Chapter 8.

Joey woke with a start to find me sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee. Watching him.

I had found the largest mug he had and proceeded to read and order every file I could find in the scattered apartment.

2232

It was well into the night. He had slept for quite a few hours, allowing for me enough time to do what I needed to do.

We watched each other for a long moment, the steam rising up out of my coffee and warming my face.

"I found the coffee." The words left my lips and filled the echoing silence. "Anastasia will be here soon."

That, it seemed, was what I had needed to say to get a reaction out of the stranger in front of me.

"So she's alive?" A sigh pushed itself through his chapped lips and filled the room, his shoulders dropping. "I thought for sure they would have gotten her." His eyes moved up to look at me, hiding underneath half-closed eyelids. "She is a civvie, after all."

"And were you not one once?" My coffee burned its way down into the cold, heavy recesses of my stomach. When I breathed out, steam left through my nostrils.

"Army brat whole life."

Makes sense.

Any corporation up to no good generally loved using those who knew how to take orders with little to no questioning. Civilians were rarely put into positions in which they knew about the seedy undersides of the business they were really dealing.

"I believe I understand what you are planning." The cup clinked against the kitchen table as I changed my focus to the neatly organised sheets. "It is good timing, yes?" An invitation was laid out directly in front of me, a 'charity auction' was supposedly taking place in two nights.

An easy way to hide dirty money coming in.

The room fell silent once again. A sound sucking abyss had formed in the darkest corner of the room and refused to dissipate, or even to remove the truth that stood between us.

He knew everything about what had happened to me from the moment I showed up at the Orphanages' doorstep, and I did not even know his true name.

That thought was far from a comforting one.

"I knew that you'd gotten through this before, back in Russia when they-" His voice cut almost hilariously as soon as my eyes burned red. "So, I knew you'd know how to exact your revenge again now that you've been..."

"Burned." Everything around me glowed in my red gaze, my face twisting and contorting into a hideous mask. "Again." My Russian lilt was back, strong as it used to be.

Three knocks filled the space between us.

The lock on the front door began CLICKing as it unlocked itself cleanly. Joey began searching quickly for his gun as the door pulled itself open...

No one was there.

At least, that was what it would have looked like to Joey, who did not possess the same eyes that I did. "Come in Aife."

In a flash of blue, Anastasia and Aife became visible to the naked eye.

The bark of a gun rang out, bullets screaming towards their targets.

They disappeared with a wave of Aife's hand.

A glance to my side saw Joey standing stock-still, gun in hand, his right arm loose. If I had any doubt about his reflexes and capabilities, they were gone in an instant.

The usual half-mocking Joey was gone.

Replaced with something darker and stronger.

Something highly trained, controlled, and ready to kill.

Only difference was that he had a soul... I did not and never would.

Anastasia looked around, dazed before Aife pushed her forward and away from her with a scowl.

"This one 'as been bitchin' this mornin' since she woke up 'nd you were nae there." Joey glanced at all of us before straightening, holding out his hand.

"Hello Aife, lovely to meet you. I have heard, and read, much about you." His voice was rehearsed, formal and trying not to offend. "This is my first time meeting a witch, let alone one as powerful as yourself." Aife's head poked over his shoulder, giving me a raised look.

"I did not tell him anything. You should know that." I picked up my coffee, cradling it to myself as my eyes darted around the room.

"Well 'ho doesnae love a fan?" She held out her hand to his and took it gently, a crooked grin lighting up her face and crinkling her eyes. "Did nae expect yer boy to know me."

"He is not 'my boy' nor will he ever be." My eyes would not meet him. Instead I watched the dark swirling mass within my mug. "Nor will he ever be. I do not even know him." I could see his body react to that, causing my stomach to twinge.

There came a scoff from Anastasia. One I did not appreciate.

"Ah yes, I fergot you were brainwashed ta nae get attached." My mug hit the table a little too harshly, coffee threatening to wash over the sides and burn everything on the table in it's heat.

My gaze burned red as I raised up out of my chair.

"I believe it is time for you to leave, Aife." Chest tight, heart ready to fight, my burning gaze held her static blue one for a moment.

"Fine. You know where I will be next time you need someone who understands." She left the apartment, slamming the door behind her.

The abyss resumed its previous torture. Churning begun in my stomach.

You should not have done that. She is a powerful ally.

I turned to the other two in the room, my red gaze deactivating.

"Joey. Bring Anastasia up to speed. I will make a call and get us into the party." With a wave of my hands, my phone appeared in my hands. It did not take me long before I heard the steady tone of a call going out.

"Hey there Red! How you doing?" The voice came out in delicate French.

"Hello Jacques. Are you busy?" Anastasia turned to look at me upon hearing a new language escape my lips. I turned away from her slightly and began looking around the apartment.

"Never too busy for you mon cheri. What do you need me to do for you?" I was close enough to Joey to have him hear Jacques, it seemed from the stunned reaction on his face.

I quickly placed the phone on my shoulder.

"Where is your laptop?" As he walked away I went back over to the kitchen table. "The usual Jacques, why else would I be calling?"

"You could be finally saying yes to my offer to take you out for a date, mon amour." I rolled my eyes briefly at that. "I'm in Tokyo now, Paris was too stifling for my delicate sensibilities."

"How bad?" I straightened bracing my fingers on the table top, nails threatening to dig into the lacquer.

"As much as I would love to have you running to my rescue mon amour, you were not needed. Besides, I seem to prefer Tokyo much more, even though I cannot speak a single word of their language." There was a brief pause. "I'm tracking your phone now. I'm also going to enhance the encryption when I'm done. You are very much overdue."

The edge of my lips began pulling upwards.

"As always Jacques, what would I do without you?" Joey placed his laptop in front of me and I turned it on, before giving Jacques the information necessary for him to enter it.

"Tell the man who owns this that he needs a more secure encryption and to stay away from mon amour." A snort pulled itself out of me as Joey's screen began working on its own.

"He says you need better encryption." I pulled the phone back up to my ear. "He should have had access to a corporation or at the least one spying on him. I need you to use it to get me 3 invitations with the highest priority to a charity ball going on. Anonymous donor type." Jacques began talking to himself mumbling as he got everything set up.

"Anything for you mon cheri. Just a little bit longer." As soon as the words left his mouth Joey's laptop screen loaded up 3 invitations. "Sending to your phone now mon amour."

"Thank you Jacques. Pleasure doing business with you."

"Anytime Scarlet... Or whatever you are calling yourself now. Whenever you need me, just give me a ring, chaton d'amour." A deep sigh pulled itself out of me.

"Do not call me kitten again, Jacques." I hung up on him, looking at my phone which had the invitations.

They weren't really needed, he would have added us to the system easily with a photo of me I knew he still kept. "Looks like we will need clothes. Jacques knows the drill, he will send me the names of anyone of importance and I shall cross reference them, to see if there's anyone I can squeeze."

Anastasia was gaping at me, Joey was quiet as he watched his laptop undergo encryption.

"He can be trusted?"

"With the amount I pay him, always." I picked up my coffee, the warmth gone. My face twisted down slightly, right eye twitching. "I am going to make more coffee, does anybody want any?"

"So you don't want to sleep anytime soon?" Anastasia asked me crossing her arms.

"What makes you think we will be sleeping tonight?" Her arms dropped, mouth following as she gaped at me. It seemed to be her constant expression now that she needed me to keep her alive.

"Anastasia can sleep here... You don't seem like the sleeping type." I nodded at him briefly gesturing to the couch.

"If I need a nap, I'll steal your lounge." Before he showed Anastasia off to where she could sleep, Joey came towards me and whispered so close to my ears that they became hot.

"Thank you for getting me to sleep. It's hard to do that when you drink so much coffee in such a short amount of time." The heat had begun to run down to my shoulders as I stepped away, nodding at him.

"I am aware." My eyes cast a glance over towards Anastasia who was watching us, brow raised and hand on jutted hip. An odd expression had begun to curl the side of her mouth upwards. Like the cheshire cat, she watched us. "Are we able to order take out for Anastasia and myself?" Joey took a step back himself, his own neck red and hot as he rubbed it.

"I'll make us all something. It's a special occasion after all."

"How is it a special occasion?"

"We are all still alive." Eyes burning, the words sunk and hit the floor with a large impact. Silence filled the room before Joey excused himself to show Anastasia to where she would be sleeping.

I placed my newly untouched coffee down, moving towards Joey's kitchen. It was larger than that of the one back home.

"My next door neighbour usually buys my groceries for me because I work so late." Nodding I rifled through until I found the pasta I wanted.

"Sit. You are still not at your best. I shall make something."

"Are you sure you know how to-" I quickly cast him a glance over my shoulder, ending his argument with the CLICKing of his teeth. He propped himself up on the bench watching me as I set to work.

"You have a large collection of wines." I remarked as I extracted a bottle. "A large collection of everything. How does one manage to stock a large kitchen so completely?" He quickly got down, grabbing a beer out of an expensive looking fridge.

"Ask Ms Marshall. She practically runs my kitchen on a day to day basis. She even uses it to cook." Nodding as my only response, I continued rifling around his kitchen. "You're going to make pasta?"

"Yes. This is how I was taught back in Russia."

"The Nun's taught you to cook with wine?" I froze, my hand stopping as my heart sped up for a moment.

"It enhances the flavour, especially after a long day of looking after 43 orphans." Out of the corner of my eye I could see Anastasia's golden hair slightly around the corner. "This is one of the recipes they liked to make when they were hoping for more money from a benefactor. One of the Nun's was an excellent cook."

"Yes, Sister Valerie was it? She was a chef before she was a Nun." I glared at him over my shoulder, causing a small apology to leak out of his mouth.

"She was one of the only Nun's who did not curse me back into the darkest recesses of hell for my eyes." A low sigh pulled itself out from underneath my ribs. "If it were not for her, as a babe I would have been left in the streets to die in the middle of winter." My eyes burned as the steam rose up in front of me.

"Do you hate them for that?"

"I am always asked that. I do not see why I would hate them. They took me in and gave me a home when I was unwanted. Although reluctantly, they never did anything to hurt me."

A low hum began to pull itself out of my throat as the smell of cooking began to hit me.

"That's a hymn, isn't it?" I slowly nodded as I continued, my eyes burning - but not from my burning power. Sister Valerie's favourite hymn. "Do you miss Russia?"

"With all that is left of my heart."

"But it is a communist country."

Yes.

"Every government has its faults. There are good things in communist societies, just like how there are good things in capitalist societies."

Silence fell between us as I moved around the large kitchen, grabbing all that I could to make the pasta just how I had always when helping Sister Valerie while she had a few glasses.

Anastasia had slunk away to who knows where in the large apartment.

Joey was on his third beer by the time I was finished.

"Is there anything you are not good at?"

Recognising whether or not you are going to lead us to our deaths.

"I can promise you there are many things that I am not good at." Many things regular people do daily. "Do you have a dish or container?"

"What for?"

"This dish is usually for 6 people, maybe your kitchen lady might like to have something made for her for once." I didn't want to admit that I only knew how to make it for 2 or 6 people and that I was unable to figure out how to change the recipe otherwise.

It was odd, to sit around in silence as we all ate, Joey and I sitting at opposite ends of the table with Anastasia in between us.

The room was infinitely tense.

There was nothing to say.

The whole time I was ready for 'Joey' to turn on us.

I would be getting no sleep tonight.