End of Watch

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Judas Carmichael hated rain. He also hated the orc that stood in groups across the street from him. It didn't help that his partner belonged to the same social class as they did. It also didn't help that the orc group hated his partner. 
They were throwing up gang signs behind the other man's back, pretending to shoot at him and it wasn't the first or the last time they would do it. 
"Hey, Ruvik!" He barked, finally tired of standing in one place while the other man decided whether he wanted an orc burger or a bronto thigh. Both smelled like death. "Today, please! Geez, I swear four elves have died in the time it's taking you to decide on that garbage."

That got her. The physical hurt was nothing like the fear that something was happening to the man she loved. She stopped fighting Celia and started trying to get free. She had to get the little elf and get back to Ruvik.

"There is where you are wrong." The woman said simply. "Kandomere doesn't have all the wands. He is missing a third. This one will be created from a child that is not..." The woman would say no more. 
A young elf with a shot gun took aim at the old orc woman and kill her.
Then, rather than risk retaliation from orc clans, he killed himself. All this while Ruvik watched.

Celia saw the realisation in Molly’s eyes and it caused her lips to pull back from her teeth in a wide grin. “You can’t save yourself, how can you hope to save them?” She purred, showing little warning as she lunged forward, thrusting Molly against the bars once more before a small blade sliced neatly along her smooth abdomen through Ruvik’s shirt.

Ruvik was covered with blood and chunks of skin from both corpses now as he stood there in mute shock. There had been no time to retaliate, to save the old woman. All he had were many more questions than he had been given answers to.

"Celia, stop!" Kandomere's voice echoed through the bars. The blue haired elf stepped through the darkness, a thin smile on his lips. "You might harm the thing inside her."

Celia pouted as she whirled round to face the other elf. “I was just playing...” she replied, though there was a wicked smile pulling at the corners of her lips as she bowed to her master.

Kandomere smiled at the dark haired woman and patted her on the shoulder. "I need the last wand, my darling. Be careful until I have it. Do you understand?"

“She was trying to steal from you, my lord.” Celia replied, trying to hide the delicious flutter I’m her stomach when Kandomere both touched her and used such a familiar name for her. “The human was fool enough to think she could steal Viola from you.”

"I heard they sent her since the two of them were stuck in work." Kandomere chuckled. "Think they'll ever figure it out?"

“They are not nearly smart enough for that.” Celia replied, lifting her gaze only slightly to watch Kandomere from beneath dark lashes. “You have all the pieces, they have yet to even know what game it is they are a part of.”

"We need to move them. The orc is awaking up. Now that the old woman is dead something has changed in him. He's coming to find her and he will. I just plan for it to be too late." Kandomere breathed, his fingers, brushing her cheek.

Celia couldn’t help herself as she leaned her cheek into Kandomere’s touch, her eyes fluttering closed for a brief moment. “Viola wasn’t as strong as I hoped, perhaps we should simply take what you need from her now. We would still have time to ,ove thehu,an girl before the dense orc even finds us.”

Judas slipped along the wall outside, hearing the two talking. With the night vision goggles he could see Viola's tiny body lying on the floor of a nearby cage. He made a run for it as soon as he found an opening and was soon scooping the tiny elf in his arms. "We're getting the hell out of here." He breathed. "Screw these guys."

Kandomere knew that the human male had come for Viola and for now he was willing to let him have her. He knew that Ruvik would know he had sacrificed the orcs lover for his own and it would separate the friends in a way he couldn't do on his own. "Bring the girl, we are leaving." He told Celia.

Viola clearly made an effort to keep a whimper of pain inside, but the sound was still heartbreaking all the same. Her mother had taken much 0easureninntryingnto break her sheltered daughter. Throughout it all, Viola had thought of Judas. Of how he had taken something precious from her, then seemingly abandoned her. She didn’t blame him though, she thought the human far too beautiful to want a useless elf like herself. That had been until Celia found the breaking point. Viola had several broken fingers, many cuts that had obviously been made by the slow and deliberate pull of a knife across the young elf’s smooth flesh. She had a blown pupil in her left eye, her lower lip was cut and swollen from the force of a punch, and some of her beautiful hair had been crudely hacked away from the right side of her head. This was all aside from the deep bruising that marred many places on her face and body. Viola wasn’t the same carefree elf she had been when her life first collided with Judas’.

Celia didn’t argue. She didn’t know that Judas was here, but she seemed content to simply let her daughter rot in the cage where she had been left. “Do you need me to leave any parts of her for the orc to find?” She asked with a wicked grin.

Judas didn't know what to make of all this. He laid the broken package in his car, passing Ruvik on his way. The orc looked ready to murder. They would never again be so much as partners. Friends would be a word the two would never know. "I had to." He said softly, more to himself now than the orc. "It was worth it." 

"He is here. He will try and fight us for her." Kandomere mused.

Ruvik was visibly shaking when he saw his ‘partner’ had betrayed him yet further. He slammed a fist into the front of Judas’. At as he passed, though said nothing to the human, or the broken elf in the passenger seat.

“Yes, try.” Celia agreed with a somewhat girlish giggle. “Would you like me to handle it?” She asked, though already knew the answer.

Judas stood watching the orc pass, blood dripping down his bottom lip. "You deserve to be miserable. You deserve to lose her." He hissed. 

"No. I'll handle this." Kandomere purred. "You take her home."

There was raw fury in Ruvik’s usually forgiving eyes as he looked his former partner over, then the broken elf. “You already lost. She won’t come through this intact.” He sneered simply, the continued on his way. Molly was more important than revenge right then.

Celia nodded. “As you wish, my lord.” She breathed. “I will keep her hidden until you return with the orc’s head.”

Judas got in the car and left, knowing the other man was right. With losing her father and being kept like a prisoner here, she was certainly not going to be the sweet creature he'd met. But that didn't mean she wasn't worth fighting for. Right?

Kandomere nodded, heading out to meet the orc he still recognized as being a former friend. 
"You being here could get you fired, Ruvik." He said harshly as he stepped outside. "You're abandoning your post you know."

Viola’s bloodshot eyes watched Judas as he drove, like she wasn’t entirely certain he was even there at all. The young elf was exhausted and in much pain, but she tried to reach out anyway, broken fingers just barely brushing Judas’ arm to test if he was truly real. When they met with the resistance of his warm flesh, a fat tear rolled down Viola’s bruised cheek.

“Fuck my post.” Ruvik spat. “Where is Molly?” He demanded bluntly. “And don’t give me any bullshit, I know Judas brought her here, you bastard.”

"What?" Judas looked at Viola strangely as they drove. "Did you think I wasn't coming? Why did you run from me that night? Was I really that bad?" 

"How many times do I have to tell you, relationships between humans and orcs is forbidden. She will be punished for her part in it." Kandomere said darkly. "It's against the law."

Viola’s body was only held upright by the chair she sat in, her eyes seeming unfocused as they watched Judas. It seemed like she knew he had spoken, but it was taking time for the words to settle in. “Taken.” She told him, her voice a hoarse whisper. “Orcs took me... you never came...” The young woman closed her eyes, wishing she could simply go back to that blissful moment when Judas had claimed her. To the moment when she didn’t know what true pain was. Everyone was so concerned with Ruvik ‘waking up’, that no one stopped to realise that others were opening their eyes for the first time. 

“Can’t be punished if there’s no one to report it.” Ruvik told the elf with a dark smile, rolling his shoulders slightly as he thought about the satisfying crack Kandomere’S face would make when he punched him.

"why would they do that?" Judas asked. "Normal orcs steer clear of elves." He was frowning, trying to wrap his head around what he had learned...

Kandomere smiled. "Are you threatening me, beast?" He chuckled. "I hardly think you'll get near enlough to try."

Viola turned her face away to simply stare at the rain that had started to stream down the window beside her. “Doesn’t matter. You don’t care.” She told him bluntly, the once irrepressibly cheerful tone to her voice seemingly stripped away. 

“Looks pretty damn close from where I’m standing, knife ear.” Ruvik sneered. “I would love nothing more than to curb stomp your arrogant face, and right now... who is here to stop me?” He added, gesturing to the empty space around them.

"you were the one who had no problem kissing that elf guy." Judas said darkly. "Oh yeah. I saw the whole thing." 

"You think I need help? Compared to me you are weak. You always were and always will be." Kandomere purred. "I'm not afraid of you, farm boy. I'm going to make a wand from your unborn child and wake up the magick in your lover's blood."

“Not that I have to explain myself, but he kissed me.” Viola replied without looking away from the rain. “That’s why you let her torture me? Because you thought I was willingly sticking my tongue into the dark lord’s mouth?” She asked after a moment, finally returning her haunted gaze to Judas’ face. “My mother punished me quite well for that, thank you.” The young elf added with a bitter snort.

Ruvik shook his head, certain he had just misheard Kandomere. “My what?” He found himself asking before he could bite his tongue. It made him sound weak, and stupid.

"you didn't seem like you were fighting it that hard." Judas said bitterly. " I saw the way you were holding him." 

"Your senses really have dulled." Kandomere chuckled. "Were you really unable to sense the prescene of the new life? I get how the human would not know but you...it's as bad as the last time." He said, shaking his head.

“You saw what you wanted to see, and what you wanted was a reason to leave once you had what you wanted from me.” Viola snapped, knowing she could have phrased that much more eloquently, but her pain adddled brain was preventing clear thought. The car had halted at a red light and Viola threw open the door, unwilling to sit there and beg forgiveness for something she hadn’t even done wrong. Unfortunately, her legs were rather uncooperative, and she simply fell to her knees on the road as the rain beat down.

Ruvik was doing his best not to let Kandomere gain too much of a reaction from him. “Or you’re lying, simply to try and gain control of a situation that is spiralling out of your grasp.” He replied coolly. “The trouble only began when I had to work with that traitor Judas.” He added. “Seems to me like you’re grasping at anything you can curl your slimy fingers around.”

The car behind him stopped but Judas did not. He was not the man that would save her from darkness. He couldn't even save himself. 
A dark haired young man got out of his car, kneeling beside Viola. "Are you okay?" He asked her. 

"Use your head, Jervik. Remember the last time you tried to play house with a human. It didn't end well then and it won't now." Kandomere purred.

Viola saw judas’ car drive on and felt herself break just that little bit more. She was a broken mess, and apparently he had never cared, no matter how precious a gift she had given him. Angrily she attempted to push away whoever it was asking if she was okay. The young elf was sobbing, beyond the point of exhaustion now. “Stay away from me!” She practically howled from where she was now slumped in the road.

“And you think I don’t smell the scent on you? Hogging all the brights to yourself...” he remarked with an over exaggerated tut. “I smell the elf blood too. Let’s not make a big deal out of it. Just hand over the human, and I won’t break your precious face.”

"Hey...is there someone I can call?" The young man did his best to try and calm the young woman down. But the rain and the fact that they were in the street was helping nothing. "Can I go punch the asshole for you?" He asked gently.

Kandomere shook his head. "You can't have her. Threaten all you want. As I said before, she has the last piece for my return to power. I am so close, boy. I refuse to let anyone screw it up now!"

Viola didn’t have the energy left to fight this man off any further. The only thing that had allowed her to endure was clinging to the tiny hope that Judas was still out there, that he would be there to make all the pain go away. Her hopes were dashed when he scooped her up, simply to stomp on the only intact thing she had had; her heart. “There’s no one... no one at all...” she whispered, unable to fight any longer so simply lay in the road, her bruised cheek pressed to the asphalt. 

Ruvik didn’t say anything this time, he slammed a heavy fist into Kandomere’s beautiful face, smiling at the sickening crack he was met with.