AllFreeNovel
Share Us
JULIUS ALLCOTT
Julius had cut allthe hair on his head. He’d cut strips from his clothes until he wore nothing but shreds. The only thing left to cut as a reminder of his loved ones was his own skin. But there had to be something left of himself for his wife and daughter. Besides, he didn’t need reminders anymore. The time had finally come.
“Do you have the items?”the voice whispered.
The clanking of old water pumps in this wastewater facility tried to hide her voice. It had ceased sounding like his wife days ago. But it was her. He knew it in his heart. Who else would want him so desperately to join her? His wife was the only person in the world who’d ever loved him enough.
“I have them,” he replied.
He looked at the reason he’d gone back to his old home—the Fabergé egg and doll before him on the old, rusted table. These were the reason he’d stored the mates of all the Lazarus siblings there. And the reason he’d covered his tracks by setting a trap to burn the house down. But of course, he’d wanted to make sure they suffered the most. If they discovered the house, then he wanted the one who found the house to be within reach of rescuing their loved ones when they triggered the tripwire.
His upper lip curled. And if that person just so happened to be the Lazarus sibling who’d caused him the most pain, Despair, then all the better. He’d given half his life to that girl, to training her to be his soldier, to being his right hand… and what did she give him in return? Betrayal.
That’s why he secretly hoped no one would rescue the kidnapped mates. He hoped they’d all die a slow and agonizing death in that attic.
Despair thought she had taken his only chance of replicating his dead wife and daughter. Well—he gingerly touched the items—the joke was on her. Julius was still bringing them back.
And—he checked the iPad winking at him, ready for the execute directive—he was still going to eradicate the sinners of the world as per his original plan. His wife and daughter needed a safe place to live in when they returned, after all.
All he had to do was hit that button and every contingency he had was released. From replicates, to plant monsters, to greed serum dispersed into the city’s drinking water supply, to mech suits handed to his Faithful.
“Then we can start the ritual,”his wife said, her voice hissing like a snake. “You know where you must go.”
Julius shook his head. It must be hard for her voice to reach him from the afterlife. That must be why it hissed so badly. With the shake of his head, he caught sight of a person standing before him… talking. One of the Faithful. How long had he been there watching Julius?
“What?” Julius spat.
The Faithful blinked. His white robe was dirty at the feet. His white mask was pushed up to rest on top of his head. The scars on his face indicated he was one of the herd who desperately wanted a new, perfect life. Julius had found those were the best of his flock—so eager to please. So dumb.
“You said something,” Julius pointed out. “What?”
“I… um… it’s just that you asked me to give you an update on the situation with the Deadly Seven.”
“And?”
“They got out of the house alive. Everyone did.”
Julius’s blood ran cold. “They survived?”
The Faithful nodded. “And… um…”
“Spit it out!”
“The train of supplies was run into the sea.” He shook his head in disbelief. “I don’t know if we have enough for what you planned.”
Julius’s nostrils flared and he breathed hard like a bull for a long, hot minute. The voice of his wife whispered obscenities in his ear. Cursing the day this Faithful was born. Promising dark, torturous punishment for his impudence. Part of Julius knew his wife would never speak so harshly. But part of him shut out that doubt. He was too close. Too close to have those kinds of thoughts.
“It’s fine,” he mumbled, tapping his chin. “It’s fine. We can still work with this. We have the replicates. We have some animals, right? Some plants?”
The Faithful shrugged.
Fuck.
Julius scrubbed his face. So, then, maybe the entire city wouldn’t be destroyed. Maybe the Deadly Seven had their mates to balance them. But he had powered replicates still waiting to be unleashed. And he had the greed serum ready to pour into the water supply. Theoretically, that would turn any civilian drinking the water into a monster themselves. All he really needed was for the Sinners guarding the gate to the afterlife to be distracted so he had time to complete the ritual and bring his family home to him.
At the end of the day, that’s all that mattered.
“Their reunion will distract them,”his wife hissed. “We must do this now.”
Yes. Of course, she was right. Even though the mates were still alive, every single one of the Deadly Seven would be a slave to their emotions right now. They would be spending time reuniting with their loved ones, just as he would when he found his.
“We do this now,” he echoed, and he pressed the red button on the iPad. “While they’re distracted.”
