An Eye For An Eye

Dix-Huit

When I woke up, I was sweating and the sun was strong enough to shine through the blinds and the curtains. Groaning, I changed into another dress. Like the one I had worn the day before, it had a skirt that flared out but had a flower pattern and a different neckline.

I felt like an entirely different person with a completely different hair colour and hair style and while wearing a dress. It was oddly liberating. I also didn’t feel like my writing was a waste of time any more, not now I was writing for Deucalion and he seemed to appreciate my writing. Like Kara had done…

“What time is it?” I asked as I walked over to the breakfast bar.
“I’m not the person to ask,” he said. He then held his left arm out and I realised there was a watch around his wrist.
“You still wear a watch?”
“Habit,” he said with a slight shrug.

I held his wrist steady as I read the time from it.
“It’s half past 11?”
“It seems so,” he said as he pulled his wrist from my grasp.
“I slept through the night then,” I smiled. That was a lot better than barely sleeping at all. “That’s good.”
“I’m glad you slept well.”

I smiled as I made myself breakfast as he drank his tea. He must have already eaten breakfast earlier in the morning. I wasn’t sure if he had done it on purpose but he was wearing another v-neck shirt that was tight around his arms.

“I have to talk to some of my Betas in a minute but I have an idea for the dancing, if you’re open to ideas,” he said before sipping his tea.
“Open to ideas? It was all your idea anyway,” I said, laughing a little as I sat down to eat. “I’m just following your lead with it.” I smiled at my joke. Dancing had a leader and a follower and I was most certainly the follower in the actual dancing too.
“Alright then.”

“Don’t I get to know what the idea is?” I asked between mouthfuls of cereal.
He smirked as he stood. “You’ll find out later.”
I frowned and sighed, watching as he pressed the button for the elevator. “Fine,” I muttered. “It better be a good idea.”
“It will be.”
“Promise?” I asked.
He chuckled. “I promise.”

He stepped into the elevator and the doors shut. I finished my cereal and rushed to put it in the dishwasher. I didn’t feel like dealing with his Betas, not after the experience with the Alphas so I grabbed the notebook and pen and headed to the bedroom to write in there.

When I heard the lift move downwards, I knew the Betas must have left. It was safe for me to leave. It was likely safe for me to leave anyway since Deucalion was their Alpha, they followed his orders.

He looked a little tense as he headed outside to the balcony. After setting the notebook and pen on the table, so that I could write later, I headed outside. The wind blew my dress a little as I walked over to him.
“Is everything alright?” I asked.
“Becca’s dead,” he stated.
“Oh.”

Becca was the one who had brought me clothes. It didn’t feel as though she had liked my presence but she also didn’t seem to want to murder me which was always a positive.
“She’s dead,” he said. “They’re certain it was the hunters, your father most likely.”
“And… was it?” I asked hesitantly. I wasn’t sure if I wanted the answer to that question.
“No,” he said. There was a coldness in his voice I hadn’t heard before. “I did.”

I wasn’t sure how to feel about that.

“You killed her?” I stuttered.
“She wasn’t the first to deem me unfit for command due to blindness and an apparent weak spot for a hunter,” he said as he stared out across the city. “The others aren’t happy about her death.”
“Me?” Becca had thought him weak partially because of me.

“She thought I should have clawed your throat out where you stood or at least taken up your offer of blinding you.”
“But you didn’t,” I said quietly as I stepped towards him.
“No, I didn’t, otherwise you wouldn’t be standing there talking to me,” he said. He let out a sigh. “Marco was my second in command and he thought I was unfit and tried to kill me after Dr. Deaton revealed I would remain blind. I had trust in him and he attacked me.”

I wasn’t sure what to do or say. He was clearly upset but I had never had to deal with this before. I supposed it didn’t really change too much, I had known he had killed people before. Chris had killed people and it had never changed how close we were as siblings. I saw no reason why this would change anything with Deucalion.

“Deuc…” Pushing my nerves away, I walked over to him. “It was self-defence and I… I’d rather have you here than Marco or Becca as a new Alpha.” He smiled slightly and then it melted away.
“Now I’ve lost five Betas, three to Gerard Argent and two in self-defence,” he said bitterly. Deucalion said Gerard Argent with such venom in his voice, his real hatred and anger towards him was clear. “And I should feel weaker. But after killing Marco and killing Becca… I don’t.”

“You don’t?” I asked as I put my hand over his. He was holding onto the railings far too tightly, I was worried he would break them. When an Alpha lost a member of the pack, they usually felt weaker.
“I feel stronger,” he said. “As if I’ve absorbed their power.”
“I’ve never heard of that before,” I said honestly.
“Neither have I,” he said.

His hand let go of the railing and took my hand.
“I need a distraction,” he said.
“What about that idea earlier?” I suggested. He smiled and nodded.
“And we’re already in the right place,” he said softly, completely contrasting his anger towards his Betas and my father.
“What do you mean?”

“We can dance out here,” he said as he placed his hand on my back. I took his other hand and rested my left hand on his arm.
“Sounds like a wonderful idea,” I said, smiling at him. The smile just wouldn’t disappear, despite what he had just told me. Distracting him seemed like the best thing I could do and the only thing I could do to help.