Cilian’s eyes narrowed, the dazed delight in his gaze sharpening into something deadly. He brought a hand to Ren’s hair, idly twisting a lock of it around his finger. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

"Messing with my shipments, Julian? That sounds like a declaration. And here I thought we were having a ’peaceful negotiation’," he said and let go of Ren’s hair. "Though, I suppose all thoughts of resolving things peacefully were destroyed the moment you messed with my shipment and dared point a gun at my Ren." he took a step forward, and the Mordecais raised their arms.

Cilian’s men did the same, but Cilian was not scared. He kept walking until he stood a few inches from Julian, at the end of the shade, because he couldn’t afford to get wet and have Ren worrying about his wounds.

Though he would’ve loved to have Ren tend to him all night if he fell sick. But then no one could protect him as well as he does.

"Julian," Cilian called, his voice calm yet etched with a dangerous tone. "The only reason I’m not turning the Mordecais to a pile of ash right now is that I took the bullet instead of Ren."

Julian narrowed his eyes.

"For someone who burned his family down, you’re one to talk. Hypocrite."

"Well, at least I’m an honest hypocrite." Cilian shrugged. "And what I do is none of your business, so be on your way before I stop smiling."

Julian felt chills. Even as a vampire with a cold nature, he couldn’t help feeling chills when Cilian got serious. He was just that dangerous.

"Oh, right," Cilian said, and with the speed of light, he took out his silver gun and shot a bullet into the head of one of Julian’s men, causing the entire atmosphere to turn rigid with that single shot resounding in the air. "I did say the reason I wasn’t burning the Mordecais down since Ren didn’t get hurt, but..." They watched the body fall down. "I gotta pay you back for my shoulder, don’t you think?"

Cilian cocked his gun and shot another bullet before they could react once again, and this time it was at the man flanking Dennis and Dennis immediately cowered to the wet floor, placing his hands over his head for safety. "Ah, did my injury cause me to miss?" Cilian asked, looking genuinely curious as he scratched his head with the smoking muzzle of the gun. "Well, I could always try again." He lifted the gun again to aim, but this time Julian reacted first.

"What do you think you’re doing?" Julian yelled.

"What? I’m just paying blood for blood. Isn’t that what you vampires say? Funny, I live by the same conduct," he grinned, snickering evilly, and Julian watched with a searing terror in his eyes.

This man was a complete madman. Whose bright idea was it to target Ren when they couldn’t cover the tracks that led back to the Mordecais? It was all a mess now.

"By the way, it’s all silver bullets, so let the dead stay dead."

Julian’s eyes widened, and he stiffened.

"What?!" It seemed like he was not too alarmed, thinking the men would survive, being vampires, but if they were shot with silver bullets, it was an entirely different story. "Quick, check them," he ordered the rest of the men.

"I told you I was dying to see how well the new silver bullets I got worked on your kind, and it looks like it’s just as lethal as they come."

Cilian cackled at the sight. How dare they barge into his house and aim for Ren when he was standing right there? They deserved more than death.

"Cilian," Ren called, and Cilian looked down at him with a gleeful smile.

"Yes, darling?"

He seemed to be enjoying this abnormally so.

"What are you doing?"

"Well, for one, I’m taking revenge. And for another, I’m releasing my annoyance. How dare they disturb our sweet time together?" Ren tilted his head. He called that moment sweet? In an atmosphere filled with gunpowder, the stifling scent of his pheromones and the desperation in his chest... that was far from sweet.

But of course, Cilian was just a different breed of crazy entirely.

"I saw you aiming for Dennis," Ren said, and Cilian paused.

"Well, I was just trying to scare him since he makes you upset, Ren. No hard feelings." He smiled, but Ren couldn’t tell if he was being honest or actually trying to get rid of the only lead he had to the list of people who acted as whistleblowers in his family.

Cilian was so tight-lipped that he couldn’t rely on him for the truth.

"Ren," Dennis suddenly called out, his voice thin and desperate. "Be smart! Cilian doesn’t care about you. He’s just using you to spite the rest of us. Tell them what they want to know, and you can walk away from all this! I can help you!"

Ren narrowed his eyes in disgust. How dare he?

Right now, he was trying to use Ren to save his own skin, despite having committed an unforgivable crime against him and his family.

Ren snatched the gun from Cilian, and Cilian just let him, whistling.

"Uh-oh," he hummed, his voice dripping with dazed delight. "It seems someone’s in trouble."

Ren looked at the silver handgun in his hand for a second. The weight was similar to the one he had been using to practice a moment ago, but this one was a little heavier.

Beside him, Cilian let out a low, appreciative hum and slowly raised his good hand in a mock gesture of surrender. He stepped back just enough to give Ren the stage, his eyes wide and shimmering with that dazed, silver delight.

He was a spectator at his own execution, and he seemed to be loving every second of the suspense.

Dennis, however, saw only an opening.

On the wet ground, the advisor scrambled to his knees, his grey suit plastered to his thin frame. He looked at Ren with eyes that leaked a practiced, watery desperation.

He couldn’t fully understand the situation, but in his mind, there was no way Cilian would have shared the fact that he was involved in the incident two years ago with Ren, who was now a slave.

His eyes flickered from the muzzle of the gun to Ren’s face. He saw Ren’s trembling hands and the leather collar around his neck, and he decided to double down on his gamble.

And so, he planned to suck his way up to Ren and exploit, as well as manipulate, this unfortunate omega prince.