Page 32 of Black Hand
A steel band tightened around my chest and prevented me from taking a full breath when I heard that. I felt so alone and lost even with Veronica filling a small void in my life, and I never knew my family. How much harder would it had been if, like Dominic, I had them until the Syndicate took them away forever? In honor of his loss, I stayed silent, knowing full well the burden of his loss was partly on my shoulders too. I was guilty by association, but guilty, nonetheless.
“I had two sisters and a brother.” Dominic stunned me by continuing his story. More guilt churned like acid in my stomach for the feeling of relief washing over me when I heard he wasn’t talking about a mate. “All of us, including my parents, were different than any other shifter we knew. We were faster, stronger … Alphas of packs and tribes kneeled the moment they were close enough to feel our power.”
I flinched when the banging in the kitchen started again because I was so intent on hearing everything he was saying. It was almost like I was in a trance from the sound of his voice.
“We could partly shift, too.”
He turned to look at me over his shoulder at that, and I couldn’t control the widening of my eyes. I’ve heard of partial shifts, but I thought that was also a myth.Just like the myth of your talent for compulsion.The voice in my head didn’t skip a beat. Realizing my mouth was parted, I closed it and bit the inside of my cheek because I looked like a fool.
“I guess that was forbidden.” A sad smile curled his lips when his gaze flicked across mine. “No one warned us of that.”
“I’m sorry.” The useless apology was just a breath leaving my lips, but he nodded twice before facing the window again.
“They were all terrified of the Syndicate, so when we moved here shifters started coming in flocks. At first my father was happy to give them a safe place to stay, but after a while he realized they had no intention of leaving.”
“So your family left?” My question elicited a humorless laugh from him.
“We purchased a larger piece of land and we built a compound. A sanctuary, he liked to call it.” The shake of his head was like a razor cutting through my heart. “We were fools. Thinking just because our family was different and since we now had numbers that we stood a chance.”
It took effort to swallow the lump in my throat.
“They attacked in waves, witches spread among them like seeds.” His hands fisted into a white-knuckled grip. “We stood no chance at all. All those coming for safety didn’t even try to fight. They stood there being slaughtered like cattle. We couldn’t believe what we were seeing. Pride killed my family as much as the Syndicate did. My father refused to stand down or run, while those who trusted him to protect them died. So, he told my sisters, my mother, and my brother to attack, and he followed right behind them.”
“And you?” The hot tears rolling down my face made my voice crack, but I didn’t care at that point.
I could see from the stiffness of his shoulders and by the tone of his voice that he wanted to cry. He was crying inside but wouldn’t let a tear betray him. He accused his family of being prideful, but pride held him together now, though I could hear the broken pieces in him grind together. So, I cried for him. Shamelessly, letting the tears trickle down my cheeks and soak into my shirt.
“I was the youngest of my siblings, so I was left behind to hide, to protect our lineage, in case the worst happened.” he spat with so much venom my spine snapped straight and I was so alert it was as if I’d been zapped by a thousand watts. “They all died that night. When I finally was brave enough to step out in the open, I walked through a sea of headless corpses arranged like some macabre celebration in the middle of the field. My father was positioned at its head, his body placed on a pike to keep his spine straight. My mother was at his feet, along with my sisters, but I never found my brother’s body.” He cleared his throat, rolling his shoulders. “I’m sure it was between the hundreds sprinkled on the grass. I couldn’t find the strength to go search, but I promised them all their deaths would not be in vain. I swore on my honor, the coward that I was, that I would hunt the Syndicate one by one until none of them remain.”
Dominic turned to face me, and his features were set in granite, but his green eyes were glossy until he blinked his pain away. At seeing my teary face, he paused, his gaze darting to the damn pendant on my throat before locking back on mine. I clenched my hands so I didn’t grab the chain and yank it off right along with my head if need be. I’d been bitter and angry, but I’d never until that very moment been ashamed of what I was. He must’ve read it on my face because he lowered his chin, more of a short bow of acknowledgment than a nod, and he shuffled his feet uncomfortably.
“I might be making the biggest mistake I’ve ever made after staying hidden that night, but I told you all this so you know that I have every intention of keeping my word. I will kill every single one of you that is part of the Syndicate.”
My lips parted and I was ready to bare my neck and let him start with me. There was no doubt in my mind he would kill us all, and by doing so he would avenge Veronica’s death too. My life for everything the Syndicate had taken from him was too small of a sacrifice, but it was the only one I had, and I was willing to offer it. Just like with everything he had said until now, he shocked me again.
“That is why I want you to take that pendant off.” That explained why he was fidgety all of a sudden. “As I said, it might be my biggest mistake, but you …” Cocking his head to the side, he made my heart skip a beat when his panther stared at me through the glowing irises. “You, Brooklyn, are different. In the predicament we find ourselves, that’s definitely not a bad thing.”
Not knowing what to say to that, I just sat there silent and held my breath when he walked up to me and kneeled in front of my knees so that we were at eye level. His hand lifted to my face to cup my cheek, and his thumb rasped across my skin when he tried wiping the never-ending tears away. Where our skin touched, tingles spread over me and tickled my throat. The couch was firm enough to be steady, but I felt like the whole house was swaying from his nearness and the look in his eyes. No one had ever looked at me that way, and my whole existence reacted as if coming out of a deep sleep. Dominic’s lips inched closer to mine and I was trapped in his gaze.
“Oh my God, that was so romantic,” Alice squealed, clapping her hands from the door of the kitchen, and we both jumped away as if we’d been burned. “Hey! No, no, no. You need to kiss her now, man. Don’t be a cock tease.”
Covering my face with both hands, I wished I didn’t start caring about the human as much as I did. In the true fashion prescribed to my kind, I really wanted to rip her throat out that second. Every step that Dominic took away from me left me cold, and my chest felt hollow. Was he really going to kiss me? Did he really mean what he’d said about my pendant? Did I finally make him see me, Brooklyn, instead of a pawn of the Syndicate? I was too afraid to hope, so I shoved those thoughts away in the deep recesses of my mind next to Veronica’s death so I could deal with them later. Or never.
Never sounded like a wonderful plan, actually.
“Anyway”—Alice looked sheepish when I peeked at her through my fingers, her cheeks burning bright red—“I’m ready to do magic.” Wiggling her fingers, she giggled nervously.
Dominic groaned.
Closing my eyes, so did I.
18
“The human is aware that you are not a demon, correct?” Dominic muttered next to me, his head titled toward me so she didn’t hear us. “That looks like something for a demon to me.”
Too aware of his nearness, I struggled to maintain my focus on what Alice was doing. She made Dominic push the furniture next to the walls so the center of the small room was clear. I was entrusted only with the rolling of the rug because I was still hurting from my injury. Her words, not mine, and since I didn’t want her wrapping me up like the wolf still sleeping like the dead in the corner, I obeyed. She made us stand at the window so we didn’t get in her way, and we watched her pour salt on floor for twenty minutes before she waved a butcher knife in the air, brandishing it like a sword. She was calling the elements, according to her at least. My gaze bounced off the picture frames covering the walls, and I had a feeling her parents were laughing at us while watching this the whole charade, too.
A pentagram was also drawn in salt at the center of the circle with tealight candles placed at its points, the flames flickering from the breeze her movements created. With the book clutched to her chest, Alice walked barefoot around while muttering nonsense, pausing once in a while to push her thick glasses up her nose. I should’ve put an end to the insanity, but one look at her twinkling eyes and exited face clamped my mouth shut as if sealed closed.
