“So, how are my snakes?” Damon asked, pulling off his mask—or a replica of Kai’s—and smoothing a hand through his hair.

I looked at my brother’s face for the first time in a year. His black hair was longer around the ears and his face looked a little thinner, but his angular jaw was still tight, the muscles flexing now and again. It was his only tell that he was holding in more anger than he was letting on.

I took a slow step back, just in case.

“You’re scared of me?” He tossed the mask down on the chair.

“Where are David and Lev?” I asked.

“Tied up in the basement.”

I shook my head. “You can’t take all of us,” I warned, seeing Alex shift out of the corner of my left eye.

He just laughed under his breath. “Don’t worry. There’s one of me for each of you.”

Then he tipped his chin up, whistling a call. I stopped breathing as I watched two more men, both dressed like Damon in hoodies and jeans, round the corner into the room, also wearing copies of Kai’s mask.

Three men stood before us, and every muscle in my body tensed.

“Who—”

But Damon cut me off. “Now,” he ordered.

And they charged for us.

“Damon, no!” I shouted, whipping around with my hands in front of me, ready to take them.

But they pushed right past me, both of them heading straight for Alex. One took her from behind, fisting her hair with his hand gripping her neck, while the other pressed into her front, securing her hands behind her back as she growled and tried to thrash.

Rika pushed off, heading right for them.

“I could snap her neck in a second,” the one behind Alex threatened, staring at Rika and jerking Alex’s head in both his hands.

I didn’t recognize their voices.

Rika stopped, her hands balled into fists, one of them still holding the bottle. Her eyes turned to Damon. “You fucking coward!”

“No, I’m smart.” He smirked. “They wouldn’t last five seconds trying to take you on.”

“Hey, fuck you,” the one pressed to Alex’s front said.

I turned to Damon. “What do you want?”

“You,” he said.

“Bullshit!” I growled. “You always had me! Why wait until now to show your face?”

But before he could answer, Rika came forward. “You tried to kill us,” she charged. “Will…. You tied a cinderblock around his ankle, tied his hands behind his back, and threw him into the ocean.” Her voice cracked. “Do you know what you put him through? You’re a fucking horror.”

“I know.”

My eyes shot up again, taken back by his response. He sounded almost sincere.

“I have so many things wrong with me,” he said, a trace of solemnity in his voice. His gaze trailed around the room, avoiding ours. “I loved going to school. I went every day. Even when I was sick. Remember, Banks?”

I narrowed my eyes. Of course, I remembered. Damon was the last person in the world you’d expect to have great attendance. The only time he skipped was when his friends did.

“School was the only place I knew I’d be safe,” he continued. “And later on, when I got older, there was music and booze and girls…. It was like a party every day. Sometimes it was even enough to get me out of my head, so I hardly even noticed what was happen—” He dropped his voice, forcing the last words out. “Happening to me.”

Tears burned the back of my eyes.

“I had my friends, my team, and you,” he said, raising his eyes to me. “All to myself. The only girl I ever trusted. No one was going to take you away from me. I don’t like change.” And then he glanced at Rika. “You were change.”

He started walking toward her.

“Damon, no,” I barked.

He stopped and turned his head toward me. “Then come with me.”

“Where?”

“Home, of course,” he told me and then looked at Rika. “I want Rika to show me the St. Killian’s renovations. Maybe take a walk in the catacombs.”

He stared at her, his threatening eyes insinuating more than he was saying. She shook her head nervously.

“I’m not going anywhere with you,” she gasped out.

“But it’s Devil’s Night,” he teased, inching toward her. “Come on. Kai, Will, and Michael will follow, no doubt. We’ll have fun. Just like old times.”

She scoffed, looking more daring. “Is that what you waited a year for? Devil’s Night?” She glared at him. “God, you really do need this, don’t you? The old times, that rush, your friends who hate you now…?”

He shot out, diving into her space and caging her in with his arms planted on the wall on both sides of her head.

“Damon!” I shouted.

“Don’t worry, babe,” he answered me. “She’s not scared of me. Are you, Rika?”

She gripped the bottle in her hand, staring defiantly up at him.

“You hate me, because of the things I do, but you love Michael for all those same reasons.”

“Michael didn’t try to kill his friends,” she said.

“Oh, you’ve always hated me,” he retorted. “I remember you at fourteen, running out of a room as quick as you came in when you saw me at Michael’s house. People dictate rules based on how they want to be treated, but I’ll tell you something. When someone else misbehaves, it’s black and white, isn’t it? We judge, and we condemn, but when we do it, it’s a gray area all of a sudden. Other people are subject to your convictions, but not you, right? Not Michael?”

Her jaw flexed as she glared at him.

“People are hypocrites, Banks,” he told me, still staring at her. “They do the same things they’ll hate another guy for doing. The only moral compass I trust anymore is my own.”

He grabbed her by the jaw, holding her firm. “And I’ve come to the conclusion,” he bit out, “that a man deserves whatever a man can take.”

She shook her head, her face twisted in anger. “I hate you.”

He dove in close, whispering, “I love that you hate me.”

And then he leaned into her right ear, and she reared back but then stilled as if listening. I couldn’t see his mouth, but his jaw appeared to be moving. And she wasn’t pushing him away. Was he whispering to her?

I watched her eyes, pinched together in fury, sharpen, and then, all of a sudden, her chest caved as her body froze. Her gaze fell, and she just stood there like she couldn’t move.

Damon straightened back up and looked down at her, releasing her. “Fuck the world, Rika. You’re welcome.”

She pushed him away, breathing hard. But he just laughed.

I stepped up. “What did you say?”

But just then, lights shone through the windows, and I blinked, knowing a car had pulled up.

“Oh, look who’s home,” Damon taunted, looking toward the windows.

Rika took her chance. She swung the bottle across his head, the dull clank knocking him to the side as he brought his hands up to shield himself and fell into the wall like rag doll.

Without hesitation, she threw the bottle at one of the guys holding Alex, making him duck for cover long enough for me to rush over. The other one spun around, and I punched him in the jaw, following with a kick to the groin. He stumbled, falling to a knee, and Rika grabbed Alex.

“Run!” Rika yelled.

“This way!” I led them across the foyer and into the den. “Through here, hurry!”

Pushing into the bookshelf with my entire body, I slowly got it to give way and crack open into the tunnel. Rika must’ve caught on to what I was doing, because she followed my lead and leaned into the shelf, Alex taking a cue from her.

Once we got it open enough, I pushed them through. They dived inside the secret passageway, but I didn’t. I gripped the edge of the “door” and pulled it closed again.

“Banks, what are you doing?” Rika cried out. “Banks!”

“Just go!” I shouted. I needed to get to my brother before Kai did.

I raced back through the foyer, hearing someone pounding on the door, while I heard the locks twist. Instinct told me to open the front door for them, but then I spotted blood on the floor, trailing down toward the kitchen.