Chapter 6: The Enemy’s Property

Eight hours. It has been eight hours since I burdened Yui with the task of finding William, and we still have nothing.

Not a clue of where this man lived. I lay sprawled on the sofa in my office, my arm draped over my eyes.

On the coffee table before me, three empty blood bags lay crumpled up. By this time of night, I should have been at some exclusive underground lounge, feeding off anyone willing enough to give.

Instead, I was here, rotting in my own mess.

The soft click of the door lock as Yui walked in was enough to tell all I needed to know. She had nothing new.

She sat on the love seat opposite me, her presence a familiar, grounding weight that I currently wanted to scream at.

The silence between us was heavy, vibrating with the ticking of the clock in my head.

"Maybe you should just sign it," Yui whispered. Her voice was cautious.

I stayed perfectly still, not even breathing for ten seconds. The only sound in the room came from her. "Astrid?" she prompted.

"How about I just kill them?" I asked, my voice muffled by my sleeve. "I go to the A.S.A. headquarters tonight. And tear the throat out of every agent in the building."

"Be reasonable," Yui sighed, "You kill one agent, and you prove every fear the government has about your kind. It won't just be a scandal, Astrid. It’ll be a full out war. Everything you’ve built, gone in twenty-four hours."

Everything I had built was not going to entirely be mine if I signed that document. I sat up abruptly, and glared at her, my eyes burning. "So that's your brilliant advice? I should just roll over? I should hand my life over to a werewolf who thinks he can own me?"

"Yes," Yui said, her gaze steady and unflinching. "For the time being."

I stared at her, incredulous. "You’ve lost your mind."

"Think about it," Yui leaned forward, her hands clasped tight. "If you sign, the blackmail stops. The A.S.A. leaves you alone because William clears your name. And more importantly, the contract requires you to live together. To be in the same house. To share a life."

She paused, and I caught a dark glint in her eyes. "It is a lot easier to kill a man when you’re sleeping in the room next to him, Astrid. You can’t find him now because he’s hiding. Marriage brings him into your space. You just play the part, find his weakness, and then you end him."

I laughed at her words, "That is the most terrible plan you have ever had in your entire life, Yui. It’s pathetic and desperate."

"It’s the only card left on the table," Yui muttered, "Sign the paper, Astrid or get ready to run for the rest of your life."

"No," I said, my voice echoing in the silent office. I sat up straighter, my nails digging into the sofa. "I am not doing it."

I refuse to lose to him, not after the way he spoke down to me. He was underneath me and I would show him just who he messed with.

Yui stood up, walked across the room to my desk, and picked up the heavy folder. She grabbed a fountain pen from the stand and marched back to me. 

She pushed the empty, crumpled blood bags off the coffee table with one hand, sending them tumbling to the floor. Then Yui slammed the contract down in the cleared space and shoved the pen into my hand, forcing my fingers to curl around it.

"I am not going to sit here and watch your pride be your downfall," she muttered, her voice trembling with anger. "You have lost the battle, Astrid. He caught you and outplayed you. Accept it, and plan your next move."

"He doesn't want a partner, Yui. He wants an asset," I hissed, looking down at the pen. "He needs my money and my name to wash the filth off his pack. Who’s to say he won't just put a silver bullet in my head the second the merger is finalized? I’d be worth more to him dead and inherited than alive."

But Yui just shook her head. "He needs you," Yui countered, leaning over me, her hands flat on the table. "He needs your influence. You can't influence anything if you're dead. He’s a manipulator, Astrid. He needs his puppet to stay intact to pull the strings."

"I am nobody's puppet." I dropped the pen and watched it roll across the table, stopping just short of the edge. "I’m not signing it."

Silence fell over the room, heavy and suffocating. Yui stared at me for a long beat. Her eyes weren't angry anymore; they were cold.

"Fine," she said quietly. "Then I’ll start packing my things. I’ll make sure to leave before the A.S.A. arrives tomorrow." 

She headed toward the door but stopped just before she opened it and looked over her shoulder. "Is this what you want? Are you so desperate to be studied and dissected on a metal table by the A.S.A.? Because that is exactly what is going to happen. You’ll be nothing more than a science project."

The door clicked shut behind her and I was finally alone. The silence in the office felt like it was crushing against me. I stared down at the white pages of the contract, the text blurring and for the first time since my father died, I felt the walls closing in on me.

I felt trapped, small and vulnerable, like the girl who used to hide in the library while her mother screamed in the next room.

I hated William Winchester. I hated the way he smelled, the way he moved, and the way he had dismantled my life in a single night.

My teeth sunk into my lower lip, drawing my own blood. I reached out, my fingers trembling slightly as I snatched the pen off the table. I didn't read the clauses again. 

I simply flipped to the final page and scrawled my signature across the line. 

It was done. I had just traded my soul for my empire. I slumped back against the sofa, the pen falling from my hand as I stared at my name on the paper.

I was officially the enemy’s property.