Chapter-49. The investigation
[Ezra]
~You asked if you wrote it right. And I said all your jumbled words make more sense to me than the verses of classic poems and paintings of famous artists.~
~I wish I had the same ability to comprehend myself as I deciphered you once. Maybe then I'd be able to rest the storm that plagues me.~
~I am soaked in the rain of your memories that I drown at every drizzle and fail to find a way to breathe in this downpour.~
~I knew you had been through storms so I dared not ask the damage, for I thought we'd find a refuge together and I was a fool to believe that would be enough.~
I leafed through the journal, reading whatever random lines my eyes fell on.
I lifted my gaze off the words scribbled on dead pages and peered at the jet area of the Glass palace.
I spun around on the chair and faced the desk in my office again. Placing the journal on the desk, I picked up a pen, turning over to a blank page.
The nib of the pen rested against the blank page and the ink dispersed into the page in an intricate pattern.
"Ugh!"
I reclined back in the chair, facing the ceiling as words rang in my head.
'Let's go home... together... we'll make it...'
Embarrassment crawled up my body.
"Damn it! I'm driving myself nuts!" I grunted, running fingers through my hair in frustration. "Seriously? What took over me that night? Out of all the people, I had to be like that with her! Ah! I am losing it! I am-"
'Yeah. Yeah. Ezra is a fucking moron. Tell me something new. You've been telling this to yourself ever since you returned from the mortal world,' Odeus, my demon wolf, grunted in my head. 'I'm trying to have a moment of peace here. But in your head, there cannot be peace. Damn you, man! Get a life!'
I sprang to my feet, banging my hands beside the journal. The journal jumped a few inches away from the desk before it fell back on it.
'If she is bothering you so much, just do something about her,' Odeus said. "What?" I snapped.
'I don't know! Fuck her, maybe? Because she has been on your fucking mind all the time and I'm starting to miss your otherworldly physics equations and theories and laws and stuff. How about we go back to having stars and galaxies colliding in your mind? Because now they seem more sufferable to me than your idiotic nonsense!'
"She's not on my mind. I am on my own mind. Why did I have to get so worked up? And then I said those stupid things. It boils my blood!" I almost yelled at myself.
Odeus turned silent and I could feel him sigh.
'Then write. Like you did years ago. If she's not the one fucking with your mind, then you shouldn't have a problem writing in that journal. Let your thoughts bleed when they want to. Asher was right when he gave this journal back to you. He knew you'd need it again.'
"I am not sick!" I growled. "I don't need this journal stupidity to get control over myself. I'm perfectly fine."
'Asher is always right. That's all I know. Have a good night and stop thinking about her!'
Odeus snapped before retreating further back into my head.
Clenching and unclenching my jaws, I glared at my reflection on the computer screen and a fresh memory crashed upon me.
'I wouldn't come if you called. In fact, I'd run as far away as I could from you... Because I know... none of you will choose me... Tell me, Alpha Ezra... would you choose me over your Luna candidates?'
I clenched my fists.
"NO!" I cried, smashing my hand across my desk, scattering the files, papers, stationary, and gadgets on the floor. "I'd never choose you. Who do you think you are to even ask that question to me? And who the hell do you think you are to reject me!? You will come to me when I call. If you don't, I will fucking drag you-"
Taking a sharp breath, I stopped my words. Breathing roughly, I glared at the journal and I was about to hurl it across the office, but I stopped and securely placed it in the drawer.
I looked at the pen as its ink bled into my fingers. I flopped back into my chair, taking a deep breath, but the suffocation didn't leave my chest. It had been the same ever since that night.
I shouldn't have gone for the sex night.
I placed my hand over my eyes as the image of Xanthea being fucked on my bike flashed in my mind, closely followed by the image of me fucking her on the car right before her ablaze pack.
'Alpha Ezra... It's p-pretty, my b-burning pack. Thank you for doing this for me. I'm happy... so happy...'
Something bitterly scorching churned in my chest. My cock throbbed, pulsating against my pants.
"That girl is getting on my nerves." I spoke through my gritted teeth.
It was difficult for me to accept that she had somehow triggered me and no matter what I did, I couldn't calm myself down.
The journal was some bizarre stupidity that I buried inside me. The only problem was I couldn't throw it away. It was still buried inside me like a time capsule ticking slowly, like a time bomb waiting to explode all at once. Knock. Knock.
I took a deep breath and finally addressed the knocking at the door of my office.
"Come in," I said. "What was so urgent it couldn't wait until tomorrow?" I asked Nesryn.
Nesryn looked at the mess I had created in my office. She walked closer to my desk and her eyes fell on my hands and then at me. Sitting in front of me on the chair, she slid a file towards me.
She attached the pen drive to the wide screen display that projected the information in glowing words in the air. Using the in-built keyboard and mouse on my digital desk, she controlled the display of information on the wide screen. "This is all you wanted to know about Xanthea. Her life in the Virgo pack, her family history and her relationships with her family."
I looked at the displayed information.
"This was urgent? You could have just sent me the soft copy," I said, skimming my eyes through the information.
"Xanthea's mother was an outsider?" I asked, looking at Nesryn.
Nesryn leaned back in the chair, folding her hands across her chest and crossing her leg over the other.
"Yes. Freya Plath. An omega, no one special, loved gardening, was a florist in the royal palace and had deep knowledge of herbology. The knowledge Xanthea has is from her mother. Freya Plath came from a poor Plath family that lived in the Leo pack. But they were expelled from the Leo pack on account of stealing. They remained rogues for a while until they immigrated to the Virgo pack for better future opportunities."
00000
"Looks like someone found a better future by becoming someone's mistress, no less the Alpha of the Virgo pack," I mumbled, reviewing Freya Plath's profile.
There was no picture of hers, which meant Nesryn couldn't find one.
"But are rogues accepted in packs this easily in the mortal realm?"
"Of course not."
"So why did Valdimir accept Freya and her family in his pack?"
"Maybe he fell in love?"
"What rubbish!?"
"Hey! Mortals do crazy shit when they are in love."
"Keep on digging into this. Something doesn't feel right about Xanthea's mother, and I want to find out what. Also, any updates on why her good-for-nothing brother, what was his name?" "Niko-shit-lai," Nesryn said.
"Yeah, that shit. Why did he burn down her place?"
"Seems to me it was her father, Valdimir Virgo, who ordered his son to burn down her house."
I heard the pen crack in my grip.
"Why?"
"You have sent him into a coma, so I can't really find out why until he comes out of the coma. But a sane answer would be... mortals tend to bury or burn the memories or belongings of their dead family members." "Xanthea is not dead-" my voice came out as a low growl "-yet."
"For them she is. Moreover, that place belonged to his mistress. So maybe he wanted to close that chapter of his life for good. Maybe those jerks thought Xanthea would never return. At least, not alive," Nesryn said. "I mean, look at what happened with your previous brides. It kind of makes sense."
Leaning back in my chair, I swiped left on my desk that glowed soft blue beneath my fingers and the footage from the Virgo family popped on the display.
I didn't want others to find out, so I asked Nesryn to secretly investigate Xanthea's house, and that Virgo vermin of a family of hers.
"Valdimir deposited a decent amount of money in Xanthea's account every month. So, I have mixed opinions about the Virgo Alpha. But Xanthea never used his money. She earned and supported herself and her education." "Now... did she?" I peered at Xanthea's picture in the file.
"Yes. But the rest of the Virgo family and the pack were outright abusive to her. From physical harm to mental torture to bullying and harassing her. Especially Nikolai," Nesryn said.
I narrowed my eyes and stopped swiping as Nikolai's profile popped up.
In the fire I set in their pack, Virgo palace was harmed the most and so was everyone inside it.
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The father, who didn't even think once before offering his daughter to the demon lords, never cared to see in what conditions his omega daughter lived or how she was treated by his own family and pack, had jumped in to save his family, taking most of the severe injuries on himself from the fire. And that's what led him into the coma.
I would have killed them that night if she didn't stop me.
But I don't regret not killing them. Not at all.
"Can healers from our realm bring him out of the coma? Her father, I mean," I asked. "I want to know his reasons."
"We can try," Nesryn said.
I impassively looked at my computer screen that showed footage of the rest of the Virgo family.
Nathalia quivered in the empty hospital corridor. Her panting breaths echoed as she gasped, looking in the air around her frantically. Dark circles hollowed her eyes, a proof of all her sleepless nights she spent haunted by her nightmares and the evil spirits lurking around her at my command.
Nathalia had sustained severe burns on her face and body. She was still recovering when I sent four demons to haunt her. They would slowly suck the life, hope, and happiness right out of her soul.
The fire was just the beginning of their misery.
I often wondered how Xanthea would feel seeing her family like this. From the way she responded to her burning pack, I could tell... she would be terrified.
I looked at another footage of Xanthea's stepmother lying in the hospital's bed, fighting for her life. I had terrorized her with disease demons. As soon as she recovered from one disease, the other tormented her body.
My final goal was to push them all to the edge of madness where they take their own lives. And once they did, it would be easy for me to drag their soul to hell and make them suffer for eternity.
But it was not fun. I wanted Xanthea to see her worthless family meet their worthless end and enjoy it. I wanted her to relish on their sufferings, to smile when they cried and screeched in horror.
But every time I tried imagining her enjoying their suffering, her teary eyes filled with pain and terror flashed through my mind.
"But that Niko-shit-lai is stubborn. Even with several demons haunting him, he is stopping them from affecting his mind with sheer willpower. He will be the toughest nut to crack and the most concerning one as well," Nesryn said. "He has become the Alpha of the Virgo pack."
"Poor pack. Never had a man for an Alpha."
"I know, but what urgently needs your and your brother's attention is - Nikolai recently met with the Alpha King and other fallen royalties from the packs we've captured in the mortal realm. I think they might be up to something," she said. I chuckled.
"What do you think those mortals can do to us except inviting their own doom?" I mocked, but Nesryn had a serious look on her face. "Why? You don't agree?"
"It's true that mortals alone cannot stand against the demon lords, but I suspect they are trying to contact the Celestial realm. And this time not just for blessings."
I squinted my eyes, understanding the reason behind Nesryn's urgent call.
"The Celestial realm has been looking for a way to invade the Infernal realm for a long time now. They have always wanted to weaken us, to control us and our ways of living. We need to disperse these forces before they dare stand united against us. And this is something Asher and Raven need to know, Ezra. We shouldn't underestimate mortals. They might have short lives, but they can go to any extent to protect that."
I nodded.
"So, since you were directly heading this, according to my spy company's policy, I wanted your permission to open this investigation to Asher and Raven," Nesryn said.
"Ok," I said. "I'll talk to them about it myself as well."