Chapter Text
Lauren ran after the criminal who had just come out the window, her footsteps slamming the pavement in an attempt to catch up with him. She climbed nimbly to the roof of a house with the help of some large and discolored garbage containers, her intention was not to lose sight of him while her other companions were left behind. The night was cold and it smelled like wet soil from a recent rain.
She had never chased anyone over the rooftops of Ardhalis, and she truly hoped that the other criminals who roamed the city would not follow that example. It was particularly difficult to keep up with the shadow that ran ahead of her between the chimneys. Any of the other police officers would be well behind him by now, stumbling through loose tiles, rusted pipes, and puddles of water, or hesitating to jump the wide alleys.
Anyone but her.
What this man did not know was that he was being pursued by Lauren Sinclair, and that the fuel of her inner fire was an effective mixture of anger, determination and thirst for justice. She did not hesitate before jumping, she was not afraid of getting hurt as long as she reached her goals. And he was her target.
The man in front of her turned on the edge of a particularly large cream-colored house, trying to lose her, but she smiled. She knew that the street ahead had a couple of huge buildings. Taking a shortcut a couple of roofs up ahead would catch up with him, so she increased her speed and ducked between the concrete blocks with the agility of a cat.
She jumped onto a chipped deck accidentally knocking over a couple of flower pots and scraped her arm as she passed a tight space between two chimneys, but she didn't slow down. Her muscles burned from the effort of her constant running, but it was completely worth it when she looked back at him a few feet from her. She quickened her pace, forcing herself and clenched her fists as they swayed hard at her sides.
Lauren took advantage of the fact that he still didn't notice her sneaking behind, like his shadow, and pounced on his figure making him fall from the ceiling. But the moment she saw the little boy sleeping in his arms she regretted her impulsiveness.
She hadn't seen him, hadn't studied her opponent before acting. She did not check if he was carrying a dangerous weapon that could be used against her, if he was carrying any loot or in this case, hostages. Dear lord, if something happened to that little boy she would feel immensely guilty.
Watching their fall over the edge of the building was a harrowing moment, she could only wait for both of them to hit the ground as her stomach clenched in panic. Fortunately, the man spun at the last second, absorbing the impact of the blow, and she took advantage of the moment to go down as well.
The darkness of the night mingled with the light from the streetlights on the wet cobblestones, like swirls of paint. The cold wind was laden with a faint smell of mold and smoke from a nearby factory. Lauren pulled up to hit his hunched figure with a kick, but this time he was ready. He deftly dodged her attack and took advantage of the impulse she'd taken to hit her back. The air left her tired lungs sending stabs of pain through her body and she fell awkwardly to the ground, hugging her stomach with one hand. The mask slipped from her face and clattered on the ground out of reach.
And when she looked up, the world seemed to freeze around her.
Her eyes met a pair of blue orbs that widened in shock as he looked at her. A chill ran down her spine and her chest felt suddenly heavy, as if her entire soul had been focused on that point. And for a moment, for an infinitesimal second, she could see herself reflected in his gaze. Her skin crawled as she watched the silver specks of dust fall around her in slow motion, an ethereal and incomprehensible dance in the wind.
The man staggered as he took a step back and dropped the katana in his hand, but the sharp sound of metal crashing to the ground was not enough to bring them out of their trance. Something about him seemed familiar, but she couldn't tell what. Maybe the way his long black hair billowed in the wind, maybe the electric color of his eyes or maybe the sharp lines of his face. From the way he had reacted the instant their gazes collided, she was almost certain that they had met before.
He opened his mouth slightly and whispered something to himself, and it was at that moment that Lauren woke up from her daze. Without thinking twice she landed a clean punch to the edge of his jaw turning his face completely, and pinned him to the ground with the weight of her body. He didn't try to fight back, didn't even stir under her. She quickly pulled the handcuffs out of her pocket and wrapped them around his wrists, giving him no time to react.
"In the name of the Ardhalis Police, you are under arrest for murder and attempted kidnapping."
Despite being underneath her and with his chest flat on the floor, Lauren could observe the exact moment when he realized the situation he was in. The sound of the other officers approaching the alley startled him and he glanced at the little boy leaning in the corner.
His breathing seemed steady and he didn't appear to be hurt, but Lauren still came over to check. With her companions on the way and the man in handcuffs, she should have no problem. The loose pebbles from the street crunched under the heels of her boots as she walked over to his side and scooped him up.
"Are you okay little one?" she whispered to his sleeping figure. His blonde locks blew gently in the wind and pale starlight caressed his cheeks. The boy's similarity to his younger friend Will sent a protective feeling through her chest, and she held him a little tighter against herself.
"Officer Sinclair?"
The echo of the voice of one of her companions came from far away and Lauren turned to answer, but she hit the man's chest with the face. Their gazes met again for a second, icy surprise making her open her eyes and he quickly covered her mouth with his gloved hand to keep her from screaming out. How had he managed to break free of the damn handcuffs? She tried to kick him, but he turned her to keep her still in his arms and hid them both in the shadows.
The moment he touched her, something like an electric current tore through her like lightning, but Lauren was pretty convinced it was her body producing adrenaline like crazy. He pressed her back firmly against his chest, effectively wrapping her around and imprisoning both of her arms. Lauren felt her stomach clench in panic and she stirred hard. With the extra weight of the boy, she couldn't do much to defend herself, but she couldn't let go of him and let him hit the floor. As a last resort, she tried to curl her feet so that her weight would throw him off balance, but he anticipated her movement and pinned her with his legs.
"Officer Sinclair?"
The beam of an officer's flashlight illuminated the alley, but the two of them were not caught by its glare. Lauren stirred again, trying to at least make some noise that would alert them to enter. She had never been in this situation before. She had never been outmatched like this by any opponent. She had been caught off guard and that would cost her dearly.
Her heart was in her throat, tears prickled the edges of her eyes, and she felt herself shaking hard. Perhaps from the immense amount of tension in her body, perhaps from the cold or the fear that chilled her veins. She hated feeling helpless and exposed like that fragile child she'd left in the past, the one she'd sworn she would never be again.
Lauren stifled a sob that wanted to escape from her throat, muffled it inside trying not to show a hint of weakness that could be used against her. But then a treacherous tear escaped from the corner of her right eye and was sucked into the glove that was pressed against her lips. At that moment the man seemed to loosen his grip on her slightly and felt his hand waver over her mouth. She tried to kick again, but then he placed his lips close to her ear and whispered.
"Easy, I'm not going to hurt you. Please let them go and ... I ... I'll explain everything ..."
At the time Lauren didn't know what it was that made her stop fighting. Perhaps the soft timbre of his voice, the fact that he wasn't telling any lies, or the strange feeling inside her that told her to listen to him. Whatever the reason, she cursed herself inwardly as the light stopped illuminating the moldy bricks and her companions drifted away, leaving her alone at the hands of a murderer. Was she crazy? What was wrong with her? How could she believe a criminal she had just met at random?
She fought again with renewed strength, kicking and propelling herself violently. Minutes passed, lengthening infinitely as her mind repeated over and over how silly she had been.
'Moron. How could I be such an idiot?'
When the man made sure no one was close enough to hear them if she screamed, he loosened his grip and released her. Lauren stepped away from him as if his touch burned her and pulled the pistol out of its holster to point it straight at his head. Her breathing was agitated, for some reason she didn't think he was going to really let her go despite having spoken to her without lies.
"Who the fuck are you?" she asked with a low growl, hiding her earlier fear under a cloak of fiery fury.
He swallowed as he took a careful step back, like he was afraid of scaring her, but she knew better. He was a cold-blooded murderer, a monster who had not hesitated to wipe out an entire family and take their youngest son. She didn't know his motivations, and even if she did she was sure they would be terrible. He was dangerous and did not inspire confidence.
The yellow light from the streetlights brought out the glow of his skin, sweat dampened his neck and collarbones as he seemed to fumble for words in the darkness of his mind. Lauren narrowed her eyes in annoyance and took a step closer with her pistol raised.
"Who are you?" she asked again, this time the poison dripped from her words.
"My name is Kieran. I am ... What are you going to do with the child?"
"I'm the one asking the questions here. Just answer or I won't hesitate to bury a bullet in your skull. What were you planning to do with him?"
Kieran opened and closed his mouth nervously, looking lost. In the silence that followed, only the soft drip of a nearby water leak could be heard, its rhythm counting one by one the seconds wasted, putting Lauren on the nerves.
"I just asked you, what the hell were you going to do with ...?"
"I have no idea, okay? I don't know what I was going to do with him. All I could think about at the time was getting him out of that house to save his life. If they find out that someone in that family didn't die ... "
He seemed to choke on the words, as if what he was saying frightened him, but he recovered quickly.
"I didn't exactly think ahead when I brought him with me, so excuse me if I haven't decided what he's going to have for breakfast tomorrow or what bloody college I'm going to send him to."
The frustrated tone of his voice took her a bit by surprise, but what ended up confusing her were his words full of truth. Lauren blinked a few times searching for some double meaning, trying to understand how it was possible that he wasn't lying. Kieran sighed and ran a hand through his long, loose, messy hair, trying to calm himself.
"Are you telling me that you took him out of the house to keep him alive, but still killed the rest of his family? What you're saying doesn't make any sense."
Kieran met her eyes, the transparency in his gaze stirring something within her heart, but Lauren stubbornly clung to her anger and mistrust. She wouldn't believe a damn criminal just for having a pretty face. She had sworn to avenge her loved ones, she would not fail in her promise for such a stupid mistake as blindly trusting a murderer.
"It's the truth and you know it." he said at the end.
Far from calming down, Lauren held the gun tighter in her hand and approached him with threatening steps, but Kieran didn't back down this time. His weakness had lasted a couple of minutes, but he had been trained all his life to hide it and he had learned very well. When Lauren held the gun one foot from his head, he stepped forward for the metal to kiss his forehead and looked at her seriously.
"And how is it that you are so sure that I know you speak the truth? Have you been following me?"
The fire inside Lauren was so strong that Kieran felt the hot waves of anger emanating from her almost on a physical level.
"I haven't been stalking you, if that's your concern. I saw you once in a cafe. That's where I learned about your… ability."
"Did you know about me before that?"
Kieran looked away for a split second and hid his hands behind his coat. Lauren narrowed her eyes as she watched him. She remembered how to read people's body language and could recognize that her question made him uncomfortable. The detective inside her was still alive after all.
"Yes. I mean, you are quite well known in Ardhalis. A Sinclair, everyone knows of your existence."
The wind blew some unruly locks across Kieran's forehead. The silence grew again between the two as Lauren analyzed what he was saying. He seemed to be sincere, but she could feel that he was not speaking the whole truth. Still, she decided to put that part of the conversation aside and talk about what really mattered to her at the time.
"Who sent you to kill that family?"
The look on Kieran's face darkened in an instant and his eyes lost their shine. The change was subtle but noticeable, like when a cloud covers the moonlight and leaves you in the dark.
"I received an order that I couldn't ignore. A ... man I couldn't identify handed me the target sheets."
"That was not what I asked. What organization sent you to finish them off?"
The grip Lauren was holding on the metal of her weapon shook a little as she readjusted herself. A part of her already knew what the answer was going to be, but still wanted to hear it directly from his lips. If she was correct, she could use it to gather information to overthrow the leader. She could force him to speak at gunpoint, she was willing to risk herself in order to achieve her goal.
"The ... Phantom Scythe sent me, but contrary to what you must think, I don't know the leader. Nobody does."
"Do you know any apostles?"
"No."
He was speaking the truth and that confused her, but what caused her the most doubts was that he was answering her without resisting. That made her feel insecure, was he planning to tell her everything she asked and then kill her?
But he had said that he would cause her no harm when he released her, and he was not lying at the moment either. Well, maybe he had changed his mind. Assassins weren't exactly the most loyal to their word. She had to make sure he didn't plan to cut her throat.
She carefully stepped back and slid the katana blade toward herself with the tip of her foot. The metallic sound sent shivers down her spine, but she didn't take her gaze off him as she set the boy down, picked up the blade, and held it in her hand.
The soft leather handle fit hideously well in her palm, as if her slender fingers were tailor-made for the grip Kieran had marked over time. Kieran looked slightly uncomfortable as he watched her hold his katana, but wisely remained silent.
"Do you have more weapons with you?" she asked approaching again.
"Y-yes."
His Adam's apple swayed as he swallowed and obeyed her silent gesture, prompting him to hand over each one. Kieran drew four daggers from his black boots, the darkened metal clattering on the cobblestones as Lauren kicked them out of reach.
With each knife added to the discarded arsenal, Lauren regained a little more than her usual confidence. To anyone's eyes, it would have seemed that she was a bonfire, and each weapon that fell into her possession gave her fuel to burn stronger. One by one knives of different lengths fell, too many to be possible for her to carry. And when she thought he was done, he began to slowly open the buttons of his shirt.
Lauren opened her mouth to ask him what the hell he was doing, but then a black belt appeared across his chest, loaded with more weapons. And as he unbuttoned it, Lauren watched the myriad of scars creeping down his stomach, silver lines in all directions indicating a violent past. Some of them looked too old for his age, and then the thought occurred to her that perhaps his stay at the Scythe was not exactly pleasant. Maybe it was even involuntary?
Soon whatever train of thought she was about to reach was erased from her mind as she glanced down at a small fragment of a mark peeking out of his partially open shirt. His soul mark, she thought.
But something was wrong with it.
Despite not being able to see it completely, she could clearly see how sickly pale it was.
A normal soul mark would be ink black. Like infinity, the night sky on a clear night. Then there were marks like her's, silver and drained of color due to the untimely death of the other half. But his was halfway up, dull gray. A mark neither alive nor dead. Agonizing, struggling between life and death, hanging from the abyss.
"They are all the weapons I have with me." his voice came out hoarse as he hurried to close the buttons on his shirt again.
"Do you know how to reach the leader or one of his disciples?"
"No, they take care that no one gets close enough to them to prevent them from betraying them. They are also not easy to track down nor are they careless about their identity."
"Why are you responding to everything I say?"
Kieran looked slightly confused as he looked at her and shook his head in bewilderment.
"Because you are asking."
"You might as well lie or try to confuse me with the answers."
"Do you want me to do it?"
"I want to know why you are being honest."
Kieran touched his chest above his shirt in an unconscious movement, but seeing what he was doing he quickly pulled his hand away. He looked at the ground for a couple of seconds, as if it contained all the answers, but in the end he just sighed. He seemed almost unarmed when he answered her.
"I do not know."
Lauren studied him for a second and then understood. The move he had made toward his dying soul mark hadn't gone unnoticed, so she connected the dots. After all, it's what detectives do.
"You are not with them voluntarily, are you?"
Kieran remained silent, only watching her warily. It was almost funny how he had become from a panther hunting in the dark to a much smaller and more cautious being under the barrel of a pistol. His silence gave Lauren the answer she needed.
"They have power over someone you love, don't they? A woman, maybe."
"How do you know ...?"
So she was right. They had his soul mate, perhaps they manipulated him with her to do what they wanted. That didn't excuse the horrors of his past, much less remove the blood from his hands, but she could understand a hint of his motives.
And even the fact that he didn't fully accept the Scythe, that he wasn't completely loyal to they, gave her an idea. Not a good one, but ultimately an idea.
"I propose you a deal." she said after thinking for a few moments.
Kieran looked surprised for just a second, he seemed to analyze many things at once as he watched her lower the weapon to her side. Still she didn't take her finger off the trigger, the pistol poised to fire.
"What kind of deal?"
"Work for me."
Time stretched out as silence enveloped them. The murmurs of the sirens in the distance were the only thing that rippled it as their gazes melded together, analyzing and measuring, calculating and observing the smallest detail.
"Be my spy." Lauren continued. "I will let you go, in exchange for your help to bring down the Scythe. You would get back the person you love and your freedom. I would get the pleasure of seeing them rotting in jail for their crimes."
Lauren knew she was entering in dangerous terrain. She also knew that what she was doing was far from legal and that she was allying herself with a murderer. One who possibly even knew the Purple Hyacinth. The chances of that partnership going wrong were high, police might uncover them and they would both end up behind bars, but she couldn't just miss the chance.
"How do you know that you can trust me?"
"The fact that you ask me gives me hope that deep down you know that the Scythe is doing terrible things, and that they need to be stopped. But to be honest I don't completely trust you. So I would take my own measures. "
"What measures are we talking about exactly?"
"Two small details. The first is that I would keep the little kid with me. You said before that they couldn't find out that someone was left alive. I assume you fear for yourself, for disobeying a direct order."
"So will you keep him to use against me? What you plan to do is not much different than what they do to me. Manipulation."
"You can take it as manipulation if you want, but the truth is that I'm offering to help you hide him. You don't even know what you would do with him later. I can keep him hidden, and make sure he's safe."
"Wouldn't that make you an accessory to kidnapping?"
"Not if I do it to keep him safe and alive. Or maybe I do, but it's a risk I'm willing to take to see them all fall."
Kieran seemed to think for a moment what Lauren was offering him. A double-edged sword, but in the end it was giving him options. Options he never had with the Scythe.
"And what is the other measure?"
Lauren was slightly pleased and relieved that he was considering helping her, and she released her grip on the trigger of her pistol.
"I want the assurance that you are not going to stab me in the back every time I turn around. So I want us to take a binding oath. A blood oath."
The atmosphere seemed to cool at the mention of the blood oath, as if the night knew that something powerful and unusual was coming. It was a magic as ancient and unbreakable as that of soulmate bonds. Once this oath was made, there would be no turning back. Once done, their fate would be sealed.
"I agree. But I want to know what your clauses will be before do it, and I want you to listen to mine."
"I hear you."
Lauren leaned against the brick wall and the moisture seeped slightly into her vest, cooling her skin, but she paid it no heed.
"I want you to help me gather information from your side. I would work outside the law and you would cover my steps, but I also want to know what happens on that side of the law. It does not matter if it is confidential information, I want to know whatever that can help us achieve this goal. We will not withhold information from each other. "
"I agree. I want to stay out of any dirty movement of the Scythe. I am going to cover you, not them. And I want to ensure that you are not going to harm me, the child, my family, my friends or none of those who matter to me. "
"I accept. So we have a deal?"
Lauren nodded and took the katana blade, ready to press it into her hand, but Kieran stopped her at the last instant.
"Wait. Don't do it with that sword. Take another dagger instead."
"And why is that?"
"No ... I don't want your blood to be spilled with it. Call me sentimental, or dramatic if you want. You are an ally, so this has meaning to me."
Lauren tried not to think about it twice, she just nodded and cut the palm of her hand with a small black dagger. And when Kieran followed her and they joined hands in the dark, electricity crackled in the air as a new bond formed. The place where Lauren's soul mark was vibrated with energy, as if it felt a new connection that was not from her soulmate and welcomed it with hunger. It's sad, she thought. Spending so many years without him, so that her mark yearned for whatever kind of bond it could embrace.
Their hands fit together like pieces of a puzzle, blood mixed and splattered the damp ground painting it scarlet as the atmosphere was charged with an ancient and strong power that neither of them knew. Somehow the contact of their injured hands felt so raw, so real and intimate that they had to hastily let go. And when their hands lost contact, calm returned to the night.
But they both knew that something had changed. They felt it in their blood, on their skin, in the depths of their souls. They felt each other as a presence in the back of their minds, a product of the pact they had just made. They felt each other's heart, each breath and each blink on an almost physical level. Even if they were fully focused, they could almost swear they could pick up fragments of their thoughts. It was overwhelming, but at the same time it felt so right ...
The voices of Lauren's mates echoed near the alley again. She turned to see that no one was looking at them and when she looked back, Kieran had already picked up all his weapons. They shared a solemn gaze for a moment, and then parted ways, knowing that the two of them had plunged into unfamiliar terrain. That they had somehow made themselves too vulnerable. And that, the ignorance of the depth of their bond, terrified them more than anything else.