Dragon’s Love

 

Prologue

 

“Any idea where this woman comes from?”

Wufei didn’t really pay attention to the question, but he knew what was asked.  He had a suspicion he knew who she was, after receiving a description of the attack.  The skill, the technique, it belonged to an ancient style of martial arts used for assassination.  Not many used it anymore.

“Captain Chang?” asked the woman.

He turned his head to the side slightly, just to glance at Une out of the corner of his eye.

“Did you hear me?”

He turned his attention back to the hallway after nodding.

“Well?”

He nodded again.  “Possibly,” he replied as they stopped in front of the cell door.

Une tilted her head to the side a moment, watching him, before nodding to the two guards.  “Open the door.”

The door was open long enough for Wufei to step inside.  He stared at the young Chinese woman sitting on the bed in the corner.  She was wearing a white straight jacket.  Wufei had been told that she had tried several times to kill herself after her capture.

It was only natural, he thought.  She is a professional assassin.  She had been trained to do anything necessary to keep her employer secret, especially if she failed to take her prey.

The woman looked up to him as he entered.  Her eyes immediately shot wide open.  “Wufei!” she stated.  She slid to the edge of the bed and dangled her short legs off the side of it.

“You know what I’m going to ask, Jade.  And I know that you’ll answer truthfully.”  He pulled up a chair facing her and sat down.

“You know my oath, Wufei,” she said, in their native language.  “I cannot break it.”

“Don’t you remember the oath you made to me?  The one that said you’d never betray me?  I seem to remember you not even hesitating to break that one,” he said, angrily, in return.  “Did you even mean those words you told me?  Or were they just said as a part of your job?”

The woman called Jade sighed, a look of shock and hurt on her face.  “My job, as you call it, is my life.  It is all I am.  I meant every word I said to you, however.  But I did not know that you would stand between me and my target.”

Wufei stood up and shoved the chair against the wall so hard that one or two of the legs came loose.  He shook his head before looking back down to the girl.  “That isn’t the point of this conversation, Jade!  You know the questions, answer them!  And I know you speak damned good English, now do so!”

“I cannot break my oath to my employer.  It is not in my contract, nor my honor.”  She eyed him. 

“Oh, I know all about your honor.  How much was your employer paying you to kill Zechs Merquise?”

She shot a glare towards Wufei.  “Zechs Merquise wasn’t the target of my employer.  He was my own.  OZ destroyed my home and Zechs Merquise led the attack.  The souls of my clansmen will not rest until he has been brought to justice.”

 

Wufei sat quietly in Une’s office, waiting for her to return from a meeting, his arms folded across his chest.  He stared out the window behind her desk, lost in thought.  He didn’t even hear the door open and close behind him.  It wasn’t until Une sat behind her desk that he came out of his trance.

He glanced to the side as Zechs took a seat next to him before turning his attention back to Une.

“So?” she asked.  “Who is she?”

He unfolded his arms and stood up, walking around her desk and stared out the window again.

“Her name is Jade,” was all he said for a moment.  “She’s my wife,” he added, “or was once.”