Chapter 11
Dash
I fought so hard to stay alive, to come back to her. Faced death so many times I lost count; each time I was on the verge, it was Mila ’ s face bathed in a heavy light that blinded me. She dragged me back and forced me to live, only to kill me herself.
I knew she would be broken; that ’ s how I left her.
It was for her own good.
I couldn ’ t offer her hope because the probability of my death was too great. I had fixed her before, and I planned on doing it again. Until Dante told me what she had been up to.
She fucked around.
Fucked another.
Gave another man her moans and cries, her tears of pleasure.
I shouldn ’ t care. I should be happy.
I should make her suffer.
It had been years since I saw her; she had aged only to grow more devastatingly beautiful. She took my breath away with pleasure. Inflicting more pain, like she always did.
When I left her, she had transformed into a stronger and more resilient individual. I hoped she remained that person, the woman she was always meant to be, but she slipped into her old routine again. The ballerina, the performer.
The perfect fuck doll.
I could see it slowly killing her again. Her skin was pale from the suffocation of her life. I planned on breathing life back into her. Now, I ’ ll just sit back and watch her struggle to live a miserable life glued to my side.
Her observation was accurate. I am disgusted with myself. I fell for her even though I had vowed never to love again. I was a fucking fool that should have realized in the end, everyone and everything dies. Mom did, and soon, I ’ d choke out my feelings for the sly little fox.
When I look at my reflection in the mirror, my eyes are drawn to my chest. With my palm raised, I search for my heartbeat, but my inner emptiness makes it impossible to feel anything.
Bam! Glass shatters.
It ’ s only when I feel the warm blood dripping down my palm that I realize I ’ ve broken the mirror. I am transforming into the creature my brothers were afraid I would evolve into.
A few days ago.
“ We were gone, Dash. Don ’ t hold that against her.” Dante has the audacity to order me. It doesn ’ t help that I feel the eyes of all my brothers watching me. The downside of having a large family is that everyone is too involved in my affairs instead of focusing on their own.
We ’ re all free, having passed the final test. If you can, consider the ordeal they subjected us to as a test.
Deep down, I know every single one of us fears this day. We no longer have each other. We are going back to our old lives once more. Separated.
Sure, I have Titan and Damian attending my new school, but the rest of these guys are my family. For years, we were a team covering each other ’ s backs. Now Anders, Leo, Dante, and Cillian have no one. They don ’ t have cousins they trust their lives with. If they need our help, we are an ocean away. That keeps us all up at night.
Dante was fortunate to be the first one out who wasn ’ t snatched up by their parents, allowing him ample time to catch up on what we missed. He was the bearer of all the nasty news. Mila replaced my absence with another man in her bed.
Was I shocked? Yeah. I know I broke a part of her when I left. I just thought she ’ d crumble into my hands and not find another to fix her.
Whatever. Doesn ’ t matter.
I ’ m not the only one who has a hard truth to swallow.
“ Dash.” Cillian calls my name, but I ’ m too far entrenched in the plague of fury in my mind. I don ’ t want to be free. I embrace it.
“ Just leave him alone.” Anders grunts. It ’ s astonishing that the most outrageous individual here is speaking wisely.
I see the remnants of his final test still present under his skin. He picks at the grimy, crusty blood caked under his fingernail. He ’ s fucked in the head like that, leaving the blood stained on him for a few days as a memory of sorts. It drives Cillian utterly insane. As a matter of fact, Cillian has become a germ freak. We all walked away with some form of hindrance after surviving Initiation 101.
“ Dash, be gentle on her. She ’ s suffered without you. Give her time.” Dante presses. “ She ’ s not, well, she hasn ’ t handled her situation. I saw her in the hospital. You didn ’ t. They tried to drug her to take her out of her depression.”
“ Depression?” My brow pulls sharply like a bowstring. “ She ’ s always wanted to escape. She tried and failed. That ’ s not depression. It ’ s stupidity.”
A deep grumble from Cillian ’ s throat comes in like a warning light.
I bark back with a roll of my eyes. “ Mila is none of your concern.”
“ That ’ s where you ’ re wrong.” Dante uncrosses his legs and widens his stance as if he ’ s got the guts to pull me from my chair and beat some sense into me. “ She is my concern, and so are you. I ’ m warning you.”
“ Your warning is less convincing from across the ocean.” I spit, turning to look out the window of his private jet. We gathered and used it as our meeting point, but soon, we would all go our separate ways, starting our new lives. In the shadows, we will meet and plot to take down every single person who has harmed us. The Brotherhood has formed, and the only way to defeat it will be to kill us all.
“ I ’ ll keep an eye on her,” Damian promises; his hand is hidden in his pocket, but I know what he ’ s holding. The knife his mother used to kill herself with. Damian has a soft spot for damsels in distress.
A scoff of laughter escapes my throat, trying to hide my pain. They ’ d all so easily pick her over me. “ Nice to know you ’ re more concerned about a stranger than your own blood.”
“ I can see how that stranger affects my blood,” Damian hisses with a wrinkling of his hooded eyes, “ Stop being a dick and get over it.”
“ Dash,” Titan interrupts, sensing the conversation going too far south, “ If I could go back and kiss Elsa again, I would do anything to be able to. Anything.”
Not Elsa again!
He lost the love of his life, so he thinks. Titan never slept with Elsa, never gave that part of himself to her before she died.
It ’ s different. Mila was my first; she was the only person I thought actually loved me. What started as a game turned into something twisted but real. At least, that ’ s what I felt.
In the end, Mila played me just as badly.
It was all a lie. My mother was the only one who truly loved me.
“ You have that chance. I know this news is hard to swallow, but Dante is right. We were gone for years. You left, making Mila think she was nothing but a game. How was she supposed to react? She ’ s not even with the guy anymore.”
“ You know nothing. If you all care about her so badly, then form a line and fuck her for all I care.” Standing, I walk off the plane. I can ’ t bear to hear it. All the love for Mila. She doesn ’ t deserve it!
The foreign walls make me tense up as I walk down the hallway in our new home. Empire University has dorms, but my cousins and I won ’ t be staying in them. We have a house on campus, but it ’ s more like a bomb shelter—at least it will be. It ’ s being outfitted with the latest security and safety measures.
The University is a joke that fools the world. We have the education we need; this is just a cover story to make them believe we ’ re civilized, shining stars they can all admire.
Want to know the truth about stars? We ’ re just remnants of anger and forgotten battles. Most of what you see doesn ’ t even exist anymore. The presence of light in your eyes takes time to fade, and once it does, you realize the star is nothing more than a distant, dead object, a remnant of what once was.
Trudging into the kitchen, I find Damian and Titan awake and sitting at the table. A pile of eggs and sliced breakfast meat is in front of them, and an empty plate is waiting for me. I take a seat and load up. Empire has a cafeteria, but we don ’ t trust others and would rather cook for ourselves.
“ How was last night?” Damian asks. A buffoon couldn ’ t miss the warning in his eyes.
“ If you care about her so much, then you tend to her.” I spit.
“ Maybe I will,” With his elbows on the table, his dark hair casts a shadow over his features like a thundercloud. Damian wasn ’ t graced with our genetic blonde hair. He got his darker features, eyes, and a hint of a tan from his mother. His own reflection is a haunting presence for him and his father. That ’ s why his dad can ’ t look at him.
His lips curl up, feeling like a whooshing of wind as his words prepare to jab me. “ She must be good in bed if she has broken you so badly.”
The fork in my hand bends from the pressure. Damian pushes back and grins, “ If you didn ’ t care, you ’ d have no reaction.”
A roll of my eyes is the only answer I prefer to give.
“ You ’ re going to see her every single day. Why torture yourself?”
Stabbing my fork roughly into my eggs, I reply, “ Maybe I like pain more than pleasure now.”
“ And what if she does?” Damian challenges. Titan glares at him in warning, but he continues. “ You told me Mila used to hurt herself in the past. What if she hurts herself again over your dismissal?”
I wish I never told them that.
“ It ’ s her life, not mine.” I shrug.
Has she slipped back into all her old routines?
The answer becomes an incessant itch under my skin. The need to strip her bare and inspect every inch of her body is now a matter of urgency.
Scratch that; it ’ s a guarantee, a declaration, and an oath.
“ You ’ re engaged.” Damian replies.
That ’ s not a peace treaty. Some engagement contracts are declarations of war.
“ What man in our world has stayed faithful to his wife?” Yeah, I am a bastard. I carefully chose those words to rip open old scars from his childhood.
Why did I say that? Because I want to hurt Damian like he has hurt me.
Damian ’ s glare is so heavy I ’ m forced to acknowledge it. “ Your dad stayed loyal.” Damian growls. My heart skips a beat. “ Still has, even though it ’ s been years since your mom passed.”
Touché. We both just pried open each other ’ s jaws and waterboarded ourselves with past inflictions.
I lunge across the table, making contact with his left eye before Titan can stop me. Breakfast is replaced with blood and fury.
Oddly enough, it ’ s more tasty than the eggs.