Chapter Eleven Inara Feuer #3
Eavesdropping on conversations. Anything that might lead her to Jax or the leader of the Grimms.
There wasn't a sound, those ears, and eyes had gone deaf and blind.
The Head of the Rebels was just as illusive.
No one knew his name, he was nothing more than a whisper.
Adan couldn't help but idolize him. She was holding out for news about Jax, his head she wouldn't mind taking from his shoulders.
He was a slave trader, and did try to burn her alive.
Even if he did spare Czandra's ship and its cargo.
She didn't know what she would do if she found the head of the rebellion.
She knew he would be harder to deal with than Rose, and she would never bring him to the king--She would die first.
She had been spending most of her time in the Vivet, the slums of the City of Bones.
Located on the water just outside the Loch, wood buildings connected by docks trailed for three city blocks.
Families live here on top of each other, some whore houses could be found, but they don't boast anything of merit to sell.
The smell of the true city lurked here. The blood and bones that made this shining testament to Lymia.
The people that lived here were simple, but hardworking.
They would be her first bet in trying to snuff out a rebel leader.
But they're also loyal, which was why every door had been slammed in Adan's face.
She was never going to get information that way. She was too recognizable, and her clothes too fancy to be trusted. She didn't blame them. You can't trust anyone in the City of Bones.
Adan waited on the roof of a particularly seedy pub, the smell of the nearby alleyway had her covering her mouth and nose with her mask. Two men stumbled outside to share a smoke, and chatted loudly.
"He found a ship, the captain said we will be back in business in a week."
"Bloody hell, it's about time." The bigger one bumped the slightly smaller one in the shoulder, almost knocking him over. "We have been landlocked since the end of summer."
Around the same time Jax's ship went up in flames. She grinned as she leaned in to hear more.
"He had his reasons for that fire." The male inhaled deeply on his smoke. "He needed to make sure all loose ends were tied up." He exhaled, handing the smoke back to his comrade.
"You talk like the captain told you that personally. You're one of fifty sailors, he probably doesn't even know your name, O'Malley."
He harked out a big burly noise. "You're probably right."
He stole the smoke back, took one last pull before tossing it into the slush.
They headed back inside right afterwards.
Adan began to make a plan. Whichever one of them left the tavern first, she would follow.
She wasn't even certain if they were part of Jax's crew, but it was the most she had gotten in the days that she had been camped out in the Vivet.
She almost called it a night, assumed the two males drank them self stupid and passed out in the bar.
She thought she would catch a few hours of sleep before catching them leaving the tavern.
But one of them was exiting the tavern, the one called O'Malley.
He was a massive, burly man, with reddish-brown curls.
Adan followed him down the streets of the Vivet from the rooftops.
He led her into the Loch, but then she lost him down an alleyway.
She hopped a few roofs and found him again, slinking into an abandoned warehouse.
She eyed the dark building. She should scout it out, if she had the time, and the man power. She could have asked Osho to come along, but that would have opened up too many questions. She crept towards the building, using its shadow to cloak her and slipped inside.
She wasn't inside all of two seconds before her head was smashed against the wall.
"What are you? Some sneak theft? Following me?!"
O'Malley wailed, his foot landed into her stomach.
She croaked and coughed, she was certain he had broken a rib.
She pulled her dagger from her thighs, and sliced out.
"Fucking bitch!" He yelled, grabbing her wrist, he held her up high as she dangled her in the air.
She swung at him with her other dagger, missing him by inches.
She was slow, when was the last time she ate or drank anything?
The last time, she slept for more than two hours.
He tossed her through the air like she was nothing more than a rag doll.
Her blades went scattering across the cement floor.
He moved, kicking her in her stomach again.
She couldn't breathe, blood filled her lungs from another broke rib.
She spat blood with every cough. O'Malley crouched down and picked up her blade.
"This will teach ya to pick on someone bigger than you."
He skilfully flipped the blade over the handle, caught it, and then plunged it right into her stomach.
She cried out, she didn't stop as O'Malley turned the knife in her stomach and dragged it along her skin.
She could only lay there, staring up at the male that was going to kill her.
At least this was a quicker death than at the hand of King Cias, or worse, Darius. Her eyes fluttered closed.
--
When Adan opened them again, O'Malley was gone, but her knife was still in lodged in her open stomach.
With the lack of sleep and food, her body wasn't healing her like it should.
Blood pooled around her, she had already lost too much.
She dragged herself through it before she could stand.
Every step radiated sharp slicing pains up her body.
Every step, she felt more of her blood pumping out of her open wound.
She touched the back of her head and winced.
Blood was there too, she must have smacked her head in the fall.
She coughed again, blood spluttered out of her mouth.
The broken rib that punctured her lung sung was a special type of torture with every breath and step.
There was only one place she could go. She dragged herself the few blocks towards that illuminated tower and snuck into the service entrance, but only made it as far as the front hallway before she collapsed.
--
"You fucking idiot." Someone yelled, they sounded beyond angry and completely terrified.
Adan kept coming to and passing out. "You reckless fool."
Someone was patching her up, they had her side open, to re-break her ribs, so that her punctured lung could heal.
"Do you have any idea what would—" bones cracked, and she passed out again to the sounds of her shrieks.
She came too, taking her first clean breath in what felt like forever.
"You're going to be the death of me, Love."
She felt someone poking the skin around the knife.
The room swayed and came in and out of focus.
Suddenly, the knife was wrenched free, and she blacked out again from the shock of it.
Only to be shaken awake by Lennox, he had her by her arms and was screaming. True fear shone in the green eyes.
She black out again before hearing him scream, "Who did this to you, Inara?!" She knew she must be dead because she only ever heard that name in her dreams.
--
Lennox thanked the worker who had found her on the floor of the servant's entrance to his Hotel.
She was also an incubus, it was why Lennox asked her to stay.
To help keep the stubborn beauty under while he worked to save her life--again.
Blood, her blood, covered his hands. He took a damp towel to them as he watched her sleep.
He tossed the cloth back in the washing bin and pulled up a chair beside her bed.
Inara Feuer had almost died on his watch, and he would not let it happen again.