Chapter 5 Arabella
Chapter Five
ARABELLA
I was extremely tempted to let him.
The only thing holding me back was the knowledge that it wouldn’t help in the long run because there would always be more humans for War to influence.
He was the true problem here, and while I knew not all lives could be saved in this effort—specifically human ones—I hoped to preserve as many as possible.
Well…at least the ones that deserved to be saved.
I knew War was influencing them, but it made me wonder how much hatred already existed.
There was also the element of optics to consider, which was important if there was ever going to be a productive relationship between nightmares and humans. If the headline following this event was ‘vicious nightmares slaughter humans,’ it wouldn’t bode well.
This had to end with War. He was the problem here.
“Saint,” I murmured, an idea striking me. “I know what to do.”
I needed to break War’s influence, something I’d done before with Hate back in the Oceanic Forest. Which would require me to be fairly close to him.
Yeah, this was going to be a complicated discussion.
“I have a feeling what you’re going to say is not going to make most of them happy,” Saint said with a pointed, almost amused look.
“Which normally I would love. But Cy is fairly close to his breaking point, so we may want to be careful…at least if you don’t want a basilisk going out there and slaughtering hundreds of humans. ”
“Yeah, that wouldn’t be good,” I agreed.
Saint was such an interesting mix of wonderful and insane, both ridiculously literal and more than a bit eccentric.
With that being said, and despite the shit he gave the others, he cared about them—at least as much as Saint could considering he was an immortal being that had seen far too much.
Even so, he greeted it all with an unhinged smile.
I more than loved that.
“We will figure this out,” Saint assured me quietly as I stared up into his charcoal eyes.
“Hey, Bella, I need you to get in here,” Zain called from the doorway. “Both of you. Keres and Slater are at each other’s throats.”
Keres? Who the hell…
“Chaos,” Zain amended at the look of confusion on my face.
Crap. I kept forgetting that Chaos had shown up here after our little altercation in the caves in California.
I broke from Saint and walked towards Zain, a small smile playing on his lips.
As I finally reached him, his hands immediately went to my hips as he tugged me forward into a soft, passionate kiss.
I let out a surprised but happy moan as I wrapped my arms around his neck, going up on my toes.
This clearly wasn’t as much of a ‘rush’ situation as he’d said. I think my apocalyptic terror had just wanted a kiss, and I wasn’t ever going to complain about that.
Zain let out a low rumble against my lips before pulling back and pressing his forehead to mine. “I’m so glad you’re okay. I love you.”
“I love you more.” I kissed him again.
A crash sounded in the room.
“What is going on?” I said beneath my breath, confused. Saint walked past us to enter the room, Zain and I following behind to find…well, chaos. I stood, frozen in surprise, and took in everything at once.
Chaos—Keres—was surrounded by broken glass, a vase splintered into a million pieces on the floor, tears streaming down her face as she glared at Slater—Order—who looked pissed.
More than pissed, and sort of sad. I also couldn’t help but notice how similar the two of them looked, their golden appearances an almost direct contrast to Eve and Saint.
Before reacting, I took stock of everyone in the room that wasn’t one of my mates.
Eve stood between the two god terror siblings, ready to jump in when needed.
Eros, also known as the god terror Love, stood awkwardly on the edge of the room, as far as possible from everyone, and was talking in hushed fast whispers to… Drive?
The neo terror hadn’t been one I’d expected to see, but it made sense now that I knew he and Love were mates, and I was thrilled he was here. I was hoping they would openly admit to being mates soon so I could bring it up without fearing that they were trying to keep it a secret.
They weren’t the only mate pair here, either.
My eyes focused on where my father sat on the other side of the room, closer to the front.
He looked a bit dazed, his brows dipped in confusion as he watched Slater and Keres.
He didn’t have any outward injuries, but it was clear he wasn’t feeling his ‘normal’ self.
His mate Irina stood behind him, gently running her hands through his hair.
Mykia, who’d been sitting near them, hopped and walked towards me with a slight bounce. Which reminded me, it was probably about time I asked her if she still shifted into a human form.
“What’s going on in here?” I asked, this time loud enough for the room to hear me.
“What’s going on?” Chaos repeated, her demeanor manic. With a snap of her fingers the shattered glass disappeared, making me wonder if it had only been there for effect. “What’s going on, pink-haired human, is that my brother is blaming me for everything—for literally fucking everything!”
I guessed this wasn’t the time to bring up the fact that she literally had played a big part in all of this…
“I already apologized!” she shouted, as she continued to unravel. I felt a stab of sympathy for this woman who’d changed so much from the angry person I’d met in the caves. She was clearly ready to move past her work in aiding War.
“It is your fault!” Slater snarled. “Not completely, but you are responsible for a large part of this! You’re the reason that Eve and everyone else here is in danger!”
“What about Hate and War?!”
“Well, War is very much to blame,” I drew out, rocking forward on my toes, trying to keep my voice as calm and relaxed as possible. “And Hate—”
“Is in a lot of pain and not around,” Saint mused.
Ashur chuckled darkly, drawing my attention and blocking out Saint’s words momentarily—although I still caught the implication there. I met Ashur’s intense gaze.
Intense was actually an understatement.
The man’s eyes were so incredibly unique, like nothing I had ever come across before, completely black with no pupils.
Nothing but obsidian with bolts of silver moving actively throughout.
I felt frozen, pinned by it and breathless, before I was finally able to break away.
A shiver rolled over me as his pine and night air scent reached me.
The air the man had to him was absolutely primal, and while he seemed relatively calm, it was only a facade for what lay beneath.
Something so intense I craved to experience it, no matter how dangerous.
“Right,” I said easily, not entertaining Saint’s violence—although I had no doubt he wanted to tell me just how much pain Hate had gone through. “But here’s the thing, Keres—you aren’t part of the issue anymore, but you were. You can’t deny it; it is what it is.”
“But he doesn’t—”
I turned to Slater. “But it’s not very cool to bring it up. What’s the point?”
“I don’t like the threat she poses to my mate.”
“But she doesn’t anymore, right?”
Keres nodded adamantly. “I’m done with War’s bullshit. I’ve always sided with him because, outside of Saint, none of us were able to kill him. But if this is really happening…I’m washing my hands of him. I’ve chosen my side.”
“Well see, that was easy,” I said, loving the conviction in her voice. I had learned that when these god terrors said something, they meant it—if they didn’t, they just wouldn’t say it.
“So…” I drew out. “Are we good now?”
“Hardly,” Eve sighed. “But for this, yes.”
“Are you okay?” I asked Eve softly. She shook her head but didn’t answer, her gaze moving to the door as if waiting for someone.
“We can talk later if you want,” I promised her. Then, more loudly to the rest of the room, “But for now we all have a lot to discuss.”
That was an understatement. I sat at the head of the long table, Saint and Ashur taking seats on either side of me as everyone settled in for the meeting.
Saint’s magic surrounded me in a velvety grip, and I smiled as I saw a little shadow figure out of my peripheral, the physical manifestation of Saint’s shadows.
I was tempted to touch it, but I forced myself to focus—we had a lot to talk about, and not a lot of time.
“We checked with the healers,” Zain said, taking the initiative to get started.
“Some injuries, but most of our people avoided the new bullets. I don’t think they’d manufactured enough of them to make a difference, or if they had, they hadn’t distributed them.
Only two nightmares were hit with them; one of them was just a grazing wound, but the other was in the arm. ”
“Shit,” I mumbled. “How are they doing?”
“Stable,” Cy said, standing against the wall. “They’re trying some healing techniques they think will help, but it’s still a work in progress.”
I swallowed. “After this, I’d like to go see them. I could help with my sis meta ability.”
“What do you mean?” Eve asked.
“When Damian was hit with one in California, I was able to heal him from the poison,” I explained.
“That’s not sustainable on a large scale, Arabella,” my father said, shifting and offering a pained look.
“I’m not saying it is,” I agreed, “but maybe I can help figure out a better way by focusing on it again. Last time I was a bit distracted.”
Damian made a low rumble in his throat, knowing I was talking about the uncharacteristic fear I’d felt at him being so injured. Something I never wanted to feel again.
“After this, we can go down there and check it out,” Razar said. I exhaled, thankful for his ability to see what I was hoping to accomplish.
“I promise I won’t overdo it,” I said to my dad, who nodded and relaxed back into his chair.
“What exactly are we here to talk about—why don’t we just swarm them?” Keres asked, seemingly back to her normal self.