Page 74 of G.O.D.S Omnibus

“Knowing that would have made my life easier the last couple of years, especially when the foster brothers liked to try to sneak into my room at night. Especially the one from two placements ago.”

“He’s dead,” Chester simply states.

I turn to look at him while Creed smirks, like he is waiting for recognition. Kai just smiles.

“Very. Slowly.” Creed adds.

“Couldn’t happen to a better person. Another thing, how come your drugs work on me? Nothing ever works.”

“It’s because your body perceives the mainstream stuff as poison, so it has zero effect on you, but everything we use is made specifically for us.”

“So, what happened when I went to that party and got wasted?”

“They are not like us, and how they got their hands on our gear will be determined soon enough. The boys will take care of it when the time comes,” Brennan says.

“Who is not like us? And what did they do?” Creed asks, ushering me back to my chair and taking a seat beside me as he looks me in the eye.

“Some guy named Aston and his friends,” I say without hesitation.

Creed stares at Brennan, and they exchange a look that says they will talk about this later.

“Hey, what the fuck was that?” I snap, realising I just told him without questioning why he asked.

Creed laughs. “You still can’t lie to me, Tenshi.”

I flip him off and jump down off the kitchen stool, having finished my food between talking. A memory flashes back of Creed being the one to talk to me, because while the others would know I was lying, I could never actually lie to him.

“Well, I guess Brennan is here to take me back to the Myers, so...” I don’t really know what I should say.

“We’ll see you at the gala,” Kai says with a flirty wink.

“Ok, see you then.” I wave to them all.

Brennan walks me to his car in silence.

We head out, and after we’ve been driving for around five minutes, I recognise where we are.

“You can’t be serious.” I sigh, shaking my head.

“What’s wrong?”

“You weren’t visiting your grandmother that night—you were visiting Trace.”

Brennan nods. “Funnily enough, it was the safest place to keep him. Me being seen out here was valid since the test zone is just there.”

“Yes, the test zone that I was dumped into,” I snark, making Brennan realise no one has told me about that yet.

“Everyone who gets found after being kidnapped, or new recruits, has to run the test zone. It’s just how it is, and what we had to do to ensure that Mr Z didn’t think anything was up.”

“And here I was thinking you were a good cardigan-wearing young man who visited his poor grandmother on Friday nights.”

Dark clouds roll in and thunder rumbles in the distance, bringing a forgotten memory to the surface.

Stamping my feet, I whine before sitting on the spot with my legs crossed. “I don’t want to learn! I want to train with the boys.”

“The boys have done their homework, Zircon. Where were you?” Brennan questions, bending down to my level.

“Watching,” is all I say. I wish they would see me as a grown-up. I might only be twelve, but they are only four years older than me.

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