and when i break (it's in a million pieces) - a kanej fic

Part 10

5 years ago:

The six of them made their way through the darkened streets, illuminated by the moon and a few scattered lampposts.

Each couple had paired off rather quickly, taking the other's hand, leaning on their arm, or in Kaz and Inejs' instance, walking in companionable silence. She'd sensed that the touch and close proximity of others had been getting to Kaz, and understood his need to withdraw into himself.

She let herself take a moment to look at the boy beside her. He was leaning on his cane heavier than before, but for the first time in a long time, he looked happy. At the very least, the permanent line in his brow had vanished, replaced with an unfamiliar but welcome peace, one they were both newly reacquainted with. He was Kaz. He was scarred, and jagged, and a little broken. But he was hers, wholly and utterly. And she loved him with every piece of her bruised and battered heart.

He caught her looking and raised an eyebrow.

"What, Wraith? Do I have something on my face?"

Inej shook her head with a smile, "No. I just love you, that's all."

Kaz glanced at her, a little surprised, and began to say something in return when a movement in the dark tripped her senses. She froze in place, listening.

Suddenly, the hair on the back of her neck stood up. It was the only warning she got before everything went to hell.

Gunshots ricocheted off the wall nearest to her head, as Inej ran for cover in the shadows. Nina, Hanne, and Wylan were already fanned out to one side, Kaz and Jesper taking the other. Each had their weapons drawn. Inej drew her knives from her boots and weighed them carefully in each hand. Sankta Anastasia and Santka Vladamir. They'd never led her wrong. She cast a quick prayer to her Saints to watch over her friends, to protect them in this ambush, before she was racing along the wall-- searching for the monsters in the dark.

Chaos erupted around her. Jesper fired off bullets left and right as Nina and Hanne leveled their powers at the ambushers.

Wylan was on his own, no bomb in sight, but he pulled a sleek pistol from his coat pocket, and moved to stand back to back with Jesper,

Kaz moved to her side as figures rushed from the dark. They were men, about seven or eight from the looks of it, and moved like old street fighters. Kaz met them first, cane swinging, pistol held in his other hand. She heard the crumple of cartilage as the crow's head connected with the nose of one of their attackers, and a pained howl split the air.

Gang members? she thought wildly, as she ducked beneath a swinging cudgel, rolling under and digging her knife into the man's shoulder blade. He cried out in pain, dropping his weapon. With her other knife, Inej silently slit his throat. He fell to the ground with a dull thud. As she was stepping away from his body, Inej caught a glimpse of something in the moonlight that made her breathing stop.

A feral cat curled into a crown -- the Dime Lions tattoo. Hatred and fear rushed up to meet her.

Pekka Rollins had sent them, he was back, he was gathering new recruits, Her mind raced through endless terrifying possibilities.

But no, that couldn't be true. Both the tattoo and the man had aged poorly but they looked to be much older than her. And an ambush like this, clumsy and poorly executed, was not Pekka's style. Certainly not in a place so close to Geldstraat. No, this was a personal attack.

She could think of only one motivation, the most dangerous: vengeance.

Inej was so immersed in her realization, that she barely noticed the sounds of the fight slowing around her. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Nina and Hanne take two men down at once. Jesper leveled another one with a perfect shot to the heart, and it appeared that Kaz and Wylan had taken down another two. Kaz was just wiping the blood from the beak of his cane when Inej heard the click of a gun being loaded.