Chap 25

"So, are you sure we can track him with this, Krory?" Lavi asked while examining the headphones the cell phone company directive had handed him. They were connected to a black, heavy machine with an antenna pointing to the ceiling.

"Of course" Krory, a tall, black haired man with one big white lock of hair covering his right eye, nodded. "This is not precisely legal, so use it carefully. If it wasn't Allen Walker the one who requested it, I wouldn't have acceded"

"And me?" Lavi looked at the man with big puppy eyes –eye-.

Krory chuckled and pointed to the small screen on top of the machine. "It will start beeping when Mikk receive a call, I already typed his number, so is just a matter of waiting"

"Thank you so much, Krory. You don't know how much you are helping us" Allen bowed to the man's direction.

"After helping me getting engaged to my dear Eliade, this is the least I can do for you" the pale man sincerely smiled at him.

"That was nothing" the keyboardist passed a hand through his hair and softly giggled "Just a little chat, you know…"

"However, I'm glad I can pay you back. I have some business to attend, so I'll leave you here" the directive bowed to the men's direction and exited the small room, leaving them alone.

Lavi sprawled in one of the chairs, darting looks back and then to the small screen. "Well" he said "Now let's just wait"

The door hastily opened and Tyki walked into the room with long strides. He stared at the girl tied up to the chair. Her hair fell to the sides of her head, the relaxed position of her body revealing that she was finally sleeping.

Tyki approached her and hit her head mercilessly.

"Wake up"

The girl growled against the dirty gag that covered her mouth. Tyki took it off with one swift motion and opened the package of cookies he had brought.

"Eat" he inserted one of the cookies in her mouth when she was opening it to readjust her jaw bone.

Izzie spat the food out and coughed. "I'm not hungry" she declared with a hoarse, angry voice.

"You have not eaten anything in three days. Unless you want to starve, eat" Tyki took the cookie from the ground and tried to force it into Izzie's mouth again, but she just greeted her teeth and looked infuriated at him.

"You are disappearing, woman"

"And since when do you care about my health?" she harshly replied. The wounds of before were practically healing, but purple bags were visible under her eyes from the lack of sleep. She was also really thin and pale, just skin covering bones; and it had been only three days…

"Alright, you don't want to eat, huh?" Tyki mischievously smiled and set the cookies aside. He dangerously leaned over the girl with a predator's glint shining in his eyes. "Maybe you just need some exercise to be hungry?"

"You are disgusting" Izzie aggressively snarled, trying to put as much distance as she could between the singer and her.

She hadn't kept the track of days, and when Tyki mentioned the number three, she wondered how much time she could go on like that. She hadn't eaten at all, refusing any food they offered her, only accepting water, and spent most of the time sleeping in that uncomfortable position that made her neck ached so badly. Her temper had become shorter with the pass of the hours and she was not in the mood for Tyki's insinuations, even when he hadn't acted horny nor weird since that first day when that call interrupted him.

Her blood froze when Tyki's lips met her right ear. He softly tuned an unknown song, whispering the lyrics with his silky voice.

I know you've suffered
But I don't want you to hide
It's cold and loveless
I won't let you be denied

Soothing
I'll make you feel pure
Trust me
You can be sure

Izzie closed her eyes, trying to blank her mind. She wanted to get away from Tyki, she really couldn't stand his contact, but she felt weak and numb. The man kept on singing while one of his hands played with the hem of her dirty blouse.

I want to reconcile the violence in your heart
I want to recognise your beauty's not just a mask
I want to exorcise the demons from your past
I want to satisfy the undisclosed desires in your heart

You trick your lovers
That you're wicked and divine
You may be a sinner
But your innocence is mine

"Get off me!" she finally shrieked when he started unbuttoning the low part of her blouse. Her body was trembling and the horror that she was starting to feel was supplanted by an immensurable anger.

"Hey, I know you want it"

"I don't"

"Listen to me, bitch" Tyki finally lost his control and grabbed Izzie's chin, squeezing it between his fingers. "Your fucking boyfriend alerted the authorities about our little business here, so I'm now just taking revenge. So you can cooperate to make him see what he wins for defying me or we do this the hard way"

Izzie didn't answer, neither really knew what he was talking about, and just spat at him in the face.

Tyki then punched her in the stomach and in the face with his fists. The flavor of blood invaded Izzie's tongue and for a moment her eyes unfocused. The kidnapper then sank his fingers in her thigh, digging his nails in the fabric and her flesh.

Izzie heard a metallic screech, and then a cold blade cut the skin below her right ear. She bit her lip to drown the shriek she had impulsively wanted to give.

After the sharp pain, there was a soft breath, and she could feel Tyki's tongue pressed against her recent wound, tasting the fresh blood that was slipping down her neck.

"GET AWAY FROM ME, YOU, SICK JERK!"

"Huh? What happened with our deal?" he asked, grabbing the girl's shoulders with unnecessary strength and staring dangerously at her.

"You can take your stupid deal and dig it up your…"

A ringtone interrupted her vulgar phrase. Tyki huffed exasperatedly and stood up, taking the device from his pocket. He scowled when he saw the name of the caller and pressed the green button.

"What?" he greeted.

"WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED? YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BLACKMAIL THE ASSHOLE OF FLETCHER!" a deep male's voice screamed from the other side of the line. Lavi flinched at the volume with which he had yelled.

"I did it! I sent him photographs!" Tyki angrily replied.

"WELL, IT DIDN'T WORK! I AM ABOUT TO LOSE THE CASE, YOU FUCKING IDIOT, SO DO SOMETHING! KILL HER, I DON'T KNOW, YOU SAID I COULD ENTRUST YOU THIS, MIKK, PROVE ME I DIDN'T MAKE A MISTAKE!" the candidate vociferated. There was a hysteric note in his speech to which Tyki remained pretty nonchalant.

A spot in another screen with an aerial view of the city started blinking just over the place where the signal of the call came from. Allen scribbled down the location in a paper while Lavi kept on listening and recording the conversation.

There was a sigh and a weak, tired retort "Okay, I'll establish a video-conference now. Make sure Fletcher is online. Bye"

"We have the address" Allen smiled at Lavi when the redheaded took off the headphones.

"And the evidence" Lavi took out the small tape of the machine and put it in his jean's pocket. "Let's call the police and go fetch Izzie"

"I think this will work" Tyki murmured. He acceded to Izzie's Skype account and scanned for Fletcher's direction on the contact list. He clicked his nickname and started the call. Then, he accommodated the laptop so Izzie was clearly visible through the webcam.

"Bastard" Izzie hissed. Tyki growled and slapped her just the moment James face appeared in the screen.

"I…IZZIE! Leave her!" he yelled from the other side of the computer.

"Well, hello, Mr. Fletcher" Tyki greeted. He was wearing a black balaclava, so his features remained hidden except for his golden eyes.

"DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH MY DAUGHTER!"

"Then just do as I request. Why haven't you withdrawn from the elections?" Tyki accused.

There was no answer. James's lips pursed in a taunt line, his eyes full of guilty and fear.

"Don't…father, just…leave it. You didn't win…just leave it" Izzie whispered. She had wished so much to say those words to her father from the very first moment he confessed his fraud that she regretted the way her voice sounded so weak and broken.

Izzie's claim seemed to touch a sensitive fiber in James. His green eyes suddenly wetted and in his face it could be seen pure desperation.

Tyki knew from that moment that he had him. He grabbed his gun and shoved it in front of Izzie before pressing the canon against her temple. The girl squirmed and trembled under the cold contact of the metal, her eyes widened in terror.

"Here's the deal, Mr. Fletcher" Tyki deadpanned "You call this moment and withdraw from the elections and I'll set your girl free. If you don't, you'll see her die right in front of your eyes"

There was a dreadful silence, like the chilling omen of an awful and painful declaration; the tension of a lifetime decision lingering in the air

Tyki wondered what took Fletcher so much to answer. It was very clear what was the right decision; even he himself would have resigned to the mayoralty if he was in a similar situation. Or maybe not, the point was that the answer was so obvious that it should have been given three days ago, the moment he received the photographs.

But, suddenly, the way Fletcher's countenance contorted revealed that what he was about to do was the most painful thing he had ever done in his entire life. He frowned and gave Izzie one last glance before averting his eyes to one corner of his computer.

"I…I'm sorry. There's no deal" he whispered.

"What?" Tyki couldn't believe it. Did he hear well?

This time, Fletcher seemed to compose and recollect himself. His eyes hardened when he looked to the singer's covered face's direction, and he repeated his words in a firmer voice, avoiding by all means Izzie's amused gaze.

"No deal. I'm not withdrawing" they caught a glimpse of the laptop's keyboard before the screen grew completely dark.

Izzie's heartbeats were so loud and the silence so total that she thought Tyki was able to hear them. She decided to count each painful beat, clearing her mind from other issues, still not believing… was she dreaming?

The sound of sirens disturbed the calmness of the house. It took half a minute for Tyki to understand that they were patrols, and that they sounded too close to be just a coincidence. He cursed aloud and exited the small room where he had kept Izzie. He entered the bathroom and hastily moved the whole-body mirror, behind which a fingerprints scan was disguised of a groove. A secret door opened and he hurried through the underground tunnel that connected with the Noah's manor.

"Mss. Fletcher, what do you have to say regarding the insinuations that you were the one who shot Kanda Yuu in the tunnels?" a raven reporter made her way through the bunch of hysteric paparazzi and put a microphone in front of Izzie's pale face. She was sitting in a wheelchair and guided to the hospital through the main door, which was full of reporters and cameraman.

"What? Of course I didn't do such a thing!" it was the only question she responded since the others were only regarding her father, and she truly didn't want to even remember the man's name.

A pair of security guards dispersed the crowd to let the paramedics and the undernourished girl pass. Izzie heard the kind ambulance assistant giving one of the doctors a complete report of her state, but she didn't pay attention.

"Izzie! Oh my God, Izzie!" a girl's voice shrieked. Before Izzie could locate the source of the exclamations, a curtain of raven hair blocked her view. She felt the warm contact of her best friend and weakly returned the hug with her thin arms.

"You are alright, I was so worried! Everybody, we were…Oh my, are you okay?" she finally separated and revised her friend's state. She was thinner, almost in her bones, and seemed to have lost as much blood as weight. Her eyes were deep in their sockets, one of them surrounded by the faint green color of a hematoma vanishing, and there were two cuts in her neck, one of them still bleeding.

"I'm fine" Izzie tried to smile. Angel was radiant, as always, with her healthy aspect and cheerful expression, which was darkened at the sight of her haggard body.

"You…haven't you eaten anything?" Angel asked with disbelief.

"I…"

"We'll take you to a room and apply you some saline solution" a kind doctor bent and grinned "You'll soon feel a lot better. Do you want us to call Mr. Fletcher and tell him you are alright? We have been informed of all you have been through" the man seemed to be really concerned, but he hid that behind a wry smile.

It was like if he had just hit in a sore spot. Izzie averted her eyes so neither he nor Angel could see the tears that wetted them at the mention of her father. "No, is okay" she responded. Her declaration seemed to contradict the doctor's wish, but he didn't say anything, sensing the aura that surrounded the patient. Instead, they moved her to a room and requested Angel to wait until they were done revising Izzie.

She went and informed the rest of the crew of her discovery. Lavi and Allen were already back and the new didn't seem to crash them as much as it did to Lenalee and Kanda.

The Chinese singer cried of happiness and soon Angel too. Kanda, on the other hand, opted just for looking outside the window, where it had finally stopped raining, as if the weather decided to celebrate the victory too.

So she was back, but was she the same? He felt relieved, naturally and for his own surprise, but also felt pretty scared of facing the girl. It was ridiculous, because he knew that whatever she had done was done to protect him, but that fact, instead of easing his nerves, just filled him with more anxiety and guilt.

A nurse went to inform them that they were allowed to visit Izzie, and the girls were the first to leave for her room, which was three doors away from Kanda's.

Izzie had no real grave wounds, just some scratches, cuts and hematomas, and the exposed flesh that the ropes had opened in her wrists, which were now cleanly bandaged. A small plastic bag with saline solution hanged beside her bed connected to an IV inserted in her left arm.

The first thing she said in a low voice was regarding to Kanda's state. Lenalee relieved her telling that he was officially out of danger but had to spend another week in the hospital.

"But, how are you? How do you feel?" the Chinese singer kindly inquired.

"I'm fine. Just a bit tired…and hungry. They said they were bringing me some food and water now" the girl answered and frowned, glaring at the door.

"You didn't eat these three days? What is your father going to say?" Angel asked, widening her eyes with horror.

"I…I…let's talk about other thing, okay?" Izzie weakly pleaded. Angel was about to repeat her question and scold the reckless girl, but Lenalee squeezed her forearm and denied, observing Izzie's countenance.

"Well, I think Angel has something to tell you" Lenalee grinned, trying to lead the conversation to more cheerful subjects. "Regarding she and Lavi"

"What?" the girl in the bed blinked, staring at her friend with curiosity.

"Oh, yes, you still don't know!" Angel beamed "We are dating"

"Really?" Izzie gawked "Are you serious?"

"What? You think is not right?"

"What? No, no way, is fabulous! Congratulations" Izzie talked as loud as her rusted voice box allowed her. She hadn't talked much for the last days, just to rant against Tyki, so it felt strange to have to talk with a normal tone again.

"Thank you. He even wrote me a song; do you want me to sing it?" Angel offered, smiling with self-satisfaction.

"Well…yes, why not?" the girl acceded.

"This is what I look like today

And I'm trying not to pull out my hair.

I was trying hard to gro"

Angel's sweet singing was interrupted by a nurse, who said that the visit hours were over and that they had to leave.

"We'll come tomorrow, Izzie. Rest" Lenalee bowed.

"Bye bye, Izzie-chan!"Angel followed the female singer, happy that now everything seemed to be in the correct road.

However, there was something about Izzie's smile that didn't seem sincere, and in her eyes there was some kind of deep sorrow that she refused to show. Angel furrowed her eyebrows as she told this to Lenalee, who agreed with her, also noticing the strange behavior of their friend, and decided that they were going to interrogate her as soon as she felt better.

Kanda had heard the number of room from the nurse's notification. He didn't know what had leaded him to do what he was doing, but now that he was on his way, he didn't feel like returning.

They had taken off the beeping machine that day in the morning since it was clear he was not in danger anymore, so he only had to rip out the IV. He had clenched his teeth and smoothly taken out the needle before exiting the dark room in complete silence.

Now, he was trying to read the numbers in the dim light of the corridor. When he got to the supposed to be correct room, he opened the door and entered in complete silence.

It was dark, but a small light was visible from the bed. He saw the white part of an eyeball turning to see him and distinguished a petite form outlined between the blankets.

He acted down the impulse of the moment, following his instincts without thinking in what he was doing. He reached out in one hasty motion and with his rough hands cupped the girl's head, ignoring the pain it caused to his wounded shoulder. He murmured her name with a hoarse, urgent voice.

She gasped and let something fall from her hand, which Kanda didn't notice, because he was concentrated locating the position of her mouth. When the air she had let out brushed past his nose, he leaned and softly pressed his lips against hers, missing just for an inch, error that he corrected in an instant.

The kiss was almost rude and desperate, the anxiety, anger and frustration of the last days expressed in the hasty movements of his lips against hers.

It seemed to take a few moments for the other person to react, and when she did, she returned shyly the kiss, not sure at all of what to do.

It felt right. He felt right, secure, relieved, and almost happy. He didn't want it to end, but his lungs soon claimed for air.

Kanda finally broke the contact, gasping and trying to see the girl's expression through the darkness.

"Yuu? Is it you?" a known male voice asked.

The bassist froze in place. He scrutinized the person in the bed. Ho..how?

"You came to see me!" Lavi cheerfully exclaimed.

"WHAT THE FUCK?" Kanda shouted, a hint of hysteria elevating his voice two octaves up.

He stumbled back, searching with his hands the switch he knew was just beside the bed.

Lavi laughed, and there was something kind of distant in the sound. Finally, Kanda found the switch and turned the lights on.

Izzie flinched at the luminosity and made a visor with one of her hands. She searched with the other something between the blankets and took out her cell phone, from where the laugh came. "Lavi, don't do that" she said.

"What were you doing, huh? Some lovey-dovey time together?" he answered.

"When I see you" Kanda took the mobile off Izzie's hand "I'm gonna take your fucking cell phone and stick it up your fucking ass"

"Oh, don't be so mean, Yuu, if you wanted some time alone with Izzie, you just needed to say it~"

"Shut the fuck up"

Lavi tried to retort, but Kanda pressed the red button and tossed the device on the night bed. He avoided Izzie's eyes, suddenly conscious of the implication of his actions.

Instead, he walked to the loveseat that was in one corner and sprawled there, his head lying on one of the armchairs while his legs were uncomfortably bent and hanging from the other extreme of the couch.

"Hey" Izzie called. He growled.

"Turn the lights off" Kanda ordered and closed his eyes.

"Are you really pretending to sleep there?"

"Don't you have eyes to see it? Or do I need to explain everything to you?" he harshly answered, opening one of his eyes to glare at her.

Izzie sighed and recoiled to one side of the bed. "Here" she patted the free space beside her "That is pretty uncomfortable"

"Are you trying to seduce me after sleeping with Tyki Mikk? I already told you I am out of your reach, woman" the bassist claimed, his voice oozing resentment.

Izzie stared wide-eyed for a few seconds. "I didn't sleep with him"

"That's not what he said"

"You talked to him?" Izzie narrowed her eyes.

"He came to fucking threaten me and said you enjoyed bedding with that bastard. If you like him so much, then ask him to sleep beside you."

"And you believed him" the girl huffed "I thought you a bit more intelligent than that, but guess you are the same blockheaded I met. What do you think? That I am some kind of whore? And in case I had actually done it, it would have been just to save your pathetic ass. Goodnight, Kanda" she rolled to give him her back and closed her eyes, without minding at all the lamps.

She heard then the rush of some fabric and the light stopped filtrating through her eyelids. She then felt the mattress plunging under a new weight and Kanda's body brushing her back.

Warmness spread through her chest and for a moment she felt dizzy, even with her eyes closed. The anger and disappointment of before elapsed by his mere presence, closer to her than it had ever been. The kiss of before was still burning in her lips, and she couldn't help but smirk while touching them with one finger.

She was about to sleep in perfect peace, more peace than she remembered to feel within the last month and a half, when an annoying, husky noise flew through the air.

She shut her eyes open and frowned. She had forgotten it: Kanda snored.