Chapter #2

Doriah felt herself toss and turn as images of her brother flashed behind her eyes, he might be dead, so if that’s the case why was not there to make sure? where was she? Her mind raced as she tried to awake from what felt like endless torture.

“Doriah.”

Zhanna appeared in her dreams, and it made Doriah fume with rage.

“I don’t want you here witch!”

She spat expressing her already evident anger, Zhanna walked up to her with both hands clasped behind her back, she looked down at where Doriah was and maintained her smile.

“If you steady your heart and quell your rage you could control what you see.”

Doriah reluctantly closed her eyes and took deep breaths, trying her best to calm her racing her.

“Open them now.”

As she opened her eyes and took in her surrounding slowly. Books on shelves and a ton of paper works overflowing from a desk as the sun light seeped in through the windows illuminating the study, giving it a warm feel. Tears pricked her eyes and almost fell when she caught a glimpse of something behind the mountain of papers.

“Why are you here witch?”

Zhanna pricked the dirt from under her fingernails as she sat slouched in the chair and delayed her answer.

“You said I control what I see, so why the hell are you here?”

As she finished with her favourite finger, the pinky, she squared her shoulders and sat up straight.

“I said you could control what you see yes; but honey you can never control me.”

The papers still hid her quite neatly and it started to aggravate Doriah, she stared at the stacks of paper and wished them away and away they went until she was face to face with Zhanna.

“Listen, Doriah, we could either do this the civilized way or you could throw a tantrum and mess up the awfully nice study."

Zhanna spoke with a smile on her face as she gestured around the study, drinking it all in and Doriah hated it.

“I don’t know what you want witch but get the hell out of my head before I kick you out.”

Her remarks made Zhanna smile even brighter, she could use a challenge after losing her mark.

“Well, why don’t you make me hot head?”

Zhanna placed her head on the back of her entwined fingers as her elbows propped her up. Her smile pissed Doriah off a great deal and thus the war started.

Amanda almost collapsed as her eyes caught a glimpse of their car parked at the side of the street, she dropped Dorian to the ground without a second thought, probably fracturing a few bones in the process, she moved around her shoulders and stretched.

“If the boss finds out you dropped him like a sack of potatoes, you’re dead meat."

Ashton reminded and only got a scoff in return.

“Why didn’t the boss come fetch him then?”

Ashton refused to answer her, he threw Dorian over his shoulder and did a super walk to the car, he threw him in the back and told the driver to step on it.

“What about your sister?”

The man’s voice cracked a little, to him she was almost as scary as the boss himself.

“Leave her and step on it.”

Amanda was about to jog over to the car when it sped off and she cussed under her breath, she had forgotten her brother and the sack of potatoes were friends.

“If there is ever another time that I have to talk to you twice that would be then end of your life.”

Ashton wiped the thin line of blood from his knife and sheathed it before handing the driver the black kerchief, the man reluctantly took it and applied a bit of pressure to his throat. Ashton was usually the quiet one, but he was like a viper with a short temper when it was necessary.

They pulled into the driveway of the mansion’s garage, as the door closed Ashton shot out and made a dash for the medical block in the house.

“Gelda! Emergency!”

A short Hispanic woman bolted out the room with a look of worry on her face, her eyes roamed his frame and as she concluded that he was fine her worry eased a little.

“What’s the emergency?”

She stared at him as her mind ran to Amanda, her short feet fought to keep up as she followed quietly behind the young man.

“He’s in the back, go around the other side.”

As Ashton opened the door his heart fell, and worry filled the space his blood once did and burned as it ran through his veins.

“Who’s here?”

Gelda was worried out her mind, ‘was Ashton losing it?’ she thought to herself.

“Ashton!”

The loud booming of a voice penetrated the entire garage.

“Mr. Reaper.”

Ashton’s voice was timid as he answered the boss.

“Get in here.”

Ashton followed his orders and walked with his head leveled.

“Where is Amanda?”

The Reaper took a seat behind his desk as Ashton stood to the side, a couple sat on the sofa facing the Reaper and didn’t bother sparing him a glance.

“Explain to us what happened and do not skip any detail.”

Ashton swallowed deeply and proceeded to explain the day’s events but no matter how much he tried, he couldn’t sell his sister out, no matter what she had done.

“Is that all Ashton?”

The Reaper stared at him as he leaned back with both hands clasped and just beneath his eyes.

“Yes sir.”

The Reaper squinted his eyes and bit both his thumbs.

“I advise you not lie Ashton; this is your final warning.”

Ashton took a deep breath and with confidence confirmed that what he said was all that happened.

“Ok then, if I may.”

The strange woman got up and turned the lights off, the light from a projector came on.

“If I’m not mistaken, this is your sister dropping a fellow colleague effortlessly.”

The woman maintained eye contact with Ashton as if she was searching for something.

“And if I’m still not mistaken you stood there along with your sister and watched as the witches escaped with another one of your colleagues.”

She clicked and the projector showed a short clip of what happened.

“As I stated before that’s all that happened.”

Ashton’s face was stoic as he awaited her response. The woman took a deep breath and turned the lights on and switched the projector off, the man stood beside her and faced both Ashton and the Reaper.

“I heard that your motto is to not intervene with your colleague’s mission, however if you were sent over there as a back up team, therefore you had all rights to intervene but you chose to leave one of your colleagues for dead while allowing a witch to escape with the other. Isn’t that right?”

The woman questioned as she starred them down keenly.

“Yes ma’am, however I was only following the orders meted out to me and we didn’t expect him to get caught that easily.”

The woman scoffed as her lips curled awaiting the profanity to rip from them, but the man beside her squeezed her hand tightly and she regained her composure.

“I chose to sign them over to you not only because we’re acquainted but because you’re highly recommended and scored the highest when it comes to effectiveness and reliability. So, for old time’s sake I’ll leave this with you, your work may be clean and reliable and effective however the death rate amongst your own men rival that of the creatures you kill which is unknown to the public-.”

The Reaper stood, cutting the woman off.

“Is that a threat Deloris?”

His voice was only a whisper as usual but an even deadlier one, Deloris smiled sweetly as the man beside her took a protective stance before her.

“Let her finish Reaper.”

The man’s voice was eerie and reeked of death with a promise.

“Boys, relax. As I was, you should practice teamwork, if they swooped in earlier, you could’ve bagged the most powerful witch amongst the V’s, she has the potential to rival all other clans and succeed. If you want a smooth success rate it would’ve been wise to knock her out of the park, now she’s an even greater threat. You should retrain them, have them practice on spot thinking.”

The Reaper sat in frustration, Deloris leaned on his desk and started moving the little figurines and with a content sigh she started her explanation.

“When the witch touched Dorian here, Ashton was spectating here, he signaled Amanda after he caught wind of what happened to which she told him not to intervene. That’s their training, to leave their teammates for dead. If they had came up with a plan on spot to at least retrieve their teammate he wouldn’t be in the critical condition he is now. Moving on, Doriah was there watching over the mission as instructed by me, she used her training and swooped in to help, your people only moved to stop her, not to help at all, Amanda’s distraction aided even more their failure.”

Deloris stood straight and sighed.

“I hope you can take what little advice I gave here today. And with that I’m withdrawing my children from your organization.”

The Reaper’s eyes raised to meet hers, this wasn’t good for business at all, his reputation had skyrocketed after her children joined his organization but if they leave everything he worked hard for would plummet.

“Quinton, Deloris. Think this over.”

He didn’t want to show weakness in front of his ranks, but he desperately needed them.

“Ashton, leave us.”

He dismissed Ashton and after making sure he was far enough he turned his attention to the couple before him.

“I can’t afford to lose this agreement between us.”

His façade fell greatly as he stared at the people who were once his closet friends.

“Anthon, we could negotiate about almost anything, but our children are off the negotiation table. You put their lives at risk and before you say it, yes, I know that the job is risky but, in a life, and death situation you rescue your teammates, regroup, and go again. What the hell happened to no man left behind?”

Anthon bowed his head in shame, everything she said was correct, he was obsessed with power, he had planned to let Dorian die and then his team would swoop in and take the glory, of course Amanda was the only one who knew about his plans, but maybe if he played it innocent, he could maintain both corn and husk.

“Don’t even Anthon, I know of your plans and exactly what you told that girl to do, so much for old time’s sake.”

Deloris threw a document at him and walked out the room with Quinton in towe.

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