Chapter 24 #4
“I never knew he kept you prisoner there… I never knew you existed at all… Things… Everything …would have been very different had I known,” Legion says to her.
Unhooking her thumbs from the front pockets of her jeans, Cherry uncomfortably crosses her slender arms and allows him to continue.
“I am far from an innocent man. However, I am nothing like Asmodeus… As far as what transpired that night, three years ago… I thought it merciful to drug you…”
Axel nearly jolts in his seat. Even from across the room, I can see his jaw rippling with an anger that doesn’t seem to have dissipated over the years at all.
The whole nightmare experience is probably fresh in his memory as if it had only gone down yesterday.
When I exchange a brief glance with Dean, the tension in his expression tells me he feels the same way.
Though Legion’s eyes never leave Cherry’s, I know he’s aware of Axel’s reaction.
Unfazed, he goes on, “Taking you as well guaranteed the involvement of the other Saviors. There was no other way to ensure Dean wouldn’t be able to insist on a one- man rescue mission.
I needed the Saviors to wipe out as many Chrome Demons as possible.
There was no other way… I wanted to spare you…
to shield you as much as I possibly could…
But I needed to see for myself… The recognition in his eyes …
when he saw you again…to be truly certain…
in those final moments. I killed him for you, too. ”
Cherry shifts in her boots, and her eyes drop from Legion’s as she takes a moment to consider everything he just said. Nodding, she then lifts her chin to meet Legion’s gaze again.
“Alright,” she says simply.
With the slightest bow of his head, Legion takes a step back from her, just as Axel thrusts himself out of the chair in the living room.
“I didn’t hear an apology,” Axel snaps, storming back to Cherry’s side.
“Axel, it’s fine… He said what he had to say… Let’s just be done with this,” Cherry pleads.
“No! Fuck that! He owes you an apology for what he did!” Axel raises his voice, jabbing his finger at Legion’s chest.
Again, the immediate need to step between them swells within me. Legion is like a deadly cobra, poised and ready to strike. If Axel pushes too far, that scary, instinctual inclination to kill whatever he deems a threat could take over.
As I come to stand with them once again, Legion takes another step back from Cherry, his cold gaze no longer fixed on her. Axel has his full attention now.
Before I can say anything in the way of a suggestion to step outside, Cherry tells Axel to calm down.
“People apologize when they feel remorseful. Legion clearly had his reasons for everything he did… He’s just being honest…
He can’t be sorry for something he wasn’t a part of…
He isn’t sorry for doing what he thought he had to do… ”
“I… I feel …perhaps… sympathy for whatever grief or pain you may have suffered. Both at the hands of Asmodeus, as well as the events of that night I had you abducted,” Legion says, as if struggling with what he is attempting to convey.
“You were a means to a much-needed end, for all of us. For that, I offer you my sincerest...”
“ Apologies!” Axel impatiently urges him to say the word.
“Condolences... Solicitude …” The muscles around Legion’s pale grey eyes tighten as his expression shifts to something a bit more concerning.
“You can shove your fuckin’ sympathy, you psychotic asshole!” Axel shouts, seconds away from attacking Legion, which summons Dean to his side. “I doubt you’re even capable.”
“Let’s revisit this conversation when everyone has calmed down!” I interject, stepping directly in front of Legion now. “How about that cigarette? Outside .”
Legion quirks a brow at me, a look of borderline amusement in his expressive eyes. “Are you encouraging my habit now, sweet one?”
“I’m encouraging you to quit while you’re… Well, I’d say ahead , but I’m not sure what was accomplished here.” Pointing toward the door, I insist. “Please. Go outside. I’m right behind you.”
“I’m not quite finished with them yet.” Legion smiles at me, and I swear a part of him gets off on making me squirm. He glances back at Axel. “I am sorry about your fallen brother. Though it was not my intention, it was a result of my doing.”
Axel grits his teeth, shaking his head as his eyes practically shoot daggers into a completely unbothered Legion.
“One more thing, Cherry, before I go,” Legion says, shifting his gaze back to her. “You and I, we’re not so different… Not in the deepest recesses of our souls.”
“She’s got nothing in common with the likes of you!” Axel snaps at him, this time attempting to tug Cherry away from him.
The look of confusion on her face at Legion’s words quickly morphs to wide-eyed understanding, and he offers her a single, curt nod before stepping around Axel and walking out the door.
I step past them to grab my jacket from the rack beside the door, but Dean gently takes my arm. “What are you doing?”
“I told him I would walk him out.”
“ He’s already out.”
I give Dean a pleading look, and he releases my arm. “I’ll be right back,” I say, slipping into the jacket.
When I step outside, Legion is standing on the front porch beside a column nearest the steps, cigarette already lit between his fingers.
“Are you alright?” I ask.
Before Legion can reply, Axel storms out the front door and down the porch steps to his bike.
Cherry hurries out after him, only stopping to briefly apologize to me for leaving so abruptly.
I assure her it’s alright, that we’ll talk later.
Legion and I watch them barrel down the driveway on Axel’s motorcycle until the red glow of the taillight in the darkness disappears around the bend.
I shift my gaze to the glowing ember at the end of Legion’s cigarette as he pulls a long drag, then exhales slowly. He doesn’t look at me. His stare is lost somewhere beyond the faraway tree line. Maybe he’s staring at the old farmhouse… I wonder if Meg ever got her cornucopia.
I take a deep breath of the crisp autumn night and let it out on a sigh, realizing how exhausted I am from the events of the day. I’m sure the turkey has something to do with it as well. Ace must be on the precipice of a coma if he isn’t already asleep.
Moving to the windows behind the sitting area on the porch, I peek through into the living room and see Ace, eyes barely open, lounging in the corner of the leather couch like he’s one of the guys.
It makes me smile until I shift my gaze to Dean sitting in the opposite corner, conversing with Viking, who has claimed the leather chair.
Dean looks tense and seemingly immune to the effects of tryptophan that Ace is rapidly succumbing to.
I know it’s because I’m outside with Legion.
Whatever time we have out here will be very limited.
I step around the arm of an Adirondack and lower myself to sit. It feels good to get off my feet for a few minutes.
“Well, thank you for trying,” I say, breaking the long bout of silence between Legion and me.
“You actually sound like you mean that.” He chuckles but doesn’t turn around to face me.
“I do mean it… There was a moment where you may have been a little antagonistic, but overall…you kept your word.”
He doesn’t say anything, just pulls another drag from that cigarette.
“Why do you smoke so much?” I ask.
Legion exhales slowly, and the thick cloud dissipates into the darkness. “Does it bother you?” His voice is quieter, but there’s something in his tone.
“It worries me.”
He chuckles again, but it sounds forced, and he takes another drag before replying, “Worry is a funny thing, isn’t it?” He flicks his ash over the railing. “Humans are unique in that way… Always endeavoring to seek something to worry about.”
“Well…you smoke like you’re immune to the consequences.”
When he shifts to partially face me, there’s a sadness in his expression, something tired and resigned. “Maybe I’m counting on them.”
His words startle me, and my chest aches as I watch him pull another drag, the ember burning brighter before dimming again…like a dying star. He lets the smoke curl from his lips before it disappears into the night air.
“There are far deadlier addictions,” he says, and I remember what he told me about love. Love is far deadlier than hate… Love, like smoking, will eventually kill you…
I try to keep my voice steady when I ask him, “When did you start smoking?”
“Ten years.”
“Ago?”
“No…” He flicks the ash over the railing again, then stares at the cigarette, as if it might finish the sentence for him…but I do instead.
“ When you were ten years old?”
He nods, and my hand gravitates to the base of my tightening throat. My eyes begin to sting as I recall what he said to Cherry only moments ago.
I want to tell him that I care, that he matters…but words feel small in the face of something so dark and heartbreaking.
I stand up and walk over to him, plucking the cigarette from his fingers. I want to drop it and stomp it out, but I doubt it will make a difference, so I stare into his searching grey eyes and lift it to my lips.
Immediately, his hand closes over mine, pushing it down before he snatches it back from me. Glaring now, he drops it on the porch and snuffs it out beneath his shoe.
“Why?” I ask.
“Because you,” he says, voice rougher than before, “have everything to live for.”
“I matter?”
“You matter more than anything.”
“And you don’t?”
His jaw tenses before he shifts his gaze from mine, turning back to the railing to stare out into the darkness once again. “I should go.”
I don’t want him to leave like this.