"Fox-fire!" For some reason, her ability didn't work. She knew why. It was because she'd realized that she had feelings for Blood. She was in shock. She struggled and fought, panicked noises escaping her mouth. And this is why father made me carry a gun everywhere! She thought angrily at herself. "Fox-fire! Fox-fire, fox-fire, fox-fire!"
"What is this bitch screaming about?"
"I dunno, but shut her up or we'll get caught!"
Annabelle let screams rip through her throat. They slashed at her with knives.
"Someone help me!" She fought back.
"Dammit, I said shut her up!"
They yanked at her hair, and scratched at her. Someone whacked her over the head with something hard and heavy. Gun, Annabelle thought. She struggled and fought, her head throbbing. Her fighting became weak. She felt her dress rip at the leg. Another rip sounded as a knife drew a cut across her stomach, though not deep. Annabelle stopped. The dress! She felt tears sting in her eyes. Gray...someone...Nightmare... Another heavy blow was sent to her head. Her sight went black and she felt herself falling to the ground, strange colors and shapes dancing behind her dark eyelids. Gunfire sounded as she sat still on her hands and knees. She opened her eyes, trying to focus.
"Shit! It's the Hatters!"
Guns went off quickly.
"Leave the girl! We'll get her next time!"
"Fucking Mafia role-holder scum."
She heard the men retreating fast, leaving her behind. Annabelle huffed in pain, looking up to see someone walking towards her quickly. Annabelle held her hands up in defense.
"Annie,"a familiar voice murmured. She saw that it was Blood, even in the dark. He moved, grabbing hold of her. She gripped his suit at his chest. Blood is in the Mafia? "Annabelle."
"Blood...mafia....."Annabelle murmured quietly. His eyes went wide as hers rolled back in her head. She fell limply in his hands.
"Annabelle!"
*****
Annabelle heard distant voices in whatever room she was in.
"Elliot, I left her with you for a reason!"
"I'm sorry, she ran off..."
"This wouldn't have been a problem if you would've left her to me instead of him, Rina."
"But I didn't figure she would run from him."
"Well your little talk you gave me seems to have caused issues now, doesn't it?" An annoyed huff followed his words.
"Elliot, what happened?"
"I don't know...she just suddenly started acting weird and took off."
Annabelle slowly opened her eyes, blinking lazily up at the ceiling. She saw what looked like a strangely designed room, squares above her. Her eyes turned to the side of where she was laying. She looked around. Her eyes quickly found who she was looking for. In the room with her were three familiar people. Blood, Elliot, and Rina. Annabelle slowly moved, sitting up.
"Annie!"Rina exclaimed. She hurried over to the side of the couch that Annabelle was laying on. Annabelle looked down at it, her brows pinching together. She looked around the room. Where are we? She wondered. Rina pulled her into her arms, sighing hard. "You're awake..." Annabelle put her hand on Rina's shoulder. She moved, lightly pushing her away. Rina's eyes went wide.
"You lied to me."
The room went dead silent. Blood and Elliot stared at the two friends. Rina sat still in her position. She looked at her friend quietly. Annabelle gave her a hard look. Rina sighed and closed her eyes.
"No. I just didn't tell you." Rina moved, sitting down on the ottoman in front of the couch. Her hand didn't leave Annabelle, squeezing Annabelle's hand tightly. Rina's wrap that she'd been wearing that night at the ball slid from around her shoulders and onto her arms.
"You...how could you..."Annabelle asked. Her eyes watered. "You didn't even bring it up to me once. All this time, I never even thought about..." Annabelle breathed hard, clenching her jaw. Rina looked down, keeping her hand in Annabelle's. Annabelle moved, grabbing and forcing Rina into her arms. Rina blinked. "Why would you work in something so dangerous?"
"Because I don't have a choice,"Rina told her. Annabelle turned her gaze to Blood accusingly. He kept silent. "And don't get mad at him. He's tried to keep my job as safe as he can." Annabelle released her and Rina pulled back. She moved, placing her hand on Annabelle's shoulder. "It's not like your Father did with you." Annabelle clenched her jaw.
"Father?"Elliot repeated. Annabelle looked away from him and Blood. Rina sighed and closed her eyes. She moved and stood up.
"I'm sorry Annie...but it's my job. For once, let me save you, as you did for me all those years ago,"Rina told her. Annabelle didn't move from her spot. "Come on Elliot."
"Search the perimeter before you question our guest,"Blood ordered. He crossed his arms looking at his second and third in command. "Once you've done that, station the twins outside the entrance."
"Understood,"Elliot replied. He closed the door behind him. Annabelle heard a lock click. She sat still, not sure what to say or how to say it. Blood looked at her before he moved, pulling his hat off. He sat it gently on the table. He rested his walking stick down on the side of the couch across from Annabelle's couch. Blood took his seat, crossing his legs. He pulled his gloves off and tucked them inside of his jacket. After a longer moment of silence, he closed his eyes.
"You won't even look at me?"Blood asked. Annabelle ground her teeth. Her head was still throbbing slightly. "Will you allow me to clean your scratches and head-wounds?" Annabelle frowned hard. Blood sighed. He moved and stood back up. "On that I won't take no for an answer."
"No."
Blood paused, looking at her. Annabelle was giving a hard look off to the side. Blood frowned hard.
"I don't understand why you're acting this way. Rina was able to handle the news fairly well,"Blood replied. Annabelle scoffed. She crossed her arms, wincing slightly as she brushed her scratches. Blood spotted the bruises on her arm that had originally been fading. They looked old. He knew someone had grabbed her, as he could see the hand print on her arm. On her other arm, he saw other finger bruises marking her, though he knew it was from tonight's incident. "I want answers from you, Annabelle. And I intend to get them." Blood turned and went to the bathroom in the room. When he came back, he saw Annabelle pulling at the door. He rolled his eyes. "There's no leaving this room." Annabelle paused. She ground her teeth.
"Let me leave. Now, Blood."
"No,"Blood answered. Annabelle frowned. "You're on house arrest."
"Excuse me?!"Annabelle hissed. She turned to look at him. Blood gave her a hard look. She was kind of surprised this time. There was no mischievous look to him, and no smirk. Just a hard look. "Who are you to put me under house arrest?"
"You're honestly asking me that question?"Blood asked. Annabelle huffed and turned, looking around. Windows, other doors, something. "It's an underground room. We use it for holding meetings between other Mafia families or for holding people we don't want to leave. There is no other way out than that door there." Annabelle turned, giving him a glare. Blood stared back at her. "Come and sit. The least I can do for you is bandage your wounds."
"And why should I trust you?"Annabelle asked. Blood stared at her hard. He turned and started towards her fast. She felt fear lance towards her as Blood neared her. She backed up against the door and he stopped in front of her. He saw her fear. He took a step back.
"I won't hurt you, Annabelle,"Blood murmured. She looked away from him. "I just want to fix your wounds and make sure you don't have a concussion."
"Not going to hurt me...didn't you say you wanted answers and you intended to get them?"Annabelle muttered. Blood moved, stepping towards her. His hand came towards her. Annabelle pushed back against the door. He's going to hit me, isn't he? She closed her eyes, prepared for the pain. Blood gazed at her standing there, pressing to the door to try and get away from him. He moved and slid his hand over her cheek gently. Annabelle kept her eyes closed for a different reason all of a sudden. His warmth was shooting through her. Blood moved pushing his mouth to hers. Annabelle's eyes shot open. She closed them after a moment, feeling the warmth run through her. After a moment, she realized what was happening. No! I can't do this! I can't love him! He'll hurt me too...
Annabelle moved, pushing him away. Blood's eyes went wide when he looked at her. He stayed quiet. Tears ran down her cheeks. Why is she crying? He wondered. Annabelle shook as her hands stayed on his shoulders. She's quaking in fear... Blood looked down. Is she that scared of me?
"I won't force you to talk to me,"Blood muttered. He pulled away from her, her hands sliding off of him. "I will force you to sit down so I can make sure you're okay. If you allow me that, I may allow you to leave this room." Annabelle stiffened. He turned and walked back towards the ottoman and coffee table. "Please sit down." Annabelle looked down. She grabbed her hand. Stop shaking! She commanded herself. Annabelle slowly walked over to him. She sat down in front of him. Blood moved, immediately pulling at her dress. She didn't even protest as he pulled it up to reveal her knee that had been scraped. The dress was ripped there, and she heard it tear a little more. Her heart nearly shredded with it. I'll have to apologize to Gray. Blood gently moved, washing her knee off with the warm rag he'd dipped into the bowl of water. Annabelle wanted to explode. She wanted to talk to someone. The silence was deafening to her right now. Rina was gone. Annabelle frowned hard. I could...I could tell him... Blood moved and went to rub something on her knee. "This will sting." She hissed in pain as he brushed it on her knee. "I told you."
"Whatever,"Annabelle huffed, crossing her aching arms. Blood stayed quiet after that, peeling open a band-aid. After that small moment of him fixing that knee, he moved to the other one. Annabelle closed her eyes. "I was born..." Blood blinked and looked up at her.
"Hm?"
"I was born...into the Meknikov family,"Annabelle murmured. Blood paused, the rag stopping on her knee.
"You mean..."
"The name sounds like what it is."
"Mafia..."Blood trailed off. Annabelle sighed hard. "You...were born into the Mafia of your world?"
"A Mafia family, yes. There are multiple families, and more than one Mafia,"Annabelle told him. She opened her eyes as Blood went back to work on cleaning her knee. She frowned hard. "In our world, my family was a good kind of Mafia, which is hard to believe. They were in league with the police, working on unsolved cases and hunting people down...thought the government would lie to you if you asked them if it was true." Annabelle stiffened when he dabbed the ointment on her knee. "Though, our family wasn't the best in dealing with criminals. We...got a little angry at them and took our anger out on them. We dealt with all kinds of criminals. Pedophiles, drug lords, robbers...even a few serial killers, actually." Blood drew her dress up to the cut she knew she had on her thigh. Blood spotted a scar there, an ugly looking one. She hoped he didn't ask, continuing with her story. "I was born to the head of the Meknikov family...Annabelle Lee Meknikov." Blood moved and cleaned the cut.
"As the daughter of the head of the family...I had it pretty hard,"she murmured. She looked down at the top of his head as he focused on what he was doing. "I know anyone who heard me say that would laugh..."you were born into a house of money" they might say. No one knows what it was really like for me."
"I need to....um..."Blood murmured, stopping. He motioned to her stomach. She sighed and closed her eyes. Annabelle stood up reluctantly. She turned her back to Blood. "W-"
"Unzip it. I don't care right now,"Annabelle murmured. Blood felt his face turn bright red. He'd seen women, of course, and he'd played around with them too. This was...different. Here, the girl he knew he had actual feelings for was telling him to unzip her dress. Blood stiffened.
"Wait...Wait a moment,"Blood cleared his throat. She blinked and turned to give him a surprised look. Blood put his hand over his face with a sigh. He stood up and moved, going to grab a shirt from a closet in the room. He walked back over and held it out to her. Annabelle blinked. "Go change in the bathroom." Annabelle looked down at the shirt of his she held. She suddenly smiled.
"What, is Blood too nervous to look at me?"Annabelle asked, teasingly. Blood huffed in annoyance, not answering her. He looked away. She snorted. "You really are. You sure you don't want a peek? I thought you enjoyed it when you saw my underwear that one time." Blood gave her a hard look, a dangerous smile pulling his lips up. Annabelle stiffened. Blood moved and bent down to her height, putting his hands on the back of the couch. He stared up at her.
"Do you want me to undress you? Because I can,"Blood threatened. Annabelle's face went alive with heat. She leaned back from him, her hands flying up between her and him as a defense. She shook her head rapidly. "That's what I thought." Annabelle scurried away from him to the bathroom, closing the door. Blood felt his face go alive with heat. He sighed and dragged his hand down his face. God, that woman...She thought she could tease me and get away with it?