The Search I

Everyone looked at Landon when he threatened the person on the other side of the phone. His voice was dark and low and if there was a possibility for someone to spit fire out of their eyes, he would’ve been able too.

If there is even the hint of a tiny scratch on her body, I'm going to carve your eyes out and feed them to the dogs- No. Scratch that - I'm going to eat them myself, raw, you motherfucker, because I'm not above tasting your blood for hurting what's mine"

I didn’t like him. Hell, I hated him and I would forever for the rest of my life even if it was only because of how my Cecily felt towards him. But he was fucked up. A devil. 

That bastard was half beast half man like me and therefor there was a mutual understanding that was nothing but a given fact.
He was skilled in keeping his demons under control, I respected that because most of the motherfuckers here were controlled by their demons. 

I looked over to Killian who was staring with lifeless eyes to – no through- Landon, hands clenched into a fist. The longer Glyndon stayed away, the more he was losing himself. I don’t know how he kept it together but it wasn’t long until he was about to go insane.

Glyndon was Killian’s drug, his antidepressant, his sanity shot. 
She put him in such a high that now, with her disappearance, he wasn’t his old self, which was already fucked up. 

No, Killian was an empty shell and the only thing pumping through his veins was insanity and bloodlust.

He was like a someone with a bipolar disorder who went into a deep low, with no ending.

Glyndon was Killian’s ground and without her he was slipping deeper into the pits of hell. 

My eyes wandered over to Nikolai, who was standing protectively in front of Brandon’s door like a guard dog after he gave the phone to Landon. His tattoos looked like dark shadows over his big bulky body. I always thought that his tattoos were a perfect representation of his fucked up, black soul.

Different than Killian, who was hiding his monsters in order to perfectly camouflage himself, Niko loved his demons. He was proud of them. One with them. 

His face was ice cold, his jaw ticking when he was listening to Landon and I could see how his body language was turning towards the door, as if he wanted to jump onto Brandon and protect him from the person who was threatening Landon.

On the other side I knew he was dying from bloodlust. He was dying to find the fucker who was doing this to his sister. Nikolai was not always the best brother. He didn’t have the relationship to his twin sisters like I had with Annika but he has always been protective and strict regarding their safety

And between Maya and Mia, he had some common ground with Mia because they both enjoyed anything dark and soulless. 

Though I knew that Brandon was his focus in – well, life, he wasn’t oblivious of the fact that his own sister was kidnapped. 

He was simply holding onto Brandon to not lose it.

Nikolai was a ticking time-bomb.

Eli stood up now, hovering over his brother, looking at him critically while his attention was on Landon, listening carefully.

Creighton was still somewhat asleep. After the doctor checked on him and wrapped him up, his breathing became normal again and though he fought against the sleep, the need to find my little Anoushka more prominent, he couldn’t fight against his body’s urgency to rest.

Or maybe it was Eli who punched him on the back of his head, so he fell into a deep coma.

No one said nothing.

It was his brother.

He said one more bump wouldn’t harm him and that this one would at least make him get better.

I guess.

Amongst all the people here, Eli might be the one who had the most control over himself next to me. Though Landon was skilled in keeping his demons in check, Eli was a conquering his dark side and ruling them.

He was using them for himself and knew when to show them.

But devil recognizes Satan and therefor I always saw the mischievous glint and the lethal doom in his eyes. 

But when the Satan owns a woman, no one can stop him.

Not even Eli.

Landon looked up, his eyes meeting Eli’s who reciprocated with a questioning look.

As an answer he put the phone on speakers. 

A pained scream was heard through the room the next moment, the agony piercing through my ice -cold veins. 

Eli revealed Lucifer when he found a bundle of Ava’s hair – this bastard is going to burn the whole country down as soon as he would find her.

Or maybe now, after hearing her scream.

“Greetings from Nash”, a robotic voice sounded from the other side of the phone and then it hung up.

Landon threw the phone across the room, breathing heavily before getting outside the hotel room and normally Nikolai would fuck him up for doing that but all he did was go back into Brandon’s room and close the door with a loud bang.

I side-eyed Eli and saw how his jaw clenched, his crossed arms bulking in his leather jacket, hands turned into a fist.

Satan wanted to come out. And I saw it clearly written in his face.

The deal, the negotiation.

Not now.

He took a deep breath and checked his brothers fever a last time before leaving the room as well.

“Jer..?”

A small voice was heard from the door opening next to Brandon’s and I instantly rushed to it.

My Cecily looked broken.

Fucking broken.

And it took me a lot of fucking self-discipline to not lose it. To not lose myself.

Not because it would fuck up this whole operation or whatever this clusterfuck was, but it would hurt her.

Scare her.

And I couldn’t do that to her after what she has been through.

“Lisichka”

Her eyes found mine and I wanted to stab my fucking heart for how the oh so beautiful light, that would always shine whenever I called her, appeared so dim and dull right now.

I wanted to take all the pain, all the fucking memories of the past days and burn them, murder them in order to release her.

“W-what happened?”, her voice trembled.

“Nothing. Go back to your room.”

“I can’t” Her bottom lip trembled. “Ariella.. is having nightmares again”

Remington, who came out of the bathroom when hearing Landon on the phone looked up. His fist was bloodied and – were those glass pieces falling from it?

The moment he heard Ariella’s name he looked up, all attention on us and rushed instantly into the room. When the door opened fully, I saw Ariella trashing from side to side, crying into her pillow.

My eyes fell on Cecily again and I saw bright red lines running down her throat. I cupped her cheek, leaning her to the side.

“Cecily. What is this?”

These wounds weren’t there when she first came. These scratches were fresh.

I knew because I memorized each of her blemishes and scars and wounds when I helped her shower.

She had been crying hysterically, shame and fear shaking her soft body while I washed her, caressed her and kissed her as much as I could.

She was so breakable- broken- in my arms that it weakened me in my knees, making me almost topple over at the sound of my own heart breaking.

I had scanned her body, engraved every painful blue and purple spot, every tiny scratch and saved them securely in my brain.

Because whoever did this to her, would bleed on all the same spots they left on her.

Every single spot will be mirrored.

With blood and more blood until they beg me to kill them.

And I won’t give them the pleasure.

They are going to suffer for the rest of their pathetic fucking lives for touching what’s mine.

“Ariella”, Cecily’s voice broke and new tears streamed down her face before she crashed against my chest. I held her securely before I turned my head to nod towards Ilya.

He understood me, like always, and left the room without wasting more time.

“Shh Lisichka”, I cooed, kissing the parting of her silver hair. I missed her scent. Her scent of fucking waterlilies. Now she smelled like hotel soap and agony.

“W-what h-happened to her, J-Jeremy. What is g-going on?”

I don’t know.

I don’t fucking know.

But I couldn’t say that to her. I couldn’t let her down like this. She was leaning on me, depending on me to help her, secure her safety and I just couldn’t disappoint her like that. 

Why the fuck didn’t I know?

Ilya reappeared at the door and I instantly collected Cecily in my arms, carrying her outside.

Ilya followed us silently and opened the next door of the hotel room he just booked. Cecily needed space, I needed space and though she wanted to stay with Ariella, this shit wasn’t working.

Ariella was fighting her own battles and obviously attacking Cecily subconsciously, hurting her.

How should I tell her that her childhood friend, someone she viewed as a little sister, was raped?

How should I tell her that this might happen to her other friends?

And most importantly how do I ask her if.. Fuck

FUCK

My body instantly burned at the image of someone touching her, hurting her. My Cecily had experienced enough sexual abuse. More than enough. To this day I was tormenting her abuser, her ex-boyfriend Jonah, and I wasn’t planning to stop.

I am still mad at myself that I killed that motherfucker Zayn when I saw him hovering over my Lisichka but I would make her ex-boyfriend suffer double for that.

I put Cecily’s trembling frame down on the big double bed when her small, shaky hands grabbed my leather jacket.
“D-Don’t go”

Shit. This voice. This fucking, fragile voice.

“I’m here Lisichka. I am not going anywhere, just taking off my jacket”

I hurried peeling the leather off me and stepped on the heel of my shoes to get rid of them as well before I laid down next to her. Instantly her dainty frame snuggled against mine, her head resting on my chest.

I didn’t talk.

She didn’t.

The only sound in the room were her gut-wrenching sobs that were like knives piercing to my soul, over and over and over again.

I stroked her silver hair, feeling every strand between my fingers and thanking all the gods, angels and even the devils and demons for bringing her back to me. The last days seemed like a blur, a fucking broken record that I couldn’t seem to skip nor fast forward.

Everything was black and white, shadows with no light and no life. I don’t even know how it was physically possible for me to breathe. 

I should’ve known.
I should’ve fucking known that something happened.

When Cecily and her girlfriends went to the trip, I of course send men behind her that would keep an eye on her and protect her if needed.

Every morning and every night they had given me a report of the happenings.

A short yet significant statement with enough details.

Miss Knight is safe.

Location: xyz, Miss Knight called a taxi. She is safe. 

Miss Knight is currently in the restaurant xyz. She is safe.

Miss Knight has breakfast with her girlfriends on the balcony. Vse khorosho! She is safe.

Everything’s okay, Ms. Knight is safe. 

The last message was it.

The last message was the reason why I called a hundred times, yelling at my man to get in touch with the others.

This might not be a big deal to others but my Dad always said that everything had the same, unchangeable order. 

Everything has its rules and was controlled and if it wasn’t – something was definitely wrong.

Because changes only happen when the circumstances change. And the circumstances are not supposed to change.

It’s like a stamp. A stamp you can’t pretend nor copy. 

“Jeremy?”

I hummed at Cecily’s small voice. Her sobbing died down slowly, and I thought she fell asleep by now.

“What happened to Ariella?”

I swallowed.

“She was begging, Jer’. She was pleading, telling someone to stop.” Her eyes found mine, her bottom lip trembling again.
“To stop what, Jer’…” Her eyes were searching for mine and I knew- I fucking knew – that she was able to see through my soul. 

“You know it.” She swallowed. I nodded barely. 

Her lips parted slightly and I could practically hear her thoughts, her mind fighting with her heart if she really wanted to know. If she should truly ask me for the truth.

I distanced the gap between us and kissed her softly, taking the decision from her. She whimpered slightly and sighed, relaxing in my arms. 

I stroked her tongue with mine and gripped her hair by the nape, tugging her back to deepen the kiss. Her hand on my chest gripped my shirt.

Slowly, very slowly I pulled back, our lips were still connected when I spoke.

“I’m sorry. I’m so fucking sorry that I couldn’t protect you from this cruel world, Lisichka.” 
I pulled back to fix her with my eyes.

“I will forever, for the rest of my fucking life live with this guilt that I wasn’t there for you. That I wasn’t there for you when you needed me the most.”

She opened her mouth to say something but I cut her off with a quick, hard peck.

“Don’t. Nothing you will say would take that guilt, the self-hatred I feel right now. You are mine, Cecily. Mine to love, to care and to fucking protect. And I fucked up. But I will from today on and that includes not only your body but also your mind and soul!”

I stroked her head back before catching a single tear that was running down her cheek with my thump.

“Yes I know what happened to Ariella. But I won’t tell you, Lisichka, because from today on I will protect you from any cruelty that is coming your way, even if it’s going to bother you”

She let out a shaky breath and nods once before laying her head on my chest. 
“I trust you”, she mumbled before hugging me tightly.

After Cecily fell asleep I untangled myself from her, put on my shoes and jacket and stepped outside. Ilya was already standing there and with a simple look he collected men to stand in front of the door. 

When I was about to walk back to the others Landon came out from the elevator, his eyes were dark, bruises and blemishes covering his face. His hands were bloodied, his shirt full of dirt. Behind him appeared Killian looking exactly the same. 

Beaten up. Bloodied.

Did these fuckers purge on each other? The fact that they stepped out of the same elevator just proved that whatever they did most probably was settled but-

“LET ME GO! LET ME GO!! JEREMY – JEREMY HELP!”

My eyes widened at Cecily’s loud scream for help. In no time I opened the door with the card, Landon and Killian rushing inside as well as my men that I quite literally put in front of the door only moments ago.

My whole vision turned red when I saw two men with masks grabbing Cecily by her wrists and ancles, trying to pull her up.

“Shut the fuck up, Knight”, one men hissed, slapping her across the face.

In no time I reached into Ilya’s pocket and grabbed for his gun before any other of my men had the opportunity to even think that far.

One.

Two.

Cecily screamed.

The masked men with now holes on their forehead fell on top of her making her cry frantically before I rushed over to her and collected her in my arms.

She was trembling, fucking shaking like a leaf in my grip, first fighting me out of shock.

“It’s me Lisichka, it’s me baby”

I tried to sound soft for her but I might as well sound like a grinding knife.

I pushed her face into my neck, swaying her back and forth and slowly she stopped pushing me but pulling me closer, unbearably closer and I wished, I just wished I could come as close as she needed me to be.

I wished I could touch – engulf her soul with mine – to prove her that she was safe.

The beast in me wanted to revive the men lying to my feet now, only to murder them with my bare hands. I wanted to watch them gasp for air while I chocked them, squeezed the last breath of their fucking lungs for touching my Cecily.

Moments later Nikolai and Remington rushed into the room. They probably heard the screams and the gun shot. 

Ilya and the others looked around and pulled the dead bodies away from me before I could dissect them limb by fucking limb. 

“What the fuck happened?”, Nikolai growled, hovering over one body before looking around the room.

His body was tensed, he looked like he was ready to kill.

I looked over to Remington.

“Stay with Ariella. She’s not safe. These men are watching us.”

Astor didn’t need to know about the how and why before he left the room and instantly rushed to his girlfriend.

Cecily was still crying against my chest and I-

I didn’t know what to do.

I needed to protect her, I needed to assure her safety yet – she wasn’t safe.

Someone, some-fucking-one was trying to get her. 

And it seemed like I had to glue her to myself in order to prevent anyone from doing so.

Some glass bottle rolled against my foot, and I looked down. I picked it up, Cecily still secure in my chest and instantly smelled the stark stench of the content.

They wanted to anesthetize her, thinking she was asleep.

I looked outside the window and barked at one of my men in Russian to close the curtains.

“What is it?”, Nikolai asked, stepping closer.

I looked at the curtains, narrowing my eyes at them.

But that wasn’t it was it?

I scanned the room and I felt Killian doing the same. 

Slowly I put Cecily down on the bed when she gripped at my shirt desperately, refusing to let go.

“Shh Lisichka, I’m not leaving. I’m here. I’m here”

“Jer-“

“I’m here, baby, I’m here. I need to just see something”

When she finally trusted in me not leaving her, I crossed my arms over my chest and looked at the pictures in rusty bronze, antic looking frames. 

“Crooked”, Killian commented, his soulless blue eyes narrowing when he tilted his head, looking at the biggest picture right across the bed.

He was right. 

It was hard to see, barely visible actually, but the more you looked at it, you could see how tilted the frame was on one side. Which meant that it was either not hung up properly or…

“it’s heavier on one side”, I murmured and stretched out a pointed finger to softly follow the tilted side of the frame. 

I looked up and I could swear that an eye was looking down on me and then I saw it. 

There.

The dark dust looking patterns that made the frame look really rusty and old, weren’t all painted.

There was this one black dot that was clearly looking down on me.

“Kill”

With no further explanation Killian stepped next to me and lifted the huge heavy picture with its frame from the wall. We turned it around and –

“I’m going to bloody murder these motherfuckers with my own bare hands”, Landon promised with nothing but death in his voice when the delicate cords from the frame collected in a small adapter that was glued to the back of the painting. 

That was the reason that it hung to one side.

“How is that possible? How did they know, we would book this room?”, Nikolai asked, eyes fixing Ilya with instant accusation.

I looked back at him as well.

“Who gave you the room?”

“A staff worker”

“Did you actively ask for a room next to this one?”

“I-“ Ilya blinked, his eyes widening.

Fucking hell!

“Blyad”, Nikolai cussed, fixing two of my men with his eyes. “Podpisyvaytes na menya!”

Ilya and others rushed to the other room to look for any hidden cameras. I was pretty sure that this wasn’t the only one in this room either.

“They are watching us” I looked back at Cecily who was still sobbing into the pillow, hair disheveled, frame still shaking.

“And they know who we are”

They knew that we saved Cecily and they knew who she was. They wanted to get her back but why?

“Generational curse”, Landon muttered, his eyes fixated on Cecily.

“What?”

“The motherfucker who I was yelling at on the phone. The one thing he said was something about a generational curse”

“What does that mean?” He met my eyes before answering.

“It means, instead of hiding this whole fun here, we should ask our Daddies what this means”