So the novelty of the one-chapter-a-day posting is wearing against the worry and fretting of leaving the country in a few days. I know it's cheap to shift the date of posting, but this time I did, just to keep it even. I'll do better this weekend, and maybe even post a bonus chapter before I leave on Monday. Till then, enjoy 23.

***


I went over the list in my office. Caninus was still upstairs, waiting for me to assure him the sun was down and my cousins were down in my basement playing video games and, I suspected, looking for my beer. Unfortunately for them, it was upstairs and it wasn’t beer. My work was hard, so my liquor needed to be too. If I smoked, I’d have been doing so with reckless abandon. I was worried as hell.

Five to kill. Five to rise. And I had no clue where to start. I didn’t want to kill the werewolves—they were innocent, as far as I cared, in Antoinette’s game. But I didn’t have the option to ignore them. I might be able to swing framing a vampire or two—surely there were dirty deeds in at least one closet! But if I could get the werewolves to leave or something, I was one step ahead.

I dialed Keith Jacobs first. On the second ring, a masculine voice answered, “Hello?”

“May I speak with a Keith Jacobs?” I did my best telemarketing accent.

“Off the list, honey,” he said, as he hung up.

“Fuck.” I hit redial and he grabbed it on the first ring. “You’re incredibly rude,” I said before he could comment.

“I told you, take me off your calling list. I’m not interested.”

“It’s an exclusive list, though,” I snapped back. “Only people the Master of the city wants to see dead.”

He paused, clearly in the process of hanging up. “What master? There are plenty who fancy themselves holding that title.”

“But only one vampire ballsy enough,” I countered.

“Antoinette. Shit. Are you calling to warn me or something?” I could hear his voice turn angry.

“You should’ve gotten a call from Eric,” I sighed. “Forgetful bastard.”

“Eric…he called a couple days ago. Shit, are you Lucifel?”

I barked a laugh. “Yeah, that’s me. I meant to call earlier, but had death threats of my own to handle.”

“Yeah, sorry. Eric told me you had some information? Bad shit, he said. Hold on while I switch to the other line.” I did and the line went dead for a moment. As I was debating hitting redial, he came back. “I can talk now. So what’s the info?”

“She’s got a hit on you.” I don’t pull punches.

“I sorta figured,” he replied, his voice gruff. “We’ve had…rough dealings. I thought you might have something new.”

“Yeah,” I replied with a bitter laugh. “I’m the hit man.”

“Fuck! Why the hell warn me? Why call?” He was about a half step from threatening.

“Because I don’t want to, but if I don’t, she’ll kill my kin and then someone else will kill you,” I answered bluntly. “Your options are as limited as mine.”

“But you fucked up. Now I know you’re coming and I’ll be ready for you. Did you want me to kill you or something?”

“No,” I heaved a sigh. This was harder than I thought. “I want you to kill you.”

“Suicide? Fuck no.” He laughed, “You’d have to be a lot better talker to get me to jump.”

“Not suicide. Fake it. You’ve seen Romeo and Juliet, right?”

He paused a moment. “Yeah, we read it in high school. So you want me to fake my own death? Take a potion and mysteriously die?”

“No,” I said. “Not exactly. I need you to make a stop at the pound…”

*&*

“Going out?” Caninus said, as I shrugged on my coat. Darkness had barely fallen, but he looked wide-awake.

“I’m starting on Antoinette’s job,” I said, not looking at him. “Figured I’d start with the easy ones and work my way up in complexity.” I turned to regard him seriously. “You’ll tell her I’ve started? I don’t want her to kill off Alayna, thinking that I’m stalling.”

“I’ll give her your message, and your regards, I’m sure.”

“If you’re giving regards,” I shot back, “You’ll need to tell her to go fuck herself.”

“Easy, Lucifel,” Fanin said, coming up from my basement. “You look fit to slay something.”

“A werewolf, specifically,” I replied.

“Merula just pulled up,” Foyl said from my shoulder. “She’s going to take you two back to the safe house.” The cops wouldn’t let them stay in Strass’s place, but they couldn’t stay here either so the cops had set them up a safe house in the mean time. I hoped it worked.

“Cool,” Derek said, giving me a hug as he pulled Fanin out the door. “Give us a ring when you get home.”

“I will,” I said, watching him go. “Caninus,” I turned back to the vampire. “Don’t let her hurt Alayna. And see if you can convince her to have someone else raise those dead.”

“I’ll try, angelus, but she’s set on you. You’re the best—she’d need to kill fifteen people to get those back.”

“Try. That’s all I’m asking for now.”

“And try I will. See you around.” I nodded in return, ushering him out the door before I coded the alarm and stepped out myself.

*&*

Keith and I agreed to meet at an underground garage to start with. That was where we’d make the exchange before heading out, separately to fight in the kid’s baseball park. He’d beat me there but only by about fifteen minutes. He was right that it was perfect—I’d cased the park before arriving at the garage. There were even trees deep in left field that would make a great retreat and the smattering of teenagers drinking and smoking joints in the stands would serve well for our audience.

I met him the garage, and had to admire his acquisition from the pound. “He’s huge!” I said, unsure. “Are you certain he’ll work?”

“Oh yeah. He’s a little lighter colored, but the darkness will help with that, and he’s a little small. But he’s the best I could find—he’s got a bit of a vicious streak so he’ll fight.” I looked between the two, noting the natural silver of Keith’s hair. He grinned at my securitization, causing the odd nicks and scars on his face to wrinkle. “Trust me.”

“Fine,” I said, handing him the newspaper and getting back in my car.

We met at the park fifteen minutes later. He was walking down the road, strategically, and I stalked up to him from the area of the field. “Keith Jacobs,” I called from a relatively safe distance.

The kids turned idly to look at us. Keith turned, saw me and turned utterly white. I had a feeling this wasn’t going to go according to plan. He ran through the park for the trees. I should have shot him, but I gave chase instead. I was faster than he thought—I overcame him before he made it to the pitching mound. I tackled him, pulling out my silver knives. A chorus of “fuck” and “what the hell” came from the teenagers. I re-evaluated—they had a lot more beer in them than pot. “Fucking bitch,” Keith said, wrestling with me, and damn near throttling me. This was not in the plan.

“You shouldn’t step on toes you can’t handle, Keith,” I taunted, even as he overpowered me. I tapped his wrists, the signal that I was in pain. He ignored me. Son of a bitch, he wasn’t going according to plan. He’d decided the best thing to do was take out the threat that I posed to his life, rather than my plan. “You shouldn’t change your plans when you play with fire,” I squeaked through what little air I was getting. “You’ll get burned.” I flicked my wrists and the bracelet’s catch released, the blades slicing at his hands.

“Fuck!” He pulled away and I slid away from him expertly, pulling out the Casting as I reset the bracelets. “You’re a fool. You’re a joke.”

I pulled the knife from my boot with my other hand as I rolled to evade him. “I don’t joke. You should know that.” He lunged at me and I dove away, but he was already there, and managed to pin me to the ground. My energy spiked with my temper and I threw him off of me with a painfully executed twist.

“You’re a fucking legend,” he said, circling. “You’re Lucifel. Why stoop to working for some half-fanged vampire?”

“Why do you think? Blackmail,” I sliced his shoulder with the knife and winced as he howled. I circled as he circled. In a low voice, I added, “Why don’t you stick with the plan?”

“You’re a bitch. A worthless, idiotic bitch.” he said, and bolted as soon as he could to reach the woods.

“Fuck!” I yelled, but he was into the trees before I was halfway there. “Son of a…bitch.” From the woods came a massive canine. He leapt on me, fangs nicking at my throat before I put the Casting to his head and fired.

My ears rang as my heart mourned. It wasn’t like he deserved it. But…he attacked me. I tried to justify it, sighing. I was getting too used to killing. As he twitched, I struggled up and fired another round at him. “Fucking asshole. Why’d he have to screw with the plan so badly?” I mumbled as I held my arm where it was sliced wide open. The muscle was starting to show, but I clenched back the nausea as I came down of the Elven adrenaline.

“Shit,” the most sober of the teens said, stumbling toward me. “Do you need…an ambulance or some shit?”

I recoiled at his breath and snapped, “I need you to figure out what a breath mint is, asshole.” Another wave of pain recoiled from my arm and I clutched it tighter. “Shit. Call…somebody.”

“Yeah,” he said, running a hand through his hair. “But…like…we aren’t twenty one.”

“No shit? Then I’d better just bleed to death. Don’t want you to get busted. Dipshit, they can’t arrest you for it because you called them here. Tell them to send the OWLE squad.”

“Oh, no shit?” He turned to his friends. “Hey, he was a werewolf! Fucking crazy!” He turned back to me as he fumbled with his cell phone. “Casey is a werewolf too, and he said it couldn’t be or some shit.”

“Fuck that, call, you asshole,” I snapped, cutting the pain back. It hurt worse than I’d thought. But I knelt by the body and grabbed its jaw. I knelt on its chest and secured my fingers around his slick canine, giving it a vicious yank as I tore it out. “I guess I didn’t keep to agreements either.” My stomach rolled and I stood up slowly, trying not to vomit.

“Hey, um…I need an ambulance,” the kid said, being careful not to slur his words. “There’s a lady here…”

“You fucking suck, kid,” I said, grabbing the phone from him. “This is Lucifel. Get Sergeant Coil over here immediately with an incineration squad. There’s been another…scuffle. A werewolf attacked me.”

“Yes, ma’am, but neither you nor Sergeant Coil have the authority to order an incineration squad.” Fuck, they’d taken that away from him already?

“Fine,” I snapped back. “You don’t have to send shit. Everyone is fine,” my anger spoke for me, cutting me away from the pain. I’d regret it later, but I had an emergency kit in my car that would make do. “I’m reporting this like a good citizen, alright? Since the body falls under OWLE jurisdiction, thought, it comes to me for autopsy and testing. So I’ll just take it with me.” I was glad I’d started keeping that tarp in my trunk. I could roll it up in that.

“Ma’am, I don’t know if I can allow that.”

“Are you saying that the police would investigate me for murder? I’ve got plenty of witnesses who saw that he attacked me when I tried to talk to him. You want a statement? Get it from them or come to my house. I’m done dealing with the bullshit.” I snapped the phone shut and handed it to the kid. “You wanna make a quick fifty?”

“Huh?” Stars, you have to love the wit of these kids.

“Fifty bucks to help me get the body in the tarp and into my car, and to help me bandage this arm.” I sniffed at his breath again, “It’ll buy plenty of that cheap shit you’ve been drinking.”

“Are you serious?”

“Fifty bucks, take it or leave it,” I snapped. I was doing that plenty lately.

“Shit…yeah, yeah. Casey, you guys get down here. Help a lady out.” The others ambled over from the bleachers as I walked back to my car. The tarp and emergency kit were in the trunk, so I pulled them both out.

“Get over here,” I said to the one who looked the most sober. “Wrap the gauze around my arm. Tight. Tighter—don’t be afraid of it, for Stars sake.” He pulled tighter and I gasped involuntarily. “That’s about right,” I said when he started to slack off. “Pull it tight and wrap it around.” He did so gingerly until I was ready to do it for him. When it was settled around my arm, I flexed it slightly and nodded. “Tape it off and help me get that were in here.”

The damn thing was heavier than I’d expected. We managed, gingerly, to get the tarp over him and grab his legs. With lots of shouted anger, we managed to get him flipped around onto the tarp. It took four of them to get him to my trunk safely—I didn’t dare try to lift it. “Thanks,” I said to the leader as I pealed a fifty from my wallet and handed it to him. “The cops will want your statement. I suggest you tell them to refer any questions about my jurisdiction to a guy named Coil. It’ll piss them off, but get you off the rack.” I nodded at them. Who says that today’s youth isn’t helpful? “He attacked me—I just wanted to talk to him.”

“Whatever you want,” he said as I handed him another ten.

“Have fun explaining to your parents,” I replied, pulling into my car and pulling away.

When I was outside my house, I called Antoinette’s number. On the third ring, an answering machine kicked in. “Keith is gone.” I hung up before I said anything else. I had to work slowly, but I hauled him into my backyard. The fire pit was there for destroying anything dangerous. I tossed him in and lit it up. I just stood there, watching as the furry corpse flamed up into the sky. My heart mourned, to know I still hadn’t beaten my killing streak. Softly, I muttered the prayers I’d known for so long, offering my sorrow for his slaughter and my apologies. I shouldn’t have been so emotional. It’s kill or be killed, but it sucked that he had to die for me to live. I wished I’d had the courage, the ability, to let it go the other way.

“She got the message,” Caninus said softly from behind me. “I got the message.”

“So I figured,” I replied, not looking at him, still staring into the flames, ignoring the beginnings of hurt tears.

“Why?” His voice was strained with enough emotion that I had to turn to face him. “Why would you?”

“I didn’t have a choice,” I replied, my as deadpan as I could manage. “It’s not like I wanted to.”

“You had a choice,” he said, anguished. “You know you did. Instead, you killed an innocent werewolf. He was a good person, did you know that? Beloved in his pack for his strengths. And you killed him because a monster like Antoinette ordered you to?” He was almost yelling, the anguish plain in his voice.

I took a step toward him threateningly. “I had no choice, Caninus. It was kill him, or watch her kill Alayna and then Elris and then Derek and Fanin. And then me. And I will not sit through that. So she sent you here for a reason. Fulfill it and leave.”

“I…” his face looked pinched in the fire light. “I…I was so sure you wouldn’t stoop so low, Lucifel. Aren’t you are so much better than this?”

“No, I’m not.” I said, spreading my hands to show him the palms. “Trust me, I’ve my share of blood stains. Now. She sent you for a reason.”

“Proof,” he said, looking into the fire mournfully. “She wants proof that it was Keith. She won’t be happy your torched it all.”

“Not all,” I said, reaching into my pocket for the bloodstained canine. “Most of the blood is his, probably some of it is mine. Let her do her genetic testing, let her do a were test, whatever. It’s his.”

He took it gingerly. “You break my heart,” he said softly, palm closing around it.

“Mine too,” I said bitterly. “Now get out.” To my surprise, he nodded and left me alone to ponder what the hell I’d just done. Why didn’t anything go like I planned?