Page 107 of The Syndicater (Dark Verse 6)

"Who?" the other bitch—a sister she didn't want if that's what she was like—asked, speaking for the first time in a while.

And then, the voice of death spoke from the screen. "Me."

Lyla swiveled her head and started, at the silhouette that moved behind the monster. Abiggerdevil.Her devil.

"You came," the words escaped her lips, unbidden.

And he said the words he'd always said to her. "I'll always come for you."

Her heart beat a staccato, resending new life into her veins.

The monster on the screen smiled, unfazed. "Shadow Man, at last."

Dainn stayed behind him, nothing but a silhouette. "The Syndicater. Or should I say, sperm donor?"

"I always knew you were going to be smart," the monster said, almost pridefully. "I was waiting for this day."

"So I could kill you?" Dainn asked, his voice almost lazy, as if he wasn't perturbed by the situation at all. Knowing him, he probably wasn't.

"So you could become my best creation."

Dainn stayed silent for long moments, letting the tension build. She realized both Morana and her brother were watching the telecast, along with the two ladies and one fat guard in theroom. Her brother was slowly, steadily, moving his hands, using the distraction to try and get free.

"I was the restart of your project."

Lyla had no idea what he meant but whatever the context, the monster laughed. "Yes. A worthy adversary. An enemy worth having. Built from scratch."

Morana looked slightly green in the face, like she was in pain or she knew what they were talking about.

"Are there any others?" Dainn asked, with a finality in his tone. "Like me?"

"That's for you to find out." The monster just grinned. "Is her pussy still as tight?"

Before Lyla could retch, Dainn stepped out of the shadows, his face visible to everyone, and looked straight into the camera. "For you,flamma."

And he flicked a lighter open, throwing it on the table. Lyla watched, in awe to the sound of stunned gasps, as her monster sat in a circle of flames, fire all around him as he sat inside. Dainn stood behind him like the devil she'd thought of him as, the fire illuminated his frame, the hues of orange burnishing into his dark skin, being absorbed by the darkness like a black hole.

He exited the frame then, leaving the monster to burn, leaving the monster to rot as the flames engulfed him, the sight of it happening making her eyes moist. Memories of the monster, the way he had touched her, the way he had done things to her, all of them burned with him, vengeance, vindication, validation speaking the truth into her new existence.

Her monsters, the last of them, were gone. Killed by the devil who belonged to her, just like every single one of them had been.

A sudden commotion drew her eye to see her brother flip the chair, his hands free, his hand pulling the knife out of his side. Blood began pouring out of the wound immediately as it openedbut he didn't care, plunging the knife into the guard's neck, before bending and taking out a gun from his boot. The younger woman ran up the stairs but the older woman, her mother, watched with widened eyes at the barrel of the gun in her face.

"Tristan…" she began.

He flipped some kind of a button and lowered his gun slightly. "This is for my sister." A loud bang, and her chest recoiled, blood pouring out and mixing into the red of her suit.

"And this," her brother raised his gun again, "is for me."

And he shot her between the eyebrows.

Lyla stared as her eyes stared up, her body crumpling to the ground, another monster in the guise of her mother, dead.

The door to the basement opened, and Dainn jogged down. Her entire frame relaxed. Evidently, the monster had been stupid—or suicidal—enough to be in the same place as them.

He headed straight toward her, suddenly stopped by her brother, raging and punching him in the face. Dainn's head swiveled to the side, and he straightened, cracking his jaw, his eyes the way they always were—without emotional reaction.

Tristan pulled his hand back again and this time, Dainn raised one gloved finger. "One. That's all you get. Now, do you want to take off their chains or have a standoff with me?"

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