Page 48 of We Are All Sinners

Luckily, Evie doesn’t give me too much shit. She reluctantly goes in with a cute pout after letting me kiss her goodnight, just like she used to when we were kids.

“Eves giving you shit about having to work all of the sudden tonight?” Noah asks as we make our way to the car.

“Not too bad. I’m sure having a bottle of wine all to herself helped me out. I also know I’ll get grilled later, and she will see whatever happens tonight anyway, so it’s a lose-lose situation for me, buddy. How about you guys?”

“Em was a little disappointed but seemed fine when we left.” Liam smiles wide.

“I think Lily was a little upset that I invited her over tonight and then had to bail. I just hope she is still there when we get back.” Noah admits as he puts the address into the GPS of his phone and waits for it to pop up on the screen of his blacked-out Jeep.

He puts it in gear and takes off following the female voice that seems to have an Australian accent this time. I always chuckle at the voices Noah uses for his GPS.

I can see the fear of the unknown with Lily is weighing on him. The voice usually makes him at least smile, but right now he just looks sad. I wish I could reassure him that this chick isn’t going to be going anywhere, and that he might just be the one she needs to de-ice her fucking heart. Or put it back together again if that’s what she truly needs.

Evie wouldn’t tell me much about her. She said, just like she did with Emily, it’s not her story to tell.

Liam had already looked up all of Emily’s hospital records by the time I texted him last night, he just hadn’t looked through them thoroughly at that point.

Once Emily fell asleep last night, he went through everything he had found on her. He let me know he wanted blood, sending me and Noah the photos of Emily the night she was brought into the hospital. She was unrecognizable, definitely not the little ray of sunshine I have seen bouncing around the house. Her eyes were void of any trace of light in those photos.

Noah and I promised to let him take out his aggression on the fucker first, but I get to interrogate him before anyone kills him.

Noah finds a parking spot outside of a building I recognize from Evie’s show last night. I laugh to myself and shake my head. She will fucking shit herself.

“How in the fuck am I supposed to compete with the mother fucking Michaelson Compound?” I ask more to myself than my friends.

“The what?” Liam asks with furrowed brows, looking at me like I have lost my mind.

“Never heard of him,” Noah shakes his head, “No, her brothers last name is, Devereaux, bro. You sure you are good for the job?” He deadpans as him and Liam look back and forth from each other to me.

I can’t help but bust out laughing, thinking about how my little witch about lost her mind when I had no clue who the Michaelson’s were.

“It’s a TV show that Evie is obsessed with called The Originals. This is the compound for the original vampire’s family. Sounds ridiculous, but it was, intriguing.” I smile as I exit the vehicle, leaving my friends inside to talk about me.

Alec stands outside of the brick hallway that is the entrance to the compound, waiting for us. It’s only nine-forty, we are early.

“Gentlemen, nice of you to join me on such short notice, but if we don’t get this done soon, you won’t be able to. Mrs. Devereaux’s hormones are in overdrive, and she is ready to tear them all apart. We have a couple of hours to get to know them and have some fun. I have a bone to pick with Boudreaux myself. Devereaux has been gracious enough to let me have some timewith him for what he did to my fiancé.” Alec smirks with a bit of a huff.

“We obviously have our own agenda, so we will be recording this, and keeping it for our records of course.” Noah smirks back, tilting his head, almost daring Alec to try and tell him otherwise.

Alec nods, turning on his heel and going down the small tunnel. We follow and wait for the gate to open when Alec hits the intercom button. No one says anything, he just looks up into the camera, and it opens.

“Devereaux has beefed up his security detail since his wife was taken, then beefed it up times ten across the board when he finally got her back.” Alec explains as we make it through the heavily guarded gates.

I’m a bit in shock at the fact that this place looks just like the show, down to the small details of the etchings in the dark wood on the staircases on either side of the courtyard with the flowing large black concrete fountain.

We follow Alec around to the back of the house to a door that is open in the grass. The closer we get to the opening, I see it leads down to a dark metal stairwell.

I look down into the giant hole and see light, but very little. I go down the stairs hearing my boots clank on the metal steps until I hit pavement.

Dull yellow lights shine to illuminate the small cave like hallway until we get to another door. It opens to a bright room with glass walls caging the animals inside. They are wearing collars, chains, ball gags, and nothing else.

My nose stings at the overwhelming scent of bleach the further I make my way to the end of the thick glass wall. I look at each prisoner as we walk by, smiling when I see Mark in a cell marked purple.

Vivian is in a cell directly across from him labeled as green. I chuckle as I get the joke. Queen Fiona, Shrek, ha. Now that’s funny. She does not even resemble the photos from her file. She has had enough work done to look just different enough. The one thing you can’t change too much is the eyes. Her lifeless, dull, grey eyes give her away.

My attention moves over to the next cell holding another woman who looks familiar. She has bright blue eyes and jet-black hair. She reminds me of someone, but I can’t place who.

Once Alec told us who Evie’s birth monster was, we started digging and found all kinds of shit on the bitch. She deserves whatever she gets.

---