Chapter 4 #2
I’m glad she can’t see the smile creeping across my face. “Very impressive. Guess I shouldn’t be surprised, considering you were capable of killing over four hundred people in a single night. You need to be perceptive and slightly smart to be capable of such an act…”
“Or stupid, considering I got caught.”
“Yes… or that.” I take a deep breath. “Well, alright. That was fun, now onto business I suppose.” Leaning forward, I brace my elbows on the table, interlacing my fingers before resting my chin on them. “Tell me where I can find one of you that isn’t you.”
“Not sure.”
I sort of expected that answer. “Just a name, that’s it, and I’ll leave you to your riveting life.”
“All of the ones I knew of are dead.”
“That’s extremely unlikely.” I don’t believe her for a fucking second. “How about you tell me the name of the last one you knew?”
“Don’t know it…”
“Then you didn’t know them.”
“But I did.”
I release a laugh that’s not built out of humor. “Fucking liar. Stating you know someone, but don’t know their name is—”
“I understand my kind is a dying race, but don’t you know the one key thing about us?”
Through gritted teeth, I say slowly, “Enlighten me.”
“We don’t speak our names aloud.” I glance down at a piece of paper on the table. “Our names are sealed into our palms at birth, and we are unable to utter them with our voice. If a Witch wishes to write it down and give it to someone, that is their right.”
“That’s fucking stupid.” My irritation is written heavily in my tone.
“Says you.”
“Says everyone with a brain. Why wouldn’t you…” I trail off.
Of course. To keep themselves hidden. Honestly, that’s pretty smart.
“What’s the significance of knowing your name?”
“Depends.”
“On?”
She adjusts herself, probably to get more comfortable. Her feet slide across the floor, and I lean slightly to look down. Her legs are spread wide under the table, the gown she’s wearing pulled tight around her.
“Why you’re looking for Yldarwright in the first place.”
“It’s not relevant for you to know that.”
She bites the inside of her cheek, and then leans forward.
As her chest hits the table, she bends just enough to bring our faces a few inches from one another.
When she’s this close, I can see a light coming through on the other side of her eyelids.
Her veins are illuminated with a subtle hue of a color I can’t quite pinpoint; maybe… purple?
“No one looks for us with good intentions. Even if I knew where one was, I wouldn’t tell you. My kind has suffered enough.”
My nose twitches.
I’m a pretty chill person—few things get under my skin.
She isn’t quite there, but this could set me back.
I know Alaric wouldn’t have sent me here as a joke.
He isn’t a funny guy like that. Which means this really is the only Yldarwright he knew about.
So, she’s going to talk. Right here, right now.
I’m getting to Lucifer one way or another, for at the very least, some damn closure.
I slowly shift my leg, settling my foot back onto the ground, and stand. “You aren’t really in a position to be this defiant.”
“I’m not being defiant. You asked a question, I answered it. I don’t know of one ali—”
Her words cut off as my hand seizes her throat. I’m careful not to break her neck, but I’m nowhere near gentle. The action completely cuts off her oxygen and when she coughs, spit flies as she bares her pearly white teeth.
Interesting. She isn’t given anything but a mattress, has to stand, and by the feeling of her under my grip, can’t be given much food. Yet, her hygiene is a priority; brushed hair, clean mouth, and she smells of soap.
“Then you’ll give me your name, that way I can at least use it to find another one of your kind!”
Her body twitches, but to my surprise, she doesn’t try to pull away. Her eyes remain shut, though I can see them shifting behind her lids.
“Gonna need a pen, I guess,” I croon.
Her shoulders jerk but if I had to guess it’s an involuntary reaction to her body’s natural response to needing air. She’s just as calm as she was giving me that smart mouth of hers.
I shift my thumb up to her jawline, releasing the pressure on her throat, and she sucks a long breath in.
For some reason, I drag my nail across her skin.
It’s strange, she feels fake. She’s smooth and cool to the touch, with a delicate, almost glass-like fragility.
I could break her right here, and true justice would be served for those lives that she took.
But I sedate myself. That’s an impulse I can’t succumb to.
“Why are you looking for one of us?” she asks, her voice a bit more raw than it was before—oops.
I sigh. “I’m looking for someone, and I believe your kind can help. That’s all you’re getting.”
I’ve never noticed how much looking into someone’s eyes tells you so much about how they’re feeling. She just holds her head back, not jerking or shifting, like a statue. If it weren’t for her breathing, which is beginning to normalize, I’d think she was asleep.
Just as her mouth begins to open, the door swings wide.
“What the fuck?!” Sook shouts.
Jozier is on one side of us in a few seconds, and I release the Witch. I’m not sure what they think was happening, but I’m utterly taken aback when he backhands her. The hit had sent her nearly tumbling off the chair, but he catches her by the arm before she can completely fall.
“We told you to behave!”
I mean, technically I was the one that had her life in my grasp, but alright.
Sook moves to her other side and shifts her head up, then looks directly at me. “Are we done here?”
“No.” I tsk. “Unfortunately for us all. You interrupted.”
“What is it you want exactly?” I’ve weighed out his patience completely, it would seem.
No matter.
“Just give me her name and I’ll be on my way. Until then, I’m planted right…” I point down at the ground. “Here.”
“Write your name down for the man and let’s be done with this,” Jozier seethes
“I get nothing for helping,” she says through her teeth.
Sook narrows his eyes at me.
“I’ll just keep coming back, every day, multiple times. I’ve got plenty of time to spare.”
Not really. They’ll be lucky if I come and go quietly. At this rate, I might just tear this place down and drag her ass out with me.
No, I can’t do that. That is crazy.
He rolls his tongue across his slightly discolored upper set of teeth, before looking down at the girl. “Give him your name, and we will allow you to go outside.”