CHAPTER SONG INSPIRATION: Small Town Boy - Paradise Lost
WARNINGS: profanity, heavily implied sexual misconduct with a minor / very dubious consent / triplet creepiness, blood and violence / secondary character injury
A/N: Since this project is near completion, I figured I'd post it back up here. Also, this site seems to not like italics, which sucks, but I'm too lazy to edit the entire chapter just because this site wants to be difficult.
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"You're fuckin' with the wrong wolf baby,
Darkness gonna break your light."
- Missle / Dorthy
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HER KILLING MOON
CHAPTER VII: THE PLOT THICKENS
- o -
Kylo sits across from Silas and Cadoc, the desire for a cigarette about as loud in his mind as the headache working hard to split his skull in two. The electric beat of the music pounds against his skin like a living pulse, grating his nerves and making him all the more agitated. He motions sharply to the bartender with his empty shot glass.
The man, gaunt though puckered from a life of liquor and likely cresting his sixties, dares to cast him a wary glance before plucking the glass and refilling it. Scotch tonight. Straight up. He returns the glass dripping over the brim and Kylo traces the mouth of it with his fingertips, gaze distant.
At the man's lingering shadow Kylo looks up and finds him staring hauntedly over to a shadowy table situated in one of the far corners. Kylo's scowl deepens as a sour taste forms in his mouth. He has chosen not to spare that table even a cursory glance tonight. The triplets hold a boy no more than fifteen, dusky lashes fluttering and lips drained white as they lick at the incisions carved into his flesh. Bites and bruises decorate his torso, fragile bones visible under his skin and bare legs splayed awkwardly. He already has the look of a corpse.
They feed more like ghouls, not werewolves. Kylo would never permit his pack to feed this way… like some nihilistic throng of feral blood-drinkers. It's disgusting.
He swallows his anger, finding a rare gratitude for the more logical seat of his brain taking command. He must remain cool. Striking out at the triplets in anger would be unwise, especially now. His thoughts drift to the incident three nights ago.
And the truth is, though Kylo will never admit this—not even as a conscious thought in the safe seclusion of his mind—the triplets pose a deadly threat. Werewolves they may be, but their lack of deference for any form of order likens them more to rabid demons. In spite of the first werewolves feral temperament, they held at least some basic understanding of hierarchy. These savages don't.
Long ago Kylo had accepted his mistake for making them one of his kind, knowing a day would come when he would pay dearly for that decision. They are not werewolves. Hell, they were barely human when he'd found them. They are empty pits of hunger, never satisfied.
And always patiently waiting for that crucial moment of weakness.
He cleans out his shot glass, the welcoming burn of his throat a needed distraction from the bartender's terror-stricken expression. The man knows better than to interfere, however. It's only unfortunate he has to witness the triplets insatiable appetite like this. Kylo has done well to keep them under control, though they have been testing his reactions as of late. Often they feed at the Supremacy, sharing their adolescent victims with the vampires there and doing various other repugnant things.
Silas and Cadoc share a furtive glance that Kylo just misses and his hackles rise at once. You're losing control , he murmurs to himself. His feet are already slipping. He can feel it.
And with what happened three days prior.
Well...
Kylo swallows, really needing that cigarette.
- o -
- 3 DAYS EARLIER -
- o -
He stirred, his body a distant throb of pain and the air around him cool, pleasant even. Not the biting chill of the outside night where…
Where what?
He blinked.
They'd come upon him before he could react, a silver blade driven viciously into his ribs. It had been his blade, which he had gifted to the traitor in kind. Looks like their next meeting will end with the bastard's heart ripped from his chest.
And the girl — Rey —she'd been taken. At the memory of her startled features he jerked up, desperate for his eyes to focus when a wall of agony slammed into him and he fell back, cursing roughly. A cloud of leather scent puffs up around him and he frowns. He's lying on his leather couch in his apartment.
He wasn't captured…
A wet rag brushed his forehead and a halo of pink hair blotted out the world above. "Master? Thank fuck! You're finally awake!"
Ruelle.
Behind her a second occupant in the room approached, his sneering face an unmistakable curse on Kylo's existence. vampire grinned languidly as he surveyed the scene, waiting while Ruelle finished wiping the grit and sweat from Kylo's face. Kylo himself felt his insides withering with dread. This was bad. Worse than bad.
"The blade was coated with wolfsbane. Not enough to do any real damage, but enough to slow you down. I found you after they'd gone." Ruelle explained, her unsteady voice working his nerves.
Kylo shoved her hand away none too gently and pushed himself to a sitting position, his glare never leaving Hux. Kylo would stand if he could, but the injury he sustained would have easily brought him to his knees and he most certainly loathed the idea of kneeling before his nemesis, particularly in this situation.
So how fucked was he really?
Beyond Hux, Kylo spotted Phasma's dead expression in his periphery and his stomach sunk. Absolutely fucked, he thought.
The room swelled with the silence, forcing all occupants to endure its pressure. Ruelle shifted uneasily as honks and outside static blared on below them. Kylo never broke eye contact with Hux, doing his damnedest to measure his enemy with unreadable eyes. But he must see right through Kylo.
"Go fetch your master a clean change of clothes before he ruins his furniture like a good dog."
Ruelle bristled at Hux's command. "You don't command me coppertop."
Hux ignored her jab, his eyebrows rising to his hairline. "Is that so? Why don't we ask your pack leader ."
Ruelle glanced at Kylo nervously, but he was too busy trying to burn a hole through Hux's face. After a moment, however, he relinquished, admitting inwardly that he should have known better than to expect his victory against Hux to have been long-lived. Their previous conversation flitted through his mind and he bit the inside of his cheek.
Kylo should have known better.
After giving Ruelle a curt nod, he settles back into his couch and props his feet upon his coffee table, albeit with some effort. "What do you want?" he drawls, feigning indifference.
Again, Hux sees right through him. "You're quite a sight. I admit I had expected a little more self-restraint from you after that sideshow in Snoke's throne room. You're on thin ice as it is."
"Speak for yourself. It was your men who cost us the compass in the first place." Kylo snaps.
Hux takes a seat opposite him and props his own feet on the table.
Ruelle returns at this point, her steps tense and her light eyes as hard as jewels.
"For the last six hundred years , you have served under our supreme leader's rule as his loyal brute, and I must admit, you have served him well. But how does it feel, to fall out of his good graces?" Hux's words drip with disdain.
Ruelle steps forward, ready to defend her master when Kylo raises his hand to stop her.
"I've never trusted werewolves. Degenerate creatures with no real refined sense of immortality. If it were up to me, I would have never allowed a pack of mangy animals to work under my crown, regardless of whether or not they murdered their own kind. But what does that make you, I wonder…" Hux paused, his monologue hopefully having some purpose beyond simply insulting Kylo—and irritating him—before the vile weasel had him dragged off to Snoke. " Such a shame, losing the girl."
Kylo's back suddenly goes ramrod straight.
"There's a somewhat human scent here. It must be hers." Hux whispers offhandedly.
"What do you want?" Kylo repeats, his voice jagged with barely contained agitation.
Hux pulled his feet from the table, casually resting his elbows on his knees and his chin in his palms. "It's simple. I want the Resistance slaughtered. I want all of you extinguished. Your wretched kind have caused enough trouble, but you, Kylo Ren, are tolerated for your usefulness." He steepled his fingers before his mouth, a slow grin curling behind those long fingers. "But Snoke is known for disposing of his tools once their usefulness has run its course."
Ruelle stomped forward, fists clenched. "Stop toying with us and tell us what the fuck you really want already you—"
"Ruelle!" Kylo barked, the action causing a shot of pain through his midsection.
Phasma had also taken a threatening step forward, jaw taut and hand reaching for the weapon concealed beneath her jacket.
"I've told you what I want." Hux supplied calmly. "Your kind gone. All of you. But as it is, you're still useful, you Knights of Ren."
He'd underestimated Hux. Oh how he'd underestimated him. If this were any other moment, Kylo would have allowed himself an ounce of respect for the opportunistic fool. His flights of fancy had turned out more grandiose than he'd have ever have thought, Kylo would give him that. And the ginger blight just gained the perfect leverage over his supreme leader's prized pet.
Kylo was beyond fucked at this point. They all were.
"We don't answer to you! Our pack leader doesn't answer to you!" Ruelle shouted angrily, arms crossed.
"After his awful performance at that mortal cesspool of a nightclub, I would argue otherwise," Phasma remarked tonelessly, speaking for the first time.
A beat of pregnant silence.
Ruelle looked around at Kylo helplessly, her rose-colored lips parted in a wordless plea. He held her gaze, his own mouth pressed into a firm line.
So Phasma's whole purpose of being at that club was to confirm... what exactly? That Kylo would disobey orders? That he'd had Rey all along? What did Hux know? This unsettled him the most. If Hux realized that Kylo had kept Rey, then it would suggest Hux understood Kylo's thought process better than he'd have liked.
"I presume you're finished," Hux remarked, glaring at Ruelle. "If you've nothing better to say, then keep your trap shut. The grown-ups are speaking."
Ruelle bit her tongue with great reluctance, throwing an affronted look Kylo's direction and he shook his head.
When Hux saw the floor was his, he at least cut to the chase. "I propose a trade. Simple, clear-cut"
The hair at the back of Kylo's neck stood at attention. "Name it." he whispered.
Hux's grin spread so wide Kylo was reminded of a shark. "I will keep your secret, none of my men will pursue your little street mouse, and you will perform a simple request when I ask it of you."
Is that what Rey was? His? The thought ignites a possessiveness in him that was frightening and he pushed it away, needing to focus on the moment. He spared Phasma a glance, but her face gave nothing away. Unsurprising.
"A request?" he asked.
"A request." Hux echoed.
"And what is this request ?"
Hux chuckled. "Now that would ruin the game wouldn't it?"
- o -
o - o - o
- o -
The game.
Kylo spares a secret glance at his two subordinates. It appears things may be more difficult for him on this killer's board then he'd first anticipated no more than a week ago. The second Rey walked into his life he has made one fell step after another.
And could he end her as his supreme leader has bid him to do?
After the events at Heaven's Night , he realizes with a kind of cold satisfaction that such a thing is completely out of the question. Whether a weakness on his part or not, something about her intrigues him, makes him restless with hunger. His only thought when finding her in that restroom with that faceless human in her clutches had been to keep her .
.
.
Darkness creeps in, slow, dreamlike. The moon rises late tonight, full and round and beckoning. Just beneath it sets the horizon's cityscape, its filthy bronze light diminishing in comparison to the moon's riveting yellow glow.
Kylo looks around at his pack, their eyes already in the heat of change. Six pairs of violent gold cutting through the shadows. In front of them stands a small acreage of woods. This thicket just beyond the city limits has served as their hunting ground on nights like these for the last century. Far enough away from the both the Supremacy and the inner city for Kylo's comfort. They rarely ever run into a human, unless of course, you happen to be a vagrant under a local bridge, or a homeless drug addict on the empty highway.
The types of people no one will miss.
Stripping bare and discarding their clothes to the ground, the knights move into the trees, melting into the gloom. All but Ruelle. She lingers, throwing him a nervous stare to which Kylo mirrors. The unspoken agreement resonates between them.
Then, she's gone, dropping her garments to the dirt and bounding into the shadows. Kylo looks after her, realizing only now that his teeth have sank into his tongue. Blood taints his mouth and he swallows it, peering back up at the moon.
He will stand sentinel at the edge of the woods as he always has, allowing them their one night of freedom in their baser form. But his thoughts are no comfort tonight. He paces through the mud and overgrown grass, stomach twisted up in knots at the thought of this favor Hux has requested. What the hell could he possibly want Kylo to do? The possibilities make him nauseous and he bites off a curse, nostrils flaring. Vulnerability isn't anyone's strong suit, least of all his.
It wasn't his father's, either.
He shakes his head, immediately forcing the dangerous thought into a strongly armored box and hurling it down the deepest chasm of his subconscious; letting it flicker, letting it snuff out.
An undetermined amount of time passes as Kylo's mind runs with all sorts of troubling conclusions to Hux's ambiguous request. Not to mention the cloaked glances from both Silas and Cadoc he has been receiving since that night at the train station. The triplets themselves appear to be oblivious to these developments, but Kylo has wits enough to know they see everything.
He sinks so far into his thoughts that he jumps when his cell phone vibrates to life. He'd only started taking the damn thing because of the incident with Hux. Remaining in the good graces of that slimy fucker is currently in his best interests, apparently.
And what do you know…
"What?" he answers, voice clipped.
"You should watch your tone." Hux replies silkily.
Kylo closes his eyes. "Just tell me what you want."
"I need your help. Now."
"It's full moon. I'm kinda busy at the moment."
Hux scoffs. "Watching over your ragtag band of miscreants? They will behave well enough while you're away. Meet me at Rosewater Park."
The line goes dead before Kylo can respond and he angrily shoves the device back into his pocket. Looking from the treeline to the city he furiously concedes and stomps his way back to his car, not even bothering with the thick layer of mud he smears onto his floor covers. Shoving his keys in the ignition, he pommels his foot down on the clutch, rips the gear shift into reverse and burns out onto the asphalt.
He reaches Rosewater in thirty minutes give or take, which, from the look on Hux's face, isn't fast enough. Kylo parks his car at the park entrance some distance away and approaches, smelling another vampire in the near vicinity. Phasma.
"Now that you're finally here, we can begin." Hux looks down his nose at him.
Kylo disregards the scorn in his voice and scans the environment, noting several apartment buildings south of the park, while a serene lake lay to its north, enclosed by well-kept hedges, stone walls and thick vines. "What are we doing here?" he asks at last.
Hux crosses his arms. "Because of your tardiness, Phasma and I took it upon ourselves to eliminate the Resistance mutts watching this place."
At Kylo's lack of contrition, he continues, pointing to the apartment building closest to the lack. Go to that apartment building to the fourth floor. Wait for my signal."
Kylo frowns at him. "Why the hell…" Then it dawns on him, "The Tico girl."
"Come to that conclusion all on your own, Ren? I'm impressed." Hux sneers humorlessly. "Now move."
He has half a mind to tear the snide fucker's head from his shoulders, but he reigns in his malice, gritting his teeth so hard they hurt and starting down the bicycle path to the opposite edge of the park. His head swims with unease at the current shift in events. Snoke didn't order this. With the police sniffing around the Tico sisters and even outside alphabet organizations looking into the train incident, Snoke would know better than to bring attention to their world.
Vampires and werewolves may be immune to time, but no creature is above death. And if the existence of their species was to be discovered, there wouldn't be enough immortals in the world to stave off extermination, or worse, capture for scientific study.
Kylo spots Phasma near the apartment building entrance, bloodstained and gaze fixed on her approaching general. They meet at the juncture of Cobalt Avenue, Hux passing Kylo a cursory nod and the two disappearing inside. Kylo lingers a moment, his nerves wound so tight his whole body feels like a band stretched beyond its limits. He hates this. Fuck he hates this.
Hurrying across the street, Kylo takes the iron stairwell of the escape three at a time, surging up to the last floor with ease. Peering into the apartment window, he can see the empty living room of the Tico sisters with a couple candles lit and a flickering lamp radiating light from the kitchen. The place is sparse but well kept with faux leather furnishings and ornament wall hangings.
He goes perfectly still as the soft cadence of conversation reaches his ears through the glass.
"The cop promised to find her, Rose. The best thing we can do right now is not do anything at all. Let him handle it."
"I'm not just going to sit around twiddling my thumbs while Rey is missing! She could be hurt and need help!"
"That's exactly what will happen to you! Then what good would we be to her?! You were nearly killed last week!"
"Which is exactly why we should be out looking for Rey right now! That cop hasn't found anything to help us find her! The trail is going cold! He won't be able to find her before…"
"Don't talk like that. Officer Dameron will find her."
"Paige— "
A raucous bark breaks the conversation, followed by a pause. Kylo stiffens.
"What's wrong Bodhi?" Rose asks.
And all at once the world explodes with movement as a large German shepherd—the one Kylo had seen in Rey's apartment—bounds through the living room to the window towards him, while at the exact same time the apartment door bursts inward, practically breaking off its hinges and its deadbolts skittering across the floor as two dark figures rush in.
The sisters appear from the kitchen, Rose screaming at the invaders and causing the dog to about-face and barrel straight for them. The animal latches onto Hux's arm like a terrible vice and he emits a startled roar as Phasma shoots forward at the sisters, her sights set on Rose.
Kylo erupts through the glass, hurrying toward them.
Phasma snatches Rose around the throat, towering over her as Hux flings the now mangled dog to the side with a wounded yelp, but then something happens that Kylo does not expect. The elder Tico abruptly flashes the matte silhouette of a familiar shape and points it at Phasma. He stands in awe for a moment wondering how she could have possibly gotten her hands on UV ammunition; but when she fires, when the bullet tears open Phasma's shoulder and the look of pure murder glints in the vampire's eyes, Kylo knows Paige Tico has made a grave mistake.
He sprints for, intent to fling Paige against the wall before Phasma can rip her heart from her chest—
—but Rose hits him before he can reach them, slamming her knee to his groin so hard his vision blacks out and he crumples to his knees. He is forced to watch as Phasma tears into Paige's chest with bare fingers, blood welling from her mouth like a spring before she is flung carelessly into the Sheetrock wall, caving it in.
"No!" Rose wails, turning to run to her.
She never makes it. Hux has his hands on her before the world can blink and a cloth over her mouth. In seconds she sags unconsciously in his arms.
After another moment to nurse his broken balls, Kylo rises to his feet, fury practically setting him on fire. "What the fuck are you doing?"
Hux ignores him, turning to Phasma. "See to this." He motions to Paige's limp body.
However, before Phasma can carry out the task a barrage of sirens scream down the street and shouts echo down the hall. Their close. Too close to do much at all.
"Damn it." Hux grunts, lifting the sleeping girl's body over his shoulder.
Kylo swallows, making up his mind. "I'll take care of this." he says, tone deadly calm.
Both survey him curiously, then Hux nods, seemingly satisfied. They're in this mess together after all. Sorry bastard.
When they leave he makes a quick review of the place before ransacking it further, finding valuables in predictable places and tossing things around the kitchen, adding to the appearance of a robbery and kidnapping.
Then, he pulls out his phone, dialing three numbers.
"911. What's your emergency."
"I've got a woman here with severe chest injuries and massive hemorrhaging. Likely head trauma."
"What's the address?"
"3339 Cobalt Avenue. Fourth floor."
"And your name?"
Kylo hangs up.
