A perfume

"He Wears The Smell Of Blood And Death Like- A Perfume."

———

  Villainy was nothing new to Asher. It coursed through his veins. He had portrayed a villain more times than he had actually attended class. So, though he tasted like heaven, god knew he was built for committing sin.

  Tonight for him, seemed like just another one of those where he'd play a villain.

  "Why are you here?" Angelique tipped her chin up to lock her gaze with Asher's. In the faint lights, he looked tantalizing. Ethereal, even. His tan skin was glowing in the muted light, inky hair, a bit tousled, conceivably because he had been raking his fingers through them.

  Jerk. He really is wasting that sexy face of his, she mused, licking her red lips to moisturise them, tasting the cherry flavoured lipstick before flicking her cigarette down and stubbing it with the sole of her Alexander McQueen stiletto.

  "Looks like this country is independent and we can go anywhere we want to." She pursed her crimson lips, compressing a sneer whilst rolling her eyes for the millionth time that night.

  "Are you ever not a bitch?"

  "I am always a bitch to assholes." Angelique tossed a few unruly chocolaty strands off her shoulders, shivering slightly when a zephyr as arctic as his stormy eyes blow past her, dusting a light blush on her cheeks.

  "Wow... this is so entertaining. Never thought I'd see someone talking like that to Ash." Edward laughed, stumbling on his feet with his head tossed back in arrant leisure.

  Ash.

  She couldn't succour wondering how perfect he was. His perfect muscled body, his perfect face, perfect accent, perfect voice, perfect name...

  Asher pinched the bridge of his nose, closing his eyelids as he tried to impede his ire "You both need to get going."

  But that imperfect attitude... I swear, Angelique clicked her tongue to the roof of her mouth, a slow, menacing smirk making way to her full lips as she latched her gaze on him "And you need to get your head out of your ass."

  His jaw clenched and he unfurled his eyes to glare at her.

  Uh-oh. There goes my peace.

  His fingers grasped her forearms, a bruising grip as he wrenched Angelique closer causing her to crash against his iron hard body, one hand tangled itself into her hair, pulling lightly at the roots as he tilted her head to a side and leaned forward.

  His lips were a hair's breath away from the shell of her ear, breath warm, a stark contrast to how chilled his words were "You wouldn't want to mess with me, Arcane."

  Angelique's heartbeat spiked but she didn't manifest it, rather veiling it under a confident facade as she fisted the slender fingers of her bandaged hand on his shirt, crumpling it "Maybe you wouldn't want to mess with me, Roosevelt."

  He inclined back, just enough to latch his gaze on the challenger, after all, Asher Roosevelt loved challenges. They entertained him, kept him from getting bored.

  Angelique was lost in his eyes. They were beguiling. Enchanting. His gray eyes had much more darkness than any brown ones she had ever encountered. It felt she was falling, falling and falling into a deep abyss, vast emptiness and profound tenebrosity. They glinted with a promise of trouble and violence and wickedness, all at once.

  Ruffling of leaves, snapped them out of their silken reverie and they pulled away, twisting towards it deluding Edward, who had had one too many drinks and wasn't in state to really sense his surroundings.

  "Go." He repeated huskily, scrutinizing the backyard with his fists curled beside him, his voice glossing chills down her spine, causing her to curb her comment.

  "You guys need to learn how to love each other because world war three is absolutely not an option." Edward guffawed, before abruptly shoving her on Asher. Anyone from a mile away could concur he was drunk.

  Angelique felt little tingles on her other shoulder which she neglected, turning her scowl imprinted face towards Edward, only to detect him frozen.... his pale skin looking even paler and his blue eyes affixed beyond herself. Her scowl eased twisting into a confused frown as she traced his gaze to a heavily built man standing right behind her with a knife dripping blood in a hand, captured by Asher.

  "Ohmygod." Reluctantly, her widened eyes locked on her arm in sheer horror and a gasp escaped her lips. Angelique's palm hovered over the place that was stabbed as she pondered on the idea of applying pressure to stop the blood flow. She curled her fist, opting on not skimming her touch over the deep slit.

  Asher lowered right into the man's eyes, every muscle in his face tensed, tightened to make his features even more pronounced. His hair were completely pushed out of his face making the already sharp planes of his face too prominent. He seemed... cruel.

  A villain.

  There was something about the way his jaw clenched or the way his fingers curved into fists or maybe those stormy gray eyes which had fury swirling in them, making them more golden than silver.

  Shirking her slit, she paid attention to the other man's inquietude. She sucked her lower lip in her mouth, glancing both ways to make sure no one was snooping around before pinning them with her fiery eyes once more.

  Who could criticize the man for being horrified? If Asher was looking at her like that... she would be scared, to say the least. And Angelique Arcane wasn't the kind of person to get intimidated easily.

  He yanked the knife from the man, hurling it away to grasp him out of his daze. As if coming to his senses, he shook his head, tightly closing his eyes before opening them again to lock his gaze on Asher. Angelique gnawed on her bottom lips, glancing down to find blood on the ground as well.

  Bull.

  She honestly didn't know what to do. Maybe if she wasn't bleeding so heavily at the moment, she would have felt a little less helpless.

  "I-I-I'm so sorry, Angelique. I didn't mean to do t-that." Edward stuttered, gulping a lump in his throat as his eyes widened in consternation and penitence.

  She frowned, lips tightly pressed so as to not act on impulse and riposte. He manifestly meant no harm. So she swept her gaze to Asher who was incessantly punching the guy on the floor. She could see the man's face in drenched in blood making her too stunned to do anything.

  What could she do anyway? She already had a feeling he wouldn't cease his solid punches just because Angelique said so.

  Angelique flinched at the reverberations of crevicing bones, pondering on if they were from Asher's knuckles or the man's ribs. For the first time, she abhorred a sound more than she detested the obnoxiously blaring silence.

  She quickly turned her head away, brown hair shuffling to cake themselves in her blood. Angelique scowled, trying to manage herself while paying significant attention as to not let her eyes witness or envision the pain that those ruthless punches caused. The guy had already stopped moving by then.

  She discerned what he was doing. She could see it. Fumes of stygian, wrapped around his fists, his eyes had turned the darkest shade, inking menace. His punches made it patent.

  He was aiming to kill.

  Which looked like it was succeeding by the way the man's arms laid limp beside him on the ground. Asher knew precisely what he was doing, appearing to be quite professional, like it was wonted. His punches were inexorable. He was brutal.

  With a last strong punch glancing right on the throat, when there was thunderous cracking, Asher halted. Angelique was tempted to cover her ears as he probed his breath then stood up. Her eyes vaguely widened at his ataraxy and practiced perfection.

  He turned swiftly, the movement causing a piece of charcoal hair to fell beyond his forehead, brushing his eyebrow. He raked another hand through his obsidian hair causing her attention to flicker towards his knuckles which were bleeding and she bit the inside of her cheek, her heart slamming wildly against her ribs, attempting to break through.

  Asher's eyes regained their previous hue as his gaze dropped to Angelique's arm and his lips parted softly, an emotion flashing through his stormy gray eyes, like grains of sand percolating through the finest of cracks in a fist. But, it was gone too soon. He had covered it with a stoic expression.

  Angelique slightly narrowed her eyes, questioning if it was just a figment of her imagination or did his imperturbable tranquillity broke for a split second. Was he really capable of feeling?

  He clenched and unclenched his hands before pulling his iPhone and pressing it to his ear.

  "Evelyn, the backside now." He brought his phone down, eyes never straying from Angelique's as rang another person "Jace, get Lauren at the backside. Now."

  He hung up, not pausing for a response.

  Angelique felt her mind go hazy. White dots pirouetting in her vision, erasing Asher from her line of sight as she sprauchled once, athwart, before wrapping her fingers tightly around Edward's bicep to keep herself from tripping. Her eyebrows furrowed in concentrate only on her balance as Asher walked over to them. Too much blood had drained from the laceration that ran all the way from her shoulder, down to her elbow.

  Asher's arm reached her waist to pull her from Edward who seemed too confused at the point. Angelique pressed her palms on his shoulders, a light sneer spread on her lips as she glanced up at him. The accusation in her eyes was clear - he let his guard down.

  He exhaled, already dreading their next altercation as he brushed a few stray tendrils of her dark hair off her face and let his hand trace the length of her arm to finally clasp around her lissom wrist, the hand which was draped with a white gauze bandage. His finger made thoughtless circles on her wrist as he locked his gaze behind her, on Edward.

  The kid really was bewildered, also a bit shaken. His forehead creased as he focused at the ground, trying not to stumble. His eyes brimming with remorse.

  Asher held both of her wrists and guided her palms under his jacket, so they were perched on his t-shirt clad shoulders. He shrugged off his Balenciaga jacket and carefully draped it around her shoulders before meeting her curious gaze once more.

  "You were cold."

  Her eyebrows rose in sheer surprise, making him roll his eyes.

  "What happened, Ash?" Evelyn's voice echoed as all three strode over to them mild perturbation adulterated with trepidation.

  Lauren's gasp resonated through the wintry air as she placed a manicured hand on her mouth, brown eyes widening in fright making Jace's attention divert solely towards her.

  "Evelyn, you control water. I'm affirmative you'd be able to stop her blood flow." Asher started, shunning Lauren's consternation.

  Evelyn's eyes phosphoresced a luminous azure and the blood stopped trickling down Angelique's bloodied arm.

  "Oh damn! Is she stabbed?!" Jace's tore his eyes from Lauren to finally face her, his countenance mirroring his girlfriend's as he bit on his fist to stop himself from yawping.

  "Yeah, no. Blood just normally pours out of my arm."

  Asher had to give it to her. Angelique Arcane could be sarcastic even when she was on the verge of fainting.

  "Lauren, Edward is drunk. Take him in and tell all of them that party's over."

  "B-but-"

  "Lauren. Just. Trust. Me. Okay?" Asher placed a supportive hand on her shoulder and shot her a firm glance.

  Lauren broke eye contact with her cousin's upper arm, gulping before sending him a quick nod and seizing Edward in. Asher picked her up, bridal style causing her to slant her head against the width of his shoulder.

  He smells really nice...

  Her eyelids drooped, vision disappearing, lips turned down to represent a beautiful frown as she sensed his strides with Jace and Evelyn hot on his trail "Jace, take her to some hospital in the mutant world. She's lost much blood."

  Evelyn unsecured the car door, assisting Asher to lay her down benignly.

  "Shouldn't her eyes be open?" Evelyn queried as she shot him an agitated look, tears blurring her view as she tried to concentrate her lustrous eyes on Angelique's slit.

  Asher shook his head dismissively, "It's just the arm."

  "Where are you going?" Jace's questioned, eyebrows drawn together as he locked his gaze with Asher's.

  "Work." Is all Angelique heard before darkness finally engulfed her.

———

  Angelique's eyelashes battled as she pulled them apart to gaze straight at the white ceiling. Her dark brown hair would've struck anyone as spilt chocolate on the unpigmented cotton sheets of the hospital bed. It took her some while to cognize that she wasn't in her room, her fiery eyes searing across the room, soaking in her vicinity. Her right hand felt stiff as steel, making her glance down at it to perceive blue hued stitches and of course her crown bracelet. She frowned.

  Angelique's mild perplexity ebbed away as ponderously, every memory from last night intruded her brain. She was there because of him.

  Second thing for which I'll need to take a revenge.

  She sucked her bottom lip in her mouth while gulping a lump in her throat.

  Why is it so silent in here?

  She scowled at her arm which appeared ghastly, wondering who in the right mind would use blue stitches. The doctor demonstrably had some crucial brain problems. He should've been the one reclining on a hospital bed.

  Why is it so silent?

  She struggled to sit up, surmising about The Victoria's secret show, she feasibly couldn't get casted in.

  Why is it so silen-

  Her disconcertment was obliterated as Evelyn stumbled in, pretty cerulean eyes widening and thin blonde eyebrows elevated.

  "Angel's up." She apprised someone and in response, people emerged through the open door. Jace, Edward, Lauren, Blevery, Blevine and Evelyn.

  Blevine scampered towards her, to embrace her hermetically as big tears crashed down her baby cheeks.

  "It's okay." Angelique cooed, soothing the little girl's back as the petrified kid unceasingly sniveled.

  A man barged in causing Blevine to pull away yet stay on her sister's lap as the doctor examined Angelique whilst she rubbed her tears away. The doctor closed the file, sending her a benevolent smile before making his way outside.

  "Isn't my file supposed to be left with me?" Angelique upraised an eyebrow on the file clasped in his hand as she blew a few strands of her tangled hair off her face in vexation.

  "The ruler of our mutant world has asked for it."

  "Why w-"

  "Let it be, Angel," Lauren parted her lip for a sigh, shoulders crumpled in debilitation "Don't make a big deal about it now."

  So she simply shrugged before gazing at Blevery who stood reticently by Edward. His hand casually hung across her shoulder as she stared down.

  "Blevery?" She shot her a warm smile which the kid didn't reciprocate "Come here." Angelique beckoned her closer with her manicured hand while simultaneously gesturing Jace to assist her on the bed beside her.

  Clipping her chin, she tipped her head up and pressed a sweet kiss on Blevery's forehead "Chin up, kid. They'd kill to see you fall."

  "W-what happened to you?" Blevery pouted, fresh tears brimming her eyes as she hiccuped.

  "Nothing, sweetie." Angelique tucked her short brown hair behind her ear before turning to latch her eyes on Edward's "Would you mind?"

  "Not at all." Edward guided the kids to the door, histrionically gasping when the opened itself for someone to stroll in.

  Angelique rolled her eyes, suppressing a chuckle at Edward's melodrama as Eric entered the room, filling it with his puissant presence.

  "Good morning." Her lips curled into a grin. While her aunt tried to slide her a subtle midget smile, her uncle stayed uncannily passive. They stood by the periphery of the bed as Edward led the twins out, perceiving that his humor wasn't appreciated at the moment.

  "Dad, at least not right now?" Lauren furiously rubbed her face in chagrin, her eyebrows furrowed.

  "Angelique. A word. Alone."

  Lauren exhaled, slipping off the chair beside Angelique's bed and sent her a imperceptible smile before evacuating the room with everyone else.