“Revenge is a poison, Dèmi. Drink it and you can destroy your enemies, but you will die long before you see them take their last breaths.” ― Ehigbor Okosun, Forged by Blood

  * * * *

  “Sorry.” Taylor apologised, the moment that both twins were out of Helmut. It isn’t a lie to state that they’ve practically run as fast as they could to get out of the town. “I know you said to leave it to you, but I just can’t stay quiet.”

  Both twins walked towards Elijah’s car parked just outside Helmut; but also far away enough that the hunters won’t catch sight of it. Even still, it didn’t stop both twins from examining every inch of the car to ensure that they hadn’t been bugged or even had a tracker planted on said car. Elijah even went as far as using some scanning device that Taylor is certain her twin might have taken from R&D.

  “Forget it.” Elijah sighed, once he was satisfied that they hadn’t been bugged. If truth be told, he really should have expected this coming from his sister. It’s not like either of them has tried to hide the fact they have no love lost for the hunters either. They just don’t broadcast it the way Allen and Jonan did. Goddess only knows how many times he’d seen Lucas reprimand those two regarding their very obvious disdain for the hunters. People have disappeared and been killed for less. “But the hunters are up to something. The underground, and especially the Abyss have been strangely quiet for the past year.”

  Taylor nodded slowly. While it’s not exactly something that the twins broadcast, they were street kids, and were raised in underground society before they joined the ESA. It is one of the reasons why Elijah had such a vast network of contacts amongst the underground, and even why he is so skilled in information gathering and hacking.

  “Considering our current allegiances, they were unwilling to tell me much.” Elijah sighed, getting into the driver seat, with Taylor sliding into the side passenger seat. “Not that I can blame them. But whenever the underground goes silent like this, it means that something is up.”

  Taylor snorted. “Ten bucks it has something to do with Aegis.”

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  Elijah gave his twin a look. “I’m not fool enough to take that bet,” he scoffed, and Taylor grinned. “But the hunters are idiots if they want to mess with the Abyss and the underground, considering their stance on the hunters.” He turned the ignition key, starting up the car engine. “There’s a reason why the hydra is the symbol of the underground. Cut one head off, and two more grow in its place. For the underground, taking out the leader won’t stop everything.” He exchanged looks with his twin. “And we both know that.”

  Zalfari and Zephys are prime examples of it, after all. Even after losing the original protectors—the gangs that once ruled those places with an iron fist, it didn’t lessen the amount of influence and authority that those places once held back when Whirlwind and Blade were still in charge.

  Granted, Zephys is now technically neutral territory, as no gang is fool enough to try to claim what was once Blade’s territory. But it doesn’t mean Zephys is unprotected. Far from it.

  “Nicolosi too definitely isn’t telling us the full story back there.” Taylor pointed out grimly, and Elijah nodded. “I’ll bet that he knows exactly what Walden had been doing, and just left him to it. And considering that most of his victims were Gifted or even the children of Gifted…”

  “Plausible deniability,” Elijah grumbled. “He’s using the loopholes in the law that protect the hunters by declaring Walden a former hunter. If I’m a betting man, I’ll bet that Walden was never kicked out. I’ve never heard of a hunter leaving their service, to begin with, anyway.”

  “…I’m starting to think that joining the ESA is a mistake, Brother,” Taylor muttered, furrowing her brows. “We could have found another way to find out what exactly happened to Chris—”

  “We’re doing this for a reason.” Elijah cut her off. “We’re in this too deep to turn back now.”

  Taylor nodded glumly. “I know,” she murmured. “Shall we go back? We need to report to Lucas.”

  “Yeah. Let’s.”

  Elijah took one glance back at Helmut, recalling the sound he’d heard in that room when they were speaking with Albert Nicolosi. It might be nothing, but something told Elijah that this isn’t something he can brush off.

  Elijah only shook his head, making a mental note to hit him up. Maybe he would be interested to find out just what the hunters are hiding.

  It took only a matter of moments for the car to pull out of park, and they were soon speeding down the road back towards Zhane City.

  Several long minutes passed after the car had disappeared out of sight before a lean figure emerged from behind the nearby oak tree that had concealed him from sight. Lleucu only sighed as he looked up at the skies before looking back over his shoulder at Helmut.

  He clenched his hand into a fist.

  “Seems like they’re up to their old tricks again, huh?” He murmured. “Brother… Wes… I’ll avenge you, I swear it.”