Chapter 20
Azrael
Malachi’s name flashed across my phone screen and I ignored it.
I didn’t have the time to deal with his pointless assignments anyway, he had other children for that, and anyway, hadn’t he learned by now?
I was better than them all. I was above those silly little missions.
I had bigger things to accomplish than trying to gain more power for him.
I leaned back in my chair, twirling my cane in one hand while I watched the hand tick on my watch that rested in the other. Two of the most important things I held in my possession. The only things I truly owned. Everything else could be burned for all I cared, but not these. Never these.
My phone started ringing again, and I felt that familiar darkness spark under my skin. They would force my hand. Make me get rid of my phone again. I only kept this one for their benefit, but clearly they hadn’t been paying much attention.
I don’t like being interrupted.
I clicked my watch shut, slid it back into my breast pocket, and reached for the phone, finding not Malachi’s name flashing across my screen, but a little yellow flower instead.
My cane stopped twirling, and I hit answer. “Hello, daffodil. To what do I owe this particular call?” I did hope it wasn’t another conversation about why I wasn’t allowing her to chase after her dear father. I disliked repeating myself.
“You’re ignoring Malachi.”
“I ignore everyone.”
“Not me,” she countered.
“I dislike you the second to least,” I answered easily.
Which was true. Despite her innate ability to stop listening when I told her I wouldn’t allow her to get near her father, she was smart and quick-witted.
Her anger was a weapon that she used, and the way she wielded Jacky-boy was somewhat entertaining.
She was confident in who she was and what she stood for, and I respected that.
However, her stubbornness was as admirable as it was irritating. “Where are you in the world today.”
“I should be asking you that question.”
I didn’t bother with a response. She knew better than to ask.
After a moment of silence, she released a breath. “We’re in Russia dealing with an issue.”
I felt the skin around my mouth tighten. “Don’t tell me the Delepski brothers have more family hellbent on destroying our dearest wild rose.” Just the uncle they hadn’t yet caught. I wondered how long it would take them to realize he was still alive.
“You already know the answer to that.”
“I do,” I admitted. “What I don’t know is why you are there and not our lovely couple.” I was curious how Olivia took my advice. What was she seeking out? Where would she lead that brother of mine?
I heard the load of a gun. “They’re dealing with some shit in the states. After you told them not to go after you two weeks ago, Olivia went a little…” She struggled for the words. “Let’s just say Everett’s not having to do much work these days.”
I felt my smile grow. She must have been very tired when I went to visit her then because she seemed quite tame to me. One day soon I should follow them just to see her in action.
“You need to answer him.”
“You have such a bitter weed growing in your chest for him, so I’m curious as to why you, out of them all, are pushing me to answer his calls.”
She sighed. “Because you won’t listen to anyone else. God knows why,” she muttered bitterly. “This is pointless,” she said to herself, “what are you even doing right now? Where are you?”
I chuckled, but it was far from humorous. “Don’t bring Him into this, daffodil, I don’t do fantasies.”
“Fine, then who is the card? Is it a girl? Is she in danger?”
Now, I know for a fact that the rose wouldn’t tell a soul other than her Claim about the things we discuss. The mountains, however, were singing. I should have been more specific about our conversations. I wouldn’t make that mistake again.
“Why do you hate your dear adopted father?” I asked, ignoring her completely.
She must have adjusted the phone because the next time she spoke, her voice was louder, clearer.
“He went silent when we needed him the most and he still won’t answer my questions even though it’s been years.
He’s more irritating than you are about this whole situation.
I will always feel anger towards him. You, on the other hand, are his son.
You signed a contract, so you need to abide by it. ”
My smile strained at the command in her voice.
She never signed that contract. She went through the same program, the same trials, but lucky for her, her dear dead mother persuaded him to allow her to roam free.
No names inked in blood like the rest of us.
“I’m busy,” I told her. “Have him call someone else.”
“I will not be a rabbit bouncing between the two of you,” she replied chillingly.
“Then you should have picked a different mask,” I sang.
“Azrael,” she snarled. “Don’t fucking kill her. You need to—”
I hung up, turned my phone off, and looked up to the cross on my wall. There were reasons I didn’t share. Time has only ever proven me right. This would prove to be a problem, but it wasn’t one yet. If she was smart, she would bounce herself out of the part of this business she didn’t belong in.
The cross filled the wall spectacularly.
Nine feet tall, six feet wide, hanging a foot off the ground.
Coating it were layers of blood that had hardened and cracked over the years, now doused in fresh blood as it slowly dripped to the floor, trickling slowly towards the drain.
A woman hung in the center very similar to their precious god, a red light hanging from the ceiling pointed directly at her, flushing her skin.
The ‘panic room’ as most would call it, was located within the 100,000 acres we owned. It was about 75.5 miles away from the building we trained in, deep in the woods, only found by a narrow trail, barely accessible on my R1. I had cameras lining the trail in case anyone ever found it.
The space was large with several rooms all made of concrete. It was filled with many different toys, my own personal paradise.
I lost count of how many people I had hung from this upside down cross, but I suppose it didn’t matter. Right now, another victim now hung from this replicated holy relic.
She was still whimpering softly, her black hair plastered to her face by tears, sweat, and blood.
There was a long nail driven through both wrists above her head on what was supposed to be the bottom of the cross.
The same rust covered nails were driven through each ankle, her legs spread where her hands should have been.
I could still hear the sound her body made when I drove them through her bones. It had made my pussy hungry cock twitch in glee.
I reached for my glass and took a small sip of water.
The church never held a funeral for the Delepski brothers.
Probably because they didn’t have the bodies, or perhaps they didn’t want to be associated with a compound like church in the middle of the woods.
Although, with how careless they were getting, I couldn’t comprehend why they didn’t embrace their religion fully.
Why deny other believers who believed in the same things they did?
I was missing a piece of the puzzle, and I did so hate that.
Why a compound? Why not go to the church itself?
Why hold women hostage there when they could have been transported?
Had Charles known about this? Had the Leaders?
So many questions. Maybe the answers would come once I finally got alone with the dear little sinner.
I set my glass down, pushed myself to a stand, twirling my cane once, twice, before I set the end on the ground and gripped the head.
A deer head with sharpened antlers, it was snarling like a wolf, teeth sharpened, eyes narrowed.
The antlers were spread wide enough, stretched out tall enough, to wrap around a jaw.
Specially made with my designs in mind. Thank you, Alaric.
I gestured to the pictures I had plastered around her. Pictures of dead people, brutally beaten and left in poorly concealed shallow graves. Their ages ranged from 7 to 28, all of them showing signs of sexual abuse.
I looked carefully at each and every one before my eyes found hers again.
“I won’t ask you to confess your sins, Adrianna, because I don’t see the point,” I began.
“Just know that the Devil did not send me here to reap the world that you all have sown. No.” I smiled.
“I am the Devil, and I’ve come to bring back balance to this world.
“You see,” I gently grabbed her jaw with those antlers and lifted it, forcing her stitched eyes to find mine, “there are a few things in this world I just won’t put up with. One; I don’t like when people break my rules.”
Her jaw was too slim for my antlers, her chin hitting the top of the deer head. It was always too slim or too fat. I hated when they didn’t fit just right.
“Two,” I went on, pushing her head back against the small, three-inch spike I had embedded into the cross, “I don’t like when people touch me.” I pushed a little harder, her whimpers turning into soft cries as her eyes fought to open and her hands fought to grab the cane, blood dripping from both.
“Three, my family. People have been hurting them for a very long time, Adrianna, and I do so hate that. The disrespect, the blatant outcry of stupidity. It’s all just…
” I inhaled deeply and exhaled. “Tedious. The truth is, I don’t have a heart.
Nothing but an empty shell filled with tar, I won’t tell a lie, but when it comes to my family?
I just cannot let that disrespect stand.
You understand, you have children, after all.
” My eyes flicked to the very picture I had pinned just above her head.
8 and 12. The only ones I managed to get an ID off of.
“Please, please, please, please,” she pleaded over and over again.
My gaze fell back to her bloodied face. “Children you sold to your very own church, knowing very well what they do there. So…perhaps you don’t understand at all.
Four,” I continued. “I won’t put up with people who rape children.
Love is love is loooove,” I sang in delirium.
“But that just isn’t true. There are lines, and you, Adrianna, have crossed them all. ”
“Please,” she begged. “Mercy.”
I didn’t recognize that word and I held absolutely no respect for those who used it. “Where are they keeping them before they throw them into the dirt?” I asked evenly.
“I don’t know,” she sobbed. “When they aren’t wanted, they are shipped off.”
“With whom?” I asked. “Who takes them?”
She screamed. “Somebody help me!”
I pushed a little more, feeling the resistance of that spike.
When she was done screaming and panting, she gasped, “I don’t know!” she cried.
“Well, that’s just disappointing. I suppose I don’t have much use for you then.” I felt the second that spike broke through her skin, her screams becoming blood-curdling.
“WAIT!”
I stopped adding pressure. “That little girl will never be the same because of you. You ruined her and you ruined the lives of your children.”
“Please!” she screamed. “I was only doing what I was taught!”
I stepped up to her, baring my sharpened smile.
“The way they treated you as a child should have prevented you from doing the same thing to others. You took your trauma and used it as an excuse to harm others because the world turned its back on you, but here’s the secret, Adrianna; the world turns its back on everyone. You’re not that special.”
I stepped back and shoved her head back, cutting her scream off as the antlers ripped back her skin, the spike going straight into her head.
Her body went rigid and then slack, the blood dripping over her skin, my cock throbbing at the sight.
I ripped my cane back and studied the blood slowly trickling down the wounds on her face. Crimson.
Beautiful.