When Lust woke up again, it was to the sight of Gluttony. The tall, fat man that she had come to known as a brother. He was really gentle to her and had always done his best to care for her when they were together. His hair was cut into a mohawk and resembled an inferno’s flame. She had never seen his eyes before, as they were constantly hidden by goggles that looked to be implanted into his head. The clothes he wore resembled a swat teams outfit minus the helmet, and was colored blue and black.
“Are you okay love? Here you must feed,” he said holding out his arm.
He had cut open his wrist so she could feed on his blood. The thought of drinking blood made her stomach turn. How could she have done it for so long and thought it okay?
“No thank you I’m fine,” she said waving away his arm, pausing at the sight of blood on her hands. Somehow she knew that it was Jesse’s.
“Are you sure? You seem as though something is wrong?”
“I’m fine Gluttony, thank you for your concern.”
As she forced herself to stand, she noticed the freshened bruises and new cuts on her body. Jesse had done well to cover his tracks and show no sign of her connection to him. She looked up, only for Gluttony to stand in front of her.
“I doubt you’d want to see that. That animal smashed Wrath’s head after stabbing him through the chest. He must have realized that we have no hearts to stab.”
She knew the real reason was to hide the spike hole in his head. It was doubtful that he realized that they lacked hearts.
“Where’s Pride?” asked Lust looking around.
Gluttony nodded behind her. She turned around to see her older sister, and leader of the sins standing on the hill watching the clouds clear away. Her beautiful golden hair shined in the light, accenting her dark black skin. She turned to face her younger sister, her golden eyes shining brighter than ever. It was obvious that she had just fed, most likely on Wrath. The uniform she wore was skin tight and radiant yellow and black. It was a one piece suit that exposed only her arms below the shoulders, and legs below the thighs. She worse simple black shoes on her feet and tape around her hands. For some reason it made her look all the more powerful and in charge.
Pride strolled over to Lust and stopped a few feet away. She starred daggers at her, then her expression softened and she smiled.
“I’m glad to see that monster didn’t hurt you too bad,” she said softly.
“Ya, Wrath . . .” she fought not to vomit at these words, “Saved my life.”
That bastard tried to kill her, Jesse was the one who saved her. He put his life on the line and body in danger for her. He had done a lot of things for her.
“Very hard to believe.”
Fear ran down Lust’s spine and made her shiver.
“Wrath was always one to do things for himself, but I guess he was a good man after all. Wasn’t he?” asked Pride, eyeing Lust curiously.
“Yes,” she hated herself for saying it.
“Well then, let’s get going. You must be tired after all of this, and you need to feed.”
Lust’s stomach was doing flips still. She wasn’t sure how well she was going to be able to hide this change.
*****
Jesse and Rachel sat in Rachel’s kitchen and discussed everything that had happened. Just as she had always done, Rachel waited till Jesse was done before saying anything.
“Oh my god Jesse, why can’t you be normal? Your life is way too crazy,” she said with an exaggerated sigh.
“Trust me, I wish I was normal too.”
“In any case it sounds like this Lust chick, has some issues right now thanks to what you did for her. It might have given you guys some kind of connection.”
“Probably.”
“Well look, it’ll take me a few hours to get all the materials ready to finish the weapon. Why don’t you go lay down and rest. I’ll come get you when I need your help.”
Jesse had decided to use the sword Lust made as a base for one that Rachel would make. It was already powerful and was easy for him to use. As well, it was a piece of Lust, his way of keeping her close to him at all times.
He nodded and walked to the spare room she had set up for him. It was nice and laying in the bed felt amazing. Yet as he laid in it, he found himself wishing that someone was there with him. Not just someone, Lust. His heart raced at the thought of her sleeping next to him. Her scent filled his nose and he swore he could feel the heat of her body next to his. He found himself smiling as he envision laying next to her. He close his eyes and enjoyed the feeling and thoughts. When he opened them again, there she was.
He was standing at the foot of her bed, starring down at her. She was starring at her blood stained hands, crying heavily. It was obvious she had tried to wash it off, but it wasn’t. She couldn’t stand the fact that she had blood on her hands, much worse it was Jesse’s. Something about him made her go weak and the idea of him being hurt, hurt her. She sobbed and buried her face in her hands. Jesse inched around the bed and laid down next to her. Before he knew what he was doing, he had wrapped his arms around her. She didn’t even flinch, instead reaching up to grab his arms; not to pull them off, but to pull them closer. Her fingers were clenched tightly on him and she was pushing herself against his body. He held her tightly and laid his head on hers.
“Stop crying, it’s okay, I’m okay.”
She calmed slightly but refused to stop crying. Instead, she rolled over and buried her face in his chest. As if trying to escape the world. Jesse was more than happy to bury his face in her hair and hold her tight.
“They’re going to kill you, they’re going to hunt you down. I don’t want you to get hurt. I just . . . I don’t want you to get hurt.”
Jesse could feel the guilt and sadness in her. He knew he felt the same way about her, but he didn’t know why. Something about him giving her his aura, must have done something to them.
“Look Lust, it’s going to be okay. They won’t hurt me and they won’t kill me. Everything’s going to be fine. Now you should rest, you haven’t fully healed yet.”
Jesse loosened his grip on her only for her to press harder against him.
“Please don’t go ame soeur. Please stay with me?”
He smiled and kissed the top of her head.
“Was that french?”
For the first time, Lust actually stopped crying. She looked up at him with a small smile.
“I don’t know,” she whispered.
“Well think about it, and see if anyone around here knows. Next time we see each other, I want to know what it means,” he said with a smile.
Lust got a huge smile and nodded happily.
“So there’s going to be a next time?”
“Of course. And don’t worry, whenever you need me, I’ll be right next to you.”
Jesse planted another small kiss on the top of her head and then squeezed her again. And just like that he was back in his room. He sat up and immediately became aware of Rachel standing behind the door. His eyes stung with tears and his throat felt dry. Rachel opened the door and turned on the light, but stayed in the doorway.
“I heard you talking,” she said with concern in her voice.
“What was I saying?”
“I’m not sure, the last thing I heard was you say ‘Lust.’”
Jesse wiped his eyes and swallowed hard, his throat burning.
“You’re really attached to this girl,” she walked in and sat on the bed, “You need to be careful hun. There’s a lot you don’t know about this girl. She could be faking this interest and just luring you in.”
“Maybe,” said Jesse, starring at his empty hands. Suddenly he felt rejection and pain shoot through him, “It doesn’t feel like that though. I don’t know, but what I can feel from her is real. Even if she told me a lie, I can feel her emotions. I’d be able to tell.”
He forced himself to feel reassurance and faith, which was met by doubt and a bit of happiness.
“I’m just saying to be careful, there’s a lot on the line with you two. It’s not just a messed up relationship, it’s your lives. If she’s lying, she could be leading up to having Azrael kill you. Even if she’s telling the truth, if Azrael finds out what’s happened to her and her connection to you, he could kill her.”
Jesse kept his feelings blank as he thought about it.
“We’ll just need to be careful about how we go about things together. I won’t let them find out about her, and I will never let them hurt her.”
Rachel starred at him with raised eyebrows but didn’t say anything else. Jesse knew she understood why he was doing what he was doing. He knew she wouldn’t try to change his mind.
“Are the materials ready for us to start working on the sword?” asked Jesse getting to his feet. His body was shaking and he felt like his legs might give out. Rachel gave him a questioned looked then nodded.
“Okay then, let’s go get this done.”
They walked down to her shop below and started working. Rachel made Jesse do all the heavy lifting and prep the fires for the metal work. He had played a lot of medieval games and had always found blacksmith work interesting, but he had never thought it’d be such a pain. Stoking the fire killed his arms, and all the lifting and bending tested the rest of his body. Had it not been for the fact that it was Rachel helping him, he most likely would have given up. Rachel laughed at him and tried to keep up conversation to get his mind off of it. They talked about their past, Jesse’s memories were coming back quickly and he remembered almost everything about their time together, but there were still a few patches. One thing he remembered well was the feelings he had, had for her and how he had buried them for the sake of their friendship. Part of him found it funny how easy it had been for him to hide this feelings and move past them. He wished that he could do the same thing for his feelings for Dora, but it seemed impossible at this point. Immediately after thinking about that though, he realized that he hadn’t thought about her in a while. Even thinking about her now, he felt very little pain or sadness. Lust came to the front of his mind and he felt happiness. He wasn’t sure if it was just his, or if it was also from her.
After a few hours of work Jesse and Rachel collapsed together against a wall. They were both sweaty and exhausted; their bodies aching. Jesse slid to the floor while Rachel stayed standing.
“I can finish the rest on my own. You should go buy some clothes, I only have so many to let you borrow,” said Rachel with a laugh.
“Okay, I need to get to know the town better anyway. I’ll probably be staying here for a while.”
Rachel raised an eyebrow at him.
“It’ll be easier for me to use this place as a base for my missions and stuff. I’m close to a familiar place, and the only friend I have out here is you, and I’ll trust you more than anything else. I mean if you don’t mind.”
“Of course I don’t hun, I’ll help you anyway I can. But you’ll need to find a job. This place doesn’t make enough money to have you on as extra help and you can’t stay here for free.”
“Okay, I’ll look around.”
“Try going to the town hall, or the guilds. They usually have job postings or odd jobs you can do for money. And considering you’re a Draco-human, there couldn’t be too many things you can’t do.”
They both laughed at the implication as Jesse stood up.
“Before I go though, I’ll need my money,” he said with a smile.
“Money?”
“I did beat your challenge, you owe me three thousand sil.”
Rachel laughed and threw a wad of cash at him.
“That’s only a thousand, it’ll be more than enough for a good wardrobe and food. The rest I’ll hold on to until you need it or for stuff for this house. Like rent.”
Jesse shook his head and put the money into his back pocket.
He left the shop after a shower and wondered around town. He stopped into a few shops, looked around at things, quickly realizing that things were a lot cheaper than he thought. It would only cost him ten sil to buy a full outfit. And the clothes were actually pretty nice too, not fancy stuff, but definitely stuff that would cost fifty to sixty bucks at the mall.
After looking around for a bit he made his way to the town hall. There was a corkboard in the front that had job postings, but they were all small stuff. Finding a lost dog, or babysitting some bratty kids. He made a note of a few of them, but decided to look at the guild first. From the games he played, he assumed they would pay better. Inside the guild he saw multiple boards, each one labeled with a different category. Jesse looked them up and down, a few of them catching his attention. Hunting different beasts, collecting gems and ores, and other ones, each one with a pay of at least five hundred sil.
“Need help with anything man?”
Jesse spun to see a man leaning on a desk behind him. He was about the same height as Jesse but just a little heftier. The mowhawk on his head was standing tall and was dyed blood red; his goatee black and just long enough for him to grab in his hands. He wore baggy clothes and some interesting arm bands, one was a watch with a thick strap, the other a leather bound strap with the word ‘Meza’ stitched into it. One his back was strapped a large axe, with two smaller hatches on his belt.
“Just looking at potential job opportunities. I’m new in town and in need of extra money,” said Jesse turning back to the boards.
“Well if you’re gonna go in an outfit like that, you might as well stick to the house cleaning shit on the other side,” he said sarcastically.
Jesse laughed and shook his head.
“I’m buying new clothes later. Besides I’m more of a physical labor kind of guy. Hunting, building, stuff like that.”
“Well a lot of these missions pay good, but be careful with choosing any posted by the guy named Rudolph. His pay is good, but if they aren’t specifically to his order, then you get nothing. He’s been known to make shit up just to avoid paying.”
“What a dick.”
“Ya, but there are good people. Rachel at the weapons shop posts a lot of gathering missions and has always been good with her payments.”
“I actually know her, she’s the person I’m gonna be staying with while I’m here.”
“Well great man, you should be set up with her, she knows people and can get you some good supplies. And if she doens’t know anything, you can always come ask me. The names Ben. Ben Meza.”
“Nice to meet you, I’m Ladon. Ladon Nemesis.”
Ben gave him an accusing look, with a grin that told Jesse he didn’t believe him.
“Really dude, really? That’s the name you wanna stick with?”
“There are people who can’t know I’m here. It wouldn’t be good for anyone.”
“Hey man, it’s whatever. Your business is your business.”
Jesse thought about it for a second, then let out a sigh.
“Jesse Ruiz.”
“Now that one I beleive. I’ll put your name down as Ladon Nemesis for the sake of hiding you. If you do good work, people can request you personally. So don’t fuck it up.”
With a laugh and a pat on the back, Ben turned and walked away. Jesse watched him for a second then turned back to the board.
“What the fuck is wrong with my outfit?”