Chapter 1 - The Night Of Blood
Rain didn’t fall that night.
It attacked.
It slammed against the tinted windows of the black car like fists demanding entry, blurring the world outside into streaks of darkness and cold light.
Inside the car, silence ruled.
Adrian Voss sat still, one arm resting against the door, fingers slightly curled as if holding onto something invisible. His gaze was fixed ahead—sharp, calculating, unreadable.
The Voss estate stood in the distance.
Massive. Cold. Untouchable.
A place built on power.
A place built on fear.
A place built on blood.
Home.
But tonight…
Something was wrong.
The closer they got, the heavier the air felt.
The gates came into view.
Open.
Adrian’s eyes narrowed slightly.
That had never happened before.
Not once.
The Voss estate didn’t leave doors open.
Not unless—
“Sir…” the driver said quietly, gripping the wheel tighter. “Something isn’t right.”
Adrian didn’t respond.
He already knew.
His instincts had been screaming since they turned into the road.
Slowly, the car rolled to a stop.
For a moment, no one moved.
Then Adrian opened the door.
The rain hit him instantly—cold, sharp, unforgiving—but he didn’t react. He stepped out like a man walking into something he had already accepted.
The guards at the gate…
Were gone.
Not a single one in sight.
That was the first confirmation.
The second came the moment he stepped inside.
The smell.
Metallic.
Thick.
Unmistakable.
Blood.
It clung to the air, mixed with the faint trace of gunpowder. It was everywhere—on the marble floors, on the walls, soaking into the silence like a memory that refused to fade.
Adrian stopped walking.
For a second…
Just a second…
Everything inside him stilled.
Not panic.
Not fear.
Something colder.
His heartbeat didn’t rise.
It dropped.
Slow.
Controlled.
Deadly.
He continued forward.
Bodies lay scattered across the grand hall—men in black suits, some still holding weapons, others frozen in positions that told stories of resistance… and failure.
Men he knew.
Men who had trained him.
Men who had watched him grow up.
Gone.
Adrian didn’t look away.
Didn’t flinch.
Didn’t react.
But something inside him was changing.
Breaking.
Becoming something else.
Then—
He saw him.
At the center of the room.
Lying on his back.
Still.
Adrian’s steps slowed.
Not because he was unsure.
But because he already knew what he would find.
His brother.
The heir.
The one who was never supposed to fall.
A single bullet wound.
Clean.
Precise.
Right through the chest.
Execution.
Adrian stood over him, rainwater dripping from his coat onto the blood-stained floor.
For the first time in years…
His expression shifted.
Barely.
A crack.
A flicker of something human.
His brother’s eyes were still open.
Empty.
Adrian slowly crouched down.
Silence pressed in from every direction.
Heavy.
Unforgiving.
He reached out and closed his brother’s eyes.
A simple gesture.
But it felt like the end of something.
Behind him, footsteps echoed.
Careful. Hesitant.
“They’ve started a war.”
Adrian didn’t turn.
He didn’t need to.
He already knew.
This wasn’t random.
This wasn’t chaos.
This was a message.
And it was written in blood.
His voice, when he spoke, was low.
Controlled.
Cold enough to freeze everything it touched.
“Then we finish it.”
He stood.
And in that moment…
Adrian Voss stopped being the man he was.
And became the man the city would fear.
