New York, NY
Thursday, July 26, 2001
5:45 pm
When someone knocked on the door of the apartment, Lilianna's heart lifted for a split second before she realized that Nottingham wouldn't have bothered with knocking, or even with the door. She looked through the peephole and saw Sara standing with a brown grocery bag in one arm. Lilianna opened the door quickly and shut it as her mother moved toward the kitchen. She followed Sara into the kitchen area and watched as Sara put a few frozen pizzas and a couple bottles of soda away.
"A non-cooking person's sustenance. I would have brought beer for myself, but I didn't think it would be good for you."
Sara dropped her hand to rest lightly on where Lilianna's much younger self was growing in answer to her daughter's confused look. Sara hesitated a moment and pulled two picture frames out of the bag.
"I thought you might like pictures of your father and I. Unfortunately, we don't have any of the two of us together yet, but I thought these would be a good start."
Lilianna took the pictures and studied them. The first was of Sara smiling and straddling her motorcycle. The second was of Jake, obviously awhile before, as his blonde hair hung slightly past his shoulders. He was standing on a beach with a large wooden object next to him.
"Is that a giant tongue depressor?"
Sara laughed out loud, answering after a minute, "Never seen a surfboard, huh? That's actually what's called a long board. Your father was a surfing champion several years back. Tongue depressor. That's great, I'll have to tell Jake that one."
Lilianna allowed one corner of her mouth to turn up. Jake would probably be deeply offended.
"Thank you, Mom."
"No prob." Sara leant against the counter before asking, "So, do you have any idea how we should start this?"
"I thought we'd start with good old-fashioned book research. I made a list of old book stores from the phone book, and I thought you could check them out during your free time since I don't really know New York that well. I'll be going to the library starting tomorrow. Irons has a book of prophecies about the Witchblade, so it seems like there's at least a chance that books on demon gods or Hellmouths exist somewhere."
"It's as good a plan as any for now," Sara agreed.
She had been studying Lilianna as she spoke and she could tell that her daughter was hurting, only putting effort into this because of the magnitude of the problem's importance. As she popped one of the pizzas into the oven for dinner, she began regaling Lilianna with stories of some of her weirder cases as a Homicide detective, not mentioning Nottingham's limited appearances during most of her cases. Her daughter laughed and gasped in all the right places, but Sara couldn't help but know that her heart wasn't really in it. She sighed internally. If Nottingham really meant that much to Lilianna, perhaps she could get used to the idea of having him be a part of her life.
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Later that night, after her mother had gone home to Jake, Lilianna left the apartment with the intention of going for a walk. Instead of going down to street level, she climbed the stairs to the roof access. Once she stood on the roof, she was disappointed to notice that none of the adjacent roofs were the same height, all of them at least three stories higher. She wouldn't be able to leap from one to the other.
It would have been a different story if they had been lower than the one she was on. She had been trained to drop six stories without injury. Sighing, she walked to the edge of the roof and perched on the short wall that guarded against the five story drop below. She had always felt free up high. She supposed it had to do with living most of her life on Sub-Level 12, underground.
Although she had felt him coming, she didn't move until the last possible second. Even then, it was only to tilt her head slightly, smiling as his bullet whistled just past her ear. The next second she was standing on the roof, the crossbow bolt meant for her heart clenched in her hand. The Dragon now facing her had already holstered his gun, and now he tossed his crossbow aside. They both knew it would take too long to reload it. She tossed the bolt to one side. She could have thrown it at him and killed him with it with the Witchblade's help, but he still meant something to Nottingham. She wouldn't kill him unless it was absolutely necessary.
"So," he sneered. "You are one of us. Even when he told us, we didn't believe there could be a female among the ranks. "
"He?" she queried, hoping with everything in her that he didn't mean Irons.
"Marcus sends his regards."
Relieved, Lilianna shrugged.
"He's dead. Are you Talon Green or Lennox McGill? Obviously you're not Hector Mobius."
"Green. Did Ian kill him?"
She shook her head.
"No, I did. Did Marcus ask you to kill me if his plan didn't work?"
"Nah. He wanted us to help him capture you for his own purposes a couple days ago, but we draw the line at having anything to do with rape."
"Good to know," she said dryly.
Before she could ask him anything more, Green rushed her. Lilianna braced herself, and when he swung at her, she dodged his fist and grabbed his arm, using his own strength to flip him flat onto his back on the roof. She stood out of reach, waiting. He sprang up quickly but approached more cautiously this time. He jabbed quickly, bringing his hand back without making contact. Lilianna snapped a kick into his gut, sending him flying a few feet. Again, she waited.
Green got up and glared at her.
"What are you waiting for? Fight me."
This time Lilianna attacked, getting several punches and jabs past his blocking arms and knocking him to the ground again with a roundhouse kick. She knelt down abruptly, straddling him, and he took the opportunity to punch her in the face. She barely flinched, raising one eyebrow at him. She struck a pressure point in his neck that left him unable to move his legs, pinning his arms with her knees.
"Now listen to me. Marcus was insane, more cracked than all of the original Black Dragons put together. What he probably failed to mention is that our training and conditioning were more advanced than yours. Alone, you cannot beat me."
"Why aren't you killing me?"
"It would hurt Nottingham if I did."
"Why? Cause he wouldn't get to do it himself?"
"Green." Lilianna sighed. "What makes Nottingham different from the rest of you?"
"His unconditional loyalty to Irons."
"Exactly. No matter how much he might want to do otherwise, he has no choice when Irons gives him an order, just as Mobius has no choice once he accepts a mission. The unit is the closest thing to friends or family that Nottingham ever had. He didn't want to kill the others, and he doesn't want any of you three dead. He just doesn't have a choice."
Green was silent and Lilianna hoped he was truly considering what she had told him.
"If I let you go, will you leave the city? There are plenty of other places for the three of you to stir up trouble, and as long as Irons knows you're not in New York, you're safe from Nottingham."
After a full minute, Green nodded. Lilianna released the pressure point in his neck and got off of him quickly, remaining on alert in case he went back on his word.
Retrieving his crossbow, Green said, "I can see why Marcus was so intent on having you."
Lilianna raised her eyebrows at the dubious compliment. Green grinned and leapt from the roof. She didn't relax until she could no longer sense him, then she went inside. Briefly touching the pictures of her parents, she hoped Nottingham's former brothers-in-arms would indeed leave the city.
Despite what she had told Green, she might need her mother's help against Mobius, and she didn't want to draw any extra attention to Sara from Irons, which would undoubtedly be immense if the Black Dragons ended up dead without Nottingham killing them. Sighing, Lilianna locked up the apartment. She took a quick shower, her movements perfunctory, before crawling into bed, a book Sara had left behind her only companion.