Chapter 23 #2
“This isn’t a negotiation, it’s an order. Considering you apparently have a hard time following those, I’ve decided that someone else needs to be in charge of her time here.”
“Like who?” I demand, seething with rage I don’t understand. I don’t even know why I’m fighting this. I should be relieved. Thrilled. Grateful that he’s taking the temptation away from me and out of my hands.
I’m not.
I’m furious. I want to be near her. I want to make her pay for what she’s done. I want to rip every truth out of her pretty little head until all that’s left are answers and vengeance for Caelan.
Fuck.
I’m not this male. I’ve never been someone who fantasizes about hurting females. My instincts are all over the place. I can’t figure out if I want to wring her neck or scent-mark her. I should be far more concerned about the former, but the latter’s what sends chills down my spine.
“I’ve called in a trainee to help. He’ll coordinate with Vae, who will oversee her…” Gav stalls before settling on, “time here.”
“Imprisonment,” Silas mutters. “Let’s just call it what it is. She’s here as a prisoner. And here’s a thought. I imprison my food in Tupperware. Then at night, I pull it out and let nature take its course.” His smile is feral. “Let Dax eat her.”
Something dark stirs in my chest. My suddenly-vocal Alpha snaps to attention.
Yes.
I could drain her. Take payment for her debt one drop of blood at a time. Pierce that perfect, pale, delicate throat with my fangs and feast. I could wrap my body around hers and take what I want, and no one will even blame me.
My breath freezes in my lungs.
The room spins.
Why does that sound so perfect? I haven’t fed from a live source since the 18th century.
Not since vampires found alternate means of consumption.
Now, it’s considered taboo to drink directly from a vein.
Uncivilized. Something we only partake in with our Mates.
But the mere thought of her blood on my tongue—
I shove down the desire away, wrenching my Alpha from the bars of his cage forcefully.
Keeping my expression carefully neutral, I glance at Silas and narrow my eyes. “You never save food, you fucking bottomless pit of a nine-year-old boy.”
I feel a tinge of guilt at my tone, but it’s better if everyone believes I’m throwing jabs at Silas than see how his words affect me.
“Moving on,” Gav pointedly pivots in an effort to get us back on track. “What’s the update now? What do we know?”
I pull up the drone footage from last night on my laptop, feeling myself relax the slightest bit. It feels good to step into my role as an intelligence officer. I need this—a sense of purpose. It’s like shrugging on an old, comfortable sweatshirt.
“We don’t know much more than we did before last night,” I inform him.
“We still haven’t retrieved the other half of the list with the Omegas’ names, and I’m still waiting on gene-sequencing of the blood from Varenthrall’s study.
Riven texted earlier to update us on his Omega.
Said she passed out after we left Redmark and has barely been awake since. ”
“Any more light flares with her?” Gav asks.
“Two. Riven said she lit up twice, but without the floating hair and prophecies.”
“So whatever’s causing the prophecies is more than likely subconscious if it’s happening while she’s asleep.” Vae hums thoughtfully. “Anyone have an update on Calla in Chicago?”
All eyes turn to Silas, who glances up mid-nail-chew.
“Uh…” His eyes bounce around the room. Pretty sure he just realized that as the only member of his pack present, he’s their official mouthpiece.
Swiping his fingers on his pants, he clears his throat and says, “Ford and Evander called earlier to check up on Caelan. Said the Omega up there is still sparking and, well, Ford wanted to tell you guys directly. Said it wasn’t urgent, but he wanted patched in for the conversation.”
Silas pulls out his phone and sets it on the table. Ford answers on the second ring.
“Evening, gentlemen.”
“Ford,” Gav leans in, bracing his forearms on the table. “You want to clue us in on what’s going on out there? Please tell me you didn’t find an Omega that’s levitating and speaking in tongues now.”
“That’s a negative on the new Omega and the floatin’. But I’d bet the house we’ve got a front-runner in the Speaking In Tongues category.”
Vae’s gaze snaps to mine, and he grimaces. I run a tired hand down my face. When will this day ever end?
Gav groans like he, too, has hit his limit. “You’re kidding. What happened?”
“Well, after Calla sparked up the bedside lamp a few nights ago, Evander and I’ve been takin’ turns standing by like a fire marshal at a sock-hop. Figure it’s best not to let the little fire-starter nap without supervision.”
“Wait, she’s actually starting fires, now?” I ask. “Why are we just now hearing about this?”
“Not necessarily lightin’ fires,” Ford replies.
“She’s still just sparking. It seems to have calmed down a bit, but she has to be careful about touching anything electric, or she’ll fry the hell out of it.” Evander’s deep voice is almost soothing as it rumbles through the speakers.
“Well, she was sleeping last night and started mumbling.” Ford continues. “She’s been dealing with some nightmares, so I didn’t really think anything of it. Kinda been lettin’ her sleep through them, hopin’ it shakes somethin’ loose upstairs. Then, she starts repeating a phrase over and over.”
“Which was?” I push.
“The Gate is Awake,” Ford answers.
Silas curses. “That motherfucking gate. What is with these Omegas and gates?”
Ford chuckles. “Oh, it gets better, boys. She repeated it about five times, then rolled straight into a full-on prophecy. I wrote the whole damn thing down.”
There’s the sound of rustling paper, then, “One thread bound, but one thread frays. She is the flame. She burns to bring light. She is the light. The light wakes the gate. The gate is awake.”
We exchange loaded glances as silence blankets the room like a shroud. A prickle of unease runs up my spine, but I shake it off.
I should care more. I should be more interested in the pattern.
But all I can think of is how Caelan should be here for this.
He’s the one who always sees things the rest of us can’t.
He’s silent and deadly, and people who don’t know him always assume he doesn’t speak because he doesn’t have anything important to say.
They don’t realize just how smart he is, though.
They don’t realize that Caelan can see things no one else can.
He can put pieces together that would take anyone else—even me—much longer to connect.
And he’s gone.
Gone because I didn’t protect him. Gone because that damned Omega—
“Someone pull up what Daniella was saying at Redmark.”
“Got it.” I seize on Gav’s order like a life raft, clicking through the encrypted folders on my laptop. “Do you want audio or just a refresher of what was said?”
“You have audio?” Vae’s eyes widen. Then, he realizes what a dumb question that is, and his face sours. He releases an obnoxiously loud raspberry and mutters, “What am I saying? Of course you do.”
“Just read me what she said,” Gav orders, pressing his fingers to his temples.
“‘Four became one. One became light. Light wakes the gate. She is the gate.’”
Vae unfolds from his seat and grabs a glass of whiskey off the side table, mutter, “Yup. Still creepy as fuck.”
“Creepy when you hear it, too.” Evander agrees.
Vae snorts. ”Oh, trust us, we know. We got a front row to the premiere at Redmark. Except that Omega turned into the fucking sun and her hair started floating around. So, yeah. That was a blast. In a Plague-of-Locusts kind of way.” He takes a long pull of his drink.
“So what the hell do we make of these gals?” Ford sounds strained. Ford never sounds strained.
“It’s got to be related to whatever they’re injecting the Omegas with,” I theorize, then suggest, “Okay, let’s lay it out.”
I uncap a marker and start scratching out a list.
“We’ve got Varenthrall working with the Severed, a rich asshole with a penitent for torture who keeps vials of blood with magic properties in his house. We’ve got missing Omegas turning up with… what are we calling these?”
“Uh… Powers?” Silas raises a brow.
“No,” I reply flatly. “That makes it sound like we’re attributing this to magic, and I don’t believe that. There is a logical, scientific reason behind what’s happening.”
“Oh sure,” Vae nods like he agrees, when we all know he’s about to mouth off.
“Two Omegas, a thousand miles away who have never met, show up out of the blue, able to light shit on fire with their hands and glow like a radioactive bio weapon. When they’re not performing tricks, they’re telling bedtime stories about lights and gates and twelve becoming twenty and some female third party who is apparently not only ‘the gate’ but is also ‘waking up the gate,’ and we’re not acknowledging that there might be magic involved. Got it. That totally makes sense.”
He throws back the rest of his whiskey, then points at me with the hand holding his glass. “You can go on about science and logical explanations all you want, Dax, but we both know no one’s ever seen anything like this. Denying it won’t force it to follow your rules.”
I flash him a threatening smile. “If you point that finger at me again, I will bite it off.”
“I’m calling them ‘abilities’ as of now,” Evander breaks in. “I agree with both of you. Powers sound like they were bestowed upon the Omegas by some unseen force, but at the same time, none of this is normal. We don’t have an explanation for it that fits in any rational box.”
Gav rolls his shoulders back, cracking his neck.
“Alright. So we need to figure out what the hell these Omegas are going on about. Someone needs to start doing some research.” He looks at me.
“Dax, this would be the perfect thing to get your mind off our little problem. I suggest you ask Riven nicely for help.”
I give a single nod and pull out my phone to shoot Riven a text.
“And us?” Silas asks.
“You and Vae are in charge of the Omega when you’re home.
Check in with the trainee, Cage, nightly.
I want you two on interrogation. Find out what she knows, who she knows, and how involved she’s been.
Outside of that, you’ll be on regular duties.
We still need to be tracking the Severed and figuring out where the hell Varenthrall disappeared to. ”
“We’re giving Cage authority over the Omega?” Silas’s brows shoot up to his hairline.
“Hard agree with Silas, Gav.” I cut in, glancing up from my phone. “Cage is a walking ulcer.”
I’m not exactly sure why the words are coming out of my mouth, but my gut is screaming in protest at the thought of allowing Cage around the female.
If Gav wants her hurt, he might as well leave her with me.
That idea makes me frown harder.
“Cage’s dad would like us to start giving him more responsibility,” Gav responds dryly.
Vae lets out an incredulous laugh. “I’m sorry, are these trust fund babies not cutting the cord before they come to us anymore?”
Gav smirks. “That’s actually why I’m assigning him to the Omega. A few weeks of diaper duty might teach him not to go running to daddy when someone makes him cry.”
I still don’t like it, but I understand his thought process. I’ll just have to keep an eye on them. Discreetly, of course, since I’m apparently no longer allowed around the Omega without supervision.
Gav turns his attention back to Silas’s phone, “Evander and Ford, I want you two to stay in Chicago. We need eyes on that Omega. I don’t want to leave Calla to someone outside our immediate command, but I also don’t want to bring her back here.
Who knows what might happen if those two are near each other. ”
“Understood,” Ford easily agrees.
“I’ll be following up leads and patrols, and looking into shit as well,” Gav concludes.
“How’s Caelan?” Evander asks, and the room falls so silent I can hear my own heartbeat. The oddly normal moment is officially over, and a depressing cloud descends in its place. I get to work packing up my laptops. I don’t need to listen to them go over this again.
I can’t.
“Dax,” Vae calls after me as I stand to leave without waiting to be dismissed. Gav will understand, emotions just aren’t my forte.
“I’m good. I’m just tired.”
The lie burns. I’m not good. I’m the fucking opposite of good.
Truth be told, I’m barely holding it together. And if I stay in this room another second longer and listen to them go on about Caelan like he’s already dead…
I’ll break.
That, or I’ll go into that cell and finish what I started.
Either way, I need to leave.
“I’ve got a lot of shit to do if I want to get a jump start on all this Rings of Power bullshit,” I say, zipping up my bags with fingers that feel too large. “Get some rest, yeah?”
I don’t hang around and wait for a response, beelining for the hall and taking the stairs to the main floor two at a time. I barely remember crossing the training yard toward HQ, but halfway across the front yard, I pause.
On the edge of the drive are paw prints.
They look like they belong to a large cat.
Not as large as a mountain lion, which used to roam around the Eastern US often, but definitely larger than a house cat.
I can clearly see where it stepped in the mud, and the prints left on the concrete like it was pacing back and forth outside HQ.
I briefly recall Vae muttering about a cat from Hell earlier, but I was too tired to pay attention.
I peer through the waning evening light to make sure there’s nothing out there. As I survey the trees, the weight of the last forty-eight hours crashes down on top of me.
Caelan. The Omega.
My fault. All my fault.
I fucking swear I sense something watching me. The feeling of unease from earlier starts to creep back in. Just like before, I force myself to shake it off.
There’s nothing out here. Just the sun setting on the worst day I’ve lived in five-hundred years…
And if I pause at the threshold of the door, scenting the faint fragrance of lavender carried on the breeze, well…
I’m smart enough to know it’s nothing more than my imagination