"He needs me... I just know he does, and I have to go see him, Right, Now!" Lex shouted. Her head was pounding, and that gut churning feeling that something was wrong with Kaeron was an all consuming force inside her, and it was making breathing difficult, her heart was hurting, and she knew it wouldn't stop until she layed eyes on her brother, and prove to herself beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was okay.
"Listen, Lex, I'm sure he's fine. Just calm down. He isn't even late yet. He still has like half an hour or so."
A sudden rush of anger had Lex spun around and pinning Lillian up against a nearby wall with a. Thud!
"I'm. Not. Asking!"
Lillian met her eyes, her own intensity raging like dragon fire, and Lex steeled herself for whatever she would say. Whatever it was wouldn't matter. Lillian couldn't possibly understand what she was feeling right now. How could she?
But in a moment so fast, Lex had possibly made it up, Lillian gave her a look that she couldn't decipher and looked away.
"Whatever, do what you want."
"Thanks for giving me permission, mom. I will." She let go of Lillian and stormed out the door, nearly taring it off of its hinges on her way out.
She heard Lillian fall in line behind her, but she didn't turn around to check. She didn't shout back at her or say thanks for coming. She just kept moving, and she wasn't stopping until she got to The Doc's place where Kaeron should be getting his check-up. She had to see him to prove the group of dying butterflies in her stomach wrong.
******
"What? Lizard, got your tongue?" Draefin open mouth smiled, exposing the three rows of razor sharp teeth and his ridiculously long tongue.
Kaeron hardened himself, squashing any emotion. Draefin only respected strength, and he didn't kill those whom he respected.
"What are you doing here, Draefin?"
Draefin's eyes narrowed, and Kaeron had to will away the part of him that was screaming for him to become as small as possible. He hated that feeling, disgusted by it, was more like it. He felt like one of his targets, and it made him want to vomit. He was the hunter, not the hunted.
"I told you why, I heard..."
Kaeron growled, "I don't care what you heard, I don't work for you anymore, so you don't get to just show up where I am."
Draefin laughed, and Kaeron swallowed down the solidified gravel in his throat, preparing himself for the...
Crack! Split! Bang! Boom!
Kaeron laid upright staring at the almost blinding white ceiling. Broken Wood and falling paper littered the area from the blow Draefin delivered to Kaerons face. He could still feel the hit dancing in the blood dripping from his split cheek or the throbbing in his head.
He spat blood. "Great, now Doc's gotta fix me all over again." Kaeron joked.
A flicker of rage flashed in Draefin's eyes, and Kaeron couldn't move before he had a hand in his face.
"Smart ass." Draefin scoffed. "If you weren't so damn good at your job, I'd do more than just knock you on your ass." Draefin dropped his hand and walked back a few paces. "Are you going to make me ask again, or do you have any more questions for me?"
Kaeron bared his teeth, and his head exploded with pain, but he willed himself not to budge an inch. He had no love for the annoying little girl, but she did help him by taking Lex off of his hands back in the forest, and he owed her for that, and it was time for him and Draefin to have this conversation anyways. He was not Draefin's to command anymore.
Draefin smiled again. "Fine, don't answer, I'll find out eventually, but since you're not in a sharing mood. Neither am I. You can go now. You are no longer allowed to use any of my people. Rather, you're dying and need a medic or shooting and run out of bullets. My people have been informed not to help you until otherwise ordered." Draefin's smiled disappeared. "You will bend a knee to me, Fire Breather."
Kaeron held his gaze until that self-assured smile returned. "It's only a matter of time." Draefin turned and walked over to the Doctor. "Call in somebody to clean this up."
"And Kaeron. Say hello, too, Lexie, for me."
Kaerons blood roared in his ears, and he felt hot. Burning hot, as if he had dived into an inferno, but he couldn't lash out when Draefin's dismissal was clear.
He bit his lip, stood up on aching legs, and limped over to the door. He wasn't furious. Fury was him, and he needed an outlet.
"Kaeron."
The bastard was enjoying this, Kaeron could just tell.
Kaeron stopped moving but continued to stare at the door.
"I do hope you reconsider someday."
Kaeron waited for less than a moment longer before whipping the door open and then slamming it shut behind him.
His head was screaming at him now. His entire body was stiff and in pain.
He stomped away from the room, steam pouring from off his skin... Oh shit, he couldn't breathe.. He needed to breathe, but he was freaking out, and he couldn't get control of himself. He was struggling to make it over to the guards standing at the stairs who were now watching him, but their attentions were pulled away by someone coming down the stairs.
A wave of nausea knocked him to his knees just in front of the entrance to the stairs, and he couldn't even breathe it away. What a fucking nightmare. He was showing weakness to all of these potential enemies. Why did he let Draefin get to him like this? He had to get control of himself before these morons did something stupid, like thinking they even stood a chance against him.
If it came down to it, and Draefin ever decided to have him killed. Kaeron wouldn't stand a chance. Rather, Draefin took care of Kaeron himself, or he sent the full force of "Hells Mob" it didn't matter. Draefin was too powerful, and even though Kaeron could wipe out most of "Hells Mob," there are a few in their ranks that would be almost impossible to beat outnumbered.
"Kaeron!?"
An anchor in the chaos of his mind.
"Lex!?"
******
Kaeron buried his head into his sisters lap and groaned as she started running her hands through his hair.
The three of them had returned to their hotel half an hour ago, and Lillian had made herself scarce immediately, giving Kaeron a look he didn't understand before shutting herself up in her room leaving the two of them to talk in the living room.
They must've taken showers before coming to find him because the room stank of that stupid strawberry shampoo the two of them liked, and Lillian's hair was still wet. (No surprise there).
He pinched Lex's outer thigh, and she yelped.
"Don't do that." She punched him on the back of his head.
"I'm sorry, manhands, it won't happen again."
She hit him again.
"Okay, I'm done. Seriously, stop hitting me, please, I'm begging."
"Why are you so immature, I wish you were more like Lily. She, unlike you, is very mature, and she has never almost started war with a militia over a game of Uno."
Kaeron lifted and twisted his head until he faced his sister. "He cheated, and you know it."
She gave him that withering look of hers, the same one she always gave him when he said something dumb.
"No, Kaeron, he didn't. You just suck at Uno."
Kaeron tried to hold his serious face and got to all of the count of two before he smiled slyly.
"Oh, so you know." She rolled her eyes.
"Of course I know I'm not dumb, but that ugly bastard Leon should've thrown the game, I'm Kaeron Lucian fucking Deitas he needs to keep me happy not the other way around."
"Well Kaeron Lucian fucking Deitas. Thanks to your massive ego, I had to carry a knife around in grade school."
"Oh, I'm sorry, you're blaming that on me. The way I remember it is that you got caught preparing to help your big brother fight bad guys." He laughed.
"You're remembering wrong." Lex said, smacking her lips.
"I'm sure I am." Kaeron said as the joy of the moment slowly dissipated. "Draefin was at The Doc's."
Lex immediately swallowed him up in a tight embrace.
"It's okay, you're here with me now. You can tell me more about it, or you can just lie here and sleep if you want it's up to you."
He yawned. "I think that I'll just sleep."
She smiled. "Go ahead. I'll be right here when you wake up."
He rested his head back in her lap and closed his eyes.
"Love you, Lex."
"Sleep tight, Kaeron."
And in only a few minutes, he was thankfully entering a dreamless sleep.
******
Lillian leaned over the balcony in her room and looked into the busy streets of the town below. For all of the times, Talion had talked about all of the races and how the current peace we all were experiencing is only an illusion, held together by him and his company for his brother Demetrius Atriuem, the king of all of Solaris, also known as "The Great Conqueror."
Revolutionists, journalists dumb enough to try and tell the truth about his regime. Troublesome politicians, mom's, dad's, children. Anybody who dare challenge the authority of a dick... tater. Talion sent men to handle it. Professional hitmen!
And that dilemma was what had Lillian out in the cool air tonight, people watching to pass the time.
She wasn't worried about Kaeron. He had more than proven he was able to handle himself under fire, but Lex... it's not that she wasn't able to fend for herself, but Lillian didn't want to be the reason Lex had to watch her brother run into the line of fire without her, and it was clear Kaeron was dead set on doing all of the fighting by himself, and that was obviously killing Lex, so now Lillian had been thinking Kaeron was right, and Lex shouldn't have come. Not to mention all of the danger they were in at all times of the day.
She smiled and waved at two orc children who had noticed her and were waving back and grinning.
"Mrs! Why do you look like that? Do you never eat?"
She stopped waving, surprised by the audacity of these two punks. They didn't even know her. They were laughing, but before she could gather her thoughts, they took off running.
"Hey, You Punks! Get Back Here!"
Tap!
She leaned further over the edge and shouted. "How are you going to talk about how somebody else looks when you look like an overgrown toad!"
They didn't turn back, and she huffed a breath. She thought kids were supposed to be pure and good, like the one's on tv, but instead, they were little assholes who would insult a woman's figure uncoaxed.
She sighed, relaxed, and returned fully back onto the balcony.
"Move an inch, and I'll put a Kirion bullet through your skull." A female said quietly but sternly.
Lillian's body locked up. How had she not noticed. She didn't hear either of the doors open, so she must've come from the roof, but how did she know where to find her in the first place? Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! She was so fucked. Unless she used that power and blind the woman, and get to Kaeron and Lex.
"I just want to ask you a few questions." The woman spoke again.
It was now or never. She started to dig inside herself to drag up that power when something that smelled kind of sweet and...
"Oh shit...!"
It was chloroform the bitch was trying to knock her out, and Lillian was having a tough time stopping her. She was unnaturally strong, and the sudden interruption had broken the concentration required to use that power.
"K..!"
The woman slammed her elbow into Lillian's face, using her other arm to stop Lillian from falling, and while Lillian was disoriented, the woman pounced, holding down the cloth over her face, sending her into the black of oblivion.