sons.Make them pay.”
The twins rose together, shoulders squared, vengeance already shaping their path.They were trackers—Elite Shifter Enforcers, who were tasked with hunting monsters.And whoever had stolen Boonsri’s light was already marked.They would find them.They would tear them apart.
