Destined For Doom

Chapter 15 - Blood And Scars

-15-

-Blood And Scars-

Madeline fell asleep almost instantly when she fell onto the spare bed. The heavy bruising of the roots was already clearing up, courtesy of the Nymph's healing abilities and Abigail's continued care. Akane quietly stepped outside of the room, closing the door behind him after he was sure Madeline was fast asleep. Abigail was waiting by the couch, staring at Sabbath as she stroked his ears.

"What are we going to do about her?" He asked quietly, taking a seat in front of the fireplace. "I won't risk her dying on more hunts. Lorelei came close to tearing her throat out, and Aloysius buried her alive."

"I know," the witch sighed, "She's just too easy of a target. We can't take her out again, it'd be signing a death warrant. We could always leave her here, stocked up with wards, right?"

"With Jun's hunters around? I wouldn't be comfortable leaving her alone."

"But they can't find her. The seal of the tattoo will keep her nice and hidden from all but higher level gods. Even Tiamat and Koyane wouldn't be able to find her."

"I've tried hiding people from these kind of monsters before Abigail, it never ends well. One way or another, they get found."

"Well we don't have any other options. She literally has no fighting experience, and we only have a certain amount of time before this whole shindig kicks off and Japan is reduced to rubble. You know it won't stop there, soon after that the entire world would be torn apart."

"I know."

"Then trust me."

"I do, but I've seen this sort of thing happen before. My mother was supposed to be safe in Koyane's fortress, but she was literally torn to shreds. I won't let that happen again."

"Koyane's mistake was hiding her somewhere so obvious." Abigail looked at Akane sympathetically, "Madeline will be in a small, uninteresting apartment with no ties to anything. She'll be perfectly safe so long as she does nothing to draw attention to herself; and then we can wrap this up and send you back to your own time."

"You have a point. How close are we to finding the next target?"

"Already?" Abigail raised an eyebrow, "C'mon man, we just iced the second one in two days! We need to rest."

"We need to work," he growled, "The sooner we get this done, the safer we'll all be. We've killed two of Tiamat's people, but nobody from Koyane's side. We should balance the sides before Koyane tries something when he's ahead."

"Agreed. We can get more information in the morning, and find a suitable target."

Akane nodded. "Good. Out of all of the targets I think Jun would be the most satisfying to kill, well, apart from Koyane himself."

"You'll get your shot," the witch reassured him, "And I'll be there to hammer the last nail in his coffin."

Akane nodded distantly, holding the raven amulet loosely in front of him. The black bird shimmered in the light of the fire, and the aura of power it gave off was enough to make his skin crawl. It was an unholy power, a perversion of the natural order that now served his purposes.

"Have you thought about what you're going to do when you get back?" Abigail asked, attempting to snap him out of his deep thought.

"I have absolutely no idea," he replied, "I'm going to take my family to the other side of the world, but other than that I don't know; just live I suppose."

"Just live?" Abigail scoffed. "Don't take this the wrong way Akane, but I can't picture you settling down. You're like me, you need a cause to keep you going. You need a mission to work towards, a quest to finish."