Red.
It was the only thing I saw as I tore through the streets, as if the entire world had turned red. The steering wheel groaned under my grip, but I didn’t ease up. The car screamed against the accelerator, horns blaring around me like distant echoes of a world I no longer belonged to.
Because I didn’t.
I belonged to the fire burning inside me. The fire screaming one thing: Save her. Or die trying.
Kyle’s voice crackled through the microphone, sharp but tense. “You’re close. Gravel road up ahead. Stay on it for ten minutes.”
“That’s not fast enough,” I barked, swerving onto the gravel road so violently the car skidded. My heart beat in my throat.
“Wait,” Kyle continued, hesitating, “there’s a problem.”
“What fucking problem?” I growled, my hands tightening on the wheel.
“They tampered with the CCTV feeds. I can’t hack into anything nearby. We’re blind.”
I slammed my fist against the dashboard, a growl tearing from my throat. “You’re telling me I’m running into the dark? Blindfolded? Fuck!”
“There’s no other way,” Kyle snapped. “We’ve got the coordinates. You’ll need to trust them. Just… get there fast.”
“Fast?” I growled feeling every goddamn cell in my body exploding. “I’m about to tear the goddamn road apart.”
The headlights cut through the dark, and then I saw it-the faint glow of the warehouse lights ahead. My pulse slammed against my ribs. It was middle of fucking nowhere.
This was it.
I didn’t bother with brakes. The car screeched to a halt, and I leapt out, grabbing the Russian machine gun from the back seat. My hands were steady, my vision sharp.
Kill them all.
The moment I kicked the door metal door, fucking chaos erupted.
“Shit!” one of them yelled, fumbling for his weapon.
I didn’t give him the chance. The gun fucking roared in my hands. Bullets tore through the air, through flesh, through bone. Screams filled the warehouse, but they didn’t faze me.
Another lunged at me. His knife glinted in the dim light, but I caught his wrist mid-swing. With a snarl, I slammed his arm against the wall until the knife clattered to the ground. He begged. I didn’t care. My boot came down on his hand, bones crunching under the weight.
A third tried to run. I grabbed a jagged piece of concrete from the floor and hurled it. It caught him in the back of the head, and he went down, blood pooling beneath him.
I was an animal. A machine. Every move was calculated, merciless. A blade sliced my arm, and I didn’t flinch. Another slammed into my ribs, and I didn’t stop.
One of them charged at me with a crowbar. I met him halfway, ripping the weapon from his hands and swinging it against his skull. The sound was sickening, but I didn’t care. He fell, twitching, and I stepped over him like trash.
When the last body hit the ground, silence fell.
But I wasn’t done. My ears perked at the faintest sound-sobbing.
Krystina.
I kicked open the door and found her in a small room at the back, tied to a chair. Her head hung low, her shoulders trembling. My eyes raked over her to look for any injuries.
“Tina!” My voice cracked as I dropped the gun and fell to my knees. “Piccolo, look at me.”
She didn’t respond, her body limp, her breathing shallow.
“Fuck,” I muttered, untying her restraints. She was too still, too cold. I shrugged off my bloodied coat and wrapped it around her.
Then I heard it.
Tick-tick.
My eyes snapped to the chair. There was a fucking bomb strapped. Five minutes.
“Shit!” I cursed, scooping her up in my arms. She was a feather, too small, too weak.
I carried her out all while feeling a strange sensation creeping up my spine. I knew where this was going. The motherfucker planned this all thoroughly. My eyes scanned the warehouse desperately.
Where was she? Where was my little bird?
“Where’s she, Tina?” I growled and shook her gently. “Tell me where she is!”
But she didn’t answer. Her head lolled against my chest.
I cursed under my breath as I loaded her into the car as my hands trembled. I turned back toward the warehouse, running inside with my pulse racing.
“Seraphina!” I shouted, my voice echoing like a dying man’s cry.
But all I found were bodies. And that damn fucking tick. The kind of silence that crawled under your skin and stayed there, sticky like tar.
Where the fuck was she?
My fingers twitched at my sides before clenching into fists. My patience wasn’t running thin-it was obliterated, shattered like glass under a boot. I dragged a hand through my hair, gripping tight, almost wishing it would hurt. But pain meant nothing compared to this gnawing sensation.
Fifty-three seconds.
I glanced down at the body nearest to me. A gaping mouth. Empty eyes. The bastard didn’t even have the decency to die properly. My boot hovered over his face for a moment. Then I crushed it. Slowly. Bone cracked under the sole, and for a second, I wished it was someone else’s skull beneath my heel.
Lucius fucking Morozov.
Let the world burn for all I gave a shit. Just bring her back. Her.
My phone buzzed in my pocket, snapping me out of the haze. I yanked it out and pressed it to my ear almost fuming. “She’s not here.”
There was a pause on the other end. A static-filled silence that pissed me off even more.
“Fuck-” Massimo’s voice cut through, before a loud blast drowned him out. The line went dead.
I stared at the screen.
For the first time in my goddamn life, my hands weren’t steady. The world didn’t blur. It sharpened. The ticking in my head was gone, replaced by something far worse.
Dread.
Not fear. Fear was for men who have something to lose. Fear was fleeting. This was deeper-gut-wrenching, clawing, acidic. A void opening in my chest and swallowing me whole.
My knees almost gave out. Almost.
Her face flashed in my mind, not like a memory but a slap to the soul. Those eyes-too trusting for this fucking world. That laugh, like she didn’t know monsters wore masks. My monsters wore hers now. I felt them laughing at me in the echoes of that blast.
No.
The thought was poison. I choked on it, tasting bile and rage, and something else I couldn’t name. Something I hated.
I’d seen death more times than I could count. Smelled it, felt it under my hands. Bodies crumple the same way, whether you shoot them, stab them, or strangle them. But the idea of her lying there? Her body still?
My chest caved in. My jaw clenched so tight it felt like my teeth would snap.
No. Not her. Anyone but her.
I took a step, and the world swayed. The blood on the floor smeared under my boots like some sick painting, chaos carved into stillness. I’d built my empire on chaos. Made peace with it.
But this? This was different. This wasn’t chaos. This was emptiness.
And for the first time, the monster in me didn’t know how to fill it.
Fuck.
No. No, no, no, no. She couldn’t be-
She couldn’t be gone.
What the fuck was I even thinking? Gone? No. That wasn’t right. It couldn’t be right. She wasn’t allowed to be gone.
The air was too still, too quiet, too wrong. I didn’t want to breathe. My breaths came fast, uneven, choking me. It felt like I was suffocating.
My fingers dug into the phone as I dialled Massimo’s number again. My mind raced, skidding over itself, grabbing at memories, plans, anything to make sense of this. I was a man who always had a fucking plan. Always. But now? My mind was a storm.
Where had I failed?
No. Not her. Please.
I gritted my teeth until my jaw screamed in protest.
“The number you’re trying to call is switched off. Try again or leave a message.”
Panic. Pure, unrelenting panic.
I wasn’t built for this. For losing. For feeling. The monster in me clawed to regain control, to shove this weakness down, to break something-someone-until I felt like myself again.
But none of it mattered. Not without her.
Images flashed in my mind-her face, her smile, the way she’d roll her eyes like she could see through my shit. That spark in her eyes that made me feel something I didn’t have a name for. A warmth I didn’t deserve.
My hands trembled. Trembled. I didn’t recognize this version of me. But none of that mattered now.
Because if she was gone, I’d tear the fucking world apart until there was nothing left but ash. Even if it burn me.
I’d killed for less, and I’d kill for this. For her, For the chance to breathe again.