XANDER POV
Feeling utterly spent, I plopped myself on the lush bed in a hotel room which was rented under the name of some innocent citizen who had no idea how cruel this world is. Although I was a prick who felt guilty for not feeling guilty, pointing a gun and threatening the poor lady didn’t sit well with me. But I couldn’t use my own name; else the renowned Cattanio Twins would find me in a split second and eunuchize me without a second thought.Toying with them had been the best thing ever. I knew the east was well off gone, and as much as I hated to admit it, they did a good job at running the underworld shit. I was tired honestly. The blood on my hands was crying out loud, haunting me every day and night. I knew I couldn’t just leave; I was part of this world now and there was no going back. It was that kind of a thing that once you are in, there’s no going back. It was a vicious hole where you just kept falling and falling and falling deeper into the bottomless ab
Things are getting a little out of hand. Isn't Lork evil? Ari doesn't deserve any of the things he had done to her. I hope you enjoy this chapter because it took me quite so time to compile it. I love you all so much... xoxo, RARE
LORENZO POVThe trepidation piled up with each heartbeat, my knee kept bouncing rapidly against the hard ground and my muscles clenched so tight I felt like I was going to have dead ass cramps all over my body. I didn’t even want to look at Verzi to know how he was, I already knew. He was a whole bughouse with emotions sending him over the edge. A lot of things flashed through my mind like a tape recorder, the otiose trip to Milan, had it been Xander’s plan? To get us away from Ari so that he can take her? And my girl, where was she? Was she still... God forbid that.I couldn't even begin to imagine what I was going to be if anything happened to her. The loud rumbling of our Chevy Camaro sounded from a distance. I looked to Verzi to find him already gathering his paraphernalia with a very angry face. I felt for him, in more ways than he could ever imagine. I wasn't being a dick for not being his shoulder. It wasn't that and it would never be that. But I wasn't the stro
VERNERO POV"SHE IS DYING!" Valerie's scream jolted me out of my daze pulling me to the moment. My body trembled at the sight of Leigh-Ari who laid limp in our arms, her head cradled in my blood-covered hands."You have to let the paramedics take her." Someone called out pushing me to the side. I robotically stood up and absent-mindedly watched as they strapped Leigh-Ari on the stretcher, rolled it out of the warehouse, and placed her in the back of the ambulance.The heavy sense of nothingness settled heavy on me, numbing everything from the inside. At that time, my heart stopped beating, my mind stopped running, everything stopped and I seized breathing. In that anathematized minute, I was dead. I wasn't living. The fire burning inside me had been extinguished, breaking to the ground the very remaining stem of my being when Leigh's body went limp in our arms. A very weak, tired hand clasped my shoulder,"Are you coming?" Enzo inquired in a very broken voice. My
LORENZO POV"Sir, you can't go into the ER while the doctors are treating the patient. Kindly wait here and we will get back to you." A very stern nurse called out trying to push me from the doors which were engraved with huge block red letters.I robotically just stared ahead, staring into nothing in particular."Hey..." Someone gently tugged on my shirt, I looked back to find Val looking at me with a very concern-filled stare, she wasn't judging. She was being the stronghold I needed at the very moment."She's is going to be alright. She is a fighter." She informed in a small voice, adding a little bit of smile. I turned my head and looked at the door yet again. Everything just felt so hallucinatory. Nothing about this whole vendetta made sense. It was as if someone had just pulled a cruel prank on us, and I was still recovering from the aftershocks. Or I had been too happy and caught up in the moment forgetting how cruel and unforgiving life actually is.I just cou
BACK IN DARK WOODS RAQUEL POV~~~FLASHBACK~~~I had just left the gym and was on my way to the east wing where my bedroom was. I rounded the corner and my mind drifted back to my lady. Although sometimes she made me want to scream because of how brainless she got, I liked her a lot. I mean just a few days back the mines nearly split her open, and I had just told her not to go into Dark WoodsShe was a very good person, sweet, very kind and so warm. Being around her never made me feel left out and I felt more comfortable with her than any of the girls here in Dark Woods. As a hard clodhopper who only knew how to hold a riffle and burst someone’s brain from at least 3km away, I never really clicked with the models and bikinis and martinis. I was gung ho punk and preferred my things a little way too tight.My lady never made me feel left out or ridiculed me for things I loved. She never, even for a second, made me feel like I needed to be someone around her. She was jus
VERNERO POVThe night is dark and full of terrors!I understood that saying more than anyone could ever fathom. I knew it intimately and felt its meaning in and out. For I have lived it before. One time through my sad hateful life, I breathed in darkness and breathed out terror. I ate darkness and dumped out terror. Darkness broke every ounce of humanity in me, turned it into terror, and made sure it reined all over my body. It took everything from me until I was but the darkness that had swallowed me whole.Lorik Cattanio, the man whom I once looked up to as a father, the one whom I had dreamed of him being my superhero, happened to be my worst nightmare. He was the darkness that took residence in me, snipping every little fiber of my being and replacing it all with maliciousness, remorselessness, the emotionless devil that feasted on the pain and screams of those I had trampled upon.For the very first time since he turned me into this, the sparkle of hope and light ha
LEIGH-ARI POV~~~5 WEEKS LATER~Sitting at the rooftop on the side of the west wing, I looked up at the naked trees that laid ahead, with leaves shed to the ground and the branches stark naked. The forest which was once so dense was now a small boscage, thanks to the mines that nearly ruptured me open. Just the thought of that had me laughing softly. I tugged on my fleece shawl that was draped over my lap, shielding me from the biting cold of the end of November. Winter was finally here, carrying with it the frost that spared none. The little sun in the sky provided the little heat that warmed me up, despite the whir of the cold wind.The past year had been a rollercoaster ride. Once I was just a normal citizen of Cyprus, a good doctor that took pride in saving lives, a friend, and a neighbor. Then suddenly everything went downhill that night I saved a guy, brought him into my apartment, and stitched him back to life. Had I called the police, surely things wouldn't have tur
BONUS CHAPTER 1LORIK POV“I forgive you.” The words charged at me like a sharp dagger that gatecrashed through my heart leaving me breathless. Heat rose from my neck and settled just right above my head, creating a cloud of intense self-loathing that made my ears deaf. With blurred vision, I watched as she slowly sashayed out of the damp dense cellar where I was chained.My eyes followed her movements until she was out of view. My mind reeled with all sorts of thoughts recalling all the evil things I have committed. She had forgiven me, despite everything I had done to her. She forgave me and bathed me clean, after being tortured by my son for how long... Heck, I didn’t even know how long I have in here without food, water, let alone taking a bath. I reeked of death and all the things I have done in my past. Vernero always brought him a small bite of protein bar just to keep me alive, nothing more than that. I was famished, my throat so patched it felt like it was burn
VERNERO POVA wall-shattering scream tore out of my lungs, as my body sunk into a deep bottomless sea of cold water. I watched as the air leave his body, his soul departing with his black eyes still glued to my face. For the very first time since I have known my father, this was the time he looked at me with fatherly love, the one kind I have longed for, for as long as I can remember; and my heart hurt so much. I didn’t understand it! Why did it hurt so bad? Why did I feel weak in the knees for killing him while it has been the one thing that I have dreamed of?Tears streamed down my face as I turned the dagger, eliciting a squelching sound as it tore deeper and deeper through his heart. He was dead already because he wasn’t moving. But his eyes were as open and as clear as day! I screamed! God, I screamed so hard that my cry made the walls of the dungeons tremble.With a very defeated body, I slowly pulled the dagger from him, and then robotically watched as it dropped