"Your true self."
My tone was bitter. My sensei was here, and I had no idea what to think about it. There was no one I’d respected more when I was growing up, and in my mind when I referred to him as “sensei,” it was in remembrance of the person who had guided and half-raised me.
But there was another side of him—the hard nature that made him a formidable fighter. He was as brutal as he was breathtaking, and I meant that in every sense. Not to mention the way he’d just up and left me when I was a naïve sixteen-year-old...
Rubbing at the red welts on my wrists, I wondered if the marks might be permanent after all of these weeks of trying to fight against the handcuffs. “Has all of this been under my sensei’s orders?” I asked, following the Red East leader out of the cage. He didn’t say a word, just continued leading me through the lower levels.
It was clear that most of the underground network here was for prisoners. I’d never seen anyone in a cell close to mine, but I’d heard plenty of screams in my weeks here. None of them had sounded like Rafe or Jordan—I doubted either of my guys would scream like that no matter what—but my heart still shattered every single time there was a shout.
Not knowing if my princes were dead or alive was legitimately going to give me a heart attack.
Nothing else was said as we continued on, and I finally got to leave the depressing pit of their underground rooms, emerging into fresh air and sunshine. Closing my eyes for a second, I breathed deeply and let the sun bathe my face.
"Come," Red East leader said. "You can enjoy your freedom soon enough. Once you've heard our proposition, you will understand everything much more clearly."
That proposition better include information about where my princes were, or this newfound calm they had been trying to beat into me would fade away in a whirl of fists and violence. My name, my nature after all.
The building I’d been locked in looked like a huge shopping mall, short and wide, with a lot of gray dreariness to the design. It even had a parking lot, which was where they ushered me into a nondescript white van.
"Not even going to offer me candy first," I muttered.
He side-eyed me, but I was pretty sure he didn't get the reference. Fuck, he'd clearly never been a kid fighting for his life on the streets, and it showed.
The car was silent and smooth, powering out of the mostly empty lot. We drove for what felt like an hour. Just me, Red East leader, and another armed, masked man. Finally, we left the urban landscape and entered a more natural setting until the car stopped in front of a gorgeous, ranch-style property.
"Of course," I murmured. No way would my sensei find himself living outside of his comfort zone—he hated concrete and people. Not in that order.
My door was opened by the driver, who left his gun inside the vehicle. Apparently they didn't fear me running from here. As much I wanted to remind them of who I was, there were more pressing things to worry about.
I needed answers about Rafe and Jordan before I did anything else.
Walking up the long, pebbled path, I headed for the grainy wood steps of the front porch. It took a lot of effort to move the last few feet to the door. I hadn't seen my sensei in a long time, almost two years to be exact, and things had not ended well between us. It was complicated and messy, our relationship, and in the time we’d been apart, I’d reached some dark conclusions about both of us. The respect I’d once held for this man was gone. But since he was the one standing between me and my princes, I had to suck up some courage and face my past.
The door swung open, and just like that, he took the option away from me.
Standing in the open space, wearing his trademark high-collared kung-fu outfit, was Uriel, my sensei. Many of the martial arts disciplines had lost their way after the Monarch War, disbanded so that commoners could no longer learn to fight. Uriel was of a secret, underground sect that still practiced in multiple disciplines. His training was second to none, and even I had never been able to come close to matching him during our sparring sessions.
"I’ve been expecting you," he said, voice deeper than I remembered.
I didn’t move, waiting for him to get out of the shadows so I could see his expression. His eyes actually. They were the only part of him that told me which Uriel I was facing today.
“Come in,” he said, stepping back.
Fucker. This, as everything with him, was a test.
With a small exhale, I crossed the last few steps into his house, following him into the light. As he turned and faced me, I barely caught the gasp that tried to escape. It had been so long since I’d seen him, and in that time, if anything, he seemed even more striking.
Uriel always reminded me of a fallen angel, and despite the fact that he was in his early forties, had a youthful appearance. White-blond hair, long and tied back in a thick braid, piercing golden eyes, that could stab with their intensity, and dark golden skin, that added to his overall "God-like" appearance.
The man who taught me how to defend and save myself. The man I tried to never think about more than I had to.
The man who’d stolen my innocence, even if I’d thought I was giving it freely to him at the time.
That was why I never came back to him. This was what I’d come to terms with over the past two years: I had been groomed by a predator. But I was quickly coming to the realization that he hadn’t only been grooming me for sex, but for something much bigger. Something much more political. Apparently, I was finally about to find out his long-held secret.
What did Uriel have planned for me?
Chapter 4
Silence reigned supreme as I sat on the edge of the chaise lounge with my back ramrod straight. Uriel was content to wait it out, though. He knew I'd break first, I always broke first. Such was the impatience of youth.
After some moments, he gave an unspoken command to the black uniformed guards with machine guns standing inside the doors. They nodded and wordlessly left. The click of an old fashioned metal key turning in a lock echoed through the room in their wake, and then it was just the two of us.
Uriel and me.
He raked his gaze over me in a way that spoke volumes about how we'd left our last encounter. But still, he didn't speak. Just stared.
Eventually the tension got to me, like it always did, and I let out a growl of frustration.
"What am I doing here, Uriel?" I snapped the words with annoyance because I couldn't ask what I really wanted to ask. Where are Rafe and Jordan? Are they okay, or have you already executed them like Claudette?
Seeing him, here, that mess at Arbon made more sense. I should have known my sensei was a member of the Society. He hated the monarchies to the point of weakness, and never missed an opportunity to remind me of the injustices they inflicted on us. Which was hypocrisy at its finest considering the wealth both he and the Red East leader seemed to come from.
His eyes narrowed at me in silent reprimand, but I was done taking his shit. I wasn't that naive, love-struck teenager any more. I wasn't in awe of his strength and control, and I sure as shit wasn't blinded by my foolish, misguided, and utterly manipulated infatuation.
I sneered. "I think I earned the right to use your name the night you took my virginity. Now, answer my damn question. What the fuck am I doing here?"
He sucked in a deep breath, his mouth tight and his nostrils flaring. Once upon a time, that would have instilled deep, bone trembling fear in me. Not anymore.
"I see the years of absence have done no favors for your discipline and respect, disciple." His voice was smooth and low, hypnotic, but I knew him better than that. He was pissed as hell at my brash manner toward him. "However they certainly made up for it in how nicely you matured as a woman." Again with that leering gaze.
I shivered, and not with desire.
"Are we just going to sit here and chat on old times, or did you have a reason to kidnap my friends, capture me then try and break me for three weeks? Spoiler alert, I'm not broken, Uriel. Try harder next time. Or, you know, just man up and tell me what you want." I kept my gaze flat and hard, my hands loose in my lap. I'd spent too many years under his often cruel training to forget everything so fast. Besides, much of what he'd taught me was invaluable to my place in the world now.
He let the silence stretch between us again, predictably, but then leaned forward with his fingers steepled. His golden eyes studied me in his piercing, intuitive way, but I wasn't afraid anymore. I stared right back.
"The Society would like to offer you a position within our ranks, Rose." He studied me for a reaction to this, and I couldn't help myself. I flinched.
It had nothing to do with his "offer" to join the people's army, but his use of my middle name. He'd only done that on rare occasions, usually after a particularly brutal or cruel training session that had left me a broken, hollow shell. Most of the time we’d been sensei and disciple, but there had been these moments that he showed rare displays of kindness, holding me tenderly and whispering everything I wanted to hear. He always called me by my middle name then, like a term of endearment.
I knew better, now. He was manipulating me, essentially brainwashing me to become his loyal, adoring soldier. As beautiful as a rose, with deadly, poison-tipped thorns.
"You had to know you were always destined for a higher purpose, my beautiful girl," he continued, sensing my moment of hesitation like a shark on blood. "A strength like yours couldn't be wasted in the slums of America, thrown away on cheap underground fights for paltry bets. No, Rose, you've been trained by the best." He meant himself, arrogant prick. "And now it's time you fulfill your duty to us all. To your people. To me."