Deadly Friends/Unexpected Enemies 02

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"What is this about?" Marissa quizzed.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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