Talia
“Did you see the paper today?” I ask, peering over this morning’s daily of the Kinsmen Gauntlet.
Tommy walks into the dining room, wearing his disheveled Doors T-shirt and sweatpants, and squeezes the back of my neck before pouring a glass of orange juice from my crystal decanter, guzzling it down. He smells sweet, like shampoo.
Like her. No longer trying to hide the fact that he’s fucking her, I see.
“Not yet, babe. It was a late night from the mess you left us.” He leans down for a kiss, and I wave him off as I continue reading the story.
Anger is not an emotion that serves me, so I bundle it up, so Tommy doesn’t end up like a rodent.
I wonder if he knows he’s on the front page of the Kinsmen Gauntlet.
My little sacrifice walks in looking positively radiant—glowing—wearing nothing but one of Tommy’s long band T-shirts that shows off her toned, pale legs.
I pause for a moment, dropping the paper down a couple of inches and adjusting my reading glasses. The two of them exchange a look, and Didi bites her bottom lip and diverts her gaze, fighting a smile. They might as well have rainbows fluttering from their eyes, they are being so obvious.
It is interesting that Remy has yet to make an appearance this morning. Lucy reported he left the house early, despite it being Sunday. I figured Didi was still upstairs in his room, which means Lucy lied to me by omission.
A punishment that warrants death… I will deal with her traitorous behavior later.
“Did you two sleep well?” I ask with a bite in my voice. My night didn’t go as planned. In fact, it was much worse. Stephen is proving to be a worthy opponent. Both in and out of the bedroom.
Didi works her throat as she attempts to swallow, and the crystal chandelier flickers above us, as if mirroring my anger.
She sits with her back perfectly straight and her head down her white hair falling over her eyes, and Bax walks in shortly after, slouching in his usual seat.
“We didn’t get much sleep,” Tommy says as sweat beads on his forehead. “We were too busy putting out fires.”
Pins and needles begin to plague my skin. I focus on my nerve endings, trying to calm myself. These pins and needles trigger my blackouts, right before blind rage takes over and I have the urge to kill someone. This urge has been with me ever since I died.
Tommy squeezes and rubs my thigh. I find his touch soothing, but the person I need right now is Remy.
The memories of being buried alive get overwhelming…
and sometimes, despite my desperate attempts of turning off my humanity, I turn back into that scared little girl who fell in love with a monster.
Tommy goes in for the bacon. “How was your night, babe? Do I have to kill Stephen?”
My jaw tenses at the thought of fucking Stephen Garcia last night. He kept calling me a dirty little whore for cheating on my boyfriend with him. He hinted that he knew things about my family. He quoted the Codex and saw the mark Father Malcom left on me.
He knows I’m tainted.
I let him do things I don’t even let Tommy do to me to get more information out of him. He made me get on my knees and beg for his cock, where he persisted in smearing his cum all over my face.
My hands are still shaking from the control I needed not to slaughter him.
But since I’m unsure how many others are involved, killing him would have been stupid.
I had my suspicions, but I’m now sure that Stephen’s family is the missing bloodline, which makes him more appealing to me.
He made me promise to come see him again, or he’d expose me to the world.
Tommy’s eyes crinkle as he finally notices his name on the newspaper. “What the hell is that?”
I smile sweetly and read:
LOCAL HERO DRAGS FOUR STUDENTS FROM CAMPUS INFERNO — “SHADOWFACE” WHISPERS IGNITE FEAR, AND RUMORS OF A WHITE-HAIRED GIRL SPREAD.
KINSMEN – The night sky over Kinsmen lit up in a hellish glow just after midnight, as a roaring fire gutted a student house—and one man’s heroism kept the death toll from climbing.
The mayor’s son, Tommy Landry (19) was seen hauling dazed, screaming students from the blaze just moments before the house erupted.
The fire is the third to rip through Kinsmen in the past three months, and two within a single night.
While officials are calling them “unrelated incidents,” locals are buzzing with an ancient, darker name—Shadowface.
Whispers of Shadowface first surfaced during the unsolved killings of ‘55.
They say this phantom figure thrives on chaos and stalks his victims before ripping them to shreds.
Debbie Holly, the owner of the local grocer, FreshMart, stated, “Shadowface is older than hell itself. He’s been coming ‘round since the beginning of time.”
These fires are in wake of the mysterious deaths of Daniel Jenkins (21) and Father Malcom (49), who went missing without a trace earlier this year, sparking new fears of nefarious behavior in the area. Locals have also reported sightings of a white-haired girl among the flames.
Mayor Landry barked at reporters this morning, calling the rumors “baseless bunk,” but also announced a mandatory 10 p.m. curfew, effective immediately. “These aren’t ghosts we’re chasing,” Landry insists. “This is an arsonist, and we’re going to catch him.”
The phone rings in the other room, just as I finish. It’s been ringing all morning with local reporters trying to get a quote.
Lucy pokes her face in. “Phones for you, Tommy.”
His eyes widen and he looks at me. “I messed up, huh?”
“Tell them we’re not providing any comment,” I say to Lucy, giving her a hard smile. She crinkles her eyes, a slight defiance I don’t appreciate, and obeys.
Even Bax is scared. “Shit, are they going to arrest us, man?”
I take a sip of my tea. “No. But my father wishes for us to keep a low profile. Folks have been gossiping about the girl with white hair. He asked if we knew what they were talking about since he saw Didi’s body in the well.
I told him that perhaps she had returned from the dead.
” I glance at Didi and smile, picking my nails. “You’ve caused quite a stir, darling.”
“We have to keep Didi hidden,” Tommy says, curling his fists, beads of sweat forming on his brow. “He will kill her if he finds out she’s alive.”
“We will,” I say dryly.
“I mean it, Talia,” Tommy barks. “You promised.”
I grab his knee and squeeze. “We will.” And that’s a promise I intend to keep.
Didi’s eyes flash as she gazes at me. A glint of something in her eye I can’t seem to get away from. She certainly has a hold on the boys in this house, but as I warned Tommy, she ultimately belongs to me.
I glance around all of them. “Remember your oaths. Don’t make me remind you what happens to people who break them.”
“Damn, Talia,” Tommy mumbles as my anger pulses from beneath my skin in a way I simply cannot control. ‘That’s so vicious, babe.”
I ignore him and rake my eyes over Didi. “Except you haven’t taken an oath yet, have you, Didi?”
She hoods her eyes before piercing me with her pale stare. She rises and pulls up her shirt, revealing herself to the table. My pulse quickens when I see the blister on her thigh. Her fingers brush her scar as if it’s made of something precious. “Yes,” she says in a breathless voice. “I have.”
The recognizable mark of Shadowface, where a sacrifice willingly gives her soul to the devil. I would know; I have the same mark on me.
Remy’s been a bad boy—this has him written all over it. He never would have let Tommy mark what he deems his. In so many ways, he’s worse than I am.
His darkness runs deeper than mine, his blood tainted from when he was a boy. I may be the eldest, but he is the protector of all evil things. He is the true protector of the Order.
The true male heir.