Chapter 22

Treaty

      

       "Get the door," Logan said to Mave when the doorbell rung, interrupting my thoughts and jumping up from the couch.  I was startled, it was such a change from our lazy bodies that had been sprawled on the couch for the last few hours. 

       After our discussion, a short nap was required after I drank myself stupid from all the shots that Mave was flaunting in my face.  I didn't mind, it served two purposes and I couldn't help but laugh at his excitement.  When I awoke on the couch later on I was shocked to find they hadn't left me, and I felt a familiar stab of almost pain at the thought.  Logan and Mave had picked up some controllers to play video games, and I proceeded to sit watch in between, lecturing them on their lack of strategy.  I knew more tactical maneuvers than they did, and it was really entertaining to lead their missions. 

       I knew it wasn't West at the door, I could feel it from here, and it was the only reason my heart was managing to stay steady.  I wasn't sure what kind of company these two would have, but I felt oddly secure knowing they were here with me.  Mave came in with four boxes, and the salty aroma of pizza left me salivating with hunger. 

       "You need to run flank around that building, there is sure to be a sniper on the roof or in one of the windows.  Take him out and then you can run through that small passageway towards the bridge," I told Logan, who had been arguing with me the past ten minutes about the best way to infiltrate the bridge behind the enemy lines.

       "It's too risky, there could be more than one sniper."

       "They are called snipers for a reason you idiot, there isn't going to be a whole platoon of them up there waiting to take you all out.  Plus we are way far into the battle, we need to wrap it up before they figure us out, or send for backup."

       "She's like a little Patton out here," Logan grumbled even though he was smiling.

       "More like Stalin."  Mave said it with a wink as he placed the paper plates and food on the large table in front of us. 

       "I was running training missions before I could wear a bra gentleman, our version of capture the flag involved knives.  I know what I'm talking about."  I took a bite out of my pizza, scanning the screen for movement.

       "It's too bad the governance isn't more sympathetic to you nacho, I wouldn't want to be on the other side of you in battle.  I'm afraid you're going to ask for a controller soon and then Logan and I will be regulated to cheerleaders."  I laughed, the image of them dressed as such sent me almost hysterical.

       "But how you grew up is more than that.  I couldn't imagine surviving what you did." Logan said, with sincerity etched on every line of his face.

       "Did I ever tell you who stayed with us when I was little?  We saw her briefly the other night, she's Candace's sister," I asked, wondering in the back of my brain why I was so willing to share things with them.  It went against everything my father had taught me.

       "Sarim?  Wait, you don't mean that was the Sarim, the one with the cloak?"  I rolled my eyes at Logan, at this point they shouldn't be surprised when it came to me.

       "They are two of the fiercest demonesses on the planet.  Sarim is different though, as if she got more of her mother in her than her father.  Needless to say Remy took to her like she was going to be his next queen.  She was the first one to outright dump him, and sometimes I think she and Candace did something to him, altered him in some way.  It could have been what they liked to do to each other that really did a number on him."

       "Like bondage stuff?" Mave asked, far too interested to still be considered normal or polite, but I found myself smiling at him regardless.  They were boys after all.

       "They are pain demons, like the reverse of succubi who feed on pleasure.  It makes them perfectly suiting to being a dominatrix."

       "Yeah but why not just be an assassin then?" Logan asked.

       "It has to be desired from the person for them to get stronger.  They can't just go around plucking limbs off people, the more their victim desires it the more energy and power they can extract."  They boys were staring at me in wonderment, and it reminded me of their ages for a moment.  Mave was barely holding back a smirk, and Logan was about as red as a summer tomato but fighting the same grin.

       "That sounds like quite a house guest," Logan said, clearing his throat when the words came out chopped.

       "Well when I was eleven, maybe twelve I can't remember, she taught me how to interrogate someone.  How to draw out the pain to the point where the pleasure gets so intertwined that the person is willing to take everything you give them and leave them wanting more.  Then they'll tell you anything you want, and their brain is too fried to differentiate if it's trying to please you, or get you to stop."

       "Gods," Mave said, sitting back with the earlier smile wiped from his face.

       "I used it on the first boy to break my heart, poor Jason," I said, smiling fondly when I remembered his face as he spilled that he was seeing Francine and I at the same time.

       "He didn't stop peeing his pants for almost a year Brie, that's not something a good girl would be proud of."  I heard Remy say in my head.  When both guys heads snapped around towards the door, the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end.  I slowly turned, knowing with every bit of magic in my body what I would find, hoping anyway.

       I slowly stood, the events of the last few weeks had left me at the end of my rope.  "You have got to be kidding me!" I yelled at him, the feeling of him tainting these good men behind me had my mind shattered.  They were too right, too good to get in the middle of this sick game he was playing. 

       "Now Brie, is that any way to treat me?  Not when I have someone here who wants to speak with you."  I froze immediately at his words, the curse I was preparing fading in my fingertips.  It had to be West, or maybe his parents.  They had to be the only ones that he could use as leverage against me.  The front door opened, and I saw Nikolai enter, looking as grand and haughty as I remembered, and it made the bile rise in my throat once again.

       "What the hell is going on?" I head Mave say, he and Logan taking a place on either side of me.  I took every bit of strength from them I could, strangely wanting to pull them so close to me that we melded into one being.  In the next instant, my father froze both of them in their places and threw them back into sitting position on the sofa, and I was left with the feeling of being cold once again.  Then the anger hit, and I could hear the blood whooshing around my ears sounding like a freight train.

       "I will fight you until the ends of the earth if you harm one hair on their heads.  I won't even discuss things until I get each of your promises that they will not be hurt.  I am not f*****g around."  My eye was flaring, I could feel the power urging its way towards the surface.  My father caught it, and his own eyes widened a fraction before he reeled it in.

       "I will agree to your terms, shall we commence this talk on the lawn?  I can leave them here, safe, if you wish."

       "Leave them with what memory?" I asked him back, and his answering smile made me feel worse.

       "They will have no memory of you leaving."

       "Or the reason I left, how convenient of you father," I scoffed, knowing how truly screwed I was now.

       "Well take it or leave it my darling, but their safety is worth it no?" I nodded, looking back to them and hoping the spell I put on them would help them remember enough to warn West.  If it was one thing my father underestimated, it was the love of others.  He just never understood enough to see it as a real threat to him.

       "Let's go then," Remy said, holding his arm out like a showgirl as I, and an equally upset Chairman, exited the house to stand on the lawn.  I looked to Nikolai, and it became clear he was almost as much a pawn as I was.  His nose was turned up, and the look he sent me indicated he didn't like breathing the same air as me.  We settled into positions on the front driveway, each of us in equal distance from one another. 

       "Just get on with it father," I said, breaking the silence that descended after we stood for a while.  Remy was a sucker for dramatics.

       "The Chairman and I have come to an agreement," he said, sending my stomach to my toes.  No, it couldn't be happening like this.  Why was I always the one to suffer?  Why was it always me?

       "No," I said, looking and pleading at Nikolai, as I faced Chairman as I covered my mouth with my hand.

       "Nikolai has agreed to turn you over to me, and in return I will agree to stick to my own territory and my own people."

       "You forget that I make my own decisions," I said, gritting my teeth to the point I feared I might break one.

       "Yes, but you would make the right choice right love, considering the positions of those you care about?  Besides you belong with me, not with them."  Remy said it with the conviction that only the insane held. 

       "I belong with West, and that's the only reason he's here," I said, pointing to Nikolai with a sneer, feeling something gratifying in saying it out loud.

       "West is going to by my son in law, this spring.  They are set to be married right after graduation, they agreed this while you and your friends were here, playing games and ordering pizza.  He cannot be distracted, they must marry now, and since your father offers peace along with this, I have to agree with his requests."  I could feel my head lighten, and I tried to rally against it.

       "I am not a request you arrogant son of a b***h."  I could feel my magic gathering, and I hoped I was cloaking enough that they didn't think I was doing anything.

       "I regret it has to be this way, but this is better for everyone Brienne, you were never meant for this world.  You belong with your own kind, just look at everything you brought to these people since.  West's mind is in shambles, his family is barely holding it together, and his brother is about to be fired from his position because he's chasing some proof for his brother.  That's on you, and it's not even counting what you have done to the school."  I swallowed, fighting the tide of reality he sending my way.  Fight it Brienne.

       "Bullshit."  I called him out, knowing it wasn't so cut and dry.  I just had to hold on.

       "West was in my house, with his entire family as they made this decision to set a date for the wedding."  Nikolai said without emotion, like he wasn't just crushing me from the inside out.  I closed my eyes, as if it could block out what they were saying.  I shook my head.

       "He's m...my mate.  I know it," I said, pounding my chest as I said it.

       "He isn't what you think love, there is no such thing," Remy told me in a soft and fatherly voice.

       "Don't go there Rem, don't f*****g go there."  I had used more curse words in these last few weeks than ever before, and it made me feel less than I was.

       "It's a fairy tale Brie, something I told you when you were younger, just as parents in the past have done with their own children.  You missed your mother so much, and I felt like it would put a stop to some of your pain, if you knew that she had something special with me."

       "No," I said again, feeling like my life was rolling up under me, about to trip me into hell itself.

       "It's not real Brie baby, and West has made his choice, just as you must.  You can either go with me now, or I can make you come, and you remember what happens when I have to decide something for you."  I closed my eyes, wondering how strong I was to endure what he could bring down on me.  Even if I was able to, I couldn't protect everyone and me at the same time. 

       "If you ever felt even a shred of love for me, just leave me be."

       "I cannot do that because of my love, you belong with me, and you look too much like Claire, with too many of her weaknesses to let you alone.  Just as Nikolai cannot let you stay here, because his whole world will come down if you follow up with your accusations."  Remy said it with his usual contempt of those that lie, and he knew like I did that Raquel was never pregnant.  I saw the Chairman blanch his own a bit, but he covered it up quickly. 

       "I need peace for us, and it so happens that my family needs you to go too."  His jaw ticked out so far it looked like it might burst.  Interesting.

       "And what I want means nothing then.  You are going to hold them all over me so that I will go with my father, who watched someone rape his own daughter?"

       "I am not appeased at how it is happening, but the end game is the same," Nikolai told me.

       "You know the humans don't negotiate with terrorists, because they won't ever hold up their end of the deal."

       "It will open season on him if he doesn't."  Nikolai said it with a fierceness that let me know he meant it too.

       "And what are you going to tell everyone?  No one is going to buy that I just left with my father, after all that," I told them, convinced that if I could believe it myself then it would become true.

       "That's laughable, you've been a problem since the beginning even Marion was getting concerned about you.  If someone raises too much of a fuss, I have the footage from Elsa's I can use.  Manipulating someone's source magic is punishable by death."  I had to fight a wave of nausea as he spoke to me.  I couldn't believe Remy would do this to me, he must have given them the information for the bar.

       "I was attacked, but I'm sure there wasn't any tape of that huh?"  I was met with silence, confirming that I was good and truly screwed.  "Just as I'm sure no one knows of this arrangement.  I doubt the governance would allow a person to be traded like property in a treaty exchange."  The two men were staring at me, mild indifference on each of their faces.  My father made a move to clasp my arm, and I turned to growl at him.

       "Touch me, and you will die."  Remy held his hands up, a feral smile on his face. 

       "Attack me if you want, but we both know I would win.  That and I doubt Nikki here would help you any, it's better for him if you're dead," he said with a laugh.  Gods, this couldn't be happening. 

       "Come on chere, it's better if you just come with me.  I have the trailer all set up for you, your own trailer this time."  I refused to look at him, concentrating on holding back the tears.  I shook my head, feeling my sanity unravel with each passing second.  I wasn't going to make it out of this the same, I could feel it.  "You can't stay here, what is left for you?  West is marrying someone else, and the rest of the people that you have made some connection to would be safer without you around.  You are safer with me, think of what Nikolai was going to do with you.  You'd be in prison right now, and if you run I'll have to let him turn the tapes over to the governance.  Just come with me and you can live free, with me, and your people as it should have been all along."  He was speaking to me, running his arm over my shoulders like any father would.  I felt myself nodding, unsure why I was agreeing with him.  It all made sense, but I kept going back to West's face, a last ditch effort of my magic to bring me back.

       "Come chere," he said, offering me soothing words in French as he led my dazed body away.  I turned to look once more at Nikolai, but he was already walking the other direction, never once looking back.

       "My bike," I rasped out, wanting it with me, wanting something with me to remember the lesson here.  Remy looked at me with speculation, but nodded his head at me in concession to my request.

       "I'll have it sent to us chere, I promise," he said in a soothing voice.  I heard odd noises, and felt his hand on my head, stroking my hair.  "Hush child, I know you are sad, but it will pass."  Those sounds must be coming from me, I thought, as I felt the splashes of tears on my shirt and feet. 

       "When it passes, what will I be then?"  It wasn't an answer I wanted to hear, but my father obliged anyways.

       "You will be stronger."  I laughed all the way to his car.