Chapter 33 - Azrael
Azrael
“There was a spike, but it stopped almost immediately,” Havoc told Bishop as I continued to watch the heart monitor.
It had lasted only a few minutes, but she had calmed again.
I knew what they were doing to her and I could feel my muscles become so tight, my bones groaned.
I wasn’t going to sit here and try to convince myself that she was fine, that it was nothing.
It was something, and every idea of what it could be was another icepick to my chest.
“You haven’t told us who the heir is.”
My eyes lifted to the precious little mouse’s.
Bright green surrounded by inky black hair, an oversized black sweater covered in neon, and a green and black plaid skirt paired with fishnets and knee-high black combat boots blanketed in so many buckles, she wouldn’t be able to sneak into a bell shop.
Scarlett would have appreciated her outfit today. She always admired the mouse’s choice in clothes.
Red looked over from the seat directly beside the mouse before finding my eyes and raising a brow. “Interesting.”
I dragged my eyes over to the mountain boy who sat with the woman who claimed him, and her precious dog. “Where is the fox?”
The rose straightened, her eyes flaming in betrayal. “You’re not saying—”
“No. Just curious.”
The wild rose frowned, leaning back into her husband. “Taking care of the school so we could be here.”
“We know it’s a woman, Azrael,” the mouse began again when I didn’t reply. “You told us during the meeting. It contradicts what Grey thought, but not completely, so which one of you is it?”
My smile grew and I glanced towards the wall of windows, seeing the cub standing in front of them, watching the sun ascend the sky slowly. “What is wrong with your precious professor?” I asked, turning back to her.
She watched him for a long time before turning back to me and pulling her sleeves over her hands. “He loves his family very much, Azrael. Even you. Especially you.”
I felt my spine straighten and my smile grow tight. “Why?” I didn’t see how that was possible. I have tasted his hatred for me ever since we were boys. It’s been quite a long time since I had known a moment without it.
She shrugged. “Because you need it the most.” She leaned forward. “Who is the heir?”
The laughter bubbled from my lips. “Worry has no place in this house and neither does love. I don’t know who the true heir is, only that it’s a female.
” My sister. My blood, and over the years, she had proven to be just as cunning as I was.
Malachi’s genes were far too potent for this malicious world, but I was getting sick and tired of this waiting.
Of watching. I needed to find another rabbit hole quickly or I was just going to start killing everyone in every town in this fucking state until I found her.
“What?” Red asked, sitting up. “But you know everything else. You know about Malachi, about the church, you know all the connec—”
“Yes, yeesss,” I sang, standing from my chair.
“I do, and there is a reason for that. You see, unlike you pathetic bunch of half-assed researchers, I do my assignments thoroughly before I bring it to anyone. However, the circumstances, and your impatience, forced my hand before I could find all the pieces to this sadistic puzzle. Look what happens when The Family intervenes.”
“You’re saying it’s our fault?” Red accused.
“Don’t fault yourself too much, Red, the fault was mine for allowing you to catch me in the first place.”
“Oh, so you’re back to calling us by our nicknames again?” she asked bitterly.
I ignored her and headed for the cub. He had been silent since his arrival five days ago. He simply stared and thought, thought and stared, and it was about time I found out what was going on in that head of his.
I looked out across the trees as I joined his side, wondering where out there my sinning doll was and if she was being patient with whatever they were throwing at her, biding her time.
A small part of me hoped she would decimate everyone in that house, but I knew that despite her being well trained, even the best of my family couldn’t handle a house full of people on their own without a reliable weapon.
Had she found a weapon yet? Had she found anything?
“How do you do it?” the cub finally asked, his voice nothing but a low mumble in a room filled with far too many ideas.
I folded my hands behind my back, my cane gripped in them both. “I only deal in specifics, little wolf cub.”
He didn’t bother looking over. “Stand here knowing that the man behind her being raped is sitting in that desk in our Training Building? She’s being raped, Azrael.
Malachi sent her there to be raped. You are…
you’re the one we all thought would go on a slaughtering spree if anyone you actually cared about was hurt, yet here you are.
Watching her heartbeat, knowing that every time it picks up, it could be the time they’re hurting her. How do you do it?”
I studied the trees. Studied the way the dew collected on the windows as the rays of light gently passed through them. The rain had finally stopped. After six days, the sky was fully blue. The storm clouds had stopped teasing of rainless days and was finally giving us one.
After several moments, I lifted my chin. “It’s silly to think my patterns would change after all these years.” I was barely holding it together. The only reason I was still in this building was because I knew father dearest was waiting.
He was waiting for me to make a move.
Waiting for me to give him a reason.
Waiting for me to do anything at all, and the second I did, he would either kill her or maybe even send her to the asylum.
I couldn’t think of a worse fate than her having to live through everything I had. I’d rather do it again, a thousand years over again, than ever have her in that fucking building.
“Patterns?” he breathed out. “What patterns?”
“Well, you, of course,” I hummed back. “Sprees are useless unless I need a distraction. Have I not shown up precisely when I was needed every single time?”
He finally turned to me, eyes wide. “You’re saying that, after all these years, after a lifetime of treating us like shit, you’re claiming that you actually love us?”
“Love is nothing but a construct of the human soul in need of comforting in this perpetual nothingness. You should know something about that, given the tongue on your cosmic little mouse.”
“So why did you come? Why aren’t you out there, looking for her? Going after the man who betrayed all of us? Why are you just standing here doing absolutely nothing?”
“Betrayal would mean that I allowed him the power to betray me. I gave him no such thing. Everything father dearest has gotten has been stolen or falsely given. Falsely given by you.”
He straightened. “Given that, whatever the fuck you believe about our loyalty to the man who gave us everything, that doesn’t answer my previous question.
How are you standing here? You’re a psychopath, certifiably, even if this was just a contract through his church, you spent months putting her through Hell, training her to fight just like you.
To be a little psychopath just like you.
I can’t imagine you’d want to lose your little toy.
He can’t stop all of us, Azrael. We can go there right now. We can end this.”
There was too much at stake. Far too much.
Contingencies upon contingencies. He did train us, rather, he trained them.
Therefore, he knew what they would do. He knew exactly what moves they would make, how they would go about this.
What he didn’t know was my mind. What he hadn’t considered was hers.
“Whatever they do to her, I will fix it,” I answered coldly, my hands tightening around my cane, “but whatever she does to them will be irreparable. They can break her body all they want, but her mind? That’s mine, and it is fully protected.”
He laughed. “Even Rae’s mind broke, Azrael, and she was older than Scarlett is now. She went through a year of our training, not to mention a lifetime of hers. Every mind has a snapping point. Even yours.”
But a mind that has already snapped couldn’t be snapped again, it can only be reworked and regrown.
“I’ll be interested to see who he sends to see her,” I told him, finally meeting his eyes.
“It says a lot about a man, the people he sends first. After all, he is the Founder. Who, I wonder, will the great Founder send to see the Chosen One first?”
“What does it matter if they’re raping her?” he bit.
“Oh, it matters quite a lot. Her virginity was a prized thing,” I explained, the ticking of a clock slowly growing louder in the back of my mind, “and I took it. There will be a lot of coveters out there angry over such a thing. The one he chooses to correct that mistake will tell me a lot.”
“But we won’t know who gets there first if we don’t find her,” he growled.
My smile grew. “Don’t you worry your furry little head, dear cub, I will find her, I’m just doing it my way. Alaric, watch her heart. Text me if anything changes. Havoc, come with me.”
“Whoa, where do you think you’re going?” Red asked as I turned for the door.
“Why, it’s Sunday morning, Red, I’m going to the club.”