Chapter 13 - Scarlett
Scarlett
I chewed on my lip, staring at Poppy as she stared out the front door, probably waiting for my sisters to arrive.
She didn’t seem as angry today.
“She’s a good person,” Azrael finally said, his voice low.
I frowned. “She treats you meanly.”
“She treats me how she’s learned to treat me. The only way I allow her to treat me,” Azrael replied, pulling my attention over.
He was watching her, the mask hiding everything but his eyes.
The Blackheart brothers split off to the other side of the room to discuss business, Poppy went off to the door, leaving Azrael and I near the counter, waiting for the rest of his family to show up.
It would be any moment now. Any moment and I would finally meet the women behind the voices in my rabbit.
“You would like her,” he went on quietly. “She’s powerful in her own way. The only person in the world that’s survived me. Until you,” he said, looking over, his eyes filling with a familiar heat.
My thighs immediately tightened, my fingers itching to touch him. I hadn’t felt his cock inside me since early this morning, and I missed it. I missed his snarls, his lust, the heat of his touch.
“What she says isn’t out of cruelty, it’s out of necessity,” he went on.
“She’s only doing what I’ve taught her but know this; not even my own brothers could track me down like she could.
” His eyes searched mine before falling to the lips on my porcelain mask.
“And she did. I didn’t let her find me, not every time, not always. ”
I turned back to Poppy. Among the stacks of files Azrael had given me to study, his and Poppy’s had been there too.
She had recorded every single time Azrael had tried to kill her.
From the poisonings to the hired assassins, all the way to the hand-to-hand combat.
Most would have read it and thought ‘wow, he must hate her’, but then again, most didn’t know Azrael the way I did.
“I do like her hair,” I finally replied.
“And her style.” She was wearing baggy black pants with lots of pockets and a few chains.
They hung low on her hips, revealing a slice of light skin.
Her shirt was baggy too, hanging off one shoulder, ripped in some places, but not in a way that made it look like it should be in the trash. It looked good on her.
Her black and red dreads were half up, and her jewelry matched her style.
Several silver rings, a couple necklaces, each one longer than the last, one of them holding an ornate black and silver cross.
She had a black nose ring, a piercing through her eyebrow, and one through her lip.
Piercings I hadn’t seen the last few times I had seen her, probably because she had still been attending the church.
“She likes black and red like you do,” I commented, turning back to him.
He was watching her carefully. “She came to me like that,” he said after a few moments. “I simply adopted it.”
The sound of motorcycles filled the air, and a moment later, Poppy straightened. “They’re here.”
My heart skipped a beat, and I straightened, smoothing out my dress, running my fingers through my hair, adjusting the golden ribbon I had tied into a bow in my hair. I couldn’t meet them without my bow.
Azrael stepped forward, and I, in turn, stepped behind him, feeling a little nervous at meeting my new sisters. I wanted to make a good impression, and I felt like I knew them so well already, but they didn’t know me. As far as I knew, the only one who even knew my name was Poppy.
The door opened.
“Malachi is asking us to bring you in,” a deep male voice stated, anger in every word. “Why? Is this about the damn church?”
“Hello, Jacky boy,” Azrael hummed, that lilt singing in his voice. “Don’t you forget, the reason any of you even found me was because I wanted you too.”
I felt a warm presence behind me. Three of them, and knew that the brothers had joined, Alaric standing directly behind me.
“Bishop,” another male voice said.
“Who are they?” a third male asked.
“Royalty,” Azrael answered.
“The Blackheart brothers, the second male voice answered dryly. “Bishop, Alaric, and Havoc. Azrael’s friends.”
“Awe, and where would we be without you, dear mountain boy?”
Mountain boy. Everett. Olivia’s Claim.
“What’s the point in hiding their names?” Everett asked in irritation. “It only makes things confusing. Why does Malachi want us to bring you in?”
“He’s probably sick and tired of his shit,” Rae bit.
My eyes widened. Rae. I knew her well. A blazing fire in a world of ice. She was confident, fierce. She stood up to all of them without fear. I had often wondered what she looked like. Someone as unstoppable as her, she must have looked like the summer sun come to life. A blazing wildfire.
“Father dearest is just throwing a tantrum,” Azrael hummed. “Tossing his power around the second someone decides to walk out of a meeting. Very childish. Has anyone seen our dear Uncle?”
Silence followed, and then a woman spoke up, a voice I didn’t recognize. “He probably had some sort of emergency,” she said. “It happens, and you know it. Unless you did something to him just to get us all in Seattle,” she accused.
“It’s a game,” the last male spoke. Greyson. “It’s just another one of his games, which is bullshit because we’re all busy actually doing our jobs.”
“Killing Initiates,” Azrael hummed.
“Dealing with a problem that’s been plaguing us for as long as you’ve been on your secret mission.”
Azrael cocked his head to one side. “Now, I know I’m not hearing what I think I am.”
I knew his smile was back. Sharp and wide.
“He’s not,” Emily said, her voice soft and clear. “They’ve just been busy. The last Initiate he dealt with almost shot me, he’s on edge.”
My hands tightened. They almost hurt her? I hope they paid for their misguided actions.
“Oh my,” Azrael hummed. “What was a pretty little mouse like you doing in the field you so detest?”
“I don’t detest it, Azrael, and I didn’t put myself in the field. We were going to the movies, and they rode by on a bike. Grey already took care of it. Didn’t you create the program anyway? Why are the Initiates such terrible shots?”
Azrael chuckled but it was far from humorous. “I wrote the program, I did not teach the classes. If you want someone to blame for the years you now get to live in this world, blame the man who called you all here to bring me back to the building. I hope you gave them what they deserved.”
“She’s my wife,” Grey said tightly, “there was nothing left of him to bury when I was done. Why are we here, Azrael? Do you have another secret house filled with kids you want us to save?”
“I didn’t need you saving the first ones, but the daffodil required a sacrifice to keep her from spreading her roots where they weren’t meant to grow.”
“Perhaps you should spend less time playing interference and more time focused on the girl you branded and claimed just to use for your own selfish desires. Have you fucked her to death yet? Tossed her in the graveyard with the rest of the women you’ve fucked the life out of?”
I lifted a hand to inspect the color before turning to Alaric, raising a brow. “I’m not dead.”
Alaric’s eyes flicked over. “Then show them,” they seemed to say.
Was it time?
I turned to Azrael’s back, taking in the curve of his spine, the way he gripped his cane. I was very excited to meet my sisters, and if they all thought I was dead, what a surprise it would be to know that I wasn’t. They would be so happy, I was sure of it.
“Careful, Rae,” I heard Poppy warn.
“Why? He’s a sick, manipulative bastard, and all you people do is let him get away with everything!
He broke into our houses, Emily. He’s stopped me from doing what everyone else in this fucking family is allowed to do which is take the revenge that is owed to me!
My father fucking raped me. For months!” she shouted.
“He almost took Olivia, and it’s like you’re just…
protecting him. Every ounce of respect I ever had for you, Az, any ounce of relationship we had?
It’s gone. If I never see you again, it’ll be too soon. ”
I placed my hand between Azrael’s shoulder blades, feeling the muscles in his back tense and then slowly relax. She was wrong and everyone in this room knew it.
“You aren’t the only one your precious father has mercilessly fucked,” Azrael stated, his tone so chilling, even I shivered.
I felt his calm rage settle through me, my own smile spreading from the excitement I felt at finally seeing my sisters.
I straightened and finally took a step to the right.
“The fuck,” the woman with short blonde hair said, placing a hand over her chest.
My eyes studied everyone who stood before me, and it was as if they all had labels on them. I knew so much about them that just their clothing choices made it easy to know who was who.
Greyson and Emily. Beautiful, dark, but with a fun sense of style. Her hair was blacker than mine, and her style was similar to Poppy’s.
They were standing so close, they were almost one person.
Jack and Rae stood beside them. Rae was just as beautiful as I had imagined. Long, beautiful golden hair pulled back in a ponytail. She was elegant and looked like she fell straight from Heaven, even with that horrified, burning look in her blue eyes.
There were two women next. The one with short hair must have been Zo. Azrael called her the hound. Her energy matched Jack and Rae’s perfectly. The next was Evelyn. Tall and gorgeous. She had a little smirk on her face, as if she had known all along what had been happening here.
Finally, Everett and…
Olivia.
She was the most beautiful of them all. Her aura was so pink, but it had splotches of black too, just like Azrael’s. Her mind was like ours, Azrael had said. Cracked, but still sane enough to blend in.
I bounded over to her, unable to help myself. I was so excited to see her!