"Are we all here?" a rough male voice asked.
"Aye." Another male voiced.
There were several other mutters that she ignored, if they were here they were here.
If not, it they would face severe repercussions.
"Good. Good. Now we can get started." The Bloody Queen giggled.
She had her laptop open on her desk. The screen was completely blank except for the Skype symbol in the middle of the screen. She was in her secure office. The walls had been repainted a light red with a ruby chandelier hanging in the middle of the room. The Bloody Queen leaned back in her new lush swivel chair she had custom made.
The other lines remained silent,
Skype was very handy in meetings.
On her computer screen were several different screens with the images blocked. Including hers.
"Status report Octavius." She held her hand out expecting papers.
He handed her several file folders.
"These are the surveillance information the Scouts had compiled on the Society spies."
She thumbed through the first folder and skimming over the information.
"Av' t'ey been dispatched?" the Scottish accent, Crowley, asked with no concern at all.
"One has. The other was lost in the spectator stampede." She looked over the second one then glared at Octavius from the corner of her violet eye.
He shifted uncomfortably.
"No matter. It's not like she would bear a mantle anyways."
The Bloody Queen smirked. "Yes it was, quite convenient that the one we had captured been Innocence. And she was so cute looking. Such a shame I didn't get to talk to her."
She eyeballed him again.
"How many now?" One of the females spoke up.
Another female, Elizabeta, answered.
"Seven."
"Out of?" Moriarty should have known. He's the damn book keep. She thought but held her tongue. Later she will bitch at him.
"659. I think we should celebrate."
"You always want to celebrate Duncan."
"Which mantels are left?"
"The Scholar."
"The Betrayer."
"The Handmaiden of Death."
"The Brute."
"The Destroyer."
"The Fool."
"And?"
"The Selfless."
"Alright! Time to kick it into gear people!" Duncan logged off.
"Idiot. How do we know if he isn't the fool?" Elizabata asked with an ulterior motive.
"You're welcome to check. Next meeting soon." Moriarty and the others ended the feed.
The Bloody Queen sighed. "Idiots the lot of them." She closed her computer.
She turned to her pathetic Games Master.
"Has the C&D Society begun to send out Hunters yet?"
"No mam and neither has the Order."
She pursed her lips. This was new. Normally the Society would already be loading up troops. Unlike the Order they believed in that pathetic thing called family bonds.
"Relocate. Safety measure."
He bowed. "Yes Milady."
Protect my sister!
The girl screamed before getting the axe.
Literally.
Protect my sister!
I heard the cries again.
The echoes of the dead are the hardest to ignore.
Protect my sister!
I shook my head.
Mathias looked down at me questioningly. His pink eyes stared into my violet ones.
I shook my head, but this time it was to postpone his questions.
His arm was warm around my shoulders. After we left the ex-dungeon he wouldn't let go.
Not that I was complaining.
Eidel and Claude were already in the cell. He was giving her an intense look.
"What the, is going on Shee?" He gave her a pleading look. No more of his indifferent attitude, Claude was genuinely hurt she wasn't confiding in him.
Eidel, aka the Banshee, lowered her head and shoulders clearly exhausted. Her normally pale complexion was an ashen gray today.
"Her name was Phoebe Emerson. She was part of the intelligence division of the Cloak and Dagger Society."
Eidel yawned out of exhaustion than boredom.
"She was sent here to uncover information retaining to the Seal of Solomon."
She held up a hand before we could ask what the hell that is. "I'll get to explaining that in a moment."
"Anyways she had hypothesized that the Pits were a front for something else. She and a few of her associates had bugged the Games Master's digital system before being found out and they ran into some pretty heavily encrypted files under the name of END. What little info their Key was able to decipher was the names of seven mantels as she called them."
"What are mantels?" I asked.
"They are a living power that binds itself with a living vessel. Completely parasitic. And extremely powerful. And they usually a pain in the ass."
I raised an eyebrow. He shrugged giving me that cocky smirk.
After a moment Eidel coughed to get our attentions.
It's not like we're doing anything, but I could feel my cheeks and ears burn.
"Anywaaaays if this information gets out any more than many more will die here."
She yawned. "Don't bother me." And retreated into her corner and sat crisscross and closing her eyes.
I watched as Claude went over by Eidel and laid down between her and the door.
I yawned smacking my lips. They tasted funny. Like flowers.
Mathias sniffed the air and frowned.
"What?" I asked smacking my lips again.
He was about to answer when his eyes glazed over and he fell back.
"Mathias!" I went to grab him but my vision doubled.
Then I was falling down, and down, and down . . .
I promise a longer chapter next time.
Thanks for reading!
xxxSirens