Deadly Friends/Unexpected Enemies 01

Even as Tegus made the same realization he discovered he had a serious fight on his hands. Tegus was a master of a dozen martial styles; blades and body both. Three times the human tripped him or knocked him down but when Tegus finally got his blade into play Marissa knew she was witnessing the final act. Tegus corralled him expertly between a corner and a window.

Marissa didn't see the next thing coming until Tegus lashed with his blade, expertly moved the tip past his shotgun the human was trying to parry with and bloodily exposed a rib. The play wasn't over yet because the human trapped the blade with the gun and his body and spun Tegus into the window. When the Fey touched the ward he was blasted back – just like the human had seen Marissa jolted at the door.

The two males collided, the human grabbing Tegus by the wrist controlling the sword as they fell to the ground. Tegus was stronger, more experienced, and didn't get tired. The human had some kind of undetectable luck and a survival instinct on steroids. Tegus forced them to their feet; the cost being a small belt knife being driven into Tegus' left eye. That really made him howl.

Blows went back and forth until Tegus maneuvered the man against the wall. The man had to use two hands to keep the blade at bay which freed up Tegus' left to start choking the man out.

The human brought his knee up into Tegus' crotch. For Tegus, the act was more humiliating than painful – mortal flesh could do him no lasting harm.

"Enough of you Insect," he spat in English so the human could know his death had arrived. Tegus brought up his left knee to the man's hip, removed his hand from the man's throat and grabbed the boot dagger he had there and got ready to stab his opponent.

The flaw in his strategy was as he shifted his weight he telegraphed the move. Both the man's hands were tied up keeping Tegus' sword arm at bay but nothing stopped him from smashing his forehead into Tegus' face. Silvery elfin blood splashed everywhere and for an instant Tegus was off-guard. As fast as any Night Sider, the man grabbed the wrist that held Tegus' dagger and drove the blade up into the top of Tegus' neck.

The long thin blade punched through the crown of the Fey's skull, leaving the victim with an eternal look of surprise as death took him; Marissa could hardly believe it. It still didn't matter. The building was starting to fall apart in a blaze, her heart had been stilled, and there was no friendly force coming to her rescue. She descended into darkness unable to cry out her anguish and fury.

Skulking from the Ashes

Inside her nightmare Marissa felt every death; as each one of her brood was extinguished, their dying agony was channeled into their dame's heart and mind. Someone was erasing her from existence. If they all died there would be no one to call for vengeance. She had not been betrayed by Armand – he was a bug; a drone.

No, she had been betrayed by the Council of Night itself, but she didn't know why. Blissful sleep took her before she could tear apart her mind trying to figure out why. Her last thoughts were that it really didn't matter; the diviners of the Council would find her, powerless, and scatter her ashes to the wind.

Marissa regained consciousness as the Sun set once more. Strong vampires such as herself could stay awake during the day if they desired but it took more will than she could currently summon. Her body kept to the supernatural cycle without her to direct it otherwise. What she also felt was warm ... and full. She should have been famished with the damage she'd taken.

She sniffed the air cautiously. There was a vague scent of antiseptic, wood oil, blood, human habitation, some kind of fuel, with a barely perceptible industrial stench behind it all.

"Good, you are awake," the human greeted her. Marissa opened her eyes a slit and regarded him and her surroundings. What she saw made her eyes grow wider and she almost laughed.

"Where am I?" she asked quietly.

"On my boat, the 'Marisol', on the East River," he replied. Marissa snickered, then chuckled then openly laughed out loud.

"Why here?" she questioned.

"It is one of my least well-known hideouts," he shrugged. This was hilarious. One of the few things that could disrupt Night Sider divination was running water and this man had put her on a boat, in a river. She actually wanted to hug the man without ripping his throat out at the same time, and then she noted he had a .45 within easy reach.

Marissa looked around and the next thing she noticed was the IV sticking into her heart. At the other end was a half-drained bag of blood. As she propped herself up she noticed a trash bin nearly full with other bags and medical supplies.

"How long have I been out?" she inquired.

"Four days," he responded matter of factly.

"You've been taking care of me for four days, getting me blood and ... new clothes and, I assume, tending my wounds. Why?" she wondered.

"What was I going to do; leave you in a burning building, or tie you to some chains and concrete blocks then dump you in the Hudson?" he told her calmly.

"I would have thought you would leave me for my own people," Marissa answered. "That would have been the smart play."

"So I'm going to kill all those - creatures and your people are going to do what? Write it off as the price of doing business? Lady, I'm what you call a witness to a crime except there is no law enforcement agency that is going to step in and save me. Helping you is the best chance I have of figuring out what's going on," he explained carefully.

"Did you kill the other mummy?" she hoped.

"Never saw him, but then I didn't want to stick around. I grabbed your dagger, the freak's sword, and you then jumped out the window," he informed her.

"Wait - how did you get me out the window?" she asked.

"I jumped," he sounded confused. "You know, kick out the window sill and take a leap of faith – jumped."

"Ooohhh ..." she grinned. He was human so the ward didn't affect him or anything he carried, even if that thing was a vampire. This fucking human had really saved her life. "Can you -" she motioned to the needle in her chest.

The human picked up the gun and placed it on her stomach then proceeded to gently extract the needle.

"You don't trust me?" she smiled coyly.

"You are a vampire and you subsist on human blood – thirty-eight pints to date – and I've seen you fight poisoned with one critical and two serious wounds; I know, I stitched you up," he said.

"You needn't have bothered; vampires naturally reknit their wounds," she responded.

"I though the same thing, but after I figured out the IV went into the heart, your shoulder and back wounds kept oozing blood. I had to go in and cut out the blackened tissue and stuff the holes with cotton balls and 'new skin'," he explained. "I saved the bolt in case you wanted to try and figure out what in the hell they shot you with."

"Where's the ..." she asked fearfully.

"The bolt is in the trunk at your feet, the poisoned tissue is over there in the tin marked 'Poison', and you expelled the gauze late last night when you were having one of your nightmares. At least I assume they were nightmares; you cried tears of blood," he informed her.

"And you have stood watch over me the entire time?" she whispered.

"No, I go out during the midday hours to get things like blood and supplies, plus I check with my sources to see who is looking for me. Sooner or later someone will put the two of us together and then the shit hits the fan for real. I'm getting ready for that," he added.

"In case you are wondering, I only get two or three units of blood from each source because I figure that is one of your two weaknesses and they'll be looking for that. I am also pretty sure I haven't been followed, at least by normal means," he stated.

"Okay; so I've asked a few questions. Is there anything you want to know?" Marissa allowed.

"What is your name? I've been taking care of you for four days and I don't even know what to call you - besides Vampire Lady," the man said.

"Marissa, Liege Lady - Former Liege Lady of Manhattan," Marissa told him. "Who are you?"

"Tessio Nerospina, independent contractor," the young man answered.

Marissa's head went spinning back to another time and place nearly a century gone. Her eyes gained a tender quality and a dreamy smile crept onto her lips.

"You are Giorgio 'The Rosary' Nerospina's ..." she mused.

"- great-grandson," Tessio filled in when her own genealogical math failed. "You knew him I take it?"

"I didn't 'know him' if that's what you mean," she grinned sensually, "but I knew of him. He was quite a guy during those early days of the New York Mob – a real lady-killer."

"I've heard rumors I have little unclaimed cousins running around out there," Tessio chuckled.

"I don't doubt it, but I could do a blood test if needed," she joked.

She would never get the chance to do that; Tessio had to die. From the moment he had interfered in her assassination and been confronted with her inhuman nature he had signed his own death warrant. As soon as she could Night Sider law dictated that she had to kill him.

"I'll keep that in mind," he acknowledged her offer.

"So, are you a 'made man' yet?" she added. This was also taboo she knew, for him.

"No," he snorted. "I'm only twenty-four. I doubt I'll join La Costa Nostra before I'm thirty, if the offer comes at all. It isn't like the Families are what they used to be."

"Twenty-four? Damn, you are younger than I thought," she re-assessed her rescuer.

"Most people think I'm older," he mollified her. "I took my first contract when I was fourteen and I've been told that gives me an older man's eyes."

"There was a time when the thought of a fourteen year old professional killer would disturb me, but not anymore," Marissa admitted. "Now you Humans can't grow up fast enough to kill one another."

"Are you telling me that you've never fed on children before?" Tessio challenged her. Her first thought was what gall he had for questioning anything she'd done to survive.

"So what if I did?" she responded with narrowing eyes.

"So you hated yourself for doing what you had to do to survive," he commented dryly. Had he been smug about it she would have slapped him across the small stateroom, but he wasn't; he understood some of the dark things one did to live and the marks they left on you.

"So why are you alone?" she asked instead.

"Marissa, I kill people for a living. I've been to all seven continents to fulfill contracts usually on short notice, so I'm hardly reliable husband material. I started training in the martial arts when I was six so fighting is pretty much all I know," he confessed.

"You were in Antarctica? How did that go down?" she was intrigued enough to ask.

"A Russian burned some French associates of the Mafia; he fled to a station down there and I hunted him down and put him under the ice," Tessio related. "It was only that one time though." Marissa knew that Tessio wouldn't be telling her these intimate things unless he knew he was going to die, which made her sad.

"So, what are your plans," she attempted to distract him.

"I have about $50K in cash, a big bag full of guns, and an armored BMW stashed a few blocks away - assuming you and I can reach an accommodation," he eyed her. Tessio picked up the gun and stepped away.

Marissa judged the power of the gun and the quickness of the user. He's put one or two slugs in her before she covered the very few feet between them, but she doubted it would be enough except ... too many dead Night Siders had underestimated this man. She noted the gun wasn't pointed at her; it was pointed at -

"What's in the closet?" she asked.

"Three canisters of natural gas," he acknowledged. Yes, that would do it; he'd kill them both and she had absolutely no doubt he'd take the shot and double sure she couldn't stop him.

"What do you want to know?" Marissa smirked, accepting that his 'mere' human had outfoxed her.

"Tell me your situation and honestly let me know if I have any way of getting out of this alive," he inquired as he leaned against the wall and rested.

"I'm not sure it matters. Any Night Sider – things like me – who sees you and discovers what you know will have to kill you, but since it hardly matters anyhow - I was the head monster in New York City, I had an enemy who controlled things north of the Harlem who somehow convinced our leadership, called the Council of Night, to kill me."

"I am pretty sure that all my - offspring are dead and my allies either dead or scattered. They have had four days to bring my people down, they think I'm dead and I might as well be dead because the Council of Night isn't some organization like the FBI. It is like every law enforcement agency in the World trying to kill me on sight," Marissa explained bitterly.

"Two things Marissa," Tessio wondered, "if everyone on the Night Side wants you dead, why are you enforcing their laws and trying to kill me, and since everyone who was an ally of yours is most likely converted, fled or dead, is there anyone not associated with you that we could go to for help ... assuming we have something to trade for their aid that is?"

Marissa flopped back down on the bed.

"You are not going to let me just die, are you Tessio Nerospina?" she muttered.

"Lady, if you want to die, I'll load the gun and hand it to you but don't expect me to give up just because you've become a gutless wonder," he said evenly.

Marissa's eyes grew wide then narrowed dangerously. Before she could scream at him, or tear his head off she felt his words strike home. Who the hell was she to crawl into a grave and pull the dirt in over her? So she was going to eventually die but they were going to know they had screwed with the wrong vampire lord damn it.

She rolled onto her side, her breasts bouncing slightly.

"How would you like to join me and become a Night Sider as my vampiric offspring; become immortal?"

"No thank you," he responded politely, "but I hardly think being tied by blood to you will help me survive. This is not why I kept you alive, to become immortal. If I am checking out of this life, I'm doing on my own terms."

***

Armand let his gaze wander around the audience hall – his audience hall and a smile crept to his lips. The latest supplicant had been dismissed and now the worst thing he had to do was decide whether he wanted to hunt in the World or have a victim delivered to him.

"You should not dawdle here, Liege Lord Armand," Salvador Rossini rasped out. "It is unwise to remain in places she knows so well." The mummy's throat had dried up eight hundred years ago. The wind forced upon those withered pipes made a sound that made Armand shudder. Why be Night Sider if you couldn't enjoy the pleasures of the flesh?

"She is dead," Armand assured his 'advisor'. "Surely we would have found her by now if she still lived. Your divinations have revealed not a single sign; she's nothing but ashes."

"Barton has returned," the advisor wheezed. "Zyninski, the Liege Lord of Pittsburgh sent him back minus both arms and his tongue." That implied that the Lord didn't trust Armand's words, fear his strength, or respect his ability to defend himself.

"If he was harboring Marissa, you would have found him there, wouldn't have you?" Armand worried.

"Zyninski is no friend of Marissa, but he guesses the truth and despises you for it," Salvador lectured the young vampire. "If he becomes more than a nuisance we will deal with him."

Armand wasn't the smartest undead in Creation, but he was smart enough to cringe when Salvador talked about 'Their' ability to 'deal with' things. When he first started gunning for Marissa nearly fifty years ago Salvador had approached him with the offer of aid. In time, Armand realized that Salvador Rossini worked for the Council of Night itself and four days ago they had realized their dream.

Only now was Armand starting to worry why they wanted her dead and what that meant for their relationship now that she was gone - if he was still necessary.

"If she is still alive, where could she be?" Armand asked as the two Night Sider left the room.

"The human has her," Salvador murmured. "She is staying above, in the Daylight World."

Armand laughed. Humans were dangerous in their faith, their numbers, and their technology, but one human was barely a step above cattle.

"Seriously," he chuckled. "What could one puny human do?"

"He could kill Tegus, two of my soldiers and three werewolves, escape with Marissa and keep her hidden for four days," the advisor pointed out. Armand found the whole idea to be preposterous. He'd never found a human to be remotely challenging. Tonight he'd eat out.

***

"I'm repeating my opposition to this plan," Tessio stated. "It is too soon to risk you and you have no guarantees that those you seek are alive, on your side, or being watched. You should have let me go in your place."

Marissa found that so odd to hear this human lecture her on her own safety.

"You wouldn't know what to look for and this is not a skill I can teach, but a gift we Night Sider's have. They would look normal to you, the same way Gordon and Tegus fooled you - disguised their true selves from you," she corrected because looking back on it Tessio's instincts had labeled them, and her, as threats even those his eyes had told him otherwise.

"I did promise to bring you along to protect me. That should be enough," she sighed.

"Hah," he snorted. "I had the car and the money. You couldn't even afford a taxi and your car stealing talent is unknown. You had no choice."

"Is there anything I can do to shut you up Tessio?" she muttered.

"Sure; next time you do what I say," Tessio offered.

"Deal," she agreed, "stay close, keep quiet, and don't kill anyone without my say-so." Tessio fell silent, not even a hint of a mutter. For the rest of the night she poked around the periphery of the city.

The few Night Siders she believed she could rely in were not around and in one case they had already been replaced. Her last stop was also her last option. Ever careful, Marissa had made one final plan – her Get-the-Hell-out-of Town stash. It was a box with a number of safe deposit box keys she'd entrusted to an old troll grandmother that Marissa had allowed to settle into the subways a century ago.

The troll, Gabra, wasn't fanatically loyal, but Marissa was counting on her repaying kindnesses over the years by giving over the small box she'd given the troll decades ago. With Tessio, she slipped into the underground and down into the tracks, locating the old troll near a substation.

"Marissa," the troll grumbled, "I been hear'n the rats say you was dead." That meant were-rats.

"They say'n that they be taken my trash heaps and my garbage cans, they say," the old troll continued. "Who's the sweat meat? He looks like he need some fattening on his bones."

"He wasn't here and neither was I Gabra. I've come for my box, if you still have it," Marissa spoke. Gabra studied them both closely.

"I think'n that if I give the new Liege you, maybe he stop the rats," Gabra rumbled.

"If you thought that, Armand would have his enforcers here by now," Marissa pointed out, making Gabra laugh. The old grandmother troll put her belongings down and rummaged through them, pulling out a cheap, old tin box.

Tessio was happy that Marissa had chosen something so inconspicuous to house something so crucial. Marissa took it, nodded once and hurried back down the subway tracks without a word of thank you. Only when they breathed the 'clean' street air did Marissa dare speak.

"They are coming for us," she growled. Tessio didn't bother asking how she knew.

"How do we hide?" he asked instead.