Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
SAINT
The scent of blood and carnage filled the air as I looked over the battlefield with annoyance and frustration.
This was bullshit. The fact that I was destined to do this for the rest of my existence was complete bullshit.
There was no growth for Death—I would just be doing exactly what I had from the start—harvesting souls that passed at the hands of others.
Okay, possibly my hands as well.
I was starting to become resentful that I didn’t get to partake in the violence more often.
What exactly was stopping me? I didn’t have a particularly strong moral compass, and I knew for a fact that a lot of these bastards deserved a rather dark fate.
You didn’t come onto the battlefield because you were a good person, you came because of ego or violence.
Especially when it was on a mission of dominating the entire known realm.
With a level of indifference that was becoming my normal, I watched as War made his way across the stained land towards me, practically fucking skipping. Unsurprising, really. This was the shit he loved.
Don’t get me wrong, I loved killing as much as the next nightmare, but I also dealt with souls on an individual level. What War did was…different. I had no reason to dislike him as much as I did, but over the centuries he had begun grating on my nerves more and more.
“Are we done here?” I asked, wondering what we would do next. Normally I traveled alone, but lately my sister and I had been traveling together, so that meant being with Gunnar. Otherwise known as War.
They had always gotten along fairly well, which made no sense considering life was not exactly a featured element of war.
“For now.” He looked over the landscape as he brushed off the chest plate of his Roman uniform. The ass was one of their generals, and unsurprisingly they were conquering most of the humans in this small sliver of the universe. “We have many more lands to conquer.”
“And then what?” I asked, mostly trying to goad him.
“What do you mean?” He frowned.
“What happens then? What happens when you conquer this world? When there is nothing left?” Hopefully I would finally get a vacation, being there wouldn’t be nearly as much death… Then again, there was always a plague at some point, so maybe not.
Gunnar stared at me, looking angry, before barking out a laugh. “You’re funny, Saint. Humans will never stop fighting. Even if Rome rules all, there will be civil wars to come… And if that ends, well, there’s always the possibility of humans finding out about us.”
Yeah, that wouldn’t end well.
I should have seen the writing on the wall all those years ago. Instead I had foolishly ignored him, and now we were here. Dealing with his bullshit. War and Death should have gone hand-in-hand, in theory, but the two of us had never truly meshed.
I had a theory that it was because he liked conflict, so he picked people who contrasted him to spend time with—like Eve.
I knew she wouldn’t be happy to see him now, though.
The last time they had spent time together—the end of their friendship, in fact—War had shed the blood of hundreds of innocents overseas during a human war.
She had gotten fed up with his bullshit and walked away, something he had been rather upset about, taking his anger out on literally everyone else. Mostly humans.
I had contemplated several times why he was even considered a god terror to begin with. The universe naturally experienced death, life, chaos, order, expressions of hate and love… But war? No, that was a human construct. Sure, it came from violence, but that wasn’t what he was really about.
His sister, Peace, I was also conflicted about. But instead of trying to prove a point like War, she tended to stay out of everyone’s way. I could only wish that War would do the same—no one actually liked having him around.
Arabella’s brows were furrowed, and I knew she was confused—rightfully so—on why these bastards had been so blatantly honest about their plans.
That was easy to explain, though. First, it wasn’t their first time trying to bring down the world and cause a problem. Their attempts had become predictable, unlike War’s, and they feared nothing… Well, until Hate met Arabella.
Now that was some refreshing shit.
Yet despite fearing her, neither Hate nor Chaos worried about the consequences of War’s plans, so they didn’t hide their part in them.
It wasn’t like they had anything to loose, as it was—the only one who could kill them was me, and unfortunately, checks and balances of the universe had determined that it wouldn’t be permanent.
I know—it was rather disappointing.
I had to assume that the only person in this situation even trying to keep this plan secret was War himself, and that was simply on principle of battle strategy.
Upon Chaos’s words of departure, I had let my magic expand out to cover the space, making it so they couldn’t flee.
Her apathetic expression turned into a sneer.
Despite her relaxed attitude, I knew Chaos was scared of being caught up in War’s games and my resulting wrath.
Unsurprisingly, almost everyone got hurt in them except for him.
I didn’t want to hurt my kin, but if anyone threatened Arabella, no matter who it was, I would take direct action to eliminate that threat.
I had done it before, and I would continue to do so.
Wrapping a hand around Arabella’s curved waist, I placed a kiss on the top of her head. Hate narrowed his eyes at the action. I held his gaze, daring him to fucking comment on it, before he looked away—no doubt because of the feral glint in my eyes.
I had seen fucking red when he had threatened to take her.
Not just because of the implications there, but because of the deeper truth.
Our desire didn’t awaken until we met our mate, so he had meant to either sell her off, or…
Well, I didn’t know what the other option was, but the idea of Arabella suffering that type of fate had me feeling a level of fury I hadn’t realized I was capable of.
“What do you want from us?” Hate demanded.
“I want to know everything War told you.”
“What he told us?” Chaos asked as Hate looked at Arabella once more, his face paling. I wondered what her power had done to him, exactly, when she’d broken out of such an intense magic in that clearing. It was obviously painful and terrifying.
Or maybe he was just being a little bitch.
I wouldn’t lie, it made me glad that my little flower had chosen me as a mate rather than an enemy. Not that I would have let her. I would have found a way to convince Arabella to love me. Somehow, someway. Maybe more bodies…or gifts from our hunts? Something.
In fact, I needed to get her another gift soon. I felt like I was going through withdrawal from the sweet look that always filled her face when I presented her with my kills. My gaze moved back to Hate.
He could work. He could work for sure.
“About what? His plan?” Chaos played dumb, one of the men behind me groaning in annoyance. I was fucking glad they were seeing just how normal I was compared to these other assholes—they should be thankful to have me in their lives. Honestly.
“I want to know what his plan is, what he told you, and where the fuck he is now,” I said, my voice holding a sharp demand to it but keeping my touch on Arabella’s skin light and gentle.
War was a threat to our home, Arabella’s favorite place in the world.
I wanted to know what the fuck he had up his sleeve.
Unfortunately, he was good at what he did, and if he was planning this attack, it made complete sense that we were struggling to figure out what was going on with the humans.
If he had influence on them, then they were playing by his rules.
Which meant the institute was under a more serious threat than I’d originally recognized.
“Don’t know.” Chaos shrugged. “Just told me to fuck with the human group around here and make them feel panicked, like they had to restore order or whatever bullshit. He made them believe the way to do that was to attack nightmares.”
“He’s playing general again,” Hate grit out. “He’s one of them, or at least pretending to be. He was gone when I arrived here, but he told Chaos that he was heading up north.”
How much did we want to bet ‘up north’ was to the institute?
“How long ago?”
“Maybe two days.” Chaos frowned. “Maybe a little less.”
“And his plan?” I was glad they weren’t trying to fuck with me on these answers. My patience was nearly at zero because I could feel how tense Arabella was—my flower had probably put together where War had gone as well.
“You think he told us?” Chaos mused. “That’s what pissed Hate off so damn much, because he wouldn’t tell us shit.”
“Fucking asshole.” Hate growled. “I hate that bastard.”
He really lived up to his name.
“Are you done helping him?”
Arabella’s question wasn’t judgmental, but it was tinged with a bit of sadness.
I was positive she saw something about them that I couldn’t, either because of my bias due to the threat they posed to my flower or from having known them for far too long to feel any level of sympathy.
The sweetness that came off of her in moments like this was something I wanted to wrap up and protect.
Which is why I offered Hate and Chaos a warning look to not fucking lie—they may not be good people, but they weren’t liars. Normally.
Chaos made an amused sound. “And what would you suggest we do instead?”
“Help. Go to the institute where my father is.”
Hate growled. “Fucking never. Peace is there. I can’t see her again.”
Chaos offered him a look of annoyance before fixing Arabella with another stare. “What would be the benefit to me?”
“Winning side, friends. You can actually use your energy towards helping rather than harming,” Arabella pointed out before going soft. “Chaos and destruction are not the same thing. You don’t have to side with War and Hate, just like Saint doesn’t have to.”
I tilted my head to look down at her somber expression, not surprised by her words, per se, but still affected by them. I swear, the woman was wise beyond centuries, and she always seemed to know exactly what to say to nightmares that had their guards up.
“Fine,” Chaos said after a moment of silence. “Where is this place?”
“Northern Michigan. Peace and Love are there, so if you can track them—”
“I can,” Chaos murmured and looked towards me. “It’s safe?”
“Yes.” I didn’t need to lie about that—the institute was safe for people like us.
“Are you fucking serious?” Hate demanded, pulling out of his shocked state.
“Chaos, you are free to go,” I said, loosening my power on her. “I’ve been wanting to talk to Hate as it is.”
Chaos turned towards Hate. “I’m tired of being War’s pawn. It’s exhausting. We shouldn’t have to hurt our own kind for him.” Then she was gone, leaving us with Hate.
Looking down at my beautiful flower, I could see her eyes narrowed on Hate—not in dislike, but in confusion. Not that it was entirely surprising—the bastard made a sport out of being confusing.
“What the hell do you want to talk about?” Hate spit out at me.
Turning towards Arabella, I cupped her jaw and spoke easily, as if violence wasn’t brewing under my skin. “Can you go outside with a few of the others? I need to talk to him alone.”
Arabella had been through a lot recently, and as much as I would love to show her a savage display of violence, especially in her honor, I knew it wasn’t the time. She examined my expression before going up on her toes and offering me her lips, and I dipped my head and brushed them.
“No killing him,” she whispered before pulling back. I grunted but accepted that, knowing it wouldn’t be good to kill the bastard right now anyway. He was a potentially useful pawn against War.
“Fine.”
“Saint,” she warned, her eyes alight with amusement.
“I promise,” I grunted
I watched as she walked out with some of the others, leaving Amun and Blackwell. I smiled because I knew the first was there to make sure I didn’t break my promise, but the second was to join in on the fun.
“This is stu—”
Hate didn’t even get his fucking word out because my fist plowed into his face, hard enough that he slammed against the stone wall of the cave and nearly went unconscious. Shit. I needed to be a bit more careful if I was going to enjoy this.
I wouldn’t want to break my promise to Arabella.