Chapter 49 Azrael
Azrael
It was strange the things that bloomed in a mind when chained to a wall and gently beaten.
For example, I’ve thought of six new ways to use someone’s own intestines to kill them slowly.
I’m positive that with some quick maneuvering, and some help from the good Doctor Manson, I should be able to keep them alive with their intestines outside the body.
I wouldn’t disconnect them, no, I would simply use everything between the stomach and colon to inflict absolute agony on their poor, defenseless bodies.
Tick tock.
Malachi was a smart man, but somewhere between where he began and where the church ended, there had been a very unfortunate disconnect. Or perhaps it was the problem as old as time, one we had seen years and years ago, back when we were all simple children.
He grew too much far too fast.
He grew too much far too fast in two completely separate worlds, and now everything was shattering around him simply because I went in and pulled a few threads. Yes, the man had power, but he lacked control.
Humans, by nature, liked to talk. They gossiped about coffee, television, and plans to take over the world, so to speak, and while Malachi had spent the better part of his years building these two very different empires, there was one thing he failed miraculously at.
He never taught the Elders, and therefore everyone under them, not to talk.
Tick tock tick tock.
It was how I found out about Lady Elise almost five years ago, and it was how I found out about my wife now.
This room was so achingly familiar. In fact, I could still picture my dear darling wife bent over the desk, waiting for me like the obedient little Favorite she was. I remembered how difficult it had been for me not to allow my eyes to linger on her perfect ass, on the curves of her perfect thighs.
But Thomas had put her in that position because of what the other Leaders of this church had craved. I could not allow myself to ever leer knowing why he did it, knowing it was he who had done it.
No, the leering had come later, although I can’t exactly remember when.
I suppose my best guess was when she got on her knees and spread out her perfect little dress for me.
She reminded me of a kitten at that moment.
I suppose, later on, I did learn that she liked it when I gently stroked her hair in that position.
She would lean against my leg, all the tension leaving her shoulders.
I could never do more than that while she was in that position.
Never more than stroke her hair Caress her.
It was painful at first, allowing myself to be so gentle, but the way she hummed for me? I shivered just thinking about it.
Most would loathe not getting their cocks sucked by their wives, but me? There were so many other creative ways to find pleasure in the pain, gagging on cock didn’t have to be one of them.
After all, it was selfish of a man to hate a woman who didn’t like doing something like that, and I was far from that.
Well, I suppose that wasn’t completely true.
I was selfish.
I was selfish when it came to her, which is what led to where I was now, blood dripping down my arms from where I tore the flesh from my wrists trying to get out of the shackles above my head. Trying to get to her.
I think that if I could have looked in a mirror, my teeth would reflect back as razors, my smile just as sharp.
Tick tock goes the clock.
Malachi never taught them how to treat prisoners either. How could he with all the time he was spending away from his precious little empire?
I was still getting three meals a day. There was only one guard sitting in the corner, Joshua, Mr. Kels’ son. He liked having visitors and he, along with the other sons who came in to watch me, were so easy to goad. It was laughable.
The best part about all of this was the fact that Malachi, or one of the Elders, had ordered them not to hurt me deeply unless I escaped. Which meant that when I did, I would be able to get the guard’s gun without any effort at all.
Tick tock goes the clock.
“You’re fucking creepy, you know that?”
I sat on the floor against the wall right across from the door.
My hands were shackled directly above my head, too tight to snap my thumb and slip out.
I had one knee up and the other bent slightly, folded under my knee.
It wasn’t the most comfortable position, and I knew that when I did get up, my ass and feet would most likely be asleep from being in this position for the last 19 days, but it was fine, I would adapt.
I leaned my head back, my hair falling around my head in strands. I chuckled softly. “You don’t know who you’re dealing with,” I sang.
Joshua scoffed. “You keep singing the same old tune, it just gets old, traitor.”
“Oh, I know. I’m just checking in on your lack of awareness.”
He rolled his head on his shoulders, giving me an arrogant little smirk. “My lack of awareness?” he asked, using the gun to point at himself and then at me. “You’re the one shackled to the wall. In the same place you’ve been for almost three weeks. I think you have the lack of awareness.”
Tick tock goes the clock, for all the little churchgoers.
“Do I? I don’t think so,” I hummed. Sweet, idiotic, L.J.
Nelson let slip that after Malachi raped my fucking wife, she got out.
My darling little psychopathic sinner was out there, healing and training and planning, and if the others followed my plan, she had Poppy, Olivia, and her brand new guardian, Havoc, by her side.
All of them prepared to do whatever it took to heal her enough to get her here.
Still, there were some mysteries I had yet to solve.
Was she okay?
It was a thought I couldn’t allow myself to linger on for more than a heartbeat, and even that had my mind cracking and my chest tightening. Even that half a second made my vision go black and my lungs freeze.
So, I shut it out.
I trained her well enough. I trained her as I was trained; she would hold on until the very second she felt safe enough not to. She would probably put on her very own mask, fake it all to convince them that she was better, and keep fighting.
I knew that game very well. I had been doing it for years.
Tick tock goes the clock, the floods are coming near.
For now, I would do what I did best; fuck with their minds until they couldn’t help themselves.
He scoffed. “You really are a psychopath, aren’t you?”
By anyone’s current definition, I suppose.
He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, careless with that loaded gun of his. “Hey, I gotta ask, how did you do it? Convince Garrett and the Elders that you weren’t part of The Family?”
Since being here, other truths had come out as well. The churches, this one at least, knew the Founder was Malachi. They knew he and I were both part of The Family they had been battling all these years, but did that betrayal cause their devotion to ease?
Of course not! Why would it? Malachi had given them everything their sick little hearts desired. No, the betrayal that caused them the most pain was mine, and the fact that I, a loyal member of my family, had stolen such a precious artifact from right under their noses.
It had me laughing so hard, I teared up a little.
Those idiots.
“It’s not hard to fool a player if you invented the game,” I replied easily.
He lifted his chin. “Is that so?” He straightened. “So you’re the one that came up with the church?”
I laughed. “No, you idiot, I’m the one that retrained your fearless little leader.
He was nothing without me. Nothing without his sons,” I hissed.
“You can’t have that much power without using others for your personal gain, and that’s what he did.
I improved what he couldn’t, and he took notes.
Although, he never could have accomplished all of this without the help of his partner. ”
Joshua paused, his smile falling. He glanced to the door and back. “Partner?”
My smile widened. “Oh, you didn’t know?” I’ve never met anyone so fucking stupid.
“Oh, how terrible, yes, his partner. That woman that died in Absolution, the last person Scarlett Thorin killed before leaving that house, Lady Elise. She wasn’t just the person who ran Absolution, they were fucking equals!
How many ideas do you think she gave him, hmm?
How smart is your Founder, really? Do you think he’ll be able to run this place without her?
Because other than a few phone calls, I haven’t seen him.
If this church is so important to him, why hasn’t he attended?
Why did he leave you soooo…defenseless?”
His eyes hardened and he stood abruptly. His face was turning red, a muscle in his jaw working.
I was shocked he was taking this revelation so hard, it was quite sad, really.
“He has the Elders,” Joshua reasoned, pacing the room. “He’s always had the Elders.”
“But never a faceless, nameless, silent partner,” I hummed.
He glanced my way as he continued his pacing. “He’s a busy man, you said it yourself. Running all these churches, he can’t be everywhere all the time.”
“Yes, but I’m here,” I responded. “Who’s to say my brothers and sisters haven’t infiltrated the other churches? Who’s to say they aren’t plotting something right this very second?”
He stopped abruptly, spun around, and stalked up to me, gun pointed at my head in the same way television gangsters pointed guns at people’s heads. Sideways and with a lifted chin.
It was comical, the aim was off and the kickback would be a bitch holding it this way.
“Are they?” he demanded.
I simply smiled up at him through strands of hair and my own lashes. Too easy.
He shoved the gun against my head. “Are they?” he screamed and the door opened.
“What the fuck, Josh?” L.J. growled. He rushed over, shoving Joshua out of the way. Careless, really, given his finger being on the trigger, but I was nothing if not addicted to the rush. “You can’t just kill him, we need him.”
“He says his brothers and sisters have infiltrated the other churches, that Malachi doesn’t give a fuck about us.”
I merely suggested that they might be, pay attention boys and girls.
“He’s getting under your skin, you idiot. Of course, Malachi cares about us, we’re his first church. And there’s no one else out there. His other kids hate Azrael, they’re still loyal to Malachi.”
I wonder how he came to that conclusion.
“How do you know that?”
“I overheard Vanessa talking to some guy about it,” he answered, turning back to me.
What a perfect little ally to have. I suppose I owed her one.
“Couldn’t wait, could you?” I asked with a smile. “Your guilty pleasure house gets destroyed and you don’t waste a single second.”
His eyes were hard as he crouched down in front of me. He looked over my face, looked me over from hands to knees and smiled. “Your wife was so…compliant. Was that your doing or Malachi’s? Just wondering who I should thank for that nectarine of a cunt you stole from us.”
Tick tock tick tock ticktockticktocktic—
I laughed. “Tell Malachi he should have killed me in the woods.” I shifted my weight and slammed my foot into his neck with ease.
He fell to his ass and grabbed his throat, coughing and wheezing, trying to catch his breath after I crushed his windpipe.
A sharp pain cracked across my temple causing sparks to dance in my vision. My head rolled a little, my mind buzzing. Fuck, I hated that.
“You’ll…fucking…pay for…that…Azrael,” L.J. wheezed.
The chuckle that fell from my lips then was enough to make even God pause.
“Tick tock goes the clock,” I sang softly, “soon you’ll all lose your heads.
Tick tock goes the clock, this can only end in bloodshed.
Your blood will spill on this sacred hill and Malachi will come tumbling down.
” I lifted my chin. “Just remember boys and girls, the higher they are, the harder they fall.”