Chapter Fourteen

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"How are you even still alive?"
She sighed, pulling her knees closer to her chest. "Luck. Skill. A huge blessing of luck from Ayana. Quick thinking. Training. Certainly not planning ahead."
What had happened to her? Her facade was breaking down. What had happened to not showing weakness to those she didn't trust? She barely had a reason to trust Seth, let alone a man who had essentially kidnapped her.
""And I'm sure lulling your enemies into a false sense of security had nothing to do with it," Sam muttered sarcastically, moving his knife the slightest bit away from Kyari's throat. "Look, I don't know what you want from me and my brother, or maybe even the guy who hired us to do this..." he struggled to find the exact words, "this, but either someone's been lying to you, because we've got less'n nothing, or it actually is him you're after, and, well... If that's the case I, really couldn't care less what you two do to each other, but I will not let you at him until me 'n' my brother get what we need from him."
"What'd he take?"
"He didn't take anything," Sam spat venomously, "but he can tell us who did."
The young man slumped slightly, though he kept his dagger firmly at Kyari's throat. He felt, he realized, very much like the warehouse he was sitting in: dark, grimy, and run down.
"For what it's worth," he mumbled quietly, "I'm sorry for doing this to you."
"It really doesn't help much. If you really were, I'd be gone by now."
Sam snorted. "Please don't tell me you actually thought I'd fall for the one," he said, scuffing the dirt coated ground with his foot. "I know you've got the whole pure soul charade you're trying to sell, but the guilt game is kind of painfully amateur."
She ignored him as she began processing an idea. Closing her eyes, she concentrated on freezing the air around him, intending to pull enough water from the air to create a wall of ice, reinforced with air. I hope this buys me enough time.
Sam shivered slightly and readjusted his grip on his knife. This was the problem with rundown warehouses, come night they became absolutely frigid.
"D****t Eric, what is taking you so long?" the young man muttered to himself, grimacing at the small puff of breath that resulted. The grimace turned into a frown.
'Wait, it can't be that cold... Not yet...'
Sam's wounded side twinged violently and his eyes widened as his brother's words hit him like a rocket powered elephant.
Search her for any weapons, and for Kansyle’s sake don’t forget to bind her fingers.
Bind her fingers.
Bind.
Her.
Fingers.
'S**t.'
"All I really need to do is tip myself over..." he said conversationally.
Once again, she ignored him, water pulling itself from the air and forming crystals around his body.
Sam frowned, with no little difficulty. His body had grown incredibly stiff in the last couple of seconds, not to mention cold, and he was seriously regretting having forgotten his brother's advice.
'I wonder if there was anything about this situation we didn't underestimate...' he moped silently.
And they'd been so close to finding Sarah too. No matter, they'd find someone else to squeeze for information. They'd grown increasingly adept at hitting rock bottom and starting again from scratch as of late. With any luck, Marcin wouldn't have brought any help with him; crippled as he might be, Eric should still be capable of shanking a single man from behind.
"... in here. We have her drugged up, so she shouldn't be any problem."
Scratch that last thought, hopefully Marcin had brought a lot of help.
"Eric, she isn't drugged!" the young man yelled before bracing himself. At least, that's what he would have done if he'd been capable of opening his mouth. As it was, all his frozen face allowed him to managed was a sort of muffled panic-gurgle.
She didn't normally swear. Her father condoned it, saying it should be used sparingly--"You should be eloquent enough to better express your anger." Even then he knew that sometimes it had to be let out in one word.
So she did.
She hadn't thought this through. She had forgotten they would be coming back...or at least didn't realize it'd be so soon.
She swore again. Sorry, Dad. Won't make it a habit, she thought as she tried to think her way out of this. First step was to remove the dagger from her neck.
Check. Ayana, you better be on my good side today...
Up she jumped, dagger at the ready for however many lackeys Marcin had decided to tack on to his group.
"Sam?" Eric called, edging into the warehouse in front of Marcin and the two toughs he'd brought with him. "Sam where are you?"
The young man cursed under his breath and squinted into the gloom. He swore, if his brother had somehow managed to fall asleep again, words would be had. That is, if he could find him...

"D****t Sam, this isn't funny! Where are y- Oh f- Get back, get back!" Eric shouted as he caught sight of Kyari jumping up, dagger in hand.
"Perfect," the enforcer on Marcin's right grinned, stepping forward and cracking his knuckles. "We have some unfinished business to settle."
This was definitely not what she had planned. There was no way she could take on all of them at once with force, and her focus was so shaken she wouldn’t be able to use her magic well, if at all.
“Now, now,” said Marcin. “There’s no need to start a fight. If you’ll just come with me, Kyari,” he saw her reaction to the use of her name and smiled. “Yes, I know who you are, and if you’ll step outside, we can talk. Eric, will you disarm her please?”
Eric looked at his useless right arm, then looked at Kyari, then finally looked at Marcin with an expression that quite clearly said "You have got to be joking..."
"Oh yes, send the cripple in to disarm the freakishly talented fighter who is apparently immune to sedatives, that sounds like a brilliant idea,” the young man mutters under his breath as he cautiously makes his way towards Kyari. “Might as well have written ‘Please feel free to murder my incompetent underling as a token of my oh-so-sincere good will’ across my chest in shockingly pink letters.”
Sighing, Eric comes to a stop in front of the young thief. “Well, looks like it’s take two, except it’s just you and us scum of the earth this time,” he says, sticking out his left hand. “So, what’s it going to be?”
She seriously considered fighting back, before sighing and handing the dagger over to Eric. I've got more tricks up my sleeve anyways.
Eric stared at the dagger now resting in his palm for a second before barking out an incredulous laugh.
"And just when you think you've seen everything..." he chuckled, more than a little nonplussed.
"Well, there you have it, boss." He called over his shoulder without taking his eyes off Kyari.
Marcin's eyes narrowed. "Search her," he demanded of the man next to him.
The response was a frightening leer. "Gladly."
She stood frozen, trying to save her energy to think of what to do next.
Anyone to help her? Hector was long gone, and who knew where Seth was. Doubtful Sam or Eric would even consider it.
Fight back? No way she could physically overcome all four of them plus Marcin.
She had an idea. She didn't really like it, and wasn't entirely sure it would work, but she had hit a dead end.
She had control of water. The human body was made up of mostly water. She closed her eyes, first in prayer to Ayana and Celia, the goddesses of luck and healing, and then in concentration.
The water had to go somewhere, so why not into the figure on Marcin's other side?
Alex cracked his knuckles as he stalked towards Kyari. Finally, he was going to get a little payback for the last time she'd managed to slip out of their hands. Speaking of hands... The enforcer stopped short as he felt a faint buzzing along his fingers, just beneath the skin.
"What the everloving..." the young man managed to choke out as he watched a small mist develop around his hands before his entire body spasmed and he stopped thinking about his hands. In fact, he stopped thinking period.
Jasper, who had been standing on Marcin's other side, leapt back in shock as his partner all but disappeared in an explosion of mist. What remained was an emaciated, husk of a thing which tipped over and hit the ground with a soft thud. Above it, the cloud whirled, and Jasper swore he could feel it turning around, as if whatever will behind it was slowly turning its unseen eyes on him.
The young thug barely had time for a terrified squawk before the cloud coiled about itself and bore down on him. The mist hit him like a storm tossed wave and Alex felt the air leave his lungs with a muted whumph, even as his limbs suddenly seemed to bloat. The man hit the ground, suddenly incapable of bearing his own weight, panic setting in as he realized that no matter how hard he breathed, he wasn't getting enough oxygen. Alex was drowning in thin air.
Eric... Eric blinked, and then proceeded to stab his ruined shoulder experimentally.
"Ow! Fffffffffffffffff- Ok, not dreaming, not dreaming, ow ow ow!" the young man hissed before deciding that since everyone else seemed to be hitting the floor, he might as well follow their example while he was still capable of doing it of his own free will. If his suspicion was correct... Yes, Kyari didn't seem to be surprised in the least; that cemented it. "Wow, when you decide to go after the wrong person, you go after the wrong person, don't you?" He shot at Marcin before tossing Kyari's dagger at her feet.
She smiled slightly, glad that it had worked, before slumping to the ground, utterly exhausted.
Eric's hand remained outstretched as he watched the girl collapse, and it stayed that way for a good five seconds before he cautiously shuffled over on his knees and picked it up again.
"So tell me, which is it?" the young man asked Marcin, still staring at the dagger again in his hands. "Are you insane, stupid, or just omniscient?"
Marcin smirked, his arms folded. "Pick her up, and let's go."
"You're opinion of my physical capabilities is entirely too high," Eric said, tapping his useless arm. He got to his feet all the same, giving what he supposed was now his dagger and experimental twirl. The blade nicked his palm and the man decided to stop before he lost a finger. Trying it with his off-hand had been a stupid idea. Still, the blade was evidently very sharp. At least he seemed to have gotten something out of this whole debacle aside from a shoulder he very much doubted would ever heal properly.
"And the other bodies?" He asked, eying his still immobile brother. "What do we do with them?"
"Leave them."
Frowning, the young stuck the hilt of the blade between his teeth and then gave one of Kyari's arms an experimental tug. The girl budged without much resistance and Eric thanked his lucky stars their mark was as light as she looked. Intent on using as little energy as possible, he dragged Kyari bodily over to Marcin whereupon he dropped her quite perfunctorily and grabbed the knife from his mouth.
"Y'know, I think I have a better idea," Eric frowned, placing the dagger at Marcin's neck.
"Do you want the information, or not?"
"Sure I want it," Eric smiled grimly."Me and my brother, we both want it very much. Would you like me to prove to you just how much we want it?"
"It's not much good to you if I'm dead, now, is it?
"Funny you should say that," Eric said calmly. "Because the way I see it, you aren't doing me much good alive either."
"You kill me, you kill her."
"You've got one heck of a gift for stunningly audacious bullshit, I'll give you that," the young man glowered. "It just so happens I really don't feel like dealing with bullshit right now. Last chance. Where Is. She?"
"What if I told you she was dead?" Marcin laughed in reply.
Eric frowned and slit Marcin's throat, a jerky, economical slash across the man's jugular and watched the body fall.
"Wrong answer," he smiled down at the spreading red pool.
Flicking the blood off the dagger, Eric sagged as his adrenaline supply finally began petering out. The young man lurched over to his defrosting brother, slipping his dagger into his belt along the way. Pausing for a moment to grab his breath, the would-be kidnapped leaned down, grabbed one of his brother's arms and started dragging him towards the door.
"C'mon, you lump. We need to get out of here before anything else hits..."
She hadn't even realized she had fallen asleep until after she woke up disoriented, and certainly in a different place than she had fallen.
Of course, seeing Marcin dead and leaking blood everywhere certainly shocked her awake.
Before she knew it she was on her feet, spinning around to find her dagger.
Eric had barely made it to the door when Kyari shot to her feet, looking around wildly. Biting back a curse, the young man ducked down, for all the good it did him, and tried to drag his brother out the door as quietly as possible.
It didn't do him any good. A strong premonition hit him the moment he stuck his head out the door, and he hit the ground in short order. A good thing he did too or the hammer that was suddenly imbedded in the door above him would have been lodged firmly in his skull.
"I wish this wasn't such a familiar sight..." Hector shook his head sadly before tugging his hammer free and raising it once more.
"What are you doing?" Kyari snapped. "He just got rid of Marcin for us!"
Hector paused only to give Kyari a short, sad look before he returned to the business of caving in skulls. Unfortunately for him, that moment of distraction had cost him the advantage of surprise and he had to backpedal furiously to avoid being gutted by Eric.
"Absolutely. F*****g. Typical!" The young man spat out, hovering protectively over his brother.
"Funny, I was about to say the exact same thing," Hector retorted mildly.
Kyari cringed, but noticed the glint of the emory at Eric's waist.
"Soooooo..." Eric fidgeted nervously, adjusted his grip on the dagger. "Stalemate."
"No, not really," Hector replied, still unnervingly calm. Under Eric, Sam stirred feebly. "You lost long ago. I'm very certain your target," he nodded to Kyari, "is more than capable of doing whatever she wants to you right now. That is, if you stay. You could always try your luck getting past me, and, well..." he looked significantly at Sam.
A glare crackled in the space between the two men as Eric backed up closer to Sam.