Chapter 16 Scarlett
Scarlett
I knew Olivia was gone when I woke up, but that didn’t stop the slight disappointment from creeping in.
I showered and got ready for my day, putting a big red bow in my hair to top off my outfit.
I didn’t see anyone on my way to the office, but Azrael and Alaric were sitting at their desks when I arrived.
I gave a nod to Alaric who returned the sentiment before turning the rest of my attention to Azrael.
“Is the transporter here?” I asked, taking a seat in front of him.
I had felt giddy and restless to punish them for what they had done, to take my first real blood.
I’m shocked I had even slept at all last night with the excitement growing in my veins.
He pulled his hand away from his mouse. “She is.”
A woman? There had never been a woman transporter before, but it didn’t surprise me. The women in their world were just as bad as the men, sometimes worse. More devious.
“You know her too,” he went on, handing me a file.
I took it, curiosity filling me. I wasn’t surprised. Thomas wasn’t smart enough to go too far outside of the people he already knew. Maybe it was a Pillar of the church. Someone who had watched me when the Pillars still had access to me.
A chill flooded through my body when I saw the woman’s face. It was one I knew very well.
Mrs. Bastrom.
Her thin, mousey hair was pulled back in the photo, the collar of her dress as high as her jaw. She had thin lips lined in many wrinkles, and her brown eyes were filled with tar.
I handed the file back and leaned back in my chair, folding one leg over the other. “Have you talked to her?”
“This is your victim, Scarlett, not mine.”
I thrummed my fingers. “Should I ask her questions?”
He angled his chin. “Is there anything you want to know?”
Yes. Of course, there was. I wanted to ask how she could do what she did. How could she have agreed to attending the church, to allowing her husband to make me impure, to allowing any of it to happen? I wanted to ask her why she was stealing girls from strip clubs and helping Thomas of all people.
Why was she helping Thomas?
But were those questions rooted in need or want? Did I need to know those answers or was it the emotions trying to control me? What good would it do hearing her tell me the truth? “She might have information on Absolution,” I finally decided. “If she knows the location, I won’t have to go.”
Something flashed through his eyes, but it was there and gone before I could catch it. “She’s your victim,” he said again. “You run the narrative this time.”
I control the narrative. Our future was now in my hands.
I could just go down there and kill her like every fiber of my being was begging me to do, or I could torture the information out of her.
“Has Marla given you any information yet?” She’s been here for a long time, and she had yet to break, but then again, Mrs. Bastrom wasn’t trained like Marla was.
“She was in love with her husband, and she was in love with father dearest. It makes a person…loyal.”
My brows furrowed. “Love made Thomas whip me. It made the Leaders stick their cocks in my mouth. Why would she be loyal to something like that?”
Azrael’s lip curled a bit. “Love can be defined in many ways, little sinner. People see it through different perspectives. That was what love looked like to them. Love through the eyes of, let’s say, the rose and her Claim, is defined by a deep understanding of the other.
A deep sense of loyalty between their souls.
He understands that she requires death and control in order to feel accomplished in this world.
She understands that he requires fire and unending loyalty.
Their love lives in the understanding that at times, the control needs to shift.
Within that there is support,” he went on, waving his hand dismissively, “listening, teaching, the occasional gift, and passionate, brutal sex. It’s their balance. ”
I studied him carefully, mulling over his words. “We do all of that,” I finally decided, feeling my chest tighten. “Are we in love?”
His eyes widened as if in shock, fire erupting within them, his shoulders tensing, his spine straightening, but before a sound left his lips, a familiar voice filled the room.
“Good morning.”
I turned around, seeing a smiling Poppy head straight for us, Havoc walking to his desk.
Poppy? What was she doing here?
I signed ‘good morning’ to Havoc before turning right back to Azrael, who looked far more angry than he had before. “What is she doing here?”
“She’s here to watch you with your victim and then fight you,” he stated icily.
I frowned, leaning back in my chair as she took a seat in the chair beside mine. “Fight me?” I asked, looking her over. “I’ve beat Bishop and Alaric. Is she as good as them?”
“She just wants to see how good you are,” he answered.
I know that Azrael said she was a good person, and the fact that he allowed her up the elevator proved that he respected her, but even so, her eyes weren’t as warm as his, or the others for that matter. Out of everyone I had met yesterday, her eyes still had a chill.
She only gave me a soft smile.
I stood and found Azrael’s eyes. “I’m going to get breakfast.” Without waiting for his reply, I headed for the door.
How could he not feel it? How could he not see? Just because she didn’t have tar, didn’t mean something wasn’t wrong with her. Something was wrong with her, I could feel it, I just couldn’t put my finger on it.
When I stepped into the elevator and turned, it was to see Alaric stepping in after me. He pressed the second floor and stepped back, his silence louder today.
He followed me to the cafeteria and sat with me at the table, waiting for Chef to bring us our breakfast.
He didn’t sign anything until I finally took my first bite. “You don’t like her.”
I frowned. “I got used to the weight of the eyes on me. People were always watching me, so the chill of their eyes was something I just expected. When Azrael showed up, I knew he was different because every time he looked at me, it was warm. I knew he was there on Sundays because I could feel the warmth of his gaze on me. Your eyes feel the same.”
He wiped his hands. “Warm? All three of us?”
I nodded. “And everyone else yesterday.”
His eyes narrowed slightly. “But not hers?”
I shook my head, taking another bite of food before I responded. “There is no tar in her eyes, but they’re cold. Not like theirs were, but colder than Azrael’s.”
Alaric watched me for a long time before leaning back. “Do you know what makes eyes feel cold or warm?”
“No,” I replied. “I just know who. Marla has cold eyes and tar,” I explained. “Poppy has cold eyes and no tar. You have warm eyes. No tar.”
He studied me, his expression unreadable. After a few seconds, he stood. “I’ll look into it, you do what you have to do. Make the lie believable.”
I watched him pass me by before my eyes fell to my food.
Poppy was going to be observing me today, which was fine, I was used to being watched, and I knew how to hide my feelings well, I just felt…
worried, I suppose was the right word. Azrael liked her, did that mean he couldn’t feel the difference in her? Maybe I was wrong.
Maybe I lost the ability to feel the different weight of people’s eyes when I gained the ability to look up.
I frowned and pushed my food back. No, I didn’t lose the ability.
Something was wrong with her. Alaric was going to tell me exactly what I needed to know and then I would confront Azrael about it.
I couldn’t have her ruining the mission because they had a past. I was going to get what was owed to me, even if it meant spilling her blood with the rest.
~~~
When it was finally time to head down to the basement, I went down there alone, only to find Poppy and Azrael already there.
He was watching her as she looked into a few of the rooms, and I couldn’t help but wonder if he would let her get down to Marla.
Where was Mrs. Bastrom? Was she closer to the rooms I trained in, or was she kept in the circular room with all the doors?
He glanced over when I joined him, Poppy disappearing into another room. “Do you have a problem with Red?” he asked.
I spun my wrist around, the blade twisting, catching the light.
I liked holding it. It made me feel as if I was in control.
I stuck the blade between my teeth to respond.
“Her eyes are cold,” I explained. “Yours are warm. Everybody you call brother and sister have warm eyes, not her. No tar,” I added, so he knew that she wasn’t bad in the sense that the people in the church were bad.
“So you’re having Alaric look into her.”
It wasn’t a question, so I didn’t reply.
He inhaled deeply. “Have your brother look into her all you want, darling, he will find nothing I haven’t already.”
I turned to him, drool pooling on my tongue, my teeth tightening around the blade. “Then why are her eyes cold?”
His own eyes were chilling. “Perhaps the Queen’s intuition is a bit off.”
I snarled. “Perhaps the Hatter is wrong.”
His hand snapped around my neck so fast, I barely had time to blink, but my knife was against his throat in the same amount of time. He trained a weapon, he could be challenged now too.
Azrael smiled sharply and shoved me back into the wall, my blade slicing into his skin, blood pooling against the silver.
It seemed almost poetic that the first blood this blade saw was his.
“I am never wrong,” he hummed.
I kept my eyes locked on his, despite how badly my cunt suddenly ached for him.
He had to be because I knew my intuition wasn’t.
His eyes were warm, and he gave me freedom.
Thomas’ eyes were cold, and he punished me for breathing.
Something was wrong with Poppy, I was sure of it.
I could feel it in my bones, I just didn’t know why.
After a few seconds, he released my neck, and a moment later, I released his, pulling my blade away, my eyes drawn to the blood sliding down his neck.
I looked down at the blade and watched the crimson reflect against the silver. It was absolutely beautiful.
Without thinking, I lifted it up and ran my tongue up the side of the blade, his blood flooding over my tongue, a shiver sliding down my spine.
I found his eyes again as I placed the blade back between my teeth, only to find his pupils wide and his lips parted. “You ask for trust, I ask for it in return,” I signed.
It took him a long time to break out of whatever trance he had slipped into, and when he did, a monster had taken his place.
His features hardened, the color of his eyes darkened, his body tightened. He straightened, looking down his nose at me. “You ask for trust, I ask for proof,” he replied. “If her eyes are cold, then I need you to find why, but just be aware, little sinner, no one is more thorough than me.”
He went to turn around but I grabbed his arm, pulling him back. “If I find it, that thing that made her like that, will you kill her?”
He glanced down to the place on his wrist that I had touched before his eyes lifted slowly to mine. “Without hesitation.”
I pulled the dagger out of my mouth and gave him a nod, passing him just as Poppy came out of the room she had been inspecting.
She slowed when she saw me. “Why does she have blood on her…” Her words trailed off, and I didn’t have to look back to know she saw his neck. “Was that a fight, or your way of showing how much you care for each other?”
“Pay attention, Red,” Azrael hummed as I looked into each room, trying to find my first victim.
A few more doors later, and I finally found her. Far from the room that Marla was in, she was sitting in a chair, her wrists and ankles tied, a contraption around her neck.
My grip tightened and I rolled my shoulders. I wouldn’t allow the irritation I felt towards Azrael to ruin this for me. The dagger had been blessed in the blood of my savior, and now it was time to show it what its new life would be like.
Erasing every ounce of expression from my face save for a sharp smile, I opened the door and stepped in.