Morally Grey

Carter & Ace

Ace is hiding something. I've always known that. Every South-sider hides something. But his seems related to the heist. Between the British accent, the sudden weirdness between him and Lilian, and his reaction to the name it was almost definite. I'll interrogate him about it when he wakes up. In 36 hours.
Ace looked different when he was asleep. Younger. His face was soft and relaxed; his hair a tangled mess. He was going to have fun detangling that once he woke up.
I grab a blanket off the bed and sitting in the loveseat.
(AN: I looked up pictures and came across something I'm not talking about with you guys. Graphic pictures. Fluffy handcuffs. My eyes.)
I'm just about to fall asleep when Ace jolts upwards gasping. It was way too early for him to be waking up. He clutches his chest and his expression is pained. Shit. I knew that pain. Human's are cruel, but some are crueler. Some sleep with somebody else after meeting their soulmate.
"Carter. What time is it?" His voice is filled with pain.
"8 o'clock. Same day you went to sleep."
"Why am I awake? Why does it feel like I'm being electrocuted?" His voice is quiet.
"Lance..." I say slowly, "is sleeping with somebody else." I've never seen Ace cry, but he looked damn close to it. I am going to kill Lance. He let's out a small whimper. I have never seen Ace like this.
"I'll be right back." I grab my skeleton key off my desk before storming to Lance's room. Ace deserves better than this. I know he's done some bad things but he shouldn't have to go through this pain like I did.
I swing the door open; not caring what I was going to walk in on. Lance and Rylan were passionately making out on the floor both shirtless. Motherfuckers. They break apart when the door slams into the metal wall with a loud bang.
"What do you want?!" Rylan snaps.
"You don't know what happens when you cheat on your soulmate, do you?" I growl at Lance. I wait for an answer.
"N-no," he stutters. His cheeks were flushes and he looked ashamed.
"Pain," I snap. "So keep it in your pants until you talk everything out with Ace."
"Where is he?" Lance runs a hand through his hair.
"Sleeping, hopefully." I storm out of the room and slam the door behind me.
ᵟຶᴖᵟຶ
"You didn't hurt him, did you?" Ace asks when I get back. His fangs a claws were out and he was looking tired again, thank God.
"No, go back to sleep."
He yawns and ditches his shirt and pants before slipping under the blanket.
I fight back bad memories as I attempt to fall asleep. After attempting to sleep for two hours I get up and walk out onto the balcony overlooking the gun and knife range. The House looked small from the outside but it was a huge underground complex with everything from laser tag to mazes. And the crew will have to get through all of it at some point. Lilian walks up next to me.
"Have you found the file on Wright?" Lilian asks. Forgot about that. I was curious to why Ace reacted to the name that way. And why Lilian wanted the file so much.
"No. Wanna help me look?" She nods her head and we walk into the file room. She winces at all of the file cabinets lining the walls.
We search for hours until it's clear that it's not in the room. Which means it's in my office or somebody stole it.
ᵟຶᴖᵟຶ
The next day I meet with the others and we begin without Ace. Everybody's surprised except for Lilian. How much does she know?
"Is he kicked off?" Lance asks and I have never wanted to punch somebody more.
"No."
We go over the philanthropists that will be there and I don't answer any questions about Ace.
I put them in teams for laser tag. Lilian sits out due to the uneven amount of people.
"When will he wake up?" She asks.
"Tomorrow morning hopefully."
"Hopefully?"
I deflect her question with one of my own. "How do you know about him?"
"Slit his throat yesterday morning. You?"
"Lost control a few years ago. You seem very calm about it." Not exactly a question.
"Perhaps I'm not totally human myself." Lance's team wins and she trades off with Oakley.

I wake up alone, stiff, and very hungry. It was 8 o'clock which meant everybody was in the council room. And to get outside I need to go through the council room. That was a big problem. I shower in her bathroom. I don't look at anyone as I enter the council room.
"Long time, no see." Rylan.
"Fuck off."
I slip out of the room and my fangs slide out. I would love to just sink my fangs into his neck. I growl. I need to calm down. Anger leads to mistakes and mistakes lead to getting caught.
At the nearest public location I choose a girl- girls were just easier to lure without using Charisma- the ability to control other people with words. Draining her- I didn't even bother trying to save her, I was too hungry- was calming.
They were still in the council room when I walk in so I sat in my chair. Right next to Rylan.
"So, who'd you murder?" He asks.
"23-year-old blonde girl."
Lance makes a choked sound. Carter glares at me. Rylan is shocked I answered. There was still blood under my fingernails. I pick at it as Carter goes over the blue prints of White Dove Manor. Afterwards we have to do escape rooms.
She puts me with my roommates and Lilian. All this betrayal. Not to mention it's only Lilian and I who are doing anything. They stand there awkwardly while we move through the room.
"Ace? Could we talk?" Lance asks shyly. When I look over his cheeks are flushed which is adorable.
"I'm busy," I snap from where I was at the chalkboard doing a math equation with the numbers and symbols Lilian and I found.
216. The safety deposit boxes that lined the wall. Lilian and I search for 216. Wait- we need the key for the box. "Fuck this," I mutter and pick the lock. Inside was a piece of paper with 8 numbers randomly placed. We observe the room as we try to think of the combination.
8 numbers.
Post Office.
Mail.
62444555.
We punch in the code to the door and it swings open. But when we walk Carter is frowning at us.
"This is a team activity. Rylan and Lance didn't help," she says. The other group stumbles out of their escape room. "Congrats, you won," Carter tells them.
She pulls them away from us. We can't see what they're doing, but they come back minutes later with their hands behind their backs. And then we're all hand-cuffed together.
"You'll stay like that until you can figure out how to work together," she then proceeds to hand-cuff our feet together.
"Kinky," I mutter even with my slowly rising panic. Lilian realizes what being hand-cuffed to me could entail, especially after a long nap- and yanks her hand away from mine jerking my arm with it. Carter just gives me a smile before walking off. I did not want to be this close to Lance. Rylan starts walking which causes us to tip over into a giant pile. With Lance on top of me. He tries to push off of me, but can't due to his arm being attached to Rylan's. I reach for my lock pockets in my back pocket, but Lance yanks his hand back and gives me a look. I roll my eyes. Did his dumb ass think I was going to try to take advantage of him? Hurt a little.
"I'm grabbing my lock picks," I explain.
"Oh." His face flushes in that adorable way again. Lilian and Rylan start to try to stand up but I snap at them to stop. I get to work on picking the lock on the hand-cuffs chaining me and Lance together. But it doesn't work.
"Shit," I curse.
"What?" The others ask in sync.
"They're her special hand-cuffs that can't be picked." I attempt to slide out from underneath Lance but that just results in some very uncomfortable places to rub together which led to both of us to have a bit of a problem down there. Lance is blushing fiercely and avoiding eye contact as we untangle. We organize ourselves so we're not in a tangled pile.
"Stand up on three."
"One...
Two...
Three."
But Lilian stands up too fast and Rylan too slow and we crash to the ground. I glance at my watch. 8 o'clock. I did not want to have to lay here while the others slept. We attempt standing up a few more times, but after a few attempts we give up. I stare at the ceiling while the others fall asleep.
"Ace?" Lance whispers. I don't reply. "I know your awake. You wouldn't have that problem if you weren't," his breath caresses my ear and I flinch away.
"What do you want?"
"To talk about what we're going to do about us."

Q: What's your favorite book?
A: Mine is the Foxhole Court