The Wicked Ones

11. Insert Serious Title Here

Thornhood entered the room behind the tainted glass and stared at his colleagues, he was calm but his jaw was tightly clenched.

"Anything you girls might have forgotten to tell before throwing me into the wolf's jaws ? Like... Oh, I don't know... The man's identity and the fact that there was a personal link between him and you !"

Halfway through his sentence he had turned to Asterin and his attention was fully on her now. He stared straight into her eyes with a sort of calm fury that conveyed sadness and disappointment as well as anger. Knowing that Black and Thornhood would soon start the kind of argument only they could pull off sent a chill down Blythe's spine. Drug addicts and murderers were one thing, the arguments her two colleagues were able to get into were an entirely other. She was about to step in between the two in an effort to stop the oncoming storm but her phone started ringing. When she saw the caller ID a feeling of uneasiness started weighing down on her. The detective mumbled something about having to answer the phone to her colleagues while pointing towards the door. She exited the room in a rush and answered the call in the corridor.

"James ? Is everything alright ? I thought we agreed we'd finish our talk in person."

She heard the sound of his heavy breathing on the other end of the phone. Before she even realised what was going on, the reflexes that came with her job kicked and her heart started beating faster than it should have. She could hear the sickening beat of her organ, pulsing blood all the way to her ears. For a few seconds that lasted hours in her mind she felt fear slowly sink in. Not just a simple heart throb. True fear. Terror that spread through her like an illness and made her want to puke her guts out. The kind that, if kept too long, could make one collapse on the ground crying, begging, gasping for air. The kind that she hadn't felt for years. Not since she had found her father's body. James Morningstar hadn't said a word, not even a syllable. But deep down, Elisabeth knew something terrible had happened, even if that fact hadn't even reached her brain and formed a coherent thought yet.

"We did, didn't we... Sorry Elizabeth."

The man stifled a cough.

"James ?", worry had started melting into her voice, "What is happening ?"

"Don't you dare worry about me dear. I just wanted to talk"

"James."

The panic had set in, she wasn't yet sobbing but her voice was filled with tears. So much so that it was caught in her throat.

"Let me speak will you darling. I feel like it is important that you know that the suspect you have in custody right now is innocent."

"James how do you know this... James. James. Please don't stop talking, you're scaring me."

"Well I got a little visit today. About half an hour after you left. I managed to scare him off though. I think I could give you a physical description for what it's worth."

"James. Why are you stalling ? What's happening ? Are you okay ?"

The line went silent for a few seconds.

"I'm bleeding out Lizzy. He stabbed me. It's unlikely you'll make it in time considering I live on the other side of the city."

She let a scream of pain and shock escape, the few colleagues that walked around the corridor turned to stare at her but she didn't care. She ran, faster than ever, to her motorbike. For the first time in her life, she used her phone while driving to call the emergency line.

-

As the door shut behind Lis, Asterin turned back towards the glass though which she could see her brother staring back with a crazed look. His golden eyes were the spitting image of her own and Asterin could not shake the disturbing feeling that, somehow, she was looking into her own eyes. Orion pulled at his cuffs for a moment before leaning back into his chair, gaze settling back on the tainted glass. His black hair was a mess and looked like they needed to be washed. He also seemed to have lost a lot of weight since the last time they had seen each other and his shirt now hung loosely around him like a shapeless bag. Even his features were taunt and emaciated by fatigue and drugs. Before today, Asterin could never have imagined him in such a state. She still remembered the cold fury that had taken over his usually cool expression when she had elbowed him, making him drop a bowl of soup on his suit at a dinner party their father had organised. Orion had stared down at the enormous stain on his previously impeccable suit and when his eyes slowly drifted back up to hers, Asterin had thought he was going to murder her and almost regretted her actions. Almost. The memory of her mother's ring that Orion had 'accidently' dropped somewhere in the garden had kept her from backing down as she had simply lifted a mocking eyebrow. Their father had taken one disgusted look at Orion before gesturing for him to leave the dinner table.