The Iron Corset

Chapter 4: James Ogden

Chapter 4: James Ogden

I was yet again walking down the roads of London, but this time heading towards the infamous Ravens Tavern, I instinctively knew where it was, being of a different world I always saw the world from above in my minds eye. But as I navigated London's twisted roads all I could think about was the blood lust. I had experianced it many times in my extensive life as Chris would say. The simple dripping of that rat of a humans blood made my mind tumble again into a whirlwind of thoughts. I was positive that that boy had seen my  eyes glow because I saw my own reflection in his puples, but when he wakes he will think that it was all just a strange dream and get taunted from his peers that he had gotten "knocked out" by a "girl".

The metal around my midsection hummed to life, telling me that I had reached my destination. I lovingly stroked my corset before I  smoothed my hands down to my rifles on my hips making sure they were tucked in nicely.

There was laughing, music, and the stench of alcohol and putrid vomit that humans seemed to be in plenty of lingering in the air just outside of the tavern. My stone sculptured nose wrinkled in disgust as I pulled on my hood so that it shadowed my eyes before I  walked into the humans den.

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"And the next thing ye kno is I be lyin' on my back! Stiffed by the plum!" yelled one man at the table, recieving hearty and drunken laughter from the men at the table. James laughed at his own joke along with them, acting drunk like the rest but he wasn't even close.

"James! You bastard!" yelled the brute next to him over the music as he pulled the waitress that brought him his drink into his lap, "What'd you do next?!?"

"Yeah!" another chimed in, "Did ye get her?!?"

James sat straighter and seemed to pick something off his shoulder, "Unlike you gents I don't kiss and tell." he said with a serious voice but cracked a lopsided smile, "But I will tell you dogs this, she couldn't walk straight!" he laughed and took another swig of the brew, slamming it down and laughing along with the men as they all started to sing at the wooden table to the song they were now playing on the fiddle.

The wooden table rocked to their pounding, the three other men with cheeks red from the liquor and the warmpth from the many bodies in the small tavern drinking, making James drink even more as this was where he felt less lonely.

Mr. Ogden was just about to take another large swig when the door swung open in the front, usually he would have just ignored it but as his peripheral vision registered it he tilted his head like a dog to take a better look, the smug smile still on his face as he listened to the men around him as well.

In walked in a man, scratch that, a women dressed all in black and a hood on.

"Whatcha lookin' at James?" asked the gent next to him as he turned to look as well, "Is that lass wareing britches?! Ha!" he laughed, "Didn't know you liked em manly!" they all laughed at that.

James did as well, brushing the strange women off as he continued to drink and laugh, his hazel eyes glancing every so often at the women.

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I sneered as I sat on the empty bar stool and pushed my hood back down, the the fiddle was off pitch by some and the womens flirtatious laughter next to me was horrid and high.

The bartender slanted over with a somewhat bird like face as he cleaned a glass with an already soiled rag, "What you havin'?"

Not wanting to seem out of place, "Brubon," I told him confidently knowing that it was the most expensive thing there but I didn't care, alcohol didn't have an effect on my kind but I might as well get the best of the house if I am going to drink it.

I felt eyes on me as I turned, seeming to scan the crowd as if looking for someone, which coincidentally I was. There were men sitting at a table with a few unmentionable women standing around them but one seemed to look at me for a moment before looking away. I ignored him and kept looking around the tavern at the fiddle player and then noticing the back door wondering where it went to for a moment before a glass was nudged at my elbow on the bar.

The bartender grunted as I turned and slipping a hand into my silky pocket and paying the man before I took the glass to my lips and drank it all in one swig, motioning to the tender to get me more.

Time seemed to pass even slower in this house of booze, but soon someone approached me and from my memory I knew it was the man that had the wench in his lap at the table before I even turned to look at him.

"Oy, whats a lady like you doin' at a tavern like this warein' those britches?" he asked with a laugh, obviously drunk.

I didn't bother to answer him, I just sipped my brandy, for his own good I assumed he would back off like a good human.

"Boys we got a stiff ova here! " he laughed as he turned to the other men at the table and pointed at me, "she is a purty llil thing though." he said as he lightly stroked my exposed shoulder with rough fingertips.

The Guardian in me snapped, no filty human touched me, not ever. With that I took his hand in an iron like vice, the man yelped as I started to twist his arm behind him before I turned and knocked out his legs sending him face first onto the ground with a twirl I was on top of him  pinning his arm painfully behind him.

The fiddlers song squeeked to a stop as the other men at the table looked at what I  had just did, 'good job Elegra, way to not draw attention...', I thought to myself.

"Oy!" yelled one man.

But before even I could react the back door swung open and a tall man with fire for hair stepped out with a dark haired beauty who looked to be from somewhere forign hanging on his arm. The only sound were the grunts of the man below me, making me hold his arm tighter, and the mans footsteps.

It was Seth O'Connell.