The warehouse sank into silence.
Damon stood among the tangled pile of bodies, his chest rising and falling in beats.
His left trouser leg was shredded and dripping blood where the pistol round had punched clean through his thigh.
Blood ran in hot, sticky streams from the deep gash along his collarbone where the shotgun buckshot had torn away his leather jacket.
Beneath his torn shirt, two broken ribs throbbed every time he drew a breath.
Yet he stood upright.
He didn’t lean against a pillar.
He didn’t clutch his wounds.
Deep within his sternum, his demonic core hummed like a furnace, slowly knitting muscle fibers and burning through the agony.
His body wasn’t invulnerable, but to a soul that had survived the abyssal pits, broken bone and lead were merely inconveniences.
A gasp sounded from the far side of the hall.
Eleanor stepped out from behind the heavy concrete pillar.
Her legs were shaking so violently she had to catch herself against the rusted frame of a storage rack.
Her hands pressed hard over her lips, her eyes wide with shock as she stared at the bloody ruin covering the floorboards.
She looked at the bodies, then at the blood-soaked young man standing in the middle of them.
Damon wiped a streak of blood from his eyelid with the back of his hand, his eyes locking onto her.
“You wanted to see what Julian really was,” Damon said, his voice flat and entirely devoid of heat.
“Now you have.”
Eleanor swallowed hard, her throat bone-dry.
She took a hesitant step forward, her boots avoiding the widening red puddle spreading across the floorboards.
“Damon…” her voice cracked, barely above a whisper.
“You’re…
you’re bleeding.
You’ve been shot.
We need to get you to a hospital”
“I don’t need a hospital,” Damon interrupted smoothly, stepping over a fallen mercenary.
“A few flesh wounds won’t stop anything.”
Eleanor stared at him, her mind struggling to bridge the gap between the two realities.
The sharp consultant who had sat in her office at Velour, dissecting inventory spreadsheets and offering business advice, was standing right before her – covered in the blood of the several men he had slaughtered.
She felt a wave of horror, but right beneath it lay something far more dangerous: a terrifying awe.
Julian had squeezed her life dry for three years.
He had used lawyers, corrupt city officials, and armed thugs to keep her trapped, terrified, and obedient.
And in less than thirty minutes, this young man had smashed Julian’s entire empire to splinters without showing a single second of hesitation.
A metallic thud echoed near the loading dock.
Julian Sterling was backed flat against the door of his sedan.
His leather shoes were slick with blood.
He reached into his coat with trembling fingers, but his hand was shaking so badly he couldn’t even take out his revolver.
He looked at Damon, then his eyes flicked past him, landing on Eleanor standing near the pillars.
A desperate spark lit up in Julian’s eyes.
“Eleanor!” Julian shouted, his voice cracking with panic.
“Eleanor, look at him!
Look at what he is!”
Eleanor stopped in her tracks, her jaw clenching as she stared at her ex-husband.
“He’s a lunatic!” Julian stammered, pointing a shaking finger at Damon.
“He just butchered twenty men!
You think he did this for you?
You think he cares about your boutique?
He’s a monster, Eleanor!
The moment he finishes taking my assets, he’s going to turn on you!”
Damon didn’t interrupt.
He simply stood there, blood dripping from his knuckles, watching Julian with an amused expression.
Julian took a step toward Eleanor, raising his hands in a frantic posture.
“Listen to me!
I know I was hard on you after the divorce.
I know I pressed you on the supply contracts.
But we were married for five years!
We have history!
I can fix this.
I’ll drop the claims on Velour.
I’ll give you full regional distribution rights.
I’ll give you fifty percent of the West District holding accounts!
Just walk away from him right now.
Call the authorities, tell them he went crazy”
Eleanor stood frozen, listening to the torrent of promises pouring from his mouth.
Three years ago, three months ago, even yesterday, those promises would have sounded like a lifeline.
But looking at Julian now his face smeared with dust, his expensive suit ruined, his voice high and pathetic – the illusion shattered completely.
He wasn’t an untouchable god.
He was just a coward who used money to hide his own weakness.
She looked back at Damon.
Damon hadn’t begged her for anything.
He hadn’t made grand, empty speeches about safety or romance.
He had told her to sit in the dark and watch.
He had given her truth, no matter how terrifying it was.
She knew, deep in her soul, that Damon hadn’t done this out of pure kindness.
He was taking Julian’s empire for himself, and eventually, he would come to collect his price from her as well.
And as she looked at the Damon’s battered frame, she realized she didn’t want to run anyway.
Julian saw the coldness setting into Eleanor’s eyes and panicked completely.
He turned back to Damon, his chest heaving as he tried to pull together whatever leverage he had left.
“You can’t just kill me!” Julian yelled, his voice echoing off the high iron girders.
“I have board members!
I have political connections in the district council!
If I disappear, the Sterling Apparel Group will freeze every asset within an hour!
You won’t get a single dime from Vance’s ledgers!
Eleanor, tell him!
Tell him how the corporate structure works!
He doesn’t understand what he’s-”
Damon shrugged.
“You’re still trying to negotiate?” Damon asked softly.
Julian blinked, his mouth open.
“What?”
“You brought twenty-four men to murder me in a dark warehouse,” Damon said smoothly, stepping over Viktor’s corpse.
“And now you’re talking about board meetings and corporate structures.”
“Eleanor, you don’t understand what this man really is!” Julian screamed, backing against his car door as Damon closed the distance.
“He’ll destroy everything you-”
Damon moved.
There was no warning.
He crossed the ten feet between them in a single stride and seized Julian by the throat, slamming him against the side of the sedan.
CRACK.
Julian’s eyes widened.
Damon twisted.
His neck snapped.
The fight went out of Julian instantly.
His body slid down the car door and collapsed onto the concrete.
Damon stared at him for a moment before calmly wiping the blood from his hand.
“You were starting to annoy me.”