Epilogue

EPILOGUE

L ifting my head groggily, I feel blood drip from my parted lips along with my breath. My ribs are definitely broken—at least two, or maybe more. Betrayal sits thickly on my tongue as I stare at the men I trusted with my life, my soul, and my future.

We are family. We have been together for years. I might not have always agreed with their methods, but I agreed with the end result—until now . . . until this.

As the very elite of our kind, we have survived things no others have by trusting in one another and fighting side by side, but as I stare at them now, all I see are strangers willing to hurt innocents—strangers willing to torture and imprison me, one of their own, to get what they want.

They are corrupt. It has taken me too long to see it, and now I am left without any options or freedom. Everything we have built lies in tatters, and my belief in our kind, in what we do, is gone.

My dreams and hopes were all broken along with my body.

"I am sorry, Tate," Eric, one of our youngest and newest recruits, says as he walks to the cell door.

"You will be," I spit.

"You won't make it out of here alive to make us," Sergeant Black says as he wipes his blade clean of my blood and grins at me. I knew the first time I met him, he was capable of evil, but it was aimed in the right direction until it wasn't anymore.

"We'll see about that." I smirk, even as it causes agony to ripple through me.

He simply spares me a disgusted look. "We could have been great together, Tate, an unstoppable unit. Such a waste. Now, if you'll excuse us, we have some hunting to do." I watch him walk away, and I feel hatred so strong, I'm surprised he cannot feel it licking at his skin like a flame.

The outer door slams shut with Black's mocking laughter, and I let my fury fill me.

They won't get away with this.

I will hunt down every ounce of evil within our house and destroy them all.

It's time I become a monster rather than just hunting them.

Sometimes, it takes evil to fight evil, and before this ends, my soul will be as black as theirs.