Chapter 7 Azrael
Azrael
She was in her own little world on our way back down the hall. Floating past Havoc, Bishop, and Alaric on our way to the elevator without even a glance, which was out of character.
“Did she say anything relevant?” Bishop asked, pushing his still damp hair back.
I shook my head. “She is petrified of our doll though,” I informed them on our way by.
Scarlett placed her thumb on the pad beside the elevator and picked the third floor.
The offices? I had plenty of toys in there to use.
She didn’t so much as twitch her finger until the elevator doors opened. “Do you know the secret?”
I walked a few steps behind her, watching her steps, the movement of her body, the delicate swing of her hips as she headed for the office doors. “I am almost certain I know the secret,” I confirmed.
She glanced over her shoulder, looking me over quickly before righting herself again. She didn’t sign another thing until she reached the double doors and pulled them both open. “You won’t say it until you’re absolutely certain,” she stated.
No, I wouldn’t, and it had nothing to do with superstition or fearing I was wrong, I just didn’t want to discuss something I was uncertain of, especially with the rest of The Family.
She continued into the room, and I stopped in the doorway. Scarlett turned to me, walking backwards as confidently as she had forward. “Does it have to do with which one of you is blood related?”
That little mouse putting everything in her reports. Even a simple conversation in a car. Why it was even recorded was beyond me, but I couldn’t pretend to even know how the web of her poetic mind worked. “No.” If only my precious family knew the truth of that silly little claim.
She stopped in the center of the room, the sun streaming in through the windows creating a sort of halo around her. “Do you know who it is?”
I nodded once. I knew them both, actually.
Her head tilted to one side ever so slightly. “Is it Malachi’s or Beckett’s?”
I couldn’t help but smile. It was a question none of the women had asked yet. “Beckett’s.”
She straightened. “So one of you is lying about their upbringing?”
I shook my head, taking a step in. “No, Scar,” I replied, watching one corner of her lips flick up so quickly, I might have missed it had I not been me. “Anyone can be adopted out at the time of birth.”
“Is that what happened?”
“The world was a different place all those years ago, a crime lord who wasn’t quite a lord of crime yet, a brother who hadn’t quite reconnected, an idea for a program that had barely been seeded in the soil.”
She searched my eyes, her own slowly hardening. “Why aren’t we going to the auction? Do you not trust me?”
Did I not trust her? “If it was the end of your training, we would go,” I answered. “Right now, I don’t think it would do you any good to see a dozen children shipped off to different churches to be treated the way you were.”
“You assume you know what is good for me?”
My smile widened. Oh, look at her teeth. The blessing of creating a monster was that one day, the monster would bare their teeth on you. “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you, little sinner.”
She lifted her chin in a challenge. “You’ve taught me to do just that.”
I slowly stalked forward. “I didn’t let the others in because their emotions would force them to act too quickly—”
“My emotions would not control me,” she interjected.
“Won’t they?” I challenged. “Look at you, craving blood, showing your anger so clearly. You reached for my cane the moment Marla said something you didn’t like.”
“This is my home,” she signed harshly. “Am I not supposed to feel comfortable enough to show my emotions here? Am I not supposed to feel safe enough with you to trust you with those feelings?”
I slowed to a stop, mere feet from her. She was showing her anger because she felt safe with me? I felt my lip curl, my heart suddenly pounding. “You should never feel safe with me, Scarlett. You shouldn’t allow yourself to get into habits either.”
“You took me to Marla because you thought it would help distract me,” she told me. “Yet I didn’t get to draw blood. I didn’t get to have fun. You won’t let me have any real fun.”
“I did it to reward you,” I replied icily. “Don’t think I have any care for your emotions.”
“It wasn’t a reward,” she stated. “You teased me. Put a pig in front of me and didn’t allow me to stick it.
I gained nothing from that. You didn’t let me cut her, you won’t allow me to go to the auction.
You don’t let me stand in on sessions with my brothers while they have fun.
Should I beg? Daddy, please,” she signed, sticking out her bottom lip and fluttering her lashes.
My cock throbbed painfully, growing rock hard within seconds, my head spinning.
She straightened, hardening her face again. “Or should I beat you in a fight like I’ve beat Alaric and Bishop?”
Oh, she was reading far too many of the daffodil’s notes.
In the blink of an eye, I had the antlers wrapped around her jaw, her hands wrapping around the cane tightly, going to remove it, but I had already lifted it up until her neck was stretched out and she was standing on her tiptoes.
She snarled at me, a fire burning in her eyes just as the lust grew and grew.
I stepped up to her, pushing the antlers up and up until I finally saw blood pool around one of the tines.
Her face fit perfectly now, so it took effort to pierce her skin, even with the sharpened antlers.
“You can’t win a fight against me, little sinner, I’m too far in your head for that,” I hummed, my smile sharp.
“Look at you, a feral kitten already soaked to the core waiting for her ‘daddy’ to fuck her.”
She shuddered, trying her best to hold the anger, but it was difficult for her.
After a lifetime of a stone face, holding an emotion in her features, especially when the emotion was fleeting, was almost impossible for her.
It took effort she didn’t have the strength to put forth, especially when another emotion was flooding through her nervous system.
I forced her back a step and then another, pushing her towards the large wooden support beam that cut through the windows behind our desks.
“The problem with consenting to a madman is knowing that they could do anything to you and you’d still crave more.
I could take away your air, take away your ability to move, drown you, burn you, slice into your flesh, and you would still beg me for more. ”
Her chest was heaving, her eyes black as she struggled to keep her footing being forced to walk backwards at my pace on her tiptoes.
I shoved her back against that beam, just wide enough for her to stand against, and stepped up to her, sliding my hand down the cane to make sure the pressure remained the same.
“I could take everything and anything I wanted and leave without giving you an ounce of relief, and rather than running away, you would hunt me down and plead for more. Fight me?” I chuckled, her body shaking in need.
“Darling, the only thing you’ll be fighting are the tears I make you cry. ”
I stepped close enough to feel her panting breath, her eyes falling to my lips, her own parted, willing.
But instead of touching her, I reached for the left side of the beam and hit a switch.
The mechanics above her were near silent as the chains and bars lowered.
Her eyes found mine again.
I reached above her, grabbing the thick chain that had already been looped back up. A perfect place to hang from.
I slid it over her face and around her neck before carefully removing my cane.
Her hands immediately grabbed the chain as I pressed the button again, lifting it until her toes just barely touched the ground.
Scarlett’s porcelain skin immediately started to go red, but she didn’t fight it, she only stared at me. Glared at me.
Havoc had mentioned his concerns a while back about putting her through the last bit of her training; the torture, but he hadn’t seen her with me in our room. He had no idea exactly what I had put her through. She would be fine, coming out even wilder than she was already.
I stepped back and took her in. Divine beauty in human form. I hadn’t believed in God in a very long time, not the way most did, but seeing her made it difficult to believe that angels didn’t exist.
She loved being the Queen of Hearts and I her Hatter, but truly, I tell you, she was an angel fallen from divinity to haunt the Devil, seduce him, possess every facet of his thought.
“Take off your dress,” I told her, my voice barely a hum.
She swallowed against the chain, and after a moment of struggle, she released it and started shimmying out of her dress.
First her sleeves, and then pushing it down to her waist, and finally forcing it down around her ass before grabbing the chain and lifting her legs up enough to pull it the rest of the way down.
She settled back on her toes, trying to control her breathing.
Now she hung before me in nothing but those black boots and a bow in her hair.
My eyes trained on the scars of the lashings Thomas had given her before drifting to all the other cuts I had given her during our fun time.
Small ones, most of them, some made for pleasure, others to hide where I had hidden the trackers within her.
I found her eyes again, her face bright red. Her breathing was shallow, but incredibly controlled. If she didn’t panic or do anything physical, she would be fine for hours.
As it was…
I walked over and leaned my cane against the windows just to her right before going back to stand in front of her. I pulled my tie off and tossed it to the ground, followed by my vest and then my belt.
She kept pressing her thighs together, pouting, trying to pull herself up only to lower herself further than before as if she craved for her air to be taken.