Not half an hour later, he was fully dressed and in his father's office. Of what he had done with Dante just a few minutes earlier, no one seemed to have noticed—or they ignored it. Either way, Helios didn't care. He had nothing left to lose.
Let everyone find out about his sexual preferences. It was just another drop on the proverbial hot stone.
Thomas had sought him out in near panic when he'd heard that Helios had arrived at the estate covered in blood and in a miserable state. He had brought bandages and wanted to know if he should call a doctor. He had been utterly overwhelmed when Helios had stood before him completely unharmed.
It had taken some time before Helios could calm the old butler down. With care—almost gently—he had made him understand that he was fine and explained what had actually happened. At that moment, Helios had been more concerned about Thomas' weak heart than about himself. The butler was old, but to Helios he had always been more of a father figure than the man who had sired him.
He had told him everything. It was no secret anymore, and it wouldn't be long before everyone in the estate knew anyway. So he had preferred to tell Thomas himself.
At first, he had spoken about it hesitantly. How do you explain in simple words that you've suddenly become immortal? How should he explain why it was him, and how he had managed it even though he had only taken over the experiments two weeks earlier? How should he explain the matter with Belladonna?
But after only a few words, he had outlined the situation roughly, promising to go into detail later. He hadn't mentioned Belladonna and had presented the whole thing as simple self-experimentation. Thomas hadn't really believed him in some respects, but he had listened patiently.
He had cared so much more about him than his own father ever had, that it would have felt wrong to Helios not to tell him everything—especially since the cat was now out of the bag.
Thomas' eyes had been full of concern.
Quite the opposite of the look his father was giving him now.
He looked at him cool and calculatingly. Helios knew that whatever awaited him, it certainly wouldn't be anything good. In front of his father stood an open bottle of wine and a half-empty glass. He wasn't drunk yet, but as Helios knew him, he was well on his way there.
After what had just happened, it shouldn't have surprised him, but it only made the whole affair more complicated. He hated it when his father drank too much. It was the main reason why Helios himself had never touched a drop.
"Good to see you here, Helios," his father said in a friendly tone, though his gaze remained hard.
"Father," Helios replied coldly.
He tried to figure out what was going on in his father's mind. But, as usual, he was inscrutable. Helios might have been able to steer him at times with logical reasoning, but he knew all too well that here neither charm nor manipulative logic would get him anywhere.
He had thought up a rough strategy, but whether it would help him, he didn't know. It all depended on trying.
His father did not ask him to sit down, so Helios remained standing. He was tense. He felt nausea rising within him. The deceptive calm he had gained from his brief time with Dante seemed to wave him a mocking goodbye.
His father stared at him for a long time. The ticking clock made Helios increasingly nervous. He forced himself to look back at his father with his usual indifference, just as he always did. His mask was his protection; that hadn't changed.
At last, his father's voice broke the silence.
"If I recall correctly, just a few hours ago you said you didn't see any real success in the project," his father began. He never took his eyes off Helios. A cool, satisfied smile played around his lips as he leaned back. "I'm glad you haven't disappointed my trust in you, my son."
Helios drew a shallow breath, forcing himself to stay calm.
"It surprises me as well that the self-experiments had this effect," he answered coolly. "What surprises me more is that after all these years of running the experiments, no results could be achieved. You should fire every single one of those incompetent idiots."
His father laughed.
"You're right. For my goals, I need only you and no one else," he mused. His gaze fixed on him like a predator locking onto its prey. "How did you do it?"
Helios shrugged as casually as he could.
"I don't know," he said honestly.
"You didn't yet have access to all the substances we've used so far. How did you manage with the little they gave you?" his father asked intently.
"I'd like to know that myself. All I've done so far is analyze the formulas, look at the reports, and adjust them. When I felt they were reasonably safe, I tested them on the subjects and on myself. That's all. I can't say with absolute certainty what led to this state, or if it's permanent."
His father's expression darkened.
"I have records of every change you made, Helios," his father said. He sounded as though he was slowly but surely losing patience. "I by no means understand everything you mix together in your lab, but even I can recognize that with your changes, it is impossible to achieve immortality."
"Probably just a lucky accident," said Helios. "Maybe through all my past self-experiments I simply created some kind of predisposition for it."
Damn, his heart was beating faster with every word. Even to his own ears, everything he said sounded like a flimsy, pathetic excuse. His father drained the glass in one gulp, set it down hard on the desk, and slowly rose. This wasn't going to end well much longer.
"So you want me to believe all of this is just a coincidence?" he growled angrily. "Don't bullshit me!"
Oh damn, this really wasn't going to end well.
"I've been working on this project for two weeks," Helios replied calmly. "This is different from curing a disease, where you know the symptoms and the course it takes."
"Helios! You were riddled with bullets and dead for seconds!" his father cut in, his words like whiplashes. "I'm perfectly aware this isn't an ordinary medical case. I've been waiting thirteen years for results, not for nothing!"
Thirteen years already? Helios made sure not to show any reaction. These perverse experiments had gone on far too long.
"Good that you mention it. How long was I actually dead?" he asked with interest. He regretted the question immediately, but when it came to things like this, he simply couldn't help himself. He had to know.
His father paused. "What?" he asked, confused. "I can't tell you exactly, not long at least. At first I thought you were dead, and then you just stood up as if nothing had happened. You even pulled that bullet out of your forehead yourself!"
A shiver ran down Helios' spine as he thought of that moment. He still remembered it vividly.
"Too bad, that would've been a valuable piece of information," Helios said. He needed to steer the conversation in another direction before his father got drunk. "In any case, I can't give you a real answer to your questions, since I'm in the dark myself."
"I want the formula, Helios," his father demanded.
"There is no formula," Helios countered, sighing quietly. "I first need to analyze what might have changed me in the first place."
His father went back to his desk. He poured himself another glass of wine and downed it in one gulp. Then he repeated the process once more. His cheeks were now flushed, his movements restless.
"I don't like your tone one bit," he muttered, annoyed. "Come to think of it, you've been truly insolent for quite a while now. I raised you differently, Helios."
"I've grown up. I'm no longer an obedient child," Helios said softly. "I don't have to agree with everything you demand of me."
"In just two weeks you've achieved something I've been trying to accomplish for thirteen years," his father continued, completely ignoring Helios' words. His tone turned accusatory. "Your mother would have been back with us long ago if you weren't such a damn stubborn fool."
Helios clenched his hand into a fist.
"Leave Mother out of this," Helios hissed. "She's dead. Accept it already—after all, you have enough women warming your bed."
His father hurled his wineglass against the wall. Drops splattered across the wallpaper and the floor. He pointed a threatening finger at Helios.
"Don't you dare speak to me in that tone! I'm doing everything I can to bring Ophelia back! If you'd finally put aside your false pride, everything would already be the way it once was!"
Helios felt the inner cold rise within him—the one that always gripped him whenever his mother became the subject. He looked at his father with icy eyes.
"Are you sure you even want to bring her back? What would she say, knowing you regularly lie with other women in your shared bed? That it's often not just one, but two or three who have to satisfy you?" Helios hissed. "She would hate you. You and your damned playboy image!"
The words still hung in the air when his father reached him in just a few strides. His open hand struck Helios' face with such force that he stumbled back a step. A dull pain throbbed in his cheek. It had been a long time since he'd felt his father's hand like that.
Okay, that hadn't been his smartest decision. But he regained his confidence. The rage boiling hot in his veins felt good. How long had he wanted to throw exactly those words into his father's face?
It felt so good to finally let it out—before disappearing from his father's life forever and leaving him in despair, unable to ever achieve his goals.
Still, he needed to rein himself in again. He had to regain control of the conversation. His father stood before him, snorting with fury, his breath stinking of the heavy wine he had been drinking without pause.
Now he grabbed the bottle, since the glass was shattered.
"I want the formula, Helios," he hissed.
Helios swallowed and tried to remain calm. "Father, there really is no formula," he said in a placating tone. "Let me go to the lab tomorrow. I'll analyze my blood and find out what happened. But as it is now, I can't tell you anything."
"Lies!" his father suddenly roared, slamming the bottle on the desk. "Just like this afternoon! You lied to me!"
"I didn't lie to you!" Helios shot back. At least not entirely. "I didn't know I had become immortal! How could I have? Today was the first attack in a long time!"
At least that he could say with certainty. Until the attack, he hadn't known whether he would really rise again.
"I want the formula, Helios," his father said now, his voice dangerously low. "There's more at stake here than you realize."
Helios took a deep breath and sighed softly. "There is no formula," he repeated calmly.
His father's gaze grew even colder—an expression that had frozen Helios in place since childhood. "So you're refusing to hand it over?" he asked. His voice sounded almost casual, but it was more like a blade. "Okay."
He raised the bottle to his lips and drank it down in one long, greedy gulp. Then he slammed it on the table. "Seth! Josh!"
The door opened and his father's personal bodyguards entered the office. They positioned themselves behind Helios.
"You will work on the formula, just as you wanted," his father growled. "Unfortunately, your persistent lies have made it impossible for me to trust you anymore. I can't say exactly when your lies began, but they will end today."
The air in the room suddenly turned thick and heavy as Helios realized what his father had just declared. It was no longer a request. It was a sentence.
Helios' eyes widened as it dawned on him what his father intended. His heart began to pound faster.
"You wouldn't dare…"
But his father only laughed—a dry, cold laugh that smothered any hint of hope.
"It truly pains me, Helios. I really do love you more than anything, but this is more important than you think," his father said with a touch of regret. Then his gaze turned cold again. "This is your last chance to act willingly! Give me the formula!"
Helios' stomach clenched. In that moment he understood completely: there was no way out. Willingly or not… his father would imprison him. He would make him into a tool, so he could never escape.
Helios looked at his father with resolve. He would find a way to get away from him. He would never reproduce the substance.
"This is not something that should fall into the wrong hands," he countered, icy rage coursing through his veins.
"That's not for you to decide!" his father snapped angrily. "I have a deal with the government! If they find out you're immortal, they'll demand a formula!"
Helios covered his face with his hand in disbelief.
Of course he had made a deal with the government. Who but the government would be interested in immortality?
"You're really good at landing lucrative contracts—I don't know anyone who can make as much money as quickly as you do," Helios said. He fixed his father with a piercing look. "But sometimes I wonder how a businessman as skilled as you can make such stupid deals."
"The deal has nothing but advantages!" his father snapped.
"Absolutely not!" Helios shot back. "Even if I had the formula, I wouldn't give it to you! Do you even realize what would happen if we put immortality into mass production?!"
"You will give me everything I demand. You will give me the formula and bring your mother back to life," his father said firmly. "I'm sorry, Helios, but this is for the good of our family. You'll thank me when the three of us enjoy immortality together."
His gaze was that of a man who had long since crossed the point of no return. He gave a brief nod.
Before Helios could react, the men grabbed him. Iron-hard fingers clamped around his arms, holding him tight. A rough palm pressed over his mouth. He tried to fight back, but their strength was overwhelming, and his newfound immortality didn't help him in the least against their precise holds.
A sharp sting pierced his neck. His eyes flew open as a burning cold spread beneath his skin.
Sedatives.
His legs gave way. His thoughts grew sluggish, thick as honey, his head suddenly felt stuffed with cotton. Everything around him began to spin.
"I will… never…" The words came out haltingly, his voice breaking away.
His eyelids grew heavy. His head felt as though it were packed with nothing but wool. It was so hard to form a clear thought. His eyes sank shut. His last thoughts were of Dante, who was at that very moment preparing their escape. Dante would realize too late that Helios had been abducted.
He cursed himself for not having come here with Dante. They could have arrived together, or hidden away in his secret lab until the coast was clear. It had been foolish not to simply disappear. He should have listened to Dante.
I'm sorry, Dante…
Then everything went black.