THE SERPENT PRINCE CURSE

The rain pierced her clothes.Aching,she dragged her right palm along the rough brick and stumbled down the empty street,trying not to sprawl on the wet pavement.Her breath came in short gasps. With every step,pain shot up her legs from her ankles. She was lost.She had no idea where she was It did not matter.She had to get away from the boots she heard pounding on the street behind her "There!"someone shouted. "She went around the corner move!" Their voices echoed strangely in the damp walls.She rounded the corner too quickly and slipped on a patch of slippery cobblestones.She stumbled and crashed her shoulder against a brick wall.The impact stole what little air was in her lungs.She hissed in pain and pushed herself off the wall.There was nothing ahead but a dark alley.She dove into the shadows. She had taken four rapid steps when she realized it was a dead end Three men stood at the far end under the dim,sickly glow of a street lamp.They blocked the mouth of the alley.Her heart beat furiously in her ears.It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the shadows before she could see the first man step forward. Her stomach twisted painfully to see her employer come walking towards her.He was broad shouldered and soft around the middle,wearing a heavy wool coat worth more than a hundred in any shop.The rain had soaked through his jacket but it had not dulled his grin, or so it seemed. "So,"he said, ambling closer."You thought you'd get away, did you?" She staggered back,her heart hammering against the tightness in her chest.Her back pressed against the solid bricks of the alley. "Do you know how long I've had to watch you skulking around my house like a wraith?"He paused a foot in front of her. "Pretending not to know anything?" Her legs gave way and she landed on her knees.A sharp pain lanced up her kneecap as she pushed herself forward on her elbows.She had a clear view of his face now.Her breath came in short and shallow gasps,her throat full of vile,sour liquid.He smelled like cheap gin,and something else.Something cloying and unpleasant,the kind of scent that clung to used hotel sheets and old cigars.Her mouth tasted worse. "Please,"She managed to say,her voice barely more than a whisper."Please don't." The men behind her laughed. "Easy enough for you,boss,"One of them muttered mockingly. Another one gave a loud,lewd laugh.The stench of his unwashed hair made the air around her thick and cloying. Her eyes were locked on her employer's face.He knelt down so he was looking at her in the eyes.She barely registered the distance he was kneeling from,or the thick,unpleasant stink of sweat and cheap liquor that poured from him with every heartbeat. "You should have cooperated a long time ago."He said gently. His thick fingers opened for her face. A hand shot out and clamped over his wrist No one moved for a long moment.Her employer blinked,his thick brow furrowing as he twisted his body with a curse to look up at the newcomer.The words died in his throat as he took a good look at the young man. He had the most ordinary looking clothes she'd ever seen, a dark jacket and dark trousers that barely marked the rain running down his collar.But the way he stood made his presence known.His face was half in shadow but his eyes were not.They were cold and as steady as the rain hitting the street. The young man squeezed his wrist. His employer yelped in surprise and pain and dropped to his knees,clutching at his fractured wrist with his other hand.He ranted incoherently, his words tumbling out in a stream of profanity as the stranger pushed him off to the side.The employer didn't slow his profuse stuttering as he fell, slipping on the wet pavement face down into the filth of the street. The woman stared,her heart hammering wildly in her chest. "Help me,"She said,her voice a hoarse whisper.The stranger gave her a single,lingering glance before nodding.He seemed to consider something before moving.Her employer was still writhing on the ground, his face paler than she'd ever seen it,but the man looked past him to the young stranger standing over him. "You little bastard!"He cried,his voice full of venom despite the pain."Do you have any idea who I am?" The stranger said nothing,giving the employer an equally long and hard look. Whatever he saw in the man's face seemed to unnerve him.If he was annoyed, it didn't show. "You could ruin me!"The employer spat, trying to push himself up on his elbows with his good arm.He managed to get his hands on either side of his face but slipped back down the moment he tried to raise himself."Do you hear me? You could bury me!You should get on your knees and apologize to me right now or I'll have my men cripple you for life!" The stranger's face did not change in the least. “You talk too much,” he said, voice as flat and dull as one of the rain-soaked bricks in the alley walls. It was somehow the most chilling thing he said all night. The employer's face reddened."Break him!" There was a lurch and a sudden burst of motion as five men surged forward at once, swinging broken pipes, blades,and thick chains.The stranger moved, his body fluid,his steps not wasting a single motion. The first attacker swung blindly with a thick length of piping but the stranger slipped inside his guard and drove a short, powerful punch to the man's stomach.The attacker's knees buckled and he gasped, his lungs full of air stolen from him in one sharp motion. Another man came from the left, whirling a thick metal pipe overhead.The stranger caught the man's arm and wrenched his body sideways, slamming the attacker's shoulder into the bricks with enough force to send cracks spiderwebbing out from the wall.The pipe clattered to the wet pavement and rolled away into the dark. A third man came from behind,his chains making a clattering noise as he lunged forward.The stranger did not turn his head as he drove his elbow back and into the man's throat.The attacker choked and fell to his knees,his hands flying to his windpipe. Then the alley erupted into chaos "BACK OFF!"someone shouted but nothing stopped the men from lunging at the stranger.One man slipped and slid on the greasy pavement, knocking into another and sending him sprawling.Someone else's chain whistled over the stranger's shoulder and slammed against the brick,sparking with each ring until it finally clattered to the ground. The stranger stood at the center of it all,untouched and unmoving He drove his knee into the attacker's back,forcing him to his knees before he bent down and snapped the man's wrist.The victim screamed in pain and surprise before dropping to his knees. Another man's knee buckled under a powerful side kick to the joint and a third's ribs cracked under the stranger's powerful grip as he yanked the man back by his collar.He tossed the last man into a stack of trash bins that exploded with a deafening crash,sending their foul contents scattering over the wet pavement and the ground. Ninety long seconds passed before everything finally settled. Rain tapped loudly on the metal roof of the building as the groans of the defeated men filled the air.Some struggled to their feet before crawling towards the mouth of the alley.The place was trashed, the pavement littered with the unconscious bodies of men and their broken weapons.The stranger stood in the center of the c*****e, his breathing slow and even, his muscles coiled like a predator ready to strike again. Her employer pushed himself off the ground, his good arm sliding along the wet pavement.He looked older somehow, smaller, his pride deflated and his arrogance all but vanished."Who... who the hell are you?" He asked, his voice almost devoid of its usual bravado. The stranger took a slow step forward, watching him closely. That seemed to unnerve him more than the broken bones or the thrashing bodies littering the floor. "Wait," the employer said, raising his good hand. "Listen to me.I was angry but that's all it was! I lost control!" He swallowed, visibly shaken. "I have money.I can pay you.Name a price!" He stopped a foot away from her employer and looked down at him. "You already made the mistake," he said softly. He lowered his foot onto the stranger's uninjured thigh.A sharp gasp escaped the employer's lips.The pain seemed to wrack his entire body as he twisted away from the stranger's foot.The high pitched wail that tore from his throat echoed off the brick walls before fading into the night. The stranger straightened."Take him and go." No one questioned his orders.The few men who could still walk climbed to their feet, pulling their boss by the collar.They dragged him out into the street as fast as their bruised bodies could manage. She tried to push herself up but her arms gave out and she landed back on her side,her body writhing in pain.The poison in her veins had turned her head to mush.She gave up trying to move and curled onto her side,her body resting against the damp bricks of the alley. The stranger knelt beside her,his fingers splayed across her neck. "Don't leave me,"she murmured. "I will not." He scooped her up in his arms,one under her back and one under her knees, and carried her out into the rain.Her memories were a jumble of dark doorways and rotting wood as he laid her on his cot in an abandoned house.He wrapped a thick blanket around her before fetching a basin of water to cool her burning skin. She was conscious long enough to see him standing in the shadows,wringing out the cloth before covering her with his heavy coat.Night after night he took care of her. Each morning he woke to find her burning up, he spent the day sitting beside her, waiting for her to wake.By morning she no longer had a fever.Her heart pounded furiously in her chest as she sat up.Her world spun for a moment before settling on the basin on the floor.Her fingers brushed against the worn fabric,her skin still damp from the night before.The stranger's coat was lying on the floor beside the basin. He was gone,and so was the fever. She pulled the blanket around her shoulders,watching the sunlight filtering through the broken window. Who was he?