Deadly Friends/Unexpected Enemies 02

"Very good Tessio," Marissa tried to dazzle him with a smile but Tessio didn't respond. "So, you deal with people based on your status and their own. How high your status stands is determined by your personal power, the power of your family and the power of your liege."

"So I'm a 'nobody' -- no family that counts, no history, and no liege," Tessio assesses the situation.

"You are -- you could be my vassal," Marissa offered. Hexane stopped and stared at the two.

"We are in this together as equals," Tessio shook his head. "In the end, if we end up failing we will all be equally dead."

"Well said," Hexane smiled at him. Marissa nodded in agreement as well.

"I will kill those who deserve death and spare those who need mercy," Tessio recited.

"That's a Night Sider creed," Marissa's eyes grew wide.

"It is also a Latin -- Roman saying," Tessio smiled at her. "People forget we Italians have had three great periods of warfare; the Roman Republic and Empire, the Italian School of Renaissance Warfare and the Mafia."

"Really?" Hexane smiled. "I had no idea that you were a student of history?"

"I know my history," Tessio answered. "Everyone knows of the Romans, but we also gave the world Machiavelli, the Florentine Style of fencing and the condottieri. The Mafia brought forth a brutal yet simple code of conduct; the Omerta." Marissa knew what was wrong immediately.

"You acted to protect your family, Tessio," she said. "He was going to betray you to outsiders and Omerta covers him as well. He broke the code and you killed him."

"Wait," Hexane gasped. "You are upset about killing that old man?"

"He was my Don and killing him put my Capo in peril as well as my family," Tessio stated the facts.

"So," Marissa snarled, "are you going to lie down and die for someone else's fuck-up or are you going to fight like a God-damn male of the species?"

"I have regrets Marissa and Hexane, but I'm going to fight until this is through and then some," Tessio continued, "but Marissa, you don't need to try and play me -- especially using the trick I used with you; you know I don't give up."

Marissa wanted to apologize but she was a creature of immense pride too and she'd been swallowing a great deal of it recently. Hexane broke the stalemate by walking over to the scroll and jotting down the last two ingredients.

"That's it," she looked down at the arcane items and formulas that would create the item Marissa needed. Now they had to find everything on the Night Side with a Prince's bounty on their heads. Better yet,

"I told you before I can't create this damn thing," Hexane cautioned Marissa. "I'm not seasoned artificer; I'm a witch and my strength lies in Charms and Divinations."

"Don't worry about that," Marissa smiled. "My ally hides in plain sight and I doubt that Armand and his advisor will be looking in such an obvious spot; see, she is the Prime Arcanum of the University and she hasn't created any items that I'm aware of in the past seventy-five years since they made my heart-lock."

"You have got to be kidding me," Hexane blanched, "she's a foul, soul-stealing lamia. They are renowned for their treachery and evil. You should have killed her the second she finished the lock."

"This is not some romance novel we are living in," Marissa mocked the witch. "In reality if I kill off everyone who builds a device for me, I'll soon find the price of the simplest help beyond my means."

"Do you kill off your employees in your romance novels?" Tessio was both curious and amused. "It sounds more like a 'What Not to Do If I Want to Rule the World' story book."

"Tessio, do you ever read works of fiction?" Marissa regarded him.

"Do city-wide election results count?" Tessio delivered totally deadpan.

"Holy crap," Hexane laughed. She glided over to a spot behind Tessio and slipped her arms round his hips until her fingers linked up. "You are a treasure."

"I have been influencing election results in this city for a hundred and fifty years," Marissa declared proudly, trying to keep her annoyance with Hexane's closeness to Tessio out of her voice.

"So has the criminal underworld which could explain how screwed up this city is," Tessio finally smiled, his eyes keeping steady contact with Marissa's.

"Let me help you with that," Marissa purred. She stepped up, sandwiching Tessio between her body and Hexane's. The vampire put one hand over Hexane's fingers, which had been migrating down then underneath his pants.

Her second hand grabbed Tessio's cock and 'righted' it, teasing Hexane's fingers as she did so.

"It is filled with blood, Tessio," her hungry look was highlighted by her needle-sharp fangs. Tessio tried to move both her hands with little success; vampires, especially vampire lords, were far stronger than any human.

"My blood engorged cock being in the hands of a sensually nocturnal vampire lady was not where I saw myself when I held that door for you," Tessio coughed. "If my Uncle hadn't called me over, I was thinking of calling you, Hillary. You are the 'least pressuring' woman I know -- or you were." As Tessio discovered; when both women are laughing at you, you know you are in trouble.

***

Granez waited with his thee teammates in a far corner of the room for Salvador to acknowledge them. He wasn't being rude -- he had greeted them when they arrived and had seats, a table, food and drink provided -- all top notch. They were waiting on a second team they would be working with. Granez didn't like the idea of a dual-leadership team but Salvador came highly recommended as a serious and competent employer and the pay was more than he made in the past three years.

He knew the sound of his 'other' by the coil of her tail, the racking of her bottom scales against the stone.

"Hello Zaba," Granez greeted one of his oldest rivals.

"There will be no fighting between you two," Salvador rasped his very will drawing the two powerful bounty hunters' gazes to him.

"I don't work with Human-Bloods," the monstrous woman declared with distain. Her powerful tail coils scraped along the polished stone floor. Her serpentine body rose up to a beautiful naked alien body. She had four well-placed breasts and four arms to match. Her long blue-black hair was divided into three waist-length braids. Salvador knew she barely tolerated mummies, vampires and witches because of their human origin. That she was demon-blooded was never mentioned in her hearing. She was both a blades-woman and Sorceress of the 4th Circle.

"You are not compelled to hunt this time around, Zaba," Salvador stated evenly. "I will have to rely on Granez to hunt down Marissa with the team he has." There was the rub; Marissa had made Zaba pay penance for a Night Sider she'd killed in New York seventy years ago. She had been under contract by Paris' Liege then and while Marissa could have killed Zaba for the breach, Marissa made an example of the Half-demon Lamia instead.

Granez was a different creature all together. His team stalked their prey and picked them off -- stand-up fights in the open were not their forte.

"Who is with Marissa?" Granez asked.

"Hillary 'Hexane' Milne..." Salvador began.

"And the human who backstabbed Tegus mes' lauda," Zaba finished. "His sister works for me and wants her vengeance."

"Mebeala works for you?" Granez sounded incredulous. Mebeala was almost as legendary as her dead brother.

"No, I have P'teaha," Zaba hissed, "She was trained by both of those fine sword masters."

"Where is my brother's sword?" a youngish elf walked forward from the dim hallway into the Throne Room proper.

"P'teaha," Zaba grumbled angrily at the presumptuousness of her underling.

"In a protracted fair fight the human Tessio Nerospina finished him off with Tegus' own boot dagger," Salvador wheezed through dry pipes.

"Marissa..." P'teaha gritted her teeth.

"Was helpless at their feet the entire time -- Dragon-blood venom; Marissa took two bolts," Salvador continued. "I have under-estimated that human twice but it won't be three times. Kill that one quickly -- don't give him a chance to figure out a way to kill you."

"Who has Tegus' blade?" Zaba quizzed Salvador.

"Marissa has been seen with it but there is a high likelihood she will seek out her own blade and return the Tegus blade to the human," Salvador.

"If it has been touched by that human it should be smelted down and re-forged.

"I'll make sure they score your grave marker with 'Wouldn't take advice'," Granez laughed. "What is this guy's human background?"

"Trained by a Costa Nostra hitman from the age of six; he killed professionally for the first time when he was 14 and he's currently 24. He's never been caught or even tied to a crime," Salvador recited the FBI report he had purloined.

"What do we know about Hexane?" Zaba inquired, getting back into the hunter mindset.

"I think that her use of the name 'Hillary Milne' wasn't bravado," Salvador said, "She is using a life-draining charm at the very least. If she has mastered a true immortality spell..." no one wanted to contemplate a true mistress of the 6th circle.

"Zaba, you concentrate on downing Hexane and I'll work on overwhelming Marissa," Granez suggested. "P'teaha can keep the human busy long enough for one of us to get to him when we finish our primary."

"I'll want to keep Taboro with me in case Hexane has any 'up close' surprises. We should use D'Tahnath as a conditional support for you and P'teaha," Zaba altered things slightly. Granez wasn't happy with it but he needed the situation to work and all he really wanted was a clear shot at Marissa anyway. Taboro was a Were-tiger and was good enough. D'Tahnath was a Goblin Artificer whose defensive charms would prove more useful than his diminutive offensive abilities.

"Now that teams have been established, where do we start the hunt at?" Granez asked. Salvador looked away for a second, failing to conceal his embarrassment.

"They made their way from the Bracken Hill to the Shallows before disappearing into the Shallows," Salvador confessed.

"Wait," Granez's living obsidian form shifted and stretched as his muscles strained against the demonic shell. Only the right-most potion of his body looked human, pink and vulnerable yet betraying his mother's parentage. Right now he didn't know if he wanted to cleave someone with his six foot blade, or take random pot shots with his Goblin-built hand-cannon. "How did they cross the entire damn island with none of the Liege's men tracking them?"

"You see," Salvador drew out, "the current regime has a slight deficit of confidence."

"You think?" mocked Zaba who decided to move closer to Granez.

"Who can we rely on to help us?" Granez requested.

"Besides each other -- me," Salvador told them. The two Pack-Masters noticed the supposed Liege was both absent and unmentioned. Granez found himself looking at Zaba who was looking at him. 'We are so fucked' they thought at one another.

***