Saving Graces

The trail is harder to follow than we expected, though given who it is, I suppose we should have expected it. It takes all the talents of our group to stay on the track. I wish I could do more, but the little tracking I learned isn't much good on stone and concrete. Instead, I do my best to watch our backs, keeping an eye out for trouble ahead and behind, my knife close at hand.
The trail leads through Clubland, back up into the Iagos, a nickname for a pre-Edwardian part of the city, and even through uptown, though only the back alleys.
In a dim, grimy back square barely lit by a flickering yellow sodium light, I freeze. "Guys. Stop. Something's up there..." I nod forward, at the crumpled pile against one wall. The emotions...pain, so much pain, and a raw anger. I can't tell whether it's human, but I can tell that it's dangerous. "Careful." I murmur.

I begin to growl low in my throat at Liv's warning, the trail is hard enough to follow even with the reputation Shotgun Suzie has, she isn't leaving the trail of bodies she did in the wars. Even the screaming is too a minimum. "Stars And Stones" I growl in frustration "So help me if he manages to get himself actually killed i am going to make him a possessed Adult diaper"

I step forward carefully. That hair...familiar...
"Lena." I breathe. "It's the woman like Ignacy. Lena."
And she's in a terrible state. For her sake, I hope she's dead.

"If she is like Ignacy, I doubt it, how bad?" My voice is still low and cold, this smells too much like a trap for my liking. Even Aimee is being still and quiet waiting for something to happen

I step closer...and have to cover my mouth to stop from vomiting. Blood everywhere, the stink of it, and of a sickly, putrid smell that means the lower intestine was cut. Her entrails are pouring out of the gash in her. And worst of all, she's still breathing, the whole mess rising and falling in time.
"Bad." I choke out.

i open my eyes blood running down from where my brow got cut half in a daze i see suzie getting cash handed to her by some kid.

"how is she like Ignacy? i don't recall hearing about her" even i am beginning to get sick from the stench "other then being damn hard to kill" It is almost as if patterns have been painted in the blood and gore. looking you can almost see the struggle that went on, the tell tale of splatter of Suzies Shotgun, water and blood splatter from weapons i don't recognize

"Other blood's been mixed into her, like him. She's not quite human."
"Damn good thing too." drawls the woman on the ground. I yelp, jumping back.
"Don't worry dahling," the woman says, with a very slight smile, "Not much I can do like this. Besides, I've got no intention of moving."

"Suzie Packs a Punch, girl. What in the realms possessed you to come and try to get Ignacy from her" I shake my head "and how long before you pull yourself together again"

"Ten, perhaps twelve hours." the woman coughed, blood reddening her lips. "That is of course if I make it that long. That bitch didn't give me much chance of it."

"Ahh?" Djehuty lifts an eyebrow, "And what on the blue earth made you think she would?" He turns his face from the bloodied mass of her abdomen and instead catches her eyes. "So what she do? Bait you for the rats?"

"Well if you can get your nose out of the air, dahling, you could get this grenade out of my guts, and Lena Litwestein would owe you." She chuckled, a bubbling, broken sound.
I step back sharply. "Grenade?"
"Yes dear, grenade with the pin pulled. Rather an inconvenience." It's truly unnerving how casually this woman can speak as she lies there, her body mangled beyond what any body should endure and still live. "It's halfway down, on the right." she murmurs, her smooth Belarus accent sweet and all out of place in the conditions.

Liv makes a motion toward the wound, but Djehuty holds up a hand. "I don't think your the type of person who owes favors, no offence, and to be quite honest, you scare the hell out of me if you're anything like your kinsman."

Lena raises her head just slightly. "I keep my word, boy. Whatever I say, I do. And trust me, if I could do this myself, I wouldn't be asking."
I glance from Djhuety to the woman. My instinct is to end the pain I see...but it was his own people Ignacy was running from. Would I be saving his enemy?
"You tried to take on the bounty hunter for Ignacy?" I ask. She gives a gurgling chuckle. "Hardly dear. I wanted to collect his bounty myself." She smiles as I recoil. "Turnabout is fair play. He turned me in to the French once, don't you know. But it's no matter; the worst they can do is inconvence us and give us a few day's discomfort. He'd be fine. And a girl has to eat. What harm was there in making a little from the deal myself, I asked myself?" Then she smirked. "Guess I know the answer now."
I step back. "You'd betray your own?" My voice is cold.
The woman on the ground rolls her eyes. "He's hardly my own, child." then she sighs. "This conversation bores me. Either give me a hand, or go away."

Shrugging, Djehuty turns from her, taking Liv firmly by the hand. "We leave you to it." He calls over his shoulder and moves again in the direction Suzie had been traveling. Liv resists a moment before giving up. "I said it once," he mutters to her at his side, "I don't trust her or her favors."

"Djhuety, you don't have to trust to help." I whisper fiercely, "I wouldn't leave an eel in a state like that. It's not right. Please. We can't do this."
He stares ahead.
"The Nightside turns some men to beasts." I hiss. "Don't be one of them."

"Oh Sod this" I mutter and reach down sliding my hand into the oddly cool entrails scowling at the odd feeling of the entrails around the grenade "Kaija Give me your knife " I grin at her as she hands me the knife "I assume this isn't going to kill you, if it does i will throw ya to the traffic" and proceed to cut the entrails at the base of the explosive, "this should be worth seeing" I lob the meaty package down the alley watching enthralled as one of the motorbikes that isn't really a motorbike snatches it out of the air.

"It was a dud," he whispers back. "Don't you trust me at all?" The motorbike whizzes by, darting in among the pedestrians for a moment, a large tongue licking at a maw where the headlight ought to be.

For a long moment, I meet his eyes. There's hurt there, and anger, and bewilderment. Damn, I've done it again, let my emotions get ahead of my brain.
"Most people I can see where they're going. What they're planning. You, I never can. I guess I need to learn to follow better. Not something I've practiced too often." I take his hand. "Okay. I'll practice. I trust you."

Wrapping an arm around her, he smiles a bit. "Well, then, shall we go save our lost terror?" He looks back over his shoulder at Liam and Kaija. "Any idea who in this neighborhood would want Ignacy?"

"Same people as before, you think?" I ask, "Minus the elves?"

" I meant it when I said I will turn him into a possessed self aware adult diaper, I will even give it to the disentary ward at a hospital" I grumble then looking down at the would be ice queen, "You ever come near me or mine again, you will wish i was as kind as suzie was" before stalking ahead again

"Then again, considering he's..how old? I'm sure he has plenty of enemies he's made." I sigh. "Next time he can get his own damn self out of the holes he digs."

Djehuty grumbles under his breath at the thought. "The man is a helpful irritation," he sighs, "But his muscles out weigh his brains and he believes himself invulnerable."

"More balls than brains." I agree, rolling my eyes.