Chapter Twenty-Six

There was a stick in his back.

"Awake?"

Mykel's body slowly woke up. His back ached from lying on a hard floor, his hands were tingling from blood loss, and the fatigue that rocked over his mind felt like lava—but cold lava, very, very cold lava.

A low groan escaped the back of his throat before he caught it. His mind panicked. Kidnapped. He had been kidnapped.

His entire body got dosed with sweat, and his eyes worked tirelessly behind their droopy lids—but to no avail. His eyes remained unopened.

Another light poke to his shoulder.

A low, masculine voice spoke. It sounded like it was made of crumbled earth. "The tiredness will pass in a little."

Mykel's muscles were the first to respond to his mind's absolute panic, tensing and then spinning in place. His hands went to his belt in reflex and grabbed his gun.

Garcia.

His body turned in the direction of the voice. The scuttle of standing sounded from his left, so Mykel turned and fired.

His eyes still weren't open, but he heard a strained hiss erupt from his captor's lips. He tried to kick his leg out, but his legs were caught in place, and before he could move once more, his weaponry was removed and his arms were pinned together with rope.

Mykel got pressed against a wall in a sitting position, and there his eyes opened. First he saw feet, clothed in finely polished black dress shoes. Long legs led up to a tall, tall mass, where a decidedly unhappy frown was set on a solid face.

"That, son, is no way to greet your father."

Mykel glared at the man, fueling all his rage into a single gaze. He growled and tried to tear his arms from the rope, but it was too thick and he only ended up burning his skin.

The man rubbed his forearm. A bullet hole had torn through the fabric, revealing bronzed skin beneath, but no blood seeped from the wound. Confusion infused in Mykel's bloodstream like an unwarranted high.

He'd not been prepared for this. Fuck. He slowly leaned his head back against the wall, breathing frustratedly. Too much alcohol, too much whiskey.

"If you want to kill me, do it already," Mykel snapped. "And make a show of it."

"Kill you?" The man laughed a dark, sinister laugh. "No, Mykel, no. Why would I kill one of my own kin?"

Mykel groaned in annoyance. "Fuck off."

"I'm being serious, son." The man crouched before Mykel, forearms resting on his knees. He slid the gun back towards Mykel, head cocked to the side. "Call me Aziel. I don't like being called dad."

"My dumb fuck dad is probably dead," Mykel replied harshly, nose coiling in disgust. Left his mom in the dust with a baby, the streets, and no money.

"Is that what she told you?" Aziel queried, tone soft as he feigned hurt. His hand came to his chest and he patted it. "Wounded. I never took Romina to be the type to badmouth."

That's when the struggling began. Sure, his mother's name wasn't exactly a secret, but it was hard to come by. It was well kept within closed circles of friends and family. Mykel pulled and pulled at his arms. He slammed his shoulder against the wall, trying to break something. His feet went under his ass to lift him up into a sitting position. 

He was upright, face to face with the scrutinizing eyes of a man he did not know. The look in the man's cold black eyes felt so, so cold. Whatever drug that was in Mykel's system seemed to react, and with a feeling of his nerves losing motion, Mykel fell back into the wall behind him. His head bounced off the wall.

He met Aziel's stare again.

"How do you know her?" Mykel managed breathlessly, body overcome by fatigue from his few simple movements. His wrists ached as the rope dug further into his red and raw skin.

"Sweet little Romina was in love with me, once." Aziel smiled down at Mykel. The corner of his eyes crinkled. "She bore my seed, and out came you." There was a careful, nurturing kind of look in the man's eye, one that both unsettled and angered Mykel. It looked like he was analyzing him or some fucked up shit.

"You did turn out rather handsome," Aziel commented mindlessly. Before Mykel could reply, the man was bent down, long thumb tracing along Mykel's jaw. When Aziel's finger met Mykel's rough scrap of beard, his brows pulled together. "A little unkempt, don't you think?"

Mykel did the only thing his body felt capable of doing in the moment. He spat. His spit landed solidly on the lower part of Aziel's dress shirt. The man's hand slowly dropped from Mykel's chin, and with such slow intensity, a raw, unfervored power seemed to radiate out of him.

Aziel stood. His fingers fixed the edges of his crisp sleeves. When he looked back down at Mykel, his almond eyes were slanted.

"I want to die," Mykel uttered lamely.

"Making that a little too obvious, hm?" Aziel slipped what looked to be a cloth from his pocket and got to cleaning his neck.

"I don't get your motive, Aziel." Mykel spat out the man's supposed name like it was bile. "Or whoever you are. If you want me dead, kill me. But you're not getting anything out of me."

"Something out of you?" Aziel gave Mykel a condescending look. "And what, boy, what exactly could you give me? I have money and lust and power. There is nothing more to this world."

"Maybe you want my family," Mykel remarked with hostility. His arms tugged at his restraints, and failed to free himself once again. "You're not getting anything out of me. I don't give a fuck what you do."

Aziel laughed. It was a taunting laugh. A slow one. Drawn out, precisely executed, but undeniably unstable all at the same time.

"I don't want anything from you, son. Is it enough for an old man to want to see his boy?"

"You are not my sperm donor, thank you." Mykel kicked his feet out and huffed. Aziel watched on in amusement.

"If you're so sure, are you sure you've never met him?" Aziel inquired carefully.

Mykel rolled his eyes. "Fuck if I know, could be some drunken bastard I pass on the street."

"You haven't, then. Clearly." Aziel stared down. Mykel did not look like a man to Aziel. He was still a boy in so many ways. There was so much growth to be made. So much potential beneath his taut and flexible skin—so much to be used... "Fine then. Take me to your mother. She'll tell you."

Mykel scoffed. "There is no way in Hell-"

Aziel rose a brow. The amusement on the man's face made Mykel want to spit again. Maybe on his nice, polished shoes.

"What?" Aziel's tone displayed interest. "Hiding something from me, are we? What's the worst that could come of me meeting sweet Romina."

"No."

"Say it, boy."

"No."

Aziel began to pace the room, hands clasped behind his back. "Does she speak of me, then? Tell you to avoid men like me—such sinister, dark souls, yeah?" Aziel pivoted and his entire face shadowed. Bumps spread along Mykel's legs as the temperature in the room seemed to plummet. "Does she..." He trailed off.

"Miss me?"

Mykel could see nothing but his mother's sweet, tear ridden face. I can't tell you, my baby boy. Your father is a bad man. I-  don't... There would be tears. So many fucking tears.

"You sick fuck," Mykel spat. Anger started to rise in his body as the memories of his mother—his loving, kind and generous mother—of her tears and her cries—of how when she thought no one was listening, she'd give herself small words of comfort because she knew no one else would.

I love you, she'd whisper. Mykel's throat tightened because he knew his mother was not speaking to herself. She loved another person, another man.

"She must, mustn't she," Aziel mused lowly. He began pacing again. "Yes, I remember. It's been years, with her sprightly heart and eyes so wide they could swallow any man's heart." He let out a demonic laugh. "And she misses me."

When Mykel didn't reply, Aziel continued.

"And you, son. You've got a girl?"

Mykel entire body tensed, and he hated it—fuck, he really did, but when the words his girl entered his mind, his nose smelt cherry lip-gloss and his fingers ached to rake through her long black locks. His girl? She was his brother's girl.

"Oh, you do, don't you?" Aziel continued with a taunting edge to his tone. "What's her name?"

"She's not my girl," Mykel replied moodily, eyes shifting away from Aziel's intimidating form.

A slow smirk crept onto Aziel's lips. "But she's the girl?"

"Fuck off."

"Tell me about her."

"She's none of your fucking business," Mykel retorted lamely.

"Don't be afraid, son. I see you." Aziel approached Mykel again, leant down so Mykel could smell the oddly masculine cologne coming off Aziel. "You want her..." The man trailed off, voice raspy at the end. Mykel felt eyes trace along his body, reading his breathing, his quick pulse, the slight perspiration at the bottom of his neck. "And...you can't have her?"

Keen satisfaction dripped off Aziel like a leech. "How bad is it, son? So bad you have to look across the room for her? So bad you stay awake at night?"

Mykel stiffened. The words left his mouth before he could catch them. "So bad I fuck her with her boyfriend in the next room."

Aziel was caught speechless for a moment, struck by Mykel's words. And slowly, edging into the silence of the room, came a lifeless chuckle. It grew and grew, fostering its nest in the air until it became airborne.

"You dirty bastard."

Mykel's eyes snapped to Aziel's, only to find the man watching him with a smile on his face.

"She's the girlfriend of someone close to you, isn't she." When Mykel remained silent, the smirk on Aziel's face grew larger and sinister. "Not a friend, not a coworker." Aziel whistled. "A sibling perhaps?"

No reply.

"Brother's girlfriend? Oh, that one's messy." No reply. "A pity, isn't it? Lust is so beautiful. A cavernous, fiery little monster, hm?"

Mykel tensed his jaw. "Did you ever love her?"

"What?" Aziel arched a brow.

"My mom. Did you love her."

"Romina?" Aziel sucked in a breath. His shoulders lowered a little. "I'm afraid that wasn't an option for me."

"The fuck do you mean?"

"I cannot love, son."

"So you just left her like that? And you still gave her a child?"

"It wasn't like tha-"

"I wouldn't have be born born if you didn-"

"Son, I never-"

"You don't fucking abandon my mother and think that's justified, you fucked son of a bitch!"

"Romina never-"

"I don't fucking-"

Aziel paced forward and slammed Mykel back into the wall, fist gripping his shirt so tightly his hand turned white. They were both seething, breathing heavily. Cold crept along their bodies as they stared each other down. Aziel broke first.

"I did what I had to do," he whispered harshly.

"You-"

"I cared for her, dammit," Aziel snapped. "Fuck if I know why. She was so...so..." his grip loosened, and Aziel's soot eyes fluttered closed for a moment. He stumbled back. "It wasn't love, son. But I did care for the girl."

"You left her."

"As I said," Aziel continued, voice lower now. "I did what I had to do."

"Are you here to love her, then?" Mykel asked. "Get back what you fucked up?"

"I am here to see her," Aziel emphasized. Skepticism etched into Mykel's brow. Aziel continued, face begging. "Let me see her."

"How do I know you aren't here to hurt her?"

Aziel sucked in a sharp breath, eyes portraying an honest glint they had not felt in a long time. "I suppose you just have to give me a chance, yeah?"

The stared at each other in silence for a moment. One, bound, and holding all the power. The other, standing freely, and at the other's mercy.

No more words were exchanged between the pair. Their faces held a mutual kind of pain—I cannot love, so what am I? A monster? A beast?

Ropes were untied and doors unlocked. It was late afternoon, with the sun hanging off the edge of the world, orange tears bleeding out into the sky. There was always a choice to make in life, one to decide your fate.

Aziel had lost that choice long ago, to a world far colder and a reality much farther than the one they walked. The two were nothing, nothing at all.

Nothing but beasts.

(a/n: I CAN EXPLAIN, just leave comments >> and I'll answer. I love you all. I can't believe you're all reading this book when even I wouldn't- god, the writing at times is *eurgh* and maybe I'm picky asf idk idk. 

If anyone is able to send me a link to a stock footage pickle poster -- preferably large dimensions in length etc -- I will dedicate this chapter to you. I'm desperate LMFAO

My hoe itsjodieann helped me write this chapter because I've been depressed asf recently, and Y'ALL HER MOST RECENT CHAPTER, NUMBER TEN- bro i know she's my friend but honestly I'm simping so hard for that book. it's on her profile. CHECK HER OUT OR FACE MY WRATH)