Death Kings

Chapter 34

Callum

"What was our Pa doin' at that gala tonight?" Etienne asks me as I thrum various cords on my black, customized acoustic guitar.

"He probably was hoping to see me there. It's a good thing he has never met you, Frere," I respond.

"Eh," he grunts before giving a dismissive wave of his hand. "He was starin', though. Course that could've been because Jax was bein' handsy."

I snort. "No. Jax? Bein' handsy? Ya don't say?" I reply, feigning shock. It comes out more of a croak, losing the teasing tone I going for.

Etienne laughs, so I guess he understood I was being facetious. "Okay. It's not usual for ma husband to be that way, no?"

"No, it's not. Jax has always been tactile," I answer, finding a rhythm I like on the guitar. This would make an excellent song.

"Do you think Thibaut is working with Gerhardt?" Etienne asks.

I stop my strumming to think on that for a moment, before saying with certainty, "No. He only put up with Gerhardt for my mother. Maman was close to her sister, Ryder's mother. Her mind seemed to snap when Eliza died. Shortly after, she was diagnosed with DID, dissociative identity disorder. Marianna was volatile and abusive in a different way, compared to my older sister. Marianna is the one who almost killed me and not my Maman."

Etienne hummed under his breath at my words. He knows the entire story, so I don't have to elaborate much on the subject. "That's different from Jax?"

"Yeah. Maman never knew about Marianna. She was a different person who showed up, completely taking over. Jaxson is aware of the distinct personalities inside of him. They aren't different people, just different parts that makeup him. Sometimes he is balanced, other times one personality is stronger."

"That makes sense to me," Etienne says with a head nod. 

My brother might talk slowly and sound incompetent when he speaks, but he has street smarts. He is calculative with every move he makes when fighting. He watches and waits for opportunities to present themselves before his move. He also graduated with honors alongside the rest of us, so there's that.

"Why do you think your pa is looking for you?" Tee questions.

"It could be anything," I answer, setting my guitar down on the stand beside my chair.

"You think you could forgive him?" He asks again.

"He was afraid of me, and he had a right to be. I'd had enough of my sister's abuse, and I slit her throat while she slept. I don't regret it. I'm probably a sociopath, but I don't care to explore that too much. I regret nothing, nor do I have any remorse over the lives I've taken over the years. You?"

"I don't lose sleep over it none, me. I can't think of a single remorse, but I've not taken the life of an innocent except in a time of war. It sucks their families have to grieve them, but they made poor choices. I just might be a socio alongside you, brudder."

I snort because all just might be a group of sociopaths. Our environments and circumstances we grew up created the messed-up monsters we are today. We are death to those who cross us.

"What are two talking about?" Ryder asks, pulling up a chair to join us around the fire pit.

"All of us being sociopaths," I answer. 

"We are," Ryder says succinctly, as it is fact even without a diagnosis.

"That's da conclusion we came up with," Tee tells him.

He gives us a faint smirk before his face falls into an emotionless mask. "Ransom called. We need to go get him from his house. Gerhardt took his anger out on him. Thankfully, it's he isn't bleeding out, so the hour's drive to get him won't be too bad. Can either of you drive for me since it's dark?"

He is still getting accustomed to only seeing out of one eye. At least his bi-weekly contacts now last him a lot longer, though currently, he has his black designer metal frame glasses on.

"Why don't we both go with ya, Chouchou?" Etienne asks. I like that idea better than just one of us.

"Okay, sounds good." Ryder lets out an exhausted sigh.

"Are you sure you're okay, l'époux?" I ask him, concerned with how worn out he appears.

"I'm tired of seeing the evidence of his abuse on another kid. It was one thing that he did it to me. I could take it, had for over a decade." He stands leaving, so we follow.

"That kid is more dangerous than you think he is, Chouchou. He doesn't feel pain the way you do," Etienne says, wrapping his arm around Ryder's waist.

"He feels pain like I do," I finish for Tee. "He enjoys the high pain gives him. I've seen it," I tell him, walking alongside them. "The scars on the palm of his hands and along his forearm are from cutting for the endorphin release."

"During sparring, he goads his opponent in hitting him harder. When they do, he laughs," Etienne says.

Ryder frowns, pausing with his hand on the door to the garage. "Each time I've patched him up, he would grunt with a smile on his face like he fights laughing."

"That's because he was. I had reset his nose when Arson hit him last week. He had the bloodiest grin on his face. I heard the crunch, me. When I popped it back into place, he laughed as if it was the best thang in da world," Etienne says opening the door for Ryder and pushing him inside.

Ryder hums under his breath as he thinks about it. We pile inside Tee's truck. We are pulling out of the driveway and onto the highway before Ryder speaks again.

"He is a psychopath. He was diagnosed as a six-year-old when he stabbed a kid in the eye with a pencil. The teacher said he laughed when he did it. When he was asked about the incident, he said the boy took crayons from his princess. He had no remorse for what he did to that kid. He genuinely said that was an appropriate punishment," Ryder says. "He was sent to a mental health facility for six weeks only. They didn't deem him a threat to others because he was kind and polite. He already knew how to blend and tell others what they wanted to hear by mirroring them. He got sneaky after that."

"How so?" I ask curiously.

"He would wait out his prey. He would find the right moment to be alone with that person and beat them bloody. Every fight usually had to do with the other person 'wronging' HIS PRINCESS." Ryder put 'wronging,' in air quotes before he stressed the last two words.

"Like he owns this girl?" Etienne asks.

"Yes. She is his possession. His possession he has to protect," Ryder affirms.

"Her dark knight," I state.

"More like her hellhound. Sounds like dat boy gets the scent of something he likes and he doesn't let go until it stops moving and has been torn to shreds," Etienne says.

"Both, I think. Either way, we are going to have to ride herd on him. Make sure he is held accountable for his actions, and he understands only those we determine as guilty get to die. No innocents," Ryder says matter of fact. Both Etienne and I agree with him.