PECULIAR (✓)

9. Deserving

Trigger Warning: drug use, sexual assault and violence

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Cassius' POV:

The museum was hosting a gala for the opening of Dr Dumas's work. My company is the hired security for the event, and though my mind should be on the work at hand, I can't stop thinking about the awkward and absolutely beautiful girl...

Alettra is something else.

Ronnie doesn't help when it comes to trying and get her out of my head.

The idiot keeps taunting me, "So what do you think your pretty girl is going to be wearing?", he teases.

"She's not 'my' pretty girl Ron," but I can't help the smirk that comes to my face as I remember what colour she is wearing.

Ronnie replies, "That's not what you told me when you first met her. You called her the prettiest girl in the world, remember." Of course I remember, it was my first thought when I saw her deep brown eyes.

Sadly, even though I did want to spend more time with her, I just couldn't at the moment.

My younger brother has plagued my thoughts these days. He passed away a year ago, he got mixed into the wrong crowd and started relying on drugs to get him through the day, till one day he finally overdosed.

I'll never forget that day, his cold body laying outside of the steps of the house on that cold day. He died thinking I didn't care, because in the heat of the moment I said it.

But I didn't mean a word of it. But those will forever be my last words to him.

He was only 18... But I made a vow that day. He had this one drug dealer he would hound him, making sure he would stay in the game.

I have been hunting him for a while, but my brother Cyrus' death made me even more determined for his blood.

I had to leave Cyrus with our grandparents for 2 years while I was deployed in the Army. Life was difficult but coming back to a brother who hates you hurts more.

Coming back to a brother who used to be so full of life and joy, but was now reduced to an angry man, was scary.

I tried everything to get him off the drugs. Sometimes it worked, but in the end I failed.

I couldn't protect him; that will haunt me forever.

But now that my life has become consumed with hunting the low life who gave my brother the drugs that killed him, I have never been able to focus on anything else.

Until her...

She makes me feel less alone. She brings out an actual smile from me. An actual angel, whose warm but slightly sad eyes seem so out of place in this cruel world.

But I can't take my eye off the ball, revenge for my brother is my goal. I'm going to seedy clubs and corners looking for him... I'm not in a safe enough position to be with Alettra as well.

No one can have it all.

I wouldn't deserve someone like her, anyway.

The gala is in full swing, and everything is going smoothly. I'm directing my crew at their positions around the museum. But currently everything is going well, so I just need to make sure it stays that way.

But then I see her.

An absolute goddess. Liz has told me that the Greek gods didn't like the mortals comparing themselves or others to them, but to call this vision anything other than a blessing would be a crime.