Jegudiel (Deadly Virtues 2)

“I’m going to turn off the collar. Completely,” Gabriel said, and Diel froze. Gabriel moved in front of him until Diel was forced to meet his older brother’s eyes. “Get it all out,” Gabriel instructed. “Here, with your family, exorcise the darkness inside. The rage that has been building too high of late. You can’t go on like this.”

Diel scanned his waiting brothers. He was being cleaved in two. His monster roared in victory, counting down the seconds to his bout of freedom. But Diel’s skin grew ice cold as a slither of fear crawled over his body. This wasn’t like normal, like when he had been given a Revelation in the Tomb, to carry out a kill on some fucked-up person outside of the manor. Since Purgatory, something had changed between Diel and his monster. It was stronger, more insistent. It was getting too hard for Diel to fight back.

Diel wanted this exorcism, this reprieve. Needed his monster to release some of his pent-up rage. But he knew what happened when that collar was switched off. He knew what he became. What he would need—death. Death and blood and his brothers’ screams of pain.

His monster wrapped its hand around his throat to try to stop him speaking, to make this happen. But Diel forced it back to hiss out, “No.” His hands balled into fists as he fought against the need to accept Gabe’s offer. “I’ll kill them.” He took a step back from Gabriel as his collar started to crackle and he could feel his resolve against his monster waning. “I’ll kill you.”

“Aw, it’s cute that he thinks he can take us,” Bara said to the others. The taunt instantly boiled Diel’s blood.

Uriel looked at Bara, his pierced and tattooed muscles twitching with the need to fight, then met Diel’s eyes. “Collar off, blue eyes. Let’s go.” He smirked. “Unleash the fucking beast.”

Diel vibrated with irritation. He tried to fight back the fury, the rage the monster was conjuring, but it was a losing battle. Rolling his neck, he closed his eyes and gave himself over to the bloodthirsty monster inside. “Gabe,” he growled without looking at his leader. “Turn the collar off.”

Diel heard a click, then the blissful sound of the collar losing its hum entirely. It was dead, just like the monster wanted his smirking brothers before him to be. Like a deadly plague, the monster spread through his body at breakneck speed, possessing him, taking full control, and Diel melded into the pitch black that came with his complete surrender to evil.

As if his body had been commandeered by a sadistic puppet master, Diel lifted his head and smiled coldly at his brothers. It was euphoric, the surrender. The freedom of dropping his continuous fight, to become one with the evil inside. A roar ripped from his throat, and he charged.

He ran for Uriel first, swiping the attractive blond’s legs from underneath him. Uriel crashed to the ground, a blur of dark tattoos and metal piercings, but he thrashed out and cracked the metal pole against Diel’s back as he jumped back to his feet. Diel charged again. Because this was what got him hard—the fight, the spree. The need to take not just one life, but many, one after the other, the greed, the binge of pure murder. Uriel swung the pole; Diel caught the end and yanked the blond to him. Diel crashed his head against Uriel’s. Blood burst on Uriel’s face, but the blond just smiled and let the blood pour down the perfect face that Uriel himself detested.

Diel lashed out and cracked Uriel across the jaw, then a flash of red appeared in front him. Before Diel had even realized Bara had come for him, a chain wrapped around his torso, yanking him to the side. The heavy metal bit into his waist, threatening to crack his ribs. Bara’s sadistic smile came into focus, and pure rage ignited inside Diel. He spun, unraveling himself from Bara’s hold. Gripping the end of the chain, Diel brought it down on Bara’s back. The redhead buckled to his knees.

Uriel grabbed Bara’s hand and launched him back to his feet. Bara’s smile widened, showing pure white teeth. “My dear Jegudiel, don’t you know that kind of rough play just excites me?”

Bara cracked the chain over Diel’s chest. The pain was like a bolt of lightning to his flesh. Diel snarled and went to retaliate, but Sela’s katana plowed straight into his stomach. Red-hot fury blazed through him. His hands rolled into fists, and blackness descended. His sharp gaze roved over his best friend, and all his brothers around him. Raphael’s golden eyes met his and he lashed out with his rope, hooking a noose around Diel’s throat. Michael bared his metal-tipped claws and attacked.

With a manic laugh, Diel fought back. The monster was unrelenting—slicing, punching, striking. It was a fucked-up melee of violence, blood and pain. But Diel reveled in it. All the brothers bar one basked in its rapture.