Chapter 11
Imay be a Sadist. Maybe just a little.
Ever since Syrinox made that snippy comment in the kitchen, I’ve been using a more commanding tone with Glavior just to see how he would react. Needless to say, I’ve figured out that the Orc is quite the little submissive when it comes to me. I’ve seen the guys get strong toned with him and it is like he is ready to rip their heads off, but when I do it … When I use a firm voice with Glavior, or give him a direct order, he almost trips over himself to do whatever it is I told him to do.
Now, instead of listening to Dallie tell a story about their three months away, I’m playing all the different ways I can use Glavior’s submissiveness in the bedroom. Dirty, dirty thoughts play in my mind and my pussy is wet. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a stain on the chair when I get up.
The twins keep sniffing the air and scooting their chairs closer to me, their eyes full of fire and heat as they stare at the side of my face. Cerise keeps adding more food to my plate and Onyx has refilled my juice three times. The two of them are like eager puppies trying to please their master, and it isn’t helping with the little fantasies I have playing in my head. I wouldn’t say I’m a Domme per se, but the thought of being in charge in the bedroom is a very delicious one.
Everyone is done eating, just sitting around the table talking and laughing. My heart feels … light. Like this is exactly what life is supposed to be. I don’t like it. It has to stop, immediately.
“Okay, come on guys, we have shit to do. Az, can you guys clean up?” I stand and stare at my brother who smirks, but nods his head.
With that, I turn and walk out of the room, knowing good and well the guys will follow. Dree dashes past me and runs up the stairs while I go into the hall behind the stairs and past the kitchen doorway to my office. Az has an office on the other side of the house that mirrors this one. My office is beautiful, spacious but intimate with the black walls. The wall facing the back is a giant window with seamless double glass doors in the middle. When the doors are closed, you can’t tell they are there. The walls on either side of the door to the house have floor to ceiling bookshelves filled with my smut collection. Directly across from the window wall currently covered with thick black black-out curtains, is a massive fireplace with beanbags and short end tables that make it the perfect cozy sitting area. Across the room from the bookshelves is my desk that is bookended by more bookshelves, these filled with magic books and research material for my missions. Everything from atlases, to all the family trees I could get my hands on, including royalty and commoners.
The guys look around the room, a breathless Dree dragging in last. Glavior wanders over to my smut collection and his brows raise, an impressed look crossing his face before he quickly sinks his lips back into his signature scowl. The twins are drawn to the research selves, looking through the books and touching tombs older than they are. Syrinox plops into a beanbag chair as Dree lights the fireplace then walks over to the window wall and pulls the curtain back enough to see the view.
“Let’s go, we have a lot to discuss and plans to make. You can rummage through my shit when we know how we’re getting to the Dragon.”
The guys make their way over to the bean bag chairs. There isn’t enough for all of us to have our own, and I’m the last one there, so I’m stuck having to decide who to sit with. All of them are looking at me expectantly and I glance around, my mind going back and forth trying to see what would cause the least amount of backlash. Syrinox is the only one not looking like he wants me to sit with him, so of course, he is who I decide.
The other guys seem almost desperate for my attention, but Syrinox seems to be doing anything and everything he can to not draw my attention. I plop down in the chair beside him, but because of the way the chairs work, I”m thrown into his side. Our bodies are pressed together from shoulder to hip and my leg is practically on top of his, basically sitting in his lap. Syrinox’s hands start flying, moving so fast I miss a few things, but I do see the signs for ‘gods’ ‘crazy woman’ and ‘death’. I snicker, but ignore him.
The other guys are all grumbling, but one glance from me and they shift around their seats. Dree is the one that breaks the awkward silence that follows me sitting, and I lean back to get more comfortable, pressing even closer to the siren.
“So, we have a quest to eliminate the man dubbed as Dragon. He is known in the criminal world as the ‘boss of bosses’. Basically, everything we’ve found on him,” Dree hands me a three ring binder filled about half way with papers and pictures before he continues his explanation. “Suggests he is the leader of multiple pedophilia rings. From what we gather, he kidnaps children young, like one or two years old. He keeps them in barely livable huts in a place called the Slum. When they hit six years old, he starts their ‘training’,”
Dree visibly shutters at the thought. I’m flipping through the book, looking at faces of men I’ve killed in the last few months, a few I’ve heard of before. There are pages and pages of pictures of missing children, some of them have a death or found date on them along with disgusting photos of what they looked like when their bodies were found. It’s awful, brutal, and the thought of anyone doing this to a child has my vision turning red and the blood in my veins boiling.
Glavior takes over where Dree left off. “Most of the kids found, well, their bodies were returned to the families that reported them missing, and none of them were over the age of 18. It’s really fucked up. The men in the binder are his underlings, the men that handle the dirty work. We’ve noticed that a lot of the names associated with him are dropping dead before we get to them.”
Syrinox taps me on the shoulder then starts signing slowly, adding to what the others have said already.
We’ve been able to locate the village where the children are kept and sold, as well as the stronghold where Dragon does all his work from. We have a plan to get into the stronghold, but we need one more person, someone with the skills to actually take out the target and get back out without being seen.
I nod my head, taking in all the information they’ve given me and what I’ve read in the binder, the twins start talking as I keep flipping through the book.
“Glavior said he knew someone that could help us from his days at the academy.” Cerise starts.
“He kept going on and on about this beautiful woman that outshined everyone at the academy, even him. He honestly wouldn’t shut up about her.”
“Syrinox wanted to try the mission with just us, and then go find the babe after.” Cerise says, smirking at Syrinox who flips his middle finger up into the air, nobody needs to know sign language to know what that means. “But Dree pointed out that if we try our plan and it fails, then it’ll be next to impossible to try a second time, so we came here to find … Well, you I guess.”
I roll my eyes, trying to appear unimpressed with their sweet description of me. Inside though, I’m bouncing around like a little girl whose first crush just said she is pretty. I obviously enjoy their efforts to woo me, I just refuse to show them that I do.
“So what is this glorious plan?”
“You get into the keep while the rest of us distract the guards, you kill the Dragon and sneak back out before anyone notices he is dead and we all walk away just a bit wealthier.” Glavior says.
My eyes just about pop out of my head with how wide they stretch. There is absolutely no way in actual fuck that is their entire plan! It’s a suicide mission. If the guards don’t kill them on site, they sure will by the time I get inside, much less kill the highly guarded man and back out! Not to mention, we have no idea what traps and magic they have guarding the keep or what skills and abilities the Dragon has!
“Wow, way to simplify a complex plan and leave over half of it out.” Dree draws, rolling his eyes and crossing his arms over his chest. Glaring at Glavior, he fills in the rest of their plan. “There”s a long trek between here and the Keep, and the Slum happens to be on the way. We’re planning on going around the Slum to the Keep, using magic and a few other tricks we have to disable the magic barrier and distract the guards. We know that the Dragon is known to enjoy female company in the evenings, so the easiest way, if you”re down, is to have you go in as a whore. You’ll get him alone and you’ll be able to sneak back out.”
“Once the dumb fuck is dead, we can circle back to the Slum and kill all the dumb fucks there and save the babies.” Cerise says, a smile on his face.
“We have to come back here to collect the bounty, and after that, well ... who knows.” Onyx says.
Hmm, yes, who knows.
“So how long is the trip?”
“About two weeks through the forest, we can assume there will be traps and monsters around the Slum to keep people away, and there is at least one lagoon we have to get across.” Glavior says, his voice quiet.
“Well, let”s get packed so we can get going, we’ll go over everything we know about the target and fine tune the plan on the way.” I say, thinking over everything I need to do to get ready.
I nod my head, thinking about their plan and the trip. I guess I’m stuck with them for the next month at least. I’ll have to honor Ahazu’s request and give them an honest chance to convince me to accept the mate bond. Not to mention I just got Ahazu back, now I have to leave him for a month. I want to finish this mission, but I don’t want to leave my brother. I also don’t want him to come because this is going to be dangerous. Looks like I’m stuck with these five for the next few weeks. This is going to be the longest month of my fucking life!
It doesn’t take long for us to pack up. I’m really the only one that has to pack anything at all. Ahazu, Boo, and Dallie are laying on my bed as I get durable clothes for the trip and a few outfits that would fit the whore persona I’ll be adapting to get the kill. I debate bringing my makeup, but Dallie says I should take some of her human makeup so if I have to leave it behind or it gets ruined, I won’t be as upset.
I pack a second bag of weapons. Daggers, throwing knives, magic bombs, acids and poisons all get organized much more gently than my clothes did. Weapons get much more care than clothes any day.
“I can’t believe you have to leave for work when we just got home!” Dallie whines, she throws a pillow at me but I dodge it and keep packing.
“Yes, well, this will be the last assignment I take for a bit. I want to be able to spend some time with you guys.” I tell them, mentally wondering what I’m missing.
“Leave her be Dallie, she is funding our clinic.” Ahazu says, rubbing Dallie’s back and smirking at me as I flip him off over my shoulder.
I honestly don’t mind giving them the start-up funds. Their clinic is going to help so many people around here and I’d do anything for my brother. Plus, with all the assignments I had while they were gone, our house account is padded well enough that none of us have to worry about money for a while, and this job is going to almost triple it.
“Our little Astra, going off on an epic adventure with five men. She won’t be the same when she gets home.” Boo flicks a fake tear off his cheek, but the sarcastic smirk on his lips ruins the effect he is trying to get.
“Shut up, Boo. You’re the one that went off to heal the world and came back mated to my brother and Dallie.” I say, counting the number of blades I have in my pack, again.
“Seriously, big sister. Make sure in all the chaos, you take time to get to know them. Chase your happiness, be an active participant in making life everything you’ve ever dreamed it could be and stop avoiding your desires because of the ‘what ifs’ playing in your mind.”
Az hugs me around the waist, not making a noise as he gets off the bed and crosses the room. I swear if his heart wasn’t so big he’d make a better assassin than me. He would never though. He spent years denying himself the comfort of touch after accidentally killing two men who were actively attempting to take his life. He’d never willingly do that again, and I’d do a great number of things to make sure he never has to.
“Ahazu, what happened to your gloves?” I whisper, not wanting to upset him, but wanting the answer. It’s been bugging me, dancing in the back of mind since I saw him last night.
“I found my mates. Elizis helped me, well, forced me more like it, to see that I’m in control of my magic, not the other way around. I learned I didn’t have to fear what the goddess gave me because she would never give me something I wasn’t strong enough to handle.”
He looks deep into my eyes, saying so much more than the words coming out of his mouth. I get it. The goddess sent me a group of men, she tailored them to be perfect for me, and all I have to do is be brave enough to accept her gift. Just like he did.
“I’ll try, little brother. I really will.”
I hug him once more, not wanting to let him go. A throat clears at the door and Az and I both turn our heads to see who needs our attention, not letting go of the hug. Dree is standing in the door, his face full of warm affection as he watches me and my brother.
I heave a sign, not needing his words to know it’s time to get on the road. I squeeze him one more time, trying to imprint my love onto him. He is my whole world, and I have to leave a piece of my heart again as I go save the world, just like he did. Maybe, somewhere along the way, I can be brave enough to chase my own happiness just like he said I should.