Page 76 of Map of Pain
“Ophelia,”Marcus said, his tone carrying clear disapproval.“Thatwasn’tpart of what we agreed on.”
She rolled her eyes with teenage dismissiveness.“I think this is important.”
She held out her phone to Nick. On the screenwasan image of a human body, dark spots of blood seeping through a light-colored shirt in a strange configuration—almost like someonehadbeen shot with buckshot, but therewereno holes in the fabric. Nick’s training kicked in, analyzing the pattern, looking for meaning.
“I don’t... this doesn’t look familiar,”he said, frustrated by his inability to help.
Ophelia swiped to the next picture. The shirthadbeen moved up, revealing a series of small cuts and wounds thatstarted to coagulate. Each markingwasdeep but precise, and Nick’sstomach lurched as recognition hit him—not of the specific pattern, but of the methodology. Deliberate. Ritualistic.
He felt the phantom cold kiss of a blade against his skin and he grabbed Luka’s hand, pulling him closer. The panicwasimmediate and overwhelming, his body remembering what precise cuts felt like, how they burned and ached and left permanent reminders carved in flesh.
Luka squeezed back, grounding him as Nick forced himself to study the picture more closely despite his racing heart. The cuts formed a series of triangular shapes, very intentionally placed, looking almost like some kind of sigil.
“It’s disturbing,”Nick managed quietly, his voice tight with controlled panic,“but I don’t recognize it.”
The admission felt like failure. He should know this. He should be able to help these people who took him in despite everythinghe’ddone to them.
Marcuswaseyeing Ophelia with something like suspicion, trying to figure out what shewasgetting at. Nick watched the silent communication between them, feeling like an outsider trying to decode family dynamics he didn’t understand.
Ophelia moved to Adam and Vincent, showing them the picture.“Does this look familiar to you guys?”
Nick watched in slow motion as Vincent’s entire demeanor changed. His cheek twitched, his brow furrowed just enough to create lines between his eyebrows, and he took on an almost greenish hue like hewasgoing to throw up.
Adamwasworse. He blanched, all color draining from his face. His teeth clenched, jaw muscle flexing over and over, his eyes going wide with something like terror and things best forgotten. Nick could see him shaking—violent tremors that made his messy brown hair seem to vibrate.
Nickhada moment of profound disconnect, realizing he recognized what Adamwasfeeling with painful clarity. Thecomplete retreat from the present as memories became more real than his surroundings. He wondered with sick fascination if that’s what he looked like when it happened, when the memories became too much and he vanished into himself. Itwas upsetting to witness from the outside.
Marcus cut through the mounting tension with sharp authority.“Ophelia, let me see what you’re showing them.”
He took one look at the phone, then one look at Vincent, and his face became slightly red—not with anger, but with some sort of frustrated understanding of whatwashappening. Nick felt like hewaswatching a play performed in a language he didn’t speak, understanding the emotion but missing crucial context.
“Vincent,”Marcus said, his voice calm in a way that made Nick’s danger instincts prickle,“why is that symbol at the location of a Society massacre?”
Nick watched Ophelia’s face carefully during the chaos that followed, noting a calculating in her expression despite her bored facade. Shewaswatching everyone’s reactions with clinical interest, like shewasconducting some kind of experiment.
Chaos exploded around the table like a bomb going off. Adamwassqueezing Vincent’s hand for dear life, his knuckles white with the effort, his breathing rapid and shallow. Petrov and Matteo began signing at each other, their hands moving too fast for Nick to follow even if he could understand ASL.
Luka looked like hewasgoing to break his own teeth with how hard hewasclenching his jaw, jade eyes dark with something that might have been fury. Caleb looked confused and worried, unable to follow whatwashappening, but clearly picking up on the rising tension.
Ophelia moved over to stand between Caleb and Nick, observing the chaosshe’dunleashed. She reminded Nick of Henderson in that moment—someone who collectedinformation about people’s breaking points and filed it away for future use.
“Now is not the time,”Vincent said, his voice tight with concern as he looked at Adam’s deteriorating state. The protectiveness in his tonewasfierce, desperate.
“It is absolutely the time,”Marcus replied, his calm facade cracking as he clenched his fists.
“Stop,”Vincent snapped, his sclera swirling black except for the blue irises, and his fangs descended as he looked back to Adam and started whispering to him very, urgently. Nick saw vampires lose control before, but never one trying to comfort someone while on the edge of violence.
Marcus maintained his composure despite the red flush in his face, but Nick could see the tension in his shoulders, the way his amber eyes tracked Vincent’s transformation with wary calculation. He shot Caleb a concerned glance that made Nick’s protective instincts flare.
Caleb leaned over to Ophelia, his voice tight with worry.“What is happening?”
She showed him the symbol on her phone without comment. Caleb grimaced and looked away—he’dneverhadthe stomach for gore and horror, and even months of being with a vampirehadn’tchangedthat fundamental aspect of his gentle nature.
“What is that?”Caleb asked, his voice smaller than usual.
“Wherever that sister-fucking cult did their killing, they left this symbol,”Ophelia said matter-of-factly, as if shewerediscussing the weather.“And every single one of ushasseenthe faded version of this symbol carved into Vincent’s lower back that matches this.”
Nickwasstill absolutely in the dark about the specifics, but he could feel the weight of a terrible history pressing down on the room. Hewaswatching the family hewastrying tojoin fracture around something he couldn’t understand, and the helplessnesswassuffocating.
