Secrets and Sins Part 2: Finding Mary

Chapter 27

~Lilith~

Lilith felt sick as she watched Beatrice's face crumble, her friend fell back, hands scrabbling for the edge of the table like her legs were too wobbly to hold her up.

"Vincent, can you run and get a doctor please? And a stretcher?" Mother Superior requested, voice thick with emotion.

The man nodded, rushing from the room to get Mary some medical help.

“Lilith lay her down on the floor…carefully.” The winged woman obliged, tearing her eyes away from the sister warrior to gently lower Mary to the stone floor, arranging her head in Camilla’s lap. The injured woman was understandably unconscious from the jump home.

“You have to go back.” The words were cold, impassive, everyone in the room looked up at Beatrice.

Lilith would almost rather the anguish she had seen before than the blank, apathetic mask the sister warrior was wearing now.

Guilt started to build in her chest, Beatrice wasn't going to like her answer “I can’t.”

Anger flashed behind the normally steady brown eyes, “Why not?”

“I’m sorry, I wish I could. But the only reason I found them before was because Ava called me, somehow, which guided me to her location…I still don’t know where that location actually is. I don’t know where to teleport to and…” She hesitated, unsure about telling Beatrice the next part.

She needs to know…they all do.

“...and the Brotherhood know about the Halo blocking metal, they used it on her…I can’t sense her anymore.” Lilith pmurmured.

The nuns gasped at the revelation, expressions horrified, but the winged woman was more focused on the sister warrior standing beside the table. She watched as Beatrice comprehended what that meant for Ava’s situation, pain flickering across her face momentarily before she smoothed it back to emotionless. Without saying a word, the sister warrior turned and left the room.

“Wait, Beatrice.” Lilith moved to follow her, but a hand on her arm stopped her.

“Let her go, Lilith. She needs some space.” Mother Superior said not unkindly.

The winged woman glanced at the older nun, “What are we going to do Mother? We have to rescue Ava.” She whispered, though she wanted to strangle the Halo bearer most of the time, Ava had grown on her, not that Lilith would ever admit to that.

Surprising her, Mother Superior pulled the winged woman into a brief hug.

“We will save her. Once Mary is awake and can share what she knows, we will make a plan.” The older nun smiled, releasing her.
“Besides, the Brotherhood will be begging us to take Ava back once they hear how much she can talk.”

~Mary~

It had been a long time since Mary had woken up in a bed, she had forgotten what a restful sleep actually felt like. Blinking her eyes open slowly, Mary took in her surroundings. She was lying in one of the small infirmary rooms of the Cat’s Cradle, late afternoon sun spilled in from the window that faced the cobblestone courtyard.

Movement to her left caught her attention, she rolled her head in that direction.  Lilith was sitting in a chair beside the bed staring unseeing at the wall. Mary silently observed her old friend.

Lilith had changed immensely since she had last seen her. The luminescent black scales had spread and now covered most of the visible skin of her arms and half of her face, leathery dark crimson wings were folded tightly against her back.

The biggest change Mary could see, however, was not her physical appearance but rather how her old friend held herself, there was an air of authority that had certainly never been there before, as well as a quiet tiredness, like the other woman had been carrying a heavy burden for a very long time.

What happened while I was gone?

Ava had told her that there was a long story behind her newfound powers and that she had died. Maybe that had something to do with it?

Oh my God…we left Ava.

Abruptly the memories from how she got to the OCS flooded her mind, Mary breathed in a stuttering breath.

“Hey, how are you feeling?” Lilith was looking at her, biting her lip with worry, alerted to her consciousness by the shaky inhale.
“Are you in pain…I can get the Doctor to give you some more drugs?”

“No…pain.” She answered hoarsely.

It was true, the concoction of painkillers settled heavily over her like a weighted blanket, numbing all the physical pain of her battered body. Unfortunately for Mary, it did nothing to help the grief and guilt she was experiencing after the months of torture coming to an end by leaving her friend behind to suffer the same fate.

Or worse…

A choked sob fell from her lips, the emotions spilling over. Mary was too exhausted and broken to stifle it like she normally would.

“Oh Mary…” Lilith whispered, tears of her own rolling down her cheeks.

The winged woman took her heavily bandaged right hand with both of her own, squeezing it gently, comfortingly. Mary gripped Lilith’s hand back tightly, trying to ground herself and banish the sense of loneliness that was a constant companion during her captivity.

It’s not enough.

Hating to show any weakness, Mary grappled with asking for what she needed in this moment. Lilith however seemed to understand without her friend even speaking.

“Right, shuffle over.” The former sister warrior mumbled, moving to lie beside her.

The gesture kicked the crying off anew, Mary rolled stiffly away to give the winged woman more room on the very small bed. Once settled, Lilith delicately pulled her into her chest, a consoling hand rubbing circles over her back. Mary pressed her bruised face into her friend’s collarbone, taking solace in Lilith's warmth.

Eventually Mary regained control of herself enough to feel embarrassed, she tried to pull away from Lilith’s embrace, an apology on her lips, but was surprised to feel the other woman’s arms tighten slightly around her, keeping Mary in place.

“It’s okay Mary, I get it.” Lilith murmured softly.

She was gobsmacked by her friend’s tenderness, Lilith had never been forthright with her feelings or affection, ever.

She really has changed.

“Thank you.” Mary allowed herself to relax back into the hug, before wincing slightly.

“What is it?” Lilith asked, immediately scanning her for any signs of bleeding through her dressings.

“Lying on something.” She reached between them, pulling the uncomfortable object out from the inside of her jacket and holding up for both of them to see.
“Oh right, forgot about this. Ava dropped it…”

“Wait…Ava dropped it?” Lilith sat up, carefully untangling herself from Mary.

The winged woman thumbed through the first few pages of the red covered book, it was all in Russian, but Lilith got the gist of what it contained by the way it was set out.

“Holy shit, do you know what this is?” Her friend turned towards her with an excited expression, Mary shrugged, she really had no idea.
“It’s a logbook! It can tell us where the Brotherhood is, where Ava is!”

Lilith got to her feet, “I have to show the others.” She said, “Will you be okay?”

Mary nodded, “Of course. Go...save our idiot.”

 
~Ava~

The Halo bearer came too with a start, bolting upright, before letting out a groan as her headache from being knocked unconscious made itself known.

Ow…

Raising a hand to the back of her head to check for blood, she winced as she prodded the golf ball sized lump at the base of her skull.

No blood at least.

As she lowered her hand, it brushed something hard and smooth on the back of her neck.

What the?

Tracing the thing with her fingertips she realized she was wearing a metal collar. Looking down Ava could see it was made from the cerulean blue alloy that blocked the Halo.

Great, that's just fucking great.

Trying to force the collar open, Ava let out a growl of frustration when it became apparent that her new accessory needed some sort of key to unlock it. Instead of irritating herself further, she changed tact and looked around the room for something to pry it open.

The Halo bearer was sitting on the floor of a cell that was identical to the one she had found Mary in. It was completely empty other than a bench that was pushed up against the wall to her right.

Attempting to get to her feet, Ava cringed when she felt the sting of pain from the wounds left by the darts. Glancing down she raised her eyebrows when she noticed makeshift bandages wrapped around her left thigh, right shoulder and bicep.

Okay, so they obviously need me alive…for now anyways.

Staggering slightly, she finally managed to get up. Ava limped over to the door, peering out into the hallway. No less than six guards stood outside the cell, she actually felt kind of chuffed with herself for inspiring so much fear in these arseholes.

The Halo bearer heard the door at the end of the corridor open and shut, the men outside shifted to stand at attention, boots thudded down the hall, someone was coming her way.

Shit.

Ava withdrew to the back of the cell, pressing her back against the concrete wall. Whatever happened she wasn’t going to make it easy for these bastards.

“Halo bearer.” Ava groaned inwardly, of course it had to be the Russian man that stepped into her cell, flanked by two of his henchmen.
“My name is Dominik; I am the Master Brother here. And you of course remember Brothers Alex and Victor.” He gestured behind him; she grimaced seeing the guards that she had incapacitated while she was astral projecting during her last visit to Mary.

“Hey boys…” Ava gave an awkward wave, “How’s the nose? And the hand?”

The one called Victor snarled, taking a menacing step forward, his nose definitely hadn’t healed straight.

“Now, now.” Dominik intervened, holding up a hand to stop his lackey, “Plenty of time for that later.”
"So, Halo bearer, shall we do this the easy way or the hard way?" A creepy smirk working its way across his lips.

Ava shrugged, "Suppose that depends…what exactly are we doing?"

"Don't play stupid, you know what we want."

She tossed up what to reply for a moment, Ava didn't want to show too much of her hand too soon.

Deciding that ignorance was best right now she shrugged again, "No idea sorry…are those two really brothers? Because they look absolutely nothing alike." Maybe poking the bear wasn't the smartest idea, but damn it was fun.

Dominik's smirk faded, a hint of anger behind his eyes, "Very well, Reya warned me about your snark. We want the Halo, relinquish it to us and we will let you go."

Ava barked out a laugh, "Sorry, no can do. The Halo and I are kind of a package deal."

"The hard way it is…" Dominik turned to call to one of his followers in the hall, "...fetch me the extractors."

Ava gulped.