A Bump in the Road. Chapter Seventeen.
A Bump in the Road
Chapter Seventeen
By Roofles
"Room service?" I squeaked as the door flung open and I found myself standing exposed in it. I almost covered myself as if someone had wallked in on me in the restroom.
Yue Ling lifted an eyebrow and Varric looked more amused than he was letting on. Marco didn't even blink and he had a facade look to his eyes, staring off into space as if lost in deep thought. Of course I knew otherwise. Marco barely had a few thoughts let alone anything deep to think about. He put more effort into thinking of which hamburger to order than he did about any kind of life choices to make. He was an impulsive guy that did things without much thought. Always had been.
"My, my." Yue Ling said pleasantly, her words as sweet as honey and just as intoxicating. "And here I was afraid I'd have to go and get you. Please, come in. Have a seat and join us for tea, won't you?" She lifted up a hand and with a single finger beckoned me.
My feet were moving even before my brain could catch up. A seat moved as if on it's own accord, I saw a fox tail slipping back under the desk as Yue Ling took a seat on the other side. My leg stepped over the fallen body of Big Bennie. I was about to sit down when I stopped.
"Isaac," Tezca said still in the doorway. He looked like he was wincing in pain and was gripping the ground tightly. With a powerful roar he swiped a hand through the air and a sound like glass shattering echoed around us. The jaguar moved quickly before circling around in front of me and with his back pushed me away from the seat, glaring coldly at the woman. "Don't listen to her words." He said with a snarl, jowls lifted and the back of his fur rising higher. Tezca actually looked afraid.
Her eyes were slitted like a cat and her gaze focused on the large jaguar rubbing against my legs until I took a few steps back. Those lovely gray eyes looking back up at me and I felt an invisible tug to move closer to them, to reach out and touch that opal skin of hers and just...
"Please, now. Don't be so rude. You come into my work, my office and can't even join me for tea that I offer for you?" She motioned over towards Varric. I couldn't see her hands in the open, long sleeve pink kimono she wore. She had a Korean accent but she was fluent in English. She spoke better than I did.
Varric gave her a cold look. "Get it yourself, witch." And my mind sluggishly began to process that she had asked the black cat to get tea for them.
"Actually you meant Bitch." I corrected and the corner of the black cat's face lifted in a smile but made no other sign he had heard me never fully taking his large golden eyes off the fox woman.
"All I wish to do is offer the emblematic olive branch of peace." Yue Ling folded her hands down on the desk in front of her and stared not at Tezca but me. And once more it felt like someone had poured cold water, ice cubes and all, down my back. And there was an unfathomable urge to move closer to her.
"What for?" I shot letting my anger keep me from losing myself to those words. It was harder than it looked and I had to dig my nails into my palm to keep from being lost in them.
"Your brother has told me so much about you," her voice was heavenly and a hand reached up, still hidden in that pink kimono, and scratched the bottom of my brothers rugged chin. Marco bent down, far over, so that her touch could reach him. And a part of me felt jealous that it wasn't me and a larger part of me just felt sick. "I just had to meet you." She withdrew her hand as quickly as she had moved it and I could see her eyes dance with glee as she made me watch, treating my brother like some common dog.
"Probably nothing good." I scoffed looking over at my brother and hoping to make eye contact. Make him see me, snap out of this but he still just looked down with a blank empty look to his eyes. Was there no way to snap him out of it?
"It would have to be an intense shock to his system to bring him out of it?" I heard Tezca growl, a sound in the back of my mind only I could hear.
Like an electric shock?
Tezca didn't answer focusing everything on the fox woman who was watching us with those smokey gray eyes a smiling tugging at her face.
Yue Ling had to be wearing make up. No face could be so perfectly white, unblemished with full rose red lips and thin eyebrows, soft features looking more like a doll than anything else. Her black hair was up in a bun and twin adorned chop sticks holding it in place. She looked too real, if that made sense. Normal people had moles, blemishes, dimples, crows feat, hairy lips, nose hair, uni-brows but she, this woman, looked flawless. And as such fake. Like a supermodel that got one too many plastic surgeries.
"I know," she chuckled covering her mouth politely with one of her hidden hands. "Men can never resist my charms."
"Don't speak for everyone." Varric glared and then, as if forgetting I was there, began addressing something else. "Will you help or not? I have places to be, things to plot, naps to take. I do not have time to humor you with your...disturbing hobbies." At this he looked up at Marco.
Yue Ling lost any trace of amusement and glared over at him. Varric had some balls not flinching away from those eyes. "Yes. We will conduct our business after this is settled." She said her voice dripping with content that her game had been disturbed.
Without missing a beat Varric glared back, challengingly. "I do not have time to watch you play with Cumins."
"You mean Humans." Me, Yue Ling and Tezca said. Varric's ear twitched but there wasn't any sign otherwise that he had noticed he had misspoken again.
"What does an ex-Gatekeeper have to do that's so important." She smirked as Varric ears folded back and I could swear he was muttering a curse at her. Picking at some old wound it would seem, Yue Ling taking a sickening enjoyment from Varric's suffering.
"I chose to leave." Varric said a bit too softly, defensively. "And if you can't help me just say so. I will not be strung along like a muppet."
"Puppet." I corrected.
"Very well, very well." She sighed, shaking her head. "Men are such dissatisfied creatures. Always so impatient. Always wanting more. Never taking the time to smell the roses." She opened her desk and pulled out a small black book. Something that you would write phone numbers in.
Getting up she moved over towards the wall where an ugly painting of a golden meadow rested perfectly centered in the middle of the wall. Wheat grew up high as far as the eye could see in the painting, blowing softly in the wind. Trees, a possible forest, rested on both sides of the long stretch looking like a yellow road flowing into the horizon during a sunny, cloudless day. It was almost peaceful to look at. It didn't fit his place.
She moved it to the side and a large safe was behind it. Opening the book she muttered to herself as she found what she was looking for and began undoing the combo. I could see long russet brown tails dragging behind her on the floor as if they were cords to a computer someone forgot to undo as the carried it away. Each one was lifeless. I could count Nine in all.
I didn't dare move and Tezca was on edge the whole time. Some part of me knew that she was watching, waiting for me to make a mistake and give her an excuse to finish me off right there and then. And even if I drew my gun on her I knew she had no openings as if she were the one tense and on alert as Tezca was.
A minute went by and I swore she made a mistake on purpose. That or the fact she was using the outside of the kimono to use on the dial was far more difficult than she was letting on. As if to use her bare hands were beneath her. The lock clicked open then and the door swung open.
Piles of money, most likely won from gambling, were stacked up neatly in all the corners. Earnings from The Pit. In the light I could see a sparkle of gold coins, rubies and other things you would see as currency years and years ago. In the center was a black bead. It could fit in the palm of my hand. The very light around the bead seemed to be devoured by its surface and everything around it, even as the fox woman picked it up, seemed to be shrouded in that darkness seeping from it.
"As agreed." She said pulling the bead free and shutting the safe. She took an almost disturbing care with putting the picture back into place, spending a needless amount of time to make sure it was straight and perfect.
I saw Varric motion with his dragon headed staff and with a soft pop the bead flew out of her hand and into his. He wrapped it in a piece of transparent silk several times until the darkness was sealed and pocketed it, ignoring the fanged scowl the woman gave him.
"As agreed. I let your men use the gate to come and go as they pleased. You have paid the price. Our business is concluded." Varric said professionally and moved for the door.
The door behind me slammed shut and I found Tezca quickly pushing me out of the way so I wasn't standing between the black cat and fox woman.
"Why?" She covered her face with a hand glaring at him as she gave him an ugly look. "Why must men be so annoying? I only wish to talk, chat and discuss things." Behind her I could see the tails twitching, moving and beginning to snake out throughout the floor spreading out over the carpet.
"Is that why you tried to kill Barney?" I found myself speaking up, jumping on the first thing that came to mind. If it was me, Tezca and Varric we might be able to get out of this alive.
Varric's ear twitched and stood up, swiveling towards me. He didn't move otherwise but there was something in his posture that told me he wasn't aware of what happened in his shop. The cat was dressed in a loose, trench coat like black robe with a dark emerald green black silk under shirt and pants you would see in Aladdin. He wasn't wearing shoes but had silver bracelets on his ankles, wrists and bar bells pierced through his ears. And in his hand was a black stone like staff with a serpent curled around the end of it. He was dressed to conduct business but also in case something happened. The only reason why you would wear such easy moving clothing in case you had too.
"Wreaking his shop, nearly killing his assistant and for what? That he was a guy?" I pushed trying to get the cat to react. If only to make sure he wasn't going to turn on me, might as well redirect him towards our common foe. "Bewitching him and ordering him to kill anyone that came into the shop? Planning to double cross him were we?"
Varric glared at the woman and raised his staff up a bit.
Then all hell broke loose.
Several of those tails shot out like snakes lashing out with pointed tip instead of fangs. Four of them crashed into some unseen force in front of the cat, hitting the barrier and bouncing off in random angles. Each of the tails stopped in mid bounce before trying to encircle and and trap, ensnare the cat within them. The tails were far longer than they appeared that was for sure and far stronger.
A loud pop sounded and I only now realized I had pulled my gun, aimed it and shot at the woman. I'm not a killer and I hated firing on woman. My shot hit just above her shoulder making her withdraw a bit.
A roar sounded and flesh ripped off of Marco's body and a large obsidian fur wolf the size of a bear charged at me in the already small room. Bulldozing over anything in his path.
Tezca was up in front of me nearly the same size as Marco now and the two forces crashed against each other like thunder. Claws and teeth flew in all directly and the two beasts began to fighting. Like real fighting. Something you see on the discovery channel type of stuff. A viscous onslaught of blow and blows, teeth snapping, nails flying and a sound like animals fighting filled the room. Snarling, growling, barking and hissing.
The cat had forced the wolf back and the two were pacing around each other, breaking the shelves, cabinets, desk and anything else that got in their way. Each with teeth bared, fur raised and low deepening growls. Tezca made sure to keep me behind him as the monstrous canine growled, snarled and practically foamed at the mouth teeth bared and fur standing up and snapping teeth at us like a dog on a chain trying to bite the mail man.
Marco moved first. A big mistake, I blame it on him being enchanted, not in his right mind. But damn if he didn't deserve it. A quick several swipes of his paw forced the wolf back as Tezca lashed out. Blood was drawn and splattered on the floor. His nails dripping blood, large gash marks on the wolf's face.
I fired once more hitting my own brother square in the chest as he leapt, not at Tezca, but me. Like a machine only following the order it was given, to kill the one her had shot at Yue Ling. In other words me. Ignoring the large cat and going for the kill even at the cost of his own life.
It hit him hard in the chest and it slowed his pounce, if only a little bit. Jaws clamped down on his leg making the wolf howl in pain and with a mighty swing, Tezca smashed Marco against the side wall. Breaking it in but not smashing him through the wall. This wasn't hollywood after all.
Directly next to me Varric was holding Yue Ling at bay. I could smell singed fur as the tails continued to wrap tighter and tighter like boa constrictions around Varric's shield. Then they withdrew quickly and where an invisible wall had been a smoldering fire had formed on the other layer, like oil fire on water. And the heat pouring off it nearly burned my arm hairs off.
There was a loud snarl and the once beautiful Yue Ling was now a monstrous looking woman. Still stunningly breathtaking, launch a thousand ships kind of alluringly attractive; yet her face, primarily her mouth, had ripped open to reveal far too many pointed teeth. Something you would see inside a shark rather than a woman - though the metaphor wasn't lost on me. Why was all the woman who wanted me ended up being soul sucking fiends from hell? I could never catch a break.
My gun popped once more as her mouth ripped open to reveal those teeth, fear and dread filling me as some primal part of me screamed out to fire. Any kind of charm she had over me was gone now that was for sure.
My shot rang true and hit her, hard, in the side. She moved back, tails withdrawing with her and she huddled against the wall holding her side. Apparently a fox woman wasn't invulnerable like a werewolf brother was.
I didn't even see Marco move, my focus trained on the demon fox woman, until his arm had grabbed mine. And all my focus was on the wolf. And I was all too aware of it snapping under his monstrous grip. I think I screamed out but my voice was silence by an even louder roar as Tezca's jaws, who had pounced onto his back at this point, sunk in even deeper and tore a massive junk out of his shoulder. In the same motion clawing at his face and giving him a powerful shove with his sturdy short legs against the wall once more.
My gun dropped to my side as my right arm hung useless, dangling next to me as I stumbled by already feeling myself go into shock. I tried to calm myself, relax as I moved away from the two massive possibly larger than bears sized creature continue to fight. Their wounds were bright as day on their bodies. The red standing out like a bright sign through Tezca's tawny yellow fur and Marco's obsidian black. Tezca seemed to be covered in only Marco's blood. And Marco looked like he had seen better days. Dog's with mange looked better than he did.
My foot hit something as I held my arm trying to just back away and I found myself falling backwards before furry arms wrapped around me. I looked back, not to see Varric, but fox tails entwined around my legs and arms and pulling me back and away with them. I couldn't struggle as I drew closer, more tails seemed to appear from nowhere to shoot out against the cat who was barely holding his own at this point.
Tezca was busy holding Marco off, Varic the fox tails and I?
I found myself face to face with the fox woman.
"My, my. Such a naughty boy." She purred against my face, her mouth slowly turning back to normal as she spoke the lips sealing shut as if being stitched back together. "I'm going to enjoy feasting on your liver." Not the best pick up line I've ever gotten. And then her lips open and a cool breath washed over me and like a hookah I found myself almost giggling as a inner warmth filled me. Making my fingers and toes tingle and all my pain and worry, doubt and fear fade away to be filled with the intoxicating sweetness of her voice.
Fingers pressed against my lower stomach and I could feel nails digging into my skin slowly. I knew it was painful but I didn't feel a thing as I looked into those smokey eyes and listening to her say sweet nothings in my ear drowning out the sound of the animals fighting, the crackling of fire and the pain I knew I should have been feeling.
It was hard, impossible to resist and it was...so easy. So easy to just give in and relax. Not to fight, like slowly sinking into a hot bubble bath with those bath salts after drinking a full six pack of beer. Or waking up hours before you wanted too even knowing you had work to do, and just laying back down and drifting to sleep once more. No worries, forgetting this horrible day and just able to soak in this moment.
A voice was shouting at me. Calling me back, away from this bliss and to the cold reality of the world. Like an annoying alarm clock that you kept hitting the wrong buttons to turn it off. I wanted to shake it off, tell him to go away, unplug it and go back to this wonderful sleep. But it got louder, his voice yelling in the back of my head and with it one final bellowing roar made my eyes snap open.
That same sound seemed to make Yue Ling back away, catching her in surprise as if I had roared.
My first reaction was to cry out in pain at the fingers pierced my side. My reaction? I head butted her. Not my best moment but with all my strength bashed my forehead against her face and Yue Ling cried out as she withdrew, the tails unraveling around me and allowed me to get back on my feet.
I almost puked my guts out as I landed, my side screaming and protesting in pain before quickly turning and running back towards Tezca. And the safety he provided.
And then all I saw was red.
Tezca and Marco had stopped to look at me. I could see the jaguar's mouth open wide shouting my name once more, those teal eyes burning with fire as they widened in shocked horror. But I heard nothing. Marco had let out a howl of pure rage and anguish but I couldn't understand why as the two had broken away from each other. Varric swiped with his staff quickly bringing it down to snap against the tail still harassing him. But it wasn't the one harassing him he was aiming for. It was the one sticking out of my chest.
I gurgled as it withdrew and blood gushed onto the floor. Thick warmth ran down my chin, an acrid iron taste filled my mouth and I coughed. Blood splattering Tezca's face as he caught me, turning me around and placing a large chest size on the wound trying to stop the blood from flowing.
I felt cold. I've been stabbed before by a knife, cut and even shot. But this was different. It was a burning agony that radiated from my chest causing my whole body to go into shock. The farthest parts away from the wound felt cold as if buried in snow. And I was shaking, shivering as that coldness slowly began to seep in over that agonizing warmth. And I was sweating, a cold sweat as I shook held in Tezca's arms. And I....I...just...
A roar sounded and Marco, seeming to have finally snapped out of it...that dumbass. The large wolf charged the fox woman who was able to hold him off with several more of those damn tails. Only to get hit by a gout of fire, a torrent of flames that erupted from the end of Varric's staff and burned everything before it like magma rather than fire. Coating it in a smoldering ashen glow of magma.
There was a shrill shriek and the glass broke and I could barley make out long russet brown tails escaping from the window. I shivered again as my eyes slowly began to become clouded. And the world around me blurred.
I saw Marco quickly come back over, in human form. He bent down but Tezca snapped at him. His words? I couldn't even hear them. The jaguar's face was filled with anguished and pain and pure rage towards my brother. Like he had been before when I first met him. Tezca had drapped himself semi over me with his pelt and it helped, if only a little bit to dull the pain.
"Marco." I managed to cough making both look back at me. I had to know. I had to. The three murders, the investigation, with him always leaving. I had to know if he was... And then another thought hit me. An odd feeling as something from before slipped into my mind and I found my eyes beginning to water.
"Do you hate me?"
I could see his mouth open, forming the words of my name. Isaac. Isaac Street. That was who I was now. Legally changing my name, escaping from my...our past and trying to start a new life for myself. Alone. Never looking back. Never even trying to find him.
"I'm sorry." I found myself saying. I couldn't even hear my own words as the world slowly grew black. I felt the tears. The hot burning tears running down my face, and those landing on me from above. I wasn't sure if it was Marco or Tezca who was crying. "So sorry." I choked smiling a bit now. "I ran away. I left you in that...place. I was your older bro...ther... And I... I...just ran away. Leaving you...Behind." I choked gagging as that acrid taste filled my mouth, spilling over my lips and soaking my shirt. "I'm sorry. I couldn't help you, protect you from this...fucked up...world." I looked at him. I couldn't make him out any more. The brother I knew as a young boy, was gone.
His wolfish features and still see that black fur poking through the loose skin outfit he wore to appear human. "Sorry." I choked. "That you had to become this. Because I...I...couldn't..." And then everything went dark, someone had turned off the lights. I felt that coldness being replaced with a dull emptiness.
And I felt nothing, anymore.