by S King
“Now that truly is a stupid question, if I’ve ever heard one.” Judge Alexi softly closed the door behind him as he leaned against it.
The woman, otherwise known as Pexi Laurantix, paled at the sight of the OE judge and stepped away from me. Ripping her arm free of my hold.
“I haven’t done anything,” she quickly looked around the room as if there were any other out for her to take. Surely she wasn’t stupid enough to bolt from an impromptu meeting with OE’s pristine judges, I thought to myself. Then again, not much of anything surprised me anymore.
Alexi blew out a hard breath but remained where he was. Obviously, he was thinking the same thing as I was and wasn’t impressed with the possibility of having to chase her down.
He raised a brow at me, mentally commanding me to handle the situation.
Fine, since that’s what we were going to do. Turning my attention back to Pexi, I planted my feet and glared at her.
“You knew I was a judge, and you explicitly challenged my authority.”
She shook her head and held her hands out in defense, “I did not. I’m simply working under orders.”
“Whose?”
“I don’t know their names.”
“Their?”
“There’s two of them, a man and a woman. They simply told me what to do and I do it.”
“Why?”
“They’re more powerful than either of you or the rest of the judges combined.” A paralyzing fear morphed her pretty face into something of sheer panic as the words tumbled from her lips.
The voice. I stepped closer to her. Whoever had called me was pulling the strings on Pexi. Maybe she was the answer to some of my unanswered questions. Maybe she could give me some type of description on the who I was looking for.
“Give us a description.”
“I’ve never seen them.”
Judge Alexi pulled me behind him, an indication I should take a break and allow him to muscle the younger girl.
“You’re working under someone who claims to be more powerful than the judges who determine your fate. Yet you can’t tell the same said judges what these people look like?”
I hadn’t known what Alexi’s talent was and didn’t even think to ask until this moment. From the outside he still looked the same. But something shifted in the older man’s demeanor. Something sinister. Whatever the scientists had cursed him with, he knew how to control the element and was pouring just enough toward Pexi to shift on her feet.
Again she looked around the room for an out. When an Alice in Wonderland door failed to appear, she found Alexi’s eyes again and nodded.
“The only thing I know for certain is they are above the society.”
“What?” Alexi and I asked at the same time.
I kicked off the door and stood shoulder to shoulder with him as we stared down at her. Why the hell couldn’t I have been granted the ability to see when someone was lying? God knows now would be the time to utilize the skill.
Pexi swallowed hard and dropped her eyes, staring at the floor for the words that were having a hard time coming out.
“They…their…I don’t know. Every time I meet them they stand under a street lamp. Just enough to be able to tell who’s female and male. But their faces,” she shook her head and sighed in frustration. “They’re never close enough to the light that I can see their faces. Ever.”
“How did they get into contact with you?” I asked.
Pexi shrugged, wrapping her arms around herself. “It was at Luminous River’s wake. Seeing as how all of us are experiments and can’t be trusted to roam during the day. The Silver Guard held a wake for her. When I went up to pay my respects, they had pulled me aside and told me to do them a simple favor.”
“And that favor was what?” Alexi showed nothing as he looked down his nose at the young girl.
“To trap Demir in what would seem like a compromising position. I was to do it when I thought Luminous had risen from the dead.”
“How’d they know she was alive?” I asked.
Still trying to wrap my head around the fact someone was pulling the strings, I tried to piece together what she was saying in a fraction of the time it had taken for her to tell us.
If they had manipulated this girl into doing something she really didn’t want to do. Then that meant they were as powerful as she—and the voice had claimed they were. An itching feeling of dread clawed its way up my spine as I tried to run through the list of people that could’ve been behind the phone call, the pictures, and now Pexi. Whoever it was, they were much closer to Luminous than I cared to admit. That much I had figured out.
Pexi shrugging brought my mind to a halt on the subject. Looking at her, I waited for the next bombshell to drop.
“I don’t know. Maybe they’re the ones who saved her.”
“How’d you know she had to be saved?” Alexi interjected.
“Anyone who falls from such an altitude would have to be saved. Especially bleeding out during the descent.”
That was a fact. Luminous and I were silently banking on a prayer someone would take her in out of the kindness of their hearts after I had pushed her from the cliff. Granted, I had hoped one of our friends would be the one to save her. But when neither Karina, Dristan or Slade came to me with news about Luminous’s body, I knew someone outside of our circle had taken her in. Little did I know—at that point—Shang was the one to open his blacked heart to Luminous.
Alexi stared at the young girl for a moment before stepping to the side. “For now, that will be all Miss. Laurantix. However, I will advise you.” His eyes ignited in the type of fire that made nightmares flee as he dropped his tone. “If you ever try to entrap a judge—this one especially again,” he smiled. The move could’ve been considered grandfatherly had the circumstances been different. “You will face a Diamond Order. Do I make myself clear?”
“Yes sir,” Pexi quickly bowed out of respect before bolting from the room and probably from the club. Smart girl.
When the door swung closed with a soft click, I fell in the sitting chair next to the wall and rubbed my hands over my face.
“Well, you have something of an answer now.” Alexi took the seat across from me and looked around the room.
Had I known he was going to be willing to help me in such fucked up circumstances, I’d have called him in sooner. Granted before tonight I didn’t know how much I could trust him. The only reason I had called him was for his rank in the OE.
However, even though I was thankful for the veteran judge’s help, I couldn’t stop my mind from wondering why he had agreed to help me.
“May I ask you something?” I asked, dropping my hands to look him in the eye.
“Go ahead,” he spread his arms and waited patiently for the gauntlet I was about to throw at his feet.
“Did you know I didn’t kill Luminous on purpose?”
“Not entirely. I do, however, understand the need to protect your loved one as well as yourself. During such situations, had I been in your shoes, I can’t say I wouldn’t have done the same.”
I nodded once, looking at the floor, “did you know she was alive before anyone else?”
“No.”
“Can I ask you one more thing?”
He raised a brow in acknowledgement and kept looking at me.
“What’s your talent?”
He snorted and looked up to the skylight windows. “I have the talent—as you so graciously put it—to weaken the mind.”
“What?”
“Fear,” he looked at me, his gentle eyes meeting my own. “When the mind is weak, fear is much easier to instill in someone. Whether it be through means of torture or simple questioning—as tonight was.”
To ask how he was able to do that would be stupid on my part. It wouldn’t be any different than me trying to explain to him how I’m able to see someone’s death should my bare hands touch them. Accepting the answer for what it was, I dropped my gaze when another thought came to me
.
But as I opened my mouth, about to ask him what he thought I should do. I bit back the question. He had helped me enough tonight and in truth, I didn’t want to push my limits on his patience. I’d never known Alexi—within these last almost four months to raise his voice or get irritated beyond a simple grumbling match. And I wasn’t about to push it.
He took a deep breath and rubbed his hands along the tops of his thighs.
“Demir, I’m going to give you a piece of advice I wished someone had given me when I was younger.”
Looking up at him as he rose from the chair, I waited.
“Get out of Castlehedge and the Onyx Elite while you’re still young.”
“What?”
I did not just hear what he had told me. The statement was like a contradiction within itself. Coming from a prominent judge of the most feared court among the experiments, I was beyond taken aback and shellshocked. The man himself had spent a lifetime sitting at the bench I was now a part of, and he was telling me to…walk away from it? Why? As if to answer the question that was lodged in my throat, he said.
“Find Luminous, wherever she may be and get out of this place.” He went to the door, taking the knob in his hand. Without turning to me he left me with a simple statement to ease my mind into yet another downward spiral of what the fuck?
“You two deserve the type of happiness that movies are made about.”
Chapter 9 Normal, Experiment, Otherwise
Running up the tree, I backflipped off the bark before spinning mid-air and allowed the whip to fly through the air. The deafening crack of the rattlesnake leather and razor echoed around the clearing before landing on the tree across the riverbank.
“Who does he think he is?” I snapped, twirling around and struck the tree again. “Finding me after he basically fucked that girl in Nine Lives!” Another deafening crack from the whip. “Then kissing me?” I made a face at the scarred tree as if the thing were going to answer me.
“What the fuck was that?” I asked, shooting the whip toward the top of the tree. “He can’t do that!”
“Who are you talking to?” Shang’s voice came from behind me as I let the whip finish the tree.
Bark splintered in the air as limbs fell to the ground in a whispered groaning. The tree didn’t deserve my wrath, but I needed a stress relief and to work out the rambling thoughts consuming my mind.
Rolling my eyes, I relaxed my muscles for a second and closed my eyes.
“Myself.” I finally answered, jerking the whip away from the water. I wrapped the thing in a tight hoop around my arm, careful to avoid the razor wire.
“And did yourself respond?” He came to stand in front of me.
“Of course,” I shrugged and held onto the whip as I looked at him, “when I need expert advice, I go to myself.”
He snorted eyeing my weapon of choice, “care to explain how you came into possession of your whip?”
“I think you already know.”
“I do, I just wanted to see if you were going to admit it to me.”
“You’re the one who took it.”
“I was trying to protect you.”
“By taking my whip? That makes a hell of a lot of sense, Shang.”
“You didn’t need it,” he countered.
Narrowing my eyes on him for a second, I debated with myself to knock his teeth from his skull. However, seeing as how I was refusing to go back to Castlehedge now. I didn’t have much of an option but to be cordial with the PG member. That was to say if I wanted some place to stay while I figured out my next move, I needed to be able to play nice in the playpen.
Taking a deep breath, I decided on the most logical approach to getting what I wanted.
“I need something to do,” I announced starting for the house.
“As in?”
“I’m not going to continue to sit here and waste my days away with idle hands.”
He took a seat at the dining room table as Fefe came from the kitchen with two big plates of food.
“What would you like to do Lumi?” She asked, her gentle eyes lifting to mine as she sat the plates down.
“What do you do?” I asked, following her into the kitchen.
Shang was going to eat when he felt like it and I wasn’t about to try to convince him to allow me to stay. Besides, I wasn’t entirely convinced this was actually his house. There was a reason why Platinum Guard had remained underground for as long as they had. Whether it was thanks to their exclusive training and nature. Or if it were because they rarely got any orders. I hadn’t figured it out. But I knew one thing. If I were forced to stay in this house any longer without something to fill my days…or nights. I was going to become a victim of my own mind.
Maybe instead of convincing him I needed a place to stay, I could convince him I was a strong asset that would make a nice addition to his arsenal. Not that Shang needed any help with his orders or jobs or whatever they were called. He was more than capable of handling things on his own.
Turning my attention back to Fefe, I watched her situate herself in front of the day’s meal.
Fefe kneaded the dough laid out on the counter top and smiled, “I’m a nurse. Well, travelling nurse.” She corrected herself.
Well, shit I couldn’t do that. The most healing I had done was taking people out of their own pain through death. Gnawing on my lip, I leaned against the counter. Since I couldn’t help Fefe in her tasks, I had no other option but to ask Shang to let me in on his jobs. But still, something raged in my mind more important than working with Shang or abandoning Castlehedge and everyone important to me.
“Fefe.”
She looked at me with raised brows.
“Have you ever been in a serious serious relationship?”
“I have,” she nodded and turned her attention back to the dough.
“Did he ever…cheat on you? Or vice versa?”
A subtle snort and a smirk came from her, “it’s in a man’s nature to have wandering eyes. Anyone who tells you different is either ignorant to human nature or blinded by love.”
“How’d you handle it?” I perked up, turning to face her fully.
She blew out a breath and looked out the window as her hands continued its task with making the perfect biscuits.
“I gave him space, but I warned him of what would happen should he take too long to figure it out.”
“What was the warning?”
“I threatened to leave him and have our union dissolved.”
Wide eyed, I stared at her. From what I had learned about Fefe, she seemed too nice to put her foot down. If I had to categorize her she would be the type of woman that silently suffered and accepted things as they were. Never one to cause any dilemmas or ultimatums. However, seeing this new side of her, I figured out that we had more in common than I realized.
Fefe smiled at me as she grabbed a baking sheet and butter. “Naturally, being the guard member he was…” she trailed off, some of the happiness fading from her eyes. “He chose to leave the girl and come home.”
Frowning I tried to mentally piece together what she wasn’t telling me. There had to be more to the story than what was already out there. But I didn’t want to be rude and ask her for more than she was willing to give.
“The choices he made,” she shook her head and sighed, covering the baking sheet in butter she rearranged her work station. “I will admit they hurt me deeply. But he was a hell of a lover.” She smiled at me and went back to scooping some of the dough out of the bowl.
“Forgive me for asking,” I said, resting my hip on the counter with my arms crossed over my chest. “But what happened? I’m assuming he died?”
A subtle nod of her head told me what her mouth was refusing to say. “He did, not by his own conviction but from years of answering to the call of the scientists.”
Now wait one fucking minute, I thought to myself. This story was becoming something of a jigsaw puzzle. Before I could even ask what she was ta
lking about, Fefe came through with an explanation.
“He was a sect leader first and a judge second. A lover thirdly and a monster lastly.” Shadows passed over her tired face, “never in my life had I seen a man morph into something nightmares are made of. Until I looked at him. Yet,” she stopped forming the dough and stared out the window. Those gentle blue eyes of her glossing over with ghosts from the past. “In his mind as well as the others, he was neither man nor monster in his final moments. He was simply something trying to find an inner peace that refused to accept him.”
My heart—what was left of it anyway—broke for the other woman standing beside me. She didn’t seem like the type to fall into the dangerous web of political games the courts and scientists played on a daily basis. Instead, Fefe seemed like the person who would be there when all of the fighting, death and ruins were finished. She was the kind of woman who picked up the pieces and made sure everyone else was ok. And someone like that didn’t deserve the life she had been dealt.
“I died the day my Ciaran died,” she whispered more to herself.
I didn’t know what to say, didn’t know what to do. My dumbass—being nosey, had ripped open a bearable scar and sprayed the blood around the kitchen. All in the name of finding the answer to my own problems. Instead, I had just created a mental storm in the only one who had shown me any kindness in these past almost four months.
“Don’t be sad, deary,” she squeezed my hand and smiled up at me. “Death is something that is unavoidable for everyone and eventually those left standing learn to live with the painful loss.”
“But—”
She shook her head, shutting me up, “but nothing. I am fine, you mustn’t worry about things that have nothing to do with you.”
“Fefe,” I stared at my shoes, unable to find the words.
“Don’t fret over it, dear. It’s been ages since I spoke of him and like the last time, I will be fine. That’s how those lost to the infinite darkness remain alive.” She patted my hand and smiled again, forcing the dough into pristinely perfect balls. “The man who is the driving force behind this conversation,” glancing at me she raised a brow. “You love him?”