Rune]
I kept running until another guy was blocking the way and the three behind me formed a circle around me.
In desperation I looked out for Jane but she was held back.
"What is this about..." I slowly spoke when they came closer. On top of that, two were carrying pistols and of course they were aiming right at me.
"Come with us and we will call back our troup immediately." One of them spoke.
Why of all people would they want me to come with them? They couldn't possibly know anything or maybe they did?
"Where are we going?" I tried buying a little time. What did these guys think trying to make me come with them after they almost pulverized us?!
"You will see when we get there. Your uncle-" In that very moment a bullet hit the person's head from the side causing a fountain of blood to splurt from it before he fell.
In a matter of seconds all the others went down one by one but the only thing I saw was a shadow taking them out incredibly fast and non forgiving. For a person that wasn't gifted with speed he was faster than most people here.
But this wasn't someone from our mission's group...
[Raven]
I smashed the head of some prick trying to get at me from behind before suddenly all the enemies fell one after another before all of us were the only ones left standing. What the hell did just happen?
My eyes searched for Rune, finding him standing further away...
"The Inoue family? What a surprise finding you here." My ears perked up at that voice and soon I could make out a male figure slowly walking to where Neil and I had been fighting just moments ago.
It was another unfamiliar man, I'd say he was about as old as Neil and definitely east asian.
His hair was styled back lazily fitting his casual but chic outfit of a suit jacket and a turtle neck underneath combined with color fitting pants.
That guy already pissed me of with the way he was looking down at us unbothered and belittling.
Although I had never met him there was no explanation needed to determine who that was.
"Hyeonsu Hwang..." Neil was first to say out his name in the silence of tension.
Yeah, I came across that name once or twice when learning about important members of our partnered groups.
Hwang group was one of those with their headquarters currently being in South Korea. Hyeonsu Hwang was the only son of their leader known as very skilled since young age and aspiring to become the next leader soon. Authority or not, this guy gave me bad feelings and if it hadn't been for him helping us just now, I wouldn't try to contain the words in my mind right now.
"Neil, my friend. I was just exiting the plane with my comrade when we heard of the commotion here. Did you have a welcome party with Mellontikos? What a shame that we weren't invited..." he sighed and let his cold eyes roam over the place.
"I did not know you were comming to London, too. Got any business here?" My brother made the other's attention go back to him again while I scanned the area again. This Hyeonsu guy said there had been another guy with him... but where?
"Oh, apparently a member of the Falcon family had been seen here. Would've been a shame to not dig a little further, would it? Who knows, we might even get the details of Project Healers creation out of him. Isn't that what you are after, too?"
Finally I spotted a small dark clothed person in a hoodie but I didn't like how he pointed a gun at none other than Rune when they approached us.
"Hey, what is this about? He belongs to us." I marched forward and grabbed the small dudes arm that was holding Rune from behind. Blondie himself did seem out of it for some reason. Had he been injured? Or even worse?!
"Let go. Now!" Anger filled my voice when I tried pulling Rune away but the bitch ass dude kept pointing his gun at him and told me off.
With his hair died pink and because of his small height he didn't have much of an impact but his words did not sound like empty threats.
"Step back, or I will shoot him. I don't care if he's from your group but he was about to make a deal with the enemy." He reported and meanwhile all the others around us had stepped closer. Rune's head shot up at that comment as if he wanted to say something but his lips stayed silent.
"Oh? Is that so?" Hyeonsu raised his eye brows in excitement.
"We can't let him off so easily then. You don't mind, Neil?" He sweetly said and put his hand on Neil's shoulder. My brother kept his gaze on Rune for a second before he shrugged and averted his eyes.
"Neil! He is part of our group!" In frustration I raised my voice at him.
"If he turns out to be a spy that won't be the case anymore. Someone must have informed Mellontikos of our arrival here... and he just recently joined, didn't he?" There was not a single bit of care heard from him.
My fists were clenching with rage because I knew Neil was right. There was no way we could convince anyone to trust Rune.
"It's fine, no worries." The boy himself assured us and faced Hyeonsu Hwang with fierce eyes.
They couldn't take Rune away... not as long as I was here.
"So? Minhyuk? What exactly did you hear?"
"They were asking him to come with them, sir." The brat with the gun reported but Rune defended himself.
"They threatened me to come with them saying they'd leave everyone else alone. They wanted to get some kind of information from me." he explained and never broke eye contact with Hyeonsu.
"Mr. Hwang, there is no evidence of betrayal and as a member of Hwang group you are not allowed to harm members of the Inoue group." Now Vince was the one who interrupted and kindly but seriously spoke to the young heir of Hwang group.
For a moment there was silence and if it had been one second more, I'd have started a masacre here.
But then Hyeonsu grinned widely again.
"Then so be it. I can't go against our groups partnership rules. See me helping you as a compensation for completing the mission before you guys." He winked at Neil and his companion Minhyuk immediately let go of Rune to follow his mission leader who left the scene with a waving arm.
"I already send an ambulance and the fire force here. Your flight attendants should be save in the airport building." He added cheerfully but yet with arrogance but I couldn't waste more time looking after him when my body led me to Rune.
I instinctively pulled him closer and checked every part of his body for outer injuries. Gladly there were none visible.
"Don't let yourself get caught so easily, damn" I scolded him expecting the younger to answer something but again his mind was definitely somewhere else... I shook him a little. Did these people really say something to him? Did they threaten him with more than he told us?
"Hey." I snapped my fingers when I noticed his eyes losing focus and with a little head shake he raised his head to finally look me in the eye.
"Sorry" he sighed and held his head for a second.
Far away I could here the siren of an ambulance and behind us I saw how Celeste and Ed were held by the others while Neil glanced at the both of us one last time before taking out his phone to make a call.
Hyeonsu and Minhyuk were far gone already.
"Your face is full of blood..." Rune voiced out in concern but I could not see why. It wasn't the first time I was bathing in other human's blood.
"It's not my own, no worries." I let go of him but his hand reached for the side of my face where he wiped away a spot of blood on my eyebrow.
A shiver went through my body and before I knew what I did my hand grabbed his arm and put it down.
"You'll get it on you, too..." I remarked as to give him a reason not to touch me. With big eyes he was focused on his own hand that now had spots of blood on it.
I observed him turning around and taking in the view of 15 human corpses, some as a whole and some splitted into half by the force of the Inoue group.
Honestly, it wasn't a pretty sight seeing intestines laying around and blood building a thin layer on the ground but rather them than us, right?
Next thing I knew, Rune passed out right in front of me. He simply fell back as if he suddenly fell asleep and I almost failed catching him.
The youngers lips and skin were pale and his limbs hanging down lifelessly form his light body.
When I caught myself just staring I thought about how he gave the impression of a fragile prince in my arms. Beautiful and strong but too kindhearted and soft for a battle. This person had killed before and yet he passed out at the sight of corpses and blood. It begrudgingly made me want to protect him in some way... to take care of him.
But what was Rune to me? I wasn't his guardian angel or something. And yet I could not suppress the unusual soft thoughts in my head that all came to my mind when seeing him like this.
It felt frightening and unfamiliar... so I did not know how to make it go away.
However, there were more important things to do at the moment because we had to get away from here as soon as possible. The ambulance that arrived was a special force that consisted of gifted ones so they could probably get us to our save and secure apartment...
With ease I picked up the blond boy bridal style so his head was leaning on my chest. He should feel honored that I even took it upon me carrying him... I usually didn't do that for anyone.
Slowly, I let my eyes roam around the area. I did not want to believe that Rune leaked information about our arrival here but someone must have done it. Apart from us 9 only the leader and Mr. Gray knew about the exact time and place of our arrival and I strongly doubted they were the culprits. But who could have done it?
"Is Rune okay?" I was brought back to reality when seeing the tiny figure of Kate approach me. A bandage had been put on her arm but she seemed to be fine despite that.
"He is alright." I shortly stated and wanted to turn around to leave for the ambulance car when Kate spoke up again.
"I can carry him if you want. You should also get your wounds treated." She smiled innocently but that only led me to pull Rune even closer.
I was her senior so if I'd needed her help I would have said so. Why did she even want to take responsibility for Rune? Did she like him? Was that it?
Like hell, I'd give him to her.
"It's fine. Go help the others instead." I demanded of her and as I thought the shining of her eyes fainted a bit for a moment before she nodded and left.
...
[Rune]
"Urgh" I groaned when I woke up to a numb pain in my head. Gladly, it only lasted for a short moment and when I rolled to the side and opened my eyes it had already faded a little.
After a few seconds I remembered what had happened before I passed out. I also recalled waking up in a car on the way home and going upstairs to the apartment before falling asleep here. Everything was a little blurry though.
With a sigh I pushed myself up into a sitting position but immediately flinched back when I noticed a person sitting on the edge of this rooms bed.
"GOd dAmn!" I exaggerated my reaction and realized it was Raven sitting there.
I was facing his back a little from the side so I could not see the expression on his face. Had he waited here for me to wake up?
"Rune... we need to talk." With that comment I started realizing that this was serious. Raven's voice was as cold as when I first met him and the fact that he didn't even look at me felt awful.
"Are... you angry at me?" I couldn't quiet understand what he wanted so I decided to ask but instead of answering he suddenly turned around and his eyes burned holes into mine.
"Did you leak information to Mellontikos this whole time?" He asked in all seriousness and honesty.
After all this time... how did he still mistrust me?
I payed attention to keep eye contact.
"No, I have never and will never side with that group." I said but didn't move a muscle.
"Then what did you talk to them about?" Raven continued questioning me as if I was keeping it a secret from him. I already planned on telling him that.
"I'm sorry I didn't talk about it sooner but with all the people around back there it was difficult..." I explained and Raven patiently waited for me to continue, his eyes narrowing at every sentence I added.
"As I said before, they asked me to come with them in exchange for them leaving all of you alone. Of course I did not plan on doing that so I asked them why. They were killed by that kid called Minhyuk seconds later but..." I hesitated for a moment wondering if what I remembered was really the truth.
"But what?" Raven scooped closer and I let my eyes wander down to my hands to avoid looking at him.
"The last words he said were. 'Your uncle'..." My voice had quieted down just as much that it was still audible. My uncle... what did they mean? I had an uncle? What if-
"So the man seen here in London could be your uncle and on top of that he sided with Mellontikos." Raven spoke my thoughts out loud making me realize the impact it had on me.
"I swear I never knew that I had an uncle! I will never side with Mellontikos because of him you have to believe me!" For some reason I started panicking thinking about how Raven might not look at me the same as before because of the news.
I had leaned forward and grabbed his arm but instead of pushing it away Raven let it be.
"Hey, calm down blondie... I believe you." The tensed atmosphere in this room dropped from one moment to the other when the older actually smiled at me again. He reached out his arm to pat my head but this movement came so suddenly and unexpected from him that I froze when feeling his hand touch my hair. So gentle... my heart skipped a beat and I honestly felt like fainting again.
"If you continue to be this cute it might not have been a good idea to stay in the same room as long as we are here." He chuckled and moved even closer. Usually, I would have already come up with a sarcastic response but the words were stuck in the back of throat so I could only stare at it him with wide eyes.
Raven proceeded to give a slight push to my chest causing me to fall back onto the sheets. He placed his lower arms next to my head and his knees on both sides caging my legs.
What was he doing?!
My lungs refused to work and my body was not able to move anymore as my heart was pounding rapidly. Raven was not smirking anymore but his soft lips were slightly parted and his golden eyes dense but clearly looking into mine. Everytime he breathed out, it tingled the skin on my face.
Slowly, he leaned down to my neck and near my ear while at the same time I noticed how his left hand moved down my waist and lifted up my shirt. His hands were warm when they touched my skin but yet they send shivers through my body that caused me to silently whimper.
What had I become because of him barely touching me?
"Rune..." he whispered my name, breathing into my ear while at the same time moving his hand further up my side. I closed my eyes and bit my lip to retain more sounds but his touch felt so good that I strangley wanted more of it. It was almost scary how much I wanted it.
"You are injured." He stopped his hand on the height of my chest where I felt the crust of a small cut that I didn't know had been there. In a small moment of confusion I opened my eyes again and saw him grinning at me his eyes shining with amusement.
"I- I..." I still could not form a sentence when Raven let go of me, visibly trying to hold back his laughter.
He had played a prank on me... and I fell for it. All of this just because he wanted to inform me of my injury. A trap...
I seriously felt so stupid and embarrassed for the way I had reacted, I could not even endure him looking at my flustered face so I took a pillow and buried my head into it with a groan.
That send the sign to Raven finally breaking out into laughter.
Loudly, happily and sadistically... and if I wasn't so embarrassed I might have laughed with him.
"You're mean." I whined because it was the only thing I could affort to say.
"YoU'rE mEeeEaaAn. PAHAHA" he copied me.
"Oh come on, who could've known that you were so desperate?" He continued holding it against me until I had enough and threw the pillow at him.
"I'm not desperate!" I raised my voice at him.
"You can't just play with a person's feelings like this!" I kept on hitting him not with the intention to actually hurt him but I had to let my embarrassment out on him.
"Wow, ouch hey. How was I supposed to know you have feelings for me?" He questioned still grinning but holding up his hands in defeat.
Did he still think this was all a joke right here?!
"Why do you think I endured you treating me like shit when I first got here, huh? Why did I decide to not kill you when you found out about my secret?! Why does my body react weirdly whenever you touch me? I wish I could hate you Raven Inoue, I really do!" I stopped the beating and fell back down on the bed.
Raven had finally shut up by now but I couldn't identify the kind of curiosity written all over his face.
"But..." I had to continue what I started. The moment had to come at some point and better now than never.
"I can't stop being curious about what you think every time I see you. I worry about you and when you kissed me in front of Neil, it felt good, okay? Now shut the fuck up and leave me alone." I knew I couldn't go back on what I said anymore but yet I crossed my arms and turned around so Raven was facing my back.
"I am really sorry... I didn't know." Raven spoke quietly as if my words had drained all of his energy.
"I... need to think about it. You know... as the next leader of the LA Inoue headquarters I can't-"
"Cut it out. I don't want to hear it. Now go to your side of the room and go laugh at someone else." I spat and didn't even turn around again when I heard him slowly getting up and actually walking to his own bed that stood on the opposite side of the room.
What did I think saying all of this to him? That he'd say something like 'wow I love you too, please be my boyfriend'? I should not have been that naive. Raven was a person with authority in his group that took all risks to keep my identity hidden with the only goal of using my ability for better chances against the Falcon man. Meanwhile I was siding with his best friend to discover the truth behind my families masacre that Raven's family was partly responsible for. What if we ended up on different sides at the end? Even if that wasn't the case, as soon as people found out about my ability they'd not only chase after me but after Raven and the others too.
I had forgotten a few things about myself since I joined Inoue group.
I still was an outcast and a loner in the gifted society and in the end the only person I could trust was myself.