Elias’s POV
"Eli! Fucking hell, Elias. Can you fucking stop"
My older brother is cursing endlessly as he walks behind me.
He wants to stop me, but he knows me. When things don’t go my way, I will go the extra mile.
What Elias Deus wants, Elias Deus gets. And right now, I want my answers.
"Listen" Damien grabs my arm before I go into the basement. The basement. That hidden part of our home that contains some of our personal enemies and victims.
Drug dealers who broke our deals. Mafia rulers who betrayed our codes. Politicians who we collectively agreed to dislike.
All of them. Tied. Gagged. Caged.
"Look, Zane is not in the right state of mind, you shouldn’t torture him" Damien says with all seriousness.
The person who has the answers to my question is sitting in the basement, just three steps away from my reach, and I shouldn’t torture him.
I look at Damien’s face. There’s a frown etched into his face. He means what he’s saying.
He’s holding me by the upper arm. His grip is strong on me, stopping me from going further. And wordlessly, I take his wrist and remove his hand from my body.
"I will do what I want, Damien" I say simply and he curses again.
"Keep yourself in check" he warns before rapping his knuckles against the metal door harshly.
His rings hit the door in the process, and the keeper, Aria, opens the door.
Aria hesitates for a secondary when she sees us. Her eyes move from Damien to me, and then back to Damien.
"You...want to come in?" she asks with confusion and Damien turns to me, brows pinching together with worry as he asks.
"Are you sure you want to go in, Eli?"
"Open the door Aria" I order her and she looks at Damien again. "I can go in for us, okay, Eli. You don’t have to go down there" he says, and at my lack of response, he asks Aria to open it.
The first step into the basement brings back flashes of that memory.
I was freshly nine when I was locked in a cold, dark basement. Isolated from my brothers, and forced to be surrounded by unwanted objects.
Loud cymbals I can’t control. Broken jack in a box I can’t predict. And old televisions with endless static noise.
"Fuck" I gasp, squeezing my eyes shut to kick the noise out.
"I’m taking you out now" Damien growls without hesitation.
He grabs my arm again, and I brush him off. I don’t need this. I have control over my environment.
I’m not nine.
"Aria, put on all the lights" I order and she follows my order.
The light brightens the entire basement and there’s a chorus of disjointed grunts and groans, backed up by irrelevant mumbling from the prisoners in the basement.
"Shut the fuck up, all of you" Aria snaps and they shut up.
I go into the interrogation room and sit there to wait. Damien stays with Aria, telling her who we need, and assisting with dragging him in.
In two minutes time, the mouthy and overconfident omega with dark hair and green eyes is pulled in.
He’s the personal servant to the prince of Winslow. An orphan with no surviving family member. He’s the kind of good that is easy to use and easy to lose.
No one would cry over his dead body...except my stone angel, Noah.
"Sit" Damien growls as he guides the stubborn omega to the chair across mine.
The omega hisses, fighting against Damien’s strong arm, but my brother eventually forces him into the chair.
I like them submissive and obedient. Damien likes the proud and defiant. He likes this one, I can tell from the way his heavy rings aren’t leaving a red dent on the omega’s dry skin.
"What do you want?" Zane spits out.
His condition is poor, still, he’s holding himself up with a pride that disgusts me.
He’s nothing but skin and bones. His hair is longer now, touching his neck and curling at the base.
His bright green eyes are sunken in with dark circles under them.
Noah must have spent too much time with him, that’s why he tries, but fails, to be defiant with me.
"I have questions and I expect answers" I start, interlocking my fingers on the table and the omega scoffs.
Losing touch with my pocket watch’s steady count pulls me into that headspace.
"Who do you think you are? A god?" Zane asks, shaking as a violent spasm runs through him.
I don’t think I am a god.
I am a god.
Even when my heart is spinning off course and my palms are growing cold.
I am still a god.
"You look broken and you can barely speak" I point out the obvious, and it makes him uncomfortable. He shifts in his sit, but tries not to change his demeanor.
’Bash his face against the table’ my alpha growls, and I shut him down. My palms are starting to gather moisture from how long I’ve been here.
I’m not stuck, yet, I feel stuck.
"I hope you and your goddess-condemned city are counting down your days, when I’m out of here, I will bring hell to this place" Zane snarls and Damien grabs his nape.
"Like you’ll ever leave here, apple" Damien snickers, and the omega growls at him. The growl sounds like that of a rabid dog.
I don’t have time to spend on rabid dogs.
"Tell me about Noah’s mental health" I say, and Zane freezes, staring at me like I found out something I shouldn’t know about.
"Why would I tell you anything?" he asks in a less confident voice.
"Because he’s my husband, and because he would die in two days time if you don’t give me an answer" I place my palms on the table.
The cockiness has left Zane’s eyes, and he looks...interestingly scared.
"Did he try to...did he try to..." Zane stutters, unable to finish his words.
"Try to what?" I ask.
"Nevermind, go fuck yourself! If he does it, it’s on you and I hope you feel guilty till you die, you heartless motherfucker!" Zane screams with more energy than a man in his state should have.
"Zane" I get up, teeth bared and ready to kill.
"Eli, calm down. If you kill him, we won’t get the answers we need" Damien holds one hand up to stop me.
"Talk, he’s going to kill you and I can’t stop him, apple" my brother says to the omega he has in his hold.
"You’ll face hell if you don’t tell us what we need to know" I have never felt this way. There’s molten lava surging through my blood.
"Go on, bring it" Zane starts to laugh.
He doesn’t sound mad. He sounds like a child pushed to the corner. Like a victim choosing to laugh in the face of horror.
"I won’t do it" I whisper and step back.
"Death would be too soon and too kind for you, Winslow dog" I inform him, and Zane’s laughter stops completely.
"He will do it" I point at Damien and Zane’s face morphs into panic as he starts to scream.
I’ll visit him again soon.
First, I have to see Noah.