Underneath

by Maggie Walsh

  Raffy shook his head. “No. He’s been out since we got here.”

  Just then they heard distant voices approaching from one of the tunnels. Raffy pulled his legs up more tightly against his body and pressed back against the bars. His body started to shake.

  “It’s okay, Raf. I won’t let them hurt you,” Cass said, trying to calm Raffy down. The fear emanating off his brother was so thick he was almost choking on it.

  “You’re trapped, too, Cassy, and you’re hurt. They shot you with silver. You can’t even shift. I don’t want them to hurt me again, but I don’t want them to do it in front of you, either,” Raffy said, voice shaking.

  “Raf…” Cass started to say, but was cut off when he heard a familiar voice he hadn’t heard in over two hundred and fifty years. His eyes shot to the tunnel entrance, his eyes unblinking as he held his breath. No, it couldn’t be him. He stared intently, willing his ears to be deceiving him.

  Three men appeared at the entrance. The first was clearly Nigel Brighton. He remembered the man from when he was growing up and then from the battle they had recently while rescuing Dale, Aaron, and Viktor. The second man he had never seen before, but he would have remembered him if he had. The guy was short, probably five foot two, maybe a hundred and ten, hundred and fifteen pounds. He had shoulder-length, black, greasy hair and cold, dark eyes. He looked like a weasel, his face almost rat-like. And then he stepped into the cave. A large lump formed in his throat and Cass couldn’t breathe. He tried to swallow, but the lump was still there.

  “So here we are, Castiel. A nice family reunion after all these years. I can’t say that I’m happy about seeing my three daughters again.” The man snickered as his eyes bore right through Castiel. His father and the other two vermin chuckled at his father’s words.

  Castiel remembered that he wasn’t a little boy any more. He was now an enforcer, a warrior. Let him out of this cage and leave him alone with the man and he would rip him apart with his bare hands. Cass got a cold, hard glare in his eyes as he focused them on his father’s face. He knew that if looks could kill, his father would be lying lifeless on the floor by now. “Lucius.” Cass addressed him coldly.

  His father’s eyes narrowed at him. He could almost see the smoke emanating from the man’s ears at the fact that his son showed such disrespect by using his name. “You will show me respect, boy. I am your father, and I know I taught you better than that,” he sneered.

  “Don’t you mean beat it into us?” Cass bit out.

  “You little shits got everything you deserved. Only one of my sons deserved my respect, and he was taken from me. But at least he died honorably, unlike you and your poor excuse for brothers here. But your usefulness is not lost. You and your brothers will be very useful to us.” He snickered as he moved further into the cave.

  Cass shifted his eyes to the rat-faced one. He was now kneeling next to the cage that held the unknown man. He was holding a syringe in his hand. He put his hands through the bars and stuck the man with the syringe. The guy’s body flinched slightly, but otherwise he made no movement and no sound. The rat-faced man pulled the plunger back, and the syringe filled with dark, crimson blood. He withdrew the syringe and stood up as his eyes fixed on the item in his hands, and a happiness filled his eyes. He turned to Brighton. “It worked, Nigel. It worked. The omega’s blood worked. That damn ocelot is smarter than he looks.”

  Brighton walked over to the man and raised his hand as he, too, looked at the syringe in awe. He gingerly touched the syringe with a single fingertip and then withdrew his hand. “Now we can move into the next step of our plan, Malachi. With this we can destroy the king and his insufferable son. How the ocelot figured out this compound is beyond me, but I am happy that he did. We need to get him back here.”

  Malachi shook his head. “It’s too risky right now. His mate will be keeping a close eye on him. But I am working on securing another demon. By the time he is in my control, the wolf would have eased up on his protection of the ocelot and then we will grab him up again,” Malachi said.

  “When will you go after the king?” Lucius asked.

  “The council is meeting tomorrow night. We should be able to eradicate all of them, then. We already have what we need to wipe out the rest of them, but now we have what will kill the vamp king,” Nigel explained.

  “Good,” said Lucius. “So then the paranormal world will panic and they will start fighting against each other and all the work my shit of a nephew put into his friendships with the vamps and the cats will be for nothing. It looks like our reign will start sooner than we thought, my friends.”

  Brighton and Malachi gave each other a quick glance and then smiled at Lucius. “Yes, Lucius. Our reign will begin. First you need to get back to our pack so that you will be there when the war begins. We need you to kill Raphael at the exact moment we take out the council. Our other allies are all in place at their packs, prides, covens, and casts. We all must strike simultaneously for this to work. The people won’t realize the death of their leader came from within and they will panic. You will rule the wolves, Tymore will rule the vampires, Leodis will rule the cats, Hawk will rule the birds, and you will all answer to me,” Brighton said.

  Lucius turned to look at Cass. “And what of them?”

  “Don’t worry about them. I have big plans for your boys,” Malachi said. “The two big dumb ones will become our personal guards and the omega will serve his purpose to strengthen us all. His blood will come in very handy in building our powers. He is essentially a blood bag. Each week we will draw his blood and send it to you four leaders. A pack-birthed omega’s blood is stronger than any omega. And once we have our hands on the guardian Taylor, no one will ever be able to challenge us,” Malachi explained.

  “But what of the heart? He still lives,” Lucius asked.

  “His body still lives, but his mind does not. He is trapped in his mind forever. If anyone tries to remove my spell, it will only kill him. Either way, Micah will be destroyed. He will be too weak to fight us and his best friend Dante will be gone. He will have no one to help him,” Malachi said. He walked over to the table and laid the syringe down.

  “And these two?” Lucius motioned toward Cass and Gabriel. “How will you ensure they will guard you and not try to kill you in your sleep? They are loyal to Micah.”

  Malachi smiled wickedly and chuckled. “They will be turned into rogues and trained to follow my orders, like the others.”

  “Good. It’s about time they finally lived up to their names and became true warriors like their brother Michael,” Lucius sneered. Raffy made a chuffing noise, drawing Lucius’s attention. “You have something to say, boy?” he said angrily. Raffy shook under his father’s gaze. “I didn’t think so. Michael was the son any father would have been proud of. At least the gods gave me one good son. But then they gave me you three disgusting disappointments.”

  “You are such a dickhead, and so was Michael. Neither of you knew a damn thing about being a man. You still don’t,” Cass whispered under his breath.

  Lucius spun to glare at him. He stalked to Cass’s cage and slammed his hands down on it. “Don’t you ever speak his name. You are unworthy to speak his name. He was a great man, a warrior. He should have been Alpha, not that pathetic excuse for a wolf, Micah.”

  “Michael was a horrible person, just like you!” Raffy screamed out. Lucius spun to face him. “He was no honorable man. He put the lives of the other wolves in danger all the time. He was a lazy, selfish bastard who only cared about himself. He blamed others for his mistakes and took credit for others’ victories. He ran and hid during every battle he was supposed to fight. He was their leader, but when the fighting started he sent them out to do battle while he hid in the nearest hiding spot until the battle was over. He didn’t die honorably in battle. He died being shot in the back of the head while he was down on his knees sucking off his lover,” Raffy yelled out, and then covered his mouth with his hands as his eyes went wide in shock
over his own outburst.

  “What?” Cass said in shock.

  “You take that back right now, you pathetic piece of shit. Michael wasn’t a…one of those.” He motioned his hand toward Cass. “I said take it back!” Lucius said, and pounced on Raffy’s cage.

  “Or what, asshole?” Gabriel snarled the words at him. Cass, Raffy, and Lucius turned in his direction.

  “Welcome to the party, big brother.” Cass snickered.

  “Wish I hadn’t drank all the liquor though.” He sat up and grabbed his head. “My brain feels like it was sucked out through my cock and I was ridden hard and hung up to dry. Damn, when did we move to a cave? And what happened to all the pretty boys? Not these ugly fuckers who wouldn’t know a pussy from an ass if you gave them a map.” Gabe smirked and winked at Cass. Cass and Raffy started to laugh. “I wish my mate had warned me he wanted to get down and dirty with the whole BDSM thing. I would have loved for him to cage me up and make me his sex slave, but this is a little ridiculous. When I get my hands on his cute, tight little ass, I’m going to spank it for hours until he begs me to fuck it,” Gabe continued with a mischievous smile.

  “Stop speaking, you disgusting…” Lucius started, but Gabe cut him off.

  “That’s what Michael used to say to the Hammond boy all the time when the guy would stop sucking him to talk about their feelings.” Gabe snickered.

  “Don’t you dare try to blemish your brother’s good name,” Lucius spat out.

  “The only good thing about Michael was his name. I’m surprised he was shot while on his knees sucking off his lover. I always thought he was too selfish to give someone else a suck. Such a waste. You haven’t lived until you’ve experienced a nice hard fucking up the ass. The things my sweet baby can do with his cock is mind-blowing.” Gabe chuckled.

  “You sound like Taylor, brother.” Cass laughed.

  Gabe raised a brow. “Oh yeah? Thanks, I take that as a huge compliment. I’m so glad he’s rubbing off on me.” Gabe snickered. “And he does love to rub off on me, if you know what I’m saying. That mate of mine is a wildcat in bed, out of bed, in the shower, in the car. He is my heaven on earth. The things he can do with his tongue would make the gods themselves roll over and show their bellies.” Cass and Raffy burst out in laughter as Gabe continued. Lucius just stared at him in horror. “Maybe that’s what you’ve been missing all your life, Luci. A nice, hard fucking up the ass. Seeing as all four of your sons turned out to be gay, maybe the nuts didn’t fall too far from the dick. Is that it? Is that why you pushed us so hard to be what you think a man is supposed to be? You been hiding your homosexual tendencies your whole life, Luci? Living with such enormous sexual tension must be exhausting. Maybe Brighton and Malachi can help you with that. I know for a fact that old Brighton there loves a good cock. Maybe they can both show you all the things they did to your son for five years as they raped and tortured him?” Gabriel said the last part with a coldness so deep it could freeze Antarctica for a year, as he stared his father in the eye.

  Lucius stared him down with eyes filled with hatred and disgust. “How dare you speak so crudely in my presence? You ungrateful litt…”

  “Ungrateful? What was I supposed to be grateful to you for? Let’s see, all the beatings you gave me? All the horrible names you called me? How about all the times you ignored me and acted like I wasn’t even there, or that you had wished I was never born? Or how about when you turned my big brother against me and tried to turn Cass against me? Am I supposed to be grateful for that? Or how about when you kept our mother locked up in her room our whole lives and never let us see her? You only used her for sex when you wanted to have another child. That poor woman spent her whole life locked in that room alone just waiting for you to come and get her pregnant. So did she really die while giving birth to Raffy or did you kill her because you were finally done with her? Huh, Dad? And what about Raffy? Huh? Are we supposed to be grateful that you never told us we had another brother and then you abused him his whole life and then sold him to these two twats so that they could abuse him and rape him? What exactly is one thing I should be grateful to you for? Wait, I know. Thank you, Lucius. Thank you for being such a worthless father that we ran from you as fast and as far as we could. Because of that, Cass and I went on to have a great life and I was lucky enough to find my true mate and he is the most loving, most amazing man I have ever met. So for that I am grateful to you, Lucius,” Gabriel said tightly.

  “You are an abomination. You will rot in hell for the way you live,” Lucius said, but was cut off by Cass.

  “We were created by the gods just the way we are, so therefore we cannot be abominations. You say we’ll rot in hell for being gay, because it’s a sin, but what about all the things that you have done that goes against your Christian beliefs? The Ten Commandments and all? How many of those have you broken in your life? I believe that it is you who will spend eternity in hell for what you did to Raffy alone, not even counting what you did to Gabe or to me. And we both know what I’m talking about don’t we, Father?” Cass said the last part with an evil look in his eyes and a sneer in his voice. Lucius straightened up as if he were slapped in the face. His face went pale and his eyes wide. He quickly covered it up and turned away.

  “Do whatever you want with all of them. They are not my sons. I must leave now so I will be back at the pack in time,” he said tightly, and exited the cave.

  Cass looked at Gabe nervously. Gabe was looking back at him with furrowed brows and eyes full of confusion and concern. “Cass?” Cass just shook his head and flicked his eyes to Raffy’s sad ones before he looked down.

  * * * *

  Ryland and Phenex walked out of the wall back into Micah and Jesse’s room. Micah was sitting with his back to the headboard and Jesse was leaning back against him, sitting between his legs. “What took you so long?” Micah asked the duo.

  “Malachi has quite a few cave hide outs all over the planet. The one in Montana was empty, but there is one not far from here in the Catskill Mountains that I can’t get into. There’s an invisible force or spell around it,” Phenex explained.

  “Have you been able to find out anything from the Grimoire? Have they retrieved it yet?” Ryland asked as he sat on the edge of the bed and lightly brushed his fingers across Jesse’s cheek. Phenex watched the motion.

  “Yes, they have retrieved the book. Rory and his mates, along with Adam, are going through it now,” Dante answered.

  Suddenly the four leaders grabbed their heads and cried out in pain. Bastian came rushing through the door, helping Storm, as all the enforcers followed. “What is it, Micah? What’s happening?” Bastian asked frantically.

  Micah opened his eyes slightly but continued to hold his head. “The council has fallen. Everyone is dead,” he got out through clenched teeth. “The binds from the council to all leaders are being broken.”

  “No!” Dante screamed out. His eyes opened and flashed to Micah.

  “Go, Dante. We’ll be fine. We’re here for you, brother. Anything you need,” Micah said sadly. Dante nodded and disseminated.

  “What happened?” Xander asked.

  “His father was on the council. He’s dead,” Micah said in sorrow.

  “Oh shit. But how is that possible? Did they cut his head off?” Crew asked.

  Lexi smacked him upside the head. “Dude.”

  “What? I thought it was impossible to kill the King vamp?” Crew asked.

  “Dragon blood. They injected him with dragon blood,” Ryland explained.

  “How the hell did they get their hands on dragon blood? And how the hell did they inject him with it without that poison destroying them in the process?” Phenex asked in annoyance.

  “One of the reasons Dare and I came here was to find a missing dragon. We haven’t been able to find Brett,” Ryland answered.

  “Um, guys, I’m feeling something. Something not good. I feel a lot of pain in the world. A lot of death,” Taylor said in a scared voice.
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  “Show me, Taylor,” Phenex said, and grabbed Taylor’s hand. He closed his eyes for a few minutes and then opened them slowly. “They have all fallen. Every Alpha, every leader of all the packs, prides, covens, and casts. They are all gone. Every paranormal creature on the planet just lost their leader. Micah, your pack and Dante’s coven are the only ones in the world that still have their leaders. Plus Storm’s scattered pride,” Phenex explained in shock. “I must go warn Lucifer. I’ll be back as fast as I can. Ryland, maybe you should get your warriors here sooner than planned. Like now, and close up all portals to your plane,” Phenex said, and disappeared in a hurry through the wall.

  Ryland chanted and a portal started to glow. “I’ll be back soon with reinforcements,” he said. Ryland turned to look over the room. He held up his hands and chanted. He looked to Micah when he was done. “No one but Phenex or one of my portals should be able to get into the house. Keep everyone inside for now.” He turned, but Micah stopped him.

  “Wait, what about my pack? They need their Alpha right now more than ever. I can’t just sit here hiding in my house while they are all out there unprotected,” he said with anger as he moved himself from under Jesse and climbed from the bed.

  “I need to get my warriors, Micah. I’ll be back by morning.” He turned to leave. Micah grabbed his arm with force and spun him back around.