The Omega Bond (Book Five in the Omega Game series)

Chapter 1

Part 1: The decision

Fair

City of Leukos, The Dark Desert

Present day…

“He is losing too much blood! Hurry...Press on the wound...” someone screamed, waking me up.

I stirred, trying to find enough strength to open my eyes. The air smelled like fire and something else, something I didn’t like. Over the whistle pulsing in my ears I couldn’t hear much, but I could feel people moving around. The distant sound of footsteps coming and going in a rush. The scent of fire in the air and something else. What was that smell? It smelled horrible.

I was able to notice simple things. I was being carried. I could feel two powerful arms holding me still against a strong body. There was a change in the air, as if we had moved from an open space to a close room. The smell only turned worse inside of that place.

Oh Gods! What was that smell? I opened my eyes and an intense headache made me hiss and hold my head between my hands. A distant voice screamed. The arms holding me hugged me harder, making me groan in pain.

“Don’t hurt her!” I recognized that voice. Ang. He sounded as if he was in pain. Why did he sound like that? I opened my eyes and felt pain like I’ve never known before. It was a pain without a core, but so intense that I could only feel the subsidence of a body that didn’t seem to belong to me anymore. I moaned, trying to look through the dense nausea numbing my senses. At first I only saw shadows moving fast. There was chaos all around us. People were running around a place that smelled like alcohol and...blood. That was it. That horrible smell was blood.

Then I saw it.

Blood everywhere.

Blood.

So much blood.

It was all over the floor. Red, shiny and fresh. My breath hitched in my throat while I tried to understand what I was seeing. Why was there so much blood on the floor? My breathing turned erratic and my vision tunneled. All I could see was Ang’s forearm hanging by a thin piece of flesh to the rest of his arm. Kun and Wolf were trying to hold the arm in place but Ang wouldn’t stop screaming and thrashing. I realized he was trying to get to me.

“Get away from her!” he roared in anger, getting bigger and scarier. Ang had a hard time controlling his bloodthirst, I knew that better than anyone. Wounded and surrounded by blood only added more anger to his madness. I tried to move to him but again those two arms held me still. I looked up to find Aros staring back at Ang with his jaw hardened. His blue eyes, so similar to his young brother, were riveted by clear worry. And to my dismay I could also see fear. Why would Aros be afraid? He wasn’t one to ever be afraid of anything.

Ang roared, his body starting to expand and come in and out of focus. If I didn't do something he would not stop until smashing everything and everyone. I looked up to Aros and for a moment we both looked at each other.

“It’s alright, I got this,” I whispered, trembling while Aros arched one eyebrow and then gave me a headshake.

“Fair, you don’t know what you are capable of,” he paused, his eyes turning between me and his little brother, “I need to protect him.”

I nodded, understanding what he wasn’t saying. He needed to protect Ang from me. Because I was something else. Something they hadn’t expected. And I’ve done this. I couldn’t remember what I’ve done exactly, but I knew I’ve hurt my best friend. My memory was fractured and crumbling, like ruins from a past that wasn’t mine. If I closed my eyes I could see it. Something had exploded inside of me, something too powerful and deadly. Ang had been too close. His only fault had been standing too close to me.

I felt tears watering my eyes and my lower lip trembled a bit. If I let myself cry I wouldn’t stop crying. This was not the moment to cry. Ang needed me. I needed to be strong. Slowly I turned to Aros and held his penetrant stare.

“Just let me touch him,” I said in a whisper but I knew he would hear me. Ang would calm down if I touched him. Usually that was all it took to stop him from going berserk. Aros opened his mouth as if to talk me out of it but I shook my head, looking back at my best friend, “You know he is going to lose control over himself if you keep holding me. If I become...dangerous, you have my permission to put me down.”

“Fair…” Aros winced, as if what I told him had physically hurt him. I ignored the pained look in his eyes and pushed my arms out of his hold. Aros let me go, taking a step back while we both shared a knowing look. Slowly I started moving closer to Ang. He was now several feet taller than his father and brother. It would be impossible to reattach his arm if he kept growing into his god form. I knew what I needed to do, I would make sure he would be alright and then I...then I would protect him from me. What had almost happened today would never again happen.

Kun cursed then, pushing Ang down to the floor while the Wolf managed to attach the arm. Blood was running down from Ang like a river of red glimmer. I ignored the acid taste in the back of my mouth that signaled I was about to get sick and pushed down, lowering myself to the floor and catching Ang’s good hand. I held it tight until he stopped moving violently and focused blackened eyes on me. Slowly I saw the black covering his eyes fading away, letting the deep blue I was used to seeing in his irises stare back at me.

“Are...are you alright?” he asked me in a growl through the chaos, while we both laid on the floor covered in blood. We were only looking at each other and in that moment it was just me and him, holding our hands as tight as we could. By my peripherals I could see the Wolf creating a cloud of black sand that soon started turning thinner and thinner, like a thread of dark power. With the thread in his hand he started to sew Ang’s flesh. At first the flesh resisted the thin black needle Wolf tried to pinch his son’s skin with the needle again and this time it finally gave up, letting whatever type of power Wolf was using sew the skin back in place.

I swallowed hard, focusing on only looking at Ang and ignoring the rest of the world for as long as I could. There, for just a moment was only me and Ang, looking into each other’s eyes and nothing more.

“You are asking me?” I joked but my voice was too thin, too hoarse. Still, I tried to laugh while tears rolled down my cheek. Ang never stopped looking at me, his intense blue eyes reading all the silent truths I wasn’t saying, “You are the one bleeding, you silly.”

“It doesn’t hurt,” he murmured back at me, caressing with his thumb my knuckles. Ang paused, licking his lips and smiling at me. It was a sunny smile. Ang always had the best smiles, “I can’t even feel anything.”

“That’s because you fell off your crib one too many times when you were a baby. Now you are a hopeless, hard headed donkey that needs to stay still. Focus Ang, are you sure you are not in pain?” I asked him again, my brow furrowing when he shook his head, placing our interlaced hands on the hollow of his chest. He looked pale. Too pale. Ang had lost so much blood. Regardless of what he said I knew he had to be in pain. Pain I’d given him. I pushed that thought away and focused on my friend. He was all that mattered right then. He needed to get well. He had to...because a world without Ang in it would be a catastrophe, like a day without the sun or the sky falling on earth. I cleared my throat and staring into his eyes I sang an old song Nira had taught me once.

I sang only for him, for my best friend in the whole wide world. For a long moment it was just us, and nothing more. I don’t know how long we stayed like that, staring at each other while people moved around us and whispered. We ignored them all. I sang until Ang finally closed his eyes and fell asleep to the sound of my voice. I remember Nira saying it was supposed to be a happy, drinking song about this lass named Gilly who had lost two cows after drinking too much, but somehow it sounded too sad. Too final.

When the Wolf finally said he was done I knew without a shadow of a doubt that my time ignoring the truth was over. My childhood was gone. My past was gone. From now on I would be facing the unknown and I didn’t know how to be strong enough to do any of it. I was only fourteen, or at least that was the age all doctors presumed I had. I hadn’t even passed my first Heat. I didn’t know who I was or what exactly had happened to me in the gardens. I was lost in a darkness that seemed boundless and unending. And the worst part was that I didn’t have the time to figure things out. I had to grow up. Fast.

Nira had said once that you grow up the moment you realize you don’t have the choice to wait. I knew better now. I say you group up the moment you understand you don’t have choices. I didn’t. With a last look to Ang I let go of his hand.

I let go to the possibility of a future that wasn’t mine anymore.

I let him go.