Death and the Lady

Lily was angry. More correctly, she was furious and frustrated. It’s been a week and she was stuck in this house with no way out. She hadn’t seen Haji since he’d brought her clothes for her, and heaven knows how he got hold of them.

She didn’t have a cell phone, her Master Key or Inoue and she could not, in any way, leave the house. Nate’s been gone for few days and Haji was avoiding her.

Lily stood in front of the open front door and glowered at the sunny day outside. She lifted her hands and pressed them flat against the open doorway, as though there was a sheet of glass between her and the outside world. She pushed against it with all her might, trying to force the invisible force field to move.

“When I get my hands on you,” she growled as she pushed against the thing that kept her inside the house.

It was in front of every window and doorway, keeping her from leaving. In her frustration she grabbed a cup from the table beside the door and flung it at the barrier. She watched in dismay as it flew out of the doorway and smashed on the stepping stones that led to the door. Lily gave a frustrated growl and pulled at her hair.

“Whoa,” a voice from the doorway said and Lily looked around. “Lucky I was running late or that would have hit me,” Nate said as he walked through the doorway. He gave Lily a confused frown. “Why are you still here?”

“I can’t leave,” Lily snapped and Nate frowned at the door.

“Why?”

Lily hesitated. Nate didn’t know anything about the Reapers or Clerics, nor could he possibly know about the barrier blocking her escape. She couldn’t tell him about the barrier without causing a lot more trouble for herself. For some reason she wanted to protect that ignorance.

“I’m in a bit of trouble,” she said and Nate sighed as he walked past her.

“Haji and his hero-complex. Why does he always go for the hopeless-cases?” he asked and Lily gave him a furious glare.

“Are you insinuating that I’m a hopeless case?”

He grinned. “Well, I’m open to the suggestion that you’re not. You know, Haji had this girlfriend in high school. A completely useless girl. Couldn’t take two steps without falling over her own feet.”

“You know, telling the girl your brother is crushing on about his exes is not the smartest move.”

Nate grinned. “He’s not here to stop me.”

“But I am.”

“I like you,” he admitted shyly, “you make Haji better.”

“Better? All he’s done is yell at you.”

“Yeah, it’s nice, isn’t it?”

Lily gave Nate a sceptical look. “Well, I’m not one to question a person’s preferences, but isn’t it a bit strange to be masochistic when it comes to your brother?”

Nate threw his head back and laughed. “I can see why he likes you so much!” he managed through his tears of laughter. “That’s not what I meant.”

“It sounded like it.”

Nate shook his head and rubbed the back of his hand over his eyes. “No, I meant that before you came along Haji was just... I don’t know, there. He didn’t seem to have any fire, any fight. Nothing. Then up you pop and it’s like I have my big brother back.”

Lily followed him into the living room and sat down opposite him. She clasped her hands together and watched him warily.

“Tell me more about him. Every time we’re together we either end up fighting or...”

“Or kissing?” Nate nodded. “I see the way he looks at you,” he added in response to her bright blush. “Haji used to be fun, you know. We used to joke and to the most horrible things together. Until dad died. Then Haji changed. He became colder, harder to talk to, more distant. It couldn’t have been easy raising me when he was sixteen and go to school and work.”

Nate sat back and stared up at the ceiling to the room. Lily waited for him to continue in silence.

“I heard him talking over the phone a few months after I turned twelve. Screaming, actually. I’ve never seen him that angry. I don’t know who he was talking to, but he was talking about me. ‘I won’t let Nate join!’ he’d said. ‘Over my dead body. Nate’s gonna be a kid, you don’t get a say.’ You see, Haji had just turned eighteen then and my full guardian. I’m not too sure what it was about, but I know that he was really angry.”

A frown covered the young man’s face for a moment and he stared into the distance for a while.

“A little while after that he told me that he was going to become a paramedic.”

“You must have been so proud of him,” Lily said and Nate shook his head.

“We were still living in Germany then. It was weird. All Haji ever wanted to become was an engineer, worked and studied day and night to get his grades high enough for a full scholarship to university. Then he turned around and became a paramedic. It was just so strange.”

Lily felt her hands clench. It was strange. Why would Haji work so hard to become one thing, and then turn and to something else. It wasn’t like him.

“It was a few weeks after he’d gotten so angry over the phone. I don’t like to think about it, but I think he became a paramedic to protect me.”

Lily lowered her head. It made sense. The best and quickest way to root out Reapers was to have Clerics in the first response units. That way they could identify potential Reapers right from the get-go.

“Did Haji ever talk about becoming a paramedic before that phone call?” she asked, but she already knew the answer.

“Not a word.”

Lily felt her heart break. He’d become a paramedic to keep Nate out of the Clerics. That was an ultimatum for Nate’s freedom and ignorance.

“Then, when I turned eighteen, Haji gave me this,” Nate said as he pulled something from under his shirt.

He got up and dropped the thing into the palm of Lily’s hand. It was still warm from his body-heat and she turned it over and over in her hands.

“It’s the old Teutonic cross,” she said, looking closely at the black and silver cross.

“How did you know? Most people just think it’s a Nazi-cross.”

“I read,” Lily said and pointed to the centre, “it’s not from the Third Reich; the Nazi-symbol isn’t here. And the south branch is a little longer than the rest. It’s the symbol of the Teutonic knights.”

“Smart and beautiful. Leave my stick in the mud brother and marry me.”

Lily gave Nate a sharp glare, saw his grin and smiled as she held the cross out to him. “It must mean a lot to you.”

“I’ve never taken it off. A symbol for courage and strength, Haji said when he gave it to me. He’s also got one that he’s never taken off, as far as I know.” Nate looked down at the black and silver cross in his hand with a strange expression on his face. “Whenever I look at it, it feels as though my big brother is always looking out for me.”

“You’re right,” Lily said and Nate raised his eyebrows at her. “He does have a hero-complex.”

Nate burst out laughing and shook his head. Lily chuckled and sat back, looking thoughtfully at the young man.

“That girl you mentioned the other day, why don’t you invite her over to study. You’ll get more done if you work with her, rather than competing with her.”

Nate groaned and ran his hands through his hair, just like Haji usually did. Lily smiled and shook her head.

“I don’t even know when she gets time to study. She’s got this really demanding job that has her running out of class to make phone calls all the time.”

“Then invite her over and learn her secret,” Lily said and winked, making Nate blush brightly. “Know thy enemy, know thyself,” she added.

Just then they heard the front door slam. Lily and Nate both looked around at the tread of heavy footsteps.

“Nate, you here, buddy?” they heard Haji call just as he stepped in front of the doorway that led to the living room.

Lily felt her face set into a look of fury when she saw him and saw his expression change into a ‘oh crap’ look when he saw her. She got to her feet and glared at him.

“Upstairs, right now,” she said sharply and heard Nate whistle.

“Ooh, you’ve got a fiery one here, bro,” he laughed and Haji shot him a glare.

“Not helping, Nate,” he growled as Lily grabbed his arm and started dragging him towards the stairs.

“Wear protection!” Nate called after them and Lily stuck her head around the door.

“Don’t make me come over there and hurt you.”

Once upstairs Lily closed the door carefully. Haji was surprised; he’d expected her to slam it. She seemed really angry, and he didn’t blame her. He’d been avoiding her for close to a week, left her alone with his obnoxious younger brother without so much as a phone call.

“By rights I should be smacking your stupid, blond head right now,” Lily growled as she marched towards him.

She glared up at him, her face set into an expression of fury. Haji blinked at her. This was real anger, not the act she usually put up whenever she felt the situation called for it.

“Why aren’t you?” he asked and she threw up her arms in frustration.

“I don’t know. Stockholm syndrome, probably.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because I know why you kept me here, even if it wasn’t really your intended plan to kidnap me in the first place.”

“This isn’t going to be one of your conspiracy theories, is it?” he asked warily and Lily glared at him.

“I don’t think so,” she admitted, although she didn’t sound too sure herself.

“Tell me why, then. Because I have no idea why I took you, and kept you here.”

“To protect Nate, although I could have done a better job overall if you’d let me have Inoue.”

“Inoue?”

“My sword.”

Lily fell down heavily on the bed and patted the seat next to her. Cautiously Haji sat down and looked at her.

“Why do you think I kept you here to protect Nate?”

“Because you’ve been trying to keep him out of the Clerics since the beginning. I know you’ve done everything to keep him safe. You blindly followed orders because they used Nate as leverage. That’s why you let my father torture me, you couldn’t do anything because then they’d use Nate against you.”

Haji lowered his face into his hands. “How could you figure it out so quickly?” he asked and Lily leaned back on her arms.

“You left me alone with your kid brother for a week. He’s really chatty, you know.”

Haji looked down at her and she winked at him, making a pale blush colour his face. She looked up at the ceiling in thought.

“He told me everything, you know. About how you gave up becoming an engineer and how you fought over the phone. He doesn’t know why, but it’s not hard to connect the dots, you know.”

“I didn’t know you could speak German, by the way,” Haji said and Lily frowned.

“I can’t.”

“What do you think you’re speaking now?”

“Plain English.”

“You’ve been speaking German since I came into the house.”

Lily put a hand over her eyes. “Crap.”

“What?”

“It’s a Reaper thing. All Reapers can speak any language. I don’t really get it but it works for us.”

“How?”

Lily gave him a sharp look. “Didn’t I just say that I didn’t know how it works?”

Haji got heavily to his feet and pulled off his shirt. Lily made a strangled noise and skittered sideways on the bed.

“What the hell are you doing?” she exclaimed and Haji looked at her over his shoulder with his eyebrows raised.

“I’m going to take a shower, that’s what.”

“Then undress in the bathroom!”

He smiled at her. Lily stared at his back. Without his shirt on she could see just how broad and muscular his back was. Splashed across his skin was a black tattoo of a crowned eagle. She frowned at it and got to her feet. Haji stiffened when she put her hand over the massive eagle. Her hands were surprisingly cold. She traced the word that was written underneath the eagle.

“What are you doing?” he snapped and Lily looked up at him.

“Freiheit,” she said softly, “what does it mean?”

“Freedom.”

“Why freedom?”

The wings of the eagle spread across his shoulder blades and stood starkly against his skin. Haji turned suddenly and grabbed her wrist. His breathing was ragged and his eyes dark and smouldering when he looked down at her.

“Because I want to be free,” he growled.

“What’s wrong?”

“You’re driving me crazy,” he said roughly and kissed her.

“Jeez, close the door at least!” Nate said loudly and Haji broke away from Lily to slam his fist into the doorjamb, making Nate jump.

“Could you choose better timing?” Haji growled and Lily burst out laughing.

She stepped around Haji and took his fist in her hand. “Sorry, Nate. This one is my fault.”

“Yeah, when I said you make Haji better? I take it back. You turn him homicidal.”

With that he loped towards his bedroom at the other end of the hallway. Lily looked down at Haji’s fist and shook her head at the welling blood.

“Seriously?” she asked him and he ran his other hand through his hair.

“Sorry about that,” he muttered and she steered him down the hallway towards the bathroom.

“Sit down and let’s take a look at that hand.”

He sat down on the edge of the bath and Lily got the disinfectant out of the cabinet. As she turned to look at him she noticed his iron cross around his neck and reached out to lift it.

“Nate showed me his,” she said and tugged lightly at the chain.

Haji put his hand over hers, covering the cross and looked up into her eyes. “It was my dad’s,” he said and Lily sat down next to him. “We are knights in the Order. Every man in my family has received a cross from his father; I gave Nate my dad’s when he was old enough.”

“And yours?”

“My grandfather’s.”

“It’s really a Teutonic cross then?”

“A real one, yes. These have been passed down in my family for many, many generations.”

“And still you want freedom from the Clerics?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“I don’t like the administration these days.”

Lily chuckled. “Well,” she said as she dabbed at his hand with a cotton ball. “I can’t say that I blame you.”

“What was that quote you said to me last time?” he asked and Lily blinked.

“What quote?”

“Something about faces?”

“God has given you one face, yet you make yourself another?”

“That one, yeah.”

“It’s from Hamlet. It means, basically, that you tell one truth and act another.”

“Yeah, I see how you mean.”

“How did you know that I always put on an act?” she asked and he sucked in air when the disinfectant stung his knuckles. “Sorry.”

“I talked to your mom a lot while you were in a coma.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, back then all I wanted to know was whether or not you were going to come back as a Reaper, but your mom is really chatty.”

“She is, yeah.”

“She told me that you used to be kind and sweet and very loving, but since you started high school it was like a stranger was in your place. You became harder, harsher and unwilling to accept help. She said that sometimes she’d see your true self peek through, and that everything else was just an act.”

Lily smiled. “What made you realise?”

“That day on the rubble, you were open to the world to see. I saw your kindness then, your sweetness in your pain. I think that was when I fell for you.”

He kissed her softly, then, tenderly and warmly, his lips barely touching hers. Lily looked up at him when he pulled back and then lowered her eyes to look back at his hand.

“I’ll stay to help protect Nate, but you have to give me back my phone, my Master Key and Inoue.”

“Alright.”

“I won’t let anyone know where I am yet, not until we’ve figured out a way to keep him safe.”

“There is one way to make sure he stays safe.”

Lily looked up at Haji. “How?”

“I have to die.”

Lily stared blankly at Haji for a long time before she found her voice again. “What?” she asked and he smiled.

“He’s too old to be of any use to the Order, but they can still use him as leverage with me. If I’m gone, he’ll be left alone.”

“Hold on. What do you mean; too old?”

“Boys are taken in by the order at sixteen. Nate’s twenty-one. There’s no way he’ll join now, even if they bothered to ask him.”

“Then how can he be used as leverage against you?”

“You don’t know your father very well, do you?”

This got him a sharp look from Lily. “No, I don’t.”

“Sorry.”

“What will he do to Nate?”

“Your father will do everything and anything in his power to get what he wants. That’s why I never dared leave before. Nate would be the first thing he’d target.”

“Why did you leave now?”

“Stephen is completely set on finding you. It’ll take him a while to get around to dealing with me.”

“Gee, thanks for that.”

Haji smiled. “You are my freedom, Lily. Deal with it.”

“But isn’t me staying here putting Nate at more risk?”

“Stephen won’t think of looking for you here, and he can’t come in here, just like you can’t leave.”

“Yeah, about that. What the hell is with the barrier?”

Haji gave a self-conscious smile. “I’ll take it down tonight.”

“Yeah,” Lily said coldly, “do that.”

The next day Lily and Haji were standing in the kitchen when Nate breezed in. As usual he had a broad grin on his face and he plucked a kiss on Lily’s cheek, ducked out of the way of Haji’s swipe and laughed loudly.

“You’re a genius, Lily,” he laughed and Lily rubbed at her cheek.

“Tell me something I don’t know,” she said.

“I asked that girl to come over to study and guess what? She came!”

“She’s here?”

“Yup,” Nate laughed and stuck his head out of the door. “Come over here and meet my big brother and his girlfriend,” he called and Lily heard Haji groan.

“What’s wrong?”

“He’s speaking French.”

“And the problem is?”

“I don’t understand too much French.”

“Ah.”

Lily looked around when the newcomer stepped into the kitchen and her heart sank. She saw the girl’s eyes widen and they stared at each other in mute shock.

“Bells?” Lily asked and Claire shook her head slowly.

“Valley?”

Lily put her hand over her eyes. “You’re the girl Nate likes?”

“You’re his big brother’s hot new girlfriend?”

“Wow, Lily, you can speak French too?” Nate asked.

“This just got infinitely more complicated,” Lily groaned.