Chapter 194: Soul Con

"What the fuck is going on?" Gen asked, incredulously. "How are you using our tattoos?"Ezra took a deep breath, feeling the change in his soul. He'd just grown stronger and received answers to a few of his questions. But there was one thing he now knew.

"The both of you can do it too."

"What?" Gen said. It didn't take long for both ladies to be sporting horns and dragon wings. "This… This is…"

"There's no time to explain." Ezra said. "For now, we hide the golden eyes using our chameleon. We've gotten what we came for. Olivia's now in the fifth ring, I'm somehow in the fourth ring. How about you?" He asked Gen.

"Fourth ring." Gen answered.

"Perfect." Ezra nodded. "Let's hide our eyes then we're out of here."

The ladies nodded and in a few seconds, they had the normal vampire red eyes slowly spinning in a mesmerizing motion.

"Well, well, well," Griffin's voice reached them. "What do we have here? Isn't this the vampire I've been searching for?" Griffin drawled with an expression of mock surprise.

Ezra, Olivia and Gen backed up in states of extreme alertness, ready for a fight.

Griffin stepped into the chamber flanked by three of his wives. He stood there, grinning at Ezra like a feral animal. "I guess I should be thanking you for inviting me to the Ascension well."

His Aura descended upon the chamber like a physical weight, joined by the Aura of his wives.

Ezra cursed beneath his breath. He still wasn't used to the idea that he could teleport and now, that option was gone.

Griffin was blocking the only exit from the chamber and that meant he'd have to fight the man and his wives.

"I have to ask." Griffin took a few slow steps forward, the sound of his footsteps echoing in the chamber. "Why betray me, Ezra. We could have been great together. Owned the Southside like we were meant to. Have First City in the palm of our hands. Why would you abandon that?"

Ezra stared for a moment before he began laughing. He laughed loudly, the sound almost echoing back to him. After a moment, the laughter tapered off, replaced by an incredulous expression.

"Are you really searching for an answer or is that a rhetorical question?" Ezra asked.

Griffin stared at him speculatively before nodding slowly. "Do elaborate." He waved at Ezra.

"Hmmn." Ezra adopted a thinking pose. "Where do I start? Should I start with the fact that there's no we in everything you said?"

Griffin frowned.

"There's no 'we' owning Southside together. There's no 'we' becoming great together, Griffin. There's only 'you.' You do all these for yourself."

"You want to own Southside alone. You want to become great alone. Don't insult my intelligence by adding a we in it. At least, have the decency to be honest about how greedy you are."

"Is that what you really think?" Griffin tilted his head in amusement. "You think I do this for myself? If I become powerful, would my subjects not reap from my power? Would they not enjoy that power?"

Ezra scoffed. "That means nothing when there's a chain around your neck. When you don't even have the freedom to choose who you want to become. That… in a lot of ways, is a fate worse than death."

Griffin began laughing loudly, the scratchy sound making the occupants of the room wince. "A fate worse than death, he says." Griffin chuckled for a few seconds. "Nothing, Ezra Matten, is worse than death."

"Is that how X feels?"

"Pardon?"

"Ah, come on. There's no need to hide that dirty secret any longer." Ezra grinned. "I know you took an innocent soul and chained his very soul to you. You made him more of an animal than a person. That's an unforgivable crime, Griffin."

"I see." Griffin said. "You solved the mystery of the masked man, huh? Clever. Very clever."

Griffin clapped slowly.

"But whoever told you X was an innocent soul?" Griffin grinned.

Ezra frowned at his words. Was X much worse than he'd thought?

"X was a soul I created with my very own hands." X took another step forward, his voice calm yet intense. "I gave him life and made him who he is today. As his creator, isn't it up to me to find a purpose for that life?"

Ezra frowned, unable to understand. Griffin created X's soul? How was that even possible?

"His soul was mine from the very beginning. What I do with it shouldn't be anyone else's concern."

"And yet, X is his own person." Ezra straightened himself to his full length. "No one deserves what you've done to him. Which is why… death is a much better option than… that."

"And that's your solution?" Griffin chuckled. "Death?"

"If you must know, I'm bound to X by a blood debt." Ezra grinned. "And before you think to take advantage of it, he's already used it. Do you know what he wants me to do?"

Ezra didn't wait for Griffin's answer.

"He wants me to free him. By any means necessary." Ezra paused. "That means that I can kill him if I want to. But then… I discovered something."

"A bond between your soul and X's." Ezra took an unconscious step forward. "Guess what I'm about to do."

Griffin frowned in confusion at Ezra's grin before his eyes widened.

Ezra gathered a huge portion of his available vitality and fired it at X's soul through the blood debt. The vitality hit, latching onto the soul and spreading like a virus. It reached the chains connecting X and Griffin and began to climb on it.

"If X dies, you die too." Ezra began laughing madly. "Isn't this killing two birds with one stone?"

Griffin stumbled back, feeling the invasive vitality. Something was going on in X's soul and if Ezra was right about what he was, he could die.

Making a split second decision as he felt X's soul flicker, he severed the chains holding him to X. It was time to cut his losses.

Ezra's eyes widened as he felt the chains wrapping X's soul break and disappear. He'd actually done it. They'd fooled Griffin and unchained X.

"Finally!" A voice called out from the corner of the room, stepping slowly into the light. "Fucking finally!"

Griffin's eyes widened in shock. "X?" He whispered.

X stumbled into the open, pulling back the hood over his head. He slowly raised a hand to the mask covering his face.

"No!" Griffin yelled, stretching a hand out as if he could stop X from where he stood.

With a snarl, X tore the mask from his face.

"What the fuck?" Ezra heard Gen's voice behind him and honestly, he would have said it if she hadn't because the face behind the mask… had not been what they were expecting.

seaʀᴄh thё Novelƒire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.