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corpse killers

C elestine started coming back to school again more regularly.

Her injuries were now fully healed and Niko stole her from me a few times throughout the next couple of weeks, taking her for the entire evening.

Sometimes I would come home to find them having dinner together.

I used the extra free time to meet up with my friends, the ones at school, in the Underworld, and even the living Demons.

Niko never told me what he and Celestine did and I had too much pride to follow them, but I was… I don’t know. Though, she had improved even more after his training. Obviously. He created me.

“So, that's it,” Symeon ended his explanation of his take down on the Kokkino clan waiting for me to comment on it all. Kahlik stood behind Symeon, pacing back and forth as his eyes flickered from the page up to my eyes then back on the ground.

I stared at the piece of paper with all the messy, ineligible scribbles, leaning back in my chair in Kahlik’s apartment. “That is the shittiest plan I've ever heard,” I said, exhaling smoke.

Kahlik's mouth fell open, insulted. He slammed his hands onto the table leaning over it. “What– what part?”

It had taken a month for them to come up with it and I shut it down with eight words. “The whole thing,” I said. “Killing the entire inner circle–firstly, you are not to touch Reaper. ”

“Did you not hear us?” Symeon's face was red. My mind was distracted, but I was still half listening to this. “That's why we told you we would do it while she's at school.”

I shook my head. “And when she finds out who killed her clan, she'll come for all of us.” She would never forgive me for it.

“Then, we have to kill her,” Symeon stated. “We can't have anyone in our way.”

My eyes darkened, my voice low and calm. “Say that again.”

Kahlik's eyes widened as he looked between Symeon and me.

Symeon's lips tightened as he swallowed, and he could barely get out the words. “What is the point of you saying yes to this, if all you're doing is shutting down every idea we come up with? It's like you don't actually want us to do it.”

“Killing the leader of the Kokkino clan is not simple,” I said. “If it were, then we wouldn't need to plan this much. We kill Silias and then what? The Underworld would be just as chaotic as it was when Ender was murdered. This job requires thinking years ahead.”

“The Underworld will become better.”

I inhaled my cigarette deeply, shaking my head. “No, someone else needs to step into his spot and who can you think of would suit it?” No one was more suited than Ender, even I could not compare myself to him.

“Us. We could lead the Kokkino clan,” Symeon suggested.

This is a cycle that will only get worse with each new leader.

It needs to be broken. There cannot be this many leaders with this many opposing views on how the city should and shouldn't be.

It's chaotic. The entire structure of power doesn't have any sense to it and is constantly shifting between clans.

Taking down the Kokkino clan would change nothing .

“You want to lead a clan? Do you know the work that goes with it? Do you know that people will fight you for that spot?" I said. "Silias killed hundreds of competitors to secure his place.”

“And we will do the same. Kokkino clan has too much power, we would split it between all of us.” Kahlik said.

“That's not going to work and you know it,” I bit back.

Symeon let out a frustrated breath. “So what, Vulture?” His voice was rising with his anger. “What do you suggest we do?”

I released a smoky breath. “Give me some time to get some intel on the clan. I'm getting closer to Reaper and I'm trying to figure out her relationship with the clan.”

They stared at me, waiting for me to continue, but I wasn't going to tell them what I assumed, because I could be wrong.

“If it turns out she doesn't like her clan, we could use her to kill him for us,” I said. “Who would be better at doing the job than someone from the inside?”

Kahlik and Symeon exchanged looks.

“Fine,” Symeon said. “But if you're only stalling us to protect her, we'll revert to the original plan. And if she gets hurt, then that's on you, Vulture. You could have aligned with us to keep her out of harm's way.”

I let out a short laugh, holding my cigarette between my teeth.

You absolute idiot. With a quick move, I stood up, grabbed Symeon by his neck, flipped him onto his back, and pinned him to the table.

I moved one hand up to his face, squeezing his cheeks to force his mouth open.

With my other hand, I inhaled one long breath of smoke into my lungs before taking it and dropping the burning stump into his mouth.

“If you even look at Reaper, the next thing going in your mouth will be your own eyeballs. Yeah?”

Symeon's flushed cheeks wetted with his own tears and he struggled to nod through my hold .

I couldn't help my smile. “Now swallow.”

He made the strangest sound as he did so. My phone vibrated in my pocket, and I took it out, still gripping onto Symeon. Niko’s name filled my screen. I licked the front of my teeth, rolling my eyes. It's as if he knows what I'm doing. Without letting Symeon go, I answered the call.

“Come home now,” Niko commanded.

“Why?”

“Did you forget you’re training Celestine?”

Since she wasn’t at school today, I had assumed we weren’t training.

“She’s waiting for you here.”

I hung up and slipped my phone back into my pocket. I released Symeon, and he quickly sat back up, coughing.

“Come up with a better plan that includes what we do after, we'll meet again another day.” In all honesty, I don't really think all this work is worth what they think will happen. There's surely a better, more promising plan… I just needed to think of it.

“But–”

I turned to Kahlik, and he quickly closed his mouth.

Yeah, that's what I thought. I shoved my hands back into my pockets, making my way out of their place.

Just as I opened the door, Symeon said, "your weakness for her is showing. The old Vulture wouldn't have wasted a thought on collateral."

I didn't respond, slamming the door shut behind me.

***

Celestine was in the bathroom getting changed when I arrived home.

“Cinth,” Niko started, putting down today’s paper with half the sudoku puzzle filled out. “Be careful with what you say to Celestine. ”

“Yeah, I know,” I said, pouring water from the tap into my glass.

“No, I don’t think you do,” he said. “She doesn’t know the difference between right and wrong. I don’t want her going down the wrong path.”

“Bit late for that, don’t you think?” I muttered, leaning against the counter facing him as I drowned my dry throat with water.

He shook his head. “It’s never too late, but she’s quite confused and I know she looks up to you.”

I scoffed. “Not sure why she would think I’d be a good role model.”

“You have good morals.”

I'm going to let him rethink that.

“You’re just a little too violent sometimes.”

There it is.

I laughed. “Yeah, but have you seen her? She’s just as insane as I am.”

He shook his head. “She wants to be like you. So, just… Calm down a bit, at least in front of her.”

I’ve never shown her my dark side, I never wanted to because I knew she wanted to be like me. And because I didn’t know how she’d react to it, if she could handle it. “She once told me she wants to be like Phobus,” I said.

He shook his head and muttered, “of all the gods, that’s the one she idolises?”

“He’s not that bad, is he?”

“Phobus, Cinth?” He gave me a look. “He’s the God of fear, pain, darkness, and death. He doesn’t have any morals, infants die because of him.”

No, we should blame Poiesis, Goddess of Creation, for not giving infants a fully functional immune system and making birth complicated and life-threatening. “Right,” I muttered.

“The only good thing he’s done was create Demons and even that’s debatable.” He shook his head. “But you were right about how stubborn Celestine is,” he chuckled. “She’s almost as bad as you were.”

I let out a breath of relief, I thought she only acted like that with me. I'm so glad it was just her personality and not because of how I’m so soft around her.

“If she ever asks if what she’s doing is right, think before you answer. There’s already too many bad people in this city and we don’t need another one,” he scolded.

I rolled my eyes, putting my glass away.

Celestine came out a couple minutes later. Her eyes lit up for a moment before she quickly came back to her neutral expression. I went into my room and grabbed one of my black hoodies then tossed it to Celestine. “Put this over you.”

“We’re not training?” she asked. My hoodies are oversized on me, so they easily reached her knees.

“We are.”

We weren’t given an assignment tonight, so we headed to a place that might give her some more insight into the world she’s a part of.

We were on the West side of Soulesity and headed in the direction of the warehouses.

“You should put your hair down, the place is run by Etherians,” I warned her.

She paused in her steps, narrowing her eyes. “You’re taking me to Etherian territory? They’ll kill me if they find out who I am or worse.”

“They won’t,” I said. “And even if they find out, you’re under twenty and you’re with me. Just cover your Stygian tattoo to avoid any attention.”

She bit her bottom lip but eventually walked by my side again, trusting me. She released her hair and pulled the hood up over her.