Bloodshed (Order of the Unseen, #1)(14)

“You clearly don’t know who I am,” I angrily shot back. “What I will do. What I am truly capable of—”

“Oh, but I do,” he loudly spoke over me. He lowered his head and fixated his gaze on the crumbled-up letter in my tight grasp. “Your mother never wanted for you to get sucked in. I gave her my word that I would try my best to keep you out of this.”

“Your word to my mother means nothing to me,” I snarled. “He killed her. He staged her suicide. I fucking know he did.”

“You and I both want the same thing.”

“This is between me and my piece of shit father,” I firmly told him. “Stay the hell out of it.”

“This is much bigger than that, Damien. Unfortunately, your mother was not the only one caught in the crosshairs. And now, he’s waiting for you to make the first move. Can’t you see?” he slowly let out. “You were raised by an evil man. A psychopath. Why do you think he spent all of those years making you kill?” He tapped his finger against his temple. “He was training you. Trying to get into your head to claim power over you. And as a result of your upbringing, your brain has been wired differently than most kids. Except, you’re not a child anymore. You’re an adult, and you’re more than capable of making your own decisions.”

“Then you should also know that nobody has power over me,” I boldly stated, with a cocky grin. “And I sure as hell won’t allow you to get into my head, either.”

“That’s not what I want,” he argued. “And I won’t stop you.”

“Then what the hell do you want from me?” I impatiently snapped.

“Your expertise,” he easily replied. “For years, we’ve stood out of each other’s way. But now, the truce has been broken. Civilians are dying, and being sacrificed to the devil. They just killed another one of my men. They are out of control, and they must be stopped.”

Clenching my jaw, I stared him straight in the eyes. “You want me to kill for you.”

“I want you to kill with me,” he declared. “With us. We are a brotherhood, here. Join us, nephew. Help us put an end to the chaos. Help us take them down.”

“What is this place?” I demanded, glancing around the dimly-lit room, realizing there were far more members than I had initially recognized. “What are you?”

“A secret society of the deranged, with anger issues and disconnect from the cruel world we live in,” one of the men answered on cue.

“Here, we get revenge,” Peter announced. “We take the law into our own hands.”

“Join us in bloodshed,” they all said in unison. “Unknown. Unspoken. Unseen.”

Peter smirked, and within seconds, his eyes grew dark, matching mine. There was a deep rage blazing in his soul, too.

An urge to hunt.

To kill.

It was the shedding of blood that his heart truly desired.

…And, finally, I saw him.

I saw all of them, masks and all.

They were just like me.





JENSEN





The hair stood up on the back of my neck. I was being followed. I knew it.

It felt like someone’s gaze was glued to the back of my skull. Yet, every time I looked over my shoulder, nobody appeared to be there.

Maybe, it was all just in my head.

Paranoia continued to creep up on me, heightening all my senses. Suddenly, I heard the faint sound of footsteps coming from behind me. Turning fast on my heel, I spun around, and came face to face with…nothing.

Nobody was there.

A shiver shot down my spine, and there was an electric chill in the air.

It was eerily quiet.

The wind picked up out of nowhere, howling loudly, breaking the silence.

Letting out an uneasy breath, I scanned my surroundings. I locked my gaze on the copse of trees across the street, trying to catch anything out of the ordinary.

Nothing caught my eye.

Then, I looked around the desolate intersection to my right. There was not a single car in sight. No people. Of course, there wasn’t. I mentally scolded myself. It was officially my eighteenth birthday, almost two in the morning. I was celebrating aging out of the system.

This was my night.

I cracked open my energy drink and took a sip, even though more adrenaline was the last thing I needed right now. The traffic lights continued to flash from green, to yellow, then to red.

It was almost like a warning.

They taunted me.

Green… Everything is fine. You are just paranoid. Nobody is watching you.

Yellow… But then, why is every cell in your body telling you otherwise? Why is your neck so stiff? Why does your skin feel so tingly? Why are you so spooked?

Red… Run. Run. RUN.

Trusting my instincts, I immediately took off running. My energy drink spilled out onto my hand with each step, before I released it, letting it crash onto the ground somewhere behind me.

I headed for the nearest alley, my heart leaping into the back of my throat. The only streetlamp began to flicker, before it cut out entirely. Pitch blackness surrounded me as I slowed my stride, realizing I’d taken the wrong turn.

It was a dead end.

The faint light from the moon allowed me to lock eyes on the silhouettes that stepped out from the shadows. The moonlight illuminated their faces.