Page 56 of Nine Inch Nasty
I shoot down that fucker and nearly bowl Delaney over when I land.
A few others shoot down after me, and it feels surreal to be standing here like this, arm wrapped around her waist while I kiss her, in this incredible home I never thought could be somewhere I’d actually live as something other than an employee. Security guards don’t usually get to live in lavish homes, but I guess I’m not actually a security guard anymore.
“We start Monday, training at HQ?”
She nods, scuffing her foot against the floor.
“Hey, it’s going to be fine.”
She looks up at me. “You promise?”
I sweep her into me, kissing her on the head. “No, but I promise that when we get home from whatever happens, I’ll hold you just like this and remind you how worth it it is. Delaney, it’s like we’re getting everything any of us could ever fucking want. I’m serious. It’s all because of you. Because you took a chance on acouple of guys that never thought they had a shot in hell with you.”
“I think I should get some credit too,” Adam says as he gets off the slide. “I put the idea of Hemlock in her mind, gave her a reason to get there. Surely that wins me some sort of prize.”
“Well I was the first one she chose for herself, so if we’re doling out prizes, put me down.”
I didn’t even realize Leo was in the room. The walls in this particular room have a rock façade, so he kind of just blends right in. Don’t tell him I said he looks like a wall, please. We’re supposed to be friends.
“I’m the prize, obviously,” Delaney says as she smacks his ass and starts wandering out of the room, checking out all the changes her parents made without telling her.
So far, she’s found new wall colors everywhere, new furniture, and weird notes from her mother she keeps ripping off walls and stuffing into her pockets without sharing. It’s clear her parents have known about this for a while because they’ve been preparing.
When we get to the main living room, it’s pretty empty aside from a couple pictures on the mantle that they framed for us.
Pictures of Delaney and Adam, and me and my brother with Delaney when we first started dating, other pictures that Delaney must have taken on her phone and sent to her parents when she met more mates. “Someday this room is going to be full of memories we’ve made, and it’s going to be beautiful,” she says as she lets her fingers trail along the raw stone edge of the mantle. “I don’t think it’s really going to hit me, how much we’re truly about to be responsible for, until we’re in the thick of it. It’d be easy to overthink it and try and stress about everything that could go wrong, but…” she spins around to face us, and I realizeeveryone has wandered to the room and is now standing in a near perfect semicircle around Delaney.
She takes a deep breath. “I think I’d rather think about how many things we could get right.”
“As long as we all keep you at our center, I don’t think we can do much wrong,” Leo says solemnly as he steps forward to kiss her hand. “You’re the common denominator here; we’re just a bunch of people that likely couldn’t be more different if we tried. And I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I have been informed that it’s time for you to fulfill the prophecy. We can’t settle into these new roles until that’s no longer hanging over our head.”
“What are you talking about? How do you know information we don’t?” I ask him. We’re security, we know stuff.
“Um, well, I just saw it, there.”
He points to the mirror above our heads, which has text written on it in creepy, red, bloody letters and he reads it out loud. “The time to fulfill the prophecy is now. Inform your queen. K thx. P.S. There are dick shaped popsicles in the freezer.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Delaney
“What? No! We were having a moment! We were being all sweet and sappy, and…really, goddess? This feels like the right time to go make me do shit? I’m sorry, do youwantme to enjoy the mates you gave me? Because I’ve got to tell you, you keep making us work when what we really need to be doing is strengthening these bonds.”
Child, must you complain so loudly? Look. I’m literally risking so much just reaching you like this, but how was I supposed to know everything would turn out the way it did, and you’d already have everything you needed? Activating the prophecy was my failsafe, your key to a comfortable life with your mates.
I stare at my reflection in the mirror as the voice sounds in my head, ready to fucking scream. I’ve been around my motherenough to know exactly how the goddess communicates, so maybe I should be more freaked out by this, but I’m more just infuriated that I have to go do more heroic shit.
And yes, maybe I’m about to look like a crazy person, having a one-way conversation by screaming at myself in the mirror, but sometimes there’s nothing to be done about that. “What do youmeanhow should you know? You’re literally the goddess! Don’t you plan all this shit out? Come on, get it together!”
Wil’s eyes are huge as he steps up next to me, running his hands right above my shoulders. “Sweet divine light. Is the goddess possessing you right now? I am not worthy! My dick is the least I can offer you!” and he drops to his knees and kowtows.
It’s a bit hard to control all the strings when I’m no longer fully in your realm. I don’t have long. Look, I’ll give you a hack, okay? You can’t tell anyone else though, or else the hack won’t work. When you get the Nine Inch Nasty in your hand and you approach your next obstacle, all you need to do is find a way to penetrate somebody with it. It honestly doesn’t matter who, or how, or where, or anything else. Once the relic is deep within somebody’s body, all the chaos that’s been brought to the surface will suddenly dissipate. You can’t use the same person twice though. So, if another issue should arise thereafter, you’ll have to choose another sacrifice.”
I run out of the room and lock myself into the nearest bathroom, covering my mouth to prevent myself from announcing anything that was just spoken to me internally.
Once there’s a mirror in front of me again, I’m able to communicate back. Yeah, I don’t know why I need the mirror, but I do. “You want me to dowhat?”
Sweet summer child, why do you think it is called the Nine Inch Nasty?
