Chapter 14 #2
The assholes swung first, their fists colliding with my body before my eyes could track them in my drunken stupor. I tried to follow their hands, my body barely feeling the jabs.
I could hear the trash cans clanging on top of my damn body and the glass shattering onto us from the nearby window.
I felt the heat of the blood as it spattered across my knuckles, but the pain didn’t hit.
I barely noticed. My vision was tunneled on the shrunken figure, the leader of the bastards, still trapped under him. He let his thugs beat me up and kept her caged.
“Fuck you, assholes,” I growled, picking up the trash can and bashing the two meatheads in the face, knocking them out cold.
The dark-haired leader eyed me, watching his companions go down in a heap. It was only then that he moved away from the woman. And when he did, I realized I recognized her.
My acolyte.
They had Ayakashi.
I didn’t say her name.
I couldn’t.
My chest was hammering, while my ribs screamed. This wasn’t over. I still had to best the final opponent. The blood on my face melded with the rain as it pelted down on our heads.
Yes, wash me of my sins.
The adrenaline made my hands shake. Everything I’d tried to hide, all the guilt, the fear, the rage, I channeled it all into my fists.
“Kaito! Stop it! Both of you! Stop!” she screamed, but I didn’t stop.
Neither of us did.
We couldn’t.
The man, Kaito, had more muscle mass than I did, but I met him strike for strike with my height and wit in the fight. I hadn’t gotten into an altercation since…
The memory made me falter, and I fumbled. That moment of lapse was enough to get a fist right to the face, my lip exploding with the pain and the blood flying to coat Ayakashi and her attacker.
I kept fighting.
I couldn’t stop, not until Kaito faltered. Not until I had done everything I could to make sure he didn’t touch her again.
To make sure I didn’t fail this woman.
Like I failed before.
Like I failed her.
Pain radiated through me while blood ran down my hands. Broken glass sliced open my forearms. My fucking ribs were on fire, but I kept going.
Punch.
Block.
Slam.
Repeat.
The world was nothing but blood and pain.
And her.
I looked over at her form. Her clothes were all ripped and soaked.
That gaze cost me. One brutal swing, and I went down. He staggered too, nothing remaining but our heavy breaths, and the iron taste of blood in the air.
Kaito huffed and laughed, spitting blood down beside me. “Let’s end this.”
Ayakashi ran to me, blocking my body from the man’s fists.
I gasped along with the asshole above me. My mouth opened to speak, but then I heard her voice.
“No. Kaito. This is not how you conduct business, is it?”
Kaito faltered and stared between us before finally smirking and wiping his bloody mouth with his hand.
“Fine. I’ll be seeing you, Sayuri.”
Sayuri?
My fists were cracked, raw, and blistering red. My head still couldn’t shake off the drunken haze.
My acolyte grabbed my arm and pulled me to my feet while Kaito slunk off into the shadows, dragging his goons with him.
I sank against the wall when the assholes left, my chest heaving, and my breath coming out shaking. My brain tried to process what had just happened, but the whiskey fog didn’t let me.
“Sayuri? Your name is Sayuri?” I mumbled while the woman tried to readjust her clothing.
“Yes.”
She didn’t offer an apology for lying to Gloria or me. She just started digging into my coat pocket and retrieving the keys to my truck.
“Come on.”
I didn’t fight her. I was too drunk and in pain to put up much of a fight anyway.
She dragged me toward my truck, completely silent. She was hella efficient in ordering me around. Her anger felt palpable, like it was touching me with the heat.
Alive and deadly.
“Which one is it?” she huffed, staring around at the cars in the lot.
I pointed to mine and let her pull me around to the passenger side. Every step sent pain shooting through my ribs, and I grimaced at every breath. My tongue tasted like iron and fucking whiskey.
I vowed never to drink again.
Inside the truck, she didn’t speak to me. She just drove. I leaned against the door, feeling every bruise and cut as they screamed at me.
I hated the mess I was in. Hated my drunken fuck-ups, adding to a never-ending tally.
I couldn’t even have a one-night fucking stand. I’d let things spiral so far in my life. When was enough enough? I hated it all.
Except her.
I couldn’t hate her. I couldn’t hate the fact that she was furious with me for the situation. I made things shit. Anything I touched was ass backward.
I saved her…and now…she was saving me, too?
She told me to follow, and I obeyed.
It felt good to listen to her commands. Something about the way she led me felt good to let go. I was so tired of leading an entire town to a heaven or hell I didn’t believe in.
But this woman. Sayuri. She was leading me now. To what?
I realized in a haze of blood and whiskey that it didn’t matter. I would follow her anywhere.
Church.
Alleyway.
Hell.
Anywhere.