by S King
I twisted the cap from the bottle, keeping my eyes glued on a moot point of the wall as she continued.
“Your life has been terribly unkind, Luminous.” She said more to herself than to me. Like she couldn’t believe one person had gone through so much and still was able to breathe in, breathe out and carry on.
I screwed the cap on the water and searched my mind for something to say. They knew so much about me, but I knew next to nothing about them.
“You’re lucky to have gotten away from the Onyx Elite,” she looked at me, touching my cheek lightly. “You’re so very lucky.”
For some reason, I felt the prick of tears stabbing at my eyes. Not even my mother had done such a kind gesture—said such things. With my mother, the only feeling I ever felt beyond detachment was a vague disgust that came from being forced to look into a face she had never planned—or wanted in her life.
“Heavens me, I am so terribly sorry,” something snapped in the woman sitting beside me as she dropped her hand from my face and clasped my hands in hers. “I’m being horrendously rude, I haven’t even told you my name, have I?” Another smile, one I was growing too used to, crossed her face as she looked at me.
“No, you haven’t,” I said, giving her a smile of my own.
“My name is Yophiel Afet, but you may call me Fefe.”
I laughed softly, rubbing at my eyes to get rid of the tears that had welled in my eyes.
“Now, Lumi—you don’t mind if I call you Lumi, right?”
“Not at all,” if she kept being so nice, I was going to lose my damn mind with tears.
Nobody outside of my friends had ever been so kind, and when Karina was kind it was right before she shoved a Russian Heart bomb up someone’s ass.
“Perfect, well Lumi, would you like to eat something? You must be terribly starved from not eating after nearly three months.”
I balked at her, unable to form the words in my mouth.
“Heavens!” She shrieked and held my face in her hands, “are you ok, deary?”
“Three—three months?” I stuttered.
With a sympathetic nod of her head, she sighed, “unfortunately. You kept bleeding. You would turn over and the wound would rip open. Granted, I think that had something to do with Shang’s inability to sew.” She winked at me and moved the chair closer to me.
“How…how did it stop?”
“Up we go,” she lifted me easily, transferring my body into the chair before dropping to her haunches. “We had to give you a paralytic,” she said in a matter of fact tone as she placed my feet on the footrests of the chair.
Well, at least that explains the reason why I can’t use my legs and my muscle mass had gone to shit. It wasn’t that I wasn’t grateful for what Shang and Fefe had done for me.
Honestly, I wasn’t expecting to wake up after I heard Demir tell me to wait for him. The problem was, I didn’t know how long it would take for me to relearn how to walk and get back to where I was. Not to mention if any of the scientists had found out I was still breathing and had lost my stamina and talent I was as good as dead.
When she stood up again, she smiled down at me, “don’t worry though, the drugs have been out of your system for nearly a month and if you’re feeling up to it, we can start helping you regain your strength after breakfast.”
“Yes,” I said a little too quickly and shrank back into the hard, thin leather of the chair.
“Once a fighter, always a fighter,” Fefe patted my shoulder as she walked behind me and unlocked the brakes on the chair. “But first, you must eat.”
Wheeling me out of the room that had been my temporary home for the past three months, we hooked a right down a long hallway. Abstract art in every color on the color wheel lined the light teal painted walls while the bamboo floor allowed the wheels of the chair to roll with nothing but a whisper. We came out of the hall to the living room connected to a dining room.
The rooms in question had the same calm teal color with different versions of the same artwork littering around the walls. Turning my attention to the living room, I made a note of the ground level windows without screens and wide front door. It was a habit of mine to note all of the possible exits and calculate the amount of time and strength I’d need to have in order to make a clean escape.
Two suede couches facing each other while a single solid wood coffee table sat in between were generously spaced away from the windows and front door. There wasn’t a TV or in-tables to add to the layout. Only a corner bookshelf that blocked the view from anyone looking into the south facing wall of windows.
The room was laid out in a way only people on the run and guard members knew all too well. Always make sure to have an exit.
Fefe turned the chair to the dining room where a large, double door overlooked a calm river. There wasn’t a retaining wall or screened in porch.
A solid table, easily four inches thick sat in the middle of the floor with six chairs sitting in a methodical order around the potential barrier. There was nothing special about the design or structure of the table or the chairs. It was simple. Designed to be able to handle the weight of five guard members and a child.
“Come on, deary,” Fefe’s voice pulled me away from my meticulous thoughts about how the table could be used in a fight.
She locked the wheels of the wheelchair after she pulled out the chair closest to the backdoor. Like in the bedroom, she lifted me easily and sat me down in my new seat.
“Thank you,” I said humbly. I felt like a burden having to rely on her to transfer me from one place to the next when the situation—the preferable situation if a wheelchair had to be involved—should’ve been different.
I was only twenty-nine, about to turn thirty and here I was hanging onto a woman double my age, at least.
“You didn’t ask for this,” she reassured me as she carefully pushed in my chair to table.
I nodded, frowning at the grains in the wood to keep myself from crying. She was right. I hadn’t asked to be born. To be trained as a mercenary or to fall in love with someone who had ultimately betrayed me. But loved me enough to not outright kill me.
“Shang, darling,” Fefe made sure I was comfortable before disappearing down another hall next to the one we had emerged from.
The walls around me were silent, with only the smell from the kitchen filling the air. Bacon, eggs, hash browns, cinnamon pancakes, blueberry muffins. It was hard to imagine someone as cold and hard as Shang could be a master in the kitchen to the point of forcing ungodly sounds from my stomach.
“Shut up,” I hissed at my body and crossed my arms, holding onto my own waist as I stared out the double doors.
Wait for me. The three words that had haunted my nightmares and forced me awake in a paralytic haze came back to the front of my mind as I listened to the nothingness around me. Demir’s damning gold-silver eyes were so tormented as I fell to what was supposed to be my death.
It’d be a lie to say I didn’t wonder what had become of the Gold Guard sect leader. I did. Often. Even in my dreams, I had seen him in the deathly black robes the honorable judges of Onyx Elite wore. He was gorgeous in the rags, but with that robe, I had wanted to submit to him. Wanted to be the one to take his orders with no questions asked.
“Stupid,” I breathed and sighed.
No matter how many times I fantasized about the man who had torn my heart to shreds and put the pieces back together with a single look. I couldn’t banish the memory of his dagger going through my stomach and nearly punching through my back.
Curtesy of a photogenic memory, I rolled my eyes on my internal, sarcastic monologue. Deciding to think of something else, I focused my mind on the memories I shared with my best friend.
Karina Rizzo was an enigma never meant to be figured out or reasoned with. Her quick temper and even faster ability to wire up a bomb was nothing to sneeze at. God knows if anyone did she would set their world on fire with them being the main attraction to the inferno.
Did the HG spread the word that I was dead and Demir was the one to deal the final blow? Did Demir tell her himself in hopes of gaining some form of forgiveness? But more importantly, did she believe I was dead?
“Lumi?” Fefe’s voice broke through my foreboding thoughts and snapped my head around to find her coming into the dining room with her hands full of plates.
Had I had the ability to use my legs I would’ve taken the load from her so she could sit down. But I couldn’t do anything except meet her kind gaze.
“Sorry, what’d you say?”
She smiled gently at me, “I was just asking what you wanted to drink? Coffee? Juice? Soda or water?”
“Coffee, is fine.”
Placing the plates of bacon and eggs down on the table. She looked at me, “creamer type?” She glanced over her shoulder down the hallway. “We have peppermint and vanilla, hazelnut too…I think.”
I smiled and pushed my hair from my face, “vanilla is perfect.”
“You got it, I’ll be right back,” before I could thank her, she disappeared back down the hall.
“You don’t have any food allergies, right?” Shang wasn’t as graceful with his entrance and put the plates right in the center of the table.
“No,” keeping my answers polite and short with him was the best avenue. At least until I knew where his head was.
“Good,” he didn’t waste any time to get out of the dining room.
Fefe sidestepped him and rolled her eyes for a second as she handed me the coffee. “Excuse his temper, darling, he’s…”
“Stressed,” I supplied, graciously taking the cup.
“To say the least,” another sympathetic smile covered her lips. “Anyway, go ahead and dig in, you must be starving.”
I nodded, relishing in the amazing taste of the coffee. I was not going to eat until Fefe sat down and took the first bite. I may have been a test tube baby, but I was raised to have manners. One must never eat before the final dish has been served. My mother had said to me and my sister when we were growing up.
At the thought of Inessa, a twinge of pain shot through my heart to seem like the pain in my stomach was nothing more than a fleeting memory.
Through my haze of being out, I hadn’t saw my sister in any memories. No fleeting conversations or memories of us growing up and arguing about who was cuter between Ryan Gosling and Ryan Reynolds. Granted, the argument always ended with me choosing Gosling and Inessa choosing Reynolds. But still. I had dreamed about nothing except Demir, Karina and Lovett. An occasional dream about Dristan but anyone else? Well, the notion was simply preposterous.
“Here,” Shang shoved a plate of pills in front of me before taking the seat across from me and grabbed his plate from a stack of dishes I hadn’t noticed sitting in the center of the table.
“What are these?” I may have been thankful to him and Fefe for taking care of me when they could’ve easily left me to die. But that didn’t mean I was going to just take anything that was forced into my line of sight.
“Vitamins, natural remedies for any lingering pain, and red ginseng for mental clarity, energy and fatigue.” He said, cutting his eyes at me.
Looking at the pills, I recognized the vitamin and the ginseng. But the natural remedies were something I couldn’t decipher.
“Yophiel prepared them, River, so just take the damn pills and eat.” He snapped putting an empty plate in front of me before loading down his own plate.
Narrowing my eyes on him, I tried to remain calm and think about Fefe’s words. Shang was stressed. Shang was tired. Shang was an asshole, I snapped internally.
“Ok,” Fefe brought in the last of the plates along with the selection of beverages on a cart.
“Tell her to take the damned the pills and please reassure her that we did not hand her poison in a capsule.” Shang pointedly stared at me as he directed his statement toward the mother hen of the household.
“Stop being so nasty, Shang,” she swatted his shoulder and looked at me. “Deary, you don’t have to take them if you don’t want to. We both know how the scientists work and completely understand.”
I swallowed a lump in my throat, turning my attention back to the plate of pills. They knew how the scientists would use the same method to enhance our abilities and test different drugs on us on a regular basis.
“I’m sorry,” no matter how badly I told myself to just take the pills and pray for the best. I couldn’t. I wouldn’t. Not unless I got the package myself from the store. Trust was something no good guard member harnessed and given my past experiences, my internal wall was up higher than ever.
“No need, darling, it’s perfectly understandable.” She quickly took the pills away, tossing them in a trash can and smiled at me, “better.”
I nodded wordlessly and waited for her to sit down before taking small portions of everything on the table.
“So, what’d you do to make it back from the grave?” Shang asked, chewing his food silently as he looked at me with a raised brow.
I took a deep breath and leveled my eyes on him, “you knew me when I was halfway dead. Why don’t you tell me what you know, and I’ll fill in the blanks?”
He smirked for a second, reaching for his own coffee, “touché.”
“Shang leave the poor girl alone,” Fefe rolled her eyes and took the first bite of her breakfast, inadvertently giving me permission to start in on my own plate.
“I do have a few questions,” I said after the first bite hit my stomach. Looking at Fefe, I cleared my throat, “if you don’t mind me asking, what’s your talent?”
Covering her mouth, I still knew she was smiling by the crow’s feet popping out on the corners of her eyes. “I’m able to calm the mind and bring inner peace.”
“You’re not a fighter?” I asked, stunned.
She shook her head, “I was never trained. Guard life never appealed to me anyway; the killing and injuries was just too much for me to fathom.”
“Wait,” I shook my head, forcing my upper body to sit up a little straighter. “So, you never trained? Not even for a day?”
“Not a one,” she said contentedly.
“You’re lucky,” I breathed, focusing my attention on my plate.
“Not if you put me in a fight to the death situation.” She winked at me and stabbed her fork into her food.
“How’d you get the nickname Silver Angel?” Of course Shang decided to turn the conversation back on me.
Taking a deep breath, I took my time in answering. Only when I needed something to wash down the food did I meet his death like eyes.
“I was the most perfect experiment among all of the guards.” I deadpanned.
“Is that so?”
“It is.”
“Somehow, I think you might be overexaggerating.”
“You are aware of what I did in order to get a BDO right?”
“A what?” Fefe innocently asked, looking between the two of us.
“Black Diamond Order,” Shang answered, without tearing his eyes from mine. “I know full well the stories I’ve heard.”
“And pray tell, what did you hear?”
“You killed two prominent judges of Onyx Elite along with blowing up the Black Courts HQ.”
I snorted and pointed the fork at him before going back to my plate. Let him stew in the partially true story. I had never blown up anything that required a tricky mechanism or rigging of any kind. Unfortunately, he had gotten the wrong one on that end of the story.
“What?” He asked, confused by my lau
ghter. “Is it not true?”
“Oh no, it is,” I sobered and nailed him with a hard stare, “Judge Holt and Judge Sooter got what they deserved.”
Fefe cleared her throat, taking a generous gulp from her orange juice.
“And the HQ?” Shang pressed on.
I smirked and glanced out the double doors before answering.
“My sister did that for someone I loved dearly.” It was an honest answer in its rarest form and one I would later come to regret.
“Love and us experiments don’t mix. You’ll be wise to forget about him,” Shang warned, forcing the temperature in the room to drop. He was hiding something from me, and I was hellbent on finding out just what that something was. Besides, what else was I going to do with my time while I waited for my strength to return.
Chapter 2 Black Robes, Black Courts
Donning the robes for the seventh time today, I stared in the mirror at my reflection. I had done good to manage the upkeep for my beard; my hair on the other hand needed a serious cut and my face needed an overhaul of something. Maybe one of those masks things Karina ranted and raved about to Dristan and had even talked him into doing on occasion would work for me too.
Three months of fucking self-torture seemed to run you in the ground faster than stress or illness. I hadn’t been going to the gym as much as I liked to in the past and didn’t find a lingering longing for the exertion. Actually, all I had done in the time since my promotion was oversee cases, hand down my orders and finish paperwork. My new job was a far cry from what I had always known.
Gone were the days where I would go out with my sect and handle the red and black orders on the people who hadn’t faced a strict enough punishment in the normal courts. Sleeping in through the day time hours was no longer a luxury I could find pleasure in. And drinking with my friends? Yeah, that wasn’t even an option. Instead, I was trapped in an endless loop of repetitive order signing, callous indifference towards those who appeared in front of the bench.
