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“He’s blisteringly intelligent,” Storm said. “Potentially a consummate liar, he’s also inventive, resourceful, uses weapons, and doesn’t like to get his hands dirty.”
“Weapons, like?” Let it be guns. Guns Zaine knew.
“It used to be the crossbow. He’s an excellent marksman. Could shoot a bolt and hit a needle across a meadow. But in the last few centuries, he was drawn to science. He sought a cure for us, for a long time, but Mikalis shut him down.”
“Oh?” Zaine raised his eyebrows.
“There’s no cure. It’s a waste of resources,” Storm explained, trotting out the backup Mikalis line. “He tortured endless nyktelios in that pursuit. He’s ruthless, cunning. All traits that made him perfect for the Brotherhood.”
“Until he potentially turned on us.” Zaine glanced at Eric for comment. He always had something to say.
Eric rubbed at the bridge of his nose. “It’s not my place, but it seems like Mikalis’s judge of character needs some work.”
He wasn’t wrong. He’d been making a whole lot of decisions lately that didn’t fly right. Eric wouldn’t have had a seat at the table if it had been up to Mikalis.
“Assuming Raiden is in the wind, where would Octavius go?” Eric asked. “He’s alone and hurting. What does he need?” Eric looked at them both, waiting. “You guys don’t know a damn thing about him, do you.”
Zaine shrank deeper into the chair. “We’ve never needed to. He was justtherethe whole time.”
Eric rubbed his forehead. “You claim to be a Brotherhood, but you’re the most fractured, shortsighted collection of emotionally stunted people I’ve ever met, and I put murderers behind bars for a living. You must know it weakens you? All thisnever carebullshit? Never love, never interfere? If you were an actual Brotherhood it never would have gotten this bad. You’d have known there was a traitor among you this whole time. Because real brotherscare.”
The silence was back, interrupted by the whirring laptop.
The door flew open and Kazimir sauntered in, dumped his bag to the floor, and flicked his glossy black hair like the Instagram bait he was.
“Oh good, Fabio is here,” Zaine drawled. Could this day get any worse?
Kazi glowered, but his glower dissolved as he gauged the mood in the room. “What’s with the laptop?”
CHAPTER25
Octavius
He tookSaint’s blood like before, but this time stayed conscious and drank from Jayden’s offered wrist to help his body dissolve the venom. Now they knew he could bleed the venom from Saint, it was time to try to rouse him enough to replenish his blood and let him begin to heal himself.
“Stay out of the bedroom, no matter what you hear,” Octavius told Jayden.
He nodded and returned to the lounge. This couldn’t end well with a blood-filled human in the room, like a beacon of savage desire.
In a good scenario, Saint would recognize Octavius wasn’t human and take a small amount of blood. In a not-so-good scenario, he might lash out and try to kill Octavius. Or this might not work at all. If he didn’t feed, the venom remaining in his system might continue to slowly kill him.
Octavius entered the room and bit into his wrist, just as he’d done with Jayden when he’d lain dying at the lakeside.
Saint lay on the bed, eyes closed, barely breathing. Octavius pinched Saint’s cheeks, forcing his mouth open, and applied his bleeding wrist to his lips.
Overflowing blood dribbled down his cheek.
Thishadto work. He’d never known of a nyk feeding a nyk. But perhaps it was like the nurturing Saint had spoken of, like a sire caring for its offspring, keeping them safe, feeding them, controlling them, helping them learn how to be nyktelios. If this was that, then it was natural?
Saint jolted, his body in a seizure, but then his human form dissolved away in a rapid blur, revealing the ancient nyktelios on the bed, his clothes stretched and warped around elongated muscles. Claws tipped his fingers, and the wings—the leathery appendages spilled off either side of the bed. He was a true monster of legend, a creature from human nightmares.
And he was gods-be-damned magnificent up close.
Octavius held fast. Nyks didn’t usually spend any lengthy amount of time exposed in their true form. There was no point to it, other than terrifying humans, and revealing it was a sign of turning feral, of desperation, either to attack or defend. Nyks exposed like this, in their feral form, were typically rabid and needed to be put down.
But he wasn’t going to kill Saint, he was saving him, and to see him up close, exposed as his true self without them trying to tear strips off each other, was… beautiful. He’d never examined a pure nyktelios before.
Octavius leaned closer. Saint still had the appearance of Saint, but his face was sharper, his jaw wider, to accommodate more deadly teeth. Larger shoulders supported the wings. His chest was broader too, with larger shoulder and upper torso muscles to support flight. Longer arms meant he could embrace larger prey, with claw-tipped fingers designed to dig in andhold. Every inch of him had been crafted to capture and feed.
