Chapter 25
It wasn’t until Wednesday that Eden finally found the time to research the experiments on his own.
He only taught one class that day, and Zar happened to be in it, but so far, the two of them hadn’t interacted much.
The Black Hart was usually the last one to arrive and the first one to leave, and today had been no different.
But it’d given Eden the chance to investigate on his own.
Since learning about the cameras Ares set up around Castle Black, he’d been more careful about his actions.
Well…mostly he’d taken longer to dress and undress, in the hopes he was “secretly” being watched.
It was small and petty, but Ares deserved to be taunted after what he’d done.
Sunday night, Eden needed to be carried to the car.
His legs had been total jelly after spending the entire weekend trapped on Ares’ cock.
Monday hadn’t been much better, and he’d ordered the damned fallen angel to drive him to the music building, since he didn’t think he’d be able to make even the short walk on his own.
And like hell was he going to allow himself to be carried around campus like some fairytale prince in distress.
He’d stubbornly made his own way back after classes, then had promptly collapsed into bed from exhaustion. When he’d woken, he was being smothered from behind in the bathtub, Ares stuck to him like a starfish.
They hadn’t had sex, but it’d been…intimate.
The Black Hart was like that.
Constantly guessing what Eden needed before he even realized it himself. Showing up with snacks and drinks and warmer jackets or heating pads. This morning, Eden had stumbled into the bathroom half dead from staying up grading papers too late, to find that his toothbrush had already been prepared.
According to Ares, these weren’t just ways to get to him either. This affection was apparently real. Lasting…Which was the scary part. Because with each thoughtful gesture, Eden could feel himself breaking down.
Eden wanted this to be real. He wanted the love of Lucifer.
If this was a game, Ares had already won, and Eden was scrambling to hide that fact, desperately trying to slot the pieces back together.
While he’d been brushing his teeth this morning, however, he’d had a thought.
A realization, so to speak. A lot could be said about a person based on their home life and how they’d grown up.
For Eden, having come from a caring household, all of these sweet gestures affected him because they reminded him of what he’d lost. Of what he missed.
They made him believe that, maybe, finding that kind of contentment, that kind of love, again in someone else wasn’t impossible.
But what about Ares? None of the Black Harts were known for being kind or thoughtful. Eden had been paying attention; out of the eight of them, it seemed like students and staff alike feared Ares and his brother even more than the rest.
Since his options were either to be fooled or to fall, Eden would have to decide. Which meant looking into Ares’ past and uncovering the things he obviously didn’t want to willingly share.
He waited for the classroom to clear and then signed onto his school computer. It took him a moment to remember the name of the project, Project Firefly, and he’d had to run a couple of different searches with variations of Ares’ first and last name, but he eventually got a hit on an old article.
It was a photocopied page from a newspaper, with the rest of the story missing. He read over the meager paragraphs a few times, trying to figure out what about it made Ares leave it online.
Because it was obvious from the lack of information that Ares, and possibly Zar, had used their money and influence to scrub the story. Either this one image had managed to fall through the cracks, or they’d left it on purpose, deeming it unthreatening. In truth, it didn’t really give much away.
A fire had destroyed a facility run by Dr. Major and Dr. Corbett, and neither had survived.
“Someone’s being a bad spiritual companion.” Nyoka’s sudden appearance over Eden’s shoulder caused him to jump.
The Black Hart laughed and moved around the podium where Eden was standing, propping his arms up against the wooden back to grin at him over it. “I wonder what Creation will think when he finds out you’re digging into his affairs.”
Eden’s eyes narrowed. “Interesting choice of words.”
“Apologies,” Nyoka laughed. “I couldn’t help it. Curiosity got the better of me. I wanted to know if the way you look at him was all an act, or if you’re really that possessive. Fear not. Ares would never cheat.”
“No?”
“Nah. Do you want to know how he usually spends Cor Night every year?”
“What’s Cor Night?”
“Doesn’t matter.” Nyoka waved the question off. “The point is, while the rest of us are off fucking, he typically finds an empty classroom and games.”
Eden knew better than to bite, and yet…He tipped his head. “Alone?”
Nyoka grinned. “Sometimes he’ll find someone and force them to join. Fisher played with him one year.”
He scowled.
“Not a fan of my Fishy?”
“Your fishy?”
“We’ve been best friends since childhood,” he shrugged, “which basically makes him mine.”
Eden wasn’t sure that was how it worked—he certainly didn’t think of Noon or any of his other friends as belonging to him—but wasn’t going to stand here and split hairs with a Black Hart.
“Anyway,” Nyoka jutted his chin toward the computer, “you aren’t going to find much there.”
“I’ve discovered that.” He pursed his lips. “But what’s this about a fire? Is that how their parents died?”
“That’s the official cause of death, in any case.”
“What’s the unofficial cause?” It was becoming clear this particular person liked drawing things out for effect. If it meant getting answers, Eden would gladly let Nyoka think he had the upper hand.
“Balthazar killed them, obviously.”
He recalled Ares making passing comments about his parents' deaths and how he wasn’t upset about it the way Eden mourned his own family. Still, being okay about it and sticking with the person responsible for their murders weren’t even nearly the same thing.
Eden’s brow furrowed. “Was it an accident?”
“A world of no.”
“…He and his brother are close though.”
“Ares' dad was a prick. I mean, even I find it distasteful that the guy was experimenting on his own flesh and blood like that. From what I’ve heard, things were getting bad, too. The experiments had been running for nearly a decade, and the project had hit a snag. When Zar killed Dr. Major, he was saving them from a terrible existence.”
“What about his mom?”
“Whose? Zar’s? She was in on it, of course. She brought Zar into it when they needed another high-level test subject. I believe he did her first. Bullet through the brain. Clean.”
That sounded a lot like Ares and Balthazar didn’t share the same mother. They did both have different last names, so that wasn’t too much of a surprise. “Stepbrothers?”
Nyoka paused, a flash of something calculating flickering across his face before the friendly facade settled back over him. “Poor thing. Is that what you’ve thought this whole time?”
“What?”
“They’re not really brothers,” he said. “Not legally or through blood. Their parents were simply business partners. They grew up together, sure, and have a brotherly bond, if you want to call it that, but—”
“What would you call it?”
“Codependence?” Nyoka grunted. “Half the time, Zar still thinks they’re living in an alternate timeline where he’s the God of Reality and Ares is the God of Creation. He’s got the man he thinks is the Jackal chained up in his room because he can’t separate this life from a past one.”
This was all upsetting, and Eden felt all sorts of ways, but he tried to focus on what was being said instead of his emotional reaction, wanting to milk all that he could out of Nyoka while he had the chance.
“You believe it?” It all seemed beyond the realm of possibility to Eden, but he’d admittedly never taken an interest in science or the multiverse theory.
He’d heard rumors there’d been a few breakthroughs in the field over the past decade, but that was the extent of it.
He hadn’t paid more attention to those conversations.
“I’ve read some of their work,” Nyoka replied.
“Fascinating stuff. The brutality committed against their own children…Well, to say it didn’t give results would be a lie.
There’s a reason Dr. Major and Dr. Corbett stuck with Ares and Zar as their main test subjects.
Whether or not their ability to slip in and out of life and death is due to their past incarnations as gods or not is as yet to be decided, but they survived dying over a hundred times.
The average for every other subject was twice. ”
The fact that those scientists could bring someone back even twice was shocking, but a hundred?!
“Is that what it really is?” he wondered aloud. “Lack of oxygen to the brain? Brain damage?”
“Neither,” Nyoka denied without hesitation. “Their energy frequencies are constantly being pulled through the cracks of reality.”
“How can you be so sure?” How could anyone?
“You’ve known Ares, what, two months now?
I’ve known him since before, during, and after the experiments.
Whatever was done to them, it’s still affecting them today.
It’ll probably affect them for the rest of their lives.
But,” Nyoka straightened, “these past few weeks we’ve all noticed the difference. You’re good for him.”
“I’m going to go beat him up now for lying about Zar being his brother,” Eden stated plainly, but the other Black Hart simply chuckled and spun on his heels.
He waved over his shoulder, and Eden waited until Nyoka exited the lecture room before sighing and glancing back at his computer. Since he wasn’t going to be able to find anything else here, he shut it down and collected his things, annoyance brewing.