* * * *
Ethan ran through the clan dwelling at a break neck speed. Along the way, he could hear his name being called out by others, but he didn’t stop. He was too intent on his target. Dominic. For years, he and the warlock had been at odds. Ethan hated Dominic because the warlock knew his darkest weakness and Dominic despised him because he saw Ethan as the pampered son of a coven leader. Now the fucking bastard had finally gone too far.
If he wanted a fight, then he was getting one and, magic or not, Ethan was going to come out on top. He snarled as he thought about how good it was going to feel to beat that smirk off the warlock’s face. To make him eat all those condescending words he’d tossed around.
So caught up in his murderous haze of rage, he almost missed the fucker. He was in the training room with Rafe and Morgan. Lucky for Ethan, they were the only ones in there, too. Good, that meant there would be less individuals around so the odds were in his favor and could do some real damage to the warlock before they could stop him.
“Ethan, what’s going on?” Rafe asked, his voice raised in concern.
He ignored his brother, too intent on his target. Letting out another snarl, he yelled, “You just couldn’t keep your damn mouth shut!”
Dominic saw him coming.
Ethan didn’t give him time to react before he launched himself at the warlock. Wrapping his arms around the warlock’s chest, Ethan took him down to the hardwood floor. Dimly he could still hear Rafe yelling and Morgan screaming, but Ethan shut them out.
Dominic threw his hands up to shoot off a magic blast, but for some reason it didn’t work.
“Oh, looks like I’m not the only one to have their powers crap on them. This is my lucky day.” His lips spreading out into a smile that he knew looked sinister, Ethan started wailing on his prey.
Dominic tried to fight back, but like most warlocks, he was better with his magic than brute force. Ethan on the other hand, had all the muscle he needed, thanks to his new vampire body. There was a snarl to his left and then he felt a heavy weight as Rafe slammed into him, throwing him off Dominic.
Ethan rolled across the floor before a set of folding chairs stopped his momentum. Springing to his feet, he crouched into a fighting position and hissed. His fangs were fully dropped, his claws out and he knew he’d totally lost control of his emotions. He was finally letting out all the anger, hate and hurt and damned if it didn’t feel good.
“This is going to be so much fun. I’ve wanted to kick your ass from the day you dared show your face at the coven,” Ethan hissed as he sized up Rafe.
“What’s stopping you? Let’s do this,” Rafe challenged back, his fangs coming out, too.
Ethan charged and Rafe met him halfway, their bodies coming together in a clash of snarls and claws. For a while, Ethan actually held his own, then the years Rafe had on him of vampire fighting tactics won out, and his brother got the upper hand. Pinning Ethan face down on the ground, Rafe held him down.
“Had enough?” Rafe’s low voice rumbled.
“Fuck you!” Ethan snarled. He was dismayed to realize they had an audience now and it was a lively one, too. Two vampires had a hold of Zeke so he couldn’t come to help and another group were keeping Kavan and the rest of the warlocks back.
“What in the hell is on your back? I didn’t hurt you, did I?” Rafe asked as he shifted his hold slightly so he could tug on Ethan’s fight-ripped shirt.
Horror went through Ethan as he realized that his most humiliating secret was about to be exposed to a room full vampires. He started to fight again in earnest, cussing, spitting and calling Rafe every name in the book. It didn’t stop his brother though. If anything, it only seemed to make him more curious. Ethan could feel bile rise up in the back of his throat and realized his worst nightmare was going down and he had no way in hell to stop it. Holding him down tighter, Rafe lifted the back of his shirt, revealing his brands for everyone to see.
“Holy fuck, tell me this isn’t what I think it is,” Rafe breathed, his voice shaking with emotion. There were several gasps from the room. Even though the vampires wouldn’t know what the marks meant, it wasn’t every day you saw someone with a skull and inverted pentagram burned into their flesh. Judging from his brother’s reaction, he had enough magical knowledge to know he was staring at.
Ethan closed his eyes. Please don’t let this be happening. Please. Please. Please.
“No, Goddess, no,” Morgan sobbed. She started retching and the sounds hit him like physical blows. She had once been his dearest friend and now he was actually making her sick with disgust.
“I knew it was bad, but I had no idea,” Dominic said.
Finally, there was a little bit of fear in the warlock’s voice, but it only brought Ethan more heartbreak. “If you care for me at all, like you claim, then you’ll do both of us a favor and just kill me now,” Ethan pleaded in a whisper so only Rafe heard. He wouldn’t be even getting that wish today though. Instead, Rafe got to his feet and slowly started to back away from Ethan as if he was some demon who’d just clawed its way up from Hell. Then again, now that they all finally knew the truth, that was probably how they viewed him.
“Ethan, tell them all of it,” Kavan yelled, still struggling against the Drone soldier who was holding him.
“Tell us what?” Rafe ran his hand through his hair, his eyes looked so haunted, so broken.
At first, Ethan felt even more grief and then he remembered it was Rafe who exposed his secret to everyone in the first place. Anger surged through Ethan and instead of answering Rafe’s question, Ethan lifted his hand and slowly raised his middle finger at him. Childish, yes, but it was all he had.
“Explain to them why you did it,” Kavan urged, nearly sobbing.
“There’s nothing to explain,” Ethan said bitterly as he got to his feet, pulling his shirt down to hide the damning marks. “Some things you can’t undo. I should have remembered that.” He glanced over at Zeke still held back by other vampires and the look of confusion on his handsome face. Ethan knew that soon it would be replaced with one of disgust when he realized just what he’d done by saving the dying warlock. It would have been better for all of them if he’d just let Ethan die in that filthy room. At least then, he’d have been able to hold onto the last shred of dignity he had.
“We can fix this. I’m sure it was all a mistake.” Rafe reached out for him.
Ethan dodged away from his touch. “My only mistake was thinking I could have all this.” Giving Zeke one last look of longing, Ethan turned around and walked out of the room. He could hear Zeke yelling after him, pleading with him to come back. It took every bit of the strong discipline that the Nine had beat into him for Ethan not to turn around.
Chapter Ten
Zeke watched Ethan walk out of the room, his shoulders hunched like he had the weight of the world on them. Judging from what had just gone down, he probably did. Although he still didn’t have a clue what those marks on the male’s back had meant, going from the magics’ reaction, it wasn’t good. “Somebody better tell me what the fuck is going on! What were those things on his back?” He snarled, his fangs making an appearance.
“They are the brands a dark warlock gets when he completes a certain ritual for the Nine,” Morgan responded woodenly as she wrapped her arms around her stomach. She was still looking a little green and trembling from head to toe.
“What kind of ritual?” Zeke asked, his heart sinking. Even from a distance, he was able to make out what the brands had been of and it didn’t take a genius to figure out they didn’t represent something good.
“It’s one so awful that white magics don’t even talk about,” Dominic said as he put his arms around Rafe and pulled him in for a comforting hug.
“Well, since you were raised in a black magic coven, then you shouldn’t have any problems telling me about it,” Zeke snapped, now at the end of his patience. It was taking all he had not to break free so he could go over and beat some information out of Domi
nic and Rafe.
“The Death Ritual,” Dominic finally answered.
Morgan winced and let out a small whimper when he said the words.
That scared Zeke more than anything, the way the witch was reacting. He’d seen her fight in plenty of battles and against some pretty damn scary things. Never once had she shown fear like now. “Go on,” Zeke prodded, his throat tight.
“It means Ethan made a living sacrifice and I’m not talking about goats either. It had to be a higher life form, like a human or another magic. To complete it, he had to slit the victim’s throat and then bleed them dry so the entire circle can drink.” Dominic nervously cleared his throat as he shot Zeke an apologetic look.
“There has to be some mistake,” Zeke protested. There was no way the male who’d given himself up for a child, would be the same one to make a human sacrifice.
“I’m sorry, but there isn’t. There is no other way for him to have got those brands on his back.” Dominic slowly shook his head.
“Unless he offered himself up as the willing sacrifice, you stupid fuck,” Kavan cut in, his face twisted with rage.
The entire room got quiet as those words hit everyone like a blow.
Zeke felt as if a piece of him died as he recalled the hurt on Ethan’s face right before he’d walked away. Jerking on the vampires holding him, he wasn’t surprised that they let him go. Not with the way everyone was reeling from the latest bombshell. “Tell me what happened—all of it,” he pleaded.
Kavan hedged, exchanging well-should-we glances with the other warlocks before he finally nodded. “It wasn’t just Ethan who was sent to live with the Nine. Olivia wanted a whole team trained in the dark arts. Since we were the same age as Ethan and we were in all the same class, she sent us all.” Kavan jerked his head at the rest of the group of warlocks to indicate who he was talking about.
“How is that possible? The rest of the coven would have protested if she did something like that.” Morgan shook her head.
“Well, pardon me being so blunt, but most of our former coven have their heads up their collective asses. Even you did, until Olivia started sending you out on missions. Face it, before you hooked up with Rafe and Dominic, you used to sing her praises along with the rest of them.” Kavan curled his lip into a sneer.
Both Dominic and Rafe glowered at him, but Morgan reached out and touched their hands to calm them down. “He’s an ass, but he’s right. I was blinded by her,” she conceded.
“Go on, keep talking,” Zeke ordered the warlock. If this ass had information that might exonerate Ethan’s honor, then he was going to spill everything. Even if he had to beat it out of him.
“It was hard and brutal at the Nine’s training camp. We all went hungry, were always cold and since we were white magic, we were under constant attack from the other trainees. Even some of our instructors beat us for who we were. It was hard, but we still stuck together, refusing to turn on each other no matter how hard the Nine tried to make us do so. Even though we had no formal hierarchy and we were banned from forming a group, we all still looked at Ethan as our leader.”
“Because he was Olivia’s son?” Dominic asked.
Zeke took some satisfaction in seeing the guilt stamped in the warlock’s eyes.
“No, because he was our protector. He was always the smartest and had the strongest magic so he would work with us to help improve our skills. He fought the older trainees, kicking enough of them into the dirt until they finally started leaving us alone. Most of all, when one of us messed up, he would take our punishments,” Kavan’s voice broke just a little.
Zeke’s gut twisted in grief as he thought about Ethan being hurt and the sacrifices he’d made. What he did for the Drone clan wasn’t anything new. It was clear from what Kavan had just told them that his male had been protecting others for years.
“You still haven’t told us what happened with the ritual,” Rafe said.
His dark was hair shielding his face, but Zeke didn’t have to see it to know that was hurting for the brother he wasn’t there to protect.
“We lived in that hellhole for years before Olivia finally called us home. The Nine agreed to release us on one condition—Ethan had to participate in the Death Ritual. Not only that, but they stipulated that the sacrifice had to be one of us or it didn’t count.”
Several of the Drones let out curses of disbelief and Morgan started to sob. The most unsettling reaction was from the warlocks though and that was because there was nothing. Not one of them showed a flicker of hurt, pain or sadness. It was as if the memory was so terrible that they didn’t dare feel anything over it for fear of losing their sanity.
“What did Ethan tell them?” Zeke asked. Even as he wondered to how any leader could face a decision like that.
“He agreed, but only if they would accept him as the sacrifice. He was willing to die just so we could get out of that horrible place and go home.”
“Something obviously happened though, because he’s alive,” Dominic pointed out as he rubbed his hands over Morgan’s arms in an attempt to console her.
“You honestly don’t think the Nine would let one of their trainees get away with making a noble gesture do you?” Kavan raked him with a snide look. “They had Ethan go through the ritual. He was branded, he chanted the spell and just as he was about to slice his own throat open, they attacked him. They beat him so bad that it rivaled what he looked like the other day when you guys found him. After they finished with him, they held him down and made him watch while they took one of our group, a warlock named Adam, and butchered him. Ethan pleaded for his life, but that only seemed to egg them on even more. After that, they drained Adam of his blood and all of the Nine drank it. As a final insult to Ethan, they forced him to drink it, too.”
“Why didn’t he just tell us all this? Why is acting so ashamed?” Rafe slowly shook his head.
“Ethan has never forgiven himself for not saving Adam. After the Nine let us go, Ethan didn’t even want anyone to heal his wounds. We had to drag him to some clinic run by werewolves because we knew our coven would freak if they saw the marks on Ethan. You want to know why he hates hospitals so much? It’s because he spent nearly a month in a bed while the werewolves healed him. He hasn’t been able to stand the places ever since because they remind him of a time when he felt weak.”
Ethan weak? If Zeke wasn’t so heartbroken, he might have laughed at the sheer stupidity of those words. He didn’t know of a male, vampire or warlock who was more brave. As soon as Zeke saw Ethan, he was going to tell him that, too. Right after he told the male how much he loved him. Then he was going to hold the warlock tight and never let go.
“Ethan’s gone!” Dahlia yelled as she came running into the training room.
“Are you sure?” Zeke asked sharply, his heart hammering in fear.
“Yes, I went to check on him to make sure he wasn’t injured from the fight and I can’t find him anywhere,” she said.
“You don’t think he would do anything stupid, do you?” Morgan gasped, her eyes wide with fear.
“His brother, friends and lover all just acted like he was some monster incarnate. What do you think?” Kavan’s voice dripped with heavy sarcasm.
Zeke took in several shaky breaths as he remembered the devastated look on Ethan’s face as he looked back at him. The way he had walked with the carriage of someone who was so defeated. Yeah, he was willing to place a bet on Ethan going out and doing something drastic.
“While I still had him down, he begged me to kill him,” Rafe gasped.
The same horror Zeke was feeling was in the vampire’s gaze.
“What if he’s going out to find someone to fulfill his wish?”
That wouldn’t be too hard. Even though Detroit was the werewolves’ territory, that didn’t mean it was safe by any stretch. It was so bad that no sane Drone went out without backup, even if it was to go out to the movies or the grocery store. That was only the half of it, too. If another creature
didn’t get Ethan then, as a vampire, he would die if he didn’t have shelter once the sun came up.
It was several hours later and despite scouring the entire city, they still hadn’t found Ethan. Zeke didn’t know whether to scream in frustration or finally give into the tears of grief that had been threatening to come out ever since he’d heard that horrible story behind those damn brands.
They had all divided into small teams, mixing the warlocks in with the vampires. Zeke had Rafe, Dante and Dominic in his group. They had spent most of the time walking down Michigan Avenue and Woodward. Besides finding a nest of kobolds and two zombies bumping uglies, they hadn’t turned up anything.
He didn’t know what was worse, Rafe’s brooding silence, or Dominic who kept apologizing. After the seventh time of the warlock begging for forgiveness, Zeke had shut him out. He wasn’t feeling really forgiving at the moment. If they found Ethan and his male was okay, maybe then Zeke would be willing to allow Dominic to make amends.
“We only have two hours left before the sun comes up,” Dante said as he looked down at his watch.
“If you guys want to head back, fine, but I’m not leaving until I find him.” Zeke didn’t even glance at the others because he was too busy scanning the streets for a sign of Ethan.
“I’ll stay, too,” Dominic volunteered.
“Mighty big of you since the sun won’t do shit to you,” Zeke spat, his animosity toward the warlock spilling over.
“Look I’ve already admitted I fucked up by misjudging Ethan. What more do you want?” Dominic demanded.
I want him home, in my arms where he belongs. I want him finally to feel safe for once in his life, to know that he can go through a day without being attacked for who he is. Most of all, I want just five more minutes with him so I can tell him I love him.
Dominic asked softy, “Do you care for him?”
“More than anything,” Zeke admitted, harshly.
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