Chapter 1
I’d never had that feeling before.
Never had I felt the sting of bloodlust, the twinge of an overwhelming need for vengeance that plagued me.
Never until the moment, when I was fifteen and I walked into my home to find my mother’s lifeless body sprawled out on the living room floor. She was laying there motionless with a needle hanging out of her vein, blood trickling out of her nose and vomit filling her mouth.
My body went completely numb.
My knees buckled.
My throat went dry.
My heart pounded in my ears.
I collapsed next to her.
My life had stopped.
I was in utter disbelief. She had been clean—formonths.
She had finally started to turn her life around.
Then with one fucking dose, she was gone, ripped from this world and I didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye.
The scream of heartbreak broke free from my chest like a hellhound leaping from the gates of Hades.
I clambered to her side, pulling her into my lap.
There was no pulse.
She was already cold.
I shook her limp body.
I didn’t know what else to do.
I downright panicked, utterly unnerved.
Right there, for the first time in my life, I knew what it felt like to be unreservedly helpless and absolutely alone.
Scrambling into the kitchen, I tore the phone off of its cradle and dialed the only number I could think of. The police should have been my first instinct, but that was not where my teenaged brain went.
I called Abel.
He’ll know what to do.
And if Abel didn’t, his old man would.
Abel’s mother, Sherry, was the one to answer. I did my best to keep my voice level, swallowing my nerves as much as humanly possible.
“Hi, Mrs. Hellock. It’s Holt. Is Abel home?”
“Oh, hi, sweetheart. He’s out in the garage tinkering with his bike. Let me go get him for you.” Her singsong voice shot daggers into my ear. She was an old lady; maybe I should have just told her something was wrong. She was used to turning a blind eye to the things her husband and the rest of the members of his club did. She probably would have snapped right into action. I just didn’t have it in me to bring her into this mess.
“Th-Thanks,” I stammered as my entire body trembled.
It was the longest wait of my life—a few seconds felt like a million years. Shuddering in the kitchen, internally freaking the fuck out, I damned the fact that Sherry had been the one to answer my fucking call.
