King of the Underworld by RJ Kane

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Sephie

“From what you’ve seen, he’s pretty much consumed by the demon, right?” I asked Ivan.

“Yeah. When they’re like the face behind the face, that’s when they’re running the show,” Ivan said,

I looked at Adrik. He had the same thought I did. “There’s only one solution, then,” he said.

“Stephen,” we all said at the same time.

“He’s going to be so happy,” I said, laughing as we left the bathroom.

When we got back to the table, the conversation was still flowing. Everyone noticed as we came back, but we didn’t

interrupt anything. As we sat down, I told both Ivan and Adrik to either close their eyes or look down. I turned

toward Stephen, who was sitting beside me, and flashed him my demon eyes. He knew that meant his services

were going to be needed shortly.

We’d discussed Stephen’s gift before coming to the hotel. Before, we had personal experiences to use as fuel for

him to break the person. This person was a complete stranger, so we weren’t sure how that would work. It was

Misha that came up with the idea for how to make it work.

“Once the decision is made, I can look back through the person’s life and pick out times when they’ve done evil

things. You and Andrei can look through their head and do the same. I can send everything I have to Andrei, he can

send it to you, you give it to Stephen. Boss can give him “f*ck you” juice like before while Ivan makes sure you’re

protected,” Misha had said the night before as we were discussing it.

I gave the green light to both Misha and Andrei to start collecting information. They’d both been working on being

more subtle with their gifts. It was harder to tell when they were using them now. The glazed-over look was much

less noticeable.

As the three of us looked into this man’s life, none of us were prepared for what we found. Adrik and Ivan both felt

my extreme nausea, which was compounded with both Misha and Andrei’s nausea as they saw what I saw.

“What’s happening, love? You feel terrible,” Adrik asked.

“I’m going to need to wash my brain after this. This man is beyond disgusting.”I told them. “You might not need to

help Stephen. This one is going to hit very close to home for him. It’s going to send him into a rage.”

The man had a very long history of taking advantage of little boys in the worst way possible. We collected enough

of his memories that Stephen would have plenty to use. I told Andrei and Misha to stop, mostly because I couldn’t

handle the nausea any longer.

“I need to warn Stephen,” I said. “But we need to find a way to provoke him so everyone can see.”

While they tried to come up with a strategy to provoke the man, I leaned over to Stephen. I was very careful not to

touch him yet. I whispered in his ear, in Russian, “Yoden, I need to warn you. This one is going to be difficult for you

because of what he’s done. It hits very close to home for you. If you want to sit this one out, we can find another

way.”

Before I could stop him, he grabbed my hand. He managed to control himself as he took everything we’d gotten

from that guy’s life. It only took a few seconds. He looked at me, saying, “there’s absolutely no way in Hell I would

sit this one out.”

Andrei caught my eye, after he’d watched Stephen take everything from me. His face clearly showed concern for

Stephen. He pushed his thoughts to me, telling me he’d figured out another piece to the puzzle. He suddenly

realized that Viktor was here to help us as much as he was to help others. He could help us fix ourselves after we’d

had to witness the evil this man had done over his lifetime. None of us wanted this hanging onto us any longer than

absolutely necessary.

I told Andrei he was a f*cking genius.

“Stephen is ready, whenever we are. I’m not sure he’s going to need help, but I think you should be ready, Just in

case. I can feel him smoldering beside me right now. He’s usually very cold, but he feels like you do normally right

now,” I told Adrik.

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“I can feel him through you. I know that feeling from him. He’ll handle this one on his own,” Adrik said.

Once again, I spoke to Battista in Italian, telling him we needed a way to provoke this man to anger so we could

expose him. He nodded, expertly shifting the conversation exactly in the direction we needed. Since Lorenzo had

been killed, many of his human trafficking networks throughout Europe had been exposed. There were a few very

high profile people that had been caught having connections to Lorenzo, meaning they were partaking in the

particular services that Lorenzo was providing. Battista must’ve had his suspicions about this man before today, as I

couldn’t see him bringing this subject up otherwise.

The man started to get uncomfortable as we all discussed the matter. He started to sweat when Battista had asked

if he’d known one of the people that was currently in police custody for being connected to Lorenzo. Nothing had

been outright proven yet, but speculation as to this person’s guilt was running rampant throughout Europe. The

man before us decided that coming to the defense of an accused human trafficker and ped*phile was his best

option.

It was exactly what we needed.

The conversation got heated on his end, but he wasn’t angry per se. He was scared. Scared of the same fate.

Scared of being exposed.

I felt my anger rise to the surface and I finally let it happen, not caring one bit that my eyes were now black. Adrik

and Ivan’s eyes were also now black. We watched him squirm in his seat once he saw it. Ivan shared what he could

see with me and Adrik. The demon was clearly agitated. I glanced at Stephen, who finally spoke.

“I mean no disrespect, sir, but people are generally only accused of such heinous acts when they’ve actually

participated in such heinous acts,” he said. I’d never heard Stephen take that tone with anyone before. It was like

he was mocking him. In the most menacing way possible. If I didn’t know Stephen already, it would’ve sent chills

down my spine.

Ivan was still sharing what he could see as Stephen revealed himself. We watched this man lose complete control.

His demon was now angry and took over, switching his eyes to black as well. The man tried to get up, but Stephen

stood up quickly. Stephen was across the table from him, but it looked like Stephen had grabbed him and shoved

him back into his seat, without Stephen touching him. He didn’t move after that. His body was completely

paralyzed, but Stephen had only barely begun break him. He could still talk; he could still see.

Stephen was s*ipping ahead to advanced levels of control already.

The demon started trying to talk his way out of it, making sick excuses, promising power, promising whatever we

wanted. Surprisingly, Stephen let him talk for a few minutes. He glanced at Battista and his associates. Battista

didn’t look quite as shocked as his other two associates. He’d definitely had his suspicions before today about this

man.

Finally, Stephen had enough. I felt his anger level go through the roof as we watched the man’s light behind his

eyes go out. He finally stopped talking as Stephen gave everything back to him that he’d done to his victims. All the

pain, all the trauma, all the suffering he’d caused was now given back to him all at once, effectively breaking his

psyche.

Adrik’s anger was definitely not needed in this instance. Stephen had plenty of his own this time. Once he was

finished, his anger disappeared and he went back to feeling his normal, colder than any human should be self. He

sat back down and took a sip of water like this was a normal f*cking

Tuesday.

“Vlad is going to be so impressed with your portfolio, Yoden,” I said quietly to him, in Russian.

He laughed quietly.

I looked at Battista and his associates, who were still somewhat shocked at what they’d just witnessed. “You all

heard him tell you everything you needed to know about him in his own words. He was consumed by his demon. He

has been for a very long time. He did very bad things to very innocent people and now he’ll be made to suffer for

that for the rest of his body’s life.”

“He’s going to stay like that until he dies?” one of Battista’s associates asked. I nodded my head, explaining what

we’d done.

Battista turned to the man, saying, “this is why we’re all so willing to help them get Ricardo De Luca. Do you

understand now? And more importantly, are you willing to help?”

It became clear in that moment why Battista had set this up today. It wasn’t for his benefit, but for ours.

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King of the Underworld