Page 5

I laid on a soft surface as Vasilis’s serpent tongue whispered and told me stories about his life. I’d assumed we were in the motel given all the things he’d said, and he knew I was conscious, but being knocked out with whatever he did to my body had done a number to me. Granted, it was the best night of sleep I’d had in weeks.

“You know, I never wanted you to find me,” he said. “I liked to think of the time we spent together as this perfect parcel of peace from my memory, stuck in amber like some artefact I’d uncover when I got older and realized the mistake I’d made by not following my heart.”

A single tear surfaced from the corner of my eye. I didn’t know if he’d poisoned me or what was happening for this emotional response, but whatever it was, my eyes were leaking and I didn’t know if they were ever going to stop.

“Soren, you’ve got to hear me when I say to you, it’s dangerous out there, I need you to stay here and go home when you’re ready. Please.”

My muscles worked overtime for them to summon words. A single word, in fact. “No.” There was one thing he needed to remember about me. I was stubborn, and I wasn’t going to let him smooth talk me into getting his way, again.

“That’s not what I wanted to hear,” he said. “And I think you know what I wanted to hear. It’ll be easier if you just accept this.”

Under the weight of my own body, I struggled to shuffle myself over on the bed. I huffed and sighed. “I’m not—going.” I sucked in a deep inhale and blinked my eyes open to see the deep beige dirt walls and ceiling of the motel room I’d stayed in.

“Well, then it looks like I might have tie you up for your own safety,” he said.

“No,” I protested, pushing myself and falling back onto the hard cushion of the bed. “I know you’re better than this. I know you’re not the family you have.”

The weight of the bed shifted as he sat on the end of it beside me. “Well, it’s not like I’m giving you much of a choice,” he said. “Soren. Please, for your own safety, stay here.”

That wasn’t going to happen. There wasn’t a world that excited where I gave up and gave in like this. Vasilis was clearly part of his family now, whether he was or wasn’t part of the syndicate before, he definitely was now. The man who’d gone from telling me the soup was too hot, to the man who was threatening to tie me to a bed and inflict me with whatever disease his venom carried.

“You’re not going to find anything,” he said. “You’re just going to end up getting yourself in danger, and I’m the one who will have to witness it. I’ve saved your life once already, at the bar. I’m not so sure I could comfortable do it again.”

My weakened limbs reached out and grabbed him, pulling on his arm. “I can protect myself,” I snapped. “Now, you owe me more than just telling me you saved my life. You owe me the respect of telling me the truth.”

Vasilis shook his head and pulled himself away, standing across from me. He paced the motel room floor in front of the bed. “I’m protecting you by not telling you,” he said. “I’ve already told you too much. If you know anymore, it’s my head on the block, and there are many people who would love to see it. They’d feast on my body, they’d put me on ice as they extracted venom from me until I died.”

I shook my head. “If that’s the people you want to be associated with, then go for it, but I’m going to find out what happened to all the people on my list,” I told him, resting a head against my head as if keeping it upright. I was still suffering a bout of dizziness from the way he’d knocked me unconscious. “The alternative is, we can work together, you can be free, Vasilis. And don’t worry, you won’t even owe me for the second time I save your life.”

A smirk appeared, thin on his lips. He shook his head and pressed his forefinger and thumb into his eye sockets. “It’s in my nature to do what I’m doing for my family,” he said. “I’m a predator, Soren. I’m the natural enemy to so many.”

“To me,” I said. “I know you are, it’s why I kept you a secret in the guest house. If my family had known, they might’ve had you shot.”

“Then they’re no better than me,” he said. “Killers.”

I knew he was a killer, whether it was those omegas I was searching for was another question altogether. He’d told me he hadn’t killed them, and I was inclined to believe his words, but I didn’t want to be confronted with him lying to me. I was owed so much more than the bullshit I could feel he was about to spew in my direction.

“Would you try and kill me if I kept searching for an answer?” I asked in the quiet we’d used to contemplate who we were to each other.

He shook his head. “I wouldn’t, but it doesn’t mean you wouldn’t get hurt.”

“Then help me. Help me pull the curtain on this entire thing. You can get away from it all. It’s not who you are, Vasilis. You’re not the person your family is forcing you to be.”

Before he could say anything else, a knock came at the motel door. I could only stare as he answered it to two of the red headed men from the bar. They’d brought my car back here. It was a set back, but I knew I had enough gas in the tank to get back to the gas station at the bar and refuel.

“I’m going to need the two of you to stay outside this room and watch to make sure that when he leaves, he doesn’t come back down near New Eden,” Vasilis instructed the men, and walked right by them.

My heartbeat throbbed in my throat. “You’re not—you’re not serious right now,” I said, but he left, and didn’t turn back to me. This wasn’t the same man I knew, that was obvious, but it hurt nonetheless to know that I’d saved a man who was putting more omegas in the ground than would have happened if I’d let him die in that bush ten years ago.

The men closed the door and spoke to each other outside. They were stationed here now, and I didn’t like that idea. It was the only way out. I didn’t have the energy to fight it just yet. I would need to think, and possibly hydrate. My tongue and lips were dried out.

This was going to be difficult now. I had no plan on how to evade Vasilis’s men, but I could absolutely do some damage. As a flying squirrel, I was quite small, and my claws were sharp. I could scratch their eyes out and then I’d be no better than them.

With the small fridge unit, stocked with waters and sports drinks boasting the electrolyte content, I hydrated and got my mind right about what I was going to do. There was no straight answer to the actions I were about to utilize, but I just had to do it. I had to commit to the promise I’d made to each of those families.

I parted the window, it opened with only a slight shuffle. The two men were standing right outside, their voices louder now. I knocked on the door and within seconds, I shifted into my dusty gray and silver flying squirrel form. I crawled up the curtains and landed on the window frame.

“You can leave whenever you want,” they said, opening the door.

“Yeah, we’re not stopping you from leaving, just as long as you leave the way you came.”

They walked inside, and I jumped from the window frame outside, spreading my arms and legs to glide the short path out. There was a single motorcycle parked up beside me car. I clawed through several of the wires under the bike, and one of them leaked out a fluid.

Neither of the men had even noticed I’d left the room until I was in the car, keying the engine in human form again. They ran toward me, one of them jumping on the bike.

“You know you need to go that way,” one of them said, pointing left.

I raced out of the parking lot and went right. I wasn’t going to listen to some non-lethal snake types, I snickered to myself thinking they were probably corn snakes or something people kept as pets.

There was a sweet relief in the stifled warm air. I’d made it out of that room, back in my car, and Vasilis was probably going to be showing me the way to New Eden with whatever tracks he’d left behind.

Fifteen minutes on the road, I felt comfortable enough to play some music as a celebration of the relief. TLC ‘Waterfalls ’ was on the radio. It was right at the chorus. The melodic beats had me sighing and near the verge of tears after what had happened this morning.

“I’m fucking coming for you,” I spat. “You wouldn’t have tried this hard to hide if you knew what you were doing was fine.”

A crackle popped under the map on my passenger seat. Vasilis voice came through. “Turn the music down,” he said. “I’m trying to listen to all that anger.”

Under the map, there was a small device. “Hello?” I picked it up, there was a metal antenna on it, and a speaker.

“You know, I’m looking forward to you coming to find me,” he said. “But I told you not to.”

“You bugged me?”

“It’s not a bug, well, it is, but I left it on your seat,” he said. “It’s just one of the devices we use to stay in contact with vehicles on the road. I’m glad I knew to plant one on you though. You couldn’t resist.”

“This time, I’m not going to save you,” I said. “This time, I’m going to make sure you get sent away for a very long time, and if you don’t, well, I’m sure all the families of these omegas would be happy enough to each throw something sharp and heavy at you.” I threw the device out of the window before he could try and corrupt me any further. I had a lot of sympathy for Vasilis. I knew he didn’t want the life his family were giving him, but people changed.

My mind raced, trying to put this version of Vasilis in my mind. He was quickly replacing the man I knew in my early twenties, the man I’d even imagined a life with. A man who had once told me that he felt something special between us, only to leave.

***

Ten Years Ago

Taking care of Vasilis’s wounds was good practice, cleaning them, and making sure there were no signs of infection. I wouldn’t be able to count it as credit for my classes, but I knew it could handle high pressure situations.

“There’s so much we don’t know about healing for our kind,” I said to Vasilis as I pressed a warm cloth that had been soaked in tea tree oil.

“You know, you’d make a great career out of healing our people,” he said and sucked on his teeth. “I wish I knew why I wasn’t healing properly.”

“Maybe if you were open and honest with me, I’d be able to really look into it.” I knew he’d been lying to me. Maybe it was just the deep green eyes that seemed to hypnotize me, or the way his breath, even without daily brushing of his teeth was oddly sweet. On numerous occasions, it had nearly had me in a haze where I could feel myself wanting to kiss him.

“I’ve been open,” he said. “I’ve been—” He sucked once more, his eye twitching as I pressed the warm cloth against his collarbone. “Youve got eyes. You’ve seen the marks on my body. You know more than you think.”

I had known more than he was telling me, but I wanted him to tell me regardless. I wanted him to open him and express himself. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised. Alphas weren’t known to express themselves, ever. “Nobody has come looking for you, still.”

“Nobody will,” he said. “So, if you’re waiting on someone knocking t the door of your fancy mansion.”

I scoffed. “It’s not mine. It’s my parents.”

He smiled. “I know, I know. I’m just—”

“Give me one real emotion,” I said, dipping and ringing the cloth out. “Just one.”

“One?”

“One.”

Vasilis’s sweet exhale in my face had me almost falling across him as my eyelids fluttered. “Ok,” he said. “You make me feel seen. And not just as an Alpha, but as me.”

If only I knew who he was, really. I’d tried to see him, and maybe that’s what he was mistaking it for. “Is that really an emotion?”

He chuckled and tssked his teeth together as he moved too quickly and disturbed the cuts in the midst of healing on his collar. I still didn’t have an answer as to how he got it. It looked like a claw if I had to guess, but he wouldn’t confirm it.