Episode 16 — No More Surprises
Astrid stood outside her balcony waiting for sunrise. They were to leave for NSA in two days, locking herself in her room she has done her part of the bargain while her father and Uncle Rhaumwald had left to search for Derek.
“Hey…”
“Hey…” not at all surprised to hear him as early as dawn.
“I was checking on you and saw your bed empty.”
“I couldn’t sleep.” She sighs.
“You ok?”
She turns to face her twin brother and forces a smile and nods.
“You do know I’m your twin right?” he grins, “I pretty much know when you are lying or not.”
“I’m just worried,” Astrid admits. “Father was right, this is my fault. I shouldn’t have gone and pulled you in this mess.”
“You didn’t, if I remember it correctly we pretty much begged and blackmailed you to take us.”
She snickered, “I should have stood my ground.”
Ash sighed standing beside her. “Derek is fine, he’s strong and smart.”
“The captors should be calling by now.” Astrid crosses her arms over her chest. “It’s the twenty-four-hour rule if you are to ransom your victim call as soon as possible before authorities are informed. He had seen his captors, he fought with them. They could kill him in revenge for killing the heir and his brothers.”
“Hey, look at me…” he reached for her hand and made her face him, “You were protecting yourself and us when you killed those men, its instinct.”
“But-“
“The last time I heard people from that world would prefer getting killed by the Angel.” He grins.
Astrid shook her head with a laugh. “Those days are over brother. Right now I’m a walking bank account.”
“How much is it today?” he asks, letting her go and leaning on the safety rails, still facing me.
She smirks, “30 Billion.”
He whistles, “Wow, I guess I can’t blame them now.”
Astrid snorts, “I don’t even know where the house will get that money if anyone succeeds, I’m pretty sure there will be more deaths.”
“What do you mean?”
“The House of Duchovny may be deadly but it does have its high points for their assassins.” She explains, “Like for every kill 80% of the earning will be for the assassin the 20 is for the house. Money’s worth of work, some houses don’t even give half of the money to their assassins, sometimes they don’t even see their pay.”
“So you bought those cars and the house with that money?”
“Yup.” She says. “I think I’m good until three generations down.”
“You have got to be kidding…”
“Unlike the assassins, I lived with I had no social life, whatever I needed for an assignment it was provided by the house.”
“Well, I guess you can call those cars investments.” He thought.
“Yeah,” she grins, “Of course I can also call it gifts for you guys, but I don’t think you’d like it that much.”
“Are you kidding?!” his eyes widen, “I’ll be stupid if I don’t like it.”
She laughs and nods, “I know the feeling.”
He sighs and went back to watching the sunrise. “Man, it must have been rough Astrid, ten years…”
“Not really.” he gave her a questioned look.
“Cocky much?”
She lightly slaps him on the arm making him laugh.
Before they continued to watch the beauty that was unfolding before them in silence, Astrid glances at Ash who had the same smile he has whenever he was relaxed, the same smile that he had when he would hug her in the orphanage to say that everything will be alright.
“It wasn’t rough,” Astrid says, not looking at her brother. “Not if it was for you guys.”
He smiles and stood behind me, wrapping his arms around her.
“I’m so glad you are home now.” He whispers. “You don’t know how scared I was when they took you, I was so near, so near…” he tightens his hold as she rested my head on the crook of his neck. “I don’t think I can ever survive if I lose you, Astrid. The fact alone that you left without telling me was unbearable.” Then he pulled away, took my face in his hands, and made me face him. “Don’t ever go too far again, please?”
She gave a weak nod and leaned on his shoulder again, “Never again.”
“That’s good enough for me,” he whispers.
When everyone woke up, they made their way to the dining hall, a bit more relaxed and a bit excited to go back to the academy for some little peace.
“Good morning.” Father Johan greets, sitting at the head of the table.
“Good morning.”
Astrid sat across her mother not bothering to look up. She wasn’t one for apologies and she was not starting now.
“Did everyone had a good sleep?” she asks looking at me with a smile.
“Yes, thank you,” Tenshi answers with a tip of her head.
“Great!” mother says, “Anyway, your grandfather and I had booked a day at the beach on one of our resorts, we thought since we still haven’t formally celebrated Damien’s and the twins’ birthday, might as well do it now, don’t you think?”
“Go out?”’ Dimitri asks, “Sounds fun, is it safe?”
“I’ll worry about that young Duchovny.” Father Johan says picking up his cup, “So just relax for the day, I know you kids didn’t get any rest during your adventure.”
“Are you sure this is necessary Aunty?” Allana asks. “I mean, we’re quite fine here, we don’t want to raise any more security problems-“
“You should have thought of that before you went off to Russia, don’t you think?” Father Johan says with a smile behind his cup.
Astrid stared at her plate her hands closing into fists on her lap. To her surprise, Damien intertwined our fingers and giving my hand a light squeeze.
“I think it’s a great idea, Aunt Hannah.” He says.
“What time do we leave?” Jared asks.
“In a couple of hours, I guess.” She says glancing at Astrid again.
The maids then stepped out of the kitchen with everyone’s breakfasts.
“So eat up and get packing.” She says with a clap of a hand.
“When…” Astrid says in a whisper, everyone turns to her before she clears her throat and dared to look at Father Johan. “When will we be leaving for NSA?”
“Tomorrow morning.” He says setting down his cup, “Excited?”
“Not really.”
“Astrid?” she turns to her mother who was smiled at her, a genuine smile. “Everything will be fine. We’re expecting Derek to be home by tomorrow night if all goes well.”
“So soon?” she asked in surprise.
“You seem to not know what Uncle Ashton and Uncle Rhaumwald are capable of,” Collin says slicing up his food.
“They were just like you when you were younger.” Father Johan added, “I guess they met their match with you.”
Astrid gave a weak nod and stared at her food, “Dealing with the Ozawa isn’t child’s play. It isn’t even supposed to be played with.”
“Astrid…”
She stands and dropped her napkin on the table, “Excuse me.”
“Astrid.” My mother calls she stops but didn’t face them. “I know we were a bit harsh on you last night. I understand that you want to take care of this mess. You are taking responsibility for your action and I admire that, but love…” she pauses, “don’t you think you’ve done enough already? You’ve done it for nine years and-“
“I will not stop until everyone is safe.” She says with finality that no one could disagree. “I’ll be at the shooting range if anyone needs me.”
Astrid loads her twelfth round, looked up at the target, and cantered on it. She shot it ones on the forehead, one on the neck, one on the groin, one on each of the shoulders, one on the stomach, and finally one over the heart, all the while visualizing Father Charles.
She drops the gun on the table, feeling more frustrated than ever. Her mother was right, she wanted to be the one to finish this; it was her responsibility. But at the same time, it was her responsibility to be the good daughter, to be the loving sister. They deserved that much.
“Nice work.”
Damien walks up to her and nods toward the target that was reeling in.
“I was thinking of the bastard who started this.” She sneered.
“Poor bastard.” He says amused, she gave him a look which he responded by raising his hands in defeat. “Just saying.”
“What are you doing here anyway?” she asks annoyed. “If mother sent you to talk to me then forget it, Damien. The only time I will calm down is when Derek is home.”
“As much as I like to know when this PMSing would stop, that’s not why I’m here,” he says.
“Really? You’re here to tease me then?” I snap, “With this PMSing of mine, you want to tease me?”
“Well, you are my girlfriend.” He says walking up to her and pulls off the piece of paper showered with bullet holes. “I need to learn to deal with these hormonal attacks of yours.”
She glares at him lost for words while he just gave her an amused look. Finally understanding what he was doing, she chuckles shaking her head, and walked up to him.
“I can’t do this Damien.” She says dropping her head on his chest.
“Wow, you aren’t bionic after all?” He teased.
She gave him a playful punch on the stomach, “I’m serious, if I don’t see or hear from Derek any time soon I’ll seriously cause some chaos here.”
He sighs and made her look up, “Please, just a little more patience. Dad and Uncle Ashton did say that they’ll get him home, trust me, they will.”
“But-“
“We’re leaving for the beach in an hour,” he cuts me off. “Give this day to your mom, please? She’s excited to see you, despite all the trouble we started.”
She shrugged and gave a weak now.
“Thank you.” he smiles, he leans in to kiss her when some behind him clear his throat. They turned and saw Ash.
“I know, I know about this, but I’m a pretty sure mom doesn’t, not the official anyways.” He says leaning on the doorframe.
“If you’re asking if you want you to keep quiet then I offer to go to the beach without a fuss?” Astrid says.
“U- huh…” he smirks, “Damien blackmailed a kiss on you to make you agree?”
Astrid blushes and glares at her brother, “I’m armed you know…”
“Yeah, yeah, it won’t be a surprise if you ask me. Anyway…” he turned to leave, “mom says to start preparing for the beach.”
“We’ll be right there,” Damien says as we watch Ash leave.
“Not much to bargain” Astrid sighs, “He practically shouted that it’s so obvious.”
Damien grins and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, “Well, that’s one less person to worry about.”
“You were never worried about him.” Astrid gave him a look.
“Not true.” he steps away and stood on her spot earlier and raised the gun, “I was pretty much-expecting kicking and screaming, maybe a punch or two.”
He then starts shooting at the new target. Like Astrid he finished his magazine and reeled it in, every shot was on the bull’s eye.
“That’s what I would have done.” He mumbled.
“You would have shot Ash if he dated your little sister?” Astrid asks.
“Well, I guess if he’s as much as a man whore as he is now, I would have.” He grins. “But, yeah, I might not do that at all.”
Astrid rolls her eyes, “Boys.”
“Anyway.” Handing her gun back, “We better go, I don’t have the guts to tell your mom about us yet.”
She frowns, “Why not?”
“It isn’t the perfect time is it?” he says, “No use adding oil on the flame.”
“She won’t be mad, Damien.”
“She won’t but then again, there is your dad and grandpa’s wrath.” He sighs, “Quite frankly, I think that’s the only reason Ash didn’t harass me much.”
She chuckles, “I didn’t know that you have been thinking about these things this much.”
“Yeah, well…” he gave her another smirk, “you were gone a long time, I had a lot of time to think about it.”
“I can’t say I’m not surprised, ‘cause I seriously am,” Astrid says, tucking the guns in their cases. “I mean of all guys, you are the least I was expecting to doubt yourself against dad and grandpa.”
He rolls his eyes and pulls her back to him, “Love, I may be the best or the sweetest, maybe even the dorkiest guy that your dad wishes you’ll have, but trust me, I still am a guy.” He ran his hand around my waist, “A guy with a very very hot girl in my arms.”
“U-huh…” she grins, “Well they can’t blame you for anything if I give my consent right?”
He put on his thinking face, “Maybe…” he raises a brow, “Want to give it a try?”
She laughs then wraps her arms over his neck pulling him in for a kiss. He pulls her closer as he gently runs his hand lower, she smiles against his lips, then bit his lower lip. He pulls away and gave her a look.
“I just permitted a kiss, no touching.”
He laughs, “Well, it was worth a try.”
She shook her head and gave him a peck on the lips, “Good morning.”
He chuckles, “Good morning.”
“You two better get your butt here or else I’m telling!” Ash shouts from outside.
Damien shrugs, while Astrid threw her head back laughing.
“Coming!” She grabs Damien’s hand and pulled him along.
The girls were outside the beach house they rented for the day, lying on the sand and sunbathing. Astrid sighed, taking in all the peace around then. she looks around seeing the almost packed beach, kids playing in the sand, boys checking out girls and girls flirting with the boys… her boys.
Astrid shook her head, annoyed. The boys were tossing pigskin making friends with some of the boys on the beach and were now playing flag football.
Well, I can’t keep the girls away, it won’t be fair to the others. I guess Collin and Damien just need to be responsible.
Then I heard Tenshi sigh.
“What’s wrong?” she asks.
“I was just thinking.” She said. “If Derek would be all over those girls if he was here.”
Allana chuckles, not moving on her spot, “Believe me, there are chances that you wouldn’t be seeing him at all.”
Tenshi frowns and sighed again. Astrid grins, she knows that look. She made that look.
“Derek is responsible.” She says casually, secretly studying Tenshi’s reaction behind her sunglasses. “It may take a girl to reel him in, but I’m pretty sure if he’s serious about one girl he’ll be with Collin and Damien.”
She turns to Astrid, behind her sunglasses her eyes are shining with mischief.
“So you and Damien…”
I grinned and lied back down, closing my eyes, “I never said we weren’t.”
She chuckled and turned to her side, “Astrid?”
“Hm?”
“What does it feel like?” she asks.
“What feels like what?”
“Having someone to look after you, I mean someone who cares for you too, not like the kind of you know that he cares for you ‘cause he says so, the kind that he cares for you.”
Astrid looks back at the boys, her eyes setting on Damien who was laughing as he ran past one of the boys.
“Well, for me nothing seemed to be different.” She says. “I mean, Damien had always been like that even when we were younger.”
“Oh…”
Astrid then turns to Tenshi with the same mischief in her eyes, “The only different thing is he gets pretty possessive even with friends.”
She and Allana laugh.
“You’ll just know Tenshi,” Allana says finally shifting from her position and lying on her stomach. “It can be the best feeling at the same time, really irritating.”
“How so?”
“Well, like what Astrid said.” Allana explains, “They’re a bit protective even with friends. Damien had hit Derek a couple of times already for just thinking inappropriately.”
“Well, I can’t say that he doesn’t deserve that.” Tenshi sighed again, “I just wish the next time would be right.”
“If all ends well, we’ll know.”
She smiles and lied back on the sand. Astrid closed her eyes again, relaxing for the first time in days.
Then as if cursing the newfound peace, a dog barks from afar and seems to be getting nearer. The next second it was right on top of her.
Astrid pushed the dog away and sat up, glaring at the owner who came running after it.
“Alpha, stop!” I heard him shout pulling off the dog away from her.
They sat up and saw that a group of boys came with the dog. “I’m sorry, I don’t know what got into him.”
“It’s cool, just keep him in his leash,” Astrid says, she runs her hand by the dog’s neck and he sat down and relaxed beside her.
“Yeah, Uhm, that would be a good idea…” the boy fished for their names.
“Not interested,” Allana mutters under her breath and lied back down on her towel, Tenshi silently agreed and resumed sunbathing.
“You girls are wasting such a great day,” one boy says, eye raping each girl. Astrid rolls her eyes and lied back as well.
“No, we’re fine, thanks,” Tenshi says, bored.
“Well, we’re looking for someplace to chill, maybe we can chill with you at your place?” another boy says who was running his eyes up and down Allana’s body.
“Well, we don’t mind,” Astrid says like she couldn’t care less and looks up at them and took off her sunglasses, giving them my most seductive smile. “I can’t say the same for my brother and our friends though.”
They glanced behind them and saw the boys, one by one, were looking our way. Astrid checks out the boys in front of her, but not for the same reason they were checking them out, their bodies may be ripped, but she doubts they know how to use those muscles.
“Well, maybe they won’t mind if you introduce us as your friends?” another boy says.
“I think it will be better if you just go,” Astrid says, wrinkling the top of her nose.
“But-“
“Can I help you, boys, with something?” Dimitri asks standing by the stairs of the house, cleaning the gun he was carrying.
Astrid covers her mouth, hiding a laugh. Dimitri had a cigarette on his lips and cleaning a gun. Astrid forgot that he was inside the house, she would have thought twice of playing with these boys.
“Uhm, we, were just…” the boys start to back off, “we were just asking for direction.”
Dimitri nods and took the smoke from his mouth and sat down at the front steps, “Well, if you walk going that direction,” pointing where the boys just came from, “you’ll be going back to where you came from,” then he points his gun to the other side, “Continue walking you’ll be going to where you were originally headed, away from here. Am I right ladies?”
“Yup.” The girls said in unison, not even caring about what happens.
“And if you are a little bit adventurous,” he says, pointing the gun upwards, “there’s this trail over there. Or if you are just here to chill like all of us,” he points the gun toward the sea and exactly at the boys, “you can go for a swim, your choice.”
“Look, we didn’t want trouble-“
“I didn’t say you did,” Dimitri says.
“We just wanted to make friends.”
“That ain’t going to happen here,” Dimitri says.
“Any problem here?”
Astrid raised a brow as her mom stepped out of the house followed by about five guards in suits.
The boys move away, “I think we’d go ahead,” the boy says, “thank you for your help.”
“No problem,” Astrid says putting her sunglasses back on, smiling.
“You come around again if you need any more help, you hear?” Allana adds.
“Bye…” Tenshi says with a wave.
We watch them walk away, shaking their heads. Astrid giggles before giving the boys a deadpan look seeing them running toward them.
“A little late aren’t we?” Allana says.
“Well, it looked like Dimitri had everything in control,” Collin says.
“What was that about?” Damien asks.
“Just little lost boys, that’s all,” Dimitri says, throwing away the smoke, standing up, and going back inside the house.
“That was hot,” Allana says following Dimitri with a look.
Astrid stifles a laugh, “He’s good like that.”
“I heard that,” Dimitri shouts from inside.
“Just saying!” Astrid says and heard him chuckle.
“Well, could you please not put Dimitri in the position again.” Ash says walking toward Astrid and kissed her on top of her head, “I don’t want you girls ruining his vacation.”
“We didn’t.” Allana says, “For all, we know we made it more interesting. Didn’t we Dimitri?”
“Yes ma’am.” He says making his way out without the gun this time.
“Now, I don’t know if it was part of the act but, I don’t like smoking Dimitri.” Aunt Hannah says.
“Part of the act.” Dimitri smiles, “Don’t worry Aunt Hannah, I don’t like poison as much as the ones we killed with it.”
“Good.” She smiles and flips through her magazine.
“Someone’s newly whipped,” Kale says, amused.
“I’ll give you a week.” Jared says slapping him on the back, “You’d be as whipped as we all are.”
“No surprise there.” Tenshi and Allana said in unison, not moving from where they are.
They went home with just enough time for a late dinner, watching her family and friends laughing and teasing each other. Astrid smiles, satisfied, this was what she had in mind of a perfect night although her dad, Uncle Rhaumwald and Derek, weren’t there.
Ash and Damien continue to torment each other since we got home, Astrid watched them amused.
“So, how about it Damien?” Ash asks, glancing at me. “Are you up for it?”
She rolls her eyes continue eating while Ash dares Damien on some dating game at the academy.
“Why will I agree with you on anything?”
“Cause I’m one of your best friends.” Ash points out.
“There are limits to that, you know,” Damien says as he ate a piece of meat. “And I don’t think the ladies at the academy can bear another heartbreaker in there.”
“So you will be a heartbreaker?” Jared asks.
“If I don’t see that the girl is right, why stick with her?” Damien shrugs.
Astrid felt the end of her lip curl up and hides behind her glass of water.
“Why can’t you just leave the girls alone?” Allana whines. “I mean, seriously, as if you haven’t done enough damage since the girls discovered hormones and you learned how to make out.”
“Well, easy for you to say, Collin has pretty much all eyes on you, and being one of the hottest girls in school as his fiancée, well he has nothing to ask for,” Jared says.
“You said pretty much?” Allana asks raising a brow, “So there were times that you pretty much didn’t have eyes on me?” she turns to Collin who sat back.
“Not my words, I know it isn’t true,” he says.
“You better know,” Allana says making us laugh.
The fun-filled night was disturbed with a vibrate on Astrid’s pocket. She frowned and discreetly pulls out Mikael’s palm tap and hid it under the table. It was a private mail sent to Mikael’s account, she waited for it to open and the moment it did she frowned, it was a priority assignment and it was for Mikael.
Hera Ozawa, 17. America. House of Jetsons. 1 million dollars.
I stared at the photo for a moment, then at Tenshi. She was in a deep conversation with Kale and Jared.
“Angel…” she tries to remember the night she took her away from her father’s house, “Angel…” she was the girl with her mother, but then she frowns realizing something, the girl with her mother, had a mark on her neck. A tattoo of some sort, I never remembered seeing it on Tenshi.
“Astrid?”
I turned to Ash who was giving me a look.
“I’m sorry, I was…”
“Dozing off?” he teased.
She took a deep breath and cleared my mind. What was going on?
“Hey, you ok?” Damien asks.
She forces a smile and nodded, “Yeah, just… please excuse me, I need to go to the loo.”
“Are you sure you are ok, sweetheart?” mom asks, “You look pale.”
“I’m fine, mom.” She says, “I’ll be quick.”
When she reached the bathroom she continues to scan the assignment, checking the photo enlarging it for a better view, there is no doubt about it, it is Tenshi.
But why is she named Hera?
She scrolls down the page reaching a note at the end.
Call me.