Chapter Thirteen – Look Up

Wildness pulsed beneath his skin. Wanton need swept through me in a dizzying rush, my knees threatening to give out like I was some damsel in distress. A large palm pressed into my lower back, my body bowing beneath his as he responded to that tentative kiss.

The other hand knotted in that hair at the nape of my neck, a thrill running through me at the pull at my scalp, the roughness of the beast stirring. His chest was lined with mine, his palm pushing into my back as if trying to extinguish every possibility of space between us.

The scent of the Lycan, the feel of him seemed to permeate my body, rooting under my skin as I shudder at the feel of him, the heat of his mouth against mine. My fingers found his body, skimming up a thick arm and across a broad shoulder. They delved into a dark hair, and an appreciative rumble shook the Lycan's body, that holding tightening on me.

Then, he was turning us so that my back was against the cold stone of the wall. I barely had time to marvel at the strength of his arms as he hoisted me up; I wasn't a small woman by any means – and I found myself baring an almost violent smile as I laced my legs around him.

His lips left mine for a moment, those cyan eyes watching my face for something. I only stared back, my breath quickening at the rush of emotion running through me; it was utterly powerful, the scent of him threatening to pull me into a heady trance. I didn't understand, why I wanted those hands on my bare skin, I wanted to feel him with my own.

I felt his lips on my jaw, a nip to my ear that made me jump.

"I like you, Lycan..." My tone was almost taunting as that mouth trailed down. And I let him – I let him tilt my chin back so that I stared up at the slit of sky visible between the two buildings, my chest heaving. My skin seems to burn where his mouth trails; my stomach knotting, my legs tightening around him as if his beast was under my skin, urging me with an intensity that should have scared me.

Did all couples feel this?

I never had before – not this maddening need.

A hand tugged at my hair more insistently, the press of his teeth against my pulse as he smiled. "I like you too, little thief."

A nip to my pulse, before he pulled back. A large hand smoothed back my hair in a surprisingly tender gesture that didn't belong to the Lycan male who kissed so darkly, so deeply. As if I was something to be dealt with carefully, to be cherished.

I found that I liked this male's attention. Like I was a preening cat basking in the gentle strokes of an adoring human; a woman meant to be adored.

My hands skimmed down the back of his neck, over those broad shoulders as a dangerously delicious feeling settled in the pit of my stomach. I may have been stuck with these strangers...and Luca... but if I was here, I might as well indulge in the attentions of this male. Then, when the time came, I could cut the cord and fly into the sunset.

I nearly snorted at that. A happy ending for you Lilia – I wished. I didn't imagine growing old or being lucky enough to find a partner who accepted me, Seren, my scars and my brothers. My death would come when I was young, at the hands of someone else. A job gone wrong, an accident with Seren.

It was a sad outlook on life, but it was mine.

But the Lycan wasn't looking at me like I was a cord to be cut when the maddening rush was done. A hand still held my hip softly, cyan eyes flickering over the features of my face with a softness that struck me.

"You are a strange male, Lycan."

The corners of his mouth quirked as he let out a soft rumble of a laugh. "We are perfectly matched then, Lilia, because you are a strange female."

I looked over him, my body slipping from his touch. His expression tightened, but I threw him a grin over my shoulder. "Come and spend some money with me."

Cyan eyes fixed on the small pouch I held up and my laughter bounced between the walls of the alleyway at the surprised look that crossed his face. A hand fell to his hip, only then realising that the insignificant weight was long gone.

"You're easy prey, Lycan." I called back as I strode back into the light and laughter of the festival. A snarl rasped behind me, not one of malice but an issue of a challenge I was more than happy to take up.

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"I've seen those scars on your arm." A heavy body plopped down beside me on the stone wall, spearing me with a look I knew and recognised too well.

I didn't deign him with a look, biting into the buttered pastry that I had bought with Aden's money. I was playing a game with the Lycan; letting him see me for a moment, taunting him in the crowd before I was gone again. It was the most fun I had in days. That and nearly dying from a mysterious venom.

"Have you tried these pastries?" I asked. "They're quite delicious. I also bought a pair of throwing knives from that nice mer-man over there. I think he was trying to seduce me."

Luca blinked, confused for a moment. In truth, the mer-man had recognised me. From the accidental flash of my tattoo, or the tone of my voice when I questioned him about his wares. He had been on the quays that faithful afternoon when I raged through the market unfolding that were selling mer-people like one sold cattle.

They had been a gift, a thanks for the life of freedom I had given him.

A broad hand caught my wrist, gentle but insistent. "Lilia, you did not have those scars when I left."

I met the eyes that looked just like mine; the dark hue of blue, the dark blond hair. We even had the same dimples, though his nose was stronger than mine. I had so much love for him, but over that was a layer of bitterness so strong that I couldn't resist driving the blade in deeper.

"I was engaged to Bashkar," I drew my wrist from him, staying there to watch him go still.

He mouthed the word 'Bashkar', muttered that bastard's name back to me as a question as if I didn't remember who that monster was. Then Luca's expression crumpled in horror, his agony calling out to me like a phantom feeling, a sort of telepathy between us that had been there since the moment we came into the world only minutes apart.

"Lilia," A cry hardened his throat, and even I was surprised by the tears in his eyes. "Not Bashkar."

"You remember Bashkar and what he was like, but you didn't even remember your sister's face." I stood. "I was engaged to Bashkar, considered his property. You know what that meant."

We had even talked about it before, pitied the poor women he paid coin to spend the night with. They feared his step in the whore-house, feared the dark intent of his stare. He would not touch me like that before we married, but everyone knew that when he went hunting, he took too long to end the animal's pain, and relished to pro-long the suffering of a dying man who dared to try and raid the town.

I may have only been left guessing why the women in the brothel stared so blankly at the walls when he was done with them, but I knew too much about the extent of his fascination with stretching the human body to its pain limit, of his love of pleading and crying. He was only ever scolded when he beat me so badly that I could not see for days because of the swelling in my eyes, my ribs broken, and my hair left matted by my own blood. Three long scars had been added that time and I was not able to move, to dress or bathe myself for a solid month.

A month free of his touch.

Father came to see me once. Once – and believed Meredith's words that I had fallen off an erratic horse even though the bruising around my neck was shaped like fingers. I didn't bother crying out to him; I never fought back then.

Thinking it left an expression on my face, a ghost of the fear and pain I had suffered during those years. All to protect the baby half-brother born to that witch. One who died despite my efforts. Luca rose silently, brushing the tears that wetted my cheeks softly.

"Lilia..."

I snapped back to the present, my lips curling into a sneer. "Would you have come to the wedding, dear brother? And lamented that your darling sister was marrying a monster. I got myself out, I survived. If I hadn't, I would have married to him for nearly five years. If he let me live that long after I gave him a child to carry on his line."

"Lilia, I never knew."

"You never came back to check on me. Clearly my letters never reached you, but you should have worried. I would never have not written to you."

Written to him. When I wrote the first letter asking him to rescue me, I waited the number of weeks it should have taken him to return. Then I sat by the door every day and waited to see his horse on the horizon. Thinking about it now, Meredith most likely never let them leave the house. She would have read them, and laughed at the pleading, the heart I poured into those letters as I told him how horrible it was without him, about the agony both she and Bashkar put me through.

A flash of silver caught my attention. Seconds later, my own blade was in my palm and I hurtled it towards the figure weaving his way towards us. It buried into his upper chest and he reeled back with a muffled gasp.

Someone in the crowd screamed as I lunged for the assassin. The sword hidden under the fold of my cloak gleamed in the sunlight as it emerged, the tip flicking to the man's bobbing throat.

"What's the reason someone wants to kill me this time? Did I burn down your town, steal your family's fortune. Did I insult your ugly face in a drunken brawl? That seems more likely"

Civilians scrambled to escape but three figures began to ghost towards me, their cloaks drawing back in unison. I snorted, driving the tip of my blade into the downed man's throat.

"I didn't know assassins were so dramatic these days." I jeered at them, watching as they spread out evenly. There was something familiar about their faces, in the tread of their step.

"You are going to die today." The woman called back confidently.

"People say that to me everyday and they always lie." My fingers flexed on the hilt of my blade, my other arm shimmying slightly to loosen the throwing blade secured under the sleeve. "I hate it when people disappoint me."

"As cocky as always." The smaller of the men scoffed. "Parading around Blue like you're better than us."

I raised my brows. "I am better than you."

The pieces were falling into place. Blue- they knew me, and I recognised their faces somehow. "You're dissenters, aren't you? Those who don't agree with the word of the Sage?"

"It took you long enough," the woman snapped.

I pinned her with a look, moving softly to keep an eye on them. "Well how am I supposed to realise who you are if you don't announce yourself? You aren't the first to try and kill me, and you won't be the last."

"Lilia..." Luca began to move forward to stand by my side. "Be caref—"

A blade sliced through the air and into the shorter man's throat. At his surprised gasp and the subsequent cry of disbelief by his darling companions, I struck.

This day was turning out brilliantly.

I met the woman first because she was the closest to me. My blade caught hers, dragging it into an arc before I booted her in the chest when it was exposed and sent her reeling. I threw myself back as the second assassin struck. He was olive-skinned, his eyes dark and serious. Who was he?

He met me with more skill, his moves honed by only one person.

"You're here for Sage." I gasped as he sliced downwards, laughing then when it missed me by millimetres. I loved this dance of flashing blades, where death was seconds away all-the time.

There was the turn of a foot on the cobbled ground before the woman was leaping at me, screaming. I caught her blow, snarling as the weight of it bent my wrist back and forced my fingers to fly open.

"Now this is fun!" I taunted, diving for the first stall I saw.

Fruit flew through the air and the man glared at me, batting it away as the woman began to sprint towards me. Only for a broad body to step between us, a massive broadsword sweeping towards her. Unstoppable, as was the strength of the man wielding it.

"You are merely a lap-dog, Blue. Once you go down, the Sage will have to avenge you. And don't think we won't deal with that scaled pet of yours too."

In an instant, all mirth was gone. My smile died, the apple in my hand thudding to the ground as coldness, like icy water, filtered through my veins. This wasn't the Lilia who laughed during a brawl, who wished for trouble just to make the day exciting. This was the criminal who destroyed a town to free slaves, who had dragged a hatchling through the wilds when both were close to starvation. The desperate girl who owed everything to that dragon and her brothers.

Anger was a coursing waterfall inside of me, uncontrollable and shattered bones and boats at the bottom.

The stool behind the stall I assumed that vendor had been sitting on was heaved out as the second assassin lunged. In a move I had almost perfected after drunken brawls turned into malicious violence, the blade caught between the legs on the seat of the stool and I twisted it, sending his blade skittering across the ground.

A wolf's smile met the flicker of his surprised look

We met each other in grappling limbs; there was no grace, no poise in the rage that clashed together, the muscles straining against the other. A palm clubbed me in the cheek, the heel striking, making me reel back. Blinking as I stumbled back, I twisted on my heel and felt the second blow whistle past me.

I drove the heel of my foot into the back of his knee and he stumbled with that knee. My arm slung around his neck as I spotted the Lycan approaching in the distance. With my muscles heaving and a hand trying to pull at my arm, I broke the attacker's neck and let his body sag to the floor. No sooner had that body dropped then I saw the woman's slim figure darting away.

Luca's hand was on his torso, his breath leaving him in a rush.

"Bitch!" I snarled.

Safe in the knowledge that the others were coming, I took off after the woman. Legs pumped, blood roaring as I stretched my body out. My height gave me an advantage in this situations, my body ruthlessly trained by the Sage to move quickly and efficiently through towns.

She darted down a dark alleyway, but I angled to go upwards, vaulting up onto a stack of closed boxes a vendor had left against the stone wall. I scrambled up onto the roof, making sure to keep to the point of the roof of the two storey building.

"Never follow a fleeing enemy into the darkness, Blue." I heard Sage's voice as he pressed the hilt of a very sharp blade to my throat. It had been a training exercise where I had tried following him down an alleyway when I was tasked with tracking him. "It gives them places to hide, to cut your throat when you think you're following their path."

I scrambled up the wall of the next house, set higher than the one I was running on. Even though my chest was heaving faster, I felt the addictive pulse of adrenaline coursing through me. I caught flashes of the woman running; to be fair to her, she didn't hesitate, didn't pause as she hurtled through the narrow winding streets.

Her mistake was to never look up.

I had been turned to Seren's mind-set, to attack from above. People looked where they walked, where they placed their feet and to the darkened corners. Only the dreamers, the wonderers looked up to the sky. I vaulted between the narrow slivers of space, delighted at the chance to stretch my legs and thankful that the day was hot and the slated rooves were dry.

The Lycan howled in the distance- a hunting call that instead of frightening me, a shiver of anticipation rang through me. You are not taking my prey,

Then she ran into a dead-end. A high wall I could have scaled but she froze, chest heaving like a rabbit spotting a fox. I dropped down behind her, my body straightening as she turned to face me.

"Who sent you?" I asked. "What little snake heads the movement now?"

She sought a way out. She knew not to plead; Bluetail was not one who showed mercy easily. Especially when her brothers were threatened.

"We are going to kill Sage and those rest of the Rainier thieves."

"Are you stupid?" Was this why Sage always did the questioning. I just tended to insult them which made them angry, then I got angrier and it ended up being this cess-pit of rage. "What kind of power-hungry move is this?"

"The Sage's time is over. We are go—"

"I am bored talking to you," I hissed out, my gaze cold and my mind focusing on only one thing. Crushing the rats that threatened my brother.

"You don't have your brothers to help you now, do you Bluetail?"

My smile was all teeth, my approach easy as if we were friends coming to greet each other. "I don't need my brothers to kill you. I don't even need a sword."

She lunged as I did, a hiss strangling her cry. I moved away fluidly, hands raised and my eyes tracking her only as she came at me again. I side-stepped her again and kept doing so as she riled herself up like a bull. I tracked that rise of anger, how frustrated she was getting that she couldn't catch me. Pure strength was never my skill; the ability to move fast and fluid was.

Then, a hand snapped out quicker than I anticipated. It struck me across the face, hard and brutal and my head snapped to the side.

She paused, shocked. As if she never thought she would lay a hand on Bluetail; my person was not a myth, but my name was. It was the same with the Sage, with Red, with Beryl and all the others.

I just laughed. A dark mirth stirred inside me, my attention falling to her as I cupped that cheek. It was going to bruise, maybe my eye would swell. A wound of a petty fight. The laughing unsettled her; giving her a glimpse into why the Rainier thieves worked so well together – we were a collection of maniacal, broken people.

I struck in that moment of hesitation, the heel of my open palm striking hard and fast. Instead of hesitating like she did, I moved in again. Fingers grabbed her head tight, slamming it down onto my rising knee. I felt her nose crack under the impact, her cry a scrambled thing as blood seeped onto my path. I tossed her back.

I played with her like a cat would a mouse, teasing her before battering her again. Watching her coolly, assessing the mistakes she made that Sage had painfully, meticulously smoothened out from me. She got struck me only twice again, a bruising blow to the ribs and the last one to the shoulder bandaged and raw from the Draxi.

Snarling, the control, the careful battering down of the enemy broke and I struck her across the jaw before grabbing a fistful of her hair and driving her face into the wall. She wailed, screeching at the first blow before I rammed her head into the wall again. Again.

She stopped twitching, her chest still and I let go of her blood drenched hair and let that body fall to the ground. Nausea rose inside of me at the splatter of blood against the wall and I stepped away from the body gingerly, giving her a snarl that she certainly couldn't see now.

A shadow of a man stood behind me as I turned.

I had not heard him approach; I was beginning to think this man was a soul encased in shadow, as soundless as the night.

Ailbrich and I stared at each other silently. There was no condemnation for it, no disgust as he looked at the body. He just inclined his chin as an acknowledgement of something before turning his head to watch the three others approach.

Luca was slow, wheezing as he approached but under his tunic, there was a bulk of bandages. The Lycan's eyes flashed over the scene, a growl settling in his chest, but he didn't look at me in disgust. One word was uttered as they looked at me, bloodied and calm.

"Bluetail."

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