Page 36 of Breaking the Code

I didn’t want anyone down here that wasn’t part of the Society. I had envisioned Damon standing on the landing upstairs, where the massive staircase in the entryway splits to the left and right before going up to the second floor. I wanted him to walk down the stairs in the entryway as he delivered his speech.

Killian stared at me. The emotionless bastard never even blinked. I like to think I shocked him with my superior intellect and ideas. Unless he tells me otherwise, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Everly and Zayn cackled at me as they called me dramatic. So, I’m thinking Killian probably thought I was an idiot.

Damon just sighed and pointed out how hard cleaning blood off marble is.

What can I say? None of them were wrong. That didn’t mean it wouldn’t have been epic. I’d spent nearly twenty years of my life living in fear and under the control of Owen Black and the Order. I’d played the part of the mouse. Now I wanted to be the cat. I think I deserve a bit of a show after everything I’ve been through.

My eyes hadn’t left Draven since he stepped in front of Damon. As Damon finishes his speech, I steel myself to step over the corpse to take my place off to the side, ready to open the door.

Damon turns and I open the door, following him into the room. The new initiates follow us. The other members involved in tonight’s ceremony direct the recruits on their next steps and I head to my station.

As I watch him, I see something like recognition dawn on his face. It’s as if a weight lifts and the anger shimmers away like dew under the light of day.

When Zayn tattoos Draven, he drops to his knees to swear fealty. The pose of submission looks hot as fuck on the big Scottish Viking. How one man can look like the picture perfect sub while the atmosphere surrounding him vibrates with his dominance is a conundrum I’m likely never to understand.

He stands and walks toward me, glancing at me. I’ve been waiting for this day since I first set eyes on him in the code all those years ago. The look on his face as he realizes I’m not his prey is priceless. Those icy blue eyes pin me to the floor, and I’m unable to look away.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

DRAVEN

When I first approached him outside, a war erupted within me, pushing and pulling me in opposite directions. First, kill. Then protect. They battle one another for dominance as I inch closer to my target. And I had to think o’ him like that. I had to reduce him to an object to get my body on board with the vow I’d made to my family.

When he said we were similar and offered to show me how, whatever it was I saw in that warehouse, whatever it was about him that night that grabbed my attention, came out to play in full force and I had to know more.

Which is how I find myself locked inside the elevator with him. As the elevator stops and the doors open, I’m confronted with a room filled with people. All o’ them facing one guy.

“Join them,” the boy, Tavish, says as he places a hand on my back, giving me a small push.

I join the line o’ people just as the man who seems to be in charge steps forward. He looks oddly familiar.

Have we met before or was his photo one o’ the ones included in the documents like the boy’s?

“You have been brought here to join Societas Exspiravit. Your options are simple. You can join us and die to the life you once had, using your newfound freedom in a life after death to help rid this world of those who seek to harm innocent people. Or…you can die permanently. The choice is yours.”

What the actual fuck?

What kind o’ choice is that?

What the fucking hell did I get myself into?

At least now I know what the kid meant by nae all deaths lead to a grave.

I take a deep, calming breath. I knew coming here tonight could mean my death. If I die, I know I can rest easy because I arranged for the information on how to find Maeve to get into the right hands.

Douglas will find her if I don’t come out o’ this alive. He’s never failed me.

The crack o’ the gun echoes off the walls. It doesn’t scare me as much as the small eep I hear come from the boy who has led me to what will be my death enrages me. Nae at him, but for him. Ignoring the gunfire and the reason behind it, my gaze swings to him.

I’m baffled by my reaction to his distress. I dinnae ken why. The boy lit something inside me with only a wee glimpse o’ his face. Now that he’s before me, my protective instincts—the Daddy within me—roars to life. Tavish has gone ashen. His face gray and shiny with sweat. His eyes glued to a spot behind me.

Turning to follow his gaze, I realize he’s staring at one o’ the people in line. Only they’re now lying on the floor. Blood puddles under them growing larger with each passing second.

I look back at Tavish, and he’s barely holding it together. The protective Daddy in me, the one that’s laid dormant since Simon died in my arms, comes raging to the surface. I want to scoop the kid up and shelter him from all the shit that surrounds him.

That surrounds us.

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