Dear Enmity

Bullets and Eyeballs

The cuffs on his wrists were hard, biting, made worse by her hand on his throat. Veronica pushed him down hall after hall, somehow avoiding people in their fancy clothes. The bullet in his shoulder and chest throbbed with each movement. Xavier knew where she was taking him. He wasn't sure how,  but somewhere deep in the back of his brain he had the entirety of this building memorized. Another two lefts and they would appear in front of a double marble door. The security in this area was doubled, the camera's hidden. 

When the two lefts were over, he was perturbed to know he had been right. The marble doors stretched before him, a Lark on either side. They sneered at him, each one probably trained to burn his face into their memory. Target number 1. Their weapons gleamed in the dim lights of the hall. Poor souls, Xavier thought. 

Veronica kicked the doors open and she shoved him through the door. He made a show of stumbling. The doors clicked closed behind him. 

He didn't care. 

After all, he'd let Veronica think she'd had the upper hand, that a single Lark could undo this establishments greatest achievement. Sure this wasn't part of Xavier and Reid's plan but they could improvise. 

The room was a deep grey colour, the walls decorated in fancy rich people things. Tokens of all he had achieved. It made Xavier's head fill with anger. In the centre of the room was a massive mahogany desk, the edges carved with what could have been artistic depictions of DNA stands. Not that he cared. 

Xavier's attention snagged on the man in the chair. The man that Xavier had spent the last 55 years running from, the man and all his pawns. His experiments. The man he'd seen just an hour before, spinning a woman in a green dress through the ball room. The woman who was perched in his lap. Right where he knew she would be. 

Marcus Digory stood, Reid moving gracefully from his lap. His eyes were locked on Xavier's, his jaw tight with an emotion that made his skin crawl. 

His eyes flicked to Veronica once, at the gun aimed at his head. "Project A," Marcus said cooly, his harsh voice like a rasp on Xavier's memory. "Veronica well done." Xavier didn't need to turn in order to see Veronica's smile. He came around his desk, his eyes never leaving Xaviers, his fingers trailing along the surface. He leaned against it, directly in front of Xavier kneeling on the floor. His arms crossed over his chest. 

"Aren't you happy to see me, A?" Marcus asked, his face cast in an expression of false concern. 

Xavier felt his head tilt, a predators reaction. "Unfortunately your twisted feelings aren't returned." 

Marcus scoffed, his eyes left Xavier's to roll around in their sockets. "I won't make the same mistake again, A. I heard you were busy all this time. There were even rumours of you taking a mate? How horrid right? You wouldn't defy the one rule I gave you, would you?" 

Xavier felt his jaw clench. At that moment he had never been more thankful for the breaking of the bond between himself and Reid. It was Xavier's turn to roll his eyes. "Does it smell like I took a mate?" 

Even though Xavier knew he couldn't smell Reid on him, part of him still spiked with fear. Not for himself, but for -

"My dear," Marcus said, turning back to look at Reid. "Come meet my guests." 

Reid came around the desk, playing her role all too well. The dress parted around his milky thighs, emerald sequins glittering with each step. It was the same colour as her tale, as her piercing eyes. Her red hair was tossed over one shoulder, those eyes on Marcus. 

"Marcus," she said softly, and Xavier picked up on the smallest fraction of a sing-song note. He almost smiled. She trailed a finger up his arm, the captivation that was the siren at work once again. Seduction. Compulsion. Her chess board and she was the queen. "Freeze." 

Suddenly, just like she knew it would, Marcus Digory went motionless. "You can speak," she said a little shyly, looking at Xavier now. "I always forget to let them speak." 

"What-" Veronica started but Reid was too quick. "Release him," Reid snapped. Veronica bent against her will, unclasping Xavier's bonds. 

"What in the gods damned-" Marcus began to yell. 

"No yelling," Reid said. "It hurts my ears. You," she said moving in front of Veronica. "Take that gun and slide the barrel between your teeth. On the next breath you take, I want you to pull that trigger." Reid knew they still needed to breathe to stay awake, but normally they could hold their breath for a long time. They didn't need very long. Reid would have already set her plan in motion. Carefully orchestrated. A web of pretty lies. 

Veronica was pale, so very pale and Marcus looked like pure murder. 

"Who are you?" he snapped.

Reid dug her fingers into Xavier chest and ripped the bullet from his skin, tossing it behind her. "A vision isn't she," Xavier said, through his teeth as Reid dug her fingers in to dig out the other bullet. She turned towards Marcus, the remaining bullet in her fingers. She licked the blood from them, moving slowly towards Marcus. 

"Who made you?" he snarled, at her as she stood directly in front of him. 

Reid looked up at him. "Oh you're funny," she purred. Spinning the bullet in now clean fingers. Xavier watched her work, his favourite kind of show. "I suppose you would want to know," Reid said softy. 

And then she raised her hand and pressed that bullet into his right eye. Slowly, her fingers dove deeper, her siren's talons digging into the soft tissue. Marcus was screaming as loud as Reid's command would let him. Reid was smiling. 

Xavier leaned on the desk beside Marcus. Reid ripped her fingers from Marcus's eye socket, clutching the mutilated eye in her palm. And then she placed it into her mouth and swallowed.

Marcus's face was covered in blood, and the fear the crept up his neck was enough to make Xavier laugh. "Isn't she something?" he asked, bumping his shoulder into Marcus. Xavier almost forgot sometimes that her entire race lived off of eating the hearts of men, not drinking blood as she usually did. His blood. 

"Anyways," Xavier said. "I have a question for you. You see my friend Reid and I have been all over this god damned country looking for someone. Rumour has it she knows you, rumour has it that I just bumped into her less than an hour ago in the hall. Rich brown eyes, kind of a dumb? Naturally blond hair?" Xavier paused as if for dramatic effect. "What was her name? Oh right. Natalia." 

There was a long pause. "Not ringing any bells?" 

Reid smiled then, "tell us everything you know about her." 

Marcus grunted with the force to keep his mouth closed. "She came to me."

"Obviously," Xavier scoffed. "What does she want?" 

"To get rid of you," Marcus exhaled. 

"How would Natalia even know where to find you?" Reid snapped, her head tilting in a predatory glance. 

A gun shot went off, and Xavier looked to see Veronica fall to the floor, her brain blown out on the wall behind her. And then chaos happened. 

A moment later the doors blew open, and guards rushed in guns pointed in their direction. 

"Shoot them," Marcus snapped. 

Xavier dove for the gun on the floor near Veronica. One bullet found his leg but another two landed in the guards chest courtesy of Reid. "Behind the bust on the wall," Xavier said as he disable the other guards rounding the corner. "The gold picture frame, tip it over." 

Reid did and a door slid open behind the desk. Xavier had no idea how he knew that. 

Reid ran inside, Xavier following after her as more guards ran into the room. Only once Xavier entered the narrow and dark hall did he know that in all the corners of his memory, he had no idea how to get out of here.