Cider: Book Six of LEVS - ON HIATUS

Author's Notes at end of chappie....

Chapter 3: Orillia

Ellis didn't have the biggest building in the district. He didn’t need the phallic symbol to prove how much of a man he was. He had the bank account. He had the trophy wife. He had the four kids...two girls, two boys. What he didn’t have was security. Which I thought was rather odd because when you’re this damned successful, you have enemies. Lots of enemies. I know this because of the time that Xavier made us into corporate thieves. Not that we were stealing for money, we were stealing because we hated the boss man with a passion. Look at what acting out of anger can lead up to. Still, wouldn’t change it for the world: got the kids, got the lovers, got the thrones.

I touched down on the gravelled rooftop and dissolved my wings. Sasha’s backwash knocked me off balance and I would have ended up with gravelled knees if a hand didn’t reach out and catch my wrist. I ended up oofing into his chest.

You get some bad. You get some good.

/Be careful. Something feels off about this./ His Silent Speak sounded in my ear like a lovers caress. I glanced back at him and watched as Sasha’s eyes scanned the roof.

/Yo, pretty kitty. You getting any vibes about the place?/

/Quiet as a dead mouse./

/That a good thing?/

/Not for the mouse./

/Seriously./

/Yah, it’s seriously not good for the mouse. Sexy, maybe you better be asking the question, are you guys the mice?/

I leaned back into Carnage's embrace for a second. /Mo, agrees with you. Your call, Carnage./

/They should not have known we were coming. If information is leaking from Shadoe Inc or from the House, it needs to be clipped in the bud before other secrets get out. Such as the brotherhood and the winglets' parentage./

I nodded then concentrated on flipping the alarm into off mode on the roof door. /The mice are coming in, Mo. Make some noise./

/On it. Don’t get dead./

/Not on my list of things to do today./

Hellcats. What can I say? Just like real cats but with more personality. Let me tell you right now, never ask a cat if they like you. Brutal honesty. If you get a yes, then you get the riders along with it. Let’s just say that the Hellcat nation thinks that I, Sex, have the morals of a rancid tomcat. So not true...anymore. Ahem.

When a Hellcat wants stealth, you don’t know he’s in the room. When he wants attention, holy moly, it sounds like everything that could be broken or knocked over was getting broken and knocked over. I don’t think you needed our enhanced vampiric hearing to know that Morose had kicked it into distract gear. I nodded to Carnage. He had slipped black leather gloves on, which reminded me to do the same thing. He twitched his forearm and caught the blade that slipped from the sheath. With practised skill, he slid the blade along the door seam and then down to the lock. The door swung out towards us. He disappeared inside with me right on his heels.

A spark of Hand of Light fried the security cameras in the stairwell. It would just appear like a power surge, but it protected our anonymity. Another drawback to the return to celebrity but so far, knock on wood, the media hasn’t connected two and two and gotten eight. Hence, the blue hair and the gray contacts. Wingkitty doesn’t get factored in because, well, because they’re idiots. How can you miss something as sexily gorgeous as Sasha? Back to the business at hand. Two flights down, Carnage led us through the emergency exit door. My little power surge had disabled that alarm as well.

/Mo?/

/I’m good. They are calling other guards to the east corridor to cordon me off. Haha! You should have free and easy access./

/Roger that./

I gave a slight nod, and we crept down the hall. I would love to say that we strode boldly down the corridor, confident in our abilities to remain undetected, but assassins don’t do that. Well, they can, but they don’t last long in the House. Arrogance leads to over-confidence, which inevitably leads to death. We slid along the walls, I walking in Carnage's footsteps. until we turned the corner to reach the office of the President.

Our objective, Roger Ellis the Third, stood in the middle of the open door, hair dishevelled, tie askew and an empty tumbler in one hand. He pointed the empty glass at us in an accusatory manner. “About time. Get in here.”

He pivoted on his heel and stalked back into the inner office. What the...?

I know that Carnage wanted to take point. His hand came up for a moment, then he dropped it back down, allowing me to cross in front of him. I knew damned well that he had scanned for more danger beforehand. He was so protective of us. Of me. I took it as the endearing action that it was now, instead of lashing out or jumping to conclusions when he did those things. It was as ingrained for that vampire of mine to care for those he claimed as his own, and to ask him to change would be an insult to us all. Still, he reined his protective streak in with me not because he wanted me to feel that I was able to protect myself, but he knew that I could fuck someone up faster than he could. We were like peas in a pod.

Ellis was jittery as if he had double espresso'd himself all day. The whiskey refilled tumbler didn’t do much to calm his nerves. He took one look at us and gulped down the amber liquid. Then he coughed and gagged so much I thought he was going to hurl on the carpet.

“Am I done here, now?” Ellis wasn’t looking at us. He was looking beyond us. I cocked my head to the left and saw a feminine silhouette against the wide office window.

“Manners, my dear. Manners.” She had a hint of an accent that I couldn’t place.

Ellis wiped the back of his hand against his mouth. “Gentlemen, may I introduce Orillia. Orillia, the Assassins.”

“Ellis, there is no need to be rude. Azrael, Carnage, please forgive him. My dear Ellis has not been himself since I informed him of your impending visit.” The woman stepped away from the shadowed section of the office and walked into the circle that was offered by the desk light. She had on a soft fuzzy pink sweater that hugged her curves and screamed touch me, pet me, stroke me, daddy. She wore it over a tweed pencil skirt and sensible shoes with a chunky yet stylish heel. She moved with a familiar grace and style that belayed who she was before I even looked up into her face. Her skin was deeply tanned a golden brown. Her hair was soft tight blue curls cropped close to her head and her eyes were red as Lanseng’s. She was a Seer, a Mystic from the Collective made into human form.

“Orillia?”

“Just a name I happened to pick off a map. The same as what the Seer known to you as Lanseng did. In our true form, we are unified and have no need for individuality such as names; however, we must interact with other species, and as the saying goes, when in Rome...” She perched herself on the corner of the desk and crossed her legs at the knee. The only one who ogled her gams was Ellis himself. I could smell him from here. I was wrong about the espresso, he had been trying to crawl into a barrel of whiskey.

Orillia let loose a breathy sigh and leaned back on the desk with her hands, bracing herself. “Ellis, my dear, you may go. Call a service. You are in no condition to drive.”

Carnage slapped a physical binding on Roger Ellis the Third as the human set the glass on the corner of the conference table. I could sense his panic as he found himself unable to move and unable to talk.

“Carnage.” Orillia turned her head towards us, “Can you block Ellis’s hearing as well? Please do so.”

I knew when the sound faded from Ellis because his eyes grew round and seemed to double in size. Yeah, that’s what I remember from the bad ol’ days when Armor was trying to get X and me to heel. Couldn’t move much, couldn’t speak, and there were times that big brown vampire would keep us from hearing things. The eyes could still flick around wildly though. Not a great sensation. It wasn’t happening to me, and it still wasn’t that endearing. I actually felt sorry for the man.

“Lord Emperor Edward.” I turned my attention to the Seer.

“Orillia.”

“I know that you are here to ascertain the abnormal rate of business success that the Ellis family and industries have garnered over the decades. I will tell you now that Roger has no part in it. He is a lovely creature to look at, but his mother was a heavy drug and alcohol user and to put it bluntly, Roger has the attention span of a ten-year-old. He and his family are not a threat to the Vampire Nation nor your secret society.”

“How do you know about...”

Orillia cocked her head at me and shook her blue curls. “Seer.”

Oh, yeah. “Then you have been manipulating things for the benefit of the Ellis group.”

“Not me, personally. Various representatives have been sent to the family over the years when it was deemed necessary to keep this corporation on the right track.” Orillia uncrossed her legs and let them hang over the desk. Lanseng always struck me as ”older” in age and experience; this Seer I expected her to start swinging her feet in boredom and maybe snap her gum.

I frowned over at her. “What possible reason would the Collective have for interfering in the commerce of the human race?”

“You place yourself outside of the confines of humanity already, Edward?” She pushed herself back upright on the desk.

“My name is not Edward.” I crossed my arms.

“It isn’t Sex. At least, not any more.” She flashed a bright smile at me.

Huh? “What do you mean?”

“Feral carnality. Unreasonable demands for attention. Sex grabbed sensual experience like a starving child, which in actuality you were. Oh, everything you once were is still there. It is what makes you unique amongst your brothers, but that extreme behaviour is behind you. Carnage here has tamed you to his touch.” Her tone was like someone voicing a documentary. It was even but full of conviction that made one want to believe her.

“I have not tamed anyone.” His voice was even and dripping with ice. Our little fuzzy sweater Seer was gravitating to Sasha’s dark protective side. If she wasn’t careful, she was going to get her cute tweed covered rump winged hard. From personal experience, not much fun.

Orillia twisted her hips, swivelling so now her knees faced us. “Of course not, Edward gentled himself and came to your hand. Pardon, Eddie. That is the name that you prefer, correct? As I was saying, Ellis is not a part of this. He has been a figurehead. He did what the Collective has told him to do, signed what we gave him, and so forth. He is not necessary for the rest of this mission. Send him on his way. I will give you all the answers that you seek.”

“He has seen our faces.”

“Alter his memories if you feel you must. As I said, he has the mentality of a child in a man’s body. Ellis has been drinking all day, since I warned him that you were coming. It is more than likely he will not remember you, and if he does, it will be little more than a hallucination brought on by sleeping with the television on. Honestly, who would believe him? Dead and Eddie came to his high-security office to have a late-night chat? Really, Ellis is harmless.”

I met her gaze evenly. “Lady, I trust you about as far as I can throw you.”

“Well, isn’t that just rude.” She pouted. I frowned at her. Pouting might have worked with my baby girls and the little pups but damned if it was going to work with a Seer. She fluttered her blue lashes at me. I hardened my gaze.

“Carnage?” I nodded my approval.

Ellis gave a gasp and his eyes rolled up into his head. I caught him before he slammed his forehead off the conference table. “That was as gentle as I could make it.”

“Place him in the elevator and send it down to the lobby. Security will make sure that he gets home. Oh, and call off your Hellcat, please. He’s ripping the place to shreds.”

Carnage could have carried Ellis out with one hand. /Sex, here. Now./

When my vamp speaks in clipped, single syllables, it’s best to get a-stepping. I caught Ellis’s other arm and we dragged his wingtips towards the elevator.

/Mo, break it off and get out of there./

/We done here?/

/I don’t know if we’re done, but you’re excused./

/I’m not leaving you alone here./

/I got Sasha with me./

/Just because he wears cat ears doesn’t make him a hellcat./

A single laugh busted out of my mouth. /We got the info. The pres is pickled and we’re sending him down in the elevator. Hitch a ride and get out. When we get back to Von Drachenfeld, I’ll feed you./

/Are you being manipulated?/ Mo’s tone was quietly earnest.

/Such big words for such a little kitty. I’m not being manipulated...much./

/Sex!/

/What floor you on?/

/Seventeenth./

Sasha hit the lobby button, and I pressed the seventeen button with my elbow, then shoved Ellis to the floor, settling his head against the corner of the car.

/He’s on his way. Take the express train, pretty kitty. We’ll be going as the crow flies in a bit./

/I’ll be checking the skies. You don’t come out, I’m calling in Hellcat reinforcements./

I slipped out under Sasha’s arm then he let the elevator doors close.

/Be on your guard./ He warned.

I nodded. He fell into step beside me as he marched back into the president’s office. Orillia had moved over to the liquor cabinet and had now pulled out three shot glasses. The smell of whiskey hit my nose. Ever since Xavier’s adventure with a Ferris wheel and booze, the scent of the hard stuff just turns my stomach now.

Orillia played the hostess and poured out three glasses. She picked her up then gestured to the others. “Drink? No? You cannot say that I haven’t been hospitable.”

I decided to get right to the point before Morose started rounding up hellcats for an all-out assault. I, Sex, have never devoured a hellcat soul, and I wasn’t going to start now. Xavier might have said fuck off to the world, but once a month when Shade came a-calling, he returned from the beach and did his duty to the Hellcat Nation. Better to get the hell out of here before it even came close to that. “You said you would answer our questions.”

“Yes, I did.”

“Why are you here?”

She finished her drink, flipped it over with her fingers, and set the rim face down on the wooden table. “To meet Azrael and Carnage, the assassins sent out from the House, who also happen to be High Ranks from the Blues, from the resurrected House of Von Drachenfeld.”

“And now that you’ve met us?” I watched as she picked up the next shot glass.

“Ellis Industries will be merged with another company in the near future. Ellis will retire and spend his millions with his wife and trust-fund children. The Collective will refrain from assisting another human company. The objective has been met.”

“Which was meeting us.”

“Well, technically meeting you, Eddie.” She knocked that shot back with barely a grimace.

“Why is Sex important to the Collective?” Carnage came and stood at my side.

“Oh, that is a loaded question, Carnage, but I shall let that remark pass. We have a mutual problem, Lord Emperor. One that only you are capable of handling.” She licked her lips then performed the same ritual with the second shot glass. “Are you sure?” She gestured towards Carnage.

“No, thank you, I prefer vodka and only when I’m not working.”

Orillia picked up the final shot.

“What problem would that be?” I inquired, slightly amazed that she wasn’t falling over on her ass from the amount she was drinking.

“A certain Seer was dispatched to the House of Von Drachenfeld with the sole mission of monitoring and companioning the coming Destruction.”

“Lanseng.” I nodded.

“Yes, my younger brother, Lanseng. We were honoured by Carnage’s invitation to come to the Vampire Nation, especially to be welcomed into the House of the Emperor. The youngest among us are easier to draw into corporeal form. When it was decided that a member would be sent, Lanseng was designed to physically appeal to you. Eddie, you have a penchant for tall drinks of water and long lovely locks.” She knocked that last glass back with a snap of her head.

“So why aren’t you all tall and swishy?”

“Because, I am just a messenger. If my mission was meant to remain with your House, I would have been skewed male. Your reputation is hanging by a thread as it is.” The third shot glass was overturned.

“Reputation?” There was so much warning and emotion in that single word from the tall darkness at my side.

“The Emperor’s Harem.”

“I’ve heard of it.” I let out a big sigh.

“Well, so has the Collective. The fact that Lanseng is considered part of your hedonistic lifestyle has not gone over well. His directive was clear. Lanseng was sent to your House to be a part of your inner circle. Not to have his inner circle parted.”

“Now who’s being rude?” I felt more than a spark of anger at her thoughtless and crass remark.

Her red eyes widened slightly. “Lanseng is young, very young. The Collective believes that he was been swayed from his mission because of the feral carnality you have demonstrated. You get who you want, when you want it, Eddie.”

Carnage leap to my defence. “Sex is not Hashmalliam.”

“Ah...there is the rub.” Orillia stepped around the corner of the table and walked towards us. “It was predestined. It has been foretold. You were supposed to be the ultimate destruction, Eddie. All previous contingency plans were to contain you – the singular you. Lanseng was for you, not the fracture that is you.”

“I think you had better explain yourself better, Seer.” Carnage was half a step ahead of me and now right in her path.

“The Collective operates on extrapolation and expectation. We are prediction, just not the mystical kind. Your white..” Her eyes flicked to my tangled mess of hair, “hair, the Emperor’s wings and even the wings of the Phoenix have been predicted. Marcus’s jealousy. Claudia’s initiative. The Lycan attack when you were just a wee little sprout. Everything progressed as expected. Nothing was seen of the fracturing of your soul. Because of that oversight, we are now at this juncture. We are at a crossroads of sorts.”

“Fracturing of my soul?”

“It is just not simple psychological problems, Eddie. But then, you know that. Your brothers are individuals with their own sets of ideas and problems, which brings us to the situation at hand. Lanseng has moved beyond his mission. He has, let us call it, intermingled with Hashmalliam.”

I was really starting to hate this woman. Everything dripping out of her mouth was innuendo. “Skell and Lanny are in love.”

“Which if they were human would be fine. Roses and chocolate hearts abound for them. If they were human. But they are not, are they? This is why we are now having a face-to-face, Lord Emperor Eddie. Lanseng has been recalled to the Collective, and he has ignored the summons.”

“That was Lanseng’s decision.” Carnage brought his forearm up to block any more forward progress from the drunken little Seer.

“Lanseng is part of the Collective. The body he shares with Hashmalliam belongs to us all. He draws from the pool to keep his form. Which brings us to the true reason why I have been sent to you.”

I didn’t like the way this conversation was going. “Which is?”

“Once our missions are complete, we are expected to return to the Collective. If the truth be known, while this tactual experience is tantalizing, it is also very disconcerting.” She ran her hands over the arms of her sweater and shivered. “This is too much for one to bear for so long.”

“You still haven’t told us what you wanted.”

“I haven’t?” She shook her head so her curls flounced slightly. “I need you to send Lanseng back to the Collective. He will respect your wishes. He has already proven himself unwilling to comply with our requests, so the request must be escalated to the next level.”

I frowned at her. “Why on earth would I do that? If Lanseng is keeping Hashmalliam in check, why would you want to break them up?”

“Whoever said that Lanseng was supposed to keep Hashmalliam from his mission?” Orillia held out her hand to me. Her empty hand. Carnage paused for a moment, then turned his body enough for her to get passed him. I stared at her for a moment, them offered up my hand to her. Her touch was warm. Human, if you will. Her fingers reached into the cuff of my shirt and touched the hidden sheath of my forearm blade. She took my wrist firmly and twitched it, releasing the dagger. It cut into her palm, but she simply smiled at me. The sticky heat of her blood clung to my hand.

Orillia’s red eyes look up into mine. “Regardless of what Lanseng is doing with your little brother, the needs of the Collective, his own kind, should be paramount. Once our task is complete in the corporeal world, it is our duty to return to the Collective, to share our experiences and communicate with our Elders. Command him to come home. If he will not, then you, as the Firstborn, must send him.”

She jerked my arm forward suddenly. The dagger buried itself deep within her stomach and then she wrenched it sideways, cutting deep into her entrails. I gasped as Carnage slammed his forearm back into my upper chest, knocking me backwards onto the conference table. Orillia dropped to her knees. The pink of the fuzzy sweater was turning a purplish hue. “See, it’s not so hard to send a Seer home…”

I don’t know what I expected. I’d seen enough Bloods die. I’d never seen one evaporate before. I can’t explain it any other way, one moment Orillia was a young woman bleeding to death in the office of the CEO of a major Fortune 500 company, the next, her image was fading away like a photograph projected on a curtain of smoke.

“I am just a messenger. Send Lanseng home. He has over-stepped his boundaries. Ultimate destruction serves a purpose after all.” Her voice just faded away.

There on the carpet of the office was a bloodied pink angora sweater, tweed skirt, and sensible pumps. A pile of clothes were the only things left behind. My hand was still sticky with her blood. Not the only things left behind.

“We leave now.” Carnage handed me his wetthingies, then bent to retrieve the dagger from the sweater.

“Why did she…”

“Not here. Not now.” Carnage caught me by the wrist and dragged me off the table. “This is not a place to be found.”

I staggered and stumbled after Carnage for a moment, then caught my bearings. She had caught me off guard. I didn’t even suspect that she would kill herself. What did she mean? Ultimate destruction serves a purpose.

“Is Morose clear?”

“Yeah.”

Carnage never moved without a meaning, so when he was booking up the stairwell two risers at a time, I took the hint to stay up with him. “Sasha?”

His arctic blues narrowed and looked past me, back towards the now closed but disabled rooftop security door. “If a strange Vampire came to you and said that you needed to kill me to send me home, would you believe them?”

“No.”

“So why should we believe a stranger, another seer who offered no real proof, other than the ending of her life, that Lanseng is in the wrong? I would rather ask the one we have known longer and who has established a trust with this family before taking the word of a stranger.”

With that, Sasha took a hold of my wrist and threw me off the top of the building.


__________________________

I am alive and haunting…October is a scary time because I decided I was going to stand out in the darkness and cold from 7 to midnight for 13 days of Halloween. So, by the time Halloween does roll around, the fun has been sucked right out of it. Hahaha. The place were I work(ed) has a commercial up on youtube…take a look if you got highspeed. Don’t attempt it, if you don’t…just don’t.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=634WhF3s4ck

Okay, I have been remiss with my thankies since I am close to 1000 hits and have over 30 reviews I have no excuse. Well I’m…er…laziness isn’t an excuse. So here’s a goblet of fake blood, hoist it high and say with me – “Damn, it’s good to be me!” Bwahahahahaah. There are some new names, and a lot of old Loyal and True. I appreciate each and everyone one of you. If you don’t review, you don’t get more from me. You must remember, I may be EZ but I’m never cheap. I work for praise and clickies. Here’s a shout out to: lone child (x3); twitch; ashe (x2); pesterme2; violetstorm(x2); tdorian; littleolmee; reighchama; spiritofbeyond(x3) ;whitedragon(x2); milkxness; ri; ves; laur(x3); lady-me; crimsonrain; queen Hecate; anhiya(x2); kiseki_x3(x2); lavcea; and asyenmari!

Oh, and you best give CatMum the clap…er…a clap of appreciation because I am going the beta route this time round. Let’s make magic people…