Scarlet Dusk (16 page)

“Just all the same shit
and
the added discomfort of Celine’s nonstop advances,” Zane shook his head. “I fucking can’t do this on my own, Raith.”

“
Then I guess it’s a good thing you’re
not
on your own, bud. I certainly won’t be going anywhere—heaven help the dumbass that tries to move me—and, once we wake Zoey up and get Serena back, then we’ll have the whole gang together again,” Raith smirked.

Zane stared at him, “How can you sound so certain?”

“It’s called ‘hope,’ mate. Try it sometime,” Raith smirked.

Zane nodded and smirked, “Alright. Just know I won’t be putting any hope into any jobs you bring my way. They never end well
.”

Raith chuckled, “Well, you can’t say that it was boring, can ya?
”

“That’s one way to put it,” Zane smirked, feeling relaxed with Raith’s comforting attitude.

“Come on, let’s go check on Zoey,” Raith grinned, turning towards the infirmary.

“Yeah, I need some distan
ce from Celine,” Zane sighed, “She’s getting clingy again. It’s like the past twelve years never even happened and she just expects us to pick up
exactly
where we left off.”

“Well, honestly, she’d always seemed like a psychotic
twat in my eyes,” Raith looked over at him.

Zane paused at the comment for a moment and finally let ou
t a laugh, “I think that’s the most accurate description I’ve ever heard.”

Celine narrowed her eyes, watching Zane and Raith chatting, keeping her distance as they walked towards the infirmary. While she couldn’t hear the conversation, she suspected that at least partly, it was about her. Pausing as they closed in on the infirmary, she began chewing on her nails. If Zane’s mangy friend got in her way, she would do what should’ve done in the first place and killed the dog.

She sneered as Zane let out a laugh at something Raith said.

I should’ve killed that dog before he’d even lifted a leg near Zane.

Isaac lifted his head and let out a snarl at the sound of the door opening, the sound only relaxing and stopping when he saw Zane and Raith stepping through the door. Then, as though nothing had happened, he rested his forehead back on Zoey’s bedside by her unconscious body; holding her hand and talking inaudibly to her.

“How’s she
doing?” Zane tilted his head, “Any changes?”

“Nothing at all,” Isaac sighed. “They have no idea what could’ve done this to her. One minute she was awake and fine and then this? It makes no sense!”

“We will find out what happened to her, Isaac. Make no mistake of that,” Zane nodded to him. “For now, we have to hold hope.” He smiled over at Raith, who gave him a nod. “That’s what Zoey would want.”

Isaac bi
t his lip, nodding slowly. He’d refused to move, even threatened to bite any of the med-staff who tried to remove him from the room, and Zane knew that, if he had to, he’d wait by her side forever.

The
doorknob turned again, and the same tension grew along with another growl from Isaac until Nikki emerged, then, just like before, his growls and tension settled.

“Isaac, are you going to be alright?” Raith asked, “If you need to breathe, we’ll be in here for Zoey. Maybe it would help clear your head.”

“No, I won’t leave her. I won’t leave her side until she is awake,” Isaac shook his head. “Zoey is my life, before her the only enjoyment I got in life was my music. She gave me somebody to
play
for,” he shook his head, “That might not make sense to you, but it’s the world to me. I won’t leave her!” He let out a deep breath and bit his lip, looking back up at them, “Thank you for the offer, but this is where I belong right now.”

The o
thers nodded—none understanding his convictions more at that moment than Zane—and took in the sight of Zoey’s peaceful face as the machines around her beeped and buzzed. Finally, unable to stand the heart wrenching sight a moment longer, Zane turned and left the room, fighting the well of tears he knew Zoey would want him to shed.

SPOTTING ZANE SITTING ALONE IN THE CORNER of the munitions storage, Raith couldn’t help but roll his eyes. His old friend, though he was certain that his footsteps had been heard, made no move to acknowledge his presence as he ran the banded tuft of Serena’s hair between his fingers. A silent moment passed as Raith watched Zane pinch the base of the blonde-mass between each of his fingertips and slowly let the strands slip through to the tip. Again and again and again.

“She’s still alive,” Zane finally said, though Raith had no guarantee it was meant for him to hear.

Still, despite this uncertainty, he stepped towards him before settling in beside him. “Nobody thinks she is. In fact, everyone seems pretty surprised that Maledictus has lasted this long.”

Though Zane noticeably flinched at the mention of Maledictus’ name, he didn’t advertise his shaken nerves.

Raith looked over, “I was sure you’d’ve passed out by now, or at the very least punched a few walls down.”

Zane chuckled and shook his head, “You’d be surprised how hard it is to punch a wall now that I haven’t got
him
to blame for the damage.”

“Ah hah! So our boy
does
have a conscious, after all?” Raith smiled, “Well then, that leaves the question of why you aren’t sleeping then.”

Zane shrugged and looked away, “Couldn’t sleep.”

Raith leaned forward, “Bad dreams?”

Zane turned back to him, eyes studying him for a moment before he shook his head. “No. No, just… just dreams.”

“I see,” Raith leaned back against the wall, looking around at the rows of guns and blades and bullets surrounding them. “Couldn’t just watch TV like a normal insomniac, eh?”

Zane laughed, “Nah, man. Television’ll rot your brain; shit
kills
ya!”

Raith rolled his eyes, “Yup. And all
this
”—he nodded towards the weaponry—“is much safer lounge material, I take it?”

“I’ve been living for
years
as a living A-bomb, Raith, I’m not really—”

“
We
,” Raith corrected him. “
We’ve
been living for
years
as a living A-bomb. I was there, too; don’t forget that. I had to watch
everything
without even having the benefit of a say in
any
matters. But I saw something else while I was in there—and I hope beyond hope that you don’t punch my teeth in for reminding you of this—you and Serena.”

Zane looked up at him.

Raith sighed, “Look, at risk of sounding like a Peeping Tom or something, I
was
able to
see
everything you saw, but I feel like you missed something crucial in that girl, Zane.”

Zane leaned forward, seeming more intrigued than angry; something Raith was thankful for. “What?”

“You.”

Zane frowned, “Is that supposed to be some kinda dirty joke, ‘cause I am
seriously
not in the mood, man!”

Raith chuckled and shook his head, “No, though I should’ve picked my words more carefully.” He sighed, “What I meant to say is that
you
have done something to that girl, something powerful. She was a fighter her entire life—you said so yourself—and fighting for
that
long all on your own takes a toll. Just look at us; we’ve been shackled with that fucking psycho for
years
and now we can’t keep our bodies from shivering like a damn bobble-head toy every time we hear his name!”

“What do you mean… about Serena?” Zane leaned forward, returning the length of Serena’s hair to his pocket.

“The point is that
you
have given Serena the ability to take the weight of the world off her shoulders; you’ve offered her a companion in you. Sure, she’s a fighter through-and-through—always was and always will be—but she’s stronger
with
you. Now I’m sure that she’d be tickled pink—and, no, that’s not a dirty joke, either—to know that you’re out there beating the shit out of club-goers and whatnot trying to track her down, but your little stunt earlier was… well, fuck, Zane, it was damn-near suicide! If Zoey and I hadn’t gotten there when we did, Maledictus”—Zane shifted uncomfortably and Raith, though he didn’t falter, felt himself squirm as well—“
would
have killed you. That would’ve been you: dead; gone; bye-bye, brave-but-stupid Zane!” Raith took a deep breath, “And then where would Serena be? No closer to being saved and condemned to a world
without
the man who’s made this major impact in her life.”

Zane frowned and looked over at him, “You sound like Zoey right now.”

Raith shrugged a shoulder, avoiding eye contact with his friend. “So we
might’ve
talked a bit in the car while you were unconscious.”

“Thought so,” Zane rolled his eyes. “I bet Celine
loved
being a part of that conversation.”

“I wouldn’t say she was a part of the conversation, mate; more like, an awkward, pouty lump in the corner.”

The two laughed.

“So you’re here on Zoey’s behalf to chastise me for almost getting myself killed, is that it?” Zane finally asked when the laughter had subsided.

Raith gave him a look, “Like I’m too stupid to chastise you on my own, dipshit?” He gave a playful-yet-solid punch to Zane’s hip, “I’m here ‘cause, both
before
we got you into the car and
after
we got back, you cursed us out pretty bad, and I—this is
me
, with my own brain and everything—think you needed a reality check.”

Zane sneered at him, “And what reality are you going to check me into that I’m not already aware of.”

Raith glared at him, his voice turning serious. “The one that you proved to me just a little bit ago, mate: that you
are not
the only one who wants to see that psychopath dead and gone; that you’re not the only person who’s suffered because of him!”

Zane shook his head, “I
never
said that—”

“You don’t need to say
shit
to send a message, Zane,” Raith’s tone was low-but-powerful, rumbling through the room like an earthquake. “You throw yourself into an impossible fight and then think you have a right to bark orders at the friends who show up to drag your ass out of the grinder—friends who are
every
bit as eager to see this chapter of their lives added to the ‘executed’ pile—just because they have sense enough to
not
get themselves killed? And what if we
had
killed him back there, Zane? Were you planning on punching the hideous corpse until it—what?—
belched
out Serena’s location? Or did it not even occur to you that you could’ve left us with
no
way of finding her?”

Zane’s face turned red as the truth sank in and he looked away. “We could’ve found her some other way.”

“Says the dipshit who didn’t have sense enough to consider it
before
getting his ass kicked,” Raith sighed. “Did you even get a single hit in on him?”

Zane shrugged, “Not really; ugly bastard kinda caught me off guard with everything.” He smiled then, “Though I
did
piss him off. Like,
big time
!”

Raith smirked, “Oh?”

“Mmhm,” Zane beamed, “Just like Serena.”

Saying her name brought the sadness back to his face, and Raith saw his hand start to drift back towards his pocket.

“So let’s go find her,” Raith said.

Zane looked up. “Huh?” His eyes narrowed, “Like it’s
that
easy? Like I haven’t been combing the whole fucking city for a week? Besides, with Zoey out of commission we’ve lost our best source for finding her.”

Raith groaned and let his head fall back against the wall, “You must
really
think I’m an idiot. Come on, asshole, let’s track this fucker down.”

“An atlas?” Zane laughed, “Really? We have
millions
of dollars of top-of-the-line computer equipment
literally
right behind you and you’re using an
atlas
?”

Raith sighed, “Let me start by remarking that it’s
because
of things like this atlas that the information on
those
computers exist. I’d also like to add that, with Zoey unconscious, nobody seems to know how to
work
the millions of dollars of top-of-the-line computer equipment short of logging onto Facebook or watching porn.”

Zane frowned, “I thought I cleared the history…”

Raith chuckled, “Busted.”

Zane rolled his eyes, “Moving right along to Raith’s ancient map of wonders.”

Raith laughed at that, “Fair enough.” He pulled out the file that Zane had gotten from the club and flipped it open; Zane seeing that a bunch of the pages had been highlighted and scribbled on. “These are all of the various events that your informant felt had
something
to do with Maledictus, and, in that, he wasn’t wrong. Mind you, yes,
some
of these are unrelated—either having some connection to other clan cases that have been wrapped up since then or random on-goings and a few pranks—but, for the most part, these all outright
stink
of that asshole.” Raith pushed five of the pages—all of them with a red X scribed in the upper-right of each page—off the table.

Zane stared at him. “Really?” he nodded to the pages that now littered the floor, “Was
that
necessary? You could’ve just—”

“It was for effect, asshole,” Raith sighed, “an effect, I’d like to point out, that
you
just deflated.” He shook his head and spread out the remaining pages before taking out a Sharpie. “I was looking through these before I came to get you, because I
genuinely
think I’ve narrowed in on his hideout,” he shook his head, looking over at Zane, “but I don’t know the area well enough to determine
where
exactly.” He opened the atlas to their city—Zane already seeing a few marks from Raith’s Sharpie—and pointed the tip of the marker to Ben’s club on the map. “This is where you first spotted him before he led you to the lumber yard”—he dragged the capped tip across the map in the direction they’d taken—“which actually tells us something.”

Zane frowned, “What? That the asshole likes wood?”

Raith cupped his face in his free palm. “Sometimes I just
cannot
believe that I actually went on missions with you. No, you dunce! It has
nothing
to do with the lumber yard, it’s the
direction
!”

Zane looked back at the map and frowned, shaking his head, “What about it?”

Raith retraced the path from the club to the lumber yard several more times as he spoke. “A lot of animals—birds especially—will, when the threat of a nearby predator is felt, travel
away
from their nest or burrow. It’s an instinct—a baser one—to lead the threat
away
from their home; to protect their families.”