Chapter Nine
Canto picked the lock on Ironman’s door.
He opened it gently and peeked inside. When he saw the backpack open and laying on the bed, he did tremble a little bit.
He walked toward the bed and opened the pack to see inside.
When he didn’t see what he knew should be there he took the pack with him to the main room.
He tossed it on one of the tables.
Everyone in the room looked over and saw him standing there.
Canto squared his shoulders and announced, “She’s gone.”
“Gone where?” Ironman asked.
“Hunting and now the last thing the family will see is her face the moment she kills them.” Canto shook his head.
“Your men won’t even have to fire one bullet.
She’s a machine now and they brought it out of her.
Estaban thinks he will kill her? He doesn’t even know her or what she can do yet, but he will find out.
” Then he sat down in a chair and stared at the empty backpack. Then Canto prayed.
Ironman walked over slowly to the table and sat down next to Canto.
For a moment neither of them spoke.
“What do you mean?” Ironman asked
Canto didn’t look at him, just at the backpack.
He stared at it as if it was a poisonous snake.
“Lily got special training at my father’s command.
Not his suggestion, at his command. From the age of twelve to fifteen he sent her away to be trained.
He never told us what she was in training for, only that it was something special.
When she came home she had a look in her eyes that terrified me.
It was like my sister had disappeared and what returned wasn’t her any more.
But whenever she got orders from our padre, she left the house and always had that backpack with her.
I asked her once what was inside of it but she wouldn’t tell me.
Then one night about six months after she returned she was having a nightmare and I went into her room.
She was holding onto that pack. I sat down on her bed and asked, what was so damn important about it and she finally told me where she had gone for three years.
She told me everything her trainers had done to make her into an assassin.
They would lock her in what is called caja de los horrores.
The Hell Box. Like a wooden box in the sun and they would play a recording that told her to make her rage into death.
Kill, kill. Shoot them in the heart. Kill.
Use your blade, cut their throats. Revel in their blood.
And so on.” Canto shivered and lowered his head.
“It must have been torture. And she was only fifteen when she came back! It was then when I turned against Padre and the family. Lily had been sunshine before he did that to her.”
Ironman reached over and patted his shoulder.
Canto went on in a saddened voice, “She hated every moment of every single day of it, then she made up her mind to just get through it. That night she told me she was going to see our father in hell one day and she would be the one to send him there. But now I think she’s gonna send Estaban and whoever else is out there straight to hell. ”
“Can she really do all that by herself?” Titus wanted to know.
Canto nodded. “She can. Her mind shuts down who she really is then she becomes this assassin... The Veil takes over. She put her uniform on and slipped into kill mode. She told me once that our father made her train with the best and her skills are next to a master’s skill in that trade.
To survive some of the tournaments she had to kill other cartel men in our own ranks as training became cutthroat and very real.
She had known some of them for years. The ideal was simple.
Kill to be the best or die with the rest, so our father had put it and he would laugh at the phrase.
” Canto growled and punched the table as he took the pack and tossed it away.
“I am glad he is gone. I will be glad when they are all fucking gone!” He seethed.
“So how can we find her?” Ironman asked. “I want her safe.”
Canto shook his head. “She will be outside the fence tonight and by dawn the threat will be gone. She will hunt down everyone out there and her face will be the last thing they see.”
Bouncer stared at him. “Not that this Estaban doesn’t deserve it but what if she can’t come back from her actions?”
Canto snapped his head up and stared at him.
“You don’t know the first thing about Lily if you really believe that.
Our father used to beat her every day, he said to toughen her up but in reality, she toughened up on her own.
When she no longer screamed from the pain he gave her he began to worry he’d gone too far.
But by then he’d already gone too far. She became immune to the pain and she no longer felt it.
One day he threw her down some stairs and she almost died, but she found the strength somewhere to get up again and start walking to the front door.
When she reached it she turned around and told him if he ever touched her again she would kill him.
Padre... Eduardo became so afraid of her he never touched her again.
I think he was fearful of her after that. ”
“What was in the bag?” Boomer asked quietly.
“Her uniform. The place she trained at made her wear it every time she was put to another test. She told me that night that if she ever put it on again it would be to kill our father. Well, he’s dead now.
So I believe she’s going to kill everyone left alive outside your fence line.
And it will be a blood bath when she’s done.
” He shook his head. “Hopefully she won’t remember anything she does tonight. ”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Ironman asked with a deepening frown.
“Lily told me something a long time ago, she went through mental training that allowed her to forget everything she did...her safety valve. She would remember the event but not the blood she spilled. She has to be in a certain mindset to even put on that uniform. But when she does, she always finishes what she starts, then she forgets it.” Canto made the sign of the cross over himself and murmured, “Que el Senor se apiade de sus víctimas esta noche.
May the Lord have mercy on her victim's souls tonight.”
The whole room went silent.
TO BE CONTINUED IN:
Pyrite The Marauders #7