Chapter 29
Raven
Raven's heart pounded as he pushed open the mausoleum door.
It resisted as he tried, heavy on its old hinges, then finally gave way with a groan that echoed like a warning into the dark recesses of the room.
He peered into the darkness, allowing his eyes to adjust momentarily.
Thin shafts of light pierced through the darkness, slanting down from the skylights as the clouds outside cleared their obstruction of the sun.
The room seemed empty, save for the vines that clung to the stone walls and tombs like dying memories.
Some hung brittle and gray, flaking with age, while others still pulsed with damp life, stretching upward as if desperate to escape.
Mice skittered through its shadows, their sudden movement sending Raven's pulse into a staccato rhythm.
The beams of their flashlights crisscrossed the chamber, slicing through dust and silence.
Each sweep revealed more of the same: collapsed mounds of tiny skeletons, brittle with age, crunched underfoot with every step.
"Who the fuck hides people in a cemetery?" Tommy snapped. "This place gives me the creeps."
Raven's breath quickened—shallow, sharp. The air felt used up, like the crypt had exhaled once and never inhaled again. Rot clung to the walls, but it ran deeper. It lived in the bones of the place, in the memories buried beneath the stone.
"The kind who knows cemeteries don't ask questions," Jeremy said. "They bring you here to erase you. Not just your body—your story, your scent, your shadow. Everything."
Raven turned and glared at him. His patience frayed. He didn't need these two goons spelling out what he already knew—Mynx was in danger, and every second counted.
"Sorry, boss, I'm just saying, that's all."
"Why don't you fucking worry about helping me find her instead of stating the obvious, Jeremy?"
"On it, boss." The rest of the men filtered past Raven, searching for any indication of where Mynx might be.
Raven scanned the room. He didn't see her. No movement, no voice, no trace she'd ever been there.
Names marked the rear wall of the crypt, grief hardened into concrete.
But time had scraped the stone thin—like even sorrow wasn't meant to last. Wouldn't be forgotten by time.
Mynx didn't belong here. She was his. And he refused to let even a flicker of Tommy's words take shape—refused to let them breathe, speak, or become real.
He buried them before they could surface.
Because if they lived, they'd fracture everything.
He glanced at the screen of his phone again, as if hoping the signal might flicker back to life. It didn't. It wouldn't. Not here. Mynx, where the hell are you?
The staleness of the room's air hit him as he reached its center, wet, sour, thick with the decay of old soil.
It clung to the back of his throat, made him swallow hard.
His fingers curled around his now useless phone, its black screen reflected at him.
He'd lost signal completely. There was nothing to see.
Come on, Butterfly, be alive, please. The words repeated over and over in Raven's head like a mantra as he scanned the dark room.
"Everyone, look around. There has to be something we're missing." The words echoed back at Raven as he spoke to them.
"Over here," San called. "I found a security panel; it looks like it needs a fingerprint to work."
"Let me see," Stoker said, "Hacking into these types of systems used to be my specialty.
" He pushed Sandiego and Raven to the side as he wedged in to examine the box.
He knelt in front of the panel, his breath fogging the glass as he studied the interface.
The screen was slick with dust and something else, possibly oil or the residue of a previous attempt at use.
He traced the area. His fingers moved with practiced precision, tracing the seams, testing the casing before pulling it from the wall.
"This isn't just biometric," he muttered. "It's layered. Fingerprint, heat signature, maybe even pulse detection. Someone didn't want this opened by accident."
Raven crouched beside him, eyes scanning the room again.
"Can you bypass it?" Raven asked as the system deactivated and a panel in the floor slid back. "What the hell? How did you do that so quickly?"
"I didn't do anything, I was just holding the screen", Stoker said, dropping the case. Raven stepped forward first, instinct overriding hesitation. The descent was steep, the air shifting with each step, to a more antiseptic one as if the tomb had given way to something clinical. Controlled.
A hallway stretched ahead, impossibly straight, flanked by smooth concrete walls that bore no markings.. At the far end, a metal door loomed—tall, seamless, and utterly out of place. It wasn't rusted or old like the upper level.
This is taking too long. I need to find Mynx.
Stoker was the first to speak. "This isn't part of the mausoleum. They built it later. Hidden beneath the original design."
Fear crept around Ravens' heart like a vise. "The question is by whom? Be prepared for anything and everything, people. I can't and won't risk Mynx's life if we miss something." Raven pulled his gun from its holster and continued down the hall.
San shifted beside him as he pulled his backup piece from his leg holster, now aiming both guns at the door. "My guess is we're about to find out because the sound of that rock panel sliding back in the floor is enough to wake the dead. Whoever is behind that door had to have heard it open."
Stoker stepped up to the retina scanner, inspecting it with a practiced eye. The panel blinked green. "My brother has to be involved," he said, voice almost a whisper. "This thing just deactivated with my eye."
"Get ready, I want this bastard dead yesterday, I want Mynx out of this hellhole. Stoker, I need you to stay back. As much as I trust you with my life, you still need to recover." Raven steeled himself as he spoke. They had to hit him fast and hard; they wouldn't have long to overtake him.
"Raven, let me take the lead. I'll handle him." San's voice was steady, but there was a finality to it. "The Kings need you. Mynx needs you. Protecting you—and your father—that's always been my job."
Raven hesitated, then gave a curt nod. If San handled the brother, he could reach Mynx faster.
Jeremy stepped to the door, hand on the handle, waiting for Raven's signal. They drew their guns. Safeties clicked off. Every barrel locked on the threshold. Raven nodded once.
San moved first, sweeping left with his weapon raised.
Jeremy was breaching the doorway when a blur of motion lunged from the shadows of the room in the direction of San.
Raven barely had time to take in the situation before he heard the sound of a body hitting the wall.
He stared in horror at the center of the room, stripped bare, Mynx and Cyndi hung precariously from chains.
Their bodies were limp. Bowed. Please be alive, please be alive.
The reverberation of San's gun firing pulled him back to the fight.
Stoker's brother looked up at Raven as he withdrew the blade from San's lower back, his blood trailing on the floor like a signature as he rose. He watched Raven calmly, waiting for a chance to strike.
Raven cocked his gun, fury tightening his grip, as much as he'd like to postpone the man's death, quick and easy suited him.
The twins' eyes gleamed with contempt as they eyed the gun. "So, I was right about you, and so was your father. You really are a coward. So much of one that you're afraid to take me out like a real man—with your hands."
Raven didn't let him distract him. The gun in his hand was steady, but his pulse roared in his ears. San was gasping on the floor, blood pooling fast, his fingers twitching toward the wound like he could hold it closed with sheer will.
"Come on, Raven. You want her back? You want to be the hero? Then drop the gun and show me what kind of man you really are."
Raven's jaw clenched. He could feel the others behind him—Jeremy tense, Stoker whispering something sharp and tactical, but Raven didn't care. All he saw was the glint of the blade, the blood on the floor, and the threat to Mynx. This needed to end now.
The twin lunged for him. Raven moved just in time to be clear of his reach behind a column. His gun skittered across the room.
For a brief moment, his eyes caught Mynx's. The pain and fear in her eyes almost dropped him to his knees. But he couldn't help her until he killed this psychopathic freak. He pulled his backup gun from the holster.
"You think this is about pride?" Raven said, voice low, dangerous. "You think I care how it looks?" Raven tried to get him to talk again. Hoped he'd start another rant and be distracted so he could make his move.
What the fuck did he know about how his father felt about him? Fuck him. He was trying to get in his head.
"I think you care more than you admit. But more than that, I think you're afraid.
Afraid that it's my name, Mynx will be screaming in the night now and not yours.
Afraid that you'll die here and she'll be left to face me on her own.
But mostly Raven, I think you're afraid that what your father thought about you is true. "
Raven moved. He wasn't giving the twin the chance to reach for him again. It was now or never.
Raven popped around the column quickly, slamming the butt of his gun into the twins' jaw with a crack that echoed off the concrete walls. The man staggered, blood blooming from his mouth, but he laughed through it, twisted, and drove his shoulder into Raven's ribs.
They hit the ground hard. The gun skittered across the floor.