**** Dorian ****
Not everything goes according to plan, and in the case of causing landslides they really should have anticipated this. Well maybe Nox had. He seemed the type to take on risks without much regard to himself. That was a sad way to live life if it was true.
Aria hadn't been happy when he'd gone to her and told her he would die honorably if she could kill the god they were after. Insenstivie probably, but the truth. And she seemed like the type of person who wanted the truth.
Dorian had watched Aria run off and pick up speed as she did. Spurred out of fear, real fear maybe? But who knew with a girl who could manipulate emotions, maybe everything she felt was someone elses. He didn't know. And Dorian wasn't sure he wanted to know either.
But as he knelt by Nox he couldn't help but feel a stab of guilt. He was breathing, but beyond that he didn't really want to move him, or touch him. Nox looked like he was sleeping, but the part of the ceilng that had fallen on him, had caused a huge gash in his cheek and the side of his head. Dorian was using his denim shirt to stop as much of the bleeding as he could. Stupid boy!
Why had he let them do this? A sniper shot could have been enough. He blamed himself for this. A promising young man dead because Martin wanted to see what the girl had in her. No he blamed Martin for this. He would have words with his friend if the boy didn't make it through this. But really he was angry at himself. He was the senior member here. Why was that anyway? Because he was older, had Borovsky as friend. Together these two had more time than he had as Atharim.
Doubt was the reigning emotion he had right now. All to kill one man, a boy could die. Dorian sighed and wished time away. He didn't know how long he wallowed as a man came up behind him with Aria panting behind him.
He spoke in heavy Russian accent, "What happened, comrade?"
Dorian sighed, "He was playing hero, he was trying to get a cat out of the rocks, maybe it was a rat, I don't know but it's gone now. He shifted a rock and well you see he results."
Dorian stood up out of the way, Aria stood behind the man and watched him. Dorian watched her watch him. When she didn't move to kill the man Dorian reached in his sleeve to pull out his own knife. But Aria moved and caught his arm and shook her head. She mouthed, "Wait!"
What was she waiting for. He saw the hilt of a dagger in the palm of her hand. She was waiting for something. He couldn't for the life of him imagine what it was she was waiting on. Kill him he willed her, he didn't want to kill her too.
**** Aria ****
To say that she could control her own emotions as easily as she could manipulate others was not something she could boast, by the time she reached Nox and saw his crumpled body lying on the ground her heart sank. Dorian was pressing his shirt to his head. Aria stood behind the man in near tears, real tears.
She could feel the doubt and worry wafting off of Dorian. But the godling, he was empty of all emotion.
Aria fingered the hilt of her dagger as the godling worked with the power. She wasn't going to let Nox die because of this. Dorian started to make his move, she stopped him. Put her hand on his arm and asked him to wait. He watched her.
Nox's body shuddered and a breath caught in his lungs but he blinked his eyes awake. Aria pulled out her dagger and slide it carefully into the base of the man's skull as he knelt over Nox.
Aria could feel the blood gush out on to her hand as the hilt of the dagger pressed against the mans neck. Aria took a breathe and fought back the desire to pull the dagger out and slice his throat. Nox stared up at her with sympathy in his eyes, but he said nothing as he lay there gathering the strength to stand. Healing a wound like that would have taken more out of him than the man doing the healing.
The memories of slipping a dagger into a woman's chest played through her memories. The pain she'd felt, the man here had felt nothing. She held him by the collar so he didn't fall on Nox. The blood seaping into his clothes, over her hands. She could feel the cooling warmth of it as it ran down her fingers.
Dorian moved but Nox hurried in a pained manor to intercept him. "No don't touch her." Aria couldn't see the look on either of their faces anymore but she could feel the confusion in Dorian and the concern Nox had. But it was her own darkness that called to her. She had to fight, she drew the blade from the man's body and let him collapse to the ground and she sank to her knees in the fight that made her job so much harder to bear.
**** Nox ****
One minute there was nothing, and then Nox felt a searing pain in his body, he'd felt it before, but it was not the same. He knew the feeling, Aria had made it to the healer, and she'd let him heal him. She knew the power he weilded. Nox was thankful, but saddened that it had come to this.
He opened his eyes and the first thing he saw was Aria standing behind a man, with the tip of her dagger poking out of his throat. Nox saw the light dim from his eyes, there was little pain as Aria sliced his spinal column. She was true to her words and could kill a man in so many different ways. He hadn't expected such a clean mark though, she had a tendancy to play with her 'food'.
But this was different, she had promised to not kill another innocent soul, he could see the weight of the kill on her. He could see her demon's dragging her down as he looked up at her past the eyes of a dead man.
Nox caught Dorian move towards Aria and he had no choice but to get up. He told Dorian to leave her alone, touching her could be bad. The one time he'd done, he'd regretted it. The fight that ensued left them both battered and bruied. And he didn't think he could survive another bout like that, at least not today.
Aria sank to her knees after letting the dead man fall. He wondered if she meant to leave him there, or if it really mattered. He was dead now. But burning the body was probably a good thing, though there were probably witnesses, but he wondered if the cops would even bother in the underground city, much less if their inhabitants would report him missing. Someone should care, but right now Nox didn't.
"She'll be okay. Give her a moment. Killing has a strange effect on her and it takes a while to get out of that headspace." Nox reassured Dorian, but it was more for himself. She had to be okay, he couldn't kill her today.
Aria wiped the dagger off on the man's clothing and put it back in it's sheathe at her wrist. He looked at him with a weighted expression. He wished he could feel what she was feeling, to know what he could do to help bring her back. But she smiled weakly at him. "I'll be okay. Let's burn the body and we'll go home."
Nox nodded, Dorian was already rummaging in his bag and pulled out a small bottle and poured it over the body then dropped a match to the body and they stood there for several minutes and watched the body burn before Dorian spoke, "You two aren't the only ones with little toys to share."
Nox grinned at him. "Let's go home."
**** Dorian ****
Dorian watched as she waited for something to happen. He couldn't fathom what it was she waited on, but when Nox's body shuddered under the man's touch he found his answer. The girl had been waiting for him to heal Nox. She beleived in the magic of these gods. He'd seen some weird things in his time as a hunter. He'd even taken out a dangerous godling at Martin's side, but a man who could heal a person's injuries, that could be worth saving a man's life for. Surely there was good and bad men. The more Dorian worked with these two the more he doubted everything he had understood.
But that was for a later date, right now they had a body to take care of. And Aria looked only slightly better than moments before. Her hands were covered in blood, she hadn't bothered to wipe them off when she cleaned the dagger she had deftly slipped between the man's skull and top vertebrae. It was a clean kill. Almost particed. He had watched her carefully after Nox told her not to touch her. The dangers of a woman who could manipulate emotions could be wide. But Dorian really didn't think that had anything to do with that at all.
There were all sort of tricks in the books, and now it was time to clean up their mess. He had been good at this before he'd met Martin. Not covering up bodies mind you, but he was good at keeping secrets, considering his entire life he'd kept one very big secret from his father.
Once Dorian had thought to tell his father he liked men. He'd started with an ancedote about a boy he knew in school who came out of the closet to his family. The boy was ficticious, but his father hadn't known that, and his words to Dorian rang through to him to this day. "Any boy of mine who would find the company of men acceptable was a boy who would no longer survive to see his next birthday." It had been an idle threat, one that Dorian didn't beleive his father would have followed through on, but it had scared Dorian into hiding his true nature. It had been the reason he'd slept with Anastasia to begin with. He knew the consequences. He had planned them. It had not been an accident, Dorian knew that she was a virgin, she claimed it right up until the day he'd seduced her into his bed with talk of love.
It was cruel to do that to her. But it had been necessary. The pregnancy he hadn't expected to happen so soon. If at all, but it was a chance he was willing to make. He knew his mother the devote catholic that she was would not allow a child to be born out of wedlock. Their marriage had been hushed, as had the child, but Cruz, he was a godsend to his family. His father had an heir to the Vega throne he would always be proud of. Cruz gave his mother years upon years of love that he could not give her. Anastaisa understood now, she had for years now. But it hadn't always been that way.
The moments it took for Dorian to find his secret concotion in his bag was all it took for him to remember the secrets of his past, but it was enough to dampen his mood completely. Not that it had anywhere but up to go at the time either. He poured the elixir of fire over the body and the match caught immediately. He explained his own toys and Nox grinned at him. The boy, no, the young man looked tired, he looked positively worn out. But his smile brought Dorian up from his self wallowing. Nox was of course right. It was time to go home, though Dorian wasn't exactly sure what he was going to tell Martin now. There was much to think about.