The entire room turned into chaos.
The civilians began to rush towards the doors, any door that they could find. The cries echoed, bouncing off the walls and the raucous made it hard for Wolf's men to know where to shoot. Dante took advantage of the commotion, crouching down to Nate who still had the chains wrapped around his neck. It didn't even seem as if Nate recognized him, slowly glancing in his direction with his one eye and simply falling into his arms.
"Dante, get him out of the chains, we need to leave," Reno hissed, seeing the bodyguards staring to advance towards the stage.
When Dante didn't move a muscle, Reno yelled again. "Dante, we're all in fucking danger! You need to get him off the chain now before Wolf's guys get to you."
Dante had seen these sorts of atrocities before, hell he had even caused worse pain onto others than what Nate had endured. They killed Jules mercilessly, torturing him until he couldn't even breathe on his own. But in that moment, not only did he feel nauseous, but he simply froze. His quivering fingers didn't move at his command, and all he could do was stare at them. Nate's head was leaning on his shoulder with his chest close to him, and Dante, able to hear his faint heartbeat, didn't even know what he was supposed to do.
In all the years that he had come to terms with the gruesome sights of this world, never once had he panicked like this. And in this moment, that was what happened; Dante panicked.
"I don't know what to do, I don't know what to do..." His mind was racing with too many thoughts that he felt as if the entire earth was quaking. Was he supposed to try and stop the bleeding? But he was bleeding from everywhere! How was Nate ever going to get his second eye? What about his missing limb, how was he supposed to live like this?
"Dad, Dante's lost it." Molly was the first one to notice, but he remained concealed within the shadows. Although he knew how to handle himself, he wasn't as strong as his other brothers and putting himself in the crossfire would only hinder them.
Bronsted widened his eyes. "The last time he was like this was when Dad made him get rid of mom."
Is this all my fault? It is my fault! I should've never been around him, I knew it was a bad idea and Raphael said it too me so many times but I didn't listen! He doesn't deserve this, they should've taken me! Oh my god, what did they make him go through? Is he going to die? Did I kill him? I killed him! I don't know what to do, I don't know what to do, Idon'tknowwhattodoIdon'tknowwhattodo....
"I don't know what to do, I don't know what to do..." That was all they could hear through the earpiece, a breathless mumbling Dante that was lost in his own mind, consumed by his thoughts and holding the barely surviving Nate, unable to make himself move.
"I need to get Dante," Raphael shouted as he was bumped into by a random stranger who rushed towards the doors. Unfortunately, the doors had been locked to prevent anyone from leaving the building, hence the commotion was nowhere near being stopped anytime soon. "He's having a breakdown."
"Go ahead." At the same time, Lucius had slit the throat of a bodyguard that had leaped towards the stage. "I'll deal with the ones that try to intervene." The blood splattered across the faces of other civilians, which only caused the panic to grow even more as the bodyguard fell to the ground, choking from his own blood.
"Where the fuck do you think you're going?" Reno spat as he reached for his sister, pulling her by her hair and wrapping an arm around her neck. He made certain she could feel the knife at her side to make her stay still. "We need to make sure you don't mess up our plan."
"Oh, don't bet on your luck," Tyler smirked.
When they noticed a few more of Wolf's men exiting from the lounge area, pushing through the civilians without any remorse, Bronsted lunged forward and tripped one to the ground, slamming his brass knuckles into his jaw and watching the man's eyes roll to the back of his head, unconscious. "I'm helping you keep them at bay, Lucius."
"Kill them," they heard their father chime, "kill as many as you can. And Raphael," there was a hint of worry in Draco's tone that they hadn't heard before, "get to Dante."
Raphael had never heard Draco's voice seem so fragile, and he did not hesitation to squeeze through the throng of racing people attempting to find cover. He didn't have any issues making it to the stage, but when he saw the blank stare in Dante's gaze as he continued to incoherently murmur to himself, he knew Dante was too far gone to continue this mission. His mind had reached places way too deep and he wasn't going to be of any further help for this plan. Although Dante behaved as if nothing was every to hurt him, he was still a child at heart, as fragile as any one else. Seeing Dante broken this way was a sight that made Raphael chest tighten.
"I got him." He leaned towards Dante and wrapped an arm over his shoulders. At the same time, he reached his fingers to Nate's neck, relieved to hear a heartbeat. They all heard a sigh of relief from Draco as Raphael confirmed Dante was alright. "He's on the stage with Nate but Nate is barely breathing." From all the years Draco had taken him in, Raphael had never experienced a torture as brutal as the one Nate clearly suffered. He was never a big fan of Nate, but for a moment, he felt guilty. He was the one that had been in charge of looking over Dante, and he should have never let Dante pick Nate.
He swallowed hard, needing to glance away. As he looked towards the rest of his team, he saw the number of bodyguards that were on the floor as Bronsted and Lucius continued to stop them from approaching the stage. "We need to get Nate out of here or else he won't make it."
"Too bad none of you are going anywhere."
That voice, that eerie petrifying voice, always high in pitch, breathy and filled with unnatural enjoyment. It was heard in their Bluetooth earpiece, which startled all of them. The minute Eric heard his voice, he placed a palm over his mouth in disbelief. At first, he wondered if it had been a glitch and it was his mind playing tricks on him, but when Draco's pacing suddenly paused, he knew they had all heard it.
"So Dante's the one on the stage?" There was a low chuckle before he added, "The other one's name is Raphael?"
Reno inhaled a sharp breath. "How the fuck did he connect to our earpieces?"
"You've killed enough of my men so far, don't you think, Dragon?" A laughter sent shivers along all their spines, even Draco. "It's been a long time since I called you that nickname, Draco Hercules."
Their entire family had gone quiet, all of them confused as to how his voice could be heard through the earpiece. Even worst was that the commotion seemed to settle, the civilians finally allowed to exit the club. However, during their hesitation, each of them felt a pair of hands restrain them.
The first one to be tackled to the ground was Lucius, who tried to fight the four men that surrounded him but by the time his knife stabbed one in the chest, the other had already wrapped an arm around his neck with the muzzle of a gun at his head. It wasn't long until Bronsted was captured, eventually Reno and Tyler were both shoved to the ground. The only two that were left released were Raphael and Dante, and that was because they were on the stage, surrounded.
"Did you all really think I would let you hit one of my bases without any retribution? Steal one of my prisoners?"
Draco turned to Eric. "You said he wouldn't show up."
"He never does'! T-This isn't one of his main bases and he doesn't even care for Nate—"
"Eric, it's nice to hear your voice. Doing well on the other side?"
"Tell us how the fuck did you hack our network to connect to our earpieces!" Reno spat.
"I didn't hack it." Finally, they heard his voice in the room.
None of them had even realized how empty the place had gotten. All the civilians and workers had been left to escape, and the rest that remained were Wolf's men. They had been too preoccupied in protecting Dante from the stage that they didn't even realized they were been plotted against. Well, the only one who had realized was Molly, but by the time he could tell it to his brothers, it was too late. "I don't even know anything about all this tech stuff."
Finally, he appeared out of the shadow from the corner of the club.
His appearance had always been a peculiar one. He wore dress shoes that clacked with every step, causing the end of his long navy medieval jacket to flick upwards every time. An green ascot scarf around his neck was his signature display, which had always been ridiculed. His dyed white long hair had also been a sight that made others frown, but he fancied it, said it was unique. It aligned perfectly with his strange light gray eyes that almost appeared white in the sun.
Anyone that spoke about him always said he had an ominous peculiarity to him, as if he wasn't human at all. But they would also say that from the worst of the worst psychopaths in the world, he deserved the be at the top of the list, his seat already reserved in hell. Not only because of the things he had done, but there was no trace of emotions ever to be witnessed on him. He was described as an empty soul, and that made him the most dangerous enemy of all.
When he was finally in the light, glancing from each brother as they were all pinned to the ground, he relished the way their faces contorted when they realized what he was holding.
Maybe not what, but who.
In one hand, he had a glass of mixed rum, to which he made the ice cubes twirl as he dangled the glass.
And in his other...
"I borrowed this earpiece from this corpse," he snickered. "I mean, he wasn't a corpse when I found him, that's for sure."
Without any remorse, he threw Molly's frail and pale body onto the stage, watching as it rolled to Raphael's feet.
"Of course you all know who I am but let me re-introduce myself." He bowed down, placing a hand on his heart with a long mischievous smile lengthening his lips. "My name is Cesar Dayne. But to you all, you may refer to me as..." he straightened his spine and widened his arms, as if he was receiving applauds from a performance, "...Wolf."