"It's never going to work, you know? You and Alyssa." Hamish told Jack as we walked down a flight of stairs.
"Thanks for the vote of confidence." Jack sighed.
"Don't take it personally. It's not you." I patted his shoulder.
"Well, it's not her." Jack replied.
"I can't imagine being in a relationship with someone in the opposite side. It's hard enough being in one with another Knight." Hamish told us.
"You and Lilith?" Jack shouted while he stopped walking.
"Or Randall." Jack spoke again.
"No. And he wishes." Hamish replied.
"Am I dust to you?" I asked Jack, offended that he thought of Randall before me.
"Well I know it isn't you." Jack told me while checking a room.
"Why?" I asked, stopping.
"Just...you know. Besides, you're siblings." Jack shrugged.
"What do you mean? And I know we're siblings." I started walking again.
"Anyway..." Jack looked at Hamish.
"Her name was Cassie. Classic love story. Boy meets girl. Girl turns out to be werewolf. Boy agreed to follow girl anywhere, and girl ends up dead." Hamish explained what happened with him and Cassie.
"I'm sorry, Hamish." Jack told him.
"Don't be. Cassie loved being a Knight. She was totally committed to the cause." Hamish replied.
"What about you?" Jack asked him.
"I swore an oath." Hamish replied.
"If you could leave, if there was a way to get out, would you take it?" Jack asked.
"Would you?" Hamish answered his question with a question.
Someone banged on a door as we walked past.
"Hey, assholes! Get out of here!" They shouted.
"Is that the guy we fought at the Blade & Chalice?" I asked them.
"Have you seen our friend?" Hamish asked him.
"Yeah! They're doing shit to him! They've done shit to all of us." The man told us through the glass.
"What kind of shit?" Jack asked for more details.
"They do-they do something and it makes us change." The man told us.
"What did they do?" I shouted when the man started groaning and screaming while holding his neck.
"Hang on! We'll get you out of here. What the hell is this place built out of?" Hamish shouted while trying to tear the door off its hinges.
"Holy shit!" Jack shouted while the man, who now had white hair and strangely colored eyes, slammed his head against the glass.
"That looks familiar." Hamish told us.
"We gotta find Randall." I told them.
We started running down the hall.
•
"Bullshit!" Lilith shouted as we turned a corner and found Lilith and Alyssa arguing.
"Everything okay ladies?" Jack asked.
"We're fine!" They both shouted at us.
"Let's just find Randall and get the fuck out of here." Lilith told me and Hamish.
"Be careful." I told Jack and Alyssa.
"Yeah, you too." Jack nodded.
•
Hamish, Lilith and I had been waiting outside for pretty much an hour and we were starting to get worried.
The main doors opened and Jack, Alyssa and Randall walked out.
"Randall." I ran up to Randall and hugged him.
"Hey." He hugged me back.
I pulled back from the hug and hit his face.
"You asshole. Don't fucking do that again." I told him and he laughed a bit.
"Missed you too, Dylan." He patted my shoulder before walking over to Hamish who gave him a nod.
"Everyone back to the den." Hamish told us.
"Even her?" Lilith pointed at Alyssa.
"Especially her." Hamish replied.
"I could destroy you with a snap of my fingers." Alyssa told him.
"She can't. Not yet." Jack outed Alyssa's lie.
"You know. You're starting to grow on me...but you need to fix your lying problem." I told her.
"You know as well as I do, we need to talk about this." Hamish told Alyssa.
Randall looked at Alyssa then Jack before following Hamish and Lilith.
I jogged to catch up with him.
He slung his arm round my shoulder.
"God it feels good to be out of there." Randall told me.
"I can only imagine." I smiled up at him.
He looked at me for a bit before shifting his gaze to the path.
"What?" I asked, wiping my face incase there was something there.
"When I was...you know what? It doesn't matter." Randall shook his head.
"Tell me." I laughed while confused.
"Just...just leave it okay?" Randall looked at me.
"Okay." I smiled, nodding.
•
Hamish was making drinks for us at the bar.
He offered one to Randall who was pacing around the room.
"No, thanks." Randall shook his head then went back to pacing.
"You never pass up an après-kill drink." Hamish put the drink on the minibar.
"I'm not in the mood." Randall told him.
"Après-kill?" Alyssa questioned the name.
"You have your traditions, we have ours." Lilith shrugged.
"Yeah, we have après-kill, and you kill innocent people." Randall added.
"That was an Order-backed operation?" Lilith asked.
"Doing a bang-up job with your undercover work there, buddy." Randall told Jack.
"I have never even seen that guy before." Jack replied, moving to the sofa.
"No one's blaming you, Jack." Hamish piped up.
"Hemmings went rogue. It's the only explanation." Alyssa told us.
"Of course! Because The Order isn't inherently evil." Randall replied, sarcastically.
"My order would never sanction that." Alyssa spoke.
"Right. They only torture people in a fun way." Lilith sat forward in her chair.
"So, now torture bothers you?" Alyssa scoffed.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Lilith asked her, challenging her to annoy her.
"You're not the least bit curious as to why you were kicked out?" Alyssa moved to the edge of her seat.
"Wait, you two know each other?" I asked, joining the conversation.
"Lilith was in The Order." Jack nodded.
"Is that true?" Randall asked, very clearly angry.
Lilith didn't reply instead she looked at Jack with a betrayed look.
"Hey! Is that true? Are you one of them?" Randall bent down next to her to look her straight in the eye.
"Them?" Lilith repeated, confused.
"Randall, just dial it down a notch." Jack told him.
"If it wasn't for us, you'd be another one of their fucking drones." Randall shouted at Jack.
"I thought they were trying to make a difference, something good." Jack shrugged.
"We are!" Alyssa told him.
"I never should've made you a knight." Randall spoke.
"No, you probably shouldn't have." Jack agreed.
"Can we focus? You murdered a high-ranking member tonight. They're going to be coming for you." Alyssa warned Randall.
"Can we just kill her and get it over with already?" Lilith asked us.
"Is that your answer for everything?" Alyssa replied.
"Yes." Lilith looked at her.
"No one is killing anyone else tonight." Jack intervened.
"Hey, how about you let me call the shots?" Hamish told Jack.
"Can you even make a decision without resorting to beer pong?" Lilith shouted at Hamish.
"I'm not resorting." Hamish looked at her shocked.
"No, you're an alcoholic." Randall started pacing again.
"I'm an alcohol aficionado." Hamish explained.
"I'm leaving." Alyssa got up and out her drink on the table.
"You're not going anywhere." Lilith stood up as well.
"You really want to do this?" Alyssa asked her.
"Oh, I want to do this." Lilith replied, her eyes now silver.
Alyssa took out a knife and held it to her own hand.
Lilith snarled at her and Jack leapt to his feet.
"Edward Coventry is my father!" Jack shouted, trying to deescalate the situation.
We all looked at him, astounded.
"You didn't think to tell us that your father is the leader of The fucking Order?" Randall shouted at him.
"That's none of your business." Jack replied, calmly.
"I trusted you, man. You betrayed me." Randall moved closer to him.
"I betrayed you? You turned me into a fucking werewolf!" Jack shouted.
"That's a mistake I can fix right now!" Randall replied.
"Randall, I think whatever Hemmings did to you is still affecting you." Lilith spoke.
You wanna know what they did to me? They opened my eyes to your fucking bullshit." Randall told her, looking between her and Jack.
"Randall!" Hamish shouted at him.
Randall turned them ran at him.
"Shit!" Hamish shouted while Randall tackled him to the floor.
We all ran to help him.
Hamish managed to get onto Randall's back, pinning him to the floor.
"A little help?" Hamish looked at us.
"What the hell did Hemings do to him?" Jack shouted over Randall's struggling.
"The saevbacch sigil. It's amplifying his rage. We need to get it out of him before he loses control!" Alyssa shouted before running to her bag.
Randall turned his head and growled at us.
Hamish punched him, knocking him out.
"Keep him still." Alyssa told us, while emptying out her bag.
She grabbed a small pair of scissors.
"Sorry about dropping that whole Order thing on you." Alyssa apologized to Lilith.
"How can you stay with them, knowing what they're capable of?" Lilith asked her.
"Same way you rationalize murdering purple. Maybe it's stupid, but it's the first place I felt like I could just be who I am." Alyssa replied.
"Are you guys seriously talking about your feelings right now?" I asked them.
"We're multitasking." Lilith snapped at me.
Randall started to wake up. He growled and started to struggle again.
"Now would be the time to hurry up!" Hamish shouted to Alyssa.
Alyssa pulled the sigil out of Randall's neck and he stopped resisting us.
We all sighed and relaxed, loosening our grip on him.
Randall started groaning so we all got off him, standing up.
"Oh, shit. Did I lose at beer pong again?" Randall asked, not realizing what had just happened.
We all started laughing while Jack helped him up.
•
"Hey, guys. Sorry I tried to kill all of you." Randall walks into the living room where Jack, Hamish and I were sat.
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you about Coventry." Jack replied as Randall sat down next to me.
"I'm not sorry about anything, but you're both a couple of assholes." Hamish replied, looking around the room.
Randall looked at him.
"Sorry I called you both assholes." Hamish replied, looking at the floor.
"Did you punch me in the face?" Randall asked, rubbing his cheek.
"Me? I would never." Hamish lied.
"Huh." Randall nodded, believing him.
"Well, this has been, uh...hell. But I've gotta go." Alyssa told us looking at us all.
"I'm not stopping you." Lilith replied making Jack look at them both with worry.
"And you thought I was going to kill her." Lilith smirked.
"Oh, I'll walk you home." Jack stood up.
"Ah, I'm ready for that gimlet now." Randall told us as Jack and Alyssa left.
"Make that two?" Lilith asked, sitting in the seat opposite us.
I smiled at Hamish, hinting that I wanted one too.
"On it." Hamish told us, standing up and walking to the bar.
"Did you punch me in the face?" Randall asked turning to me.
"Nope." I shook my head and gave Hamish a knowing smirk.
"Did you?" Randall turned to Lilith now.
"You wish." She sighed.
Hamish and I started laughing making Randall more confused.