Chapter One
Freedom came with its own shackles. Nero accepted that.
He walked around the small living room in the house he had been assigned. The little building wasn’t a grand place, but his new home provided more room than he’d ever known before.
Under the Horatius Group’s control, he had been given more than others, but the pittance of luxuries they threw at him never seemed to matter much. In the end, Nero was still just a chump taking orders from others. He was a tool to be discarded when his masters were finished with him. The only difference was that he didn’t fight his fate.
If he had, he might have ended up like the rest. Or worse. He’d heard his Group superiors say it so many times. They had no problem taking back what they’d given. Hybrid lives were a small cost for the precious divine liquid they contained.
He shook his head, snickering. The Horatius Group believed they could pull out the essence of ancient demi-gods from the hybrids. He didn’t understand all their procedures, their alleged magic stones or any of the nonsense he heard them spout.
In the end, the reasons didn’t matter. Even the truth and his belief didn’t matter. When the Horatius Group decided they didn’t need or want a hybrid anymore, they’d kill them. The only choice was servitude and eventual death or escape.
In all those years with the Group, he’d thought escape was impossible. The Luna Lodge hybrids hadn’t escaped. The Group had left them to die and knew where they were at all times.
Remus had accomplished something different. He’d proven the Group wasn’t infallible. He’d shown that hybrids could both escape and deal a serious blow to their masters.
Nero looked out the window and down the hills to where the bulk of the hybrids lived. His house was situated slightly away from the main group, much like his position with them.
Some passing hybrids walked between the houses on the beaten paths, busy dealing with their daily tasks. Calling them carefree might have been too much, but still it was like they had never once been frozen and taken away from the world, nothing more than pawns in the grand bizarre schemes of the Horatius Group.
Now they were free to live the lives they never even dared to dream or imagine. And it was all because of one man, Remus.
He snorted loudly.
Man.
It was hard to even think of Remus as a man. At this point, he was allegedly more god than man, or at least the hand of a god. Unlike many of the other hybrids who felt comfortable with Rem’s easy-going facade, Nero found it hard to even call him Rem, instead almost always feeling he needed to use his leader’s full name. Maybe the Group was on to something with all their talk of divine heritage.
Remus had become the great leader who had paved the way for this special band of hybrids by leading them away from the hellish mountain that had been their prison. He’d managed to pull then from the clutches of the Group and the rest of a world equally hell bent on destroying them.
Nero scrubbed a hand over his face. He’d never get used to the feel. It was like touching another person’s face every time: the unfamiliar curve to the lines, the smoothness, even the stubble. Nothing about it was familiar to him.
He walked over to a mirror hanging beside the door. For most people, the decoration was a simple touch, something that allowed them to check themselves before they left for the day. For Nero, the mirror was just another foreign object reflecting back a face he didn’t know, a face different from the bestial visage he’d had for most of his life until the escape changed his life and appearance.
Two deep blue eyes stared back at him, very different from the bright yellow he’d known before. He slid a finger along the side of his nose. It was shaped like any other normal man’s and not widened with deep grooves that wrinkled when he snarled. Nero curled his top lip, still half-expecting the sharp teeth to be there, and only half glad at the more human presentation.
Shaggy dark hair hung in his eyes. Before he hadn’t cared how his hair looked, now he was almost certain he was in need of a cut. Part of him wanted to say that he needed it so his hair wouldn’t get into his eyes in battle, but deep down, he wanted to look good.
The bright blue tattoos on his back, neck and arms didn’t bother him as much as the other changes, despite being just as new.
Today’s inspection wasn’t his first look at his new face. Every day he went through the same routine. He’d strip himself naked and stare at his new form. The truth was difficult to digest: once a beast, now a man. The change was overwhelming. All those years he’d wanted nothing more than to look like the others, to be a part of something else.
He wanted to be more than just a tool for the Group or Romulus. He wanted to feel like he belonged.
Nero glanced back out the open window, wondering if he was finally where he belonged. It hadn’t really felt like it thus far. Most of the other hybrids seemed afraid of him. Others were downright hostile. His new face and body didn’t matter. They still saw him as a ruthless enforcer for the Group.
Still, Remus made it clear Nero was welcome, and it wasn’t like there were many other places he could go. Even if he could fit in with normal human society, he still had lived his life with the Group, and the idea of being back under the rule of the Group left a hollow feeling in his chest. If he left the protection of hybrids and tried to blend in with normal human society, he’d be a prisoner shortly after.
He sighed loudly and walked over to sit on his couch.
If he were being honest, he knew his reluctance to leave was about more than the evil of the Horatius Group. If he left, it’d mean leaving the reason he tracked Rem across the country and lived quietly alone.
He closed his eyes.
“Nyx,” he whispered softly. Just the thought of the female hybrid made his body go rigid with need. He could see her in his mind: her petite body and long black hair with its white streak.
Her presence had always pulled at him, even when they both still working for the Group. Then, he hadn’t been able to explain it and assumed that was just how hybrid women were, their rarity holding an appeal that unbalanced the men around them.
Once the change took place, it all became clear to him. She was meant for him.
He grunted loudly, angry at how easily he forgot his past. He didn’t deserve her, and there was nothing about his current position that indicated he did. In his time working for the Group, he’d done their work for them, kept Nyx and her people out of sight, prisoners. He was just as guilty as those over him, and he knew it. Truth was, his body might have changed, but he wasn’t so sure his soul had.
There was no way he’d sully her with his past.
Nero snorted again, almost amused at the idea she would even consider them being together.
Her hatred for him ran almost as deeply as the hatred he had for himself. He snickered. At least they had something in common.
Nero stiffened. The sound of footsteps prickled his ears. He took in a deep breath but with all the other hybrids near, it was hard to pick out the exact scent. Yet there was only one person who would bother to visit him.
The loud knocks hit the door, and he frowned. Maybe he could just ignore them.
“I know you’re in there,” Remus called from the other side. “Quit staring at that pretty face and open the damn door.”
Nero’s face heated as he quickly stood. He opened the door and glared at the man who was now the leader of this group of hybrids.
“What do you want?” he snarled.
Remus gave a wide grin and pushed past him into the house, all the while ignoring Nero’s obvious irritation.
“You know you could decorate things a bit more,” Remus said while looking around.
Nero scanned the room. A few items hung on the walls: pictures he didn’t really care for but also didn’t really care to move.
“I’m good,” he said stiffly.
Remus let out a loud laugh. “You’re good with pictures of flowers on the wall?”
Nero watched the other man. Rem’s green eyes watched him as if he knew Nero better than he knew himself.
He turned away, not wanting to know what the other man saw.
A warm hand landed on his shoulder, and he jumped. For all the speed and power of a hybrid, Remus always seemed faster, stronger.
“And this is why I came,” Remus said a little softer. “This is your home. You do with it as you please. We’ll go into town and pick out some things.”
Nero backed away and shook his head.
“I don’t think that’s such a good idea.”
When Remus didn’t respond, Nero looked over to him. Remus’s gaze once again fixed on him.
“Dei judicium,” Remus intoned.
The words shook Nero to the core, and without knowing he backed away from the other hybrid.
“Let the gods judge you now,” Remus said, repeating the very words that had been said by the mad scientist who had injected Nero.
He shook his head, not really sure what to say. His hair fell in front of his eyes, and he was glad for the cover. He knew they must be glowing with their eerie, deep blue light. When he’d first seem himself after the transformation, they had sparked up, almost like the night sky lit by the moon.
“You have been judged,” Remus said and gestured. “Harold left it to the gods, and they have decided.”
Nero looked up suddenly, anger pouring through him as he shouted.
“And what have they decided?”
Remus shrugged, unaffected by Nero’s anger.
“That’s between you and the gods. All I know is that you’re not dead, and you’re different. We both have seen what could have happened.”
It wasn’t the response he wanted. How was he supposed to figure out why he’d changed when he wasn’t even sure he bought into the idea the Hortatius Group’s experiments had anything to do with gods and demi-gods?
“You were given a second chance,” Remus said quietly. “I think you should make of it what you will. Very few people get that chance, and fewer among our kind do.”
Nero watched him. Remus had once tried to convince him to change sides, back when he was still a beast of a man. Even then Remus had faith in something that Nero wasn’t sure ever really existed.
“These are my people now,” Remus said and glanced out the window to the small village below. When he looked back to Nero, his face was full of the confidence that only a leader could have. “They could be your people too. It’s up to you. Not saying it’ll be easy, but you have my support.”
Nero turned to look out the kitchen window. Just over the curve of another hill, he could just make out the roof of Nyx’s bungalow. His heart thumped at the thought of belonging.
“Why did you take me in?” he asked, still staring at her house.
“Why did you save Jenna?”
Nero turned to look at him, not willing to voice what they both knew. It hadn’t been a decision.
Remus raised a brow.
“You saved Jenna from Romulus,” Remus said. “And then again from the Glycons during the escape. You didn’t have to. You risked your life.”
Nero sighed and closed his eyes. He gently rubbed the bridge of his nose.
He hadn’t really saved Jenna from Romulus. He’d just done Agatha’s bidding. If Romulus claimed Jenna, Agatha would have been angry, and he would have faced punishment. That said, the idea of a woman being taken against her will burned him and knowing he had prevented that filled him with pride.
“The Glycons should have never existed,” he said quietly. “They’re abominations. I was doing them a favor.”
The soulless bastards were more savage beasts than anything he could have ever been, despite their close link. What they did when left unchecked soured his stomach. They couldn’t even be called men anymore. Hell hounds, maybe, but not men.
“I put my trust in you,” Remus said. His voice was clear and calm.
Nero opened his eyes and started to protest when Remus held up a hand.
“There will come a time when you will have to decide what path you will go down,” Remus said, holding his stare. “Pick the wrong one, and there might be limits to my mercy.”
His eyes flashed a bright green with promise. Remus’s abilities exceeded the bounds of anything Nero had ever seen, and he knew the hybrid was serious with his threat. Remus had been no stranger to the darker side of the Group.
Nero gave a sharp nod.
“Good,” Remus said and smiled warmly. “Now we’ve got a meeting to get to.”