This Wicked Sin

Chapter 2: Gabriel

The Syndicate. A collective of the most powerful crime families in the country. Decades ago, the streets were rife with fighting and death between the Clans all in the name of territory, money and most of all, power. The constant wars and fights were so bad that all the top gangs decided it had to come to an end before every one of them was wiped out.

There were seven total seats for seven total Clans; the Ravens, the Harpys, the Jackals, the Serpents, the Vultures, the Scorpions and finally the Coyotes. My family held one of those seats. The Ravens were a fearsome clan led by my father.

Things were civil between the clans for the most part. The clan leaders all hated each other’s guts but they all stayed in their respective lanes.

An official syndicate meeting being called out of the blue could only mean one thing; trouble. My mood plummeted further as soon as I realised I was going to have to meet my father and stand by him like we were a united family.

Rowan had wasted no time and had a car waiting for us downstairs in minutes. He had whipped an outfit for me from somewhere so I could look halfway presentable.

I stood in the bathroom and stared at my reflection. I looked good if you ignored the dead look in my eyes and the drawn look on my face. I wore a fitted black turtleneck and tailored pants that ended just slightly above the ankle. A long coat finished off the whole look. It was a definite step up from my earlier outfit, which was better for picking up people at clubs than meeting the most dangerous people in the country.

I splashed water on my face. My nerves were getting to me. I hadn’t seen my father in months, if not closer to a year. I snorted at the fact that I was more worried about meeting my father than I was about meeting crime bosses who wouldn’t mind seeing me dead on the floor.

I opened the door to find my brother clearly about to start knocking on it. He looked me over with a critical eye and then nodded to himself. He started walking down the hall to the back exit while I followed in his wake. He led me downstairs into a private underground garage. A sleek car with an illegal tint waited for us.

“Do you know what this is about?” I asked, “And why is Hunter not coming with us? Actually, should I even be there in the first place?”

None of my questions were answered. A man held the door open for us and we quickly entered before it was shut. In seconds, the car was off.

Rowan pressed a button that opened a hidden compartment beside him. The inside gleamed with daggers and guns. He picked up a gun, slowly holding it up for his appraisal. He gave a sound of ascent before handing it to me.

“Rowan,” I said in reproach when he wouldn't answer me. He held up the weapon with a raised brow until, with a sigh, I took it from him. He nodded his approval before taking one for himself. I hid the gun under my coat despite the fact that there was already an arsenal of weapons strapped all over my body, the weight of them slightly comforting. No doubt Rowan was carrying double the arsenal I was.

“Why aren’t you telling me anything?”

“Well, I’m not sure about things myself. I have some ideas on the matter but it’s nothing confirmed.”

I rolled my eyes, “Right. And why do I have to go? Pretty sure Hunter would actually, like literally, kill to go.”

Rowan was silent before he c****d his head and looked at me, “When’s the last time you took your medication?” he asked.

I groaned in exasperation, “Are you seriously trying to change the subject?” I took inventory of myself but it wasn't like I could smell myself. “It’s wearing out?”

Rowan gave a short nod. I cursed.

Searching through my pockets, I got a nondescript bottle and quickly popped one of the pills. It choked me on the way down, but at least it was gone and my scent with it.

Rowan took out a sharp dagger and studied its edge with calculating eyes. “How caught up are you with the recent happenings in the family?” he asked.

“A little caught up,” A little meaning not at all. I had been spiralling for a while and spent most of my time high, passed out or both. I couldn’t remember most days if I tried. Except for that night maybe.

It was a night imprinted forever in my brain. The screams. The blood. The smell and taste of it. I shook off the memory quickly. But yeah. I couldn’t forget that no matter how much I tried.

“Right,” Rowan said with a raised brow that clearly said he was on to my s**t. “There’s been a series of attacks on shipments and disappearances the past few months. Seemed like the usual petty s**t so we paid it no mind. I assigned a few guys to look into it but it wasn’t that serious and the people we lost were deadbeats anyway. But they’ve grown in frequency in the past few weeks. We lost a pretty big shipment of ether today.”

I released a breath in shock. Ether. One of the most popular drugs out on the streets and my family’s speciality. It was a highly sought-after substance and thus ridiculously expensive. My father guarded those shipments better than a high-security prison. Everything at every point of the operation was accounted for and protected.

To hear that someone had gotten the drop on my father’s men and had escaped with his s**t was shocking.

“How?” I asked.

“That’s what we were trying to find out while you were passed out, Gabriel,” he said with a frustrated breath, “The guy we had chained back there was one of the perpetrators. We were trying to get some answers out of him.”

He looked at me with eyes that clearly said he wanted me to be doing that task. I ignored his look and asked, “That still doesn’t explain why I’m the one here and not Hunter. I don’t want anything to do with this. We just established that.”

“Well, turns out these attacks aren’t only against us. Every major family has experienced similar issues. Whoever is targeting us is now getting personal. It’s not been officially claimed but the disappearances are getting a lot more… high profile” He looked at me to see if I saw the gravity of what he was saying. Someone important must have been taken. I didn’t want to think about the implications of that, “You’re here because I want you close to me. It’s not safe for you to live as you do, so far from the family.”

I looked out the window and thought about what he was saying. Any one of the blood members of a Syndicate family was protected better than any president on earth. The fact that they were taken by someone showed a level of power and audacity I couldn’t fathom.

“Someone has clearly declared war on us. And tonight, we’re meeting to make sure whoever it is will regret it till their last screaming breath.”

…

The driver first drove us to the compound. Seeing the place made me feel both nostalgic and sad at the same time. I used to have good memories of it once and, whether I liked it or not, this was home.

The compound was a massive piece of land that was the head of operations for my father’s… business. The entrance to the property was protected by huge imposing gates and security that made a military base look like child’s play. The gate opened for us as we approached.

It took a few minutes to get to the main building of the compound, which was a massive sprawling mansion in the middle of beautiful landscaped lawns and gardens.

The car came to a stop in front of the house and it wasn’t long before the doors were opened for us. I stepped out gingerly, looking around at the place I used to call home not long ago. I'd run out of here as soon as I'd turned 18.

My father had ignored me for so long, with the only communication between us being his constant jabs about how much of an embarrassing failure I was, yet despite that, I had expected somewhere deep inside me that he would come after me. That he would show that he cared and ask me to come back. Looking back on it now, it was laughable that I’d thought things would play out in any other way than how they did.

I never had a clean lifestyle, even when I used to live here, but never as bad as I was recently. I used to actually attend classes, understand them somehow and pass them.

It had all come to a head a few weeks before my 18th birthday, after the hundredth time I drunkenly sneaked back into the compound after a weekend-long bender.

I had been gone for two straight days with no contact with anyone; not to the guards who were paid handsomely to follow my every move and make sure I didn’t die, not to my friends and especially not my brother. I felt like s**t but being sober in my father’s household took more mental fortitude than I had at that point.

My father had had enough to the point he socked me clean in the jaw for being ‘a little w***e’. I still had a slight scar there from when his ring had cut through my skin as he punched me. It was more shocking than painful because the last time the bastard had laid hands on me was back when I was a skinny thirteen-year-old kid.

I had revelled in it. That was more attention than I'd gotten from him in years. And at that point, I could admit to myself that most of my wild exploits were all a ploy to get him to say something, anything, to me. And it finally worked.

A lot of words were said between the two of us that night that I wished I was too drunk to remember, but they still rang clear and true in my head.

Failure. Disappointment. w***e.

And there he was, the devil himself. He stood on top of the entrance stairs watching our car as we exited. His features immediately twisted when he saw me.

“Rowan, what is the meaning of this? Why did you bring that here?”

That. My mouth twisted in a scowl and I looked away from him.

“He’s coming with us. That isn’t up for discussion,” Rowan said with deadly quiet. He and my father stared at each other in a test of wills. I felt Rowan’s aura of menace spike, making me wince at its pressure.

Father sneered as he looked away, “As you wish. Take this as my boon to you, son,” The two looked at each other for another moment before the moment was broken by something I couldn’t fathom.

Rowan’s aura was not just a figure of speech but an actual tangible thing. He could manipulate his aura to affect anyone within his range. He could have a grown man writhing on the floor in pain in seconds with little effort on his part. Most people's instincts told them he was something to stay away from, it was an instinctual fear deep inside them.

Rowan was one of the few people in our society who had more than the normal abilities that humans possess.

It was said that long ago, our Goddess, Asena, chose a select few of her warriors to carry part of her power as their own. These warriors were capable of superhuman feats and came to be known as Asena’s Blessed. It was a rare gift that only manifested in the chosen few.

Rowan was more in every way; he was what you’d describe as the alpha of alphas, a prime alpha. Not only did he have Asena’s Blessing, but he was also a shifter.

There was a time in our distant past when people had the ability to shift into great beasts. Somewhere along the way, that ability was lost to us and the only remnant we have from that time is our second gender. However, an incredibly low number of people were still born with that ability; able to shift into their beast forms and wreak terror. These days, shifters are even rarer than the Blessed. No one could figure out why.

Hunter was also a Shifter. As was my father.

I, on the other hand… was not. I was one of the biggest failures of my father, who thought he’d pass down that gene to all three of his children. It didn't matter to him that I was one of the Blessed, I would forever be a failure in his eyes.

I meekly followed my brother to a huge car that could probably tank a nuclear bomb. Right before we entered, I felt a slight pressure on my hand that turned out to be Rowan’s. He looked back at me with a slight smile, a rare occurrence on his serious face. The sight of it went a long way toward uplifting my broken spirit because of my father’s rejection.

I gave him a smile of thanks before entering the car for what was sure to be a wild night.