Prelude (Underworld Lucian Fanfiction)

56 - Chapter LVI: Beasts of the Chase

24th of April, 1900. Forty-six minutes later.

As much as he was able, Raze was in full control of the London Den. Though the world had become chaotic: the den infiltrated by a traitorous Blackmark. The stables burnt. Sabine gone. A child murdered. Rena on the run. The blood-seer dead. The scent cold. And for the sake of them all, their leader confined to the Change Quarters for what had to be one of the most ill-timed withdrawals in history...

...though all this had happened and more, Raze had decided, or rather, he knew in his stoic and constant heart that life must continue. That the sun must rise and the mortals that surrounded them must believe that life had not changed in the Kerr house. Only that a lamp had fallen. Eight horses dead and the Master of Kerr choosing to spend the next fortnight in London until the repairs were in full swing.

At that exact moment, Weylan would be making the rounds downstairs, answering the door as the first footman when the gentry came calling. There would be servants scrubbing the floors and beating the carpets. Men clearing out the wreckage of an accident. Despite the constant need for meat, Henry Fulligan and his stable-hands would be disposing of the horse carcasses. The only sign of anything truly amiss lying in the absence of Alexander Kerr. But then how could anyone expect a true gentleman to linger in such squalor?

Yes, indeed, his lordship had been out riding the previous afternoon, but thank the Lord, his lordship was not hurt by the fire. So many lies they had grown used to telling.

It was a different story beneath the polished marble. The Lycan Council, so recently in the Gathering chambers, had taken charge at precisely zero two hundred hours. All hunts had been stopped. All unnecessary actions that could endanger the horde had been halted. All lycans registered in the London den were now legally obliged to check in with the roll-call every twelve hours. Rules of curfew and safety were enforced on a twenty-four hour cycle. From this moment forward, all Line travel and messages were being curtailed.

And Lucian...

...thanks to scorning his one chance at getting to the safe-house, Lucian had been temporarily released from his duties. Temporarily, they said...and yet, thanks to the murder of that lycan child—or oddity he should say—one could only wonder how long this next 'house arrest' would last before the horde again decided they needed his expertise for the constant war. How long their den would be under official review before they were released from the council's clutches.

This was the chaos that had kept Raze from sleeping the previous night. The chaos that had led him first to contact Allegra and then, to the one place where he could think after the council took charge. The sun coming up. The walls of Lucian's study bathed in a rising glow that few beyond a single person were able to witness. Because by all accounts, when Lucian was not in this study, Raze was in this study.

Odd that he should have to now share it with Aron, considering that Aron should be downstairs, guarding Lucian. Odd that Aron should be sitting in the leather chair across from him, unable to twiddle his broken thumbs because he was too busy holding the two halves of his face together.

It was a bleeding ruin. Like a masterpiece, a Vermeer that had been smudged with turpentine. One of the boy's eyes was squinted shut, and the other providing just enough blue to match his remaining hair, now more red than blonde. His uniform had been slashed. His shirt was lacking its upper half, possibly the result of one of his arms being dislocated. Or perhaps because his back had been shoved against a set of...four, five...no, six silver bars for the length of time necessary to leave an imprint. Suffice it to say, the key around his neck was missing.

To an outsider, it would seem at this moment that Aron could sense his presence was not welcome. That the missing key was a wrong that could not easily be righted. So Aron tried to speak.