Lethal Combination

CHAPTER 12

Alessio was enjoying the way Aizen reacted to his words because it wasn't an everyday thing that he could irritate him since the day their paths crossed with each other. He was about to say another thing that would ruffle Aizen's feathers even more, but Ainsdale immediately stopped him by putting her hand above his mouth without even second thoughts. He swore only this woman could do the things no women dared to do to him before and still end up living to see the sunrise the next day. If it was another woman, for sure, she would have cowered from his glare or apologized continuously for doing it in the first place for the fear that they might fall out of his grace. But Ainsdale is different. She can fearlessly do all those things to him and he is going to let her. Because it is her.

Ainsdale glared at Alessio, silently warning him not to say another word, because she somehow knew that he was going to say another nonsense to Aizen again before she looked back at her brother on the screen without removing her hand from his mouth. She never expected that once she got over the walls Alessio surrounded his heart, she'll be able to get to see this side of his – not the man who bathe himself with blood of his enemies but the man, the heir of the Arcanes, who is completely just within her reach. He had shown her his other side in a way that astonished even his family, because he had never once torn down his walls aside from that time when he had just turned twelve – walls, which he brought back up immediately at the sudden news about young Euphrosyne's death.

"You will not be doing that, Aizen," she told her brother in a reprimanding way like one would to a boy.

"But he f*****g – !"

"Aizen, he did not," she cut him off.

"What? But he just said so himself. Don't tell me I'm hearing things because my senses are still functioning just fine."

"We did not… f**k, as Scion so shamelessly has worded out." She frowned. "Was I gone from the country for so long that the vocabulary of the men residing here only ever consisted of that word? Or is it just you guys because you somehow have the same feathers?"

Luca turned into a corner and continued driving towards the hospital where Khalil was at. "Oh, do you prefer hearing copulating instead? Or maybe coitus? Coupling?"

"Shut up, Luca. I'm not talking to you," she chastised, at which Luca only ever chuckled because of how irritated she was.

Through the screen, Aizen leaned back and ran his fingers through his hair. "So what did you two do then?"

"We just fought."

Instead of easing Aizen's anger, what he heard from her flared up his anger even more because he, of all people, knew of his sister's circumstances. He damn well heard it himself when he accidentally eavesdropped in on Ainsdale and Lewis' conversation on the phone back when they were at the Amalfi Villa. That if his sister over exerts herself by executing her deadly skills, it will do more damage to her than the opposite of it. The drug in her system not only limits her from what she's capable of doing, but it slowly attacks a part of her nervous system that controls her motor skills. But he couldn't actually reprimand his sister because he was also at fault. Even though she is pretending to be Euphrosyne, it was him who put her in that situation.

"You... just fought?" Aizen asked ever so calmly. "Have you somehow forgotten what Lewis told you when you called him back when we were in the villa? Or is it that you completely ignored what he said because you had your focus straight on our goal. This is why I told you that we shouldn't have done this after all."

Ainsdale cursed in her mind as she winced when she realized her mistake. She shouldn't have informed her brother of what had happened between her and his friend. She had been forbidden to do strenuous activities and she knew for sure that fighting was one of them, but with everything that had happened the second she came face to face with these people, she was left with no other choice if she wanted to live another day. She had chosen to do this because she was looking for answers and she would see it until the end.

Alessio glanced at Ainsdale, who looked like she didn't have any plans to remove her hand from his mouth as she conversed with her brother on the line. She was so serious that she frowned every now and then, as she seemed to have completely forgotten that her hand was still above his lips. A random thought suddenly came into his mind. He smiled and that movement made her look back at him with question in her eyes. Before she could even think of what he was planning to do, the tip of his tongue already glided in the middle of her palm and she immediately pulled her hand back looking petrified.

He tried his hardest not to laugh at her reaction, but he failed miserably. He liked teasing her because emotions literally drew themselves out into her usually poker-face everytime he caught her offguard. This beautiful flower right in front of him is really so innocent behind her dangerous facade that he wanted to corrupt her right at that moment. For a moment, he paused at his own thought. Since when did he mark her as his?

Aizen scowled. "Can you two not flirt in front of me? I am still seething in anger and it frustrates the hell out of me that I wasn't there to reprimand you two," he interrupted.

"I feel you. Your sister and Alessio have been acting like lovebirds since this morning after they tried to kill each other last night and it makes me want to puke. The ones who witnessed them talking about their preference for love-making were rendered speechless and that includes the old patriarch of the family. I'm telling you, being their driver while they test the waters between them is agonizing."

Ainsdale wanted to smack Luca but she settled on glaring in his way though Luca was not aware of what she was doing because his attention was fully on the road. Why does he have to mention what happened last night to her brother who is already trying to control his anger?

"So you guys already knew?"

Luca nodded before he steered the wheel as they turned into another road. "Just Alessio and I."

"How long did it take for you to discover that she is a completely different woman?"

"For us to know that she isn't Euphrosyne but instead your sister? Almost three weeks. Though we have our doubts every now and then."

Aizen was silent for a while. He knew how much his sister was capable of pretending to be someone else. It was her job and she was trained to do it perfectly. So she must have been threatened by these guys so many times that she had to be who she really was in order to survive. He had considered all the cons of their plans to infiltrate the Arcana and he was aware that there were more of it than the pros. That was the reason why he didn't want to pursue their plans any longer when he heard about his sister's situation. But Ainsdale said she was going to do it. And look at where they are right now. Alessio and Luca had learned the truth and Ainsdale's situation had surely gotten worse than the previous days.

"Ice…" she called out to her brother using the endearment she calls him once in a while.

Aizen gave out a deep sigh and tried not to get his anger get in the way. "You are not supposed to do that. I can ignore the way you decided to infiltrate the famiglia but – "

"I'm fine."

"No, you are not."

She shrugged. Of course, she was not fine at all. She is fully aware that she is dying. "Well, at least, Scion is letting me do what I came here to do and Luca had no choice but to let me."

"Alessio – "

"Dannazione, demone incarnato! Fammi uscire di qui! (Damn you, you demon incarnate! Let me out of here!) Let me go! What did I ever do to you for you to treat me this way? I don't even know you! I will have Alessio know of everything you did to me!"

On the screen, they all saw Aizen glancing at his side. He looked rather bored than startled at the sudden scream. "Ah, she's awake," he said without care before he focused his attention back on them. "Since we are at the time where we are revealing secrets, Alessio, would you like to see your fiancée?"

That got Alessio's full attention. He completely closed his laptop and put it back on the vacant space between him and Ainsdale. "You have her? Since when?"

"I got hold of her a few days after you guys kidnapped Ainsdale in the underground parking area of my company building. I had trouble tracking her down because Carlos Brovino had a few people watching over her, as if they knew the Arcana was looking for her after what she did. I believe you already handled it on your side?"

"Yes, and now that we're on that topic, it was your sister who pointed him out. I guess you didn't send her my way without any knowledge of what's happening to the family."

"Please, it was her whom we are talking about. She'd know one's dirty little secrets and the ones concerned would not even be aware that she knew about them. So, who was it that was feeding all the information to the Brovinos with regards to the movements of the Arcana?"

"The mole turned out to be Dian. To think I even appointed him as one of the people responsible for the family's security and wealth. He had already anticipated what was going to happen to him once he'd been discovered working for Carlos instead of me. He knew how the family works. No traitors will be left alive in this family. They will only be able to leave the premises of the estate once they have taken their last breath as they shed the last drips of their blood because of me. I tortured him to death last night and had his body sent back to the Brovinos' estate."

"Right. No wonder they have been restless since this morning."

"Can she see us?"

"Who? The woman in the room? No. She can't even hear you, so feel free to curse her to death."

Alessio pursed his lips. Did he even want to know about the whereabouts of the woman who stabbed him in his back? Yes. But all for different reasons than he should have. Though unofficially, he is still his fiancée and now that he has it in mind, he had to have that agreement between the Simonettis and Arcanes be cancelled if he did not want to be held down any longer by that woman because of her decisions and doings.

"So... how is she?" Asked Luca.

"Since you guys had fun endangering my dear sister's life while she was within the premises of Terra di Sienna, I had my share of fun with this woman, too. I hope you don't mind me making her scream as I created graffiti of wounds and cuts in her skin here and there. At one time, I had to pull a few of her toe nails because she didn't want to participate with me. Oh, just to let you know, I'll be pulling some more if I have the time if she continues to keep her mouth shut with regards to the information I needed from her."

Aizen leaned forward and typed something on his laptop. It was only after that, that the screen on the dashboard displayed a live video of the room where Euphrosyne was at. From there they saw that her foot was tied to the foot of the bed with a metal chain. She looked disheveled, unlike any of the days when she was still on the estate acting like she owned the place. Even with a small movement, they can see in her face the pain she is suffering from. Cuts were visible in her arms, in her thighs, even in her cheeks – as if Aizen really had fun drawing something using a blaze as a pen and her skin as the canvass.

If they count the days that Ainsdale has been with their family, then Aizen has Euphrosyne at his mercy for that long. He said back then that he would make her bleed as if he despised that woman's existence, and looking at her now, he did so to his heart's content. They are quite surprised that she is still alive until now, so maybe Aizen hadn't incurred his wrath to that extent. Yet.

Her room was a disaster. Broken pieces of vases, glass displays, and textiles are cut into odd shapes as if they were ripped in fury, scattered around the room. Chairs and tables were turned upside down and the duvet was pulled away from the bed as if a storm had just passed through that place alone.

"What did you do to her?" Luca inquired, because looking at the screen, Euphrosyne looked like she had been to hell and back. Most of her cuts are already healing, but Aizen seemed to have guaranteed that as she heals, she bleeds a little more. "She looked like she's been to hell and back."

"I suddenly got curious last night. I wondered what she would feel like when she was forcefully submerged in water until a few seconds before her eyesight turned dark as she faded into unconsciousness with the reality that she wouldn't be able to fall unconscious because her suffering was stopped at that point, giving her the hope that she was still alive and fear that she might undergo such torture again. She struggled, she screamed and she cursed me to no end. I drowned her and then let go of her when she finally resigned herself to death. She cried herself to sleep but I couldn't find it in me to feel regret. I couldn't even feel sympathy for her. I enjoy seeing the woman suffer because, deep inside, I knew she deserved more than the suffering she is experiencing right now."

Ainsdale knew her brother to the bone. He could either be the head on a coin and then the tail next within the blink of an eye, depending on his mood or the person in front of him. He is both an angel and a devil. He can also be a creature which is something in between those two. For her, hearing him say those words was like hearing him talk about how great the day was. It's normal. But for Alessio and Luca, Aizen acting like a villain, especially towards a woman, is surprising because they knew him to be the one who only stood in the corner and just silently watched everything happen right before his very own eyes. They knew he would kill without any second thoughts as long as he was ordered to do so. But, they have never once met this side of him – a side where he talks about torturing someone to death as if it was something that occurred on the spur of the moment. They never thought he was this... unfeeling.

Euphrosyne's cries can now be heard through the speakers, but Aizen didn't even flinch at the sound of it.

"Let me out of here! Please, let me out!"

One second she was sitting there without a word and the next, Euphrosyne was crying her heart out as she begged the man who had her chained while she hugged her own self. One would surely go crazy if their captor was someone like Aizen. And if she remained under his watch for a few more days, she would certainly break, because that was Aizen's goal from the very beginning, which he had promised to see to the end the second his doubts had been confirmed.

"Are you going to keep her prisoner?"

"I still have something I wanted to know so she'll have to endure seeing my face until she gives me all the information I need. I don't care if my presence will give her nightmares in her sleep. I will get what I need from her no matter what it takes. I'll be sending you a detailed report with regards to her connection with the Brovinos and how she was associated with them. If I find something that is worth sending your way, I will do so after I've gathered evidence that will support it."

"Will you be staying there for a while then?"

"Who knows? My movement starting from now depends on the woman crying her heart out in the room. If she still doesn't speak, then I'm gonna have to make her bleed some more. Or if not, break some bones along the way. I'm sure she'll agonizingly survive it, but I assure you, she won't leave her unscathed."

"So..." Alessio interceded before silence settled between them.

Ainsdale had been wondering all this time why he hadn't asked about the obvious, but the time for it must have only come at that moment because she was certain that is what Alessio was going to ask her brother. Alessio subtly glanced in her direction before looking at her brother on the screen. Luca, too, who wanted to hear the answers, remained silent in his seat.

"Your sister being here wanting to learn whether she was Euphrosyne while pretending to be Euphrosyne must mean she is not of your blood. That she is not a Castiglione."

"Yes. But I don't see any problem with that. We may not be sharing the same blood, but she is still my sister nonetheless. And I would kill for her if it meant I'd be keeping her safe."

"Then... which one of them really is Euphrosyne?"

Aizen smiled knowingly. "You have been doubting and slowly putting all the puzzle pieces together. Keep doing that and believe in the result that is going to come from that. But I'm asking you and Luca to keep the truth about my sister from the rest of the family. And that includes everyone who knew of Euphrosyne's existence. As long as no one threatens my sister's life, she can pretend to be Euphrosyne just fine. Something dark brewed in the midst of the Simonetti's which led to the death of the old patriarch. If the ones who planned the death of Julio Simonetti learned that there were two Euphrosynes alive to this day and forward, they would certainly go after the life of the one whom they didn't raise."

"Your sister."

"Yes."

"Wait," Luca interceded as he frowned in his seat. "What the hell do you mean, two Euphrosynes? I thought she didn't have a twin."

"Oh, they may look a lot like each other, but they aren't twins. I will send you the details as soon as I'm finished with my business here. I'm leaving my sister in your care. Ciao! (Bye!)"

Silence settled between the three of them since no one tried to break it, as no one said a word after Aizen said goodbye. Luca's thoughts revolve around Euphrosyne's questionable existence, while Alessio is starting to be convinced that the girl he met when he was twelve was the same woman who's beside him right now. He couldn't actually completely recognize her after all the years that had passed after her disappearance following the car accident they met back then when they left Terra di Sienna to go back home. How could he when she was only but eight years old then and now she's twenty-four? The only thing he is sure of is her chameleon eyes, which are possessed by none other than Aizen's sister.

If the real Euphrosyne turned out to be Ainsdale, then who was the woman he got engaged with a few months ago due to his grandfather's interference in his life?

Ainsdale remained tightlipped as she focused her attention on the buildings they were passing by. She had already forgotten all the news she was reading a while ago on her phone, which put a damp in her already ruined mood because of her present situation, because her thoughts were occupied with what her brother had said. He might not have said it straightforwardly, but he might have as well confirmed that Alessio's fiancée isn't the Euphrosyne from his memories when he was young. And that left the question: was it her then?

Having no memories of her past, she herself couldn't confirm it. And her brother might find some clues, but what is it for her? What use would it have to be to her if she found out she was the real heiress of the Simonettis, the one who went missing following the death of Julio Simonetti? She may have started having flashbacks of memories since she was at Terra di Sienna, but until now, that's about it. It doesn't actually help her with clearing her forgotten past. In all honesty, those flashbacks only made her question life even more than she did when she was simply living her life as Ainsdale Fiumeluna Castiglione.

Until they reached the hospital, no one mentioned a word about what had been discussed with Aizen. There are a few instructions from Alessio to Luca and that's about it. While Luca drove straight to the underground parking area of the hospital after he dropped her and Alessio at the front, both of them went straight to the hospital's reception area. Ainsdale cautiously observed what was happening around her and by the way the staff had treated Alessio, they seemed to have known him there.

Some female nurses stared at Alessio with admiration and the others even openly glared in her direction as if she had taken all their chances with him. She almost laughed in her place as she stood beside the man who completely ignored their presence. They even had the nerve to look her up and down as if they were judging her by the way she looked.

"Ease down with the glaring ladies. It's not like it's completely my fault that Scion doesn't actually pay attention to people whose existence he considers insignificant," She thought as she smiled innocently at them.

"Keep looking at my fiancée like that and I will have your eyes gouged out," Alessio threatened, at which they gasped in surprise, not expecting he would actually threaten them directly.

They made a step back and awkwardly looked at every place but the two of them. Some of them showed fear but the rest acted like they were used to Alessio acting the way he did.

"Threaten them like that and they will lead you to the dumpster," a voice sounded from their side.

Upon looking in that direction, they saw a man wearing a white doctor's coat with a grin plastered on his lips.

"If they wanted to be dismissed from their position here in the hospital, I dare them to do so," Alessio said so seriously, on which the employees could only look down whether in shame or embarrassment.

The man just laughed at what he said before he focused his attention on her. "I bet you were the fiancée?"

"I'm not."

For a second, he was rendered speechless. He looked from her to Alessio and then back before a grin etched itself on his lips. "Aren't you supposed to lie a little better? Especially when you are facing an Arcane."

He's an Arcane then?

"I haven't had the time to visit the Terra di Sienna so we haven't met each other yet ever since you two got engaged a few months back. It's a little late but I'm Nile Arcane, Alessio's cousin."

Ainsdale held Nile's outreached hand and shook it a little before she smiled. "It's nice meeting you."

"So, what brings you two in here?" He asked as he looked them over. "Though I shouldn't ask, since I can see you two look like you needed medical help."

"We're looking for Dr. Petrakis."

"Khalil? I'll take you where he's at since I'm also heading there."

"You can just tell us where he is and we'll go there on our own. It's not like I don't know the offices of the hospital."

Nile laughed. "Please. Are you worried I might steal Euphrosyne from you?"

"It's not like you have a chance."

"Shameless."

"Like you are one to talk."

Ainsdale watched as Nile continued to tease his cousin who was glaring in his direction while they were on their way to see Khalil. They are acting like they were your ordinary rich people, but she is certain even Nile has killed and spilled blood with his own hands. The way he looks in her way subtly wouldn't be noticed by an ordinary individual and the way he lowered his voice to merely a whisper as if he wanted her to be out of their conversation at a certain time isn't something a person who had no experience of doing such could do so without a hitch.

When they entered a well designed office, they saw Dr. Petrakis behind a glass office table whose focus is entirely on the document in his hand.

"Khal, you have guests."

"So you decided to come instead of calling me back at the manor?" Khalil asked as he stood and assisted them on the couch where he immediately checked on Ainsdale.

Nile, who saw the present state of Ainsdale's shoulder for the first time, couldn't help himself but take a look closer at the darkened veins that glared at everyone looking at them as if the blood vessels had died. Khalil asked a few questions which she answered truthfully and he even drew some of her blood because he needed to run some test on it to see how far the drug had progressed.

"So this is the effect of flagrare?"

"You knew about it?" Ainsdale asked Nile, who nodded in response.

"I may be a doctor, but I'm still an Arcane who is involved in the Arcana's activities underground. So this is what you get after involving yourself with the Brovinos, eh?"

She scowled. "Don't remind me about it."

Nile chuckled. "I wonder why you aren't dead yet?"

"It's not like Alessio and I haven't tried killing each other."

"Ah, last night. I wish I had seen you both scuffle on the floor while painting the white marble red. That would have been a spectacle. But the room where Alessio had put you in doesn't have a monitoring system installed, so I couldn't even review it. The only thing I saw was the picture Luca took."

"Get rid of it."

"No."

"I will – "

"Have you ever been checked before? Or have you ever undergone any medical treatment after you were injected with the drug?" Khalil asked as he took note of everything.

"I had my blood checked a few days after I had flagrare in my system. I was only told to not over exert myself because the drug directly attacked a part of my brain that controls my motor skills."

"Yet you have been doing what you were told not to do."

"My life was threatened. What else can I do?" She retorted, which rendered the three men with her in the room silent. "I was only told to take pain medication when I could no longer shoulder the pain or fever meds if the need arises. But there is no medication prescribed to actually counter the drug because it is something which has not been made public and was made to have a single antidote. I can send you the results if you'd like?"

"Sure. That will be of great help to me."

After taking notes, Khalil looked at Alessio, who remained silent while he was checking on his fiancée.

"I'm telling you this. I am aware, just as much as the rest of the family, that you started to care for her. If you don't want her to die, prevent her from doing what she has been doing. Tone down your love making."

Both of them just chuckled at that.

"Should I pamper her then? But she isn't the type to just sit still and look pretty. Aren't you, alstroemeria?"

Nile stared at his cousin. He knew how much he despised and hated the existence of his fiancée whom their grandfather had arranged for him because of her recent involvement with the Brovinos. But was it only recently that she was involved with that family? Alessio may have been treating her differently right now, but he is certain that he is still having her investigated. His cousin is that kind of person after all.

Alstroemeria. Another word for the flower which is normally called the Peruvian lily. So it was real that he was calling her flower names again like he used to when he was twelve? Maybe he really did turn a complete three-sixty. It wasn't that long ago when Alessio expressed that he would kill her, but for her to be still alive in the presence of the head of Arcana is something no one had ever been able to aside from her because everyone who betrayed him ended up dead in one way or another.