The Son and the Sparrow

Chapter Twenty One(v3)

Chapter Twenty One

Leon drove home thinking about Houston. It was clear, by his tone of voice, that Houston no longer considered Leon a friend. Leon remembered when Houston had asked him who he had murdered. That look in his eyes as he asked. Did he suspect that it had not been Alexander who had killed those cops, but him? Had they found any evidence? Leon gritted his teeth. If they found the bodies, anything at all, they would show him no mercy. Cop-killers didn't earn much sympathy in court, and if they knew what he had done to them-Leon flinched. He wouldn't have a chance. They might even give him the death sentence. Haley couldn't handle that. This was why Leon had made that promise to her-to prevent something like that from happening. Leon clenched his hands, wondering what it would feel like, being led into some room knowing you were going to die. Your limbs strapped down, then a shot, nothing more than a pinprick in the arm. The poison surging through your body. Would it hurt? Would it be quick? Would they hurt him if he fought? Not like it would stop the inevitable. A choked cry escaped Leon. He didn't want to die, and certainly not in that way. He was a fighter, a survivor to the very end, and to go that way was horrible. He'd rather die on his feet. Hell, he'd rather Dante shoot him than go through with that embarrassment.

He should have never killed them. Why the hell had Alexander brought them in the first place? Who cared if two simple-minded cops were sniffing around? That was no reason to bring them to the nest. Once Alexander hauled them in, their fates were sealed. What choice did I have? Leon thought. They knew too much, and the two cops possessed important information. So he had questioned them for three grueling days, done horrible things to them to force them to speak. It took them a while to start spilling answers, an admirable time.

"Please!" One of them had wailed. "Please don't." Tears were streaming down his face.

Leon had smiled chillingly, his eyes dark pools of liquid. This was the side of him showing now that he acknowledged, yet almost feared himself. Those eyes of his stared at the two men with a blood thirsty stare. Leon's eyes flicked to his blade, showered in blood, staining the shiny reflection red.

"I have a family." He whimpered.

"You're a good man, is that what you're trying to tell me? That you don't deserve this?" He leered.

The man cringed, and refused to answer.

"Don't waste your breath." Leon purred. " I have those that I need to protect as well." He pressed the knife to the man's cheek, and edged it along his jaw line, keeping the cut no deeper than a bad paper cut.

He cried out, his body thrashing against the pain, trying desperately to somehow escape. In the beginning of the session, the man had been braver, stronger, but the small cuts that layered his body had exhausted him. Leon observed his work with a smirk, and glanced at the other one, who had passed out from the pain. Leon had planned to revive him soon enough. He stood, and whisked to a table, which was covered in all sorts of interesting and amusing tools. Leon wondered to himself which one he should use next.

Leon blinked, and unwillingly shivered. He pulled into the driveway and sat in his seat, unable to move. He couldn't believe he could be so callous when he needed to be. And those two weren't the first, nor the last he had questioned. Tortured. That he had tortured. Leon rubbed his eyes. What if Haley had found out? She hadn't a clue who and what he really was. What would Clay have said to the fact that Daddy liked to cut people up? And what about himself? How could he live with himself? Leon had always distanced himself from that other half, but it was still him. When he closed that door to the questioning room, he had always put his brain away, in a sense. He was only half aware what he was doing. Except with the cops. He didn't even know their names. Before the policemen, Leon hadn't tortured that many people, and usually the ones he did were scum. Rival drug dealers. Murderers, rapist, the worst sort in this world. He had convinced himself that he had been protecting Haley by killing them, but now it was going to spell his doom.