CONTAINS CONTENT:
Action violence, brief, strong language, sensual themes.
{{Unedited}}
Austin had already pushed her out of the way, and presently, Marielle was on her knees and trying to stand. He yanked her up, but she was amazed to see that he’d already drawn his pistol and was aiming down the sights toward the bullets point of release.
He put her behind him and stood his ground. “Let me fight!”
“Are you crazy? You have no weapons!” He barked. “I don’t even know where that came from, yet,” he said squinting into the dark distance. “Sounded like a sharpshooter. We used to call those Operators.” He started scanning the windows on the buildings. Taking hold of her wrist, and keeping a bit low with his head, he pulled her off the bridge and back down into the street. “It might be me,” he added flatly.
She eyed him, terrified. She’d only heard things about other- dark Austin? Vincent could never fully bring himself to tell her; fear tightened her chest as her eyes darted around in the silence.
Whether dark Austin was involved or not, neither of them knew. But moments later, a small party of four black motorcycles with black clad riders flew down the street toward them. Their faces and genders were obscured by helmets.
Austin looked around for a safe place- there wasn’t one.
He pulled her back in between two of the buildings that they’d passed; down the thin alley. One pursued them, squeezing into the tight space, the others had gone down the block and around the other side.
Their feet pounded against cobblestone and once they reached the end, he turned left and sprinted down an open street, and across it; the riders a few hundred yards behind. He veered right, and bolted down another alley between two apartment buildings, she followed.
The dark rider that struggled after them met up with the others as they came around the corner.
Austin smacked into a chain-link fence, growling as he smacked it with his free hand. “Can you move through it?” She nodded, once. He waited a beat while she did, pistol raised as his eyes scanned behind them, then effortlessly threw himself over, landing next to her.
When his feet landed, he saw the first rider reach behind himself and pull a pistol, preparing to shoot. Austin aimed through the lattice, and fired four shots. The night silence split open with horrible pop and thud noises. They bullets connected, and the man was down.
Another was right behind him, and he slowed to move his bike around the wreckage and the body, then sped up, preparing to ram the fence that had separated them.
“Shit,” Austin growled, grabbing her hand, and pulling her along and around the corner they were standing in so that the rider might lose them.
He went left, knowing the others were coming from the right. “I wish I had my guns,” she whimpered.
“Yeah, me too right about now,” he said jogging to a stop in the next alley he’d forced them down. He took a moment to breathe, and noted a little alcove where a door rested a few feet within. The smell of pastries indicated it was a bakery.
Looking left, then right, he ducked into the recess, pulling her in with him. Then he leaned his back against the door, pulling her against him. When he’d said he wanted her in his arms, this wasn’t what he’d had in mind.
“They’ll see us,” she panted.
“Shhh, shhh,” he was listening as the motorcycles approached. “There’s only one that’s close,” he licked his lips, glancing around their surroundings. “Okay, listen, do you think you can go through the wall, there?” He gestured with his head across the cobblestone space to the building across from them. It was about eight away. “I know you just did it and it takes a lot out of you, but can you do it again?” She nodded, trying to slow her breathing. “Do it exactly when I say,” he explained. She nodded again. He closed his eyes, listening to the engine getting closer, scanning, slowing, starting again. The rider was about to turn down where they were. “Now!”
She darted, taking the space easily and moved through the wall.
What she didn’t see was the rider’s brief distraction at seeing her, which was long enough for Austin to pop out from the other side, grab the rider, and yank him right off his bike.
He managed to get some ground and stand, facing Austin, and the two began to brawl. Austin knew he would need the other bullets, there were two more riders, coming; he could hear them in the near distance.
For a moment, as Austin put his fists up and ducked a punch, he considered that he might be fighting himself.
He swung and connected to the rider’s ribs, but he was wearing motorcycle gear. Not good. Austin drew his burning knuckles back, and shook his hand for a second before glaring at his attacker and lifting his hand to use his ice abilities. He was running low on energy, so he didn’t want to do too much of this, either.
As the man advanced, he shot a patch of ice to the ground, and his opponent slipped, falling back. Gasping, he removed his helmet; no one that Austin knew. He was blonde and younger.
He stood back up, trying to get his bearings. That was about all that he had the time to register as Marielle burst through the door, coming back out into the alley. She avoided the ice, but immediately jumped on the attacker’s back, putting him in a chokehold.
Austin glared at her a moment… right… Gall…
He was momentarily distracted by the sound of motorcycles coming down the street near them; they’d be found in a minute.
The man tore at her, and eventually bent at the middle, throwing her over his head and onto her back on the ice.
Rage boiled inside of Austin and he fell on him with a good punch to the side of this guy’s face, then another, and another. He didn’t stop until the man’s face was broken and bloody. Austin was certain that he was breaking his hand in the process, but the pain didn’t register- his only thought was to keep Marielle safe. Austin’s eyes glowed as he sent a thick layer of ice out of his trembling fingertips creating a frost mask over his face.
Austin let him go, and the guy dropped, trying to breathe, and drowning in his own blood and the ice shield, as he tore helplessly at his face.
“Are you okay?” Austin asked, putting his hands to her shoulders and looking her over for any bruises, blood, or breaks. Her back had hit the ground, which had knocked the wind out of her, but nothing more. She glanced down at the man they’d been fighting. He was dead.
Austin quickly loosened and removed his tie, and wound it around his bloodied knuckles, using his mouth to tighten it, and then he straightened the bike up, and straddled the seat. “Get on,” he ordered, knowing the others were closing in. He could hear them just around the corner. She wrapped her arms around his waist, and they were off, just as the others were right on their tail again.
She reached around to the inside of his jacket, her fingertips grazing his chest. He shuddered in a good way. “Uh…” he bit his lip, trying to focus on the alley in front of them. “Wrong timing for that, darling,” he growled, playfully.
She smirked at how dumb he was. “You drive, I’ll shoot,” she purred into his right ear. “Focus now… Eyes off me.” He grinned, letting her wrap her fingers around his weapon, and ignoring the pain in his hand.
Locking her hips and knees around him, and turning her upper half to aim at their assailants, she fired twice… No good. She wasn’t trained to hit a moving target while also moving.
Austin turned the bike once they reached a break in the alley, hoping to find a way back to the rental and the others.
For a brief moment, his mind drifted… this… this was all that he ever wanted. Her with him, adrenaline pumping through their bodies, danger, excitement, her knees locked around his hips, the two of them working together. He didn’t want her hurt, but this was pure elation.
Focus… focus…focus…
“What’s the count?” She asked referring to the bullet number.
“Uh… Me four, you two.” He did some mental counting, “Uh, eight…Six!” he corrected.
She lifted the weapon, aimed, and tried to fire again. Austin swerved around a deep gash in the road. She missed again, and lowered the pistol, sighing and turning around to cling to him, not caring about hitting them for a moment; they weren’t trying to hit them, just follow her and Austin.
“Five.” She growled, slipping the gun back around his front and re-holstering it.
Based on how slowly she was moving and the way that her hand and fingers grazed his button up shirt; he got the feeling that she liked that move about as much as he did. Not now, not now… focus. “Tease,” he growled, playfully under his breath.
She smirked.
He skidded a bit as he turned and made a giant square, heading back the way they’d come.
Both were shocked to find another rider come up alongside of them from nowhere. They’d been down to two, now there were three again. He growled, pulling his pistol, aiming, and firing. The man had anticipated this, and ducked long before the bullet hit. He shook his head, handed the gun to Marielle, sped the bike up, and jerked it to the right, going down another alley.
All three followed.
They passed doorways, windows, laundry lines, and chickens pecking in the middle of the street. Marielle flinched and covered her eyes, thinking that Austin would hit one of them.
Once they pulled back onto the street from this current alley, however, Austin lost control of the bike… because for a moment, they were engulfed in a giant purple cloud, and in the midst of it, Austin was gazing at what appeared to be a massive…purple… cat eye… Austin had been staring directly at it for a moment; he wasn’t sure if Marielle had seen it at all.
Both tumbled forward, and landed, the bike skidding away, and Austin aimed and fired at the eye floating about ten feet in the air, destroying whatever it was.
Marielle was pushing herself up from prone on the pavement and Austin jerked upright, and crawled to her, not knowing if his leg was broken or just badly hurt. “Are you alright?” he asked, gently combing her disheveled hair back from her face. His leg was bruised, and badly, but he stood anyways, taking her hand, and lifting her up to standing as well.
She nodded, but terror was spreading over her face as her eyes darted around. “We’re in trouble,” she whispered, and it was only now that both realized that silence was engulfing the area. No more motorcycle sounds were heard, just a dog barking in the distance, and the sound of water not too far away. “Reyna…”
Austin hadn’t heard her; he was checking the pistol.
Three figures walked from the left and toward them, and Austin aimed, and fired at the one in the middle… Who had disappeared. They both heard Reyna’s haunting voice growl, “The hunt begins.” Great. They were the prey.
He squared his shoulders. He hadn’t expected that, or the horrible feminine bellow that floated around them both in a large circle making it difficult to get a bead on the invisible woman. Marielle clung to his back, and his other hand found hers.
But the other two assailants rushed them both. Marielle broke away, and phased, blinking left, right, left again; appearing and reappearing, confusing both remaining black clad figures.
Austin was stunned for a moment as Marielle reappeared and used her elbow to jab into the one on the left’s ribs, then began to engage them both.
Reyna had just moved past him on his left. He’d heard her, and he reflexively turned and fired. Dammit… one bullet left. Marielle was right. They were in trouble, and his eyes were still blurring a bit from the giant purple… eye?
He removed the tie from his knuckles and wound it between both hands, standing his ground and preparing for the fight, broken hand and all.
The woman appeared next to his right ear, “Peekaboo,” she whispered, and with that, the two began hand to hand. She was taller than most of the other women he’d fought, and he had fought a few in his time working for the government.
This particular woman was also wearing heels that were metal, and sharp like blades, and she whirled and kicked him in the stomach with one, actually puncturing his side near his navel, knocking him on his back.
He flipped back up to standing, using the tie between his hands, he came at her, trying to get it around her neck. Once he managed it, she went intangible again and whirled downward and out of his grasp. Once freed, she grabbed his wrist, appeared again, and threw him over the front of her body, then vanished.
Down… again… He raised his left hand; between bleeding, broken, and being tossed around several times now, he didn’t have much left.
He could hear her heels, and with the remaining energy that he had left, he sprayed at the noise with a good deal of frost, which landed on her, giving him a visual even if she was still mostly invisible.
She yelled, and popped out of her… invulnerability? He wasn’t quite sure what she was doing with that ability- and blows restarted between them.
He had her again, in a chokehold on her knees, but she was incredibly strong, and his eyes were still fuzzy.
She bit into Austin’s arm, and he held on despite her drawing blood.
He glanced over at Marielle… she was still fine. Both men were actually on their knees in front of her, one of them was grabbing his crotch in agony. He shook his head, adoringly. God, he loved her.
Reyna wouldn’t let Austin go with her teeth. “What are you a Pitbull?”
She chuckled, cruelly finally removing her teeth from his bloody arm. “I’m going to suck the life right out of you,” she hissed.
He laughed, tightening his grip with the tie, “Don’t threaten me with a good time.”She grabbed at his arms, and he strained to keep her there, but a quick move and her using those heels again, jabbing one back against his hurt leg, caused him to stagger; he’d hardly moved- he was used to taking pain, but it was just enough for her to get free.
She was unusually strong.
The two stood, facing one another, and she began a series of attempts to punch and kick him. He dodged, ducked, or jumped back from each one, finally grabbing a hold of her ankle mid-kick, wrapping his tie around it, and yanking her toward him, causing her to go off balance, and fall onto her backside.
He glanced down at the arm with the teeth marks on it. “That might leave a mark, and I’ll definitely need a new suit,” he sighed.
She simpered, pouting her full lips and batting her violet eyes, “that’s nothing like the one that you gave me, darling,” she mocked, pulling her collar back a little, which revealed a good scar from what looked like teeth. He ignored this, taking the opportunity to straddle her, and using his left hand, he began to punch her in the face. Man? Woman? It didn’t matter; annihilate the target.
She hardly reacted. After two punches, she bent her knees, lifted her hips a little, and brought her legs up and around his midsection, jerking him back to the ground and off of her.
His powers were empty; no energy for that, this had to be all strategy now.
He groaned, trying to sit up, but to his shock, she stood over him with a queer smirk and put her bladed heel to his chest, right over his heart. “Hello, darling,” she purred in her thick accent. He glanced at Marielle. She was actually doing just fine fighting the other two. He tried to reach for the gun over his left shoulder, but she stomped on his wrist, piercing that too, and stood with her full weight on it.
He sucked air through his teeth as she used her other foot to kick his pistol away. It skidded and he watched where it had gone; too far to reach, and for a moment, everything was a bit blurry. She leaned down, “Deep breaths, Austin. Your heart is pounding.”
He heaved, “I’m sorry, I don’t have the pleasure of knowing your name.”
She smiled at him, salaciously, “Hmm,” she purred. “You can call me Reyna,” she said, as she scraped her nails against his scalp and pulled at his hair. He winced, and looked up at her, confused. “You weren’t hard, Austin,” she purred, and pulling a gleaming silver knife from a hilt on her belt, “actually, you are quite soft…” She put the blade to his neck, and pushed a little so he could feel the edge begin to nick him. He waited for the right moment to throw her off him. He had a backup plan if all else failed.
He only had time to take her appearance in, then. She was shapely and sensual with long dark hair dyed with bits of purple and blazing, dark violet eyes. She had a strong accent… from Mexico?
She teased him with the blade for a moment, daring to press it even further into his skin. He was sure that he was bleeding now. She grinned, obviously loving every moment of this. What she was waiting for? He had no idea.
At this she actually straddled him, sitting on his midsection “This position is familiar,” she taunted.
“Oh, great… just what I need right now,” he growled, through his teeth and when he tried to move his left hand towards the gun once more, she shocked him with her flexibility by pinning his wrist with her spiked heel again. He coughed. “So, are you like a bad ex, or something?” he puffed, hard blinking; the effects of that eye still playing on him.
“Hahahaha,” he didn’t like how that laugh sounded at all, “you don’t date, Austin… You fuck around and find out,” she replied, and she bent. Out rolled her tongue from her lovely mouth, and she put it to his chin and dragged it straight up his face to his hairline.
Marielle, who had just thrown one of the men over her shoulder, and was holding his wrist, had stopped fighting, and glared at this for a moment, but went right back to hand to hand. “Mine is the last face that you get to see before you die… lucky you,” Reyna murmured down at him. He grinned, sardonically, giving her a humorless chuckle. “You have no idea how heartless I am,” she leaned over him, and whispered into his ear, “I will rip your heart out,” she taunted.
He tried to struggle again, but she pressed in with one of her heels, causing a new hole.
Marielle had just round house kicked the second man back, and he’d stumbled, and crashed into a street sign. He wasn’t getting up any time soon.
Austin grinned up at Reyna, mischievously and flicked a brow at her. “Promises, promises,” he replied, and he knew then that the jig was up.
Purposefully moving his left arm, so she’d focus on that, he lifted his broken right hand, stretched all his fingers out, and Marielle, who was free from the other two for a moment, watched in stunned silence as a white pistol with a long barrel materialized in his hand. He struggled with the left, distracting Reyna, and slowly put the gleaming, pearlized gun that had appeared to the back of her head and fired.
Reyna slumped onto him, dead; a spray of blood and brain matter spattering across his face.
He pushed her off him, and stood, using his destroyed gray coat to wipe the blood from his face as he trembled.
Marielle jogged over to him, eyes agape with shock and interest. He attempted to catch his breath, looking her over. She was bleeding from a small cut on her forehead, and he was heavily wounded, but both would survive.
Neither said anything as her eyes went to the pearlized pistol in his hand. It was shimmering like it had scales… like a snake… She put her fingers to her mouth, realizing; the tattoo.
It was at this moment that Chamber and Vincent pulled up in one of the black SUV’s from Valorant.
Vincent spilled out of the driver’s seat and eyed them both for a moment before rushing to Marielle and holding her against him. She held him back, relieved that he was alright, and momentarily forgetting that anything else might be wrong.
He looked her over, gently wiping the stream of blood coming from her forehead away. She pushed his hand back, signaling that she was fine.
Vincent looked between her and Austin, then his eyes fell on the pearlized gun.
Austin turned to the two of them, and as he did, he made a similar motion as before; spreading all his fingers and then twisting them up slightly, and the gun slowly snaked its way back up his arm. He shuddered, closing his eyes, and staggered to the other pistol, picking it up from the ground with a wince and a small groan.
Chamber ran up alongside Vincent and for a moment, no one said anything. So, Chamber went to the two groaning men on the ground; Headhunter out and aimed. He removed both of their helmets. Neither of them was doppelgangers.
Chamber kept his weapon trained on both, and waited.
Marielle had glanced back at him, and he gave her a nod, and a thumbs up as if to say that he had the situation now.
Vincent was breathing puffs of cool air, as he eyed Austin “Who did this to you?” Vincent asked. There was silence for a moment, as Austin winced, and put a hand to his midsection where Reyna had pierced him. A nice stream of red was slowly spilling out. “Who did this to you?” Vincent demanded, again.
Austin smiled ironically, “You did,” he said, flatly. His eyes jumping to Chamber, who everyone knew was who he actually meant.
Marielle narrowed her eyes, then opened them wide. Duh.
Not entirely knowing why, both men drew on each other, and started to circle.
Marielle stood between the two of them, putting her hands up. “Don’t do this,” she whimpered. “Not after everything that’s just happened.”
Vincent stopped briefly, looking Austin over and slightly lowering his gun. Austin did the same, but the moment Vincent saw, they both jerked their weapons back up, trained on one another’s faces again.
Austin started to speak through deep breaths. “Two years ago, I caught up with you in Munich. You captured me. You knew I was coming…”
***
Austin set his shot of whiskey back on the table that he was sitting at, his focus back on Chamber, who was whispering and laughing in the ear of a pretty blonde in the club.
Austin twisted the glass one way, then the other on the table, and checked the time on his wrist watch.
So far, it had been another boring night watching Chamber flirt with five different women.
The club was alive with loud, thumping music, and everything was bathed in red. There were at least five to ten gangsters in here, and Austin couldn’t help but think that he was wasting his time. He could have been asked to watch any of these other well-known criminals, but instead, he was watching Vincent Fabron nibble the ear of some busty party girl.
He felt a pang of jealousy. It’d been a few hours without his fix and he was going to have to start really focusing if he wanted to stay straight. He leaned back with his fingers laced behind his head, and stretched, feeling the relief filled pops down his spine.
It wasn’t helping that this particular club had dancers, four at his last count, all women, all in bikinis. He wasn’t supposed to be watching them, he was supposed to be watching everything that Chamber did.
His note taking later on was going to come out extremely boring. Something to the effect of, “kissed girl’s cheek, then neck, then nibbled her ear, then bla…bla…bla…”
Austin narrowed his eyes. Chamber had slipped her something. The action was almost invisible to the naked eye, but Austin had caught it. It was a folded piece of paper, and Chamber was standing now. He leaned in and whispered something to her, then he vanished into the crowd.
Shit.
Austin was up, and moving. There was an exit door not far from where Chamber had been sitting, and assuredly, that’s where he’d gone. In fact, Austin could see it closing against the doorframe, and he burst out into the alley and the cold night air, drawing his weapon the moment that he was alone out there.
He flagged the area… nothing. He heard footsteps echoing in the silence of the night, and followed them, turning down a corner, which seemed the most likely place to go… nothing. The night was still, the air was cold. “Vincent!” Austin shouted. It echoed.
He heard a snap, and a flurry of sound.
He scanned upward… where was the most likely place that Vincent could have gone? Movement in a dark window above caused him to aim his pistol… but before he could understand what was happening, someone grabbed him from behind and everything went black.
Austin felt like he was underwater… that was what he remembered the most… the pressure in his head. The sounds like everything was far away and, he was in a box.
He quickly realized that the reason that he felt like he was underwater…was because he was.
This became evident as Vincent jerked his head up from the tank… or at least, he had to assume it was Vincent, he never saw him due to the black cloth over his face, but Austin was shirtless (he could tell by the chill against his skin).
He couldn’t move, the drugs he’d been given were quickly wearing off, but he could barely make a limb function. However, he didn’t have much time to register this, as he’d been placed upon a cold, flat surface, and by the time the black cloth was jerked from his face and light from above split his head open, he realized it was an operating table, and he was strapped down. His right arm was strapped out to the side, away from the rest of his body in a position that was impossible to move.
For a moment, he couldn’t see anything except the bright white light blaring down into his eyes, and sounds were still distant and difficult to process. He took a few deep breaths, squinting, and swallowed hard. “Vincent?” he dared. He closed his eyes, and forced himself to breathe deeply. “Vincent?”
“Are you comfortable, mon ami?” A distant, detached voice. He sounded friendly enough.
“I’m as comfortable as you’re going to make me…” Austin heard a metallic whirring noise, and he closed his eyes. “Are you going to kill me, Vincent?”
“I was thinking about something a little more fun,” Vincent retorted. Shadows were becoming more obvious now, and finally, he could see the silhouette of his captor, with a white doctor’s mask over the bottom of his face.
“For you? Or for me?” Austin joked. Both laughed, sardonically.
There was a pause, and Vincent chuckled dismissively. “Oh, Austin… Austin, Austin, Austin Rancor…” He was flipping through Austin’s wallet. “And Joe Bargs, as I see.” He held a card up in front of his face. He chuckled. “We have fun, I think…” another metallic whir sound. “Chasing one another around.”
Austin tried to careen his head to see what Vincent was holding. His head throbbed, the lights were still too bright, and he’d forgotten that he was strapped down. Vincent came and put his gloved hands on Austin’s chest, pushing him back down, “No, no, no, mon ami. Rest. You’re going need your strength for this,” he said and the genuine concern in Vincent’s tone made Austin’s skin crawl more than the thought that Vincent was going to torture him.
“What do you have planned?”
“Something special…” He lifted something that looked like a blow torch and Austin could see sharply pointed flames come from the end.
“You don’t think I’ve ever been tortured before?”
“I think you have.” Vincent met eyes with him, and smiled scathingly, “just not like this.” The flames again. Austin closed his eyes and forced in a deep gulp of air, and another, and another, and each time let them out slowly, focusing his mind. “You’ll do just fine. We’ve been trained in the same way… you’re already preparing. Good. Like I said, you’ll need your strength.” There was a long pause, and Austin detected more mechanical noises. “Where do you go in your mind, my friend?”
Austin had already drifted…
There was a place in his mind that was full of light… bright, orange sunlight, as the failing sun dipped over the mountains in the near distance. He was strolling through tall grass toward a picturesque cottage; a place full of happiness, a place he’d never known.
His grandmother was making something to eat; a pasta dish of some kind. He’d love it, whatever it was.
He breathed deeply as he approached the front door.
There were children inside; his. He’d never know them, but they were still his. He opened the door, and they came at him, arms outstretched, a cheerful, innocent, “Daddy!” on their lips. A lovely girl with long black hair, and a darling little boy. He embraced them both.
Vincent was probably watching his chest rise and fall. “Tell me, mon ami. I want to know.”
“It’s a cottage,” Austin whispered.
“Is your happiness, there, brother?” Vincent asked.
Austin pictured his wife leaning on the doorway, smiling adoringly at him as he wrapped his arms around his children.
His eyes wandered to the Christmas tree that they’d decorated with brilliant white lights.
Austin lifted his hand and made snowflakes for his daughter and she clapped her little hands from his wife’s arms as she bent to pick their daughter up.
“Yes,” he breathed shakily.
“But it doesn’t exist, does it?” Vincent asked. Austin felt himself slipping from the fantasy and his face twisted in emotional anguish. “It never did.” He tried to get his breathing under control. “So, it won’t work…” Vincent added, tauntingly. Austin watched his wife, children, the tree, the cottage, and everything around him melt like crayons left in the sun.
He was breathing sporadically, now. “Awww, Austin.” Vincent tsk tsk’d him. “It was a beautiful image, I’m sure. Something that you want… but will never have.”
Austin took in a pull of air and winced. His head was throbbing. “Where do you go?”
“Me?” he smiled, softly, Austin could see it in his eyes, behind the glasses. “It changes as my life changes. Right now, I go to a place that I only knew as a boy.”
Austin was panting. “Tell me about it?”
“Hmmm,” Vincent said, then he lifted a tool, checking its functionality. “There was a little village on the edge of my city…” He began calmly, as if he was telling a toddler a bedtime story. And this was the first moment when Austin felt searing pain on his flesh, his right arm, all along his wrist. He clenched his teeth, and sucked air, but in the end, it just turned into a wail. Vincent stopped, “They used to cover it with lights during the Christmas season. Imagine, Austin… White snow, lit with dim yellow lights hanging on the cutest little stone houses, and along cobblestone pathways.” Austin was whimpering, gritting his teeth. The pain began again. “When I was nine or ten, I can’t remember,” he spoke over Austin’s screams, “my mother would take a break from her…job and we’d go to this place for Christmas. She always saved up money for just this,” Vincent stopped the pain, but it lingered, hot and sizzling. Austin could smell his own skin cooking. He was crying. Vincent came over him, running his gloved hands through his hair, “Shhh, shhh, it’s okay. You will find the end. I’ve already done this, mon ami.” Austin didn’t know what he meant. He slid back to the table with the tools, and again, he began the ceaseless torture. Again, Austin was screaming. “My mother, she would go all out. We had a room in this little inn, parfait. Fireplace, hot chocolate, delicious.” He paused for a moment again. “Are you okay?” Austin just cried. “I’m sorry that you have nowhere to go, my friend. Dig… Dig deep, you’ll find it. You can do it.”
“Am I supposed to think you’re helping me?” He ground out between his teeth.
“Think however you want… Learn.” Again, the pain returned as did his terrible sounds. “We grow from hardship, Austin. I watched my father die a slow, painful death; it taught me things. This is teaching you now.” Austin felt himself start to shiver, and he became concerned for a new reason… not the pain… what the pain was doing. He was being burned. He tried to cool himself with his powers, but Vincent had given him something that was suppressing most of that, and the little that he could create couldn’t stop the pain for long- moments if that. If his skin were burned away, he’d die from infection before too long.
“Infection…” he panted.
“Don’t worry, Austin. There will be no infection. I’ve taken care of everything,” Vincent said gently, and again, he combed through Austin’s hair tenderly, like a true friend. “Where was I…” He continued his story over Austin’s excruciating screams. He paused again, “You have to learn to be grateful, Austin, or you won’t get through anything, least of all this.” The whirring began again.
***
Everyone was frozen, shocked. Except Chamber, of course- his and Austin’s eyes locked.
Austin shook his head, and grinned, wildly; darkly, “I like the way you torture, man,” he said, and both he and Vincent still had their weapons trained on one another. “Fifteen days… fifteen days you turned me into your canvas. You didn’t even ask me any questions.” Austin shook his head, unbelieving, “You were slow…methodical…intimate. When I was breaking down, you comforted me,” he reminded. Chamber nodded, knowing. “Gave me food and water, and strengthened me with your words. I had to rely on you for everything. You created that bond in my mind that you knew was so important… that trust. I knew you were going to hurt me and what it would feel like every hour, and you knew how I would respond. Then you gave me comfort, food, relief, and made me trust you,” he grinned wryly. “You completely broke me…” Marielle swallowed, listening. “And they say I’m cold hearted.” Austin shrugged and reholstered his pistol. “At the end of the fifteen days, you loosened my straps, and left. But before you did, you said, ‘struggle a little, Austin, you’ll get free.’ I asked you what you’d done to me and you said, ‘Don’t fret, mon ami… I’ve given you a gun. Use it well.” He squeezed his fingers into a palm, then Austin slowly lifted both hands in surrender. “I spent the next week blind drunk trying to forget what you did to me… trying to unhear my own screams, and stop smelling my own skin.” He chuckled back tears. “But the torture continued,” he whispered. “As you know… what this feels like,” he hissed. He put both hands behind his head, surrendering.
Marielle turned to Chamber, “Why would you do that to him?” She asked, confused.
Vincent eventually straightened and dropped Headhunter as well as it also returned to his body.
Chamber was still aiming at the two men on the ground. He remembered all of this, well. “What part? The torture? Or the gun?”
“All of it,” Marielle said, glowering at Chamber.
Chamber smirked as he stared Austin down. “Just showing him who’s in charge.” He let that sink in for a moment. Austin looked down. “I created that bond because of what he said,” Chamber grinned. “To make him trust me. To break him… and because I could. But also,” he smiled, “because I care.” Austin shook his head, rolling his eyes. “The snake? Well… that was just me calling it as it is.” Everyone eyed Austin’s arm for a moment. His jacket was covering it, but they all knew what lay there. “That’s no ordinary snake, mon ami. That’s an albino boa constrictor.” Austin met eyes with him, not understanding, “You squeeze the life out of everyone that wants to love you.” Austin looked down. “And why did I keep him alive, and give him a gun?”
“Because he’s worthy,” Vincent finished for him. He and Chamber exchanged looks…the same look. They nodded at one another.
“Worthy?” Marielle asked.
“Oui,” Chamber said. “He’s a worthy opponent. He’s good at his job. Dedicated, loyal. It’s too bad, really that he is… such a snake.”
“There’s no way he can take that out?” Marielle asked compassionately.
Chamber shrugged a shoulder, “He could cut his arm off…” A slow, sardonic smile crossed over Chamber’s mouth, “but we all know how much he likes that hand.”
Austin rolled his eyes, and looked down at the ground between them, silence was his go to for these kinds of quips. “Here’s the thing,” Austin seethed. “He only gave me…two bullets.”
“Oui. One for me…” he smiled, wryly, “And one for you.”
They all stood in stunned silence.
“I’ll find you all soon,” Chamber said, and he turned, and walked away. A few feet from them all, a bus rattled by, and as it did, they all heard the snap, and the familiar flurry of colorful sounds. When the bus had cleared, Chamber was gone.
Marielle turned to Vincent. “You… You helped him, didn’t you?” she stammered, remembering that Austin had described Chamber as disappearing into a window in the alley, and then he was behind him. This didn’t make any sense.
Vincent nodded, slowly. “Yes.” He replied. “But I didn’t know what Chamber was doing. I only helped him capture Austin.”
Austin sighed and looked up at the both. “I think there are more important things to worry about,” he sighed as the two other SUVs pulled up, and when they did, Marielle understood what had happened earlier as Liam exited the first one from the driver’s seat, and went to the back where he lifted the trunk, and cradled Tala’s dead body, holding her close for a moment as if hugging her. She was limp, and lifeless over Liam’s big arms.
Marielle looked like nothing had registered quite yet. Then she went to her knees. “Oh no,” she whispered. “Oh no!” She cried. Then she collapsed in on herself, crying into the cobblestone. “Tala!”
Austin and Vincent both came to her side, so did Han from the second SUV. They all had their hands on her back as she sobbed, and eventually Vincent picked her up like he was carrying his new bride and took her down the street and back to the rental. Han trailed closely behind.
Austin followed, slowly but Kirra ran up to him, looking him over. He was in shock when she gave him a hug, but allowed it for a moment feeling whatever emotion that she was as well, and as she held him briefly, she healed him from all the punctures, breaks and bruises.
He sighed with relief and quietly thanked her.
When a dull eyed Mateo came up alongside of him and Kirra, Austin put his arm around the young man’s shoulders, squeezed, and urged him forward, down the street.
Once the SUVs were parked, and the streets were silent again, another dark figure wandered down the space that the team had just occupied.
First, he slowly walked up to Reyna’s body and lifting his steel toed right boot, he rammed into her ribs, then again, and a last time.
Her entire body jerked, but she was definitely dead. He wouldn’t miss her. Then he strolled up to the two men that they’d left behind, broken, bleeding, and half alive, and without so much as a word, he unsheathed his knife, slit both of their throats, watching both men bleed out on the sidewalk. They’d failed…useless.
Then, standing, he removed his helmet, and Tundra took in a deep pull of frigid air which cooled his sweat streaked, black makeup blotched face.
He leaned against a lamppost, crossing his arms, and staring at the back of the parade now long down the cobblestone road. His eyes fixated on Austin – his double – for many long moments, arms around both Kirra and Mateo.
An older feminine voice fuzzed into his ear, “Leave them alone. Don’t take any chances tonight. The fight’s over.”
Tundra took his knife out and pressed it to the tip of his pointer finger. His blade was hungry… so was he. Twirling it, he drew blood. He put it to his mouth and sucked the red fluid straight from his skin, then swallowed. “Besides, I need you for tomorrow.” Tundra sniffed again, noting his shaking hand, and nodded. “Sweetness…” the voice concluded in a syrupy tone.