“So, what will it be?” I asked.

  “Tone it down!” Dominic said in real low voice. A hint of a growl in his voice. He slowly stood up, ready to fight, taking care to look intimidating. Not only did he not scare me, but I had already palmed my knife and was holding the point one centimeter from his balls.

  “You might be some quick-healing supernatural shithead, but it will still hurt, you know?” I told him, trying to get across that I would try to cut everything off if he started something. “Now sit down. If you’re done with the mind games, I’d like to get this done and over with. If you’re not done with the games, I think it’s time for me to leave, okay?”

  “Can you really?” Gemini asked.

  “Can I what?” I asked back.

  “Do that cherry stem trick?” She arched an eyebrow.

  I could feel myself blushing. “Yeah, I can. I practiced until I could. I saw it on a re-run of Twin Peaks.”

  Gemini laughed at that. “You’re a geek!”

  “Well, yeah,” I admitted. “Or at least was. I thought it would get me girls, you know?”

  “Did it?” Dominic asked as he carefully turned the knife away.

  “Yes and no. Or rather it did once, but all I got out of that was a strained tongue and not much reciprocity. Still a funny icebreaker.” I sheathed the knife again.

  Gemini snorted a laugh before composing herself again. Compared with the cold aloof Gemini, this was much preferred.

  “So, what is all this about? I mean all this horsing around and making me angry as hell?” I asked.

  “Does anyone use ‘horsing around’ anymore? Isn’t ’fucking around’ the expression you‘re looking for? No?” Gemini looked at Dominic, who nodded. “But to be honest, Maria, you’re a blank slate. Almost no information, except what is in public files. We’re not used to being short on information, so we needed to see for ourselves if you would work for us. I guess we have found out that you won’t.” Gemini shrugged. “The thing is…no one knew you were Breed. The Phoenix Thorpe should have known, but neither the local Mael or the local Ccoa knew you for anything but human and they should have known. Unless there is a deeper game being played here?”

  Dominic said nothing. He just drank his juice and watched Gemini and me. Mostly me to be honest. It looked like he was expecting me to throw another fit. It wasn’t going to happen unless they did something really stupid.

  “No game,” I said more calmly than I felt. I needed to keep my wits about me. “I don’t play games, you can ask anyone. As for the rest? People don’t always know as much as they think.”

  Gemini leaned forward. “No, they don’t, but there are several things that are a bit weird. Like the way you reacted to Dominic scenting you. And that Dominic can’t sense your animal has never happened before. At the same time, the level of control you have shown takes years for the really gifted and longer for the rest. And you seem so clueless. No one would let you run around on your own for that long! At least no-one in their right mind would let a Nati, a Lekek, or a Ghuleh run around untutored. In our business most surprises are bad surprises and that makes us a bit suspicious. The question is, who sired you?”

  Gemini was dead serious. Her voice was cold and she seemed to demand answers. I could feel power flare around her like an aura. I could both see and not see it. It was like having images in your mind, but not by seeing with your eyes. Spooky and scary.

  Gemini eyes seemed to shift with molten metal, and there was a faint glow to them. I could almost feel something poking at my mind. Something that searched for a way in. It had to be Gemini doing some weird mind-thing on me.

  It didn’t work.

  “You try that again, Gemini, and this conversation is over!” My voice left no doubt that I meant it. “I don’t mind old-fashioned interrogation, but mind-mojo shit makes me grumpy. So, I’m not as knowledgeable. So, I’m a riddle wrapped in a tortilla, but that’s not any of your damn business! You want to keep up the broken record of ’what are you’ or do we deal? I have other things to do. Like making sure the stakes will be too high for amateur night.” Dominic sat poised and ready for action. I noticed the change in him when Gemini turned serious. “Relax Dominic. Nothing will happen here unless you start it and I don’t think you’d like that.”

  Dominic growled. “Do you have any idea who you’re dealing with?”

  “Nice growl. Mine is better, but we’re not comparing, are we? And no, I have no idea who I’m dealing with. And I don’t give a shit! Let me just give it to you straight; those who killed Tony are dead! They don’t know it yet, but they are dead! They're walking breathing dead people. Anyone or anything trying to keep me from killing them is fair game. Do you understand? I cannot back down. If you want to walk down some alley and settle this, we can do that, but I would prefer we move past this. I’m running out of time, the only thing I can do is to move forward.” I looked at them both. “I have no idea of what you’re capable of, but again I don’t care because I don’t expect to get out of this alive, so if you want to dance, I’m game!”

  The silence stretched out and turned uncomfortable. I guessed they weren’t used to people talking to them like that. I needed to wrap this up and get out of here. I had several places to go, and I just hoped that there was time left this night for what I wanted to do. And that I wouldn’t run into Wilson again.

  “We’re not the only ones, and you can’t fight us all.” Gemini said. At least she had returned to the neutral voice. It was better than the ice-cold one where you heard icicles clink.

  This was getting tiresome. “Listen to me, Gemini! I. Don’t. Care. I’m dead anyway. It is just a matter of how long it will take for me to be hunted down. You want to fight me? Sure. Bring it on, but no matter what happens I will not allow you to stop me!” I stared into those swirling gray eyes. There was such contrast between that too perfect face and the coldness she radiated.

  Every now and again a whiff, a scent, of something… something other than the other things I could identify! I wanted to touch her. Feel her skin and her hair. I would love to lean in and inhale her scent. Now that would turn this meeting on its head.

  I didn’t trust my feelings. They scared me because it felt intoxicating and made me lose my focus. I couldn’t say if it was manipulation or something she did unconsciously.

  “You really mean that,” Dominic was surprised.

  “Yes,” I answered simply.

  “You must understand that we prefer to deal with those we know. If we had any other choice, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

  I just shrugged. That didn’t merit an answer. Everyone preferred to deal with what they knew. Everyone wanted to play it safe if they could and that was a good thing, because desperate people have nothing to lose. People like me.

  The people around us were not paying us any attention. They even seemed unaware of anyone sitting at our table. They were stubbornly not looking at us. This was probably Gemini’s doing. There was something very weird about that woman.

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  Gemini was doing something, because my skin was tingling as a reaction to something she was doing. It almost itched. I was pretty sure she had some mind powers. If that wasn’t the stuff of nightmares, I don’t know what!

  Dominic didn’t have the kind power that Gemini had. I could feel Dominic strength like currents, and he was no lightweight, but somehow I wasn’t afraid of him. I was pretty sure I was his match. The assessment came naturally, like it was something I did every day. I knew Dominic could feel that I wasn’t afraid of him, and it really pissed him off.

  “You think you can run unchecked in a city like Chicago? That you can do whatever you like?” Dominic did sound threatening. He did a good job of it. But if I had to choose which of them was the most dangerous, it would be Gemini. Not necessarily because she was more powerful, which she was, but because she didn’t let her emotions rule her.

  My anger had ebbed, and I felt disconnected from my own emotions and a bit off, as if I was a little tipsy. It might have been in self-defense or self-preservation, or a reaction to whatever Gemini was doing. Whatever it was, it made me more difficult for Gemini and Dominic to push me to where they wanted.

  I gave them a lopsided smile. I was getting a bit tired of the threats. “It doesn’t matter, Dominic. You have already made it clear that I can go after these bastards without reprisals, so you can either let me go after them or you can try and stop me. I will do what I feel I must. Whatever the cost. If you want to interfere, I can’t stop you from trying, but I will do my damnedest to kill you if you do.” I rose. “I think we’re done here. I can’t get you to understand why. And you won’t trust what you don’t own. This is why I don’t do contract killings.”

  “You won’t take the contract then?” Gemini asked.

  “Does it matter?” I asked. “They will be just as dead, and you won’t lose any money.”

  Dominic nodded. “It matters. But I guess that you will take offense if we push?”

  I gave him a sour look. “You think?” I asked sarcastically. “You want to give me info, fine, but I won’t take interference from anyone. Not even someone else out for revenge. That is all you’ll get from me.”

  “Then you will accept the contract?” Dominic said pointedly.

  “No, but I’ll kill them anyway. You can tell the world that it was for you, but it will be for Tony. I don’t give a shit anyway. What do you have besides photos?”

  “Not much, to be honest. But we know who two of them are.” Gemini put two printouts on the table. “The others we’re not sure of. Yet. But their Mael was probably there.”

  One guy looked like a real hard ass. He was about one hundred and ninety-five centimeters, I guessed from his position in Tony’s back room, and looked like a cross between a lawyer and deranged GI-Joe. He had a nice suit but topped it off with military boots. His crew-cut looked funny with the Tweety-tie and white shirt. He looked weird. But it was the other that caught my eye. “You can scratch this one off the list. Freaky Fred is dinner for the rats in the sewers. He was waiting for me in my apartment, but he lost his head, so to speak. But I haven’t seen the other. Neither before nor after.”

  Dominic nodded. “Makes sense. The one you called Freaky Fred was an unknown. We know he’s associated with the Dockside Pack, only because the other is an enforcer for Derek’s crew. One of his names is Tony Marsh, and he works as a bounty hunter, muscle, and some other things. He’s quite a successful bounty hunter, but with too many dead on his record, so few like to have him around.” And then added, “No current address that we can find.”

  “Why haven’t they sent out more people after me?” I asked.

  “Some hotshot mob guy turned up demanding that they pay damages. This guy, Silvio Nardi, turned up with a shitload of supes, so Derek didn’t have a foot to stand on. And he demanded that until the damages are paid, no one was going to do any business. At all! That was a severe blow to Derek’s ego. And you were home free, until this afternoon.”

  It surprised me that Silvio had gone through the trouble of showing up in person. He was not really the money-grabbing mobster you saw in the series with his hand in every cookie jar. He usually kept well clear of anything that could link him to anything whether legal or illegal. I had already figured out that the mob and the other syndicates knew about things that go bump in the night. Well, the upper echelons did.

  “So, who’s Derek?” I asked.

  “The Dockside’s Mael. He’s not a traditionalist in any sense, even though he is a Lupo. The Lupos are the most traditional of the Breeds. You might even call them ultra-conservatives, in the sense that they still hold to the values of Code of Sith.”

  “Like Star Wars?” I asked, mostly to annoy Dominic.

  “Ha ha, Maria. You’re not funny, you know. It is Sith like in the name of some shapeshifters from the Old World. The ones associated with the Others.”

  “Ah, I knew I should have paid attention in supe school.” I muttered.

  Dominic groaned. “Please, Maria, lay off the jokes. They are so lame.”

  I looked at Gemini. She hadn’t returned to her sarcastic and ironic self. She was still cold and distant, and her eyes were still molten metal. It was like she was testing me somehow. Testing me in some way I couldn’t notice or feel. I made me shiver all over. Apparently, she didn’t like my jokes either.

  “Derek Carpenter is not your average were. He’s a vicious cold-hearted bastard. We’re all predators and we’re all aggressive, but he’s almost rabid. Everyone knows it, but he keeps just inside of what’s tolerated and allowed. Everyone believes him insane, and he’s very, very powerful. Unfortunately, that means that no one really feels like challenging him, at least no Lupo. Not many Breed would. Too dangerous. So far five have died challenging him. Just saying the ritual words, ‘For the life of us all, I challenge you,’ is the same as a death sentence for pack members. No one among the Lupo is strong enough to take Derek down.”

  I fidgeted with the toothpicks. It made sense that there was some cluster-fuck causing all these waves, and stirring everyone and everything up, but how could he get away with it.

  “So why hasn’t someone killed him already?” I started biting on a toothpick. “I mean, he seems like a liability, right?”

  “He is, but he’s also very powerful. A shot isn’t likely to kill him unless you hit bullseye, and when he recovered, which wouldn’t’ take all that long, he’d be one pissed off wolf. And the pack is quite big, thirty at the last count. Not something you want to deal with,” Gemini said with raspy voice. Maybe it wasn’t raspy, only raw. Hungry. She seemed to struggle with getting back to normal, whatever that meant, but it was obvious that she flowed back and forth between states of emotion. Every time her eyes changed, power flared or receded . “It would be war if anyone else interfered, even another pack. And the Dockside Pack are traditionalists. They follow their Mael almost without question. Not out loud anyway. Whatever dissent there is it is kept very, very quiet. Unless you want to challenge the Mael.”

  Dominic glanced at Gemini, probably deciding what more to tell me. “Other Breeds won’t interfere, and the Others have no real reason to go after Derek. As for the Broods, or the Gh?la, even if many would like to take him out on general principle, they have their own to answer to. Besides, the Accord is clear on that others cannot interfere without cause. Only individuals can, right now. Personal vendetta, Council edict, or if the Thorpe declares him outcast. That’s about it.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?” I asked. There was a lot I didn’t know, and it showed, but I needed answers more than I needed to cover my lack of knowledge.

  Dominic looked at Gemini, and he wasn’t pleased. “You know way too little about our world, Maria! What the fuck are you? These are things you should know. Who the hell Changed you? Who left you running around on your own?”

  “You don’t need to know, Dominic. It doesn’t matter to me. You have given me names and faces, so I can track them down now. The only way you can stop me now is to try and take me out. But if you do you have no one to go after them, right? You would have to wait for a long time to settle this score otherwise. Cause it seems that no one else is desperate enough to go after these guys. And from what you said, you two can’t. Either way you have a decision to make.” Gemini moved slightly away from the table. It was a fraction, a so small movement that that I barely noticed it. I reached out my hand and put it on top of hers. “Please, Gemini. I won’t start anything, but I will really do my best to finish it. Please don’t move on me.”

  I was begging. Not that I really had any compunction to move on her if I had to. As a female, I didn’t give a shit about gender. I had come up against many female opponents before, and I didn’t underestimate the speed and power they often had. I also know several good female bodyguards, and they don’t look like a cross between Godzilla and a Russian discus thrower. No, of the two, Gemini was the real threat. She was fast and nothing seemed to cloud her focus. She was the better killer. It was as simple as that.

  I wasn’t a killer, but I was willing to cross that line if I had to if it was the only way to pursue my Blood Oath. I would sacrifice my morals and integrity, and even my humanity, to avenge a death that shouldn’t have happened. Revenge was foremost in my mind and since I was going down anyway, there wasn’t much I wasn’t willing to do.

  There were things I couldn’t tell them and things I didn’t want to tell them. But I would do just about anything to get my revenge, and I knew I could never back down. I just wondered how many would join me in my descent to hell.

  Doomed if I do and doomed if I don’t.

  What a life!

  They said nothing as I left the table and left the diner.