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Icarus

Losing her blood made his body ache. It shivered, and he had trembling hands, a gauntness in his cheeks, a twisting in his guts. There was purple under his eyes, and it stretched into bags. He spent too many hours hunched over the porcelain, gagging into the toilet, retching over the packs of Alpha blood he consumed again and again, trying to find the traces of her.

Mistakes were made, and he'd regret them now. He sank back into his chair. Hunger consumed him, and he tried to hide it. But of course his mates would notice their fingers running across his cheeks, thumbs on his jaw. They would know.

"Icarus," there was horror in Elysian's voice. In contrast, the eldest seemed fresh—glowing skin, plump, dewy cheeks. But there was nervousness to him, one that had Icarus caught. The nibbling on his thumb, the sweat on his brow, the worry in his eyes. And sometimes he would be screaming at governors deep into the night. Why are you taking so long? He'd screech. How is it so hard to find an Alpha? Icarus had closed the door with a sigh. "What is this?"

"It's nothing," Icarus replied, aching all over, so hungry he curled into himself, fingers on his belly. "Just tired."

"A drink," Elysian insisted, sliced veins allowing blood to pool. It flowed thick down his arm. "You will feel so much better."

And Icarus relented, knowing it wouldn't do him good, knowing it wouldn't help. For he'd just feasted upon Helios, Solar and Klaus, but even that had done nothing. He'd gulped mouthful after mouthful, and still his stomach remained grumbling and aching—begging. The trio had hidden the weakness in their limbs after, when he'd drunk far too much, insisted that they were okay. Icarus had merely smiled through blood stained teeth. I'm fine now, he'd said. That was good.

It was not. The blood of his mates were better than that of a stranger's but it wasn't the richness his body needed.

But now he pressed his lips to blood that smelled a little better, a tad richer, one that made life dance in his belly. The first drop on his tongue was oddly creamier, richer than usual—frothing with the goodness of hot chocolate and the tang of fruit. It was Elysian flavoured with someone better. Someone that tasted like her. He parted from him, gasping, inhaling air like a man dying.

His belly was full.

Elysian wiped his lips, cooing. "You needed that, didn't you? Haven't the boys been feeding you?"

"Who was it?" he croaked, eyes hot. Rage spiking. He'd searched for so long. "Have you found her?"

"W-who?" Elysian blinked, lips parting. Blood left his cheeks and only a stark whiteness remained. "I thought it'd be gone. It's been so long since I last tasted her—"

"We need her, Elysian," Icarus snarled like a man enraged, like death was imminent, and it was. "We'll die without her. I'll fucking die. I feel like shit because I haven't had her blood in weeks." He pressed his hands on his shoulders, almost shaking his mate. "I'm already sick."

"You've tasted her?" Elysian startled. "Icarus where—"

"In the blood packs, the mix—" he sighed, collapsed into his chair, fingers running through his hair. "I didn't think it would be like this. Like—"

"A drug," Elysian whispered hotly. "Like blood that I can't live without. Like speeding up the process of becoming Lonely." Icarus went quiet, noted the sweep in Elysian's eyes, the low gulp. He was just as affected, just as destroyed. "I lost myself, drinking from her veins. It consumed me so much that I was afraid. It felt…It felt like a—" Elysian shook his head. "I told the guards to take her out, but by the time I had collected myself, she was gone."

"Gone?" Icarus questioned. "You mean she ran?"

"No," Elysian shook his head. "They took her to Blood Wine."

"The ones for murderers?" Icarus echoed, mouth parted, eyes wide. His knees growing weak. "You're joking."

"I only discovered days after, it was as if they had their minds wiped. They didn't know who I spoke of, but I tracked the vehicles, the destination. I thought she ran. I believed that she used some sort of ability on them. But to go to Blood Wine…"There was a mess of tears in his eyes. "Icarus, I don't know if she's dead."

"Gods," Icarus staggered back, hands pressed to his eyes. God help them. "We need her."

"I know, and I'm sorry." Elysian's eyes grew only wetter, pearls down his cheeks, ragged breath as he clung to Icarus with quacking fingers. "I halted the service after that. And I searched so hard, but so many come and go. And I didn't know her name or her numbers. The records of her were just gone. Wiped clean."

"Are there clues? Anything you know of her?"

"She…"Elysian hesitated. "Looked like Euodia. She had dark hair, and dark eyes."

"Fuck," Icarus cursed. "More reason for our people to kill her." Panic laced his breath, his throat closing up. He stood, pacing the room. "Fuck!" Regret rushed through his mind, clamped tight on his throat. And then it seemed that the wheels of fortune turned, for his phone purred, hummed wickedly in his jeans. Icarus pulled it up, raised the receiver to his ears.

Solar's voice echoed through. There was panic in his voice, snappy and filled with terror. "Is Elysian there too?"

"Yes," Icarus said, placed the phone down, turning it to loud speaker. The eldest glanced up, worry pinching in his brows. "What's wrong?"

"It's Zen and Rowan. They're in the Belly of the Beast." Icarus's heart lurched, eyes wide.

Lonely lived there, far too many for their soldiers to kill. It was a cordoned off zone that none should be able to enter, a space that was warded by fey and restricted to all. It was lands of endless Lonely for all that the eye could see. It was danger and death. And it housed the largest den of the Lonely in the world, for it was where they threw their Lonely.

The Omegas that turned. The Omegas they did not want to kill.

Friends, family, lovers.

"Why?" Elysian gasped, teary-eyed. "Oh, God—"

"They found her," Solar replied. "Our Alpha."

"You're sure?" Icarus whispered, and Elysian pressed his fingers to his lips.

"Zen's sure. He's been with her at Hemlock, and now he's distraught with grief, it's as if they were mates," Solar's voice hitched, a strange beat in it. "She went into the horde. She wants to die, and we have to stop her. Stop her before she kills herself, and we can't live." His voice was furious and aching. "At the very least, we have to eat her heart before it stops beating. All of us." There was sour to his tone, a pitch that rose. "So come quickly."