Chapter 12 - The Breach in the WallsI scooped Lukas up into my arms, his little body instantly tensing as he sensed my sudden panic. "Shh, baby, it's okay," I whispered, though my own heart was hammering against my ribs like a trapped bird.
I rushed down the hallway toward the reinforced panic room behind Dante's study, just as Marco came barreling around the corner, his tactical vest buckled tight and an assault rifle clutched in his hands.
"Miss Mara, move! Now!" Marco yelled, his face grim.
"What happened?" I demanded, ducking as we entered the heavy steel-reinforced study. "I thought the Vanguard was destroyed at Pier 4!"
"It wasn't the Vanguard," Marco said, his fingers flying across the keypad to seal the heavy steel blast doors. "We picked up a localized high-frequency signal from the eastern ridge. Someone just bypassed our primary thermal grid. It's a professional infiltration unit."
On the massive monitor built into the study wall, the security feeds flickered to life.
The sprawling gardens outside were dead silent. Fog was rolling in over the manicured hedges. Suddenly, a figure dropped silently from the high stone wall, landing in a deep crouch. Then another. And another. Six operatives in charcoal-black stealth gear, their faces hidden behind matte-black tactical masks.
What made my blood run cold wasn't their gear. It was the symbol painted in dull, crimson red on their shoulder armor.
A phoenix rising from a pile of skulls.
"The Syndicate of the Red Phoenix," Marco muttered, his breath hitching. "I thought they were just a myth from the old country."
"Who are they?" I asked, my voice trembling as Lukas buried his face in my neck, whimpering softly.
"They're the ghosts who trained the Vanguard," Dante’s voice cut through the room.
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He stepped out from the private elevator shaft connecting the lower armory, adjusting a heavy tactical harness over his black shirt. His eyes were hard as obsidian, burning with a lethal fire.
"They aren't here for money, and they aren't here for territory," Dante said, walking over and gently taking Lukas from my arms for a brief, fierce second before handing him to Marco. "They're here to finish what was started twenty years ago. They want our entire bloodline erased—down to the last breath."
