“I am just a guide,” Ruby says. “And my sister isn’t dead. That’s the only reason I’m still here.”
There has always been a rivalry between the three alphas. It is only now that Vash really feels it.
“She might look like Rae, but she’s corrupted by power,” Lucas warns. “You can’t trust her.”
Vash sighs. This is taking far too long for his liking. “Rae told us to trust Ruby. Remember? She is no longer with the New Republic. Therefore, she has no one else to depend on besides us,” he says, glancing forward at a distant storm cloud.
Ruby raises her chin as rain falls. “I don’t expect forgiveness or trust,” she says. “But I’m all you got.”
“Decide, brothers. The weather is changing quickly. If we don’t leave now, we will catch the chop,” Vash says.
Behind them, a lighthouse stands as a beacon of warning. As Vash waits for an answer, its light spins, casting a red shadow across his face.
Lucas drops his eyes. “Goodbye, brother,” he whispers.
And just like that, it’s over. Their blood oath. The bond they made with Rae. All for nothing.
Killian turns as Lucas silently wades through the sand, toward that watchful lighthouse. Where he will end up, Vash cannot know or comprehend. He tries his damn hardest to occupy his mind from the betrayal.
He left the kids. How could he leave the fucking kids?
Reluctantly, Killian follows Vash in complete silence.
Aggravated, Vash faces Ruby, body weathered from years of fighting. “Is he right? Are you not trustworthy?”
She responds to his tragedy with humility. “I will not betray you like Lucas did. The children are asleep in the cabin below. I have made them a bed near the window.”
“They’re safe?” he asks.
She nods. “They’re sleeping like little logs.”
“How long will it take to get to Carabaro?” he asks.
Carabaro was where his father died during the war. He doesn’t know what he’s expecting to find there. Answers at a meaningless grave? No, he’s only going because Ruby suggested it. In fact, he has been following her lead since the moment that bomb went off.
Lucas isn’t right. She will help us.
“Twelve hours, give or take,” she says. “But we have to leave now. Those storm clouds don’t seem too friendly.”
“Ready for takeoff,” Vash says.
Killian grabs his shoulder. His grip is light but secure. “We’re just going to leave Lucas to fend for himself? Is that our protocol now?”
Solemn, heartbroken, and betrayed, Vash is cold. “We leave now,” he repeats. “Lucas found his grand exit. He will do fine on his own.”
Killian stares, eyes wavering with concern.
As Ruby gets the engine going, Vash enters the cabin below. Preferring to stay shrouded in darkness, he quietly shuts the door behind him.
This is the moment he has been waiting for all night.
In darkness, he walks toward the center of the room where a large bed rests. His children open their eyes.
For a second, they just stare at their father. The New Republic separated them for so long. Years. They’re so big. So… aware.
As they watch their father, he realizes they’re staring at a stranger.
Alphas don’t cry, but as he looks at their angelic eyes, tears drag down his rugged face. If only he knew a lullaby to sing, or how to rock a baby properly.
No, he was not cut out to be a father. He was an alpha warrior, a taker of lives, and a reaper for the Ouroboros.
Was.
Is he a tyrant? Has he led the pack astray?
“I’m sorry,” he says. “Daddy’s back.”
Closing his eyes, he thinks about the first moment he found Rae. He kneels and clears his throat. “You want to hear a story?” he asks.
The children blink. One stirs and reaches to smack and squeeze his face.
“Look, I know I’m not the best storyteller, but we’ve got a long way ’til we hit Carabaro. So, if you don’t mind, I’d like to tell you a story about your momma,” he says.
The child lowers his hands.
Even if it’s over, Vash can never forget the only love story he ever lived. He holds onto it like a thorn to a rose.
“Once upon a time, there were three alphas...”
The waves gently lead the boat away from the harbor. Outside, the smoke of new beginnings rises high into the air.
The world is broken. But for the first time in months, it doesn’t feel so empty.
Rae
There are bad days. There are days that make your heart rust over. And then there’s the aftermath.
The fallout.
When Rae is awake, she’s lying on her back, arms loosely positioned over her head. Pieces of glass cut into her skin. She’s weak, but at least she’s not dead.
Immediately, life returns to her.
She jerks forward and coughs out a lungful of liquid.
The pain doesn’t bother her. She’s been through it all before. What concerns her is the devilish beast in front of her.
He stoops down and grabs her ankles, dragging her away from the wet ground.
Without turning his head, he chuckles. “I’ve been waiting and waiting for you,” he says.
She expected death. What she got was another chance at life. However, second chances always come with a price tag.
The beast’s voice is ghastly and horrible. As he walks, he hunches forward. His ribs protrude against thin flesh. Yet, there is a strength within him, a darkness she will no doubt have to overcome.
Is he alpha? No. He lacks the markings and strong physicality.
Rae squints her eyes to see through the darkness. Candles create an eerie ambiance over red rock. The atmosphere is damp and cold.
Rae can only come to one conclusion: she has died and ended up in some hell. Somewhere worse than before.
Though she scrambles to break free, his grip is secure. He continues to drag her through clay-baked halls with strange, hand-painted symbols on the walls. It’s blood.
They reach a small cave with no exit, a place that mimics a small sanctuary. A golden ouroboros statue stands in the center of the room. “This is our sleeping quarters until I can fix the synthesis tank,” he says.
“The what?”
“Don’t you worry. Next time, it will not fail,” he says.
Without memory, Rae desperately tries to understand his words. “I...”
It pains her mind to think.
The beast falls to his brittle knees. Staring in silence, his pupils seem to grow wider and wider, until her breathing snaps him out of his trance.
Rae chokes up with fear. “The blood on the walls...”
“My blood,” he says. “The reason for my appearance. I give my blood as a token of my sacrifice to Him.”
“Who… are… you?”
The fragile devil smiles. His weathered lips part to reveal his razor sharp teeth. “I have been waiting my whole life for this moment,” he whispers, eyes fluttering as if the entire world just became his.
Rae falls back against the stone walkway. She can feel the dirt cake over her wounds. “I must be dead,” she says.
“Not dead,” he says.
Rising back to his feet, the beast circles around the golden statue. “Our lifeline… it must remain… forever...”
Confused, Rae places her palms over her face. “What are you trying to tell me?”
Through her fingers, she watches as his expression drops. The evil in his eye flickers.
“He chose me to be your keeper. And I need you to bring us salvation.”
Lucas
When Lucas left the ouroboros vessel, he half-expected himself to give in to Vash’s leadership. But the more he walks across the shore, the more he can feel her. It’s like she is there with him.
Sometimes, it’s the way the tide rolls in. Other times, it’s a smell in the air. Doesn’t matter where he is–she’s always there.
“She’s not dead,” he whispers.
He saw it himself. That thing she stepped into, the one with the coils… It wasn’t a death trap. It was a machine designed for a reason.
She can only be in one place.
Someone else’s voice breaks his thoughts. “It brought her somewhere.”
Before Lucas can look up, he has his revolver cocked, aimed, and ready to blow a hole through whatever intruder is on his tail.
An alpha with a sharp grin stands on a tall boulder away from the water. He puts his hands above his head and steps forward. “May I intrude on this precious moment?”
It’s been a while, but he knows that face. “Aden. So, you lived through the detonation. What are you doing here? Going for a swim?”
He takes a few more steps forward. “Saw you cross through Dagon. You should be careful. The city’s crawling with alphas.”
“What do I care?” Lucas sneers.
“Lots of people looking for you,” he says. “Lots looking for that omega, too.”
Lucas shifts forward and hardens his stance. “I asked you once. Not going to ask you again. Why are you following me?”
“I’m a trader,” he says. “After the collapse, everything went to shit. I need work.”
“Work...”
Aden’s smile wavers, and he soon looks pathetic. Turning, he nods toward a well-maintained vehicle. “I’ve got a rover, all terrain. Newly serviced. If you want to get to the Iron Eye, you need a vehicle. I’m your ticket there,” he says, throwing his hand forward to block my next reply. “I know, I know. We aren’t allies.”
Lucas grins. “We blew your fucking leg off, remember?”
Aden’s eyes grow intense. He rolls up his pant leg, revealing a bionic leg. “I can take you there. To the Iron Eye. Hell, we can go anywhere you want.”
Too good to be true. Aden was loyal to himself only. He’s a total scum-bucket. Definitely not trustworthy.
“What’s in it for you?” Lucas asks.
He lowers his head, sighing. Reaching into his pocket, he fumbles around and finds a holograph chip. He grips the round edge of the chip and flips it into the air.
Round and round, it spins until it hits the ground.
A beam of light expands from the center, projecting an image of a large temple.
“The Temple of Sarrian,” he says.
“What’s there?” Lucas asks.
“Unimaginable treasure,” he whispers, eyes glowing. “Nature’s true essence. A room made of solid gold. I can make us filthy rich.”
Lucas frowns and bites the edge of his tongue. Tall tales were never his bag.
“No, thanks,” he says. “I’m not doing this for the money.”
Aden bends forward, grabbing Lucas by the wrist. Lucas shoves off him, but Aden gets the last word in. “The trek through the Iron Eye is impossible. None have survived besides those that dwell beneath it. If you want a chance at getting through alive, you will need me to assist. Once we’re in, we’ll find the temple.”
“I’d rather die than join up with another Ouroboros. You’re all traitorous scum,” Lucas hisses.
“She’s alive, Lucas,” Aden says. “Alive. You believe that, right? That’s why you left them.”
“I... don’t know,” Lucas admits, nearing the edge of exploding.
“Then what’s there to be afraid of?” Aden asks. “Take a leap of faith.”
“There was a group. Separatists who believed in the apocalypse,” Lucas says.
“Extinction,” Aden says.
“I wonder about what they told her,” Lucas admits.
“That she is responsible for it all?” Aden asks.
Blood pumping, Lucas breaks. He pushes Aden against a rock, establishing his dominance. “What kind of question is that?”
“It’s just a question,” he groans and pushes himself away. “How far will you go for one omega? Is she worth a thousand moons, and all the stars the cosmos has to offer?”
Lucas clenches his stomach. He’d give anything to have her back. “She’s not responsible for this. We are. The alphas. We fucked this world up.”
“At my worst, I can ensure your safety through the Iron Eye,” Aden says. “At my best, I can help you find her. You can have your moment.”
Lucas takes a deep breath and looks at the path ahead. He’d never be able to handle it alone. A rover is the best option. He just doesn’t want to admit it.
Aden’s face appears all too comfortable. Lucas is cornered, and he knows it.
Aden puts out his hand and waits to confirm their loyalty.
Not exactly a binding contract, but it will do.
“Fine. You can take me to the Iron Eye. I want no part in finding the temple. We get past the Eye first,” Lucas says. “Then we find her. After that, we part ways.”
“Fine by me,” Aden says, taking his hand firmly.
They shake on the deed, but Aden looks far too satisfied with the arrangement. Killian and Vash were never easy negotiators. Neither was Aden. They always settled deals on disagreements.
But those days are over now. With the last detonation, a world of possibility has opened up for everyone. Everyone wants a new piece of the pie. Some will want the whole thing.
He just wants her back. The whole thing.
If Rae truly is alive, this is the only way he will get her back home.
So he takes the bargain and steps into the rover.
Rae
He prays. Every day at the same time.
He falls into deep, eye-opening trances. With an unusual silence, he stares at the gold ouroboros statue. And when he’s finished, he drains enough blood to sink him to the floor.
He paints the walls with his blood, revelatory images. “They paint a picture of what’s coming,” he says.
Since her birth, there have been three detonations. She brought the first. She brought the second and fell the reconstruction of a new world.
And she’ll be the third, too. Her.
She’s the secret weapon. That’s what he tells her.
It’s too dark to see that much, but she hears the fragile devil in the night, howling. Shivering from fever.
She can hear him screaming in his sleep.
Tears run down the fragile devil’s eyes. The streams never stop running, and his expression is that of a man who has just encountered God. “It’s like nothing you could ever imagine,” he says with direct honesty.
She hears this kind of thing every day from the fragile devil, but it always frightens her.
Her memory comes and goes. Sometimes, she can see her alphas. Other times, she can’t recognize her own voice. Without understanding, she is defenseless against a keeper who has lost touch with all reality.
Rae backs against the smooth clay wall, heart thumping against all sides of her ribcage. She calms and asks what she always asks. “Who are you? Why do you live like this?”
She doesn’t expect an answer. Her keeper is unlike anyone she has ever encountered. He does not hurt her like the others. He barely even looks at her, but the threat always lingers.
Today is different. Today, he is more… outspoken.
He wipes the tears away from his face. “After the first detonation, the fallout buried our entire village. A sinkhole formed in the earth and swallowed us whole. Even with no escape, we couldn’t pass on survival. Over time, we constructed a city underneath the earth,” he says. “A place where we could overcome disaster.”
A place to wither away.
Exasperated and growing desperate, Rae clenches her fists and nudges forward. “Let the planet sort its shit out, right? Leave the ones above to suffer? Is that your grand plan?” Rae asks.
He slithers his tongue against blistered lips. His gaunt expression is almost too much for Rae to keep staring at, but she waits for his response intently. She needs to hear his response.
“Something was given to us. A gift from outside,” he says.
Rae crawls toward his elongate
d feet. “What were you gifted?”
Slowly, he kneels back down. He threads a key into the lock of her shackles. “I’ll show you.”
Together, they walk through a dark path. Minutes pass as they make turn after turn.
“I’ve made my own tunnels, here, above the city,” he says, grinning dumbly.
He has this place memorized. If she ran, he’d have her cornered in seconds. Still, she notes every step taken.
Finally, a sliver of light shines around the corner. Brighter and brighter, it glows. “Where are we?” Rae asks.
“We’re almost there,” he says.
They walk and turn a corner.
Rae freezes.
“Only I know of this place,” he whispers.
Kept in a round glass tank is a baby, submerged in the same liquid as she was. A bright artificial light shines above it.
“He instructed me to keep it safe,” he says.
Her heart suddenly feels empty. She falls to the earth and clutches her head in misery.
She stutters, “What… what… what is that...”
The devilish monster stands over her. “It’s you.”
“I… don’t understand,” Rae chokes.
“Kept in stasis. Fully alive,” he hisses. “There is an electromagnetic network that runs across this planet. The energy is stored here, underground, right within the planet’s core. It lives off this energy. Soon, it will live off yours.”
“Stasis…? Can someone tell me the fuck is going on?!”
That child can’t be me...
Balancing carefully on the rocks below, she walks toward the glass tank. Inside, the child floats, peacefully sucking her thumb.
Rae analyzes the nose. The small arch that leads to round nostrils. She focuses on the eyelashes. Her tiny toes. The shape of her lips. She places her ear against the glass and listens to her heartbeat.
It’s her. It’s Rae.
The fragile devil places his palms around the sphere and lifts it into his chest. “The child was delivered to us from above. From a soldier. She arrived dead and encased in this… tank. He told me about an energy source. He told me about you. Everything about you. He said you’d come here, that you’d be the one to make it end.”
Broken Angel: The Complete Collection: A Dark Omegaverse Romance Page 36
