Page 66 of Pet: Genesis

“R..emu...s...... pl..pl.l..e..as...e...,” I manage.

His gaze narrows as he takes me in.

“You shouldn’t strain so much,” he says, watching me in fascination. “I want you to watch him... as I take his life.” Tears fall from my eyes, and I move my arm only an inch before Remus snatchesit in his, rage filling his gaze. His eyes shift over my face, studying me intensely before speaking again.

“Learn. Your. Place.”

Remus turns away from me, grabbing Jude’s barely conscious body as he forces him to kneel in front of me. Jude’s ragged breathing fills the air as he slowly lifts his head, his eyes fluttering as he tries to remain conscious. Blood drips from multiple wounds on his face, and as his swollen eyes finally focus on me, he offers me a broken smile.

“Don’t worry. It’s going to be okay. What we did… was worth it…,” he says.

The pounding against my skull is unbearable as I fight against the inhibitor with Remus’s knowing gaze on me. He’s challenging me. My eyes continually attempt to roll back as I fight to keep consciousness from the pain of breaking this inhibitor. Remus’s grip tightens, and his smile widens as he watches me torture myself to break free of his grasp.

I watch in horror as Jude slowly begins to lose consciousness, his body growing limp in Remus’s arms. He’s killing him. He’s slowly pulling his life force. My small whimper fills the silent air, slowly morphing into the scream that I am trying my best to get out. My body begins convulsing, and Remus continues to watch me, his gaze unwavering.

He scoffs.

“I will not be stopping you. Go ahead. Fight it. Kill yourself in the process,” he growls. His words are cold and unfeeling, and I realize just how much he means it. His gaze is filled with malicefor me, and I finally break through the hold of the inhibitor. My cry fills the air just as I reach for Jude’s unconscious body. But my own body won’t follow anymore. I’ve strained myself too much. I collapse, unable to move before hearing the sickening thud of Jude’s body hitting the ground.

My labored breathing fills the air as Remus rolls me over to face him. He’s watching me with a smile that makes me shudder. I don’t have the energy even to flinch as he pushes my hair out of my face, his knuckles brushing against my cheek lightly.

“I applaud your tenacity as always. Enjoy this pain. Enjoy this despair. Enjoy the feeling of loss. It is the last thing you will feel for a very long time.” He laughs to himself as he stands. “You will finally understand the suffering your friend endured.”

Remus doesn’t spare me a backward glance as he walks away, leaving me bloodied and broken in the middle of the floor. Tears spill into my hair and onto the marble as his words sink in. He’s going to put a full inhibitor on me. I recall his words to me when he explained the difference between Margot’s full inhibitor and the one he placed on me temporarily.

“Your friend feels nothing. Her mind has been locked away. You cannot control a body if there is a will to live or fight. The mind is a muscle. The more you exercise it, the stronger it becomes. And eventually, the wearer would break out of their... vegetative state.”

Jude was wrong. There is no hope.

Remus

Jealousy.

It’s an ugly thing—something that I’ve never been fond of or even understood until Iris. I go over it constantly in my head, wondering what could have been the driving force behind her betrayal. I have no logical conclusion. Logically, she should have been too fearful to betray me. I had not only made it clear mentally but physically that she was mine. That should have been enough for her never to dare to do something so bold. But when it comes to logic, Iris is always the exception.

“So you’re saying they somehow created an entire, thriving society within the confines of a mountain?” I say, looking at the map laid out before me. I look over the room at my generals, irritation boiling in my veins.

How could we have let this happen?

“And why is it that we can’t find this location?” I growl. I look at Zaya, but she keeps her head down. She’s been avoiding me ever since the incident between our pets.

Alistar finally speaks up.

“Apparently, they used our technology to not only cloak themselves when creating it but to continue keeping readings of the confined space similar to the mountains surrounding it,” he says softly.

I feel blinding rage at his words. I want to kill someone. Humanity may be a nuisance, but they are smart. By using our own technology, they have managed to keep themselves safe. To search the mountains would take much too long. Earth has over a million of them, and per our society’s makeup, we only have a limitednumber of cities on this planet. We aren’t spread enough. We are in a bind.

“Is there any news from Ezra yet?” I ask. The general who was stationed near Ezra drops his head before speaking.

“No,” he says.

Fuck.

Ezra stopped checking in months ago. And none of us know why. His reports stopped coming, as did the signal of his location. We even checked his last known location, which is nowhere near the mountains. The longer he is missing, the harder it is not to wipe this planet of its inhabitants. If what we’ve found is true about their weapons and they have figured out a way to harm Leviathan, he might be in trouble.

This is proving to be far more irritating than I had originally hoped.

“Have you heard from Xion lately?” Alistar asks.

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