Elias (GRIT Sector 1)

by Rebecca Sherwin

  The team were here; I could feel their presence and the warmth that escaped from the bottom of the door leading to the Sector. I opened it and stepped in, locking it behind me with the master key. The key I wore around my neck, on an old piece of rope that had been used for three generations of leaders, could be used to open every door in this house.

  There was no hiding place.

  There was no sanctuary.

  There was no escape.

  I descended the steps and walked the cobbled corridor towards the Sector meeting room. Everyone was waiting inside—Trace, Lawson, Beckett, Ambrose, and Richard.

  "What is with the change, Elias?" Father asked when I stepped inside, closed the door, locked it—just in case—and joined them, taking my place at the head of the table.

  "Trixie is on the estate to receive her education and I plan to be present for its entity."

  "Good call, son." Ambrose glanced at Richard, hoping for a flash of the sibling rivalry—resentment—I'd seen pass between them my whole life. "May as well give it to her straight."

  "Update report," Richard snapped.

  It was a shame, really, that my father had chosen to share his title with my uncle. I wondered if he regretted it too. I wondered if I'd come to regret my own decision when I'd made it.

  "Your daughter is being well looked after, Richard." I wouldn't fill him in on the details. He had no right to know...and my fingers were still coated with the evidence of his daughter's welcome to Blackwood Estate.

  "I know how you look after women, Elias. I received the same upbringing."

  I rolled my eyes. "The purpose of this meeting is not to discuss what I may or may not have done to Trixie," I bit, hoping to burn him with a cold shard of reality. "You chose to induce her."

  He shut up; both he and Ambrose sat down, joining my cousins, who were already seated.

  "We're here for an organisation update. I do not want Miss Ashford's name mentioned once more in here tonight, unless it rolls from my tongue. Are we clear?"

  I looked at Richard as he nodded, and then at Trace with an apologetic smile. I didn't want to tease him with the possibilities of what I could do to his sister. He didn't deserve those images when he closed his eyes at night. Their father, however...it was his fault she was here so I would dangle my deviance in front of him, and make him pray I wouldn't let loose on his daughter.

  Letting loose on Trixie didn't seem so bad. She may even enjoy it...

  "Elias," Trace said, snapping his fingers and bringing my mind out of the gutter where the underworld lived. "Which Sector will we be discussing tonight?"

  "All of them." I heard the gasps from my family as I turned to the liquor cupboard and took out a bottle of malt. We'd be here a while. I needed a distraction. "I want progress reports on every Sector. I want statistics, plans and any details necessary to be discussed."

  "I'll go first," Lawson said, pulling his chair in and setting his forearms on the fifteenth-century table. "Progress is as follows. Two operations in action, operatives on location and in constant contact with the triangle. I'm expecting a call in the next hour."

  I nodded. "Good. Statistics for the quarter?"

  "All targets met. All plans executed. All operations complete with no collateral."

  "So that's...?"

  "Seven, sir."

  "Seven demons exorcised. I'm impressed, Lawson. Intel still good?"

  "Yes." He rummaged in the briefcase besides his chair and pulled a file out, spreading its contents in front of him in the centre of the table. "All necessary information passed on to Scotland Yard. All terminals have been dealt with."

  "Good." I nodded again, remembering Lawson had kept his Sector under control last quarter, too.

  He was quiet; he chose not to engage in family gatherings, arriving at either Blackwood or Ashford house when he was summoned. He was competent. Perhaps over-competent. I often wondered if he focused too much on the detail to be able to cope with an anomaly, but he hadn't made one mistake yet. I was smart enough not to trust them completely; I had my own surveillance in place, but Lawson was proving a worthy leader.

  "Beckett?" I said, turning to address the third born.

  Beckett had missed out on his right to leadership by three months. Had he been a premature birth instead of Trace, I would have been forced to work with him. Another family member I didn't trust, because he didn't follow the fourth principle. He didn't trust in GRIT. He thought he’d been screwed out of a place on the hierarchy and his resentment towards the family was obvious.

  "All good," he muttered.

  "That's it?" He wasn't doing himself any favours. The more difficult he was, the less responsibility I would hand him. He was too ignorant and uncaring to do what his name demanded of him.

  "That's it." He shrugged. "Operations are in motion, cases have been closed, threats have been eradicated."

  He was lucky I had someone watching him too. I already knew every minute detail of his operations. I already had his statistics filed away. I held these meetings to judge characters. I wasn't afraid to cut a man loose if he failed his tasks, giving blood and birth-right no thought. I would protect GRIT—always. Beckett was angry enough not to have made a mistake yet, but I wasn't confident in it lasting. So he had a shadow; someone who reported back to me and would give me enough time to intercept before a catastrophe occurred.

  "Trace?"

  "We intercepted a delivery last week and all-" he cleared his throat, "items, have been returned. I closed two cases and opened a fourth, of which the third was as I mentioned earlier." I nodded, and slid the bottle to Beckett, tasking him as waiter tonight. He huffed, but took the instruction. It unsettled me. "But as you know, our cases take a while longer with Intel and observation."

  "I know," I said, waving my hand in nonchalance and retrieving my glass.

  I didn't need to worry about Trace. He was my twin, only a few branches away on the family tree. He had been born two days after me, and we had always had a strong bond. We progressed through Duke of York together, and helped each other through Sandhurst. He was the brother I’d never had and the cousin I would protect above all others.

  Except Trixie...

  I shook my head, tossed back the drink and slid my glass to Beckett for a refill.

  Trixie was gone when I returned to the living room and I was filled with a sharp burst of panic before I remembered her handler.

  "Christen?" I called, waiting for him to emerge from wherever he was hiding.

  "Yes, sir?"

  He stepped inside the front door as I left the living room.

  "Has she gone for a wander?" I asked, sighing.

  I was too tired for this. I'd thought she'd stay asleep and I could carry her up to bed and be done with today. After dealing with my family, handling GRIT business when my mind was far from in the game, I just wanted to go to bed and start a new day.

  "Yes, sir. I've got my eye on her, she's just outside."

  I nodded and thanked him, dismissing him for the night before I grabbed my jacket and stepped out of the house after her.

  I saw her immediately, her pyjama trousers catching the moon as she crossed the land barefoot, heading for the maze. I followed her quietly, enjoying the peacefulness of her; it was a rarity to catch her when she wasn't talking, and I loved the calm aura that she left in her wake as she crossed the vast space.

  She entered the maze and I followed closely, careful not to lose her in the puzzle. Why she'd chosen to get herself lost, I didn't know, but I'd swoop in and save her, and try to build some bridges between us when all we had right now was confusion. I'd played here as a kid; I'd mapped out the entire maze one summer until I knew my way to the centre with my eyes closed, and could find my way out through any one of the three routes that led to the exit.

  Trixie Ashford knew how to navigate a maze. She kept her right palm on the bushes and turned right each time she came to an intersection. She was smarter than I gave her credit for, and had strong
er instincts than I'd first anticipated.

  Eventually she arrived at the centre—a wide open space surrounded by greenery where the moon shine directly above her. I stayed hidden, watching her from behind a bush.

  "I know you're here," she whispered, her voice carried on the breeze as she stopped and sat on the grass.

  "Why the maze?" I asked, stepping out to join her.

  "Sometimes you have to get lost to find yourself."

  How right she was. She had no idea how much of an impact those words had on me. I'd spent every day of my life losing myself to an ancestor I'd never live up to, in order to find the stamp I'd leave when I stepped down and handed the throne to...

  "I think you're right." I sat down opposite her and crossed my legs. "How are you feeling?"

  "I want to know," she said, looking down at her hands before she extended them to mine and held them on my lap. "I know I should be horrified, and I am, I just..."

  "I know." I nodded. "It's a burning curiosity, isn't it? It's the gut feeling that this is right."

  "How can I know it's right when I don't know what it is?"

  "You will. One day you'll know everything and you can make your mind up."

  "But I don't have a choice, do I? I'm either in or I'm out...and if I'm out, everything I've ever known disappears."

  "It does work that way." I was embarrassed, ashamed that she didn't have the right to a family without stepping into the shoes she'd never been shown before. "There are worse fates to be faced with."

  "I know, and that's why I'm confused. I'm confused about everything." Letting go of my hands, she leaned back and raised her face to the sky, looking at the stars I'd told her to use as a centring tool. "Like, the dungeon was scary...and yet I want to go back. I feel like there's something down there I need to find." She wasn't wrong. "I'm confused about Richard and Mae, and Ruby. I had no idea she was so powerful." That was always a shock. It had been to me, too, when I was first handed over to Ruby. "I'm confused about you..."

  "Me?"

  She nodded and I could see the blush on her cheeks even in the darkness.

  "I like you, Elias. More than a woman should like the cousin she'd never met before this week." Semantics. We both knew we weren't breaking any laws. "More than a woman should like a man who isn't interested. A man who chained her to a cross and cut her." I shuddered. I still had to confess to that sin. "A man who is so mysterious and closed off, when I need someone who isn't."

  "How is your leg?" I asked, not wanting to address the fact that I felt the same way.

  She was the opposite to me in every way that mattered and yet there was something about her that captivated me...and I didn't want her to let go.

  "See, I just told you all that and all you want to do is avoid."

  "What do you want?" I asked, knowing there were some things I just wasn't permitted to tell her. I chose not to, no matter how much I wanted to.

  "I want you to kiss me," she said, more confident than when she'd asked me to fuck her, although immeasurably more sensitive to my rejection.

  "Why?"

  "I don't want sixteenth century Eli, or dungeon Eli, or however many more there are who lead you along your path." She slid closer and I resisted the urge to back away. "I want Elias Blackwood, of 2016. I want him to kiss me and tell me the things he thinks he can't say with words."

  "Trixie."

  "Elias."

  It was her utterance of my name that caught me, every time. She said it like a plea, like a mantra or a prayer or a hymn. She held me with far more respect than she should have—more respect than anyone had in my entire life, despite my position.

  I licked my lips as I looked at hers. Why couldn't I kiss her? Why couldn't we have this moment, under the stars away from watchful eyes and responsibility? Taking her face in my hands, gently stroking my thumbs over her cold cheeks, I waited for her to close her eyes as I edged towards her. When my lips touched hers, I didn't think there would ever be a time I'd cherish more than this. She was perfect. Her lips were perfect—soft yet assertive. Her hands on my shoulders were gentle with an aggressive edge that begged me not to let go, and when her tongue snaked out to brush mine, I was lost. I could feel the danger moving in to smother us, as I fisted her hair and bit down on her bottom lip. It shouldn’t have been able to find us here. We should have been safe in the maze, but we weren’t, and we never would be…because I commanded the danger. I gripped Trixie’s hips and shoved her onto her back, kneeing her legs open as I forced my way between them. She said nothing, and this time she didn’t fight me. She didn’t try to battle against the man who wanted a dual. She didn’t ask me to stop, didn’t beg me to slow down, and she didn’t pull away from me and allow violet eyes to flash with fear. Instead she embraced the monster. She embraced the king of the Sector, with a thousand different influences thrumming through my blood, and she hooked her leg around my waist to draw me closer. I knew I should have pulled away; I knew I should have gotten up and left her in the maze while I went to find something to ease the frustration I was at risk of thrusting upon her.

  Trixie’s slight hands slid up my t-shirt to scratch my back, before they dived lower, into my jeans, and she squeezed my ass as she ground herself against me.

  Jesus Christ, she was a minx. A siren. A provocative princess sent here to slay me. She didn’t need the knight on the trusty steed but she did need to be locked away in the tower—for the protection of anyone who came into contact with her.

  Breaths became short and sharp. Movements became rough and uneven. Her hands pulled at my shirt until I kneeled up, tearing my lips from hers, to remove it. Her hands moved straight to my stomach and I shuddered when the cool of her little fingers sent a ripple of desire through me to make me hard. So hard. She was so hot. She was so fucking hot she made me forget who I was and what I was supposed to do. I tore at her next, yanking the vest over her head to expose two perfect breasts and rosy pink nipples hard and crying for attention. She shivered when the cool air licked her skin. I covered her with my body to keep her warm, and crash my lips to hers once more. We were mouth to mouth, tongue to tongue, chest to chest, and it was the most incredible thing I’d ever felt. I was no longer a concoction of Eli’s, each one contradicting and conflicting. I was no longer stuck in a world where I wondered if what we did was right—where I was the figurehead responsible for forcing people to trust in GRIT when I couldn’t trust in it myself. I couldn’t let Trixie into this. I couldn’t let her become part of the revolution…so I would distract her with sex. I would give her something to focus on. I would bewitch her and promise her all the things that were not mine to give. I would break her. I would break her so completely, she’d rather take the offer of death than stay in this family and come to a slow, torturous end where she lost every fibre of who she was. She was perfect, and I wouldn’t let this family ruin her with ancestors who had no place here.

  As if they’d heard me, a sharp breeze swept over my bare back and threatened to bring me back to reality.

  And then Trixie read me better than any ghosts could ever hope of doing, when she pulled away and leaned up to kiss my neck as her hand slid between us and into my jeans.

  “You have no idea how much I want this,” she whispered, taking me in her hands as she nipped on my skin. I could feel my pulse thumping beneath her tongue as she flicked and sucked and made my eyes roll closed.

  “I do,” I groaned. “I do.”

  Her touch was electric, one foot raising to ease my jeans lower before the other joined and balanced it out. Fuck it. We’d come this far, and I would refuse to back out now. I wanted her. I wanted Trixie Ashford, and I was a Blackwood…I took what I wanted.

  “Take your pants off,” I growled as I sat back, stood up, and took my jeans off.

  I hadn’t bothered with underwear. I think I knew I would need to make this move before I had the chance to back out. Instead of having to remove a pair of underwear, I took myself in my hand and worked in slow strokes a
s Trixie tugged her bottoms off, and then slipped her thumbs into her thong.

  “No.” I shook my head and watched her freeze in fear. “Leave it on.”

  I wanted to push my way past them. I wanted to slide into her when I’d earned my way beyond the barrier that kept her modesty protected from me. When I took it—when I parted her with the head of my cock and watched every inch disappear inside her as I marked her as mine—I wanted to feel like I’d won. I was about to accept the challenge of charming someone who could ignite quadriplegia with just a whisper, and I would win.

  I would win.

  He charged towards me.

  One second I was frozen on the spot, about to expose myself, and worried he was going to change his mind again…and the next, I was in the arms of a beast who shoved me to lay back on the ground.

  He’d laid me on the grass carefully, but his mouth had other ideas. His teeth pinched my neck as his hands gripped my hips. His thumbs dug into bone as his tongue flicked over the vein in my neck and his mouth closed to suck hard. I moaned, more of a cry of shock at his aggression, but I heard myself whisper for him not to stop. I was on fire, burning from the inside out as my underwear became saturated, my hands pulled and tugged on any part of him I could get my hands on and my lips parted for sighs and moans and pleas for him to give in. He was holding back, I knew it. I didn’t want him to. Elias was brutal, every inch of him hard and unrelenting and powerful…I wanted every ounce of it taken out on my body.

  “Ask me,” he said, blowing on my skin as his lips trailed lower and he took one nipple in his mouth.

  I arched my back, gripped his hair and sighed as his tongue circled the hard bud. I tried to close my legs, but he was there, nudging against me as he rolled his hips. I knew what he wanted me to ask him, but I wasn’t sure I could. The man who had chased me around the bedroom earlier was not the man in the maze with me right now, and I wanted to hold onto this one. I wanted him to be smooth and soft and gentle, just for tonight, so I could prepare to make my request in the morning.