I hiss a pained breath as I struggle to get up.
I grab the bag I keep in my linen closet for emergencies. It has everything I need, including pictures of my family. I had taken a picture of everyone off their social media and put them intoan album to look at from time to time. Now, it will be set as a reminder of what I need to do. Who I am doing it for.
I limp out the door after checking to make sure that whoever had taken me wasn’t still around. They probably think I’m dead already. Heck, maybe I would be if it wasn’t for the voice inside of me urging me to go on.
I find the vehicle I had planned for my escape. I had it parked a couple blocks away but, in my current condition, it feels as if I have already walked miles to get to it.
I need to rest, heal, and work on my revenge.
It was dark when the intruder came. They didn’t bother turning any lights on, but I had cameras installed for that very reason.
Once I’m in a safe place, I will go through the feed. I have everything saved to an automatic cloud every hour.
They aren’t going to get away with this.
Chapter One
Silas
I’ve been summoned by my father.
If there is one thing I have learned about my father, it is that you don’t ignore him.
He wasn’t the ruler of Hell for no reason.
That’s right; my father is Lucifer. The one and only.
He had created me and my six brothers centuries ago: Gareth, Jasper, Leopold, Lorenzo, Otis, and Fredrick.
My brothers and I each carry the power of one of the seven deadly sins.
We are immune to each others’ powers, and our father is also immune.
Anyone who comes into contact with us isn’t so lucky.
We can unleash as much power as we want.
Take me for instance, I am the sin of Lust. I can make someone do anything sexual with only a hint of persuasion, but I am also skilled enough to make it subtler than that. I can even manipulate who someone is attracted to.
There was really no way to turn it off.
I’ve bedded many women over the years I have been alive, but I’ve always wondered how much of it was controlled by my ability. It’s not like I can completely turn it off.
Which is why I’ve never sought to commit to a relationship. I couldn’t trust that anyone was in love with me for who I was and not just under the spell of my powers.
“It’s about time you showed up,” my brother Leopold says. He’s got blond hair and blue eyes. He’s a pretty boy for sure, which we all tease him for.
I look around the room; it seems everyone is waiting for me. Okay, I must admit, I have a bad habit of being late. It’s something that seems to annoy my family constantly.
“I’m only five minutes late,” I grumble.
“I think that’s the closest to on time Silas has ever been,” Otis says with a chuckle. He’s got red hair, a pale complexion, and green eyes.
None of us look too much alike. That’s probably a benefit of my father creating us. He made us all look different, but you can tell in our facial structure and builds that we are all cut from the same cloth.
I look around the dining room of our home. We all still live with our father, but our place is massive. We each have our own wing that is basically like a massive condo, but we try to make it here for mealtimes since most of us don’t like spending them alone.
The room has a long brown table with a symbol of a black crown with red pouring around it, like blood, etched in the middle. We each have black chairs with high backs on them, and my father sits at the head of the table. I’ve sat on the opposite end of him ever since I could remember.