Adeline really did care about her boys and girls. Mikki had barely gotten the story out before she shoved her shotgun into his hands and told Casimir to pick a room.
It was safer to take a little from several people instead of a lot from a few, and Adeline impatiently obliged him. Opal, Citrine, Jade, Onyx, Lapis... The gemstones started to blur together, but in the end, he was full, and while his throat and shoulder still ached, he felt as though he could function.
As he walked outside, he saw Mikki walking up, expression grim, with a backpack on one shoulder. "Are you ready?" Casimir asked.
"Yeah," Mikki said, fingers tightening around the barrel. He immediately began walking but looked back to make sure that Casimir was still coming.
He was, and caught up in a few steps. "I'll do my best to save your brother, I promise you," he said, looking at Mikki. Bright pink neon flashed across his face.
"Yeah, I know." It didn't seem like Mikki felt much like talking; he raised his shoulders high and adjusted his pack. Casimir could hear glass quietly clanking together.
When they drew near the lake, Casimir saw Inaho's glowing eyes before he saw the rest of her. "Is Garnet still alive?" he whispered in a voice too soft for a human to hear, but he assumed her ears would pick up the words.
I think so, but they're eating him. Drinking him? They're drinking his blood out of glasses. She yawned, and her pink tongue lolled out. I'll go in first. Let me have a knife.
Casimir took his Bowie knife from his bag and placed the hilt gently between her teeth. "What are you going to do?"
Oh, you'll see. Don't worry. Just make sure you go and greet the yuki-onna, all right? Before Casimir could respond, she darted away, through the long grass, until she neared the house and jumped into an open window.
"All right," Casimir said, more to himself than to Mikki. "I don't know what she's doing in there—" he paused then, hearing yells of surprise, "—but let's try to take advantage of whatever chaos she's making. Stay outside."
"Are you out of your fucking—?!"
"Listen," Casimir interrupted. "I need you to watch my back. I'm going to send your brother out as soon as I can. If any of the vampires get out, I need you to take care of them with that gun."
"What the hell am I supposed to do if they kill you?" was Mikki's tense response.
"... If your brother's dead, then burn the whole thing down. If he's alive, get him out, then burn it down. They'll come after you and the Jewel Box. Take care of yourself, and of Garnet." Casimir turned away but stopped when Mikki touched his shoulder.
"Hey," he said, hesitating before continuing with, "be careful, okay? I'm gonna want to see you again."
Casimir smiled. "I'll try," he said and moved slowly towards the house. The screams had stopped, and at the nearest window, he could see one of the men that had dragged him was dead on the floor. Jared was looking around frantically, the chain keeping Garnet attached to the table wrapped around his fist. He was still alive.
When Jared looked away, Casimir climbed into the window, landing as quietly as he could on the floor. He could see his knife under the snow maiden's cage, and he crawled for it, trying to keep low to the floor so Jared wouldn't see him.
He had forgotten about Lilin—up until the instant she stomped on his injured shoulder. He cried out and tried to roll away, but a foot to the side stopped him. Casimir let her drag him to his feet, then he drove a fist into her throat with enough force to collapse a human windpipe.
Gasping, Lilin staggered back. Casimir dropped to the floor, fumbling with the gun in his pocket. This time, he was able to get four shots off before she fell on him, dripping blood. She slammed his head against the glass prison, cracks spidering out from around his head before she pounced on him, pouring blood. She had her hands around his throat and squeezed, pulling up as if she could pull his skull from his neck.
Groping blindly, Casimir felt the knife cut into him when he closed his hand around it. He threw up an arm to block the next punch, despite it shattering bone and making him drop his gun, and brought the other up to slash Lilin's face.
She was panting now, entire body streaked in red. Lilin was weakening with loss of blood, but she would still be able to overpower him easily. He only had one chance; when she dropped on him again, knees landing on his chest, Casimir brought the knife up. It cracked through her ribs and buried into her heart.
Lilin cried out and fell back, pawing at the knife. Her hand fell limp, and her body followed, eyes rolling back in her head.
Wheezing, Casimir used his uninjured arm to pull himself up. He heard a cracking sounds seconds before pain ripped through his chest, making him fall back against the cage. He coughed, tasting copper, and saw movement; Jared was walking towards him with a gun in his hand.
"I know that's not enough to kill you, but you're not going to enjoy this." He let go of the chain and walked forward. "You killed my mate. You killed my pet. Anyone else you want to take from me?"
Casimir spit blood on the floor. "I never wanted this."
"Neither did I, but you just had to start this, didn't you?"
He was beginning to slump, broken and bleeding torso too painful to support his rigid posture. Casimir felt something pressing against his back, and he let his head loll back to see the snow maiden with her hands against the glass. It was fragmented, but not broken yet. The snow maiden. Inaho had told him to greet her.
"I'm going to kill this whore and your little bitch outside," Jared said, yanking Garnet's head back; he hissed in pain. "Then you'll know how I felt. After that, I'll kill you."
While Jared talked, Casimir's mind worked frantically. If he could get the snow maiden free…. He slammed his elbow into the glass once, twice, and then it broke, shards driving into his back.
Pushing him aside, the snow maiden stepped out of the cage, icy fog billowing around her feet. Jared fired at her, panicked, but the bullets passed through her as though she was made of air. He quickly brought the barrel of the gun to Garnet's head, but she had reached him then.
She took Jared's face in her hands, and he yelped, gun dropping from his fingers. Casimir could see his skin frosting over, and as he struggled in the snow maiden's grasp, she pulled him in and kissed him.
Jared's body went stiff. While Casimir watched, head swimming with pain, Jared turned stark white, ice covering his skin, hanging from the ends of his fingers in spikes. With an audible sigh, she released him, letting him drop.
The last thing that Casimir saw before he blacked out was Jared's body shattering into thousands of shards against the stone floor.