Page 109 of Fratelli: Eternal Bloodlines

The voice was a whisper at first, but she recognized it instantly.

“Commander, what do we do now?” Lisa, one of the younger women, clutched Macy’s arm, her tear-streaked face filled with confusion. “Is it really over?”

Macy Lynn hugged her. “Yes. It’s over. Go. Leave and don’t look back.”

“But... what about the prophecy? What about?—”

“GO!” Macy shouted. The force of the command shocked the young woman. The indoctrination had been strong, but it was broken now.

Come to me,the voice echoed again, louder this time.

Macy Lynn’s heart pounded. She pulled away from Lisa and ran to her jeep; her legs moved on their own. She had no choice—she hadn’t had a choice for the last ten years.

She drove through the desert, not toward the Chosen, but to him. To the place where she’d been bound to Phoenix, where he had fed on her, used her, made her believe it was love. Her hands shook as she approached the cave, seeing his car parked outside. She stopped, staring at the entrance, her mind screamed for her to turn back and run.

Come inside!

She stepped out of the jeep and walked straight into the mouth of darkness.

Phoenix materialized from the shadows, and his emerald eyes gleamed. “Where were you?” Macy Lynn’s voice trembled as she confronted him. “None of it happened the way you said. You promised us we’d be gods! Now it’s all gone—Greenlee, the Professor, my tribe. The twins destroyed everything.”

Phoenix stepped closer; his smile cold. “Nothing has changed. The plan is still in motion. Tell me—are the twins going to Rome? Did they say Lucio was dead?”

Macy nodded, unable to resist his voice, his eyes, his touch.

“Good,” Phoenix whispered, his fangs glinted as he drew closer. “The last piece is in place.”

“They’ll stop you,” Macy warned, tears spilled over. “They’re stronger now.”

Phoenix laughed, the sound chilling her to the bone. “They were strong as one. Even I can’t deny that. Now, they’re divided—light and dark. They’re weaker, Macy. When Vittorio dies, Lucio will fall, and the Draca will rule. Darlene will turn to the Darkness because she has no light to balance her. She will choose the Draca just as Lucio now has. She is my weapon.”

Macy’s breath caught in her throat. Phoenix cupped her face. His stiff lips brushed her brow before he sank his fangs intoher neck. She barely had time to scream before the darkness swallowed her whole.

Chapter 46

The Day of the Dead

Palermo, Italy

April 20, 2018

1 Day Before Death)

Marcello paced.His thoughts were as tangled as the shadows that flickered over the ancient walls. He hadn’t rested, and hadn’t fed in over a day. He couldn’t pull himself from Lucio’s side. The coffin at the center of the room cast a heavy silence over everything. The monks moved around them like ghosts, lighting incense and muttering incantations, but nothing they did could ease the tension that gnawed at his gut.

Where is Phoenix?He had reached out again and again, but the connection was dead. The silence drove him mad. Lucio was neither alive nor dead—he wasundone, trapped somewhere between worlds. And Marcello had no answers. With Phoenix, they solved the mysteries of the universe. Phoenix taught him the old magic, and tenants of that realm he was birthed through, and Marcello used technology to improve, enhance, and perfect what gods who had fallen could not. He needed Phoenix’s counsel.

“Sebastiano!” Marcello turned to his brother.

Sebastiano lounged in a chair, away from the coffin and the suffocating stench of incense. His large dogs sat at his feet, their eyes dull and detached, while his lizard coiled lazily in his lap. He seemed lost, drinking blood from a goblet offered by a monk, but there was a vacancy in his eyes that disturbed Marcello.

“Sebastiano!” Marcello called again, more urgently.

Sebastiano's gaze lifted slowly as if pulled from some far-off place. “What is it?”

“Have you heard from Raven? From anyone?” Marcello’s voice cracked under the weight of his desperation.

Sebastiano shook his head. He set his goblet aside. “Nothing. I feel nothing from him. I think it’s those bitches. They’ve severed the bond.”

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