Raphael had described it, it had been nothing that Diel craved. No one had ever captured his attention enough to want to fuck their pussy. His monster had seen the very few women he had ever encountered as weak and a waste of his time. He had no time for someone who would cower whenever he was close.
Diel didn’t dwell on it. He didn’t think of anything beyond a kill. He would come every time his victim died, multiple times a night as his killing sprees grew in number—Gabriel understood that his kills had to be many to sate his need. But the more Diel saw Raphael and Maria in the manor, the more he wondered what it would be like to have someone by his side, someone who understood him—all of him. Maria was the only woman he had even known beyond the female staff at Eden Manor.
Diel was sure there was no one in the entire world who would understand what he and his brothers had gone through, the darkness that they were born with, and the fact that they needed to kill and would never give that up—not for anyone. How would anyone understand Purgatory and the torture room that the Brethren would take them to? How would they understand that he had been chained to a bed for most of his life, and now wore metal collar around his neck?
Raphael broke from Maria’s mouth and sat down beside Michael, golden eyes tracking his woman’s every move. Raphael was obsessed with Maria. He hadn’t killed her when she’d been more than willing. That said everything. Diel’s monster wouldn’t stop for anyone.
Gabriel cleared his throat. Maria looked at Gabe, and with a short nod, he faced Diel and his brothers. “Since we left Purgatory and found our home here at Eden Manor, we have lived by a certain set of rules, commandments that each of you have followed rigidly, religiously.” Gabriel glanced at Raphael. “At least most of you have.” Raphael smirked, then looked at Maria, zero apology in his expression for breaking the commandment forbidding him from bringing Maria home. “We have targeted certain people for you to kill—killers who needed to be stopped, who had hurt others and deserved to face retribution at your hands.”
Diel’s hands fisted at his sides when he felt his monster stirring, waking at the sound of Gabriel’s voice. It never settled anymore. It pushed at Diel constantly, forever pacing and snarling to be set free, to finally take control. And Diel was weakening. He was losing the fight he’d fought since childhood. His eyes moved over his brothers. Bara and Uriel still wore the worst of the injuries he’d inflicted on them in the gym. A quick glance at Sela beside him showed him that even his best friend hadn’t been spared by the monster—it didn’t care who it hurt; it had no boundaries or loyalties. Family meant nothing when the tantalizing ecstasy of violence and death was before it. The monster took and took, gaining strength with each kill, until it was a frenzied beast who only rested when its bloodlust had been sated or Gabriel turned the collar back on and forced it to retreat.
The gash on Sela’s cheek showed the lack of mercy Diel’s monster, once freed, would show anyone—even the person closest to him.
“But that way of living isn’t working anymore,” Gabriel said, and Diel swung his head toward his older brother. Gabriel’s bright blue eyes met his, and Diel felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. What did that mean? Diel’s heart rate increased, and he saw his brothers shift on their seats in his peripheral. But his attention was firmly on Gabriel. Gabriel sighed and never took his eyes from Diel. “So we’re changing tack.”
Maria addressed the brothers. “The Brethren need to be stopped. We all know that. We all agree on that.” The sound of crashing waves filled Diel’s ears as Maria spoke those words. She moved wayward strands of her thigh-length hair from her face. “The Brethren exist in the shadows.” Maria’s lips curved into a proud smile. “But so do we.” Sela was stock-still beside him. Any talk of the Brethren pulled Sela’s entire focus. All of the Fallen hated the Brethren; they loathed them and wanted nothing more than to see them scream and burn. But Sela was even more invested in the secret sect of priests than the others. Sela was blood tied to the sadistic