*If the only option you give your enemy is Death, they will choose your Death*

(This story is sex-lite; be warned)

***

For Salvador the day had started to fall apart shortly after ten in the morning. He'd spent the better part of fifty years ferretting out Marissa's secret caches of goodies and he was pretty sure he had gotten them all but one. Shortly after ten the human had walked into the bank holding one of those hidden treasure troves and brazenly grabbed up the stash. He had even convinced the bank staff that he'd brought Tegus's sword to store there; that is how he got it in.

Needless to say, he'd changed his mind about the sword. Salvador had dispatched two ogres to grab the human; they were to be discreet but forceful. They never stood a chance. The human charged down the stairs, brandishing the blade and buried the sword through the heart of the lead ogre. He grabbed that ogre's gun out of its holster and turned the second ogre's head into so much modern art before that creature could decide what to do ... and then he was gone - vanished.

Worse, the gunman had disappeared from Salvador's vision and hit four more institutions in the financial district before dropping out of sight, leaving a grand total of six Night Siders dead in the process. Divining his location was also daunting; it was more than mere street magic, fey glamour, or simple blood magic that stymied him. There was a true craftsman of the Art out there keeping him at bay.

Locally, there were about two dozen witches , half as many warlocks and sorcerers but out of that group only six bothered him in the slightest and none of them had ever appeared to be allies of Marissa and certainly not tied to her enough to risk certain death by opposing Armand at this juncture. He was missing something and he didn't know where to start looking.

The other trouble was that the NYC police had half-dozen dead bodies in the most secure part of town -- all armed and with little or no background stories. It was small consolation that he contacts in the police had given him a name -- Tessio Nerospina. It seemed the man was a professional assassin who worked for the Mafia; of all the eighteen million people in the greater Metropolitan area, Marissa had stumbled upon a trained killer -- how utterly unfair.

His opposition was Marissa, who grew this city up around her, Night Side and Daylight both, Tessio Nerospina, hitman extraordinaire, and some unknown yet powerful practitioner of the Art. He would need more tools for this job. Armand was a fool; as much a liability as an asset. He would need some foot soldiers, an Artificer, or two, and two Practitioners to build a hunting team.

Despite his bribes and betrayals he'd failed to kill her, then he had failed to find her, and now he'd gambled he could use her trinkets to draw her out but the killer had taken the trinkets and raised the visibility of the Night Siders in the process. Compounding the problem was that the FBI: Special Investigative Division was on the way, forcing him to make all the dead Night Siders' bodies vanish in a rather obvious fashion; damn all humans and their meddling.

He had a feeling this was going to be horrible, messy and brutal before this was over and a lot of people were going to die. His Masters had told him to do whatever it took to end Marissa and either locate her vault and deliver the contents, or make sure the vault was never found again. When they approved of his plan and his call for reinforcements he began to worry. For the first time he began to wonder what the hell was going on.

***

For an instant Marissa felt the lips of Tessio on her throat, kissing her as his hand brushed against her stomach on the way down ... and then she smelled Hexane's hair, not her killer's.

"What are you doing?" Marissa said quietly and a bit cross.

"I have decided on one of the prices I want for aiding you," Hexane purred.

"What is that?" Marissa said cautiously.

"I want Tessio," she informed the vampire.

"He's not mine to give and besides, what do you want with him?" Marissa grumbled.

"If he's not yours then stay out of my way, and as for 'why', do we have to go into that man's training and genetics? I want him to father my children," Hexane told her.

"Father your children? Are you serious?" Marissa scoffed.

"Witches are weird; are family dynamics very convoluted and bizarre. It isn't like most men want to hang around, so almost all of us are raised by our mothers. Trust me, that isn't as good as it sounds. Witches are Practioners first and women second. With a mate like Tessio I wouldn't have to worry about my child being alone or abandoned."

"Well, why haven't you ensnared him before now?" Marissa countered.

"How? His will is anything but weak so short of reducing him to a drooling idiot, I'm not going to force him to fall in love with me. Marissa, witches are one night stand material. Most guys get what they want and move on. Tessio stood guard over one of us for five days; he never left her side and he never touched her sexually."

"We don't find men like that very often. In over a century of living I've never found someone like him at all. All our weirdness doesn't affect him. I'm sure you've noticed that by now," Hexane related. Marissa knew that to be true. Tessio had calmly blown a werewolf away when the average man would have freaked out and fled in terror.

"He is not mine to give, Hexane," Marissa evaded.

"He turned you down, didn't he?" Hexane countered. Marissa knew lying to the witch was dangerous and the truth would not help her cause. "He threw your brand of immortality in your face," Hexane chuckled.

"So what if he did? I'm not going to offer it to him a second time," Marissa snapped.

"You agree to give him to me then?" Hexane challenged her.

"No. I agree that we will be leaving when he returns; where is he by the way?" Marissa asked.

"He went to retrieve your goodies. To avoid detection I showed him how to get back by using the Parade of Fools," Hexane smiled.

The Parade of Fools was a favored marketplace for Night Siders trading in Daylight goods. A human would not be totally out of place there. It was still the Night Side thought with all of its dangers.

"You sent Tessio into the Night Side unescorted!" Marissa gasped, pushed herself up and searched for her clothes.

"It is the last thing they would expect and they'd lose any specific tracking spells if he crossed over -- for a time anyway," Hexane pointed out.

"It is too risky. I'm going to get him," Marissa insisted.

"You will do no such thing," Hexane commanded. "He will do fine. There is a reason why their FBI hasn't put him in prison by now and that is because he is clever and resourceful."

"Besides," she pointed out, "you being there won't do him any good if he is discovered."

"Besides," Tessio said from the doorway, "I'm already back." Marissa and Hexane turned to him, both surprised. They had not noted his approach.

"Tessio ... did you get my items?" Marissa struggled to remain calm.

He tossed a Macy's shopping bag onto the bed.

"I killed six of your kind getting these so I hope it was worth it. The city is crawling with cops hunting for the killer, but I've heard the bodies have already gone missing and that the FBI is putting a special task force together," Tessio informed them.

"Already ..." Marissa mused, "that can only mean the SID." Since Tessio seemed curious, she informed him of what that meant. "The Special Investigative Division is the government's group that investigates matters involving the Night Side and it is our duty to keep them as ignorant as possible."

"Oh...Okay, I think I know what the next step is then," Tessio asserted. "I'm not sure how I can pull it off yet. I need to study the situation and get more information."

"What are you trying to do?" Hillary asked.

"Right before crossing over through the Parade of Fools I made contact with my family. My Boss wants me to come in -- people are asking about me," Tessio informed them.

"If you are getting bad attention that is the last thing your organization should want," Marissa mused.

"Shouldn't your family be protecting you?" Hexane questioned.

"No, they should be keeping me at arm's length. It broke that I was involved in crimes at five banks, killed six people and have brought in the FBI. The Mafia wants no part of that," Tessio told her.

"They want to kill you or turn you over to someone else," Marissa concluded. "The only people they would turn you over to would be the Night Side under some alias."

"And I thought my people were cold," Hillary chuckled.

"It is business," Tessio stated. "Publicity is bad. The thing is if they wanted to silence me my personal family would have staged an ambush. My uncle's crew is pretty good at killing people; they trained me after all."

"I could have contacted your Don, Marc Scarletti, when I was Liege Lord and kept it quiet," Marissa affirmed, "especially in a case where the Daylight World might miss that person."

"So Armand is going to use a Mafia Don to grab Tessio," Hillary sighed. "How do we react?"

"I kill him...Scarletti that is," Tessio nodded in some internal debate. "Armand is using the structure of the city to hunt us so let's create chaos to mask our maneuvers."

Marissa didn't bother hiding her smile. She admired ruthlessness and she admired loyalty but any passion could be taken overboard. Tessio was loyal to his Don until his leader decided to betray him to an outside force. He was right about the situation too; she was used to working from the top of the pyramid and hating all those termites that gnawed away at the base. Now she was one of those termites.

"I popped some second raters today," Tessio returned to the subject at hand. "What for and why?" Hexane looked to Marissa. Marissa thought she knew but she wanted to have the Tessio's description first.

"Most stood outside the door and waited brazenly for me to come out. On group was parked across the street and the other waited on either side of the door. Also, despite my success, they never deviated from the first 2-Nightsider teams -- zero learning curve," Tessio explained.

"That meant Armand doesn't trust my first string players," Marissa murmured. "Which means the city is ripe for a civil war."

"He killed a few but the Council of Night can't afford to leave their hitters hanging around or they will show their hands so all Armand has is his own meager following and whatever low-lives who would take a bounty on a human," Hexane grinned.

She was loving this but then witches formed few close ties.

"Okay, that explains the softball approach this time, but we have to figure they will bring in some effective talent soon enough," Tessio nodded. "Now why exactly have I publically killed six people?"

"I doubt there will be bodies by next sunrise," Marissa gave a lopsided smile. "With the SID on the way, Armand had better hide the corpses because no glamor I know of will hide the facts from an autopsy. The why is simple enough," she added as she began laying out the bags and boxes she had stored away in various safe deposit boxes.

Marissa opened the largest box, took the first of the two golden guns out of the box and gingerly handed them to Tessio; sure he would be pleased at a firearm of such exquisite craftsmanship. He took it studied it for a second then looked at Marissa somewhat confused.

"What?" she gasped. "You don't like it?"

"Well -- ummm Marissa, this is a hand cannon -- it is a .454 Magnum," he looked worried. "Did the pimp you took these from give you all of his gold-plated teeth too or was he happy to get rid of these unwieldy monsters."

Hexane laughed so hard she fell off the arm of the plush chair she was sitting on. Marissa was closer to furious as she rose.

"These are precision instruments of death," Marissa growled.

"Instruments of death -- yes; precision -- no," Tessio corrected her. "I am not as strong as you are Marissa and the recoil on these is a bitch for me to deal with. I'd hate to fire them more than three or four times before taking a break and I would be reacquiring my aim after each shot."

"He doesn't understand," Hexane gasped joyously from the floor, "what they are." Marissa's mouth dropped open and she felt so incredibly dense. How could Tessio have knowledge of artificers and the artifacts they created; he was human after all.

"I apologize Tessio," Marissa began again, "These are Invincible Guns; they take on the aspect of the last bullet fed into them. I wished the largest production handgun available so that was the bullet it was given. They will match the style and characteristics of the bullet you feed into it which will also bond the weapon to you."

Tessio nodded quickly. He removed the clip out of the hefty automatic, cleared the round out of the chamber then put the gun on the sofa. He began popping the bullets out of the seven round magazine; stopping when he hit ten. He looked over the bullet then looked to Marissa for explanation. She held up a hand, signaling for him to be patient. A minute later on the dot the bullets began evaporating.

Tessio turn around and took out a .40 caliber and repeated the process to a point.

"One bullet is all you need," Marissa indicated. Tessio pressed the smaller .40 bullet on top of the top .454 in the clip. I fitted perfectly so Tessio put the clip in. It started transforming to a dull grey exterior and black grip -- very generic -- and had finished its transformation in thirty seconds. He was testing the weight when Hexane piped back in.

"It is also undetectable by normal means while holstered," the witch added. Marissa was still getting pissed about Hexane releasing the secret she'd plan to tell Tessio when she caught sight of him closing in. Marissa determined he was going for the cheek but she wasn't having any of that. She met him lip to lip. The first seconds where awkward then Tessio snaked a hand to the back of her head and drew her in tight. Their tongue's flickered then embraced as well. Marissa felt truly victorious.

"Better than my best Christmas present," he panted after a minute, "and that was my first sniper rifle -- I thought nothing would ever top that."

"You are a very unusual man," Marissa purred.

"I am what I am," was his response.

"Aren't you going to ask if those two do anything else?" Hexane teased.

"Hillary, they have unlimited ammo and are the perfect assassin's tool. I don't want it to do anything else," he smiled at her.

(Mafia Showdown)

"Here comes the birthday boy," Special Agent Jason Cooper joked. He meant Tessio Nerospina. Like the other three agents in the room overlooking the Tabula Rasa. When Scarletti had slashed and burned his way to the top five years ago he'd rebuilt the restaurant to make it nearly impregnable to outside surveillance and not bug had made it 24 hours when agents had planted it inside; so all the team could do was take video of the wise guys as the went in.

Not-so-old Tessio Nerospina was a boogeyman and the agents in the room were happy to have a face to put to the contract killings they suspected him of. His sole contact had always been his uncle, Enrico Nerospina who everyone suspected of being Scarletti's own Murder Incorporated. Unfortunately, while his sons were the normal breed of Mafia thug, his niece and nephew where virtual ghosts.

Today everyone in the FBI figured Tessio was going to really become a ghost. He'd fucked up in some unknown manner the FBI was scrambling to nail down. They would have snatched him up before the meeting but they had nothing to hold him on, which didn't matter because they couldn't find him. He'd simply turned the corner two blocks down and blithely walked up to the club.

"I still think this whole situation is plain wrong," Special Agent Magdalena Alvaro muttered from the other camera. "Midday not night; a known hangout when this thing should go down in some abandoned industrial site and a fuck load of guys. Special Agents Foster and Chu chuckled at the 'new guy's' pretense to knowledge.

"They are mobsters," Foster pointed out, "not special forces operatives. Most of them are a step beyond morons."

"No," Cooper backed Magdalena. "Tessio Nerospina asked for this and worse, Scarletti agreed. How often does a foot soldier tell the Don what to do?"

"So, he wants to die so the rest of those scumbags can go to prison -- why should we stop any of them," Chu snorted. "Pinning a crime on that kid was going to take years. This is a win-win."

"What about we not being judge, jury and executioner -- as the Constitution demands," Alvarado snapped.

"You work enough of these Organized Crime cases, it gets harder to see them as citizens," Cooper tried to calm her down.

"Well, he's inside now," Alvarado sighed. "God help him. What do we do if things go wrong?"

"With over thirty armed men inside that club, we try not to get shot," Cooper smirked.

Tessio nodded to the two men at the door. He'd met them twice briefly -- Don Gelano's men, tough but not too imaginative. The fact that there was no verbal recognition confirmed Tessio's status as a dead man. He didn't say they'd see him again because they wouldn't. That wasn't the plan.

Inside the door, in the antechamber, two of Scarletti's men patted him down twice. He lost two generic guns he'd picked up earlier in the day as well as two replacements for his normal blades. He was sorry to see his buckle-blade but there hadn't been time to get a replacement for that. They were good at what they did; not that it would help them this time. One of the two began steering him toward the rear tables.

"I'd like a word with my uncle, Antonio," he requested from the goon pulling him along. The guy grunted, chuckled and kept pulling Tessio along.

"Antonio, I'm going to kill you; that's a given," Tessio said calmly. "If you allow me talk to my family one last time, you'll live five minutes longer." Like most mad bulls, Antonio spun on Tessio with the intention of knocking him to the floor. Tessio bent his body around the blow, hooked the bigger man's neck in the crux of his elbow then fell and twisted.

Antonio's neck snapped like dry timber before Tessio dropped the dying man to the ground. Everyone had guns out except Tessio.

"Please inform the Don that I would like a word with my Uncle before we conclude our business," Tessio addressed the rear of the restaurant. He couldn't see the Don himself through the wooden partitions that separated the place.

Whispered words came to the fore and finally one of Scarletti's grandsons gave Tessio permission. He nodded back then approached Uncle Enrico. Enrico's sons were on either side but Nina was the one closest. Tessio started to lower his head to kiss his uncle's ring but Enrico stood and the two exchanged kisses on each cheek.

"I'm sorry Uncle," Tessio began. "I didn't mean to bring shame to our family."

"I don't know what happened, Tessio," the older man shook his head. "I want you to know that I asked to take care of this personally but..." It wasn't only family honor that drove Uncle Enrico's decision; Tessio's actions had brought doubt about the Nerospina family to the paranoid yet careful Don Scarletti -- that was dangerous.

Tessio could also see Nina angling for a shot at him with a gun she concealed in her lap.

"I could..." she whispered.

"I'm leaving here alive," Tessio smiled at the girl he had always considered his little sister. She wasn't little anymore, but since they were both orphans from different Nerospina siblings, she had clung to him as the only one like her -- both as kinsmen and dedicated assassins.

She and Uncle Enrico were his only true family; he'd never been close at all with Enrico's own sons. They had enjoyed plucking the wings off flies and bragging about all the Penny Anny shit they pulled off, as if knocking over a bodega was high crime. Tessio had broken six bones in the hand of the only one of Enrico's sons to touch Nina. Uncle Enrico's response was to remind the boy of the price of being 'pinched'.

"Don't hold back," Tessio whispered to her right before he turned and retraced his steps. He fell in with two more men who did have the presence of mind to search him a second time, in case any of his family had slipped him something new.

"Are you going to kill us too," one of the two mafia soldiers taunted Tessio. Tessio looked at the other man holding him instead.

"Carl, you've got three kids now, right?" Carl nodded. "I'm going to make a special effort not to kill you. I don't know this other moron so I'm going to shoot him through both lungs so chokes on his blood." That unknown man tried to twist Tessio's arm.

"Thanks Tessio," Carl took a totally different tact. "Maria gave me a little girl seven months ago; she kind of looks like Nina."

"Get ready to put the fear of God in a lot of boys," Tessio said deadpan. They were now looking at Don Scarletti, the 58 year old Master of the Reborn New York Mafia.

"Sit down Tessio," the old man said in a genial fashion. Tessio did as directed for the last time. "You said you had a specific peace of information concerning what happened at that meth lab and is germane to the current citywide manhunt for you."

"This city has a magical underworld that is in a current state of flux and I interfered with the hit on their previous Chief and now the current chief wants us both dead," Tessio related. "The people you have sold out me to work for that jack-ass and I'm going to kill him for trying to kill me. For sending me on that insignificant hit that brought this about, and handing a loyal soldier over to him for chump change, I'm going to kill you too, Don Scarletti." The old man chuckled; after all, he was surrounded by thirty gunslingers and Tessio was unarmed -- then the lights went out.

Outside the mafia meeting place and across the street, SA Alvarado kept an active eye on the place.

"Guys," she muttered, "I've got something."

"What is it?" Cooper tracked his gaze to what Magdalena was looking at. He saw a high class woman dressed head to toe in white -- she even had a white headscarf and hat on.

"Okay; do you think she's packing a gun in that purse of hers?" Cooper noted.

"This lady is strictly 5th Avenue, so what is she doing WALKING in this neighborhood," she persisted. The other two agents snickered at the lameness of her hunch.

"Noted," Cooper said intently. If she was going straight to the restaurant, she would have taken a cab -- she's approaching the two goons." Now the others were scrambling. Cooper was the senior agent and he was known for his instincts. Magdalena watched the woman maneuver between the two goons who were torn between ogling her beauty and stopping her from entering the establishment.

The lady in white touched the first goon on the forehead and, through the lenses, SA Alvarado saw the man's eyes roll back in his head as if asleep. The second man moved to get his buddy; one touch to the forehead, and he went down to.

"What the hell kind of language was that?" SA Chu grunted.

The woman took out what looked like a burning black candle -- from her purse (?) and ran the wax along the door seal. She made one flourish with her hands and dodged to the closest door. She finished her production by waving up at the FBI cameras.

"I have gunfire!" SA Chu yelled. "The whole damn place is going up!"

"Set everything on automatic," Cooper commanded. "Foster, inform the Taskforce that we are going in!"

Chad Morse leaned against his car in the back alley of the Tabula Rasa waiting for these piss-ant humans to hand over the maggot that had been killing Night Siders. Long-honed reflexes brought his eyes up to the roof as a figure launched itself down on his small team. Tamara, the werewolf, had only enough time turn before a flashing fey bade bifurcated her, one of Chad's oldest teammates.

"Marissa," the were-rat squealed. Suddenly he realized that he was backed into a dead end alley.

"Kill her!" he screamed at his Troll bodyguard. He was a pebble in the brains department but a titan of strength and toughness. Left undefended by Chad and the troll, his fey diviner sprayed blood all over the rear door to the restaurant. Chad was racing for the wall, transforming into his cross-breed rat form.

He spared a look over his shoulder in time to catch sight of his troll reach out to grapple with the lightning quick Marissa and fail. She jumped up the wall then angled her blade down, thrusting the point straight through the top of the brutes head and driving over three feet of immortal steel into it. She rolled with the strike, yanking the blade free and landed right behind him.

Animalistic fear took over -- for about six seconds when his body realized it had been pinned face-first into the brick wall.

"Marissa," Chad spat up blood, "it's - daylight."

"Yeah, you would even think I planned all this out," she whispered in his ear. The blade twisted and pulled free of him.

The last thought he hand in this incarnation was of his corpse hitting the asphalt. Marissa made sure her Lazarus Mask was well in place. Chad was right and if it wasn't for the one in only three such artifacts in existence she couldn't have been above ground during the day. She had no pity for those who forced her to wear it now because if it was damaged, or she bled, the Sun's fire would still consume her. Now she listened and waited for any sound of Tessio in trouble, or for him and Hexane to make their escape. After that, she'd go back to running on the rooftops.

Tessio had pushed off with his chair, toppling backwards to the floor as the pistol grips of his Invincible Guns came to his hands. As promised he put a round into Carl's right shoulder. He'd be threatening those boys with his left hand for a while but he'd be alive to do it too. His buddy took one through the throat that exited the top of his skull.

Now everyone was firing everywhere -- most of the mafia did not qualify for MENSA and a good number never graduated high school. Tessio rolled under the falling body of the first man he killed then stood up holding the corpse as a shield. Tessio's arms were under that guy's arms and he was firing away. The true problem was that to everyone else in the room things were pitch black except for the flashes of gunfire. For Tessio, things were merely a foggy grey, so he could track and shoot just fine.

It was a slaughter with only two people even coming close to him -- Uncle Enrico tried to pick out the distinctive thunder of Tessio's guns and Nina actually made a crouched run for the door, trying to get between Tessio and his most likely point of exit. She was good enough to spin and face Tessio, sensing him at some instinctual level, but he slammed the bullet-mangled body shield into her and then summersault over Nina as she fell.

Nina was twisting under the corpse and bringing her 9mm up when Tessio dashed through the front exit. She wanted to rise up and follow him but a hail of bullets aimed at the door kept her suppressed for several crucial seconds.

Hexane folded into Tessio's arm and the two sprinted down the sidewalk.

"Freeze FBI!" screamed out two voices. Tessio and Hexane kept running because they had no evident weapons and with the volume of carnage from the Tabula Rasa, any sane person would be running too.

Nina and a senior shot-caller for Scarletti came out the door at the same time. She immediately tracked the two fugitives about to round the corner of the block and the four shooters in clearly-government suits. Nina tried to take aim on the fleeing male figure when the other mafia guy opened up on the suits. She barely had time to berate him for his stupidity when a series of gunshots left the shot-caller's chest and left arm a bloody mess and one of the agents down.

Nina was under fire too but now her conscience was clear and she could follow her heart's desire. Two agents were on Tessio's ass. She fired 'near' them as well, causing one to dive for cover but the other one stupidly courted death and Nina had to let the girl round the corner too. At least she could tell her Uncle and the next Don that she'd done her best. Nina prayed, and she rarely prayed, that Tessio could make his escape.

Special Agent Alvarado was feeling blessed too; one shot had ricocheted off the sidewalk and the other buzzed passed her back. The two shots had missed and now she was going to collar her first big fish but, more importantly, she was going to get some payback too. Tessio Nerospina had another name and that name was Blackthorn.

There was a dead female witness in San Francisco; a hitter named Blackthorn had put that girl into an early grave and she was going to beat that confession out of him if she had to shove her service weapon down his throat to get it. She was still thinking those thoughts when she rounded the third corner and Tessio cloth-lined her.

Magdalena was still blinking stars out of her eyes and she thought she might have a concussion when she felt someone ripping her back-up pistol away. As she forced herself to prop up on her elbows she saw Blackthorn swing the cylinder of her revolver and dump the bullets out.

"Stay down," he requested of her calmly, "I know you get into trouble if you lose a piece so I'm going to leave the ammo down at the end of the block. Stop following us Special Agent Alvarado."

"Wound the little weasel," the women in white snickered, "and let us begone."

"I don't shoot legitimate law enforcement," Tessio informed them both. That was enough for Alvarado; she tried to rise up and strike at her captor. It didn't turn out the way she wanted. Tessio pinned both her arms effortlessly and the woman in white touched Alvarado's forehead. At the last second Magdalena realized what was about to happen to her was what happened to the guards outside the Tabula Rasa and she tried to pull away.

"Agent Alvarado," Special Agent Cooper shook the female agent awake.

"What the -- what happened?" she mumbled. "Did he get away? My guns?"

"Your guns seem to be in their holsters," Cooper pointed out, "and he called us to say where you where plus he took you phone." He pulled her from the sitting position against the wall she'd been left in and helped her stand.

"Why would he do that?" Magdalena wondered out loud.

"He said he remembered you and trusts you and that when the Special Investigations Division shows up, he'll only talk to you," Cooper stared at her. "Is there something I need to know?"

"The Ghostbusters?" Alvarado was surprised by the potential involvement of one of the Bureaus most secretive units. "Back in San Fran, I was part of an interstate truck-jacking case and I convinced this young girl to testify against some of the major players. That son of a bitch took her right out from under our noses. He owes me for that girl's life."

"You pretty much owe him now too," Cooper looked down the street. "Do you know why he didn't kill you considering he just killed eighteen other people including Don Scarletti?"

"He told me he doesn't shoot 'legitimate' law enforcement," she shrugged painfully.

"Whatever," Cooper shrugged too. "SID is on the way and they are going to want to talk to you as soon as they deal with those bodies at the back of the restaurant."

"What happened to the two agents back there?" Magdalena worried.

"They saw a black haired woman wearing a dark red trench coat jump down from a two story roof and hack the four guys apart with a sword -- yes, a sword. I am sure they are going to love the one that was cut in two."

"Coop, what is going on?" she pleaded. As she stepped, Alvarado felt a weight in her pocket. She pulled out a phone; just not her own. She showed it to SA Cooper. He took it, flipped the device open and noted a solo number. Seeing how he was about to get booted from this case, Cooper took a risk and hit the number. Alvarado leaned in to listen as well.

"It is too soon to be giving you any information, Special Agent Alvarado," the voice, Tessio's voice, told her.

"I'm going to hunt you down, you bastard," Magdalena seethed.

"That is the whole point," Tessio said in his maddeningly calm tone.

"What...why are you doing this? Why me?" she sputtered.

"I recognized you when you ran after us and I saw an opportunity," Tessio continued. Cooper was busy calling the FBI main office to have the phone call traced. "I picked you in particular because on that job where our paths first crossed because I couldn't get passed you. I had to maneuver you away to get access to the target."

"She wasn't a target, you bastard," Special Agent Alvarado growled, "she was a person with a name; Leda Li."

"I am aware of that and there is nothing I can do about that now and confessing to a contract killing is the least of my worries," Tessio remained peaceful. "We are all going to be in a world of hurt and I need someone in the FBI who has studied me intensely and who believes in saving lives."

"The world will be safer if you weren't in it," Magdalena glared.

"Deal: when the shit really hits the fan, if you can tell me that with a straight face, I'll give you the first shot for free," Tessio pledged then hung up. Magdalena really, really didn't like the sound of that.

The steam tunnels led to Sybil's Way; one of the lesser conduits of New York's Night Side. Tessio had to turn his gun aside as Marissa flung herself into his arms and started to frantically kiss his mouth, nose, eyebrows and eyes.

"There were so many gunshots but you didn't give the signal," Marissa kept her lips all over his face. Her hormones were racing like some besotted teenage girl.

"It is okay Marissa," Tessio said consolingly, "I knew you would have the rear exit and Hexane would have the front door -- I knew I was safe." He wrapped the arm holding his firearm around the vampiress's waist and pulled her tight. She basked in the warmth of his body.

"I, too, was shot at," Hexane teased. "We picked up a female FBI agent as well."

Marissa kept her arms around Tessio but leaned back so she could study his eyes; driving his aroused cock into her pelvis was a bonus.

"What is this about?" Marissa quizzed.

"I ran across Special Agent Magdalena Alvarado of the FBI while fulfilling a contract on the West Coast. She has great instincts and is very dedicated to the job at hand," Tessio explained with a smile on his face but the passion was aimed at Marissa. "My working plan is we use her as a go-between with the SID."

"So you don't have feelings for this chica?" Hexane snuggled in from behind. Tessio coughed uncomfortably.

"She is a fellow professional and, even though she works for the government, we can utilize her," Tessio stated with more nervousness than either woman had witnessed.

"Were does a male go for companionship down here?" Tessio said with repressed emotion. Hexane and Marissa stared at one another then looked to Tessio.

"What's wrong with me?" Marissa inquired of Tessio with a sharp edge of frustrated menace.

"What's wrong with me?" Hexane prodded Tessio with more mirth.

"I am working with both of you," Tessio tried to explain. "I've only broken the rule of having an emotional/sexual relationship with a co-worker once and that was with this crazy Russian sniper girl I worked with on a Trans-Siberian job last year."

"Tessio, you do realize that Marissa is Russian, right?" Hexane whispered in his ear.

"Um -- no, I had not realized that," Tessio took a deep breath.

"What happened to that girl? Did you love her; did she love you?" Marissa asked in a soft, sad voice.

"I left her on the shores of Lake Baikal with both her arms and legs broken; I loved her and I am afraid she fell in love with me and that is why she put two bullets in me when I tried to leave," Tessio related.

"Why didn't you kill her?" Hexane wondered. "This is the second time I've heard about this."

"He didn't kill her because he doesn't love casually," Marissa explained. "He didn't kill the FBI agent because she can help us. Both were a matter of honor -- Tessio?"

"Precisely; anyone can kill but a professional deals death only when necessary and unavoidable," Tessio related to the two women. "Now I need to get some stress relief before I explode. Both of you are far to -- exceptionally intelligent and appealing for me to go on much longer."

"No Tessio," Marissa commanded, "we can't afford to let you out from under our eyes for right now."

"Absolutely," Hexane agreed, "we need kept you close until you snap because I imagine you are a total dynamo in the sack -- and on the floor, over the furniture, in the shower and all over the kitchen counter tops."

"Why would you have sex anywhere but a bed?" Marissa eyed Hexane suspiciously.

"You are going to be so much fun," Hexane laugh. "Now let's go to our new hideout and work on our next move. Maybe Tessio can console me for the loss of my swank apartment." After all, the FBI would be hunting her down soon, as would Armand's people. Hopefully they could collide and then the fireworks would really start to begin.

---------------------------------------------

"Special Agent Magdalena Alvarado," the foremost of the three FBI Agents greeted her. She stood up from the Interrogation room chair where she'd been pinned up for the better part of twelve hours. "I am Special Agent in Charge Ryan Raithe. My colleagues are Senior Special Agent Pierce Wolfe and Special Agent Camille Baxter. We are with the Special Investigations Division of the FBI -- of which you are already aware."

Magdalena made a snap judgment on the three supposed agents before her. Oh, their ID's looked legitimate but she got the oddest read off these people than she had ever felt about any law enforcement agents before. The two men looked like guys who had seen too much and put too many bodies in mass graves. One of her Quantico instructors had talked about running down 'special operations' types who had been in Latin America in the 70's and 80's and here she was staring those exact types.

Baxter looked like she had looked into the abyss on a daily basis -- seeing it in her like a reflection in the mirror. How any of these people passed the annual psych evaluation was beyond her? She was getting a bad feeling about this, as in dozens of civilian bodies piling up over this, bad.

"I would like my guns, badge and phone back," Magdalena began.

"We need you to answer some questions about what you saw and the lady in white aka Hillary Milne," Wolfe inquired.

"Asked and answered repeatedly," Magdalena growled. "Either give me back my stuff, charge me, or release me." She knew a variety of National Security Acts could hold her nearly indefinitely but evoking them was problematic; she was a federal law enforcement agent after all.

"I repeat, SA Alvarado, what did you see of the lady in white aka Hillary Milne?" Wolfe persisted. Magdalena breathed heavily through her nose.

"I will tell you what you want to know but refuse to accept; the woman ordered Tessio "Blackthorn" Nerospina to kill me and he refused. I had every impression he was in charge of their departure from the massacre of the Tabula Rasa."

"Okay, what confuses you about the woman's relationship with the Mafioso? Was he involved with the second woman -- the one in red?" Wolfe questioned.

"I heard something about her from the team covering the back of the restaurant but I didn't encounter her or even see her," SA Alvarado yawned. "The only women were the woman in white and me and I'm saying he protected me and physically restrained me until the witch lady put me down with her touch -- just like she did to those two guys in the club."

"The people in the club were knocked unconscious by a CO leak, SA Alvarado, which induced hallucinations, as well as unconsciousness and death" SAC Raithe stated calmly.

"Are you saying that Tessio didn't kill eighteen people in that club? You are going to let him skate on those murders," Magdalena grumbled. "That's just wrong."

"Did he give you anything? When he was talking with you, did he draw any symbols on your body or make you swallow anything?" Baxter opened up. Baxter seemed distracted and not in a good way.

"No; no he only gave me the phone -- nothing else. No, he didn't draw anything on me and no, I don't recall something being fed to me," Magdalena repeated for the thirtieth time. "Do I have to strip again?"

"They are using her to see inside our organization and hoping to know what our next move will be," Wolfe said but not in a language she thought she knew.

"I am not of much use," Baxter continued in the same language, "It is as if she's not in this room as far as I can detect. She seems sincere, but I have no idea how far they've gotten into her mind."

"She knows what we are saying - don't you, SA Alvarado?" Raithe asked the girl.

"Of course," Alvarado responded. "It's funny but I think I've heard it before -- no, it is like something is whispering in my ear, translating your words for me." Baxter stared at Alvarado intently for a whole minute and seemed to be straining over something.

"No luck," Baxter told Raithe. "Maybe Madame Valva could break these barriers in time, but I can't. They are way to complex and given the time line we are looking at a 5+ Circle Artist." Magdalena didn't know what a circle artist was, but a 5+ ranking seemed to impress this crowd. Their minds were running down one way -- Tessio as the women's pawn, so she returned to what she knew of Tessio, the professional killer and what he had been hired to do.

"I think I know where we can start looking," Alvarado began.

"We'll be in touch," Raithe commanded, "Stay here until we come for you." She wanted to scream.

Four hours later she was screaming for a bathroom break then she calmed herself, tricked them into bringing her some more water then pissed in the cup in the corner of the room. That was the moment Internal Affairs came storming into the room to 'humiliate' her.

That failed but then she'd done well at this section at the FBI academy too.

"That's disgusting!" one agent covered his nose. "You could have simply asked to go to the bathroom." She finished her business and dressed all the while keeping her back to them. When she finished, she resumed her old seat and put the glass of piss between the two men.

"I need to go to the bathroom," she grinned, "I haven't finished my business yet."

"You can go to the bathroom when you've finished answering some questions," the man glared.

"You don't lie during an interrogation unless it serves a purpose," she lectured him on the basics. "If you can give me access to a bathroom do so now, or be quiet. I have helped this investigation enough and we are not at the state that Tessio and company have gotten a hotel, had a good night's sleep and two good meals and are launching the next phase of their plan as we speak."

They laid into her after that, grinding at her the way every good IA team would over the death of SA Foster. She'd barely known the man and had been taking fire at the same time Foster had. She had been pursuing the prime suspect and his accomplice, her partner had taken fire and gone to cover so she had pursued the two people alone and she had been taken down by surprise.

Yes, she had known of the man though they had never met, e-mailed, or tweeted -- she repeated - again. She was describing him for the umpteenth time when Raithe and Baxter strode into the room.

"Excuse us," the lead IA agent stood and confronted Raithe while Baxter sped around the table and offered the phone to Magdalena -- Tessio's burner phone -- like it was volcanic.

"Listen up you bunch of hot-shots," The lead IA suit got out before Raithe raised palm barely an inch from the man's face.

"Shut up," Raithe yawned. "My crew is tired so I'm going to say this to you once then your ass gets circle-filed -- clear? My associate is removing all non-essential personnel from this command center. You will be returned to the Federal Tower where you will pretend to do your normal jobs until we have use of you again and you will come running when we call. You will not ask why; your pay grade doesn't cover it. Go."

"What about Alvarado and my other witnesses?" the IA agent muttered. He and his companion were getting ready to leave.

"All civilians have been released -- no charges filed, we will deal with the death of Field Agent Foster and debrief the four other agents who were at the scene. They are being processed and transferred as we speak."

"What about the sixth agent -- SA Alvarado?" the IA guy wouldn't let up.

"Her status is neutral, which means she has ceased to be any part of your business, am I clear?" Raithe glared at the man. By simple mathematics, the IA agent was about an inch taller than Raithe, but in the arena of who kills who first and eats breakfast while sitting calmly on their opponent's still-warm corpse, Raithe had the IA agent in spades. The IA agent made people's lives a living hell; Raithe sent them to Hell and covered up the hole.

The normal FBI agents exited the room right as Tessio's phone rang. Alvarado looked to Raithe who nodded. Two more pseudo-FBI entered as well.

"Hello Tessio," Magdalena began.

"So, have they brought you inside the SID yet, or are they still yanking you around?" Tessio sounded regretful of her predicament.

"They are still treating me like the ugly stepdaughter underneath the stairs," she answered. She suddenly felt an odd symmetry with the assassin, as if he was going through the same thing. She'd still gladly put him on death row too.

"Well, that will pass, or so I'm told. Your techs will trace this to the Old Palladium btw," Tessio added. With a few hand signs, Raithe dispatched one of Wolfe's sub-commanders.

"Magdalena, I don't have too much more time -- what can I do for you?" Tessio offered. The normal things like 'turn yourself in' were impractical and a waste of time, but;

"What is it you and the other two want to accomplish?" she asked. Raithe nodded his approval.

"My companions are Marissa, former Liege Lord of New York City, who owes me a life debt, and sworn enemy of the current Liege Lord Armand, and Hillary 'Hexane' Milne, Mistress of the 6th Circle and who wants Ms. Special Agent Camille Baxter to stick close to you seeing how Baxter is her great-grandchild. Finally there is me," he prevaricated.

"As for our plan: we are going to pull down the Veil and destroy the Council of Night because they are trying to kill the three of us. The point where a compromise can be reached has past. We have each passed beyond that point from which we will turn back," Tessio went back to his death-like calm voice. "We are well aware that thousands, if not millions on both sides will die. There is no other option open to us."

"Why are you even telling us this?" Magdalena coughed.

"The SID has been fighting this war since before the oldest current member was even alive and they are going to keep fighting it until everyone with you is dead and a fresh crop of agents sees too much and is brought in. It will never end as long as the bad guys can slip into the Veil and avoid you. They can do their jobs or they can start winning this war. Now they have a chance to think about it."

Raithe made a cutting gesture with his hand at Alvarado.

"What can we do for you?" she had to ask Tessio despite orders to cease the conversation. This all seemed like fantasy until she saw the grim, desperate looks on the faces of everyone around her. Tessio's words and terms made perfect sense to all of them.

"Don't die," were Tessio's last words to her at that point. Raithe pulled Wolfe close to the point their noses almost touched.

"Bring in everybody, including the Bowdy's, the McGregor's, and the Fallon Sisters; tell them they owe me and today I'm collecting." A third person, a woman with rust-collared hair and the standard FBI suit joined the group.

"Command isn't going to like you using contractors in an urban area," the agent pointed out.

"Jenna, they are professionals, not yahoos taking potshots at Sasquatch; they owe me and they'll do as the SID requests. They know the risks they will be facing more than any SWAT unit does, or aren't going in blind about what we are facing and we don't have the time to teach what we do have to the NYPD in the time left," Raithe explained to what was now clearly his outside liaison officer.

A few seconds to study the woman told Magdalena that this was yet another SID member she wouldn't want to meet in a dark alleyway if she was a mugger. The difference seemed to be that she was better looking and more social than the average SID trooper in that she could make banter and crack a joke -- while she used her high, thick heel in order to savor some other poor bastard's death rattle as she ground their throat to a bloody pulp - and loving it.

"We'll initiate a five point fortress system and go from there," Raithe began, "We will not pick any fights until Phase 2 and 3 Deployments are complete and our contractors are on site -- that is three days folks. I want psychics to have fields and sensors up in 72; let's move."

With that SA Magdalena knew she was part of the SID now; whatever paperwork covering the transfer would be done somewhere by someone. That is not what these people did.

"He chose you," Baxter snuck up on her.

"What; Tessio chose me for this?" Alvarado choked back her surprise.

"Of course he did and you don't even know how special that is," Baxter studied her, "Even I don't know and I'm the third oldest psychic in the SID."

"Oh -- um -- you don't look a day over thirty-five," Magdalena tried to be kind.

"I'm twenty-three," the psychic said without malice. Now the agent could see some horrid supernatural struggle was draining the life and vitality from the girl.

"Come on you two," Jenna corralled the younger women. "Magdalena, I'm calling you Maggy from now. Experience has taught us that long names get you killed, so you are Maggy."

"Camille, Raithe wants you to stick with Maggy until further notice," Jenna added. "Until she draws down on you or you figure out what the conduit is with this Tessio-character is."

"Wait, can't they work that in reverse?" Maggy worried. "Doesn't that put Baxter at risk from her so-called Grandmother?"

"Yes, it does," Camille nodded, "It is part of the job."

"Fuck that noise," Maggy pulled out her phone. Jenna reached for it mongoose-quick but Maggy was able to back-pedal out of range. "Tessio," she shouted into the phone and everyone around them froze.

"Yes, SA Alvarado," he answered. "I'm a bit busy."

"What did Ms. Milne do to me and I want your word that you won't let her do anything to SA Camille Baxter. Give me your word," Maggy demanded. There was a momentary pause.

"I'll call you back in thirty minutes with the answers. Bye." Maggy now expected to be bitched out royally instead there was a somewhat shocked look on both Camille's and Jenna's faces.

"How do you know about word-bonds?" Jenna inquired.

"I have no clue what you mean, but Tessio Nerospina has a code of conduct he seems to keep and that includes not shooting legitimate law enforcement agents," Maggy clarified. "I was hoping he would extend that to Camille here and have his cohorts follow that code as well."

Again, no one laughed. Camille did take Maggy off to eat and it also was clear that the psychics were shunned by the rest of the SID; they weren't cruel about it, but the humans simply didn't want to be around them if they could help it. Maggy entering their little world felt odd.

"Do you feel it?" Camille said as dinner turned into dessert.

"Sure; there is a low musical humming," Maggy answered. Camille and the other seven psychics in the room locked onto her.

"That's what we feel; are you sure you are not one of us?" Camille studied Maggy. Maggy was terrified of being a 'psychic'. All of these people looked drained and haunted way before their time. Damn it all, Camille had status for surviving to be "TWENTY -- THREE" and that felt tragic.

"I don't do what you guys do (whatever that is) but I've always had a sixth sense about danger and I can read people well. I sort of know where people are when I concentrate on it," Maggy said and all she could do was think about how magical that now sounded.

"Well, you don't 'feel' like one of us," so you are lucky with that," a psychic named Brian weighed in. On schedule, all the psychics took their meds. "These stop the worst of the nightmares and stop us from freaking out," he explained.

"Does that happen often -- freaking out?" Maggy requests softly.

"We lose as many to suicide as we do to monsters," Camille confessed. "There were two times, before the medical cocktail was perfected, when a psychic betrayed the unit and bad things happened."

"I'm -- sorry," Maggy was uncertain of what to make of that.

"What can you tell me of this Tessio and his history with Hillary Milne?" Camille prodded.

"Before I joined this group, we had evidence that he was over at Milne's place the night before the bank heists by Tessio and he remained there for two days. Clearly he planned out the Mafia hit with her - so going into Day Seven now."

"Oh," was Camille's, and all four of the other female psychics', responsed.

"What; is there something I'm missing; the guy is a cold-blooded killer," Maggy growled.

"Oh, we know," Camille tried to ward the new agent off of a bad impression. "It is -- well -- we have a financial allowance for the purpose of companionship. None of us date -- at all."

"How does my killer fall into this? He's not a hooker," Maggy made clear.

"Maggy, you wouldn't understand, but for any man to be that close to us for that amount of time is an impossibility. A 24 hour liaison with a 6th Circle Witch isn't possible; the man would go mad," Camille explained then; "How did Tessio ambush you?"

"He's the quietest man I've ever met," Maggy related. "I didn't know he was there until I was on top of him. He's not like you guys, who are loud and musical -- he was utterly silent."

"Let's get in touch with Special Agent in Charge Raithe and see what he makes of it," Camille said. The found Jenna first who was doing a first rate job of telling some self-important government official that they would comply with her request for a media blackout or she'd gladly show them how to crochet with their own intestines while their body, their feet sealed in concrete, was being lowered into the Hudson River -- without using those precise words.

Jenna hurried her conversation along then looked over to Camille when they were done.

"I think we have a Santa Cruz, SA Lewinski," Camille used Jenna's last name this time.

"This Tessio individual?" Jenna received Camille's nod. "In Santa Cruz seven years ago we found a person who could not only see Night Siders, he could follow their landmarks and access their portals to their realms."

"He was working a case with a private eye hunting down missing children and they ran straight into the Night Side. When what they were doing came to light, both the SID and the Night Siders closed in. We caught the guy but before we could get him with the program, he was lured away from our security detail and murdered by a gang of Night Siders."

"All hostile activity died down after that," Jenna said. "We couldn't find their bolt holes and then we had a dust-up in Cincinnati and Scottsdale, so we couldn't stick around. We never found the body so there was no autopsy and we never could figure out how he did what he did."

"So if Tessio Nerospina is one of these he gets a pass on all his murders?" Alvarado accused Jenna.

Jenna didn't act with words. She took off her jacket then rolled up her left sleeve. Just below the elbow were a multitude of savage wounds still not totally healed. She showed the arm to Maggy.

"This is the scar of the creature that nearly took my arm off and I can only show you it because Camille nearly killed herself keeping it attached," Jenna growled. "What I can't show you is the child I was holding onto when the creature swallowed him -- and my arm. The creature's tongue tore the screaming nine year old away from me and I was pleading for the kid to hang on. So fuck you!" Jenna snarled. "I'll recruit a dozen professional hitmen if we have to because he's a human being and they are not."

Around the three women no one seemed to have cared a damn about Jenna's outburst.

"How does anyone here pass their psych eval?" Maggy muttered.

"We don't," Jenna stated, calm once more. "If you do, we cycle you out as an act of mercy." It took Maggy a second to register that those words weren't a joke.

---------------------------------------

Hexane walked around the small room and contemplated her downfall. It was delicious in one way; her old life had become a boring shroud -- safe and sedate. Sure, she had power but was secretly afraid to use it and she was facing up to that fear. For a hundred years she had played it safe, then a chance had dropped in her lap to save a young witch and she'd reached past the safe and normal to take a different approach to resolve that issue.

Hexane was a 'medium' in the Daylight World, a fortuneteller and object reader. This had given her a variety of contacts, one of which had other interesting contacts and that had led her to Tessio 'Blackthorn' Nerospina. She'd only gotten to see him after the contract was fulfilled; by that time the death of the three Opus Dei operators was making the rounds and everyone was wondering why.

Her first thought was how young he was. Truthfully, her first thought was why was 'how did this huge black hole appear before my eye', she recalled staring down the gun barrel, but when she started talking the second thought was how darkly angelic Tessio looked. When she saw how affectionately his ward looked upon him, how closely she clung to him and how little he minded, Hexane had started figuring out ways to seduce him for one night of passion.

He had eventually delivered the girl when she made her choice and Hexane had shared her story among her kind -- sans his name, of course. They had done dinner and nothing else. A month later they had dinner -- and nothing else again. The third time she wrote a subtle charm and slipped it to him and adored him so much she felt like she would weep, or die.

Only when she got home and started to strip for a very cold shower did she discover he had slipped the charm back to her. Hexane had rolled back and forth on the floor laughing. He had disappeared for a year and she was dreading it was over but finally she broke down and searched for him.

She found him in Antarctica making some poor Russian slob climb into a water hole on the ice. Calmly he shoved the dying man's head beneath the surface with a pole until the water froze enough to keep the body down. That level of cold-bloodedness was actually a turn off and that might have ended had she ended her vision there. She held it on the boy for five more minutes and then see saw it -- the Death Note.

Tessio had let the man make a final request, or so she prayed. At Capetown she decided to follow the missive to Kiev where the man's daughter agonized before finally opening and reading the last words of her Father -- both pages. She thought about Tessio, there in the freezing cold, letting that doomed man write out his last request to his little girl. The mode of death had probably been per request, because she had never seen Tessio needlessly cruel since then.

"Your word is crucial," Marissa was lecturing Tessio. "It isn't about lying or the truth, those are mostly human concepts. What I mean is you are responsible for what you promise, be it a boon or a threat."

"So if I threaten to kill somebody, I either kill them or give them a way out when I make the threat," Tessio reasons. Marissa looked at Tessio then nodded.

"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.

***