He set the towel down, now on this side of the island, and leaned back, still disgruntled about the security mishap. He should be grateful, I found the flaws in the system, and now Jacky boy could improve once again. “Don’t you think Malachi will feel a little irritated that you did that?”
“I don’t particularly care,” I replied as the rose and her pup joined my left side. “The one thing he did right was pick those men to run the othersects,” I said the word with a sneer. “I’ve gone over their records, looked into their backgrounds, their families, their enemies, the associates of their children. They would be good candidates for your professors. Of course, theyhave sworn their silence about the project, for now,” I added. They understood where I stood in this process. They understood what would happen if they breathed a word of this even to Malachi.
We weren’t in the business of mercy anymore. That was Malachi’s way of life, not ours. If they betrayed us, if anyone associated with this university crossed us, it would be the last thing they ever did on this earth.
“Their programs are already formed,” the rose put in. “All of their Initiates would have to transfer.”
“This college of yours, while I urge you to hasten the pace, certainly won’t be built by the end of their current wave of flawed Initiates. I hope it will be in session before the next wave applies.”
“Fall? You want me to finish this project in the next nine months?”
“If a baby can form inside the womb and be birthed within that amount of time, so can this.”
He frowned. “We would need to build it and everything.”
I lifted my hands to either side. “We have a building already built in Seattle. Build it up and out or use that as our base and build an entirely new structure across the way. The property is 100,000 acres, deary, it’s quite sad I have to do all the thinking for you.”
He glared daggers at me. “Where is Poppy?”
“My leash isn’t as tight as yours.”
And as if her ears were burning, Evie walked out from the hall, drying her hair. “Azrael? What are you doing here?”
I gave him a knowing look before turning to the rose, but not fast enough to miss his eyeroll. “Outside?”
She nodded, gesturing to the glass doors that led out to their large, open porch.
There was a newfound light in her eyes. A lust for blood and chaos, but it was so much less than what I had glimpsed in the sinner’s eyes. Not so much today, but in the past.
I walked towards the edge of the porch, taking in the trees that surrounded us. Large and bright green. Pine trees. “You picked Washington,” I commented. “And the woods, surprising given his past and yours.”
“He’s working on overcoming the things that he believes weaken him,” she commented, joining my side, her pup heading for the trees without fear.
“The trees weaken him?” I knew what weakened him.
“You know what weakens him,” she replied easily.
His mysterious past. A past that wasn’t so mysterious, not to me. The poor boy of the forest had been taken off the street after wandering away from his home at the ripe age of four. The couple who stole him tried to run, disappearing into the woods because they thought it would provide them cover, what they didn’t know was that there had been a small cult living in the trees.
That cult killed them mercilessly, took the boy from their lifeless hands, and raised him as their own. Beating him, doing unspeakable things to him.
If life was a contest, however, and our pasts were measured, his still fell short compared to others.
“How is your game truly going?” she asked, looking over. “You said you were ready to play. Have you been playing well?”
The trees were so dense that the pup had disappeared the second she stepped through the tree line. I couldn’t see even a flash of her blinding white fur through the thick branches. “It’s been 12 days.”
“You aren’t one for playing things slow.”
“On the contrary, seedling, sometimes playing it slow is precisely how it needs to be played.” I studied the trees carefully,considering my options. Of all of them, she was the most useful, and while there was risk in allowing even a bit of information, that risk would be well placed if it remained in the cracked mind of the woman beside me.
I angled my head slightly. “I’ve found a card I can play,” I allowed. “Someone who will help in my endeavors. Someone who can help end this once and for all.”
“End what, Azrael?”
I smiled, finding her strange, deeply cracked eyes. “Don’t worry, wild rose, I’ll bring you in soon enough.” It was a question she knew I wouldn’t answer, but good for her for testing the waters. “How are you handling your bloodlust?”
She rolled her shoulders. “We’ve come home for a day to ‘recharge’,” she answered. “Things have been busy. This is the first time I haven’t been splattered in blood since we diverted the plane on the 19th.”
