The Hunt

Chapter 20- The Bloodstained Savior

Even Orion had to admit, he held nothing but awe for the bloodstained girl who'd easily killed the foreign man.

Within minutes, she'd had one of his arms incapacitated, and then he was dead. The question of whether he could beat the cyborg girl wasn't a question anymore. He didn't think there was much she couldn't do.

---

Cecily looked over at the others, who she'd soon have to free. The chains would be a problem, but she had a dagger and a metal arm, so anything was possible.

She sauntered over to them, one of her daggers held forward while the other was still imbedded in the forgotten man's seeping wound.

---

The image before Zephyr was...not good.

The amazingly acrobatic murderer with a blood smeared face, who did, with good reason, hate his family was walking over to him. His two other fighters were tied up, not that it mattered. Even together, they meant nothing against the monster of a girl.

After years of training a serious face, even he could do nothing but breath at the impending metal handed doom.

Metal handed. He was more than ashamed of himself for never noticing that. It was probably on her file, but all he needed was Reiko's praise to let her in. Stupid. And now the girl was walking over to him. With a dagger. And he'd long lost the control to her collar to the man who she's just killed.

She stopped over him and tipped her head to the side. A small smile, the first he'd ever seem, twitched on her lips.

---

I never noticed how wildly beautiful she looked, Reiko thought, probably his last thought. Especially when she smiled. Unfortunately, the smile was probably from the idea of butchering them all and then running. He'd lost the controller to Sei Wong, both he and Zephyr.

"Really?" She asked, her head still tipped a bit to the side. She knelt down between him and Alma. "You think I came back to kill you? That would be a waste of time, granted it is entertaining to see your expressions."

---

Except Alma, Cecily thought. The young Saint had this unrelenting gaze in her eyes, a twinge of pain hiding behind them.

With the dagger in her metal hand, she jammed it between two of the links, forced it down, and listened to it crack. They fell easily, taking Alma with them.

It was Orion who caught her with lightning quick speed. She landed with a shout, clutching her left arm.

"It's dislocated," he informed us.

"I'm fine," she protested, staggering to stand, though she did.

WIth stable hands, she gripped her shoulder and, in a quick motion plus a pop, set it back into place. Even Cecily was a bit surprised at the lack of yelling, besides a little grunt. Her eyes, though, were tear lined.

She looked up, catching the assassins gaze with a small smirk, like she hadn't just performed a type of medical procedure on herself. "See, fine."

"You're not fine," he argued. "Don't tell me I'm stubborn when you just popped your arm back in place."

"Rich, coming from the man with a while in his stomach."

Cecily ignored the two of them, clearly they were fine. Her gaze shifted to the guard for a moment, a moment in which she saw him avoiding her gaze. Then to the Prince, who was sitting in a relaxed position with his hands splayed out behind him.

She offered him her metal hand.

---

Zephyr examined the metal contraption for a minute before taking it and letting his hunter, his murderer, pull him up.

"You okay?" She asked, even though there was no concern to be heard beneath her words. He was left assuming that it was very far down.

He gave her that political smile, and then a not so political nod. "Just a nice lump on the back of my head."

She nodded and then, strangely to Zephyrs regret, turned away. It didn't surprise him, the regret. All this time they'd all treated her like a wild beast that would turn on them at the drop of a hat. In truth, she'd gone further than any of them to rescue him. To rescue them all.

It left the prince wondering what really could've turned someone like her into a criminal. Apparently, not everything was as it appeared.

"We should get going," the prince finally said, drawing all of their attention. "Who knows how many of his lackeys are going to follow his orders."

"I'm assuming not many," Orion said, helping to pull Alma up, who attempted to bat his hand away. Key word, attempted. She had one good arm, even if she didn't show it, and the strangely gentle assassin was gripping to other in a nice version of a vice. Eventually, she gave in, letting him hold a little of her weight.

"When we get back," the Saint said, pain underlying in her voice, "I'm giving you all good long check up. And you better not complain cause I'll sick Cecily on you. Right, Cecily?"

The hunter gave a shrug, but her attention was pointed elsewhere. Her eyes, black and shining, were switching between between the three double doors that the blue and white courtyard had.

In a quick motion, her eyes went back to the other two, Zephyr and his guard.

In a lunge, she took hold of the princes hand and started to drag him. The others were all too willing to follow their saviors lead. Not that Zephyr wasn't, he just wasn't used to being manhandled. Especially not twice in one day.

In the process of running down a silent hall, after Cecily smashed her hand through the door to open it from the other side and then shushed Alma and Orion for silently bickering, the hunter heard a noise. Apparently.

Zephyr was violently shoved against a corner wall, his hunters right hand nearly crushing his chest in until she deemed it safe to walk. And not just walk, run. She bolted, his hand still gripped in hers.

The way out was, surprisingly, blood free.

---

Zephyr sat on the couch in the main room of their hideout. His others were fanned out around him besides little Alma, the unsaintly little Saint who was groping the goose egg of a bruise on the back of his head.

"You know," he said, "for a Saint, you're surprisingly not gentle."

"And for a soon to be king you're surprisingly good at putting people through hell," she retorted.

"No," Cecily said, not peeking up from the warm concoction in her hands to see how immediate their gazes were when it was her voice, "that's very royal-like."

There was a choked laugh from Reiko, which earned him a glare from the prince.

"You know what," Zephyr yelled, wincing when Alma's hands gracefully found their way lower down his neck. "You do not get to choose now to be comical."

She shrugged, going back to her tea. Unconcerned with the eyes around her.

Zephyr's eyes were dragged down to the collar that sat on her neck. The little button blinked a green color announcing that the criminal was still detained. The criminal .

Zephyr let out a long sigh, looking up to see Reiko, his trusted guard looking at him. He knew they both had the same idea. The same thought.

Carefully, ever so carefully so he was sure Alma wouldn't put him in a choke hold for 'running away', he stood up. When he was safe, he marched over to his and Reiko's room.

He shoved the cot away, kneeling down besides the wall. He traced the icy cold blue stone with his hand. At the feeling of a small notch passing over the pad of his finger, he pushed in. When a drawer popped out, following the flow of his hand, he looked down at the emergency items. There was a phone, an extra tablet, and small gray key sitting in the drawer.

He reached for the key.