I held the pistol to the back of the man’s head. And the man looked at me before whispering brokenly, “You are Death.”
And then, like Death, I slaughtered him.
The sound of the bullet echoed from the warehouse, the stone floors hungering for the warm blood now spilling from his temple.
Normally, I might have relished the kill, yet today, I only frowned. I wasn’t sure why. This was not the first body I would put into the ground, nor would it be the last.
But the man’s words rang in my head even after he was gone.You are Death.
I snapped at my men to remove the corpse while my second-in-command—my cousin, Nikolai—walked over with a bunch of papers in his hand. “That was the last of the Vallen scum who took our shipments, boss. But we’ll keep an eye out for anyone else who might be interested in trying to take more. And we’ve replaced most of the commodities, though the weapons are taking longer than…”
My mind wandered away from my cousin, listening only to three words.
You are Death.
“Are you even listening to me?” Nikolai asked as I scrubbed my fingers of any blood splatters before drying them with a decorative towel that had my mother’s tastes written all over it. I watched as the last bits of blood flowed down the drain, all evidence of what transpired now gone.
You are Death.
“Aleksandr! Pay attention!” Nikolai snapped his fingers several times while I glared at him.
How the two of us were related, I had no idea. Our blood was the only thing we shared. That, and our violent…proclivities. His dirty blond hair and bright sky-colored eyes were a contrast to my dark locks and midnight blue irises, and his pale skin was unlike the dark olive tone I’d inherited from my mother’s side.His shirts were always falling off his body, and they were usually stained with dark liquor, unlike my pristine black suits.
Nikolai’s constant, shit-eating grin looked odd compared to my cold scowl. But maybe that was because he was the most passionate man I knew, while I couldn’t remember the last time I cared about anything.
“Have you heard anything I’ve said?”
“Was any of it important?”
“Yes, I was talking about the ballet?—”
I held up a hand, and he wisely stopped talking. A rarity, unfortunately. “So, no. I don’t care about a fucking dance.”
Nikolai waggled his eyebrows. “But the dance is full of women in short skirts and tights. And men with even tighter ones.”
“I don’t care.”
My cousin scoffed. “You like a pretty woman, cousin. Admit it.”
“No.”
Because while Nikolai consumed sex like it was air, I regarded it like paperwork. It was a means to an end, another box to tick so I could move on with my life. A sense of control that helped hold the demons back until they raged at me again. My only experiences were with the women who worked in my clubs, the ones who knew I was leaving as soon as my dick was empty. I didn’t need anyone thinking I would get attached.
You are Death.
My cousin scoffed. “You’re extra grumpy tonight.”
“I am. Because I could have been creating new plans to infiltrate the Vallens tonight, but instead, I had to clean up after someone else when they failed to account for some inventory.”
“You mess up a few numbers, and suddenly it's all ‘Niko doesn’t know how to do his job!’” he exclaimed, throwing up hisarms dramatically. “But let me tell you the numbers for the City Ballet. I think it’s a wise investment if you?—”
“Enough,” I muttered, waving Nikolai off with a sharp gesture, dismissing whatever sexy ballerina nonsense my cousin was about to tell me. He grumbled something under his breath, probably about my lack of decency or manners, which was true. But the Vallens were my family’s greatest enemy, and because of my idiot relative, any plans I created to get an advantage over them now had to be redone.
Soon,I told the darkness that had resided within me ever since I was twelve.We will get our vengeance soon.
The delay was fine. I wouldn’t stop until that entire family was destroyed, no matter how long it took.
I dressed for the frigid temperatures, turning to Nikolai. “Do not follow me,” I said to him before slamming the door behind me.
