Chapter - Alex #5
I must look strange, but I’m shaking so badly, the shock is so deep, that everything feels unreal, like moments when I’m convinced I’m inside a dream or a nightmare or maybe even a computer game, because this just couldn’t have happened.
The man ignores the fact that I’m lying right next to him on the ground.
One of the alphas who are with him leans against a nearby luxury SUV with blacked-out windows, speaking quietly with the other one.
From time to time they glance at me, and their faces reveal almost nothing. They’re strange types.
Since the slick-haired man says nothing, I mutter,
"Are those your bodyguards?"
Again, no answer. The man just smokes and stares into the dark sky.
My eyes struggle to focus on any single thing, everything is blurry and drifting, my whole body is trembling, and I feel like I’m about to slip into some kind of shock where I won’t be able to think straight anymore. My arms and legs are still shaking uncontrollably.
The man seems to notice my condition, because he finally turns toward me and says,
"Get a grip, omega. There’s nothing more you can do right now. You won’t help him by shaking on the ground like a bug."
"I love him, you don’t understand! I love him so much," I whimper through my sobs.
Only now do I see a real reaction. A sour grimace crosses his face.
"There’s no such thing as love. There is only loyalty or the lack of it."
"And yet there is," I whisper. "He just proved it."
My words cause a brief pause in his movements, but then the vapor rises toward the sky again.
I squeeze my eyes shut and beg Fate to have mercy on Bay. I beg with everything I have, and another spasm tightens my lungs. I reach for the inhaler, but too late.
I lose consciousness.
I open my eyes to a sharp slap across my face. Not that hard, but enough to pull me back from the edge.
"You drifted off," he says, his voice cold and factual. "Time to move. We have a location."
"What… what?"
His hands lift me upright.
Even though he’s an omega, he’s fairly tall, taller than me by a lot, and he seems strong and somehow… military, solid to the touch.
He sets me on my feet with a rather rough push.
"Yes," I choke out, "let’s go, we have to save him," and I sway, instinctively reaching out to steady myself against him, but he pulls his arm away. Clearly he doesn’t tolerate being touched by random crying teen omegas.
His brows rise slightly.
"I assume we’re expected to handle the rescue part?"
My eyes meet his black eyes.
"I’m begging you, I’ll do anything, anything, if you just save him. And I know you can… I can feel it, your power, I feel that you can."
He tilts his head slightly, narrowing his eyes.
"People like me aren’t the kind you should make easy promises to, kid, because one day we might actually ask for that favor to be returned."
"What would you want? I can talk to my dad if you’re in any trouble… just please help me."
The tall omega nods slowly.
"All right, let’s go. No point wasting time talking."
On unsteady legs I follow him to the SUV and climb inside. One alpha sits behind the wheel, the other in the passenger seat, and the omega takes the back with me. There’s a comfortable bench, even a small bar inside.
"Who are you?" I ask, because this is all getting stranger by the second. "Or at least what’s your name?" But at the same time I realize I don’t actually care, because this isn’t the moment for questions, not when Bay needs saving.
"You can call me Ennio," he says shortly.
"I’m Alex Strada," I murmur, though my name doesn’t matter either. "Let’s go."
Then I hear him begin speaking Italian to the two men in the front, and a chill passes over me.
Italian? How specific… Well, they do give off a somewhat gangster-ish vibe, but there’s no way I can ask about it outright, so I pick another topic.
"So where are they?" I ask in a trembling voice.
"Relatively close. An abandoned factory. The location shows a large old warehouse," he answers in a clipped tone.
My heart speeds up, because it really is close.
Barely three minutes later we turn down a side road onto the grounds of the abandoned factory.
Ennio speaks again to the alphas in Italian, and they answer in low voices whose tone I can’t interpret. They don’t seem especially surprised by the situation. It doesn’t sound like they’re trying to talk him out of anything. Apparently whoever Ennio is, he really is their boss.
"How long was I unconscious?" I whisper to Ennio.
He looks at me without expression.
"Almost half an hour."
"What?" I jerk upright in my seat. "That means Bay… that means they…"
"Calm down." Ennio’s hand presses me back. "It’s best if you stay in the car."
"No. I should—"
"You stay in the car," Ennio says firmly, in a tone that allows no argument.
I curl up in the backseat, trembling like jelly.
Right away I spot the Hansons’ van parked by one of the entry gates.
"How many alphas?" Ennio asks.
"Four of them. All young, around nineteen or twenty."
Ennio says something in Italian to the man in the passenger seat, and then the SUV comes to a stop.
I glance at Ennio and see him draw a gun with a smooth motion. He checks something on it, then opens the door and steps out, the two alphas following.
I squeeze my eyes shut and beg Fate for mercy for Bay and for Ennio’s actions to succeed. But when I see that all three of them are armed, I begin to truly believe they have a real chance of driving the Hansons off.
The warehouse door is thin, and one of the alphas kicks it open with a single brutal strike.
I see then that Ennio fires into the air, almost like a warning for whoever is inside the warehouse, so maybe they really don’t plan on killing the Hansons, and honestly I’m not surprised.
Nobody wants to deal with the aftermath of four bodies lying around, just a bleak thought that crosses my mind.
I’m locked inside the car so I don’t hear every sound, but the three men disappear into the warehouse.
"Please, good Fate, work a miracle and save him…"
My heart stops in my chest when I suddenly see the Hansons sprinting out from behind the warehouse, they must have escaped through some back exit.
They don’t even look toward the car I’m in and even if they did they wouldn’t see me because of the tinted windows, they jump into the van and screech away… what the hell.
So Ennio didn’t kill them, he just scared them off, but what about Bay?
It hits me that this is the moment when I’m safe, now that the Hansons have driven off, so I can jump out of the car.
On shaking legs I limp toward the warehouse, I pull the broken door open and realize the inside is a huge dark hall filled with all kinds of equipment that blocks the view.
But right when I try to step inside and weave my way through the piles of stuff, I notice one of the alphas standing by the entrance, and the moment he sees me he grabs me by the collar of my necromancer robe and halts me.
"Get back in the car, kid," he says in a cold voice.
"But I want to…"
"Get back in the car," he repeats, and he gives me a small push in that direction.
Cursing under my breath I go back to the car and… I have no choice but to wait.
Every minute is torture and there must be at least fifteen of them, tears stream down my face because I have no idea what they did to Bay, whether they killed him, whether that’s why the alpha told me to go back.
I sob and shake so hard my whole body trembles, until I finally see Ennio coming out of the building with the two alphas behind him.
And to my shock, right behind them walks… Bay.
He walks slowly with his head lowered, still wearing his slightly torn zombie outfit.
But he’s walking on his own.
I can’t stop myself, I jump out of the car again.
"Bay!" I cry out, rushing toward him like a bullet.
His eyes lift and turn toward me as I run up, but it’s like I’m looking into the eyes of a stranger, empty, unbearably empty.
"No," he says firmly, pushing his hands out in a gesture that stops me in my tracks.
"Don’t touch me."
I freeze.
Ennio gives us a quick look, clearly evaluating the situation in a heartbeat, then he grabs my arm and says,
"Get back in the car," pushing me lightly toward the door.
I try to catch Bay’s gaze but he won’t look at me, he keeps staring at the ground, and we all get into the car, except this time they put me in the front seat next to the driver.
When Bay and Ennio and one of the alphas sit in the back, Ennio suddenly lowers the sliding divider window, sealing me off from whatever is said in that part of the car.
A frustrated sound escapes me.
Then the driver glances at me and says, "Give me your address, we’ll take you home."
I mutter the address, then add, "And Bay? What are you going to do with him?"
"We’ll take him home too," the driver says dryly, and we head out.
I sit there curled up, just crying and crying and crying.
When we pull up in front of my house, I get out of the car and Ennio steps out too. There’s no sign of Bay, he stays inside.
The tall omega walks up to me and says,
"Bay is asking you not to tell your dad about what happened."
I try to say something, but I can’t, I’m shaking too hard, my jaw won’t cooperate.
I glance toward the car, I know Bay is right behind that dark window, but because it’s completely black I can’t see a thing.
"This should be reported to the police, it can’t keep going like this, they got away, what if they try again…"
"For now just go home, you’ll be able to talk to him when he wants to talk to you, right now you need to be patient, okay?"
I nod.
Then I reach out my hand to Ennio.
After a moment’s hesitation he gives me his, and I lean forward and place a kiss on it, a kiss of respect and gratitude.
"Thank you, thank you for what you did, I’ll always be in your debt."
For the first time a small smile appears on Ennio’s face.
"Like I said, don’t make promises like that lightly. But since you already made one, who knows, maybe one day we’ll come asking for a favor, especially since your dad is Prosecutor Strada… and he handled a few cases against our… let’s call them acquaintances."
A dark smirk crosses his face as he leans slightly.
"When I come to collect my debt, you’d better be ready to pay it."
I swallow hard, give him a short bow, then throw one more look toward the dark window of the car, lifting my hand in the hope that Bay sees me, sending a small kiss into the air.
Then I turn and walk toward my house.
I don’t know how I unlock the door, how I make it to my bed, but I know I spend half the night crying.