FIC MC 38 Jul ’01 The Chronicles of Veneer (1/?)
(And so, the powers that be will empower a girl. And thus it will come to pass that this girl and her successor will blight the righteous hordes. Chronicles Of Veneer Chap 1.)
Faith groaned as her cell’s insistently strident ringing dragged her from her warm slumber. Muttering a stream of inventive and increasingly coarser curses, she wriggled an arm out of her bed and grabbed the phone sat on the bedside table. “Yo, this better be good.”
“Blackbird, how are you?”
Recognising both the speaker and his lack of jauntiness, Faith rolled into a cross-legged position in the centre of the double-bed. “Hey, Emerald.”
“Don’t you hey me, missy,” the demon night-club owner scolded. “The whole underground’s alive with what happened with the Council and I don’t get a single phone call telling me how you are!”
Faith’s eyes glistened at the very real concern in the demon’s voice. Uncle Spense might be the only blood relative she had, but despite that she had what she’d always secretly wanted but never thought she’d have. A huge family who all cared for one another. “I’m cool,” Faith replied, voice hoarse with emotion.
“You promise, Blackbird?” Lorne pressed.
“Promise,” she replied. Things were tough sometimes, but as Uncle Spenser had said, she had people to help her through them.
“Well that’s just splendid!” the horned demon enthused before turning serious. “Is your muscle-bound hunk around?”
“Me and Brad are on a break,” Faith joked. “But the chubby I’m datin’ is in the shower.”
“Chubby?” Lorne giggled. “Oh you are a tease.”
“Been called worse,” Faith rose lithely from the bed and started to the en-suite bathroom, “I’ll get him.”
“Thanks, Blackbird.”
* * *
Xander glanced over his shoulder, hearing the sound of the shower door sliding open over the shower’s hot jets splattering around him. A grin spread across his face at the sight of his girl-friend clad only in a bed-sheet. “Are you in the mood for some Xander lovin’?”
Faith shot him a crooked smile. “You should be so fuckin’ lucky,” the Boston beauty replied before turning serious. “Lorne’s on the cell.”
“Oh right.” With a regretful sigh, Xander turned off the shower, grabbed a towel and hurriedly dried himself before wrapping another towel around his waist. “Thanks.” The moment he stepped out of the shower, his makeshift clothing was torn from him. “Hey!”
Faith winked unrepentantly. “Shame on you, Harris. Shouldn’t spoil a girl’s view.”
Cheeks burning, Xander hurried into the bedroom and picked up the cell. “Hey, Lorne.”
“Hello Big Bossman,” the club owner cheerily greeted. “Have I got news for you!”
“Oh yeah?” Xander was instantly wary. Lorne’s news generally ended up with them in trouble galore. “Do tell?”
“Have you ever heard of The Chronicles of Veneer?”
Xander’s forehead creased as he struggled to recollect any mention of The Chronicles Of Veneer. Finally he shook his head. “Can’t say that I have,” he admitted.
“Veneer was a vampire turned in ancient times, around the date Cher bought her first face-lift. He was different than most vampires though. As a human he’d been a seer and his turning somehow enhanced and perverted his talent, turning him into a prophet about a very interesting subject. The Slayer Line.”
“Prophecies are a dime of dozen,” Xander carelessly replied. Despite his retort, he was more than a little interested. After all, his girl was a Slayer.
“Veneer was a cat of an entirely different colour,” Lorne defended. “Not only did he start predicting about Slayers BEFORE there was a Slayer line, he predicted where and when they would first appear, the eventual setting up of the Council, the establishment of the Cruicatmen, and the splitting of the Slayer line.”
“Right,” Xander quickly absorbed Lorne’s words. “Thanks for the tip. I’ll look it up in The Eternal Archive.”
“No baby doll,” Xander rolled his eyes at Lorne’s incessant nicknaming, “it’s written in an arcane dialect - Il Rosa Lingua.”
“Sorry, the what?”
“Once, in times between Mithras and The First Slayer, the vampires had their own society, culture, laws, and languages,” Lorne explained. “Il Rosa Lingua was their permanent language.”
“Right, but I don’t speak it and the Eternal Archive can’t translate demonic languages.”
“But, I with my unique skills will be able to that, chicken,” Lorne smugly responded. “And I just happen to know where a copy of the Chronicles is!”
“Oh?” Xander paused for a second before coming to a decision. It wasn’t much of a choice, a chance to possibly get some information that might give them a chance to prepare for a threat to Faith was just too juicy to pass up. “Do tell?”
* * *
“What do the files got on a vampire called Lucis, Tara?” Xander asked.
“Whose this Lucis cat, X?” Xander noted that Faith was practically bouncing on the couch with excitement at the thought of some action.
“A vampire holding a very interesting book,” he replied. “A book of vampire prophecy detailing the Slayer Line.”
“No shit,” Faith breathed.
“No shit,” Xander replied before looking towards Tara. “Anything?”
“Something,” Tara replied, her face
creased in worry. “Lucis is weird, even for a vampire.”
“Weird how?” Kennedy asked, arm around Tara’s shoulders.
“In 1820, a vampire watched an Athens gangster beat a whore to death in front of her three year old son. Fuelled by some sick impulse, the vampire killed the gangster and took the boy to raise as his own. The child never knew that its new father was a demon. But the vampire took a delight in ensuring the child never knew any love or praise as it grew while also training it thoroughly in the martial arts and using it in various criminal activities, thoroughly corrupting it. At the age of eighteen, the vampire sent the youth out on its final test, telling it to kill a young child, any three year old child.”
“Man!” Faith exclaimed. “Even for a vampire that is sick shit!”
“It gets worse,” a grey-faced Tara replied. “Once the youth had brought evidence, the child’s head, back to his ‘father’, the vampire, satisfied he’d created a perfect killing machine, killed and turned him. That vampire is Lucis and over the past 150 years, he’s become Greece’s vampire kingpin.”
“K,” Faith groaned. “So he’s the demon we’ve gotta kill to get our hands on some dusty old book?” Xander nodded. Faith flashed him a dimple-revealing grin. “Sounds fun.”
* * *
An Undisclosed Location
Alex Perez smiled at the red-haired beauty sat opposite him like a languid panther. Her black leather halter top and matching pants clung to her athletic body like a second skin while her emerald eyes cut through him like a laser. With her waist-length pony tail, exotically-cut cheeks, full red lips, and easy fluidity of movement, she could be a supermodel. Instead she was one of the world’s deadliest assassins.
“And this Lucis is Greece’s criminal kingpin?” the flame-haired killer shook her head, eyes sceptical. “Looking at these photographs he can’t be much more than twenty.”
“Twenty-five,” he smoothly lied. “His youth only speaks to his ruthlessness.”
After a second his guest nodded slowly, eyes still suspicious. “Well I’ve checked Lucis and his background checks out. But I can’t figure out your connection. Business rival?”
“Good god no,” he shook his head in feigned disgust. “I’m a shipping magnate,” he lied, secure that his cover identity would hold. “One of the smaller ones, but a man of substantial wealth nevertheless. However a business of my riches but relative unimportance was far too tempting a target for Lucis. He tried to extort money from me, told me my shipyards might suffer sabotage unless he provided security.” He looked down for a second in faked sorrow; he’d be getting an Oscar for this performance, before returning his gaze to the intently listening female. “I was arrogant, thought myself immune to the threats of some mere thug.” He wiped at his eyes with the back of his hand. “Three months later my daughter and only grand-child were killed in a random ‘mugging’ that I know Lucis was behind. The Greek police,” Perez wrinkled his nose, “are too corrupt to do their job and arrest him. And even if they did, they wouldn’t give me what I want – Lucis’ life.”
The gorgeous assassin looked at him for a long second before nodding. “My own research indicates that Lucis is a pimp, drug dealer, loan shark, and extorter on a massive scale so I’ll kill him for the agreed fee. But that won’t give you what you really want – your daughter and grand-child.” The assassin rose with the effortless fluidity and exited the room without another word.
“No,” Perez replied once the killer was safely out of earshot. “But it will bring us what the Hand really wants – your death, Ms. Natchois.”
FIC MC 38 Jul ’01 the Chronicles of Veneer (2/?)
(And those who once guided the Slayer shall organise and become a group known as the Watchers’ Council – The Chronicles of Veneer, Chap 2.)
Athens Eleftherios Venizelos International Athens
Faith threw her head back as she stepped out of the shadowy first-class plane compartment, the sun bathing her in its glorious warmth. “Man,” she momentarily closed her eyes, “I love Greece!”
“I know,” Tara went into full babble mode. “It’s just amazing! The history! The culture! The buildings! The food!”
Faith stared at her sis in disbelief. “I was more thinking of the sun, getting on a beach, and working on my tan.”
“I’ll rub in the lotion,” Xander eagerly offered.
Faith smirked at her boyfriend. “Slayers don’t burn in the sun.”
“Really not the point,” Xander shot back.
“People,” Faith’s blissful mood took a downturn at Kennedy’s voice, “we’re here to work!”
* * *
“Sire,” Lucis looked up at his subordinate’s entry into his curtain-closed office. “It is as you planned, the Slayer and her companions were spotted by our agents at Athens Eleftherios Venizelos International airport.”
“Excellent,” Lucis allowed himself a brief smile. He was taking a massive risk, but one that could produce even greater rewards. It was fortune indeed that he savoured a gamble.
He didn’t have a personal issue with the Slayer; well no more than any vampire would have with her. Indeed, one could argue that the prudent course would be to do all one could to avoid her, especially given both her allies and victories. But he hadn’t managed his meteoric rise to the head of the Greek criminal and demonic worlds by being prudent. And what was going to happen next would expand his empire to encompass all of southern Europe.
It had taken him a few months to painstakingly place an untrue rumour that he had a copy of ‘The Chronicles Of Veneer’. Judging from the rumours he’d heard about the Slayer’s boyfriend he’d known the tome would make an irresistible target for him.
And so a trap had been set. They were all there; some of the world’s most renowned bounty hunters were also prowling Athens’ age-old streets, hungry for the $7 million bounty. Even some mercenaries were in the city hoping for a taste.
And should the Mithras group by some miracle get past the kill-hungry bandits and reach his mansion, they’d have to make it through his defences. “Go,” he dismissed his subordinate with a widening smile. The demon whose machinations brought down the feared Brotherhood. No one would dare stand in his way.
* * *
“Look over there Faith! There’s the The Herodes Atticus Odeon. It was built in 161 by Herodes Atticus in memory of his wife, Aspasia Annia Regilla! Isn’t it amazing and so romantic!”
“Yeah,” Faith rolled her eyes as Tara continued to babble on about the old ruin stuck on the side of the hill. If she’d wanted to see falling down buildings she’d have stayed in Boston. Jesus, when Tara got a girl-toy, she thought she’d be free of babble.
* * *
“Signor Harris is a lucky man!” Edwin Falco commented. “To be surrounded by such beauties!”
“We’re not here to chase putas!” Julio Falco tore his gaze away from the admittedly tantalising women crossing the busy street across from the kiosk they were loitering at and to his brothers. It was only because of his innate discretion that he was able to hide his disdain for his siblings. Although he was a thickly-muscled man with what he reluctantly acknowledged was a brutish appearance, he was in fact the brains of their operation. His brothers with their male model features and surfer bodies wrapped in executive suits were immaturely dangerous idiots and the reason they were all here.
Just a few years ago it had all been so different. They’d been a hit-squad for the Venezuelan government, operatives for the secret police unit, the DSIP. For years, the DSIP had kept an iron grip on their country, ruthlessly pointing down any opposition to the government. They’d been amongst the feared agency’s elite, assassinating any dissident foolish enough to think that foreign borders would be enough to save them from their government’s retribution.
They’d been feted in the highest government circles, regarded as men of importance and no little influence. Until, Julio glowered, his idiot brothers had gotten greedy and started to take jobs on the side – killing for drug lords, foreign despots, and terrorist groups. They’d murdered their superior when he’d discovered their sideline and fled the country. Since then they’d lived on the run, killing for pay. The bounty Lucis was offering was by far the biggest they’d ever been contracted for. He knew there were other agents engaged to hunt the foursome, but that money was going to be theirs.
* * *
Dense green foliage on all sides blocked her view of the black-bricked mansion but her sources indicated that the three storey mansion measured around twenty thousand square feet. The top floor was rimmed by sweeping balconies, the front ones overlooking the winding, white-pebbled driveway and arched, double-doored entrance.
From her vantage point overlooking the sprawling building, she stared at the darkness-shrouded mansion, lips pursed in a scowl and a line furrowing her forehead. As was her wont, she’d built up an extensive dossier on her target – likes\dislikes, hobbies, business interests, friends\contacts, and schedules. Most of what she’d found was the usual if disturbing examples of what humans could sink to. But some was confusing; during the day Lucis never left the house, virtually living as a hermit. At night though he was an enthusiastic part of both sides of Athens’ night-life. In public he’d often be seen in the flashiest of nightspots, always with a beautiful but different girl on his arm. In private, he’d be seen callously dominating the gambling dens, crack houses, and sex clubs that made up Athens’ seedy under-belly and were the hidden source of Lucis’ fantastic wealth.
Finally she smiled. Lucis might fancy himself as the master of the night, but she was its mistress, and soon he would be her prey. Smile still fixed, she melted back into the night’s dark shroud.
FIC MC Jul ’01 The Chronicles of Veneer (3/?)
(And lo, the Council shall travel from humankind’s cradle and to the centre of every succeeding civilisation from that point on. The Chronicles Of Veneer Chap 3.)
Faith held back a yawn as she sipped her coffee and Tara excitedly chattered on about some trinket or other she’d just bought. It amused her no end the crap sis would buy as mementos of their trips. Like they were tourists or something, way the girl was going she was gonna end up filling the Always Pocket.
Although Faith had to admit Athens was something else. A city steeped in centuries of legend and history, even although her killjoy boyfriend insisted the legends were a bag of crap. Not even London, she shuddered inwardly at the memories, came close to its stateliness. And yet as always in the big cities, there was a shocking contrast between the lifestyles of its rich and its poor. Life sucked most of the time.
Faith stiffened as the hairs on the back of her neck prickled uneasily. Reacting with a Slayer’s instinctive speed, she blazed into action. “Down!” she roared before snatching hold of Xander’s collar and flinging him to the café’s tiled floor even as she cleared the table in a single leap, hitting the two lesbians sat opposite across the chests, knocking them to the ground.
The exclusive café’s discreetly tinted window exploded as Faith hit the unforgiving floor on her shoulder. Glass shards and flames erupted into the café, slicing to ribbons or burning those unfortunates sat nearest the tinted window.
“Shit,” Faith rolled up into a crouch facing the carnage. Broken bodies lay strewn through-out the devastated furniture, their blood soaking the floor tiles. The fortunate ones were whimpering and groaning in pain, but far too many were deathly silent, although the patrons unaffected by the devastation were more than making up for their silence with terror filled screams. Finally she glanced towards her grim-faced boy-friend. “You think this is a coincidence?”
Her faint hopes of evading guilt were dashed by Harris’ headshake. “We can’t afford to believe in coincidence,” Xander looked towards the others, still in a crouch carefully below window-level. “Come on, out the back way, through the kitchen.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Faith agreed. They started to the back, Xander and Faith leading the way. Once they were out of the way of the window, they rose to their feet and effortlessly shoved aside panicking customers and staff rushing for the exit.
A single kick took the kitchen’s door off. The now deserted gallery was filled with the tools of its trade – ovens, fridges, knives, and the likes, and the smells of traditionally Greek dishes filled the air. Reaching the exit, a little white door sandwiched between two industrial-sized fridges, Faith kicked it open.
She’d barely taken a step outside when she was diving back inside, the force of her flying body knocking her companions over for the second time in quick succession. Splinters flew everywhere as a bullet crashed into the door frame’s left side.
“Nope,” she heard Xander’s dry mutter. “Not a coincidence.”
* * *
Angelo Falco gasped at the girl’s lightning reflexes. He’d read the files on the Slayer, but they simply didn’t do her justice. He sighted his rile for a second shot, angling it for just inside the kitchen.
“Report.”
Angelo cursed inwardly as his headset crackled into life, Julio’s annoyingly arrogant voice coming in loud and clear. “They seemed unhurt,” he reported. “I took a shot and missed, she’s quick but I’ve got them pinned down. I’ll-.”
“Negative,” his brother interrupted. “The pigs will be on their way here.”
“But-.”
“No buts,” his brother rasped. “You know how we play this. On our terms and our timetable, this isn’t it. Move out.”
* * *
“You alright?” Faith’s nod was all the reassurance Xander needed. Ignoring his wildly beating heart, Xander flashed his girl-friend a taut smile before pulling out a smoke grenade and throwing it out of the kitchen in the direction of the shooter. “When it explodes run up the alley in the opposite direction!” he shouted.
“What if there’s a shooter there too?” Kennedy demanded.
“Damn,” Faith rasped as the grenade exploded. “You always ask the damnest questions don’t ya?”
”Then,” Xander charged through the doorway, sweat streaking down him, “we’ll all
die horribly, but me first!”
Visions of the decimated café flashed before him as he raced down the narrow cobbled alley, unerringly following its myriad twists and turns. Guilt’s bitter taste filled his mouth. He hadn’t set the explosives that had killed so many innocents, but he was sure that the explosives had been set to kill them. Those dead were his responsibility. And so was dealing with their murderers.
“If we’re made, we’ll have to ditch the car and the villa,” Faith commented from behind him, her breathing untroubled despite their frenetic pace.
“Already thought of that,” Xander replied. “We’ll switch to our secondary ids and hire from different companies.
“W…who do you think it was?” asked a panting Tara. The witch, although fit by normal standards, was the least natural athlete of the quartet.
“I don’t know,” Xander admitted with a scowl. They weren’t exactly short on enemies.
“Could be Lucis” Faith suggested.
“Maybe he found out about us coming here and decided to hire some guns to take
us out.”
“Maybe,” Xander agreed, slowing to a careful walk as the side alley spilled out into a busy main street. “But before we find out who’s setting us up, we need transport. Shout out if you see a sign for a rental place.”
* * *
“Thank you.” Lucis smiled inwardly as his subordinate finished his report. Upon hanging up, he rose and started across his cellar. His junior doubtless had expected him to lose his temper after receiving his less than satisfactory report, but Lucis wasn’t angry. Far from it. Indeed, he’d have been disappointed if the Slayer and her companions had fallen at the first hurdle, hardly worth the effort. It was the final result and not the game’s playing that was important.
Finally he turned to his guest, a willowy beauty of Samoan origin, complete with doe eyes and flowing black hair. “I’m sorry about the interruption dear,” he smiled at his next meal, “what were you saying?”
FIC MC Jul ’01 the Chronicles of Veneer (4/?)
(The Council will settle in a yet unnamed land to be called Engerland during the middles ages of the technological time. Over the centuries its purpose will be lost and the Slayer will become alone and vulnerable - The Chronicles Of Veneer, Chapter 4).
“Are we going to back off from Lucis for a little while?” Kennedy asked from the rear of their new rental.
“Back off?” Beside him, Faith snorted disdainfully. “We don’t back off from anyone, we came back twice as hard and finish them off.”
Xander grimaced as he took a corner in Athens’ notoriously tight streets, gritting his teeth at the shuddering from the cobbles beneath their racing car. Kennedy’s suggestion was more technically sound, but Faith’s worked on a get, visceral level. Besides they had a reputation to upkeep, the Brotherhood didn’t back down, they made others cower. “We stay,” he finally replied.
“I don’t think-,” Kennedy’s voice changed from trucelance to one of anxiety. “Look! Police cordon ahead.”
Xander scowled as he registered the battered squad car with a trio of sub-machine gun toting patrolmen around it. He glanced at his worried companions, foot easing onto the brake. “They’re probably all over the city after the bombing. Stay calm; our ids are 100% unbreakable.”
“Something smells, X,” Faith commented. “Police cordons are usually more than one car, ‘specially for a major sitch like this.”
Xander’s brow furrowed. Faith had a point. “Maybe they’re really stretched, have cars out everywhere?” his argument sounded weak even to his own ears.
“No,” Tara’s alarmed but very certain voice rang out from beside Kennedy, “their auras, something’s wrong.”
Xander scowled. He remembered something he’d read in a hacked Interpol report, a record of a trio of killers who’d masquerade as police officers of whatever country they were operating in to ambush those they were contracted to kill. It just had to be them.
His eyes shot to Faith. “Grab the wheel and keep the car going straight at them!”
“Sure, X!” Faith’s coal-black eyes widened but she reacted with her usual instinctive speed. The moment the brunette’s delicate yet awesomely powered hands took hold of the wheel, Xander grabbed a M16 out of the Always Pocket.
A quick thrust of the weapon’s butt took out his window with an all encompassing smash. A half-second later and he was leaning out of the shattered portal to the twin accompaniment of the wind tugging at his hair and his girl-friend’s curses screeching in his ear.
Ignoring all distractions, Xander sighted his weapon’s scope. He had just a glimpse of the nearest fake cop’s shocked expression. Then he squeezed the trigger.
The rifle bucked in his hands, its harsh retort filling his ears as the sight of the man’s exploding head filled his eyes. Quelling his curling stomach, Xander sighted on the second man, noting with relieved satisfaction the distinctly non-standard issue rocket launcher the panic-stricken assassin was pulling out of his car’s trunk.
Before the killer had chance to sight his weapon, he joined his companion in the dusty road, blood pooling out of a fatal wound to the head. The third dived for the hoped for safety of his car’s far side only for Xander’s speeding rental to smash into it. Xander’s car jumped with the impact, jarring all within, but the fake police car flipped over, crushing the final killer under it, his dying screams in the bone-shattering collision.
“Fuck, X!” Faith screamed as their dented rental shuddered past the corpses and wrecked vehicle. “They couldn’t be the same assholes who bombed the café, they couldn’t have organised this fast enough!”
“I know,” Xander nodded. “There’s more than one team after us, Lucis must have put out an open contract. A big one.”
* * *
“The True Death Troika have been found dead on the city’s outskirts, their corpses and care riddled with bullets.”
Lucis smiled as he listened to his underling’s whispered report. Better and better. The Mithras quartet were proving to be a real challenge. “But ,” he paused to pick up a silver goblet, “the others?”
“They’re still in the hunt.”
“Excellent,” Lucis smile widened as he raised the goblet to his mouth. The fluid inside the receptacle spilled over his lips, the warm crimson of his most recent victim filling his mouth. “Then soon Athens will be a charnel house and the Mithras Brotherhood will be nothing but a foul memory.”
* * *
“Ha, oh, god!”
The sweat-drenched man half-ran\half-stumbled through the winding alley, feet slapping on the rain-slicked cobbles and his wheezes a clarion call. The moment her target was parallel with her shadowy alcove, she glided into action.
She was next to her heavily perspiring prey before he was aware of it. Her heel cannoned into the outside of his knee, shattering the bone and sending him crashing into the wall, head bouncing off the unyielding surface. The man’s mouth opened in a scream that turned into a croak when her elbow smashed into his throat. Eyes glazed, and otherwise swarthy complexion purpling, the man’s legs finally gave up the ghost. The man hit the ground with a splash.
Piggy eyes widening in shock, the prey reached into his jacket. “Ahhhh!” the man croaked as her sai blade thundered into the back of his hand, blood gushing out. A sneer parted her lips as she crashed a foot into her prey’s crotch, doubling him into a ball.
Her prey was a short man with corpulent lips and down-hanging jowls, and thinning hair whose custom-made suit failed to hide his toad-like physique. It was hard to believe that such a man was one of Lucis’ major henchmen. “You’re nothing without your boyfriends,” she scoffed as she stared down at the beaten-down gangster. “Did you seriously those two thugs could handle me? I’m insulted!”
The sweat-drenched gangster looked up at her. “I’ll tell you nothing.”
“No.” The thug threw back his head and screamed when she thrust and twisted her second said blade into the man’s meaty left thigh. “I rather think you will. For example, I have seen many of my business rivals in Athens. Has Lucis dared to hire these rank amateurs to kill me?”
“No! No! No!” Eyes like organ-stoppers, the criminal shook his head. “Nobody ever knew you were coming! Not until tonight!”
She crouched before her victim, eyes narrowing as she pondered the man’s words. “Who then?”
“Lucis baited a trap to snare the Mithras Brotherhood.”
She raised an eyebrow. Of course she’d heard of the Brotherhood, the underworld was rife with dark whispers of the recently formed world-wide vigilante organisation. However she couldn’t see Lucis’ motivation for tugging that particular lion’s tail. “Why?”
The gangster shuddered at her single
word question. “He feels the death of the Brotherhood at his hands would
elevate and cement his position in the international criminal society.”
“Oh.” Her brow furrowed in thought. The Mithras Brotherhood wasn’t her consideration, if they were all their tales said they were, then they should be able to deal with them. No, she was here for one reason and one reason only. To kill Lucis.
Finally her decision was made. Simultaneously yanking her blades out of her victim, she them through opposite sides of the man’s neck, flesh and bone no obstacle to tempered steel. She watched dispassionately as the man’s head bounced down the alley before rising and melting into the shadows.
FIC MC 38 Jul ’01 the Chronicles of Veneer (5/9)
(Once the Council has descended into corruption, its leaders will design a test intended to thin out the least capable of Slayers when they reach their eighteenth year – The Chronicles of Veneer, Chapter 5).
“We’re still hitting Lucis?” Kennedy queried.
Xander nodded even as he peeked out of the window of the dusty roadside café they’d hastily disembarked at. In the distance the sun was setting, signalling the end of another hectic day in the life of the Mithras Brotherhood. Sighing wearily, he returned his gaze to his friends. “Tonight.”
“But what about the other hit-teams?”
Faith demanded from her position sat opposite him. “What are we gonna do about
these pricks breathin’ down our necks?”
“Nothing.” Seeing the look in his girl-friend’s eyes, Xander shook his head. “We take out the contractor, we take out the killers’ motivation for coming after us.”
After a second Faith nodded. “Makes sense I guess. ‘Til then we hide?”
“No.” Xander shook his head. “Best we keep on the move.”
Faith glowered. “I don’t like running.”
“The assassins are unimportant,” Tara put in. “Getting the Chronicles is.”
“I know,” Faith nodded grudgingly. “Don’t mean-.”
“I have to like it,” Xander, Tara, and Kennedy finished for the supernatural warrior.
If anything Faith’s glower intensified. “You’re a right bunch of funny fuckers ain’t ya?”
* * *
Snaggle chuckled deep into his cavernous chest as he watched the party-goers stream out of one of Athens’ most exclusive nightspots, the finest in synthesised euro-pop likewise spilling out. The scales lining his spine rippled as a thickly built man barely out of his teens stumbled out of the club, the combination of drugs, adolescence, and alcohol turning the unwitting youth into a raging hormone bomb.
A smile stretching his twisted mouth, Snaggle flexed his thighs and, cloaked by the darkness, leapt onto the flat roof of the three storey building behind him. He bounded from roof to roof as he stalked the youth weaving drunkenly through the streets. He grunted in concern when the boy stepped off the kerb and into a moderately busy road. Horns blared and cars screeched as the oblivious brat stumbled to the other side of the road.
Shaking his head, Snaggle decided he had to kill his prey before the idiot killed himself. Snaggle dropped into a squat before powering across the road, cold air brushing against his leathery skin.
Seeing the building opposite fast approaching, Snaggle extended his claws. A second before the inevitable bone-jarring impact, he dug his three pronged claws deep into the grey-bricked building. After a steadying breath, he quickly climbed up the building.
Reaching the roof, he looked down in every direction. Realising the teen was nowhere to be seen, he closed his eyes and concentrated. First he filtered out the stench of oily car engines. Next to go were the rich smells of the restaurants. Lastly he discarded the chemical signatures of anyone else in the locality, searching for his prey’s enticingly unique scent.
“Got him,” Snaggle growled. Turning in a north-westerly direction, he bounded from building to building, excitement growing as he neared his unwitting victim.
As the inebriated boy entered a deserted alley, he moved in front of him and dropped to the ground. The boy reared back, eyes filling with a primeval fear and mouth opening in a scream that turned into a croak when Snaggle rammed a clawed hand deep into him.
His claws flawlessly finding the youth’s adrenal gland, he yanked his now bloody hand out of the gaping wound. Eyes fixed on the greying youth, he lifted the dripping gland to his mouth and bit down on it. Even as the gland’s rich flavours ran down his throat, energising his already powerfully body, the young man fell face-first to the ground.
Snaggle threw back his head and moaned as he felt his v-shaped wings erupt from his back. Now recently fed he was at the peak of his powers. Dropping the now drained gland beside its former owner, he launched back into the air, nose quivering as he searched for the distinctive signature of a Slayer.
* * *
An effortless leap took her to a branch foolishly left over-hanging the brick wall surrounding Lucis’ mansion. A long moment was spent inspecting the mansion’s grounds and then she dropped soundlessly to the area outside the mansion. “Tomorrow Lucis. Tomorrow,” she whispered a promise before dissolving into the night. Now her reconnaissance was completed, plans had to be made.
* * *
Tara’s blood froze as they entered an empty thoroughfare, the normal market stalls packed up for the night. A vice clamped and twisted at her chest. Reaching out, she grabbed Faith’s denim-clad shoulder and spun her best friend around to face her. The Slayer barely had a chance to raise a quizzical eyebrow when it arrived.
The thing dropped out of the sky like a stone, its v-shaped wings flapping furiously and its thickly muscled body somehow darker than the very night itself. Wickedly curved teeth glinted through the darkness like a sword through flesh. The creature’s awesomely muscled limbs all ended in three-pronged claws the match of any knife.
And then the beast’s sibilant hiss sliced through her being. “Magussss.”
A spell danced on her lips but then the world went black.
* * *
“SHIT!” Faith’s eyes widened in shock when her sister suddenly crumpled to the paved ground. Reacting with unmatched speed, she lunged forward, catching the fainted lesbian inches from a crunching landing.
The hairs on the back of her neck prickled. Reacting instinctively, she dropped to the ground, twisting in mid-air to land on her shoulder before rolling onto her back, Tara’s limp body on top.
Any lewd joke about Tara finally getting her wish was forgotten at the sight of the monstrosity sweeping down at them. Suddenly the air cracked to the sound of bullet after bullet crashed into the beast’s side.
“Gaaaaaaah!” The demon let out a screech before lunging at Xander, its body apparently uninjured by the attack. At the last second, Xander flung himself to the left, crashing into some discarded cardboard boxes.
“Fuck!” Heart thumping, Faith shoved Tara off and bounded to her feet, leaping to intercept the thing as it changed direction to again swoop at her man.
A back-handed wing swipe caught her full in the face. The force of the blow lifted her from her feet and sent her cart-wheeling into the far wall. Teeth grimaced and body protesting, Faith flung herself to the ground a moment before the beast swung in, its foot-claws smashing into the wall where she’d been lent. Faith coughed as she rolled back up, dust from the damaged wall deep in her lungs. The creature’s brief smile chilled her even as she lunged at it, her short sword’s point leading the way.
The monster bounded over her attack with a powerful flap of its wings. “Ffffuck!” Faith howled in pain when one of the creature’s foot claws snatched a hold of her, sharp talons digging deep.
But then Xander was there, rage etched in his face as he crashed an axe into its left side. Faith gasped when the beast threw back at its head and let out an unearthly scream even as it released its agonising grip on her shoulder. A brownish ichor dripping from its side, the beast snatched hold of the back of Xander’s head as her boyfriend struggled to yank his weapon free and flung him face-first into the brick wall.
“Big fucking mistake!” Rage replacing the pain surging through her, Faith ducked beneath the beast’s swinging foot claws to thrust up at her attacker’s distended belly. At the last second the monster pulled back, turning her hoped for impalement into a slicing cut.
And then the beast’s fetid stench filled her nostrils as it attacked, smashing blow after blow into her even as she slashed uselessly at it. At one point she thought she saw Xander lunge at the creature only for once again her boyfriend to be back-winged to the ground.
Suddenly a shadowed figure dropped out of the sky behind the demon. Faith picked up the cold glint of steel and then the creature’s head flew off its shoulders, blood vomiting out of its severed neck. Faith leapt back as the creature crashed to the ground, body trashing in its death throes.
Faith’s eyes widened as she sprang to their rescuer’s side. “Damn, Ken,” she looked up as she offered the potential her hand and realised the tiny beauty must have climbed a drainpipe and dropped down onto the monster, “that took balls.”
Kennedy grinned at her as she rose. “What can I say, I’ve got a set.”
Faith grinned back at the lesbian, the first embers of friendship flickering into life. “You sure have,” Faith looked towards a slowly rising Xander. “You okay hon?” Her battered boyfriend nodded. “Five by five.” Faith shuddered as she looked at the misshapen corpse spilling blood all over the market’s flag-stones. “One of Lucis’?”
“That’d be my guess,” Xander agreed.
Faith scowled. “It’s way past time we taught that mother a lesson, a terminal one.”
FIC MC Jul ’01 the Chronicles of Veneer (6/?)
(And yo, although the power of the Watchers’ shall remain in the old world, the lineage of Slayers shall pass to a recently re-discovered yet old part of the world. – The Chronicles Of Veneer, Chapter 6)
“So, sis, any plans to faint on us again?”
Tara flushed at the Slayer’s bantering tone even as she was helped up by Faith and Kennedy, her head still woozy. “It wasn’t Tara’s fault.” All three girls looked towards Xander crouched over the monster’s corpse. “This was a Narguile.”
“A what?” Kennedy prompted.
Xander didn’t look up from his inspection of the deceased demon. “The Narguile were created by the Old Ones to hunt down mages during the great war. Not only were they impervious to magic, their very presence could cause mages to pass out from fear.” The Sunnydaler looked up. “I thought they’d all been wiped out though.”
“Ah,” Faith looped an arm around Tara’s shoulders. “I know there’d be a reason my kick ass sis had fainted.”
* * *
Julio Falco looked at his brothers. “You are ready?” the suavely-dressed duo nodded. “Then we kill them.”
“I’m afraid I can’t allow that.” Julio joined his brothers in snapping their looks towards the speaker. Julio’s eyes widened at the tall, flame-haired beauty stood by the previously locked window.
His astonishment grew when, in the same second, the lithesome woman drew and flung a sai blade into Angelo’s throat. “Get her!” Edwin’s scream filled the air even as Angelo dropped to the ground.
His brother’s yell shattered the shocked spell hanging over Julio. His hand dipped inside his jacket, drawing his Beretta with mercurial speed. At the same time Edwin snatched up his Steyr.
Round after round ripped into the wall behind the red-head as she dodged impossibly between bullets. The couch was likewise peppered with bullets, stuffing flying everywhere, when the mysterious intruder dived behind it.
Arid smoke filled Julio’s nostrils as he hurriedly re-loaded his gun, glancing across at Edwin as he did so. “Let’s flank the puta,” he ordered, voice thick, raw, with emotion.
His brother nodded as he rammed a full magazine into his Steyr. “I’ll swiss-cheese the bitch!” Edwin promised.
Heart thundering and mouth dry, Julio crept up to the crouch from the left, Edwin moving in from the right. As the two of them drew parallel, the killer surged up from behind the furniture. Julio had the briefest second to marvel at the brilliance of the woman’s emerald eyes and then a sai blade was hurtling into his neck.
* * *
Elektra stared down disdainfully at the trio of corpses strewn across the rented building’s lounge, the blood already soaking the carpet. Pure chance had caused their paths to cross, she’d been contacting her supplier when she’d noted the three brothers leaving a near-by underworld haunt. Mindful of what her unwilling informant had told her, she’d trailed the assassins to their hideout. After eavesdropping on the oblivious contract killers, some impulse had compelled her to kill them.
She shook her head in disgust. The professionalism of her calling meant she shouldn’t allow herself to get side-tracked into other people’s affairs. But sometimes she couldn’t help it. “Time to get back to business,” she reminded herself before ghosting back out of the window she’d just entered through.
* * *
Xander smiled as he watched the custom-made red sports car roar up the winding path leading to Lucis’ mansion. The mansion’s metal-grilled gate glided silently open before the vehicle and clanged resoundingly shut after it. “Lucis is home,” he announced as he placed his night-vision binoculars back in The Always Pocket.
“How can you be sure the car is Lucis’?” Kennedy asked.
“The vanity plate BL00D, that’s Lucis,” Xander replied.
“Wicked,” Faith bounded up from her position crouched beside him. “Let’s do this.”
* * *
Faith was first onto the top of the wall, leaping onto the 18 foot high stone structure. Faith grinned as she threw a pair of cables attached to grappling hooks down to her companions. Bracing herself, she revelled in her strength as Kennedy and Xander started climbing up the wall.
“You’re such a show-off.”
Faith smirked at Tara as the witch levitated onto the ledge beside her. “Says you, Sabrina.” She looked around as Xander and Kennedy made the wall. “Geez, from the tug on the left I figured that had to be Xander. You really need to look into a diet, Ken.”
The potential glared at her. “Maybe you’re just weak on the left side, Faith.”
“Nah, you’re just F-A-T,” she shook her head at the very idea before looking down at the darkened grounds. “Catch you on the other side.” Stepping off the ledge, she dropped to the ground, cold air whistling around her as she plummeted. Landing with feet spread apart to minimise the impact, her head snapped to the left at the sound of approaching feet.
Or in this case, paws. “Oh choice,” she muttered at the sight of the dangerously-muscled Doberman charging her, hot saliva dripping over its savagely-pointed teeth. “Why do I never get attacked by bunnies?”
Head still shaking at the unfairness of life, Faith waited until the snarling attack dog leapt at her, teeth bared to rip her throat out. The moment it was in range, her foot shot out. Her boot cannoned into the dog’s jaw, snapping its head to the side and dropping it soundlessly to the ground.
Hearing the others behind her, she turned and smirked. “Do you ever get here on time? Always having to fight for you.”
Xander grinned back at her. “Sorry Xena, but do we appreciate your efforts. Now,” her boyfriend’s face stiffened, “we need to hit the ground fast, the floodlights will be sweeping around soon.”
“Geez,” Faith smirked as she joined the others in complying, “any excuse to get me horizontal.”
“I don’t usually do that in polite company,” Xander whispered.
Faith chuckled. “Ain’t you been payin’ attention, X? Sis and Ken ain’t no-one’s idea of polite company.” Faith stiffened as the light passed over them.
The moment it had gone, Faith surged to her feet, the others a half-second behind her. Faith looked towards Xander. “Basement entrance at the rear, right?”
“That’s where Lucis keeps his artefacts,” Xander confirmed as they started towards the house.
“I thought we were going slay Lucis,” Kennedy whispered as they reached and flattened themselves against the front of the building, crouching down under the window-sills.
“Damn, Tar,” Faith whispered in her sis’ ear. “You really go for the bloody-thirsty minxes don’t you?”
“I used to fancy you didn’t I?” Tara responded.
“Ouch,” Faith chuckled.
“Faith,” Xander spoke as they crept around the building’s corner and headed to the back, “is going to assassinate him while we get The Chronicles and anything else Tara thinks might be useful. But first we have to get inside.”
Finally they reached the basement entrance, a steel vault door set in the lush lawn just before the rear of the building. Xander looked towards Tara. “How long the floodlight need to do a full circuit?”
“Thirty seconds,” the witch breathlessly replied.
Faith saw Xander grimace in the torchlight. “That code that Lorne’s source gave us better be right.” Her boyfriend directed the torchlight down onto the number-pad encased in stone beside the door. “Here goes.” The fingers of Xander’s free hand nimbly danced over the key-pad, pressing in a five number code.
Faith held her breath for a half-second. Then the steel doors hissed open. “Guess Lorne’s source knew his stuff.”
“Guess so,” Xander agreed. “Let’s go.”
FIC MC Jul ’01 the Chronicles of Veneer (7/?)
(And in the last years of the twentieth century after the ascension of the accursed one, the Slayer Line will be split when a friend of the Slayer shall bring the Slayer back to life after she drowns. For the first time ever, there will be two Slayers - The Chronicles of Veneer, Chapter 7.)
“Oh, please enter,” Lucis purred as he watched the quartet unlock his basement entrance through one of the security monitors dedicated to the extensive network of cameras he had secreted through his mansion’s grounds. “I’ve been so looking forward to your visits.”
* * *
Xander shone his torch down into the darkened underground chamber. The light illuminated half a dozen stone steps leading to a narrow passageway lit by a series of flickering bush torches stuck into the wall. “Go to Greece, see the sights,” he muttered. “Although this is a little off the tourist route.”
Hairs prickling on his neck, he started down the stair, his friends following close behind. “Anyone else think it was weird there weren’t actually more guards?”
Xander nodded at Kennedy’s question. “Lucis probably likes to keep his minions they’ll all be in the house with him, in case of attack.”
Faith chuckled. “As the one planning to kill Lucis, can I say how reassuring that is?”
“Cry baby,” Xander responded.
* * *
Eyes glinting with amusement, Faith looked towards her boyfriend, mouth opening in an insult. And then two pairs of incredibly thick glass panes shot up out of the ground and slid up to the ceiling, penning the four of them into a box. “Shit!” Faith shot out a foot, smashing into the substantial glass, but although it shuddered under the impact the pane failed to shatter or even crack.
“Relax,” despite his words, Xander sounded anything but calm himself. “I’ll just get some C4 and -, oof.”
“X!” Faith’s heart leapt into her throat as her boyfriend joined Tara and Kennedy in toppling to the ground. Faith looked left and right, alarm building as a great lethargy filled her. “Oh shit,” she breathed as she noticed a series of holes in the left wall and felt a slightly clammy wind brush against her face. “Gas!”
Desperation and adrenalin fuelling her, she repeatedly slammed her foot into the glass pane. “If I was you, Slayer,” she glanced to the right wall in time to see a panel slide away, revealing a TV screen with Lucis’ hatefully recognisable face smirking back at her. “I really wouldn’t waste your energy, the knockout gas should be affecting you-.”
* * *
“Right about now,” Lucis finished as the supernatural beauty joined her companions in crumpling. Lucis shook his head. The Brotherhood were a little disappointing to be honest. They’d left an impressive body-count through the city en-route to getting to his mansion, but once here they’d walked tamely into the first of his traps.
Not that it would have made much of a difference anyway. Given the number of traps he’d secreted through the house, one of them would have gotten the quartet eventually. Turning his intercom to another channel, he issued a curt order. “The subjects are in the basement tunnel, please escort them to the video-conferencing suite. And I know they’re tempting morsels, but anyone who takes a bite will have to answer me.”
* * *
“Oooooh,” Faith shook her head as she awoke, the world slowly returning to focus.
“Hello Faith, it is truly an honour to be in the presence of such an august not to mention beautiful legend such as yourself.”
“Yeah?” Faith glared at Lucis while also checking out their surroundings. They were in a room with walls covered with intricately weaved tapestries. Her friends and her were all chained to chairs facing Lucis and a video camera, but while the others were hooked up to IV drips, she wasn’t. “The pleasure’s all yours.” Faith stared fearlessly at the video camera. “Let me guess, snuff movie?”
The vampire laughed. “You’re closer than you might wish. I fully intend to behead the four of you on video while my counterparts in Italy, Spain, and Portugal watch. I hope my slaying of the heads of the notorious Brotherhood will show them once and for all just whose lead they should follow.” The vampire glanced towards Faith’s friends. “You’re perhaps wondering why the others are drugged and not yourself?” After a second Faith nodded. A few really uncomfortable thoughts on that subject had crossed her mind. “The potential is of no interest to me,” Lucis shot Kennedy a disparaging look. “If not for her connection to the Brotherhood, I have no wish to hear from her. The witch is interesting, but if I was to allow her to awaken her powers would turn her chains to tissue.” Lucis shot her boy-toy a yearning look that made her skin crawl. “Your man is probably the most intriguing individual I’m ever likely to meet, but if I was to give him a moment of wakefulness he would doubtless resort to that Always Pocket of his.” Lucis smiled. “But you are the most celebrated Slayer in recent centuries and if you don’t have any special powers other than those to aid you in escaping the restraints. So I thought” the demon squatted before her, “it might be fascinating to converse with you about your exploits before your regrettable execution.”
“Sure,” Faith smiled. “I got your conversation right here.” She spat full in the demon’s face.
“That was very foolish.” Lucis chuckled before rising, a thinly amused look on his face as he pulled out a monogrammed handkerchief and carefully wiped her spittle away. “I was trying to be a good host and you have to react like that? Perhaps a simple beheading won’t be enough for you.”
“Maybe you better kill me now,” Faith warned as the demon sauntered out of the room, “’cause I’m figuring to make sure you don’t get another chance.”
“And how,” Lucis flashed her a playboy’s smile, “do you intend to do that?” Faith glared impotently at the demon. Lucis’ smile widened. “That’s what I thought. Goodbye for now, fair Faith.”
* * *
Elektra’s eyes furrowed at the sudden flurry of activity in the previously quiet mansion, lights flickering on and off, people moving about inside. For a second she continued to look through her binoculars, considering her options. Deciding that her best chance was to take advantage of whatever was causing the confusion in the mansion; she pocketed her binoculars and nimbly climbed up the tree she’d discovered placed by the mansion’s wall. Leaping onto the over-hanging branch, she swung and somersaulted into the mansion’s grounds.
Her brow furrowed when upon landing she noticed a crumpled shape on the ground beside a bush. Dropping to all fours, she crawled over to find a Doberman with a broken neck. “Someone hostile is already here,” she breathed. “Must be the Brotherhood.”
Elektra shook her head. That was unimportant. She’d signed a contract to kill Lucis and that was what she intended to do, no matter who was here.
FIC MC Jul ’01 the Chronicles of Veneer (8/9)
(And lo, the second Slayer shall rebel against the Council, and together with her boyfriend, the re-born Mithras, shall form an international demon-hunting group, the mightiest since the first days. – The Chronicles, Chap 8.)
“Fuck, Harris!” Faith glared at her comatose boy-friend. “You can fucking sleep can’t ya?”
Given that Xander was drugged it wasn’t completely his fault, Faith grudgingly admitted. But then she wasn’t in the mood to be charitable. Her clothes were plastered to her with sweat caused by her futile attempts to break her chains and her voice hoarse from screaming at her friends to wake up.
“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” she impotently cursed. If her feet weren’t chained to the chair’s legs, she’d wrap them around Xander’s IV stand and try and rip it out, but with her lower limbs manacled she couldn’t. She’d looked around the well-lit chamber, but there was nothing she could use to free herself, even if she could reach it. In a life spent getting into tight situations, this was one of the tightest ever.
She blinked when the lights flickered and then went off. “Well isn’t that interesting,” she muttered. Maybe there was a chance for them after all, although she really didn’t want to know who would be crazy enough to go after Lucis. After all it had all gone just so well for them.
* * *
Elektra glided through the shadows, moving from bush to bush, secure in the knowledge that although Lucis employed floodlights, grilled windows, motion and sound alarms, he only used his guards in the house. Seeing the aforementioned floodlight secured to the mansion’s roof sweeping towards her, she ducked behind a tree, pressing herself against the rough bark.
The moment the light had passed over, she was on the move again, powerful strides carrying her to the building, breath untroubled by her frenetic pace. Reaching the house, she chose not to enter immediately, but to get to work on the padlocked generator and fuse box on the left wall. She smiled as her fingers danced deftly over the padlock, the lock soon dropping to the lush lawn with a clink. Swinging the metal grey door open, she pulled a pair of pliers out of the calf-skin bag of tools swinging over her left shoulder and cut the wires, plunging the house into darkness.
Elektra smiled as she heard the shouts coming from the house. “Confusion is a killer’s friend.” Looking up, she leapt nimbly onto the near-by drainpipe and started climbing, monkey-like, up the wall and to a window that she knew led onto a second floor landing.
* * *
“She’s a little spitfire,” Lucis chuckled as she watched the Slayer struggled fruitlessly to free herself. He had little doubt she’d fail, but also little doubt she’d not stop trying until death’s cold hand settled on her.
Speaking of which, he turned to his second in command, a Cretan whose custom-made suit failed to conceal the thick, slab-like muscles contained within. “How long until the others are ready?” Best to get these things over with.
The demon, a vampire he’d turned almost a century ago, glanced at his PDA. “Italy have been last to respond to your summons, sir. They should be on line in the next twenty minutes.”
A smile on his face, Lucis steepled his fingers, placed his elbows on his immaculate desk, and leaned forward. “Excell-,” he looked up when the room was flung into darkness. Hearing the shocked cries of his fellow vampires throughout the mansion, the idiots didn’t realise the darkness failed to effect them as it did humans, he guessed the entire building was affected.
Rising, he looked expectantly towards his subordinate. The Cretan vampire bowed his head. “I’ll look into it,” the demon promised before hurrying out of the room.
“See that you do,” Lucis muttered before glancing towards the video screen. He was disappointed to see the video screen likewise had gone dead. He grimaced, he couldn’t see how the Slayer had managed to turn off the power, but he had best check on her anyway. Rising, he started to the door.
* * *
Elektra leapt up into the ceiling, spreading her limbs so that her feet and hands were clinging to the beams, as she heard two pairs of approaching footfalls. She clung to the ceiling as a pair of suited men walked onto the darkened landing. Her eyes widened when the men stopped and looked up, staring unerringly through the inky darkness to her. “How?” she whispered.
Shaking off her shock, she released her grip and dropped to the plushly carpeted ground. Landing in a cat-like crouch between the two men, she leg-swept the man over the railed landing. Turning towards the remaining thug, she barely managed to lean from an astonishingly fast right hook and follow-up left hook before thrusting a hastily drawn sai blade into the man’s left thigh.
Her shock grew when the man seemed to barely notice her attack. Instead, a snarl on his lips, the man lunged at her, hands out-stretched into almost claws. Thinking quickly, she pulled out a tiny bomb she used to blow locks and threw it into the man’s mouth, flinging herself to one side to avoid the inevitable explosion.
The darkness was briefly illuminated by a bright flash. Elektra’s eyes widened as she rose; surprised that the force of the tiny explosion had completely disintegrated the man and her blade. Hearing the sound of feet charging towards her, she turned in the opposite direction and headed deeper into the sprawling mansion.
Another man veered out of the darkness before her. Elektra drew a sai blade and, without breaking step, sliced it through the man’s neck before stalking past him without a second look. “Should have hired better security.”
Elektra started down a sweeping stairwell. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw a silhouette she instantly recognised as her target. Even as recognition flickered through her mind, she was moving. Hands flashing down to draw her second pair of sai blades, she leapt soundlessly over the banister and at her target’s back.
“Aaaaah!” Pain crashed through her face when despite her stealth, Lucis spun around to face her at an inhuman speed. The gangster smashed an unavoidable and awesomely powerful right backhand into her jaw, the blow temporarily making her see stars. Hitting the ground on her shoulder, she rolled up to her feet, wincing at the metallic taste of blood in her mouth. The man came in fast, allowing her barely enough time to eel away from a heel kick that smashed into the wall, dust flying everywhere.
Taking advantage of the man’s missed kick, she leapt into the air, wrapping her legs around the gangster’s neck and twisted. A crack resounded as the man’s neck snapped, head flopping to the side. The two of them plummeted to the ground, Elektra rolled up, satisfied that she’d completed her mission.
And then the man stood and smiled disarmingly at her.
* * *
“What are you?” his attacker whispered.
“My dear,” Lucis smiled at the stunned red-head before vamping out, “I am a vampire of course.”
FIC MC 37 Jul ’01 the Chronicles of Veneer (9/9)
Vampire? Elektra stared ashen-faced at the approaching man\demon. Instinct took over as the creature glided into a leaping hook kick aimed at the back of her neck. Dropping into a ball, Elektra rolled away from the attack then leapt to her feet.
Fangs glinting, Lucis charged. Elektra leapt backwards just in time to avoid the attack. Feeling her back brush against the hallway wall, she feinted to go left then went right. Vampires, she thought quickly, how did the legends say one killed a vampire? She had no garlic, fire, or wood. It would have to be a decapitation.
Even as she considered her options, Lucis caught her with a contemptuous backhand that sent her sailing into the air. “Assassin,” the vampire stalked towards her. “If you are to kill me, you must try harder.”
“Thanks for the tip,” Elektra muttered through mashed lips before leaping to her feet, hands dipping into her bandolier to draw and fling a throwing star at the vampire gangster’s head. The moment the demon glanced towards her attack, she drew another star and threw it at his right thigh.
A grin on his face, the demon leaned away from the first throwing star, the grin turning to a glare when the second star bit deep into his thigh. “Clever,” the vampire snarled his praise before charging her again.
Elektra leapt into a drop kick that the vampire easily slapped away. Hitting the ground on her side, she allowed the momentum to carry her almost the full length of the hall before springing up. Seeing the demon moving at her, she dropped into a crouch and sprang upwards, leaping for the classical glass chandelier dangling from the ceiling.
And was met by the laughing vampire bounding up to meet her.
Ducking a right, she drove her head into the demon’s shoulder with enough force to knock him away from her. Upon landing, she ducked under the diving vampire, blades flashing up in an unfortunately unsuccessful attempt at beheading.
Rising, she spun to face the beast. Heart thumping, she drew a garrotte and flung it, keeping hold of one end. The moment the wire wrapped itself around the surprised demon’s neck, she pulled it tight. The demon’s mouth opened in protest a half-second before he disappeared in dust.
Suddenly drained, she slumped against the wall, body lathered in sweat from the brief battle. Forcing herself upright, she glanced towards the door that Lucis had been heading towards before her attack. Curiosity overcame expediency as she headed towards it, sai blades gripped tightly in sweaty palms as she readied herself for whatever lurked beyond.
* * *
Faith’s eyes snapped to the door as it crashed open and a flame-haired woman dressed in skin-tight red leather trousers and matching halter top strode in. “Oh crap,” she muttered. “The crazy bastard sent his vampire girl-friend for the obligatory bad film lesbian bondage scene. Originality please!”
“Who are you?” demanded the red-head.
“I’m a prisoner,” Faith said slowly. “You’re a crazy vampire. Remember?”
“No,” the beautiful stranger drew her blades. “I just killed Lucis. And seeing as you’re tied up I’m guessing you’re his enemies. So,” the woman crouched by her, “I’m going to take a chance.” The woman started to cut through the ropes. “Who are you anyway?”
“That’s a long story.”
* * *
“I don’t like the idea, Xan,” Faith shook her head sulkily.
“You’re just pissed she rescued us.”
Faith shot Kennedy a glare before looking towards her boy-friend. “You’ve seen her record, she’s a contract killer.”
“Ethan was an assassin,” her boy-friend pointed out.
“For the government,” Faith shook her head again before slowly speaking for the learning-challenged in the room. “Elektra’s an assassin for hire. That’s a whole different league of bad.”
“I’ve read her,” Tara put in. “She’s done some questionable things, but her aura reads well. And yes, she kills for money, but she doesn’t hunt innocents.”
“And she was good enough to take down a hundred and fifty year old vampire,” Xander added. “Records indicate she’s an Olympic-level athlete and gymnast, possessing strength, speed, agility, reflexes, and endurance that few normal humans can match in addition to being a world-class martial artist.”
“Fine!” Faith flung her hands up in
disgust. “You wanna ask her, ask her!” Faith looked towards Kennedy when the
potential chuckled. “What?”
The brunette potential smiled. “I was just admiring what a good loser you are.”
* * *
Elektra watched as the quartet entered the lobby of the exclusive hotel they’d fled to after she’d rescued the foursome and between them they’d annihilated the remnants of Lucis’ troops. They were a strange group, the apparently resurrected warrior god, the beautiful Slayer, the timid-seeming yet powerful witch, and the warrior woman potential.
All their stories were just too fantastic to be believed. And yet so was the recently proven existence of vampires.
Elektra smiled wryly. She’d have to pay her informants a visit. The Mithras Brotherhood were merely a vigilante group?
“Hi,” she looked up to see a nervous-looking Xander Harris stood by the side of her circular table, “do you mind if we joined you?” Elektra nodded wordlessly. “Thanks.” Once the four had sat, Xander spoke again. “Thanks for rescuing us.”
Elektra took a careful sip of her tomato juice before nodding. “Glad to be of help.”
“We were wondering if you’d consider running our Greek operation for us,” Xander continued. “There’s five groups of eight demon hunters scattered throughout the country, someone with your abilities would be-.”
“I work alone,” Elektra interrupted with a shake of the head.
“Screw this,” Faith interrupted. “People need people. Your record says you only hunt crims, cheats, and such. Yay you, what happens when you start to slip? You tell yourself that maybe the industrialist who’s a little sharp in his business dealings deserves the bullet. And then it’s a police officer who maybe bends a couple of rules to get a conviction. Soon you’re killing anyone.”
Elektra stared at the apparently wise beyond before her years and her education Slayer. The young brunette returned her stare unflinchingly. Stick had once said something very similar although far more eloquently about the life of an assassin, how it deadened the soul. This on the other hand wasn’t about killing bad people; it was about protecting innocents, a purer more noble cause to use her skills in. Finally she nodded. “Give me the information, I’ll do it.”