Vices and Maces

Chapter 70: Damn Janus Has Mommy Issues

CW: mentions of a dead beat parents and murder

Remus knocked on Kayden's door late at night, Kayden has been in the office all day searching through the town's hotel with a team. When he opened the door, Remus saw his son on his laptop, the new one he had gotten since the last one had to be destroyed.

"Hey, I'm heading to bed," Remus told him. "Don't stay up too late."

"I won't," Kayden said, not looking away from his screen.

Remus hesitated. "Are you still working? It's getting late, you can continue the search tomorrow."

"There's not that many hotels left." Kayden scrolled through a list of names. "One of these has to be the hotel. We've gone through hundreds, we have to be close."

"What kind of hotels have you searched through?"

"Well, we thought she would stay at a rich hotel cause y'know, she's from a rich family. Then we looked through the middle class, but we've gone through half of them and she's not there. We're still searching, but now we've also started looking at the cheap places. I really don't think she would stay at a cheap hotel in this city but... I don't know her so I can't just cross them off."

"Well you've done a lot of work today. Rest, you can get back at it tomorrow."

"I'll do that in a minute." Kayden typed away at something. "I just want to look through one more guest list."

Remus sighed, "Alright. But go to bed after one more hotel guest list."

"'Kay, good night."

"Good night, sleep well. I love you."

"Love ya too."

Remus closed the door and made his way down the hall to his own room. Janus was waiting there for him, though they were looking in a body length mirror, frowning as they made slight changes.

"What's up?" Remus asked them, watching as their hair grew short.

"Hm... I'm just feeling a bit masculine, so I'm changing my appearance slightly."

"Okay." The halfling fell face first into his bed. "Oh, my brother said we can't fuck each other here."

"Darn, I guess I'll have to change my plans then," Janus responded with sarcasm, though they didn't turn away from the mirror.

"He/him then?" Remus asked.

"No... they/he? Yeah." He still seemed distracted by something. Remus could see them frowning in the mirror.

"Is everything okay?" the halfling sat up in bed.

"Yeah, yeah, everything's fine." Janus sighed, turning away from the mirror. But judging from their face, everything was not fine.

"Jan, what's wrong? I can tell you're not just worried about Virgil."

"It is about Virgil... sorta. I just can't believe Melany is my mother."

Remus frowned. "She's not."

"What do you mean?"

"Has she ever taken care of you? Treat you like her child?"

Janus frowned in thought. "No, honestly sometimes it felt like she avoided me. She was seen as the gang's mother because she always acted so kind to everyone else, but me. Hell, even Virgil was treated more like a son than I was. I bet that really hit him hard..."

"Look, I've never met Melany, or Dahlia, or whatever you want to call her. But from what I've heard, she's not your mother. A parent is supposed to take care of you, care for you. Not walk out on you, lie to you, act like nothing happened!"

"It sounds like you talk from experience." Janus sat down on the bed.

Remus grimaced. "I guess I do. My dad walked off from my mom the moment he heard she was pregnant. He caused it, but didn't want anything to do with it. He sent her child support until we were 18, and only the bare minimum. But the moment we turned 18, he stopped. When our mom got sick and passed away, he didn't help a bit."

"I can't imagine what that's like... At least when my dad passed away, Black made sure I had enough money to live on my own. And paid for the funeral. Your dad sounds like a real dick."

"Yeah... Roman and I had no idea who he was because he moved so far away. Our mom was so kind and caring, we couldn't understand how anyone could treat her like that. Hell, when Roman got sick, I tried looking for him, but I couldn't find him. When Roman got worse, I thought for sure our dad would come. The doctors said it was the same thing that got our mom, a genetic disease. He still gets sick easily, but nothing like that. Roman had so much trouble breathing he couldn't talk, so the doctor asked me if I wanted to risk turning him. I told them, only if nothing else works. I didn't think it would come to that but... Roman flatlined. The doctor said if they were any later with injecting the venom, he might not have survived. And the whole time, not a goddamn word from 'dad.'"

"His own son was dying and he didn't care?"

"He never thought of us as his sons. Roman and I were in debt for the longest time though. We were still paying off mom's hospital and funeral bills when all of this happened. I joined a gang while Roman was in the hospital to try to help with the bills, but it was only slightly easier. Then a few months later... we hear that our dad died. Murdered. Apparently while our mom was struggling to feed us, our dad went and got rich by creating some company. Turns out he was never a pleasant man, but he was swimming in money. He hadn't created a will, and had no other family. So guess who got his fortune. Enough that we were able to pay off all our debt and still had a few million."

"And you decided to use that money to make a gang?"

Remus laughed, "Nah. Not at first. I was in a small gang, and when the leader found out that I got into a lot of money, he wanted a cut. I refused cause he barely gave me anything, why would I give anything to him? So he tried to kill me, Wolfsbane wasn't the first gang to put a bounty on my head. I met Daffodil in the gang though, and we had gotten close. She tried to warn me about it, but I ignored it, so she told my brother."

"Ah, so you always were reckless. Got it," Janus laughed.

"Yup. I expected Roman to go to the police or something, but he actually joined the gang. For some reason, no one suspected we were brothers. He pretended to be someone else entirely while I tried not to get killed. In only a few weeks, he got close to the boss. And together we killed him. At first we were just gonna leave the gang to dissolve or something, but not everyone wanted to kill me, and a lot of them wanted us to be the new leaders. And thus, Bleeding Rose was born."

"Now that is quite the story."

"Damn, I just wanted to tell you about dad, didn't mean to go off on my whole life story," Remus chuckled with a small blush. "But the point is, Roman and I don't see him as a father cause he never treated us like his sons. If Melany was telling the truth, then she's not your mother, she's just the person that carried you in her womb."

Janus couldn't help but laugh. "I guess you're right. It's still gonna bother me but... Yeah you're right. Took you long enough to get to the point though."

"Hey I tried!" Remus's face turned a darker green from embarrassment as he lightly shoved Janus, making them laugh harder. "Geez, remind me not to try to comfort you again."

"Alright alright I'm sorry," Janus said, trying to calm down his laughter.

Remus folded his arms with a huff. At least Janus was smiling though. That was a win.

"Let's just go to bed," Remus suggested. But as he was pulling the covers back and Janus shifted into a snake, there was a loud thump coming from Kayden's room.

Remus instantly jumped out of bed and was going to rush down the hall, but loud footsteps came their way. The door swung open and Kayden stood in the doorway.

"I found her! I found Anna!"