21 Asher #2
I start at the bottom and work my way up I make sure every inch of her is covered up.
The spots where sulfuric acid hit her are already blistering and looking like severe chemical burns.
Some spots are so bad they have opened and are bleeding.
I want her unrecognizable in the end. At some point she passed out from the pain.
For now I have had enough with her. Now I want some answers from Thomas.
I turn away from her and walk across the basement.
Every step echoes as Thomas watches me approach.
I pull a chair across the floor and sit directly in front of him.
"Let's try this again."
Thomas says nothing.
"Why did you take her, what your plans with her?"
Still nothing.
Roman sighs dramatically. "See, this is why nobody likes interrogations. People always choose the hard way."
Before Thomas can respond, the basement door opens and in walks Zariah. Thomas's eyes widen.
"No."
Zariah smirks.
"Miss me?"
Thomas immediately jerks against his restraints.
"No. No, that's impossible."
"Actually," Zariah says as she drops a thick file onto the table, "it's very possible."
His face turns red. "You were working for me."
"I was working against you." The realization hits him like a freight train.
"You little bitch."
She opens the file.
"I spent the last few hours going through everything I copied from Vale Enterprises."
Grant immediately moves beside her.
"What did you find?"
"Enough to know this is bigger than the company."
That gets everyone's attention. Zariah spreads photographs and financial reports across the table.
Bank records, a property purchase, equipment manifests, construction permits all of it worth millions of dollars.
Roman whistles. "That's a lot of money."
"It gets worse." She points to a series of transactions. "Over eighty million dollars moved through shell companies over the last three years."
Grant studies the pages.
"Where did it go?"
Zariah points to a photograph. An industrial facility.
"A research site."
“Researching what?"
Zariah slides another document across the table. One word is repeated dozens of times.
ANGEL.
Roman leans forward.
"Again with Angel." Grant's eyes narrow then slowly he looks at me. I look at him and at the same time realization hits both of us.
"No way."
"What?" Zariah asks.
"Oh, you've got to be kidding me," Roman mutters.
Grant slowly stands.
"It was always Scarlett, Scarlett is Angel." Thomas closes his eyes. That's all the confirmation we need.
"Son of a bitch," Roman says.
It was never about money or about the company. It was always about Scarlett. I slowly turn back toward Thomas.
"What was that lab for?"
Thomas doesn't answer, I stand and get right in his face.
"What was the lab for?"
He look into my eyes and his are filled with something that looks dangerously close to fear.
When he finally speaks, his voice is barely above a whisper. "It was to study her."
I think I loose it in that moment. All I see is red.
I grab Thomas by the throat and squeeze until he is gasping for air.
This man for all intents and purposes was her father.
For years he thought he was, he had to have loved her at once.
Then suddenly he just flipped a fucking switch and decided she isn’t worthy of that and she is like some lab rat that they can experiment on.
Grant pulls me away and Roman holds me back.
“Asher, man we still need answers. There are still thing we don’t know, and if we want to keep her safe we need to know it all.”
Grant goes over and takes over the question while I try to contain myself from just putting a bullet through his head right now.
“What is the Guardian’s? We know what her father is, but something was said about her mother’s side.”
Thomas glances toward the journals scattered across the table.
"The Guardians weren't human." That earns a collective groan from everyone.
"Fantastic," Roman mutters. "Because angels weren't weird enough."
"They are sentinels for the afterlife.” Thomas pauses but then continues. "They existed long before recorded history. Long before kingdoms. Long before most of what humanity remembers. The Guardians were responsible for maintaining cosmic order."
"Cosmic order?" Zariah repeats skeptically.
Thomas nods.
"They stood watch over the boundary between life and death. They prevented chaos from crossing over."
"What kind of chaos?" Roman asks.
"The journals never say."
Of course they don't.
"They simply refer to it as The Veil. The Veil separated the living from everything beyond it."
Grant folds his arms and asks "And the Guardians protected it?"
"Yes, Over time, the world changed, and The Guardians adapted. They learned to blend in and hide among humans."
"In all my research I found out that there can only ever be one Guardian. Every generation has a single Guardian. When one falls..." His voice lowers. "Another rises."
The words settle heavily over all of us. Grant immediately catches something.
"Wait."
Thomas looks at him.
"If Scarlett inherited Guardian blood from Laura's family...then somebody before her had it."
"Laura?" I ask.
"No."
"Scarlett’s grandfather.” Suddenly a lot of things start making sense.
"And when he died... why didn’t the Guardian mantle pass or awaken or whatever the hell you call it."
“I don’t know. I couldn’t figure that out. None of my research told me anything that made sense. There are more journals, I haven’t found them. There are pieces that I know I’m missing. All I could gather is that her abilities when fully established would be strong.
She is life and death intertwined in one person.”
Roman breaks the silence first. “Vita e morte in una. So let me get this straight." Nobody stops him. "The girl upstairs is the only Guardian of her generation now...and the daughter of the last Seraphine."
Thomas nods and Roman slowly drags a hand down his face.
"I miss when our biggest problem was organized crime."
"We need to go see Luca. He has to know more than he's telling us."
"Agreed." Grant gathers several of Laura's journals into a stack.
"If there are missing journals, he'll know where they are."
"And if he doesn't?" Roman asks.
"Then we will figure out where to look for them."
"How many are we looking for?"
After several moments, Thomas finally speaks.
"Laura kept three separate collections."
"Three?" Zariah asks.
Thomas nods.
"One stayed in the house, the second went to her father and the third disappeared after her death."
"Disappeared?"
"They were terrified someone would find them."
A groan suddenly comes from the other side of the basement. Celeste is slowly starting to wake up. The second she realizes where she is, panic and pain flashes across her face. Roman sighs dramatically.
"Well. There goes the peace and quiet."
Celeste tries to struggle against her restraints. "You can't keep me here." She cries.
Roman raises an eyebrow.
"That's adorable."
Her gaze snaps to me hatred filling her face, but there is something new, like she finally realizes that actions have consequences.
"What are you going to do with us?" she demands.
I stare at her and then at Thomas. When I finally speak, I turn to Grant and Roman, my voice calm.
"Make them suffer, then send Clara a message. Have their body parts delivered with a message. Use mom’s families last name. That should scare her enough to keep her quite. I want her gone. Out of that house, Scarlett is taking back everything she is owed, but me, I am done with them."
Both of them look confused.
"What?"
"You're not useful anymore." The words hit harder than any threat could.
Thomas visibly flinches and Celeste's face drains of color.
Grant steps toward Thomas and Roman toward Celeste.
I turn toward the stairs, toward Scarlett.
I am going to go and make sure she knows that she is loved and cherished and that no matter what comes next I will always be there.
The screams coming from Thomas and Celeste follow me up the stairs, I turn around give them one more look and shut the basement door blocking out all sounds and thoughts of them.