Claire raced along the street with Hades flying shoulder-level just in front of her. Since she hadn't bothered to change before running out of the hotel she had to hold up her skirt on either side to keep from tripping. Good thing she'd kept her boots on if only for lack of a nice pair of shoes.
"How did you find her?" she asked breathlessly, keeping the pace with the speedy hellcrow.
"He wasn't wrong about us being scavengers," Hades replied, keeping his attention on the path in front of them, which twisted and turned down various streets and alleyways. "We're basically built to hone in on whatever might be food and the recently deceased certainly counts."
He turned sharply to the left and Claire slid in the dirt and debris of the street, nearly falling over as she followed him. Styx was already there and he hopped guiltily away from the body, spitting out a piece of cloth under his wing before cawing a hello. Having regained her balance, Claire let her skirt drop as she approached the corpse.
"You might want to hold your breath," Hades warned, waving a wing to ward off the flies.
"It's fine," Claire dismissed, crouching down to inspect the body, "I've been around dead bodies before." She tried not to touch it as much as possible so as not to contaminate any evidence left behind, but besides the two wounds on the body there didn't appear to be much of anything to discover.
After a few careful minutes of study she stood back up, "Whoever did this knew what they were doing," she concluded, taking a small notebook out of the pocket of her skirt to jot down some notes, "They got her in the heart and then the throat. Just the first would've killed her. They must have wanted to ensure she couldn't live through it no matter what. And for that they must have used angelic steel."
"Did you tell her about the others?" Styx asked, cocking his head towards Hades.
"…others?" Claire asked, looking up from the notebook.
Just a few streets away another body lay forgotten in an alleyway, this one slightly more decomposed than the last, but still recognizable enough that Claire started when she saw him, moving closer to examine the wounds, "I know him," she said, surprised, "he slammed a door in my face two weeks ago. He was on the list." She took her notebook out again, "Just like Fern."
"Acheron and Kokytus found two more that were killed the same way," Hades pointed out, pecking at a spot on his wing.
Claire tapped the pen against her lips thoughtfully, "If they were on the list too, maybe someone trying to get revenge for Orkas?" The wheels in her head were spinning with all sorts of possibilities, "Can you show me where they are?"
Hades nodded, "We aren't the only scavengers in town so it might be hard to ID one of them but yeah, follow me!" He hopped a few times then took off towards the mouth of the alleyway.
Claire put the notebook away and turned to the remaining hellcrow, "Styx, see if you, Acheron, and Kokytus can find any more of them. We'll catch up back at the roof later."
"Will do!" Styx said cheerfully, taking off in the opposite direction.
Casting one more look down at the very dead sinner, Claire turned to follow Hades once more. "It's getting dark, I'm gonna fly up and see what the least creep infested path is," he told her, eyeing her outfit, "Nice dress by the way." He didn't wait for a reply before soaring up, not so high that she couldn't see him, but enough that he had a better view of what was ahead than she did.
She took out her notebook again, flipping through a few of the pages and considering the options, glancing up every once and awhile to make sure she turned when Hades did. That was probably why it took her two blocks to realize she was being followed. The notebook was tucked away and instead of following Hades, she took a left. She wasn't overly familiar with this part of town, but she knew enough about the layout of Pentagram City itself that the streets unfolded for her like a map. Three rights, two lefts, and she could hear the heavy footsteps closing in. Another right took her down an alley that ended in several trash piles and a brick wall.
A dead end.
Suddenly a large shadow overtook her own on the wall. At least a foot and a half taller than her, maybe two, broad shoulders, with two sharp horns on either side of its head.
"Nowhere to run now girl," a deep voice huffed.
Claire cast a dark look over her shoulder at him, "Who's running?"
"I knew it was you," he sneered. She had enough time to register that he was more bull than man before a strong fist was aimed for her face. Claire sidestepped it, picking up a broken bit of metal pipe she'd spied earlier and bringing it up like a baseball bat.
"If you actually knew me," Claire replied in a calm voice, swinging the pipe as hard as she could at his exposed ribs on the right side, "you would've known better." He bellowed as the pipe connected, twisting and swinging at her once more with his left fist. For all his brawn, she was quicker, ducking away from it. The second punch left him off balance and leaning over enough for her to smash the pipe into the side of his face.
This time he roared and swung his head towards her, catching her left bicep with one of his horns even as she stumbled back, leaving a red, bloody gash. Claire gasped, nearly dropping the pipe as the shock of the pain momentarily overwhelmed her. The bullman snarled and lunged forward to take advantage of her distraction when suddenly there was a flurry of black feathers as Hades dove from above. He raised his hands against the onslaught, but Hades' claws had already found purchase in his face.
"Hades! Get out of here!" Claire shouted, blood pouring down her arm as she raised the pipe again and started forward. The bullman let out another echoing roar and moving past the surprise, roughly knocked Hades to the side.
She shouldn't look. Claire knew she shouldn't look, she should keep her attention on swinging that pipe right into his bull face and ending things as quickly as possible. But as Hades hit the ground her head turned ever so slightly, that movement causing the swing of the pipe to be a second or two later than it should've been, and allowing a large, muscular hand to reach out and clasp around her throat.
The slam back against the wall wasn't surprising, but it was hard enough to knock the wind out of her and possibly split the back of her head open. Her hands raised to try to pry unmovable fingers open as the heels of her boots, at first dangling in the air, sought to find purchase on the brick wall behind her.
He leaned in close, breath hot and acrid, "Remember me now, bitch?"
Fingers tightened around her throat, and he leaned in nearly nose to nose with her, hate causing his blue eyes to burn with a righteous intensity.
It was getting hard to breathe.
Her own eyes widened as recognition hit her nearly as hard as the wall just did. It wasn't raining, but there was no mistaking those eyes.
"…Harlow," she barely managed, clawing at the fingers around her throat with a renewed energy that bordered on panic.
That only made him tighten his grip as his left hand pulled a butcher knife from his belt, "I'm going to make you suffer so fucking much more than the rest for what you di—FUCK!" He exclaimed as a glowing Ace of Spades playing card embedded itself in the back of his hand, causing him to drop the knife in surprise.
At the mouth of the alleyway Husk crouched with a fanned deck of cards in one hand and another at the ready in the other, "Get your fucking hand off of her, asshole!"
In response, Harlow slammed Claire into the wall harder than he did before, causing her head to loll forward as she clung to consciousness. Something that was a little harder to do a second later when he flung her to the side like a ragdoll into a pile of trash that unfortunately contained a bunch more metal pipes.
"Claire!" Husk straightened up with concern, "You sonuva—oh shit!" he interrupting himself, hastily throwing card after card at a charging Harlow. While each of the cards found their mark in his shoulders and chest it did not slow him and he lowered his head as he neared, causing Husk to drop his cards and literally grab the bull by the horns so as not to get gored, "Fuck!" he strained, but Harlow easily pushed him back and with his free hands delivered a flurry of brutal punches to Husk's sides and stomach.
Husk grunted and shoved Harlow's head to the side, one arm slung over his stomach as he slumped to the ground. Harlow straightened up and moved toward him with a murderous gleam in his eye.
Suddenly there was a loud cracking sound, and he bellowed in pain as he stumbled to the side, one knee bent inwards at an unnatural angle. A second one rang out right after and blood poured from the new wound on the back of his head as he fell face first onto the concrete, stunned.
A bloodied hand reached out and grabbed the hair on top of his head, pulling it back to expose his throat and press the edge of a sharp knife up against it. The very knife he'd dropped earlier.
"Don't. Fucking. Move." Claire warned him, digging a knee into his spine to keep him prone, grip firm on the handle of the knife despite the blood on her hands.
Harlow tensed, but pressed his hands flat against the pavement, "…hesitating again, Claire?" he sneered, "Look where that got us last time. You still don't have what it takes."
She adjusted the angle of the blade ever so slightly, just enough to cause a single drop of blood to trail down the front of his throat and Harlow froze. "You don't know me," Claire replied evenly, though there was a dark edge and the barest hint of excitement woven through her tone, "I want to feel this blade cut through your throat so badly I can barely keep my hand still."
The knife dug in just a fraction more, causing more of his blood to flow, "I want to see the look of enraged confusion in your eyes turn to overwhelming fear as you realize that I will be walking away while you bleed out and there is nothing you can do about it."
Her fingers twisted in his hair and pulled his head back even more, to the point where it made it hard to breathe, causing the whites of his eyes to show. She could feel his pulse racing and the convulsion of his muscles as they cycled through anger and panic. At this point he'd be afraid to swallow lest the knife sink deeper and any minute the drool would start. It would be so easy to just end it now. Just a tiny movement of the wrist. Just a little more pressure and it would be over. Maybe she'd even get some closure. It was so, so tempting.
"I'm not hesitating because I don't want to kill you," she told him coldly, "It's because of how much I do."
She leaned forward, careful to maintain her balance, and lowered her voice, "If I ever see you again, if you ever pull the same shit you did when you were alive, I will find you. And then? I won't hesitate." The knife left his throat but there was barely time for Harlow to catch his breath before the handle of the knife slammed into the back of his head at just the right angle. He fell forward, face smashing against the ground once more, causing Husk to scramble back, wide eyed.
"Fucking hell!" he exclaimed, watching Harlow and poking him with his foot before looking up at the bloodied and battered Claire, "Well, shit. I didn't know you had it in you."
"That's kind of the point," Claire replied dryly, offering out a slippery hand to help him up, "Thanks for stepping in when you did. Are you hurt?"
Husk huffed, taking the offered hand and hauling himself to his feet with a grimace, "I look better than you," he pointed out, glancing down at the prone Harlow, "You know that guy?"
"I'm the reason he's here," Claire said simply.
"You should've killed him again then," Hades said, hopping out from behind a half crushed box clearly favoring one leg. He gave his wings an experimental flap then flew up to perch on Claire's shoulder, "Are you okay?"
Husk eyed them both, "Either I'm drunker than usual or there's a talking hellcrow on your shoulder."
Hades gave him a flat look, "If this is the sort of stimulating conversation you get at the hotel, no wonder you wanted my brothers around."
"Be nice," Claire gave the shoulder he was on the lightest of shrugs to jostle him, "Husk, this is Hades. I—"
Husk held up both hands, giving Claire a critical look, "The less I know about this shit the better," She was even paler than usual making the red blood stand out brightly against her skin. "Let's get you back and patched up," he groused, gesturing for her to lead the way, one wing protectively stretching out behind her as she passed, "We're both going to be feeling this tomorrow."
"Yeah," Hades agreed with a sniff, "He got me pretty good back there."
"I'm not fucking talking to you, bird," Husk snapped.
"Be nice," Claire reprimanded, as they turned the corner. All of them too distracted to notice the menacing, smiling shadow that loomed over the unconscious Harlow in the alley.