The Return of The Phantom General

A Deal in the Basement

Isabella's grip on Caleb's neck tightened fiercely. Her body, trembling from blood loss, pressed flush against his broad chest. Her rapid breaths fanned warmly against his sharp jawline. In the middle of the freezing Black Castle lobby, surrounded by three elite hitmen who had been reduced to mindless slabs of meat, the woman had instead found a blazing, intoxicating lust.

"I need a man like you, Caleb Thorne," Isabella repeated, her voice huskier and more urgent. Her torn silk gown exposed her long thighs, intentionally rubbing against Caleb's dress pants. "My own family is hunting me. They threw me away like trash. But with a monster like you by my side, I can destroy them all."

Caleb stared into Isabella's wild eyes. He didn't back down an inch. Instead, he snaked one arm around her slender waist, pulling her even closer until there was absolutely zero space left between them. Blood from Isabella's shoulder stained Caleb's shirt, but neither of them gave a damn.

"Are you offering yourself to be my pawn, Bella?" Caleb asked flatly, his voice a low, dangerous rumble in his chest.

"I'm offering much more than that," Isabella stood on her tiptoes, her crimson lips mere millimeters from his. Her hand trailed down from his neck to his chest, then continued downward with an undeniably sensual touch. "My body. My bed. And all the dirty secrets of the Aegis Syndicate. Protect me, Caleb. Take everything I have tonight. I am yours."

The atmosphere ignited. The scent of blood and pheromones mixed into an intoxicating drug. Any normal man would have completely lost their damn mind and dragged this woman to the nearest bed.

But Caleb was no normal man.

In a blinding, unpredictable flash, Caleb gripped Isabella's throat. Not hard enough to choke her, but firm enough to establish absolute dominance. He spun her around and roughly pinned her against the freezing granite wall of the lobby.

Isabella gasped in shock. Her back slammed hard against the stone. Caleb's face was now only an inch away from hers. His pitch-black eyes bore into hers, looking as if they were flaying her soul bare.

"Listen closely," Caleb whispered into her ear, his freezing breath sending shivers down her spine—a chaotic mix of terror and peaking arousal. "I don't need your body to conquer you, Bella. If I wanted you, you'd be on your knees begging for me without having to offer some cheap bargain."

Isabella gulped. Her heart hammered so fiercely it nearly burst from her chest. This overwhelmingly dominant rejection only fueled her obsession further. The man standing before her was a true apex predator.

Caleb released his grip on her throat, shifting his hand to touch the gunshot wound on her shoulder. Dark energy pulsed softly from his palm. The stinging pain in Isabella's shoulder vanished instantly, replaced by a strange, numbing sensation. The heavy bleeding stopped in the blink of an eye.

"Save your seduction. We have business to attend to," Caleb said, turning around and walking toward the dark corridor leading to the castle's basement. "Follow me. If you really have secrets, let's hear how much they're worth."

Isabella steadied her erratic breathing. She smoothed out her torn dress with a deeply satisfied smirk. This man might have rejected her tonight, but she swore she would make him beg in her bed someday. She stepped forward, following Caleb down the spiraling stone staircase.

The Black Castle's basement had been completely overhauled. Bright white fluorescent lights glared down on a stainless-steel operating table. Dr. Hans Gruber was cheerfully organizing his surgical scalpels, while Viktor Krum, the Russian giant and former ruthless mafia boss, was mopping the floor with a blank, utterly obedient expression.

"Ah, Miss Vane! Welcome to our underground medical facility!" Hans greeted cheerfully upon seeing her enter. "Such a beautiful shoulder. What a shame there's a bullet hole in it. Sit right here, let me stitch that up nicely for you."

Isabella sat on the designated metal chair. She winced slightly as Hans got straight to work with his surgical needle and thread. Caleb sat on a pile of old wooden crates across from her, casually crossing his legs.

"Start talking, Bella. Who sent those three clowns upstairs?" Caleb demanded, looking straight at her.

"My family. The Vane Family," Isabella hissed, enduring the sting as the needle pierced her flesh. "They are one of the Seven Noble Families that make up the Aegis Syndicate. They control ninety percent of the dark economy and political power across Europe. That Marcus Sterling you crushed? He was nothing more than their vault watchdog."

"Then why did the dogs bite their own master?"

"Because I know too much, and my half-brother, Lord Arthur Vane, wants the leadership seat all to himself," Isabella glared at Caleb with a gaze full of vengeance. "Tomorrow night, Aegis is hosting a top-secret Underground Property Auction in Geneva. They're going to carve up the city's assets, including attempting to seize this castle's land since they know the original owner went bankrupt. If you don't act fast, they'll send an army a hundred times bigger than those three fools."

Caleb fell silent. His fingers tapped against the wooden crate in a deadly, rhythmic tempo. His eyes radiated an ice-cold murderous aura.

"Seven Families who think they own the world," Caleb muttered softly. "Interesting. I suppose it's time the underworld had a new ruler."

Caleb stood up from the crate. He looked at Hans, Viktor, and Isabella in turn.

"Starting tonight, the Silent Guard is no longer just a name on paper," Caleb declared, his voice echoing loudly in the basement. "Hans, you are my chief medical officer and interrogator. Viktor, you are my attack dog."

"Woof! Yes, Master!" Viktor immediately barked from the corner of the room with a horrifyingly vacant expression.

"And you, Bella," Caleb stepped forward, locking eyes with the woman in red. "You are my head of intelligence. Give me all the data you have on Aegis. Tomorrow night, we're crashing that auction and ruining their party from the inside."

Isabella smiled widely as the last stitch went into her shoulder. "With pleasure, Boss."

A blood pact was forged in that freezing basement. Four people, led by a monster, were now gearing up to overthrow the rulers of the European underworld.

However, just as Caleb was formulating his conquest in his head, a strange vibration suddenly stung his chest. The tremor didn't come from an approaching enemy, but from the protective shadow seal he had specially planted on his sister, Lisa.

Caleb's perpetually calm face instantly twisted into a mask of pure, demonic wrath. The temperature in the basement plummeted so drastically that all their breaths turned into thick white vapor.

"Mr. Thorne? What is it?" Hans asked in confusion, pausing as he packed away his tools.

Caleb didn't answer. He clenched his fists so tightly his knuckles turned bone-white. His eyes flashed with a fury that could level an entire city.

Earlier that afternoon, Lisa had only excused herself to buy some groceries at a convenience store at the bottom of the hill. She was guarded by two invisible shadow wraiths. But now, Caleb's mental link with those shadows had been forcibly severed by something unnatural.

In a narrow alley a few miles from the castle, Lisa was currently surrounded by a dozen heavily tattooed bikers in leather jackets. Their massive motorcycles completely blocked off any escape routes. Lisa's grocery bags had fallen and scattered across the asphalt. Vegetables and fruits were crushed under the heavy boots of the thugs.

Standing amidst the biker gang was a blonde young man wearing an expensive tailored suit that looked entirely out of place in the grimy alley. He was Klaus von Richter, one of the Young Masters of the Aegis Families, notorious for his extreme arrogance.

Klaus grinned widely, staring down at Lisa, who was trembling in terror while clutching her phone, its screen completely shattered by one of the hulking thugs.

"Take this sweet little thing to my nightclub right now," Klaus ordered the thugs in a sickeningly condescending tone. "I heard her mentally crippled brother dared to pick a fight with Sterling. Let's see if big brother has the balls to come fetch his sister while she's warming up my bed later."

Lisa cried out in absolute despair as two massive thugs grabbed her arms brutally, dragging her toward a black van with its doors thrown wide open, waiting for its prey.