Excerpt: Kesshi.

It all happened very quickly. Before anyone had a chance to think, the wooden door was kicked down and men in expensive suits stood before them, guns aimed. No one moved; not the men pointing guns or anyone on Izanami’s side. The two parties stared at each other until the sea of gun pointers parted and a new man took their place.

She knew the man, but had never spoken to him; there was no need to. Izanami was only familiar with him based on looks, and of course, what she had heard of him. He commanded the attention of the room, standing impossibly tall despite his height of 5’7”. His eyes were cold, merciless even, and he looked terribly uninterested in the whole situation. The only way Izanami was certain that this man was quite proud of himself was the slight smirk pulling at the corner of his mouth.

With a single nod from their leader, the men flooded into the room. A few of them, Izanami presumed, were the man’s sons, based on the approval and admiration the man had shining in his eyes as a few took their rightful places, guns aimed at the heads of her subordinates, Dantalion, her sons, and Izanami herself.

Slowly, Izanami raised her hands into the air, with the rest of her associates following suit. The fear that she felt before flooded into her again, though this time mixed with a slight twinge of defiance—though what she would do with this defiance, Izanami was unsure…she wasn’t exactly in a position to do as she pleased and let her mouth run free. Instead, she stared the man straight into his dead, dark eyes before breathlessly uttering her captor’s name, in some form of acknowledgment:

“Kesshi.”