Chapter 155: Chapter 155: I’ve seen this before.
The manor had gone unnervingly still after Ashwin left. The faint smell of imperial iris and smoke lingered in the corridors like a low note, a reminder of Victor’s presence even before he re-entered the room.
Elias stood by the wardrobe, tugging the zipper of a heavy charcoal jacket up over his chest, still not used to how quickly Victor’s "requests" turned into inevitabilities. Warmer clothes. That was the only price for going with him: no arguments, no loopholes, and no ridiculous demands.
He hadn’t even had to ask why. Earlier, Victor’s voice had been soft but certain: "My ether looks red, but it’s cold. When I move us, it will get colder still. Dress for it." Elias had laughed at the time, but now, with the lined collar brushing his jaw and gloves tucked into his pocket, the warning rang louder.
The door clicked open. Victor filled the frame, a shadow cut from deeper shadow, crimson eyes gleaming faintly under the low light. He’d changed nothing of himself; the same dark shirt rolled at the cuffs, the black-stone ring glinting on his hand, but there was a quiet tension in his shoulders that hadn’t been there an hour ago.
"Good," Victor said softly, looking him over once. "You’re ready."
"I’m not sure ’ready’ is the word," Elias muttered, but his hands were already stilling at his sides.
Victor crossed the room in two strides and stopped in front of him. The heat rolling off his skin was subtle but steady, like standing near a hearth. "Stay close," he said. "No wandering."
"You make it sound like a field trip," Elias murmured, but his brown eyes flicked up to Victor’s anyway, catching the faint gleam of red that meant this wasn’t a joke.
Victor’s hand came up, fingers brushing the edge of Elias’s collar before sliding to his waist. "It’s not," he said simply. "It’s a hunt."
Elias swallowed once, the fabric of the jacket suddenly feeling heavier. "And I’m allowed on this hunt?"
Victor’s mouth curved, a rare flash of teeth that was more promise than smile. "Because you asked," he said. "And because I want you where I can see you."
Before Elias could find a reply, Victor bent and swept him up as though the movement were as natural as breathing. The world tilted; his arm locked firm beneath Elias’s knees, the other settling across his back.
Elias’s hands shot out on instinct, fingers curling into Victor’s shoulder. "Victor..."
"Hold on."
Crimson light welled up around them like ink poured into water. It licked over Victor’s shirt and bled across Elias’s gloves, bright enough to turn the edges of his jacket to silhouette. For a heartbeat the study dissolved into nothing but red and gold threads winding around them, the air itself humming, cold, so cold that it made Elias’s breath catch in his throat.
Then the floor dropped away.
When reality snapped back into place, the first thing Elias felt was concrete under his boots and the bite of damp night air against his face. Steam hissed somewhere to his left. Floodlights glared against wet pavement, picking out the sleek walls of an industrial complex stretching into the dark.
West Numen Labs.
Victor stood solidly on the pavement as if he’d simply walked there, his grip on Elias firm but not crushing. He shifted just enough to set Elias on his feet, though his hand stayed at his back a moment longer, anchoring him against the echo of teleportation.
"Welcome," Victor said quietly, eyes already sweeping the perimeter. "Stay close to me. And breathe."
Elias exhaled, steadying himself, the jacket’s collar still warm where Victor’s fingers had been. "You know," he said, his voice low but dry, "you could warn a person before doing that."
Victor’s crimson gaze flicked down at him, one corner of his mouth curving. "I just did," he murmured. "Now let’s see what walks."
The parking lot behind West Numen Labs wasn’t empty anymore. Floodlights had been thrown up in a rough square, their beams cutting white through the mist. Inside that square the air felt wrong, cold, and sweet, like copper dragged over stone.
Victor slowed his stride just enough to glance down at Elias. "Stay close," he warned, his voice low and unhurried. "This is not something easy to watch."
"I want to see it," Elias said simply, tightening his gloves. His breath left a pale thread in the night air. "If it’s him, I want to see."
Victor’s eyes flicked once, crimson catching the floodlights, but he didn’t argue. He shifted his arm from Elias’s back to his shoulder and guided him forward.
Beyond the floodlights, Ashwin stood with three of Victor’s other operatives. Even at a distance Elias could tell they were all alphas, their stillness had the same coiled-spring feel as Ashwin’s, the same predator’s patience. Robert had a length of ether-woven chain wrapped twice around his forearms; another man was holding a blade whose edge flickered faintly red.
And in the middle of them was Matteo.
Or what had been Matteo.
The corpse moved with a jerky precision, like a puppet whose strings had been tied back together wrong. The thing wore remnants of the same uniform it had died in, but the fabric was shredded and blackened with old blood. Patches of skin hung loose where the flesh had begun to slip; the hair was streaked with an unnatural red, clumped from dried gore. Its mouth was pulled too wide, teeth bared in something into a wide uncanny grin, and its eyes were open, bright with an ether that had no right to be there.
It looked like the photograph on a nightmare’s ID badge: part man, part ruin, part grin.
Elias stopped just outside the ring of light. He didn’t move forward and didn’t retreat. His gloved hands stayed loose at his sides.
Victor felt him go still and assumed fear. "You don’t have to..." he began, his palm a steady weight at the back of Elias’s neck.
But Elias didn’t look away. His gaze stayed locked on the moving corpse, not with horror but with the cool, measuring steadiness of someone who’d seen a variation of this before. The tremor of ether, the wrongness in the movement, the grin cut too deep, none of it made him flinch.
Ashwin, glancing over his shoulder, caught that expression and raised an eyebrow. Robert muttered under his breath, adjusting the chain’s tension. Even Victor’s grip shifted as he realized the stillness wasn’t shock.
Elias drew in a slow breath, the cold burning his lungs, and said quietly, "I’ve seen this before."
Victor’s crimson eyes flicked between the corpse and the man in his arms. The other operatives held their ground, waiting for his signal, but the god himself was watching Elias now, trying to see what he saw.