“ Briar you push even my boundaries from time to time. Unless you wish to be locked in Hell until you can keep certain… things to yourself I suggest you learn a little tact.” Like hitting fast forward on a VCR time raced to the present and Fangs coughed at her admission. Bri give him credit though; he didn’t seem scared in the least bit.
“Christ Princess you have brass balls I’ll give you that.” He said with an uncomfortable chuckle while shaking his head in disbelief.
“Is this true Manna?” Her father demanded, not asked, insulting him by calling him by his human last name.
Fangs smiled. “If I answer that question I will show her the same respect she showed me only moments before.” He threatened Ezek! He was clearly insane. “And yes we were fucking, sadly though no longer.” He looked at her dad knowingly, testing his limits. This was proof of why Vampires held all the power in the underworld. This Vampire was calling out the daughter of the Arch Demon, and he was smiling! “She may have left me, yes, but I'm the one who severed the connection between us. By accepting this job, I assure you she is nothing more to me than a paycheck.”
The verbal slap hurt but she knew she deserved it. Her father though seemed beyond bothered by Fangs colorful description of their relation both post and future.
“If that is how you feel then I will find a better candidate that will protect her life, someone who will find value in it as opposed to the money I offer.” Ezeks tone didn’t hide the fact that Bri was more than a job to be paid off to him and Fangs just became expendable to him.
God I love my dad.
“No you misunderstood. It doesn’t matter if you pay me or not, I still won’t watch her skip off unable to protect herself as she dances into her own slaughter.” He pushed himself from the edge of the counter and extended his hand to her father again. “Pay me or not, I really don’t give a shit but I will still be going with her whether she agrees or not.”
Bri’s father looked at Fangs for a long time as if trying to figure him out when he finally spoke. “You surprise me Vampire. I could kill you easily for the way you speak of my daughter, but I am able to see inside that thick skull of yours and I can see that you have no idea who or what my daughter is and I find it… sad, for lack of a better term.” He had a look of sadness to him though his voice and stature said he was what he demanded to be seen as. He was the Arch demon and he demanded respect.
Fangs laughed loudly at her father’s comment. “I would give you a shot at that threat, but I warn you to not make it if you can’t back it up.”
Ezek tensed slightly and then…smiled before nodding at Fangs and continuing as if Fangs hadn’t just challenged his threat.
“It saddens me that she didn’t trust you enough to know the path her life has taken her on. Saddens me even more to know I failed her. I think perhaps if you allow her to explain who and what she is, as opposed to what you think, you may understand her better than you think you do. She is not weak, she has unimaginable power inside of her, power she has refused to use for anything other than hiding the scars she bares and hates. Scars I believe signify her strength, let alone far more beautiful with them than the farce she is behind her mask.” He looked at Bri. “A mask she relentlessly polishes and shines.”
The three of them stood motionless and silent after Ezeks ramble, not sure what to say. How do you follow that… really?
“If you intend to follow her regardless then I see no problem in paying you for your time.”
Bri chose that moment to pipe in. “Dad, if he goes”- She began but with a violent shake of his hand he shut her up.
“Silence!” He roared and Bri shut up because she just wasn’t that stupid. “Enough Briar, I have had enough of this debate, my word is law and I say he goes.” He turned to Bri, looking elegant and debonair in his black pinstripe suit and blood red tie. “I will not tolerate your defiance on this, you are still owned by hell and not even I can free you of that debt. If you continue to fear Filicus than I suggest you take Kuyper Manna’s help and learn to fight back. It is up to you, it is the only choice you have in this matter. You are either a fighter or a victim and I hope you chose wisely, it may very well be what saves you.”
“Who is Filicus?” Fangs asked and at the sound of his name Bri cringed hating herself for a reaction she couldn’t control.
She said nothing but didn’t need to. Her father had no problem airing all of her dirty laundry. “He is a Dragnarr demon, half Incubus and half fire breather. He is the Prince that she married in the Fairy Tale version of Sleeping Beauty. He is also responsible for the scars you see.” He looked at Briar and she knew that he was trying to help, to say what she couldn’t but in that moment she hated Ezek for it. “She jumped to her death five days from the day they married, his torture too much for her to bare. When she died her soul came to me where she learned she was half demon.”
Bri watched as Fangs tried to process even more information her father willingly spoke about using absolutely no filter or thought to how she would feel as he poured salt in her wounds. “And Bri is what kind of demon?” Fangs asked Ezek not once looking at Bri this whole time.
Ezek extended his arms towards her. “Ask her.”
She kept her gaze down, not out of shame but out of complete anger at how ruthless her father could be when he demands she see things his way or else... It had been a long time since she had given into shame over past and he would not subject her to it now.
Bri looked at Fangs, not an ounce of shame or fear creasing her scarred face, and squared her shoulders. “I am a Vengeance demon. It’s how I can see spirits who want vengeance before they move on. My father gave me the choice after I took my own life by jumping from the tower where Fil kept me.”
She remembered the day as clear as glass. She had just come back from one of the many sales he had placed on her. A Vampire had bought her from Fil and beat her once he learned she was no longer a virgin. That vampire had marred the perfect skin on her cheek in such a sadistic way she came back to her tower and fought Fil and her restraints. Fought the way a dying woman would and he hit her, his knife sharp nails catching her skin as she fell to the floor. The second he closed the door and locked it, Bri stood and without a seconds thought she leapt to her death, refusing to spend another day locked in a life that would surely kill her much slower.
“I thought you hated heights?” Fangs asked his shoulders tense but his voice calm, though still boiling mad.
Bri glared at him and nodded. “Then let that be your answer on just how bad it truly was for me.” She wasn’t going to be bullied into telling the most difficult, graphic nightmare she had endured. Some secrets were meant to never be shared.
Fangs seemed to process this as her father looked at her. “I know what you wish but I cannot willingly place you in jeopardy. If you chose to go at this alone I promise daughter you will regret that decision.” His tone left no room for negotiation.
He strode towards the door having said what he felt needed to be said regardless of the gaping hole he had created between she and Fangs now. “I plan on seeing you both tomorrow at my downtown office at sunset. If you chose to protect her,” Ezek said turning his gaze to Fangs. “Then I will be in your debt regardless of the money I pay you.”
Fangs nodded but didn’t say yes or no on if he would be there or not and Ezek looked to Bri. “Angry as you are Briar I don’t care. You are more important to me than any war I face as the outcome. I will gladly tuck myself in my grave to see you safe. Remember that when you curse me later. As for the Vampire, he is more capable of protecting you than any being I could provide. He is our best chance at success and any fears you have may be warranted by the fear you have of Fil, but I assure you… Kuyper will be able to keep you safer than I can.” He said and bent to kiss her cheek when she stepped back. The look he gave was pained but she was too angry to care at the moment.
“So be it.” He said and disappeared out the front door, leaving Bri alone to face Fangs and
a wrath more terrifying than her fathers. *
“I must say Princess you screwed me in grand style this time.” Fangs snarled and walked from her kitchen into her living room flipping the switch on the fire place as the flames came to life in robust nature. “I should bow at your feet knowing I defiled royalty with my touch.”
Bri hated this, hated how fast she had gone from being his world to be nothing in the span of… possibly minutes, possibly it happened over the last month. The distance between them now was a void that would never be mended. “Fangs I-“
“Save it.” He hissed and turned from the fire, his black eyes all aglow with the ruthless killer he was. “I have been made a fool of, a laughing stock as the fool who chose to give you everything with nothing... nothing in return!” He roared the last part.
“I never lied to you, I gave you all of me and I did it because I trusted you and respected you enough thinking you deserved it from me. And here you stand fearing that I, a Sire, would be defeated by a band of demons!” He walked the short distance between them in two long strides till he stood inches from her face.
“You treat me as if I was human, that I am so feeble that my light could be snuffed so easily. How quickly you forget that I am a killer by nature and fucking trade! I could kill you with nothing more than a flick of my wrist if I had half a mind to do so… Kill you Briar, a demon.”
He stood unmoving before her as she took deep gulps of air, terrified that any chance she could have possibly had at making him see her, feel her again had been tarnished, destroyed by lies.
“I won’t lie to you Fangs…” Her voice only audible because he was a Vampire and could hear just about anything.
“How noble of you.” He spat turning from her as if the sight of her made him ill. “Do not do me any favors by implying I care what you have to say. It means nothing!” He roared again. “You mean nothing.”
“D-don’t say that Fangs. I love you.” She cried. “You have to know I love you that I always have.” She no longer cared if he saw her tears as a joke. Bri could not lose him. She would not be able to handle watching him walk away from her now. She had to fix this, had to repair what she knowingly destroyed.
“I don’t think you have an inkling of what love is Princess. If you had, love would have pried that mouth of yours open for more than just my cock!” She cringed at his words but he wasn’t bothered in the slightest. “Had all you wanted was to fuck me a simple request would have been fine.”
Bri flinched at his words and he laughed.
“Look at you, so exposed and crying openly, all your secrets lay bared to me and still you refuse to trust me enough to keep you safe, to be able to keep you safe.” He stroked his hands through his hair in the manner she had grown to love despite knowing it meant he was clawing at himself deep inside.
“I never sold you out, I always stood beside you when you fought because I respected your need for justice, never knowing that vengeance drove you deeper than I had imagined, never knowing that you were a demon! I stood back knowing you were in danger and found you irresistible because of the fight inside of you… loved you endlessly for it!”
Her heart stopped before it broke at his words; desperately she wanted to ask him if he still loved her, if he could. But Bri kept quiet knowing he wasn’t done and she was completely responsible for the crack between them.
“You hold me as if I am dirt beneath your boot that you would lie to me.” He stated as a fact, thrumming his fingers over his chest as he spoke from his unbeating heart. “That you would see my face, the truth for what I felt for you. Knowing it was all for you while I was inside of you. That it was your name on my lips as I came inside you!” He roared and slammed his fist against the mantle behind him.
“I know Fangs.” Bri cried tears endlessly falling from her eyes. “I want that again for you to have me and see me.”
“Your scars are nothing more than an excuse to hold yourself at a distance Bri. They are nothing more than marks on your skin. You and I had well more than that filthy lie between us!” He snarled and moved to the door.
She rushed after him desperate for him to do anything but walk out her door. “Please Fangs don’t go, we can get passed this. If I know anything it’s that this can’t break us.” Tears fell as she choked on them continuing to plea for forgiveness. “My scars were hidden because of pride and nothing else. I trusted you Fangs always. But I couldn’t bare you getting killed for me. My pride was all I had Fangs, nothing else.” She wanted to fall at his feet and beg but again with the pride, Bri couldn’t let it go and do whatever it took to save them.
He cupped her cheek then, his touch so soft and she knew even then he could strike her, break her neck for the loss of pride he had. “That’s not true Bri, and that in is the problem. Had you trusted me to see you as you said, you would have seen that you had me.” He dropped his hand and walked out her door.
He was right, everything he said was taken out of context but in the end he was right. Now she had lost everything. *
Chapter Eight
The following night Bri went to her father’s office in downtown Seattle, to see what he had on the demons that had purchased the fakes in hopes of finding the original. Her freedom was so close that she could actually taste the salt from the bitterness her excitement held. She wanted freedom, no doubt about it but at the cost that she was paying, as was Fangs, Bri wondered if in the end it all will have been worth it.
She could still feel the leather straps that Fil had used to bind her. Could feel each and every invasion her female body received at the hands of the highest bidder. After all these years those memories were as strong as if the wounds were still fresh and they would remain there, always fresh no matter how free she was. Torture is something that you crawl away from, knowing and remembering for all the rest of your years.
If she lost and was forced back to Fil for another five hundred years, and she would be forced even with Ezeks assistance. Hell had never viewed a woman as worthy and as much, over the years, demon females came forth demanding respect, their demands fell on deaf ears. Her father was not evil as he was old and set in his ways. At the end of the argument, he would not choose a female demon, regardless of how strong she was, over a male demon who he used as soldiers. Bri would be sent back because demon law said she was Fil’s property.
Bri had the choice of going to her Father and asking him to buy her contract, but at the price and demands Fil would make Bri would be damned to have her father suffer for her freedom. No, in the end if she lost the she would go back without a fight.
She didn’t know if Fangs would be there when she got there. After he left last night Bri had a feeling that she would never see him again. She didn’t know if it was because he severed the connection between them or if, in fact, he left. She hoped with all her might it was the former not the later.
Bri dressed for battle not knowing if her father would be sending her off tonight and made sure to pack a bag and weapons. Weapons were easy to sneak on planes, she would use a little glamour to sneak them on, and ensuring they were only visible to her, in the case another insane human planned on hijacking a plane she was on. Her powers alone would ensure that never happen.
She wore her usual faded Sevens jeans, cut low and snug beneath her hips and one of the many plain white tank tops. Her holsters were packed in her bags but she hid her pirates’ blade in the back of her jeans, hidden by the leather jacket she wore; her gun tucked into her bra like always. In five inch Minollo stiletto’s she was set to go.
Ash and the girls were waiting for her in the lobby of his building. In the human realm Ezek was an attorney, defense of course and he owned the firm that employed only demons.
All three of them were dressed for a fight and Bri was glad knowing they were watching her back. She hadn’t told anyone what happened between she and Fangs last night, just couldn’t talk about it yet, so she sent a mental note to Ash asking her to handle it before they met at the office.
As Bri walked up and met their smiles she knew Ash explained everything, including her wish to be left alone and move on. True to their soul they didn’t say a word or handle Bri with kitten gloves.
A broken heart only meant she would be an even better fighter. “You guys pack for a long trip?” She asked with a smile as they entered the elevator. She wondered who her father would have going with them but couldn’t pick up on any energy because he had power blockers in every office. Some very colorful characters graced his doorstep.
“Packed and anxious.” Belle and Winter both said and Ash nodded.
This was it, this was the end of the line. When Bri came back it would be to kill Fil and gain her freedom, or say goodbye and suffer herself to a horrific future.
It was time to pay the devil his due.
*
Bri’s stomach dropped as she walked in her father’s office and found Ezek and Fangs, sitting by the bar sipping his Johnny Walker Red label and laughing. The sight of Fangs stole her heart and told her that he had made his decision.
Awakened (A Fairy Tales Novel) Page 8