To ruin an Omega

Chapter 259: Gut feeling 4

PAULINE

The girl closed the door. The soft click echoed in the silence of my chambers. She stood there with her back pressed against the wood like she wanted to disappear into it.

Good. She should be nervous.

I tilted my head as I faced her fully. My smile stayed in place.

“I got a call a few hours ago.” The words came out conversational. Light even. “What I was told by that person, it didn’t make me proud of you. Not like I was the night before.”

She swallowed. The movement of her throat was visible even from across the room. “Oh.” Her voice came out small. Uncertain. “Was it somehow discovered that it was not an accident?”

“I was careful,” she added quickly. “I swear.”

The swear made something twist in my chest. But I pushed it down.

“You were not proactive enough to confirm if the girl was actively dead.”

Her eyes widened. The brown of them went glassy with panic. “No.” She shook her head. The motion was jerky and desperate. “That girl wouldn’t have survived that. She couldn’t have.”

I took a step toward her. Then another. My bare feet made no sound on the carpet.

“Did you check if she had stopped breathing?”

“Yes.” The word came out rushed. “I always confirm. I know what disappointing you will cost.”

The phrase hit me like a slap. I know what disappointing you will cost. Like I was some kind of fucking monster.

And her saying that almost made it seem like the Omega bitch resurrected from the fucking dead.

That made my mind tangle with older words. Different words from a different time. I will haunt your narrative and your family till your blood dies out.

Athena’s voice. Athena’s curse. Still echoing after all these years.

I pushed the thought out. Was I really thinking Athena was still haunting me from the fucking dead?

The rot of old guilt tried to surface. I shoved it back down where it belonged. That girl couldn’t be Athena. ns I wasn’t fucking being haunted. What happened had to happen.

I was simply protecting what was mine.

“You’re lying.”

Number Four flinched like I’d hit her.

“How the fuck would an Omega have survived that?” My voice rose. The sweetness burned away and left only venom. “Now they’re emptying delicates. Investigating. Asking questions.”

I closed the distance between us. She pressed harder against the door like she could phase through it if she just tried hard enough.

“You were reborn and remade for the sole purpose of being special.” Each word came out sharp and pointed. “You are proficient in healing. You have magical protection built into your blood and have the use of innate small miracles.”

I stopped inches from her face. Close enough to see the fine tremor that ran through her body. Close enough to smell the fear coming off her in waves.

“And you couldn’t take out a simple Omega.”

She opened her mouth and then closed it because no words came out.

“What is to say some of my enemies I sent you after didn’t survive you and go into hiding?” The thought made my stomach turn. It was a slum chance that was even possible but I had to wonder. How many of my carefully laid plans had been compromised by this girl’s incompetence? How many threats still walked around breathing when they should have been rotting in the ground?

“The only reason you are still even breathing right now is because I know thanks to your creator Valentine’s ingenuity that you will not be found out by the delicates.”

That much was true. Valentine had made his creations well. They didn’t show up on most magical scans. They didn’t leave much traces that could be followed back to their maker or their mistress. The delicates could investigate until they collapsed from exhaustion and they’d never connect Number Four to the attack.

It was a small comfort when everything else had gone to shit.

The girl’s knees buckled. She dropped to the floor with a thud that probably hurt. Her hands reached for me. Grasping as she pleaded.

“I am so sorry, Luna Pauline.” Her voice broke on my title. “I beg for your forgiveness.”

I looked down at her kneeling form. This thing that I’d paid so much for. This weapon that had turned out to be dull and useless.

“I do not forgive easily.”

She flinched.

“You are the reason I was humiliated.” The words tasted bitter but true nonetheless. “I want my pound of flesh back from you.”

I let the silence stretch. Let her hope build that maybe the punishment wouldn’t be so bad. Then I smiled again.

“No pills for you today.”

Her head snapped up. The color drained from her face until she looked corpse pale. “But… I will suffer.” The words came out strangled and desperate. “You know what they did to us. What you paid to be done to us. The pills let life be bearable.”

Was that pathetic plea supposed to work? Was it supposed to make me reconsider?

Because all I felt when I looked at her pathetic face was Aldric’s insufferable tone when he’d told me the girl survived.

My hand moved before I’d fully decided. The slap cracked across Number Four’s cheek and snapped her head to the side. The same motion I’d used on Athena all those years ago. The same satisfying sting in my palm.

“Do you think your life deserves to be bearable?”

She touched her reddening cheek but said nothing.

“You are given power to be useful to me.” I grabbed her chin and forced her to look up at me. “I took you because you showed promise. Now you fail in taking a bitch’s life and dare wag your tongue at me?”

Her eyes filled with tears. They spilled over and ran down her cheeks.

“I’ll deny you for two days for that.” The words came out cold. Final. “To give you some fresh perspective.”

“No.” The word burst out of her. “Please. No.”

She grabbed my leg. Both hands wrapped around my calf and squeezed. Held on like I was the only thing keeping her from drowning.

I was. And the feeling… To have that much power over another… It was refreshing.

“The rot hurts.” Her voice came out raw. Broken. “I cannot do two days. Please. I’ll find a way to correct this. I’ll kill the girl if given another chance. Just please don’t take away the pills.”

I looked down at her clinging to my leg. This pathetic creature that I’d paid good money for. This disappointment thinking her tears mattered.

“I do like you begging.”

Hope flared in her eyes.

“But that ship has sailed.” I peeled her hands off my leg. “The bitch gets to survive and you get to learn how to be better for me.”

I stepped back and put distance between us.

“Leave.”

I turned away from her, dismissing her with the motion. But the mirror on my dressing table gave me a perfect view of what happened next.

Number Four stood slowly. Her whole body trembled. She shook like she was caught in a seizure and her hand rose. I watched her fingers spread wide, reaching for my throat even though she stood too far away to touch me.

I felt it immediately. One of her small miracles activating as a cloying smell covered my nostrils. The power in her blood responding to her desperate need. My throat started to close. The air cut off mid breath.

But then something else happened.

Her fingers curved inward and wrapped around her own throat instead of mine. She choked on nothing, gasping for air that wouldn’t come.

I turned and watched as she fell to her knees. Both hands clutched at her neck. Clawing. Fighting against the magic that was supposed to protect her but now turned inward like a snake eating its own tail.

I walked toward her slowly. Letting her suffer for a few seconds longer. Then I crouched down beside her gasping form.

“That is the first time you’ve actually attacked me.”

Her eyes were wide and terrified. The whites showed all around the brown.

“But remember.” I reached out and stroked her hair the way I’d stroked Athena’s. “You were made specifically for me. Valentine was never going to allow one of his little creations to hold that power without checkpoints.”

She tried to speak. Nothing came out but strangled wheezing sounds.

“I am that fucking check point. That means you cannot move against me.” I said the lovely words that Valentine had given me when he’d handed over this creation.

Seeing the fail safe built into their very bones with my own eyes did bring pleasure to my soul.

The choking stopped. She gasped and sucked in air, still coughing occasionally until she retched.

“Three days without the pills for that.” I stood and looked down at her. “Let the rot fucking cover you while you beg for death. Now out of my sight.”

She looked up at me. And I saw it. The moment something broke inside her. The moment the fear became something else. Something harder, sharper and far more dangerous.

She raised her hand again.

The choking started immediately. Her own magic turned against her. Blood vessels burst in her eyes. Red bloomed across the whites.

She tried again.

Blood poured from her nose and ran down over her lips and dripped onto the carpet.

Again.

Her ears started bleeding. Bright red streams that looked black in the morning light.

“You really want me dead.” I shook my head. Almost impressed by the determination. “You should have put this effort in with the girl I sent you after.”

She swayed. The blood loss and lack of oxygen finally catching up. Her eyes rolled back and she collapsed forward onto the carpet.

I stood over her crumpled form and laughed. The sound was intended to hurt her psyche and I was sure it did.

“I would have said four days but that would most likely send you to the deep end.” I nudged her with my foot. She didn’t respond. “And you look like you’ve put yourself through enough hell already.”

Three days would be sufficient. Three days of the rot eating away at whatever beautiful flesh she thought she had. Three days of suffering that would remind her exactly who held her leash.

“I will go have my bath.” I stepped over her body. “Fix yourself and leave before I return.”

The bathroom door closed behind me with a soft click. I turned on the taps and let the water run.