Chapter 4 I’LL GO WITH YOU

REBELLE 

I don’t trust him, the man seated on the table opposite me. He gives off this bad guy vibe that screams “I’ll rip out your tongue if you say the wrong words.” But I don’t have much of a choice seeing as my mother’s life is in danger here. Finding her is the main problem and if I have to make a deal with this man to do it, so be it. 

“Fine,” I breathe out. “I’ll work with you and do what you want me to do, as long as you help me find my mother.” 

A smile teases the corner of his lips and he nods, satisfied. “Very well then. Let’s go.” 

That seemed to snap Rosa out of whatever bewilderment she was in. She shakes her head and stares at the man with every ounce of viscousness she can summon. I find that funny because he’s at least a foot taller than her, so her attempts at staring him down don’t really work. 

“Look here, Mr whatever your name is,” she says, rising to her feet and plopping a hand on her waist. “I’m sorry but you cannot go with her. You can’t just show up and take her away. How do I know you are not working with the hooligans who kidnapped Aunt Serafín and just want to kidnap her too.” 

“Children,” he mutters under his breath, his eyes narrowing on her. He looks annoyed and for the life of me, I cannot guess if it’s because she flat out told him off or because we’re wasting his time. He’s such a hard person to read, given that I don’t have any issue with reading people. 

Azrael turns to me with an annoyed stare as my best friend keeps rambling on and on about the possibilities of him being a kidnapper and all that shit. 

“Make her shut up, Amirykal. I’m this close to snapping her neck,” his growl rings out in my mind. I look around confused. For a moment, I am very sure I imagined it until his voice comes again. “We should get going. My patient can only last this long.” 

What the fuck ! 

I don’t bother coming up with a reasonable explanation as to why I’m suddenly hearing his voice in my head, not when his annoyance is so palpable. I rise to my feet and grab Ross’s hands. 

“It’s fine, Rosa,” I tell her softly. “I trust him. He won’t do anything to harm me.” 

“How can you trust him?” She hisses. “Girl I know he’s hot and giving “fuck me vibes “ but you can’t just run off with him. Not after what he said about the underworld and you being a goddess and all that other shit that shouldn’t be true!” 

I shake my head and sigh because she’s right. I shouldn’t trust him. But that’s the thing. I do trust him. 

Don’t get me wrong, he still gives me predator vibes, but there’s this feeling of safety that washes over me. You know that feeling that tells you “this dude will kill all your demons before they get close?” Yeah that’s it. 

But I understand Rosa’s worry. If a dude showed up out of nowhere and demanded my friend leaves with him, I’ll be as cautious as she is, maybe even more. 

I tighten my grip on Rosa’s hand. “Go home, babe. Keep an eye out in case you hear anything about mom’s disappearance. In the meantime, I’ll go with him. If there’s even a slim chance he can help me find my mother, I’ll take it. Besides, Kesha needs you.” 

She’s about to say something but the determined look on her face has her changing her mind. She sighs and nods. 

“Just be careful okay?” 

“I will.” I give her a hug and ruffle her hair before turning to Azrael. “Alright, let’s go!” 

Rosa levels him another glare. “You better take very good care of my best friend or imma beat your ass. I won’t mind that you’re fine shit and all.” 

I chuckle because the mere idea of Rosa beating up Azrael is funny. Supernatural creature aside, the man is three times her size and would probably throw her across the room like a ping pong ball. 

I pull my best friend into a reassuring hug before stepping away from the table. “Shall we?” 

He moves ahead of me and I follow him to his car. I’m actually surprised when he opens the door and motions me inside. I honestly just thought he’ll do one of those disappearing moves like last time. 

Oh well! 

I get into the car and I’m instantly enveloped with the smell of cedar and wet earth. He settles down beside me, his huge frame taking a huge part of the black leather chair. 

“Drive!” He orders and the driver immediately starts off the engine. 

The drive to wherever he’s taking me is graveyard silent and I’m nearly choked out by the bundle of nerves rising from the pit of my stomach. My mind instantly starts running through a number of things that could go wrong. 

He could be a cultist and is taking me to be sacrificed, or he could be one of the people who kidnapped my mother and is trying to do the same to me. Worse, he could not even have any idea where my mother is and just tricked me into going with him so he could use me for some diabolic purpose 

Oh no! Maybe I should have listened to Rosa. 

A low chuckle fills the car. “You worry too much, Amirykal!” 

“I’m not little!” I snap, annoyed at the nickname that he chooses to call me. “Why do you…” I trail off realizing what just happened. How did I know the meaning of that? 

He chuckles again, this time pleased. “See? You can understand the language of the dead perfectly well. There’s your proof that you are in fact who I am looking for.” 

“What?” So I didn’t guess wrong? I actually understood what he just called me, a language I have never heard in my entire life? How worse can this get? 

Before I can say anything else, the car comes to a stop in front of a very familiar building. I turn to him, confused. “Why are we at ILLUSIONS? I thought you were taking me to the underworld. What are we doing at a high end strip club.” 

“Patience, Amirykal,” is all he says before he opens the door, steps out and offers me his hand. I hesitantly place my hand in his and he pulls me out of the car. “Come.” 

I follow him into the building. We don’t enter through the main entrance, rather, he leads to another door at the far end of the building and opens it with a key he retrieves from his pocket. We step into a long hallway lit by dim lights and he leads me to the elevator at the end of the hall. 

I don’t say anything, too confused to even react. “The elevator opens and we step in. Rather than going up like any normal elevator, the atmosphere suddenly changes, becomes heavy and the next thing I know, a blinding white light surrounds us, making it impossible to see anything.