The secret society's interest in them, however, wasn't so easily denied. They needed people like them, new blood that wasn't afraid to spill the blood of others. They had proven themselves to be incredibly effective in their roles helping their uncle, and the Black Sun wasn't prepared to let them slip through their fingers because of a far lesser responsibility.
It wasn't long after the order's offer that Uncle Isaac went missing. Vincent and Victor searched for days. They questioned all of his many enemies and anyone who might have held a grudge against him. There were many, and the two brothers broke all kinds of bones trying to find out what happened to their uncle. None of their suspects knew anything about what happened to Isaac. They were the kind of people who would have told the truth if pressed hard enough, and Vincent and Victor pressed them very hard. They still got no results that could help find him.
They searched high and low, but Uncle Isaac never turned up. The people that he used to threaten and oppress on the streets had trouble hiding their relief, but the two brothers were left hollow. Their only purpose and job that they were any good at was gone. All of their talents would be wasted doing anything else. There weren't many occupations that took advantage of their gift for causing people substantial amounts of pain.
That was when the Order of the Black Sun came back and asked again. They wanted both brothers to join their ranks, to become members of a secret society that would be able to give them something worthy of their skills. Victor agreed this time without question, not wanting to lose his opportunity to fight to his heart's content. Vincent accepted the offer as well, but he did so with far more cautiousness. Unlike his brother, Vincent thought a lot about how things had unfolded, and just how they had been recruited. The thought did cross his mind that the Black Sun could have been responsible for his uncle's sudden disappearance, but he never voiced this to Victor. His brute of an older brother wouldn't have understood, and he already seemed too happy to have found a purpose again.
As they joined the order, Vincent never forgot about his theory. They went on retrieval missions for the order and even on the far side of the world, collecting all kinds of strange items, things that Vincent had no idea what to make of, he still thought of his uncle. Isaac had been a bad man, a horrible person by most people's standards, but he had given them a home and a family when the brothers needed one. Most importantly, he'd helped forge them into warriors. Not knowing what exactly happened to him was worse than knowing it had been something horrible. At least then, they would have someone or something to blame.
But deep down, Vincent knew whom he should hold responsible—the Order of the Black Sun themselves. There were no other options that made sense. They had motive and had resources to make someone simply vanish off the face of the earth. Isaac's disappearance would leave the brothers ripe for the taking when it came to wanting to recruit them. It all made far too much sense, and sometime after joining, Vincent found proof.
One of his fellow members of the order was wearing a far too familiar ring, one that his uncle had worn every day. There was no other ring like it, and Vincent knew he had been right. He never told Victor, but he had plans to avenge his uncle, even if it meant being expelled or executed. He lured that underling with the ring—Sal was his name—to an isolated location on the pretense that it was part of an assignment. Sal didn't expect anything out of the ordinary. He was dense, nothing more than another body for the order to have to bolster their numbers. Vincent shouldn't have expected much, considering Sal flaunted a trophy from a secret kill so openly in front of his victim's family.
Vincent killed that imbecile quietly, and unseen—at least he thought he was unseen. One pair of gray eyes watched the murder take place and slowly approached from behind him.
“Impressive,” Julian Corvus said from the shadows. Vincent knew Julian as a fellow member but hadn't interacted with him directly very much. Many talked about them in the same breath, like they were both talented up and comers in the order. People acted like they should be competing. Vincent had never really cared much about comparisons, not even with his brother anymore. Julian continued, glancing at the fresh corpse. “But, might I ask...what did he do to deserve that?”
Vincent slipped off the ring on Sal's finger and showed it to Julian. “He helped murder my Uncle Isaac. It needed to be answered for.”
Julian gave a crooked, telling smile. “Oh, you know about that. That complicates things, doesn't it?”
Vincent stared at him. “You knew about this? How many others know?”
“Quite a few,” Julian said. “Your whole recruitment was a big deal at the time. We were all sworn to secrecy. But it seems Sal didn't understand how to truly make someone disappear. You don't leave anything behind...especially not something as flashy as a ring.”
The way Julian talked about the murder so callously...it infuriated Vincent. He hated how smug this young man was. They were both around the same age, but Julian carried himself like he was so much smarter and superior to him. Vincent wanted to kill him too, kill anyone who knew about Isaac and didn't say anything.
“You and your brother have talent. The order couldn't just let you go about your normal lives. Your uncle wasn't utilizing your skills properly. You and Victor have a knack for killing. This is the one place on Earth that will let you explore those gifts of yours. And some day, if I ever have a bigger say in the order, I'll see to it that you two are treated with the respect you deserve.”
“Or I could just kill all of your liars.”
“You could,” Julian raised his hands in surrender and laughed. “But again, that would be such a waste, wouldn't it? Your uncle is dead and gone. This is your home now. Might as well just enjoy the new life we've given you. Better than pummeling a few faces on the streets for shortchanging your uncle, don't you think?”
As much as Vincent didn't like Julian, he raised a good point. There wasn't anything else for him or Victor in the world, and his brother seemed so content...he'd gotten a sliver of vengeance for his uncle. That would have to be enough.
“Fine,” Vincent said.
“Wonderful,” Julian said with a snicker. “Now let's get rid of this body before anyone notices.”
And just like that, Vincent became a permanent member of the group that had murdered his uncle. He helped make that body disappear, just like Uncle Isaac had vanished without a trace. And Vincent was sure to get rid of all evidence and not take any rings from him. He even disposed of the ring he had reclaimed just to be safe.
When they had finished disposing of the evidence, Julian outstretched his hand. “I'm looking forward to working with you, Vincent Moore.”
Vincent hesitated. He didn't want to shake hands with such an arrogant human being, but he relented and took it. “You as well, Julian Corvus.”
In the time that followed, as Julian became leader of the Eclipsed and eventually the head of the entire organization, Vincent hated working with him. He couldn't stand the man, but they both served the same order. He may have lost his uncle, but the Order of the Black Sun became a new family to him. One that he and his brother could finally call home.
He just had to endure dealing with Julian.
10
CHAPTER TEN– THE FINAL INTERVIEW
Sasha had expected to be summoned by Julian at some point since her return. He never liked her to be free of his torments for too long, and she was certain he'd want to hear all about her latest assignment and the prize she brought back.
Still, when she received the summons from one of the newer recruits that she didn't recognize, part of her was concerned that it was about Elijah. If Elijah had told him that he saw her spying all those nights ago, Julian would have a lot of questions for her. All she could do was wait and see, but that possibility did creep at the back of her mind, tickling her with some unease.
She stepped out of her room and found Galen Fitzgerald waiting for her. Besides Julian, Galen was one of the people she liked the least in the order. Mo
st people in the order despised him, but he was rich and had some influence, so she had recruited him. Honestly, she recruited him with the hopes that she could use a twit like him for support...unfortunately, he immediately groveled at Julian's feet instead the moment Julian took charge.
In her eyes, he had become just the court jester of the Order of the Black Sun. He was just a fool who spent a lot of time there, learning about all of the latest gossip and hoping that someday he would be given some semblance of real power if he stayed around long enough.
“You've been gone awhile,” Galen snickered. “Fruitful ventures I hope.”
“Kind of,” Sasha said, walking past him and hoping he'd get the hint that she wasn't in the mood to talk. He hobbled along beside her with his cane, forcing the conversation to happen.
“Where have you been all of this time?”
“Norway,” she said simply, not wanting to elaborate since there wasn't much more fictional story that she could elaborate on off the top of her head.
“Norway! Beautiful place. Went there myself once. Was looking for a Viking longship that sunk there like a thousand years ago. Never found the damn thing, much to my shame. There's actually a whole chapter about it in my book. You read that yet?”
Sasha rolled her eyes. “No. Not really my type of book.”
“Shame, you are really missing out,” Galen said. “Though I may be a bit biased. So what were you looking for out that way? Find anything interesting?”
“I don't think that's any of your business, Galen,” Sasha said, trying to restrain herself from punching him in the face. She could only take about a minute and a half of him before wanting to resort to violence. Sometimes she wished she'd done more than just put a few bullets in his leg back when they first met. And most of the time, she regretted ever bringing him into the order. It seemed like a good idea at the time.
“I suppose not, eh?” He laughed. “But when you recruited me, you made it my business in a way, didn't you?”
“No,” Sasha said. “I didn't recruit you to be nosy. I recruited you because I thought you would be helpful to the order.”
“I have been!” Galen said in a rather whiny tone. “I've done everything anyone has asked me to do. I'm paying my dues, I get that, but I want a chance to actually prove my worth. I heard you were on your way to speak to Julian--”
“And how did you hear that?” She figured it was from that same rookie that had summoned her to begin with. “Like I said, Galen, you're not getting any points for being nosy and trying to force your way into other people's business.”
“Fair enough,” Galen relented but only ever so briefly before his entitlement returned. “All I'm asking is that you put in a good word for me with Julian.”
“Why don't you just do that yourself?”
They were approaching Julian's chambers, and Sasha wanted to brush this fly away before he was within earshot of their leader. Or better yet, she would have liked to have been able to dump him onto Julian.
“It will just sound like patting myself on the back!” Galen groaned.
“Right,” Sasha said, hardly able to stop her eyes from rolling in her skull again. “Because you never, ever pat yourself on the back. I learned that from the autobiography all about your many exploits that you needed to share with the world.”
“Did I write that in there?” Galen asked, missing her sarcastic point entirely. “All I'm saying is that it would better to hear coming from your mouth rather than from mine, don't you think?”
“I'll try to remember to mention it,” she said sharply, walking toward Julian's room.
“I'd really appreciate it!” Galen called.
She was glad to finally be able to break free from that ridiculous conversation. There really needed to be an easier way to avoid having to speak to him for an extended period of time. He was like a spider, and once you were in Galen's web of nonsense and self-gratification, it was very difficult to get yourself out of it.
It was telling that Sasha was happy to be speaking to Julian instead of Galen.
Before she could go in to speak to Julian, the door opened on its own, and a young woman Sasha didn't recognize stepped out. She must have been another one of the new prospects; those unfamiliar faces that were filling the facility faster than Sasha could keep track of. The sudden influx of new recruits was somewhat alarming, and Sasha was tempted to ask Julian about it.
The young woman had long dark hair. As she closed the door behind her, not noticing Sasha or Galen, her expression was stiff and rigid. Her mouth looked frozen in a permanent glower. However, the moment she looked up and saw that she wasn't alone, that mouth transformed into one of the brightest smiles Sasha had ever seen.
“Oh!” she said with a childish innocence that could only be faked. Sasha had played enough roles to know when someone was acting a part. She already didn't like this girl. “I'm sorry. I'm in your way, aren't I?”
“A bit,” Sasha said bluntly, not in the mood to play around with the new batch of amateurs. “Could you step aside?”
Sasha had been with the Black Sun for a long time now, and that allowed her some authority at their home base. She usually didn't care enough to throw her weight around, but in this case, she was more than happy to show this upstart that she wasn't in the mood for these games.
“Apologies,” the young dark haired woman bowed her head. “I am so sorry.”
“Kendra!” Galen called from a short distance away, and Sasha suddenly hated this young woman even more. Her interruption had brought Galen back, and that was something that was going to be hard to forgive. “Kendra, aren't you a sight for sore eyes!”
Galen came marching back, sounding like he was seeing his favorite person on the planet. Kendra smiled at Galen with those bright shining teeth of hers, and while it might have made the Irishman swoon, Sasha could still see the cracks in that facade.
“It's good to see you too, Galen,” the girl—Kendra, he called her—giggled.
“Speaking with Julian, eh?” Galen chuckled, looking over at the door she had just closed. “Hopefully you didn't do anything too bad.”
Obviously Galen had completely blacked out all of the conversation Sasha had just had with him. He was still being nosy and prying into people's business where he didn't belong. Sasha already disliked the new girl, but she couldn't stand that Galen was already trying to sink his claws into her for gossip. There was a difference between trying to find valuable information that could be used in the future and just being intrusive. Galen was the latter, all the time.
“Oh no, nothing bad,” Kendra said with that same fake happiness. It was like she was a piñata filled with nothing but joy and rainbows. It almost made Sasha sick. “He just gave me my new assignment. My first real serious one. Not just reconnaissance work this time.”
“Really?” Galen seemed so proud of her, but Sasha could see that he was just trying to squeeze whatever news he could get out of her. “Something more serious? What kind of assignment might that be?”
“Galen,” Sasha snapped.
Sasha was done with his prying, and if he had to continue, he was going to do it away from her. She was sick of hearing it. The last ten minutes had been nothing but Galen probing for anything that he could use to his advantage down the line. Whether it was questioning her or trying to act like he was actually curious about this new recruit's life...it was tiring to have to listen to.
“Fine, fine,” Galen said but didn't look like he was done. He leaned in and whispered to Kendra, loud enough for Sasha to still hear. “Sasha can't stand the sight of me sometimes, but in secret, we're friends. Just don't tell her that.”
“It's really not true,” Sasha said, folding her arms.
“Have you two met?” Galen suddenly blurted out with excitement. “Sasha, this is Kendra. She's rather new to the order but is already making a name for herself, eh?”
Kendra let out another fake giggle, and Sasha just wanted to take that noise and shove i
t back down the throat that it came from. That would be so, so satisfying.
“It's a pleasure to meet you,” Kendra squeaked. “I've heard so much about you. There are so many people hear that have said the best things about you.”
Sasha might have been flattered, if she didn't know that this girl was making stuff up to try and get on her good side. It was hard to like someone when they spent so much time talking out of their ass. She wasn't much better than Galen. He was insufferably confident, and she was insufferably pleasant. Sasha wanted to throw both of them out of the way so she could get on with this meeting with Julian.
Sasha didn't bother responding to the greeting. It was all just a bunch of nonsense pleasantries that didn't mean anything. She stepped forward and practically pushed them out of the way. “I have a meeting to get to.”
Both Galen and Kendra looked a bit perturbed by Sasha's response, but they moved aside for her. As much as Sasha didn't like either of them, she did feel a slight bit of guilt to brush off a new recruit like that. For all she knew, the girl was just compensating and acting overly friendly to everyone to make up for being in a new place.
Before she went into Julian's chambers, she turned back to Kendra.
“Good luck on whatever it is you've been assigned to. No need to tell Galen anything about it, and believe me, he's going to want to hear every minute detail of it when it's done.”
Galen chuckled. “She's not exactly wrong, I must say.”
“It was nice meeting you, Sasha,” Kendra said in that fake tone that so many people tried to use when they wanted to be bubbly and cute. Sasha immediately regretted even wishing her good luck at all. She chose to not respond to her again and went straight for the door.
Order of the Black Sun Box Set 10 Page 27