ROSWORTH PHARMACEUTICALS COMPOUND, HYPNOSIA CITY “WE ARE HERE, SIR.” A voice interrupted Sven’s reverie. He opened his eyes when he heard the words of Alistair, his personal driver. He was attending a charity gala in the Kingdom of Larran when he received a call from his assistant about an urgent matter. Using his private plane, he directly flew back here in the State of Nyx and Alistair was already in the airport to pick him up. He looked through the car window and true to his words, they were here. “Mr. Bernstein and Doctor Greyson are waiting for you in your office.” Alistair added. He nodded his head in acknowledgement. Patrol cars were currently parked on their drive way and he saw some of the local authorities along with their security forces checking the surroundings. The lights were on in the whole compound, especially where the laboratory building was located. A tall and muscular guy approached the car and opened the door for him. “Good morning, sir.” The man firmly greet
A month later…RUNE LOOKED AT HERSELF in the mirror one last time. She was wearing a standard white button-down, long-sleeved shirt, black trousers and her black and white high-cut converse. Two words came to her mind, presentable and comfortable.She was lucky that her boss wasn’t really that strict when it came to clothing. For him, as long as you look presentable he was okay with it. She let out a sigh while fixing her short, sandy-blonde hair. She checked her watch and saw that she had enough time to get to their office without being late. Putting her black coat on and messenger bag on her right shoulder, she went outside her apartment. The crisp morning air greeted her as she closed her door.Fifteen minutes from here or depends on how fast she could walk, she would reach Tactica Private Investigation and Protection Agency. Ugh. What a long name. It was where she works as a Private Investigator / Bodyguard. Her last assignment required her to be at her client’s side almost all da
RUNE WAS LYING down on the couch inside their resident physician’s office. It was where she ended up after the incident with the taxi driver this morning. Her wound was already treated and bandaged, her whole body was scanned and lucky for her, she didn’t have any damage inside. She also had a change of shirt since the one she was wearing was stained by her blood. She had to borrow one from her boss, it was way too large for her frame but as if she had any other choice.It was already one in the afternoon. Mirra, the woman she saved, was with their company secretary for an interview. She was an omega from Lunaseine, a town located just outside Hypnosia. She mentioned that she was new here and was looking for a job when the incident happened this morning. She then called her boss’ assistant because she remembered that they were looking for another assistant due to their growing clientele.She let out a sigh and stared into the white ceiling, recalling what happened earlier. Mirra broug
Rosworth Pharmaceuticals, CEO’s Office…“I’M SORRY, SVEN, even Lieutenant Jacobs couldn’t do anything, but we believe that this man has something to do with the closing of the investigation.”Sven gritted his teeth when he heard what Mavis said on the phone. They were in communication ever since she and her partner, James Randall handled the break-in that took place in their laboratory a month ago.“Send me all the information you have on him.” he told her before he cut the call.From what Mavis told him, it seemed that there was more to this that meets the eye. Just like what he thought at first. He couldn’t accept the reason that was given to him.‘There isn’t enough evidence that’s why the higher ups decided to close the case.’Well, that was bulls—t. Mavis and Randall were also put on a forced leaves but he was grateful that Lieutenant Jacobs, their superior, who decided to continue working on their case despite this setback. He met the man and he could say that he was someone who
“HEY, RUNE, HAVE YOU MET this Sven Rosworth in person? I mean, your best friend is working for him, right?”Rune turned to Riven De Villalune who was sitting beside her. He was the youngest member of Tactica’s Cyber Security Team and came from Ivslight, the realm of the humans. Calix brought him here to set up the materials for this meeting. She frowned when she saw the crooked, black-rimmed glasses that almost cover his face. She fixed it for him and the young man mumbled a ‘thank you’.“Nope. Usually, Brenner and I see each other outside work. They have also a different company structure than ours and although, he told me that Sven was the best boss out there, it’s not every day that he mingles with them or the rest of his employees for that matter.” she answered. “Why did you ask?”Sebastian ‘Sven’ Rosworth was the CEO of Rosworth Pharmaceuticals. He was a licensed chemist and the only heir of Rosworth fortune, a close relative to the current monarchs of the Kingdom of Larran, bill
“NEWS OF OMEGAS GOING into sudden heats in public are getting more and more every day. The State of Nyx already issued a directive to let them stay in the confines of their homes for the meantime until this issue is resolve —”The video was then put on pause. Rune looked at Calix who was sitting on her left. He shortly met her eyes before it went to Wren and Calvin who were on the opposite side. They occupied half of the table with Brenner and Riven seated beside Calvin. All of them knew that this case would be different from the other cases they handled before. Their eyes then went back to Eugeny Bernstein, who was standing in front and presenting them all the information they had on the missing drug, the effect it had on the company and how they thought that it was connected with the Omega cases. Eugeny fixed his glasses before looking back at them. Sven who was seated near the front turned his chair, crossed legs and with the air of authority oozing from him, he faced them.Rune fe
SVEN RAISED his brow on Rune’s question, not because it was out of place but rather because it was an interesting one.“How about Betas?” she continued. Everyone’s attention was now on her.Brenner shook his head. “No. To tell you the truth, we didn’t think about it because D-15’s purpose is for the Omegas alone.”“So, you don’t know what will be its effect on other secondary genders?” she followed up.Brenner nodded. “Yes.”“Hmm…” she pondered.“What’s with these questions, Ms. Navarre?” He interjected.He was curious as to where this was going. She was going to open her mouth but Calix spoke and offered an explanation on her behalf.“Let her, Sven. If she’s asking questions, it means that there might be something we might have missed from this discussion. By the way, she was the employee involved in that incident I called you about three days ago. ”A sudden interest rose on him. “Oh. Go on then,”To his amusement, Rune gave him a blank stare while thanking Calix. She brought her at
“OPEN THE ENVELOPES in front of you.” Calix said as Sven looked at him. He then stood up from his chair and went in front. Sven gave him the remote before he stepped aside, giving the floor to him to continue. All of them did what he told. True to what Rune thought a while ago, the envelopes contained information about a certain person.Calix then pressed the remote and a slide came up the screen. A familiar black-haired woman with round, emerald-green eyes appeared along with all the information about her. She was beautiful albeit the gothic type and although smiling, her gaunt face and pale complexion gave her a mysterious aura. But the woman was not really a mystery at all. In fact, her face was on posters and billboards all over the State, making her familiar to anyone.“Valentina Craventus, the first Omega who is running for Nyx’s Head of State,” Calix continued as he looked on the screen.Every six years, Nyx held its election and the Head of State would be its highest elect lea
VALENTINA looked up when the door of the doctor’s office she was in, opened. She was currently in the Luna Valfari General Hospital, the nearest hospital where their event was held. Her personal doctor who was working here let her used her office as she went outside and help. Kirsten ‘Kit’ Hanks, her executive assistant came in along with Petros Ducali, her head of security. Both of their faces were grim and she felt her stomach tightened again for whatever news she was going to hear from them.“How’s Helena?” she asked in a steady voice. It wasn’t the time for Kirsten to see how devastated she was because if there was someone who had been most affected, it would be her.Helena Fontana was her best friend, a bright and bubbly woman with chocolate-brown hair and eyes, while she met Kirsten in college. Both of these women were with her ever since she started her political career and through the years, she saw how the relationship of these two changed from friends to lovers. And although
JOHANN gritted his teeth as he looked at his face in the mirror. It was not swollen anymore but half of it still had the purple and yellowish coloring from the beating he received a few days ago. He also had a bandaged cut on the right side of his forehead. A faerie’s tag tracker, huh? Bullsh—t! He clenched his fist tightly when the reason why he received the beating in the first place entered his mind. His Valfaris senses failed him again as it always did. Yes, he was a Valfaris and a quarter human, his biological father being only a half-Valfaris.He was already disappointed that he turned out to be a lame Beta, but the worst part was when he found out that the smallest f—king portion of his genes was ruling out some of his Valfaris attributes. In his case, he didn’t have the ‘smell’ of a Valfaris and he couldn’t smell them either. So, in the end, he couldn’t identify someone’s race by his nose alone. And even though he had the Valfaris endurance and other physical changes when it c
“MAV, JAMES IS HERE.” A voice interrupted Mavis from cutting the vegetables for the dish they were making for the kids. She paused and looked at Emilyn Lee, the other person helping her preparing the food.Emilyn frowned. “Hey, don’t look at me as if I have something to do with his arrival.”A burst of laughter echoed in the kitchen and this time, she turned to the source of it and saw Gabe Augustine standing in the doorway. Emilyn then joined him as Mavis rolled her eyes with a grin on her lips. They were currently in Madalenna Orphanage, the place where they all grew up. It was a state orphanage where its biggest benefactor was Samuel Rosworth and the Rosworth Pharmaceuticals. She was also under their scholarship when she went into the Police Academy. Samuel Rosworth often visited them before, sometimes spending the whole day with them. Sven was still studying that time at Larran but on vacations, he went here with his grandfather, so she knew him from before but she didn’t have the
BRENNER sat up from his bed. He checked the time on the luminous clock sitting in the nightstand and saw that it was only two in the morning. He let out a sigh before he opened the small, round lamp beside it. He ran his palms over his face afterwards. There was a lot going on that was keeping him awake until morning and these past few days seemed liked a blur with how things turned out.Taking the accounts of what happened in Moontown and the confirmation that D-15 was used for other purposes other than what they intended it for, brought a lot of turmoil in him. From the blood sample brought by Calix, D-15 was diluted and mixed with La Mistique, a strong aphrodisiac that was under the illegal drugs list of IRIB. Not only that, it had strong hallucinogenic and relaxant effects that it was commonly used by sexual predators on their would-be victims. Mixing the components of the two substances created a new drug that was potent enough to send any Valfaris into Feral state. And being Fer
SVEN WAS still reeling from a mix of shock, fear and amazement when he stepped out of the car. Dang, I can feel my knees buckle. Connor, who opened the door for him, had this sh—t-eating grin on his face.“I’d say that you enjoyed that ride.”“Yeah, and I hope that what doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.” His voice was laced with sarcasm but as expected, Connor only laughed at him.The blonde looked on the other side when they heard the door opened and Rune came out from the driver’s seat.“You heard that, Rune? You’ll make Sven stronger.”Yes. She was their driver. The reason why he didn’t saw her when they left Casa Noches was because she was already in the car. He didn’t expect that because Connor was the one who drove them there since it was Alistair’s off today, but with the news given to him, who would drive was the least of his problems. Well, that thought flew out of his head when Rune stepped on the accelerator and sped away as if they were in a car chase in the movies and su
“RUNE, can you slow down?” Connor’s grimace was obvious on his face while looking at her chomping on the steak she ordered. “That steak is not going anywhere, you know.”“I’m hungry.” she snarked at him as another chunky piece of meat went into her mouth.They were currently in Casa Noches, a high-end restaurant for the rich and famous here in Hypnosia. The place spelled opulence from its high ceilings, huge glass windows down to its round tables covered in white linen that was neatly arranged. White was the over-all color of place with gold accents, greeneries and a fresh bouquet of colorful flowers in each table completed the light, minimalist appeal of its interior. And it was quiet, like people here were not allowed to talk out loud. She almost snorted at the thought.She and Connor were seated a few tables away from Sven and his date. He told him before they entered that they could order anything they want. She was not in the mood to eat when they left the office, but when she sa
FROM HER computer screen, Rune let her eyes roamed again inside Sven’s office; she had been doing this for these past days in order to familiarize with his environment and to rest her eyes from reading business documents which tire her out after only a few paragraphs. She was guarding Sven alright, but she would die of boredom with just sitting and doing nothing, so she told him to treat her like she was really his assistant.It was also her way to distract herself from only looking at him and having weird thoughts about them since they were all alone in this huge office. Anyway, no one would fault her if they knew. She was just a normal woman after all who couldn’t help herself fantasizing about the gorgeous man, who was unfortunately, just a few steps away from her. But hell yeah, she would chastise herself for being distracted by him every day that they were together alone. Argh. This was the very reason why she declined to be put inside his office in the first place.She was actua
“GET IN.” Said the man who was driving the black car that picked up Johann just outside the third street in that part of Moontown, the guy was wearing a black cap, a black mask and an all-black outfit.He grinned when he recognized him. He hurriedly went inside and sat beside him. This was the same man who called him up a while ago and told him that there were people looking for him around that medical facility. He had known this man for about a year and even if it wasn’t in his nature to trust immediately, he sure had no problem trusting this guy. It was because in the short period of time that he knew him, this man showed him what loyalty means.“Thanks for the save.” he uttered.The man just gave him a cold glance and kept on driving. “I told you to be careful.” he said after a while.“Who are those people anyway?”“Private investigators hired by Rosworth.”“Huh. Is he that determined to find his precious D-15?”The man didn’t even look at him when he replied. “If I were you, I’d l
FROM THE car window, Calix eyed the two-story, gray and white building on the other side of the road where they parked their car. The silver letters near the top of the building spelled its name. Duskinrose Medical Center, it was a suburban hospital in Moontown, another town in Nyx. Barty was with him but he was outside having his cigarette break while Sinna just went inside the hospital and would be the one to confirm the information forwarded to them by Mavis Grace. According to Mavis, Jonathan Goldbloom, Johann’s fifteen year old younger brother was confined here just before the break-in happened and was in a coma.As per Johann’s records, his brother was his only remaining family and ever since their parents died when Jonathan was ten, he had been his guardian. Based from the medical records Riven got from his previous hospital in Ivslight, Jonathan had always been sickly and developed a rare blood disease. His condition fluctuated to better and worst over the years. One thing tha