Deeper Than the Knife

Chapter 27- Into The Lion's Den

The helicopter ride to Arizona was quiet and felt like an eternity. I could only think about how scared Yarah must have been, and kicking the shit out of Jack. I wanted to test out if Jack really was immune to being burned, I wanted to light him on fire until he actually burned to ash and dust. 

Yukino, at one point, grabbed my hand. When I looked at her, she looked away, but I could tell she was as broken as I was.

We were dropped off at The Orders headquarters that was closest to my clans U.S house. I was sure that Jack was in that house, and I was staking my daughters like on it. That absolutely terrified me.

At The Order, Yukino and I stock piled weapons; smoke bomb, throwing knives, throwing stars, and Yukino grabbed a second katana. Then, we were driven to my clans house. I knew Jack considered it a second home, but after everything that happened, it could never feel like a home. Only an enemy presence, not a home that I was returning to. 

Yukino hadn't said a single word since we were informed about Yarah going missing. She did the same thing when she learned her mother was killed, and worry wormed its way into my mind. I didn't dare say a word. I didn't trust myself to speak. My chest tightened as we got closer to the enemy, my whole body shook and adrenaline flooded my system.

"I heard what you did for Brian and the rest of our fallen." Our driver said about half way into the drive. 

We said nothing.

"I'm grateful for that." He continued. "Brian is. . .was my little brother, he meant everything to me, he still does."

My urge to sob only grew stronger. My already broken heart broke more.

"I couldn't protect him," his grip tightened on the steering wheel, his knuckled turned white. "I lost my baby brother, my only responsibility, but thanks to you two," I could tell her was crying now. I was overwhelmed by the pure sorrow in his voice, he was lost, not knowing what to do with his life. I only knew that because that was exactly what I was feeling. "Thanks to you two, I can at least bury him and his wife so they can rest in piece for all eternity."

I lost it then. I felt so guilty about Brian's death. It should have been me. I thought. Brian's brother said nothing more as I sobbed quietly for the rest of the way.

Brian's brother-Matthew-thanked us one last time as he dropped us off. I had stopped crying but hearing him thank us one more time tested that. I took Yukino's hand as we watched him drive away. Once he was out of sight, we faced the large traditional Japanese house in front of us. Compared to the mansion, the house was tiny, but it was still bigger than most. We were surrounded by desert on all sides, no other houses were visible. There would be no help from The Order, we were on our own.

Without any warning, Yukino let go of my hand and walked up to the sliding main doors and sliced them in half. I didn't get the chance to warn her that there could have been alarms. Like I've said, my wife's impatient.

Nothing happened though, no loud annoying alarms, no fire-yet-nothing. That wasn't right.

"Something's wrong," I whispered as I reached what used to be the front door.

"Who cares," Yukino growled-a bear's growl! Usually that was my line. "All that matters is that we find Yarah and kill that son of a bitch who took her."

"I'm not arguing that," I said as we entered the house. "What I'm saying is, we need to be cautious. Jack most likely placed traps to stop us."

"Then disarm them." I swear I saw a vein throb on Yukino's forehead. 

"It doesn't work that way!" I argued. 

Yukino ignored me and entered the house. I had no choice but to follow her. We entered a long, dark, hallway where the only light source were lanterns that hung from the ceiling. I remembered my mother. . .Scarlet drew up the plans for this house, mirroring it to the main house. As long as there were no renovations done, I would be able to navigate us through. I also realized just how dark my clans houses were, no sunlight ever came in and the only lights came from dim torches.

We passed multiple rooms but I didn't hear any noises coming from the rooms, so we didn't waste time checking. We stood in front of sliding doors at the end of the hallway, I could hear muffled voiced on the other side.

I slowly opened the sliding door while holding Yukino back. She was reaching her peak of patience.

"We had a deal," said an annoying yet familiar voice. "I helped you, now hold up your end of the deal."

I looked into the room, and Yukino pushed past me and entered the room before I had a chance to see anything. She stopped a few steps into the room, so I entered and stood next to her and understood why she stopped. 

Standing before us were Jack and Alejandro, arguing about some kind of deal. Neither of them noticed us.   

"Yes, yes," Jack sighed, he sounded rather annoyed by Alejandro. "Once I have those two traitors and kill them, you'll have your cousin returned to you."

My first thought was, what the hell? 

I looked at Yukino but she looked as confused as I felt.

Jacks back was to us, I was a little surprised that he had yet to notice us but Jack was never as in touch with our clans animal as he was the element. Loser. 

Alejandro kept pressing his luck. "I want her now." He demanded. "We had an agreement, I help you bait Charlotte and Yukino here by taking their 'daughter', and you give me Yarah back to me."

Oh, I was so going to kill Alejandro for that. Let me be clear, I was beyond pissed at that backstabbing ass Alejandro. Just as we were starting to trust him, he works with the enemy and kidnaps my daughter so he could have her. 

"I know." Jack was losing his patience. "You will have her soon." Jack unsheathed his katana, its blade was tinted red-from fire or blood I wasn't sure. Alejandro took a step back and stared cautiously at the sword. "She'll meet you in the afterlife before the sun rises." Jack thrusted the katana into Alejandro's chest before he could say anything. Jack pulled his blood stained sword out of Alejandro's chest and Alejandro's body fell to the floor, the blood started pouring out of him. 

Jack turned around, giving us a creepy smirk and Alejandro's blood was splattered on his face.

"You're here earlier than I expected." Jack said.

I grabbed my chain and sickle and went into a defensive stance. I had doubts that I would be able to defeat, much less kill, Jack, even with Yukino by my side. Yukino raised her katana, ice already forming around the blade.

"No matter," Jack kicked Alejandro's body to the edge of the room, blood went everywhere. "Everything is already put into motion, the only thing left is to kill you both."

Jack took a step towards us, and Yukino and I split. I took the left, Yukino took the right.

Jack looked amused like we were toys that he just got and was only going to play with once. He lifted his sword in his left hand. "Good strategy, glad you remembered something. But it's no use, you have too large of a weakness." He pointed his sword at Yukino, time seemed to slow down as flames appeared on his blade.

"It's over for you." He shot a wall of fire at Yukino, who stared at it in horror as she tried to raise her katana. Terror filled me, I screamed her name before all I could see were those terrible red flames.