MasukAUTHOR'S POVThe doorbell rang twice before Cole got to it. He had been in the middle of making coffee which he abandoned on the counter still running, because after the last week of not knowing where Ezra was and waiting for a phone that barely rang and opening his door to three strangers, claiming to be his brothers in search of him...after all of that, Cole had developed a reflex about doors. He pulled it open but what he saw next wasn't what he expected. The man on the other side was not any of the three he had met before. Cole stared at him, eyeing his appearance. He had the same build as them, the same structure and even the same quality of presence that made the doorway feel smaller than it was. He looked just like them but this one had ink running up the side of his neck and along his forearm and an expression that the other three had never worn. He just wasn't sure so his brain ran a fast search. "Are you Lucien? Caius? Dorian?" He squinted. "Did you get a tattoo?"The
EZRA'S POVThe ceiling was unfamiliar. That was the first thing I noticed after my eyes had opened clearly. It wasn't even the light, sound or the particular weight of my own body against the mattress. It was the wrong ceiling. I lay still and let the information arrive in pieces. Was I locked up somewhere else again? I sighed softly as I shifted my head uncomfortably on the pillow. My neck ached. The memories slowly arrived and I let it come. I had to then set it aside because there was nothing useful I could do with it right now. I turned my head and saw Dorian sitting in the chair beside the bed. His eyes were closed. His jacket was over the arm of the chair and his sleeves were rolled to the elbow. His head was tipped back slightly the way a person's head went when they had been sitting upright for a long time and their body had made a unilateral decision about rest. His hand was around mine, not loosely, the deliberate hold of someone who had decided on it and maintained it e
DORIAN'S POVCaelan's face on the screen had that specific quality it got when assembling a complete picture from incomplete information and was waiting for someone to fill in the rest.He looked at each of us in turn. The silence lasted exactly long enough to be deliberate. "Explain." He ordered finally, looking at me.I kept my posture straight and my voice level. "We found Ezra in an apartment after being missing for some days. Riven was the one keeping him. He found him before we did and didn't tell us. By the time we tracked the location and got there, Riven had gone into a dark episode. We got to him in time but Ezra has been unconscious for two days since we brought him home."Caelen was quiet. His gaze moved slowly across the room. It landed on Lucian's face. He was wearing a bandage across his nose. The bruise underneath his eyes had gone deep purple overnight. "And you. Did you also plan this with Riven? Cause I don't understand why you're in the same state as him.
CAIUS'S POV "This is it." I said, pointing at a four floored building. It looked so old modern, almost like it was designed to be forgotten. I looked at my phone, at the tracker sitting steady and unmoving on the screen and then back at the building. "You are certain, right?" Dorian asked me and I nodded. "The signal hasn't moved for a while." I put my phone in my pocket. "This is where he's been." "Yeah, he is right. That's Riven's car." We all looked towards the angle. It was parked two spaces down and I sighed. This was about to get bloody if it turned out to be true. ▪︎▪︎▪︎ABOUT TWO DAYS AGO.Dorian had come to my room without knocking, which was standard. I had been in the middle of getting dressed after a shower when he suddenly barged in. "I need you to find something." He announced. I pulled my shirt on and turned around. "Have you heard of knocking?" "Have you heard of locking your door?" "Have you heard of privacy?"Lucian appeared in the do
EZRA'S POV'It's been three fucking days and I am still here!' I mumbled to myself, staring at the ceiling. I didn't even have access to a watch and a window to know what time of the day it was. I was almost at the edge of madness. I didn't know what exactly was keeping me sane at this point. Riven had come three times during each day to keep me company which I didn't ask for. Just while I was cursing him out in my heart, the door opened and he stepped in. 'Speak of the devil.' I muttered, ignoring that he could hear it, all thanks to his sharp ears. He came on carrying a bag that smelled like something warm and looked at me. "You know I heard that, right? Good evening to you too." He said. "Let me go." "You've been saying that for a while now. Aren't you tired?" "Riven, I don't think you understand. I need to see Cole. He doesn't know where I am, he's probably panicking...he..." "He's fine." "You don't know that." "Trust me, I know enoug
DORIAN'S POVThe city at night had a specific quality that I had stopped finding interesting approximately four hours ago. We had covered two locations since dinner. Both dead ends. It was starting to feel more like bad luck. I sat in the front seat and watched Voss City move past the windows and said nothing. "Riven still hasn't called back," Lucien said from the back seat. "He said he went for a run." Caius responded, not looking up from his phone. "A run." Lucian's voice had that particular flatness it got when he'd decided something was absurd but hadn't fully committed to saying so yet. "He's been on a run for over twenty hours already. Is the lack of blood already affecting him this much?" "Riven runs long when he needs to clear his head. You know that." "I know that when there's nothing happening. We're in the middle of looking for Ezra and then he goes for a six hour run." I kept my eyes on the road instead, not fully participating in their discussi







