6. Chapter 6 - Rion
Chapter 6
Z ap!
“Fuck!” I bit the tips of my fingers to keep the pain of having them burned off at bay. I was currently working on breaking into the council room to get my girl back, but these wires were giving me a hard time.
Maria. It was that fucking Ricci’s fault.
I knew something about this felt off the second Maria Ricci showed up. Then she drugged me and took Rin right from under me, which really pissed me off. I hated feeling things, and at the moment, so many unpleasant feelings were surging through my veins.
Looking down, I smirked at the bloody mess I’d made. Yeah, I had gone a little nuts when I finally got back feeling in my limbs. Those two jackoffs were the first things I saw.
The roast beef I made out of the guards' faces was a work of art, something I was sure Roux would be proud of. After I finished with them, my heart was still throbbing, I realized I had taken out only a small fraction of my frustration. What I really wanted was to get my flawless goddess back by my side. This tightening in my chest wouldn’t go away until I could see her, feel her, but that meant I needed to open this practically impenetrable door.
When everything came out last night, I was nervous. I knew she would be pissed, I mean, who wouldn't be, but I thought she would sleep on it and realize that we were her best chance at getting a better life. I was going to use that particular want to keep her shackled to us until she fell in love and we all lived happily ever after. It was simple. The perfect plan.
Then this morning happened, and my whole plan crumbled right before my eyes.
I wasn't an idiot. I could see it on her face the second we came down, her sitting at the table mulling over her cup of coffee. She was going to leave us. She was going to actively try to leave us. For her, it was already decided. I tried my best to not let the pain and hurt show, not let it affect how I treated her, but it did.
She was my and my brothers’ reason for living. She was the thought we went to sleep with, the person we dreamed of and wished for when we woke up to. She was the reason that we were able to make it through those hellish years of training with that sadistic bastard uncle of ours. She was perfect in every way, from how her hair shined a multitude of browns and reds, to the gray eyes that turned any man weak. Partner that with her fierce survivor’s spirit and kind heart, and she was a supreme package. But now, she was slipping through my fingers, and for once, I was at a loss for what to do.
I didn't want to admit it then, but I had been a jerk to her on purpose. I wanted to bring down this ethereal being, even though she deserved her pedestal, and show her what it was like at our level, to be a lowly human being, but once again, she survived that too. She had put me in my place, not giving me and my attitude a moment of time or ounce of respect. She was above all that, and she knew it.
It was what made obsessing over her so easy, so effortless.
And now I had let her slip from my fingers not because of my damn deeds but to the fucking council , which was worse. Fucking Maria and her goddamn tricks. She had purposely used the two guards as a distraction so she could get her shot to put me down, taking me out of the equation. Well, I’d show her. I never went down without a fight.
I combed through the wires again until I found the yellow one, careful not to touch the stripped end. I had no desire to fry myself again . My finger stiffened, and I narrowed my gaze, giving it a good smack to wake it up before looking for the right wire to pair it with.
When a numb feeling began at my fingertips, I thought about the only thing that could keep me going, that I needed to keep Rin safe. That thought alone helped me keep me sharp, to push through anything my body was feeling. When I pulled that dart out of my neck and felt its affects, that was the worst feeling in the world. I had to watch my treasured Rin leave while agony ripped its way through my chest. The only positive I could take away from that the thought of her with them gave me the will to inch myself to a seated position against the wall and plan.
It didn't take long for the sedative to wear off, and as soon as I got feeling back in my fingers and toes, I went to work.
I yanked off a metal panel, testing out each wire to see which one opened the door she had gone through because I was coming for her.
The two guards started to wake up just after I was shocked for the third time, so I was already in a cranky mood. I jumped on top of them, pounding away at their flesh despite their pleas to stop. They had helped take her from me, and they were going to pay.
After leaving them beaten within an inch of their lives, I came back to my senses and was able to focus again. I just needed to eliminate a few more wires, then I would be able to find the right sequence to shut off the emergency breaker.
I was halfway done, sweat peppering my brow, when the door whooshed open. Two sets of steps walked in. Seeing Maria first, I was already thinking of several ways to pay her back for her actions today, but it all melted away the second I saw Rin.
She had a dazed look, almost like she was lost in her mind, and I glared at Maria, who just smiled like she knew all the secrets of the world and I didn’t. Fuck you, Maria!
Maria rolled her eyes and cleared her throat, which caused Rin to look up. As soon as our eyes met, every thought or plan dissipated. All I could think about was this woman in front of me. My greed for her began to build back up, pushing aside the receding panic as I scanned her from head to toe to make sure that she wasn't physically hurt. That was all I could think about until she ran over to me and hugged me so tightly I lost all breathing functionality. Was Layrin really hugging me right now? Was I dreaming? Did I die? What the fuck did those fuckers do to her?!
I took a long, deep inhale. Those warm, earthy tones mixed with the sweetness of a wild rose. It was inviting and addicting. I needed more of this, all of this, at all times. Shit, I was starting to sound like Ravi.
“I hate to break up this touching reunion , but I do need to tell Ambros what happened and how we’re moving forward.” I heard her words, her inflection with its superior tone. It was almost like she was telling me I was showing my cards, and maybe I was, but my need to hold Rin, make sure she was okay.
Rin unwound her hands from around my neck, and I fought the urge to place them right back and tell Maria to fuck off. She was the one intruding.
Maria looked around the room, blowing out a breath as she examined my mess. “I mean, I didn't expect you to be happy, exactly, but this.. . This seems a little overboard, don't you think?” She threw her hand at the missing metal panel and began to whine. “Seriously, we’re going to have to call a technician for that!”
Rin giggled, and I closed my eyes, committing those light, cute notes to memory. I lifted a finger to Maria, telling her to hold her conversation in until I was finished basking in Rin.
After about a minute, I put my hand down. Maria narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms, reminding me of her daughter, as she screeched, “You know I’m the head seat of the council, right?!” She shook her head as her hands moved to her hips, but I was finding it hard to care. Rin was stuck to my side like she needed me next to her, and I was all too happy to oblige.
I don’t give a shit , I almost said out loud. That would only cause more problems for Rin, and I wanted to get rid of problems so she would choose to stay with us. Yes, a choice was better than chains, right? But we always needed a back-up plan, and chains weren't so bad. I could have Ravi order the most comfortable kind.
Maria broke through my thoughts with a clap. “Hey, listen up!” I held in my need to tell her to shut the fuck up as I slowly pulled my eyes away from Rin.
“Layrin is the last descendant of the Rose family, which overrules your externus claim.” My body and mind froze, stunned and confused by the information she had just laid out like it was old news. I remembered that when I made my claim, she had barely batted an eye. That meant she knew that it was a high possibility that Rin was the Rose family heir before we even came in the building.
“I’ll keep that little claim to myself.” She winked. “Who knows what the others would do with that information.” I immediately wanted to growl at her, threaten her, but Rin’s fingers touched my hand, so I let the threat go… for now. “Plus, you need to get your head in the game since we decided she needs to be trained for the ‘test.’ If she passes, she will officially become the head of the Rose family.” Maria’s words were being heard, but I was still trying to wrap my head around all the life-changing information. I had a bad feeling she wasn't done yet. Not with her viper smile, fangs out, shining at me.
“Your uncle graciously offered you as her trainer for the next three months, and Layrin has accepted.” She bit out that last part, but not before my heart sank into my stomach. Bile rose up, threatening to be set free by the visions of my brothers and I doing to Layrin what was done to us. No. We can't do that. I won't do it. Not to her. Anyone but her.
Cool fingers cupped my cheeks, shaking me out of my thoughts as she turned my face toward her. Rin used her soul-piercing gray eyes to capture mine, to free me from my tormented mind. It filled my heart up again to see her searching my eyes with a concerned expression. She still cares. Even if she hates us, she still cares… and that’s a doorway back in.
I took a few ragged breaths, calming everything in my head and heart down, when she turned to Maria and said, “Done here?” When Maria nodded, Rin slid her arm into mine and squeezed hard enough for her nails to dig in, reminding me where we were. “We're going. Got a lot to do.”
“Yes. Yes, you do,” Maria replied. Leaning against a wall, she watched us with a scrupulous look. “Ambros, I’m also giving you permission for the evidence you wanted to see.”
That wasn't as important right now, so I nodded, neither Rin or I looked back as we walked out the way we had come. All the doors were opened for us, and the room with the AI assistant was dark.
“Do you need me to drive?”
Her soft, strong voice caught me off guard, and I stopped in front of the car to look at her, really look at her. The corners of her eyes wrinkled, her gorgeous plump mouth slightly parted, letting puffs of her sweet air escape her. “No. I need to think, and driving will help me focus.”
She nodded, and I pulled open her door, waiting for her to get in before I closed it and jogged around to the driver’s side. I looked at her again, and a surge of pride filled me. She had her first meeting with the council, and she was perfectly fine.
“I feel like I need to tell you that I tried really hard, but I couldn't fight them off when they took my blood.” The disappointment in her voice only angered me. She should be disappointed in us or angry at that damn council, not at herself.
Slowly turning forward, I gripped the wheel, wanting it to bend as my teeth ground together. At this rate, I was no longer going to have teeth. I pushed the start button, and the engine roared, mimicking the lion inside of me wanting to scream out. I reined the temptation in as I put the car into gear and growled, “Tell. Me. Everything.”
I would catalog each and every infraction, and once everything was said and done, I would make sure they paid the price for what they had done. No one would escape the Ambros brothers' wrath.
By the time we pulled up the driveway, I wanted to turn around and burn down the building. How dare they fucking look at her, let alone viciously question her, savagely restrain her, and steal the liquid life from her veins!
“Hey, I’m okay. Other than being judgy and stealing my blood, they weren’t as bad as I envisioned they would be. In fact, everyone was more curious than anything—everyone but your uncle, that is.” She crossed her arms, shoving them into her sides. “That man is an asshole, just saying.”
My chest tightened as a barking laugh came out at her assessment. Don’t get me wrong, I would rather have my nails ripped off one by one than have the two of them in the same room, but Rin had a way with words that calmed my troubled soul.
“Yes. That man is the fucking worst.”
As our chuckles wound down, our eyes met and something serious fell over us. Gone were our smiles and laughter, and what filled the space was hesitation and disbelief.
She was the dead family's heir. The Rose heir. She was guaranteed a seat at the table if we could train her well. It was all so unbelievable.
The fact that she was at an orphanage... How Foedus didn’t find her, I had no idea. Did they even try to find her, or did they write her off as a loss? What happened to her family? I had never learned much about the Rose family since they were a dead line before we joined, but I was very interested now.
We looked over at the front door when a bang sounded. Ravi ran out the door with Roux following closely behind. I knew they would be on board once we explained, willing to do anything to help Rin, but what if she didn’t pass, even with our help?
Shaking those thoughts from my head, I unbuckled and got out of the car at the speed of light. Facing off with my brothers, I called out, “No questions out here. We’re going to come in and discuss everything.”
Ravi’s face turned into a full-on pout, but he yanked open Rin’s door before he basically climbed into the seat on top of her. “You don’t know how worried Roux has been—pacing all over the house, making a mess, and even trying to redecorate, which means some things inside are broken. He’s been going crazy !”
Roux glanced at me, greeting me with a nod before rolling his eyes at our loud-mouth, overly dramatic brother.
Yeah, all that seemed like a Ravi thing to do.
“Roux! How could you? Ye of little faith?” Her teasing voice said to Roux, and his arms strained in their crossed state. His lips turned down into a frown as Ravi started to giggle, snuggling into Rin like she was an oversized teddy bear.
“That's right! I, however, didn't doubt you for a second! Now, Rion… Well, there were some doubts thrown his way.” He pointed at me, and I narrowed my eyes on him.
She giggled and pushed at Ravi, trying to get him off of her, but he just wouldn't budge. I was about to yell at him to get off when Roux yanked on his shirt and threw him over his shoulder. Once Ravi was taken care of, Roux turned back to Rin and stuck his hand out, inviting her to take it.
She eyed his hand, her eyes thoughtful, like she was deciding whether she trusted him enough to take it. Before today, it would irk me and piss me off, but after everything that just happened, I was glad for her careful consideration. She’s no dummy.
When she finally decided to take it, he threw Ravi on the floor, yanked her up in one swoop, and carried her into the house. She yelped in surprise, but otherwise, she was unexpectedly cooperative.
“No fair!” Ravi whined behind them. “Next time, I get to carry Rin.”
We made our way into the house, and it took all my might not to let my eyes bug out of my face. The whole front room had been rearranged, but in an odd way. The couch was in the center of the room with the loveseat shoved into a corner, obviously far away from the couch it belonged with. The coffee table was on one side of the couch, and the coat hanger was behind the couch on the other side. The sheer disorganization made my skin crawl.
“Wow, Ravi. You feng shui-ed the place.” Roux set Rin down on her feet, and she put her hands on her hips and laughed at the mess. Ravi, of course, beamed up at her like she had told him he was fucking Picasso. It all made my head hurt.
“Let’s just sit down and tell them what happened. It's going to be a lot to take in, and we need to figure it all out.” She nodded and plopped down on the couch first, with Ravi and Roux quickly grabbing the seats to her right and left. It was irritating because I wanted to sit next to her, but in the grand scheme of things, it was only fair.
Hunching over, I grabbed the loveseat and dragged it over while glaring at Ravi. His devious smile told me he had planned for something like this. Fucking brothers.
“Before we get into all that, I wanted to finish what we talked about this morning.” With our full attention on her, she sighed. “I was planning on telling you three that I was going to leave. I was going to quit school and go back to my shitty life. Thinking back on it, I can’t deny that I was scared and upset, but it mostly came from being hurt.” She looked down at her hands and smiled. “I’m still hurt, but after what happened, I realized that I want to survive this. I want to learn as much as I can to make the best decisions for my future.”
She closed her eyes, her body tense, before taking a breath and continuing. “And in order to do that, I need your help.” She looked up, facing each of us like she was confirming her commitment.
All three of us looked at each other, questions circle my brother's eyes, but also relief. We would have another chance. She might not trust us a whole bunch, but we could work on that. We could get her trust back. We bobbed our heads, agreeing with her.
“Now, let me tell you about the crazy shit happened.”
After she explained everything, my brothers stared at the ground, lost in thought. Hearing it for the second time, I understood their concerns.
While her being from the Rose family didn't specifically matter much to us, her being undeniably connected to this world we lived in did complicate our goal. Not to mention the training the three of us had received was not something any of us wanted to relive, let alone have Rin go through.
Layrin’s face pinched, her mouth pulled down when she whispered, hurt underlying her words, “Do you not want to train me? Help me?”
Fuck. She was taking our silence the wrong way.
“No. That's not it, Rin,” Ravi immediately answered for all of us. “It's just… We have to think about how we can handle this, like who’s going to train you in what and how to make those three months count because the test is no joke. It's going to test you physically, intellectually, and mentally. The specific details of the test are different for every person.”
Roux’s rough voice followed. “While most people make it out of the tests alive, not everyone comes out sane.”
Her eyes widened as she grasped the situation, and with that understanding, her face fell. She would need a lot more than just her will to make it happen. I could hear her silent pleas, her whispered wishes, and I couldn't bear it. I couldn't let her think she was doomed.
“We’re going to help you. You’ll get through this no matter what. I promise.”