LOGINShare
96 : The War Begins
Last Updated:
2025-04-10 16:59:00
Related chapters
Broken Vows, New Promises 97: Ashes and Echoes
Damien’s POVThe lab burned behind us.Flames licked at shattered glass and twisted metal, casting hellish shadows that danced over the blood-soaked floors. The air reeked of scorched chemicals and singed flesh—a grotesque perfume of war. We stood just beyond the perimeter, Aurora’s hand still gripping mine like a tether keeping me from spiraling into the madness Monroe had unleashed.I couldn’t shake the image of the clone—my clone—eyes open, dead on the table, his face an eerie mirror of mine. The only difference had been the blankness behind his gaze. No soul. No memories. Just flesh and programmed obedience.“This is just the beginning,” I muttered, voice hoarse.Aurora turned toward me, her face pale but resolute. “Monroe’s not just experimenting. He’s building an army.”I nodded slowly. “An army that looks like me. Fights like me. Maybe even thinks like me.”She shivered. “But they’re not you. He can’t replicate your mind. Your heart.”I wasn’t so sure anymore.The drive we reco
Last Updated : 2025-04-10Broken Vows, New Promises 98: The Devil You Know
Aurora’s POVSilence settled over the war room like a thick fog.The screen still flickered with the final frame of Monroe’s message, his face frozen in a half-smile that made my skin crawl. Damien hadn’t moved for what felt like minutes. He stood there, hands clenched into fists, shoulders rigid, as if every word had been branded into his skin.Daemon.The name echoed in my mind like a curse. A clone—not just a replica of Damien, but something more, something… engineered to be unstoppable. A being grown in shadows, meant to take Damien’s place in the world. In leadership. In memory."What do we do now?" I finally asked, my voice barely more than a whisper.Damien didn’t turn. "We find him," he said. "We stop him before Monroe unleashes him.""How do we even begin to look for something that’s been hidden from everyone?" Zoe asked, pacing. Her face was drawn, eyes red. "He could be anywhere. Monroe planned this for years. This isn’t just a rogue science experiment. This is a goddamn in
Last Updated : 2025-04-10Broken Vows, New Promises 99: Reflections in Blood
Damien's POVThe cold air of the abandoned Romanian base cut through the cracks in the concrete like a scalpel. My boots echoed against the hollow floor as I stepped deeper into the heart of the labyrinthine structure. The others were behind me, holding the perimeter. This part was mine. Mine alone.Daemon waited.I could feel him before I saw him. A sickening familiarity, like seeing your reflection move when you stand still.When I entered the main chamber, he was already there, standing beneath the broken remains of a skylight that bled silver moonlight onto the floor. He wore my face. My scars. My posture. But the eyes—those were wrong. Too calm. Too knowing. Too cold."Welcome home," he said.My jaw clenched. "This was never my home.""Isn't it? Monroe built you here. Built us here. Every thought you’ve ever had—filtered through his design. Tell me, Damien, how do you sleep knowing you were made to be his puppet?"I stepped forward, slow and steady, my weapon raised. "That’s wher
Last Updated : 2025-04-10Broken Vows, New Promises 100: Shadows of the Future
Damien’s POVThe echoes of Daemon’s fall still rang in my mind, though the blood had long since dried. The confrontation, the final confrontation, had felt both inevitable and surreal. My hand still trembled slightly as I gripped the railing of the balcony, staring out into the vast, darkened expanse of the estate grounds below. The night had grown still, but the air felt thick with anticipation—like a storm was still gathering on the horizon, despite Daemon’s death.I had faced him. Faced the part of me I’d never known, the monster bred from my very blood and bones. I had watched him die, felt his last breath rattle through the air. It should have been a victory, a triumph over my past—a cleansing fire. But now, in the aftermath, I felt none of that.Instead, all I could hear was the ringing silence left in his wake.I glanced down at my hand, watching the faint tremors as I flexed my fingers. The blood on them, still fresh from the struggle, was only a reminder of what had been lost
Last Updated : 2025-04-10Broken Vows, New Promises 101: Aftershocks
Aurora’s POVThe silence after war was the loudest thing I’d ever heard.It seeped into the walls of the estate, into the creaking floorboards and the chilled morning air. I could hear my own breath too clearly as I sat alone in the conservatory, legs curled beneath me, the early sunlight filtering through the glass like shattered gold.I hadn’t seen Damien since last night. Since Daemon. Since the bullet.It was over. But something inside me still buzzed like static.My fingers trembled around the teacup I hadn’t touched. I wasn’t sure if I was cold or just empty. We had survived, but surviving came with a cost. I didn’t know how to name it yet.Damien’s clone. His mirror. His shadow.Daemon had looked like him. Moved like him. Smirked like him. And yet, the moment I saw them side by side, I’d known. The real Damien wasn’t a reflection of violence. He was shaped by pain, yes—but he chose to feel, even if it broke him.I wasn’t sure if he saw that.The door creaked behind me.I didn’t
Last Updated : 2025-04-13Broken Vows, New Promises 102: Echoes of Us
Damien’s POVMorning arrived as a pale whisper through the frost-kissed windows of the estate. I sat on the edge of the bed, shirtless, elbows on knees, the world outside still veiled in shadow. The silence felt too complete—like the house was holding its breath.Aurora lay behind me, still wrapped in sleep, her breathing steady, the curve of her body half-shrouded by the blanket. The only thing anchoring me to this moment was the knowledge that she was there—safe, close, real.But everything else in me felt frayed.Daemon’s face lingered in my mind like a ghost refusing to leave. Not just his face—mine. His voice—my voice. Each time I blinked, I could see him again, the final look in his eyes before he fell. Not rage. Not defiance. Acceptance.And that terrified me more than anything.Because what if I had been just one breath, one misstep, one trauma away from becoming him?I ran a hand over my face, feeling the rough stubble against my palm. The adrenaline had long since burned out
Last Updated : 2025-04-13Broken Vows, New Promises 103: Through the Veil
The day was cold, the kind of cold that crept into bones and wrapped itself around the heart. Damien stood on the balcony of the estate, overlooking the mist-shrouded forest, a cup of coffee untouched in his hand. The conversation from the night before lingered in his mind. Three simple words—ones he never thought he could say, let alone mean."I love you, too."Aurora’s voice was still etched in his memory, and the feeling of her lips against his was a brand he couldn't shake. But now, in the clarity of morning, the world returned in pieces—and with it, the war that hadn’t ended. The flash drive had only opened one door. What lay behind it was something far more dangerous.Inside, the team gathered in the war room. Lucien, Quinn, Zara, and Jace were already deep in debate when Damien entered. The moment he stepped in, all eyes turned toward him. No one asked how he was. They didn’t need to. His presence alone was answer enough."We decrypted the rest of the files," Quinn said, sliding
Last Updated : 2025-04-13Broken Vows, New Promises 104: The Edge of the End
Aurora’s POVThe rain whispered against the windows, a soft, ceaseless rhythm that mirrored the storm churning inside me. I stood in the war room beside Damien, watching the digital map shift with red markers and lines of data streaming across the monitors. It felt surreal, how the world outside could remain untouched—silent and calm—while ours spiraled toward something that felt inevitable.We hadn’t spoken much since Romania. Since Daemon.Damien hadn’t slept. Not really. He paced at night, murmured Monroe’s name in his sleep, and carried shadows under his eyes that even sunlight couldn’t erase. There was a hollowness in him now. A silence that didn’t come from fear—but from knowing what had to come next.“What do you see when you look at that map?” I asked him quietly.Damien’s jaw clenched, but he didn’t look away from the screen. “I see the end. One way or another.”I moved closer, feeling the tension roll off him in waves. “You’re not alone in this.”His gaze shifted to me, the
Last Updated : 2025-04-13
Latest chapter
Broken Vows, New Promises 125 : The Space Between
The sky was beginning to pale with early dawn.A hush lingered over the forest clearing where Damien, Aurora, and Null had emerged hours earlier. The ruined facility behind them was reduced to distant smoke and the occasional aftershock trembling through the earth. But above, stars faded gently into morning, and for the first time in a long while, the air felt breathable.Damien stood at the edge of the clearing, his gaze fixed on the horizon. Not quite sunrise yet. Just that in-between glow—blue and soft. His arms were folded across his chest, posture tense but still. Watching. Processing.Behind him, Aurora knelt beside Null, wrapping a blanket over his shoulders.He hadn’t spoken much since they escaped. He sat curled slightly on himself, back against a tree, still shirtless, trembling—not from cold, but something deeper. Trauma lived in every flicker of his eyes, every stammered breath.“You did good,” Aurora said softly, her voice low, soothing. “You got us out. You made the choi
Broken Vows, New Promises 124 : The Silence Beneath
The air was cold.Deeper into the underground corridor, Damien’s boots echoed off the concrete like faint drumbeats in a tomb. Aurora walked beside him, flashlight cutting a path through the pitch-black void. The deeper they went, the more the stillness pressed against their lungs—too quiet, too still.“This place wasn’t just a research site,” Aurora whispered, her voice swallowed by the stale air. “It feels like... a mausoleum.”Damien nodded once. He could feel it too. The walls were lined with sealed doors, some corroded with time, others freshly reinforced, as if someone had come recently to preserve what was left behind. The further they went, the more the facility’s secrets seemed to throb beneath the surface.They reached a fork in the hallway.“I’ll take the left,” Damien said.Aurora grabbed his arm. “We should stay together.”He met her eyes—firm, unreadable at first—but something softened within him. “Alright.”As they took the left corridor, the hum of old machinery return
Broken Vows, New Promises 122 : Beneath the Quiet
The soft glow of candlelight flickered against the glass of the kitchen window, casting elongated shadows across the tiled floor. The night outside was still. A rare kind of stillness, the kind that came not from peace, but from exhaustion—like the earth itself was catching its breath.Damien sat at the small round table, hands wrapped around a mug of coffee gone cold. He hadn’t touched it. His eyes, though open, were lost in a distant place, replaying fragments of the letter Eve had left behind. Each word still echoed in his mind, heavier with each repetition.Aurora leaned in the doorway, barefoot, wrapped in one of his sweaters. Her hair was damp from the shower, framing her face in loose waves. She watched him quietly, resisting the urge to speak too soon. She had learned that Damien needed silence the way most people needed air—especially after unraveling something raw inside him.“I can hear the gears turning,” she said softly, breaking the stillness like a stone dropped into wa
Broken Vows, New Promises 121: The Weight of Quiet Things
The house was quiet, save for the ticking of the old clock in the hallway and the occasional creak of the wooden floorboards as they settled for the night. It had been days since the Genesis Vault's destruction—days that felt like both a breath and a lifetime.The chaos had retreated, but in its place, silence reigned. A silence not of peace, but of pause. The world had stopped holding its breath, but Damien hadn’t.Aurora found him on the back patio, seated in the chair he always favored, a blanket of dusk wrapping around his silhouette. The horizon was smeared with lavender and gold, the sun slipping behind the distant hills as if reluctant to leave them in darkness.She watched him for a moment before stepping outside. “You didn’t come in for dinner.”“I wasn’t hungry,” Damien replied quietly. His voice held no coldness, but it was frayed around the edges, like a page weathered too many times.She hesitated before sitting beside him. For a long while, they said nothing. The breeze
Broken Vows, New Promises 120: What Remains
The wind whispered through the ruins.Ash floated like snowflakes across the mountaintop, softening the jagged scars left by the Vault’s collapse. Where once a hidden stronghold pulsed with synthetic power, there was now only silence and smoke. The earth had reclaimed what had been stolen.Damien sat at the edge of the cliff, a blanket draped over his shoulders. His wounds were mostly bandaged, but the tremors in his hands hadn’t stopped since the Vault fell. The neural link had left its imprint—somewhere deeper than skin.Behind him, Aurora stood quietly, arms crossed against the mountain cold. She didn’t speak, didn’t try to console. She just stayed, close enough to be an anchor, far enough to give him space.
Broken Vows, New Promises 119: Shatterpoint
The sound of the gunshot cracked through the cavern like thunder.Monroe’s body jerked back, blood blooming across his chest as he crumpled to the floor beside the pod. Silence followed, not triumphant—but taut, like the moment before a storm breaks.Damien didn’t lower his weapon.The others froze, waiting—watching. But Monroe didn’t move. His eyes were wide open, the smug smile finally erased from his face. The man who had haunted Damien’s entire life, who had orchestrated pain with the precision of a surgeon, now lay motionless in a widening pool of crimson.And yet, the hum of the chamber didn’t stop.Aurora stepped forward, her voice low.
Broken Vows, New Promises 118: The Threshold
The night sky stretched above them like a living thing—vast, starless, and full of tension. A bitter wind howled through the mountain pass as the convoy moved in near silence. Snow crunched under the tires of the armored vehicle Damien rode in, his eyes fixed ahead through the windshield.The coordinates they’d extracted led them to the Carpathians—a remote and treacherous range in Romania. Fitting, Damien thought. Monroe’s obsession with rebirth and myth had always leaned into the theatrical.And now they were heading straight into the heart of it.Inside the vehicle, the only sounds were the low hum of the engine and the rustle of gear. Julian sat beside Kira, reviewing surveillance feeds on his tablet. Behind them, Aurora sat opposite Damien, her gaze fixed o
Broken Vows, New Promises 117: Beneath the Silence
The makeshift war room inside the crumbling facility buzzed with quiet tension. Terminals flickered as Julian and Kira coordinated with their external networks. A map of the world lit up before them, glowing red dots pulsing across continents—every point marking an active Monroe site, every pulse a countdown.Forty-eight hours.Forty-eight hours until all of Monroe’s sleeper facilities would trigger whatever version of the clone protocol he’d perfected.Forty-eight hours until everything Damien had fought to bury would claw its way back into the light.He sat on the edge of a rusted cot near the far wall, away from the noise, elbows resting on his knees, head low. His mind replayed the voice from earlier—his mo
Broken Vows, New Promises 116: The Echoes We Carry
The room fell into a deafening silence as the flickering screen bathed Damien’s face in a sickly green glow. The image of his mother—Eve—stared back at him from the monitor, her features carefully reconstructed from footage and records. It wasn’t a live feed. It wasn’t really her. But the expression, the voice—it struck him with the force of a bullet.Aurora took a step closer, her hand brushing against Damien’s arm. He flinched at the contact, his eyes locked on the screen. She didn’t pull away.“Damien…” she said softly, uncertain if she should say more.But the screen spoke again, overriding her. “You’ve become everything I feared you would. Everything Monroe promised yo
