Omega Series: Omega Part 12

"Not unless the Triumvirate approves the disclosure of such information."

"How can their names be of any importance whatsoever?"

His silence was stifling. This line of discussion appeared to be closed, to the dissatisfaction of both of us, if I read his tight features correctly. "Why do I get the impression no one wanted to find me?" I asked.

"Politics."

"I don't understand."

"I know." He clearly wasn't willing to enlighten me. "The Supreme Priest will see you soon and the Supreme Magistrate when he's done. I would recommend you be on your best behavior."

Like I'm not now? "And if I'm not?" I asked, a little irked by anyone telling me how to act.

"You probably won't like the consequences." His words were too casual.

His vague threats were a million times worse than anything Herakles or the priests had ever threatened me with.

For the first time in my life, I had the feeling I was so far out of my league, there was no bridging this gap. "You are really good at this game," I whispered.

"Game?"

"Pa.s.sive intimidation."

"I've never heard it called that." The smile was cool and fleeting. He left the balcony and approached me.

My senses, and a few random emotions, were thrown into a frenzy that caught me completely off guard. I was finding it hard to focus on the fact I never wanted this man within striking distance. Instead, I was lost in a state of confusion until he was almost toe-to-toe with me and then, not about to back away because ...

Well, I never backed away from a challenge. And that's what this was. A predator sizing up how hard his prey was going to fight back. I'd fight to the death, and I wasn't afraid for him to know it. I met his dazzling gaze.

"People are cautious when dealing with me," he said. "They hide their true intentions, lie when they feel threatened and stick to the peripheral because they sense the danger inherent in drawing my complete attention. You tend to walk in blindly swinging a bat. You know no fear, and you're honest beyond a fault."

Heat spread up my neck and face. I sounded like an idiot. I didn't want to care what he thought, but some part of me was acutely aware of the fact I was always too different.

"Intimidation is an art form with one key component: uncertainty. How will you react when you don't know what I'm capable of?" he continued quietly. "My game is people, and you're not playing it like others do, hence my "

" curiosity." The word was almost choked out.

"Yes."

I couldn't handle his intensity or my growing unease. I shifted away, wanting to put something between us, even if it had no chance of standing up to him if he chose to attack. "Just putting this out there." I was starting to babble, too, unable to control it. "You are scaring me. Kudos to you for that. I'm probably going to have to try to escape so whatever punishment you're planning ... this is already pretty freaky. I'd probably rather choose physical torture over this mind twisting stuff. If you take suggestions."

"Not usually." Was he amused?

I had no idea. I'd never met someone I had less of a read on, and more of a sense about, than him. In fact, that's what was bothering me foremost: the draw. The uncanny familiarity of a man I had never met, the need to know more about him despite suspecting he was constantly on the verge of killing me. "Who are you? Do you have some sort of magical power?" I asked. "Or have we met before?"

"It's a game. Nothing more."

Of all he had told me, this was the only thing that sounded false. It was intuition again, whispering secrets I couldn't quite make out. "That's not true," I said aloud. "This ... I am not just a game to you. You do know me. I mean something to you."

"A promotion."

"No."

"Stop there."

The low threat was almost a growl, and he was tensing. My breath caught. I didn't dare look away from him, not about to be caught with my guard down if he came at me.

"There are limits you are not ready to push," he added.

He knows me. Not the Oracle or someone he had a dossier on. Me. But how? My mind raced with possibilities, none of which were remotely feasible. I kept coming back to the suspicion he had some sort of divine power that gave him insight or maybe even foresight. With the senses and reactions of an animal, he had to be more than human. According to the priests, the discreet offspring of G.o.ds and human women existed in several high up positions in the governments. Viewed as compet.i.tion by G.o.ds, and distrusted by humans, demiG.o.ds were said never to announce what they were.

Or ... did he feel what I did? The draw?

So engaged was I in figuring him out, I barely noticed he had left until I heard the door close.

Adonis Wade freaked me out. I wasn't about to stay here.

I counted to twenty then went to the door. To my surprise, it wasn't locked and no guard was posted outside the door.

Closing the door, I gazed at it for a long moment. This was a dare. That much I figured out. I had no clue what this guy's end game was but I doubted I wanted to be involved.

How did I find and rescue Herakles?

I debated for a moment before an idea dawned on me. Spinning around, I went to the bedroom of Adonis and searched it for a guard uniform.

Chapter Nine.

Two hours later, I managed to scout an exit route and made it to the prison in the east wing. It went quickly, since no one was present to challenge me in two of the four buildings on the compound.

Similar to Adonis' apartment, the prison area showed signs of regular and continued use. Having never been in a prison before, I still thought the cells were too small. Maybe six by six, which meant my poor Herakles couldn't stretch out on his bed. It took some self control not to plant in the middle of the corridor and yell for him. I had to pretend like I belonged, which mainly meant not drawing too much attention to myself. Adonis had an iPad in his apartment, and I pretended to walk and check it, like I was doing something.

Entering the prison cells, though, required me to cajole the reluctant guard and convince him I'd lost my pa.s.s card. He let me in probably because no one in their right mind would want to break into a prison and I pretended to check my iPad screen and peer into the one-foot square window of each cell.

They were all empty but well maintained. Unable to understand the purpose behind the compound, it was beginning to weird me out.

When I found him, I nearly squealed. Herakles was alive, lying on his side on his bed and staring at the wall. One arm was in a cast and he had a black eye. I didn't see any other wound or bruises, though he appeared paler than usual. Resisting the urge to tap on the window, I used the loaner pa.s.s card the guard had given me and swiped the door open.

Herakles twisted towards me.

I strode in. I didn't dare take off the mask, not with the camera in the corner. It appeared to be the only live one on the compound. "Hey," I said. "Pretend like it's not me."

He sat up. "What are you doing here, Lyssa?" he hissed, his face draining of all blood then flaring red. "You cannot be here! Everyone "

"Yeah, yeah, I know. I'm the Oracle."

Speechless, he stared at me.

"Aaaaahhh. You didn't think anyone would tell me, did you?" I said, unable to prevent the note of pure glee that entered my voice. "Well they did. The SISA razed the forest and the priests committed pre-emptive suicide. I came here with a mercenary, ran into a High Priestess then got captured by a guy named Adonis who turned out to be the head of this horrible place. Now I'm here to rescue you."

He listened, unable to help the upturn of his lips at my story. "If you were any other person, this might surprise me." He rose. "What's your plan?"

I glanced at the camera. "We need to get rid of that first."

Stretching upwards, he knocked it to the side. "Done."

I didn't hesitate. I tossed the iPad on his bed and shimmied out of the outer layer of clothing. I had overlapped two pairs of the guard clothing and gave him one and the oversized boots I'd stolen from Adonis.

"To leave, go out the way you came in and follow the signs to the D Street exit," I instructed him.

"You can show me."

"Um, no." I straightened and turned my back to him while he changed. "I gave it some thought. I think you should leave without me."

"Absolutely not."

"Okay ... he's tracking me, Herakles. Don't ask me how, but he's keeping an eye on me. I need you to leave, so he can't threaten me anymore."

"Who?"

"The head of SISA."

"Terrible plan, Lyssa."

"Or is it secretly brilliant and you don't want to admit it?"

"Not at all."

I sighed. "Look, Herakles. They're onto me and for whatever reason, this Adonis guy is serious about messing with me. But he also knows things I need to know. About my parents. My life before we met. About me," I explained.

Herakles gazed at me.

"I want to stay long enough to find out some things. That's it. If you leave, you can find help and break me out."

"You make it sound simple," he said with a concerned frown. "Do you know what he is?"

"Sort of," I said. Truthfully, I didn't. I knew Adonis was more than I could see, that he was connected to me.

"Did he hurt you?"

"No. He's trying to play mind games with me."

"You suck at games."

"Yeah, I know. But he wants me alive and has information I want, too," I said.

"I won't leave you here, Lyssa."

"Herakles ..." I sought some sort of middle ground. "Please. I'm not a little girl anymore. You prepared me for this my whole life. Give me two days here then knock the front gate down and rescue me."

He was considering me. I didn't know why my overprotective guardian hadn't already dragged me out of here, unless ... would he betray me, too? He knew I was the Oracle. Were the priests and he working together on whatever was going on? I crushed the thoughts. My Herakles would never disappoint me.

If he was listening, it was because I had to be making sense or he thought me old enough to make my own decisions.

Or ... something else was going on here. I was skating on the semi-frozen surface of a lake waiting for it to crack and me to plunge into the dark, cold waters below. No matter why my stomach was churning, no matter what reason he might have for leaving me here, I had to know he was safe before I'd feel comfortable skating onward.

"Really. There's no way for both of us to leave here. He can sense me somehow. I'll endanger you. Our best shot is for you to escape and bring back an army of ... someone. Just avoid the mercs, cuz they'll stab you in the back. Adonis has said he won't hurt me, at least not before I meet the Supreme Magistrate in a few days." Yeah, I totally just lied to my only friend.

A brief silence fell, and then Herakles chuckled. "My Lyssa. All grown up after two days on her own." The terse note in his voice was one I hadn't heard before.

"It's been a learning experience," I said, quoting him. "Will you go? Please? I don't think I'm in any danger right now. If anything, I think Adonis wants to see what makes me tick."

"I can see that about him. But the members of the Triumvirate will destroy you. I imagine they will wait for the full moon, when the barrier between our worlds and that of the G.o.ds is thinnest. That gives me a week, but I wouldn't take that long. They won't harm you before submitting you to the trials, either."

Trials. More evidence he knew so much more than he had ever shared. It wasn't the right time to ask him to share. I wasn't remotely scared about some stupid trial. I just couldn't live with myself if Herakles was hurt or worse because of me.

"Exactly. It's a plan. Leave, go get help and rescue me. Then things will go back to the way they were, and we'll be happy in the forest again."

"Lyssa," he said gravely and turned me to face him. "Things will never be the way they were."

"Yes, they will. They have to be. You can make them be," I said, a tremor of emotion in my voice. I didn't want to admit this was my life. Gazing into his dark eyes, I was forced to face some of the emotion I'd been avoiding. "I love you," I said, my throat tight. "I want us to be happy again."

He hugged me to him hard. "Then I will do as you ask, Lyssa."

"Thank you." My eyes were br.i.m.m.i.n.g with tears. We both knew my hope wasn't founded in reality, but I wasn't yet able to admit how far gone my comfortable world was. I needed him to buy into my dream, however crazy it was. "Now go, before someone figures out what happened." I pulled away.

"I will make it out of here," he a.s.sured me. "And I know who to ask for help. I just have to find them."

"Sounds good." I gave him the pa.s.s card and boots then sat on the prison bed. With a long, final look at one another, Herakles pulled on his mask and left. I closed the prison door behind him and sat down on the bed, suspecting Adonis was going to figure out what I had done soon enough.

As I waited, I struggled not to doubt my guardian. He had given me no real reason to. Except lying to me my whole life. It was too quiet in the tiny cell, too small for me to exercise or work off some of my apprehension and worry.

The guards came to the door and opened it an hour later.

Ugh. I was hoping not to deal with Adonis directly. He stepped into the room. I lifted my head from the wall behind me and waited to hear what he had to say. A man this striking should speak in rainbows and puppies, not be in charge of the organization that suppressed humanity and tortured people.

"You had the chance to leave," he noted and studied me. "Why didn't you take it?"

"You have information I want, Adonis." The subtle draw was back like an itch I couldn't reach. It left me warm and agitated. "You can leave me here, by the way. I'm happy in a cell."

"Far be it from me to make you unhappy, but since I'm the only one you can't outsmart or outrun, you'll stay with me," he replied with cool sarcasm.