Page 109 of Pet: Genesis

“You’ve turned on us all for him,” he growls. I jump up from my position on the floor.

“You told me he was dead; you watched me kill him—agh!” I cry out as Iriel’s fist comes at my stomach. Luckily, I haven’t eaten much, so he only knocks the wind out of me, forcing me to collapse on the ground.

“Are you fucking crazy?” Jude screams. I hear him trying to get free, but his struggles are useless.

“What do we do now?” one of the Leviathan asks. Iriel seems to be thinking and finally comes to a decision.

“If what he says is true, Remus will be here any second. It would seem our original plan is back in play,” he says, eyeing me.

“No!” Jude screams. I look up as he wrestles his way from the humans, punching one across the face as he launches toward Cypress.

“Jude, stop!” I scream. But it’s no use. Cypress aims his weapon at Jude with an emotionless expression and fires. Screaming erupts inside the room, and it takes me a second to realize it’s me. Judecollapses near me, his hand clutching his chest as he falls to his back. I scramble toward Jude, who now has a hole in his chest, his breathing shallow as he looks at me. I place my hands over the wound, my eyes landing on Jude in terror.

“Please... don’t leave me here,” I whisper in panic. Jude’s eyes watch me, and they’re wide. He opens his mouth, but nothing comes out. I can see him struggling to speak as he watches me, his eyes blinking rapidly as he tries to stay awake, but he’s fading fast.

I force myself to blink back tears, trying to be the source of comfort for him as he passes on.

“It’s okay,” I whisper. My voice is shaky as I study him. He closes his mouth, watching me as I nod my head.

“It’s okay... I’m going to be okay,” I say again. I offer him a smile, placing my hand against his cheek as he struggles to breathe. We stare at each other, both of us having so much to say but no time left to speak. His breathing catches, and his eyes slowly drain of life as he looks at me, passing out of this world. My head drops against his chest, and I toss it back in a rage, screaming. Just as my cries fill the air, so does the slight rumble of the earth. I hear everyone around me beginning to panic as questions of what is happening fill the air.

I look at Cypress in rage.

“You killed him,” I hiss. He doesn’t look remorseful as he watches me, lifting his weapon directly in my face.

“One for the many.” Just as the words leave his lips, the door swings open, and a panicked human stumbles through the door.

“We’re under attack!”

My hands have been cuffed in front of me as I’m dragged out of the facility toward the front lines. There are multiple guns on me, including my brother’s, as we march toward our possible deaths. The rumbling of the ground gets heavier, but the closer we get to the source of the vibrations, the heavier my chest begins to ache.

Jude is gone. Every time I close my eyes, the sight of his lifeless body fills my brain. Humanity is corrupt. Sky and Ezra were both right. They planned on rising from the ashes of our deaths, deeming them the superior society. They used all the information Jude and I could give them and planned to kill Remus once he rid the world of stray humans. I have nothing. Remus was right, and I was horribly wrong.

I look up as the dirt around us begins to shift, and that’s when I see it: the result of his wrath. The buildings and rock at the entrance of the cavern come apart from the constant shift of gravity. The closer we get, the heavier the symbol on my throat pulses. It reminds me of the pulse on Remus’s own symbol.

“Bring Ezra!” I hear Iriel barking more orders as he realizes just how outmatched we all are. I hear the sound of people screaming in the distance as they run for their lives, and for good reason, too.

I see him.

Remus walks with a terrifying expression. Each step he takes causes the world around him to quake and break apart from thesheer force of his power. His hair seems to gravitate around him, like a silhouette of death. He doesn’t appear to be injured in the least. But he does look furious. He’s in all white, though this time, he is actually wearing armor that adds to his intimidation. My footsteps falter even as the rebels around me continue forward. Iriel roughly grips me, shoving me along. I lose my footing, collapsing in the dirt, but he rips me up, roughly kicking me in the back.

“Go,” he snaps.

Tears burn my eyes as I take in Remus. He looks as terrifying as he did the day we met. Except for this time, he has an actual agenda. Revenge for everything I’ve done, as well as the resistance. He is going to kill everyone here.

A woman steps next to him with similar armor on. Her hair is just as long as Remus’s, falling past her waist. She shares similar features to Remus, the wicked glint in her eyes more than enough to tell us why she is here. Unlike Remus, she has a weapon in her hands. A weapon that I’ve never seen before but seems to emit from her palm. With each step she takes, the weapon seems to grow brighter.

I watch in horror as the first line of defense surrounds them up on the hill above us. They have the weapons I used against Remus aimed at them, along with heavy artillery guns. My eyes immediately scan the rebels for a sign of Sky, praying she isn’t down there with them.

“You have to stop them. They’re all going to die!” I scream as we continue our approach, but Iriel nor Cypress seem to care. A loudexplosion sounds as all weapons are fired at once at the siblings. Xion immediately disappears, her presence gone just as Remus halts every weapon fired at him.

And then the blood bath begins.

Chapter Forty

Iris

My brain doesn’t seem capable of deciphering what it is I am looking at exactly. Remus and Xion seem to be committing a massacre without the human eye being able to detect their presence. I find myself blinking rapidly, trying to at least follow Xion’s line of attack, but like the soldiers in her way, I can’t. Her body is a blur. Even Remus still stands above her at the entrance, watching the bloodbath. He has yet to join, letting Xion enjoy herself. He is, however, keeping the weapons from touching his skin. Iriel himself was a general alongside these two, if not three, including Ezra. If Iriel has ever seen them like this in battle, I don’t know why he would ever think to turn against them. Even now, he trembles behind me as the screams of humans fill the air.

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