Dragon Kin

10

Victor

Ocean spent the next two days learning what he could about the police and the law of this city. Between us, we knew next to nothing. This was my third time crossing over, and I never needed to know. Now, I believed I did. I had no idea if the two men would be held in jail or if they could return to the young woman's house soon.

Before I went to sleep the night before, I had the idea that perhaps the attack on my father wasn't 'random' or based on some archaic belief system. Perhaps my father had done business over here, and that business went bad.

This idea didn't bloom from nothing — in the past my father had regular dealings with these people. He also preferred New Orleans. He told me that this city required allowance to be herself. Once you could do that, she would treat you fair, and might even smile.

I was following the young woman, Alicja. Back as I was from the road, I watched as she left her aunt's house and began her trip home. This was the end of their death ritual, from what I could gather. The wake, the burial, the gathering after the burial, and now — home.

She wore silk scarves in her hair. They were colorful, even in the new darkness. Thin silver bracelets chimed softly at her wrists.

The wake was yesterday. She danced with her cousins. Got drunk. She joined in the telling of silly grandmother stories, which I couldn't help but get caught up in. They told of a rich and wonderful life, even though their outward aim was to be a bit of a roast for the old woman. Then Alicja passed out on the couch.

I spent these days watching someone who didn't need me watching.

It was early evening, the sun freshly faded and the stars popping into existence through the city-light haze above. Alicja walked without idleness but not in any hurry. She had a sense of purpose. It was a walk that didn't attract the eye of predators.

Ocean described her as capable. Which didn't sound flattering, but it was fairly high praise coming from him.

I must have been too far into my own thoughts, because I closed the distance between us, and once I was close enough, the electric sensation I felt before in the bar, hummed through my teeth.

I stopped and faded into the shadows just as she turned to look around. She searched in all directions. As I feared she felt it too.

Ocean had pressed me a couple of times as to why I was looking out for her. The men who attacked her remained in jail waiting for their hearing. He explained, twice, that she was only a target because of us, and so it followed that being close would only put her in the same target zone, again. I feigned as best I could.

I didn't want to be marked... and I was. That was the undertone of everything now. The foundation of my thoughts.

She didn't turn on luck or whim. She turned because she felt it as well. The mark hadn't appeared on me, yet. But it had begun. I didn't have answers for anything else. I didn't know what happened if I came closer, or if I abandoned the mark, or if I killed her. I had no answers, only the strong wish for it: to not be happening.

It wasn't the interruption to my personal mission which bothered me about the mark, the bonding. I never liked the idea, since I was a child and first heard of this thing. This curse.

"It's you, isn't it," she said. Her voice was calm, and not really directed at anyone. "You can hear me."

She was near a street corner, in a residential area. No one was out besides myself. Not close anyway. There was a tone in her voice, which tugged at me, and I felt cowardly not answering.