Etiquette of the Cruel (The Damned #1)

Chapter 1

ADELINA

Another night, another plan gone to shit.

Two targets. In, eliminate, out. Easy. That’s what Dorin said before everything fell apart.

I’d packed light, bringing only black roses—one for each body I planned to leave behind. It was supposed to be simple. Two bullets, a couple of roses, and no witnesses. Nothing more, nothing less.

Then I saw three kids huddled near a rusted truck, hands clamped over their ears, their eyes wide with terror.

And just like that, nothing else mattered.

“Shit,” Dorin muttered beside me, already reading my face.

“Get the kids,” I ordered.

Men scattered like rats. Bullets tore through the trees, kicking dirt into the air. The initial quiet hit unraveled into a massacre in seconds.

Dorin moved like he always did, without panic—fast and brutal. He scooped up two kids while a few of our people closed in around him. Vasile moved up next to me and grabbed the smallest just as she froze.

I cursed, ducking low as bullets flew overhead.

I fired back, clearing a path toward our planned exit. The little girl clung to Vasile’s shoulder, her face buried against him.

“Keep moving!” I shouted.

They nodded, then vanished through the smoke. I turned and moved on to the targets.

The air smelled like a slaughterhouse. Blood splattered my sleeve as I swung my dagger into a man who’d been too slow to understand he was already dead. These men weren’t innocents. None of them ever are.

A rose on the chest, a corpse at my feet—how I preferred things to go. The black rose wasn’t for grief or remembrance. It was a mark. My mark. A promise that no one would forget who put them in the ground.

I didn’t have enough roses for what this night became. No time to pin a flower to every bastard who deserved one when we were too busy trying not to join them.

Once the targets were eliminated, I ran for the extraction point with my lungs burning. Through the haze ahead, Dorin came into view, the kids clinging to him while his team covered their retreat.

“Dorin!” I yelled, closing the distance. He looked back, sweat and blood streaked across his face, eyes wild from the adrenaline.

When I reached them, he moved the children into a runner’s arms so he could reload. Both were shaking. I did a quick scan through the wreckage.

No Vasile. No third kid.

“Where’s Vasile?” I grabbed Dorin’s arm hard enough to make him flinch.

He glanced over the field, panting. “He was right behind me.”

I forced my mind to focus past the noise.

A burst of movement flashed at the far edge of the clearing—someone running, carrying a small figure against their chest.

No. No, you fucking don’t. What happened to Vasile?

He fled like he thought he had a chance. He didn’t. Not when I was fueled by pure, feral purpose. Muscles tight, breath sharp, heart a fucking war drum.

Keeping low, I sprinted through the trees. Can’t let him see me coming. The intent was to ambush, snatch the girl, and bolt. My people knew the orders. Save the innocent by all means necessary.

“Your mask!” Dorin’s voice buckled through the gunfire.

It had fallen off. Didn’t matter. The only thing I cared about was catching him.

I slammed into the figure, both of us colliding into the dirt with bone-rattling force. The child let out a choked sob, her small limbs flailing.

“Ah fuck, you all right, kid?” The masked man actually sounded concerned.

Before I could make sense of it, Dorin stepped in and grabbed the kid.

His fingers inched toward his fallen gun, but I was faster.

My dagger kissed his throat, my breath hot and rapid as I pinned him down, straddling him, and before I could even speak, he said, “I might be a piece of shit, but I’m not that much of a piece of shit.

” The asshole sounded raspy and, annoyingly enough, not out of breath.

Saying shit like that so calmly, as if he knew what I was thinking.

All I could see were those striking ocean-blue eyes.

He was bigger than I’d realized, broad through the chest and built like he could throw me off whenever he felt like it.

The hard outline of a second gun rested at his hip.

All I had was a dagger after dropping mine when I nearly went down earlier.

I snapped out of it when I heard my comrades screaming at me to run, the gunshots getting closer. This mystery man moved first, grabbing me. Suddenly, I was upright, yanked to my feet before I could protest. I couldn’t even be awestruck because we were, after all, running for our lives.

But, like, damn…

He moved with the kind of confidence that came from surviving things most people couldn’t. Before my subordinates were able to apprehend him, he vanished, as if he was never there in the first place. I couldn’t think about that right now. We had to get the kids out and regroup.

We sprinted through the darkened paths toward the vehicles, every shadow a possible threat. When we finally reached the safe house, I let out a long exhale.

“Well, that was a fucking disaster,” Dorin grumbled, sucking in deep breaths as he leaned against the nearest wall.

“It could have been worse.” I dropped into a chair, running a hand through my messy hair.

Dorin wasn’t convinced. “What now, Adelina? We’ll get the kids taken care of, but that guy—” he hesitated, his brow furrowed.

He had a point. Whoever he was, he had seen my face.

“Dorin, where the hell is my bag?”

He tensed, already turning to start looking, but I stopped him. “When he grabbed me… I got distracted and just ran.” A knot formed in my throat. “I didn’t even realize he was still holding onto my backpack when we split.”

Dorin stood frozen. “All right, all right. Not the end of the world, right? I mean, all you had in there were black roses, yeah? Who would be suspicious of that?” He was rambling now, his voice a little too high, like he was trying to convince himself.

“I fucking told you, Adelina, tighten the straps and clip the front.”

Such an old man. Who the hell clips the front of their backpack?

“Right. Totally.” I forced a grin. “No one would be suspicious of that in this particular situation.”

The truth was that my alternate persona had gained a lot more traction lately. Great for our cause. If someone were to find out who I was, though—Ugh, fuck me.