They're grappling now, crashing into expensive furniture that splinters into scraps of wood. A vase shatters against the wall, raining ceramic shards across the marble floor. Geo gets his massive hands around Azarel's throat, slamming him back against an ornate tapestry that depicts some ancient Surhiiran victory.
"You think you can just waltz back in here," Geo snarls, his scarred face twisted with rage, "spouting your poetic bullshit about some noble sacrifice you made like we're supposed to buy it?"
Azarel drives his knee up into Geo's padded gut, breaking the chokehold. "I don't expect you to understand," he chokes as Geo winds up for another punch, wiping blood from his split lip. "The lot of you are nothing more than?—"
Geo's fist cuts him off mid-sentence, and I can't help the bark of laughter that escapes me. I've been on the receiving end of that fist enough to know how much of a bitch it really is.
Knight starts forward, those burning blue eyes locked on the fight with predatory interest. I hold out a hand, stopping him at risk of getting my arm cleaved off by those giant claws.
"Two on one isn't sportsmanlike," I say dryly.
"At least not in a fight," Raven quips, and the innuendo in his voice is thick enough to spread on toast.
"Notthe mental image I want," I grit out.
Geo's got the upper hand now, landing punch after punch while Azarel tries to block. "Enough of your bullshit," Geo snarls between hits, his bulk pinning Azarel to the wall. "Do you have any fucking idea what you put her through? How often she whispers your fucking name in her sleep?"
"You know nothing," Azarel counters, wrapping a hand around Geo's throat in an attempt to push him off, but as huge as Azarel is, Geo's bigger. Might as well try to shove a brick wall. "EverythingI've done, I've done for Cosima."
"Motherfucker, do you sayanythingthat doesn't sound like it came out of a fucking fortune cookie?" Geo snarls, his voice raspy from Azarel's vice grip as he keeps slamming his fists into Azarel's organs.
Blood streams from Azarel's nose, but the fucker's actually smiling. He catches Geo's next punch, twisting his wrist at an angle that makes Geo snarl in pain. "My apologies," Azarel says, his voice dripping with aristocratic condescension. "Would you like me to dumb it down for your gutter rat level of comprehension? Perhaps with pictures?"
Oh yeah. This isdefinitelyPlague's brother.
Geo roars with rage, but Azarel's already moving, using Geo's momentum against him. They spin, and suddenly it's Geo whose back hits the wall, Azarel's forearm pressed hard against his throat.
"Hey!" I bellow, pushing off from my spot against the wall. "Tag me in, old man. I'm tired of watching you beat the shit out of him."
"Fuck off!" Geo snarls. "This is my fight! And I'm notold, you fucking dumbass whelp?—"
"Get him, Daddy!" Raven cheers from his perch on the arm of a couch, bouncing slightly with excitement as he fists the air. "Go for the balls!"
Azarel's grip loosens slightly as he looks between Raven and Geo, confusion clear on his bloodied face. "Daddy?"
"Shut up, kid!" Geo snarls, using the distraction to break free and land an elbow to Azarel's solar plexus. Azarel staggers back, winded.
They're both breathing hard now, circling each other like wounded predators. A grizzly bear and a wolf. Blood drips from various cuts and bruises, staining the pristine marble floor. Part of me wants to let them keep going until one of them drops, but the rational part—the part that knows Cosima will be pissed if we let them kill each other, or worse,upset—is starting to win out.
The last thing I need is to have to compete with the idealized tragic poet version of Azarel that'll be spun if Geo kills him.
Before I can decide whether to intervene, Knight does something that shocks the shit out of all of us.
He steps forward and slams his metal arm down between them.
The clang of metal on crunching marble echoes through the room like a gunshot. Both Geo and Azarel freeze, and even I take an involuntary step back. We all know what Knight's capableof. We've seen him tear through train cars like tissue paper, rip apart raiders with his bare hands.
If he's decided the fight's over, it's fucking over.
"What the fuck?" I mutter, staring at the massive alpha in disbelief.
Raven tilts his head, studying Knight with that calculating look he gets when he's working something out. "I think..." He pauses, tapping his finger against his lips. "I think he's saying he wants them to stop fighting because he wants to know what Azarel meant. About Arthur Maybrecht controlling Cosima."
Knight's head whips around so fast I'm surprised he doesn't give himself whiplash. He stares at Raven like we're all staring at Knight.
Then, slowly, deliberately, he nods.
Holy shit. He really is waking up.
