Arabella slowly makes her way inside with a dagger in hand. She opens the door as quietly as possible and is met with utter silence. Her hand tightens around the dagger as she hears grunts coming from the living room. When she gets there she peers in and sees her whole family tied to chairs with a bunch of men surrounding them.
Well shit.
"Where is she?!" The man in the middle shouts. Immediately Arabella's mind goes back as her eyes narrow at the familiar man who she couldn't remember.
"Like we would ever tell you! You piece of sh-'' Xander spits at him but before he could finish he was punched straight in the face.
We can hear the walls laughing at him-
"Don't touch my son!" Papa growls at him and gets a laugh in return.
"I wouldn't have to if you would just tell me where the goddamn hell your daughter is!" The man yells. It was then that she saw the tattoos on their neck. The Russian mafia. Arabella rolls her eyes, already getting frustrated. You've got to be kidding me. That's why he looks so familiar. He looks like the second in command guy. Meaning they must have been related. Looking a little closer she realized that the man who was yelling has a slightly different tattoo.
20/20 vision check
Which means he's in the top ranks. It can't be the don since there isn't a crown and it can't be second since he's dead. Maybe third in command?
From the corner of her eye she could see him go to throw a punch at papa. Oh hell nah.
"Well hello there. Mind if I join the fun?" She walks out of her hiding place twirling a dagger in hand.
From spinning a pencil in hand during class to using a fucking knife. The queen has entered bitches! Thank you very much.
All heads snap to her. She's immediately met with her family's protest telling her to run but she ignores them. If only they knew.
"So this is the long lost mafia princess." The guy steps forward to her. "Now that I see you I understand why they want you so bad. Maybe I'll get a turn." He does a once over of her body licking his lips.
"You disgusting pig!" Dante shouts at him earning a punch in the face.
"Nah I'll pass. I didn't even give the second in command a turn. Now why would I give you one?" Arabella smirks knowing she hit the right spot. His smirk drops and is now replaced with a glare.
"Don't talk about my brother." He grits.
"Your brother? Sorry for your loss. It was fun to see life drown out of his eyes. If you know what I mean." She chuckles quietly.
"You bit-"
"No thanks. I prefer a bad bitch."
"Get her!" He growls to the men behind him.
Except for one of the men, the majority of them simply stay still. They believe she's going to start weeping and follow them. Little do they know. That she's the finest of the best. She takes her time going through each one, and notices most of them without a gun. There were knives, though.
Knives. I see we have a few experienced knife combatants on our hands.
She effortlessly hit the first man in the gut as he doubled over, the punch catching him off surprise and causing him to curse himself. She swung another hit at his skull, knocking him unconscious.
Everyone is stunned, and she bites the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing. Before she knew it, they were all charging at her.
Her initial impulse is to get these guns out. That is precisely what she does. She is able to make her way through them as they come for her, and gain access to each of their guns. Knives were significantly more difficult to use due to their tiny size. She manages to slip the guns into the flames of the fireplace beside her. To some, this may appear foolish, but she realized they didn't have enough ammunition based on the weight of each gun. Her gaze darted around the room swiftly, only now noting the billets adorning the walls.
Must have had a hell lot of shots fired to get her family tied down
She smirks beneath her breath, knowing that they would have held quite a match. Her focus is swiftly shifted to the knife that flies towards her. She leans down and rolls back, just avoiding the foot aimed for her foot. She flings the knife back where it came from as she flips back up. It strikes the man in the face as he yells and falls to the ground. Two of the guys run up to him, but are quickly knocked down as Arabella pulls out a ninja star from behind the couch and swings it at them. Slicing through their neck effectively.
Her family is awestruck as the young warrior skillfully defeats each man with no effort. They were paying attention to how her feet worked together. Her hands were incredibly strong, and the hold on her dagger seemed impenetrable. She battled valiantly, refusing to let a single man go. Her family, on the other hand, was terrified. The way she wore no emotion on her face but an evil grin as she watched their lives fade from their eyes. They've seen this before. In themselves. However, this was because they had been taught to do so. She, unlike the others, was not yet part of the mafia. She was a typical girl. So, how could she do this?
Arabella lashed her fist at the man who dared to pull her hair back. He stumbles back, but Arabella has no relief as yet another man tries for her ribs, even though he misses. She works quickly to take them all down. A wild roundhouse punch that harmlessly deflected off the other man's shoulder "Fucking sucker punch, huh?" said the man, not understanding it was only a diversion, providing Arabella with an easy target to aim her fist at his nose, obliterating any eyesight he may have had.
She senses a person approaching from behind her as she sweeps her feet out from under him, his head brutally connecting with the floor. Before she could respond, someone slammed his fist into her stomach, causing her to stagger backwards. His knuckles brush against her cheek, the end of his ring piercing into her flesh, and he doesn't spare a second. She hunches back, gripping her jaw to keep it in place as she detects a familiar metallic flavor.
Arabella inhaled a mouthful of air and struggled to regain her breath. She appeared to be about to puke for a second, but she managed to straighten up. Pure rage crossed her face. Though Arabella heard Demetris' voice in her ear, an echo of her training: "Don't ever fight angry. That's not what the game's about."
No one had informed these men of this. The men who had no idea what she was capable of.
With her hands swinging, she lunged towards the man. She was all set. The man's head twisted back, his body arched backward, and all of his momentum snapped back on him like a broken rubber band with one rapid straight punch to the man's exposed jaw. He sprang off his toes and cleared the ground.
His body hovered in mid-air for a long time. Then he fell with a thud, no longer a participant in the battle.
As her knuckles collided with someone's face, the power of the hit broke the flesh above his cheekbone, Arabella appeared to laugh. He screamed and fell to his knees, still conscious but reaching for his boot knife.
She slashes the man with her heel, throwing him across the room.
She pushed the hair that had fallen across her face back into place as she stood to her full height. Her gaze moves throughout the room as she notices each individual that is either dead or severely damaged. She isn't remorseful, though. There is no regret. This was not the first time she had done something similar. Her family was harmed by them.
It was now down to the third in command. Her hand reaches for a knife at her belt. But it's no longer there. She knew she'd dropped it and might have leaned down to pick up one of the other knives strewn over the floor. But her gaze was drawn to the gun on the table, where she noticed his eyes. He could easily get the gun first even if she snatched the knife off the floor. So she jumped.
Arabella lunged for the gun on the table and grabbed it. If the man in front of her could get his hands on it first, she knew terrible things would happen. Her imagination couldn't stop itself from conjuring up pictures of blood and anguish of her family. Then her hand was on the gun, and his was on hers, causing a searing sensation as she gasped for oxygen, her wrist bone shattering and the gun soaring into the air. She could hear herself thinking, 'It landed in the corner.' "It hurts so much, but I have to be the first one there," she observed thinking to herself.
And just like that she moved her feet from under him as he falls back though his grip doesn't falter pulling her down with him. Under the table she sees the shining of a knife that glimmered under the light. She grabs it with her other arm even as the excruciating pain of her other wrist shoots through her. She slashed at the man's arm that held her down. He instantly lets go and she sprints for the gun luckily getting it on time. Though as she spins around she sees him with a gun pointed at Vincent. She could feel her heart hitch that he might actually pull the trigger.
"If you shoot, I'll shoot too." He smirks. I look towards papa trying to tell him what to do with my eyes. Hopefully he understood because he gave me a small nod.
"Ok ok. I'll put the gun down just don't shoot." I slowly place the gun on the floor putting my hands up. He laughs at me letting his aim on the gun falter.
"Now!" I shout. Papa bends his head down and I use the dagger that I had grabbed while putting the gun down before I slipped it into my waistband. I throw it at the guy's arm making his hand tighten on the trigger though it simply shoots the wall before it drops to the ground. He holds his arm from the pain of the knife that cut him. At that moment I grab the gun from the floor and shoot his knee caps. He falls to the ground screaming in pain. I take slow menacing steps to him standing in front of him. I pull his hair back making him look at me. I smirk at his pain filled face.
"Why are you here?" I ask him.
"I'm not telling." He spits.
"You really underestimate me." I sigh, wiping the makeup from the back of my neck and reveal my angel of death mark. Now instead of confidence his eyes held surprise and slight fear.
"Your angel of death?"
"The one and only." I chuckle. "Now you better speak or I'll make this much worse for you. And you must know that the Angel of death doesn't fucking bluff."
"My loyalty lies with the Russians. You can't make me fucking speak, bitch."
This motherfucker-
"Ok then." I take him by the collar and place him in the chair. I grab his cuffs and tie his arms behind his back. He wiggles around trying to break free, but he's trapped. "You won't say anything? Fine. Then I'll force you to do it. It'll be done my way." I pressed the dagger's blade into the exact location on his knee where I had fired the shot. His arms are struggling against the shackles as he cries.
"Stop! He begs for an end, "Please!" He pleads.
"Then why the fuck are you here?" My voice booms as I hold a tight grip on his neck, blocking his airway.
"Fine! Fine! I'll tell you! We just know that the Germans are paying a high price for you." As blood seeps through the carpet, he begs with me, tears flowing down his face.
Fucking Germans. It's always the fucking Germans
"Thanks for that. Such a shame you won't be going back." I pretend to pout before my face turns cold.
"Never and I mean never mess with me or my family." I growl into his ear and slice his throat as he falls limp on the floor.
Cutting off the ropes that they were tied to, I take a step back in front of them. I turn to my family and they're all frozen. They stare at me wide eyed. It was only then that I realized that they don't know about who I am. It felt as though I was doing one of my usual jobs, that I forgot that they were all watching me kill all these men. They witnessed a part of me, I didn't want them to see. Well I'm screwed. While they're still stuck in their daze I begin to take slow steps forward hoping I can get away. I turn around to make a run for it but I'm stopped by a commanding voice.
"Where do you think you're going?" Alejandro questions me. I slowly turn back around gulping.
"Elijah is still in the car." I explain trying to get out of here but Alejandro stops me with his hand.
"Luca, go get him." He orders as I slowly hand Luca my keys. He doesn't look at me as he takes it from me.
"And there's something in the back that I need. Can you not show Elijah please?" I ask quietly and he curtly nods his head turning back to the door.
"First let me fix your wounds." Lorenzo states monotonously. His voice is blank and void of any emotion making my heart hurt.
They hate me
I quietly nod my head as he waves his hand over to him as I follow him to the kitchen. He takes a few different items helping me with my wounds. I hiss lightly when the disinfectant touches my cut on my cheek. He mutters a small sorry continuing with his work. He ends up moving my wrist and I can't hold in the scream that leaves me. He instantly lets go, his eyes widened in panic.
"I'm sorry. Oh god. I think it's sprained." He grabs a brace wrapping it around my hand being as gentle as possible while he tries to avoid my pain filled face.
"You can go shower and then we'll talk." I manage a small nod walking away. Passing by my family was like a knife to the heart as they looked at me blankly.
I shower, wash the blood that is stuck to my body and just relax under the warm water. I avoided moving my right hand as I cleaned myself. Then I changed into a matching set with a gray cropped sweatshirt and gray sweatpants. I throw my hair into a messy bun making my way down.
I enter our second living room considering the first one isn't in the best shape. As I walk in it goes deathly silent. Elijah runs to me holding on to my leg.
"Where's the surprise!?" He jumps up and down. I turn to Luca who nods his head to the closet behind us. I open the door seeing it and slowly pull out the remote control car that I ordered earlier for Elijah. I was going to give it to him a little later but he's expecting a surprise. Elijah's eyes widened.
"Do you like it?" I ask him while bending down to his height and giving it to him. He takes it smiling widely.
"I love it! Thank you sissy!" He squeals and wraps his arms around my neck, hugging me closely. I chuckle at him, my heart warming as I watch the excitement on this boy's face.
Who knows how they'll react? They may think I'm a liar or-
"Your welcome little man."
Funny to think I only met him today. But Elijah has already found his way into my heart.
"I love you sissy." He smiles at me kissing my cheek.
"How about you go play in your room and we'll get you in a few minutes." He nods his head and makes his way upstairs with Miguel.
I turn to face my family. The ladies have a small smile while the rest seem to be holding their own. A few minutes of silence pass until Miguel comes back down.
"So where should I start?"
"How do you know how to fight like that?" Uncle Angelo asks me.
"Well to begin with, remember that person that called me during breakfast that one time, Demetri?" Papa and my brothers nod their head. "Well basically when I was 12 we met each other and he taught me how to fight at his gym. I ended up getting into street fighting to get money. You may know me as Riley." I show them the tattoo on my wrist as they all gasp.
"He also taught me how to use guns and knives just in case. Then some association found out about me and asked me if I wanted to be an assassin for them. I wasn't too sure at first but then I found out that they only kill guilty people. Like kidnappers. And rapists. That was when the Angel of Death was created. It was how I became Riley in the underground and angel of death in the assassin world." I conclude as the room is completely quiet.
"Why did you have to go through all this? Like learning to fight and needing money. Didn't Lilith pay for you?" Dante questions. Me and my family tense considering they know the truth. I think I trust the rest of the family enough to tell them.
So with a deep breath I tell them a brief explanation. From being a perfect family to having to be tortured for hours. I don't give them as much detail as I did with my family since I wasn't fully comfortable with telling them every single thing that went wrong. Well almost everything.
Grandma is crying the most out of all the women present. The rest of the group is furious, especially grandpa. There were also some wall punches. Walls are an issue for this household. I'm not exaggerating at all. Like it's not even funny how many walls they've hit in the previous three weeks.
Elijah can't hear us because the walls are soundproof, thank goodness.
"I can't believe my baby has to go through that." Grandma rushes to me holding me in her arms.
"I'm so sorry for not finding you earlier." Grandpa sighs sadly with my cousins and uncles agreeing. I groan before looking at my brothers and papa. They get the message and my brothers go around hitting all the cousins heads while papa hits the uncles heads. They all yelp in surprise, rubbing their heads.
"Oww what was that for?" Miguel whines.
"She did that to us when we started blaming ourselves." Xander chuckles. Everyone looks at me laughing a little while the ones who don't really show any emotions, look at me in amusement.
"Stop blaming yourselves or I swear with god as my witness I will-" I'm cut off by Antonio chuckling at me.
"Ok we get it." He laughs.
"Oh and by the way before I forget, the Russians attacked me." I say nonchalantly as the room goes silent that you could hear I pin drop.
"What?" Alejandro seethes.
"On the day before you found me. When I returned from a fight, there were several Russians there, but I killed them. And the second in command wanted me but he, too, died. Finally, I killed Lilith. Once I set the house on fire, it was believed that the fire was to blame for the deaths." I inform them as I pick at my nails. I really need to get these done.
"Why didn't you tell us earlier?" Alejandro exclaims getting up. Is he mad that I didn't tell him? What a hypocrite.
"You mean like you told me about the mafia." I fire back also standing up. The room is filled with tension that could probably be cut with a knife. We hadn't talked about the mafia ever since they found out I already knew. I still had my fair share of secrets at the time so I didn't care. Or at least until they tried to get mad at me for keeping quiet when they did the same as well.
"Arabella we truly were going to tell you." He reassured me.
"Look I'm not blaming you for not telling me about the mafia. I mean I wasn't completely honest either. How about from now on we'll be honest." I sigh holding my pinky out.
"Deal." Me and Alejandro link pinkies kissing our thumb to seal the deal. So might say this is childish but a promise is a promise. Little did they know that I had my fingers crossed behind my back.
Everyone watches us in amusement and our way of sealing the deal but don't comment on it. I glanced at my watch to see it was 7.
"Dinner, anyone?" I ask as we all make our way to the dining room. I end up getting Elijah and we eat. Me and Elijah have a really small portion since we were full from McDonald. After dinner me and Elijah excuse ourselves since he started becoming tired. He asked if he could sleep with me, which I gladly accepted.
~~~
"Omg they are so cute."
"Just look at them."
"Why does he get to cuddle with her?"
"He's younger than you, you idiot."
I hear a bunch of voices. I then hear someone hit something and an oww from someone else. Oh my god.
"Can you shut up?" I mutter with my eyes still closed. I feel Elijah who was cuddling into me move closer to me as I wrap my arms tighter around him. The feeling of comfort that Elijah gave me was a feeling I could have lived with if he hadn't gone to sleep with the angels.
I hear a few more awes and now I'm wide awake. I groan and sit up with Elijah's head on my lap as I run my fingers through his hair. I lay my head back on the headboard as I close my eyes. That was the best sleep of my life. I didn't have any nightmares and I didn't even have to take sleeping pills.
I open my eyes slowly to see all my family surrounding us. I glance at the sleeping Elijah on my lap. He's still lightly snoring even with all the noise.
"So to what do I owe the pleasure of this awakening?" I ask yawning.
"Well we were going to get you for breakfast." lLuca shrugs.
I feel Elijah begin to stir in my hold. I began to hum a tune that uncle Tom used to sing to me when I was younger. Every night before bed he would sing it to me as I would drift off to sleep.
I will protect you
From all around
I will be here
Don't be scared
For one so small
You seem so strong
My arms will hold you
Keep you safe and warm
This bond between us
Can't be broken
I will be here
Don't be scared
Cause you'll be in my heart
Yes you'll be in my heart
You are my little goddess
Now and forever more
I hum the tune softly singing the lyrics in my head while brushing through his hair. Elijah smiles a little while cuddling into my body. I glance up to see my family watching me not saying anything for a few moments
"What song is that? I don't think I've ever heard it." Luca asks.
"Uncle Tom used to sing this to me before bed." I explain shortly as I see the sadness from last night's news still in the air.
"We'll be down in a sec." I tell them and they nod before leaving. I place Elijah on the bed, give him a kiss on his forehead and make my way to the shower. I changed into a simple pair of sweatpants and a cropped hoodie.
I shake Elijah a little and his eyes pop open.
"Good morning sissy." He grins tiredly.
"Good morning little man. I have a running bath. Can you do that by yourself or do you need help?" I ruffle his hair lightly, making him giggle. He assures me that he will be alright on his own and walks off to use the washroom. I got some sweatpants and a plain tee for him from the guest room where he and his parents were sleeping. I come back to my room and leave him with the clothes in the bathroom.
I take up my phone when it beeps. I see a new message when I look down at my phone. I can feel my heart halting when I open it.
"Found you, meine Königin."
Authors Note
Oh god.
That fight scene took so much time to write and even though I'm fully not happy with it, it's not bad. I want to give a shout out to alexdiazhernadez for their comment. It was actually because of them that I wrote the first part in third person and it worked so much better to give the fight more excitement.
Slowly we're revealing everything. Since now they know her identity. Even though theirs still more they don't know. But that last part is bringing us closer to the real reveal.
I'm scared for the next chapter since I already know what I'm gonna write. And I apologize ahead of time.
Till next time loves