Page 33 of The Omega Archives: Part Two

“Rita.”

“And Rita knows?” I ventured.

Ella sighed as she nodded.

“Where is Rita?”

She shook her head before looking at me again as I walked towards her. I picked up a few of the blankets she had been going for and rummaged through her closet until I found a duffle bag to shove it into. If she wanted to come back for stuff I wasn’t going to stop her, but I was going to make sure this trip was quick so we could get out of her and back to the pack house.

“Campus,” said Ella. “She’s a PhD student.”

That explained the bare bones of the place. I doubted her friend even lived here most of the time with how I knew the university made sure their upper grad students were constantly working with the assignments, teaching opportunities, and studies they were pulled into. It’s what made Prestford one of the best in the country. They didn’t settle for anything less than excellence.

“Stay there and don’t move. Tell me what you want so we can get out of here.”

Moving onto her bathroom, I reached for her toothbrush though it looked like she was in desperate need of a new one. I felt her eyes on me when I reached for the medicine cabinet. Opening up, even my eyes wanted to widen.

Tubes of pills lined the narrow shelves. Behind me, Ella went stiff at the sight, enough so that I could feel her tension in the other room where she sat on the edge of her bed. I told her to stay there and not move. After a few irritating mumbles, I was a little shocked that she listened.

Then again, she still looked like she was half dead, so I doubt she had much energy to be too combative.

Something to look forward to.

I narrowed my eyes, turning back to her after declaring that I’d get her a new toothbrush and better dental care back at the house. I picked up the bottles that her eyes froze on. “What are these?”

Ella shook her head. “Nothing.”

I gave them a little shake, jostling them around in the hazy plastic container. She cringed. “Don’t lie.”

“You lie,” she countered, looking away.

I balked. “I do not.”

She raised her thin, dark blond eyebrows, still not looking at me.

“I won’t lie to you if you don’t lie to me, deal?” I ventured. “White flag. Truce. Whatever the hell you want.” Because I was tired and she was filling my car still with that damn good scent of hers.

She shrugged.

“Deal?” I repeated. “Audible answer.”

“Okay.” She huffed looking back at me again. “Deal.”

“What are they?” I asked again. “Are these all the pills that my pack was talking about?”

“My suppressants... and blockers.”

“They still make blockers in pill form?” My brows squeezed together. It took me a minute before I realized that Ella hadn’t answered, and I looked back up from the tiny pills again. “Ella?”

“I figured you wouldn’t like the truth because you know the answer already. It doesn’t matter anyway. They still don’t work,” she admitted.

“Still?” I dropped them into the trash bin next to the toilet. She looked at the motion as if I just killed her puppy. I scoffed. “You took them?”

“Well, yeah,” she whispered.

“When?” I asked turning to watch the way she squirmed. She had to be joking, didn’t she? “Today?”

Ella whimpered. Sitting back on her bed, she clenched her hands into fists. “I just want this to stop. All of it. I didn’t ask for this.”

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