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

Chapter 5

Kotani

The Yellow Islands

Present day…

I held the black choker necklace in a tight fist while I waited outside the tavern. The same necklace that girl had been using when she died. My spies reported the type of black ribbon that had been used to create the necklace was imported to the Yellow Islands. A merchant by the name of Melias was the only one who sold them at the local market by the end of each month. I studied the sketch my spies had done of the merchant’s face before deciding to hunt him down. It had taken me half an hour to find him, hidden like a rat in a hole, inside the worst tavern in town. The place reeked like piss and s**t. Even the Boosaardig was appalled by the stink of corroded souls that permeated the streets. The monster preferred pure, innocent souls that smelled like goodness and unsullied bodies. Corrupted souls had a stink that we both hated. Me, because I had to smell them in the first place and the Boosaardig because those were the only souls I let him munch on from time to time.

I had enough meetings and state affairs to occupy my time with, but hunting murders was a pleasure I liked to indulge in. It was the only type of hunting I liked. Cornering beats and swallowing their souls was the main activity that brought me pleasure these days. That and smoking death. Maybe in the past I’ve liked to take care of Didoka and share a book with her at the light of a warm fire, but those days were over. Those days were already over, long before she found Kun and made him her mate.

I waited patiently in the dark alley while it rained softly over my head. The rain was cold and gentle, the type of shower that would raise a thick fog in the morning. It was in those nights in which I couldn’t differentiate myself from the Boosaardig anymore. The fine line between monster and man disappeared and we both became one. Stalkers of blood. Dangers of the dark. Sinners. I smiled and the Boosaardig smiled with me, enjoying the calm emptiness of a lonely night.

Our nostrils flared when the scent of leather and velvet emerged at the end of the street. I sniffed the choker in my hand and compartmentalized all the scents in it. The scent of alcohol, human skin, the faint perfume of the tea the victim had been drinking before dying. And there...the same scent of leather and velvet. The same scent the merchant Melias had on him. I was close to my target.

I fixed the hood of my black cloak and climbed the wall of the tavern. My arms impulsed me fast, making me move like a shadow against the stone wall. Nobody noticed me, but I would need to lay low in the dark to not alert my prey of my nearness. In silence I reached the top of the roof and crouched down, holding my weight on the balls of my feet while I craned my head and watched the street below. I studied the entire neighborhood, paying attention to all the little details. There was a couple fornicating like animals in the corner. The woman was trying to hold her moans but the man was panting loudly enough to wake up the entire city. The Boosaardig studied them like one would study an insect under a boot’s sole. Beasts in heat...no dancing of the souls...The Boosaardig hissed angrily, making me smirk. The monster discenerd if couples were in love or not. It liked to call it “a dancing of the souls”. I guessed those two were only f*****g to scratch a need. They didn’t bother me as much as they bothered the Boosaardig. I watched them in apathy, trying to remember the last time I felt the need to mate a woman. I shook my head to the sides and came out with the memory of only one woman, years ago, when I’d been only fifteen. After her I’ve never again been stupid enough to try taking a woman. Never again. And so far, I’d never been interested in f*****g like other Alphas were. f*****g occluded one’s mind eye and tempered with one’s logic. I couldn’t have that. I couldn’t put other people at risk for a fleeting fancy. There would be no other woman for me. Not ever.

Two Alpha soldiers patrolled the end of the street and there, walking drunkenly, was Melias. He was a small Beta with a balding spot in the middle of his head. Inconspicuous, normal, a bland soul. Neither corrupted nor pure. I growled in distaste at the Boosaardig’s confirmation. Melias wasn’t a murderer. Murderer’s had corrupted souls through and through. They stunk like a sewer and it was impossible for them to conceal it. This merchant wasn’t the killer I was hunting down. He was a good lead. A very promising start to an interesting hunt.

I jumped, grabbing the small Beta by his neck on my way down and throwing him hard against the back wall of the tavern. The soldiers didn’t even look back at us when I grabbed Melias in a strong lock, keeping him pinned to the wall with my forearm. The man was crying, trying to get free and making a hell of noise that was starting to piss me off. With my thumb I pressed on his windpipe and Melias opened his mouth in a choking sound, stopping all that whining from before.

“I will keep this simple,” I said slowly, low. Men always listened better when other men talked. Screaming was no use. Nobody listened to the screams because loudness meant madness. Melias could sense I wasn’t playing games, it was all about the tone, not the volume. His eyes followed me with focus while I spoke, “Bring your tax books to the royal palace tomorrow. Come at dawn and ask at the doors for Alani. She will collect the books and give you a reward for them. Don’t bring them and I will kill you when you least expect it. I know you understand.”

I hardly ever asked any questions anymore. They were a waste of time. People knew things or they didn’t. It was as simple as that. Melias would know what to do in this situation. Something told me he was one of those rats that have learned the rules of the game since he was able to walk. I could kill him and he knew that. I sensed without a doubt that I would have his tax books at dawn and from there I would have an entire list of people who had bought his merchandise. I was closer to the murderer, much, much closer. The knowledge didn’t taste half as appetizing in my mouth as before. Once I found him the game would be over and I would be back to the same normality that had plagued my days and nights for the last years.

With a grunt I let Melias go and climbed the wall of the tavern, merging with the shadows of the night. I raced my way through the roofs of the city, jumping and climbing through buildings and shrines that I knew as the palms of my hands. It was during the darkest hours of the night that I made my way back to the royal chambers. I was tired, my body exhausted after training combat and traveling around the islands without any sleep for...weeks? Days? It didn’t alarm me anymore the fact I couldn’t remember if I’d slept recently or not. You are never asleep when you are a devourer of souls and then again you are not fully awake either.

I made my way through the long red banners that adorned my private rooms. Incense was burning on the golden basins at the corner of the bedding area. There were no other sounds but those of my feet moving tiredly. Slowly I climbed the steps to my bed, stopping when the stench of an annoying god made me stop and sigh tiredly.

“This trick of yours is really getting old,” I said over my shoulder at the same time Kun appeared out of thin air, resting a leg against a wall and crossing his arms. He smiled, waving a hand at me while I turned around until I was facing him. I’d never seen him as happy as he looked right then. The Boosaardig studied him too, noticing the smile, the clear eyes and the peace that calmed his features. It was safe to presume my spies had been right. My sister had claimed him as her mate. The idea, far from angering me only gave me peace of mind. I trusted Didoka implicitly. If she had made up her mind about Kun then he had to be her mate without a doubt. I still didn’t like the Alpha but unfortunately, that didn’t make him any less of a family member. Bastard. I gave him a conceding nod, “Congratulations are in order.”

“Yes, they are,” he said with an answering nod and then looked around as if he was expecting to see somebody else, “What is this? You are not breaking any hearts tonight?”

He was talking about Alani, and the fact he had seen me denying her feelings the last time he visited. I narrowed my eyes at him, letting a long silence be my answer before I shook my head at the clown.

“I still don’t like you enough to laugh at your jokes,” I said cuttingly and Kun smirked.

“As if you could laugh in the first place.”

“What broken hearts are you two talking about?” asked a sweet, little voice that made me open my eyes in surprise and turned to the private door that only a few knew about. There were about a hundred secret tunnels around the castle but only royal blood knew of them. Didoka, being the brilliant mind that she was, knew about every single one of them. My twin sister came to me, running like she had always done when we had been kids. I rushed to her side, letting her be the one to hug me first out of respect to her Alpha. Kun growled from his spot at the wall, but Didoka waved a hand at him to stop, resuming her hug and sighing happily. Her smile was wide when she took a step back, watching me attentively and inspecting my face with a clinical eye, “You haven’t been sleeping properly. I will make a tonic for you before leaving. You know better than to skip too many nights without resting. And what were you talking about? What broken hearts?”

I frowned, looking at Kun over my sister’s head. I had no intention of discussing all the reasons why Kun had come seeking advice from me a couple of weeks ago. I was even less attracted to the idea of discussing Alani’s feelings with my sister. I lifted my eyebrows at the God, making myself clear. I wasn’t saving his ass this time and I would never be inclined to do so. He smiled and disappeared only to reappear by his mate’s side. Unrepentantly, Kun extracted my sister from my arms, putting a safe distance between her and me. He took the books my sister had been holding in her hands and gave her a slow smile that seemed to be reserved only for her.

“You found the books you needed?” he asked her and sure enough Didoka lit up, smiling at the mention of books and forgetting all about her previous questions.

“Yes, I found the exact proportions I wrote in my books about the special potion I need to prepare for F...oh wait,” Didoka turned to me, paling a bit and biting her thumb’s nail. She was nervous. Why was she nervous? I waited patiently for her to explain herself and finally she sighed, taking my hand and guiding me to a set of armchairs at the side of my bed. We both sat while Kun stood at her back, keeping his eyes on his mate all the time. Didoka cleared her throat, watching me worriedly, “ Kotani, as you might have known for days now... we found the Neutralizer.”

“The entire world knows something powerful emerged from the Dark Desert,” I said gently, for her sake. Didoka probably knew this much already. She was smart, she had to know the Neutralizer would be a weapon that everyone would want. Not us though, but even I would need to send diplomats to the Dark Desert soon to inquire about the beam of light that exploded in the desert. Only to keep pretenses and act like the other countries would act. I already knew the Neutralizer had been found, but it would seem strange if the Yellow Islands didn’t send diplomats to inquire. I looked up, focusing on Kun, “What kind of excuse did your father think of giving us? Something credible, I hope.”

“We had been working on a special chemical to bend iron recently,” said Kun with a smile, “Everyone knows we have powerful forgeries all over the desert. We might give a false report about an iron forgery that exploded after we tried using this new chemical for the first time. It’s credible enough and Aros worked on creating a...realistic scenario for our story.”

“In other words, Aros used his powers to explode a gigantic building in the middle of nowhere and make it look like hell itself. It’s good enough,” promised Didoka with a shrug, “I would have been convinced if I wasn’t the mate of a God and knew better.”

“Little princess, can you say that one more time? A lot louder if you don’t mind?” asked Kun, smiling victoriously at me while I looked back at him, trying very hard to understand what my sister could possibly see in him.

“We don’t have time to please your ego Kun,” fought back Didoka, rolling her eyes at Kun and then staring at me with that worried glance that had me seeing red. Why was she worried? What could have happened? They had finally found the Neutralizer. A weapon that could kill gods. With a weapon like that their war against Mourna was as good as over. Unless they couldn’t use the weapon. Unless something very wrong had happened. An oversight of some sort. Some type of surprise they hadn't’ seen coming. I started tapping a finger over my knee and Didoka caught sight of it. Our eyes found each other and she nodded, understanding I knew they needed my help. They wouldn’t come looking for me otherwise.

“What happened for you to come searching for me, Dido?” I asked my sister and she sighed, looking lost and a little sad.

“You might want to listen to this.”