Page 123 of How to Entice a Fiend

“Where is Mads? You found him, right?” Callum asks.

“Mads was killed in the attack on the VRC,” Marcus says, his eyes on Finn who is walking with Briar and the chief.

“I heard he shot himself,” Ha-Joon says. “Is that true?”

Arrington, who has just walked up, looks at him in disbelief. “Mads…fucking Madsshot himself? Why the fuck would he have shot himself?”

“We’ll discuss it inside,” Marcus says. “Is everyone here?”

“Most are…” Callum responds. “I’m still reeling. Are you sure Mads did that?”

“Come on, we’ll explain what happened in front of everyone,” Marcus says.

We head inside the building, and I feel like I’m willingly crawling into that dark box. It’s quite smothering in here when Mads isn’t with me. When did I get so dependent on him to make me feel less shitty?

The moment I enter the room, everyone stops what they’re doing to stare at me, but none of them demand I leave. Instead, I walk around the table to the far side so that I’m facing the door and will see Abel the second he walks in. Instead of clumping together, the members of the VRC and Orin are situated in different areas so they can inject those around them with the antidote while I, hopefully, distract Abel and his people. It might not be enough, but we have to try.

“I’m hoping you’ll also explain what happened to Vivian?” Arrington asks.

“We will,” Marcus says. “Is this everyone?”

Claude’s phone vibrates, and when he tilts it toward me, I see that it’s a text from Finn that says, “Abel is here. He’s coming inside with over twenty vampires, but he’s left a significantnumber out here. It’s hard to tell, but Briar believes there are at least forty. Could be more that we don’t see.”

Right on cue, I can hear people entering the building, moving toward the room we’re currently inside as I feel completely boxed in even though the area is quite large. The door swings open and Abel steps inside along with at least twenty-five vampires.

Abel’s eyes are almost immediately on me and the instant they lock on, that irritating smile just blooms across his face. “Fucking hell, Ender, it’s a pleasure to see that you’ve come. Are you here to play nice? Or are you here to disrupt shit? You had to have assumed I’d be here, so were you hoping to see me?”

I say nothing as he smirks at me, looking pleased with himself.

“Abel?” Callum asks, looking surprised. “I thought you were removed from the council.”

“Can you really remove me from something I created?” Abel asks as he reaches out and grabs the back of Callum’s head. “This… all of this… is mine.”

And then he slams Callum’s head down on the table. The sound of bones breaking makes everyone in the room fall still. When he pulls Callum’s head up, Callum looks terrified as blood pours from his broken nose.

“I created the council, and I am taking control of it. And if anyone in this room has a problem with that, I’d love to hear it. The VRC has already seen how little control they have. Would you like to share what happened?”

Marcus remains silent, likely trying to see how many are on Abel’s side.

“I used my resources to draw you all to the US so we could talk. I mean… what better timing than after my dear Ender killed Addison, who was very important to me.”

“Well, you killed the rest, didn’t you?” I ask.

“Addison merely removed those she no longer needed.”

“And I no longer needed her. I found that fair,” I say.

Abel’s grin tells me that he didn’t find it as fair as I did. “Cute. I am here to explain that I will be retaking control ofallcouncils.”

“Y-You can’t do that,” Harris stammers.

“I very much can,” Abel says, cutting the man’s head off as quick as that. It’s so fast that most people don’t even realize what’s happened until his head hits the table. I keep an eye on the ones who draw back, but some, like Leona, do not. “Does anyone else have any issues with this?”

Deafening silence fills the room. A few look at Marcus like they really think the VRC should be doing something about this.

“Why are you even playing with the VRC?” a woman from the council asks Abel.

“Or Ender,” Leona adds. “Ender has killed countless of your children, and you just forgive him for it?”

---