Synarchy Book 1: The Awakening

by DCS

  The signs were there, she could see them now. Amazing what the mind ignored at the heart’s instruction. It didn’t help. Not those thoughts. To feel as if you were being mocked by those you loved….

  “Simone.” There was genuine concern in her husband’s voice. Guilt. Shame. Love. Fear. All of it sitting on his face. “There were circumstances…”

  “No.” Her composure seemed to return so quickly it was as if it had never left in the first place. The eyes snapped open and locked with furious painful intensity on her husband’s face. “Don’t you dare make one fucking excuse, not when you didn’t even have the decency to limit it to when I was away.” Fury piqued, raging openly on her face, in the words that tasted like acid on her tongue. She came over to the table, shoved the tape recorder at them. “How many times did you fuck her while I was in the same house?”

  Victor didn’t respond, he almost cringed as she came at him. The tape recorder skittered across the table and he caught it before it could fall off. He didn’t want to know what was on it, he could guess. Fuck. What he could say? What could he possibly say to make it better?

  “Simone, I’m so sorry,” Cassie said choking back tears. She had it too, written all over her, honest feelings of remorse, guilt, love. To see it so clearly on both their faces almost made it hurt more.

  Simone turned her head to the side, briefly shutting her eyes again. Never in her life had she waged such a battle for control over her own self. It was worse now, warring fiercely against the woman she had been a lifetime ago, the one who would not have wasted two minutes on words had she known, and the woman she was now. And the woman she was now didn’t think she could kill her husband.

  Oh but a bullet to the temple, a double dose of it sounded so fucking sexy.

  “There was a moment, there is almost a moment you can choose to be…” Simone paused struggling for the words. When they were found she turned her face back to look at them while she said. “…a little less human and a little more godly. For me. For the emotion you claim to have, for me.” There was no malice in her voice, only the hardened edge of inner pain. “Leave. Both of you. Just…leave.”

  “Don’t do this.” Bravely, or foolishly, he got up from the table and came closer to her. “Don’t write me off forever. Let’s work through this. Please. Please.”

  Cassie was silent, a hand covering her face to muffle the sound of her crying. She wasn’t quite as brave as Victor. What she felt could not possibly compare to that storm of emotion so well hidden in what had been her friend and mentor. Simone had been someone Cassie had looked up to, then spit in her face by fucking her husband. She cried harder.

  Simone looked at her Victor silently. Her face twisted, the veil lost in those seconds as she lifted her hand and gently ran her fingertips over his cheek. He shared her trait for the hidden, it was one of the reasons she’d been so attracted to him in the first place. Though he might have looked unmoved by the touch it shook him to the core. It couldn’t be over; he’d damn himself forever if he had lost her for something that hadn’t been worth it in the first place. “I love you. Please.”

  The fingers trembled against his face, a heavy sigh parting her lips. The words that followed were not so gentle. “When, Victor, when did you love me? Before, during, or after you fucked her? All three? Then you and I see love very, very differently.” She withdrew her touch, taking a step back from him. “We’ve worked it out one time too many. Maybe we never did. It doesn’t matter now. I’ve heard I love you a thousand times but you’ve never proven it.”

  His eyes watered. Each word cut through him like the punishing edge of a knife. Victor could feel his heart slamming with painful force in his chest. He choked out the words. “Simone, no. Please.”

  “Leave. You won’t be harmed, not by this family. Life for the both of you is punishment enough.”

  Cassie finally drew her hand away from her face, tucking both arms protectively over her chest. She nodded mutely, biting harshly on her lower lip. Her tear-stained eyes locked onto Simone in the silence of a pure apology. Then she turned, walking to the closed double doors.

  One was opened before Cassie could reach for it. Vasco stood in the doorway, the cruel steel of his eyes locked onto the woman’s departure with obvious distaste. He followed her with his gaze in cold silence until she had disappeared into the elevator. They flicked once over his sister and came to rest with full force on Victor.

  “Simone, I can’t. I can’t leave you.” Victor thrust a trembling hand back through his hair looking at her. Hoping. Praying. He’d beg he wasn’t below it.

  “You don’t get that choice anymore.” She said it softly on the shaky steps of raw emotion. Turning away from him she walked over to the expanse of window, her back to him. She couldn’t look at him anymore; she no longer recognized the face she saw.

  “Simone – “

  “Now Victor,” Vasco said it quiet enough to hint at the threat of disobedience.

  Victor snapped his eyes over to Vasco. He met the man’s unwavering gaze then looked back at Simone. His brows furrowed with the vicious force of his silent pain. Finally, pressing his lips together he nodded in defeat. Victor walked across the room toward the door Vasco held open for him. He paus­ed in the door­way, turning his head just slightly over his shoulder and said, “Before, during, after, and every day for the rest of my life. It was stupid and cruel. And I don’t…” There was the briefest pause, before he shook his head. “I don’t know why. But I love you. Don’t write me off forever because I’m an idiot. Please.”

  Vasco watched him until he was out of sight then came into the conference room and closed the door behind him.

  Simone was still standing at the window, the line of her back so rigid it appeared at any moment she might shatter. Silently, Vasco went up to the wet bar against the far wall and poured them both a drink. It was early but circumstances dictated it.

  “How did you do it, Vasco?” Simone looked up at him when he came to her side.

  “Do what?” He canted his head at her.

  Simone wrapped her fingers around the off­ered glass, holding it against her chin as she regar­ded him in silence. Then she explained her question, “In your previous life, as Stefano. How did you do it with her? How could you stand to watch anyone else touch her?”

  Understanding dawned, though he shouldn’t have been surprised at her question given the circ­umstances. He mulled over it for a minute or two, inserting small swallows of the amber liquid into his thoughts before he answered her, “Arrogance. Lots and lots of arrogance.”

  Simone arched a high brow at his answer. “Arrogance?”

  Vasco chuckled at the expression she gave him, dusting his eyes to the window, watching the bustling streets of downtown Alcyone. “Finish your drink, I’ll pour you another. Let’s go upstairs, it’s gorgeous out today.”

  She looked at him oddly then shrugged. The glass was raised and knocked back in a single swallow.

  “Good girl.” Vasco winked at her, refilled both their glasses and led her out of the conference room. It took his card in the slot provided in the elevator to grant them access to the rooftop, also helicopter pad.

  Side-by-side they walked over concrete and to the railing at the edge. Vasco turned to rest his lower back against the metal and tipped his face up into the warm island wind. “You know I never get tired of this weather. Even in my previous lifetime I always found it peaceful.”

  Simone stared up at the sky, at the exotic island scenery around them. It was beautiful. Her husband had had an affair. Lied too. Betrayed her. In her own home. Her face pinched. “I find it hard to be at peace with anything right now.”

  Vasco turned his head to look over at his little sister. He realized he was not as hard this lifetime as he had been in others. It moved him to see a rock in the family so close to breaking. Sighing he turned around, bending to rest his forearms comfortably over the railing. He was thoughtful, searching for the right way to describe what he
had had with his wife. Instinctively he felt his thumb curl inward to brush over his bare ring finger. He could still feel the weight of that gold band. “What is jealousy?”

  Simone was thoughtful at his question. It should have been an instant answer with everything that had just happened, but when asked outright she found there wasn’t a simple answer. “The fear of loss.”

  He nodded his head in agreement. “I was never afraid of losing her. I didn’t fear her fucking someone else would ever jeopardize that.” He pursed his lips together a moment then added, “Do you remember when I was taken by the Chinese last lifetime? How messed up I was when I got back?”

  This required no hesitation. She could recall clearly the helpless rage she had felt. “I remember.”

  “That’s when I let Ciro take care of things I couldn’t.” Ciro Anatolli had been Stefano Terenzio’s lifelong friend and bodyguard. Vasco smiled at the memory, a heated spark of life, of love behind his eyes. “The ones she and I were with weren’t many. Trusted partners, people that we actually had an emotional connection to. Alex and Mona DeMarco primarily. A few others here and there. It was nice to be able to freely give into those urges but I never touched a woman without her consent, and vice versa.” Vasco paused and took a small sip from his glass. He stared down into the amber contents and spoke quietly. “Relationships are so unnecessarily fragile. We partner up with another person and then immediately stamp them as claimed, throw a chain around them and block any unapproved affection because of our own insecurities. Maybe that’s why so many relationships can’t stand the test of time.”

  He stared up at the sky, remembering. “I loved her, so much at times it scared me. And she was mine, completely, because I did not try to claim her. And if any other man was one of the very, very, rare few lucky enough to catch any sort of emotion from her, bully for them. It never changed what she was to me, or what I was to her.”

  It had been so clear how much her brother had loved his wife. Unusual for a man who was the master of the masquerade, it was something S.V.T. had not been able to keep hidden. It wasn’t overt and if you didn’t know him maybe you wouldn’t recognize it; the briefest shift of those impenetrable eyes when she was in the same room. The intense loving flare that sparked then returned to hiding in the same breath. As a woman, Lil had envied her brother’s wife that. What woman wouldn’t want her husband to look at her in the same way? Though, in that same lifetime she hadn’t had to envy anyone for long. When Kyle had come into her life…Simone swallowed hard at the rush of memories from a lifetime ago. “I remember what that feels like. To love someone like that.” And realized sadly that she had never loved Victor the way Lil had loved Kyle.

  Vasco looked over at his sister, catching the difference in the expression on her face. “You loved him very differently than I loved her. But we both loved them just the same. The way she and I were, Simone, it’s not for everyone. There’s a level of responsibility, control and more importantly trust that most people can’t ever reach. But if it works for you, then it works for you. If it doesn’t you’ve already proven your way works too.”

  Simone slowly nodded, smiling slightly in thought. She held onto it a moment longer then let it pass with the heavy shrug of her shoulders and passing breath. “People are so dumb. It’s time we changed that.”

  “Past time, little sister, past time.” His classic smirk curled subtly over his mouth. It made him look more like the man he had been. “Ever think we’d use our powers for good?”

  “Never.” Simone laughed outright, shaking her head in amusement. “Is it a fight we can win?”

  He answered her question more thoroughly with the expression in his eyes than with his words. “We don’t leave this lifetime until we have checkmate.”

  She understood and nodded, a devious smile breaking across her lips. Simone came to her brother’s side, entwining their arms loosely together, and led them back inside the building. “Sounds like fun.”

  Chapter 18

  "Single acts of tyranny may be ascribed to the accidental opinion of a day. But a series of oppressions, begun at a distinguished period, and pursued unalterably through every change of ministers (administrations), too plainly proves a deliberate systematic plan of reducing us to slavery."

  -Thomas Jefferson

  June 11th, 2012

  Alcyone Island

  St. Judas Cathedral 11:02 AM

  Caleb was pulling double duty today. Normally at an event like this, Leone would coordinate the duties assigned to the Military Police, but because of how close Leone was to Marcello, Caleb had stepped up to handle them. Barricades had been set up ten feet from the Cathedral, forcing press and onlookers to stay behind them. The no nonsense, often times intimidating appearance of the MPs kept the Press behaved. It was understood that anyone caught sneaking into a Terenzio event would be jailed. Release could take months depending upon the level of infraction. Those uniforms also formed a perimeter around the Cathedral, to ensure it rem­ained a private event. Dion Corp Security guards were standing outside near the Cathedral steps, or positioned inside in their sharp black suits with the company logo on their right shoulders and wireless ear pieces hidden in their ears.

  Governor Isabella Terenzio (now the oldest living Terenzio) arrived with her own entourage. A small, five man section of the Military Police was charged with her security. Three of them rode in the tinted window SUV that trailed her limousine. Suited instead of uniformed, with MP insignia patches on their shoulders to identify them, they rose out of the car in unison, scanning the immediate area before one touched his ear and confirmed it was clear. The limousine’s passenger door opened first, and a tall, gray haired man emerged. Captain of the Governor’s Security team and in his late fifties, it was rumored that he had a crush on Isab­ella that may or may not have been reciprocated over the years, despite the fact that she was twenty years his senior. Nodding at Caleb, he opened the limo door. Retired AAF General Christopher “Fangs Out” Terenzio-Zhane, Isabella’s half brother, stepped out first. Isabella rose after him, aged, sharp gray eyes flicking over the fiasco of news crews. Upon seeing the Governor, they immediately started shouting a flurry of questions.

  It gave Caleb a sense of fatherly pride to lay his eyes on the two of them. Isabella was born to Liliana from her third marriage, but she and her brother Dom (who died confronting the Anunnaki with JT) had always called Kyle dad. Christopher was Kyle’s blood son by Liliana and had taken to fighter planes just like his father. Christopher also had his mother’s temper and affinity for pulling the trigger. The man’s nickname had been given to him by his men before his retirement because when he was up in a plane he was always ready to attack, or as the air force called it, “he rolled in fangs out.”

  Ignoring the questions, Isabella stepped past her security guard and walked over to Caleb.

  “Everything is under control Governor. Kayla, Olivia, and Amadeo are inside,” Caleb said.

  Nodding, Isabella patted his cheek. She’d always had a fondness for Caleb that she couldn’t explain. Christopher shared his sister’s sentiments and smiled warmly at Caleb. Caleb returned it, res­isting the urge to reach out and embrace his children from a life past. Instead, he just watched as Christopher took his sister’s arm and escorted her up the stone steps (though she didn’t need the help), with security trailing close behind them.

  Inside the church, two beautiful mahogany coffins sat at the front of the nave. Marcello’s was closed; even in death the man was hidden. Demetrius’s was open and for the first time in a long time, a look of peacefulness was on his pale face.

  “I did not authorize this.” Kayla Terenzio stood in front the caskets. The words were spoken to Olivia in a calm whisper, but her manufactured gray eyes reflected her anger. Amadeo stood behind the two women in full uniform with his hands folded behind him. At Kayla’s words sharp eyes darted towards his cousin as if to say, “I told you so.”

  Much to her chagrin, Olivia inwardly flinched but e
xplained, “We needed to know where the triplets were go-”

  Kayla cut her off with a raised hand, darting her eyes to the entrance as Isabella, and Christopher appeared. She pulled Olivia into an embrace, giving off the appearance that the two women were comforting each other over the loss.

  “If you ever make a move without my permission, I will feed your useless carcass to the Anunnaki,” Kayla hissed, and then kissed Olivia’s cheek as she drew away. Her eyes flicked up towards Amadeo quickly, making it clear that he would share Olivia’s fate, before that expression was replaced with barely controlled grief as she turned away from them and walked up the aisle to greet Isabella and Christopher.

  A prick of fear made the hairs on the back of Olivia’s neck stand on end. Though the reprimand pissed her off, she didn’t doubt Kayla’s words. Amadeo touched her shoulder, leaning down to whisper, “Maybe you’ll listen to me next time. Now get that expression off your face. Isabella is watching.”

  “Fuck you. It needed to be done,” Olivia snapped it under her breath then drew herself up, slipping on the veil like the Terenzio she was.

  Roberto Terenzio, Isabella’s son and C.O.O. of SVT Think Tank, arrived with his cousin Xavier. The two of them were in deep, quiet discussion as they climbed out of the limousine. It had been a hectic last few days for Xavier. He had been startled by the news of Demetrius’s murder, because he knew that the order to terminate him hadn’t come from the Brotherhood. Alexandro had assured him of this. Xavier hadn’t been very close to either, most of his time was spent in the States, but there was a level of respect for his family that required his pr­esence. Besides the fact that his father would expect it, the triplets would be here and Xavier needed to talk to them.

  Roberto nodded at Caleb as they passed him. Xavier paused to smile knowingly at Caleb, winked, then continued on. The ghost of a smile passed over Caleb’s mouth towards Xavier.