Eyes of Rose Flame l.p. (Slow Updates)

Chapter Ten

I pulled Peter away from the door and pressed myself against the wall just beside the frame of the door. The guard that walked in whistled a tune beneath his breath until his saw his comrade face down on the cement floor. Before he saw either Peter or I, Peter grabbed a dagger from the sheath at my hip and rushed the guard. 

"Peter, no!" I screamed as his actions played out before me. 

Peter swung one of his arm across the shoulders of the larger guard and plunged my dagger into his back until the hilt cracked against his spine. I had to turn my head when Peter pulled the blade away from the body with a sickeningly wet sound. The body crashed to floor in a puddle of its own blood. 

"Grow up, Bayley," Peter sighed as he wiped my blade clean on the guard's cloak. He spun it in his hands so that the hilt faced me.

I looked at the murderous blade in his hand, unable to move to take it. "Take the damn dagger, Bay. We have to get the hell out of here. Now."

"You didn't have to kill him," I said through gritted teeth. 

Peter didn't seemed bothered by the blood on his hands. He had ended the guard's life with such ease that I couldn't help but wonder how many times he had done it before. He shrugged and put the dagger back in the sheath on my hip, allowing him much closer than I ever wanted him. "I did what had to be done. One less person who can identify us."

Without waiting for my reply, Peter's hand fell into mine and he pulled me out into the eerily quiet night. I hated how natural his hand felt in mine. After all, we had walked like this a hundred times before our lives turned into the shambles it consisted of now. Still, I wasted no time pulling my hand free the second his grip loosened. 

Climbing up the wall was as easy as ever and the two of us raced across the uneven rooftops and alleyways that filled the city. The Ratway was home and sanctuary for us now. With blood on our hands, the guards would be after us harder than ever. Stealing bread and cheese was one thing, but murder? That wasn't something I wanted to be involved with. 

The sight of our old hut was enough to make me miss the simplicity that had been my life a few days ago. So much had changed since then. As if reading my mind, Peter slowed down and came to a halt after vaulting the final alleyway between us and the hut. "Will you stay?" He questioned. Something in his voice right then took my breath away. He sounded like a wounded child, scared to be abandoned once again. But I knew better. 

"I can't."

Peter whirled around, his hands gripping my shoulders. "And where will you go? Back to the castle with them?" he spit as if the word tasted dirty on his tongue 

"No," I shouted back and batted his arms away. "I can't go back there. Not anymore. Not with this blood on my hands." I may not have been the one to actually push the blade into the guard, but I hadn't been able to stop Peter either. Somehow, I felt that made me just as guilty. I wouldn't be able to face Liam and the others now. 

"Damn it, Bayley," Peter groaned and ran his fingers through his dirty blonde locks. "I'm sorry, alright?" He paused for a moment to chew on his lip. "I'm sorry about the guard and I'm sorry for what I said. I didn't mean to hurt you."

I shook my head, pieces of my honey blonde hair falling from my braid after our retreat across the rooftops. "It's too late for that now, Peter. I don't even know who you are."

Without waiting for his reply, which I'm sure would have consisted of him denying everything, I jumped. The roof where the shack sat wasn't too high to jump from, but the tops of my feet ached from the impact. No waiting to find out if he would follow me, I pushed myself down the alley way and through the nearly deserted streets. There were a few different places the gang and I had used over the years to hide out. Places that we always kept stocked with food and clothing. It would take Peter hours to search each of them, so I picked the one he would never expect to find me in.