3. Lukas
Fyodor’s Rules #8 - Every enemy you leave alive is someone who can kill you later.
Iwiped the blood from my eye, kicking the closest body onto its back so I could get a good look at their face. It wasn’t anyone I recognized, so I took my phone out of my pocket and snapped a picture to send off to Pasha. He had a better memory for faces than I did, probably because he fucked so many of them. Failing that, he could run it through the databases. Everyone existed in someone’s database, especially in our line of work.
The rest of my team were busy doing their job. One was seeing to our wounded, triaging who would need medical care and who we could patch up ourselves. Everyone who ran with me had field level trauma medical training, but we kept a doctor on retainer for the gnarly stuff. The rest were going over the bodies and stripping anything that could be of value. Wallets, jewelry, guns—we would take it all. Our cleaners were already on the way to deal with the bodies, but there was no need to let things we could use go to waste.
We had lost no one, but I wasn’t taking that for granted. There never should have been a firefight to begin with. It was pure luck that my team and I had been at the warehouse tonight. Nikolai was entertaining at the hotel, and I wanted to go over some weapons that had come in the latest shipment, so I had brought the team over with me. I was completely unprepared. We had been going over the guns, everyone was getting familiar with the models, when one of the site guards had radioed in that there was something suspicious on the south side of the building.
The something suspicious had turned out to be a team looking to knock over our warehouse, probably thinking there would be no one beyond the usual guards here. A mistake that had cost all of them their lives.
Crouching down, I inspected the body at my feet more thoroughly. Taking a knife from my boot, I slit his t-shirt to ribbons quickly and pushed the scraps of material away. There were plenty of tattoos, but none were a recognizable gang symbol. I took another look around the room. They weren’t dressed similarly enough for anything they were wearing to be considered a uniform.
Who the fuck were these guys?
My two dogs came barreling up to me, having completed a check of the perimeter. I straightened up, my eyes on them as I listened to the report they mentally sent me. Most of the Scions in my lineage had a connection with a horse, but I had spent my entire life in the city. I’d never ridden a horse or even seen one in real life. When I was young, Fyodor helped me expand that aspect of my powers, and I bonded with two dogs instead. The longer they spent with me, the less they resemble the two Doberman pups they had been when I first got them. They stood almost to my chest now, with their distinctive white fur, red eyes, and red ears, they moved silently and could even pass through walls.
Once I had their report, I turned back to my team and snapped out a quick command. I also directed someone to take photos of the rest of the fallen mercenaries. If the corpse at my feet didn’t turn up a clue, maybe one of the others would. They hadn’t been organized enough to be mercenaries of any great value. I would have picked them as low-level thugs, but if they were, they would all wear someone’s colors or mark.
Nikolai was going to be furious, but it wasn’t like he was a cheerful guy to begin with, so that didn’t bother me. What was bothering me was that this wasn’t the first hit we’d taken this month. We”d gotten lucky this time. Two of our deliveries earlier in the month had also gone missing. One was a coincidence, you could put it down to someone desperate, or even a mistake made by someone who didn’t realize it was ours. Two was a pattern. But three? Three, was war.
It had been a while since we needed to fight for our place in Chicago. A decade since we’d established ourselves in a move so bloody that no one questioned us or our territory. Being left on your own would do that to you. And I wondered if maybe we had become a little complacent. It was clearly time for a shakeup, to make sure that everyone knew what happened if you crossed us.
Alexei was going to have a fucking field day.
We all had our place in the organization. Most people would have picked me as the one that people should be frightened of, and they wouldn’t be wrong, but I wasn’t the true monster of the Sirota Brothers. That was Alexei. His calm, lazy demeanor fooled most people until they were locked in a room with him. Then they were terrified for the rest of their lives, their exceptionally brief lives.
No one walked out of a room after Alexei started work on them. Rather than let people survive to send a message, he let their silence be the message. Sometimes he scared even me, and I knew he’d never turn on his family. But being a Scion of the Baba Yaga was scary shit. No one in their right mind messed with the Grandmother’s Children.
I stood up as the cleaners arrived, but they didn’t need instructions. They’d worked for us long enough that they knew what I expected of them. Letting them get to work, I turned my attention to the shipment of weapons, making sure everything was back in its place.
My phone dinged, and a quick check showed a message from Nikolai wanting an update on what had happened. Now that was a report I wasn’t looking forward to giving. Not because I didn’t want to talk to him or tell him what had happened, I just didn’t have answers for him, and Nikolai hated when a meeting left him with more questions.
I knew better than to drag it out. Nikolai wasn’t technically in charge, but he was the best suited to lead our group, and he was the one who enjoyed talking. Well, not the only one, Pasha could talk the ears off a corpse. Unfortunately, he was far too easily distracted by a pretty face to be the one people thought was in charge. This arrangement typically left Alexei and me to do what we wanted without people bothering us all the time.
I checked over my team again and made sure that no one had any new information to be passed on. Anything I delivered that would give us some clue as to what was going on would be useful. This was my job, I was the warlord of the four of us. My brothers looked to me for tactics and insight. Security was my business, and business was turning south. I would not have that.
We’d spent too long clawing our way to safety to have it compromised by some assholes who just wanted to make their name by taking us down. It had happened a lot in the beginning. People who tried to take advantage of our grief over losing our sister and father on the same day.
I’d gotten us through each attempt, and I would get us through this one, too. War and vengeance burned in my blood, it had been too long since I had been part of a good hunt. The thrill as I chased my quarry down until they could run no further, then leaving no trace of them behind in this world when I was through. The feeling of excitement was already building.
I moved away from my team as I dialed the number for my eldest brother. True to form, he answered on the third ring. He never let his phone ring out, especially when it was one of us. Even when he had guests around. It was probably his way of making us feel like we were important to him. He was always doing things like that, trying to remind us we were a family, as though we could ever forget.
“Pasha told me to expect a call from you. What’s happening?”
Nikolai was always to the point. I was going to have to remind Pasha he didn’t need to tell everyone about every text message he received. Pasha loved to talk, though. It didn’t matter the topic, that man could talk underwater with a mouth full of marbles. Or with a throat full of cock, I had seen him do it. He never gave away more than he intended, although that never stopped people from pushing.
But people usually only ever underestimated any of us once.
“There was an attack at the warehouse that stores the weapons. Nothing was taken, and they’re all dead,” I got that out before he demanded the answers from me. “None of ours are dead. We’ve checked these guys over. There were no brands, no tattoos, and no uniforms. There wasn’t even identification on them. I’ve sent photos through to Pasha, but he clearly already told you.”
Nikolai hummed on the other end of the phone, the sound letting me know he was thinking. “This isn’t the first attack, Lukas. Are you sure we don’t have a mole?”
I held in a growl of annoyance and reminded myself that he was just being thorough, and he did not mean to question my ability to do my job.
“I will look into it. While I want to say that I am certain all our people are loyal, you can never be too sure. Everyone has a breaking point.”
Investigating our own people was my least favorite part of this role. I wanted to trust them all. We took care of our own and treated them fairly. We knew fear didn’t inspire loyalty, instead it just inspired more fear, and that wasn’t the way we wanted to run our operation.
“Find them, Lukas. The ball is in a week. We can’t go into it at a disadvantage. We need to present the same strong front we always have.”
Frustration colored his voice at the thought of spending the night dodging a myriad of proposals and even more tawdry offers, and it had me chuckling. I was sure he’d rather face actual harpies than the mafia women on the prowl for a husband. Our brief turf war with a clutch of harpies was an interesting time for all of us. At least you could see the claws they were trying to sink into you.
“It’s what you get for being one of the most eligible young bachelors in the Chicago Underground, Nikolai. It serves you right.” Admittedly, it wasn’t the only night we got offers, there was always some faction trying to propose an alliance through marriage. We would never marry a woman like that, without getting to know her first, as though a relationship was nothing but a transaction to us.
And we would never let a woman as close to any of us as Yana had once been.
“It’s not just me they are after, you know. I get offers for all of you, okay, maybe less for Alexei than the rest of you,” Nikolai’s tone showed that he teased, but there was still a seriousness there as well.
I was surprised to hear women had asked about any of the rest of us, though it was understandable why they would be reluctant to marry Alexei. I was fairly certain Pasha had slept his way through every eligible woman in Chicago, as well as a fair few who weren’t available, and a good portion of the men. And I was never really one to socialize, preferring to concentrate on my work, rather than gossip or socializing.
“Well, aren’t we all lucky that you haven’t married us off without talking to us first, then?” I quipped, though I knew Nikolai did everything in his power to protect us from the clutches of the women of Chicago, as much to preserve his own peace as it was to protect them from us. I’d be a terrible husband, we all would. Nikolai would probably be the best of us all, but even so, he was far too focused on his work. Then if you added in that he was a Wurdulac, most women would go running for the hills.
It was common knowledge in Chicago that Nikolai was a vampire. Very few Scions held their lineage secret for long, although the four of us had a bit of an advantage being orphans. Vampires came in different varieties, and Nikolai was from an old Russian lineage. Wurdulac could only feed from their loved ones. We were all used to it and had no problem supplying him with the blood he needed to survive, but it would be a lot to ask of a new bride.
Nikolai chuckled at my comment, so at least I had managed to lighten the mood of the call. He couldn’t return to his guests angry, as that was sure to just cause him more problems.
“Once I clean up here and make sure there is nothing I’ve missed, then I’ll head home. I can check in with Alexei and Pasha, and we can work on a plan.”
“I will see you when you get home, brother.” And with that, Nikolai disconnected the call.
I took another few seconds away from everyone to settle myself, then I turned back to the warehouse and started the process of checking in with my men. The cleaning crew was a well-oiled machine. They moved around the men, making sure that bodies were carted off, all the blood cleaned up, and any shell casings vanished. We didn’t expect any sort of police raid, but always being cautious about leaving evidence behind was part of what kept us safe. Some people considered me paranoid, but to me it was just forward planning. We wouldn’t use this warehouse forever, and I wanted nothing that could tie us to it when we eventually left, especially evidence of a crime.
My second-in-command approached to show me the photos he had taken of each of the bodies, their faces, as well as any tattoos that could identify them. I took a quick scroll through the images, but still not recognizing anyone, I forwarded them on to Pasha. I had already received two messages from him in reply to my earlier call. One complained I had interrupted his date, the second was only a photo—the top of a woman’s head. She was on her knees and not looking at the camera. No, she was far too busy measuring how much of his cock she could swallow in one go.
Shaking my head, I swiped away from the photo. It wasn’t the first he had sent me, nor would it be the last. If there was ever a time I regretted how open me and my brothers were, it was when Pasha was talking about his latest conquest. Mostly because those conversations were usually accompanied by photos. There had even been several times when there had been a slideshow.
After making sure there were a couple of extra guards in place, I ordered the rest of my men back to the compound. Reports needed to be written up. While I had a good idea of what had happened during the fight, there was always the chance I had missed something important, and that was a risk I couldn’t take. All my men knew what I expected of them.
At a whistle from my lips, Ghost and Demon stalked out of the warehouse ahead of me. For what felt like the millionth time, I thought about changing their names. Ten-year-old boys should not be allowed to name animals, well anything, that were going to live so long. But just like every other time, I shook my head and followed behind them. Ghost and Demon were a part of me, literally in some ways, and there was no way I could change their names, any more than I could change my own.
They were already in the SUV when I opened the driver’s door, happily curled up in the backseat together. It had been a couple of weeks since they had gotten to really stretch their legs and pursue anything worth their attention, and I was going to have to take them on a decent hunt soon.
While I really shouldn’t have wished for more violence, the satisfaction I could feel humming from them after the fight was vibrating through my core as well. I didn’t want people attacking my family, but that didn’t mean that I wasn’t relishing the thought of a war.
It had been so long since we’d had a good one, and I was already itching for the next battle.