DIVISION 52 - BOOK II

CHAPTER XLIV

"That's it. That's you." She whispered, running her palms up the bare skin of my legs. 

The dagger dropped to the floor with a metallic echo and another sound I couldn't place. It's probably why I didn't notice things I should. Like when a woman's voice cut across the room.

"Get. The fuck. Off her."

Her body went rigid under me and she slowly turned her head to take in the same blurred form of Makayla Xavier standing with a gun trained on her head. It took my liquor hazed brain a moment and the Empress a blink to extract herself off me slowly.

Fuck.

"Xavier... listen–"

"Leave. Right now. Or this round is going through your head." She spoke slowly and deliberately. No room for error or negotiation. Painfully sober. 

Dripping with unconcealed rage.

The Empress pulled herself from between my legs and and raised her palms in surrender. Then edged around her slowly without breaking her death filled gaze. I took the standoff to adjust the combats back over my legs but it wouldn't fix the look in those blue eyes now. 

The Empress made it to the lift without her head being blown off. The doors slid closed on a dark look in her gaze and left me alone with the one woman I should have wanted here the most.

She turned the gun on me with a look so cold I would have thought our roles had switched.

"I am so fucking glad the alliance is going so well for you–" She choked off the next word and I saw the glint of tears in her eyes. I moved off the stool and she shot a round at my feet. I staggered back into the stool and she glanced at the bottle. A humourless laugh escaped her.

"Really? Really, Alex."

"I didn't ask her to–"

"Nope." She shook her head with a bitter look. "No. That isn't going to cut it for me. You're practically screwing her on that seat and you want to tell me you didn't ask for it?" She demanded, striding forward and dropping the gun to her side. Her eyes burned red with unshed tears and I felt the hole in my chest open up into a crater.

"Makayla I–"

"You're fucking wasted." She realised, scanning my face in disbelief. "At least when I do it I don't screw the first thing I see!"

"No you just kiss them that's much better!" I shot back pushing out of the chair and getting in her face.

She shoved me backwards and I slammed the bar catching myself badly.

"We moved past that! You know it meant nothing to me!" She snarled, sheathing her gun and going for my face. My reactions however were no where to be seen under the circumstances and her slap hit me sharply. Just as it did the night before.

"Keep fucking hitting me Makayla and I'm going to hit back." I growled low, watching her face grow darker as she glared back at me.

"Yes it seems like getting even is all you care about!" She shouted harshly.

"You think that is what this is?" I demanded, pushing up from the wood and trying to steady my body and vision. "Do you have any idea–what I was about to do before you hit me last night?" I growled, grabbing her wrist.

She hesitated a breath before the hardness returned to her eyes and she yanked her hand back. I held firm staring into her gaze while the room blurred around us.

"Don't you dare pin this on me–"

"I was going to give it to Proximo." She stilled under my glare. "My title. To make sure that look didn't cross you ever again when you looked at the Empress."

Tears did fall openly down her face now. I pulled her towards me as she fought me. Wrapping my arms around her as she shook her head and kicked at my legs. "No–don't touch me–don't!" She sobbed making me lose my balance a moment before I caught her face in my hands.

"Stop. Makayla... Just stop." I murmured, feeling her attacks lessen every second.

When I relaxed my grip she twisted her leg with a strength I didn't have right now and threw me sideways into the pool. I gasped in a mouthful of water before I surfaced. Coughing heavily and feeling reality hit me more squarely and soberly.

The look on her face could have stopped my heart entirely.

"You did this–" She rasped, backing from me with tears running down her cheeks. "We had everything and you threw it away for her. I hope she's worth it, Scorpion." She bit out.

"Makayla don't–we need to talk–" I coughed dragging my body to the lip of the pool.

"We're done." She finished, turning for the lift.

I rolled onto the floor and dragged my drenched clothes up with my body and ran for her. She drew her gun off her hip and levelled it at me. I stopped metres away before her. Then decided she would have to pull the trigger to stop me. I moved my feet and heard the safety click off. I didn't stop until the barrel pressed against the base of my neck. The water ran past me in streams as I watched her.

"Here we are again." I murmured, staring at those blue eyes.

"We didn't have to be." She whispered, the gun shaking in her hand. I pushed it aside and took her hand in mine.

"You're going to have to pull the trigger to stop me from coming with you, Makayla." I stated without the lingering effects of alcohol in my voice anymore. "I can't take back what happened. I couldn't see past last night. I couldn't stay present while it carved me up inside. I didn't deal with it and now I'm stuck wishing I had just god damn hit you back instead of leaving you."

She scoffed and raised her hands above her with the gun.

"It's a bit late for that now Scorpion isn't it?" She exclaimed with a glare through the tears. "All I can see is that woman all over you and you doing nothing to stop it." She growled, pushing me off her. I caught her wrist trying to take away that hurt but she pushed both back into me struggling. "It's too late–Alex!" She yelled yanking her hands and trying to rip herself away. I lost my grip on her wrist and the hand wielding the weapon slipped back with a loud shot.

I could feel the surprise on my face.

Even before the pain registered and before the look of horror stole her face. She dropped the gun and caught me as I dropped to my knees.

"No, no, no Alex I didn't–Alex please NO!"

My abdomen felt warmer. I glanced down at the red circle before Makayla pressed her hands tightly against me. "Alex I didn't mean to–please don't–" Her tears were flowing freely now as she ripped her comm to her lips and shouted down it. Her hands came back red.

The room felt further than it did even at the end of a bottle.

Warm hands gripped my face stained with my blood as my eyes drifted to the ceiling above. I didn't see my life ending this way. I sure as hell didn't see it at the hands of Makayla... but the way things had gone... I thought distantly. I felt like she had deserved to take her shot for a long time. I stared at the agony on her face as she shouted something at me.

Her shouts danced around me lost in the hum building in my head. In the darkness that was more inviting than ever before.

Her eyes were beautiful. How could I have seen any other's for a moment and betray her?

You took your shot. I thought with a dying sense of humour.

The lift opened behind her and bodies filled the room with more shouting. She was dragged off me and pinned against the floor. Don't. Don't touch her... My mind was drifting as I held her eyes that stared at me and then something pinched my arm. My head rolled as the drugs took my system over.

The last thought I had was of a pair of sky blue eyes more clear than the rippling water beyond us. Ones that trusted me with her life. Ones I trusted with mine.

Then I saw nothing at all.