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“Fuck you.” Octavius bared his teeth at the foul corruption of a man and watched him saunter from the room. He’d hoped, perhaps naively, that Saint would still be Brotherhood, that it had all been a mistake and he could reason with him, but clearly Saint was nyktelios, which made him the enemy. And the feeder, Jayden, was already dead, envenomed and enslaved; the fool just didn’t realize it. Saint’s venom kept him compliant. Long ago, Octavius might have cared for Jayden’s fate. He’d have probably tried to help him. But feeders weren’t worth fighting for, and all nyks had to die. That was the way of things to keep nyks from ruining this world.
“Why was Mikalis trying to kill you?” Saint asked. He leaned forward, cradling his coffee in both hands. He moved smooth, and slow, like a snake knowing it was the apex predator in its territory.
Octavius clenched his jaw and gazed out the windows, at the serene moonlit lake. “A misunderstanding.”
Saint laughed, and that laugh touched the same part of Octavius his words in Octavius’s ear had touched earlier, slithering beneath Octavius’s defenses. He could not let his guard down around Saint. He’d seen him shove Mikalis into a truck. Nobody did that and survived. Yet, here was Saint, acting as if nothing had happened. Of course, he had his feeder to quicken his healing, but even so. He’d recovered fast from the beating Mikalis had given him.
“I’m familiar with his misunderstandings,” Saint said, “as I’m sure, asBrotherhood, you’re well aware.” He sneered the word Brotherhood, as though he’d tasted something bitter.
“The fact you’re a nyk is no misunderstanding. It’s different for me. Mikalis has been lied to. He believes I… He has been led to believe I betrayed him. I didn’t.”
Hungry delight sparkled in Saint’s silver nyk eyes. “There’s a lot of history in those statements, more than you’re aware of. Mikalis does not suffer betrayers. He will hunt such enemies to the ends of the earth.” Saint smirked and leaned back on the couch. “The irony.”
There didn’t appear to be any immediate threat from Saint or his feeder. Octavius made a conscious effort to relax and leaned back against the kitchen counter. If he could keep Saint talking, he might reveal information Octavius needed. “He’ll come for you.”
“Oh, I know.”
“You should hand yourself in.”
Something ancient and sly sparkled in Saint’s nyk-eyes. “Should I? You know nothing of me, yet you know what I should do? Jayden is right, you’re a little prick, full of your own Brotherhood self-importance.”
This was ridiculous. Octavius wasn’t playing games with a nyk and his feeder. He was here for a reason. He needed answers. “Why were you let out?”
Saint’s smile faded. “‘Let out’? Ah, back at the compound.”
“Someone let you out moments before Atlas was destroyed. Why?”
“I assume thissomeone, whomever they are, wanted me alive. No?”
He must know more. “Why?”
Saint narrowed his eyes. “Why doyouwant to know, Little Wolf?”
“My name is Octavius.”
“I know who you are.” Saint stood and approached the kitchen, bringing his coffee with him. He sipped it, occasionally eyeing Octavius, calculating, reading, assessing, and making no attempt to hide the fact. “I know more than all of you combined. It’s why Mikalis fears me.”
“Mikalis is not afraid of anything.”
Saint’s smile was back, like a lash of a whip. “Oh, you’re wrong, he’s afraid of a great many things.”
Would Mikalis have locked up Saint to keep those fears from being exposed? No, he’d locked him up because Saint had gone rogue and tried to destroy the Brotherhood from the inside out. Exactly what Octavius had been accused of. Looking into Saint’s eyes was like looking into Octavius’s future. But Octavius would rather die than turn nyk. He had to save himself from that fate.
Saint finished his coffee and rinsed the mug in the sink.
Octavius knew of Saint, in a way that many of the older Brotherhood members were aware of each other. In the past, the Brotherhood hadn’t been grouped together, like they were today. Years would pass between seeing another member face-to-face. Sometimes, Octavius had gone decades without seeing Mikalis. Saint had been one of them, but hidden away. They’d all orbited the same mass—Mikalis—but rarely met. Saint had been there thousands of years ago. His name had been uttered among the Brotherhood long before Mikalis had recruited Octavius.
But how far back did their relationship go, and what had gone so very wrong that Saint had turned from Brotherhood back into nyk?
It would have been a lie to say he wasn’t intrigued by Saint. Saint was almost a myth among legends. And here he stood, washing out a mug just a few strides from Octavius, so… normal. He almost didn’t seem real.
“It seems you and I might be the same, Little Wolf.”
“Don’t call me that.”
Saint straightened, and while he wasn’t physically imposing like Storm or tall like Kazimir, he hadsomething. The same something Mikalis had. As though, inside Saint, there was an ancient, coiled creature, waiting to strike. “Let’s be clear. I’ve spent so many hundreds of years in Mikalis’s chains that if you think to take me back in a misguided attempt to appease him, know that I will kill you and you will not see the blow coming. I intend to live out our final days free and unincumbered by the Brotherhood. If you’re smart, like I think you are, you’ll do the same, Little Wolf.”
He rested a hand on Octavius’s shoulder, in a gesture that was likely meant to suggest comradery. Octavius shook him off and snarled at Saint’s back as he headed out of the living room area and toward the back rooms, probably to feed and fuck his pet human.
