Six
She was such a nuisance of a child. Perhaps he should just kill her and be done with it. The thought turned in his mind for what must have been the millionth time as he sat upon his throne.
Word had returned that the group had managed to evade the hydra. Not kill it, that he had done himself in a rage. Of course it wasn't often he slayed a monster, after all they did bring him good business with the deaths of many a human, or at least they used to. Still he was the Grim Reaper, and none could escape his cold grasp forever.
So let his daughter and the mutt run and hide, their tails between their legs. He would find them. Besides, the only reason she had managed to evade him this long was thanks to the gift his daughter dearest had stolen for herself from him.
If he hadn't put so much into this girl, he would kill her and start again. The problem remained though that her mother wouldn't speak to him anymore after he whisked their daughter away to the underworld. She'd be unlikely to cooperate and mate with him again. It was also safe to assume she had already told all her siblings too about his intentions. He couldn't recreate his prize.
To make matters worse, not only had he lost his way to get new lives, but he was now out a dog which meant lives were attempting to escape. Also if any heroes got word of this, well things could get ugly to say the least. At least heroes were as much a dying breed as non-humans.
Then again, perhaps a hero was just what he needed.
He snapped his finger and a yellow spirit appeared with a bow. "Sire?"
"Fetch me the hero in cell 1,255,671. I have a proposition for him."
Children raced around playing tag or something as ridiculous. A mere game of futility that did not reflect the real world and what they should be running form. He could catch them all in an instant. Just imagining eating up their tender little limbs made him salivate.
"Sin." Cy warned, his face drawn and cold.
Sin turned to look at him. His arms dangling above his head to scrap the ground, each slight shift dragging the pebbles about below him. He had taken to hanging upside down in what was called a jungle-gym with Cy leaning against the outside.
"I didn't do anything."
"Don't give me that." He gazed out at the children. "I know what you were thinking."
Sin reached up, his skin scraping the rusted metal as his hands wrapped around the bars. He flipped his legs over his head and hung with his weight pulling at his shoulder in their unusual position.
"Then you shouldn't have chosen this spot to wait oh brilliant leader." He dropped down, poking his tongue along his teeth. "Besides, thinking doesn't mean I'm going to act on it."
"Says the hound that just went hunting without thinking about consequences the other day, on our first day topside. Just like a mindless beast."
Sin growled before climbing out through the bars. He poked his brother's chest, but Cy didn't flinch or back away. His calm eyes unnerving as ever.
"Fuck you."
He stormed off to the swings. Sin jumped up and started swaying back and forth while standing. So this was what it was like to be a child.
"Hey mister. Aren't you too old for the swings?"
A small boy with wide innocent eyes and the sweet scent of untainted flesh from the world stood before him. Too bad he had made that dumb promise to Lily. She definitely owed him human when this was over and none of that nasty old stuff full of drugs, cholesterol, and everything else.
"What's it to you?"
The boy sat in the seat beside him. "Well, as long as I can still swing I guess it doesn't matter. Though my mom said not to talk to strangers, so no more talking."
"Smart mom." Sin sat down and started swinging trying to mimic how the boy pumped his legs.
Even from this distant he could fell Cy's watchful eyes burning into him. What an ass, like he needed a babysitter.
"Bet I can go higher than you."
Sin glanced over at the boy and his challenging grin. He must have realized that he was struggling a bit and wanted to bet the "grown-up".
"I doubt that."
The two both began swinging their legs in earnest, each trying to get higher than the other. Sin was determined not to lose to a human child, though his swing kept liking to careen about. Why wouldn't it just go straight? Just as he was catching up, suddenly the boy flew through the air. His arms flailed about for a second before he landed on the ground. The entire action was ungraceful; however, when the boy straightened his face bore a huge grin.
"Tada! Now you, come on jump!"
Sin frowned pumping his legs a couple more back and forth. Only to be ridiculed as a chicken by the boy. He was no chicken! He was a beast!
With wild abandon for who was watching and his body, he flung himself from the swing as it was about to reach its peak. He sailed past the boy and landed in a heap on the ground.
"Mister! Mister! Are you okay?"
Dust settled and he picked little bits of rock from in his face. He had landed face first into the gravel around the playground. He flicked it away before standing up. He was pretty sure he had broke his wrist, but gave no sign of it. The boy started cheering once he saw him standing and gave him a thumbs up. After a second, he returned the hand gesture unsure what it meant. It must have been a good thing though based on the smile on the boy's face.
"Sin."
He turned to see Lily striding over with Bryn. She carried with her a small basket which must contain their supplies. The black cloak that flapped with every step she took drew attention. If one stared too long they could sweat they'd fall into it's dark depths. They wouldn't be entirely wrong in that assessment. He was all one for standing out, but even he thought it was unwise that she simply paraded around in it.
Not that his brother was looking much better on the blending in aspect. The white gauze wrapped around half his head had developed a deep red stain, with the scent of blood permeating the air as he drew closer. It was like he had a bull's eye on his face.
"Honey I told you not to wonder off!"
A young woman came and dragged the boy away who shouted goodbye with a happy wave. Once more he acknowledged the smarts of the boy's mother. Not many humans still had the sense within the empty skulls of theirs to fear what they should. Then again, he supposed his encroaching bandaged up brother didn't make it hard to get that tickle of survival instinct rushing back. Sin waved back absentmindedly.
"Awe, you made a friend." Lily giggled poking at his face.
He swatted her off. "Shove it."
"I see you lost an eye. What some little school punk beat you up for lunch money?" Sin got within inches of Bryn's face, breathing heavily to make him scrunch up his nose at the reek of rot he knew clung to it.
His uncovered eyebrow raised, before pushing past him to continue following Lily over to where she chatted with Cy. Damn both his brothers. They never gave him the respect he deserved. A growl rumbled within his chest, a beast pacing in its cage. A few parents steered away their children from the area. Hush voices whispering of gangs and violence. They had no idea.
Cy's head perked up at their retreat.
"Time to get going."
Back outside the city limits in the cover of the woods, they treated their wounds. Lily's pale nimble fingers doing most of the work. She had a knack for it, despite how easily those hands also ended life. She unwound the bandage around Bryn's head, only a slight twitch around her eye betraying her unease at seeing the empty socket gaping back at her. She set about washing it and dripping some medication into the hole.
Sin bite off some excess bandage from wrapping around his wrist. He had broken it earlier, a reckless mistake, a human type one which served to make him more irritated.
"So it sounds like everyone had a fun day." Lily said, clapping her hands together once finished with Bryn.
"I'd say that's relative." Cy replied, wrapping his tail. His arm had healed enough to be out of the sling and was now in a make-shift splint.
It didn't take long for night to settle upon them. The darkness draping a familiar blanket of mystery and unease about what laid just beyond the dwindling light of the campfire. It smoldered down to mere embers, letting the full might of the stars and moon to bathe them. For all he hated about being up top while at least in the given circumstances where he wasn't on the hunt with blood pumping through his veins and running down his chin, he would admit he did miss this.
"Maybe we could stay here a while?" Sin whispered into the dark as though they wouldn't know it was him talking.
Lily started a dreamy look in her eyes above the grinning skull. "That would be fun, but..."
"I know. Nevermind, it was just a joke. I was just hungry or something." He laid down, rolling away from them all. "I'm not taking first shift."
The silence that fell on the camp threatened to deafen him. He knew what they were all thinking. That he was weak, wishing to stay. They probably thought it was because of that little boy. Well let them think what they wanted, because he would show them. Top of the pack, even if he had to stab his brothers' in the back, he would get the power and respect he deserved.
Sin put his thumb up, hidden from the others by his back.
He just needed to jump for it.
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