Missions like this always make me feel sick or powerless.
It is slightly ironic that our company kills and saves people - Lotus has loose morals, we do whatever our clients want but one hard-set rule is that we do not ever touch children.
Iris feels extra strongly about this so every couple of months we always get informed of something bad happening with children.
And she sends her best to make sure nothing happens, apparently, I appear to still be her best. I know I had gotten into Marissa's good graces when I presented her with the necklace I got back from Nikolai.
Nikolai.
Even thinking about him makes my skin heat up, and never in a good way. I remember what he said to me the other week. I have no idea how he knew about Thomas but it was a reminder I needed to put my guard up even higher.
"An auction on children, god I feel fucking sick," Violet says as our car parks. I nod in agreement with her.
Tonight there was an auction held in the Atterson's house, if you could call it that - if you said you wanted a million-dollar necklace what you meant is you wanted seven-year-old Cara.
We had to go in disguise to blend it and Lotus made sure we didn't blow this mission so of course we were decked in diamonds and emeralds that would make any normal girl's head spin.
"Ivy I want you to get the girls to safety alright? And the rest of us will be making sure no one notices you. Then of course Violet will be finding the man responsible for this shit show," Elena mutters to us.
All of us nod and climb out of the car, the mansion looms over us. It's covered in fairy lights and men in suits stand on the stairs leading into it with younger and pretty girls hanging on their arms, a glass of champagne in all of their hands.
We all walk forward and I straighten my back as a few men and women glance at all of us walking in. We climb up the stairs quickly and enter the house. Classical music is blaring obnoxiously loud, there's a huge table filled with food and a separate one full of drinks.
I turn around and walk into a separate room, that is where I see a massive stage and a large seating area all around it.
I attempt to hide my grimace and grab a glass of bubbly golden liquid from a tray and down it in two gulps, my eyes trained on the stage as my stomach clenches and churns.
I actually feel sick.
"I love a woman who knows how to drink," I hear a voice say behind me, I turn around quickly to see a fairly attractive man staring at me. I don't recognize him.
"Relax sir, I've had one drink" I reply, forcing my voice to stay sugary, and even, he smiles at me in response.
After a beat of silence, he holds out his hand and I shake it delicately. "Do I get a name?" he asks, smiling.
"Natasha," I reply still smiling at him.
"Last name?" He asks me grinning.
"When you earn it," I say, turning away to put the empty glass on the table near me, it's when I do that my eyes meet a pair of blue ones that cause my entire body to freeze.
Nikolai.
Why would he be here? Horror curls through my chest as a haunting thought consumes me.
He is the devil reborn but surely he isn't here because he's interested in purchasing children?
He sips his drink and cocks his head to the side, grinning at me. I swear I feel my entire body light up in flames. I want to hurt him so badly, he is even more despicable than I ever dared to imagine.
"You look absolutely stunning tonight, surely you knew you were going to get some form of attention," The stranger behind me remarks, I quickly turn my attention to him once again. I'd have to deal with Nikolai later, I have more pressing matters.
"I dress to impress," I say smiling, sweetly.
"May I give you a tour of the place?" He asks me smugly.
I glance around and give a faint nod to Elena, he might be showing me where the girls are if he's fucked up enough so I agree with him.
"Sure," I say following after him as we leave the room.
I believe I have consumed two more glasses of champagne and know every room in this massive house by the time an hour has gone by.
Me and the strange man whose name I never got are approaching the stage when he turns and asks "So do you think you'll be buying anything?"
"Maybe," I say mysteriously, I don't want to flat-out say no in case he thinks I'm weird for not wanting to buy children. But I also refuse to say yes or I'll throw up on his expensive suit.
Not that he doesn't deserve it and more.
"I might buy some 'diamonds' " he says putting on air quotes around the word diamonds. He actually put his fingers up and did air quotes.
Bile claws its way up my throat and I swallow sourly.
I stare at him, I must look a little dazed because he smiles at me again before leaning close to my ear and whispering "Well you know they aren't really diamonds are they, everyone knows it's a cover in case the wrong people show up."
My hand twitches near my side and I just want to rip the gun attached to my thigh and shoot him, matter of fact I just want to shoot every single person in this room. But that would mean I'd never find those poor girls.
I have got to get to them.
"Want to go backstage?" He asks me, casually.
I nod weakly, and without another word, he moves the curtains aside to reveal a small wooden door. He unlocks it with a key and steps inside, I glance around and follow after him. We step through another door, this one requires a finger scan.
I can't help feeling as if I shouldn't be here.
The room opens and I immediately know why.
There's a glass cube in the middle of the room and inside there is a small girl, she's in a sky-blue party dress. Her hair has been curled and she appears to have no bruises or wounds but I can see in her eyes she is unbelievably terrified.
This, this is the thing they're selling.
A child. This little girl.
"How old?" I ask him, staring at the girl who stares back.
"Hmm maybe 7, or 8, I don't know," He replies, standing behind me.
I feel sick, sick to my very core. My bones are rattling and I'm fighting to choke back tears.
"Why so young?" I attempt to ask, my voice comes out as a whisper.
"Less fight in them,"
I didn't know one small sentence could make me want to ram a knife into someone's throat but here we are. Repressing the urge to do so with every fibre of my being.
"What did you say your name was?" I ask turning to look at him.
"I didn't, it's Leonard," He says smiling.
Well then, that explains a lot. This is his house, he's running the auction. I suppose I forgot to look at his picture, like a fucking idiot.
"Shall we leave?" he asks "The auction is about to begin,"
I nod and walk out with him.
The lights blind me, that room was so dark.
I need to get this man locked up before the girl and the others are sold.
"Do you mind showing me where the bedrooms are again?" I whisper into Leonard's ear.
He smirks and leads me upstairs, slipping his slimy hand into mine.
He opens a door and I see a bedroom, furnished with gold. It looks like a bedroom built for a king. I bet this egocentric psychopath probably imagines he is a king.
I push him on the bed gently and force myself to kiss him.
I want to throw up my organs and gag and scream.
I pull back quickly and pull something out of my purse.
"Before we get started I must admit, I do prefer my men to be...tied up," I say softly, making sure to give him my most perfect doe eyes.
I watch his eyes glaze over with lust like a man starved.
The handcuffs twinkle in the light and he eagerly lets me push him against the headboard as I handcuff him to the headboard before planting a kiss on his cheek.
"Bear with me, I need to go change into something," I say sweetly walking out and leaving the fucking idiot waiting.
I start down the stairs when I hear someone announce the auction will start in 15 minutes.
Cold panic rushes over me as I run down the stairs and crash into Nikolai, my panic quickly twists into white-hot rage.
"Get off me you disgusting piece of-"
"Why on earth are you speaking to me like that?" He asks me, sharply.
The audacity of him to ask such a question, knowing why he's here, and what he plans to do almost sends me to a place I won't be able to claw myself back from.
"Look at where you are, I know why you're here and I swear to Lucifer I will gouge out your eyes and feed them to you the moment I get a chance, do you understand me?"
Nikolai stares at me stunned and then speaks, "I understand you, but I am not here to...fucksake Poison, I'm here to make sure this doesn't happen."
I pause and take a step back, okay maybe I jumped to conclusions but he is still terrible and wicked, "Well don't stress yourself, Lotus is on it," I tell him, quietly.
"Do you have the equipment to get into the room?" He asks, dryly.
"Do you even know where the room is?" I ask him back, seething.
Nikolai tenses his jaw and opens his mouth and then the second announcement telling guests there are ten minutes until the auction rings out and that sick feeling washes over me again.
"Give me the equipment, now," I say to Nikolai, harshly.
"Tell me where the room is," He hisses back at me.
We both snap our mouths shut, glaring at each other as we wait for the other to relent. But I know he won't and neither will I.
"I hate you, I want you dead and I promise you I plan to make sure you are but can we just put that aside for an hour to save the children?" Nikolai asks. He sounds like it actually pains him to ask me and I have to appreciate it.
"Yes," I say, turning on my heel and whistling so he follows after me.
Like a dog.
Before the guests start to file into the room with the stage me and Nikolai slip in and I peel back the curtain for him, "Opens with a key," I tell him and he shakes his head.
He pulls a knife from his suit pocket and I eye it wearily, he rams it into the door and after a minute it clicks open and we quickly slip inside, undetected. Though I imagine that has to do with Elena, Violet and Tilly and not just pure luck.
We close the door behind us and I stare at the fingerprint reader, well fuck.
Nikolai grabs my forearm and drags me behind him, harshly and I try to bite my tongue from firing back a quick remark. He pulls another small device from his pocket and attaches it to the reader machine. I hear a soft clicking and then the lock explodes.
"Great try not to make a lot of noise," I add.
"Obviously the rooms are soundproof, Poison."
Oh.
I ignore him and shove the door and it opens, there's the girl, she's out of the cube being put into a metal cage by a random guy in a suit.
A metal fucking cage.
"Step away before I put a bullet in your mouth," Nikolai spits, aiming a gun at his head.
The man backs away from the girl and pulls out his own gun.
Nikolai and I exchange a quick glance and I run toward the girl at the same Nikolai pulls the trigger on his gun. I don't see the man fall but I hear his body thump against the floor.
I focus on the girl in front of me and smile, "Are you going to buy me?" She asks, her lip quivering.
I blink quickly at her, my heart fracturing, "No, no I'm getting you out," I say to her gently.
I take her hand in mine, and Nikolai scans the room for the remaining girls. He makes a clicking noise when he spots a trap door on the floor.
Within seconds we're both running down the stairs into what must be a cellar where three other girls are being loaded into metal cages like the one we saw earlier.
I cover the little girl's ears as I walk her over towards the cages as Nikolai begins shooting at the men, the other girls run towards me and I crouch down to try and explain to them calmly what's going to happen "So me and the man over there are here to help you, we're going to take you back home okay but I need you all to be very brave because there's a lot of scary things happening around us, Okay?" I ask them.
They all nod and I smile. One girl, the one who I saw before looks at me and smiles slightly "I like your dress," She whispers.
I glance down at the dark blue silk dress I'm wearing, "I promise you're going to own a dress like this one day, you all are."
"Everyone look at the wall," I ask and the girls listen, turning to look at the wall as Nikolai shoots the two men walking into the room.
Once it's over I take some of the girl's hands and I see Nikolai doing the same, when we climb back up the stairs and outside I see the place crawling with police.
"Run to the police and tell them everything is okay, I promise you'll be alright now," I say and the four girls do as I say and run over.
My heart rate begins to slow to a normal rhythm and I quickly slip outside, Nikolai follows me and I spin around when I realize he does.
"Relax, I'm not going to kill you, or at least tonight I won't." He tells me and I narrow my eyes at him.
"Why not?"
"...we did a good thing tonight, Poison. Don't want to sour my mood with having to dispose of your body," He says and I snort but move my hand away from my thigh.
"Fair enough."
"Nik!" A voice calls out and I watch as Nikolai's face warps to panic and then I feel his cold hands wrap around me as he smashes his lips to mine.
My entire brain goes blank, I can't think, can't move.
Nikolai's hands are freezing on my lower back but his lips are warm, he tastes like booze and cinnamon and sin.
The kiss is unlike anything I've ever known, my brain is screaming at me and cursing his name but my body is aching for more, anything.
It's dangerous, and when he pulls away I feel a little delirious and foolish.
"My co-workers, they'd have shot you immediately if they saw you so I had to cover your face," Nikolai explains, he sounds breathless and he looks as dazed as me.
"My lips are poisoned, Nikolai. And there's no cure."