Chapter 8 - Guilt

''Master Archer, I can't!'' Kez pleaded.
Archer grunted and put his pen down.
''Three years as an assassin and five as a Werewolf? And you say you can't kill? You better not be going soft on me.'' He growled angrily.
''I'm not going soft!'' She snapped. ''The staff are on to me and Dave tracked me down and caused a massive scene! And anyway,'' She huffed. ''I though it was just Bently I had to kill, not the others too.''
''Well the customer changed her contract, and now she wants all of them destroyed.'' He said coolly.
''Are you crazy?! I'll get caught out for sure!'' She protested.
''You won't if you're careful.'' Archer replied smoothly, leaning back in his chair.
Kez calmed down a little, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly.
''You're right.'' She said calmly.
Archer smiled.
''I won't get caught. Because I quit.'' She finished.
''I beg your pardon?'' He blinked, taken aback by her words.
''I get treated better down there than I do up here!'' She snarled, standing up.
''You know what happens to those who leave before a job is finished, don't you?''
''Oh, I know. But you won't be able to do a damn thing once I get my Underground Citizenship.''
''And what about your pack, little Wolf? They won't let you go so easily, and that Weredragon of theirs won't exactly welcome you with open arms and a warm heart.''
''I don't have to please everyone, y'know.'' She growled and stormed out of the office.


''Did you find Kez?'' Tiffany asked as she stood shaded in the darkness under a cluster of trees that lay on the outskirts of the glistening city.
Shadow folded her wings and peeled her scaled lips back into a sharp toothed Dragon's grin.
''I see...'' The Vampire said slowly. ''Bently will be pleased.''
She reached up and scritched the Weredragon between the horns, gaining a small shudder of pleasure and a soft huff as her slender fingers rubbed through the coarse furred crest, her perfectly manicured fingernails grazing the fine scales beneath. Tiffany withdrew her mind from Shadow's and leaned against the tree, her hand still buried in Shadow's crest.
''If she has quit the Guild and left her Pack, should we trust her?'' Tiffany mused quietly, almost to herself.
A soft, throaty growl escaped Shadow's lips and a whisp of grey smoke curled from her nostrils and dispersed lazily in the cool late afternoon air.
''Guess you're right.'' Tiffany agreed, knowing how Shadow felt about the Werewolf. ''I dunno about you, but all this fresh air and sunlight's giving me a headache. I'm going back downstairs.'' She finished.
Shadow watched Tiffany disappear down into the manhole that lay hidden in the long grass. When the lid slammed shut, Shadow turned around and loped off into the forest.

She trotted to a halt and inhaled the sweet air deeply, enjoying the mixture of scents that it carried. A bush to her left caught her attention immediately and she flicked her tongue out, tasting the weak, yet familiar scent. Only this time, there was more Wolf than Human. It was David and he was crouched in the bushes, testing how close he could get, thinking that she couldn't see him or smell him. A mistake on many of her enemie's part. For some reason, they all thought of themselves as being superior to her, especially the Werewolves. Shadow decided to humour him and she sat on her haunches, wings lax, pretending to have not noticed him, letting him think that she'd let her guard down. All went silent. Then he lept from the bushes, teeth bared angrily and ears flat. Shadow ducked and rolled, flinging up dirt and leaves and wooden debris as she rolled neatly to her paws, head dipped, displaying her own, much larger, teeth set in jaws that could crush bone like twigs. David slid and spun awkwardly and lunged back at her unthinking. She jolted forward, slamming her head into him, sending him flying into a thicket of bushes. She padded forward, but she heard him shift.
He was sticking to cover after having some sense knocked into him. She lost track of him. He'd circled her three times, now she couldn't pinpoint him, his scent all around her and very recent. She growled in slight anger and frustration. He erupted from the bushes at her right hind quarter, slamming into her, trying to sink his teath into the hard scales of her hide.

She roared in surprise and spun around, whipping her tail and flaring her wings, her teeth snapping at the Wolf as he held on, his claws scrabbling at her scales. When he wouldn't let go, she hit the floor and rolled. David yelped, the air rushing from his lungs as her weight threatened to crush him. Even before she got back upright, she snapped at him, grabbing a mouthful of flesh and fur, and slung him like a toy into the trees, where he landed heavily with a yelp. To her surprise, David stirred. He looked up at her, clawing himself back upright, swaying uneasily as he padded forward with a limp, blood matting his brown and grey streaked fur as it trickled down both sides of his neck. Shadow huffed.
Why do they always insist on fighting those bigger themselves? She mused to herself as he approached, his low, menacing growl filling the air.
He lunged at her, but she spread her wings, bursting through the canopy and into the sky. She circled low over the trees and watched with a sick delight as David looked up and around himself, trying to spot her, his frustration quickly growing. She circled him a few more times, then folded her wings, diving back down through the canopy with a chorus of snapping wood and came up behind him, her back talons sinking into him as she scooped him up, letting him go a mere second later, slamming him into a tree. She landed and paced around him, looking at him as he lay at the roots of the damaged tree. She didn't know if the blow was enough to kill him, but she didn't care. It'd serve as the follow-through to her earlier warning.


''So, do we turn her in, or what?'' Tiffany asked.
Bently looked down. Kez was a killer and now her mate, David, was onto her. So now it was only logical to assume that her Pack was too. That was something he and his staff didn't want to be dealing with. Shadow walked into the club, Hillary following closely behind and they took up a perch on the edge of the stage with Xan, Tiffany and Ode. Both women were looking grim and tired.
''Hillary?'' Bently prompted.
The Vampire looked up, her silver eyes watery with sadness.

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