The Hybrid [malexmale]

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Fifteen

Arikos had been dead for two days and no one cared.

Drak didn't even mention him once, and when others happened to bring him up, it was in a foul derogatory commentary about the fact that he was a whore. They didn't even use his name; they just called him a mutt or a whore. He was nothing more than that to them, to everyone.

Since then, I hadn't been able to find the strength to retaliate against Drak, or any of the other gods. I found it strange. Their words infuriated me and I wanted to lash out, but the moment I felt that hot rage trying to surface, I snatched it back and caved in on myself, going silent. It felt strange to obey a person who wasn't Akin, and the more I thought about Akin, the more I fell into despair.

If Akin were here, he would be crying. He'd probably have enough tears for both of us. I couldn't even manage a single tear. Was this how grief really felt? I hated it. I hated how cold it was. And I hated how terrified I was to get angry because I was afraid of hurting someone else. Granted, I didn't care if I hurt the Atlantean gods, but the stupid people who were innocent in all this... they didn't deserve to feel the wrath brewing beneath the surface. They were just doing what people did-- choosing a side.

I wondered how Akin was doing.

He was probably distraught. They had no idea where I could be, and if they figured out it was Atlantis, there was no way they could get here without instantly being captured. I could imagine Hades and Lucifer putting him on lock down so he couldn't do something obscenely stupid. I silently thanked them for their efforts to keep Akin under control. Akin normally had the amazing ability to control himself, but there were times, and those times involving me, where he snapped and went on his own kind of rampage.

And I had no doubt he was experiencing that right now. My heart ached over the fact that he was probably crying and it was my fault. I shouldn't have gone into this mess on my own, but if I hadn't, and Akin had come with me, Akin would also be caught in this mess...

That thought chilled me.

And Akin would've been killed during my episode.

I already killed Arikos. Who else would get caught in the crossfire? Who else was I going to kill?

Akin? Raven? Xenon? Lea?

Hades? Lucifer?

I was out of control. The rage inside me didn't play favorites. It killed everything in its path, anything to sate the hunger for blood boiling my insides up and making my stomach cramp with hunger. When I went into rampage mode, there was nothing, but red.

I could easily kill Akin and not even realize it.

If I did that, I wouldn't be able to live with myself.

I'd already killed Arikos, and I felt like I was silently falling apart. I wasn't even sure why. I'd just met the halfbreed, and he'd betrayed me, and yet up until the very end, I'd seen the hope in his eyes that maybe, just maybe, I could change the course of the Atlantean history, that maybe I could take him away from his miserable and pathetic existence.

And you killed him.

"My," Drulius's high-pitched voice drew me from my thoughts, "He's been incredibly silent and obedient since the show at the main temple. I'm impressed, Drak. You've trained him quickly." I said nothing, just sat silently on my knees at Drak's feet while he sat in a plush black leather chair, staring out the windows of his room at the sea while plucking an olive off the snack platter on the small table between his seat and where his sister sat.