Chapter 29 Azrael
Azrael
I stood the second those blips disappeared from the screen and grabbed my cane, mask, and the keys to my bike.
They wasted no time. Not even a second. Why would they?
Malachi knew I had trained her. He knew I had been watching the others all these years, learning from their mistakes.
Even if he believed I didn’t care for her, his assumption would be that I would tag what was mine, like a hunter tagging a prized buck.
He was going to go to great lengths to keep the location of Absolution from me. Great lengths. Starting with cutting her open to ensure she couldn’t be tracked.
“Azrael, what is it?” Olivia asked, standing up from the couch where she sat with her Claim.
“They found the trackers,” I answered. “Poppy, Olivia, Everett,” I named, heading for the door. “Havoc, guard her heart.”
They were at the elevator when I got there. No one said a word as we rode down, got on our bikes, and headed down the road.
It took us 94 minutes to get to where those blips had shut off.
87 minutes of riding, seven minutes of walking through the trees to find the bunker they had built into a cliffside in the woods.
I knew she wouldn’t be here. Not unless they were performing extensive surgery on her, but they already took her reproductive organs, so there was no reason for her to be here longer than it took to get those trackers out.
Still, beyond all that logic, there was still a piece of me, an untethered piece, that was hoping she would be here.
I kicked down the door, Poppy walking by me, gun raised, Lucy following quickly after.
Olivia remained on my right as we followed them into the concrete hall, the darkness quickly enveloping us only to be lit by intervals of dim yellow lights.
We walked deeper and deeper into the cliffside before the hall stopped, breaking off in two directions.
Without a single word, Poppy and I turned right, Olivia, Everett, and Lucy going left.
Silence surrounded us completely save for the pounding of my own heart and the ticking of the watch I was sure I could hear from my vest pocket.
Could she hear it too? The ticking. It was so loud sometimes, so deafening. Perhaps the sound would bring her comfort until I found her.
Tick tock.
Poppy kicked in the first door and the second. Both empty. She glanced back at me. “I think this is solely a medical facility.”
I looked into the first room, taking it in quickly. A metal table, medical equipment, and a red trashcan labeled ‘hazardous material’.
Lowering my sword, I looked into the next room. It was the same.
Poppy opened the next door, this time with her hand. Another empty medical room.
The fourth door she opened forced her to stop. She lowered her gun and her face hardened. After a few more seconds, Poppy took a slow step to the side and turned to me.
It wasn’t Scarlett, but it very well could have been.
I walked up to the door and took in the scene carefully, memorizing every detail of it, every inch.
The woman was cut open at the hips, blood covering the table, smeared across the floor where people had walked around, and even slipped a few times. There were discarded rags scattered everywhere, her uterus half pulled out, her eyes staring blankly at the door.
I lifted my chin. So, this was where he took them. This was where Malachi took my wife when she was just a girl.
“She’s not in our hall,” I heard Olivia say over the earpiece. “There are a few bodies though. All women, tossed in a pile. They were trying to remove their reproductive organs.”
When I didn’t respond, Poppy said, “we found one woman, same circumstance. She can’t be older than 18. How old are yours?”
Olivia was quiet for several seconds. “Youngest is 14.”
I could feel the rage drifting through the space when Olivia was done. The betrayal for them was still new. Still raw. All I felt for father dearest was pure hatred.
I stepped out of the room and turned to the end of the hall. There were two doors left. One on the opposite side of the hall from us, and one at the end.
If the past had taught me anything it was that people were far too predictable, but I needed to check the last room, just in case.
I walked right up to the door and pushed it open, the smell of cleaning solution meeting my nose. They had just sanitized, telling me all I needed to know.
I looked around the room as I stepped in, taking in everything I could to get as much information as possible. An IV filled with fluids, a red bin filled with red-stained gauze, and discarded needles. Either drugs to ease the pain or more tranquilizers.
I turned away, finding Poppy at the table, running her finger over something near the shackle that hung from the underside of it.
“What is it?” I asked.
She lifted her softened gaze to mine. “She started to scratch your name. Her name for you,” she corrected. “H. A. T.”
Evidence that she was here. Good girl.
I turned towards the door, my anger only growing. Without another second of hesitation, I walked out and right to the door at the end of the hall. Turning the door handle, it fell open on its own.
The old man was already staring at the door in absolute terror, his brown eyes wide, his son standing against the bookcase behind him, terrified.
“Please, please,” the old man begged, his hands up, as I slowly stalked forward. “I was only following orders. Please, Azrael.”
Stepped up to the desk, I swung my blade, slicing right through his spine, not caring for what he had to say.
I turned to his son before the man’s head hit the ground, Poppy pinning him against the bookshelf with her gun.
I gave him a sharp smile and lifted my chin, although he couldn’t see it behind my still chipped mask. “Tick tock goes the clock, doctor, especially for the traitors.”
“Azrael, please,” he begged, holding up his hands. “Please, you know him. I didn’t have a choice. I was born into this, just like you,” he pleaded, tears streaming down his face.
I chuckled, uncaring of his fate. “We all have our choices, Peter, you have simply made the wrong one.” Malachi had hired Peter’s father decades ago, back before we were even thought of as an option. Back when he was just a bug on a windshield. But in a game of cards, the aces always won.
“I didn’t have a choice!” he cried as I crept closer to him. “You know how powerful Malachi is! Azrael, please! You know me. We grew up together!”
I put the blade against his throat slowly, like a feline taunting its prey. “Don’t compare plums and predators, little Peter. Where did they take her?”
“Azrael, please,” he whispered, shaking his head, the blade slicing through his skin, the blood boiling on the silver blade. “Please, please, please. I am begging you, he will kill me if I give you anything.”
“Good news then, you’ll die either way.”
His eyes widened. “Everybody is going to know,” he whispered desperately. “Everyone. Malachi won’t let you kill his best doctors without telling everyone under him who did it. You’re a rogue, Azrael, and you’re taking Poppy down with you.”
I leaned in. “She fell willingly.” I leaned back. “Last chance,” I sang. “Where is my wife?”
He bared his teeth. “You’re going to kill me anyway, so why would I betray Malachi for the promise of death?”
“You’re trading the information for a quick death,” I informed him. “Unless you want to experience the nightmares you’ve heard so much about, hmm? Would you like to see the devil come to life because the offer only stands for five more seconds. Tick…tock.”
He was panting, his skin pale and covered in sweat, his eyes flicking to his father and back. “Azrael,” he whispered. “Please.”
“Tick. Tock,” I hummed.
He inhaled sharply. “I don’t know,” he whimpered.
“I don’t know. We took the trackers out of her and destroyed them.
When we put her back under, Malachi took her to the road, and she was picked up.
I don’t even know what car they drove, I swear!
I swear that’s all I know. I swear, please.
Please, let me go. I won’t tell a soul, you have my word. You have my word,” he whimpered.
I laughed, pressing my blade in just a little more. A quarter of an inch, if I had to guess.
Peter cried out, shoving himself up on his tiptoes, grabbing the blade on pure instinct, blood immediately pouring from his hands. “Please!” he cried.
“When did they leave? How long after you destroyed the trackers did they leave?”
“20 minutes. I had to give her double the dosage. She wouldn’t go down.”
That’s my girl.
20 minutes after they destroyed the trackers. We had been here for eight minutes already. So she had an 82-minute lead on me. A person could go a lot of places in 82 minutes, and there was no proof that they had arrived yet.
Wherever they were going.
“What do you know about Absolution?” I asked quietly. “Who runs it? Where is it located?”
“I only know that it’s in Washington. It has to be. The Elders wanted it near the first church. That’s all I know. It’s all I know.”
I felt a white-hot rage fill me, burning through my bones, forcing my lungs and heart to ignite, my nerves to numb in a way I didn’t wholly recognize.
I suppose I had a sort of hope that this would be over today.
That I would get her before she ever got to that place, that I could bring her home. “How near?” I pushed.
What a ridiculous thing, hope.
He must have seen something shift in my eyes because his skin paled and his eyes widened so much, I could see the white all the way around. Peter sobbed, more blood falling from his neck. “I don’t know,” he whimpered. “Please, please, please, pl—”
I pushed the blade until I felt it cut through his spine, reveling in the feeling it gave me.
I jerked my sword out and turned away from him, the sound of his head hitting the ground like music to my ears.
Everett, Olivia, and Lucy were standing in the doorway, watching me carefully, each wearing a fierce look in their eyes.
“Azrael,” I heard Poppy say, almost as if she were trying to reach me.
I ignored her and pulled out a handkerchief.
Everett lifted his chin, gazing from the headless father to the headless son as I wiped my blade on my handkerchief. “It’s different hearing it confirmed by—”
“Someone other than the man who was sent to the asylum?” I offered, sliding the blade back into its sheath.
My eyes found his. “Take heart, dear brother, you’ll soon understand that I have never lied to any of you.
” I pushed between him and his wife. “She’s still in Washington.
Malachi carried her to a car he met at the road.
Tick tock,” I bit before shaking my head.
“Since we didn’t pass anyone, they went South.
Between here and the border is where we need to search. ”
“What happened to a week, Az?” Olivia asked, following after me. “Didn’t you want her to gather information?”
Information was finite, but we were not. I didn’t care what the blood cost was, I was bringing my wife home.
~~~
I saw the bike the moment we hit the driveway, my hands instantly tightening around the handlebars as we all pulled in. I could feel the rage burning under my skin, barely controlled. Dealing with a mopey little cub tonight was the last thing I needed.
I had to start making phone calls. I had to get people out there.
We were already wasting time by coming all the way back to the house, but if we were going to do this, we needed to do it right.
I wanted to burn Heaven and Hell to get Scarlett back, but we trained her too well for me to risk everything I had spent years building out of the rage building in my chest.
With sharp movements, I slid off my bike, yank my helmet off, and snapped my cane off before leading the way up the stairs.
Alaric was standing in front of the elevator, unmoving, the cub shouting and pointing a gun at his head, threatening him just to get up there.
I couldn’t stop the smile from growing. “Well, isn’t this a sight to see,” I hummed, slowing in the lobby.
The cub spun around, lowering his gun, his hazel eyes wide. “Azrael.”
“Where is that dear little mouse of yours?” I asked icily, meeting Alaric’s eyes quickly.
“Catching the redeye,” he answered, trying to catch his breath. His eyes flicked behind me. “I was closer.”
Lucy came trotting by, her tail wagging in greeting of her pack member.
With confusion, he leaned forward and patted her head. “Didn’t you all just come back on the bikes?”
“It takes balance,” Olivia said flatly. “Lucy’s trained well. You, and the others were supposed to be finishing your business. Why are you here?”
He straightened. “I was already finished when I heard what happened. Azrael—”
I brushed by him, unlocking the elevator and hitting the office floor. I didn’t need his sympathy or scholarly words of wisdom. I needed my fucking wife. Listening to him was as good as wasting time.
“They took out the trackers,” Poppy explained when I didn’t, “drugged her, and Malachi took her to some car on the road. We know they took her to Absolution, we just don’t know where it is yet. It’s a dead end.”
“Nothing is ever a dead end, darling,” I sang as the elevator doors opened. “There is always a window to break, a door to kick down, a forest to burn.” I turned to them, my smile sharp. “If I have to light the match myself, then so be it.”
“I want to help,” the cub stated, taking a step forward.
I immediately lifted the cane, blocking the entrance and locked eyes with him, wondering what his game was.
Out of all of the brethren I had in this family, he was always the one who hated me the most. His hatred was palpable even from a world away, so why now?
Why did he suddenly care so much for little old me?
Then again, he had always had such a bleeding heart. A damsel in distress? How could he resist?
He had yet to learn that Scarlett was far from a damsel. She had enough fight in her for the time being, she didn’t need a knight to save her.
Even so, if I wanted to get her home, to put Malachi in the ground where he belonged, a full deck of cards was in order to play this particular game. Tick tock. “Very well, cub, they will catch you up. Alaric, let them go wherever they want, including the basement if they so choose. I ride alone.”