10. ~Caleb~

Holy. Fucking. Shit.

Blood dripped from the door of the old warehouse and as I looked closer, I saw it trickling down from the door jamb onto the ground below too.

Thuds, screams, and gurgling sounded from inside.

Crashing and the breaking of glass followed.

And then the screams abruptly ceased.

I listened harder and muffled voices reached my ear.

I couldn’t make them out in enough detail, though. Neither the identities of those speaking, nor the actual content of the conversation.

I pulled my phone from my tactical jacket and fired off a text.

Caleb: At the location given. Going in.

I jolted as a response came so quickly.

Caspian: Get it done.

My gut twisted at his words.

No care. Just all business. So fucking brief too.

Like there was nothing else there at all.

Like I was just one of his soldiers and that was the extent of it.

I guess, right now, that was all that I was to him.

I shook my head to myself and secured my phone.

And then I drew my gun, cocked it, and opened the door.

A body fell out onto the ground as I did. Well, half fell out, part of the bloodied corpse still inside, its head and shoulders hanging out the door. Lovely.

I reached down, grabbing the guy by his shoulders and dragged him back inside fully, then I wiped the blood now slicking my gloves on my tactical pants, and stared down the narrow corridor that led further into the warehouse. Three other bodies lined the path ahead. Just as bloodied, one with their throat gouged, the thing looking like it had actually been ripped out by a supernatural beast of some kind.

I kind of wished that was the case, because the alternative, the actual reality, was so fucking brutal.

And, as I rounded the corner and came to the heart of the warehouse, a massive space surrounded by shipping crates, that reality could no longer be denied, because there she was.

Skylar.

Doused in blood.

Clad in full Onyx gear with a bright-red short wig this time.

She’ddone this.

This… massacre.

I swallowed hard as the comparison to my own offenses in that area hit me deep in the gut.

And then I knew.

That was another reason that Caspian had sent me. Not just the explanation he’d given me, but because he thought I’d understand her state of mind, that I’d be in a position to pull her back, to pull her out of this blackness.

And, yeah, I could. After everything I’d gone through and all that I’d learned since being away from Rossun, I had the specific skills needed to pull that off.

But I couldn’t do it in one night.

It would take time.

A lot of it.

And without cooperation on her part, it would make it all the more difficult.

When I’d worked with Asher—and myself before that—we’d both been in the headspace of wanting to control those monsters in us.

But Skylar… just seeing this mess here tonight… watching her tearing into the last target left alive in this place… it was blatantly clear that she was so very far from that state of mind.

Jesus Christ, seeing her again after all this time was enough of a shock to my system without witnessing all of this from her, seeing how far she’d fallen and was currently drowning.

A shriek from the guy at her mercy pulled me out of it and I was able to focus up and do what I’d come all this way to do.

“Skylar!” I called out.

She jolted and swung her head my way.

I’d forgone my usual balaclava when I was in the field so she could look upon me and make the necessary connection to me a lot easier.

And I saw the shock and confusion all over her as she took me in.

It had her stopping the movement of her blade slicing deep down the torso of the big guy in her grasp slumped against one of the shipping crates, as she spilled his guts open, making him watch the destruction, her ripping him open.

She yanked the knife out and he shrieked again.

The bone-chilling sound didn’t even rattle her.

She just stood there spinning her blade in her hand as she eyed me, taking in every inch of me, her lips twitching indicating she was clearly affected, even as she tried to hide it by keeping her gaze steady and emotionless.

“What are you doing here?” she finally spoke.

Not the greatest greeting.

Then again, I didn’t expect much given her current state.

“We need to talk.”

She glared at me for a moment, then roughly released the guy and took a couple of steps back from him, keeping an eye on him in her peripheral vision while she spun her knife in her hand and addressed me, “Let me guess, Caspian wants me to stop my pursuit of Jett?”

“Taking down that motherfucker was never off the table.” I gestured at the bloodied mess all around. “But not like this.”

“This is the only way to get through to a psychopath like Jett.”

“Defeat him by becoming him?”

She shrugged. “It is what it is. What it needs to be. Now pass that onto Caspian and get gone. I’m not done here.”

She turned to get back to it, but I called out, “Just like that? After years of not laying eyes on one another, darling?”

She stilled.

And then I saw it as she looked out at me, a flicker of sentiment, of care.

Despite her then blinking it away a few moments later and steeling herself, it didn’t matter, I’d seen what I’d needed to.

She was still in there—the Skylar Bennett that we’d known and adored before all of this madness had happened.

I moved further into the room, one cautious step at a time.

Her eyes flicked from me to her target.

She was fighting herself.

“Didn’t you at least miss me? Miss us?”

“What does it matter? What we had is gone and until something changes, that’s the way it will stay.”

“Is that what you’re doing here? Trying to find a viable way to come back to us?”

She flinched.

And then her eyes flashed as she yelled, “He took my mom from me! He destroyed my life!”

“I know and I’m so sorry, Skylar. So fucking sorry. What he did took a lot from all of us. We’re all hurting. And it’s time we did that together, don’t you think?”

She grimaced and broke eye contact. “Nothing can matter until this is done.”

“It doesn’t have to be this way. Don’t let it take you over and poison everything good in you.”

“Stop,” she ground out.

“I can help you, darling.”

“You helping me made me weak last time! If I hadn’t been so concerned about controlling that fucked-up part of me, I could’ve stopped what happened before it had even started! I should’ve gone for the throat back then! I won’t make that mistake again! I won’t!”

In the next second, she bolted toward the guy and slashed her knife across his throat, driving deep, blood spurting all over her face as she severed his artery and had him gurgling.

She looked out at me, seething, “Still think you can help me now?” She narrowed her eyes. “Give it up and don’t make the mistake of getting in my way again.”

With that, she turned and bolted.

I burst after her, running past the guy she’d just delivered a fatal wound to.

As I rounded the corner down another corridor, I caught sight of her sprinting toward the back exit.

“Skylar! Stop!”

She didn’t.

Instead, she slammed her hands into the door and pushed on through out of the warehouse.

I was only a few seconds behind her when I made it out there.

A sharp whizzing sound caught my attention a second before she was slapping her hand to her neck.

As she pulled it away, I saw a tranq dart buried in her flesh.

She wavered on her feet, then stumbled and slapped her hand to the wall of the building.

“What the…” she groaned, before collapsing to her knees.

I was there in the next second, wrapping my arms around her and easing her down onto her back so she didn’t smash her face on the ground.

She passed out against me in the next couple of moments.

Footsteps crunched on the ground and I swung my head to see somebody emerging from the shadows.

I choked when he came into view, that broad frame, those long, caramel waves, one of his sexy dark Hugo Boss suits pulling taut across all that muscle.

“Caspian,” I breathed.

His eyes burned into mine as he reached me.

But he adverted his gaze all too quickly, telling me in a cold, business tone, “You played your part well.”

“You didn’t really believe I’d be able to talk her down,” I realized aloud. “You had me function as a distraction.”

“In essence.”

“Cas, I—”

He held up his hand. Then he tapped his earpiece and communicated, “It’s done. Move in.”

“Listen, brother—”

“Brother?” he said, scoffing.

“That’s right. We might’ve been apart, but that’s never altered. It never could. And I just did this for you and—”

“And, what? The last two years are wiped away?”

Before I could answer or get another word out, the screeching of tires pulled me up short, and the next thing I knew, a black unmarked van was burning rubber into the area, coming to a sudden stop right beside Cas.

Two guys hopped out decked out in dark suits, and then they were gathering Skylar up and securing her inside the back of their vehicle while Cas spoke with them, giving his orders.

He turned back to me for a moment, just staring, the intensity ramping up.

Then he shook his head to himself and climbed into the back of the van, the guys shutting it after him, then heading back into the driver’s door and passenger door.

All I could do was watch as the vehicle sped away.

Fuck.

I knew it wouldn’t be more than a few moments before his cleanup team also arrived.

I didn’t want to be around for that.

So, I headed back to my Audi that I’d parked a few blocks away, a lump in my throat as that bitter interaction with Cas rolled through me.

Seeing him again… fuck, it had hit me deep.

My body was buzzing with it. That awareness, that intensity.

That pain that had been invoked because of our parting.

I’d felt that fissure in my fucking bones.

And I couldn’t stand it.

Nor could I simply walk and continue my separate existence.

It was time.

Time to go back home.