Chapter 6

Tyrone POV

The graveyard had a heavy silence to it, the kind that makes your skin prickle. The air was damp with the scent of earth and old stone, the full moon hanging above, casting long, eerie shadows over the moss-covered graves. The dim light flickered over the crowd as everyone dispersed, the buzz of excitement now turning into something darker. Something more dangerous.

I couldn’t shake the feeling that tonight was going to be different. The thrill of the game was always a rush, but there was something about Seri that unsettled me, something I couldn't place. She was different from the others. She didn’t play by the same rules, and it made her more interesting—more dangerous.

We spread out across the graveyard, staying close enough to keep an eye on each other but far enough to track the women without making our presence known. Marius, Damon, and I moved with the fluidity of predators—silent, calculated. Damon, always eager for the chase, was already ahead of us. He never could wait. I watched as he vanished into the shadows, his dark figure blending into the night.

Seri was somewhere out there. I could feel her, even if I couldn’t see her. She had that presence. The kind that made you pay attention. I tracked her movements through the graveyard, my eyes scanning for any sign of her.

She was staying close to Angie, trying to keep her within reach, but the darkness swallowed them both up. I could see the way Seri moved—quiet, calculated. She wasn’t running in panic like the others. No, she was focused, deliberate. And for the first time, I was genuinely curious.

The two women navigated their way through the tombstones, the light barely catching the edges of their clothes. Seri's dress—tight, red, clinging to her form—was the only real color in the sea of shadows. She was a beacon in the night, and I could sense the heat in the air when she disappeared behind the mausoleum. I didn’t know if she was trying to lose herself in the dark or if she had something else in mind. But I was about to find out.

Damon was the first to reach her, of course. Always the impatient one. I watched as he moved in quickly, eager to catch her, but something about the way Seri held herself told me that she wasn’t going to play the part of the helpless woman. She wasn’t one to let herself be cornered.

As soon as Damon lunged for her, she twisted on her heel, the sharp movement a blur of motion. I was already moving toward them, trying to get a better angle, but it was too late.

She wasn’t running. She wasn’t scared. She was in control.

Seri grabbed Damon’s arm, twisting it in a way that would’ve made anyone else scream out in pain. She trapped his wrist with an expertly executed move, and before he could even react, she flipped him over her shoulder with a fluid grace I hadn’t expected. The impact of Damon hitting the ground was hard, his breath knocked out of him as he lay there for a second, stunned.

For a moment, there was silence. I glanced at Marius, who was as equally stunned as I was, but we both rushed over to help Damon, who was slowly getting back to his feet. His face was a mixture of surprise and irritation—something I’d never seen in him before. But before we could say anything, she was gone.

In the blink of an eye, Seri disappeared into the darkness, moving with a fluidity I couldn’t explain. How the hell had she done that? And more importantly, how the hell had she done it without either of us seeing it coming?

Marius gave me a look—one of those silent, unspoken conversations we’d been having for years. We both knew the answer. We’d underestimated her. And now, we had no idea where she was.

"Where the hell did she go?" Damon growled, brushing off the dirt as he stood, frustration evident in his voice. His usual arrogance was gone, replaced by something sharper, something unfamiliar.

"She’s good," Marius muttered, his eyes scanning the dark, watching the shadows as if they held the answers. "We’ll find her. Just keep your head in the game."

But I couldn’t stop thinking about her. Who the hell was she? How had she slipped away so easily?

For the first time in a long time, I felt a sense of unease. And that only made me want her more.

We kept moving, but I couldn’t stop glancing back at the mausoleum, hoping for some sign of her. Whatever happened tonight, I knew one thing: Seri wasn’t like the others. And we hadn’t even scratched the surface of who she really was.

I was moving quickly, my feet barely making a sound as I weaved through the gravestones, my eyes locked on Seri. She was alone now, her friend Angie nowhere in sight. The shadows seemed to pull her deeper into the graveyard, and for a second, I thought maybe she'd just vanish into the darkness like everyone else did when they lost the game.

But then, I saw it—a break in the crowd. She was heading for an exit most people didn’t take. It was an old, forgotten gate, half hidden behind a line of towering, moss-covered statues. No one ever went that way. Not unless they knew it was there.

I exchanged a quick glance with Marius and Damon. They were already moving, a silent agreement between us. We weren’t letting her slip away that easily.

I pushed forward, my legs carrying me faster than the others. I could feel her ahead, a sense of calm determination in her stride that was impossible to ignore. As I rounded the corner of a tombstone, I got ahead of her, cutting off her escape path.

She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw me. There was a split second of hesitation, then—without warning—she launched herself toward me. Fast. Too fast.

I dodged to the side just as she came at me with a quick series of precise strikes. I saw it then, the fluidity in her movements. She wasn’t just running. She was fighting.

She was good. Too good.

Seri dropped into a low stance, her body coiled like a spring, and before I could react, she was already behind me, slipping between Marius and Damon, who had joined me in the circle. She moved like water, effortlessly dodging our hands as we tried to grab hold of her.

Marius lunged first, trying to close the gap between us, but she ducked under his arm and spun around, sending him stumbling into Damon. Damon barely recovered before she was in motion again. She had us off balance, and it was almost like she knew exactly what we were going to do before we did it.

She dropped low again, ducking between Marius and Damon, and with a swift kick, sent Damon staggering backward. She used the momentum to spin around, taking Marius’s arm in a lock before flipping him over her shoulder and sending him sprawling into the dirt.

Before I could react, she was already gone, slipping through the narrow gap between Damon and me. I barely caught sight of her, but when I turned, she was already sprinting toward the exit, leaving us behind.

We were standing there, stunned, our bodies still trying to process what had just happened. We didn’t know what hit us. We couldn’t even figure out how she’d done it. The way she moved—each step calculated, precise, like she had been training her whole life for this moment.

I pulled myself up from the ground, still trying to shake off the dizziness. Damon and Marius were doing the same, cursing under their breath. We looked at each other, confused, pissed, but... intrigued.

“No one does that to us,” I growled, my voice rough with disbelief. “Who the hell are you?”

I could see Marius and Damon exchanging looks, their eyes narrowing with the same realization. We had underestimated her—badly.

Seri paused just before she crossed the threshold of the graveyard, her silhouette framed by the low light of the moon. She reached up slowly, pulling off her mask with a grin that was almost too confident.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” she called over her shoulder, her voice teasing, almost daring us to chase her.

And then—just like that—she was gone.

I stood frozen, staring into the darkness she had vanished into, the sound of her footsteps swallowed by the night. My heart was still racing, and I couldn't shake the image of her, the way she moved like she had been born for this kind of fight.

I glanced at Marius, then Damon. They were just as stunned as I was. None of us had been ready for that. She’d beaten us, right in front of our eyes.

But what unsettled me more than anything? I had to know who she was. No one—no one—beat us at our own game.