The wound itself wasn’t as deep as he thought, but if he didn’t address it soon, he’d pass out from blood loss. Not to mention, he didn’t want to risk infection either. Silently, he turned and walked toward the oil lantern near the door to her bedroom. At the end of the hall were the stairs down to the emergency quarters. He could find a stitches kit inside, alongside alcohol and the other necessities, but he didn’t know where they kept the children.
Outside the windows, he could see the decimation of the city clearly. The fire wrapped the horizon like a warm blanket. Soon, the population would storm the towers. He needed to act hastily.
“Where are they?” he asked.
“In the other wing. You’ll need my fingerprint to get into the room. I can stitch you and take you to your children, but you must promise that you’ll spare my life,” she said.
Killian growled and forced her close by tugging on her nightgown. “I can’t promise you anything. Whatever happens to you is up to Rae,” he said.
“Then, I’ll just have to take my chances,” she said.
He let her go, accidentally scraping his hip against the oil lamp on her desk. The glass shattered, spreading fire around the room. Full-blown panic took over, and he knew they’d have to leave fast.
“Argh, come on!” he shouted. Despite his best intentions, he stumbled out of the room with Ruby, leaning against her shoulder for help.
Chapter Fifteen
The subway car came to a slow stop, and Lucas couldn’t quit eyeing the large towers in the distance. With the cities evacuated, the whole region had been put into a state of emergency. They were hanging on the brink of chaos, and for once, things felt… normal.
“You feel it too?” Vash asked.
Lucas turned away from the window, feeling his throat tighten. Those who followed their lead shot aimlessly from the broken car windows. He understood the next few hours might be the hardest. Rae was still missing, as was Killian. There was no guarantee they could get them back.
“I just want to put things back together again,” he said.
“You and me both, brother,” Vash said.
When the doors opened, Vash stood and addressed the men. “It’s about a mile from here. Let’s move, but be prepared to fight.”
One of the escapees loaded a shotgun, but his eyes remained fixed on Lucas. There was an eerie silence around the area, and things definitely felt like the calm before a storm. “Where is the Republic’s military? They should be sending mortars in our direction.”
Lucas bit his cheek and stepped out onto the platform. The man was right, but he didn’t have the answer. Either Killian subdued the generals, or… well, he didn’t want to think about the alternatives.
Instead, Lucas stood tall, as a leader should. He felt the icy fear pump from his heart, but it did not stop him from grinning. “I’m sure we’ll meet the defensive front soon enough.”
But they didn’t. As they ran through the landscape, the wind howled, and some explosions could be heard in the distance, but there were no soldiers waiting to dismantle their cause. A chilly mist spread over the long stretch of land. The nearer they got to the towers, the more shocking the destruction appeared. The tower to the right was falling apart. The flames whipped violently against the air, sucking in all of the oxygen it could get to spread down.
The siege was right out of Cassian’s old playbook. War—endless war. That was the alphas natural state, and every time someone vowed to change things, the world only got worse. It was part of an alpha’s nature to think one was smarter than the past, but history had shown them the truth of it all. As they stormed the gates and ran up the beautifully carved steps of the towers, Lucas knew they might make the same mistakes if they didn’t find Rae, their voice of reason.
But this battle was different. They weren’t fighting to keep the old systems in place. Nor were they fighting for a new way of life. They were fighting for her. Beyond that, they were fighting for her love.
Rae suffered unjustly for them, and though it seemed as if they had lost, the world was now waiting for her to rise up and save them. Eternal war would break most women, but she never gave up. Wherever she was, Lucas knew she’d come back like the morning star. And once she did, he’d stand by her side forever.
The acrid smell of stale gunpowder swathed his nasal cavities. He reached the door and saw the dead guards. As he entered the tall building, they stepped down in pools of blood. Despite the gore and carnage, the place seemed nearly empty. “Where the fuck is the military?”
Before Vash could respond, they were met with heavy gunfire. They shot back, and their targets dropped like flies. Vash ran forward and checked the guards for some extra magazines and weapons. Finding a pulse wave grenade, he tossed it back to Lucas who tossed it against his palms before catching it.
“There they are!” Vash called out.
Lucas ducked behind a broken pillar. “Son of a bitch,” he muttered before pulling the pin out with his teeth. “Heads up!”
He threw the grenade forward and dove back, carrying Vash in the process. The whole floor reverberated before a wave of light flashed before his eyes. The structure that held the first floor in place crumbled, and broken pieces of cement and marble shot above their heads. Whatever guards were shooting at them were now wasted.
“Holy shit,” he said.
Vash lifted his head, shaking out the dust from the locks of his hair. “Was that it?”
Lucas stood and smiled, coolly biting against the metal toothpick. The ex-convicts roared with victory, pushing him forward with more artillery support. He was never a real leader, but he finally felt as if he’d won something. The best part about it was that he wasn’t doing this for himself anymore. He was doing it for her.
But a war worth fighting couldn’t be won simply by storming the buildings of their leaders. Somewhere, there was an army, and he had a feeling Severin was smart enough to put things in place. For now, they would run with a new energy, but he wondered if time might turn things over.
The fire in the east tower burned on. It should have registered in his mind as tragic. Instead, it appeared as a triumphant symbol of freedom and liberty. “Looks like the building is empty. I can’t make sense of this, Vash. I really can’t. Fucking tanks should have been on us by now... helicopters—anything! Instead, we were met by some weak armed guards,” Lucas said.
“Just don’t be surprised when the ambush drops on our head,” Vash said.
Lucas sighed and grabbed Vash’s shoulder, squeezing tenderly. He gazed into his pack-brother’s eyes and felt a deep and burning sensation within his chest. “Look, Vash... I...”
“Don’t get all mushy with me. I get it,” he said, rolling his eyes.
“It’s just that... we’ve been through a lot, and—”
Vash pulled away, groaning. “Oh, man. Just because she changed us, doesn’t mean that you can’t pretend to be an asshole every now and then.”
“I love you, man,” Lucas said, grinning. “I love you so fucking much!”
“Yeah, well...” Vash’s voice trailed away, but Lucas sure as hell wasn’t letting him off the hook that easy. “Yeah, I guess that I love you, too. Why the hell not, right?”
Lucas chuckled. “Damn right, you do.”
Standing, Vash shrugged his shoulder away and marched forward. Even if he wouldn’t admit it without force, Lucas knew the truth. The three of them were pack-brothers for life. It didn’t matter that they weren’t of the same blood. They were of the same spirit, and they had scoured the world together. It was time to settle down. The only question left to ask was when the world would let them. Or, if...
The crowd of convicts followed them up the set of stairs, pillaging every room in sight. “We need to find Killian before these guys tear the place apart. We still don’t know where the nursery is, and I want to make sure our children are safe” Lucas said before the darkened twist of endless stairs and doors.
“We’re just going to have t
o find it,” he said. If there was one thing he’d learned through all of this, it was that nothing was impossible.
Howling, Killian tilted his head back in excruciating pain. “God, dammit, woman. Can’t you speed this thing up?”
Ruby swiveled the needle and thread through the thick, opened flesh. It was deeper than he’d thought, but he had been through worse. Once, a bullet got lodged in the side of his skull. When that happened, he thought he might die from pure shock alone.
“We’re almost finished, but you’re acting like a real baby,” she said. “Just keep breathing. It’s almost over.”
“This ain’t my first rodeo,” he said. “I’ll be fine once it’s over.”
Killian let out an exhausted laugh and tried not to watch her too closely. He knew if he did, he might accept her as someone decent when she was clearly anything but that. Still, as she finished dressing the wound, the conversation took a different tone.
“Hey,” she said, “I know what I am... what I’ve done...”
Killian’s smile fell. “Spare it. I don’t need to hear about it, okay? Every time I think of what happened to my children, I want to vomit. You tortured our woman, the only woman I’ve ever loved.”
“And you don’t think I’ve been through anything either? I’ve spent my whole life fighting to get back a family I never once had,” she said.
“You’ve spent your life as a soldier. I’ll give you that much respect. These days, the code means less and less. In the end, we’re all searching for a way out.”
“You’re no saint. You ravaged my sister as any alpha would,” she said.
“We integrated her, gave her a place to nest before the birthing process. We promised to keep her out of harm’s way. It’s in our nature. It’s different,” he said.
Ruby wiped away the last bit of blood and handed him a fresh shirt from the linen closet. The ravaging sounds of beasts outside the towers echoed loudly through the window. “Maybe so, but everything has changed now. Maybe you can’t forgive me, but there’s more to this than you know.”
Killian sat up and tried to relax, despite the gut-wrenching pain. “Such as?”
“You were the one who shut down the power grid, right? That was some good thinking on your part. Now, our military won’t be able to piece together what has happened, but it doesn’t mean Severin didn’t account for what might happen next,” she said. “I’m asking you to trust me on this, Killian. After this is over, you won’t ever see me again. I’ll be gone. You can lead the world further into oblivion. Power isn’t worth the pain it brings.”
“The symbols of the past must be eradicated, but it is not my job to lead the future world. After this, you’ll have to face what you’ve started,” he said.
“We should go. They’ll be coming for us soon,” she replied.
Killian swiveled out of the hospital bed and wiped the sweat that had built across his forehead away. He was thankful for her help, but he still didn’t trust her. “Go ahead,” he said, in good faith. “I’m following your lead, Prime Minster.”
She stopped near the doorway, lips twitching with disgust. “Do me a favor. Never call me that again,” she said.
Back at the Cathedral, Noah rolled the carpet until the wooden floorboard underneath was clearly visible. Dropping the rug, he wiped his hands clean and knelt, pointing at a small locket that held wood shut. He unlocked it.
“It appears that you already know about the tunnels Severin built underneath the cities. Virgil took the liberty of studying their architecture. Night after night, he visited the dark, underground pathways. He drew up his own maps until he had every route memorized by heart.”
“He did this all for me?” Rae asked.
“For the sake of humanity,” he answered. “It has been so long since our first fall. You saw the second. People may tell you that there’s no such thing as a utopia, but it was right in front of our eyes the whole time. A beautiful, blue and green world, full of wonderful and engaging ideas. Mankind lived in peace for centuries…”
The clone knelt beside the entrance below. “Man told their stories to tell the tale of love. But a devil was born. Everything changed.”
She sounded stupid. Stories meant nothing to her, and she was skeptical of any talk of utopia. It was a surefire way to reward oneself with delusion, but she supposed it was a better alternative to the current.
“But… why?” Rae asked, curious enough to listen.
“Mankind wasn’t built to destroy. We were built to come together and love, to build families. I believe in my heart that we were built to coexist with nature. We have spent far too much time hurting one another.”
Rae glanced down at the door below them. Noah unlocked and opened it, revealing the dark shafts below. Rae wanted nothing more than to stay above ground, but people were counting on her now.
Rae suddenly remembered that Virgil agreed to sew up her prized blackbird trophy. There was a reason why she related to the beautiful animal. In a sense, all of his efforts had been gearing up for her escape, the point in time she could stitch herself back up and forget the past. No, she wasn’t only an omega. She was the special one, the girl who would save the world.
Holy shit, that was a lot to take on...
“The world is in danger, Rae,” Noah said. “You were only a distraction. Severin used your likeness to make sure he’d be able to keep power. The more your portrait was shown, the longer he’d keep you enslaved.”
“But it backfired,” the clone added. “You escaped. As far as we know, Ruby is still alive. And above all else, your alphas are the ones with the detonators this time.”
Rae swallowed, throat tightening. Her chest hurt as the realization sank in. “And so now, Severin only has one option left...”
Both Noah and the clone nodded. “To end the world.”
“Take me where I need to go,” she said.
“You already know where to go. It is where Severin drowned you,” he said.
Rae didn’t waste time speculating on what could be. She jumped into the floor space below, hoping to God that this might be her last time taking them. Backtracking through the tunnels, they followed close behind her. She found the wet footprints she’d left behind. They were near where she had to go, but her stomach shifted with worry. Truthfully, she couldn’t get her mind off of her children, and she wondered if this was all for nothing.
“I see it in your eyes,” Noah said. “You’re worried, but you don’t need to be. We’re almost there. You saw it, I’m sure.”
They traveled far down into the cavernous depths, dropping deeper than she thought she had ever traveled before. Rae’s eyes lit up as they turned the corner. She ran toward the metallic structure, the one Severin kept her in for the entire world to see. She remembered all the alphas laughing carelessly at her pain and torment. When Severin raised the water to drown her, he’d stared deeply into her eyes as if to say, “This world of pain is your fault. I am only doing what the people ask me to do.”
If he had said those words, he would have been right—the people wanted vengeance. No matter what, every society finds their way to get it. No, she didn’t believe in Noah’s utopia. Nor did she truly believe that humans ever lived in peace and harmony. Even before evolution turned the lot of them into twisted beasts, there was no getting along between tribes. The green patch of forest that she found so peaceful was also full of death and degradation. Hunters hunted their prey, and that was that.
Glancing upward, she gulped. Though they were underground, the structure rose at least fifty feet high. “This thing,” she panted. “It’s the bomb of all bombs, isn’t it?”
Noah and the clone nodded. “The strongest bomb known to mankind. If Cassian’s great work was you, this is Severin’s great addition.”
“Then, I must destroy it,” she said.
“No! Now is not the time,” Noah shouted, grabbing her wrist to stop her.
But she forced her arm away from his in defiance. “You must
let me forge my own path,” she growled.
She was nervous, but she knew what needed to be done. Without allowing them to stop her, she searched the structure until she found a way to climb. Pouncing upward, she grabbed a metal opening and pulled herself up. She was a faster climber than she thought, and within seconds, she was already higher than they could reach below.
Making her way to the top, she glanced down and instantly felt the pressure of gravity wobble her back. “Come on, Rae,” she groaned. “You can do this.”
But as she reached to pull herself onto the next ledge, she looked behind her. Both Noah and the woman were like two ants. Her perception of time distorted. Everything seemed to slow and sway, waving this way and that. Her heel slipped, but her grip tightened. Heart beating frantically, she kept her eyes focused on the small platform at the top so as not to slip again. She would not surrender anymore. She was so tired of doing that. She would continue on for the good of the world.
For the good of mankind… so be it.
The adrenaline coursing through her veins went unchecked. With every step she took, she could see the shadow of something looming on the platform. With the last of her energy, she took the final step. She pulled herself upward, standing safely. But what she found wasn’t what she expected.
“My God...”
Losing balance, she fell backward, falling down into the far-reaching abyss.
Killian took another glance out of the window and growled with anger. Clutching his side in pain, he stumbled through the gold doorway to the nursery. Inside, he eyed the bird-patterned wallpaper solemnly. He placed his hands over one of the wings and sighed, shedding many tears.
“So many memories,” he said. “Torn away from us.”
Then, glancing down at the large crib, his lips quivered with the utmost sadness. Instead of his kin, a taxidermy blackbird had been placed in the center. It was eerie as hell, and he didn’t dare touch it.
Neither did he turn to look at Ruby to see her expression. He didn’t want to see her, couldn’t help but hate her for what she did. The crib was empty. Not a soul was inside the nursery. This was another cruel joke. He took the pillow into his hands, pressing the soft cotton against his nose. The smell gave him the level of nostalgia fit to ruin him.
Born Claimed: A Dark Omegaverse Romance (Broken Angel Book 2) Page 17