Chapter 19 Azrael #2
“No one is strong enough to be raped and beaten day in and day out, Azrael. Nobody.” She stopped me at the threshold of the door and turned to me. “She’s not the only one I’m worried about. Even if she was strong enough, I don’t think you are.”
I felt the chill twist my face. “I’m better than each and every one of you. Don’t forget who you’ve been chasing all these years.”
She shook her head. “I won’t, but that man is not the man I’m staring at.
I’ve always been hard on you because you needed it.
That’s why we’re all hard on you, it’s why they chose women who challenged them.
You need it. All of you. You respond to the fight, to the anger.
You need it to thrive, but now? I think what you need is a softer voice, and seeing her,” she glanced towards Scarlett.
Scar was showing the rose my new motorcycle, a knowing look in her eyes as Havoc translated. Scarlett still had no idea that the bike had been built just for her, that no other bike had what mine did. The rose knew, and part of me wondered if perhaps she was getting her own ideas.
Red finally turned back. “You’ve got someone who needs you. Someone who wants you. She’s your softness, Az. She proves that you’re…you’re human.”
I lifted my chin, my hand tightening around my cane. “It is not the problem of my mind that caused everyone to see me as anything less.”
Her shoulders fell. “You never gave us a chance, Az.”
Scarlett ran her finger down the ridge on her seat of the bike and then turned to the rose, signing vigorously.
She looked at Havoc who was laughing and shaking his head. “You don’t want to know what she said.”
“I gave her what I gave all of you.”
“That’s different. All she has seen is horror. All she knows is hatred. Even just a millimeter of kindness, even through manipulation, would have been enough to win her over. It never would have taken much of anything to get her to cooperate. She would have fallen in love with any of our brothers.”
Tick tock tick tock tick—
My smile split my face in two and I leaned in, watching the slight fear flash through her eyes just before they hardened. “I liked you better when I was poisoning everything you consumed.”
She frowned. “For a man who believes in only speaking truths, no matter how manipulative, you sure can’t handle them, can you?”
“My cruelty is necessary, Red. Now, it would do you well to get your ass kicked, wouldn’t it? Remind you of your place in this world.”
She rolled her eyes and turned towards the drive. “She’s not going to beat me. I learned from the best.”
“So did she,” I hummed, heading for the stairs, “and she beat two of my trainers.”
The moment I stepped off the stairs, Scarlett was there, pulling her sister over by the hand.
“That bike looks fun,” the rose commented with a knowing look. “Comfy.”
“If you’re looking for modifications for your precious Claim, talk to Alaric. He knows how to make it…exhilarating for girls and boys.”
She smiled in amusement, that pink collar around her neck catching the light. “I just might. Does he do couples discounts? We both have bikes, after all.”
“We work in debts, wild rose. They call upon them whenever they want, for however they see fit.”
She looked over at Scarlett, taking her in before gently placing a finger under my sinner’s chin and tilted her head up, the look in her eyes warm and devious. She turned to me, Scar’s eyes locked on her. “Don’t we all love bathing in the blood?”
My eyes were locked on that contact between them, and I couldn’t help but lift the end of my cane and guide her hand down.
“Careful. You may like to share with your precious third wheel, but I feel no such desire.” My eyes shifted to Scarlett’s.
“You and Red will be fighting here. Show her what we taught you. The only mercy you shall show is leaving enough life in her to revive her. Within an inch of her life, comes to mind.”
She nodded, clearly unaffected by my taking her sister’s hand away from her. “No lungs, no major arteries. What about bones?”
She had yet to break a bone, but even so, with the mission quickly reaching a catalyst, I couldn’t risk having even one person out of the game. “No broken bones.”
She frowned. “Fingers? Toes?”
I glanced over at Red who was glaring in my direction. “I’ll allow it.”
Scarlett beamed and turned to Red. “I’m going to break all of them.”
“You may break three each.”
Red’s glare only chilled.
Scar turned to me, her expression falling. “Each limb?”
“Each set,” I clarified, amused.
She frowned. “Fine.” She started trudging towards the open space of the drive, clearly upset.
“Remember who else is here,” I hummed as the rose and I followed.
Scarlett found her eyes and, once again, beamed. Suddenly, there was a pep in her step, her movements far more fluid and light as she pranced towards where she wanted to fight.
The wild rose laughed lightly. “Why does she like me so much?”
“She has never known family or loyalty,” I explained softly. “When she found out that you were like us, how could she resist the promise of that kind of sister?”
I felt her eyes shift to me, but my eyes remained on Scarlett, studying her. I was finding it more difficult to look away as the days ticked by.
“She mentioned the day we met that you promised us to her. A family of her very own. Was that part of it? Part of your…courting.”
I laughed. “Wild rose, I did not court her. I ripped her from the chains they put her in and replaced them with my own.”
“Hmm,” she hummed. “You should know that your devious little thing had plans to force us to be her family if we didn’t like her upon meeting.”
My smile grew. “Did she? Did she go into depths about these…plans?”
“Chaining us up until we complied was among the many stories she told me. Lucky for me, I suppose, that I have thought of her as my sister since the moment I heard you Claimed someone.”
How…valiant of her.
“You promised her a family, Azrael.”
“Let’s not get into matters of the heart when you know the truth of it, rose, hmm? You’ll only look foolish.”
“We all must from time to time.”
Red was already waiting for Scarlett as we made our way over. She was rolling her shoulders and flexing her arms. “Are there any rules to these fights?” she asked.
“No guns,” Scarlett signed.
Red studied her. “No…weapons?” she asked, looking over to me.
“Guns,” Havoc answered, joining my other side, Bishop beside him, and Alaric standing a bit closer to the fighting women. “But I think guns would be interesting.” He glanced at me. “She has to learn how to fight against someone with a gun.”
We had gone through basic disarming when it came to shootable weapons, but Havoc was right. I never used guns, and they never had theirs on them when they fought her.
“Guns are allowed,” I told her, causing her to straighten. “If you don’t want shot, avoid the bullets.”
Scarlett’s eyes hardened, but she didn’t sign back. It was a challenge she was prepared to accept.
“Do you have a gun?” Red asked her.
“I don’t need one,” she responded and lunged without warning.
Red dodged, spun around, and reached for Scarlett’s neck, only for Scar to flip out of the way, land, and turn back to Red, glaring at her.
“Nice moves,” the rose commented as the two began a deadly dance. “Can you do all that? The…acrobatic type stuff.”
“Yes. How is the school going?”
She returned her attention to the fight just as Scarlett glanced towards the woods and back. “Good. Bishop has been great help. We’ve made good progress on the bones of it, and Everett has even gotten some of the lessons done, although I’m sure you’ll want to be a part of that.”
I would get those plans as soon as I could and correct whatever mistakes he had made, yes. “Have you, your Claim, and the fox come up with a name for your university yet?” I asked as Scarlett flew through the air, avoiding Red’s lunge, only to attack her from behind.
“Ashworth University. Or Ashworth Academy, we haven’t decided yet.”
Ashworth. A good, strong name. One that implied what we would turn them into, forcing them to realize how worthless they truly were before they vowed their lives to us.
She did it again.
My eyes found the woods at Scarlett’s second glance before they resumed her fighting. They were almost an even pairing, but I could see Red’s frustrations growing. I guess she had still had doubts about Scar’s abilities until now.
I walked over to Alaric, just to be nearer to the fight. I could hear their panting, Red’s grunts. Their fighting was getting fiercer, closer. Less jumping and more hand to hand.
Finally, Red reached for her gun, pulling it out in seconds. Scarlett grabbed the barrel and shoved it down, her grip firm as the gun went off.
My heart slammed, a feeling I didn’t recognize rushing through me, every muscle in my body tightening.
Scarlett hissed, but other than that, there was no evidence that she had been hit.
Had she?
They were moving too fas—
She looked at the woods again, holding off Red, sweat trickling down their brows.
My eyes shot to the rose.
She was instantly at alert, her eyes burning fiercely.
I gestured towards the woods and found Havoc’s eyes too. He followed quickly after her, walking around the fight and disappearing into the trees.
“Stop,” I ordered. The word was quiet but Scarlett reacted as if it had whispered through her own mind.
She released Red completely and stepped back, but rather than looking at me, her eyes returned to the woods.
Red was panting, her dreads falling into her eyes. “Damn, she’s good,” she gasped, pushing her hair back. “The gun got her,” she said, loading another bullet in and shoving it away. “The slide bit her.”
But Scar wasn’t looking at her bleeding hand, her eyes were trained only on the woods.
“What are you hearing?” I asked, joining them. “Tell me.”
“Breathing,” she answered, turning back to me. “Why is there a man breathing in our forest?”
I chuckled, the sound disjointed as our masks appeared between us.
“What?” Red asked as we both took them from Alaric and slid them on. “What did she hear?”
“It’s time to go on a hunt, little sinner,” I said, ignoring Red completely. She was careful. Both she and the rose were careful. I knew for a fact they wouldn’t lead anyone here, so whoever was out there, they had found us all on their own.
Clever little rabbits would soon find that the woods they crept into were in fact mine.
“Can I play?” she asked, a wild look in her eyes.
“Yes, darling, go play.”
Without a second of hesitation, Scarlett pulled her blade out of her sheath and disappeared into the trees.
“You’re letting her hunt alone? We have no idea who’s out there.”
“You wouldn’t doubt the daffodil or the rose, yet you doubt her?” I asked as Alaric melted into the shadows.
“She just asked if she could play, Azrael. She’s not taking it seriously.”
“She would have bested you had you kept fighting. She felt no pain, she never once hesitated. She’s been trained by the men who trained me, and may I remind you, you’ve never beat me in a fight, so until you do, then don’t pick apart how she speaks.
Especially when you don’t yet have the ability to communicate with her. ”
She glared. “I’m working on the communication part.
” She straightened. “Do you know why I keep asking questions and ‘picking her apart’? Because you’re a fucked-up person, Azrael.
Because up until this last year, I had convinced myself that you didn’t feel anything.
That your entire goal in life was to make everyone else fucking suffer, and then you started ‘using’ her, and at some point, that ‘using’ turned into needing.
“We make jokes about how we never thought the others, besides Grey, would ever find a girl, and how shocked we were when they did, but you? Everyone was so sure that you’d die alone.
That, at some point, you’d get into trouble on one of your secret little missions, and we would just stop hearing from you forever.
I ask questions because I want to know everything I can about the girl who caught your eyes. Because maybe…”
Red released a breath and lifted and dropped her hands, clearly frustrated. “Maybe if we figure out what she did, how she unlocked your heart, maybe we can do it too.”
She was mistaken. “I have never hidden anything from you, Red, you just don’t like what you see, so you ignore it, push it down, erase it. Create your own narrative that gives you the comfort I never can. Tick tock goes the clock, even for you, Red.”
“That is not fair. We can’t all be having the same delusion.”
“I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again,” I sang, heading for the trees, “It is not the demons I possess that drive you away, it is your unwillingness to shift your world view even slightly to accept that there are people out there who think, breathe, live differently than you.”
She laughed. “That is hilarious coming from you. You expect the world to shift to your mindset?”
“No, Red, I simply ask that you accept it like you’ve accepted all the others.” With that, I stepped into the trees.