Drake grit his teeth and clutched his pinned leg. The rover's dashboard pinched it, and every jerk of the muscle sent a spasm of pain up his leg. Ebony was gone, she had been when he came back around. He tried to push the rover's dashboard, prop it up long enough to pull his leg out and get blood flowing back through it again. The stinging in his forehead stung and the haze of red in his left eye, currently distracted him. His filter was up around his mouth already.
He began to grow light headed as he propped the metal panel up. His vision began to swim as blood flowed into his leg again and he slumped down in the seat, barely able to keep the panel up. A thump against the window caught his attention and he shifted his head just enough to see the window. A thin female figure in a nanosuit stood there and pounded on the glass, probably trying to break it. Then they resorted to yanking on the handle but the lock was engaged and Drake couldn't reach the controls without releasing the panel and pinning his leg once more.
The helmet on the nanosuit slid back, but the filter remained in place. It revealed the face of a teenage girl that Nathan had purchased the necklace from. She lifted her arms and covered her face with them, one hand had a row of metal spikes along the knuckle.
Drake arched his stinging eyebrow up, watching her tap the glass and make a punching motion. Understanding what she was going to do, he twisted his body as far as he could and covered his head with his arm. The first thud accompanied a crackling sound and a glance back confirmed the glass was cracked but not broken. A second thud spread the cracks further and she vanished behind the spider web of cracks. A third thud sent glass raining down onto his body and she reached through, hitting the lock controls and pulling the door open. Drake lifted his head completely and the knuckles on the girls hand vanished as she looked at Drake's pinned leg.
"Is there anyway you can retract the suit?" she asked.
"You don't think I've tried that already?" Drake snapped.
She flinched back a little and reached down to her belt, producing a small arc cutter. She activated it, the blue hot tip sparking several times before it stopped. She bent over him, smacked his hand away and touched the tip to the metal above Drake's leg as it pinned the leg once more. The metal cast of sparks which danced over Drake's leg. She traced a small semicircle over it, the metal melted away in an instant by the high heat. She flipped the tool off, flipped it over and smacked the end against the metal. The metal bent inward, releasing the pressure on Drake's leg and letting the blood flow again. Her hands wound under his shoulders and she gave a sharp tug, but he didn't move. He braced against the steering wheel and pushed, sliding out of the rover as she pulled him. Drake finally got a good look at her and recognized her by her tools, she sold jewelry on the side but she worked for a Salvager who made and fixed machines for anyone willing to pay. Her utility belt held over two dozen small salvage tools and the suit gave in the areas of protection to increase maneuverability of the wearer.
She pulled his arm over his shoulder and helped him stand. "Come on, we need to get you back to Arkane, get your leg looked at," she grunted.
"Nathan, get Nathan," Drake said.
"He's dead," she informed him, "his filter's down and I don't know how long it's been since the ambush."
"He's not dead, trust me," Drake said. "Take me over to him."
"Sir, you're bleeding and your leg is broken. We'd be wasting time," she argued.
"What's your name?" Drake asked.
She hesitated before she spoke, "Leneath."
Drake looked at her more closely, her platinum blonde hair was pulled back into a braid and the extra fell in front of her ears, they tapered to a gentle tip and pink petals sprouted from the edges. Her eyes were more pointed on the outside than human eyes and they sparkled a pale pink color with flecks of silver and purple.
"A Sakurian?" Drake questioned. "I haven't seen one of you since the Fall of Moonlight Gorge."
She gasped and pushed away from him, her heart rate picking up as she narrowed her eyes at him. His leg gave out and he fell unceremoniously to the hard ground.
"Was it something I said?" he asked shifting uncomfortably.
"Fall of Moonlight Gorge was fought between the Sakurian High Guards and Lyrakk Decator Forces. Which makes you responsible for my grandfather and uncles wilting," she said.
"You are what? Eighteen? Nineteen?" Drake asked.
She nodded at the mention of nineteen.
"You're too young to know details of the Fall," Drake said, "and there hasn't been a major Sakurian growth since then which means that you've been moving around a lot since your postwar birth. There's no way in hell you found the old cities to search the records and go through the wilting records."
"My parents told me," Leneath said.
"Then where are they? Because they don't live in Arkane, the people would riot," Drake said.
"They wilted ten years back," she muttered.
"And you've been living in Arkane ever since?"
"No, I live in Rysen, but I make jewelry and trinkets that I sell at market for calibers on the millimeter in Arkane, Dontnod and Enix. I also tinker a little as weaponsmith," she said.
Drake motioned to Nathan, "Help me over to Nathan, and I have a proposition for you. Since I doubt I will be returning to Arkane any time soon."
"Okay," she said and helped him up. They made their way over to Nathan, slowly. Each step sent a pang of agony up Drake's leg until they reached the field of concrete shards. Drake reached out to steady himself on what remained of the concrete pillar, sighing as he looked down at Nathan and the hilt if the knife sticking out of his chest. No blood ran from the wound, soaked the shirt or ran from the corner of his mouth. His eyes rested half open with his mouth slightly parted; covered in a thin film of concrete dust that had no doubt come from the concrete pillar Drake leaned against.
"See sir," Leneath said motioning to Nathan, "stabbed, stabbed and no filter. He surely is dead, no one can survive that."
"Pull the knife out," Drake instructed, "and stop calling me sir. My name's Drake." He slid down the pillar into a sitting position as he watched Leneath walk over to Nathan and kneel down beside him. She placed her hands on his shoulder and gave him a hard shove, rolling him onto his back. She placed one hand on his chest and wrapped the other around the hilt, taking a deep breath and closing her eyes.
"Just give it a good yank," Drake said, "it will come out. Can't do much more damage to him. He'll be fine once you take it out."
She tensed up and pulled upward with a single swift jerk without opening her eyes, cringing away the whole time. The knife slid from Nathan's chest a little smoother than Leneath anticipate and she feel onto her back. She cracked her eyes open.
"You see," she said waving her hand in Nathan's direction, "dead, wilted whatever the term is." She went to stand.
Drake watched Nathan. His eyes flickered back and forth a few times and his chest rose and fell once before his eyes burst open with a gasp. His eyes locked on the knife in Leneath's hand and he lunged at her. Catching her in the stomach and pinning her to the ground, his lips curling up and a threatening snarl sliding through his teeth.
"Get off her, you idiot," Drake said. He kicked Nathan in the ribs, hard enough to force him off of Leneath. Nathan rolled away from her and got into a crouch, his fangs still bared. "Don't you dare bare your fangs at me boy," Drake warned. "I will beat you senseless." Nathan looked to Drake, snapped his mouth shut and then grimaced in pain, looking down at his leg. He grabbed the piece of rebar and ripped it from his leg, dropping it to the ground with a grimace.
"Nathan, where's Ebony?" Drake asked.
"He took her.," Nathan muttered, "I tried to stop him, but he took her. I'm so sorry."
"You're a bloodsucker?" Leneath shouted recovering, "You're one of those bloodsucking leeches?" She jumped to her feet and threw the knife down.
"He's a leech, but he's my leech," Drake sighed and snapped his fingers, "About that favor, I know a few people who can help you if you want to find a Sakurian settlement. They do have some issues with now people, but they know me well enough to know if anything happens to you, I'll kill them. There are still a few growths scattered around, they aren't large but they'd be your people. Do you know where Dontnod is?"
"Yeah," Leneath said, "I already told you, I sell my merchandise there."
Drake nodded his head. "Mind giving us a ride?" he asked, "Your sled looks pretty empty; there are some mechanics in Dontnod that can fix up my rover. Nathan can load it. It'll be worth your while, unlike the humans, the elves are very welcoming to outside races. Oh, and I will pay you generously."
"Right," she scoffed.
"Hundred BMG," Drake said. "I have more in the rover. Hundred up front, hundred when we get there?"
"Two hundred BMG, where the hell did you get two hundred BMG?"
"I did a job for an Elvin Lord, he paid rather generously," Drake said, "So, we have a deal?"
"Okay," she said.
"Let me help you up," Nathan said extending his hand to Drake.
Drake clasped his hand around Nathan's and pushed off the pillar as Nathan pulled him up. Drake leaned against the pillar and nodded towards Leneath.
Nathan turned around, Drake could sense the reluctance, and he swallowed once before speaking. "I am sorry I snarled at you, I didn't recognize you Can we shake on it?" Nathan extended his hand to her.
She scrunched her nose up. "Don't touch me bloodsucker," she snapped and slapped his hand away.
Drake could see the emotional pain in Nathan's eyes. He knew that Nathan cared for Leneath and that his cheeks flushed red whenever he talked about her. She just didn't know who he was because of the suit he was forced to wear in Arkane.
"Yeah, she's a keeper Drake, let's just leave ourselves at her mercy and expect her not to turn us into the authorities in some civilization that wants you dead, like oh say the Lycans or Gorgons," Nathan muttered under his breath.
Drake shot him a warning look and motioned to the crashed rover. "Get it on the sled. She just doesn't know, break it to her eventually, but break it softly. Now probably isn't a good time."