"Don't talk to anyone unless you are told. Don't touch anything unless you are told. Don't go anywhere..."
"Why don't I just not breathe unless you tell me too?" Lillian rolled her eyes. The two had been parked outside of some busy nightclub for the past thirty minutes in complete silence, when out of nowhere, Kaeron got a text, and he suddenly started firing off all these rules at her.
He shot her a look and growled. "Don't interrupt."
She let out an annoyed breath. Kaeron had been acting more aggressive ever since they had arrived to this place, but Lillian had known from the beginning that that would be the case from the way Lex had described their history with the Matriarch of the Deitas family. Their had been a certain air of inevitability surrounding the fact. Kaeron would be prickly, even more so than usual, sure, but this was different. Tonight, he was acting like he had when they had first met, and Lillian hadn't even been given an opportunity to try and find out why. She had waken from her "nap" in the middle of the night, in the back of Kaerons car, disoriented, and in the middle of Kaeron telling Lex not to leave the house, and how "we'll be back as soon as possible." She had wanted to say something to him about it but he had already sounded upset, so of course, she didn't push too hard but Kaeron being Kaeron, only grunted and snarled any response he had to the questions Lillian had dared to ask, and so she had no other choice but to go along with him; with the closest thing to an explanation; that he so kindly didn't elaborate further upon because he has the emotional depth of a toddler who likes to play with fire; being the good ole "I'll tell you when we get there."
"I'm sorry." She lied.
He sighed, annoyed like, and she suddenly got the urge to interrupt again.
"Now, like I was saying. Don't talk to anybody unless you are told. Don't touch, look, or act unless you are told to touch something, or to look at something, or to act on something. Do you understand, girl? This is serious, I shouldn't even be doing this, but I owe the bastard a favor."
She wished Lex were here right now. Lex wouldn't let this asshole get away with how he was acting towards her.
"Doing what?" Lillian asked, again locking away the hurt in the box where she always put it.
"I need you to poison a long-time colleague of mine."
Lillian's heart jumped from out of her chest and into her throat as a floating mans head appeared out of nowhere, right in front of her.
"The Fuck Ratford! Are you trying to give the girl a fucking heart attack!" Kaeron growled, grabbing Lillian and twisting her to face him. "Hey." Kaeron said sternly but with a surprising amount of comfort and leaned in close, "Lamb, ***** alright, he's **** * moron." Her racing heart and the pounding in her ears muffled most of what he had said, but with the fragments combined with the sound coming from where she had seen the apparition, a sound that kind of reminded her of laughter and...
"A joke! Oh." She giggled nervously, facing the floating head. He wasn't a real floating head. He looked more like one of those holograms that Talion would use to project famous musicians to spice up his parties.
"No, dear." The floating head spoke, still snickering a bit. "That was more like a prank, but what I said was all true. I have brought you here to kill a long-time colleague of mine." The floating head spoke again, but this time nobody laughed.
******
"I hope... that this girl... will be able to hold her own in there." Ratford said, sniffing up the large amount of phoenix ash spread out on the plate being held out before him by one of his lackies. A young girl wearing a "serpent eye mask" the calling card of the Ratford company.
They had moved further away from the club for some privacy for the girl as she got changed in the back of Ratford's spy van. She hadn't said anything, but Kaeron could smell that she was still a bit shaken up by the prank the idiot had played on her.
"Don't worry about her. If anything happens, I'll step in. Trust me. That bastard Leonidas will die tonight. Just don't scare the help to death."
Ratford eyed him. "You going in there guns blazing would bring a lot of attention to your current whereabouts. You'd risk letting Draefin know that you're in town? Over this mortal girl? Who is she anyways, and what makes her so special? Or could it be. Is our sister loving, heartless prick of a future leader getting soft?"
Kaeron spat out a laugh and, in a flash, had Ratford slammed up against the hood of his car with a blade positioned just out of reach of his eye.
"Hey!" One of Ratfords lackeys yelled and took a step toward them, but when Kaeron moved the blade an inch closer, the smart man froze.
Ratford, on the other hand, was unfazed by the entire ordeal, as to be expected by one of the Hells Mob's, higher ups. "You gonna use it, Deitas? Because I've had enough blades pointed at me to know that they don't hurt unless you use them."
Kaeron smiled calmly, purposely showing teeth and letting slip enough bloodlust that it would scare off a small army of demons.
"Call me soft again, and yeah, I'll use it, but not only on you. Nope. I like making a point." Kaeron growled and stared at Ratford until the bastard looked away.
Somebody whistled like a hot piece of ass had just pulled up. "Looking good! We might not even need Cassandra!"
Kaeron let go of Ratfords shirt and looked over at who the guy was yapping about.
Lillian stood just outside the vans double doors in a lowcut black dress covered in black diamonds. Her eyes were covered in a dark velvet eyeshadow, and she had been given long fake eyelashes, making her look mature for her age. The short length of the dress and the way it showed off her breasts, he could tell, was bothering the girl to no end. He could tell from the way she wouldn't pick her head up from off the ground to look any of them in the face.
"Looking good. Maybe in a few years, you might actually turn out not so bad looking." Kaeron joked.
"Um, thanks.. I guess. Can someone tell me the plan already. I really want to get changed as soon as possible." She said, squirming around like the attention from the extras actually bothered her.
Kaeron rolled his eyes. "Loosen up their, nun. All you've done so far is put on some skimpy outfit. You haven't blown somebody on the back of a bus. Let your hair loose and have a bit of fun for once, you wet blanket."
She finally lifted her head, and she looked disgusted. "Shut up, creep. Seriously, are you going to tell me why I'm dressed like a street walker or not?"
"Ungrateful little girl."
******
"I am the girl that every man wants." Lillian chanted softly beneath the pounding music of club... she couldn't remember the name, even though they had just passed the name up in lights on a billboard to get over to the entrance where one wolf shifter built like three Kaerons and a fae that was a little smaller than the wolf shifter stood guard over the entrance.
She was trying her best to act like how she expected women that attend these types of events would, but she felt awkward, and she felt hungry eyes follow her as they were let inside before the line of people waiting to get in.
She giggled and tapped playfully on the shoulder of the girl she had just met in the parking lot less than twenty minutes ago... Cassandra, who was now playing her best friend.
"I'm so happy that Brad could get us in!" Lillian yelled, making sure that the microphone hidden deep inside the girls' ear picked up what she was saying.
"The club is crawling with security." Kaeron had said (though he had used its real name, she really needed to pull herself together), and so they had to speak everything in code.
"Copy that, you're inside, good. Now the boys will buy you two drinks while you two find a spot where Leonidas can get a good look at the both of you." Said the floating head, aka Ratford, through their coms. She didn't know why, but Kaerons silence unnerved her a little.
They were led into the crowd by the men to which Ratford had been referring to. The crowd was intense, and the entire establishment was covered in a blanket of cigar smoke that made Lillian cough from a sudden flood of unpleasant memories.
"No more of that." Kaeron demanded. "You're trying to convince him that you're a party girl... you know. Fun.. unflinching in the face of danger... The complete opposite of the real you.
"Sorry." Lillian muttered and continued forward, trying her best to look over heads to try and spot the target...
Smack!
Lillian recoiled letting go of her new best friends hand and rubbed her nose. Her eyes were watering, and her face ached like she had collided with a wall.
"I'm sorry." Lillian said, bowing her head by instinct, bringing her eye level with the person's hand. "A snake head with blood dripping from its detached neck running all the way down the arm of the bearer." That's how all of the books had described the tattoos of the followers of the ancient witch, Beatrice.
She quickly picked her head up, only to be met by a deviants smile. A male witch who fit every description of creepy in the book faced her, looking her up and down with that look on his face that she recognized from all of the men who looked at Lex.
Lust.
She'd feel honored to have caught this mans eye if not for whatever had been rotting in his mouth for the past... decade or so, finding her nose before his words made it to her ears, and nausea latched itself around her like a snake.
She was already considering packing up and leaving.
"A sexy little thing." He said, sticking his hand out to touch her. "For someone on this side of the border, I mean. Maybe I'll take you back to my place. Show you how us dirt dwellers like to fuck." He grinned exposing crooked teeth.
Lillian took a step back only to smack into another hard body.
"Who do we have here, crow?" Asked a woman with the same tattoo. Yep, there was no mistaking it. The tattoos were most definitely the same ones from the books.
"Fuck off Roxie!" The guy known as crow spat. "You broke the last ones mind with those perverted toys of yours."
The woman known as Roxie snorted a laugh. "Don't be too mad. She was a lousy fuck anyway. You weren't missing out on much."
Crow snorted. "Yeah, whatever, this one is mine and..."
"Lillian." Kaerons voice cut through her panic. "I need you to stay calm. Mike is on the way to extract you. Just stay calm."
Who the heck was Mike...
"Hey!" Lillian protested, as the girl known as Roxie grabbed her by the wrist, with an iron grip. "Let go!"
The woman scoffed and started to feel up on Lillian as if she hadn't just demanded to be let go of.
"Let go of me!" Lillian tried throwing a punch with her open hand.
"Avoid." The woman had spoken the word so quick that Lillian barely registered she had said it, but even more disturbing was when her fist spasmed and went wildly off track, connecting with nothing but air.
"Fiesty. I like the fiesty ones. They take longer to break."
Was nobody going to do anything to stop this!
"Hey!"
Roxie froze as if she recognized the voice.
Crow broke out laughing. "Best day ever."
Roxie scowled. "Shut up."
Her apparent savior spoke again. "Let go of the young lady now."
The grip on her arm vanished almostimmediately, and Lillian felt grateful for all of two seconds.
Young lady? From the way his voice sounded, the man couldn't be much older than she was.
She turned and faced the arrogant bastard and was rendered speechless. Besides, for Kaeron, this stranger was the most gorgeous male specimen she had ever laid eyes on, but unlike Kaeron, this man was more woman pretty than ruggedly handsome. He looked almost... like a doll, but the look on his face as he stared down the two cult members. The disgust. Was how she knew he was real.
"Collin Banner. My favorite buzz kill." Roxie scowled.
"Leave. You have no more business here, scoundrels." Collin Banner growled, somehow managing to look his nose down at them, even though both of the ruffians were at least a foot taller than the man.
"Whatever you say, boy. Tell your father that it was a pleasure, and we will be in touch." Roxie smiled darkly before slightly tilting her head at Crow and vanishing into mid-air.
"I'll be seeing you." Crow said, smiling like he had won some battle before vanishing behind Roxie.
"Sure thing freaks." The man known as Collin Banner, spat at where the two once stood.
Lillian wasn't sure what just happened or what she should do now. She wasn't even sure if she should breathe or not. Maybe if she didn't he'd just up and forget she was there.
"Lillian." Kaerons voice broke through once again. "Let him seduce you."
"What!?" Her sudden outburst grabbed Collin Banners attention.
"I didn't say anything." He eyed her and suddenly looked away and cleared his throat. "Although maybe I should have. I am truly sorry, given the circumstances. Are you alright? Those two didn't hurt you too bad. Did they? I've been telling my father to stop working with people like them, but does he listen." He shook his head as he took long impressive strides towards her, clearing the distance in four steps.
"Lillian, just go with it. Kaeron urged.
She took a deep breath.
"No offense, but your father should be locked away for even going near people like that."
He snorted a laugh. "Tell me about it... Hey, I'm supposed to join him and some of his business associates for dinner. Why don't you come with?"
"Umm, you see.."
"Accept the offer, Lillian." Kaeron hissed in her ear.
"That sounds like fun. Whom is your father again?"
He smiled. "A woman after my own heart. He's a criminal prosecutor. Big time, you know. He was the prosecutor who took down Nedro. You know. That necromancer who convinced all those people to commit suicide in an moronic attempt to summon Lordis The Corrupter of Souls."
Lillian shook at the name. Another thing that Talions library had; were a plethora of books on demons and the lords of hell that they serve under. The Corrupter of Souls is said to be the most ruthless of the lords and can only be summoned to this realm with a massive amount of souls collected. Lordis is said to be an insatiable demon who, if ever returned to Solaris, would not stop devouring souls until every living being was wiped out.
"His name is Leonidas. Leonidas Banner."
Of course it was. Lillian wanted to scratch her eyes out. She had been sent here to kill one of the good guys.