Made for crime

The Shadow and the Flame

Carter's POV

Kai had left the house like a storm, sweeping through in a silent rage that shook the very foundation of the estate. I watched him go, his figure swallowed by the night as he disappeared into the car waiting for him outside. The door slammed shut, and I knew, without a doubt, that when he came back, he would not be the same.
He never was.

It wasn't the first time I had seen Kai like this, and it wouldn't be the last. But this time—this time was different. This wasn't business. This wasn't another routine clean-up, another strategic kill. This was personal.

And when it was personal with Kai, people didn't just die. They ceased to exist.

I stood in the doorway for a moment longer, staring out into the empty darkness where the car had been moments ago. The house behind me was eerily quiet, the silence stretching out like a held breath. It wasn't fear that kept everyone hushed. No one was afraid of Kai—at least not those who truly knew him. But there was something worse than fear that surrounded him now.

It was inevitability.I let out a long breath, finally turning back toward the inside of the estate. The place felt too big without him in it, too hollow. Kai was a force, a shadow and a flame wrapped in human skin, and when he was gone, his absence echoed in every corner. The staff felt it. The guards felt it. And most of all, I felt it.

Because I knew where he was going. I knew what was coming.

And there would be no stopping him.

Making my way toward the staircase, my thoughts drifted to Nina. She was still sleeping, probably for the first time in days. We'd pumped her full of enough sedatives to keep her nightmares at bay, at least for a little while. But even drugs couldn't keep the demons away forever.

She had suffered. Kai had seen it in her eyes, in the way her body had trembled when she spoke. The bruises on her skin, the shadows in her gaze—Kai hadn't been able to look away from them. He'd been consumed by them. And now he was out there, hunting the men responsible, the fire inside him growing hotter with each passing moment.Kai sokolov was not a man who forgave.He was vengeance incarnate.

As I climbed the stairs, I couldn't shake the image of him walking into that building, gun in hand, his heart ice cold. There would be no hesitation, no second thoughts. He would make them pay, and he would make it hurt. But what haunted me the most was not what Kai would do to them—it was what it would do to him.

Kai's rage was like a poison, seeping deeper into his soul with every life he took. Each death he dealt was another piece of his humanity lost, another step toward the abyss he was so dangerously close to falling into. He thought he could control it, that he could keep the beast inside him on a leash, but I knew better.

I had known Kai for years, long before the rest of the world feared his name. I had seen him laugh, seen him care, seen him be more than just the ruthless leader everyone knew him to be. But those moments were few and far between now. The darkness had grown, swallowing him piece by piece until all that remained was the shadow of the man he could have been.

And Nina was the only thing keeping him from falling completely.She didn't know it. Hell, I wasn't even sure Kai knew it. But I did. I saw the way he looked at her, the way his entire demeanor shifted when she was near. She was the last bit of light left in his world, the only thing grounding him to whatever scraps of humanity he had left. But after tonight, I wasn't sure even she could pull him back.

I reached Nina's door and paused, my hand resting on the smooth wood. She didn't know he was gone. She didn't know what was happening out there, that the world was burning because of her. And that was how it should be. She'd been through enough.

But how long could we protect her from the truth? From what Kai truly was?

I knocked softly, just once, before opening the door. The room was dimly lit by the bedside lamp, casting soft shadows over the space. Nina lay curled up in the center of the bed, her breathing steady, peaceful. She looked so small like this, so fragile. It was hard to believe this was the same woman who had stood in front of Kai, bruised and battered, yet still defiant.

Closing the door behind me, I leaned against the wall, watching her for a moment. She would wake soon. And when she did, she would ask for him.

And I would have to tell her that he wasn't coming back—not yet.

Kai sokolov  was a storm, a hurricane of fury and vengeance, and no one could stand in his path once he set his mind to destruction. But storms like that didn't pass without leaving devastation in their wake.

"Kai," I whispered into the silence, my chest tight with a weight I couldn't shake. "What have you become?"

He was more than just a man now. He was a force of nature, a legend in the underworld, feared and respected in equal measure. But power like that came at a price, and I had seen the toll it had taken on him. Every kill, every decision, every betrayal—it chipped away at him, turning him into something else. Something darker. Something I wasn't sure could be saved.

But Nina—she was different. She wasn't like the rest of us. She hadn't been born into this life, hadn't been hardened by it the way Kai and I had. She was a spark of something pure in this twisted world, and she had somehow managed to reach him in ways no one else ever had.

And that was why Kai had left. Why he couldn't stay.Because he knew that if he stayed, he would destroy her too.

He'd go out there tonight, let his anger and pain consume him, and he'd come back with blood on his hands. He'd tell himself it was justice. He'd tell himself it was what had to be done.

But I knew better. And so did he.Justice was just an excuse we used to hide the truth: we were monsters. And no matter how much blood we spilled, we would never be clean again.

"Kai isn't a man," I muttered to myself, staring out the window at the vast, dark sky. "He's a weapon. And one day, he'll destroy everything—including himself."

And when that day came, I wasn't sure if anyone, not even Nina, would be able to save him.