Cardinal Vices Series: The Coming of Pride

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

“I…” he starts, before I cut him off.

“You were supposed to stake out the customers for anyone that may cause problems and you fail to realize that one of them is a cop?!” I scream, ready to bash his head in with my foot, “Do you even realize what you did?!”

“What do we do?!” he asks frantically, shying away from my raised leather boot.  Lowering my foot, I grab Vespas by his shirt and pull him up, dragging him out the door with me. 

“So help me, if they get caught, I will kill you,” I threaten, before materializing us to where the two are bringing their latest riches into their woodsy cabin hideout.

“Can’t we stop the police?” Vespas suggests, trying to keep up with me as I head closer to the cabin.

“How exactly would we do that?” I question, glaring at him.  He opens his mouth to say something, but silently lowers his head as if anticipating how idiotic whatever he was going to say was going to be. 

Off to the distance, sirens are getting louder and louder as the police get closer to the secluded hideout.  Luckily the couple hears them as they bolt from their celebratory dinners and try to gather up the piles of money by hand.

“Just run!” Vespas screams frantically at them, “Leave the money and run!”

“That won’t help anything,” I say calmly as I stare blankly at the scene unfolding, an unforgiving smile forming on my face.  He doesn’t seem to hear me as he’s screaming at them to forget the money and get out of there.  “They have been trained into the art of greed for their entire lives; they aren’t leaving without their prize.”

I close my eyes as the duo finally makes it through a back window, walking into their inevitable capture as the police have already surrounded the property during their frantic attempts to gather their things. 

“Please make it away!” Vespas whimpers pathetically, watching from the window before one of the officers grabs Jessica and cuffs her.  Shortly after, Anders is also arrested. 

When the scene dies down, I open my eyes to see Vespas with his eyes closed, leaning his forehead against the chilled window, causing it to steam up around him.  I reach to by belt and carefully unclip my instrument from its bands, gripping the golden handle tightly as the emotion channels out of my body and into the small knife.  I walk over to Vespas; his face twists up with each step I take as if it’s causing him physical pain at knowing what’s coming.  Once I’m standing next to him, he opens his disgusting black eyes and gives me one last apologetic glance before I slit his throat.  He falls to the ground in a black-blooded mess before igniting into a thin layer of ash across the carpeted floor.  Without giving the demon a second thought, I materialize myself to Mammon’s throne room where he waits expectantly.  I stand before him with my head down.  The frustration builds when he says nothing.

“Look at me,” he demands after a while.  I silently tilt my head up, tightly balling up my fists upon seeing his expression.  “I had big plans for those humans,” he reminds me, hopping down the couple of steps to where he’s standing in front of me, “and now they will be sitting behind bars, awaiting a trial that will inevitably sentence them to years in prison.”

“Act like I don’t know that!” I snarkily reply, “You know, this would have never happened if you hadn’t paired me up with Vespas!  How many mistakes does he have to make before you realize that he obviously can’t handle the jobs you give him?!  Why do you always bring him back to do your assignments when he might fit better with another vice?”