Order of the Omni: A Supernatural Romantic Suspense Novel (The Immortalies Book 1) Penny Knight (100 best novels of all time TXT) 📖

“Stop it.” He grabs my hand and forces my attention. “Listen, snap out of this. This isn’t you. You are not this person.”

My eyes go wide as I hear his harsh tone. I blink to slow the fall of my tears.

“What are you going to do, Elita?” He sits on his knees strong and tall. “You told me once. Do you remember? You said what are you going to do? Sit and cry? How does that help you? Sometimes things are shitty, sometimes you get knocked down,” he brushes the wetness from my cheeks with his thumb, “but you don’t give up. You make the best with what you have. And you make the choice. Make the choice to move on. Make the choice to succeed.”

I can’t help a small laugh to escape my lips. I remember that. The day he came home beat up from that bully at school. I forced him to soldier up and stop crying.

“I sounded like a bitch,” I say.

“Yeah, you were. Correction, are.” I laugh. Only Topher can make me laugh when I’m falling apart. “But that is why I love you,” he smiles at me.

I draw in a long savouring breath. “I love you, too.”

“Aww. If you were a boy, I would so kiss you right now.”

I laugh and throw my arms around him, squeezing. “You are right, though,” I pull back. “Not about me being a bitch. But about me being a baby.” I throw the quilt off and jump out of the bed.

“Uh, ok,” he stands. “God, now where are you going?”

“My room to take a shower.” It’s too weird being in Leo’s bed. Too intimate.

“Oh, ok.”

I grab his hand. “So, I’m not being a baby, but I was just wondering if you could stay with me tonight?” I ask softly.

“Of course.” He pulls me into him. “I’m glad you’re safe.”

“This is a waste of time.” I throw my pen across the room.

It’s been hours, and my eyes are getting blurry looking at the screen. Searching online for any information about the mark is coming up empty.

“Just keep looking,” Topher says.

I stop myself from picking up the closest thing to me and throwing it at him. I really need to control my anger better.

We’ve come back to the office the next day. Much to the disapproval of Leo, Topher and even Broderick. But I slept well and didn’t want to be holed up in the penthouse. God, seriously, that is a first world problem.

I need to find more information about who I am. What the mark means. Anything. But, I’ve looked at hundreds of symbols this morning. And there’s nothing close to what I have. My patience is wearing thin, and I’m at tipping point.

“Can’t you do some CSI thing and scan it? Run it through a database and get a match?” I ask.

“Yeah, ok E, I will just whip that up.”

“Uh, yeah, you have nothing better to do.” I know I’m asking for it, but I’m super frustrated.

He shoots me a death stare. He has been working hard trying to decrypt the drive, but I can tell it is grating on his last nerve, too.

“There has to be something I’m missing.”

“Manners?” he says.

“Funny.” Although it feels good to be bickering with him. Normal.

“Maybe instead of just looking for the picture, you can see if you can break up the mark. Maybe it’s a bunch of symbols together and you just have to decode it? Run an image search.” Topher says.

That’s a good idea. “See, that is why you’re the smart one and I’m the pretty one.”

He scoffs and I smile.

“Here,” I pass him my phone. “Can you please take a picture of it?” I move my hair around my neck so he can get a clear shot.

“What is that?” Tony interrupts. He does not look happy standing at the door. The flash goes off on my phone and I drop my hair down. Tony is not a tattoo guy.

“Did you get a tattoo?”

“Uh, yeah.” So much easier saying yes than having to explain the truth.

“What were you thinking? Your body is not a canvas. I thought you were smarter than that?” He shakes his head.

“Come on, Tony. It’s pretty cool.” Topher laughs.

“Cool?” Tony shakes his head again. “Let me see.”

Topher passes the phone to Tony. “Seriously, it’s not a big deal. I’ve had it the whole time you’ve known me. You haven’t even noticed it. I always have my hair down.” I try to calm him before the vein in his neck explodes. I do like that he’s protective; it shows that he cares.

He doesn’t respond. He stares in a daze at the picture, his expression unreadable. I look to Topher and he shrugs.

“Well.” He hands the phone back to me. “It is what it is. I have to head out now.” His curt response throws me off a bit.

“Um, I thought you had a meeting at eleven?” I ask.

“Cancelled. I will be out all day. I will see you both on Monday?” He turns and storms off.

“He was pissed,” Topher chuckles.

“He’s always pissed.” I return to my desk and open the picture on my phone. “He’ll get over it.”

“Ok, let’s go over the facts that we know,” Topher says as he walks over to the white board where we have solved many cases. All morning we’ve been diving deep into my current drama. We’ve been thrown into a mystical underworld and have been playing catchup ever since.

He takes off the lid from the blue marker and waits.

“Ok,” I swing my chair around. “First, the dreams.”

“Weird dreams,” he says as he writes.

“The mark,” I add. “Oh, and Leo and that weird reaction I had from him.”

“I think that’s called sexual tension.” He jots it down.

“You are hilarious.” I scrunch up a piece of paper and hit him straight on the back of his head.

“What?” He turns, grinning from ear to