"You're quite the flirt, aren't you?" Raven's melodic tones carried on the slight breeze, alerting Aidan to their approach.

"So I've been told," Flynn's low voice responded, dripping with knavish humor.

Aidan slipped the lighter that he'd been toying with back into his pocket, next to the cigarette he kept there for show and show only. Pulling the syringe out of his other pocket, he rolled his shoulders back, limbs tensed in anticipation as Raven and Flynn rounded the corner of the mansion.

Aidan lunged, and the world exploded into motion.

Spinning with deceiving dexterity despite the folds of olive-green silk swathing her legs, Raven moved around and out of Aidan's reach so that he was directly between her and Flynn. Her fingers disappeared into the material of her skirts, emerging a moment later with a butterfly knife in each hand. Raven grinned, the handles of the knives clicking against each other as she spun them expertly through the air.

"Who's first?"

Flynn moved forward to stand alongside Aidan, flexing fingers that now sported a pair of wickedly-studded brass knuckles, and Raven's grin widened.

"The more, the merrier." And then, she attacked.

His eyes meeting Flynn's in the briefest flash of conveyed understanding, Aidan moved backwards a step, allowing Flynn take the full brunt of Raven's onslaught. Aidan still held the syringe of sedative in one hand, careful to hold it around the barrel and not by the plunger. Flynn circled to the left, so that he was standing across from Aidan. If Raven had followed his movement, she'd be standing with her back to Aidan, but she tilted them both a knowing smile and refused to comply. Instead, Raven turned on Aidan.

Aidan swayed sharply to the side, out of the path of the clicking, whirling butterfly knife that had been heading directly for his throat, but Raven didn't follow through. Instead, she turned back to Flynn, and Aidan took the opportunity to lunge for her exposed back.

Whipping in a quarter-turn, Raven extended her arm towards Aidan, and he quickly snatched his back. Not quickly enough, however, and Aidan gritted his teeth as the butterfly knife skimmed along his forearm, its handle whacking sharply against his wrist upon its withdrawal.

Raven's swiftly-flashed smile lashed him with scornfulness. "That was a warning."

She stood between Aidan and Flynn, an arm outstretched towards each of them and a butterfly knife pirouetting its deadly dance at the end of each. And then, Raven grinned, and it was such an alluring and menacing and triumphant and genuine thing that Aidan's stomach dropped instantaneously.

Her head turned his way, and she blinked her grey eyes in a mocking invitation. In his peripheral vision, Aidan saw Flynn make a rush towards Raven, but she held his gaze a fraction of a second longer. Then, she turned towards where Flynn stood half-hidden in the shadows of the trees that lined the parking lot, knives spinning.

Instead of backing out of her reach, Flynn stepped within the circle of her arms, faster than she could react. In the next moment, he had jabbed the syringe into her neck and depressed the plunger.

Aidan, who had moved forward to assist Flynn in case his foolhardy plan didn't succeed, watched silently as Flynn bent to lift Raven's motionless figure into his arms. Movement stirred in the trees behind Flynn, and Aidan opened his mouth to shout a warning.

A sharp pain stabbed in his neck, and Aidan clapped a hand to the juncture between his neck and shoulder to feel the smooth barrel of a syringe beneath his fingertips. He turned in shock and angry surprise, stumbling as the world tilted beneath him. Then, all was black.

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A/N:

Not going to lie, I lowkey feel so bad for Aidan. His pride has suffered massively over the past couple of days, and that doesn't look like it's going to change any time soon XD but I mean, that's what I'm here for, right? To torture my characters? Sabaa Tahir would agree ;D vote and/or comment if you enjoyed this chapter, and have a wonderful rest of your day/night!