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[/html]She had so much anger. It delighted Hybrid to see her be the one to get riled up and not him. It was always he who was prey to the insults and malice of others, but how often did he get to have a real conversation where he wasn’t the only one feeling things? Everyone in Inferni grinned at him with their mocking smiles or stared at him with their blank expressions. He knew what kind of beast Ezekiel was and still is: a madman with slick words and a good smile. Nothing more. He was a fake warrior who pretended he knew of battles, war, fire, and wounds when he had neither seen nor experienced any of them. It drove Hybrid mad knowing that he could not find the silence he wanted and that every low scion of the clan didn’t give a fuck about what he did for them. They were useless. And that was why he served Gabriel, not Inferni: because Gabriel understood.
And again, when Talitha spoke, he had to chuckle. “You still think you’re so important. There are many monsters worse than you, little girl.” If she thought he hated her, she was sadly mistaken. He didn’t know what she thought he thought about her. “You piss me off and you’re annoying as fuck, but I’ve faced worse. There are worse little shits that I’d very much like to kill.” He wasn’t sure if it was implied well enough that while he disliked her, he did not hate her and did not wish to murder her. There was something to be said about that. If anything, he disliked Ezekiel a great deal more than her. Hybrid didn’t know what to make of the rest of her comments. Scintilla? He’d heard of that word, but it must have been where Gabriel went when Hybrid was away. Hybrid had returned to Inferni during Gabriel’s absence, seen the procession of leaders until Gabriel returned. He supposed Gabriel had indeed left, but so had Hybrid. Of course, he’d been a pup at the time and hadn’t known Inferni was his home. No one had told him. His mother had left him with Segodi and disappeared for two years before coming back with her former lover’s brother’s children. What a fucked-up family that was. Of course, thinking all this led him in a merry little circle and distracted him from the conversation at hand. When Talitha spoke again, he felt himself jolted out of his little reverie. He realized he had fallen behind as she had picked up the pace, perhaps to outdo him and leave him behind. He wasn’t sure.
Again, there were more questions and more emotions he didn’t want to feel. Rank had no meaning. He knew his place and as long as everyone else in Inferni recognized that, he would be fine. He supposed he had always believed himself to exist outside of the ranking structure within the clan. He had always been Gabriel’s right-hand man, no matter what Talitha said. He didn’t need some leader position to know who he was. He didn’t need petty prizes and trophies to inform the world. He was content knowing he was right and just and honourable. He didn’t like what she said later, either, but knew she believed many things he did not. Of course, Hybrid did not intend to live in an Inferni without Gabriel. He had never thought about it and had assumed Gabriel would last forever, or at least, longer than Hybrid would. It wasn’t too much to ask to die in a blaze of glory in battle, was it? Not for Hybrid and not after all he had done for the clan.
“When Gabriel dies, I will die,” he said at last. “I am not a member of Inferni like you are. I serve Gabriel, not this foolish clan.” He didn’t know what that meant exactly, but he knew that without Gabriel, Inferni would no longer be home.