Vices and Maces

Chapter 86: Such Sweet Reunions...

CW: blood, burns

Logan hated this. He was one of the closest officers around when they got the call. Even though he's not an officer anymore, not officially, he's a detective. And it took him years to get there! But somehow he's treated as a patrol officer.

But no patrol officer should be rushing into a building that's on fire in one area, where there's a shoot out, not right away. At least there were ambulances coming just in case. They would definitely need them, Logan's already passed several knocked out people just on the second floor.

He passed fire exit maps that were scattered across the building and knew where the staircase was. All around the building, officers went in different directions. There were the sounds of gunshots but the closest sounds of fighting were ahead of him.

There was a thump from up ahead, which sounded like a body falling to the ground.

"He's out! Let's go!" a very familiar voice shouted, one that made Logan's blood turn to ice.

He turned the corner as someone went through the door to the staircase, and behind them was-

"Patton!"

The nymph froze and looked back before he ran up the stairs. There was a cut on his cheek and a burn on his sleeve. Not to mention the axe he was holding. "Logan?! What are you doing here?"

"What am I- what are you doing here?!" he ran over. "What's going on? This place is dangerous, why aren't you at work?"

"I- uh..." Patton held the axe tighter to his chest and looked up the stairs to see Virgil gone. Shit. "I can explain but-"

"You need to leave now, where did you even get this axe? What..." Logan frowned as he recognized it. It was on his key chain. It's always been there. Runes were carved into the handle, growing and shrinking runes. "You're part of this."

"Logan, I swear it's not what it seems!" Fear fogged up Patton's mind, pushing tears to his eyes. Logan was never supposed to find out, now he'll hate him. Hate him for lying, for working with a gang that he's been trying to bring down for years. He'll see him as a violent murderer, someone who can't be trusted. And the wedding will be off.

For Logan, everything made sense. It all suddenly clicked in place. The reason why Patton's boss always seemed to get in some accident, the stress that shouldn't come from a job as a secretary. Why Patton, who was open about almost everything, was secretive about his job. "You work for a gang, don't you?"

"Please Logan, I didn't- you remember when I was low on money, right? And- and my depression was getting worse because of the dysphoria and I didn't want to lean on you and-and-" he couldn't stop the tears coming from his eyes.

Logan looked up when he heard footsteps on the other end of the hall. Someone ran out from a corner, and when they saw them, they raised the gun in their hand.

The elf grabbed Patton by the waist, pulling both of them to the side of the hall as the person shot at them. Logan raised his hand and said an enchantment, and the person shouted in pain as the metal gun became hot.

Still holding Patton close with one arm, Logan grabbed his gun from the belt and shot the person in the leg. He put the gun away as the person shouted in pain and hugged Patton closer.

"It's okay, Patton, just breathe. We can talk about this later," he whispered.

"You're not mad?" Patton asked, his voice strained with tears.

"I'm-" Logan took a deep breath. "I'm shocked, and conflicted. But I'm not mad. I still love you. I have you."

Patton buried his face in Logan's shoulder and hugged him back. "I suppose you do. Thank you, I love you too." His eyes widened and he pulled back. "But we need to go! The leader of Wolfsbane is here, we have to stop him."

"Oh thank goodness you're not working with Wolfsbane- wait, Wolfsbane?!"

~~~

Janus ran as fast as they could without shifting, Remus hot behind her heels. He burst into a room that was thankfully empty and ran towards the window, opening it. It opened to an alley behind the building, and there was no one there down below to shoot at them.

He kicked out the netting and grew the yellow fairy wings. Remus followed them out of the window without question, watching them fly towards a window at a fire exit just a floor above.

Remus landed on the fire exit as Janus finished tearing away the netting before using the pummel of their dagger to break in the window. As soon as the glass shattered, they used the blade to get rid of the pieces sticking up from on the bottom and top before climbing in.

The halfling followed them, looking around to see they were in an office. A personal office for one person at that. The desk was made of dark wood, and a nearby shelf had a vase full of wolfsbane flowers.

But aside from furniture, the room was empty. No one was there. There wasn't even a sign of a fight, except for a red stain in the middle of the room that looked washed out.

"Dammit! We're too late!" Janus cursed.

"And too early, Virgil's not here," Remus pointed out, slowly walking around.

Janus walked around the other side of the desk, and glanced over to see Remus passing in front of a cabinet. However, as soon as she was able to see past the corner, he saw a figure right before that person moved.

Remus shouted in surprise when he felt hands grab him. A knife was placed to his throat and he froze, not even turning to see who grabbed him. He stared back at Janus, who was tense, fear clear in their eyes.

"Hello Janus," Melany greeted with false positivity. "It's been a while since I've seen you."

The shifter- Janus swallowed hard. "Melany... please let him go."

"And why should I do that?"

Remus hated the pain that filled Janus's face. "Because I'm your child. Virgil told me that you said that."

"Your point?"

"I-I can see why you left dad and me. You wanted to focus on your job, or you just didn't want a kid."

Melany shrugged. "A mix of both. Your father was the one that wanted you."

"But you don't want to hurt me, right? I'm your blood, you can't-"

"Oh but I can! And I don't care about hurting you or not. After all, I was the one that told Black about your little boyfriend here." She grabbed Remus's face, squishing his cheeks as his face turned to a sneer of disgust.

Janus's heart twisted. Both by what she said, and that she had the audacity to touch Remus's face. He was hurt that she betrayed her blood so easily, but Remus was right, she was never a mother. No point in acting like she was, or could ever be. And they're sure as hell not going to let her hurt his boyfriend.

"Thorn...?" they asked, looking at him to make sure he was looking at her.

"Aster?"

"Aster? Oh you two have names for each other! How cute," Melany teased.

Remus ignored her and watched Janus for any sort of sign. The moment his eyes traveled to their hand, which was loosely holding the dagger still, Janus tightened their fist. The halfling slipped their hand up and pushed Melany's hand away, being sure to burn her to shock her so she would need more time to recover. He moved to the side just enough to leave her face open, which Janus gladly hit with the pummel of his dagger, right on the nose.

She shouted in pain, her hands going to her face as Remus jumped away from her. Janus grabbed him and both of them moved back to the other side of the room. Remus spun his morning star and Janus pressed the button on his dagger to release the blades.

"You're going to regret touching my boyfriend," Janus growled as Melany glared at them, blood dripping from her nose.