Chapter 41
Scarlett
He slipped the phone into his pocket, and I stared at where his hand disappeared, blood trickling down my face, dripping from my eyelashes.
“Look at that,” Malachi hummed as Kat watched from the right of the closed metal door, “he doesn’t have a heart after all.”
Is that what he heard? I laughed, the blood dripping from my smile, coating my teeth, although they could only barely see it through the cage they had locked around my mouth. What a shitty fucking father. No wonder Azrael never had any respect for him.
Malachi smiled, and the smile was followed by a soft chuckle. “Still laughing. Still smiling. Eckers, her thumb.”
It didn’t matter what they did to me now though. I had said his name and he heard me. He heard my screams and that was Malachi’s second mistake.
His first was calling my Hatter on that cellphone.
“Azrael was cooommmmiinnnggg,” I wanted to sing. He was coming, and there was nothing they could do to stop it.
Eckers grabbed the thumb on my left hand and forced it up. He brought the little pick to the very end of it and slowly started to force it under my nail.
It happened every time they started to do something this painful. I steeled my spine, bit my tongue, held in my screams until the tears poured down my face, but eventually, it became too much.
The scream ripped from me as I tried to pull my hand back, the pick digging deeper and deeper and deeper until—
~~~
I jerked, blinking several times, instantly snarling as the pain that riddled my body flared.
It’s the only thing that happened now. There was no home. No music. No Azrael. There was just darkness. I couldn’t remember fainting. I never knew how long I was out, but I knew that every time I came back, it hurt worse than the last. As if the pain was multiplying every time my mind shut down.
I laughed, my eyes falling to my thumb where my nail had come up slightly from the nailbed.
It was the sixth time they had done that.
I think I would have been terrified at the thought of losing it had Havoc never taught me that even if I lost a nail, it would always grow back, it would just take some time.
Everything grew back except for limbs. As long as I didn’t lose any limbs, I would be fine.
I had to be fine.
They were counting on me.
What I hadn’t expected throughout this ordeal was the fact that they didn’t want any information.
Malachi didn’t ask any questions. Neither did Eckers or Mack or Lady Elise.
They just hurt me for fun. They took breaks, came back, did whatever they wanted to do to me, and left again.
All I could do was sit on the cold, damp floor, hands stretched to either side of me, shackled to chains that bolted into the floor several yards away, face locked in a muzzle.
All I could do was take it.
Survive.
Fight.
Malachi watched me carefully, studying me, searching for something that I couldn’t see. He watched and watched, blinking, not moving a muscle.
And I smiled, wondering if he could see how sharp my teeth had gotten since they brought me to this hell.
“Get out,” he finally said.
Eckers, without argument, headed right out the door, but Kat hesitated. “Lady Elise instructed—”
“Lady Elise is under my orders,” he half snarled. “So are you. Get. Out.”
Kat’s hardened eyes shifted from Malachi’s to mine, softening ever so slightly before they hardened again. He left, slamming the door behind him.
Malachi watched me carefully, his eyes flashing with a sick light. “Sometimes I wonder what would have happened to that boy had I kept him. Sending him away only for him to end up back on my doorstep was God’s way of punishing me for all that I had done, I was sure of it.”
Azrael was Malachi’s son?
“Being brought home by my brother of all things,” he laughed. “Being trained by him. Still, would I have been able to control those tendencies of his?” he pondered. “No, I don’t think so. I think he was born a psychopath, and I think that’s what he will always be. Until I kill him, that is.”
I laughed quietly, the sound hoarse and thick. Kill Azrael? It was too funny.
“Do you find that humorous?” he asked. “Death. Do you find death funny?”
I met his eyes. I did find death funny. I found it funny when given to those drowning in tar. I found it funny when the scales were balanced. When those who were claiming to cleanse the world were, in fact, cleansed themselves.
Cleansed in the blood of their own transgressions.
“I don’t think you’ll find it funny when it’s his corpse you’re staring at.
You see,” he hummed, walking towards me slowly, “Azrael may not have a heart in his chest, the capacity to care, but I know you do. Your act of insanity is exactly what is stated: an act. I’ve read the reports on you, Scarlett, your story.
One of the first to be born into the church with a genetic condition that labeled you special.
You were gifted and then you lost your mother, tethered to Thomas by the leash of that gift.
Betrothed at a young age, groomed, trained, forcibly made unclean, coveted.
You latched onto the first person who ever showed you any kindness, and unfortunately, that man could never feel a thing for you.
But you couldn’t see that, could you? No, because he is a very good liar and you have never known an ounce of true kindness in your entire life.
What is love to someone who has never even known a genuine smile? ”
No, I didn’t know much about love, but I did know Azrael.
I knew how he liked his breakfast. I knew how he admired me even when all I was doing was drawing.
He hummed in the middle of the night when I couldn’t sleep, and he held me close to his chest even though he didn’t like being touched.
He danced with me. He talked to me. He taught me that I was strong enough, brave enough, deserving enough to look people in the eyes, to speak, even if it was just with my hands.
He gave me a family, a home, a bed. Control. Strength. Power.
He gave me him.
We didn’t have to feel love in their way because we felt it in ours. We were above their version of love. We were more, and whatever he did to me, he could never take that from us.
Malachi stopped in front of me, gazing down at me with an all too familiar look in his eye.
His eyes flicked to my hand and without hesitation, he leaned over and ripped that pick out from under my nail, tossing it to the side.
“Azrael was never a threat to me, just a nuisance. He caused problems that my other sons had to fix. He interfered, he disappeared, and he never listened. The fact that he never turned his brothers against me proves to me how much hatred they hold for him, although I know that once they find out what I’ve done, even they will turn their backs on their father.
“It doesn’t matter though because I know everything.
Even if Azrael did manage to turn them, there aren’t enough of them to take out seven churches, which is why I’m not worried about whatever he is planning.
Why should a lion be afraid of a meager little mouse?
My people will survive, they will. They will thrive and they will adapt to a new world. ”
I gripped the chains, staring up at him, imagining all the ways Azrael would tear him apart.
“I suppose though, it would be remiss of me not to take advantage of the opportunity that sits before me.”
Don’t flinch.
Don’t blink.
Don’t even breathe.
“I created the church to fill a need in this world,” he explained as he took off his jacket. “So many people living in the shadows, afraid to build a community they would thrive in, I simply opened up that avenue.”
He spread his jacket directly in front of me, forcing me to pull my knees to my chest.
“When I met Lady Elise nearly three decades ago, I read her book, listened to her speak of cleansing and purity and how much better the world would be if we all followed one set of laws, one true leader.”
My heart slammed against my ribs, the chains shaking as I shoved myself against the wall. No, not him. Anyone but him.
“She gave me the idea, and after reading her reports on a few of the people who had stayed in that asylum, I realized how beautiful the idea was. I had hoped there would have been better results for Azrael when I finally decided to send him, but I suppose not all of them can be winners. Anyway,” he went on, getting on his knees, directly in front of me, “she and I began to build. We hired a few of her most trusted friends and named them Elders, building the church out from there.” He pulled something small out of his breast pocket.
A vile, it looked like. “Adrenaline,” he explained, pulling the cap off to reveal a small needle.
“Just enough to keep you from disassociating. Elise told me you had a problem with that. I also won’t be giving you that paralytic. I prefer it when it’s lively.”
Fuck!
I shoved myself against the wall, snarling, whimpering, tears filling my eyes. No. No! I wouldn’t survive this without the darkness. I wouldn’t survive if I knew.
He grabbed my ankle and jerked it out, slamming the needle into my thigh.
I cried out, staring at his hands as he pulled it out, put the cap back on, and slid it into his pocket.
My heart started racing seconds later, my mind spinning, and suddenly, I was more awake than I had been in days.
I fought against his grip, jerking at the chains, but his grip was too strong, and my mind was racing too fast. Everything was vibrating. Why was everything vibrating?
He grabbed my other leg and jerked me forward, forcing my hips away from the wall, my pussy out for the world to see.
I screamed and tried kicking, but the way he was sitting, the way he had my legs pinned on either side of him, it was useless.
He laughed after a minute of struggle. “My, this is fun. No wonder the Leaders and Pillars have such a problem keeping their Favorites pure.”