SWNOVELS Chapter The Deaths
The redblood ampyra was snorring into her pillow, unaware of the goldblood scowling at her. Renee's rage made her already illy fair skill go pallid. She didn't notice it at first but the eldritch could now smell that Esmeralda was carrying Clarke's child. The Romanian woman rolled onto her back, distantly feeling the warmth of her husband. Clarke wound up breathing down Esmeralda's neck from her shift in position.
It enraged Renee! Long before they were parents, Renee and Clarke were madly in love. The type of love that consumed them both to the point where they vowed never to love anyone else. More reason for Renee to be so livid. She sniffled as tears streamed down her pale cheeks. The eldritch didn't bother with her stealth skills from feeling how disheartened she was because Clarke moved on.
She let out a sob that stirred the expecting mother. Esmeralda moaned softly before her eyes fluttered open. Her dark green eyes latched onto Renee and she gasped when she saw the blue eyes instead of the twins' black ones. Esmeralda sat up fearfully, searching for the knife underneath her pillow. Mutely Renee rounded the bed to Clarke's side but her cold gaze never left Esmeralda's.
Esmeralda stretched her arm over Clarke as her fearfully gaze went stoney too. "Touch him and it will be the last thing you do," she threatened.
Renee merely raised an eyebrow and her demeanour matched that of Ridley. Clarke's eyes spewed open and his hand rested on his gun's trigger under his pillow. He bolted upright, sharply aiming for Renee's chest. "What are you doing here," he asked coolly though the worry was clear in his eyes.
"You broke your promise," Renee said. Her black jumpsuit was free flowing at the legs and it sounded like she wore stilettos underneath the floor-length pants. "I could never bring myself to love anyone but you." Clarke was unchanging. "I knew I could never convince you to leave the girls; just the way you looked at them after they were born..." Renee sighed then backed away from the bed. "I'm glad they had you, Clarke. I'm genuinely grateful that they someone to love them. I can't imagine what a challenge it must have been."
Clarke pulled the trigger! He shot Renee right in her chest. She only gasped then looked down at the gold blood flooding onto her strapless jumpsuit from the exposed part of her breastplate. She looked up with more tears in her eyes. Esmeralda stiffened when Renee wouldn't die. Instead, Renee merely nodded with a growing frown.
"Okay," she replied. "You made your bed, rest in it," she went on devoid of emotion. In a lightning fast blur, Renee was back at Esmeralda's side. She grabbed the redblood by the throat. "Let's meet the little one!"
Clarke opened fire on his ex girlfriend but the bullets did nothing but perforated her. Esmeralda fought against Renee's hold but the goldblood was too strong. She flung Esmeralda out the bedroom door and the redblood skidded down the hallway, nearing the stairs. The gunfire brought out Richard from his room and Ryan too.
The grandfather veteran drew his sword from his conjy tattoo on his spine. "du Luq? It's been a while," he began lowering his sword. "How's the boy?"
"Tomás is fine but you?" She smirked and shook her head. "You are old and weak. You're not as much of a challenge as you used to be," she chuckled. "How's Barbara?"
"Your lover took care of her," he replied. "Bitten by Class F. You know how that goes." Renee only nodded. "It's good to see you again, dear," he concluded then reached his arms out to hug her.
"I missed you so much, Richard," Renee voiced warmly but her words were muffled from being compressed into his bulging shoulder. She kissed each of his cheeks then stood back. "I'll miss you less after I kill you."
"Still have a sense of humour, I see," he retorted, raising his sword. Clarke came from behind with a machete but Renee snapped her fingers and a barrier of her green fire blocked his way into the hallway. "That's good. It's hard to come by a decent woman who can keep you on your toes and still make you laugh," Richard went on, ignoring Clarke.
Renee merely shrugged as she raised her hands defensively. Richard came charging at her with his sword arched over his head. Renee ducked backed and planted her leg into his abdomen. Ryan stood in front of the green fire, trying to extinguish the flames with the carpet from her room.
Esmeralda laid unconscious at the top of the stairs when Ridley and Ankh returned from her morning jog. She could hear the commotion from the foyer and Ankh's snarl only confirmed that they were under attack. Ridley lifted her index finger to her lips to silence the wolf. Cautiously she ascended the grand dark stairs with Ankh sniffing ahead of her.
Richard smote at Renee, cutting deep into her abdomen. The goldblood stammered into the wall, mere feet away from Ryan who was still trying to diminish the green fire. Renee roared her fluster then tore the battleaxe off the wall. Ridley peered passed the top of the stairs at her grandfather and mother in a heated battle. Beyond them, Clarke was scrambling in their room for more ammunition with Ryan vainly fighting fire.
Richard pressed Renee into a wall with his sword crossed over her axe. The goldblood grunted against the force applied to her. She was grunted before latching her eyes to Richard's. "I said 'you aren't a challenge'," she stated sternly with her eyes flashing gold. Like a mindless zombie, Richard Axel backed away from her and dropped his sword. "Much better," Renee commented.
"Ryan," Clarke called, throwing her his gun. She caught it and swallowed hard when she turned to her mother. Renee was solely focused on Richard who was left defenceless. She raised the battleaxe in one swift swing, Richard Axel was relieved of his head.
Ryan exhaled shakily but felt a swell of rage erupt inside her. She shot angrily at her mother, roaring that pent up emotion. Renee merely modelled up to her daughter, getting more holey as she did. Renee swatted the gun out of Ryan's hand then choked her into the wall.
"You... you promised..." Ryan began against her lack of air. "Y-you said you wouldn't... hurt..."
"Necessary evils and such, my sweet little girl," Renee whispered. She leaned into her daughter with an evil smirk. "It's almost time," Renee went on softly while Ridley tried to wake Esmeralda. "There's just a few more things I need from you."
Renee bared her teeth then pierced deep into Ryan's collarbone. The younger twin let out a rattling scream while her older counterpart too experienced the agonising sensation. Ridley cupped her collar in the same place as Renee's teeth were impaled into her sister. She fell over, also screaming at the top of her lungs.
Black blood poured out of Ryan and black-tainted gold blood poured out of Ridley. "No," Clarke roared over the flames. "Renee! Renee, stop!"
She obeyed. Painfully she ripped her teeth out of Ryan and threw her daughter into the pool of blood flooding from Richard's neck. Ridley panted heavily while Ankh stood protectively in front of her and Esmeralda. The older Axel twin shifted to her knees, matching Ankh's protectiveness.
"What do you want," Clarke roared angrily, taking over fighting the green fire.
"Immortality," Renee roared back. Her bullet wounds didn't effect her at all but she was clearly getting tired from her blood loss. "Everyone has a fear of death but only the ones like me can cheat it. That's what what I want." She turned back to meet Ridley's livid mug over Esmeralda's barely moving body. "Since that's taking its sweet time, I'll settle for an abortion!"
"Stay away from my mom," Ridley warned Renee.
Her frigidity lowered the temperature of the whole manor. Renee exhaled roughly and her breath puffed away in a cloud of mist. Mutely Renee raised her hand with a ball of her green fire ensnaring her entire hand. Ankh's eyes went wide with Ridley's gasped and the huntress leaped forward, unleashing her own white fire against her mother.
The charred odour escaped the walls and carpet of Renee's half of the hallway while frost and thin ice creeped over the walls of Ridley's side. When they both slowed, they were heavily tired with Ridley's nose bleeding and Renee's hair going thick as thatch and grey. Wrinkles formed at her eyes and her youthful glow was fleeting.
"You're stronger than I anticipated," the goldblood stated breathlessly. "Your eldritch is developing faster. That will count in my favour when the time comes. Until then, mon chérie."
Ridley was too tired to do anything and her fatigue effected Ankh too. All she could do, was watch. She watched Renee bolt back to Clarke and Esmeralda's room while the green flames their vanished. Renee punched Clarke so hard that he flew threw the bedroom wall and onto the balcony. As for Renee, she leaped over him and vanished into the trees behind the manor.
Ridley massaged her throbbing collarbone while Esmeralda straightened up. They both weakly made their way to Ryan's side. The younger twin was out cold. Clarke shook off his dizziness and drowsily clambered his way to them. "Everyone alright?"
Esmeralda rolled Ryan onto her back to exam the engorged bite. "She's going to live," the redblood stated. "Renee missed all the vital blood vessels." Ridley caved into the wall, unfazed that her nose bleed was growing worse. "This is a really precise bite, Clarke," Esmeralda went on. "She knew exactly what she was doing."
"She's going to turn into an Edging," Ridley pointed out, exhausted beside her grandfather's headless body. She closed her eyes to stop herself from crying. "I can't lose her, Axel," she directed to Clarke.
"We won't," he assured her. "Some hunters are strong enough to resist it. Ryan won't Class E or F. Not now, not ever." Ridley passed out where she was while Clarke gathered Ryan in her arms. "I'll take her to the infirmary. You should come too," he directed to Esmeralda. "Make sure the baby's okay."
"The baby's fine," she stated lifting her pajama top to show how the fetus was moving inside her swelling womb. "Go. I'll stay with Ridley." Clarke obeyed mutely, leaving his beheading father with his rattled wife and partially conscious daughter. "You called me 'mom'."
Ridley huffed. "All that and that's your take away?"
"I always thought you hated me."
"I don't hate you, Mrs Axel," Ridley replied softly. "Not as much as you think." Esmeralda let out a deflated breath. "It was always Axel, Ryan and I," the young huntress began. "It was perfect. Things just shifted when you came into the picture. Axel was... less. Less sad, less frustrated. We both knew you were what he needed. When you started cooking and helping us with our homework and reading bedtime stories, it just felt like there was less Axel for us. At some point it just clicked into place that you meant well so..."
"I never meant for you to feel that way."
"It's better than a homicidal eldritch on a tangent."
That 'homicidal eldritch on a tangent' was far from over. Before her ninja skills led her to Clarke and Esmeralda's bedroom, she made a pitstop in Ridley's room. In place of paging through photo albums like she did the first time, Renee had a plan. Every morning when Ridley went jogging, she left her cellphone on her beside pedestal. Renee - with her eyes set on Dane - typed up a bogus message from her daughter's phone.
Now that the final touches to her plan to immortality were falling into place, Renee was ready to reveal her cards. In her hideout - a hollow in the canal under the Bur Bridge - near the river, Renee surrounded herself with her army of ajar lynxes. The medium sized wild cats patiently weakly awaited there master's return.
Renee caved into her makeshift bed. The lynxes too were drained simply because Renee was. The psionic link she shared with all of them affected the wild cats physically as much as it did mentally. She called one with her mind, making her wrinkle even more. She moaned her exhaustion then ran her fingers through the summoned lynx's luxurious coppery fur.
Roughly Renee pinned the cat the floor and drained the life out of it. Despite popular belief, animal blood wasn't a reliable source of sustenance. 'Vegetarian' ampyras were just that. Actual no-meat vegetarians. She cast the lifeless feline aside with a heavy sigh. The lynx's sacrifice made Renee's body spit out the bullets and it healed her wounds.
"Find me someone to stem," she bellowed at her cowering cast of cats. "Now!" A small litter took off sprinting from their supposed campsite. "Anyone have eyes on the Danish biscuit," she inquired while closing her eyes. Through the eyes of one lynx shielded behind a shrub, the goldblood could see Dane ending his daylight patrol of the empty school. "Keep your eyes on him." Again Renee moaned from her eldritch draining her. "I'm running out of time," she roared in frustration.
She felt her small deflectors return with a struggling man caught in their teeth. She sat up slowly, crawling her way to them. The man grunted his agony and fought against the lynxes. Renee buried her face into his leg, too tired to make her way to his neck. It took time before the man passed out from losing blood and it took longer before he died.
Her youth wouldn't return but her energy did. Revived, Renee inhaled deeply then cracked her neck. She took a deep breath and felt her skin crawl and shift along with her hair growing out and darkening. When it stopped, Renee looked like the splitting image of Ridley. She felt a small wave of tiredness crash over her but shook it off as best she could.
"Remember my plan," she directed to the lynx army. "First the Danish pirate then Ryan. Keep an eye on her; nobody hurts her. Nobody!"
Renee, disguised as Ridley, returned to Dunon Academy through the tree line at the back of the headmaster's residence. Carefully she wove her way through the campus, ducking in the blindspots of the patrolling hunters. In place of sneaking straight to the rendezvous, Renee needed a change in wardrobe.
Cautiously she manuever into her secret closet; the sun girl's dorm. She didn't use the same girl's room twice. Using her keen sense of smell, the eldritch could pin down an empty dorm room. The room was heavy with two scents of perfume. Renee rummaged through the first wardrobe for a black skirt and the white blouse. In the second closet, Renee raided the chest for sneakers. In the bushes near the swimming pool, the goldblood disregarded her black jumpsuit that was tinted with her gold blood.
Swiftly, still in the form of Ridley, Renee made her way into the school library. The librarian, Ms Ross, merely nodded at the form of Ridley as the goldblood ascended the staircase. At the thumb scanner, pseudo-Ridley planted her left thumb on the scanner and the gate let out a blaring buzzer before it gave way.
Coolly she slid into the hunter's section of the library and waited. She didn't wait long; while cruising through the biographical columns, the buzzer bellowed through the hunter's library. The goldblood froze between two tall bookshelves, smirking lowly to herself. Her super hearing allowed her to hear his footsteps approaching. She could hear his steady heart faintly escalate. She could hear his lungs fill with air.
She was unfazed. She scanned over the written lives of famous hunters, some of which she knew personally. Like 'The Hunt Godfather: the Eduardo Aronje story'. Eduardo Aronje, also known as the Portuguese Poacher, was one of Portugal and history's most influential hunters and one of the members of the ordinary Council of Chains. The governing faction of The Hunt Association. He lived for eighty years - from 1641 to 1721.
He and his wife, Marie Naomi Aronje, were the original hunting family. Their six sons and three daughters grew up learning their father's methods for hunting. Aronje and his eldest daughter, Beatriz - though she couldn't be recognised as a hunter because of the societal norms of women at that time - invented the gradus system. Today, Arnoje is considered the father of the modern hunt and dubbed 'Pai da Caça' or 'Father of The Hunt'.
Renee hummed reminiscing about her brief time in Portugal, among the human young boy that would grow up to be an icon across the world. She sighed then felt Dane growing closer to her. She shook off her memories from all those centuries ago then slowly turned to be faced with a pair of dark eyes. Dane's face was square when he saw 'Ridley's'.
Demurely Dane stepped in between the two shelves while the girl before him only watched him. She rested her hands on his cheeks, feeling the level warmth in his face. Dane took in Ridley when she leaned in and her eyes slowly descended from his eyes to his lips. Her kiss was soft against his lips yet so igniting!
She pulled away, sensing how caught off guard Dane was. He too backed away, intent on leaving. Before his back could fully face her, the goldblood coiled his arms around his arm and drew him back. She pinned herself against the wall behind her and pulled him into her embrace, kissing him again.
He could resist his desire. Dane gave into Renee, wholeheartedly believing it was Ridley. He kissed her back, pressing her deeper into the wall. She combed her fine fingers through his wavy hair. Dane's lips trailed down to her neck, making her gasp. She moaned then clutched tighter onto him while he buried his face into her neck, lightly biting at her skin but not piercing into her.
The pseudo-Ridley gently shifted him away from her. She couldn't look away from his dark eyes; too spellbound to comprehend how this boy didn't have someone for himself! Slowly the goldblood reached up to her blouse to unbutton it. Her fingers only freed the first one when his hands ensnared hers.
In his eyes was the clear struggle: resist temptation or risk expulsion from The Hunt. Still, in the dark eyes that looked up at him, was a yearning he never thought possible. Whether that was Renee's aim or her own libido taunting her chastity was something only she knew.
Regardless of what the eldritch's play was, Dane gave in. His breathing grew heavy and his hands were cooled yet sweating profusely. Shaky Danish digits reached for the next button on the blouse and the next until he could effortless slide the white blouse off her shoulders. Under the shield of the two tall bookshelves, Dane was at the mercy of his school's adversary. Her fingers toyed with his belt buckle while her nostrils breathed in his face.
The only hope Dane had, was the surveillance camera observing them from the aisle. On the other end of the camera, was one of dozens of monitors that made the treasonous act as trivial as the rest. Jakob was at his usual perch in that room, communicating with the hunters across the school and some of the Class E and F hot spots around town.
It would have been easy for Jakob to spot the supposed treason, had it not been for the real Ridley's interruption. She merely gave him a single nod as she collectively strutted into his domain, another restricted area in the underground part of the hunter's facility on campus.
"Girl," Jakob greeted staunch as always. "Late for cyber patrol? A first." His wavy brown hair was still covering his left eye's eye patch. With his good eye, he could see through that levelled disposition she masqueraded and into the concern. "How can I help?"
Ridley pulled out her phone, searching for the message to Dane that she didn't send. "Live feed of the hunter's library," she replied.
He obeyed. They both went pale. Jakob turned on her, drawing the crossbow from under his station. "Tell me something only Girl would know," he ordered squarely. She bared her neck to him defiantly. "Ryan has short hair and transmutation is an eldritch skill. Only one girl is the real Girl. Tell me something only Girl would know," he repeatedly, this time unlocking the crossbow's safety.
"Eight years ago," Ridley stated, "you told me love is the greatest weakness. That it's too easy to exploit. You showed me how to not let that be my weakness." Jakob nodded his reassurance and lowered the crossbow. "She's going to kill him."
Jakob cupped her shoulder before she could take off sprinting. "We can't call this in," he stated then led the way in a marathon run. "It's broad daylight; too many witnesses especially among the sun students. We have to handle this quietly." Ridley merely nodded as they made their way above ground.
With urgency in their step, Renee and Dane matched it with urgency in every thrust. She groaned into his ear, biting it lightly. Dane had her legs wrapped around his hips while he leaned into the wall. She buried her face into his shoulder to muffle her roar of ecstasy. Dane panted into her neck then carefully set her back on the dark blue carpet.
Renee hummed then kissed him a final time, flooded with the exquisite sensation. Dane's panting levelled out and he rested his forehead against hers. "I wish you could understand how long I wanted to tell you that I am so in love with you," he whispered and felt a heavy weight lifted off him. "I'm in love with you, Ridley Axel. I..."
"Sorensen," Ridley called before the buzzer sounded.
Jakob came running down the aisle ahead of Ridley. Jakob halted abruptly and went livid at what he saw. His nephew - whom Jakob warned numerous times against indulging his feelings for Ridley - had his pants down and in his arms was a confirmed fake Ridley. Ridley's eyes flicked her surprise but was the best scenario she could picture of the situation, en route.
"Ridley," Dane inquired, confused to wit's end.
He turned to the Ridley beside him and watch in horror as her skin bubbled to reform itself while her hair shedded like she was dying. "Boy," Jakob called and cautiously Dane sided towards his uncle, who shielded him from the revealed Renee. "du Luq," Jakob sneered.
"The Danish pirate," she replied with a pur. Dane glanced over at Ridley, who gave away nothing about what she felt. "Don't you love playing pretend? Or rather, don't you get tired of it, Jakob," Renee taunted. "It's a complex game you play. Pretending to be Viggo's father-figure. Pretending to hate him yet pretending to love him while pretending to not care about pretending to care. And Ryan says Clarke is toxic. Oops," she stated not the least bit repentant. "You weren't supposed to know she's in league with me," the goldblood whispered. "Poor little Viggo," she directed to Dane. "I wonder your real father would feel if he knew his son was being taken care if by the man who killed his wife."
Jakob threw a knife at her. The knife was firmly rooted into her chest. "Couldn't aim for an eye," Ridley jeered and Jakob turned his bad eye towards her. "Pussy."
"How do you know Viggo," Dane persisted drawing his gun. "Where is he?"
"So testy," Renee sang while pulling out the knife. "Relax, VJ, he's still in Denmark but we've crossed paths a few times over the millennia. Word of advice: don't be fooled by his bodyguards and the muscle around him. Viggo Elliott Wolfensøn is a viking. That's actually something to be proud of, young man. You certainly know how to fuck like one."
"Contact?" Ridley directed to Jakob, annoyed by her mother.
"Contact," he confirmed.
Jakob charged at Renee first with the collapsible sword he wore as a belt. Ridley unsheathed her trusty karambit from her garter while Dane held a gun in one hand and a dagger in the other. Renee disgarded the knife and used her bare fists. She swiftly avoided Jakob's sword by spinning behind Ridley, who slammed the back of her head into her mother's.
Dane smote at Renee's neck, cutting deep into her throat. The goldblood didn't slow down from the gold liquid pouring from her neck. She grabbed the barrel of Dane's gun and squeezed it into a useless machine. He still hit her with it. While Renee stammered backwards from the head trauma, her daughter stabbed her straight in her spine.
She screeched her agony while Jakob planted his sword deep into her forehead. The screeched turned to a bone-chilling shriek that cracked the windows on that floor. It was so chilling, Renee's opponents had to shield their ears from the auditory torture. Renee stammered backwards from the force of the sword but still she wouldn't die.
After tearing out of her head, her head hole healed. From using her eldritch, her black pixie cut, lined with grey highlights was now a head of grey hair with black lowlights. She let out an animalistic growl as she tightened her hold on the sword. She broke off the front end of it while Jakob once again ushered the youngsters behind him. Dane on his feet and Ridley on her knees, recovering from the strain her stronger ears took.
Renee threw the sword remnants at Jakob and his body caught it. Right in his right lung. Dane teared up angrily and caught his uncle before the one-eyed veteran could even teeter. Ridley turned to Renee, redder than ever. "Necessary evils, chérie," the French woman... more accurately, French hag... sang. "Ask Ryan. She knows what I mean."
The goldblood let herself out of the library while Dane cradled his uncle in his arms, too deep in self-loathing and pre-mourning to bother with Ridley or Renee. "Un-uncle," he stuttered fearfully while Jakob's eye fluttered open and close repeatedly. "No, no. Stay with me. I'm here, uncle, and you need to be here too. Don't leave me," Dane ordered through sobs. "Stay with me, you stubborn old skidespræller!"
Jakob was breathing heavily but his concern remained on Dane. He squeezed his nephew's hand in his. "You were always my boy," the veteran concluded weakly. "My son."
Dane shook his head while Jakob's eye turned away lifelessly. "No, no. No!"
"Sorensen," Ridley called, devoid of emotional understanding for the death. "We have to go. We have to end this."
Still the ampyra shook his head, muttering in Danish. He clutched Jacob's head into his chest shamelessly crying before he noticed Ridley was still with him. "You? You can save him," he began vainly. "You saved Sayeed's wolf; you can save him too."
"I don't know what that will do to-"
"I can't lose him! He's the only family I have."
"We don't know what that will do to him!" Dane shook his head in denial. "Sorensen, listen to me. You need to get off your emotionally-disorient ass and-" Ms Ross' scream echoed throughout the whole of the library and Ridley furrowed her eyebrows angrily. "Get the fuck up and fight!"
Before he could react, Ridley used her enhanced strength to tear him off the floor and away from his uncle's body. They rampaged downstairs only to find Ms Ross dead in a pool of her own goldblood, at her desk. On the floor, near the newspaper stand, Jason - the first year guardian hunter - too was lifeless with a machete in his one hand and a copy of 'Pride and Prejudice' with his library card in the other.
"This is R. D. Axel," Ridley began disgusted by the scene they found. "Location: library. Corpse discovery: three dead." Still green with disgust she turned to Dane, huddled around his knees. Unashamed by his weak state. It didn't take long before hunters cornered off the library, making the gossips (the sun students) go into a frenzy.
After Clarke handled the messy details of the library investigation, it was time for a proper time of mourning. Hunters may not have to be bound by a specific religion, but they were always buried the day they died. Either at sunrise or sunset as a sign that their time is over.
In Dunon Town's cemetery, there was a special place for people like Jakob and Richard. Hunter's Hectare. Laid to rest in organised rows, the last hunter in Dunon to be buried was a veteran named Xander Fraser. On Fraser's left was Oliver and on his right were two fresh graves. On Fraser's immediate right was Richard. Like all hunters, his coffin was a plain pine box. No aesthetically finishes or engraving. Just a sanded wooden casket.
Richard was laid into the hole and covered. No pretty flowers and no fancy ceremonies. Just a priest's blessing and send off. The same went for Jakob. The difference was that Jakob would be missed. Dane stood at the foot of the grave crying himself to numbness. The last light of day vanished in hand with the last of Jakob's coffin. When the graves were filled, their headstones were unveiled. On it was the name, their ranking and the dates of the hunter:
'Richard Bryan Nguyen-Axel
Master
20. 01. 1947 - 04. 11. 2021'
and
'Jakob Sorensen
Paladin
13. 07. 1975 - 04. 11. 2021'
On Oliver's head stone - between his dates and name - it merely said Nonentity. Expelled hunters - otherwise known as Rogues or Deserters, depending on the circumstances - were outlawed from being buried in Hunter's Hectare. Being a hunter was a cold job that not many were designed for.
After that, everything was done and dusted. Life went on. The unspoken rule was once they left the cemetery, they don't go ever back; the dead is dead so let them be dead. Dane felt Esmeralda cup his shoulder to usher him back to the school. Under the darkening sky, he ruefully trudged back by her side.
He was in no condition to be alone so Clarke and Esmeralda welcomed the Danish young man into their home for the night. He at dinner with Ankh keeping him company while the Axel family was gathered in the kitchen.
Esmeralda shook her head lightly in Dane's direction then focused back on Clarke and Ridley. "Part of me doesn't want to know what's in that report," she stated. "That is a new level of broken."
"Guilt, you mean," Clarke corrected while flipping through the said report. "Surveillance analysis is straightforward; Renee turned into Ridley and used Dane's feelings for her against him. Blaming himself for Jakob's death comes as a given."
Esmeralda took the binder from him and slid it across the island, where it fell off the other side. "It wasn't his fault," she countered sternly.
"Theoretically 25% of the fault is Sorensen's," Ridley added, still devoid. "Practically it was 33.3%."
"Drink you dinner," Esmeralda ordered with that she handed a chilled pint of Clarke's blood to her stepdaughter. Ridley took the cold red blood and sniffed it. "Clarke, look at him," she ordered in a whisper. "Every hunter on campus knows what he did. He's mourning, he's angry and he's embarrassed."
"What're you suggesting?" Esmeralda wordlessly looked over to Ridley, who still studied the crisp blood in her hands. "Hilarious," he commented.
"Clarke..."
"No," he cut in. "He just narrowly avoided desecration from The Hunt only because that wasn't actually Ridley. Now you want to put them together? In a room? Alone? No." Esmeralda rolled her eyes with an exasperated scoff. "I'll let you get a real tattoo before I allow you into a room with a boy I know wants to... to... what do they say-- 'tap in'?" He directed to Ridley. "No."
"Ridley," Esmeralda pleaded. Her hazel-green eyes and her burgundy hair were a bold contrast to each other. She clearly saw something in Ridley that Dane needed in that moment. "He trusts you more than anyone."
Ridley looked into the dining hall to his back. Ankh laid by the warming fireplace, keeping an eye on him. "No," she asked more than said. "I don't know." Ankh glanced over at Ridley and sat up, wagging her tail against the floor. "You have too much faith in my sympathy skills," she replied to the wolf in her head. Her grey face tilted to the side. "Why?"
Clarke looked between them then glanced at Esmeralda. "What's it saying," he whispered.
Esmeralda's interest grew as she looked over to Ridley. The huntress exhaled heavily through her nose. "Ankh is under the impression that Dane would get it off his chest better with me than a shrink."
"She's not wrong," Esmeralda agreed.
"We're revisiting how you understand what a wolf is thinking," Clarke stated, "but my answer is still no. It's not appropriate for either of you as hunters on the same unit and it's not appropriate for me as your father. I'll set up a meeting with the school psychologist and only if he's willing to go then-"
"Guys, I can hear you," Dane stated, not even looking over his shoulder. His voice was raspy from his crying and shaky from his emotional distress.
Esmeralda sighed defeatedly then began for him but Ridley held her arm out to stop her. Ankh's ears stood up and a smile spread across her snout when Ridley walked into the dining hall alone. "Come with me," she ordered softly and before he could protest, she went on. "Don't. Just... don't. Come with me."
He didn't touch his dinner; he didn't even pick up the fork. It made easier for him to leave the table and follow Ridley up to her bedroom. She closed her door the way she usually did but the worry showing across Dane's red face made her tug it back open. The round bedroom was quiet and Ridley watched Dane take in the room he had been in so many times before.
He punched the side of her steel cabinet then exhaled. He started punching it repetitively as fresh tears flooded out of his eyes. "He was all I had! I knew he cared even when he never said as much. A part of me always feared that I... that he... but he loved me. I was his son." Dane slammed the steel cabinet a final time then caved to his haunches. "He could never let me in," he started, suddenly livid. "After all this time! For my entire life, he-"
Ridley smote him across the face so hard he flew into the painting of a landscape. "Listen to me, he's dead. Piece together whatever puzzles he left behind then get over it because we both know he's not coming back."
"Trust Ridley to bring the snowstorm," he hissed. "What is your problem! Your grandfather worshipped you and you can even shed a tear for him? Your sister's in the hospital, right now, fighting for her life and not once did you ask how she's doing. I was embarrassed in front of my fellow hunters. My idols. I was embarrassed for you because I went against every warning my uncle ever gave me. I'm in love with you and you're not uncomfortable or turned on or disgusted. Wake up, Ridley! Not everyone can be a cold, heartless bitch!"
"You didn't just lose your uncle, I lost my mentor," Ridley roared back. "Who do you think taught me to use a bow an arrow or throw a knife and never miss? Clarke and Esmeralda never let us near weapons until we thirteen."
"And still you feel nothing!"
"I feel everything!"
The bedroom went silent as the rain started pouring outside. Thunder cut through their quietness along with Ankh's paws on the wooden stairs leading to the bedroom door. She huffed then leaped onto the window seat and curled up by the open window.
Reeling in her emotions, Ridley sat on the edge of her bed. It took Dane a moment to calm himself before he flung himself beside her. He looked down at his high tops, too ashamed to look at her and she only looked at her door across her room. She laced her fingers together then exhaled her heaviness.
"I understand better than anyone what Jakob did. He taught it to me. He told me love is the greatest weakness. That it's too easy to exploit. He showed me how to not let that be my weakness," Ridley went on calmly. "He never wanted to hurt you, he only wanted to protect you. I feel everything. The more I try not to let her in, the more it feels like I'm losing her and I can't... she is all I will ever have." Ridley started tearing up and she let out a sniffle. "He never acknowledged how he much he loved you because he loved you more than anything and that was dangerous."
Dane bit his lower lip. "I-I didn't know that..."
"Why would you? That defeats the objective."
"So... you're not a cold, heartless bitch?" Ridley said nothing. "That's a little worrisome, I'm not going to lie."
"I'm sorry about Jakob," she deflected. Slowly she glanced over at him. Dane was still looking at his shoes. "I'm sorry I don't care about Richard or about your feelings for me but I will not apologise for the choices I made. I made my bed and I sleep like a kitten in it."
She leaned her head into his shoulder then wove her hands around his arm. Carefully Ridley encapsulated his hand in hers. "I'm sorry I'm in love with you."
"It's out of your control." He rested his head against. "I can't believe your penis was up the vagina I came out of." He laughed into her crown and she sniggered too. She straightened up then shifted to face him. "You should stay the night," she suggested in a pur and his lips parted. "Not in my bed, ever again." He cupped her cheek then nestled his forehead into hers. "If it's any consolation, you're like family to me," she whispered as they teetered onto her bed.
Dane gathered her in his arms and she nestled closer to him. "Is that better or worse than being friend zoned?" She shrugged in reply. "I promise I won't fall asleep in your bed," he assured her.
She shook her head into his chest. "I don't care."