Page 40 of The Death God
Thanatos took a deep breath and looked over at Jaki. “I might be wrong.” Then he stopped because he most likely was. He didn’t know anything about what happened in the house of horrors, nothing other than his reality.
“But?” Alaric prompted, and there was something in his voice that made Thanatos want to speak. Some werewolf magic, perhaps.
“We’re all from the blue wing.” He sought Jaki’s gaze again, and he gave a short nod as if he understood what Thanatos was trying to say.
“Meaning?” Nothing in Alaric’s voice had changed, and yet Thanatos got the feeling he was losing patience.
“In the house of horrors, we lived on different wings. Like hospital wings. Everyone on our wing wore blue scrubs. I think there were twelve of us.” He glanced at Jaki again.
“Yeah, twelve. Six rooms with two in each.”
“We shared the canteen with the others. We were never allowed any contact, but it happened now and then someone in pink or green scrubs was late to leave, and we’d see them walk away, or when we ended up in the sickbay, there could be people from the pink or green wing. I have no proof, but maybe we were divided according to skill.”
“The one in the car is dressed in black scrubs.”
“Black?” The floor swayed under Thanatos’ feet. “Maybe they change when they leave the facility?”
“Fuck.” Jaki slumped down on the bench next to Amell, who shot to his feet and increased the distance. Rufus snorted but stepped out into the corridor outside the kitchen.
“Minerva! Prophecy! We need you in the kitchen!” Then he walked back in and sat next to Jaki.
It didn’t take long before Minerva and Prophecy appeared, and they did a recap of the whole story. Minerva’s eyes were wide as she looked between Alaric and Amell while Prophecy adopted his normal superior, bored look.
“He’s knocked out?” Minerva looked around the room when Alaric and Amell had stopped talking.
“No, he’s conscious now, but we’ve kept him bound.”
“We should go see him.” She turned toward the doorway. “He’s not dangerous, right?”
Amell snorted, and Thanatos felt for him. It wasn’t fun to have your options taken from you, and he could’ve bound himself to a person he didn’t like for the rest of his life against his will.
“Let’s take a look at him.” Alaric moved through the crowd they’d created, and the rest followed. The summer night was cool around them, but Thanatos could smell flowers in the faint wind. He needed to spend more time outside.
There was a sleek black Mercedes parked in front of the castle, and they moved toward it. In the backseat was a man about Thanatos size, smaller than the average man. He was lying across the seat, trussed up. A mop of almost black hair and tanned skin, what little could be seen looked tan at least. He was dressed in black, but it was the same type of scrubs Thanatos had worn for most of his life. “It’s the same type of scrubs, different color, but the same sort we had to wear.”
Alaric dipped his head in acknowledgement.
“I don’t recognize him. Minerva?”
She stepped up to the car but shook her head almost instantly. “Never seen him.”
Jaki and Prophecy followed with the same result.
Unease churned in Thanatos’ gut. “Does it mean there is another facility?” He turned to Rufus. “You were there, were there more than three wings? I’ve only ever seen blue, pink, and green.”
“Same.” Jaki mumbled. “Only three colors.”
Rufus grimaced. “I can’t say for sure. I went downstairs to the underground floor and was shown to a room. Jaki was brought there by a guard. When we ran, we passed one wing.” He reached out and pulled Jaki to him.
“The blue wing was in the opposite direction from where we ran. There might have been more wings in another direction. I don’t know.” Jaki shrugged.
Minerva narrowed her eyes. “We lived there for thirty years. We would’ve known if there were more than three colors. There have to be more facilities than we believed.”
“Shit.” Nausea built in Thanatos’ throat. “I figured there were around forty people locked in the house of horrors. You’re saying there are more houses?”
“Open the door.” Prophecy touched the glass of the window.
Alaric unlocked it, and Prophecy reached inside and placed a hand on Himeros’ shoe. His eyes turned white in an instant, and Gregory jumped before looking away. Thanatos looked at Alaric and Amell. They wore identical looks of unease. In that moment, there was no question they were brothers. Seconds went by, and everyone waited. A wind ruffled Gregory’s hair, and Thanatos smiled at him. He was too good-looking for his own good, or maybe too good-looking for everyone else’s good, since he was well aware and not afraid to use it.
