Third Sin: Swansong of the Second Night (Part 3)- Admitted Acquaintances And Cannibals

--- Bell ---

“Uh.” She swallowed, trying to come up with a lie only for the boy’s glare to worsen before she found herself blurting out, “Mercer ‘s been helping us with our problems, and when we heard about the kids we decided to help him save them.”

“What kind of problems?” Virtue continued to press.

“I, um…”

DeWolf stepped between her and the boy’s. “The kind of problems you get in Sinner’s Way: gang violence, kidnappings, murder, drugs, things like that.”

Virtue frowned at the interruption, even as she silently thanked DeWolf for it.

“You know, you’re really starting to make me question whether you actually count as a hero or not.” DeWolf continued, uncaring for the boy’s glare. “I mean, here we are coming off of what was clearly a traumatic event and you’re interrogating us?”

“You’re working with a known mass murdering psychopath.” Virtue argued. “The moment you admitted to working with Mercer you became accomplices.”

She couldn’t help but frown herself at that, because while she’d only known him for a day or two she didn’t think he could be described as a mass murdering psychopath. After all, he’d been far too kind and calm for that. Settling most of their problems with words and next to no violence since they’d met him.

(Though he is rather casual about me and Scarlet eating people…)

(The city is hell… He’s the devil… And we’re his demons…) Her other-selves told her, a rare smile to their voices as their giggling echoed through her mind.

(Okay, so maybe there is something to be worried about…)

“Except that Mercer is Black Listed.” DeWolf pointed out, drawing her attention back to him and Virtue as the boy grimaced. “Meaning unless you can prove we committed a crime and not him, then you can’t touch us. And we both know no station in the city would try to hold us once he walks through the front door, not with how many he’s hospitalized.”

Virtue scoffed. “Again, for him to do something like that you two would have to be pretty close.”

“Or,” DeWolf stepped out of the way so that the boy could see her. “You’d have to be an innocent minor who has been wrongfully arrested.”

Virtue’s eyes narrowed. “Meaning he’d leave you to rot if I tried to arrest you?”

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

“I don’t mind spending a night in jail if it keeps my kid safe.” DeWolf shrugged. “Who knows might luck out and land in one of the stations I worked out of back in the day. Might get one of the boys to pay off the tab they owe me while we’re at it.”

Virtue was silent for a moment before sighing. “Fine, but I have one more question before I let you go.”

“And what question is that?” DeWolf asked suspiciously.

Virtue opened his mouth before blinking as he pointed behind them. “Is that girl eating a hand?”

She and DeWolf turned to where he was pointing and found Scarlet stepping out of the building with a severed hand in hand and a fair bit of blood around her mouth.

Upon seeing this DeWolf summarized the situation with a fairly apt, “Shit.”

--- Mercer ---

“Hmm?” He pretended to blink in confusion, despite the fact they couldn’t see his face. (The acting is what sells it.) “Oh, uh, the guy’s DeWolf and the child is probably his daughter. He’s the detective who brought this case to my attention. As for the girls, well I told you about the Deviant breaking people’s legs. Apparently the sisters got themselves in trouble and I’m helping them out of said trouble.”

All of that was technically true, but it more importantly ignored the bits about DeWolf being a Lycan, the girls being Malcontent, and him distracting Vigilance with a criminal organization that he had unintentionally set on high alert. (Still would’ve been better if they hadn’t been caught within five minutes of leaving my sight. Fucking amateurs.)

Swansong tilted her head and he used every ounce of his acting skills to hide the fact that he had something to hide, because she was one of the two Vigils who could tell when he was lying. Especially since she did it via skill rather than just hating his guts to a point of paranoia about everything he said. (Which reminds me I haven’t keyed ‘dumbass the third’ into Virtue’s bike this week.)

“Not lying.” Swansong eventually decreed.

He rolled his eyes. “What’s there to lie about? I mean, what are you expecting? That I’ve taken on a pair of apprentices to make up for the fact that my apartment blew up and that I’m running with little to no tech until the next time I break into one of your safehouses and steal everything that isn’t nailed down. That was my friendly warning by the way.”

Swansong gave him a curious look.

“It’s gotten a little too easy to break into your bases.” He explained. “It’s starting to be a chore.” (An amusing chore but still a chore.)

He could hear Kennedy groaning through her muted comm, before after a moment she sighed. “They’re more or less matching your story, so I’ll believe you for now.”

“Thanks for that Kin-Ken.” He told her, before tacking on. “Oh, also they’re cannibals and I have no doubt they can beat your apprentices’ ass in the sandbox.”

Swansong shook her head, thinking he was joking as she walked over to Romulus and started checking to make sure he hadn’t accidentally killed the man. (Which, rude. If I killed him it would’ve been on pur- Ah, that’s why she’s checking him.)

While Swansong was distracted with that, he slowly edged his way towards the alleyway entrance to see whether everyone had escaped and Kennedy had caught them fleeing in a camera or if -more likely- she’d had another Vigil stop them.

Peeking around the corner he spotted Virtue looking at a fairly incriminating scene involving DeWolf, Bell, and Scarlet.

(Welp, I’m nothing if not adaptable.)