Undercover Badge; Next Generation

Chapter 44

CHAPTER 44

The black hood got yanked off of my head rougher than I would have liked and the light beyond it had me hissing in pain as it burned my corneas. "Hey, a little warning, douchebags!" I snapped. The guy behind me snorted a laugh.

I was zip tied to a steel chair. "Arrogant prick." I growled, leaning back in my seat and crossing my legs. The chair I was in was a distinct contrast to the room I was in. Behind the window, it was thundering. I watched lightening whip across the dark sky and highlight contours of grey clouds. I was in a personal library. An expensive one. Wood paneled walls, a Persian rug beneath my booted feet and a leather high backed armchair behind a mahogany desk. She sat in the chair.

She was taller than me though not my much, with dark, deep brown hair cut severely to her collarbone and dark grey eyes with pale icy skin. She's early familiar.

"How are you feeling, my dear?"

"I'm fine. Who the hell are you?"

She smiles.

"I apologize. We're not ones to interfere this much." she leaned back, sipped a glass of amber liquid. "Though, your friends keep stumbling into our path."

"I'm pretty tired of the cloak and dagger." I snapped. "What's going on?"

I find myself genuinely relaxed. The guy behind me cuts off my zip ties. She leans over the desk, selects a crystal decanter among many on a silver tray and pours a burgundy wine in a low-ball crystal glass and reaches over to hand it to me. I narrow my eyes but take the glass and sip it, surprised to find I really like the drink. Its dry and heady, like brandy and raspberries and chocolate.

"You seem lost, my dear." She says after a moment.
"I'm fine, I just don't know what's going on. Who are you." I said simply.

She smiled. "It's not so much who, as where." She said, taking a long sip. "Who we are is irrelevant, because everyone is who they are. But where we are? That's a better question. There are some places we are not."

My eyes narrowed and my lips parted at the critic words. After a few seconds i gave up on following her logic. "Look, lady." I said, putting the glass down. "I have no idea what you're talking about. And it's starting to piss me off." I was sounding more and more like Matthew.

"Forgive us." She said with a chuckle. "We're not usually this frank." She takes a drink. "You were very young when your mother died."

"Yes?" I said simply.

"She was lovely, I knew her for a time. You remind me of her."

"Who, exactly, are you?" I asked, narrow eyed.

She chuckled. Took a sip. "I'm a dead woman."

I raised both eyebrows.

"Who. Are. You?" I asked.

She smiled. "You're asking the wrong question."

I thought for a moment. "Where are you?" I tried.

"I am here, with you. And nowhere else, which is dangerous for you. It puts you on the map. But, to be frank, you were on the map before. Accidentally but intrinsically."

"Intrinsically?" I asked.

"Katerina likes to stumble in where her hands don't belong." Matthew's mother? "She's a bit bull headed that way, running into things she doesn't understand to destroy them."

"How do you know Matthew's mother?" I asked.

"Not all dead, stay dead. You should know that better than anyone." She hid her smirk behind a sip.
"Are Kat and James okay?"