She yawns and then flushes a little, and Graves watches the flush creep down her skin. He wonders how far down it extends.
"How I ended in your bed.?"
Graves smirks."You were ro vocal and Newt with Tina almost caught us"
She was deliciously responsive last night, very vocal. And her mouth was both creative and filthy. If only Graves had the time to spend on that mouth this morning.
He placed her plate in front of her and sat next to her with his own plate.
"Read this and then sign it." He said, handing her the contract he had written last night.
She read through the paper.
I, Ara Red agree to be in a relationship with benefits with Percival Graves.
NO CUDDLES
DON'T STAY THE NIGHT.
USE PROTECTION.
IF SOMEONE DEVELOPS FEELINGS, THEY NEED TO SAY AND END THE CONTRACT.
DON'T GET JEALOUS
CAN HAVE SEX WITH SOMEONE ELSE
NO SEX AT WORK
NO DATES
They didn't seem too bad. He handed her a pen and she signed the bond. He then handed her another sheet of paper which contained all of the rules-
NO ONE WILL KNOW ABOUT THE RELATIONSHIP
NO TALK ABOUT IT AT WORK
She signed this paper too without any complains and handed it back to Graves.
She bent down slightly and placed her lips softly to his right cheek. Graves adverted his eyes as she pulled away. "Thank you for the dinner. It was lovely. Next time, maybe you will get one" They both smirked at each other. He didn't object. And just like that, she was gone.
Ara was, naturally, the one sat with her feet on the vampire's desk, cradling a tumbler of neat vodka and grinning maniacally;
"I'm sorry, I'm not familiar with the term normal,"
"Someone wants you dead!"
"So?, "Ara started slowly.
Elijah could tell that she wasn't lying, but that didn't mean that she didn't know what her enemy/ex-lover and partner in crime was up to."He is killing people to get your attention"
"He is playing a "how long do you think you can survive" game. He could have had us all killed if he really wanted to but I must suffer until I beg him to kill me."Ara said without looking at Elijah.
Ara also put her glass with the cold vodka on the desk.''Don't forget I have the Ministry of Paris and Italy breath over my neck because they want me to put me behind the bar for some murders''
''Υou committed these murders'' Elijah was almost flippant, calm.
She arched an eyebrow.''This is my job''
Elijah scrunched his face at her ''This is not a job, Ara. Someone wants to kill you, someone who knows you inside out and can destroy you. You don't want my help or Klaus or Kol, not even Caius Volturi help, the only person who can help you is''
"I don't need him'' Ara says stubbornly, even though inside she's not sure if that's true.
Elijah was looking at Ara, his eyebrow raised. Ara did her best to not notice. The annoyance and worry seeping into his body from the woman.
"You know where your brother is?"
"Of course I know where he is, "Ara replied automatically, and Elijah mentally paid off the bet he had made with himself.
"You decided to play cat and mouse with MACUSA."
"I am trying to protect him."She answered calmly, "MACUSA is not the only one who wants his head."
"He is at German sleeping at a beautiful manor with his husband"
Elijah nearly choked on his coffee. "What?!"
"Three days ago he married the love of his life."Ara let out a trembling sigh and brought her hands up to her face, drying it."They have been dancing around each other for years"
"What about you?"
"What about me?"Ara frowned as she spoke.
"Love?"
Ara laughs unable to stop it she starts to laugh harder."Love is for children."
"You used to love"Elijah started pacing the office.
Ara's face heated, she really wishes it didn't. "I fall in for years ago and I still pay for that. I remembered the bruises and the gun, the flesh, and the smell of the blood. He was the only person who never seen me as a monster and you know why?"
"Because he made me the monster I am today."
Elijah has the nerve to look confused and Ara carries on, her tone sharpening with every word.
"And now I want him dead" She finished, not reaching for her drinks
"Where is she?." Graves asked gruffly, eyes dark, jaw set in a tight line. Newt hung up his coat, sighed.
"In a meeting with someone."
Graves felt stabbing jealousy, and concern. Ara hadn't told Graves she was meeting anybody. Suspicion, paranoia, made his brain blur.
"I can't believe I was threatened by a woman who could kill me with a paper clip..!" Tina's voice trembled; she'd be stupid not to be scared of Ara.
"What?"Queenie retorted angrily.''' When this happened?''
FLASHBACK
"She'll come around," Newt said enigmatically and refused to expand further.
Thus Tina stayed the hell out of her way, and Newt just snorted from the sidelines. It came to head in the end, of course; Tina couldn't studiously avoid her forever, or use Newt as a buffer.
Ara pinned her against the corridor wall, hand around her throat.
"Newt," she said flatly. Tina nodded slightly. "You love him?"
Tina nodded, swallowed, glancing at the smears of blood on Ara's cheek.
She was holding the revolver, sliding a bullet into a chamber. She spun it and snapped it into place.
Tina's heart was pounding. She looked back and forth between the two corners of the room, searching for help.
Ara pointed the gun at her, telling her to answer.
"Do you love Newt?"
Tina gasped, her eyes growing wide at the sight of the woman standing before her, tall and strong.
"Please..." Tina breathed
The hunter cocked her gun, her finger resting on the trigger, pulling it back slightly. Tina shook her head, and Ara drew the trigger back towards her.
Click.
Tina shook himself out of her stupor with a gasp. It hadn't been a final shot, not yet.
"Well?"She said, her voice cold and calm, as always.
Tina's eyes met her captor's and flitted to the gun. She took a deep breath and gave the answer she could think of through her drugged haze.
"Yes," Tina whispered in a raspy voice.
"You're pathetic." Ara scoffed.
"You love him? Really... do you realize that if you hurt him in anyway shape or form I will destroy you, I will dismember you, I will not even care that you are an officer I will end you. So many people have 'loved' him and then left him with a broken heart, and those were people he wasn't even serious about, but I think he really cares about you, so remember if you hurt him I'll hurt you a hundred times worse. "Ara said her voice going from fortissimo to piano making the words sound staccato making the words seem a lot more harsh and threatening.
And with that Ara left the room. It was quiet; quiet enough that Tina could finally let out the breath she was holding the whole time.
END FLASHBACK
"You let her do a thing like that?"
"What you want me to do?" Newt said in absolute horror, face twisting. "She once punched a man so hard that she broke his nose and jaw, he couldn't talk for months, it was glorious, lool I love my life but Ara can be very creative when it comes to torture. "
The President sat at the head of the table, on his right sat another man and on her left a short haired brunette woman. They stood up when they entered the room.
She nodded saying."Now, will you please take your seats so we can talk about why I asked for your presence?" Sounding impatient and unsettled. It seemed that whatever was going on was making her nervous.
They took seats around the large table, she and the two aurors took their previous seats.
"What is going on, Miss President?"Tina asked in confusion.
They all looked at each other, then their eyes landed on the woman who hesitated at first before meeting their eyes.
"Two hours ago I got a memo from the Ministry"She sighed tiredly."You might not like what I am about to say."
"Let us be the judge of that." Newt smiled encouragingly at her.
The woman was silent for a few seconds."They want us to drop Grindelwald's case and focus on the case with the bodies"
Surprisingly, Tina was the one who broke first.
"They want ut to do what! Are they insane?!" Tina was screaming to nobody.
"It an order"The President commented looking at her with sad eyes."They think that Grindelwald is out of the game and we continue to find bodies around the ! Percival! Tell them! You understand, right? Right?!"
The man stared at Seraphine's pleading, frantic eyes unable to answer him. Of course he understands. He understood that he was the Director of Magical Security and head of MACUSA's which means he must put aside his desire for revenge and protect his people.
"I understand." He answered him quietly. Pain raking his body at what he was going to say next. "We will stop every mission with have on Grindelwald."
"What the hell?" Rodilus murmured quietly in the corner of the room.
"It's an order!"Graves answered automatically. Trying not think about how many times that happened.
"Can we focus on the case?"
"Yes!"Graves answered shortly, still not trying to think too much about it. He could feel everyone's gazes on him. Could feel their sympathy. "Anyway." He raised his eyes firmly, a clear sign that he won't talk about this anymore."What we know about that case?"
Newt looked at him for a long time. He couldn't read what was going on his head. But he didn't see any sympathy in his eyes, only understanding, sadness and panic.
"We have a suspect"Tina sighed tiredly. "We sent Ara to.."
Newt screeched at the table,"You sent her where?Are you crazy,get her out of there!"
They looked over at the man as if he had grown a second head.
"Why?"
"No she
mmm she always go to...extremes." muttered Newt.
Screams could be heard all the way to the MACUSA'S hall, Newt just shook his head; sometimes he was scared of his best friend.
Down the room, a man was tied tightly to a chair. Ara was smiling sweetly at the criminal:
"Okay, so why did you come here?"
"Wasn't that obvious?" The questioned grunted.
"Oh yes, other reason?"
"None that I could think of sweetie."
Aea smacked him hard on the face that made him loose focus for a while, and it would probably bruise, he spit the blood that gathered in his mouth. The warlord's expression turned cold as she leaned down and hissed at the murderer:
"First you'll show me some respect."
The man just smirked showing his yellow teeth.
"Of course, my lady."
"Much better." Her smile returned .""You're obviously a non-magic man and strangely we have six bodies around New York and almost 37 dead people at man's face was as cold as ever, she continued "Why would they send assassins to kill them if they were not part of Gellert's fan? And why he can't do it himself?"
"My master's no coward." The dark skinned man glared at her.
Ara smiled mischievously:
"Now you're cooperating." His face showed confusion.
"You just admitted who your master is."
The woman continued:
"Why the fuck he is killing people?"Would you care to tell me please?" she asked very politely.
The man stayed silent and Ara got the message.
The bloodied man panted, his eyesight was blurry as he was losing too much blood.
The woman smiled wiping her hands and asked him again:"Why?"
l
''You are playing with them''The man says looking at the woman with a cold glance.
He waited a moment, then asked,''Why?''
''I got tired of his abuse''Ara turned on his, eyes narrowed.
''I got tired to run away ,unable to bild a life for me and have friends. The only person who was there for me was my brother and my brother-in-law but they are away because I dont want Verone hurt them. MACUSA is my only chance to kill him...''
''Will you have the balls?''The man spoke softly.
The woman refused to look at him.
''Because of you , one of us is dead!''The man shook his head, face disgusted.
''It was Verone fault''She accused, eyes narrowed, dangerous.''He was the one who kill all those people and I wanted informations''
Staring at each other green eyes, he responds while she grinned to him. The man laughing at her, he could recognize Verone's signature in her sentence. Rage grew inside him, and he exploded. Je knew what to say to the woman, so she would break. The only thing or person she couldn't stand even more than him right now. However as soon as he said out loud he regretted it.
"Waa... you know you might be trying to run away from Verone, but you are a hell a lot like him."
Suddenly Ara's smile faded away.
"Shut up." Ara screamed, advancing towards the older male. "Just shut up. You don't know what you are talking about. Shut up."
"I won't shut up." He raised his voice for the first time, standing up to face the monstrous wrath of Ara Red."You acting like you hate him but you use his torture techniques on me.
"I know a lot of innocent people who used to be victims of your anger, of your disturbing past, of your lonely present, and of your possibly bleak future." The man said, unfazed by Ara's anger. "I know you were the one who brought me to such a miserable state. I know it was you who did that to me. You are the one who will causes me to give up on life and embrace death. You really are Leonard Verone's slut, a copy of him."
"No." Ara said in a somewhat horrified tone, more to herself than to the man. "That's not true. It can't be true. I am not like him. I'm nothing like him."
"Just look at yourself." The man yelled in frustration. "Look at yourself in the mirror. Look and tell me what you see. Don't you see a monster that likes to kill people Don't you see a heartless bitch who hurts without any regrets? Someone who has pushed everyone away from her to be alone? Someone who only cares for herself? Someone who is feared and despised? Someone who is so powerful that she has forgotten that He forgotten that he too is a human? Tell me?" Ara had no answer to these questions. She had no response.
"Verone turned you into a monster while I watched at the sidelines. I watched and did nothing. "
She walks away. She couldn't stay in the cell with him because she maybe end up killing him with her bare hands.
"Look yourself in the mirror. Look and tell me what you see.' She didn't know what compelled her to follow the man's words, but before she knew it, her feet were carrying her to the ladies room toward the mirror. She stood before it, staring at herself.
"No." She said, staring at her reflection. "It's not true. I'm nothing like him. I'm nothing like that monster."Her eyes darted to her hands and for a second, she felt like she was staring at her hands after her forst murder. Her heart sank to the bottom of her stomach.
She saw her reflection change from her to a familiar one and he found herself staring at the face of her fear, her demon, and her enemy. Desperately, she tried to wipe that reflection off the mirror, but her attempts were futile. That image remained, laughing at her misery, mocking her very existence.
"No. I'm not him." She said again and rubbed her palms on the mirror, trying to erase the image, but the same face stared at her.
There was no denying it.
It was crystal clear.
She used to be the one on the receiving of such inhuman abuse, but now she was the one delivering it.
She was the one who was doing exactly what Verone did to her years ago.
She was following in Verone's footsteps.
She was becoming someone she hated, someone she swore to never be like.
She was becoming her creator.
She was becoming Leonard Verone.
"Just like him..."
"No"Ara yelled with rage, grabbing the knife and charging toward the man at full speed. Almost as soon as she lifted her hands, but was cut off by the door being thrown forcefully open, "Red!
"Expelliarmus"
Her knife felt warm in her hand and it vibrated as it met Graves' curse, fighting it, repelling it, overcoming it.
"Get her out of here!"
Newt looking worriedly between Ara and Graves
He hauled Ara off of the man grabbing her from behind and wrapping his arms around her then started to drag her out of the room.
"I will kill you son of the bitch!" Ara screaming, her eyes wild with anger as she was dragged up by Graves.
"Calm down ,Red!"
"Ara!"
"Red!"
Finally Graves let Ara down when they arrived in his office.
"You had no right!" Ara snarled before Graves could even shut the door.
Graves eyes narrowed. He had just saved Red's ass and the agent was obviously not appreciative. He quietly closed the door and turned towards the warlord. "Sit" he ordered.
"No. "Ara replied angrily as she stepped into Graves personal space. "That was my interrogation!" Ara poked her finger into Graves chest screaming. "You had no right."
Angered and shocked at Ara's forwardness, Graves roughly pushed Ara's hand way.
"He was goading you, idiot! You were going to kill him." Graves responded pressing into Ara's space.
"You want me to help.This is my help!"She spit back.
"You were acting like a cold murderer!"
Ara's eyes narrowed to a slit and hands subconsciously formed into fists. "I am a fucking killing machine"
An uneasy silence surrounded them. He looked to her eyes.Wide—well they were usually wide but this wide wasn't her starry wide eyed expression that Graves was so fond of-no... Ara was scared. His warlord was scared.
"Just forget it" She said, heading for the door. Graves grabbed Ara's wrist and pulled her forcefully.
"What did he say to you?"Graves said between gritted teeth, looking like he was a second away from grabbing the nearest person and bashing their head against a desk until he was given the information he wanted.
"Not of your business"She hissed as Gravwa took hold of her wounded arm, and she pulled away from him with a glare.
"Its my business when its connect to my case"He snapped
"What are you going to do, arrest me?"
"Don't tempt me, Red!"
Graves advanced on Ara forcing her to backpedal until her back hit a wall. Graves continued until his body blocked Ara's in. He boxed Ara's head in with his arms. Ara's eyes went to Graves's lips. Ara's tongue darted out wetting her lips. Graves began to pull away.
Ara grabbed Graves by the collar and pressed their lips together. Gravea groaned into the kiss. He pressed his body to Ara's. Merlin ran his tongue along Graves' bottom lip and Graves immediately opened his mouth letting Ara deepen the kiss with a soft moan.
Graves put a hand on Ara's hip and buried the other in the hair at the nape of her neck. Ara kept leading the kiss, dominating Graves's mouth with her tongue as Graves kept pulling Ara closer.
They pulled apart for air. Graves bent his head and let their foreheads rest against one another.
You drive me crazy"
"You like it..."Ara chokes out, but she's cut off when Graves clamps down on her neck with his lips, sucking with a bruising force.
"Ara," he breathed against her cheek.
"Percival," she hummed against his jaw.
They didn't have to say it; it was reflected in their eyes. Passion, hatred, disgust, fear, admiration, disbelief, anger, hurt, guilt, loss, sadness, agony, betrayal. In a month they became the power couple of MACUSA and no one of the auror or Seraphine was stupid enough to go against them or try to stop them when they fight because getting between those two in a fight was the last thing they needed; their arguments were legendary.
What pissed Graves the most about Ara was that the bitch was always able to provoke him. No one else could make the man act so unprofessionally!
There was only one person whom he knew would never look at him like that: Ara. She never looked at him with pity; even when he asked to sit down, all she gave was a knowing smile. She was probably the only company Graves liked to have around, she never undermined his worth and he never underestimated her abilities. They worked so well together, maybe it was fate. Maybe it was also fated that Ara knows from pain and torture. The hunter always shrugged off the looks of pity and, knowing how much looks felt, it fascinated Graves to no end. They were both different. Not damaged, but different. It didn't stop them from working towards their dreams. It didn't stop Ara from leaving and it didn't stop Graves from working. They were both different. And they were both okay with that.
"We have to go back," Ara whispers.
"Hmm,you are right," Graves whispers back, rubbing his cheek against Ara's.
She smiled at him.
The man returned her smile and offered her an arm which she accepted readily.
-
"Run Alana! Please, run!"
Alana stared at Ara , watching as the slim woman struggled to hold off three large, heavy muscled men.
Verone
The same man they'd been trying and succeeding in evading for the past six months.
"Run!" The hunter screeched again and she turned to do as he said only to scream when two pairs of strong callous hands grabbed he arms tight enough to break it.
"Alana! Let her go!" Ara cried, gasping as one of the men grabbed her as well.
"Please!" She pleaded. "She had nothing to do with this!"
"They're not going to listen." She murmured softly, although it warmed her heart to see him begging for her life, it also mad it heavy. Ara Red was a proud woman, she shouldn't beg.
"Wise woman." Came a deep voice and they all turned as another man entered the room.
He was tall, nearly 6'9, with long ice blond hair that fell to his shoulders and cold blue eyes a shade or two lighter that Ara's beautiful aquamarine hues. His skin was a deep bronze, as if he spent most of his time outdoors and was stretched taut over the tightly corded muscle that compacted his lean frame.
"Ara Red Just the woman I was looking for." He greeted and John frowned.
"Verone-"She spat
"Nice to see you again ." He hummed softly."It's been so long since I've seen a woman so beautiful."The man said looking at Alana.
Ara began to struggled valiantly. "She had nothing to do with this! Any of it! Let her go, at least! Please!"
Verone hmmed thoughtfully and turned to her and she fought not to flinch at the look in his eyes.
He wasn't looking to just hurt Ara, he was looking to break her completely, and Alana could see it in her eyes. He was going to kill, but not before he did something so much worse.
He murmured and when Alana's clothes began to vanish, she started to struggle futilely despite knowing her fate. The entire time, Ara screamed and struggled, tears streaming down her cheeks as they finished with her and tossed her broken body to the ground. Alana tried to tell Aea she was okay, even as her voice shook and tears made their way down her cheeks but he only sobbed harder, saying the hunter was sorry 'so sorry' and begging her to forgive her. For not stopping it. Not being strong enough.
So sorry.
Sorry for everything.
A strange sense of tranquility overcame her and she fell limp as Verone gripped her by her hair and placed a gun to her head.
He murmured something to her but she didn't hear it and when the gun went off, she welcomed the blissful oblivion it brought with it
"Where the Merlin's pant is she?"
It was the first thing that come out of the director mouth who could not find the hunter in the meeting room. They supposed to meet today to talk about cade and the new bodies had been found the previous week, but none can find the hunter.
"Well?"Graves growled. Out loud. Loud enough to startle the young intern across the way.
The room meeting metal doors had swung open with a loud smash and before they could even go to investigate what had caused it a body stumbled through the now opened doors. The body belonged to the warlord of MACUSA who was staggering and swaying as she desperately tried to keep her body upright.
"Attacked by...the hunter..he cornered me, knocked me unconscious. I woke up in an ally and he had me tied up. He's already started to cut into my legs and when I woke up he was slashing away at my thighs...it hurts Fido...it feels like my legs are on fire" Ara voice sounded weak and Newt wine in protest when he screeches as he press further down on the shredded flesh of his friend thighs.
"Okay, it's okay. I got you" Newt was worried about the amount of blood seeping from the gashes in his legs.
"Need..I need to..." Ara trailed off, his eyes fluttering dangerously and Newt's feel his own heart skip.
"Hey, hey, Ara. Stay with me. Tell me what you need" Newt was desperately trying to press down on the wounds while trying to keep her awake.
"Someone! Call the med, tell them what's happening, Goldstein come here I need help" President command watching as Tina scrambles to do as Queenie ask
"Has anyone called the paramedics?" Queenie add as sank down next to Newt his large hands shaky as he too pressed down on Ara's wounds.
Tina liked being on the other side of the doorway even less than being the one in the hospital bed. Newt was standing next to Tina, his face pale and eyes worried as he stared at the door waiting news for the woman who was his sister in all but blood.
He was sitting in the hallway outside Ara's room, the door closed ominously, and all he could do was wait for any word from the nurse. All the brusuies around her torso amd her face , the blood between her legs amd her hands ,she'd been shaking like a leaf, sweating, unnaturally pale, holding her bleeding hand close to her chest, and muttering about some pay back.
Newt'd barely managed to keep hee upright long enough to apparate her to MACUSA's hospital of choice. She'd been whisked away by concerned doctors almost immediately, and he hadn't heard anything since.
Tina looked up when she heard fast, near-panicked footsteps, and she stood when she saw Percival Graves coming down the hall like a man possessed. "Mr. Graves-" she started, though the words got caught in her throat when his dark eyes focused on her.
"Tell me what happened," he demanded, and she shrugged helplessly.
"Newt tried to stop the blood"Says the witch glances at the man who stood near to the door waiting for a nurse."She kept talking about a pay back. She wasn't making much sense," she said, and he scoffed and turned to the two nurses standing by the door going over charts.
"Let me in there."
One of the nurses frowned. "The doctor is still working, Mr. Graves. If you're not directly related, then-"
"You're going to let me in to see my hunte right now, or you won't have a job in about ten seconds," Graves nearly growled, a heavy emphasis on the word 'my hunter'.
She did not just hear Mr. Graves, her ill-humored, often cantankerous boss, refer to Ara Red as his. It was like trying to picture Picquery in a Flapper dress; something in her brain just shut down and didn't allow it to fully set in.
And the nurse wasn't interested in fighting him on it, either. She swallowed hard and opened the door with a wave of her wand, and Graves immediately strode past her into the room.
Tina went to the doorway- not inside the room, though, much to the annoyance of the ever-watching nurses- and watched as Graves went right to the bedside. Ara seemed to be unconscious, though hse looked marginally better than she had when she stumbled into MACUSA's meeting room.
"How is she?" Graves demanded of the surprised doctor.
''She has three broken ribs, some fingers came out of place and we managed to heal the wounds on her thighs.''the doctor said, and the tension seemed to drain from Graves' shoulders- and from Tina, too.
She didn't know what Newt would have done if Ara hadn't made it.
And judging by the way Graves was reacting, he was just as upset at the thought. It was strange how close of friends they'd become lately. The man glances at them looked sharply and violently.''You two stay here with Miss Red. I am going back to office to find what the fuck happened!''
For a moment, Tina and Newt just stared at each other, the silence too stunned to be awkward.
"...What just happened?" Tina finally asked, and Newt stuttered for a few seconds, seeming to struggle for the words.