Framed

by Amber Lynn Natusch

  “Or,” Ares added, about to stir the pot further, “perhaps she bewitched Jer, the same way she did Sean. Is that what happened, Ruby?”

  “My name is Scarlet,” she growled, “and I bewitched no one. Jer admitted to his crimes. Jay will attest to that.”

  “Jay has always resented being in his brother's shadow,” Sophie argued. “I'm sure that he saw an opportunity when you cozied up to him with a plan to eradicate Jer. He is a sympathizer.”

  “I don't use others to do my dirty work, Sophie,” Scarlet purred. “I, unlike you, am not afraid to get my hands bloody.”

  “I think we're all too aware of how bloody you're willing to get yourself,” Sophie said, eying me up and down with disdain. “I've never understood what Sean sees in you. It doesn't matter anymore though, does it? He would never have been yours, agreement or not.”

  “And what agreement is this?” Ares asked with great curiosity.

  “Sean has been so taken with the Rouge that he couldn't pull himself away from her. When she lay dying a few weeks ago, I agreed to heal her if he agreed to never have anything to do with her again. He did.”

  “Interesting,” he remarked, turning his attention back to Scarlet. “You know, throughout history, it is written that behind virtually every war, every disaster, and every evil thing done by man was a woman. More specifically, a woman scorned.” He walked slowly toward Sean and me, eyes fixed on Scarlet's in a game to see who would flinch first. “Is that where your rage comes from, Rouge?” he said, cocking his head slightly to the side, amused. “Are you a woman scorned?”

  Something flashed in our collective mind at the mention of scorned women, something so pivotal, yet so obvious that neither Scarlet nor I could believe the genius of its simplicity. All eyes were on Scarlet as her laughter erupted, loud and manic. Sean grabbed her arm, pulling her in close to him.

  “I will kill you if I must. Don't give me reason to,” he warned.

  “I won't be the one you want to kill by the end of this, Sean,” she said, pinning her hateful eyes on Sophie momentarily, before turning them to Ares.

  “No, Ares. I may be many things, but I am not a woman scorned,” Scarlet proclaimed after regaining her composure. Her attention flashed back to Sophie as a wild and feral smile crossed her face. Three little words were about to turn the tides, and she reveled in the irony of it all as she whispered into the darkness.

  “But she is.”

  24

  Every man on the roof turned their attention to Sophie who stood steadfast. She looked every bit as confused as the others. Scarlet saw right through her.

  “Deep down, under that sweet, calm façade, is an angry, bitter child that would do anything to get what she wanted. Isn't that right, Sophie?” She stared at Scarlet, expressionless and unmoving. “Ruby never really could figure out what Jer's motivation was this whole time, and, to be honest, I couldn't either. Sure, he hated my very existence, and Sean for allowing it, but it seemed unsporting to frame me for murder because of those minor details. He may not have been the brightest of henchmen, but he had aspirations, and I'm quite certain that death wasn't one of them.”

  Scarlet strode slowly and confidently towards the unfaltering Sophie. It was taking everything she had to keep up her bravado—I could feel it.

  “But then Ares was so kind to put that piece of the puzzle together for me,” Scarlet said, circling behind Sophie like a shark around bait. “You were his motivation. I'd love to know all the sordid details as to how that pairing came about.”

  “You're disgusting,” Sophie snarled, breaking her silence as Scarlet carried on her conspiracy theory.

  “Oh no, Sophie. I'm not the one who fucked Jer into doing my bidding,” she countered. “That's truly revolting.”

  “I did no such thing,” she exclaimed, turning to Sean for support.

  “Didn't you?” Scarlet asked, looking her directly in the eyes from only inches away. “Then please do tell me how you managed to convince Jer to kill his own brothers.”

  “I don't know why Jer did what he did. Maybe he was desperate to see you dead and knew there was no other way to see that happen. He knew that if you were found guilty that Sean would die too. He's wanted to be in charge for a century. Maybe that's why he did it,” she rationalized.

  “That could be true, but Jer wouldn't have risked death just to be in power. Power is such a fickle thing,” Scarlet said, her lips gently brushing Sophie's ear. “It comes and goes so easily, doesn't it Sophie? And when it leaves you, the desperation is endless. Jer didn't know what that felt like, but you do, don't you? And now isn't the time to lie...you know I know your little secret.”

  Sophie's anxiety seeped through my skin. Scarlet soaked it up like a sponge, letting the fear fuel her further.

  “Oh, that's right. They don't know about your...shortcomings. But you had to know that they'd find out sooner or later. You could only fake it for so long. Were you hoping to have Peyta be your protégé, so you could take on a...less hands on role?”

  “Fake what?” Ares asked, sounding genuinely intrigued. Scarlet looked to Sophie, awaiting a response.

  None came.

  “Sophie sustained some...damage,” Scarlet said with hesitation, searching for a delicate way to describe what had happened between them. “She didn’t escape my healing with all her assets intact.”

  “Shut up, whore,” Sophie spat.

  “She seems to be lacking some of her previous talents,” Scarlet continued, “though screwing doesn't seem to be one of them.”

  “You fucking bitch,” she yelled. “You've been nothing but trouble since you showed up.”

  “Sophie?” Sean called softly. She clammed up again, regaining her stone-like expression.

  “So you duped Jer into slaying his own brothers with your feminine wiles, I get that—you are a hot little package,” Scarlet said, continuing to circle. “But what I don't get is why you wanted Sean dead. You knew what my sentence would be if found guilty of the murders, so why hand the PC my head on a platter when it would cost Sean his? You told Ruby yourself that he could be killed, did you not? Were you really that angry? So angry that you would watch the love of your life murdered, just to satisfy your vengeance?”

  "That's why I came to Ruby to try to get her to convince him to revoke it,” she protested, her voice quaking. “I knew that the Elders wanted you dead. I didn’t want him to suffer that fate too.”

  “But you knew he wouldn't, you said so yourself. Did you do that just to save face? Were you really that angry at him?”

  “No...,” she whispered, looking longingly to Sean.

  “No, you weren't that angry with him?” Scarlet badgered, “or no, he wouldn't have been killed? Couldn't have been killed?”

  “No...,”

  “Did you do it to send him a message? To let him know you have the upper hand?”

  “No...,”

  “Or was it out of sheer spite? You just wanted to take Ruby away from him to make him as miserable as you are?”

  “NO!” Sophie shouted in Scarlet's face. “I never would have let him die! He would have recanted his oath once I made him see you for what you truly are. We would have watched you die hand in hand...,"

  Holy shit...

  “But you ruined everything! You always ruin everything!” she screamed, pulling her hair into total disarray. “Jer had almost convinced Sean of your guilt. Jay's murder would have been your end. Sean was so close to doing what needed to be done.” She turned on Scarlet with a fury that I was certain nobody present had ever seen in her. “Cass's death was an accident, but Jer capitalized on the situation by butchering up the body to make it look like a werewolf attack. When I returned to Portsmouth, he confided in me about what he'd done. He'd always had a sweet spot for me. He wanted everything Sean had.

  "It was when Jer showed no sign of remorse for what he'd done that I knew I could use him. He wanted the sympathizers dead just as badly as I wanted you gone. He also wanted
Sean eliminated and me at his side, though that was never part of my plan..." Her eyes narrowed viciously and she continued her confession, oblivious to the presence of anyone but Scarlet. "My plan was so simple: Jer killed them, found the holes in your alibi, and then I lied about time of death so you couldn't be ruled out. It should have worked seamlessly.”

  “But it didn't, did it Sophie?" she sneered. "Too bad you put in all that time on your back for nothing.”

  “Fucking Jer was a small price to pay for ensuring your death.”

  “And winning Sean back,” Scarlet added condescendingly. “That's a strange way to show your love for someone.”

  “You have no idea,” she spat, lunging in closer. “You don't know the first thing about love.” She turned her attention to Sean, who was visibly shaken. “I did all of this for us. I just wanted us to be as we were not so very long ago—in love.”

  “It's been a century at least since I loved you,” he growled.

  “And a century from now you could love me again, Sean,” she pleaded before turning hateful eyes to Scarlet. “After one hundred years, he wouldn't even have remembered your name.”

  You could have heard a pin drop amid the PC. Nobody moved. Nobody spoke, with the exception of Scarlet. She couldn't help but get the last word in edgewise.

  “And in a hundred years from now, he won't remember yours,” she purred as she watched the reality of what she'd done strike Sophie down and leech all the color from her face.

  Ares broke the PC's silence as Scarlet took a step back towards Sean, sinking the knife into Sophie's back further.

  “Sophie?” he asked, with a cautioning tone. “I think we need to talk. It's time to go now.”

  She turned to him, batting child-like eyes that pleaded for forgiveness. She received none. She turned frantically, looking from face to face, meeting nothing but anger and resentment until finally landing on Sean's.

  “Please, Sean...,” she begged. “I never would have let them harm you. I had everything worked out so that wouldn’t happen.”

  I felt her panic rise as he said nothing.

  “I did all of this for us,” she cried, a single tear escaping.

  The look on Sean's face spoke volumes. His hatred was plain, though you could see that everything he'd witnessed hadn't quite processed yet. She killed his brothers. She let Jer die. She almost killed me.

  He said nothing in response.

  Ares took Sophie by the arm and guided her to the fire escape. She called for Sean as the PC closed in around her, turning their backs on us to escort her to her punishment.

  “What will they do to her?” I asked Sean delicately. Scarlet had allowed me to come out once she was satisfied with her performance and its outcome.

  “They will strip her of her bond.”

  “And then what?”

  “Her immortality is forfeit,” he said, staring off into space. “She will age as she should have until she dies. It will be quick but excruciating.”

  He was pained by what he told me, and I felt for him. He'd loved her once, and though those days were long gone they were not forgotten. Her impending death brought old emotions to the forefront for him. Before that moment, I wasn't certain that he was capable of that depth of emotion.

  I touched his arm lightly in an affectionate gesture.

  “I didn't want this,” I told him. “I never wanted any of it.”

  “I know,” he responded weakly. “We need to go get Ronnie.”

  He turned without looking at me and headed back across the line of roofs. I chased behind him, unable to keep up with his brooding, driven pace. As I hopped across the narrow gaps between the buildings, I worried about what I would find when I arrived. I prayed to God that something would go right that evening.

  I nervously awaited His response.

  25

  I was reminded that night that God does answer prayers; sometimes he just gets to them a little later than expected. When I finally made my way down to street level via the fire escape, I rounded the corner to see a small circle of people gingerly loading Ronnie into the back of an SUV. I was hurried into the vehicle myself before we drove in excess of twenty miles an hour over the speed limit through town to get to Ronnie's house. I had no clue how Sean knew how to get there, but, in fairness, I had no clue how Sean knew a lot of what he did.

  When we arrived, the lights were off, and we were able to park the car in the garage to avoid spectators. Regardless of whatever rumors were out there about New Englanders being standoffish and cold, they enjoyed being extremely nosy.

  Upon entering the house, Ronnie was brought immediately up to her room—Peyta never left her side. She was semi-lucid, her neck primarily healed, but angry looking. Nobody had any insight as to how the next few days were going to play out for her. Ares had said that she would turn into what had made her. That was not a reality I wanted for anyone, let alone Peyta's mother. If he was being truthful and Ronnie did Change, there was only one thing for the PC to do. I shuddered at the thought.

  The boys left us alone upstairs and filed down to the living room for a meeting of the minds. On my way to join them, I stopped and snagged some clothes from Peyta's room, intent on showering first. I needed to clean the night's events out of my pores. Unfortunately, scrubbing it out of my mind wasn't an option.

  By the time I was finished, the boys were standing in the kitchen munching on the food they'd pilfered from the fridge, pantry, and anywhere else they could find. I grabbed a bag of Pirate's Booty and joined the early morning buffet; stress tended to make me hungry. I hopped up onto the counter next to Cooper and offered him a handful. Instead, he put an arm around me and drew me nearer.

  “Wasn't sure I would be seeing you again,” he said, his tone smacking the slightest bit of hostility. “Glad to see you managed to keep yourself alive, despite your best efforts.”

  He was definitely angry with me, but there was an undercurrent to it—fear. The realization that I was slated to die that night settled in and made complete sense of his reaction. He'd feared for my life.

  I knew that I was likely about to further complicate the issues we were having, but I snuggled into him anyway. My rock.

  “I think I'm actually getting pretty good at death avoidance. I wonder if I could make a living doing that? I wouldn't have to fiddle with Quickbooks.”

  I looked up to see Sean eying the two of us; he didn't look pleased.

  “So what happened?” Jay asked, oblivious to the tension in the room.

  “That's what I want to know,” Sean said, his gaze unfaltering. “You first, Jay.”

  “I decided to stay behind when everyone went after Ruby, uh, I mean after Scarlet. I wanted to see if Ronnie was alive. When I got to her, I realized that Scarlet had stuffed her clothes in the wound to stop the bleeding,” he said, pointing in my direction. “I was getting ready to call for help when Cooper rounded the corner, dragging the girl with him.”

  “You brought Peyta on purpose?” Sean asked.

  “Hey, I didn't know what else to do,” Cooper explained. “Ruby ran out the door after whispering Ronnie's name and barking an order at me to stay with Peyta. I knew about the dreams and the visions, so I knew what it meant—the Revenant was after her. I also knew she wasn't likely to get there in time."

  He looked uncomfortable while he delivered that final line. He liked Ronnie, and, better than that, I think he respected her. Never in a million years would he have wished harm to fall upon her. Certainly not at the hands of the Rev.

  "Peyta is a Healer," he continued with a shrug. "You said this is her gift, her calling, so I figured if anyone could heal Ronnie it would be her. If there was anything left to heal...”

  Sean stared at him across the narrow divide. Cooper returned the gesture.

  “And then what?” I asked, hoping to distract them both. A fight was brewing, and I'd had enough of that for a good week or two, at least.

  “Peyta was startled when I stormed the room and y
anked her out of bed. I tried my best to explain without scaring her. It didn't go as well as I'd have liked,” he said, pressing his lips together tightly. “She was in rough shape by the time we arrived. Seeing her mom did nothing to help.”

  “I've never heard someone scream like that,” Jay added. “I thought she'd wake the neighborhood for sure. The last thing we needed was cops showing up.”

  “I covered her mouth quickly and tried to calm her, but it wasn't working, so I carried her down the alley and put her down next to her mother,” Cooper continued. “I was hoping that the dire nature of the situation would override her fear. It eventually did.”

  “But how did she do it? She's barely been trained, and Ronnie isn't PC, or even a werewolf for that matter. Can Healers heal humans?” I asked, looking to Sean for the answer.

  “Conventionally speaking, no,” he responded. “However, there is very little about Peyta's powers that appear to be conventional. I'm not sure that I'd put anything past her at this point, but if you'd told me it was possible at the time I'd not have believed it to be true.”

  “What exactly did she do?” I asked, knowing full well she hadn't pulled a Sophie. She was only covered in a modest amount of blood—the amount you'd expect to see on someone who'd been handling a bleeding person or blood-soaked corpse.

  “That was the weirdest part,” Jay said. “It didn't look like she did anything.”

  “All I know is that one second Ronnie was seconds from death, and the next...she was looking at me with terror in her eyes,” Cooper added.

  “So she just laid on her mom, and poof, she was better?” I asked, incredulously.

  “Peyta's powers lie inside her mind, Ruby,” Sean started, shifting his weight against the counter. “Perhaps she doesn't need to take such a physical route to heal. This opens up a lot of possibilities.”