Secrets and Sins Part 2: Finding Mary

Chapter 53

~Beatrice~

"Well, if it isn't the Halo bearer's lover...how's the stomach?

Beatrice stayed quiet, refusing to be baited by Dominik as she silently scrutinized the men in front of her, the men standing between her and Ava. None were carrying firearms, not that she could see anyway, and it puzzled the sister warrior.

Perhaps they don’t want to risk damaging the art…

It made sense Beatrice supposed, there had to be millions of dollars worth of art in this hallway alone, hand to hand combat gave her far better odds against this number of opponents, anyway. She eyed the cutlasses the guards held at the ready; it wasn’t the sister warrior’s preferred weapon, but it would do.

“Not as talkative as last time we met, hmmmm? How disappointing, but I suppose this…” Dominik gestured to his horde of guards, “...is rather daunting.”

Overconfident fool.

Again, Beatrice didn’t answer, she simply allowed a smile to replace her thus far impassive expression. The Russian really didn’t know who he was talking to, but that was okay, he was about to find out.

Bending her knees slightly, the sister warrior settled into her usual battle stance before waving Dominik forward.

“Come on then.”

~Ava~

Ava hissed in pain, fighting to regain control over the Halo scorching between her shoulder blades.

“Interesting…”

She glanced up to see the Pope watching her, a fascinated expression on his face, “We theorized that something like this might happen but never imagined it would be to this extreme.” He continued thoughtfully.

“What…are…you…doing…to…me?” Ava struggled to get the words past her lips without crying out.

“Me?” Gus looked at her incredulously, “I’m not doing anything…your Halo is reacting to mine. Not my fault.” He replied in a mock hurt tone.

His Halo?

Ava didn’t understand, she could barely think, she was in so much pain and it was only getting worse.

Halo stop! Please!

The burning of the relic had almost reached an unbearable level, Ava was close to passing out from the agony.

"Ava…I can't…the power, it's reacting to him, to the part of us he has. You need to expel some…"

But that will weaken me…

"Please Ava, we can't contain it anymore."

Ava was loath to drain the energy when she was sure that they were about to be fighting for their lives, but she knew Halo was right. Like at the Brotherhood’s warehouse, her body couldn't hold in the sheer volatile power, if she didn't rid herself of the overflow, it would destroy her.

With a growl of frustration, she gave in. The golden light gathered at her right hand building and building until she released it, sending a blast of pure scorching energy straight from her palm at the stupid gaudy throne, leaving it a pile of flaming twisted metal. With the worst of the power syphoned off, Ava felt the pain between her shoulder blades ease. She stood slowly, her shirt sticking to her freshly bleeding scar.

"Well…that was dramatic." The Pope smirked, not at all concerned by the smoldering ruin between them.

Ava just glared at him, trying to steady her pounding heart.