Mortal Wounds

Chapter Twenty-One

Invidian's POV

I would sell my soul for Henley's memories, not just to understand who is behind our deaths, but to once again experience the memories which once warmed my heart. There is an odd ache in the space she left behind and I feel the loss in my chest. It makes it difficult to focus on Davian who messes with the laptop.I lounge on Virgil's bed, curious as to why he's so jittery and pale. The full moon's light pours through the window. The shadows of trees dance on Virgil's bed. No joke has passed his lips since he barged in an hour ago. His eyes stay stuck on the laptop which looks unfamiliar. It's not the same one we swiped from Raguel's room.

"Alexa Kriess owns this laptop," Davian is simply what he stated before tinkering around with it.

"Is that the same last name Ethelia has?" I ask after clearing my throat and decide to glare at the ceiling.

"They're sisters."

Ethelia mentioned her rich sister when she talked to Beau and I about divorce. The head of Gomorrah's bank to be more precise. How f*****g suspicious.

"You stole this from her? You're turning into quite the rebel," I comment, receiving a moment of silence.

My day was uneventful on my end. Dwaine lectured me for leaving the house without telling him or Morgana. Virgil's homework was a pain in the a*s. I ironically had to write a research paper on free will versus determinism. While I advocate for free will, I wonder if we possess a modicum of such a power. My mother told me there were gods responsible for the birth of our realm, the mortal realm and human life. A usurper god took over earth and puppeteers humans for an unknown purpose. Created underneath him in his image, she transformed into a demoness, proclaimed a monster for going against his rule. Many gods were demonized under his rule. Demons began incarnating on earth to help free mortals from their chains to him. We are chain breakers, fate-makers and we mess with the timeline he set for human existence. Our influence is unwanted here by him and his angels. While I completed the paper, I snacked on Morgana's hidden stash of cookies.

Davian is distracted for a moment before answering me.

"Her bin is worth more than my organs would be on the black market. It was paved in gold," he exclaims, showing me a recording on his phone of when he infiltrated her house, "She even has maids. Ten of them! And they all live there. When people worry about humans overcrowding the Earth one day, complaining there isn't enough room for everyone, I tend to think about houses like this."

The casualness of that comment seems forced but I don't point it out. I watch the video, committing what I see to memory. While her house is smaller than Cassiel's manor, it's still unnecessarily big. There are two pools, three game rooms, two libraries, eight bathrooms, ten bedrooms, and three garages with a collection of cars. Almost everything is white and angular in some sort of modern style. A few butlers work in the kitchen. Their eyes are distant as if they aren't even focusing on the roast chicken they're cooking. They have the same dead inside gaze as the guards in GoldVine.

"That just means she has more to lose."

"I wouldn't mind if she does," he mutters, making me arch a brow and examine him. Perhaps it's the vision he had that's on his mind.

"Found any leads about where the kid might be?"

He tenses for a moment and shakes his head.

"He wasn't at her house. I checked all over."

I sigh and scribble down BBB CEO's details on one of Virgil's workbooks and tear it out. Back to square one with that.

"You can ask this guy about it. The man is a reaper like you, but don't think he is on your side. The b***h would sell his own mother, grandmother and his own son for $10 if he had the chance. Get Vanitas with you and threaten answers out of him," I instruct, handing him the paper.

He scans the paper with furrowed brows and tucks it into his pocket.

"I'm not really the threatening type."

"Hence why you would have Vanitas with you. You guys can play good cop, bad cop. Don't get Ascanius with you though, otherwise, it will be good cop, good cop. The guy would end up turning the threat into a therapy session and before you know it, it'll become a Dr Phil episode."

"You're saying that because he disagrees with your revenge scheme. I don't blame him though. If you were my brother, I would be acting the same way."

"Like his mother? Maybe that's why your brother doesn't talk to you," I bite out before I think about it.

Davian's jaw tightens and he turns my attention to the computer screen.

"Cassiel gets her to use his funds to send money to the hospital, the media outlets, the cops, waste disposals, the bank she runs, law firms and many other industries," Davian explains, "Looking at stats there has been a 68% increase in homelessness since she gained her position of the head of the bank. Before she gained her position only 1 in 30 people were homeless in this town. Now it's 1 in 5. Makes sense. When I used to live there, there weren't that many homeless people."

"What I mean is that I'd prefer it if Ascanius would listen to me and make a judgement based on that. But he won't do that. His perspective is leave it alone because you will get hurt. Pretending nothing happened and pretending to move on won't change anything," I explain with a strange need to clarify my comment.

He presses his lips together in a firm line.

"You got hurt too, Invidian. He knows that. As a brother, I think he only wants to stop you from getting hurt further. What I'm saying is I understand both sides," he acknowledges, "But Kellin is a completely different ballpark. At least you guys have communication. It sometimes feels like I'm an only child."

"You used to live in Gomorrah?" I change the subject.

He nods and scratches the back of his head.

"I used to live on the richer side of Gomorrah, more with middle-class citizens than anything. My parents would make a lot of money from their jobs as reapers."

"That doesn't say much considering I think being paid minimum wage in that town counts as being rich." He shrugs but doesn't disagree. "What would they get paid for?"

He averts his eyes and doesn't answer. From his reaction, I can tell he suspects it's for less than ethical jobs.

"How does this Alexa woman get away with making people homeless? Wouldn't people get pissed? I would have convinced all the homeless people to rise and recreate the French Revolution."

I wonder what happened to my Marie Antoinette doll Vanitas gave me anyway. Ten bucks says Ascanius' bird ate it. While I'm distracted, Davian shows me a tab that showcases Alexa's emails.

"She paid senators to change laws to make it easier for banks to repossess houses. In that time, her wealth had grown in the billions. A lot of people think the law is there to protect them so maybe they didn't question it," he responds with disgust, "She also has been embezzling money."

"Embezzling?"

"It's basically theft. It looks like she keeps a small amount of money from Cassiel's transactions to keep for herself. I doubt Cassiel has knowledge of this. It would piss him off if he finds out."

I can create a wedge between them and make her a wanted woman.

"These are all the bank accounts of all the people whose houses were repossessed. See that send button? Click it and all her money will go to them. She will be left with nothing."

I scan the page that shows an email he must have prepared. It has all the information he walked me through and it is addressed to all of her contacts, including the people she stole money from. I add BBB CEO's email and hit send. Turning powerful people against each other should be fun to watch.

"You learnt a lot in the span of a few hours," I point out. Either he is a natural at this or there is something he isn't telling me.

Davian doesn't answer and tucks the laptop under his arm, standing up. I get up, puzzled by his abruptness.

"Are you hiding something?" I question.

"No. I'm going to convince Vanitas to help me out. I hope the guy doesn't bite my head off or impale me with this eyeliner."

I block the mirror when he tries to phase through it. He continues to avoid my eyes, biting his lip.

"He wouldn't waste a good stick of eyeliner on that. Are you pissed about earlier or are you regretting your advancements on me? It's fine if you are. At least own up to it though."

If that's the case, I probably shouldn't have pointed it out though. It would have been easier to let his interest in me fizzle out on its own. His eyes snap over to me, shocked I came up with that conclusion.

"What? No, that's not it at all!" he snaps and I give him a doubtful look.

He grabs my arms as if that will help convince me.

"Why? What did you do?" I demand, taking in how nervous he looks.

"I worked hard to help you and get you to like me and repay you for what you've done for me but I don't want this information to make you change your mind about me and--" his babbling makes everything sound like one incoherent word and the babbling makes things worse.

I yank my arms out of his grip and fold them in front of my chest.

"Is there a knife in my back I'm unaware of?" I question with a flat expression, even though my head is spinning with possibilities about what has done.

I can't even be angry. I can only punch him at most. It was a risky move letting him in when I knew I shouldn't have trusted anyone with this s**t. It's like I was asking to be betrayed. I have him all the tools to sabotage the one shot I have at revenge.

"Don't say that," he pleads as if my words hurt him, "When I was younger before my father went insane, I suspected my mother of cheating. She would be gone for long periods of time and she would give me weak explanations. She would tell me she was going on missions, which I believed for a time. One day in geography class we were playing a game. Name as many places as you can starting with X."

"I don't see how that has anything to do with this--"

"Please, I'm getting to it," he begs, rubbing his arm with eyes glued to the floor.

I roll my eyes and make a gesture to zip my lips until his sob story is finished.

"I said a place my mum told me she had a mission in. Only, it turned out that place didn't exist. So, I suspected cheating but it could have been any reason. I noticed she would go on her laptop a lot so I thought I could get evidence from there. But it was locked with a passcode. So, I looked up how to hack into computers. It was surprisingly easy. She had terrible security. I made it in without a problem. I didn't find evidence of cheating though. Nothing of that sort. Rather, I found shady emails. Deals about the missions she would take... Some of them were paved in the misery and blood of others."

"Blood?" I echo.

"She is a reaper. She is meant to carry souls to the other side, not kill people. She didn't even do it for valid reasons. She was being paid to shut people up. People who suspected people like Alexa Kriess of shady business practices. Even worse is she was being paid to use her powers to kill people and trap their souls in the mortal realm without any chance of redemption. And it wasn't like we were poor. We had more than enough money to keep us going for ages. I know who Alexa Kriess is because my mother took up missions from her, ok? I thought her name was familiar but I realised why when I was looking into her."

My lips form into an 'o' shape as I process the information. It all makes sense now.

"So, she was basically what Raguel is to Cassiel; a rich man's bitch."

"She was killing for greed. A woman I trusted, someone's hand I held when I was growing up, that same hand was covered in blood. I was so shocked I wasn't thinking when I confronted her. She was pissed and beat the s**t out of me until Kellin heard and stepped in. He got between us until dad came home. I was hysterical. I blabbed out everything that happened and kept calling her a psychopath. Kellin took me to his room to calm me down while our parents yelled at each other downstairs. The yelling lasted for a good two hours until there was nothing. My mother was gone and she never came back."

Good riddance to her, I say. It now makes perfect sense why Davian doesn't want to become a reaper. The ones he was raised by were cruel and he is far too caring to be like them. To him, getting rid of your empathy is synonymous with the job. Even now his eyes are clouded with emotion as if he has never truly healed from that experience.

"Why did your dad get sent to a mental institute?" I ask out of curiosity.

"He was devastated their relationship ended because of me. He was pissed at me and ignored me for a good while. He wouldn't even look at me."

"But your mother was the one in the wrong."

He shakes his head.

"Wrong or right doesn't matter sometimes when feelings are involved. He loved her more than he cared about me. One day he snapped and attacked me in public. I'm not sure he knew what he was doing, but the damage was done. Social services took me away. They admitted him to Gomorrah's mental institute. At first, I used to visit him. I thought that the person that used to care for my brother and I was in there somewhere. Kyler called me an i***t for visiting him. I hoped dad would get better. I kept trying to be there for him... until I forgot why I even stayed." He winces to himself before shaking his head. "Back on topic. My mother worked for Alexa Kriess sometimes. I don't know when and what she would do after she left my family... I don't know if she was involved in this."

"In what?"

He bites his bottom lip with hesitation before sitting on the bed. He opens up the laptop again and sticks in my earphones. I stick one in with furrowed brows as he begins to show me another phone recording. I scan the date of the recording realising it was taken a month after I died.

"Hello, it's Alexa here. I need your assistance," Alexa says straight after the other person picks up.

There isn't a response from the other person.

"I'm sure you know of the Henley human, yes? Raguel says her father is being rather nosey in trying to find out what happened to her daughter. We can't have that."

The other person remains silent.

"We are planning on getting rid of him. We need you to block his soul from seeking redemption. We can't have him blabbing to Thysian."

Click. The line cuts off and the recording ends. I stare wide-eyed at the screen as I process the recording. I thought Henley's father committed suicide because of the grief caused by his daughter's death. That's what Henley's mother thinks too. I stay still, not knowing how to react to the emotions clashing in my chest. Henley's death wasn't enough. They had to go after her father too? Remorseless and without consequence? Why? Had he looked into Henley's death and found something he shouldn't have?

I gnaw my lip until it bleeds. Something in me is snapping. A phantom of hatred coils in my chest like a furnace. I feel myself burning, taunts whispering in my ear, regurgitating what we uncovered. The demon in me is ignited with a passion for vengeance. Ascanius cannot talk me out of this. Forgiving and forgetting might give me temporary peace, but many more people would be crushed under their feet if this is allowed to continue. Davian suddenly throws the laptop on the floor, startling me out of my mental loathing.

"I--I don't know who Alexa was talking to in this recording. I can't guarantee it was my mother... I am so sorry if it was. I don't like upsetting you," Davian stammers, "I should have exposed her to the cops."

I push the anger down.

"They wouldn't have believed you and if she has clients like Alexa Kriess they would have squashed you like a bug," I respond.

He assesses me with an odd look as if expecting something other than nonchalance.

"Yeah... I know. Still doesn't take the guilt away though. I'm a coward, Invidian. I wouldn't have the guts to do what you've been doing. Not in a million years."

"There are a lot of reasons why I could hate you... but being related to her isn't one of them. I also got to give you props for not ending up like them. Or using that as an excuse to be a shitty person. f**k your parents. f**k them and people like Alexa."

He averts his eyes to the wall as his cheeks redden.

"I was scared you will see me as the enemy because of my parents. I know you have it in your head that I'm someone whose feelings for you won't last. I know I'm not the fix for everything wrong in your life, but I want to help you. No one has made me feel this alive in my life. No one in my life has made me feel less alone."

My first instinct is to laugh this off as a joke but the longer I stare at him the more I realise he's not kidding. He wears his soul on his face. I give him an insidious glare, hoping it'll be enough to shut him up. He doesn't even flinch. My stomach clenches and I begin to feel cornered.

"Your feelings are a phase. Drop them--"

He cuts me off with a kiss. He pushes me down onto the bed, stradling my hips, breathes slow and heavy. My cheeks burn with passion I want to deny. However, I cannot keep the heat at bay and I kiss him back. I break free and gaze at his eyes which glow like the northern lights. I melt into his touch and I hook an arm around his neck, bringing him in for another kiss.

I wanted to ignore this pull toward him, but part of me wants to explore more of him, what's on the surface to what else hides in the darkest edges of his mind. I know it can't last and it makes me more terrified of Purgatory. I don't want to forget the way he makes me feel, or the way it steals my breath away.

I don't have a retort for what he has to say, or any sarcastic comment to diffuse the situation. He will regret this when I'm sent back to Purgatory without return. He will probably fear me for what I'm planning on putting my targets through. The right thing to do is deny his claims and walk away, but I'm not a saint.

He flickers his eyes shut, sneaking a hand up into my hair. Without hesitation, he slips his tongue past my lips, tangling it with mine. I grip his face and greedily pull him in deeper, ignoring the way our teeth click together. I want to embed this moment so far into my memory it won't disappear when I'm sent back to Purgatory.

I want to remember how sweet his mouth tastes and how a sweat scent permeates through his hair. I'm guessing he has raided Ascanius' fridge for his chocolate. I taste it on his tongue. And f**k, I want to remember the way everything about this from the way he moans against my lips, how his frantic heartbeats, the light tapping of his pulse to his uneven breaths.

Dammit, when was the last time someone's moans have captivated me this much? Making out with Davian before was nothing more than scratching a biological itch. A distraction. So were all the other times I've made out with anyone. But this is different. Every touch feeds the fire that's growing in my chest. There is something different about this moment. It makes our other make-out sessions pale in comparison.

I barely notice that he's laying me back against the bed until I'm on it. I gaze up at him past half-lidded eyes. His forest green eyes narrow with l**t, watching me through thick lashes. The green of his irises lightens to the point it's almost white. Before I can confirm I'm not seeing things, he pushes my shirt up, raining kisses from my chest to my abdomen.

"f**k," I breathe, not sure how to react to how soothing his lips are against my skin.

He moans in response and slips off my pants and underwear. The smooth skin of his palm caresses my shaft, fingers wrapping around the sensitive skin. My legs wrap around his waist as he swirls his tongue around the head. He places his hand on my knee, not looking too certain about where he should put it. I guide it down to the base of my c**k.

He rubs my shaft, leaning forward to kiss a trail along my jawline. I squeeze my eyes shut, quivering at the feeling. He lifts my hips to take my c**k into the root. My face heats up as he puts me in a position where he can clearly see my face. I moan, hitting the back of my head against the bed.

In all honesty, I don't remember ever getting past making out with someone before. Making out never felt good enough that I would want s*x. But with Davian, it feels different. For some reason, it feels more sensual.

Entranced with my face, he skims my lips with a finger. I nip at his fingertip, before taking it into my mouth. His breath hitches as I twirl my tongue around his finger. He pulls it away. I watch with curiosity as he runs the finger down my chest to my abdomen. At first, I expect him to begin giving me a hand job, but his finger travels lower. I blink in surprise as he rubs my entrance then licks it. It swirls against the entrance

He inserts a finger inside me. I gasp and clasp his shoulders in disbelief of how hot it feels inside me. He pulls it out once I adjust to the intrusion and slides it back in. I tremble and moan as heat courses up my back and down my legs. He adds another and I can barely handle how hot I feel inside.

I stop his hand and pull it away.

"Just get inside me already, you f*****g tease," I moan, surprising him a little. He gazes up at my face to make sure and f**k, he is a sight to see. His dark hair tousled in all directions while sweat illuminates his golden-brown skin. His eyes flutter as I brush my thumb against his stubble.

I draw him back to my lips, ready to let him in.

Bang.

I jolt, snapping my eyes to the door. We wait a moment hoping it will stop. It starts up again louder than before.

Knock. Knock. Bang.

I catch Davian giving the door a murderous glare. He sighs and presses his head against my chest.

"Why now?" he grunts, clearly pissed off at the c**k block.

A part of me wants me to snap out too.

"Give me a moment," I call out in irritation.

I get dressed again. As soon as I'm ready, he has all of Alexa's stuff gathered in his arms.

"I'm going to put this away. I will be back soon," he tells me, quickly kissing my cheek before rushing off into the mirror.

When he goes, I hold my hand to cheek. The places he's kissed feels oddly hot. I shake my head and open the door.

I arch a brow when I find no one there.

"Hello?" I call out, stepping out into the hall.

There is no answer. When I conclude the knocking must have come from someone's room or somewhere outside, I lock myself in Virgil's room. With the rage I suppress, I decide to pay a visit to Alexa's house.