A Scripta

Dmitrius pulled open the vault door to see his lover's left arm in a sling.

"Kalius!" He dashed out the door and took Kalius in his arms. "What happened?"

"Ran into some Bloods."

Dmitrius' eyes narrowed as Kalius ran through what happened.

Rowena meanwhile was feeding from one of her people who sat in the couch. Kalius could see Dmitrius growing more and more angry. "Eranamos, I'm all right. The bones have already healed."

Dmitrius whirled on Rowena. "Josef controls the gangs."

Rowena was oblivious to what was going on. Dmitrius pulled Kalius by the waist and headed up the stairs. He stood at the top, fists clenched in barely contained fury. Part of him wanted to rush out to find the bastards who did this to his beloved. The other part of him wanted to wait until the perfect time. He finally focused on Kalius. "Do you want to find them?"

"Once my arm heals, love. We'll take them out together."

"If this is Josef's doing..."

"What, dear?" Rowena appeared at the top of the stairs. "What happened to you, Kalius?"

Kalius repeated the story. Rowena looked confused. "Bloods?"

"Gangs," said Dmitrius. "Josef has made ghouls out of Crips and Bloods before and set them at each other's throats for his own entertainment."

Rowena looked disgusted. "Waste of blood." She looked up. "I am going to get ready for the gallery. Are you sure you don't--"

"No."

Rowena fought the urge to back away. Dmitrius' blood was boiling. Kalius reached out with his free hand and put a hand on Dmitrius' arm. "Eranamos, we will be ready to work tomorrow." Dmitrius looked down at Kalius' hand, and Rowena watched as he calmed down right in front of her. The control he had over Dmitrius!

Disgusted again, she went upstairs to get dressed.


Rowena crossed the room to the Prince. Prince Allard kissed her on the cheek. "How are you, Rowena?"

"Doing very well. Thank you for the stock tip about Northern Lights."

The Prince waved his hand dismissively. "I look out for my people."

They made further small talk, but Rowena was paying more attention to the people invited. Lynette was on the other side of the room, looking sulky. Good, Rowena thought. Then a woman in a severe suit that she didn't know took the Prince's attention, and he excused himself. She curiously watched the woman take him away. Rowena looked around the gallery to see if she was noticed, and followed him.

She caught the woman and the Prince in an alcove, and hugged herself against the opposite wall. "Now is not the time," the Prince was saying. Rowena's eyes widened. He was speaking Arabic.

"He is alone," spat the woman.

The Prince sighed. "He will have to leave sometime. Take him then."

Someone approached, and Rowena could see one of the Prince's many ghoulish goons come down the hall toward her. She had no place to run, so she straightened out her dress and walked forward. The ghoul met her eyes. "Miss Rowena, do you think I'm stupid?"

She looked right into his eyes. "No, of course not. Let me pass."

But the Prince had come around the alcove with the woman and saw Rowena there. "Rowena, dear," he said, as if admonishing a child.

Rowena turned around to face Prince Allard.

"I'm sorry it has come to this. I had hoped he would have come here tonight and we would have spared involving you in this."

Rowena looked from the Prince to the woman, and realized what the woman was: Assamite, also known as Assassins.

"Now, unfortunately, you have to lure him out, or allow Mawiyah to have access to your home."

Rowena shook her head slightly, then a little more firmly. "I won't do that, Kenneth."

"He's your friend?" Prince Allard gave her an amused look. "Then it will be done without you."

Rowena saw that the assassin had disappeared. She raised her head and said, "I will not allow this. Most of the Justicars are here and will override you."

"It's too late now," he said, and walked past her. "Keep her here, Jimmy."

"Yes, sir," the man said, and barred her way out. Ten minutes later, all she had to do was give him a hard look and push into his mind that he had better move out of her way, or she'd make his life more miserable than his master could. She dashed past him, skirting along the outside of the building, dialing her phone frantically.

She connected, and uttered something, before the phone was ripped out of her hand and she was thrown hard into the wall.  She looked up to see golden eyes filling her entire vision.  "You will forget..."


The two men lay together in each other's company in Kalius' room. Kalius had removed the sling and showed Dmitrius that he could move his arm around just fine. Dmitrius caressed the injured arm gently. "If Josef sent these men to you, I will tear him apart and leave what's left for the sun."

Kalius nodded. "Can you reattach limbs that have been cut off?"

"We can sew them back on and they'll heal the next night. I lost a hand once, and it grew back in about a week with a constant supply of blood."

"You will need blood for what we need to do tomorrow night."

Dmitrius smiled and put his elbow on the pillow, leaning his head on his hand. "The first thing we'll need to do is find Josef. I'm sure he hasn't changed his normal haunts in the last six months, which means we'll probably be at Poison Girl--"

Dmitrius' phone rang. He looked confused, and reached down to get his jeans with the phone in the pocket. He fished it out and saw it was Rowena's number. He flipped it open. "Rowena?"

"An assassin is after you! She's on her way to the house now!" Then Dmitrius heard a click, and static.

Kalius heard it, and he knew what an Assamite was since Dmitrius had told him. The two men jumped out of bed and dressed quickly. Dmitrius opened the door cautiously, and Kalius was right behind him, sword in hand. The house was dark and quiet, which was very unusual. They walked out of the room, both watching the sides and each other's back. They were at the top of the spiral staircase.  Kalius thought he felt the wind displaced. Dmitrius felt it too - but something came out of the darkness. Kalius summoned the shield seconds before it hit him - he caught it on the shield and shoved it up over his head, and over the spiral staircase.

Dmitrius vaulted over the railing of the balcony and landed on his feet on the white tile. From what Kalius could see, it at first looked like a catwoman like Raina, a lithe creature in black with glinting silver claws. It had landed on its feet in a crouch, the nails scraping the tiles. Dmitrius stood in a ready stance, and Kalius also vaulted over the railing, thanking Grim that the amulet gave him the agility to land easily on his feet next to Dmitrius.

Both men moved together, to flank the woman in black. She looked from one to the other, watching them. Kalius feinted, and the woman turned her body to him, then Dmitrius jumped. She twisted and raked claws across Dmitrius' chest. She slashed his shirt open and her claws scraped his alabaster skin. Kalius slashed forward and cut through her kidneys and liver to the spine. Black blood splashed onto the tiles. Dmitrius grabbed her arm and snapped it out of its socket. The woman didn't scream, but grunted. She tried to slash across his face, but he also grabbed that hand and twisted the wrist back with a crunch. Then he grabbed her by the throat and lifted her.

"Poison?" Dmitrius said in Arabic, "Really now."

She struggled to move her dislocated arm, and was able to move her arm feebly to force herself to try to thrust the claws into him. He threw her hard to the ground. "You are the sixteenth Assamite I've destroyed in my life. Don't you quit? The originator of the contract is dead."

"No, he is not," she said. "There is a new contract."

"Tell me who," he demanded.

"I would suffer Final Death first."

"Suit yourself." He picked her up by her shirt and hoisted her over his shoulder. She kicked him, but it did nothing. He carried her across the hall to the living room, where there was a fireplace. He looked at Kalius, "Can you start a fire in there for me?"

Kalius nodded and got some kindling and matches. She continued to kick him, and he finally kicked her, breaking her knee. "Stop it," he growled. She spat at him. He slapped her hard enough that it would make a lesser man's head spin around.

"Dmitrius," Kalius said quietly.

"No, my love, this is something I must do. May I have your sword?"

Kalius quietly handed Dmitrius his sword, and he put it under the woman's throat. "Tell me."

"Never."

He took her hand and slashed it off at the wrist, then tossed it in the fire. Dmitrius looked at her, no emotion on his face. "Human bodies have a lot of joints, Assamite. You will tell me, or I will eventually be tossing your head into the fire."



Rowena walked through the door. The house was dark. That was unusual, but, then, so was the smell coming from the other room. She had a hazy memory of the party, like she had had too much to drink. She'd lost her phone.

She suddenly felt tired, very tired. It was still two hours to sunrise, but she was exhausted. Maybe she would turn in early.

She went down the metal steps to the vault. The guard looked up from his TV. "Mistress, you're early."

"I'm tired," she said, feeling suddenly all her thousand years. She went to the casket and lay down. The world went dark around her.