Chapter 1 - THREE BULLETS IN THE DARK
The sound of shattering glass barely registered above the swell of the orchestra’s rendition of Vivaldi’s Spring. To the wealthy guests sipping vintage champagne, a dropped pitcher was merely a minor inconvenience, an embarrassing mistake by a clumsy hotel staff member.
To Sarah Miller, it was the opening note of a tragedy.
Time slowed down to a agonizing crawl. The stranger’s fingers tightened around the textured grip of the suppressed pistol. His eyes were cold, devoid of malice or passion—the hollow gaze of a professional executioner. The barrel didn't point toward the notorious crime boss Lorenzo "Enzo" Caruso, whose ruthless empire stretched from the docks of Brooklyn to the high-rise boardrooms of Midtown. It was aimed directly at the back of six-year-old Leo’s head, where the boy sat engrossed in coloring a drawing of his freshly repaired toy robot.
Not the child. The thought erupted in Sarah’s mind, pure and primitive. Not him.
She didn't think about her unpaid rent. She didn't think about her brother Toby waiting at home in their cramped Queens apartment, counting the remaining units in his last insulin pen. She didn't think about the cold reality of human mortality.
She just ran.
Her feet slammed against the polished marble floor, bare soles gripping the smooth stone where her cheap slip-on shoes had been discarded. Five yards. Four yards. The gunman's finger began its pull on the trigger. Enzo Caruso was turning his head, alerted by the sudden movement, but he was too far—trapped on the other side of a heavy mahogany dining table, his reaction time dulled by a fraction of a second.
"Leo!" Sarah screamed.
She threw her body into the air, leaping over the corner of the table, her hands reaching out to shield the boy.
Pfft. Pfft. Pfft.
The silenced gunshots sounded like heavy raindrops hitting a canvas tent.
The first bullet struck Sarah in the right shoulder, the kinetic impact twisting her mid-air. The shockwave felt like a white-hot iron rod being driven directly into her joint. The second bullet tore into her side, ripping through flesh and muscle just above her hip. The third caught her in the upper left thigh as she collapsed over the child, her body acting as an impenetrable wall between the lead slugs and six-year-old Leo Caruso.
They hit the ground together in a tangled heap of black apron, white linen, and red blood.
Leo shrieked, a high-pitched sound of pure terror, as Sarah’s weight pinned him down. "Sarah! Sarah!" he cried, recognizing the server who had just fixed his toy.
"Stay down..." Sarah whispered, the air exploding from her lungs in a crimson mist. She locked her arms around the boy’s small frame, covering his head with her hands. Her vision blurred, flicking violently between the grand chandeliers above and the pooling blood beneath her.
Chaos violently erupted across the ballroom. Screams echoed off the high ceilings as guests finally realized what was happening. Chairs overturned. Wine glasses smashed. Women in designer gowns scrambled over one another to reach the fire exits.
Enzo Caruso reacted with terrifying speed now. His face transformed into a mask of pure, demonic fury. Drawing a matte-black firearm from beneath his tailored suit jacket, he fired three unsuppressed rounds directly into the attacker’s chest before the man could re-aim his weapon. The thunderous booms shattered the ballroom’s atmosphere. The gunman slammed backward onto a serving cart, crashing to the floor in a heap of broken silver and spilled soup.
Enzo didn't glance at the dead assassin. He scrambled on his knees across the blood-slicked marble, his hands reaching frantically for his son.
"Leo! Leo!" Enzo roared, pulling the child out from under Sarah’s bleeding form. He checked his son frantically—scanning his chest, his head, his arms. "Are you hit? Talk to me, Leo!"
"I'm okay! She saved me! The robot girl saved me!" Leo sobbed, his small hands covered in Sarah’s bright red blood.
Enzo’s dark eyes shifted from his weeping son down to Sarah. She lay on her side, gasping for air that wouldn't come, her body convulsing in shock. Her crisp white hotel shirt was rapidly turning entirely crimson.
Enzo dropped to his knees beside her, pressing his heavy, diamond-ringed hands against the wound in her side, trying desperately to stem the torrential flow.
"Stay with me, kid," Enzo commanded, his voice trembling with a rare, terrifying emotion. "Look at me! Keep your eyes open!"
Sarah forced her eyelids up. The world was spinning, drowning in a rising tide of darkness. Through the haze, she saw Enzo’s face. But as he leaned over her, his tailored jacket shifted, pulling open his left lapel.
There, pinned to the silk lining of Enzo Caruso's suit, was a subtle piece of jewelry. A silver pin.
It was shaped like a serpent wrapped around a dagger.
The exact same emblem the gunman had worn on his tie bar.
Sarah’s breath hitched in her throat. A cold chill, far worse than the loss of blood, swept over her heart. The man who had sent the killer... and the man who held her bleeding body... bore the very same mark.
"Toby..." Sarah wheezed, her hand reaching out weakly, clutching at Enzo’s sleeve with a blood-stained grip. "My brother... he needs... insulin..."
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"I've got you. I swear on my life, I've got you," Enzo barked, turning to his head of security, a towering man named Val. "Call our private medical team! Get the trauma unit to the Manhattan penthouse NOW! If she dies, Val, I'll skin every guard who was on duty tonight!"
As darkness finally pulled Sarah under, the last thing she heard was the frantic beating of Leo's heart against her knuckles, and the terrifying, cold realization that she had just jumped into the middle of a war between monsters.
