Killian couldn’t hold back what he was feeling. He rushed forward, and the loud gunshot rang out across the room. At first, Killian stumbled forward, collapsing against her and the weapon. He wrested the pistol from her hand and smashed the wooden post across the side of her already wounded head. Crumpling to the floor, she let out a harsh whimper and held her hands in front of her face.
“I had to do it!” she cried.
“Where the fuck are my children?!” he screamed, throat torn, tight, and dry. His chest pumped erratically, the pressure swelling with each tired breath. He could have broken her, mashed her like a jack-o-lantern.
Feeling around the cartilage of his ear, he found where the bullet broke through. It just barely grazed him. He was fine, but if it had been inches to the left, his brains would have been left hanging over his baby’s crib.
He wasted no time lunging at her. Holding her down with his muscular thighs and staggering forearms, he made sure she couldn’t move. The gun slid across the room, just out of reach for Ruby to reclaim it. “Wicked bitch, tell me the truth!”
“What’s the point? It’s too late. The bomb is set for midnight,” she said, eyes facing the decorated clock on the southern wall.
Killian watched as the second hand seemed to tighten his nerves with every short spin.
“You have thirty minutes left before the bomb detonates, Killian. It’s over. Your children are gone.”
“That’s what it was? A bomb? So, your plan is to create another crisis in the city of Dagon. Don’t you think its citizens have gone through enough?”
Ruby did not smile. Strangely, she appeared about as sad as Killian felt. “I found out weeks ago. I was going to stop him, you fool. Its location is directly under the heart of the metropolis. But its reach is far wider. Severin’s scope was always toward the heavens. I suppose that’s all you men do… dream you are gods until the very last breath flows between your lips.”
He felt primitive. No, he felt ruthless, horrible, and absolutely wrecked beyond belief. All of this fighting, the toll it had taken on their whole family—it had only left them more broken and scattered across the land.
“All for fucking nothing?” he asked as he held the piece of broken wood above her throat. He wanted nothing more than to pierce the center of the cartilage.
Yet, he did not go ahead with the violent deed. People were coming. More trained guards, probably. He heard a set of heavy footsteps behind them and rolled back, taking the pistol, aiming to kill. A voice shouted, “Killian!”
Then, another voice muttered, a familiar voice. “He can’t be dead. He can’t be.”
“There is blood everywhere, Vash. It’s not looking good.”
Killian’s eyes lit up. Beads of sweat fell down his forehead, hanging onto his deep and dark eyebrows. Laughing, he lowered the gun and let out a deep exhale of relief. “Oh, thank the fucking lord above.”
Lucas was the first to enter the room, stopping when he saw their weakened state. “Jesus. Killian? Is it really you? Holy fuck, you’re alive!”
“Ain’t nothing holy about it, Brother. Now, come here and give me a big fat kiss,” he joked.
Vash sighed as he followed Lucas inside. “Is that part of the rules now? We all have to kiss and make up every time we split apart?”
Killian chuckled. “It’s good to have you back. Now, if you want to help me out, you’ll cuff the twin and help me onto my feet.”
Lucas bent down and analyzed Ruby’s wrecked face. “For a second there, I thought you found Rae.”
“At least we caught the bitch. She might make for a good trade down the line,” Vash added with a smile. “You know… it feels pretty good to be the ones doing the hunting again.”
As the fire spread, more of the building collapsed. Lucas tripped, feeling the heat of the flames lick his face as a warning before he fell. “It can’t be over. Not like this… our children… are they…”
“Don’t,” Killian said, admitting what he thought the other men might take as weakness. “I’m sick of it all. The madness. Madness everywhere. I feel it in my bones like the rest of you, but I want it gone. I just want a pure life.”
“Some might take those words as giving up,” Vash said, eyes full of fire.
Killian wondered if it was obvious by the way his eyes wavered whenever he stared into theirs. Times had been hard, and for the most part, Killian simply felt embarrassed. He knew that, even if they found a way out of this, nothing would ever be the same again. All of the nights they’d spent in the barracks in their twenties, dreaming and drinking the pain away could never be revisited. They were adults now, and most of that came with the responsibility of bearing crosses made of titanium steel.
“I killed him. My father,” Killian answered. “And now you have the audacity to think I’m giving up? Fuck off.”
Although more footsteps were echoing throughout the outside hallway, none of them made the effort to leave. Vash stepped forward, showing off his bulging muscles, a threat that might have worked a decade ago. Now, it seemed compulsory. “Make me.”
Killian tried to focus his mind on his children and Rae, but flashes of electric anger sent his eyes widening with energy. Deep within every blink, he could see Severin’s shallow grin,
hear his last words, the harshest insults he had ever heard in his life. And now, looking at Vash and Lucas, he wondered if they even fit together, or if it was just by chance that they’d ended up in the same pack. After all was said and done, did it ever mean anything? No—not in this new world, it didn’t.