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“Y’ello?”
“Zaine, it’s Octavius, don’t hang up! I need you to—”
“You wretched piece of shit, you had better hand yourself in right now. Where the fuck are you? If I find you before Mikalis, I’m going to rip you apart—”
“Zaine, shut up. Listen—”
“No, I’m not fucking listening to your bullshit. I never liked you, and you know what Eric told me? Yeah, how you got all up in his face for being my feeder, you snide little shit—”
“Zaine—fucking listen—”
“Fuck off.”
The line cut off.
Octavius let out a growl. He dialed Zaine’s number again. It clicked and went straight to his voicemail. “Zaine, do not delete this message. I called Raiden.”
The connecting motel door opened, and Saint leaned against the doorjamb, all tousled and mussed in his creased suit. He’d probably just crawled out of bed. Had he heard everything Octavius had said? It didn’t matter, this was more important.
Octavius dragged his gaze from him. “Raiden did all this, not me,” he said in his message to Zaine. “Please, you have to believe me. We are—Raiden and I, we were close, but it was all bullshit. He set me up.” Shit, he wasn’t making any sense, and now Saint arched an eyebrow, as though he was judging Octavius. “I fucked up. I trusted him, I… Just look closer at Raiden. Please, I know you hate me, I know I’m an asshole, but I’m also Brotherhood, and that means something. It means something more than us. It’s… everything. Memento mori.”
He hung up and dialed Kazi’s number. It didn’t connect. He must have changed his phone. He tried Storm, but it rang out. “Fuck!” Octavius flung the phone at the wall next to Saint. it exploded into a thousand pieces. “FUCK, FUCK, FUCK!” He thumped his head and paced again. Back and forth. Raiden… It had been Raiden all along. His one and only friend.
His heart pumped, each beat brushing against razor blades. The betrayal stabbed at his chest.
“Well, I think I’m all caught up,” Saint said, matter-of-factly.
Octavius dropped to his knees. He was so done, so tired, wrecked. Months on the run, months trying to figure out where it had all gone wrong, months wishing he could have told Raiden he loved him. And Raiden had just ripped out his heart. Octavius hadn’t seen Raiden’s truth. He’d been closer to Raiden than anyone and he hadn’t seen a damn thing!
Saint crouched in front of him. “You know, before the world ends, I had planned to ride off into the sunset, but I figure the sunset can wait.”
Octavius looked up and didn’t care his face was wet, didn’t care it was Saint who saw him like this. Nothing mattered anymore. His heart was broken.
His silver nyk eyes narrowed, vengeance in his sights. “We have a Brotherhood betrayer to kill.”
“They’ll never listen to me—or you. We can’t get near them. Mikalis will destroy us.”
Saint made an agreeable mumbling noise. “Then we’ll make them listen. I’m very persuasive. Not as persuasive as you, with the witchy voodoo, but I have my ways.”
“By breaking arms and crushing throats?” he asked, remembering how Saint had persuaded him to bleed a wrist for Jayden.
“There’s a time for voodoo, and a time for breaking bones.”
An exhausted smile tugged at Octavius’s lips. No, damn it, he could not smile at Saint. He snarled it away and climbed to his feet, feeling a few thousand years older. What a sorry day it was that his only friend, his only help, came in the form of a nyktelios and his love-drunk feeder.
Jayden stood in the doorway wearing just an oversized shirt that did, at least, cover his groin.
This was Octavius’s life now. This was all he had. A sleepy-eyed surfer boy and a mass murderer.
He coughed a distraught laugh. It was going to have to be enough. “They’ll track that call,” Octavius croaked out. “We need to leave.”
“Daylight.” Saint glanced toward the window. “It won’t be pleasant.”
“Nothing about any of this is fuckin’ pleasant.” Octavius nodded at Jayden. “You drive.”
“Uh, sure.” Jayden brightened. “Where are we going?”
Saint stood and sighed. “Somewhere you’ll likely need pants.”
