Ashes of Merciless

by Odette Michael

  Gage grudgingly pulled away and twisted the knob open. Sophia charged inside and ran right into my legs, much to Vanessa’s alarm as the woman followed her inside.

  “Sophia, get away from her this instant!”

  Sophia ignored her mother and tugged on my arm.

  “Ashie, Ashie! It’s time for your birthday party!”

  Gage let out a groan. “Ah, come on, kiddo! It was supposed to be a surprise.”

  “A party? For me?” I said, confusion in my voice. The last birthday party I’d had was so long ago I couldn’t even remember it.

  Sophia’s eyes widened, and she looked to Gage in fear.

  “Sorry, Gage. I forgot it’s a secret. Are you mad at me?”

  Gage sighed and ruffled the girl’s hair.

  “As if that were even possible,” he assured her.

  “Sophia Verina! I told you that you are not going to this party! Now march straight back to our room, young lady!” Vanessa barked.

  Immediately, Sophia’s eyes filled thickly with tears. “How come?”

  “Because I said so!”

  “Seriously?” Gage said, his voice as sharp as ice. “You’re not going to let a child go to the birthday party of someone she clearly adores?”

  “This is none of your business, boy!” Vanessa spat. “You two have tested the limits of my patience. I cannot believe you keep ignoring my wishes for my child! You even let her sleep with this piece of—ˮ

  “I would not finish that sentence if I were you,” Gage said slowly.

  Vanessa raised her chin in defiance, but her eyes were wary as she looked at Gage’s deadly gaze.

  Feeling very out of place, I spoke quietly. “It was not our intention to insult you, Mrs. Verina. Sophia was very distraught that night. I’m sorry to say this, but she made it clear she didn’t want to be in your presence that evening.”

  Vanessa was visibly seething in anger as Sophia buried her face in my side. I stroked the girl’s hair absently, and Vanessa smacked my hand away and yanked her daughter to her.

  Sophia whimpered and balled her hands into little fists. “You’re so mean now, Mama!” she choked in frustration.

  Gage growled and left the room, clearly disgusted. As the woman glared after him, I sighed.

  “I do not expect forgiveness from you or Shane. I don’t expect it from Sophia when she is old enough to understand either. But I do care for your daughter, no matter what you think. Everything happened so quickly, and I didn’t know Shane wasn’t in league with those who were arranging for innocent people to be killed. I did what I had to do to protect my mother.”

  “And we all know how well that turned out!” Vanessa said.

  I tried to ignore the twisting of my heart brought on by her words.

  “Yes . . . I failed. No one knows that more than me. I do not intend to fail again, but perhaps some good came of this. Sophia will never have to be a part of what your husband was forced to be a part of. No one should have to go through what we suffered.”

  I left the room and made my way down the hallway. I paused, smelling coconut. My mother had always smelled of coconut before she’d been tainted by the poison of alcohol.

  The smell clouded my thoughts. The scent, combined with Vanessa’s hateful words, made me lean heavily against the wall. A fleeting vision of a woman with blonde hair and laughing eyes filled my head.

  Then the picture changed. The woman’s eyes glassed over and took on a yellowish tint. A burst of red shot from her chest and stained my shirt.

  I slid to the floor and put my face between my hands. A sharp pain ballooned inside my head. Sometimes I saw my father walking out the door, and no matter how long I waited, he never returned. Sometimes I saw Noodles running away from me, but no matter how fast I chased him, I could never catch him. And sometimes I saw Ariel, but no matter how hard I fought the chains, the gunshot still clawed at my ears.

  Ever since my concussion, dizziness came easily, and my thoughts were often incoherent piles of mush. Ever since that never-ending relapse, no amount of air was enough, and my heart seemed unequipped to the demands of my body.

  I worried I wouldn’t be strong enough to kill the ones who deserved it. . . . But I knew I would see the job done no matter what. Even if I had to crawl to where they resided. Even if it meant an earlier death for me.

  Justice would be mine.

  “You’re starting to sound like me.” The voice was watered down and had an eerie echo to it.

  I snickered without humor. “Was I ever really any different from you, Ash? My mind created you. I can only assume that means I am truly a monster.”

  “Will you miss me when I’m gone?” she asked hesitantly.

  “I don’t know,” I confessed. “I feel like I am destroying a part of myself.”

  “Ashley, dear?”

  I looked up to see Viola crouched beside me, her eyes full of concern.

  I rubbed my face and tried my best to smile at her. “Hi. Um . . . I got dizzy. Sorry.”

  She reached across to me and pulled me up by my shoulders.

  “Do I need to get Gage? Is a relapse coming on?”

  Embarrassed, I shook my head almost violently. Viola opened her mouth to speak, but Sophia shot out of my room and collided into me once again.

  “Mama said I can come to the party!” exclaimed the happy little girl. Sophia’s cheeks were roses, and she shook with excitement.

  Viola and I looked up to see Vanessa coming toward us. She looked at me icily. She went to the door in front of us, closing it hard enough that a picture on the wall behind me fell to the floor, cracking the glass.

  Viola glared at the closed door and bent to retrieve the picture. It was of Colbert and Gage at Christmas in front of a brightly lit tree. Gage’s face was now distorted, the glass obscuring his face like a spiderweb.

  “Hateful woman,” Viola muttered. “Go to the kitchen, you two. Everything’s ready.”

  “Come on, come on!” Sophia said as she dragged me down the hallway.

  I stumbled after her, and my cheeks flushed when I entered the kitchen. Colorful balloons dotted the ceiling under crisscrossed streamers. Silver star confetti was sprinkled on the floor and counters. Colbert, the Evaluator, and Gage stood by the table, and on the table was a coconut birthday cake with red candles.

  “Happy Birthday!” they all said at once, and then they began to sing.

  My blush deepened as I looked around while they finished the song. I put my head down as Gage came to me and put his arms around me.

  Sophia ran to the cake. She slid her finger through the frosting before sticking it in her mouth.

  “Mmm!” she exclaimed, sticking her finger in for another go.

  “Sophia,” Colbert warned.

  “It’s all right. Let her have fun,” I said. “Thank you everyone.”

  I was extremely touched by the celebration. It was one of the kindest things that had ever happened to me, and I scanned the room greedily to lock the memory up. I wanted to relive this moment in perfect clarity whenever I desired.

  Gently, Gage nudged me forward. “Make a wish,” he murmured into my ear as I stood before the cake.

  I knew what I wanted. I wanted more time.

  As I bent down to blow the candles out, the front door burst open.

  “We’ve got him!” Lacey yelled. Following her was Shane; he was struggling to hold the weight of an unconscious boy.

  Everything happened quickly after that. Vanessa appeared seemingly out of thin air and hauled a protesting Sophia away in her arms. Lacey and Shane dragged the boy to the couch as Gage’s parents and the Evaluator ran to help.

  Only Gage remained by my side. He stared at me wordlessly as I watched the burning crimson candles. The wax made trails across the frosting and pooled onto the table. As I turned away to go to the living room, a sick feeling spread throughout my body. Glancing back, I realized why.

  The candle wax looked like blood.

  Chapter 14 Ene
my Of My Enemy

  “Why is he knocked out?” I asked as we stood in a circle around the boy, the party forgotten.

  “He is incredibly stubborn. He couldn’t be convinced that we weren’t taking him to meet his untimely death,” Lacey said. She pulled an empty glass vial out of her pocket and waved it in front of my face. “Look familiar, Ashley?”

  Being very careful to avoid Shane’s gaze, I gave her a dark look. “Where did you find him?”

  “In California. Hence why it took us so long,” Lacey said.

  “How did you find him?” Gage asked, clearly impressed.

  Shane pulled his untraceable cell phone out of his pocket. “This is more than just a phone. I can stand next to any electronic device, a computer or phone for example, and it will transmit every piece of data from that device into this. It’s very helpful for hotel and car rental registrations.”

  “It turns out the kid did have another identity, but only one,” Lacey said. “Daen Thickowl, an anagram of his real name, Aden Whitlock. I’ll have to remember to thank the Master for being dumb enough to do that, or we may never have found his trail. And we weren’t the only ones looking for him. We saw Carol and Cain in Illinois. They didn’t see us, but only luck got us to him first.”

  “If he’s so important, I wonder why the other Observers didn’t find him before you did,” Viola mused quietly.

  “Hey, you think this was easy? The boy covered his tracks like a magician. Shane just happens to be better than them. And of course, they didn’t have this sexy Sealer along to help,” Lacey said, winking.

  A small smile colored my lips. Lacey seemed to be getting her old spark back, but her eyes still looked a little glazed, and I noticed she still wouldn’t quite look me in the eye.

  “Why didn’t you tell us you were coming or that you found him? You stopped calling us,” Colbert said, sounding a little agitated.

  “We didn’t want to get anybody’s hopes up—too many things could have gone wrong,” Shane mumbled.

  “What is it? What is wrong?” the Evaluator asked suddenly.

  We all turned to him, confused.

  Lacey began biting her fingernails. “Nothing is wrong. I mean, not anymore. Kristy saw us in Colorado. There was a car chase, a couple of gunshots, a pleasant chat over coffee. Anyway, Kristy’s dead. I shot her,” Lacey declared as she turned away from us. She spat a fingernail onto the floor.

  “Were you two hurt?” I asked, my voice shooting up an octave.

  “We’re fine, Ashley,” Shane reassured me. “Just a scare, that’s all.”

  Viola, Gage, and I all exchanged glances before we looked at Lacey’s back. We all saw that she was trying to be strong and brave.

  But we knew. We knew how hard it was to kill even if the people who died deserved it.

  I’d killed a woman who’d gotten away with drowning her newborn baby because of postpartum depression. I’d killed a man who’d slowly murdered his entire family by feeding them arsenic, and he’d thought he’d hidden well from the law until Merciless found him.

  Those people had committed unspeakable acts, and there had always been evidence of their crimes. But even though those people had deserved death, had it been my right to kill them? Who was I really to decide the fate of anyone? As much as I hated to think about it, even the Master and Scott could be applied in the same way.

  But then again, who was I to let any of them live if it was in my power to stop them?

  It had always torn at me, and now Lacey had tasted those same waters.

  “We have to stop the Master as soon as we can,” I said. “So far he’s only corrupted a few, but what happens when he spreads his insanity to everyone else? Could they even refuse if he threatens their families? And now Merciless knows that we haven’t simply disappeared, but that we are going to fight back. Evaluator, wake him up, please,” I urged.

  The Evaluator nodded and left the room. He returned with a vial, giving it to Shane. Shane uncorked it and pulled Aden’s mouth open, dunking the contents inside. He rubbed his throat to make Aden swallow, and the boy’s eyes flew open.

  Aden looked around widely in surprise before jumping up. Shane and Gage grabbed him and forced him back down. They struggled with the wriggling boy as Lacey put something cold into my hand.

  “It was the only weapon on him,” she told me.

  I ran a finger along the icy metal of the handgun and cocked it. At the sound, Aden stopped resisting and looked at me in fear.

  “Do you remember me, Aden Whitlock?” I threatened softly.

  Aden’s blue eyes flashed, his mouth turning into a sneer. “Another one of my father’s lackeys? I assumed you weren’t the same as my father, what with helping me and all. I see now I was wrong. Is there anywhere you people are not?”

  “You should have gone to another country if you didn’t want to be found so easily,” Lacey said.

  Aden snorted. “You really think that’s possible? You’re as dumb as you look if that’s the case.”

  “Your father is after you. Do you know why?” Gage asked.

  The blue eyes sparked again. “Of course I know why! And I’m sure you know why as well, so just kill me already! I’m not going to do it!”

  I crouched down to his level. “Do what, Aden?”

  “We are not your enemies, son. We brought you here because we need your help,” Viola coaxed.

  “Funny way of showing it!” Aden shouted, his gaze burning me. “I knew immediately that you were part of Merciless.” He pointed to the slash scar on the underside of my wrist, and he held up his own arm to show his. “Although your obvious skills spoke enough without seeing the scar. I thought you could help me; I thought you were different. I thought maybe you even knew that the Master was insane with power, but I still didn’t trust you enough to ask, as the Observers are heavily concentrated in Georgia.”

  “Merciless has become corrupt,” the Evaluator said.

  “You’re just now figuring that out?” Aden said savagely.

  “Maybe we should start over,” Colbert intervened. “I’m Colbert, and this is my wife, Viola. She is a retired Assassin. This is our son, Gage, and you know Ashley. They were also Assassins. That’s former Observer Shane, and former Sealer Lacey. That man over there was the Evaluator.”

  Aden’s eyes never left me and the gun I held. “Yes . . . You’re the Garreth girl. I remember the information on some of you. Don’t look at me like that—it was part of my training, although now I kinda wished I’d paid more attention.”

  I waved a hand impatiently. “Look, to cut things short, we figured out about the innocent murders. The Master killed my family. . . . He even succeeded in killing me, and we have to stop him,” I said.

  “You don’t look dead to me,” Aden muttered.

  Gage looked like he was going to punch him. I kept one hand on the gun and put my other hand on Gage’s arm to pacify him. Gage trembled under my touch, his face reddening.

  “We need to know where the Master lives,” I said, lowering the gun.

  “Start off by telling us why the Master wants you dead, Aden,” Shane pressed.

  “I don’t trust you. Any of you!” Aden said.

  “If we wanted to kill you, we’d have done it back in California,” Lacey said. “Just tell us what you know.”

  “Gonna regret this,” Aden muttered. He never took his eyes off of the lowered gun. “Ok, so I’ve known I was going to be the leader of Merciless all my life, but when my initiation came, I knew something was up when my father didn’t want me at Headquarters very often. I finally figured out the reason for that—it would be easier to get rid of me if I refused to follow in my in father’s footsteps. No one would inquire too deeply about my absence. Father knew it would be a challenge to corrupt Merciless. He knew he was outnumbered, so he chose carefully, only a few, to play his game. But it all started when he killed my grandfather.”

  Gasps of surprise filled the room.

  The Evaluator stepped forw
ard. “We were told that the former Master died of a heart attack.”

  Aden raised an eyebrow. “Believed that, did you? Cyanide pills work wonders, don’t they? There was a reason why my grandfather’s body was never seen by anyone after he died. Everyone just took my father’s word for it, and that was the first mistake. Father killed him because he couldn’t wait any longer. He wanted power, and he wanted it as soon as possible. He used to brag about killing him to me.

  "He said it took longer than he would have liked to figure out who he could trust, but once he found them, nothing could stop him. Anyway, he fed me this crap all these years about how the innocent blood money kept Merciless alive and that because of it, Merciless gained the best equipment. It also meant more money for our members so they could live in luxury on their time off. Don’t tell me you all live in trailers—I won’t buy it, and from what I can see of this place, there was truth to his words. Plus, he said the extra money provided more government officials on Merciless’s payroll, which made it easier on everyone, especially the Observers.

  “All this time, I let him think I was in on it, that I would carry his sick dream after him. What choice did I have? I was a prisoner in that house. I couldn’t leave; he made sure of that. And I wouldn’t have left anyway because he kept my mother locked up with me as well. He . . . he tortured her. He would . . . I tried to stop him, but he’d knock me out with drugs. My mother . . . ,” Aden trailed off, tears shining in his eyes.

  “I’m sorry, Aden,” I whispered.

  “I want him dead! I want his blood. . . . I want to see it on my own hands! The time came closer for me to take his place, and I couldn’t take it anymore. I told him I was going to set things right, that I was going to kill him and his followers if I had to. He shot me with a tranquilizer and . . .”

  Aden put his head in his hands. “I woke up and my mother was dead. Right there in front of me. Her throat was slit. On her body was a bloody note saying he didn’t mind killing her. It said it was a long time coming, but he couldn’t bring himself to kill his only son! The note said he wasn’t that cruel!”

  Aden began to cry big, racking sobs that left him breathless. My own eyes watered in response.