Previously in Chapter 4
Helios had separated Seraphina and I from Paris three days ago. Helios
and four of his men had stormed into the basement with guns blazing.
Helios opened the cage door and two humans dragged Paris up from the floor
and forced him out of the cage. Troy and Eos held Seraphina back/
“Don’t kill him”, I’d said.
Helios just turned his back on me.
A few hours later they came for us.
This time it was four Helions and four humans. Helios opened the cage and the four Helions pulled Seraphina off the floor while the humans wrestled her arms behind her back and handcuffed her wrist.. The humans pointed their guns at me and motioned for me to follow Helios up the basement steps
They took Sera and I to the second floor of the compound to a small room at the end of the hallway. I clocked three locks on the outside of the door.
“I’ll come for you when I need you”. Helios said. The men shoved Seraphina into the room while I was walked in a gunpoint. Seraphina lunged for the door just as it shut, she threw her weight against it but the locks click in succession.
The bedroom was empty except for a dingy full size mattress and a delicate looking vanity with a large three sided mirror where Sera couldn’t escape her disfigured face; the burns and swelling left her almost unrecognizable…. though the mutilated raw exposed skin seemed to bother me more than her.
The room was infested with roaches that crawled nosily in the middle of the night, the small en suite bathroom was overrun with mold and the pipes leaked brown liquid into the sink before running clear.
Two MRES and a 64 ounce thermos with water had been placed on the
nightstand and replaced each morning.
When we were initially locked into the room, the first thing Sera did was reach for the chair from the vanity and throw it into the floor-to-ceiling window in the room that looked out onto the courtyard. The glass vibrated but didn’t break. She was flexible enough with her hands cuffed behind her back to pick the chair up again and hurl it at the glass, it made contact with the wall leaving a crack in the plaster and some foul liquid seeped out.
“You done, sweetheart”, I said already getting tired of her temper tantrum.
“Shut the fuck up”, she said turning coldly on me, “You shut the fuck up.”
“I don’t think so sweetheart. You have something to say. Say it.”
“Fine. This is all your fucking fault.” She said trying to fight her way out of the handcuffs, “He used your family against you. Us”
Sera had looked around the room and that’s when she noticed the blinking red light in the corner. It was a clunky security camera nestled way up in the celling.
“Fuck you”, she said to the blinking red light, “Fuck you.”
She used the chair to stand on top of the vanity and reach for the camera, even though her damn hands were cuffed behind her back. The c vanity table bucked under her weight and she came crashing down to the floor. She pushed herself to stand and smashed her entwined hands into the mirror, over and over and again until it was streaked in her blood. I grabbed her and shoved her into the small closet by the door and threw my weight against it. She banged against the door cursing at me.
“Let me the fuck out of here.” she said throwing herself against the door with each word.
I waited for about ten minutes then slowly opened the door. She’d bruised her shoulder pretty bad and reopened some of the wounds on her face.
“You calm now?” I asked.
She looked down at her bloody hands and the fragments of mirror still in her skin.
“You’re wrong. I’m not as bad as Helios”, she said calmly sitting on the edge of the dirty mattress and tilting her head up to the security camera, “I’m worse.”
We moved to the only window in the room which thankfully (or strategically) overlooked the courtyard. The courtyard seemed to be the place where the men or “The Legion” as they called themselves congregated.
Each morning they set up tents and makeshift workstations around the courtyard. I spotted two who were doing communications and possible intelligence gathering with a set of industrial satellite laptops Helios brought down. A lot of the Angels were repairing old guns and stocking up an armory.
Every morning all the men ran military drills, trained in hand-to-hand and I saw Jorgen carrying piecemeal guns off to what had to be target practice. A handful of the men piled into a Jeep and headed towards the bottling factory to work. Meals were served twice a day—thick hearty soups and gruel. Only sometimes with meat. The Helions always ate first. Eos and Troy appeared to have rooms inside the compound. They ate meals inside too.
Helios kept himself apart from his ragtag militia. When he made an appearance he is always strapped with that machine gun and Eos and Troy are always next to him. His new Alpha and Beta.
Sera and I didn't talk much during the first three days of our captivity but we observed the courtyard together. Occasionally we’d exchange a look that lets me know we are on the same page. The only real sound is the jingle of her handcuffs.
“You know how this goes, right.” I’d said the first day, “Helios knows how to break and control people then make them think it was their choice. He is going to try and get us to turn on each other. We are all we’ve got. We can’t turn on each other.”
“I can handle it”, she'd said watching Helios move among his men.
+1+
Leon
The fourth day it tugs at me.
I wake up in a cold sweat and can’t go back to sleep. I start missing Aria and my girls in a way that feels physical. I hate that I can’t protect them. I can’t even bring myself to get out of the mattress that is seriously fucking up my back.
I just lay there and watch the sunlight filter into the room, I sense when Sera wakes up and we prepare to endure another monotonous day imprisoned and watching the militia from above. She’d slept restlessly--her husband’s name on her lips. Her face healing was someone how worse than the fresh wounds. Yesterday I’d dug up an expired first aid kit in the bathroom and she’d consented to letting me wrap her face in bandages; leaving her undamaged eye, lips and mouth still exposed. Her wrist are still securely handcuffed behind her back.
“Do you ever miss sleeping alone?” I turn to face her. I can still read the quizzical look she gives me underneath the bandages. We’d barley spoken since being locked up in this room, with the way we communicated we didn’t have to.
“What?” she says like she hadn’t heard me. She tugs at her cuffed wrist but the platinum white gold handcuffs don’t give.
“Do you ever miss sleeping alone…or do you usually wrap Paris up at night and place him in a corner of your web.”
“I never miss sleeping alone. Something about it feels human waking up entangled in one…two or even three bodies.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
She tries to raise her eyebrows into a “fuck you” expression that doesn’t quiet land underneath the bandages.
“I just mean…was Helios right before? When he said relationships would make us weak. Is he right?”
“He only ever said that to you.” She admits absently twisting the handcuffs.
“He said it all the time.”
“He was fucking with you to keep you close”, she lays back down on her side, stretching her bound hands.
I absently tucked in a stray strip of bandage feeling like an idiot.
“What did he say to fuck with you?” I ask.
“That he loved me.”
“Trust me”, I say thinking of all those long nights Helios and I stayed up drinking and talking, “He meant that.”
We both stand up as the door opens. Helios comes in as if on cue followed by Eos and Troy. Helios holds out a pack of cigarettes to Sera as a peace offering, but she backs away.
“I heard you picked up the habit again.” Helios says. His voice is smooth, casual and flirtatious.
Sera eyes Troy and Eos; she notices Helios concealing the stun gun in his hand and instead of responding turns her back to him.
I don’t have time to play games with you Sera”, Helios continues still holding up the cigarettes, “I need you to work.”
“You’re killing Bless today?” she turns fully to the window. Helios eye linger on the intricate arrow tattoo on her back, visible through the thin cut-off tank top he’d found for her to wear.
“Edwin Bless is a priority”, Helios voice is casual but authoritative, “But he is several thousand miles away and we are still working the logistics of that job. I have a more urgent mission.”
Helios moves past me and Sera reluctantly turns to face Helios. He slips a cigarette in her mouth. She rolls her eyes but lets him light it, he removes it and she coughs on the smoke.
“Edgar Salazar, you familiar.” Helios gets down to business.
I clear my throat, “Drug lord. He’s on Interpol’s most wanted. Killed two Mexican officers and an FBI agent in a hostage negotiation gone wrong five years.”
I also remembered the name from my conversation with Agent Morris. We were in Salazar’s cartel territory. I’d done some basic research on him, he was small time. Had his glory days in the 1980’s. Old guard
Helios congenially puts the cigarette between her lips again and she takes a smooth drag, this time blowing smoke rings into his face.
Helios continues
“Salazar’s glory days are far behind him. However he has graciously been hosting and funding my militia in this compound. We were friendly during my time in power and he’s been a good patron… However my sources tell me Salazar might get taken in by the DEA on a RICO charge…and he might try and cut a deal by giving authorities information about me.”
“No one will believe him”, I blurt out, “That’s like me telling the FBI you know where Hitler is hiding ou--
“I need Salazar taken care of.” Helios says taking a drag of the cigarette, “Also with him out the way I don’t have to worry about the lien on this humble abode of ours.”
“Kill him yourself.” Sera says.
“My men are decent soldiers but they aren’t natural killers.”
“That’s not my problem”, she responds curtly
“Is this about your face?” Helios says holding the cigarette out to her but she doesn’t take it “Because I did that for you. Your beauty was a distraction. Now it’s one less barrier between you and what you are best at. My resources are a bit limited, so we’ll have to be resourceful.”
“No”, Sera says again.
Helios shoves the cigarette into her mouth, Sera starts choking on it and Helios grabs her by the back of her neck and drags her into the bathroom. Eos and Troy follow and hold her head down in the sink while Helios fills it with water, watching it run from brown to clear. The veins on Troy and Eos’ hands swell at the force of holding her head down.
“I know you are dumb but you aren’t this stupid”, Helios’ voice is all venom in her ear, “You will respect me, Seraphina.”
He lifts her head up to hear her answer and she laughs at him
“Fuck you—“
They shove her face back down into the sink, the water is overflowing and dripping on to the floor. I can hear her struggling to breathe but I know Helios will never let her die. After a few seconds Helios lifts her up and water purge from her lungs. The wet bandages have unraveled and left her disfigured face exposed. Only a thin diagonal strip of her face is untouched by dark bruises, cuts and ugly 2nd and 3rd degree electric burns. The ragged one sided smile scar is starting to bleed a little. I can tell Helios is disgusted by his own handiwork.
“Then I guess we are rolling back around to letting my men use Aria’s daughters as target practice if you don’t fall in line Seraphina.” Helios threatens.
“Sera”, I say as firmly as I can. She snaps her head to me recognizing an order, “Please.”
She looks at me with a feral sort of anger, her chest is heaving and the coldness in her eyes gives me chills. She looks to me and then back to Helios. She jerks against the men’s hold on her.
“Fine.”, she says but she’s looking at me.
Helios throws a bundle of colorful well-worn t-shirts at us. He snaps his fingers and Eos and Troy let Sera go.
“We leave in 30 minutes”, Helios says as they depart
I help Sera into a bright green t-shirt with a John 3:16 on the back, the only one that fits me is red with Philippians 4:13. Our dirty jean, and baseball caps were inconspicuous but we’d stand out with our height. I quickly re-bandage her face and try to justify carrying out Helios’ bullshit.
“Sera. This is okay. Salazar is one of the bad guys.”
She cuts her eyes at me and heads out the room where Eos and Troy are waiting for us. They escort us at gun point downstairs and to the front gate. I take my time memorizing the layout of the house.
We walk through the busy courtyard where the make-shift military workstations are set up. Some men are playing cards, others are working out and some are running drills, making uniforms or salvaging scrap metal. Two human mercenaries are standing guard in front of an all-terrain tent that serves as the intel and command center. I hear two fans running and the murmur of a radio coming from the tent. Helios is at the entrance handing off two industrial laptops. The men who aren’t going through drills are eyeing each other up or arguing over shade. Several eyes follow us as we’re lead out the gate.
There is nothing for miles but desert. If we made a run for it we’d have to go in the early morning—we’d need water and map. I spy two men settled on the roof with beer and telescope watching the perimeter. A Humvee and Jeep Wrangler are parked outside the gates, each one looking like it had been Frankenstiened together with mismatch parts.
Helios joins our group, he whispers instruction to Eos as Sera and I are loaded into the Jeep. A human serves as the driver. In a move I don’t expect Helios swings himself into the Jeep and sits between Sera and I in the backseat.
He reaches over to buckle her seatbelt since her wrist are still cuffed tightly behind her. She doesn’t let her eyes fall from his, there is a bit of challenge in the eye-contact and Helios doesn’t miss it. The Jeep roars to life and we cut through the desolate landscape.
Helios pulls out a cheap looking tablet and places it in Sera’s lap.
“A picture says a thousand words”, he says turning it on. Sera looks at the screen and then at me. I grab the device and see a photo of Aria’s house. I flip through to see more surveillance images Aria corralling the girls into my car. Aria has her hands full with the little ones, she was laughing with Athena’s backpack on her shoulder. She was wearing the shades I left in my car, and I could tell she’d adjusted my car seat to fit her growing belly.
Ah, fuck.
“Sera”, Helios says, “I just want you to remember what is at stake here if you try to pull any bullshit during this mission.”
+2+
We drive for two hours until we reach a small village in the valley. The village is overrun with American missionaries in colorful shirts that match ours. The village is rural with a main road and a few market stalls, the big attraction seems to be the buses lining up to take citizens and local to even more remote villages. There are no tall buildings to set up a sniper rifle on, to many people to do close range shooting. We couldn’t subdue and kidnap Salazar with a Jeep. It would have to be a close contact kill. What was Helios planning to do about body disposal? This was a sloppy kill. We needed more time to plan
“Get out”, Helios orders and we climb out the car. Sera is holding a jacket over her hands so no one notices she is cuffed. Eos and Troy hover next to her. We move stand by an abandoned gas station watching people come and go.
“Salazar spends his days in that bar over there”, Helios says pointing to a washed out blue building, “He grew up here so locals are protective and afraid of him. This kill needs to be quick and anonymous.”
Helios pulls a gun out of his waistband but Sera shakes her head.
“I need knife”, Sera decides and looks to me for confirmation.
Helios smiles and signals for Eos and Troy to find one.
The three of us stand there and I swear it’s like I’ve gone back and time to before everything went to shit. Sera had only ever been a part of SGI for a year and half but it felt like a lifetime with the way she and Helios got on, we ’d all clicked together…Titus included.
If it were the old days Sera and Helios would be flirting non-stop while I’d have to be play the straight man. Sera would quietly revel in her ability to please Helios even if that meant spilling blood. After any job we’d probably find someplace to get shots and I’d have to drive back to base pretending not to hear Helios fucking her in the backseat even though he knew I had feelings for her.
The thought put a worse taste in my mouth than I expected.
“We need him out here”, I say, “The bar is familiar ground to him. We need him to come to us.
Helios waits until Eos and Troy jog back over to us with a stolen switchblade to speak again.
“Burn the bar down.” He orders, “Let’s smoke him out.”
Troy and I are dispatched to steal a gallon of gasoline from the bus depot. It’s the first time I’ve been alone with another Angel in days.
“What’s the deal Troy?” I say as we head towards the bar, “You really faked your death in New Aeterna to get back in with Helios?”
He looks around like Helios might see us talking
“It’s not just about Helios. We are The Legion now. It’s not just Angels this time. The new Regime will be led by Angels and humans.”
“Fuck regimes. You had it pretty good under Paris and Bless.”
“They don’t give a fuck about us. I mean the fucking half-way houses are a joke. You don’t know what it was like during the Regime. We had respect, a purpose, and a land of our own.”
“What about the rationing, surveillance and torture?”
Troy shook his head, “That only happened to a few people who were breaking Helios’ laws. It wasn’t like that for most people. The streets were safe, humans respected us. Helios gave us families and a purpose. We were able to show our wings freely. Life was good and …I just want some of the back. It wasn’t all perfect but it was like being at Home again.”
“I think you have it wrong man. Look if you help Sera ad I get out of this I can make a deal for you In New Aeterna.”
“I’m not going to betray Helios for you and the Demon’s whore. You’ll come around, Brother. You both will.”
Troy had been the youngest among us. Always so impressionable and loyal. There was no breaking him. Before I can argue another point we reach the back of the bar. Troy pulls on a bandana and burst into the kitchen. Three men are manning the small kitchen and stockroom scatter. Troy points a fun at them and they freeze
“If you want to live get the fuck out and keep your mouth shut”, I say in Spanish and hold the door open.
They run while Troy and I spread the gasoline we’d stolen around the kitchen. We needed a controlled burn so I turned off the gas stove and use a rag stuffed in a tequila bottle as an incinerator, I light the rag and throw the makeshift Molotov cocktail into the dining room. Troy and I head out the back and he sets fire to another one soaked rag, causing the kitchen to go up in flames.
I hear the screams of the crowd as they all flood out of the bar. Mission accomplished Troy and I jog over to where Helios and Eos waiting for us. Sera’s handcuffs are casually swinging from Helios’ fingers.
“Good job”, Helios says to Troy, “You did make sure Salazar was in there today, right?”
“Uhhh”, Troy says looking to Eos for help.
“There”, I say.
I recognize Salazar from a wanted photo I’d seen of him. He ambles out of the bar looking confused. He was a distinguished older man, who had the sense to bring his glass of whisky with him. Locals and missionaries are already running towards with fire with water and hoses. This seems to amuse Salazar. He’s got a drink and show.
“SAL”, Helios calls out and the man makes the mistake of turning to the voice. He looks at Helios and does a double take. He doesn’t expect the wanted warlord he’s blackmailing to be here. Worse, Salazar knows the amusement in Helios’ eyes can’t be good.
Salazar is too busy trying to figure Helios out that he doesn’t notice Seraphina come up from behind him and slit his throat. It’s a fast deep cut that’s over before it starts.
Helios smiles as Salazar drops his glass and falls to his knees. Helios offers a dying Salazar one last wave before turning.
“Let’s go! Let’s go!” Helios commands, “Hustle.”
We run full speed towards the Jeep just as people start to notice Salazar. Helios jumps in the car first and the driver starts down the road while Eos, Troy and I clamber in. Sera runs to catch up and Helios grabs her arms and pulls her in.
“How did that feel, Seraphina?” She looks at Helios like she didn’t understand the question. “You liked it didn’t you? Does it scare you how much you miss it”
She doesn’t respond but Helios is satisfied with himself. I know he likes to think she is too dumb to understand his questions when he doesn’t get the answer he wants.
“Paris”, she finally says.
“What?” Helios snaps
“Where’s Paris?”
“I killed him.” He says too quickly and roughly slaps the handcuffs back on her
“No you didn’t.”
“The fuck does it matter to you if I did.” He tightens the handcuffs, reminding her who is in charge.
Sera knows better than to further remind Helios about Paris so she keeps her mouth shut.
An hour into the ride back I notice Sera concentrating on the narrow dirt road as we get further into the desert. Her hands are tensing but there is some calculation behind her eyes. That’s when I realize there is about to be trouble.
She watches the landscape wordlessly for a few more minutes and before Helios can stop her she pushes herself out of the moving Jeep. Her body hits the ground hard and she rolls. Everyone in the Jeep stands up and Helios yells at the driver to stop.
“Fuck”, Troy says as the car swerves to a stop. Sera had already managed to push herself up and was running with no sense of direction and zero planning. She was just trying to get away.
“Get her”, Helios order Troy and Eos. His voice is calm. The kind of calm that is fueling with rage. Troy couldn’t run for shit there was no way he’d catch her. Eos books it out the car, he is fast but I know Sera is faster which is why I jump out the car and start running too.
I can feel the hot sand through my sneakers cheap rubber soles as I power past a winded Troy and then Eos. Sera has slowed up ahead but she wasn’t stopping. It’s way to damn hot for this. I push myself a few more feet and manage to snatch her back by the link of chain between cuffs.
The momentum of it forces us both to the ground but I find my feet first.
“Leon”, she says as I pull her up to a standing position and drag her back toward the Jeep, “Stop. What are you doing? We have to go. What the fuck. Leon what are you doing Leon what--fuck. Fuck. Leon. We have to run. No. LEON—“
She works against me, letting her weight go slack so I have to pull her entire weight. Eos and Troy catch up to us and it takes the three of us to haul her back to the Jeep kicking and screaming. When we get back to the Jeep Helios removes the cuff from her right wrist and locks it around the Jeep’s frame.
“I didn’t want it to be this way”, Helios says his voice tinged with empathy he doesn’t have, “Hold her down. You get her arm.”
Sera goes from pissed to alarm. The driver gets out the car and puts Seraphina in a secure choke hold and twist back the arm that isn’t cuffed to the car. Helios takes the cleaned knife she’d used to kill Salazar out and Troy hands him a lighter. I get the sick feelings they’ve talked about whatever is going to happen next.
Helios causally heats up the side of the flat surface of the knife, Sera’s breaths are still heavy from her botched escaped. Without warning Helios grabs her tongue and presses the hot flat side of the knife to it. She closes her eyes tight, her open mouth muffling the screams.
“Helios”, I say under my breath unable to read anyone else’s expressions under their shades.
He pulls the knife away to heat it again. Helios nods to Troy and Eos who began unbuttoning and pulling off Sera’s pant and boxers. When Helios move towards her she starts screaming and twisting against Troy and Eos strong grip as they force her legs apart. She pulls hard at her hand cuffed to the car, tears involuntarily streaming down her face.
Helios presses the knife against her inner right thigh. The more she fights against their grasp the tighter they hold. Helios heat the knife again and steps forward.
Then he drops the knife floor and grabs her chin.
“Don’t you ever try to run from me again, Seraphina. Or I will fuck you up. Understand?”, and I know he’s not just talking about now. But 15 years ago when she ran. Fuck. When I ran.
She forces herself to look him in the eye but I know she it to stubborn to respond to him
“Let her go”, Helios says walking back to the car.
Eos and Troy obey, the driver heads back behind the wheel. I try to help her dress but she shoves me away, all the while Helios is snapping for her to move faster. I know she can’t control the tremor in her body but it’s not a good look to show weakness in front of Helios. I climb back into the Jeep and Helios settles between us like nothing has happened. He doesn’t talk again until the compound comes into view.
“It doesn’t have to be this way”, He says but Sera isn’t listening.
+3+
That evening we sit at his table.
The events of the morning should have cost me my appetite but the table full of roasted peppers, grilled beef, spicy pork and warm tortillas gets the better of me. A few other men who I gathered have earned Helios’ favor are also at the table. It’s an old wooden table situated in the middle of what used to be a great room. The floorboards are bloated, exposed pipe, cracked walls and ceilings make the whole place feel unsteady. Industrial lights running off a generator gives it a moody atmosphere, a muffled speaker softly plays in the background.
The men at the table all keep to themselves, even the ones who’d known me for centuries pay me no mind. Helios had done Seraphina the favor of cuffing her wrist in front of her so she could eat, but all she did was drink. Her face still securely covered in the bandages.
This was how I’d heard Helios did it during the Regime. You follow his rules you get rewarded. You rebel. You suffer.
I kept wandering if Helios was going to show up for this meal. I got my answer when he appears just as the scraps were being carried out to the men outside. Helios has a bottle of high-quality Tequila with him and pours shots for everyone.
“I’d like to raise a toast’, Helios says holding the bottle, “To Seraphina who has helped secure our home base here by—“
Sera downs her drink right in the middle of his dumbass toast and throws the glass in his direction. Helios take a sip from the bottle and digresses like he was planning on endng his toast there anyway.
He excuses himself from the table and I turn to Sera.
“You’ve got to stop. Remember he has my family and he will break you, Sera. “
She gives me a cold look and I give her my tequila as a peace offering.
Helios’ imperious footsteps flow back into the room and this time he isn’t alone. Paris is shuffling barefoot quietly behind him. He looks weary and so pale he’s blue. The loose unbuttoned shirt draped on him slides a little revealing six surgical staples holding his chest and stomach together. His veins are swollen and networks of black spiral along his skin.
Sera immediately goes over to him.
“Paris”, she says getting on her knees in front of him
Paris gives her a very devious smile and whistles like he’s fucking catcalling her.
“Hi, cupcake”, he says looking at her handcuffs he wrist, “I heard you’ve been a bad girl.”
She gives him a very considerate look and stands. I had a bad habit of calling Paris boss but I knew it was her job to protect him. Paris studies her expression through the bandages covering the burned skin and twisted scars. That’s when I notice the flash of silver in his mouth.
I get up, shrug off my sweatshirt and drape it over Paris as if that would do something. He does that douche thing he does where he touches his lips when he wants whatever tall ass women he is dating to bend her knees and kiss him. Sera ignores him but I catch a flash of silver in his mouth again.
It was a key.
I’d heard rumors that Paris Prince could pick a lock with a needle but damn.
I look over and notice the young human guarding Paris has a ring of keys on his belt. It probably took nothing for Paris to get the key off the kid. That sneaky bastard.
“What did you do to him?” Sera asks Helios.
Paris quickly flashes the key again but Sera doesn’t notice.
“Paris is a valuable resource or at least his blood is”, Helios says. Paris put his finger to his mouth again and Sera eyes finally lock onto the flash of silver, “When we go after Bless we’ll need to collect the other Demon specimens.”
Sera considers the key in his mouth again and absently runs a finger over the surgical staples, Paris shutters slightly. Helios eyes raise to the guards, a silent signal to lead Paris away. Before the guard can pull him up Sera kisses Paris. He smiles against her lips before deepening the kiss and slipping his tongue into her mouth. The kiss was quick enough to pass the key, but he bites her lip when she tries to pull away and pulls her in for another kiss. Then he does something with his tongue that makes her moan a little.
“I almost forgot about this nonsense.” Helios says dragging Sera away,” He’s a Demon Sera, you might as well be fucking a beast.”
“Don’t talk about my husband like tha—“
Helios shoves her violently into the table he
raises his hand hit her but I catch it.
I angle my head to the men eating at his table. They didn’t need to see Helios
in a rage, it’d be bad for morale. Start rumors.
Sera pushes herself up from the table. I hear a ruckus from the men at the table I realize she has a fork between her teeth. I hesitate before moving to stand in front of Helios, Sera plunges the fork into his neck. It barley break the skin and clatters to the floor.
“Touch me like that again", she says to Helios, "and I will fuck you up.”
Helios smirks, “Where was all that bravado before?”
She doesn’t respond but lets her gaze fall to Paris who’d been knocked off balance. One of his staples had been dislodged causing a stream of dark Demon blood to trickle over his flat pale stomach and puddle on the floor.
“Fuck”, Paris says holding the wound together with a shit-eating grin on his face, “Worth it.”
“Get him back to the lab”, Helios orders the young guard. Then turns to Eos, “Get her out of my face.”
Eos immediately begins dragging Seraphina upstairs but she doesn’t put up to much of a fight.
Paris laughs. “It’s funny how you keep calling me a monster”, he continues laughing like a mad man as he is lead a way. Drops of blood marking the path.
+++
After dinner we are escorted back to our room. We sit in silence until darkness falls and stare at the blinking red light on the security camera. It’s not until we are both pretending to be asleep that I feel cool smooth metal as Sera passes the key to me under the covers.
I felt along the ridges. It could be a skeleton key. Chances are it could open Sera’s cuffs. I slide the key into a hole in the mattress hoping Sera understands this might be a long game.
+++
Okay, so one of the reasons I cut portions of this chapter from chapter 4 is because I wanted the audience to know that Helios is bluffing to Leon-- because Aria and the girls have escaped and are no longer under his surveillance.
Also, I promise I will stop torturing Sera. She and Helios are really fighting for control.
Muse : Wow Lils. This seems a lot like Sunshine where the characters are also taken hostage
Lils : I know right ? THE PARADOX LINE.