(SYMEON, LIBERNA)
Symeon was immediately and intimately aware of Aedan’s hand on the center of his back. “You have to admit it’s pretty impressive.” He said, leaning forward from his spot beside him and turning his head to look up at his superior. His dark eyes prodded for a response and his mouth held its usual smirk.
Symeon took a step small away from him, shaking his head, “No, I don’t… And fix your uniform.”
Aedan laughed and walked away from his commanding officer without doing as ordered. His white uniform was unzipped down to his navel and he wasn’t wearing his gloves. It was an older uniform and far too tight, hugging everything.
Aedan shrugged, crouching down by one of the corpses. Symeon tore his eyes from him to inspect the body with him, crouching down beside him. “Fine… but I’m impressed.” He flicked the hilt of the dagger caught between the dead man’s eyes.
Symeon grabbed his hand, “Stop,” he hissed, “You don’t even have your gloves on.” He pouted at Symeon, fluttering his long, dark lashes at him. Symeon sighed and released him before standing and walking away a bit, weaving between the corpses, looking over them briefly as the heels of his boots echoed on the marble floors. Symeon cast a glance over his shoulder just as Aedan stood and stretched, every muscle and more visible through the fabric of his uniform. He winked and sauntered off in another direction. “Hurricane and Tsunami,” he clicked his tongue and nudged a decapitated head with his white boot, staining it red. “They’re better at helping the people than us ‘Guardians’. Death is better than these greedy shitbags deserve.”
Symeon cast a worried glance to the two Leopard ranked Guardians they had brought along. The two men where giving Aedan suspicious looks and whispering back and forth.
Symeon sighed and forced out a laugh, “You really should be careful where you make jokes like that, someone might take you seriously.”
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Aedan grinned ear to ear at him, without a word of confirmation or denial. They both knew he wasn’t joking in the slightest.
He cast a disgusted look at the expensive tapestry depicting the lord of the house shaking hands with the current king. The corruption of this family of corpses was evident, looking at the hallway that was now flooded with their blood. Just one of the golden vases in the hall could feed all the people under their thumb for a week. The foundation of the mansion might as well have been built upon the backs of those in their jurisdiction… And the obscenely high taxes were only a part of their immoral practices.
They needed to atone, to die, but not like this. This violence wouldn’t solve anything, it just made everything more chaotic. And the vigilantes “Hurricane” and “Tsunami” were acting like nothing more than murderers, slaughtering them like this… even the children…
And Aedan’s words were bordering on treasonous.
They were words that should never be spoken outside of the comfort and security of home.
Symeon looked back at the Leopards. They were still glaring at Aedan but no longer whispering. They were not likely to report a superior officer without solid proof but Aedan’s words were still dangerous.
Symeon narrowed his eyes at Aedan and mouthed, “Behave.” He winked. Symeon rolled his eyes.
I should stop associating with him before we both get hung for treason.
Symeon watched as Aedan pushed his hair back, looking down at a small child’s body among the adults, no longer smiling.
Not that I could ever do that.
“Tiger Faikes, sir!” The young Cat that had come with us ran up to me, his hand over his mouth in salute.
Symeon smiled down at the young Guardian, “What do you have to report?”
“We’ve found a receipt from a tavern. The date on the receipt makes it impossible for it to belong to any of the victims.”
It wasn’t likely to yield anything, but a lead was a lead.
Aedan took the receipt from his hand, his smile returning. “Alright boys lets move out! Drinks on me!”