At Villan Estate.
Aiden saw as Claire skillfully dodged the knife coming at her while in the hand of the burly man in front of her. He had already dropped three men on his own before he was able to turn around and witness her in true action.
Once they dealt with what she referred to as a shadow hunter in his bedroom, the couple then went on to go to the first floor where they encountered what she had previously told them in the panic room. A group of men sent there to take her back with them.
Aiden was sure that whoever sent them truly wanted his little lady in one piece, seeing as none of them pulled a gun on him. He quickly understood it was to avoid getting her hurt in the crossfire by accident. It was a lousy upper hand to have, but he took the upmost advantage of it and quickly finished off every single one that dared take a step closer to him. And since his opponents didn't add gun power to their fight, he opted to let out some of his obvious displeasure on them with his bare hands. Something that he was very skilled at doing.
Claire on the other hand had broken down more men then he could have imagined. For each one he finished off, she ended three.
Her senses where astonishing to the point of being able to kill men that were out of her direct eye-line with a single blade thrown in their direction. She wasted no movements, no time and didn't even bat an eye while seeing all the bodies she was responsible for dropping. Aiden was trained to the point of being a weapon himself, but watching her was like witnessing a one woman army. The very definition of what he could only describe as a killing machine. She was fast, precise and unrelenting as she made her way throughout his house. Leaving a larger trail of bodies than he was.
It was as if she was truly a being that had graced the earth with the sole purpose of thinning out it's population.
The way she moved, how her face showed no signs of fatigue or remorse and how used she seemed to be of having her hands drip with blood that didn't belong to her, it all made Aiden's inner voice scream at him for not being able to pinpoint exactly who she was. Where she came from. And how in the hell she knew how to kill better than any other person he had ever seen. Himself included!
She easily dropped the man who's blade she was dodging by puncturing his body in four different places. Critical places. All before Aiden could even take a step closer towards them. She was that quick.
'Where has this lethal weapon been hidden away at all this time?' He thought to himself as he watched her look for any stragglers left in all her bloody glory.
With her standing in it's very center, his main living room looked like it was turned into the place where all the lost souls of the world came to meet their end at the hands of the most beautiful angel to grace the earth with her fiery presence.
He was snapped out of his trance when he saw her face harden. It was now the second time he had seen it happen. The first being when they were stealthily coming down the stairs and she stopped to engage with another man that was hidden in the shadows. Making him one of the many souls that had inhaled their last breath on his property.
Already knowing she had sensed someone, Aiden sharpened his senses as well. He had long accepted the fact that the people after her were beyond what he had been trained for since he was a child. Not that he was pleased with the matter, but he decided to deal with it once everything was over and his Angel had explained how could such people have existed in the first place without his, or anybody's else's knowledge.
"I'm in the kill first and ask questions later kind of mood, so I suggest you stop wasting my time." Claire said with an irritated voice. Her usual sweet facade when dealing with business related situations was nowhere to be found. "You already know you're done for so you might as well come out here and die like a man. Or at least imitating one." She sarcastically said as a smirk spread across her face.
She was deadly looking. Her clothes were covered in other peoples blood, she was surrounded by corpses and her eyes held nothing short of disdain and disinterest. Which only made the fact that she had red stained flamingo slippers look all the more abnormal.
Just like a moth drawn to a flame, something Claire's hair effortlessly imitated, another man covered in black garments from head to toe stepped out of the corner of the room. But unlike the other two Aiden had seen before, this one had an eerie air about him. Something every other man that had entered his home and had died by their hands had failed to be posses.
"It seems like you have forgotten what you were placed in this world to accomplish lost one." The man spoke as if he were talking down to her. His voice was dripping with cockiness and what Aiden could only describe as hatred. Whoever this man was, he would certainly not leave until he completed whatever he set out to do with, or to her. That much he was certain of.
"You're the one who seems to have forgotten who it is you're speaking to Bernard." Her voice was calm, but the glint in her eyes suggested she was up to more than just idle chit chat with the man who hadn't taken another step towards her.
"DO NOT SPEAK MY NAME YOU INSOLENT BITCH!" The man snapped at the mention of his name. Something that made Claire's already taunting smile even more pronounced.
"What did you just call her?" It was now Aiden's turn to make the air around them unbearable due to to how heavy it suddenly felt. The entire room grew cold as he took a single menacing step forward with the grip around his gun tightening.
They had trespassed on his property, taken done his men, broken into his house where he was forced to stain his floors with their blood, and now the man dared to insult his woman while in his presence? He had been a few ticks away from his internal bomb exploding since the beginning and now it seemed he was finally about to snap.
"It's alright Aiden." Claire said in the most soothing voice she could muster under the current circumstances. She inwardly sighed in slight relief when she saw him still at her words. She wasn't foolish enough to create an opening for the man by moving towards Aiden, but she couldn't let him intervene. She had to be extremely cautious, and Aiden stood to put them both at serious risk if he let his rage take over.
She understood he had every alright to let it all out. Hell, he should have been doing things his way from the very beginning. But she knew better than to let him put himself at an even farther risk than he failed to see he was already in. Although the man before them hadn't made any moves as of yet, he was as lethal as she was. That much she was certain of.
After all, he was one of the many in charge of forging her into a weapon of mass destruction.
"He's simply set in his ways. There's no need for you to waste a bullet on him. Let alone your breath. Pay Bernard no mind." And there it was again. She said his name once more while being fully aware of the how it would crack his calm facade even further.
"I see you have no intention of coming with me while you still have a pulse. I had thought of giving you the last kindness of making your capture as painful as possible, but what good owner doesn't put his dog down after knowing it's beyond saving." His eyes, the only part of his body that could be seen, were a clear window in to his soul. One that was set a blaze by her words and the mentioning of his name.
Claire was in the very middle of the room. She knew she was at a disadvantage, but she had to make it so Bernard's focus was solely on her. With that in mind, she quickly made up a plan of drawing his attention by pretending to make a move so that Aiden could either find an opening or simply be left out of whatever her opponent was about to do. And she knew that whatever it was, he was seconds away from doing it.
But before she could even finish her train of thought, a thin silver line flew by her face and headed directly towards the man she was facing. It was so fast and so close to her, that a few strands of hair that had loosened from her bun waved in motion.
Bernard instantly took out one of his many hidden knives and slashed what seemed to be nothing but the air in front of his chest. But a mere second later a silver tooth pick shaped blade fell on the floor making the classic sound metal does when it hits any surface. He was about to look for the person who had dared to take aim towards him, but little did he know that a second blade followed the first one closely behind. Having pierced his flesh, he knew that his attempts to kill the woman before him had ended without him having even started.
Aiden immediately looked behind Claire and couldn't believe his eyes. His lips stretched out into a wide grin as he saw a legend walkout from the shadows behind her.
"I'm sorry I'm late Madam." Ben's warm voice reached their ears.