Chapter 35 Azrael
Azrael
“Get the fuck away from her,” Jacky boy snarled like the rabid dog he was.
“What was that, Pops?” the mountain man asked in a low, threatening tone, only for the growling of a pup to be added to the mix.
Red turned to the mountains, regret flashing through her eyes.
“Sorry, that’s not…” She sighed and turned to the daffodil, her anger fading a hair.
“Please. You have to remember something. If you just watch a few seconds of the video, maybe it’ll give you enough to tell us at least what part of the state it’s in. ”
I twirled my cane, watching them fight like feral cats as they stood around the table, the weight of the cub’s eyes ever present.
From my trip to the club last week, I found that Louis Nelson Junior had made it a point to brag about the new pussy he was getting.
Vanessa had my dearest thanks for giving me that information, and although I wasn’t one to appreciate owing favors, this was one I would pay gratefully when she called upon it.
But the information, although valuable, was useless now. Malachi was being careful with those he allowed to visit my precious sinning doll. Every GPS, every phone, anything that emitted an electrical signal that could in any way be tracked, he disabled.
He had learned over the years, I suppose, from yours truly. Which meant he had learned other things as well, making my job a bit more difficult.
It was utterly irritating to say the least. I wasn’t used to my mind being challenged by anyone, let alone someone like him.
“Poppy, I don’t think it’s a good idea,” the mouse put in, her voice hard. “Remembering something traumatic like that changes a person.”
“She’s our sister!” she snarled back. “You would have done it for Olivia!”
The daffodil frowned, her eyes hard. “I would do it for any of you, and while I appreciate Jack standing up for me, I can make my own decisions,” she nodded lovingly at her other half and then her eyes hardened again and found mine, “but there is a reason Azrael hasn’t spoken, isn’t there?”
All eyes turned to me.
My smile grew sharp. “Well, look who’s learning.”
Her lips thinned.
I stopped twirling my cane and straightened. “You’re quite right. I never would have allowed you to see the video.”
“What?” Red asked in disbelief. “Why?”
“Because I don’t need another mouse on my hands. Sorry to say, Jacky boy, but we all know your girl would be incapacitated at the sight of that video. She’s no wild rose.”
The daffodil popped her lips. “I wouldn’t go that far,” she mumbled under her breath.
But by the look of doubt in her eyes, and the flash of relief, I knew she had had her own worries of just that.
“Trauma is exciting, isn’t it?” I hummed.
“One day, you’re fine and the world is filled with butterflies, and the next, your entire world has caught fire and the screams?
” I laughed. “They just won’t stop. How fun. ”
The mouse gave me a concerned look. “It’s not fun.”
“That’s because you’re not looking at it the right way,” I hummed, walking slowly around the table.
“It would do us no good looking at that video. They drug their victims long before they’re in the car.
All the daffodil would be able to give us after she stopped screaming, that is, would be a description of the room she was in at best.”
“There might be a fucking window, Azrael,” Red said between her teeth.
“And what would she see? We all know the building is located deep in the woods. I don’t know about you, but I’ve seen enough trees to know that they don’t make great landmarks,” I sang as I pulled out my watch and watched the secondhand tick by.
It seemed to slow as the days went on. Was it my own mind doing that or had time malfunctioned since my wife was taken from me?
I couldn’t afford to lose control, despite the demons in my head screaming and scraping, trying to free themselves.
Every step I took had to be calculated. Every word I said, every breath I took, it all had to be without error.
One little slip up and Malachi would kill her.
It was difficult enough, breathing with her so far away, in so much pain, but to have her taken from this world?
Well, my clock would stop the moment her heart did, of this, I was sure.
“Has Malachi contacted any of you since I last asked?” I asked, snapping it away.
“Yeah,” Red stated bitterly. “He’s still trying to convince me to bring you in.”
“He wanted us to go on another assignment,” Jacky boy stated.
Interesting. “And?” I asked, continuing my stroll around the table.
“We told him we needed to finish a few things up and to send Zo and Evie, which he reluctantly did. We can’t be gone right now. If you want to hit the churches all at once, we can’t be caught up in some assignment in Russia.”
I froze and turned to them, my smile growing sharp. “Russia, you say?”
The daffodil rolled her eyes. “We already decided that Raine is hitting that one, Azrael. It would be of no use for us all to be there.”
“No, but how interesting that he would send you there. He does love his Russians, doesn’t he?”
The two exchanged a look before Jacky boy’s face hardened. “Almost all of our assignments have been Russian based since I branded her.”
“Keeping you close to home, don’t you think?” I hummed. “All of you will continue playing good little children until the time is right. He must believe that you still loathe my entire existence if we are to succeed.”
“Azrael, come on,” Red pleaded, taking a step towards me.
“You told Olivia one week. You told her one week before we would burn the woods down to find her. You poisoned me for years trying to rid the world of me. You have left ashes everywhere you have ever stepped, made the people of our world fear your name above the rest of us, and you haven’t done a damn thing to save the girl I thought you loved.
What are you doing? Please, just tell me so I’m not over here thinking I’m the one going insane. Please.”
My expression hardened. “Love? We are above love, Red.”
Her eyes widened in disbelief. “Just tell me that you have something. Please, Az.”
I lifted my chin, my eyes hardening the longer I stared at her.
She was acting the way I wanted to act, and there had been a few times when I considered following her steps.
Scream, shout, destroy things until I got my way, but that would accomplish nothing, and every time I ever started to fall in that train of thought again, I would just remind myself of the path Scar had been falling down before she was taken.
“Scarlett told me your eyes felt cold,” I stated evenly.
“You don’t have tar in your soul, but they still feel cold, unlike everyone else here,” I went on as she straightened.
“Including yours truly. Our eyes all feel warm to her, but not you. Why is that? What does she sense that we don’t, Red? ”
The others turned to her, studying her carefully, and I knew exactly what my words had done.
They had planted a seed in every heart in this room.
Is Red the heir? Was she the daughter Malachi was using to take us down?
She was dropped off at an orphanage, after all.
Left on the doorstep. No parents in sight.
Her eyes hardened, glistening with tears, her hands tightening into fists.
“I hate you,” she said under her breath.
“There is only one thing in this world I had. One secret you…you piece of shit, that you didn’t own.
You let Scarlett keep hers because she was never allowed her own private life, yet you dive into ours and pick and prod, for what?
So that you feel safe? So that you know you’re better than us? ”
I kept my expression clear, but I truly had no idea what she was talking about, I only wanted her to stop putting the spotlight on me. I worked better in the shadows and she understood that. She understood that more than anyone else.
“I’m not his daughter,” she said to the group, although her eyes remained locked on mine. “I had my blood tested weeks ago when Malachi asked me to bring him in.”
“Why do you think you’re different then?” the mouse asked, taking a step towards her. “Any ideas?”
She nodded, a tear sliding down her cheek. “The reason he couldn’t find this information was because there was no documentation to speak of. It was done in some shitty ass apartment by some sketchy ass, unlicensed doctor. I was desperate and I was only 14. I didn’t have anywhere else to go.”
Fuck.
Emily’s hand found her mouth, Rae’s glare turned on me, but Olivia? She was interesting. Both of her arms wrapped around her stomach, her Claim leaning into her, holding her close.
My eyes found Poppy’s again. “I always have a plan,” I said coldly. “You questioning it doesn’t help anything.”
She shook her head and held up her hands in surrender.
“Right, my apologies, partner. I’ll just go and give myself a fucking lobotomy so I don’t have to stay up at night, picturing Charles or Bastrom or fucking whoever the fuck else shoving their cocks into my sister while she lays there with a smile on her face because that’s what you taught her to do. You fucking psychotic asshole.”
And then the image I had tried so very hard to keep out of my head entered it, the ticking getting louder, the demons roaring under my skin like rushing water as the Scarlett sized hole in my chest grew bigger.
The rose stepped after Red as she turned for the door, but Red held up her hand.
“Don’t. All of you are permitting this,” she told them as Bishop walked in.
“Every single one of you. At least your men did something, but this?” she asked, gesturing back to me.
“This is the man you were all so afraid of? It’s fucking pathetic.
” With that, she stormed out of the room.
“Azrael,” Bishop started, not sparing Red even a glance. “We have a problem.”