THE HUNTMAN

Chapter 21 : Clovis

Nate has been in a terrible mood since this morning, this mission is more important to him than he wants to admit. Ruby showed him April yesterday during the last preparation exchange, it blew his mind.
He advances in this room which only looks like a storage room but also a BDSM dungeon. A wooden cross with something to hold the wrists and ankles, a four-poster bed, a bathtub, mirrors on the ceiling, brooms and mops in the four corners of the room, a hundred full boxes, papers everywhere, it is worse than Jochen's room and he has a dog too.
Weapons in hand, his approach assured, he knows what he wants, we wander around the room when I find on the bed, a pile of photos of April who are around two years old: April in the evening, April with her parents , April alone, April sleeping, April in action, April eating, April crying. How long has he been planning this ridiculous wedding?
" Nate, come see, there are photos of April and you at home."
He approaches and steals the photo from my hands before gathering all those in which he appears but I come across, in an old album on the bedside table, a photo that can only be a photomontage.
It's a photo of April at the orphanage at the top of the stairs, shy in the dim light, with Nate at the bottom with a cigarette between his lips and Jochen sitting on the floor with a beer in hand in his 80s jeans and his t-shirt with torn sleeves is exactly what he was wearing at the time.
"What is this mess ? Nate, is Blake good at computers?"
" Why?"
I give him the album and he tears up the page before putting it back where I found it. He picks up his weapon when we hear footsteps behind the walls. We can't hide so we prepare to shoot. I hear the noise on the left and him on the right, we patrol the perimeter, I jump when Maelan arrives on my side. I lower my gun and yawn.
" What are you doing here ? Do you know how many professional killers are here?"
" Two less than originally, one bullet in the neck and the other took four bullets in the chest." Nate explains as I scan the room.
" There's a knife in the box over there, you should take it to eliminate Blake."
He goes to get it, we show him how to hold it properly, I hope for his partners that he is more talented with a tail than with a weapon. We stick to the wall to change rooms, the wooden door doesn't creak, everyone passes, Nate then me followed by Maelan. We enter a sort of old salon with a painting of the king and a woman dressed in a Victorian corset. The furniture is covered with gray dust, it is a real house under the castle. The paintings on the wall are strange, it seems like their eyes are moving.
" Guys, we're being watched." I whisper while pointing my gun at the blinking painting. In the tables.
" There too. Maelan, is there one in front of you too?"
" Yeah, there are three of them."
" Us too, that's good. Come out of the walls, let's fight between men."
Two men and a woman come dressed in black suits with their weapons straight in front of them. I can't fight a woman, she seems strong but I would like to avoid having to come to blows. Nate is going to have to use his seductive skills because I don't feel like I'm his type of man.
" We can settle things calmly, right?"
One of the men pulls the trigger, I tap the wall and bite my tongue to keep from screaming in pain. The bullet pierces my skin and enters my muscle. Blood scatters across my cargo as I take aim, firing three times before gunfire fills the room. However, they stop at an impressive speed. Nate groans, mopping up the blood from the bullet wound.
" My t-shirt, shit."
" The girl is still breathing and moving."
Nate kneels next to her, she spits blood in his face and he wraps his hand around her throat. He had planned to remain gentle and calm but she wallowed in his shitty attitude. Maelan places the knife on the ground then takes the young woman's pulse.
" You see the blade that is going to fall on your throat, yes, you see it."
He uses his magic to torture her before executing her, it's both respectable and pathetic of him. She is sweating a lot, struggling and crying. He takes Maelan's blade from the ground and plants it under the young woman's chin.
" There is no pulse, she is dead, so before continuing, could we discuss the possibility of ending up killed by one of the most dangerous men in the kingdom."
" Maelan, let us do what we want to do, how did you know we were here?"
" I'm one of the Seven. If a quarter of my brothers are planning something, I'll know about it and I want to be part of it."
What is the plan?
" Save April, kill everyone who gets in our way including the king's guard. Find yourself a weapon, we only have one and a half magazines left, for three it's complicated. They are armed so check the magazines and come with us."
Maelan borrows a weapon, we search the entire room but we find nothing apart from a few letters that Blake wrote to the king, I only read a few lines but the little I read tells me a lot about the hunter. He has loopy writing and a deep dislike for the Queen. He claims something without really naming it, I don't understand everything, we will take stock after the mission.
" Nothing to report. We can go."
"And the corpses?"
" We can leave them there, the rats and crows will take care of them, I saw a lot of them earlier. Let's move forward, I don't want to miss the confrontation with Blake, I want to be there when his blood covers the walls."
" We won't miss anything, the others don't plan to intervene without us or April." I retort by pushing a door.
"How about the others?" Asks Maelan
" Polde is at home but otherwise we're all here, I thought you knew everything because you're one of the Seven."
" It's been a while since I last saw Otker, it's not in these kinds of conditions that I wanted to see him again. Is my outfit correct? Not too old? Not too dirty?"
" You're perfect, who cares. Would you like to come with us or would you rather chat?"
We rush into the next room, it's a corridor more than a real room, there is furniture, a small bedroom in a corner and access to the house and stairs. At the bend, we come across a man in his thirties, armed, he looks elsewhere, we walk along the walls and load our pistols.
" Maelan, create a diversion. Clovis keeps an eye behind us."
Maelan shifts, the man opens his mouth and this is where the bullet Nate shoots comes to rest. The man collapses, his body hits the floor violently as we continue on our way. We wander down the corridor and reach a closed swimming pool in a gloomy room. We hear knocks in the metal plates that cover the pool. There is blood on the floor and on the table.
" What is this mess ? There's someone underneath."
" Don't open it, it's my sister, Janice. She will soon stop typing, she is running out of oxygen and even if she can breathe with everything in the water, she will end up drowned or burned." Said a red-haired woman, in a dress too tight for her, in the corner of the room, a cigarette between her lips. "She deserves to die, she will join her son, she will be happy. Hi Maelan, who are your friends?"
" You know her ?"
" This is Hannah Evilhunter, Blake's sister and lover. I was the one who took care of his face when his eyes were oozing. She's a little crazy." He adds in a low voice as the young woman hands me the cigarette, lighting up her bloody face. "Fucking..."
" Blake was a little angry that I lost his wife at the time of the shooting, he has difficulty expressing himself with words, he speaks with his fists. Introduce me to your friends, Maelan. They are both delicious, I prefer men with tanned skin but Blake hates them."
" Grumpy and sleepy, two of the Seven Orphans, my brothers."
I am afraid that his conversation with the enemy will cause our downfall, he has revealed the identities, he will soon give him our plan. I remain defensive as I stub my butt on the ground.
" Can we trust him ?"
" I have a doubt."
" What are you doing here ?"
" We're looking for your brother, do you know where Blake is?"
" Certainly not far from his wife. She already drew you naked in a book, all three of you slept with her, right?"
"Just him, not us. Swing Nate with lust, he's gay."
" I know, but you, the seducer, what's your excuse?"
Nate shrugs and changes the magazine on his gun, the redhead stands up, a bloody kitchen knife in her hand.
"What do you want from my brother?"
While Nate was about to answer straight away, I made him understand that she was in possession of a weapon. He winks at me, hugs her and places a kiss on her ear to steal her blade.
"Where is he, my darling?"
" With his wife and the maid, she's bleeding a little, I didn't manage to stab them both. Blake loves them so much more than me and they are so beautiful. The maid gave her perfect children while my daughter has a blind eye and a hare lip. April offers her power and revenge."
She cries and dances around the room, hands on her head and giggles attracting Jochen, Maelan and Otker who stare at us. Tate and Jochen take out their revolvers. One aims at the redhead and the other points it at Maelan behind me.
" What are you doing ?" I bellow as I stand in front of my brother.
" He's a traitor, he works and sleeps with Blake." Jochen accuses him of removing the security
" Maelan ?"
I turn around and see him biting his lip.
What a son of a bitch!