When Rain Rises

Chapter 16

Rain looked himself over in his cracked mirror. He was completely decked out in Aiden's Vincent attire. The jacket hung a little looser and lower than Aiden's, and the black nylon trousers fit snugly around Rain's waist. The dark purple mask Aiden gave him was mostly tucked underneath his jacket, with only the top protruding visibly. While Rain thought it would probably be more comfortable to tuck it away inside his trousers' cargo pocket, the speed and, more importantly, coolness of just pulling it up outweighed any such comfort.

His only real complaint was how weird the metallic suit felt. It was almost like a second skin, but he knew something was there. It was like the suit tickled him, whereas normal clothing would simply touch his skin. Plus, it was supposed to link up or something to all the little robots in his head, but he still didn't feel or see anything happen when he put it on. The only real evidence that anything had happened at all were the awful memories of the pain the procedure caused him.

His skin pricked at the thought.

Rain looked down at his gloved left hand, observing the wired circle on his inner palm while he extended and retracted his fingers. This was his weapon. It looked interesting and high-tech—but not dangerous or powerful. Appearances could be deceptive, though.

It was time to go and Rain headed out his room and for the door, walking quickly past his family in hopes they wouldn't notice the change in clothing style or the glove. They were sitting down eating a cold breakfast and looked over at him as he walked by.

"Later!" Rain blurted out before they could speak, hustling out the door. It was cloudy today and considerably cooler than the past few weeks.

"There you are." Rain looked up in surprise just as someone jumped down from overhead and landed into a crouch in front of him, her long blonde hair whishing behind. She turned, revealing an attractive, thin face with full lips and a sharp nose. Her two big blue eyes sat evenly apart beneath thin, naturally arched eyebrows. She was less pale than Alyse, and had a noticeable tattoo of a bird under her right eye. Despite her attractive features, her eyes had a depth of experience to them that was almost daunting, especially considering she looked only somewhat older than Rain.

"Do I know you? And if so, were you always this attractive, because I'm pretty sure I would've remembered if you were."

She rolled her eyes but couldn't quite conceal a tiny smile. She was wearing a tanned leather vest that laced together at the front, displaying an ample amount of cleavage underneath that caught Rain's eye. The vest turned into a sort of cloth skirt that fell to her lower thighs. Bands held two satchels on the outside of her thighs, which very obviously contained two short daggers. Her shoes were crafted from leather as well, and noticeably sewn together at the sides and heel.

She wore a necklace lined with teeth of various size and length. Many of them looked aged with signs of decay, but a few looked fresh from whatever monstrous mouth they came from. She wore gauntlets on each arm that were flanked by hide, but had iron plating on her forearms, which were covered in scratches.

"Perhaps you remember the part where you questioned my ability as a huntress."

Rain knew in an instant exactly who she was.

"Bianca?"

She looked a lot more impressive now. Though, then again, he probably looked a lot better, too. Plus, he couldn't really see her in the dark that night, and had no idea how attractive she was. Damnit, if Rain had known, he would've tweaked the rude-to-charm ratio a bit. Oh, well.

"Good, so you're not completely clueless. Anyway, I'm here to talk to you before you start your training."

Rain heard noise above him and a moment later, a second woman sailed overhead and landed before him, similarly dressed to Bianca, but with fewer teeth on her necklace. Her hair was brown and somewhat shorter than Bianca's; she had a lighter complexion as well.