Iron Revenant: Blood Of The Marked

The Alley

The rain hammered New York City like it had a grudge, turning the streets into a mirror of neon and filth. 

Jace Caldwell leaned against a rusted lamppost in a Chinatown alley, his leather jacket slick with water, his gray eyes scanning the shadows. 

His Glock pressed against his hip, a cold comfort in a city that chewed up trust and spit out betrayal. The client was late. Jace hated late. 

At 32, he’d seen enough ambushes to know tardiness wasn’t just rude—it was a warning.

His earpiece crackled. “Caldwell, you copy?” 

Lena Voss’s voice was sharp, like she was biting back nerves. The whistleblower he was hired to protect sounded more like a general than a scared techie.

 “They’re coming. Three, maybe four. Drones too.”

“Got it,” Jace grunted, flexing his scarred knuckles. 

Two years ago, his brother Ethan died in a NexTech lab explosion, and Lena’s intel on their dirty secrets was Jace’s first lead on who to bury for it. 

Vengeance was a cold fire in his chest, but he kept it banked. Focus now, grieve later.A low hum cut through the rain—drones, their red eyes glinting above the alley. 

Jace ducked behind a dumpster, the stench of rotting takeout choking the air. Footsteps splashed closer, deliberate, heavy. Professionals.

 He counted three silhouettes at the alley’s mouth, clad in tactical gear, their rifles glinting with NexTech’s logo. Corporate assassins. Figures.

“Voss, you still at the rendezvous?” Jace whispered, drawing his Glock.“Safe. For now,” she replied. “Don’t die, Caldwell. I need you.”

He smirked, though it didn’t reach his eyes. “No promises.”

The first assassin rounded the corner, and Jace moved like a coiled spring. He tackled the man, slamming his skull against the brick wall with a wet crunch. 

The second swung a rifle, but Jace was faster, ducking low and driving his fist into the guy’s gut, then snapping his arm like kindling. 

The third fired, bullets chewing asphalt as Jace rolled behind a stack of crates. Pain flared in his shoulder—grazed, not hit. 

He’d had worse.The drones swooped, their lasers painting red dots on his chest. Jace grabbed a broken pipe and hurled it, smashing one drone into sparks. The other fired a stun dart, grazing his thigh. 

His leg went numb, but he gritted his teeth and charged, unloading three rounds into the third assassin’s chest. The man dropped, blood pooling with the rain.

Silence, except for the patter of water and his own ragged breaths. Jace checked his shoulder—blood, but shallow. He’d live. He tapped his earpiece.

 “Voss, alley’s clear. Move your ass.”

No response.

 His gut twisted. He sprinted toward the rendezvous, a boarded-up noodle shop two blocks away. 

The streets were a blur of neon signs and hooded figures, the city’s pulse throbbing with secrets. He skidded to a stop at the shop’s door, ajar, splintered. Not good.

Inside, the air was thick with dust and the coppery tang of blood. Lena stood in the center, her platinum hair glowing under a flickering bulb, a 9mm trembling in her hands. Two bodies lay at her feet—more NexTech goons, their throats slit clean. 

She was no damsel, that was for damn sure.“You’re late,” she snapped, green eyes blazing. “They found me first.”

Jace scanned the room, his Glock raised. “You hurt?”

“No. But we’ve got bigger problems.” She pointed to a black case on the counter, its surface etched with strange, spiraling runes. 

“That’s what they’re after. The Obsidian Heart.”Jace’s blood ran cold. Ethan’s last email mentioned that name, hours before the explosion that killed him. “What the hell is it?”

Lena hesitated, then popped the case open. Inside, a fist-sized stone pulsed with a faint, sickly light, like a heartbeat. “NexTech’s been experimenting with it. Ancient. Dangerous. They think it’s the key to immortality.”

Jace’s jaw tightened. “And Ethan?”

Her eyes flicked away. “He was part of it. I’m sorry, Jace.”The words hit like a sledgehammer. 

Ethan, his little brother, the kid he’d raised after Mom died, working for the bastards who killed him?

 Before he could press her, the wall exploded inward, bricks flying like shrapnel. A new figure stepped through the dust—a towering man in a black exosuit, his face hidden behind a sleek visor. NexTech’s elite. 

Jace shoved Lena behind him, firing at the intruder. The bullets sparked off the suit, useless.“Jace Caldwell,” the figure’s voice boomed, modulated and cold. “You’re marked now.”

Something sharp stabbed Jace’s chest—a dart, fired from the exosuit’s gauntlet. Pain seared through him, white-hot, unnatural. He stumbled, vision blurring. The last thing he saw was Lena’s scream, the Obsidian Heart’s glow intensifying, and then darkness swallowed him whole.

He woke gasping, sprawled in the alley where he’d fought earlier. Rain still fell, but the bodies were gone. His chest ached, but there was no wound, just a fresh scar, jagged and black, over his heart. His Glock was still in his hand, soaked but loaded. The noodle shop was blocks away—how the hell did he get here?

A low, grinding voice echoed in his skull, not through his earpiece. You’re mine now, Iron. His vision flickered, and for a split second, he saw it—a shadowy figure with burning red eyes, looming in the rain. The Shroud. Then it was gone.

Jace’s phone buzzed. A text from an unknown number: Look at your reflection. Heart pounding, he staggered to a puddle, its surface lit by neon. 

His face stared back, but his eyes—they glowed red, just for a moment, like the thing in his vision.

“Lena,” he growled, forcing himself to his feet. She had answers. And someone was going to bleed for them.But as he turned, a final twist hit him: his earpiece, crushed in the fight, crackled to life. 

Ethan’s voice, unmistakable, whispered, “Jace, don’t trust her.”