of snakes & crows || kaz brekker

─ 𝒕𝒘𝒐

┏━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━┓

[02|| chapter two]
deal with your problems
by running from them

┗━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━┛

         ━━━━ THE THREE MEN were no match for the Viper.

         They had the strength, sure, and even the guns, but she was fast and slippery, smoke that dissipated when you tried to grasp it between your fingers. They were burly, and surrounded her quickly, but they were also utterly stupid. When she moved around them, ducking, punching, kicking, and after a quick slip into the band of he trousers, slicing, it almost seemed as if she were performing a dance to a song she knew by heart.

         She got two of them down no problem, sinking her fangs into their necks before they could stand back up with two soft breaths of air. The last was persistent, but he didn't seem like he was moving to hurt her, it seemed like he was moving to catch her. His hand shot out, reaching for her hood, and she only realized a moment too late. He snatched the fabric in his grimy hands, yanking it down so that her face was exposed in the darkness, cheeks flushing with an angry heat. Rain began to pelt against her head, absolutely soaking her hair.

         "Aha!" He shouted, but then he spotted the straw between her lips. "Oh, shit—"

         She blew her last set of poisoned darts right between his eyes. They sunk into his damp flesh, and he stumbled back before crashing into a the puddle behind him. Eadaz was breathing hard, but she pulled the hood back over her head, sliding her gaze away from his body, where his breathing was slowing. Soon he'd be dead, unlike his friends, who'd wake in an hour or two. She couldn't let him live with her face engraved in his mind, she knew it would probably seem a dream, but she couldn't risk it.

         Slow, slightly muted, claps drew her attention, and Ead's breath caught in her throat when she realized that Kaz was still standing a few feet away. He would've witnessed the entire thing. She couldn't see his expression in the dark, and she couldn't know if he'd seen her face, but by the Saints she sure hope he hadn't. She had a fondness for the man, but he had a fondness for no one, and if he knew her identity, then he'd do whatever he pleased with it. Probably see who offered the highest price for the information.

         And she wouldn't be able to bring herself to stop him if he did.

        "Quite a show you put on..." He drawled, voice all gravel and stone. "Should I call you the Viper as well?"

         "You should call me nothing. I'll be taking my leave now." She tried to make herself sound different, but it was no use. She may as well have handed him everything she'd worked so hard to cover up for the past years on a silver platter. "Goodbye."

         Before she could move a dagger was sitting against the curve of her throat, the blade sharp and cold. She swallowed and it followed the movement, sinking deeper into her skin. A body pressed against her spine, another hand grasping at her shoulder. "You're not going anywhere unless Kaz so demands it."

         So that's why Inej hadn't been on the roof, as she always was whenever Kaz was on the ground.

         "The Wraith," Ead forced a chuckle, but it was weary. A man with a knife was barely a threat to her at all. A powerful woman with several knives? Lethal. "This is not how I pictured us first meeting."