“Here, let me wipe that off your legs. That was so stupid of me. Shall I get you a new drink?”
I looked up at her face but she was looking at Zack, her eyes warning me to be quiet. I also turned towards Zack, realising my mistake.
“Did I give you permission to speak?" he asked sceptically.
“No Sir, I'm sorry. But it just came out." I tried to defend myself.
"It just came out. That's your excuse?" his words dripping with sarcasm.
I lowered my eyes and head, hoping he would leave it at that. In vain of course.
“You just earned yourself another day of punishment regime, Eliza." he said shaking his head.
I caught Zaphire rolling her eyes at me.
“But Sir, I just...." I tried to explain, but he cut me off with a brusque, “two days”.
I threw my hands up in the air and opened my mouth, but he stepped forward and put a finger on my lips.
“Do not make me have to make that three days." he implored, his eyes boring into mine.
I relented, an involuntary shiver running through my body. He was uncompromising and there was nothing I could do but accept two more days on top of the one remaining.
“Now apologise formally to Sam and clean the rest of that mess up and make it quick. I'm getting bored.”
He sounded really pissed off, obviously forgetting to cloak and I hurried over to Sam and apologised again, before finishing off the table. When I was done with the floor as well, I walked up to Zack and waited by his side. He didn't even acknowledge me and just walked off, expecting me to follow him like a dog. I was getting fed up with this. Enduring it was much easier said than done, but that was exactly what I had to do. I knew I was being pushed to my limits, but I also knew I was learning a lot about myself and the ways I was able to cope with much more than I would have ever thought.
I hurried after Zack as he was walking at pace, clearly still in a mood. I was fully expecting a heap of tasks to do but he just told me to sit at the table and piled my school books in front of me.
“Time to do some studying. We've neglected them, so you need to catch up. I expect to see notes, spider diagrams or revision cards at the end of the study session.”
He retreated to the sofa with a book and left me to study. Whether I was in the mood for studying or not hadn't come into it and once again I found myself pondering what I'd let myself into. Yes, I may have been drugged up in my life before, but I had a lot more freedom to do what I wanted. My mum had never been that overbearing and let me decide most things for myself. However, I loved my newly rediscovered senses and the intense feelings that came with that, but it came with responsibilities I could not avoid. Still, I realised I wouldn't change it for the world.
CHAPTER 30
I was fucking annoyed, to put it mildly, that I had to add the two days as I really wanted to concentrate on preparing Eliza for the mission. I kept reminding myself that it was all part of the process.
After a tedious morning ordering Eliza around, my mood was lifted when Laura came in for a chat and an update from Markus. She was impressed with how Eliza was handling the tough treatment she was receiving and I admitted that apart from talking without permission she really was working incredibly hard to impress me. I could tell Laura was proud of me too, which meant a lot to me. She had clocked my soft spot for Eliza early on and she knew it was a struggle for me to keep up my hard exterior towards Eliza. I was handling it though and actually perversely quite enjoyed it, if only it wasn't 24/7! I doubted Eliza would think the same though, and it pained me to think she might hate me for putting her through this.
Laura informed me that Markus was confident we had eyes on Rick without arousing any suspicion. Yet. It had been difficult monitoring him without anyone around him noticing, so time was still an issue. We were working under pressure. Rick seemed to be working for a highly organised type of syndicate, which didn't bode well. We still hadn't discovered whether he was there by choice, or whether they held something over him which could be used to force him to cooperate. Markus thought Eliza would be instrumental in finding this out, so he asked me to think up a game plan using Eliza's strengths and trying to cover her weaknesses somehow. This is why Markus was such a good leader; he recognised that I'm in a far better position to advise him on Eliza's strengths and weaknesses than he is, and he would delegate accordingly. Though he would always double and triple check as he would never leave anything to chance.
I asked Laura to set up another meeting with Markus and me in a couple of days time and I was hoping he would allow me these few days. I really wanted to stretch it to at least a week, but I knew time was of the essence and I didn't want to be responsible for blowing our cover or losing eyes on Rick. It was a hard act to balance, with Eliza being so inexperienced.
In the back of my mind there were Eliza's exams as well, starting imminently. She wasn't going to be happy missing them and having to sit them after the mission, as it will prolong her time away from her mum and friends. However, I was quite happy to have her here a bit longer, and hopefully
