Killed Killers (NaNoWriMo 2015)

Chapter Twenty Six

Ere stood behind Gem, watching as he walked away. She followed dejectedly, just the thought of returning to the cavern with Monica sending shivers down her spine. If this visit was anything like the last two, she was going to be out of commission for a good day or two.

Monica led Gem and Ere back into the castle with out a word, and the three of them made their way through the maze of hallways until they came to the door that Ere recognized as the one leading down into the cavern that Monica and Cayde seemed to reside in most of the time. They descended the stairs, following Monica into the huge room at the base of them.

"Cayde!" Monica yelled, walking across the floor to where a table was set out in the middle of the room. She waited for a few moments for a response from Cayde, before she shouted his name again.

"I'm coming! Sorry about that, I got caught up." Cayde appeared from one of the doorways along the balcony above their head.

"Hurry up." Monica growled in front of them, pulling out a chair and lowering herself into it. She turned around to face Gem and Ere, and motion impatiently at the other chairs.

"Well? Sit down." She turned back around in her chair, fidgeting with her fingers and watching Cayde as he came down the stairs from the balcony towards them. Once Cayde had made it down the stairs and sat, and Ere and Gem had taken a seat, they began.

"So what exactly is going on?" Ere asked, still horribly confused about what was going on and why they were here.

"You got your mark, it's red, and then Gem decided that it would be a good idea to take it upon himself to tell you everything about the Koi-" She cut herself off, pausing and taking a deep breath, "about our race without our permission. Does that sound about right to you Gem?" Monica snapped sarcastically, obviously annoyed.

"That sounds about right but he didn't actually get the chance to finish his explanation so if you'll excuse us for a minute-" Ere replied, acting like she was going to get up.

"Sit back down." Cayde growled from his end of the table. One glance at the murderous expression on his face and Ere sat back down in her chair without another word.

"I still don't see why it's such a big deal that Gem told me about you. Obviously I'm one of you, so why wouldn't I get to know about the group that I'm now part of?" Ere directed her question back at Monica, hoping to avoid Cayde's vengeful look. She could almost feel his eyes burning into the side of her face.

"There are many things that you aren't going to understand, but right now we can't focus on explaining it all to you. We really need to figure a few things out first, and then there may or may not be time for us to explain the rest to you. Let me see your neck." Monica answered, gesturing for Ere to turn her head. Ere obeyed, figuring that she had given them enough trouble already. She examined Monica's expression as Monica took in her mark. She looked surprised, although Ere had expected that. The emotion that Ere had not anticipated was the pity that was clear in Monica's gaze.

"Gem's right. It's red." She turned her gaze away from Ere's neck and to Cayde, who was sitting back in his chair with his arms crossed. He looked like he was deep in thought, chewing on his lip and gazing off into space.

'That's too bad." He commented, not looking at all sorry. He continued to chew on his lip as Monica and the others stared at him.

"Cayde, please try to show some empathy. We all know what she's headed for." Monica sighed and turned back to Ere.

    "So, what did he tell you?" Cayde asked, breaking the silence.

    "He just told me about what you are and I think he told me most of what the Kidemónas are and how they work." She replied, not feeling as rebellious as she had previously and figuring that she had already given them enough sarcasm for today. Despite the fact that she didn't like this place or most of these people, she didn't want to step over the boundary into disrespect. Something in the back of her mind told her that she wouldn't win a fist fight with either Cayde or Monica.

"Gem, is that about right?" Monica turned to Gem, looking expectant.

"Yeah, although I didn't really have time to go all that in depth with her about them. I didn't get to tell her how to use it or anything." He mumbled at his hands.

"Did you tell her what hers is, or what it means?" Cayde pressed.

"No, I didn't get around to it. Seriously, you people think that I can explain things a hell of a lot faster than I actually can." He snapped, his dark grey eyes snapping up to throw a glare at Cayde.

"Control yourself. I may be your father but you forget that I am also the leader here." Cayde snapped back, and Ere found herself resisting the urge to cringe back. The tension between the two men was so intense she could practically feel it crackling in the air around them.

"My apologies. I wasn't controlling myself." Gem replied, looking back down at his hands, the muscles in his jaw twitching.

"Are we done now?" Ere asked, overcome by the urge to get out of the cavern.

"Gem, you may go. We need to talk to Ere for a bit." Cayde said, turning to Gem. Surprisingly enough, Gem got up immediately and left without a glance backwards.

Great. Alone with what could be two psychopathic killers for all I know. I'm so happy. Ere thought to herself, twitching her fingers. She wanted to be anywhere but where she was, and she was willing to do just about anything to get there.

"Okay, Ere, Here's the deal. What Gem didn't get the chance to tell you about your Kidemónas is that it is highly irregular, although it has happened before. The color, I mean. Not the animal. We'll start with the good news, how does that sounds?" Monica asked, seemingly back to her normal calm self.

Ere nodded, not caring what they said at this point.

"Okay, good news is what your Kidemónas is." Cayde took over the conversation as if it had been him speaking all along. It was terrifying how interchangeable he and Monica seemed to be. "Yours is a dragon. Never before have we seen a mythical creature, let alone the one that you have."

"Great. Now, what's the bad news?" Ere asked, at the moment not caring what the hell her mark was. She wasn't eager to learn the bad news, because by the look that Gem had on his face when he saw her Kidemónas and the look that Monica's face right then she could tell it wasn't going to be one of those light and fluffy pieces of bad news.

"Okay, bad news is that the two other people who have had red Kidemónas both died within the first two months."

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