The Dying Rain | ✔

34.

Dakota slipped out of her clothes into a pair of trousers and a think black vest. Eliana sprawled under a pile of blankets on the floor near the couch. The boxed window frame faced a dark patch of cloudy sky. 

She perched herself on the window sill, with her back resting on its wooden frame; one booted leg propped up. Light strands of her hair flew against the weight of the wind entering through the cracks in the glass. She kept one eye on the dark alley the building stood in, and the other on Eliana. 

It felt like forever ago that Dakota had her in her life. She straightened her back bracing herself for the long night to come. It had been so long ago that she had a normal life that she forgot what it was like to have someone around. 

She remembered her time at the Den with the Serpents. Nights where she'd spent on rooftops, guarding. Days she'd spend with Naomi, Eliana...and Alessandro. She let out a sigh. 

Time has passed. She was different now. Naomi has found her path and it was her turn now. No matter how much it hurt, no matter what went wrong she had one and only one purpose. 

To put Alessandro Lykaios down. 

Even though every muscle in her body ached at that thought, she had to remind herself the man he used to be. Her hands twitched. A sullen look made home in her puffy eyes. She was tired sure. But Alessandro had to leave like the man he was. 

The blood, the massacre she had witnessed him creating. Sure, she had left the Serpents Den when Alessandro decided he'd go back to Agnes. But it was for him. She had a purpose. To protect him. Then why hadn't she stopped him when he put bullets through bodies and spears through hearts? 

Was it because she had seen what Agnes had done to him? She had done a wretched job. Watching his every move, staying in the shadows. Dakota should've helped him escape the night when Agnes put a saw through his hand. This one is for associating yourself with my enemies. He had said over the loud churning of the blade cutting through flesh and bone. 

She was terrified and had choked herself crying in the darkness. But Aless...he hadn't flinched. His eyes losing the gleam it once bore. 

But she never called out for him. She would hide behind the chimney, keeping an eye on his room. He would just lay there eyes wide open, a lifeless corpse. 

Then the news of his brother's death had reached her. She wanted to tell him. Shake him awake. Show him what Agnes was capable of for sending a Chaconas after a Lykaios. Until he came back strutting through the corridors, something clutched in his hands. 

His hands stained red, a head dangling from it. He'd walked into the dome-shaped room and set it on the table in front on Melanthios. She had watched them hug; Alessandro had borne no emotion on his stern face. 

Perhaps, that was when she realized. 

That was when she'd accepted who Alessandro had become. He was no longer the man who made her laugh while cutting through shackles tied around her feet. He was no longer the man who embraced her daughter...a daughter who was so different. He was not Aless anymore and she could not bare to watch this impostor take over his life.

 The nights which followed had been filled with a darkness she couldn't crawl out of. Dakota hadn't gone back to the residency since then. She couldn't make herself to keep the promise to protect him, to serve her oath to him. She was mostly angry; she hated him for choosing Agnes over her. 

She'd never know why he'd done that.

So, she concocted the most horrid plan. To kill Alessandro Lykaios. The nights when she spent in the darkness, Naomi had put herself through Vietnam. Building something for herself. 

Dakota thought she failed as a mother until Naomi came back. A Vietnamese Corps badge in hand, and then an FBI. But Naomi wasn't looking so well. She's a weresus, and her human form was frayed. Naomi needed Dakota to free her of this misery. She couldn't bring herself to kill her own daughter.

That's when Dakota decided what she'd do. Make Aless do it. 

Naomi did everything she was told to. Made a ruckus at the bureau about The Chaconas Family's drug cartel. Fall in Agnes' radar. She knew he didn't have the heart to send someone else to kill Aless' daughter. He had sent Aless himself. She'd be free, the queen of realms and everything in between.

Dakota would erase their healer, Vera. But when Dakota got there Vera was already missing. She couldn't tell Naomi why she needed her to ask Aless to find her when Dakota had been there all along. He needed to get away from the Chaconas and he needed to do it quick. 

She watched him find Eliana right down to escaping Athens then Aegina. Even though the spell had worn off, something was off about him. He was aloof. Different. As if the nights he spent killing had come back to haunt him. 

She has to release him from his misery. 

The aura shifted, ice seeped on to the glass window closing the cracks. A figure formed from the mist. "It's time." Dakota's smile saddened at the silver eyes. 

~