An Assassin In Time

Chapter 9.2: Lincoln's Pot

Sorry in advance for any awkwardly phrased sentences, I'm off the walls busy right now, and I know I edited this at one point--oh please, oh please--but I didn't get a chance to really do it again....

Part Two

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Vellis sucked in a low breath, staring at Castian. "I... I'm not... sorry."

"What. Do. You. Mean?" Castian snarled over the drumming of his pulse. It filled him. Something had happened? Someone had locked him out? Of what? Someone had lied to him, and Castian felt a burning fury assault him with the realization.

A very pale Vellis watched him. He looked like he was watching a feral animal, waiting for it to strike and try to pull him apart. "Cas," he whispered. "I... I'm so sorry. I shouldn't be talking about this."

Castian was in his face before he fully registered that he was going to move. He gripped Vellis suit right below his throat, jerking him forward. "Well now you should, unless you want to go say hello to the street."

His eyes widened. Vellis snarled at him, teeth flashing in the darkness. Castian could have sworn they were sharp. But that was probably just his mind playing over the last time he'd been in Vellis' position. Could he hear the beads clacking in his pocket? No. That really was crazy. He put his face farther into Vellis', meeting his dark eyes.

"Talk," Castian whispered. "Now."

He felt Vellis swallow through the grip he had on his shirt front. "And you wonder why I don't talk to you guys."

"I will throw you off this roof." He would to. He wanted to. If he'd had something to do with Deric's death... Vellis would not be coming home with him.

"Fine." He hissed in and out a breath. "Fine. You won't like it though, and you probably won't believe me."

"Try me," Castian snarled, hold still tight as iron at the front of Vellis' shirt.

"Taff locked him out, he shut off his link to the Warp drive. Stranded him. He wasn't supposed to come back from the start, that's why he wouldn't let it be you. He knew, I think. He knew something Taff didn't want him to." The words fell out over themselves in a tumble.

"How do you know that?" Castian stared into his face, meeting his eyes. Vellis looked away. Eyes focusing past him. "Because I was there. He had me with him, when he did it. I watched him turn it off."

Castian almost threw him off the roof. It took evey bit of will power not to. He could imagine himself doing it in painfully intense detail. The sound Vellis' stupid carcass hitting the paving stones would make. His grip squeezed tighter, till he was sure the other boy couldn't breath.

"You had better have a very good reason," his voice was a whisper as he put his face inches from Vellis', "for doing nothing while my friend died."

Castian felt his throat jerk with a swallow. "He would have killed me, too. No, worse." His voice was hoarse and faint. Vellis met his eyes again. "Cas... He's done so much to me already. Cas... I..."

And then he was crying.

Castian let go as if the tears slipping down Vellis's face would burn him. They glittered in the starlight. Vellis never, ever cried. He didn't even smile! The kid was an emotionless mask, not a person. And now her was a person. Suddenly, throwing him off the roof felt a whole lot harder. Castian slumped back against the shingling.

After a long moment, he found his voice. "What did he know?"

"I don't--"

"If you lie to me," Castian said in a reasonable tone. "I will tie you up and leave you here, and then you'll get to share in the fate you let one of us have."

Vellis sobbed. It was a very faint noise, and it sent claws up Castian's spine. He rolled his shoulders against the feeling. No guilt. Not for this. Not when the price had been Deric. No guilt. He didn't look back as the other boy began to speak.

"He knew who our parents are... were, whichever it is. He..." A high note entered the boy's voice. "He knew what Taff is. He told me. Taff found out, somehow. The next day... Well, you know what happened. He didn't make it back. And he didn't because Taff killed his link. Like throwing a child out into the sea with nothing to cling to..." his voice fell away into nothing. The sounds of the sleeping city rose again.

"Why didn't you stop him?"

"Because he scares me!" The words slammed into the world like heavy stones, smacking into Castian. Deric, who feared nothing, had died because someone was to scared to help him. He shut his eyes. If only that could blot out the injustice. Ha, as if any of them knew a thing about justice.

"What did you mean, when you said, he knew what Taff was?"

Vellis didn't respond for a moment. Castian could hear his breathing, sharp and low. "I don't know. He wouldn't tell me. He just said... he wasn't what we thought, and to be careful around him. And Cas, he's right, he isn't what you think. He's so much worse."

The pain behind Vellis' words killed the next question half way from his lips. There would be other times. He pushed down the throbbing feeling of betrayal, and stood. There must have been a reason why Deric had told Vellis these things and not him. There had to be, and Castian would find it.

He stretched out a hand to the other boy. "Come on, it's time to go back."

Vellis let Castian haul him to his feet. Then he let go, and ghosted off away through the dark. Castian thought he saw him shuddered before he knelt by the edge of the roof and dropped off, vanishing from sight. There would be many more questions later, like what exactly Taff had done to him. Later. After they'd both had rest in their own beds. Castian traced his fingers over the beads in his pocket for a moment, before following Vellis. They were cool against his touch, and this time he was sure he heard a faint song in the clicking they made against each other. It was probably just the lingering high though.

Castian raced along the roof of the building, sliding over the lip and dropping to the street below.