Page 71 of G.O.D.S Omnibus

“Honey, I’m home,” Marlow sings out as we walk through the door.

Everyone turns around to face us, but my appearance has stunned them silent. Trace steps out of one of the rooms, his eyes wide and hesitant. Yes, he has lied, and there is so much I still don’t know, but I drop Marlow’s hand and run towards him. He wraps his arms around me when I launch myself at him.

“I’m so sorry,” he whispers into my ear, and I hold on to him for what feels like forever. Everything else can be dealt with tomorrow—right now I want to hold on to the friend I lost, the one who would have done anything for me.

A cough disrupts the moment. “We need to tell you something,” Marlow announces.

I slide myself off Trace, and he takes my hand, moving us towards the living area. The two three-seater couches are nowhere near enough room for us all, so Laughn, Creed, Marlow, and Davis all opt to stand.

“Jolie, did you want to tell them what you did? I might not have to die if they believe you did it of your own free will.” Marlow makes me snort from the way he words it.

“Well, I kinda gave myself whatever medicine was in that needle.”

“Youwhat?” Chester yells, launching himself in my direction. “Lean her forward and ram your fingers down her throat.” It’s weird thinking he is in on this after believing he was the school’s guidance officer.

“What? I stabbed myself with a needle, throwing up won’t do shit.” What the actual fuck—that escalated fast.

I’m lifted from my seat from behind and I immediately know it’s Laughn. Boston, Marlow, Case, and even Davis have moved from their spots and are all standing in a wall in front of me.

“Don’t touch her! Tell us what is going to happen to her,” Boston demands.

“I don’t know. I haven’t tested it. She isn’t dead yet, nor has she had an anaphylactic reaction or seizures.” Chester turns to me. “How do you feel?”

“I have a mild headache, but that could be because this whole situation is insane. I’m so pissed off right now I want to run away and never look back.”

Laughn’s brother steps closer. He appears more normal than Laughn, but the look in his eyes tells me I should be afraid of him. The guys move aside, and Creed kneels in front of me. “Please don’t run—you were the one thing that helped keep my humanity. Without you, the darkness will consume me.”

“I don’t remember you,” I whisper, not wanting to spook him.

“Toge gai nakereba bara ga nai.”

His words make me reach out and run my fingers through his hair.

“Without thorns... there is no rose,” I whisper, and he looks up at me with hopeful eyes before an overwhelming wave of nausea hits me like a freight train.

I lose all sense of balance, my legs turning to jelly just as my vision blurs. Someone catches me and I can hear words, but none of them make sense.

Flash after flash of bright lights hit me under my closed eyelids, and the pain causes me to scream. Large arms wrap around me, whispering something in another language—Japanese. How do I know that?

I cry out as the memories that keep coming back are of boys, not these men that I have met. An intense, wrenching feeling squeezes at my heart. I feel it, the day I left with Trace. A snow-haired little girl, full of life and love, and then the car being hit. I gasp at the flash of Trace sticking a needle in my neck.

Everything keeps flickering through my mind, like watching a vintage handheld projector. The outside world fades away... and all I’m left with are my stolen memories.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Creed

Zircon drops, her legs giving out like a newborn foal. I dart forwards and scoop her up, ignoring the yelling and the shuffling of bodies. Moving us to the couch, I wrap myself around her, whispering in her ear that she can’t leave me. I knew Trace’s plan was flawed—fuck knows why I even went along with it.

She whimpers and tears fall down her face. I run the pad of my thumb over the wetness and something inside me snaps. Zircon was just a girl when she left. Chester, Brennan, Kai, Trace, and I struggled with how we felt for her; it fucked with all of us. We were still children ourselves, and she was barely entering puberty—what sort of sick shit did they do to us in the embryo stage? I would never have touched her, yet I would watch her day by day as she surprised us, looking forward to the one day a week she was under my care and teaching her everything I knew.

We were supposed to be training her to develop her skills, each of us specialising in certain areas. But, despite the monster they engineered, I sat with her and played with dolls. My soul just wanted to make her happy, yet right now, her tears are because of us. All of us in some way are the cause, and I’m suddenly filled with a frothing vitriol of sheer unadulterated anger.

Case moves closer, concern written on his face, and I kick my leg out, catching him as he drops to his knees in front of us. Caught off guard, he falls backwards and slides across the floor, Marlow quickly at his side, making sure he is okay.

I don’t care, I will kill any of them that get close. They allowed this to happen. Never again will I let her in harm’s way, even if I have to follow her everywhere she goes. Laughn steps up and cracks his knuckles and I return his smile; little bro wants to take me on. I stand, Zircon wrapped around me, and crack my neck. Motherfucker isn’t the only one who is immune to physical pain. Unlike Team Hades, we were the test dummies, pushed to—and often beyond—our limits.

“Touch me right now and I will end you before you can blink,” I warn.

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