It was silent between the three of them. Sloane's stare said 1000 words. Claire stood up slowly, she didn't want to move too suddenly; afraid of what she might do. Sloane's anger saturated the atmosphere. The bloodlust was almost tangible.
Claire stepped on a peice of glass and her eyes moved from Ray for the first time. In that second, appeared Ray between them. Sloane hadn't moved an inch, but her eyes widened for a moment.
"Who is she?" Sloane demanded. Her tone was acid.
"Someone who can't defend themself. Not from you. Sloane, let's do this somewhere else. How did you even find me when I've been looking for you all this time?"
"Bruno told me he saw you here with some whore. If you were looking for me you must not have been trying that hard. I wasn't hiding."
Ray raised an eyebrow. He believed her. But that didn't make sense.
"And why are you dealing with Bruno?..."
"To numb the pain you've caused me Ray Hikari. I suffer every single day because of you."
Guilt washed over him like a tidal wave. He could feel the pain in her voice. Sloane's suffering was shared by the two of them.
Claire watched as Ray's demeanor softened from her words; her presence. This woman clearly meant more of a threat than Bruno and his cohorts. Sloane absolutely terrified her. And yet, with the way he looked now, if Sloane moved to attack she wasn't sure he'd defend himself. Sloane didn't appear to have any weapons other than the pistol on her hip. It was about as big as Ray's. A belt was loose around her waist and the heavy firearm was almost at her thigh. Claire was sure there was more to this picture.
"You still haven't answered my question Ray. Who. Is. She? Don't tell me you've given up. Never did I think you would actually let Julius have Maria. Not while you drew breath."
"Her name is Claire. She's not one of us. That's really all I can tell you. I just met her today. Where I tracked Bruno to. Our bar."
"You just met him today and you already let him into your home? Are you stupid are did you just want to fuck him that badly?"
Claire was caught off guard by her accusation. She stepped forward to speak until Ray quickly extended his arm infront of her. Sloane was playing a game. He wasn't going to let Claire get caught up in it.
"I haven't given up on anything. Where's Julius?"
A twisted smirk crept across her face. She reached into one of her pockets and removed skin tight black gloves. As she put them on she looked past Ray at Claire.
"Claire before I kill you I just want you to know, that if you were expecting things to go somewhere with him you were terribly mistaken. His heart still belongs to another woman...And mine to him..."
By the end of the sentence she was 2 feet infront of Ray. He drew his sword just in time to stop her clawed hand. Her palm colliding with the blade rang loud through the apartment like steel on steel. Ray quickly parried her attack, but before he could take another move Sloane vanished. Ray sucked his teeth.
"Claire! Get to your room NOW! And don't come out until you hear me say its safe!"
Claire turned and started towards the hallway only to be stopped a second later by the barrel of Sloane's magnum. Her stare was ice cold as she pulled back the hammer. Claire couldn't move. She forced her eyes closed and waited for the end.
It sounded as if a grenade with off in the hallway, then nothing. Darkness. Her eyes slowly opened. She was on the floor now. Sloane was standing further down the hallway infront of her bedroom door. Her gun was back in its holster. She was staring at Ray who was standing infront of her now. Suddenly Claire noticed the small puddle of blood infront of her face. She could hear the drops hitting the floor, falling from Ray's fingers tips. The bullet removed flesh from his shoulder. He barely got out of the way.
"Claire has nothing to do with this Sloane! Leave her out of it!"
Her eyes narrowed. His protest was like gas to her fire.
"Look at you. Pleading for her life. Your making her apart of this! You pathetic!!"
Sloane swung her hand a fierce wind tore through the hallway. Ray knew what this was. He pushed Claire into the room behind him and outstretched his arms. The wind tore up his skins like a 1000 tiny razor blades. He dropped down to his knees, gasping for air. He hadn't experienced pain like this in some time. Even though he had faced this same attack before, nothing could prepare him for that pain.
She grabbed his hair and threw him onto his back. Every pore on his body burned like fire. If this was her holding back, he really needed to take this encounter elsewhere. Last thing he wanted was to completely destroy Claire's home. (Although he could easily afford to move her elsewhere. Somehow, he suspected she could too.)
Sloane sat down on Ray's crotch. It was a familiar place for her. Before he could do anything she had the barrel of her gun right between his eyes.
"Let go of your sword or I will end you."
He believed her. He reluctantly released his hold on his weapon. She threw it into the living room where it stuck into the wall on the other side of the apartment. His gun followed suit. After putting hers back on its holster she slowly started to removed her gloves. Her gaze was fixed on his face, which her attack left relatively unharmed.
Ray stared back at her. His emotions were scattered; and he wasn't sure what she was going to do next. As he peered into her eyes, he knew she missed him as much he did her.
She slowly, gently, caressed his cheek with her tattooed hand; wiping drops of blood from his cheek. The burn subsided almost immediately. Now, his body felt electrified from her touch.
"Sloane...We don't have to do this. Just tell me where Julius is." He pleaded.
"So you can kill him and save her? We all tried to kill you that day. It wasn't just him. We all had our reasons. You know that." Her tone was almost comforting.
"And that's exactly why I'm going to bury all of you myself."
An evil grin crept across her face. She leaned over placing her body perfectly against his. Both of their temperatures were rising by the second. Sloane slowly moved in, as if for a kiss, and spoke softly against his lips.
"And will you be able to take my life, my love?"
His thoughts were interrupted by a familiar sound. The clicking of the hammer slowly being pulled back on his gun. Claire stood at the end of the hallway with Ray's pistol aimed at Sloane. The second her eyes moved from his, he could no longer guarantee Claire would live through this. In the blink of an eye, Sloane vanished.
Never before had Claire held a gun, let alone fired one. She felt the recoil resonate through her entire body. When she regained her focus neither of them were in sight. As she spun around to look behind her, both appeared at once; in midair.
Sloane quickly whipped her body around to kick Ray. He blocked, then parried her attack and threw her to the other side if the apartment into the door. He'd hoped she went through it. Instead she contorted her body again to brace herself with her arm. Sloane could move her body in ways even world-class gymnast would envy.
She looked up to see him holding his sword once more. It shone brightly in the moonlight coming through the shattered window. Sloane knew he would no longer be solely on the defensive.
"So that's all I had to do? Attack her?"
"For the last time, Claire has nothing to do with this. I'm putting an end to this right now."
"Before I kill you, I'm going to rip her heart out with these hands, and show it to you. Then we'll see how much she has to do with this."
Claire watched in awe as they both vanished and appeared again in the center of the room. Ray swung his blade with both hands at Sloane with blazing speed. She blocked his attack with one of her gloved hands. The sound of steel on steel wailed. She knew she couldn't hold him back for long. She parried his attack with the back of her other hand.
Their eyes met through the sparks between them the exchange created. For a moment, her gold mixed with his grey. He thought he could see tears welling in her eyes.
Ray attacked again with the same amazing speed. Sloane evaded his attack effortlessly and wasted no time going for the kill. She advanced on him with her clawed hand pulled back to strike. Her attack, aimed directly at Ray's heart, only hit thin air. However, the sound of the wall blowing out behind where he stood sounded like an explosion.
Claire looked on in awe as her window and debris from her wall flew out into the streets below. Just what type of person had she invited onto her home?
Ray quickly grabbed Sloane's wrist with his free hand and pulled her towards him and kneed her in the stomach before she could react. Then, in the same motion, spun her around and
tossed her out of the 23rd floor window. And before Claire could even scream, Ray jumped out after her.
She got to the window in time to see Ray, by Claire's perception of it, teleport from where he was to where Sloane was in the air. There was a quick flurry of attacks and sparks that ended in them in deadlock with only moments before they were about to land in the middle of traffic.
Sloane pulled his face as close to hers as she could and grinned.
"This isn't over Ray. I will kill you. And I'm going to make your girlfriend watch!"
In one move she removed Ray's hold on her and kicked her towards the ground; at the same time propelling her lightweight body further up in the air.
Ray flipped several times to land on his feet ontop of a parked car, completely destroying it. The hood pushed down into the cabin, spraying glass everywhere. People all over the streets screamed and cleared the scene as he slowly stood up. The dramatic landing didn't faze him at all.
Ray looked up just in time to see Sloane claw the air once more from above. Her deadly gale descended upon him with deadly speed, tearing into the buildings on either side of the street. Ray held his sword out behind him and braced himself. Then, in one powerful swing, he slashed her sharpened gales. The force from her attack pushed Ray's feet into the concrete but he remained unscathed. The ground around him was torn to pieces from the negated winds. As the crowd started to emerge and the police started to arrive, Ray was peering up into the sky. Sloane was gone. She would probably never attack from that far away other than to escape.
Claire, who watched this unfold from the new addition to her home, was still barely able to wrap her head around the everything. She went from having a quiet conversation to having a gun aimed at her head within 5 minutes. Neither Ray or Sloane appeared to be human while they were fighting. Working where she did, Claire saw some pretty vicious and skilled fighters. However, the abilities that were just displayed were that of fantasy and films; or so she thought.
She had no idea what she would be getting herself into, but as Ray turned his head and peered up at her from the streets, Claire knew without any doubts, it was his side she never wanted to leave.