Circles and Wings

Chapter 3

*Scarlett*

"No." The words echoed around Dad's throne room. "I can't do it. I won't do it."

"No?" He repeated with a frown. My Dad was an imposing man with carved muscles, a head crowned with deep brown hair, eyes black as coal, a jaw cut from stone, and fanged canines. He had horns, like I do, but his were curved to crown his head and the lines of them were paralleled by the points of his giant black feathered wings. His bushy eyebrows narrowed at me. "What do you mean no?"

"I mean I'm not getting married to a man I don't know." I said plainly.

He laughed, "You're not getting married to a man you don't know, you're becoming betrothed to an angel you don't know." He stepped off his throne and moved to stand before me. "You're getting engaged, my daughter."

I shook my head, "No, engaged is a choice, betrothed is a life sentence." The correction seemed to stick and fizzle under his skin. "What if I don't like the angel?"

"Then you kill them." He suggested with a wicked grin.

"Dad..." I started, "I don't like just killing things, I told you that..."

He ran a hand over my cheek and pulled me into a hug, "My Scarlett. My Morning, my sun, my pride and joy." He said softly into my head. I wrapped my arms around him and burrowed my face in his chest. "Come home love."

I shook my head. "I can't, Dad."

Jasper was there the next day and the day after that too. And then today. Only this time they were waiting outside my door with a smile and a coffee that they pushed towards me. I had two in my hands when I looked up to them and said, "I don't drink coffee, thank you though."

They laughed looked between my hands, "You sure?"

I nodded, "Yep, these are for the Chens. They love coffee, I can't hardly stand it. It's nasty, if I'm being honest."

"More for me then," they laughed and sipped the coffee themself before spitting it out over the balcony and gagging rather dramatically, "This is nasty. Why would you let me drink this?"

I shook my head and began walking, "I tried to warn you, that shit'll kill you."

They fell into step beside me, still coughing and gagging, "I suppose next time I'll have to listen."

Next time. How long were they planning to be in my life? I wanted to ask that, but I didn't. Instead I asked, "You've never had coffee before?"

They shook their head, "No, never allowed."

I nodded, "Mormon?"

They looked at me with confusion. "No... just strict parents, I guess..."

I nodded as well. We walked into the restaurant and Mrs. and Mr. Chen were waiting for us. They watched us walk in with big smiles on their faces, and when I handed them each their coffee, they both winked at me.

What the fuck?

I shook my head with a laugh and moved around them to where a slew of celery and carrots and cabbage waited patiently for me to slaughter them. Jasper was close behind me. So close that when I picked up the knife and spun it in my hands they gasped and stepped back.

"Sorry." I muttered as I began chopping. Holding a knife felt like holding a dagger, my weapon of choice. It felt good, and I knew my way around a knife, I was comfortable with it. And that's why I flipped them and danced around with them.

"You sure know what you're doing with knives." Jasper observed as they dragged a head of cabbage over to them and began slowly slicing long thin strips. "Who taught you how to use one?"

Before I could think I answered, "My Dad." They looked at me with shock and I smiled, "He wanted me to be able to defend myself." I brushed off their shock with a shrug and cut up some celery next, into small pieces. It wasn't a lie. Not exactly. Dad had taught me how to use a knife, but it wasn't only to protect myself. It was also to mutilate our victims.

Dad liked to torture people with me. It was our version of a Daddy daughter activity I guess. The last person we tortured, was a man who had raped children all his life, and never got caught until one of the parents killed him. Needless to say, that parent is going to Heaven. But we cut at the rapists skin, we made him bleed and heal again and again for days upon days. Hours upon hours. Minute by minute the man was either in pain or terrified.

We had ended the ordeal, before sending him to lust where he belonged, by carving out his eyes and castrating him. Lust would put him to work in the mines, carving brimstone for the rest of eternity.We put his eyes on a necklace around his neck, pulled close enough to his throat to squeeze occasionally and cut off the air when Lust pleases. His... other parts... Dad put in the trophy room. Terrible man, we'd taken care of him. We'd made him pay for what he did to all those kids.

"My father wouldn't approve of me using a knife, I learned anyways though." They said in response, "He thinks there is no use for defense in a world as safe as this."

I looked at them and cocked my head, narrowing my gaze. "The world isn't safe dude." I laughed to make it sound less aggressive, "There are bad people who would like to do bad things to you and me."

"Like what?" They asked, his cuts speeding up.

"Like... There are men who would think that my body was theirs without so much as a question of permission." I mumbled. "They would hurt me, and nothing could stop it, especially not me if I didn't have my defense skills."

They stopped cutting and looked at me. I had finished cutting all of the carrots and the celery and I grabbed the cabbage and began cutting it as fast as I could. They watched me get through all of the vegetables before he spoke. They spoke softly, delicately. "Hey," they started, "I won't let anyone hurt you."

I shook my head and shrugged, "You can't control what humans do." I said softly. "It's the whole free-will bullshit."

"Look at me." They commanded gently. I sighed as I looked at them with exasperation dripping from my eyes. "Trust me." They said, and for whatever reason... I did. It could have been the way their green eyes seemed to glow with sorrow, or the way the way their lips turned down in a slight frown made my gut wretch.

But I nodded, and I said, "I think I do."

"You think?"

"I don't trust many souls," I laughed untying the apron from my waist. "The list is hard to get on, and harder to leave. I just take time... usually." I hung it on a hook by the door, "Would you like to watch a movie with me?" I asked with a small smile as I moved behind them and untied their apron.

They smiled at me and shrugged it off themself. "Yes." They said, "I'd absolutely like to watch a movie with you."

"Great." I said as we walked out of the kitchen, Mr. and Mrs. Chen were sitting at a table drinking coffee, "Hey, we'll be back to help with dinner." I said.

"Hopefully," Jasper added with a smile and a wink.

I looked to them, "Hopefully?"

"If you don't make it, that's perfectly fine." Mrs. Chen said with a smirk, "You two have fun." She winked at us as we walked out and I couldn't stifle my laugh.

We walked back up to my apartment in silence. Neither of us quite ready to address what the Chen's had ensued I think. When we made it to the balcony they went to their apartments to retrieve something, and said they'd be back in a minute. Then they fist bumped my shoulder. Strange dude.