"It’s a miracle you made it out alive.” Marr wrapped the last roll of linen around an unconscious Raen’s broken wrist.
“And you managed to pull through, despite it all?” asked Juke, hardly masking his disbelief.
“Barely pulled through.” Azrael sat down on a chair beside the bed, clutching his head in his hands. “Maybe I should’ve ended that reptilian scum when I had the chance.”
“Azrael.” Juke knelt down, placing a hand on the redhead’s leg. “We’re assassins. Ultimately, we kill people for a living. While we could use it as a means to exact vengeance, it isn’t our primary creed.”
“We’re assassins,” interjected Marr. “We can run rampant, if we have a powerful patron’s backing or the miasma to dominate. Minus those elements and we’ll be disposed of. Besides, how would you feel if someone else had killed your tormentor?”
“Did you seriously tell her everything?” asked Azrael. He was glad he didn’t tell Juke about Requiem, but it was a mess slinging along elements of his past to a consistent narrative reflective of his current state.
“Try keeping things from your partner in a relationship. It’s kind of a two in one deal.” Juke pouted indignantly, shooting Marr a side-eyed glance.
“Wait, wasn’t that meant to be a secret?” The redhead scratched his pate, splitting his gaze between the couple.
“Oh, right we didn’t tell you yet, did we? Though we have been a couple for a while now. Wasn’t it obvious?” Marr walked up to Juke, grabbing him by the head. “And you’re way too deep in the relationship to be shooting me one of those looks.”
“Owww.” Juke groaned, shoving Marr’s hand away.
“That damned liar!” Azrael slammed his fist against his thigh, accidently pounding Juke’s hand.
“Double oww,” he said, gripping his smarting hand. “What was that for?”
“My, my, quite the mess we have here.” Lilith walked into the cordoned off hospital ward, raising an eyebrow. “Good thing I sent Nakta off before you got here.” She shifted her gaze to the redhead, narrowing her eyes. “Another mission you went on?”
“Huh-huh.”
“What was Raen thinking?” Lilith rubbed her temples, creasing her brow.
“From what we heard, she wouldn’t have made it back here without him,” said Juke.
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“Who the hell does she think she is, dragging Azrael along on her mission!? Clearly it was beyond her capabilities, and she drags a novice along. The tsar’s forces got there just as–”
The redhead’s jaw slackened, his ears ringing. He opened and closed his mouth wordlessly, rubbing his chin. Wasn’t Lilith the one that put Raen on this mission?
“What’s gotten you smouldering in silence?” asked Marr.
“What about my actual second mission? Isn’t that in a week’s time?” asked Azrael, shifting his line of thought.
“About that,” started Lilith. “We might have to speed it up a notch.”
Is this what it takes to evade a grey existence?
Azrael eyed droplets of rain cascade down the window, paralleling the sorrows of heaven. Absentmindedly, he reached to scratch an itch along the left of his chest, acting on the urge to ground himself amidst the whirlwind of his mind.
So much had come to pass. Not in the span of the year he was here, but rather, within the blink of a week. It wasn’t that he hadn’t had a fruitful passing of time. But everything left like it was out of his control. Like his will mattered little. Like he was forced to exist rather than live. Nothing more than a cog in the wheel. Perhaps with less freedom than the walking corpses he had laboured with. A different lifetime.
Exhaling a sigh, his gaze was fixed on the world outside. The rushing droplets, nothing more than watery curls of steel, barring his path.
“Lilith showed you no mercy,” said Marr, shattering his reverie. She stole a glance at him from the rear-view mirror, reflecting a glint of sympathy.
“I doubt she’s been as hard on a newcomer,” said Juke nonchalantly, munching on a chocolate square. “And Raen’s got some explaining to do, once she wakes up.” He held out the pack of chocolate squares towards the two of them.
Marr accepted the offering, but Azrael remained motionless, his thoughts wading through the murkiness.
Slamming on the brakes, the journey came to an abrupt halt, bringing the trio back to the present. Out the window, he saw a skyscraper piercing the ominous clouds surrounded by a perimeter of foliage. The gates leading to the towering structure was strewn about in a wreck. As the trio stepped out the car, the weight of their mission loomed over them.
“Looks like we have company,” said Juke, munching on the last of his chocolate squares.
“Are wrecked gates a must for the Yangs?” asked the redhead.
“Clearly there’s a public bounty out for them, if we have guests.” Marr cussed under her breath, walking towards the skyscraper.
The boys looked at each other, shaking their heads, following suit. “Smells like trouble.”
“You don’t say.” Azrael reached for his secondary blade, his hand grasping air. All I’m left with is my katana, huh? Dammit.
Plop.
A shredded mesh of flesh and sinew fell, splattering a crimson puddle at the entrance to the skyscraper. Looking closely at the entryway, Azrael noticed three dozen gutted and mutilated remains for living beings haphazardly stacked over the earthen pathway.
“Gruesome.” Marr tiptoed around the littered corpses till she reached the lobby, slipping past the automatic sliding doors banging against a split skull. “A little cleaning up would go a long way.”
“We must be up against a hell of an assassin,” said Azrael.
“Or assassins,” supplied Juke. “Check out the lifts. Someone got off at the 34<sup>th</sup> floor.”
“Just two floors below the top.” Marr elbowed the switch for the lift, grimacing at the bloodied console. “Let’s get this over with.” The lift’s doors opened with a ping, regurgitating a haphazard mesh of corpses up front. She grimaced, kicking the bodies aside, as she beckoned the boys to join in, pushing the icon for the 34<sup>th</sup> floor. “Let’s go all out from the get-go.”