Chapter 9 Scarlett
Scarlett
The worst part of this wasn’t watching Azrael bury me alive or starving or even dealing with the smell of my own excrement while Alaric hosed me, and the room, down.
No, the worst part of this was not physically feeling him. He cut me, berated me, tortured me with devices, but skin on skin?
How had this changed me?
I couldn’t quite be sure. I was smiling more, like he smiled. Sharp and untethered.
I found my voice in the way of humming. I liked humming, it made my throat tickle, and the sound kept me from slipping into the darkness they kept me in.
I thought about all the ways I would kill Thomas. Kill the other Leaders. How deep I would shove the blade before twisting, how many arteries I would slice through, how many times I would drive a blade into their stomachs.
I had dreamed of blood. Dreamed that the blood that dripped across my skin wasn’t mine but theirs.
Dissociating, Doctor Manson had called it when I had first met him. That’s what I had done. They had tortured my body, but they couldn’t crack my mind.
The door to my small room opened, but I remained where I was in the corner, standing, watching the bright light cut across the floor.
I hadn’t slept in a real bed or had a real shower since the morning I met Marla. I hadn’t eaten anything more than scraps since lunch that day. I hadn’t changed my clothes or done anything to my hair other than tie them into low pigtails with what was once the straps of my dress.
I was a mess in need of cleansing, but when I saw that cane, I felt the smile on my face grow.
Azrael let the door fall open, his figure taking up the doorway, casting shadows across his features, his cane gripped in his right hand, his chin held high.
That was it then. It was done.
I broke into a sprint and lunged.
Rather than moving or preparing to attack, Azrael simply dropped his cane and caught me instead.
I wrapped myself around him, his hands finding my thighs as I sank my teeth into his neck and sucked, just as he had done so many times in the past.
He snarled and slammed me into the wall on the other side of the hall.
He grabbed my wrists and shoved them back, transferring them both to one hand as I pulled him forward with my legs, feeling his already hard cock throbbing between my legs.
I bit down harder, copper bursting across my tongue, my pussy aching.
Azrael immediately used his free hand to undo his belt, his pants, pulling his cock out before he grabbed my neck and slammed my head back, breaking me free of his skin.
I smiled, licking my lips, giggling, his ocean eyes black with lust as the blood soaked into his collar. “Haha, got you.”
His expression filled with shadows. “Look at that, I’ve unleashed you.” He adjusted his hips and gave me a smile. “What fun we will have,” he sang before shoving forward.
I laughed, my body arching back against the wall, my hips jutting forward and angling up. Holy Hell, I’ve missed this.
He pushed harder into my wrists and neck, leaning into me until his face was inches from mine, the smell of the sea and sandalwood filling my nostrils.
I groaned, my eyes rolling back as he pulled all the way out to the tip and slammed back into me. His strokes were slow at first, my body no longer used to his size, but it took only seconds before his control snapped.
He started pounding into me, his rhythm hard and fast, my skin scraping against the rough stone wall, my hands itching to touch him, my tongue aching to taste more of his lifeblood, but the harder I fought, the tighter his grip became, until I couldn’t feel my fingers anymore, until my head pounded.
So, I just watched him, tightening my legs around him, reveling in the feeling of his cock bringing me to orgasm for the first time in 32 days.
~~~
I took the longest shower of my life. Taking my time to fix my hair and choose the perfect blood red dress and black boots before I finally headed for the office.
He had left me in that hall when he was done using me, telling me to get ready, so that’s what I did, but I was still hungry. One orgasm wasn’t enough.
I had gotten a taste of his blood, and I wanted more.
I walked into the office, my eyes immediately finding Azrael’s, although I could feel other eyes on me too.
I looked my very best. The bow black and large, the dress swirling around my thighs, my boots tied perfectly. I smelled of citrus, teeth brushed, and my stomach was growling, but the hunger I felt was only for him.
My smile stretched from ear to ear. They had all left more scars on my body, the freshest ones done only a few days ago, but nothing too terribly deep.
They didn’t take any limbs, any nails, any organs, but I knew they were capable of it.
I had heard Bishop and Havoc talking of the lengths they had gone to in the past. I wasn’t sure if they all had a soft spot for me or if it wasn’t necessarily needed in my training.
Perhaps they had taken an organ. There were some useless ones in there, I knew that for a fact, but I suppose I would probably be in more pain had they done that.
I walked towards him, one foot crossing in front of the other ever so slightly, my hips swinging only a slight amount, just enough to make the dress sway. “Hello, Hatter,” I greeted.
He looked me over slowly before his eyes found mine again. “My Queen,” he nodded ever so slightly. “Take a seat.”
I finally glance over at Havoc, giving him a small wave before looking to Azrael’s left and nodding at Alaric.
He nodded back and returned to his business.
I knew they missed me around the house. They missed the fight I gave them, but I also knew they were busy. In fact, I was shocked they were still here. They had so much business downtown, houses in different states, ‘partners’ in need of tending, it was surprising how much they lingered.
Then again, Azrael had mentioned that they would be moving in. I wondered if their wing of the house was finished. I wondered how far along the university had come. I wondered if Poppy had made any other visits or perhaps my sisters had come.
Had they come?
I walked right by the chairs in front of his desk and straight to him.
He turned towards me, perhaps just to study me, but it was just enough room for me to sink into his lap, crossing one leg over the other, angling myself towards him. “What a perfect little bandage,” I signed, taking in the white gauze on his neck. “As white as a rabbit, one might say.”
He stared at me for a long time, something flickering in his eyes that seemed out of place. “Your cracks have filled with red, and doesn’t it look divine,” he hummed, turning us back to his computer.
My body sang with the compliment. Whatever he had hoped would happen during my training, it had happened, and I couldn’t feel more proud. I had never felt more myself than I did in this moment.
I kept my hands in my lap, balanced on his thigh as he reached for the mouse, his other arm resting on the arm of his chair, directly behind me. I could feel the warmth of it through my dress, the phantom graze of his fingers. His presence filled me with peace.
“In the last 32 days, this is what’s happened,” he began, clicking on several things that rushed onto the screen.
Since moving in here, he had shown me very little of what was on his screen.
I wasn’t completely confident at how computers worked, but I knew the basics now.
The internet held a lot of information. Information they used to find the people they were searching for.
While it was a great source for them, there was also a lot of nonsense there that they had to wade through.
Not everyone in the world was smart enough to know whether or not what they found was real, but Azrael and my brothers had enough discernment to figure it out.
Phones also held the internet on them, which I hadn’t known. I thought texting and calling was all people were able to do on them, but no, they were computers too, which was fascinating.
“The branches of the churches have started shutting down,” he told me, causing my spine to straighten.
He pulled up articles, the headlines claiming that what he said was true.
“This has displaced a great deal of people who believed in the same ideals as those who attended the main churches. Garrett has claimed that the seven main churches are open to accept those of similar belief to join their congregations, but the regular people have been forced to find other places to worship.”
The people who didn’t know the secrets.
“They don’t matter. Who does matter are those who stayed,” he went on.
“Havoc, Bishop, and Alaric have been keeping an eye on the other six churches. Their numbers have grown more than we calculated after their branches started to close, and the one church outside of the US, the one in Russia, has closed ranks. We assume there are only a handful of people there, given what happened with the rose.”
“They finished rebuilding?” I asked.
“Their church is finished, yes.”
“How could they have any in numbers if the others hunted down and killed the entirety of the Delepski bloodline?”
“There were others in attendance aside from those we killed before the Delepski’s came to the US and after we ended their family,” he informed me. “We have an idea of who is there. I’m sending Sam Raine to investigate when the time comes.”
“Sam Raine?”
“Our dear father opened up six other programs to bring in more Initiates a few years ago,” he explained with ease.
“Mr. Raine was the only one placed outside of the US due to the fact that father dearest had relations with a man and his four kids, promised them a spot when the time was right. They’ll be vetted and put into our new program, but for now, Sam is in Russia, an hour or so away from that church.
He’s been vetted enough to be trusted as a professor at the college, he is trusted enough to take his son and daughter and finish that church off for good. ”