Page 42 of You Only Love Twice
Something happened within him that night.
When he slipped out of Malloryn's safe house after her body took its last breath, he'd felt the ground spiraling beneath him.
First Omega turned on Ghost, and died.
Then Zero was "terminated".
Who was left of their fractured family when Ghost was the one who'd engineered both their deaths?
X? Raving mad and locked in his cell below, with his muzzle permanently strapped in place?
Silas? The one true brother Obsidian still called by that name?
Dido, who'd gone off to Russia with Lord Balfour, her loyalties shifting from her brethren to the spymaster?
And why the hell did his head pound so much when he caught a hint of Gemma's scent?
"You terminated Miss Annabelle?" Richter asked.
"Zero betrayed us," Ghost said coldly, as the doctor cleaned his spectacles, looking a little distressed. He'd been the one who'd warned Zero's conditioning was failing. "She would have ruined us, and eventually Malloryn would have broken her down and gotten the information he wanted from her. She needed to be eliminated before she became a larger problem."
"All she wanted was revenge," Obsidian whispered. His fingers flexed. It was all any of them had ever wanted. In the beginning.
Revenge against Caine, Casavian, and Vickers—the three dukes who'd sponsored the Falkirk project and condemned him to his fate.
"We are getting revenge," Ghost said.
"Against who?" Obsidian looked up. "Malloryn? What did the Duke of Malloryn ever do tous?"
Dangerous, dangerous words. Lord Balfour had taken them from the streets following the burning of Falkirk. He'd given them everything, as Ghost often preached.
But I can't seem to remember what, precisely, he gave us.
Or why we play his little games for him?
"Careful. You're speaking treason now," Ghost whispered.
Gemma. Think of Gemma.
"Forgive me." Obsidian let his head and shoulders slump. His head was aching again. "I forget so much, sometimes I merely wonder...."
"You see?" Ghost said, to the doctor. "There's clearly a problem with either the neural implant or his conditioning."
"I warned you that you can't keep doing this to them," Dr. Richter cast aside his cleaning cloth with a flurry that betrayed his feelings regarding Zero's death. "What if there's some form of scarring building up? Who knows what is happening inside his brain? You saw what repeated bouts of reconditioning did to Annabelle."
Guilt trembled in the doctor's voice.
"And you made your choice ten years ago," Ghost said, stepping closer to the man and towering over him. "Don't grow squeamish now. I think a reconditioning session necessary."
Dr. Richter's lips grew pinched. "It's only been a month since Obsidian first caught sight of Miss Townsend and you insisted upon a session. I urge caution—"
"We cannot afford to have a fraction within our cause at this moment."
"And you cannot afford to melt his brains out of his ears," the doctor countered sharply. "Dhampirheal from almost anything, including the cerebral cortex resectioning. Eventually. But his last reconditioning put him down for nearly three days before he could be used again. He needs time to recover between bouts. I won't do it."
"Won'tdo it?" Ghost lashed out, capturing the good doctor by the throat.
Richter kicked ineffectually as Ghost hauled him into the air, his notebook and spring pen clattering to the floor as his hand lashed out.
