Page 37 of He Who Sleeps

“Isn’t that odd? I mean, Dumfries and Gorgan used to come to our fathers’ houses for meetings, and dinner. Hell, I remember seeing them at Emerson’s eleventh birthday party.” Emerson was the oldest of all of them by a month. Soon after that day, their fathers had been called in.

"I suspect it's because our fathers being friendly with some Elders gave them too much power," Devil said thoughtfully. "If I had to guess from a political perspective, I'd say they're consolidating their power base by becoming less approachable. Removing any idea that it might be democratic and ruling by fear alone. That's possibly why they kept Stephan alive...not just because they could control him, or he rolled on the others to save himself, but because they knew he was the only one that wouldn't raise us in our fathers' image." A rueful smile quirked his lips, despite himself. "And yet here we are, all these years later, pursuing pleasure instead of death."

“Something Stephan has not been on board with completely. And they haven’t once asked about any of us having children. That’s what’s bothered me the most. How does this organization and blood legacy continue if we don’t have children?”

"Look at what we're doing," Devil pointed out. "They purged our parents for being trouble makers and now we're bucking the trend by going with the pact instead of killings. Maybe they're hoping our rebellious bloodlines die with us. They've made arranged marriages for other people. And no one knows what happens to our sisters." That was something that had always bothered him. He knew his parents had given birth to a girl before he'd been born, but that was all he knew. No one ever talked about her or mentioned her, and then they were gone and he had no one to ask. "Maybe they raise them in a convent somewhere to be brood mares for other members of The Order. Meek and willing brides under the eye of He Who Sleeps."

“Asking Stephan would be a fool’s errand,” Ghost agreed. “There are too many unanswered questions, and it’s curious that we ended up with a female we all want and are willing to killfor, not kill.” He grinned. “These Elders, if they are in fact Elders, have their own agenda, my father included. We have to see them on the second, and when we do, I think we need to have a plan.”

"I think we need to look at the bigger picture," Devil sighed. Being a politician wasn't something that came naturally to him, but if they were looking at eliminating the Elders, as he feared they were, then they had to take the aftermath into account. The Order would be looking to new leaders, and if they wanted to avoid the mistakes of their forefathers, that new leader had to be Devil. And if this was all carried out in the shadows, behind closed doors, as their fathers' deaths had been, how many groups in five years’ time would be sitting and plotting rebellion, as Devil himself was now?

"We have to do it openly and loudly," he said. "No one can deny Petra’s power. No one can deny that the well is literally boiling with her energy. Heck, we could take video of the well here. If we openly ask to keep her, in front of witnesses, people will be forced to think and ask questions when they inevitably say no. They'll wonder why the Elders are refusing an obvious power source. And if the Elders are forced to say yes because we've publicly backed them into a corner, you know they'll come for us privately. And we can use that, too.

“We can take all the proof we need—videos or recordings of them declaring us outcasts or whatever and then make it public when we take them down. If we do this all behind the scenes, the way they would, there will always be questions about the legitimacy of our actions and we can't have that. Not if we want to keep her safe."

“Oh, I’m not saying we do it in the shadows. I’m saying we be the killers they fucking raised.” Ghost smirked.

"Yes, but we still need to make it legitimate," Devil insisted. "They raised us to be killers, but they didn't raise us to be idiots. If we want this to be one and done, we have to make a show of it."

Ghost nodded. “The fact remains that they want us to give energy through violence, right? Personally, I think we need to show up and just take them the fuck out, because something tells me the coup that was pulled on our fathers, on the actual Elders, needs to be avenged.” He frowned harder. “The fact that it’s taken ‘til now, and a sexy woman unmasking us for us to question...”

"It's a cult," Devil reminded him with a self-deprecating shrug. "Brainwashing is part of the shtick. What's important is that we are waking up. We are questioning. And we're not going to make the same mistakes the current Elders did. If we just turn up and take them out without explanation, what's to stop other groups trying to do the same to us five years down the line? Just because we've joined the dots doesn't mean anyone else will have, so we need to make it obvious." And if Neon's father's books hadn't been destroyed, they'd be able to share his work, too—show The Order exactly how long the Elders had been pulling the wool over their eyes.

“Do we even have names for the Elders right now? Aside from my father?”

"No, but we know they're all going to be there on the second. We must act quickly and decisively."

He nodded. “I just meant that Dumfries and Gorgan, and the others we knew well enough, were blood legacy. They have younger acolytes, or at least they did. Gorgan’s grandson has to be at least twenty-three now. I’m saying they could be traced back to blood legacy, but we don’t know any of the men on the council right now, except for Stephan. What if they aren’t blood legacy? If we make any mistakes, we’ll have to keep all the legacy bloodlines safe because that’s where they’ll retaliate to consolidate their grasp on The Order. Emerson has the family trees...”

"The best way to keep them safe is to remove the threat," Devil said. "Make it clear, open and decisive, and I doubt anyone would retaliate. We don’t make mistakes."

“You’re right, but I still think we need to find the other families, and I think we need to ultimately share the load. It’s clearly not true that violence is the most powerful energy we send below and we can prove that. We can prove that the Elders have lied. If they join us from the start, we won’t have to worry about making mistakes. We might even uncover other lies if we all start sharing our stories. Maybe energy transference isn’t only set for these two days, maybe it’s something the Elders fabricated as well.”

"It's possible." Devil shrugged. "I think that's been the way of it since The Order was founded, but that might be tradition rather than truth. Maybe in the early days when the men were allowed to have women around, the Dark God fed on lust all year and these two nights of blood sacrifice were just a bonus feast of plenty."

“It just seems like something that could be a means of control. My father loves control. And now that you say that, I wonder if they’re trying to control the Dark God, too. By removing the women, they’re starving Him of power and reducing the risk that He is powerful enough to purge them Himself. Do you remember, at all, how things were with your mother?”

"Not really," Devil admitted. "She traveled a lot with work and then she disappeared."

“It’s always been me and Stephan,” Ghost said softly. “I know Emerson and Jack both remember their mothers, but have you ever noticed that you lost them around the same time? When you were five to six years of age? Maybe that was the catalyst? For your fathers I mean, to start questioning and doing the research. Maybe for mine as well.”

"We've never been told what happened to them, either," Devil mused. "Just that they weren't coming back. I know my dad grieved." It was so obvious in hindsight. "Maybe that's why Emerson's dad went down the rabbit hole about energy transference."

“What if...” Ghost sighed. “What if losing my mother was the straw that broke the camel’s back, Finn? Stephan has always been a shitheel, and spiteful to boot. Not having her, when his team still had their women... Something feels right in assuming that if he couldn’t have her, they couldn’t have theirs, either. And that would be a domino drop, so to speak. Jesus...what if all of this is his own design? Why the fuck else would Stephan be named to the council? He wasn’t extraordinary. Hell, my family isn’t even one of the major legacy bloodlines. We’ve always been a lesser house.”

"Whatever the reason he did it, the point is that he did. We can't undo the past. We just have to make sure it never happens again."

“So we kill them all.” Ghost grinned. “She okay seeing your face?” he asked, changing the subject.

"Why wouldn't she be?" Devil smirked. "I'm a handsome fucker and the world knows it."

“Asshole.” He grinned. “I mean, considering you work with her...” he offered. Ghost did, too, if indirectly, his practice offering free clinics for the animals at her shelter.

"She wasn't surprised." Devil shrugged. "But she'd seen the others first. I think she'd have been more surprised if I wasn't someone she knew."

Ghost nodded. “Same, though she knows me even less.” He grinned. “Having her to play with all year is going to be amazing.”

"Well then... Glad you're on board." Devil rose to his feet and clasped Ghost's forearm. "Let's make this happen."

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