Page 40 of Generation Omega: Revealed
After I end the call and hand the phone back to Titus, I lean my head back and close my eyes, reaching for the instincts that are basically nesting inside me. What I find, miraculously, is peace, like I’ve successfully completed my mission for the day.
I get it. It’s all out of my hands now. My life, Tillie’s life, and Ethan’s life—our pack, basically this iteration of the omega legacy, is beyond my control. Everything now depends on the goodwill and skills of the nameless killer who came to end our lives.
You seriously couldn’t make this shit up.
CHAPTER20
KAZIMIR
I could have killed them. Ishouldhave killed them. Why didn’t I? Why did I merely shoot this man in the shoulder and then take offense when my brother did the same? Why did I thin the herd of my compatriots when it became clear they were a threat to this man’s survival?
This failure will cost me like nothing ever has, but I’m not the only one who will pay. To delay my troublesome questions and their equally problematic answers, I walk toward my brother’s body still lying on the alley floor, injured but not dead yet.
Ivan coughs and groans as though his wounds are a badge of honor instead of proof of his inadequacy. “That fucker was tough, but now he’s dead.”
“He’s not dead.” I raise my gun and point the barrel at my brother.
His smugness vanishes, replaced by fury. “What are you doing?”
“You couldn’t defeat him, not with a gun or in combat.”
“Ididdefeat him. He’ll die a painful death.”
Disgust roils within me for this man who shares my blood. There are words I might say, closure I could give myself in this fateful moment, but there’s another man on the concrete who groans, an honorable man who doesn’t deserve to die in such an ignoble place. My brother, however, absolutely deserves to die here, his blood emptying into a forgettable gutter in a corrupt world.
“Kazimir, what are you…”
My bullet enters his heart, silencing him forever. I find the finality of this quiet quite endearing. For this, there will be consequences, and they will be well worth the profound benefit of no longer sharing oxygen with such a vile man.
I mean to return to the dying warrior and the questions that must be answered, but I pause, my gaze fixed on the object that drew my fascination and altered my aim. I lean and grasp it, before shoving it into my pocket. Then I leave my past behind and approach my abruptly uncertain future.
The warrior’s eyes flutter open and closed, his consciousness almost gone. Staring down at him, I fail an important test of my discipline by running my tongue over my lips, once again tasting her creamy orange and vanilla spice. Its potency stirs a need inside me that I’d cut out with my sharpest knife if I could. This man on the ground and I have something in common. We were both poisoned, him by my worthless brother and me by the omega linage I’ve been seeking to destroy all my life.
The pull to reach her is a wrenching force that threatens my free will like nothing else could, but I’ll embrace the pain rather than submit to the abomination of the omegaverse. Hate is fuel and I’ll need to tap into its depths to repel this constant assault.
I crouch down and apply pressure to one of his bullet wounds, not to stop the bleeding but to rouse him.
His piercing blue eyes open, wild at first and then fierce. “Just kill me and get it over with, you piece of shit.” He’s not cowed, even now. He’s as reckless with his life as he was when he fought my brother. Two bullet wounds and he still got the jump on my brother, pummeling him with skill and a frenzy of violence that gave my brother a delicious taste of his own medicine. That only added to my interest, but it’s not what sparked it.
My voice is lined with barbed wire as I demand, “Why did you stay with her?”
“Because I love her.” No regret. Complete certainty…faitheven.
Disgusting. Faith is for fools. “You can’t ever touch her again without burning.She’san omega. You’re a beta—you’re beneath her. You can’t have her.”
His body jerks as the poison drags him closer to his end, but his voice remains true. “Doesn’t matter. She’ll be safe.”
“You’ll never have her again and you’ll have to watch as she’s withallher alphas, however many are called. You’ll always be on the outside looking in—is that a life?”
He rolls his eyes at me like I’m the irrational one. “The only thing that matters is that she’s safe and happy.She’sall that matters.”
I find myself speaking words I shouldn’t. “Would you want to live even if you can’t be with her?”
“Yes.” He shudders, the fragility of his body at odds with the mettle in his soul. “She needs me to live. We’re part of each other and none of this omega stuff can change that.” He swallows roughly and, for some reason, my own throat constricts. “I would do anything to live, but I can’t make that happen, not even for her.”
He squeezes his eyes shut from the pain or because he doesn’t want my face to be the last thing he sees in this life. But he hasn’t reached his true surrender yet, though he’s discovering his human limits, the limits on the power of his love for her.
Weaker now, with no pleading in his tone, he asks simply, “Can you help me live for her?”
