Felix #2
I stared up at my cousin, the neon lights strobing along the dark club as I really looked at him for the first time in so long.
Kief was close to me in age, but I still dominated him in both size and strength.
There was no doubt he was smart, but he was always weaker than me.
And he fucking hated it, almost as much as he hated my dad and the rest of us.
But the more I looked at the fucker before me, the more my rage ignited and surged through my veins.
My entire body tightened as I grappled with the urge to just beat the ever-living shit out of him.
The muscles in my limbs and neck swelled as I restrained myself.
As much as I wanted to do so, I knew violence wasn’t the answer.
At least, not at this exact moment. But I fucking hated him.
Cousin or not, Kief was the head of Northern Lights…
the sworn enemy of Charlotte’s Web. Which meant, even with the treaty broken, I couldn’t do shit to him. Not without really fucking things up.
How fucking annoying.
Kief grinned, his usual annoying persona snapping back.
He smacked my arm, his bloodied hand leaving a stain on my leather jacket.
“You know, I never realized how much you favor him.” He reached out to touch my bare face, smearing his blood along my cheek before I slapped his hand away, taken aback by the entire interaction.
Kief laughed, the sound of his cackle rippling over itself, echoing and repeating through my mind as it filled my ears and surrounded my brain.
“It’s as if Ignacio himself were standing before me, in his prime. ”
My blood ran cold at the sound of my father’s name…
an old and familiar fear crawling up my back as I shot to my feet, stumbling back a little.
The lights in the club flickered and strobed faster as everything began to bleed into one another, smearing like paint along the surface of water.
Kief’s face twisted as his laughter altered, his face now dripping with blood as he stared at me, his eyes locked onto mine and burning through the deep red color.
Screams filled the club behind us as chaos broke out, gun shots and fear piercing through the muddied scene.
“Felix!” The sound of a woman’s voice calling my name began to grow in depth and volume. “Felix!” My heart stopped and I nearly fell over, realizing who it belonged to.
No…No!
“Felix! Run! Run!” A loud gunshot broke out as the smell of smoke filled my nostrils.
Flashes of that night, long ago, flickered like an old black and white film, playing across Kief’s blood-stained face while he laughed.
My hands gripped and pressed against my skull as I tried to block out the intense memory… but it was no use.
No…this can’t be. It can’t be!
I fell to my knees, feeling a warmth in my palms. My arms fell as I looked down, staring in disbelief at the blood on my hands.
“No.” My voice wavered with absolute horror.
“This can’t be real….it can’t be real!” I swung my palm, slapping myself harshly across my cheek.
“Wake up!” I slapped myself again, my ears ringing from the harsh impact as blood stained my flesh.
“Wake up! Wake the fuck up!” But no matter how hard, or how often I hit myself, nothing changed.
No. No, no, no, no, no!
A warm hand gripped my chin, forcing my focus upwards.
“You can’t wake up from this, Felix.” I peered through tear-filled eyes, my blurred vision settling as I stared back up at Kief.
He maneuvered my face around until my eyes fell back to her lifeless body, lying on the ground before me.
I struggled and tried to look away, but Kief wouldn’t let me.
“Feast your eyes upon your past and know your fate, cousin.” The woman’s eyes were wide, forever frozen in those final moments of her life and painted in absolute fear.
Blood seeped from the gunshot wound on her forehead and pooled around my knees, soaking into the threads of my clothes.
I frantically tried to escape the memory, but Kief forced me even closer, grinning ear to ear at my obvious trauma.
“Look at it!” he shouted. “See what happens when the peace is broken? When you and your family think selfishly of no one but yourselves!” He dug his nails into my skin and I felt all my strength leave me.
I had no drive to resist him—too broken from seeing her dead before me.
My body went limp as I stared at the woman, her dark, pitch-black hair sprawled across her face.
“Her death is both your faults. Yours and Ignacio’s.
And now that you’ve broken our treaty, you and your siblings will meet the same fate.
” He released my face and my body slumped forward, falling into her blood, inches from her dead gaze.
No…
Tears streamed down my face as I reached out to her, shaking. “Mom—” A gunshot rang out as pain pierced through my back and landed in my chest, leaving me gasping for air.
“No!” My eyes immediately shot open and I inhaled sharply, sucking in a loud breath, wheezing as my hands clutched my chest.
“Jesus, fuck!” My brother, Haze’s, voice startled me. “Felix?” I swung my head, my eyes scrambling to piece together where I was as our gazes locked. It took a good minute or so for my body to ease and realize what had happened. “Felix?” My brother looked at me with worry. “Are you okay?”
Fuck…not again.
I ran my fingers through my hair and rubbed my face, letting out a relieved sigh while wiping away the beads of sweat that had formed as I slept.
You’re okay. It was just a nightmare. Another fucking nightmare.
Haze sighed, shaking his dark hair. “Still having those bad dreams?” I looked over as he walked to my side and placed a hand on my shoulder.
“I thought you said they went away?” With his other hand, he pulled a vape pen from his pocket and raised it to his mouth, inhaling deeply before breathing out the smoke.
“Damn.” The smell of weed instantly filled the room.
I glanced at my younger brother, both annoyed and amazed at how much he’d grown over the years.
Between being in the military and active with Charlotte’s Web, it meant I missed out on so much of his and his twin, Indigo’s, lives.
Something I always regretted. But now, they were both adults.
And while Haze’s physique and strength were similar to my own, there was something deep-seated within him that left me uneasy.
As if he had this untapped beast that was just itching to crawl out and devour this shitty world.
He looked at me with those emerald-green eyes, identical to mine, and offered me the vape. I slapped it away. “You know I don’t like that shit.”
Haze smiled, and I could see our father in his features.
“Your loss.” He grinned, looking more like my younger sister, Indigo, with that cocky smile.
The twins really did look almost identical, but even still, you could tell he and I were brothers.
Especially since the three of us all favored our father.
But the twins had this touch of softness they inherited from their mother, something I wish my own mother would’ve bestowed onto me.
I just wasn’t lucky. But regardless, there was no doubting who our father was.
We all looked like different versions of that man, and we all fucking hated it.
I shoved Haze’s hand from my shoulder, grumbling to myself. “I’m fine.” I turned my focus back to the wall of monitors before me, remembering what I was doing before I apparently passed out.
My younger brother smirked, taking another hit from his stupid vape pen.
“Sure you are,” he teased, leaning against my desk as he pulled out his phone and messed with it.
“You know, you’re going to work yourself to death if you keep this up.
” His green eyes flicked to mine before motioning towards the numerous monitors.
“I get there’s shit that needs to be done, but—”
“I said I’m fine,” I snapped. “Besides…you know why.” I shot him a side glance, hoping those three words were enough to both prove my point and shut him up.
Haze took another hit, blowing the smoke in my direction.
I glared back at him. “Oh, come on,” he whined.
“It was one guy, Felix. I still don’t see how one fucker’s death was enough to cause an all-out war with Northern Lights.
” His expression darkened. “They should’ve thought twice before tailing Indi.
” His voice was low and possessive. A tone I only ever witnessed when it came to his twin.
The two of them had always been close, sharing everything as kids, but there was something deeper between them.
Some might call it sick and taboo, others referring to it as the ultimate form of narcissism—being obsessed with an identical copy of yourself—but honestly, I didn’t give a fuck.
At least they weren’t alone. They had each other, and I knew Haze would do anything for his twin sister. And deep down, I envied what they had.
“Fuck Kief,” Haze growled. “The only family I have in this world is you and Indi. The rest are as dead to me as our father.” He took a long drag of the vape, holding it in before finally exhaling it into the air.
I shot to my feet, stopping a mere inch from my brother, and scowled at him.
Haze was unfazed by my temper, just standing there looking arrogant as ever.
Sure, he didn’t know everything, but he knew enough to get his shit together.
Or at least let me handle it. “Unless you want to end up exactly like him, I suggest you shut the fuck up and let me do my job.” Haze rolled his eyes and lifted his vape pen, but I slapped it away.
“And stop smoking so much fucking weed! I need to focus and I can’t do that when my place fucking reeks. ”