Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 92232 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 461(@200wpm)___ 369(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92232 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 461(@200wpm)___ 369(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
Are there humans? Yes. However, if you are a supernatural being, we provide a safe haven and resources for you to coexist with humans. The Immortal Iron Brothers MC has kept the peace and balance between the two worlds.
We have humans who have joined us and they help to keep our identities a secret. However, most of the brothers are werewolves, warlocks, fae, vampires, incubus, gargoyles, demigods, or something we’ve never allowed the human world to gain a whisper of.
“What do you mean?” I ask calmly, now that they have my attention.
I’m not frazzled, although I can see the worry etched in their faces. I’ve seen too much. Things that can never be unseen, things that would taint my soul if it wasn’t already black.
I’ve lived in this world, handling power one could only wish to access. Power so enormous it has to be harnessed and locked away.
Only fools cross the paths of my kind. They think they want ties to us, but being tied to one like me comes with consequences. Consequences that only bring darkness, but it’s those who seek darkness who seek us.
“There has been a shift. Like a barrier has been removed,” Reilly says.
“Come sit. Tell me what you feel,” I say to all three of my brothers.
“That’s just it. It’s not what I feel. It’s what I see. Something has happened. Their time is running out,” he says as he sits.
I lift a brow. “How so?”
“I don’t know yet. I’m still trying to make sense of it.”
I sit back in my chair and get lost in thought. We knew this time was coming. It’s the natural order of the curse.
It seems the Ricci family will soon learn the consequences of looking for me and my brothers. They’ve bound themselves to us for decades. They’ve gained our loyalty, but at what cost?
You can never hold a king forever. Time burns out that bond one way or another. Finally, the Ricci family’s luck has burned out. It’s been four generations. The longest we’ve served any one family. I’ve watched this all come to be. I’ve been waiting for our time of freedom.
“It is that time?” Ardan breaks through my thoughts as I hold up a flame in my palm, staring into its depths, watching the lightning bolts that surround it as I get lost in my musings.
I release an amused breath. “So it seems. Although I have been interested to learn what they’ve been up to,” I reply.
“You believe they had another play to keep us?” Ardan asks.
“They think they’re hiding something from us. They know not that this is a result of the bond,” I reply.
“It is quite amusing. Humans will always think they can outsmart us. It has never worked well for them.” My other brother, Bradan, chuckles.
I look from the flame and lightning to my two younger brothers. They are twins, one light and one dark. Ardan is fair, with blond locks and blue eyes. Bradan has bright-red hair, amber eyes and tanned skin. Their temperaments are just the same. Ardan is slow to anger with a light heart. Bradan burns hot and is rough around the edges.
Other than that, the two look the same. My middle brothers play off each other. They’re fire and ice, literally.
“The Ricci family has been the most just we have served. Although, I don’t believe any of that matters now,” my youngest brother, Reilly, says.
He’s the most calm of us all. He has the ability to stay rational in all things. However, if you get on Rye’s bad side, you are likely to get consumed in his fury like a man in quicksand.
Reilly has dark hair like I used to and tanned skin like Bradan and I. His golden eyes tell stories as they dance with hidden secrets beyond what they initially reveal.
I’m amused by Rye’s ability to see the silver lining in just about anything. I snuff out the flame in my palm and lift to my feet.
My study has an old-world feel that I love. There was a time when life was so simple for me and my kind. My brothers and I built this place with a fraction of our own power.
Knowing someday we’d need to stick to the shadows, away from the humans who live above. If time has taught us nothing else, it’s shown us to always be prepared.
If only the world of Manhattan knew the power that rests beneath it. We glamoured the old buildings on the street level ages ago. Just as we have done with the bar we’ve owned and run for more decades than I care to count.
Humans tend to stay away from outlaws. Over the centuries, we’ve stuck to this, adapting to the image of each era. Not once has the theory wavered. The more dangerous we appear. The more they stay away.