The Submissive Assassin (BxB)

Chapter 123 - Lucius & Nate IV

Nate had closed his eyes, flinching as he heard another crunch, Lucius knees bouncing across Blue's jaw.

As he peeked for a second, he noticed Blue's face was growing swollen and puffy, his ragged heavy breathing attempting to exhale pleadings for Lucius to stop his attacks. He hadn't even explained anything and Lucius randomly began beating him, slamming his knuckles across his cheekbones or the bottom of his shoe flat against Blue's face.

However, they needed answers, and as much as Nate's breath left him, his fingers quivering at his sides, he leaped in front of Lucius when he was distanced enough. Lucius had still been preparing an attack, and suddenly meeting the blue iris of Nate made him halt his motion. "Lucius," he breathed, "we have to let him speak."

"I'm over the questions." Lucius reached for Nate's collar and shoved him aside, his eyes darkening as he gritted his teeth. He  pulled back his knuckles as he hissed, "He thinks he knows Raphael more than I do—"

"It's not a contest, Lucius." Nate had again tried, wrapping his arm around Lucius' shoulder from the back before he could land his punch on Blue. He pulled him backwards, feeling Lucius resist but his stiffened muscles were beginning to loosen as Nate ascertained, "We're trying to figure out why he died; let's do that."

Although there was reluctance in Lucius eyes, he eventually scoffed and lowered his fists. Being here was getting harder and harder by every second, and all he wanted to do was to strangle Blue already and have him dead, to finally be able to move forward from this entire ordeal. But Nate was right—if there were questions unresolved then it would be best to get answers for them.

"Nate..." They heard a cracking wheeze as a voice, both turning to Blue who had his head down, blood leaking across his face that he was unrecognizable. He tilted his head to the side and spat out blood again, his face in unbearable pain and it wasn't helping that the blood was dripping across his eye. Nonetheless, he had to hold onto hope, hence he struggled to utter, "You promised...y-you'd...let me go if I told you everything. That's still the deal, right?"

Lucius was moments from answering, but Nate stopped him since he knew Lucius would say the wrong thing. Instead, Nate rapidly nodded his head, a forced grin pulling his lips as he approached Blue. "Of course and the Hercules aren't ones to take their promises lightly." They saw the ease spread across his face, as if the only thing crossing his mind was to withstand it a little longer since it was the only thing closer to freedom.

When Nate ensured that Lucius had cooled, he returned his focus on Blue. "What's the importance of Raphael?"

Blue's voice was barely reaching above a whisper; it was raspy and shaky, coughing every few words. However, once they both leaned forward, they could hear everything, and the shock that followed were brandished on their faces. "Lori was too young to know, but he was sold by his family to the Marias." He gulped on his own blood before tilting his head to the side, spitting out as much as he could. Within the silence, it felt as if the globs of blood that hit the floor were as loud as an army marching in unison—the tension was intense.

"At the time, Wolf was still trying to establish his dominance amongst the three troops so he wanted to find Maria's hideout and destroy it. But instead of having hidden bases similar to Draco and Wolf, the Marias instead hid her people amongst normal civilians." He paused for a second to cough. "They found normal families that would work under them, paid those families a tremendous amount of money to host the children and foster them until they became grown enough to work for Maria."

Nate hadn't heard much of the Marias, and this news was a shock to him. He leaned forward, his ears perked as he carefully listened to every single syllable that escaped Blue's lips. And from the way Lucius leaned over him, he was certain he was listening very well too.

Blue continued, "Lori was sold to one of her hideouts but he must've been too young to realize. The children were allowed to attend school, and Lori became really close with another kid. Turned out, the other kid was apart of Wolf's younger members and told Wolf. Wolf's team decided to attack that hideout and killed everyone but Lori."

"Why did they let Lori survive?" Lucius asked.

"Wolf's member had begged mercy for Lori," Blue explained, clearing his throat as he stated, "that's why they let only him live and no other."

Then, Blue fell quiet. His eyes continued to repeatedly glance between Lucius and Nate who seemed to wait for him to continue. However, he didn't know what else he was supposed to add onto it—he felt all had been explained. After a few seconds of this silence, Nate frowned and said, "That's it? That only explains Lori's background but what does that have to do with Raphael?"

Blue nodded his head, biting his bottom lip hesitantly. This wasn't supposed to be admitted, and it was a secret that had been recently discovered from all of them. However, he wanted to survive, and from the rigid grip of Lucius around his knife, he knew he needed to say it.

"Like I said, the Marias used regular civilians to foster young children that were to grow up to become her troop members. They would ask families to host in return for a lot of money. Lori was sold to one of them and..." He cautiously glanced towards Lucius who raised his eyebrows even more.

"And what?!" Lucius growled, leaning even closer to him. "Just fucking say it!"

"The family they asked to become a host family was Raphael's biological family."