The fact that Misha had understood his message, relieved Reed to no end. If he had to start explaining every little bit, he would lose his patience being in a place he didn’t want to be in. He kept going, but got manhandled into someone’s house facade by his partner. Reed bristled, surprised by the action and wanted to start protesting until Misha uttered his name. It was soft and somehow it didn’t feel as coercive as his usual tone. Although his words held a kind of sternness, his features weren’t as hard as they often were. Reed frowned when he talked about immediate killing, which hadn’t even crossed his mind just yet. He was out to assess the situation, but now that he planted it there… In the end he might have gone into a frenzy in the next couple moments if he saw. The Rus wasn’t wrong there. He took a deep breath alongside his partner, who now offered a hit or a scream before they arrived at the Vampire Bridge. Some of the tension left Reed’s shoulders as he put his arms over Misha’s to put his hands on the other’s shoulders. It was his turn to speak now.
“Don’t worry. I am calm,” he spoke after a short while. Short, concise so his partner would understand. Reed did feel the urge to stop dawdling. He felt anxious and he absolutely hated that. He pushed the feeling away as well, trying to wrap his head around the events of the day so far. He gave up pretty quick, letting the feeling of urgency overtake him.
“Come on,” he urged on Misha, trying to get him to follow again. He did not even think of turning backwards, he’d trust his partner to follow him.
Reed willed his legs to keep going. He didn’t mind seeing corpses, but when it was your own blood, it kind of hit different for him. As soon as they came closer to the Vampire Bridge, the amount of people swelled and it got harder to weave through the crowds. It seemed like half of Hillside was on this side of the bridge and Reed’s guess was that the Scabs side was just as bad. After a while he got annoyed and cleared his throat to alert curious bystanders.
“Oi, bunch of twats, coming through,” he shouted at the back of the crowd he was stuck at. He strutted through the first part of the crowd like he owned the place. Some people showed a face of recognition when he walked past, Misha right next to him. Reed did not care about damage control at this point in time. All he wanted was to get closer to the bridge and all the people were hindering from doing so. At some point he got stuck behind some burly dude, who he tapped on the shoulder. He turned around with the dirtiest look ever. The man was at least half a head, if not more, taller than Reed. He wanted to protest, but something stopped him from doing so. His teeth clicked as he closed his jaw and let them through. After that it was smooth sailing to the front of the mob. When they got to the front, he slowed down a bit so he was properly side to side with Misha.
“You can follow, if you want,” he whispered to Misha. It was a short moment until he walked towards one of the hunters standing guard in front of the bridge.
“Reed Holden Ackerman,” he identified himself, loudly, as was known of him. He proceeded: “And Mikhail Sergei Vasilyev, my partner.” Most people were aware of his partner, but this guy seemed relatively new. His glance towards Misha spoke for itself too. He was just assigned guard duty for today, it seemed or it might have been a last minute decision. He most likely did not expect to run into two hunters from different important hunter families, it seems. The mention of their names made him scurry out of the way as fast as he could, resulting in a quick awkward bow. Reed snorted at that.
“At ease,” he said while trudging past the guy, towards a hunter he recognized. His older sister Juniper and one of his cousins were already at the scene, together with their respective partners and some other older hunters. It seemed like they just hauled Raphael’s body up.
He asked his sister for a fast rundown, but there was nothing much they found out so far. Only the place and that he was at least dead for a little while, judging by the postmortem rigidity of the body.
“Let me help,” Reed pleaded to his sister, but she put her foot down.
“Not at all, Reed, you’ll have enough responsibilities soon,” she scolded his brother. “Just make sure you’re back at the Silverhouse tonight, poor aunt Isa needs us right now,” she proceeded, now softer. Juni realized this hurt them all, but she also felt like Reed wasn’t really qualified for this kind of investigation.
Dejected, the younger hunter moved away from the crime scene. There wasn’t anything for him to do.
“давай 1”, he prompted Misha, in Russian this time. He finally found the stability to use some of the basics his friend taught him. At least nobody on the bridge but Misha understood him.
He looked to the other side of the river bank, the crowd seemed mirrored to the one on the Hillside side of things. He clicked his tongue and looked away to the other side, scanning the people on their own side. He suddenly spotted Eliza and Celeste off to the side of the crowd. He nudged Misha in the side to get his attention.
“To our left, a little bit out,” he spoke for his friend only. “I see Eliza and Celeste. They might have questions. You want to go see them?”
He wasn’t gonna pressure his partner into something he didn’t want to. If he wanted to return to the workshop, he totally could. It felt right to just ask him.
1 Let’s go
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Excuse me,
I have to go make a scene.
I should've been born
with a warning sign.
Seasons don't fear the reaper
Nor do the wind,
the sun or the rain
We can be like they are
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