The Devil's Masquerade: The Remedy (The Devil's Eyes) (14 page)

“I will have it done before the end of the day,” I reply with respect, making my grandfather happy.

I have no trouble finding the man Grandfather told me about. It’s not as if he was in hiding, but I wonder why he would think he could get away with stealing from my grandfather. He seems to be unassuming, and he doesn’t have much of anything. Even his car is humble. His mannerisms are not bold and direct but feeble and nervous. I wonder if Grandfather has made a mistake. Surely it cannot be this man that stole from him, it must be another. I call Grandfather and tell him he must have the wrong man; he must’ve given me the wrong name. There is no way that this man would steal anything and certainly not from us. Our conversation escalates until I am told to wait for him to arrive, and when he does, he comes in with a force that puts fear into everyone within eyesight. He calls me to him and has the man I was supposed to have killed already brought out in front of me. My grandfather speaks of traitors and backstabbers and though he is talking to the man in front of him, I begin to feel as if he is talking to me. “This man has stolen from me,” Grandfather announces. I say nothing as the man holds his head up high and awaits his fate with pride.

“You can kill me, but you will not destroy my soul,” the man says. I glance in Ro’s direction who cannot even look at the man.

I meet the man’s eyes and see nothing of what has been said about him, so why is he here? Before I can ask, Ward strikes the man down with a single assault of his blade, and the man’s life leaves him within an instant. I look down at my feet before I can look back up again to my grandfather

“Do not ever question me Nicholas. When I tell you something is true, then it is true, and you do as I ask. Do you understand?” I nod and perform my next task without question. I kill for him without question. Ro’s typical vibrant self is beginning to become lost and sluggish, and I am not feeling that wonderful myself. I need to get away, and I want to see her. No matter the amount of days that go by, I am unable to completely wipe Kayla from my thoughts. All I want is to see her again, but I have to fight my urges and do as I am told.

Chapter 18

Elijah

We attempted to steal some of Savage’s territory and scare him, but that didn’t work out very well at all. We got two minutes into a so-called battle and were quickly taken over by hundreds more men than we had with us. Thankfully, there were so few of us and so damn many of them that they confused themselves, running into each other searching for us. We were all able to drop to our knees and crawl out between their legs and escape. That was fun, terribly disturbing, and a massive failure. But that’s fine because that was only supposed to be a distraction while others tried to sneak into their office building and steal the masquerade’s invite list from their main computer system. Unfortunately, that didn’t work out. Our men were never able to get into the building because they locked it down and didn’t allow anyone inside due to a terrorist practice drill they happened to be having at the very time we were trying to break in. We did all this feeling like we couldn’t fail, and I am pretty sure Savage is laughing at us right now.

When we arrive back at the Jayzon estate, none of us even want to look at each other.

“Well that was awful,” Terrence says, still missing one of his shoes that fell off when a guy stepped on it as we were desperately crawling our way to safety.

“I told you it wouldn’t work,” Amery says and then laughs when we all glare at him. “Oh come on. You guys have to lighten up. We tried, and now we know what won’t work. In time we will be laughing about this. I mean, you have to admit, it’s funny.” He starts laughing hard. “I mean, we all ran in there and then Eli screamed, ‘Everybody down! We are taking this shit over.’ And then …” he doubles over laughing. “And then, twenty guys jump out at you with machine guns. Another twenty come out over here, and then there, and then over there. So, what do we do? We drop to our knees and crawl out without a shot being fired. That is an amazing accomplishment I must say.”

“You forgot Eli yelling, ‘April Fools! Just kidding guys,’ with his hands up in the air,” Ryan laughs with the others following after him.

“Oh yes, fun times,” I say with little humor. The only thing I want right now is a drink. The moment I put my glass to my lips, I gaze down to the end and see Cat staring at me with her arms crossed.

“Don’t you think that is inappropriate right now?” Cat asks me.

“No. I think it is completely appropriate right now. Here, let me get you one.” She immediately huffs in my face. “Is that a no? You should try it; it might make you less annoying. Although, me drinking should help that, too.”

“I don’t like you,” she says.

“Good.” I smile happily. “Not caring for you much either, Short Stuff.”

“I’m not short,” she yells up at me.

“Okay.” I laugh before turning up my glass and taking a drink. Out of nowhere and for no good reason, the bitch punches me with a deep thrust into my side. “Fuck! What is your problem?” I yell, nearly spitting out my drink.

“You, and your casual disrespectful attitude about everything. We have endured a setback, but don’t give up and drink. Let’s work together and come up with another idea. Let’s keep hitting them hard and show them what we can do.” She continues her nauseating cheerleading attitude. “Alright? Come on. I know you don’t have much ability, but I am sure you could be of some use. You might be an ignoble human being but …”
I’m a what?
She must notice my confusion, “An ignoble person, unworthy or lowly. You’re basically a peasant compared to the rest of us.”

“Oh, I am? Wow. Thank you, but last I checked, I am not damned to hell like some supposed demon royals. So maybe you’re the ignoble one, Short Stuff,” I say, pointing out everyone to her.

“I am not short! Ignoble! Now, you listen to me. You are going to sit down over here, and you are going to help the rest of us figure out our next move,” she says, waving her finger in my face.

I look back at everyone else. Even Amery hides his laugh behind his hand. The longer she goes on, the more annoying she gets. She finally turns her back to me and tries to gather everyone together. I take the time to make myself another drink. Just before I get the drink to my lips, she pulls it from my hand. “You know I hate that. You cannot take a man’s drink away from him. That is not proper, unless you want to be a bitch.”

“I am not a bitch. I am, however, a woman who is tired of dealing with an overgrown child!”

“You’re a woman? When did that happen?” I say, angering her even more and giving me the opportunity to take my drink back and down it before she has anything else to say.

“You better watch what you say to me.” I roll my eyes away from her and sigh. “AWRGH!” she screams suddenly. “You are the most annoying man I have ever met!”

“Oh good! Then, I am returning the favor,” I snap back.

“You know I could really punish you.”

“You’re not doing that now?” I ask her.

“No, I could make your life way worse. I could turn you into a disgusting toad with warts,” she threatens with a sincere look.

I laugh, “You are going to do what? You can’t do that.” I look at her a little harder as she sets back on her heels with a hardened expression. “Can you?” I shake my head with a smile. “No, you can’t do that. She can’t do that, can she?” I ask Amery, and all he can do is shrug. “What? Yes? No?” I look back at her wide smile. “No? No you can’t do that. Can you do that?” She ignores my questions and walks off with a superior attitude.
I don’t like her at all.
I set the liquor aside, go sit with the rest, and begrudgingly participate.

We go round and round, bickering and discussing, until we all finally decide to hold off until tomorrow when we are more rested. While most everyone leaves or goes to bed, I decide to go upstairs, take a shower, and wash off this day. When I finish, I step out with my towel wrapped around my waist and find her sitting on my bed, waiting for me. “Cat, what are you doing in my room?” She looks up at me with wide eyes before looking away again. She begins to rush back to the door. “You’re going to run out now? What? Did you poison my sheets or something?”

“No! No, I only wanted to come and apologize for the things I said to you. I don’t want to fight with you anymore. It doesn’t do either of us any good. So … maybe we could call a truce for a while,” she says

“Uh-huh. You did poison my sheets, didn’t you?” I say, picking at them with a hanger to check them out.

“No, I sincerely want to mend our friendship and establish a stronger relationship for the benefit of our common goal,” she says, and I laugh. “What’s so funny?”

“Do you always talk that way? Why can’t you just say, ‘hey fucker, I’m sorry for being a bitch. Let’s get over it and move on’.” She snarls at me. “You are so uptight.” I walk over to her while still holding my towel around my waist with one hand.

“What are you doing?” she says, looking down at my towel.

“Don’t worry. I’m not going to do anything to you. I am only offering my hand to shake on our new arrangement, but you have to promise not to call me ‘ignoble’ anymore.”

“And you can’t call me short anymore.”

I pull my hand back, “Ahhh, see, I don’t think I can do that. You always take it one step too far.” I smile, shaking my finger at her.

She fights a smile, and I catch her looking between the wraps of my towel. I step away with a shy expression, causing her to smile widen. “You know, if you promise to be respectful of me, I can do something for you,” she says. I cock my head to the side with a curious expression. “I know you like Kayla, right? You probably even love her, don’t you?”

“Get out,” I say, looking away from her.

“No, I don’t mean any harm. I only thought I could give you, her, for a moment.” I shake my head before looking back at her and seeing Kayla. “See, I can give you your fantasy. I can give you her for a time.” I look her over. “If you want, you can kiss me. It’s okay because it isn’t her, so you won’t be hurting anyone. It’s just an innocent fantasy of sorts.” I am overwhelmed, but the feelings rushing through my body are unstoppable. There is nothing wrong with this. There is no reason I should deny myself this. Right? I step into her, instantly taking in her lips with mine. I pull her hair down and kiss her before pushing her shirt to the side to get my lips closer to her breasts. She gasps, clutching the back of my head and fisting my hair, making me even crazier. Taking hold of her thighs, I lift her up onto me and let my towel slide off. The moment I get her to kiss me back, that moment I feel into her mouth with my tongue and can feel hers, I place her on the bed and begin removing her clothes. Unfortunately, I don’t get far before she pushes me away and slides to the other side of the bed away from me. “Eli, I didn’t mean to do any of that.”

“Well, what did you mean? Why did you come in here, Cat? To torture me more?” I snap at her.

“No, I told you I …”

“Get out. I don’t need this. You come in here and tease me by being someone you are clearly not. You know, next time you change into someone, make sure it is someone you can be. You’re not Kayla. She is strong, beautiful, smart, sexy and more desirable than anyone I have ever met. You might be smart, but you’re none of the other things,” I say angrily before looking back at the teary eyed mess I have made. Before I can say another word, she runs out and leaves me feeling like a complete ass.
Fuck! Damn! Why did I say that?

After I leave Cat several messages on her cell, I realize she is no mood to talk to me right now. I knock on Kayla’s door but no answer. Peeking inside, she seems sound asleep and not needing a hand to hold tonight, but I do. I crawl in next to her and take her hand anyway. She wakes up enough to give me a brief smile and a squeeze of my hand. I try to smile but end up looking away from her in shame.

“What’s wrong?” Kayla asks, sitting up to look at me.

“Nothing. I just did something stupid, and now I feel guilty.”

“What did you do?” I don’t even know how to explain it to her. She smiles suddenly and lies back down. “Apologize to her Eli, and she will forgive you.”

“I tried but … wait how did you know it was a she?”

“Because Cat has been following you around for weeks with her big dreamy eyes. You were bound to say something stupid eventually.”

I ignore her
say something stupid
remark and get to the more shocking information she just shared with me. “Why is she following me around? She hates me. Right?”

Kayla huffs, “Men are so blind. That girl is head over heels in love with you, Eli. All she wants is for you to notice her.”

“When did this happen?”

“The first day we all met,” she says. I look at her like she is crazy. I don’t remember doing anything that would cause Cat to be drawn to me. “You made her laugh when we all first got together, and then you turned and winked at her when she did. She has been waiting for you to show her that same attention ever since. Now, shut up and let me go back to sleep. You can grovel tomorrow.” She yawns, closing her eyes and drifting back to sleep.