Chapter 9
nine
EZRA
What the fuck is the Off-Spring Brigade? I look at the name of the chat on my phone. Since when am I part of a fucking group chat?
Lori:
Running away from a cloud…but I’m on my way
Michael:
I’m afraid to ask
Raphael:
So don’t, babe
Oliver:
Lori, how was the trial? Did you win?
Lori:
What a moronic question. My fiancé never loses
Ramiel:
Yep, no problem whatsoever in his firmware
Uriel:
Reboot him from time to time
Gabriel:
*flipping finger emoji*
Lori:
Welcome Legolas!
Is this text for me? I can’t keep up with Lori’s nicknames.
Lori:
Quick question for you. When you’ve got somebody annoying in your car, what do you do?
Me:
Break their legs to fit them in the car trunk
I type quickly.
Raphael:
Arms too
Uriel:
Slam the car door in their face
Sariel:
Ask them nicely to get out?
Raguel:
A punch to the temple…good night
Gabriel:
I am the only one in the car with you, Lori
Uriel:
I stand by my answer
Sariel:
Uri, where did you go this morning? You weren’t here when I woke
Uriel:
Just had something to do, Baby Blue
Raphael:
Stealing my desk. Where the fuck is it, Uri?
Are they still doing that stealing competition? The first time I heard about it was three months ago when my brother asked me to help him take the bed out of Raphael’s home.
Raphael:
I know how to kill a man with a thumb
Lori:
Who doesn’t?
My brain is scrambling just reading this. I leave their chat and open Vulture’s. He texted me this morning.
Vulture:
How was the restaurant I recommended?
Me:
It did the trick
Vulture:
That good, eh?
Vulture:
I want to be the first to meet him
Why does he want to meet Sully? Like I’ll let Vulture’s charming ways anywhere near him.
Yesterday, when I saw the archery range clerk looking at Sully a little too long, I almost tore his eyes out and squashed them under my boots.
Even when he wears his usual baggy clothes, people’s gazes linger, but for our date, he chose those fucking jeans that were wrapping his juicy ass and long legs and a sweater that emphasized his slender form.
I saw Michael and Ramiel helping him get ready through the camera that I installed over his window.
Ramiel kept sending flying kisses toward it, the dumb fuck. Sully looked happy, so I let it go.
I was only glad to leave the restaurant.
Seeing him turn all possessive over me almost made me nut inside my jeans.
My little chick has claws, it was damn time I saw them.
I still remember his joyful smile when his arrow hit the target.
He has perfect white teeth, except for one incisor that overlaps the tooth beside it.
And when he bites his lower lip and I see that little pointy end sinking in the tender flesh…
Fucking. Hell. He did it last night when he was wearing that damn hot leather harness.
And with those cuffs and ball gag? Jesus Christ, I think he made my dick grow another inch.
I’ll definitely buy more stuff we can try.
He was nervous in the beginning, and he had every right to be.
My brawny body is three times his flimsy one.
Where I’m solid, he’s delicate—that pale skin is marking heaven.
It would have been so easy for me to take what I wanted from him.
But that would have been counterproductive.
No need when I have my little chick following my lead so perfectly.
He gave himself to me, letting me do whatever the fuck I wanted, which luckily seems to be in tune with Sully’s dirty imagination.
Not surprisingly, I can’t find so much as a scrap of boredom anywhere within me when I am near Sully. He holds my interest constantly. His body, his mind, his unpredictable actions keep me captivated, wanting for more.
I finally hear a car coming down the driveway. I leave the bench and wait. It’s Linda’s. I didn’t know she was coming. I’m at the family training facility again, but for a different reason this time.
She gets out, closes the car door, puts on the alarm with a chirp, and pockets the fob before looking at me.
“Ezra.”
“Linda,” I greet her, imitating her level of wariness.
She smiles, but I’m not sure what emotion I see on her face. She has dark circles under her eyes, and since I saw her last, she’s lost weight. “I’ve been keeping an eye on you since you showed yourself. It wasn’t easy. Using those old freight tunnels running under the city was undoubtedly smart.”
I remain silent. I know I am smart. With Serena and Nine looking for me, I had to be careful, and the subterranean network was the most rational and sensible choice.
“But then you made it easy for me when you left Chicago and focused your attention only on one particular person.”
“Is there a point?” I know Linda used to be a secret agent. She is retired now, but still freelances—that was, until the doctor ended up in the hospital. She is astute, professionally skilled, and has the right means to make my life…hard. But she hasn’t, yet.
“I’ve seen all of my kids fall one after the other for their person. It was an honor to witness it, and a relief—wandering this world alone feeds one’s inner darkness.” She swallows before continuing. “Sully is very dear to us, and I believe he deserves the best.”
“I am the best,” I state with conviction.
She sniffs. “No shit. After observing you, I can say that you were able to make the best out of yourself. You easily dial up or down your emotions in a wide range of situations. Still have no conscience or empathy, but you learned to imitate other people’s feelings and use them to your advantage, hiding your psycho-self in plain sight.
I’m…impressed.” She pauses to let out a long sigh.
“When I got to the facility where you were last imprisoned, it was reduced to ashes. So many years have passed since I started looking for you, and I was…afraid to find you. I thought you were lost to us already. But Meg, she never lost faith. And every time I shared my concerns, she would say that she believed in the right to believe. She’d be so, so thrilled to see you, Ezra.
So elated.” This time her smile looks sad.
“Why?” It doesn’t make sense to me. I don’t even know her.
“An empty box with the number eight on it made her wonder if another subject was out there, and she asked me to look into you. That’s how we found out about the second facility and your existence.”
“I don’t need an explanation regarding that. I already know you were searching for me. When I escaped, I hid from you, simply because I didn’t want to change my situation. I had a place to stay and people to kill.” Like my uncle and the bastards who enjoyed torturing me and escaped the fire.
“Uriel told me about the people who welcomed you. I get it, and even if I didn’t, it’s your life I had no right over it.
But to Meg, you were always one of her kids.
The lost one. Michael, Raphael, Ramiel, Sariel, Gabriel/Bezaliel, Raguel, Uriel, and Ezra.
Why did you choose this name if not because you knew you belonged with them? ”
When I discovered what happened to my brother and the others, I also found out they got new names.
George—the male nurse who saved me—explained to me that maybe they did it to celebrate a new start.
It was only reasonable for me to do the same.
I did choose a name from the angel realm because it made sense to have what Uriel had.
He’s my identical twin. Whatever happens, that will never change.
I shrug. “Would the doctor be happy to see Nine as well?”
Her features morph as a deep, angry furrow appears on her face.
“Fuck that! That hag needs to die. She poisoned Meg, and almost got Lori raped, attempted to kill all of my children, burned down my house—which I fucking hated, but still, it was mine—and hurt who knows how many people. You even had to fake your own death because of her. She needs to pay with her life.”
At least we are on the same page about this.
She laughs bitterly. “Meg would be devastated to learn about her existence. It would have been better if Nine died in that fire at the facility, because from what I gathered, she was already too far gone at that point. But that would have been odd since now I strongly believe she started that same fire. The MO used to burn Meg’s house was the same for the facility. ”
I had a similar fleeting thought, but since that first fire helped me escape, I didn’t really care who started it.
The one at their house almost killed Uriel, but it gave me the chance to shoot Nine, pity I didn’t kill her.
I covered my mouth and nose with my bandana, and there was smoke around us, luckily she didn’t recognize me.
“Those scientists were delusional when they thought they could control her or any of you.” Linda tsks with contempt and then mutters, “Little did they know that the untended corner of the garden would grow strong and wicked.”
After a long moment, she asks, “Any luck with the poisoner?”
Here is that word again. “Luck? Idiots rely on luck. The idea that there is a force in the universe tilting events in your favor or against it is ridiculous,” I deadpan.
“So you have him.”
I nod and move to the back of the car—the one Jacob was driving the night he attacked Sully, now with a different color and plates. I know other people outside the vigilante family.
I open the trunk and show her the face of the man who made the poison that put her wife in a coma.
“Marlon Finch.” The man is still out. I don’t know what Vulture’s friends gave him when they sent him in a truck container from New York.
He’s been unconscious since they dropped him at the motel this morning—I chose the location away from Sully.
I had to leave my little chick to take care of this.
He was going to sit at one of Michael’s lectures with Ren, anyway.