That same evening, shortly after 10 p.m., Helios and Dante walked through the quiet streets until they reached the narrow alley where Helios, as usual, always met Spider. As always, Spider had refrained from writing down any more information than necessary. He always avoided anything superfluous; caution was in his nature. Still, Helios had been surprised that the meeting had been arranged on such short notice.
Not that he would complain.
At last, things were moving forward. He could hardly wait to finally get that prosthetic. In his mind, he had already mapped out everything that would come after. This man would craft him a prosthesis unlike anything that had ever existed before.
Helios was not willing to replace his missing fingers with crude, rigid pieces of wood. He demanded more. Something that moved, supple, almost lifelike. And he would keep the man working on it until the desired result was achieved.
Of course, he could have continued his work without issue even with only eight fingers. But after just a few days, he had realized that the little finger and the ring finger were far more important than he had ever imagined. Their extra strength was sorely missed, especially when gripping.
Once again, he was grateful that his dominant hand had remained unharmed. Had it been injured, it would have been a catastrophe for him.
After a week, Helios had at least grown accustomed to his new situation. By now, he had even discovered a few new things he wanted to explore. The newly gained eternity brought with it countless possibilities, and Helios could hardly wait to devote himself to progress.
Even if, after the sexual escalation in his lab earlier, he hadn't been in the mood to do much of anything. He had worked more or less halfheartedly on a new formula. But unfortunately, the only conclusion he had come to was that the day was over once he had slept with Dante.
What he wanted most was to rest—and maybe do it again. Or several more times. These self-healing abilities were insane. He was tired after sex, yes, but his body recovered so quickly that he could theoretically go on and on.
At least in theory.
How many times could he manage before his body gave out? He was far too curious to know whether he now had more stamina—or how his body would adapt under extreme conditions. Maybe he could test a few things out once he went on vacation with Dante.
His to-do list seemed to be growing into infinity.
It was strange, having so much time. There was no rush—why should there be? Apparently, he now had all the time in the world. So he might as well indulge himself and let work be work. At least for a short while, when he could simply switch off his mind and let his body do the talking.
The alley lay silent before them, only a faint lantern light illuminating the cobblestones. A light wind blew, carrying with it the scent of wet asphalt. Helios felt Dante's calm gaze, which made itself known as a pleasant tingling sensation.
"Are you sure you want to tell Spider about your missing fingers?" Dante asked quietly.
"There's no other way. Unfortunately," Helios replied just as softly.
Dante took his hand and gave it a brief squeeze. He stopped walking, forcing Helios to stop as well. Helios looked at him questioningly.
"What's wrong?"
"If everything blows up in our faces here, we can always run," Dante said quietly. "Even if nothing can harm you physically anymore, there are still plenty of ways you could be hurt."
"Who would even want to hurt me?" Helios asked with a smile. "For that, I'd first have to care what others want."
Dante seemed torn, as if he were struggling with words he didn't want to say. Helios stepped closer, placing a hand against his cheek.
"Dante," he said with gentle firmness. "If it really becomes unbearable, we'll disappear. But I'm not ready to give all of this up yet, to leave behind everything I've worked for, okay?"
A quiet sigh escaped Dante's chest. He laid his hand over Helios's fingers and closed his eyes for a moment. "I understand. Just promise me you'll tell me in time if it gets too much for you."
"I will."
"Do you think Spider will figure everything out?"
Helios raised an annoyed brow. "Most likely. He's not stupid, even if he doesn't always seem like it. If possible, we would avoid letting anyone find out about our condition at all," he said. "He'll find out sooner or later anyway—in ten or twenty years, when it becomes obvious that we're not changing. Besides, I'm willing to take that risk. Spider is one of the few people I trust, at least a little. And I'll always be the one who can pay him more than anyone else. He has no reason to turn against me."
"I hope you're right."
Helios's lips curled into a smirk. "And if I'm not—so what? A few obstacles should be welcomed. Otherwise things would get boring."
A light, almost tender smile played on Dante's lips. "Boredom has its advantages too. After all, it leaves plenty of time to get creative in chasing it away." With a smooth motion, he slipped his arm around Helios and pulled him close.
"A little self-control would still do you good," Helios murmured in amusement, pressing a warning finger to Dante's lips just as he leaned in for a kiss. "I don't want us provoking problems we don't need with some stupid mistake."
Dante's smile deepened, his eyes sparkling mischievously. "If I remember correctly, you enjoyed it quite a lot."
Helios smirked. "It did, yes. But that doesn't mean I'd want to repeat it all the time. Even if, admittedly, it is liberating now and then to think with my penis instead of my brain."
Dante fixed him with his reddish-brown gaze, holding Helios as if bound by fire. Helios couldn't look away; he felt the heat rise in him once again. Then Dante playfully bit his finger before brushing a fleeting kiss over it—and finally pressed a tender kiss against his lips.
For someone who always got embarrassed quickly whenever sexual topics came up, Dante's shame seemed to have completely vanished. That was perfectly fine for Helios—he would enjoy himself taming this beast. Or maybe he would simply let Dante have his way.
When it came to this man, many things were rather tempting.
"I can hardly wait until we have the chance to roll around in the sheets again," Dante murmured, his voice deep and full of promise.
"There will be plenty of opportunities that are less obvious," Helios said calmly, pulling away from him. "Come on. We shouldn't keep Spider waiting."
They continued on their way. Helios's cheeks felt warm. He could hardly wait for the next time either. Damn, he felt just like back then, when his relationship with Davis had begun. At first, they had barely managed to keep their hands off each other.
Though Helios hadn't been nearly as reckless back then.
Being freshly in love really was a phenomenon of its own.
He felt strangely light, and the slightest thought of what they had just done sent the butterflies in his stomach into a frenzy again. He couldn't stop himself from smiling when he thought of how Dante's hands had felt on him—and how hard it had been to keep his voice in check when he—
"Why are you grinning like that?", Spider asked suddenly.
The assassin was standing right in front of him in the dark alley, studying Helios with sharp eyes. He sized up both him and Dante, his face so close that Helios flinched inwardly.
Since when had he been standing there? Helios hadn't noticed a thing—he'd been too lost in thought.
"Because I was thinking of something nice," Helios answered casually. He glanced over at Dante, and his smile instantly grew wider.
Spider looked at Dante. "Did he kill someone?"
Dante shook his head, smiling too, though more subtly.
Spider stared back and forth between them in disbelief. Then he let out an exasperated noise and raised his hands in frustration.
"Are you fucking kidding me? While my ass is freezing off with worry, you two are busy fooling around?!"
Amused, Helios raised a brow. "And if we were?"
Spider jabbed a finger at him in frustration. "Do you have the slightest idea what I'm going through right now?"
Helios couldn't have cared less, so he only shrugged. A cool smile played across his lips. "So I can assume he's dead?"
"Belladonna? Dead as a doornail." He snorted with contempt. "I have no idea how you two managed to kill him and still both get away alive. But the fact remains—the bastard died a miserable death. That's beyond doubt."
A deep breath slipped from Helios. A weight lifted from him—so Belladonna really was dead. Finally. An invisible chain loosened from his chest. He felt lighter; at least now he was certain that Davis had been avenged.
"And because of Belladonna's death, the company's in chaos?" Helios asked.
"That's putting it mildly. They're hunting for the one who did it," Spider complained. "They want to find out who betrayed Belladonna. Seriously, Helios, I deserve a reward for what I'm going through!"
"You've been paid enough to disappear abroad and still live like a king," Helios replied coolly. His voice was sharp as a scalpel. "Or are you telling me they're already onto me?"
Spider quickly shook his head. "Not yet. There's no reason to hand you over—they're completely in the dark. But it's hell, Helios! I can hardly take it anymore. I need a damn vacation!" he went on complaining.
"Then it works out perfectly that I have a job for you—one that will take you out of the city for a few days," Helios said with a smile.
Spider grimaced as if he'd been slapped. The shadows under his eyes betrayed his exhaustion, but Helios felt not the slightest bit of sympathy. "Helios, I'm serious—I can't just leave. I'm juggling ten knives at once, and any one of them could cut my throat."
"It's just a small errand."
"Another poison run? One of my men can handle that," Spider snorted.
"No," Helios said. "You need to bring someone to me. And you're the only one I trust with this. The whole thing has to stay absolutely top secret."
"You want me to kidnap someone?" Spider asked, one brow arching high. "I mean, I appreciate that you value me and my work so much, but who could possibly be important enough for you to want to kidnap him?"
"Only if he resists," Helios said. "Besides, the person himself isn't as top secret as what this is really about."
Spider crossed his arms. "Since when have you gotten into kidnapping?" he asked suspiciously.
"I only want this one man, no one else. It won't happen again."
Spider studied him as if searching for a hint of a joke.
"Alright, I'll play along: who am I supposed to kidnap?" he asked. "Or should I rather ask—why should I kidnap him?"
Helios braced himself for Spider's reaction to what he was about to reveal. He had already prepared an explanation, but everything depended on how Spider would take it. He hated exposing sensitive secrets. Still, as he had said—he trusted Spider.
Before he could speak, Dante stepped up beside him. The weight of his voice cut through the tension like a knife. "A prosthesis maker." He handed Spider a folded slip of paper. "The details are here."
Spider took the note, skimmed it, then looked up with an amused smile. "A prosthesis maker? That's your big top-secret mission? You're not missing any body parts, far as I can see. Or are you just craving some new toys?"
Helios said nothing. Instead, he slowly pulled off his glove. The chill of the night air bit into his bare skin as he revealed the mutilated stumps of his fingers. "At least not anything immediately visible."
Spider's smile vanished. He grabbed Helios by the wrist, twisting it into the weak light to examine the stumps more closely. Disbelief flickered in his eyes.
"You want me to bring this guy for you?" he asked, incredulous. He turned Helios's hand over again, staring at the missing fingers. His expression shifted to concern. "We were in Soley only a few weeks ago—you still had all your fingers then, didn't you? Or am I completely losing my mind?"
"Good observation," Helios said as he pulled his hand back from Spider's grip.
"How did you lose them?" Spider snapped, his voice rising. "Damn it, you promised to take care of yourself!"
"They were the price for killing Belladonna," Helios said without hesitation. "It was a close call. I only got out alive thanks to Dante."
Spider shot Dante a long, scrutinizing look. Hard to read, strangely foreign. His eyes churned with something that didn't fit the cold, calculating man Helios knew. For a fleeting moment, Helios thought he saw something like silent gratitude there.
But that couldn't be… could it?
Before he could think on it further, Spider's gaze snapped back to him, just as fierce as before.
"That was five days ago! Don't bullshit me, Helios," Spider barked. "We've known each other too long for you to seriously tell me you lost two fingers five days ago and the wounds are already completely healed!"
"I'm not bullshitting you," Helios said calmly, pulling his glove back on. "Don't underestimate my medical skills."
"Then why are the wounds already healed? If you've got a remedy like that, why haven't I gotten any?"
"Because you never really get seriously injured?" Helios countered. "Besides, you'd sell the formula to the highest bidder."
Spider paused, then twisted his mouth into a grimace. "You know me too well."
Helios smiled coolly. "I'd never hand over a family recipe to you, Spider. Besides, this is not something that should ever see the light of day."
Spider planted his hands on his hips. "I can guess why," he muttered thoughtfully. Then a sudden realization struck him. His eyes widened as he looked at Helios. "Is it the formula they created in Soley?"
He exhaled slowly.
"Believe it or not, I skimmed through some of the files down there," he admitted at last. "What were they trying to create?"
Helios avoided glancing at Dante. He hadn't yet spoken to him about the Sentinel Project. He simply didn't have enough information and hadn't thought it necessary to philosophize about it in a conversation with Dante.
"They wanted to create resilient soldiers," Helios explained plainly. "Soldiers that wouldn't die so easily. Ones who could get back on their feet quickly after severe injuries. The experiments were meant to make them indestructible and keep them alive at any cost. That's all I know."
"Damn." Spider ran a hand through his hair, his features tense. "Having to fight enemies like that—that would be hell."
Dante stiffened beside him.
"So they wanted to use those soldiers until their bodies finally gave out?" Spider asked grimly.
Helios placed a steadying hand on Dante's forearm.
"As far as I know—yes," Helios confirmed quietly. "The first experiments began even before the war, ten years ago. But the facility in Soley was only established once the war was already raging. Apparently, they wanted to feed the front with… inexhaustible flesh."
For a moment, silence settled over the alley. Only the distant dripping of rainwater echoed off the walls.
Dante exhaled sharply through his nose, his voice little more than a growl: "Scum."
"Are there more facilities like the one in Soley?" Dante asked through clenched teeth.
"I don't know," Helios said honestly.
He couldn't tell them that his father demanded he continue the experiments. Helios couldn't say for certain whether more facilities existed, or if a new one would be built. Everything he knew at this point was irrelevant until he had more information.
Damn, the whole thing annoyed him.
He wanted as little to do with his father as possible and simply to pursue what interested him in peace. Soley was history. The formulas they had studied there were completely destroyed. If he refused to take over the project, then no one would ever create more immortals.
No one but him and Dante would possess the ability of regeneration.
His to-do list was already full and he had absolutely no desire to pile even more on top of it right now.
No. He would definitely not pursue the matter.
What he needed now was nothing but a steady routine and a bit of peace, to simply return to doing what he loved. The last few months had been too much.
"So?" Helios suddenly turned to Spider. "Will you take the job?"
It was better to change the subject than to dig deeper.
He had no desire to deal with it further. Probing his father would mean spending more time with him, and he risked giving himself away. His father wasn't stupid. If Helios asked the wrong questions or showed too much interest, all hell would break loose.
He couldn't afford that.
Spider was silent for a while, lost in thought. Helios didn't mind waiting for an answer, as long as it meant he didn't have to keep talking about Soley. At least not right now.
"I still can't really leave this place," Spider muttered at last.
"And I can't give you an official contract for it," Helios sighed. "Spider, I need this man urgently."
Spider ruffled his hair. "Damn it, I really can't deny you anything."
"You'll be well paid," Helios promised.
Spider raised his hand, his expression serious. "Wait, I have a few conditions."
Helios's eyes narrowed. "What kind of conditions?" he asked warily.
Spider leaned in slightly, as if he wanted to carve his words in stone. "If I do this for you, you owe me a favor."
Helios raised a brow. "What kind of favor?"
"Any kind," Spider replied evenly, though his voice carried a dangerous depth. "I'll tell you what I want when the time comes. And when I call it in, there won't be any discussion."
Helios snorted dismissively. "Why should I agree to such a deal? Until now you've always taken my money without complaint."
Spider smirked crookedly. "This time I don't want money. The favor will be more than enough. Besides, you'll have to help me disappear if things get too hot here."
Helios's expression hardened. He didn't like owing Spider something he had no control over. He hated loose ends. But unfortunately, there was no one but Spider who could carry out the task discreetly. Sending Dante himself would be far too conspicuous.
"Fine," he said at last, his voice cold. "If you keep covering for us in the Belladonna affair and bring the prosthesis maker here, you'll get your favor."
He needed the prosthesis maker. Period.
Spider exhaled in relief. "Don't worry, I had no intention of turning you in. I keep my promises."
"Is it really so bad that you're getting cold feet?" Helios asked with a raised brow.
"The situation is anything but pleasant," Spider admitted. "On the other hand, I've been in this business for so many years that no one catches me easily."
"Anything else would surprise me."
A grin crept across Spider's face. "If you ever decide to break into other facilities, let me know."
"And why would I?"
"Because we had so much fun last time?"
Dante let out a loud snort beside Helios, which only made Spider grin wider.
"Who says we had fun with you, Spider?" Helios asked, amused. "Besides, I don't plan on breaking into anywhere anytime soon."
"That's a real shame."
With a smooth step, Spider moved closer, grabbed Helios's face with both hands, and pulled it so close to his own that only millimeters separated them. His breath brushed against Helios's skin as his voice dropped suggestively. "Or maybe I just want to go on another adventure with you, Helios. I had a lot of fun."
Helios pushed him back just as Dante took a step toward Spider. Annoyed, Helios shot Spider a look while laying a calming hand on Dante's arm.
"Liar," Helios replied coldly. "Tell the truth. After all, you know things about me I'd rather you didn't."
For a brief moment, something dangerous flickered in Spider's eyes. "Oh yes, I know almost everything about you. And I've seen things that—"
Helios raised an unimpressed brow, cutting him off. "Well?"
"Sometimes it's really no fun teasing you," Spider said, disappointed. "Let's just say I'm acting out of personal interest. If your father is researching formulas that practically amount to permanent doping, I don't even want to imagine what would happen if it ever got out. Either way, I have no desire to fight enhanced killers in the future."
"Yes, that really would be a problem," Helios said. His gaze briefly shifted to Dante before returning to Spider. "But I still have no intention, at this point, of taking on anything in that direction. Your world isn't the only powder keg that can blow up any time."
Spider's eyes drifted to Helios's left hand. "Daddy won't be too thrilled to find out you were responsible for the facility's downfall."
"Right you are."
Spider let out an exasperated sigh. "Fine. I'll get you your prosthesis maker and contact you as soon as I have him. In the meantime, you sit tight and I'll keep the Guild off your back." A theatrical groan followed. "Why do I get the feeling I'm always the one stuck doing the dirty work?"
Helios gave him a cool, yet undeniably charming smile. "Because you're the best man I've got."
Spider laughed. "Damn, I hate and love your praise in equal measure. We'll see each other in a few days. And make sure you don't have too much fun without me!" With those words, he vanished soundlessly into the darkness of the alley—so completely it was as if he had never been there at all.
For a moment, silence lingered. Then Dante spoke in a hushed voice: "Do you really think there are more facilities?"
"I can't tell you any more than what I just told the two of you."
Dante exhaled slowly, worry lines creasing his brow. "I don't like the thought that there could be more Soleys."
Helios gently took his hand. "There's nothing we can do about it right now. Even if there are other facilities—I have no idea where they might be. And this time we don't even have vague memories to rely on."
Dante looked torn, but at last he nodded reluctantly. "You're right. Anything else would be like chasing ghosts. Even if I don't like it."
"Who knows," Helios said reassuringly. "Maybe sooner or later we'll stumble across something—without giving ourselves away unnecessarily." His free hand slid down Dante's side until it came to rest playfully on his ass. With a meaningful look, he added, "Besides, you seem pretty tense. We should go home. I might have an idea how to help you relax."
"Damn it, Helios…" Dante muttered in a rough voice.
Helios grinned mischievously. "In the meantime, you can already start imagining what's waiting for you. Let's go."
Dante looked as though he had a very clear picture of what Helios intended to do with him. He reached for Helios's hand and didn't let go until they had left the protective darkness of the alley behind them.
Maybe this way, Helios could at least distract Dante from the topic for a while.