Page 31 of The Clash of the Damned (The Titan Syndicate Saga #2)

Luca

W hen you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in my life.

That’s at least what I tell myself each time I work until the early hours of the morning, long after Tao is closed and everyone has gone home to their families.

Since I have no one left to go home to, working makes the most sense for me. Sure as hell beats boredom.

As I sit back in my office chair, I let myself daydream.

When this is all over, maybe I will go on a solo trip, backpacking around Europe.

See where my ancestors came from and learn to live a bit.

Outside of work. I feel like Dad would have wanted that for me, and well, I’m not sure what mom wanted.

It hurts to still think of her, but I’m confronted with her at every corner, so I immediately abandon that train of thought.

Grabbing the get well card on my desk, I sign it.

Silva let me know that Satine is seriously ill, which is a pity, considering after Amelia’s departure, she’s become one of our best earners.

That’s the thing about the Supernatural, we have issues sure, but we don’t suffer from the same diseases that humans are susceptible to.

I make a note to tell Silva to pay all Satine’s hospital bills so she can focus on getting better and returning to work. I relook at my to do list.

Get back to work

Visit each of the Undead families to ensure loyalties are secure

Stabilize Tao

Sign Satine’s get well soon card

Invest in Tao’s financial future and possibly expand

Extend…my family line?

That’s something I’m not ready to deal with yet. I understand how the Supernaturals have survived this long. We need to have babies to continue our lines, and mine is becoming smaller and smaller. If I die, so does the De Greer line.

I’m much more comfortable with the subject of money.

I’ll deal with the subject of family, or the lack thereof, another day.

After the fight club, each Undead pledged their allegiance to me again, in a way I especially appreciate.

They gave me a higher percentage of their club earnings.

But even then…it’s not enough. Running my hand through my hair in frustration, my mind races trying to solve the problem in front of me.

No matter which way I run our budgeting formulas, if business keeps the way it’s currently been, we will run out of money in roughly six months.

And that’s if we don’t have a raid from the police in that time, which is unlikely.

Tao is where Supernaturals can have their secret natures catered to, and for humans, they can pretend to be something like us–the elite.

We’ve always relied on a mixture of Supernatural and human clientele to keep our businesses afloat; neither alone are enough to keep it running.

Double checking the income sheets over the past few nights, I can see from Silva’s comments that there has been a sharp decrease in human patronage.

Recently, I thought we were okay; we had successful parties, which helped.

But the overhead to put on a party like that is immense, and we need to balance it out with normal nights to ensure the best mixture of gross margin to grow our business.

People think being a nightclub owner is glamorous, but I sound like a nerd talking about financial formulas.

It has to be this religious group scaring the humans away; it’s the only explanation. I need to deal with them before they tank my business. We have survived so much, including a recession. This can’t be the way we go out. I have to do better; the survival of my business depends on it.

Grabbing my phone, which I set to silent when I started working, I see several missed calls and messages waiting for me.

First, I see Jude asking if I’ve seen the latest news report and her telling me to answer my phone.

She needs to talk urgently. Now Amelia is looking for me urgently?

What the fuck is going on? But the message that stands out the most is from Reece. It’s not like we’re close…

I call her number, not expecting anything at this late hour, but she answers on the second ring. “Luca?”

“Hey, Reece, it’s kind of late. What’s wrong?”

“Have you seen him?” She jumps straight into demands, like I know exactly what she’s talking about. “When he didn’t come home for dinner, I knew something was wrong. He always lets us know if he’s running late, and if you call his number, it’s been disconnected.”

“Slow down, Reece. Who’s he ?”

“Dom, obviously. Who else?”

Shit. This is not good, and I won’t say what we’re both probably thinking. The religious group got to him. But how would average humans get to someone like Dom? He would never allow that to happen and leave his sisters like this.

“I can’t get hold of Jude and Sebastian either, but I know they’re home.

You’re the only one that called back.” Amelia bursts into my office, and I’m hit with a wave of deja vu.

Except this time, she’s dressed in black leather pants and a jacket that looks incredible on her, which doesn’t matter; I have to ignore it.

But more importantly, she looks like she’s ready to go to war.

“Listen, Amelia just got here. I will see if she’s heard anything. If you and your sister don’t want to be alone tonight, you’re welcome to come to my place until we figure this out. I will call you back ASAP.”

“Thanks, Luca.” Her voice cracks with emotion, and I get flashbacks to when I called Sebastian when my mom went missing. “We can’t lose him too. He’s all we have.”

Ending the call, I turn to focus on my unwanted visitor. “Must you keep appearing in my life when I’ve made it clear you’re not wanted?

“We can fight later.” Amelia looks over her shoulder, like she’s worried she was followed. “Gabe called to warn us. They’re here to burn Tao down, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they think executing you would be fun.”

“Who’s they?” I ask her, frustrated at how everyone is being so fucking cryptic.

“The Children of Christ.”

My fangs snap out as my voice deepens. “I would like to see them try.”

“Oh put your fangs away, Luca. Yes, you’re a badass, but they have numbers.

If we engage in a fight with them, yes, we will take some of them down, but there is a very high chance we won’t make it out of here alive.

I’m not willing to accept that. Are you willing to die in some dick measuring contest? ”

She’s got a point. Shit.

“What’s the plan? I know you wouldn’t be here without one.”

Glancing at my bar fridge, she points. “If you have any spare blood, down it. You need to be at full strength. They’re scared of the Undead because of your connection with blood. Something about you being unholy.” She snorts. “Exploiting that is the first step in getting out of here.”

I do as she says and down the last two bottles.

History be damned. We can go back to fighting with each other later.

Then I go to the wall with all the pictures of my parents and the celebrities they’ve worked with over the years.

I smash the glass out of my favorite, the three of us at the opening of Tao all those years ago.

I couldn’t have been more than ten years old.

Sticking the picture in my bra for safekeeping, I tell her, “A memento, just in case.”

“Follow me. We’re sneaking through the passages, like we used to in the old days.” I follow her in silence for what feels like hours, but is only minutes, as she takes the long way past the kitchen, where we launder money.

“You mentioned something about Gabe?” I prompt her.

She nods. “Sebastian and I have been working on getting answers from the cult.” She turns to look at me, and rubs her neck.

“We haven’t been very successful, but today, Gabe called to let us know one of his CI’s had information we could find useful.

There were rumours that the Undead were the next target, and this is an obvious place that fits their criteria.

It felt stupid to ignore it, so I came to warn you.

I would rather over-react and be wrong, than ignore it and be right. ”

She turns back to leading the way out of Tao, and while I know the place better than her, I also know she has a plan. Right now, I’ll allow it.

“You know I can handle myself, right?” I ask her.

She turns to look at me briefly with a smirk and says, “I know you can. But if Sloane’s with them, neither of us stand a chance. Survival first, revenge second.”

Damnit, I hate it that she’s right, again. “We can’t outrun them I assume?”

“I thought about it. But if I have to carry you, it’s doubtful.

I’m still training, and considering my later start in life as a Rogue, I’m not where I should be yet.

” She becomes lost in thought for a second.

“If Sebastian was here, he could do it. But he’s…

occupied. Our only option is to outsmart them.

I know what Tao means to you, Luca, but you can always rebuild if you have to.

Your life is far more important than this structure. ”

I can see the logic in what she says, but my heart is heavy as I think about all the memories here that I will never get a chance to say goodbye to.

I hear glass crashing, and I flinch as I imagine the countless hours of work that went into building this place, and in one moment, they’re ripping it apart.

They don’t get how many people we help with our businesses.

I think about the humans I hire that will leave jobless in the morning.

I tense, and Amelia holds me back. “Its not worth it,” she whispers.

“They have help from Sloane in one way or another. Your life is more important.”

My fangs snap out in irritation as we wait for the looters to move on, and I whisper to Amelia, “Do they really hate us so much for being different?”

Giving me an incredulous look, she responds, “Come now, babe, we both know what that feels like. This could be just another casual Tuesday for us. People are scared of what they don’t understand.

” Amelia cocks her head to the side and adds, “Someone’s coming.

We’re going to have to go into the restaurant.

” Her shoulders tense as she hears something I can’t.

“It’s getting faster and louder, move!” She pushes me through a passage door and into the center of the restaurant.

Creeping from one shadowed corner to another, we keep watch as we make our way towards the exit.

Something that looks like a bowling ball rolls in front of my feet, and Amelia freezes. “Please tell me that isn’t what I think it is,” she whisper yells at me.

“Oh no, it is what you think it is. It’s a human head.” I bend down and inspect it. “Correction, Undead head. And they say we’re the monsters.”

All our efforts to remain undiscovered go out the window.

“Well look what we have here, boys! We have ourselves a little playtime,” a southern accent drawls as I turn to come face to face with a six foot man who is kitted out with a bulky bomb vest. Amelia stands a chance of surviving it if he detonates, but I’m not so sure I will.

“I was tired of hiding anyway,” I tell him.

He knows what I am, so there’s no point in trying to hide.

Lifting my hands, I focus in on his blood, and I pull on it with everything I’ve got.

Ripping his blood out of his body, I send it splatting against the wall behind him.

Turning to Amelia, I say with a smirk on my face, “See? Told you I could take care of myself.”

“Oh sugar, really?” a new voice says as he enters the room. “You see, we were told about your demonic abilities. Kill one and another pops up,” he says as he waves a detonator in his hand. They all have bomb vests. Fuck.

“Run!” Amelia screams, and I listen, but everything around me goes dark.