The damned one

Chapter 3: Dead hearts

Laughter ran out through the tavern as the night wore on, pints of ale were passed among the men who were seated at the tables enjoying themselves.

Laughing one of the men spoke in a slurred voice

" damned bugger thinks he c-c-come in here like he o-o-owns the place, hmpf servers him right boys," he grins drunkenly " so who wants go collect his head t-t-tommorow, damned banshee probaly mauled it beyond recognition, well have trouble figuring out if it's really him"

he let out a throaty chuckle that was joined in by his drunken friends. Another one of the men spoke "th-th-there was something w-w-weird bout him thou', don't ya think john?"

John chuckled " naw, he was just mercenary looking for a bit of coin to pay up for his whores" letting out a guffaw the other men joined in once more

John spat out " too bad, there was a fine mount of coin for the head of that wailing bitch" he grined drunkenly " if he don came back we could've offered to hold that coin for him, ain't that right torin?"

the other men grinned as well "damn right it is john" torin grinned micheviously " what's a poor b-b-bugger like him going to do with a loa of coin like that?"

John chuckled again " he would have to share, or we'd have to teach him a lesson" the men laughed out drunkenly again

The door suddenly burst open, cold air rushing in to take the place of the warmth

All the men in the room turned to see who disturbed their peace

Standing torn and bloodied was the same man who had taken the job to kill the banshee

John whispered over to torin "speak of the devil, don't think the lil' bugger actually did it?" Torin shook his head " he probably ran at the first scream" the men chuckled once more as the warmth from the heart toke place once more.

The man shrugged off his long coat and hung it on the peg beside the door exposing the wounds on his back and legs.

Small mutters spread through the room at the sight of the wounds

Johns eyes widened " lookie dere, that Kevlar sack and wounds he got there" he eyeballed the sack that hung from the mans shoulder " I think he got that bitch and put her head in that bag" the men all turned to see what he was going on about.

Sure enough a Kevlar sack hung from his shoulder, a black liquid dripping from the soaked bottom.

The man walked over the the main bar and sat on one of the stools, grunting he dropped the soaked sack next to him and asked for a pint of ale tossing a gold coin on the counter.

The bartender eyed the gold coin greedily before snatching it up and retreating back into the bar to get the pint.

John stood swaying from his seat and stumbled over to the bar and sat next to the man.

John grinned drunkenly at the man and yelled at the bartender "get me a pint as well jack!" Jack gave a nod and went to get the second pint.

John look over at the man and grinned " your that man that went to kill them banshee huh?" He slurred " how many was there, three? Four?"

He laughed the man looked over at him with cold eyes

"just one"

johns eye bulged as he roared with laughter "just one! Damn guess you weren't as qualified for the job as ye though" jack stepped up placing the pints in front of the john and the stranger

John looked up and nodded drunkenly at jack in thanks as jack stepped back behind the bar to attend to other matters.

John stuck his hand out at the man" names Johnny sterling, but my boys just call me john" the man eyed his hand coldly then replied with a firm shake

"loki veilhelm, call me Loki" john grinned "nice to meet'cha Loki, named after the god of trickery huh?"

He chuckled drunkenly "you must be one tricky bastard!" He roared slapping Loki on the back opening the closed wounds once again.

Grunting in pain the stared coldly at john. Chuckling "sorry 'bout that, didn't realize they we're still so tender"

Grinning drunkenly "so did you get that wailing bitch? Considering your condition, I'm guessing you got yer arse handed to you" he let out a guffaw

Loki then cracked a grin looking at john "yeah I got a bit of a beating" he reached down for sack pulling it up and tugging open the draw strings "but I got what came for" grin turning into demonic smile as he flipped the sack upside down dumping the contents out.
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Thanks for reading I'll bring out the next part soon
-manofbun