25. Honey
Honey
I’m starting to feel boxed in.
I’ve seen four hallways, one apartment, one office, an elevator, and the ‘bunker’ and the ‘clinic.’ But I saw the outside of the compound when I approached, and I’m sure there’s more to it than what I’ve become acquainted with.
The omega, Sphinx, promised me a way out, but have I traded one box for another?
Phoenix and Zephyr sandwich me in between them, and we walk, silently, down to the basement again.
I’m somewhere between feeling protected, kept safe, and like a prisoner being marched around.
I look between the two of them. Zephyr seems to understand why I don’t want to be alone or locked in.
Phoenix sees when I’m distressed but doesn’t usually know what to do about it.
It’s clear that the two of them aren’t truly in charge of anything but me.
If I asked for more freedom, would I get it?
When we arrive at the clinic, the twins’ older brother, Fox, is there, along with a new person. She’s an omega.
Elegant icy, white-blonde hair hangs in loose waves around her shoulders, and she’s wearing tight denim jeans and a soft blue sweater underneath a black vest, like the boys wear.
She sits on one of the table beds while Fox stands between her legs, and their foreheads are pressed together.
It’s like we’re interrupting something special between the two of them.
I love that. It would be so nice to be that special to someone. Could I be like that for the twins? Would they love me? Would Lazarus?
Zephyr clears his throat, and Fox snarls.
His shadow changes from the fox form to that of a large bird, and it swoops at Zephyr.
The two shadows, in bird shapes, battle in the limited air space between their heads and the ceiling until Fox softly kisses the omega first on the forehead and then on the lips.
Only after that tenderness does he step away from her.
“Honey, this is Evangeline. She’s Fox’s, Revenant’s, and Mayhem’s omega.” Zephyr makes a formal introduction.
With a soft, effortless smile and a tiny wave, Evangeline gives me a small shrug. “Fox thought it might be better for you to see someone without a dick. I said it’d probably be better if there was someone here who wasn’t an asshole.”
“Thank you.” It seems like the only appropriate answer.
I like how none of them scold her for saying bad words. The air of the room doesn’t become thick with anger. I fiddle with the seam on the T-shirt nervously.
Evangeline laughs, but it doesn’t feel like she’s laughing at me, more at the tension in the air around us. “Before Fox gets started poking and prodding, do you remember where they put your tracker?”
“I don’t really know what a tracker is.” My shoulders are starting to climb up around my ears.
I don’t want to be afraid, but this seems like it’ll be a process, and it might hurt.
Poking and prodding doesn’t sound like fun.
“I don’t remember a lot of things. Especially not before living with the community.
Momma said I hit my head and that’s why I don’t know. ”
Phoenix wraps his arms around me. He holds me tight, and I don’t know why. I don’t feel any different, but his arms around me do feel nice.
“A tracker is a little device that normally goes under the skin.” Evangeline smiles at me, and her nose twitches as she thinks for a second.
“It’s a way for alphas to keep track of omegas in case they get lost. Your tracker, however, is leading the people you’re running from back to us.
So, we’ll take it out and destroy it so that they can’t find you. ”
I’m cool, like all the blood has drained from my body, and I’m a little dizzy. I never considered what would happen if I got caught. I never considered what would happen if I had to go back.
“Hey, Honey.” Zephyr draws my attention to him. “No one is taking you from us.”
I start to feel a little warmer. Zephyr loops one of his hands in mine. Mine is practically an icicle in his. I trust that Phoenix and Zephyr wouldn’t let me go back. They want to take the tracker out so that I can stay.
“How does it get out from under my skin?”
“We won’t let him hurt you.” Zephyr assures me, squeezing my hand three times and giving me a soft smile.
Phoenix unwraps himself from around me, and when I look at him, he’s wearing the same reassuring smile.
“Well” — Evangeline grimaces — “Fox says it’ll probably hurt a little bit.
But he’ll do what he can to keep it as minimally invasive as possible.
Lazarus made it quite clear that modesty was important, so we’ll do this from the most likely areas that trackers are placed and work to the least likely.
” Evangeline explains what is happening, and that makes the situation a little better.
Though I still don’t like ‘minimally invasive’ as it pertains to my body. Why couldn’t this be non-invasive and have some sort of mystical solution that the apostles would frown upon?
Fox offers out one hand, using the other to tap the bench of the table I sat on when they first brought me down here.
With his assistance, I climb up and sit down, and Fox picks up an odd black rectangular device.
He slowly waves it around his arm, demonstrating that it doesn’t even touch his skin.
When he’s done demonstrating, he picks up my left hand and runs the device up my arm from my wrist to my shoulder, wrapping around the inside and outside.
He repeats on the other side, and the device emits a high-pitched beep midway between my elbow and shoulder.
“Well, that was easy.” Zephyr is all smiles. He leans against a desk that’s pushed against the wall. With his legs and arms crossed, it looks effortless for him to be here. “Do we think she might have more than one though?”
Fox makes a show of running the box down and up each of my legs and shaking his head.
“If there were more than one, the police would have likely had more data to work with rather than just the old school Wi-Fi model tracker.” Evangeline pulls her feet up and sits cross-legged on the bed next to me.
I can’t decide whether her words are coming from what she knows, or if what they say is true, and God allows his most faithful to speak through him to each other.
Just like in Revenant’s office when they were questioning me.
Except . . . Zephyr and Phoenix are polytheists.
Fox, being their older brother, would be as well.
If Evangeline and Fox can speak to each other through their bond, then God has no pull over the mates talking to each other?
I try to carry on and focus like everything I’ve been taught to believe isn’t being challenged.
“True.” Phoenix moves around the bed and then climbs up behind me. With his long thighs pressed up against mine, he straddles me. In this position, despite our size difference, our knees are almost touching.
I stiffen at the proximity and nature of how he sits with me. It isn’t proper. He kisses the back of my neck, and heat rises to my face. The warmth, I’m sure, is turning me bright red. I try to move forward and away from him to make our current seating arrangement more chaste.
But Phoenix wraps his arms around me and pulls me back closer to him. “Not so fast, Hon.”
I quickly look around to see if anyone notices how immodest and inappropriate this is, but no one seems to care.
Fox is over at a cabinet, pulling various items from within, and Evangeline is looking down at a phone in her hands. An omega getting to use a phone? Is that something I could do?
I lean a little bit toward her but am nowhere close enough to see the screen.
Phoenix runs his hand over the top of my thigh, and I freeze. He pushes his head against mine. “She’s watching this.”
I look down and find him showing me his phone’s screen. On the screen, little people do some sort of dance. There’s a girl with a wide skirt, and my brain pulls at the words I haven’t thought of in some time.
Ballet, tutu, ballerina. It’s amazing how much you can remember after not using the memories for so long. Momma said that maybe my brain would learn things again, that someday I might remember more than the community. She’s not wrong. It comes back slowly.
“It’s Evangeline.” Phoenix points to the lithe dancer.
“And the beta that Revenant threatened to rip apart if he touched me wrong.” Evangeline sighs wistfully. “Well, and Fox threatened to castrate.”
Fox hums, and it’s a sound of approval.
So violent. The tome tells us it’s wrong to hurt another person.
But despite the teachings, the apostles and disciples didn’t hesitate to hurt us for not following their rules.
And it’s one of the things I hated most about those alphas.
But something seems different when Evangeline mentions those acts of violence. It’s loving. Protective.
Phoenix shifts to lean in and whispers in my ear, his nose brushing against the shell as he speaks. “You like that idea? Someone who would protect you like that? Zephyr and I could make sure no one ever hurts you again.”
He’s . . . not incorrect.
Someone protecting me, for the first time in my life, sounds like a promise I’d like someone to make and keep.
“You two can’t even give her real clothes to wear. Don’t make promises about keeping her safe until you keep her comfortable,” Evangeline whispers. Our eyes meet, and she cocks an eyebrow. “Though, you could do a lot worse than the two of them.”
“Would you like different clothes?” Zephyr draws my attention back to him. He’s walking closer, toward me, with his head canted to the side.
I look away from him, feeling ungrateful for considering asking for anything else. They just brought me big plastic boxes of blankets and pillows. How could I ask for more?
With my head turned, my attention is now on Fox, who also walks toward me, a tray in hand, cutting the conversation short.
The tools on the tray are wrapped in white paper and plastic.