by S King
“Miss. River, how do you explain the accusations against you, given your most recent statement to the courts?”
“I did not kill anyone from Gold Guard, Sir.” For the last fucking time I had wanted to say but clamped my mouth shut on the snarky quip.
“What have you done, rather, to become the target of such a heinous accusation?”
“I don’t know, sir.”
“Then,” he cleared his throat again and tilted his head toward me. “Please explain to the court how you plan to correct this so-called mistake.”
“Isn’t that your job?” As soon as the question was out, I instantly hated my grandmother for giving me such a quick reactor to bullshit and stupidity.
None of the judges said anything and there was no longer a sense of respect floating in the air. Trying to correct myself would make me look weak and shifting would be an admission I wasn’t prepared to make. Just shut the hell up Luminous if you know what’s good for you, my mind reprimanded.
Finally, grandpa snow sat back in his seat and crossed his withered arms over his robe covered chest.
“Miss. River, you have demonstrated why you are in the position you are in. Therefore,” he leaned forward and looked at me over his glasses. “The courts will give you a chance to clear the accusations that have been placed around your name. As for your guard’s tasks and obligations,” he considered me for a moment.
“The courts will allow squadron eight to demonstrate the capabilities you have mentioned on this afternoon. You as well as your squadron will be expected to carry out the tasks given to you within a timely fashion. Should either you or your squadron fail to fulfill these duties.” He raised a warning brow at me, “your entire sect will answer for the failures, do you accept these terms.”
I’d be an idiot to refuse, but was I putting too much faith in Lovett, Karina and the others by agreeing? Members of Onyx Elite weren’t feared because of their colors and hidden courtrooms.
There was a reason why anyone who didn’t return from a meeting with the judges were never spoken of again. The risks were too high, and I was beginning to think my mouth had written a check my ass couldn’t cash. Nonetheless, none of that stopped me from kicking my chin up—once again—and leveling my gaze on grandpa snow before saying.
“I accept the terms set forth.”
Something of a satisfied and challenging smirk covered his lips while a feral look ignited his eyes, as well as his fellow judge’s faces as he nodded to the door.
“You may leave now Miss. River.”
I bowed in respect before calmly walking out of the courtroom and into the stone tunnel.
§§§§§
Twenty minutes later I was, yet again, stepping over the threshold into Silver Guard’s office. Should it have taken me so long to come back from my meeting with the judges? No. Did I stop and nearly throw up my breakfast? Yes, yes, I did.
After I had agreed to the stipulations and signed my name on the court’s lengthy contract to extend my sects duties, I felt like running to the furthest corner of the world. Of course, when I had turned to leave the young judge looked at me and wanted to circle back to the topic of what I had supposedly done to the GG officials.
When she explained in detail how the officials died, I cringed at the brutality and the pain the men had suffered before their deaths. Ok, sure, I’ll admit, I was brutal to a fault but even on my worst days I couldn’t have done what the accusations accused me of doing.
Granted, if I had done those things, my whip would’ve had three extra links of razor wire along with three more braids attached to the end. On the plus side, I did have the whip braider’s log to support my stance. After all, he kept better track of me than a bloodhound and my superiors combined. Even with that small, minuscule point on my side, I knew his word would mean jack shit when it came to the determination running through Onyx Elite’s veins.
“Lumi,” Karina bolted from her chair and bum rushed me as I stepped under the welcoming light of my office. “You ok? Where are you hurt? What happened? What’d they say about the Diamond Order?”
I raised a brow and waited for her to be done with the hundred and one questions.
“Oh damn, it’s bad isn’t it? I knew it, I fucking knew it. Those assholes, where’s my spike?”
“Rina,” Lovett kicked off the wall and crossed the floor in the only way he could and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Can you give her a chance to get a word in before you start threatening a mass execution of the judges?”
“I’m not threatening anything, Lovett, they want to make an example out of my sister and I’m not having that!” Karina went back over to her desk and started searching for something.
Rolling his eyes, Lovett looked at me, “what happened?”
I smirked at him and grabbed my things from the locker, “do you want the short version or the long version?”
“Long, I can’t find my spike,” Karina shot across the room as she continued ripping her desk apart for her precious spike.
In truth, I couldn’t blame her for the frantic search. If I lost my whip, I’d lose my shit.
Her spike was more than your average spiked steel pipe. No, her weapon of choice had been handcrafted by her first true love who had passed away after he finished the thing.
A retractable skull chain on one end and a sharpened spike on the other; the sharper end had always worried me, but the skull was what had scared people beyond the point of no return. Probably because of the skulls snapping motion when it was in flight.
Karina would set her sight on a target and spin the pipe one time before the skull shot out on its spiked beveled chain and instinctively found the most secure anchor on the target, usually a neck or thigh, and would automatically retract to a respectable length. In turn, the only thing Karina had to do was pull the body along to their final resting point. All in all, the weapon was a work of art and I had to give it to Denny for his craftsmanship.
I smirked at her before falling into the seat of my chair and launched into the long version of what had happened in the courtroom and spared no details. When I was done, I waited for the questions to start flying rampantly. Instead, however, I was greeted with a shocking amount of silence on both sides.
Neither Lovett or Karina said anything, they simply stared at me with disbelief and awe.
“You questioned judge Holt’s authority?” The three of us turned around to look at Rocks standing in the doorway of his office.
I shrugged, “more or less. He caught me off guard. What was I supposed to do? Back down? I don’t think so.”
“So, instead of keeping your mouth shut and listening to the court’s ruling, you got the wild hair up your ass to put your squadron in a more dangerous situation. Is that it?”
“We’re more than capable of handling the same red orders as GG and if you consider that dangerous, so be it. But the short answer to your question? Yes, yes I did.”
“Have you lost your mind?” Joyner stormed into the office, brushing Rocks out of the way and came to stand in front of me. “I don’t know who hit you in the head to cause you to be the way you are. But let me tell you something, River, you better take this chance and do right by it. Do I make myself clear?”
“Like the mud on your boots,” I fired back.
“Enough,” Greenaway grabbed Joyner by the collar of his jacket and pulled him back beside Rocks. “You three have your first two red orders.”
“Two?” Karina balked and stared at the older man. “What do you mean two?”
“As in one,” Joyner raised a finger, “two,” up popped another finger to drive the point home.
Karina and I rolled our eyes while Lovett took the official red orders from Greenaway.
“Get them done,” Rooks warned pointing to the three of us.
“Yes sir,” Lovett promptly answered before handing me the red orders to review.
“Hey Rina!” I leaned out of the way as my best friend’s weapon came flying thr
ough the air.
“Thanks pop!” Finally, my sister had a genuine smile covering her face as she examined her spiked, skull arsenal.
“What was that about?” Somewhere in between the madness Lovett had grabbed one of his granny Smith’s apple and was peeling the skin contentedly as he sat on an empty desk.
Karina held up the weapon. “Software update. Den had left detailed instructions to pop or whoever,” she shrugged, “for you know, just in case.”
She didn’t finish her explanation and I was praying Lovett would allow the pieces to fall in place on their own without pushing the firecracker of our sect into a rampage.
Thankfully, he simply nodded and mumbled a, “that makes sense.” Before falling silent and devoting his attention to his apple.
While there was a moments silence in the office, I stared at the red order of our first target.
Helen Dash, a thirty-two-year-old mother of five, retired producer. Charged with killing her husband and two of her kids; found not guilty due to lack of evidence beyond a reasonable doubt. Of course, she was released and thanks to the double jeopardy laws in place, she wasn’t going to be retried again.
Naturally, the remainder of the five kids were sent to live with the father’s parents while mommy dearest got to live her best life in a completely different state. Why she chose Castlehedge of all the locations in the world she would’ve been safe and unknown, I had yet to figure out and didn’t care.
Along with the red order, pictures were provided to show, specifically, who we were looking for.
“Lovett, do you want to deal with this one?” I handed him the red order and opened the other.
“At least there’s no restrictions on how they die.” A sinister smile, the kind of display that would win a fear factor contest on Halloween, covered his face as he continued to read.
“I want to do something fun,” Karina had stopped looking at her spike and was leaning over Lovett’s shoulder.
“Oh, you’re going to have a blast tonight.” I handed her the other red order after looking at the clock. My two best friends had woken me up early and I would only be able to get a few hours of sleep if I left right now and went straight back to my apartment.
“Ooh,” Karina wagged her brows at me and smiled, “do you think C4 will do the trick?”
“I do,” I agreed, grabbing my jacket and sunglasses. “Let’s meet up at the riverbank, by nightfall, ok?”
“You got it,” she waved me off as I left the office and stepped out into the late afternoon sun.
I didn’t know why I thought I was going to get any sleep. I never did and on the few occasions I was able to fall asleep I experienced one of my episodes.
Sleep paralysis had never been kind to anyone and didn’t have mercy on whoever had the debilitating disorder. Unfortunately, I wasn’t an exception.
Opening my eyes, I knew I was in for it. Staring at the ceiling, I tried to control my breathing to bring my body back online. Sometimes it worked, other times not so much.
After a nightmare it seemed like the paralysis got worse. Granted, I wasn’t surprised but for once I wanted to at least have a peaceful night that didn’t involve reliving some of my worst nights through my subconscious.
No matter how hard I tried to stop thinking about the events they came in vivid waves and when I woke up, I still didn’t get any relief.
Of course, as I continued to focus on my breathing my mind started replaying the nightmare again.
“I hate the fact you think I’ll always be there to save you.”
“Why? Isn’t that your job?” I asked Demir as we squared off for yet another battle of stupid fighting.
He remained silent. I guess he found no purpose in explaining his cryptic statement and to push him would be mental.
“Why?” I pressed. For once in this god-awful game of ours I wanted a straight answer from the Gold Guard sect leader.
Instead of shooting straight from the hip—as he normally did—he unsheathed his gleaming sword and twirled it in his hand.
“Are we go to continue standing here talking or are we going to get on with it?”
Deflecting might have been his way of keeping my mind from his words. But whether he wanted to admit it or not, I was going to demand his explanation after I had him laid out in front of me.
Unfurling my whip, I tilted my head in his direction, “hit me with your best shot.”
He snorted, granting me a slightly pleasurable view of his smile, “ladies first.”
I bared my teeth and stepped forward, but he was expecting it. He spun around, swinging the sword toward my throat—
I bolted upright, finally free from the clutches of my disorder. Grabbing at my chest I stared at the wall in front of me. It was nothing but a dream. No more, no less. Just a fucked-up cocktail of my unconscious mind; I wiped the idle tears away from the corner of my eyes and took several deep breaths.
Pushing the thoughts away from my mind, I got out of bed and headed for the bathroom. Tonight was going to be one for the books and who was I to miss such an exciting opportunity. Unfortunately, I had to handle a personal situation first.
“God help us all,” I grumbled stepping under the spray of the shower.
§§§§§
Forty-five minutes later I was walking through my childhood home and counting down the seconds until I was able to meet up with Karina and the others. However, I can’t do that until this stupid dinner was over with.
A family tradition—or torture rather—was my parents, myself and my sister coming together for dinner before I headed out for the night at least three times a month.
I looked nothing like either of my parents; my father, Burton River, had coal black hair with strands of silver from age and frown lines that seemed to make him even more handsome than in his prime years. His eyes were a damning blue, like Karina’s, looking like the ocean after a night of rain. He was gentle by nature and circumstance, given his chosen profession to be a veterinarian for service animals. If anything, he was too nice and caring.
My mother, on the other hand, was just as beautiful as my sister, with her golden hair always pinned up in a secretary bun and blue eyes that you could get lost in. Geinuvere River was heart stopping and there was no question as to why my father had married her as soon as he could.
She was smart, kind, loving and all-around the perfect housewife when it came to anything having to do with family functions. When my sister and I were growing up, our mother had poured her soul into making sure we had the best of the best and were two of the favorites amongst the student body. At least, she did for my sister.
Inessa River was five years my senior and had the attitude to back up the little fact. My sister was every man’s wet dream; golden blonde hair which naturally waved to the middle of her back. Her ocean blue eyes glittered with a childish hopefulness that reminded you of a kid on Christmas morning.
Without her heels she stood at a staggering five-foot-eight and thanks to her being a pediatrician she made sure to always keep her physique trim and eat all of the right things. Caffeine was a curse word and junk food had no place in this world according to Inessa.
Naturally, she frowned on what I did for a living but even with all of the pieces of paper and titles behind her name, she had no idea why I did what I did and dismissed the thought that my line of work was against my will.
At times, in comparison to my sister, I felt like a fucking vampire from one of those Bram Stoker novels. Growing up had been something of a nightmare with my sister; given her cheerleading practices, athletic competitions and whatever else she signed up for made our younger years something of a competition within itself.
In truth, if I wanted to drive the nail home with my honesty, I was jealous of her. Not because of her looks or her accomplishments, but simply because she was able to live a normal life without the threat of getting killed every night.
“Lumi, you’re finally here, take a seat.” My mother came brush
ing past me to the kitchen and flicked her hand to the very table my father and sister were sitting at all ready.
“Nice see you too,” I grumbled, not liking the look my sister was giving me from the corner of her eyes as she scrolled on her phone.
“Lumi,” my father smiled at me and got up from the table. “My baby,” he whispered pulling me into one of his infamous bear hugs.
If there was one thing, I was always happy for it was my dad’s hugs. He hadn’t judged me or faulted me on the life I had been forced to live.
Returning his hug, I smirked as I stared at the ceiling, “how are you?”
He pulled back after a moment, looking at me as if making sure I was really here in the flesh.
“I’m fine, but how are you?”
I shrugged an idle shoulder and delivered the standard response, “I’m ok.”
“Come on it’s time to eat!” My mother wasn’t hearing any of the sweet pleasantries and had always kept me at arms lengths. Even when I wasn’t around long enough to be missed.
My father was used to the anxiety running through my mother’s veins and simply shrugged it off. But I had felt my own apprehension toward my parents when it came to my station in life. Especially when I had jobs like the one tonight hanging over my head.
“Come on,” my dad whispered, leading me to the table and pulled my chair out for me.
“Luminous,” Inessa addressed me as soon as my butt hit the polished wood.
“Inessa,” I countered, starting my internal countdown to when this dinner would be over with and I could go after the sick fucker who had escaped justice.
Chapter 4 Memory
Leaning back into the corner, I simply waited for my targets. I had passed out the orders for the night and now, here I was waiting for the robbers and killers to come strolling through the front door of the bank and try to break into the vault.
Thanks to the idiot cops walking a sunlight beat not reading the jackasses their Miranda rights, here we were cleaning up the mess.
Per the usual, Dristan was with me and as I watched the doors, he swung his leg idly off the side of the counter and examined his sword’s blade. We hadn’t said anything about my meeting with Onyx Elite or what repercussions I was facing thanks to stepping up to Luminous’s defense. However, I could tell from my best friend’s silence the questions were burning his lips like siracha.