Soul Avenged (Sons of Wrath, #1) (23 page)

Anger and
vengeance was all she’d ever known, all she’d ever lived for.

It was how
Wade managed to keep soldiers dedicated to the cause. They weren’t
allowed to pursue their own personal vendettas—a rule that she’d
broken the night she escaped the compound.

Ayden curled
her lip into her mouth and bit down hard. Her hands trembled as she
removed the dagger from its holster. Pulling back her sleeve made
the food in her stomach inch back up her throat but ecstasy quickly
replaced her repulsion as the blade broke through her skin.

She closed her
eyes and groaned.

A rush swept
through her body, tightening her muscles.

Another slice
ensured that the effects wouldn’t disappear so quickly.

She rested her
mutilated arm, the blade against her thigh, and watched as the
angle sent streams of blood trickling down her wrist. The wound
began to seal itself, as usual, venom seeping without the poison.
The depth of the cut never made much difference. Deep, easy breaths
and the euphoria began to lift, giving way to her ruined
reality.

Pink scars
glistened with healing flesh.
Healing.
A mockery to her
mind. She wiped her wrists against her pants. “This is why I’ll
never look good in white,” she muttered as she pulled down the
sleeve to her jacket. “Too many wounds.”

She touched
her face where the wolf had swiped her. Smooth skin met her
fingertips. Unlike the blades, wounds from their claws never left
behind a scar. Perhaps it had something to do with the venom—a
catalyst that taunted her body’s defenses—particularly the Lywa
antibody.

The small
white rat climbed over her folded legs and perched itself on the
ledge of the window beside her. Its nose wriggled as it
investigated her, small pink paws tucked close to its body.

She smiled and
tucked the knife away. Pulling her knees up, she rested her head
back against the wall behind her. “What would you do, my friend?”
With a shake of her head, she chuckled to herself. “Lovely. I’m
talking to rats now.”

~

Wade slammed
the passenger door of the SUV and tromped up the staircase to the
front entrance of the compound. He keyed in the number on the
keypad and yanked the door open, cracking it against the brick wall
he swung it so hard.

The soldiers
in his wake kept their distance behind him just as they’d kept
their mouths shut on the ride back from the demon manor.

“Draven!” Wade
called down through the halls as he approached his
Second-in-Command’s room. “Front and center, boy, now!” Wade’s fury
boiled though his entire body as the many shades of heat flared
beneath his skin. “Draven!!”

A meek voice
rose from the silence. “He’s left, sir.” Daniel stood outside of
his bedroom. “He took others with him.”

“What? He’s a
deserter? Deserter?” Wade backhanded Daniel’s cheek with a
thwack
, knocking him to the floor.
Goddamn, that felt
good.

The boy stood
slowly, a scowl etched deep into his brow.

Other Alexi
soldiers emerged from their bedrooms.

A spasm
beneath Wade’s eye quivered as a maddening distraction. He smacked
his palm to the area and scrubbed in a manic attempt to make it
cease. Still it persisted, exacerbating his irritation. “Deserters
will not be tolerated!” He stepped toward the center of the
hallway, palm to his eye. “We are going to hunt them down, and when
we find them, you will all see how deserters are handled. If any
one of you tries to leave, know that it will be the last time you
ever walk again.” His hand fell away and his gaze drilled into
Daniel’s. “Where is Jacob?”

“Draven took
him as well.”

Wade’s hands
flew to his head, grasping hold of his skull as he stomped out a
tantrum. “No, no, no!”

Of course he’d
taken Calla’s little brother. Jacob would’ve gone with Draven
because he trusted him.

Wade punched
his fist through the wall.

Daniel
flinched.

A puff of dust
flew out, leaving a gaping hole. When he removed his hand, blood
trickled down his knuckles but he scarcely felt the pain. “I saved
your lives! All of your lives!” He pointed a bloody hand in the air
toward them. “Every one of you ungrateful little pricks would be
dead
if I hadn’t picked you up! Every one of you!” He
shouted and more heads peeked out from bedrooms. “It was me, who
picked your bloody, half-eaten bodies up off the floor. Me, who
sewed you up and brought you back.” He beat his hand against his
chest as he hollered. “Me, who made you stronger. Gave you
something to fight back with. Me.” The last pound to his chest damn
near went through his rib cage. “And this is the fucking thanks I
get for it?”

Spittle spewed
from his mouth and his neck turned stiff with the strain of
yelling. “I could have left you. They would have dragged you away
and fed on you like road kill for the buzzards. I killed them for
you. With my own … bare … fucking hands!” His hands flailed and
shook as he held them in front of his face, eyes wide, trying to
focus. “And this is the thanks I get?” The harsh gravel in his
voice echoed down the hallway like a wildcat backed in a
corner.

***

Stood before
Daniel, Wade’s chest heaved with each breath, his lips curled into
a hateful snarl. Fangs had protruded from beneath his lip, adding a
lisp as he spoke, and the lack of control shone strongest in his
eyes as they brightened to a golden glow.

Daniel held
perfectly still, his shoulders back and tight as a good soldier.
His eyes kept ahead. Before he could do more than assess the
situation, his head smashed into the wall behind him, every ounce
of air knocked from his lungs.

Hands clamped
around his throat. Wade’s. He struggled, his body bucking, tugging
at Wade’s hands as their grasp refused passage to his already
shortening breaths.

“You plan to
desert me, boy?” Wade hollered.

Tears prickled
at Daniel’s eyes but he choked back on them and frantically shook
his head.

“Then, welcome
to your new position, son. Second-in-Command.” Wade dropped Daniel
to the floor and crouched before him. “Go fetch Jenna and bring her
to my quarters,” he said in a low voice, and stalked toward the
elevators.

The boy sucked
in a breath, his hand covering where Wade had grabbed his neck. He
tipped forward, coughing and choking, his legs wobbling like
noodles as he forced himself to stand.

Jenna, the
newest recruit, they’d found lying on the running path of the
university—a pretty brunette, no more than twenty-four years old.
The lycan that had attacked her had planned to take her back to its
lair. Wade killed it as it carried her through the adjacent woods.
She was only three days out of her Alexi change.

Lowering his
head, Daniel couldn’t bring himself to look at the other Alexi as
he made his way toward the girl’s unit on the other side of the
wing.

***

Wade pecked the
code on the security pad beside the entrance to his suite, the
bourbon, so close to his tongue he could almost taste it. His hands
trembled and his teeth ground in his head. “Every one of those
deserters—Ayden, Calla, all of them will be hunted and brought back
here.” He mumbled to himself as he waited for the thick iron door
to open and close. “And when I’ve finished with them, they’ll wish
I’d never saved their lives from those goddamn lycans. Having their
bodies eaten alive will seem more merciful than what I plan to do
to ‘em.”

When the
second door had opened he hastened his steps toward his chambers.
Ms. Price had already turned in for the night. Darkness swarmed him
as he walked the corridor to his office. He burst through the door
and went straight for the bar. Glasses clattered, as he poured the
liquor into a snifter. He tipped to his lips, and the warm fluid
burned his throat, tingled in his belly. He did it again and again,
his eyes squinted, and refilled his empty tumbler.

The words of
the demon somehow resonated in his mind.
And punish those who’ve
done wrong.
“I’ll punish those who’ve done wrong,” he whispered
to himself.

Memories that
had no place in his current situation surfaced in his head as the
heat of the bourbon coated his throat.

“
Answer me,
you piece of shit. Did you touch my gun?” Brown, almost black, eyes
bore down, crazed and drunk.

The boy’s
heart thrummed in his chest. Each breath choked. To answer honestly
meant a beating, the punishment quick. To lie meant something far
worse. His father would never believe his words, anyway, so what
was the point?

In truth, his
father had moved the gun but had gotten too drunk to remember.

Confusion
swirled in the boy’s head as he contemplated an answer.

The slam of
heavy knuckles against his cheek sent him crashing to the floor.
Numbness blanketed half his face as he fought the blur of his
vision beneath the welling of held back tears. God knew his father
wouldn’t have taken kindly to seeing that. Instead, he focused on
the small baby tooth that lay in a pool of blood on the dingy
wooden floor.

Chest out as
his father expected of him, the boy stood, eyes forward. “No, sir.”
His new lisp made him cringe.

“
No? I’m
sorry. Did you say no?”

“
Yessir.”

The man
smirked. “Corner.”

The boy’s
heart sunk. He moved to that familiar corner, toward the back of
the shed. Winter air howled through the cracks, chilling his spine.
His bare foot brushed over one of two rusted nails sticking up from
the floor. Blood still coated them from the last time.

“
Up on your
toes, boy.”

He rose as
high as he could go, his heel hovering over the nails. Already
familiar with the routine, he placed his hands behind his back,
locking his fingers tight.

The tip of the
nail grazed the newly healed wounds on his heel. He took deep
breaths and paced his muscle strain, daring not to relax them for
fear he’d fall back on the nail that would gouge his heel.

“
I’ll come
back to check on you in the mornin’, boy. See if you’re ready to
tell me the truth then.”

The buzz of
the door startled Wade from his daze. He set down the glass and
walked through the office toward the desk where Ms. Price usually
sat. Peering into the camera, he smiled and opened the door before
slinking back into his office. Wade took a seat behind the desk and
smoothed out his hair with his fingers.

A doe-eyed
beauty walked in behind Daniel, who held a blank stare as if he was
walking a prisoner to death row.

“That will be
all, soldier,” Wade said, eyes riveted on Jenna.

Daniel turned
to leave.

“On second
thought. Wait, boy.” Wade’s fingers entwined. “Maybe I’ll let you
stay and watch. Teach you a thing or two about women.”

Jenna frowned.
Her eyes shot over to Daniel, whose face turned ghost white.

He closed his
eyes and grimaced.

“Ain’t she a
pretty piece of work, Daniel?”

Silence
followed the question.

“Answer me,
you little prick!” Wade barked.

“Yessir.”

“Yes. Sir.” He
leaned back in his chair, kicking his feet up on the desk. “So I’m
going to pour us all a drink. And we’re going to have ourselves a
little
training
exercise.”

***

Light filtered
in through the window. Not sunlight, but the overcast of a filthy
dishwater sky that provided a stark contrast to the blackened
buildings. The silhouettes, so beautiful at night, showed their
burned and abandoned shells by daylight; broken husks of what
thriving landmarks they’d once been. Grieving clouds above them
loomed, always on the verge of spilling over into rain. Black
birds, presumably ravens, flew in an ominous circle that Ayden
could only imagine signaled death on the streets below.

She’d slept
curled against the wood. The white rat had long since disappeared,
along with the brown paper bag of last night. Only shreds of it
remained scattered over the grime on the floor.

She stretched
and yawned.

The time had
come to make a decision.

She wound her
whip and hooked it back beneath her trench before pulling her hair
back into a ponytail, using a tie she always carried with her. Her
fingers swiped the matches in her pocket, and she couldn’t help but
smile at the memory of the macabre scene she’d left in the parking
lot of Sully’s. After skipping down the steps, she snuck through
the front door and made her way to her parked bike. No one would’ve
stolen it from its spot. She was too far away for anyone to
care—and no one gave a shit about another condemned building in the
city. Not even the homeless bothered with it, since it was too far
out from the inner city, where they’d more likely find food.

The engine
revved and Ayden took off toward the manor. She was one of few
allowed to know the location of the demons dwelling. Ayden leaned
into the bike, feeding it gas as she sped along the tree-lined
roads leading to the secret lair. The asphalt remained dark and
empty so early in the morning.

Bennett’s face
appeared on the screen when she pulled up to the iron gate. “Hello,
handsome,” she said with a smile.

The gate
subsequently opened.

She tossed
Bennett the key to the bike on entering the mansion. “Where’s
Gavin?”

“Master Gavin
is in the gymnasium.”

Gymnasium.
Only Bennett.

She found all
four brothers in the Wreck Room. Logan sparred a bag, knocking it
into the air with each punch. Zeke ran on the treadmill in one of
the most concentrated states Ayden had ever seen him. Working out,
it seemed, was the only thing he did take seriously. Gavin and
Calix bench-pressed. All of them wore warm-up pants or shorts and
muscle shirts with hoodies—a striking contrast to the suits they
typically wore during the day.