Page 8 of Celestial Alphas (Nexus #2)

Chapter

Seven

A nnie is alive and unharmed. Annie is sadly smiling at me, and I don’t know how anyone can smile in this hellhole. She looks as normal as the last time I saw her, except her clothes are messy and oversized, her strawberry-smelling perfume is faded, and now she smells like lemons. Her curly blonde hair is braided but far messier than I’ve ever seen it, and she looks tired. For a few moments, I struggle to process that her boyfriend, that happy, nice guy that I know, betrayed us all. I honestly didn’t think he had it in him. I rub my face as she watches me in the tiny room, where the beds nearly touch, and the only other thing is an old, rotten cabinet in the middle of them. The walls are painted-over wallpaper in a sickly green, and I’m not sure if there is more mould or cobwebs. “They haven’t hurt you, have they?”

“No, I mean, the house bombing did, and I have a few broken ribs and cuts on my back, but it’s nothing major.” She looks at her hands in her lap. “K—” She pauses, and I hear the pain in her voice. She doesn’t want to say his name, and I get it. “He tried to get me out, but we still got caught up in the explosion. When I woke up, they were coming for me, and I was scared. I thought it was the end, but he just stood up, and they stopped. I knew right then he wasn’t on my side. I felt his emotions switch in a heartbeat. I felt my Nexus break alongside my own heart. Everything snapped, and I didn’t know how to stop it. I tried to fight him, but he’s stronger than me. He’s clearly been training in secret, and I don’t know…he is a stranger to me.”

“Annie.” I reach for her hands and hold them as tears fall down her cheeks, dropping between us.

Sitting on the creaky old floor, she pours her heart out. “My mate betrayed me, risked my life, and is working with the enemy.”

There isn’t much I can do to make her feel better. There is nothing to soothe this betrayal, and she doesn’t know the half of it yet. I have to break her heart more, and I don’t want to. “I’m sorry.”

She wipes her cheeks and straightens her shoulders. “You’re here, and together we have this. You need to tell me what’s going on in Starlight and if any of those very well-trained mates of yours are coming after you. What’s my father doing? He must be sending people out to search for us. Is that how you got captured?”

“Annie,” I whisper, and she freezes at my tone. “Your father and mother, they’re gone.”

“What?” The single word sounds haunted. She sits back, her eyes welling up. “That—” She chokes and shakes her head. “No. They can’t be—they?—”

I don’t really know how to be gentle with anyone. I don’t really know much about telling the truth either, but this is Annie. This is the girl who accepted me with open arms and never once treated me with anything but love. “It was the Vian. They’d been working with Onyx’s father.” He set all of it up, and it was with Severi, I guess now. “It was all designed so that he could become the Supreme Alpha. He is now.”

She’s silent for a long time, and I just hold her hand as she cries and cries. “I know what it’s like to lose your parents,” I whisper, looking down. “I was heartbroken, and I thought I’d never get past what you’re feeling now. The raw grief that consumes you. But I know they’re always with us. My father used to say that we’re connected in far more than just blood. It’s our ties to the stars that make us Nexus, and we all will be together again. I used to repeat his words any time I was mourning them. It gave me some hope that one day, one far off day, we would just be stars again. I’ll get to see them again, and so will you. But I am so sorry because this moment sucks.” She bursts into tears, throwing herself at me, and I hug her back. She cries on my shoulder, and I have no idea how much time passes before she calms.

“I don’t have any more family left.” She wipes her nose. “I’m alone.”

“Hey, I’ve always wanted a sibling. Sister sounds good if you want it,” I offer. But my heart is racing. I don’t have any family either, but something about Annie has always felt like family to me.

She wipes her face and smiles sadly at me. “Sister. You’re family now and you can’t get rid of me. So, bestie, how are we getting out of here?” She straightens her shoulders. “I need you to be that badass, fearless friend I love, because we are knee deep in Vian shit, and I’m not letting them kill me.”

Badass? Maybe. Fearless? Fuck, no. I’m terrified nearly all of the time. “You might want to throw me to them when I tell you the truth.”

“What truth?” She crosses her arms. “Please don’t say you’re working with the Vian, Gwen. I can’t take that.”

I snort. “I’m definitely not working with them. I would kill them all if I got a chance, but while I’m in this house, my Nexus is under control. There is something here that makes Nexus powers dull, and I can’t use them unless Severi allows it. I’ve been here before. Maybe my Nexus wouldn’t help, anyway. She’s kind of been betraying me at the moment, and I really don’t know how to feel about that.”

“Your Nexus?” She leans forward. “I’ve been curious why you’ve hidden her away.”

I rub my arm. She has to hear this from me. “When I shifted for the first time, my Nexus…she’s different, dangerous, a monster. There’s no other way to really describe her than that. All she does is kill and destroy and take lives. Takes powers too. She’s so dangerous, and when we could no longer control her, my parents took me away because it was safer for me to not be around people, to train me privately, make sure no one ever knew who I was. I knew with five mates…it was five people who I would fall in love with, and five people who she might kill. I couldn’t risk them, and the spotlight would be on us all the time anyway because of such a big bonding. We’d never stay hidden. At the moment, I think they are still better without me. She’s obsessed, absolutely obsessed with all of them, and I don’t even know what mating would do. Would she get more powerful? Would she kill them anyway? Could their Nexus be tainted with what she is?” I shake my head. “I don’t have anyone to ask, and I don’t understand why I was cursed. Only that sometimes, when the shit hits the fan, she feels like she could murder an entire city. I can’t stay in Starlight or with them. I’m like a living bomb.”

She is speechless, her eyes wide as she watches me. I can’t stop blurting out so much. “It was me, well, my Nexus who killed those people in the city. She was clearly listening when Sara told us about her mate hurting her. She kind of was the one hunting in the city and killing those others. She likes blood and gore and, well, justice in a really fucked-up way. The Vian that just threw me in here? That’s Severi. He’s also my mate. I didn’t find that out until years later, though.” Her mouth opens and closes a few times. I figure I might as well just continue on. “In the house, when it blew up, I lost Harry.” I still haven’t processed that yet. Harry is gone. Harry, who smiled at everything and had a crush on me. Harry, who deserved a good life. Why did he die and yet I get to live?

She covers her mouth with her hand. “I’m so sorry. I know he was like a brother to you.”

“He was, and I couldn’t save him. I got so angry, and all the warnings, all the training my parents gave me, just went out of the window. I kind of started killing Vian. When they touch me, they can’t drain me, so it makes us even. I don’t know why, but it doesn’t work for me. My father trained me every day for years, and he was the best fighter I knew. I got my Nex dagger from a friend of my father’s, a priest, who was breaking all the rules, but he did it anyway. I was trained, I should’ve known better, and I still lost control. I just killed them in anger and gave away that I was trained. Trained very well.” I clear my throat. “Signing up to the academy was my way of getting away from my mates, but also, I wanted to learn how my father was taught. I felt like maybe there was some part of him in the academy. But instead, I found you and you made me feel like I could have friends. Family again.”

She blows out a long breath. “I knew you were holding back at the academy!” She grins and I stare in confusion. She isn’t scared of me. “I absolutely knew it. There was no way you weren’t trained!” Annie tucks her hair behind her ear. “Carry on…I think I need to hear everything that happened after the bombing.”

I nod. “I was fighting and Severi had his people drug me. I got taken to a warehouse.”

“The handsome Vian prince is your mate?” She pauses. “I really didn’t see that one coming. Can Nexus even have Vian mates? How is that possible?”

Handsome? My Nexus growls slightly at another woman calling him handsome, and if I could whack my Nexus, I would. This is Annie and that is Severi. Our enemy. I literally want to beat her out of my soul at this point. She’s psychotic, makes no fucking sense, and just kissed him. She can’t be trusted or make any rational decisions. “I don’t know. I killed a warehouse full of Vian, and then Finn found me. He saw my Nexus, what it does, and he didn’t run. I was surprised. I passed out, and they gave me up because Onyx’s father and some rangers were at the house. Finn said that they had no choice, and maybe he didn’t have a choice, but I feel like Onyx maybe did.

“They know now, and I don’t know what their opinion of me is. They might hate me, they probably do. Finn probably does now because I just knocked him out to make sure he wouldn’t get killed. I don’t know how to work with people. It was always me and my Nexus. I never really had a friend before you because I thought making friends was pointless. You’d find out and be scared of me. Or worse, my Nexus might lose control again, and then I’d hate myself for ending your life.” I laugh, but it’s hollow. “I’m a monster, an abomination that probably should have been killed at birth. But here I am, still living. Still killing.”

“Gwen!” she shouts to interrupt my spiral, and I blink. “I see you. The real you and you’re not a monster. You’re not a bad person, and I’m still here. Your mates are fucking fools if they walk away, and if they do, they never once deserved you. I may have the shittiest character-judging skills ever thanks to my mate, and you may have been born with a difficult path, but you’re a good person. I know that. You’re my best friend. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you.”

I stare at her in confusion. “Really?”

“Yes, really, Gwen.” She sighs. “I wish you’d told me sooner, but I get why you didn’t. I’m on your side.”

“Well, you wouldn’t drag a bear out of our room, so I’m not sure there isn’t a limit to our friendship,” I joke, needing to break the tension, and it works. She grins—even with sadness drowning the light in her eyes, she smiles. It’s enough to make me smile back, despite everything burning to shit around us. “We need to get out of here.”

“I know, but I can’t reach my Nexus, and I can’t get out. Believe me, I’ve tried. The room might look like it’s falling apart, but it’s magically spelled somehow,” she mutters.

I purse my lips. “Does Kosma come to see you?”

Her eyes flash with anger, and she nods. “Once a day. He brings me shitty food and even shittier speeches about the Vian not being all evil.”

“I learnt the last time I was here that we will need a big distraction, and Kosma might be it.” I climb up off the floor, and she stands with me. One of the beds is untouched, the sheets still crisp and smooth. I sit down and lie back, crossing my legs.

Annie paces by the door. “How long were you here before?”

“A long time. Months…” My throat feels like it’s going to close up at the thought of it alone. It wasn’t the worst time of my life, but it’s up there. “It was months of torture, if I’m being honest with you, and it ended with my parents dying.” I gulp. No more lies. “It ended with me killing my parents and being forced to do it. Severi, he’s a monster, and he flips like a switch. Sometimes he’s nice, but not often. Most of the time, he’s evil and psychotic. Recently, he’s been the nice version of himself. I doubt that will last long. It doesn’t matter. My parents are dead because of him, and I won’t ever forget it even if my Nexus has.”

“We will get out, Gwen. We have to,” she whispers. If we get out, I’m making sure she is safely back in Starlight City, and then I’m running for good.

I stare at the ceiling, mostly at the mould growing in the corner. “I hoped I’d never come back here. I promised myself that I never would, and I thought my Nexus was on the same side. But she walked here like it was what she wanted. She’s not listening to me. Not that she ever really was, but at least we were on the same page about some things like our shared dislike of torture. Now I’m just confused.”

“If it helps, my Nexus is confusing too. It still loves the bastard that betrayed us and our race.” She sighs. “I was losing hope… It’s good to see you, Gwen. I needed you.”

“I needed you too,” I admit. Sometimes you just need your friend, and more than anything, I need to have someone alive and good at the end of this. The door slowly opens, and I shoot to my feet at the same time Annie does. Severi strolls in with an air of smugness that is like a second skin, followed by a woman I don’t know. She’s at least about twenty-five, all long natural blonde hair and pouty features. She has stunning yellow eyes that remind me of a cat, and she’s formally dressed in black. She is holding a fabric dress in her arms, the material a sparkling midnight blue.

Severi stands straight by the door. “Get dressed, Gwenieve.”

“I’m not wearing that,” I snap.

“Put it on,” he warns with an icy bite to his voice that echoes from my past. The cold, empty, heartless version of Severi that I’m used to stares at me like I’m nothing. My Nexus whines and hides in my chest. Scared of him now. I don’t get it. One minute she wants him, and now she’s back to the scared thing. “Otherwise, it won’t be you I hurt.” He clicks his finger and points at Annie. His eyes drift to the woman when he knows he has won. “Get her dressed, Maia.”

Maia bows her head and shuts the door behind Severi.

“Give me one reason why I shouldn’t beat the fuck out of you and rip that dress up, Vian,” I challenge her.

She turns, holding her slender head high. “I’m as much a prisoner as you are. Do that, your friend is dead. You will wish you’re dead, too.” She confidently walks up to me. “I made this dress myself. It’s a talent of mine. I can weave fabric, make it tighter or bigger or whatever I want.”

Annie laughs. “Who the fuck did you steal that off? Who did you kill to get that power, or do you not remember their name?” There is a stale bitterness to her voice I’ve never heard from her before. I’m kinda proud.

“You Nexus folk are so tunnel-visioned that most of you judge long before you know anything. For the record, it’s not that simple.” Maia lifts her chin.

“It is simple. Nexus are born with powers, Vian are not, and the only way you get your powers is by death. The power that you’re talking so proudly about belonged to a Nexus, and you stole it along with their life,” I remind her, matching my bestie’s tone.

Maia cocks a perfect eyebrow. “We all know about you. You steal powers too and swim in enough blood to make your own river of it.” She snorts. “Judging me? You have some nerve, Gwenieve. There are stories sung to our children, warning them about you.”

I shiver and look away. Annie steps to my side. “The difference is, she doesn’t kill willingly or enjoy it.” Annie is defending me. She shouldn’t, Maia is right.

“Pretentious assholes,” Maia mutters. “You have no idea what it’s like for us. What it’s like on the other side of the war. You’re all brainwashed idiots.”

Cold fury echoes through my blood, and she holds a hand up in the middle of us. “Don’t hurt me. If you hurt me, Severi will torture her. We both know you’re no stranger to Severi’s skills, so let’s get on with it. Put the dress on, and then I can fit it around your body. It should be a close fit to size, anyway.”

I grit my teeth. “Turn around, then.”

She glares at me before spinning around. Annie sighs and goes back to sitting on the bed as I undress and pull the dress on. I can’t remember the last time I wore a dress…maybe when I was a kid. It’s been years and years, and I’m not a huge fan of anything that restricts my option of running as far and fast as I can. Or killing. It’s got long flowing sleeves that will get in the way of my attacks, the gown portion goes straight down to the floor for me to trip on, and it’s so sparkly that I’m going to be like a shining star in the forest when I get out. But…it’s pretty. I actually love it. I want a wardrobe full of dresses one day and a pink car to drive around in to pick up my coffee. It’s pretty loose everywhere, except for where it shows a lot of cleavage with a long slit down to at least my navel. Maia turns around. She holds her hand out, and the fabric tightens to my skin, fitting me everywhere perfectly like a glove. She hands me a brush. “Brush your mane of hair, and you’ll be ready to go.”

Annie nabs the brush out of my hand and stands behind me. She starts brushing my hair for me, something she often does because I’ve never been all that bothered about my hair. She whispers low the moment Maia goes to stand by the door. “Look for escape routes. Figure out something, okay? I bet your mates are coming for you. They seem like they may hate you, but they want you where they can hate you twenty-four seven.”

I hear the door click this time before it’s pushed open, and Severi is there. I can’t sense him like the others, not in this place at least. I’m curious how they can make magic like this take over. How they can make it almost feel like I’m human but still feel my Nexus all at the same time. For months here, it was horrible, yes, but also it was the first time I felt this quiet.

Severi has changed into jeans and a black jumper, the darkness of his clothes only further bringing out the brown colour of his eyes. They are so much darker now, and he looks at me with pure indifference. A coldness I’m used to. I think this side of Severi is easier to swallow, easier to hate even with this badly placed bond between us. “Now you look like someone worthy of being my mate. A princess of the Vian.”

Maia’s eyes shoot to me, and she doesn’t bother hiding the disgust in them. She rolls that look right over me. “With me, Gwenieve.”

He comes closer, wrapping his arm around my waist, and my body feels cold everywhere he touches me. Severi’s cold fingers press into my hip. He glances over my shoulder at Annie, who looks worried and terrified by the bed. I try to give her my most reassuring smile, even if I don’t feel an inch of it as we walk out of the room. Maia slams the door shut right behind us and then walks in the other direction without looking back once. I envy the fact she can just walk away. I glance at her right before she disappears into one of the many doors down here. “Who is she to you?”

“Maia is my half-sister,” Severi answers without a care. “Not a princess. Bastard born.”

Interesting. “Okay. Where are we going?”

“To put on a show worthy of presenting to the Vian Court of Knights,” he murmurs quietly. Court of Knights? They have a court? It reminds me of the story of Arthur and the Round Table my dad told me about once. A human story of kings, but the queen in the story was where my name came from. My mother wanted to call me something else, I can’t remember what, but my father was firm on my name. Gods above know he wasn’t firm with her about much else. “My father will walk you out and declare you as the Vian weapon to win the war against both the Nexus and the humans. An endless power source that will change the future.”

“I’d rather fucking die than do anything for you or your shit king!” I shout. Severi immediately punches me hard in the stomach, and all the air leaves my lungs, replaced with shattering pain. I scream, falling to my knees, and he laughs as he drags me up.

“Now, now, Gwenieve. I don’t want to damage you, but that mouth of yours needs to learn its place.” He drags me along as I wheeze through the pain, feeling the sharp sting on my left side where my ribs must be broken. “All those months, your parents’ deaths. None of it made you reveal your Nexus, but your other mates did.”

“Don’t talk about my parents.” I cough, straightening my back as anger makes me see red. I don’t give a crap if he doesn’t like the words that come out of my mouth. Who the fuck does he think taught me to tell the enemy to fuck themselves? It was some of my mother’s best advice. “They died trying to protect me from you, and you don’t deserve to mention their names.”

“That’s what you believe?” he questions, his eyes drilling into mine. “I’ve waited so long for you to appear, for this power to grace us one more time. They knew and didn’t give you up.”

Crazy fucker. “What are you talking about?”

“Nothing.” He blinks and carries on, dragging me up the stairs, where it is now deserted. I have to pull the dress up so I don’t trip over it. My hair flows around my waist, and Severi occasionally touches it with his hand. It makes me want to cut off the bits he touched. Three long flights of stairs. They leave me slightly breathless, thanks to his punch, before we come to a room that wasn’t here before. It’s new.

He opens the door, and inside, it’s almost like a human police interrogation room with a massive divide in the middle. I can see the entire floor from here. We stand right in front of a one-way mirror glass wall, used to look in on the other side. My stomach drops when I take in the other room. Vian are draining Nexus. There are at least twelve of them, all a mixture of men and women, all different ages, and the Nexus are screaming. The Vian are loving their pain. I rush to the glass, slamming my hands onto it as I helplessly watch. The second the door behind us closes, my Nexus rushes to the front of my mind, but she pauses. She doesn’t take over because she is scared.

I’m glad she doesn’t with the bat shit crazy plan Severi has for me. I won’t be used as a weapon to take over the world for him. I won’t be anyone’s weapon. I should have run away from the academy, screw the consequences. Starlight, the Nexus and human worlds…it’s all at risk because I chose to try to have something I never once deserved. Tears fill my eyes as I stare at the Nexus, recognizing none of them, but they are someone’s child, someone’s sibling. Someone’s someone. But soon they will be another dead body, another stain on my soul.

Severi leans over my shoulder. “Gwenieve, be good and use that pretty power of yours and kill all the Vian. Do it, show me your Nexus and I’ll let the Nexus go. You’ll be their saviour.”

“I’m no one’s saviour…” I murmur. “Why would you want me to kill your people?”

“They are betrayers to the throne. I starved each and every one of them before throwing them in here. Aren’t the screams music to your ears?” Severi laughs, but I feel sick. I might be sick. “Do it. Be my revenge. Be my weapon and you can be as free as you wish. No one to judge you, no one to hold you down.”

“No.” I keep my voice firm. He grabs the back of my neck, gripping it tightly and digging his nails into my skin.

“They’re useless to me. So, do as you’re told and kill them,” he roars into my ear.

A cry of desperation escapes my lips. “No, because I can’t control her! Please, stop!”

Nexus on the other side are still screaming. He hits me in the face first, then my chest, then in so many places I lose count. Only when my voice is breaking, when the screams in the room are fading, does he pick me up and press my bloody face on the glass. “Let her out or I’m going to go downstairs to grab your friend, throw her in the room with them, and kill her slowly. Painfully.” Annie. “Then when your other mates get here, they are dead. I’ll make every bit of their deaths awful. They will tell tales of the monster’s mates who died horrible deaths trying and failing to save their monster from herself. Do us all a favour and fucking let her out!”

My scared, dangerous Nexus comes out, protecting me, as she always does when it gets bad. A wave of grey explodes from our chest as Severi lets go, backing up a few steps. It flows around Severi, not touching him even though he is the one who deserves to die. Everything drains like it always does, leaving no light, no life or anything alive. One by one, they drop until there’s nothing but bodies lying on the floor, and I can’t stop this. I can only watch as I take more lives, mark myself with more blood. The Nexus and Vian are dead in seconds, and I shift back the moment the last body hits the ground.

Then it happens. So slowly to begin with, like a gust of wind blowing through their bodies, and above them light pours out into the shape of a star. Not all of the Vian and Nexus have the light hover above them, but most do. The light is their powers, and my Nexus takes a second to look at each one, rejecting the offer of power she sees. Until she focuses on one power, right at the back. She lifts her hand, and it zooms to us, slamming into our soul. I don’t know what power it is, but she is content to take it. Steal it. The light, the glowing stars, the other powers, are gone within a heartbeat.

Severi watches from the corner, cloaked in shadows. He claps, each bang matching my heartbeat. “Perfect. We will win this war and remake this world, Gwenieve.”

I cross my arms, taking a step back even when my body screams in pain. I can barely open one of my eyes. Severi walks towards me, grinning like he just won a prize. An alarm blasts out of the ceiling, making me jump. A male Vian runs into the room. “Nexus are here, and they are burning the forest down. We have to leave, Your Majesty! They have come for her.”

My Nexus mates are here.