• Slowly she exhaled as the door grew closer, her footsteps echoing against the harsh tiled corridor and pounding back at her as if they were the steps of a giant, a creature much larger than her five foot nothing stature. Crimson eyes darted this way and that, and she licked her lips in a sign of nervousness seldom shown by this brave woman, serrated fangs gleaming. Finally her tiny clawed hand reached out and touched the handle, surprised to find it warm unlike anything else in this strange place, much too modern for her tastes anyway. Neshira-Namea opened the door slowly, stepping into a dark room, but she closed the door anyway, the darkness was better than the cruel artificial light of the hall and it closed in on her like an old friend, shadows cloaking her as their mistress, the sweet servant of death.

    Pupils which had previously been slitted opened up to the darkness and her vision adjusted itself fast enough, shapes materializing in the room as her heartbeat slowed to normal and her breathing calmed to silence. The cool carress of air kissed the back of her neck and a blade gleamed in her hand suddenly. Mentally berating herself for the instinct she let the weapon slip back into its hidden sheathe on her inner arm. Of course there was no one in the room but herself, her keen sense of smell had already told her this much, detecting only her own musky sweet scent, muted by the special powder she wore to be undetectable unless one was within three or so inches of her, and had her own keen senses. Few could boast a sense of smell like her, but all Lycans were amoung that few and her mark was known to keep a few as…pets…loyal to him. The thought disgusted her, a proud woman of that very race, and she nearly growled, but held her temper in check as she crossed the room to a small hidden stairway. ‘Just as he told me...’ she thought, smiling to herself in a way that held no happiness at all. On cue the door at the foot of the stairs made a small popping sound and opened only an inch, but enough to let her know it was safe to descend.

    Stepping into the main building from the storeroom she nodded as a small shadowy figure pushed the door closed before looking up at her, revealing itself to be but a cat, blacker than night with crimson eyes that matched her own perfectly and held an eerie intelligence in those bloody depths. {Well done Ookami} The woman mindspoke the cat, reaching down to scratch his ears as he jumped onto her shoulder.

    {But of course.} Came his smug answer as he nuzzled her. Her familiar, some called him, others her demon servant, but truly he was merely her friend, a cat more intelligent than any human with the ability to mindspeak and occasionally transform himself into different living things, though never able to change his size like his mentor Liekt, the shade with the abilities to manipulate the shadows at will who also took his preferred form as a cat. Liekt was in fact waiting for them even now, most likely in the company of his best friend Sevvy, and it was the thought of them that made Namea nod and look back to Ookami.

    {Let’s just get this done, Ok?} She asked. {I want this one clean and fast…}

    Ookami nodded. {Agreed, we’ll get you back to the Boodlust and Sevvy in no time…}

    The tiny woman blushed, but looked up into the hallway in which she stood. It was dark, not the blackness of the room she’d exited, but the darkness of a place closed down, but ready to see the light again when the dawn came. With not even so much noise as air itself she moved down the hallway, her eyes seeing as though it were the light of day where a human’s eyes would have trouble seeing at all. Soft carpet met her leather clad feet and gave her no pause. There were no echoes in this place, not that there would be even had the corridor been tiled like the last, she was all business now, and none would hear her unless she wished it so, or they were very skilled. Rounding the corner she crouched in the deepest shadows as she saw the glow of light from under a door, most likely the backwash of a computer screen. Ookami went first, scratching at the door as any cat would and mewling until the man opened it and looked down. The cat was the last thing he saw as a dagger buried itself to the hilt in his eye socket and he fell back twitching in death. Thinking her job was done the tiny woman sneered and slipped from the shadows to take what she could from the corpse in order to bring it to her employer but the wind warned her only enough to jump to the side, a bullet splitting the air where her head had been but a moment earlier.

    “s**t!” came her hissed curse as she rolled and ducked into another doorway, scenting no one in the room. Ookami had followed and kneeled at her side with narrowed eyes. He too was understanding of what had just happened. {Only a Lycan could have seen me in the darkness well enough to shoot that accurately…}

    { Is there not technology capable of seeing in the dark?} He asked.

    {Not capable of seeing me…I’d already shielded the building from any technology other than the computers to work…even my own mobile phone won’t be able to function here…} Came the angry answer.

    Ookami nodded and darted from the room before she could protest and the sounds of gunshot followed, as well as a man’s hissed breaths as he ran past the room. That was all she needed and a small thin chain whirled in her hand, the palm sized blade at the end gleaming as the other hung down to her knee. Eight feet long, Namea’s chainblade was one of her most exotic and deadly weapons with a diamond shaped blade at each end, razor sharp. With all her skill the blade ripped into the man’s throat and he fell back as well before she darted from the room, blade now at the ready. There were more here than just that one guard, obviously the man she’d killed first was not her main target. As she passed that corpse she grabbed her knife from its eye and ducked into that room, immediately using that knife to throw into the neck of the man who waited for her across the room. Hot blood soaked sluggishly through the thick leather of her garb as someone slashed her side and she hissed before turning, a short sword coming from its sheathe in an instant and slicing deep into the neck of a woman who lurked behind the door. That woman fell, her blade still wet with Namea’s blood.

    {Quick and clean eh?} Toned Ookami’s voice in her mind as he sauntered in and jumped onto the desk in the center of the room.

    {This is not right…no one should have been able to anticipate us…are there more?}

    {Five, down the hall, but they haven’t noticed us yet… I think the one we’re after is in the very first room, but they want us to think he’s in the last…so be careful, that’s probably where the most danger lies.} He answered without hesitance.

    {Right…then I say we take ‘em all, no use leaving any alive if they’re just going to target us next…}

    Ookami felt the pang of her conscious at saying that and nodded. {I don’t think they’re alive to begin with…they stopped living long ago Mae…those collars around their necks…there is no person in them, it’s only a body controlled and all it feels is rage and blood lust..It is a mercy to end them.}

    Relived she sighed and nodded to him, glad of that knowledge at least. To know she was not merely killing innocents, or people doing their job was a comfort. The computer screen beckoned to her and her eyes scanned it quickly as her fingers skillfully typed on the keyboard, information swirling the screen at her probing. A disk came from her belt pouch and she quickly copied the information before completely destroying it, the computer going dead after the rough treatment it had received at her virus releasing hands. {Let’s go.}

    Once more her feet silently tread the hallway and she ignored the pain from her side as she scented the air. Stale sweat and fury met her nose and she clenched her jaw for a moment before darting into the open, two daggers flying from her hands to land in the shoulder of one man and the neck of another, taking him down and merely angering the other. This one charged her, a huge man with graying hair and a chaotic swing with his club, easily dodged by the tiny woman as she suddenly turned, a crack sounding as the stone weight on the end of her knee length braid collided with the side of his skull, sending him down, and he would never get up. Stepping daintily over the bodies Ookami followed her, his eyes keening the darkness just as hers were, thankfully. {Your left!} He hissed into her mind and she ducked, trusting him without question as the short sword once more came out, thrusting into the belly of a woman as its twin in her other hand sliced into the back of her neck and she fell lifelessly. {Three down, two to go, the mark and whatever trap they have waiting in the last room to go…}

    Her nod was barely perceptible as she rounded the last corner, her nails raking the face of the man who popped up inches from her as her blade thrust deep into his heart up through his ribcage. Another woman this time charged her and Ookami jumped, shifting to the form of a dragon in midair, still the size of a housecat as his razor sharp tail sliced her neck open and he snarled. No one dared to attack Namea’s back while he was around. They looked at each other and nodded before she flung open that first door.

    Sure enough a man hudded against the back wall, a pistol held shakily in a two handed grip as he squeezed off three shots in quick succession, two ricocheting off the walls harmlessly and one grazing her shoulder not even enough to completely rip through the fabric of her clothes. Tsking she smiled at him. “I am the servant of death, and none can resist my call..” The tiny woman kneeled by his side, black hair falling into her face just a bit. “Tell me who alerted you to my coming and I’ll make your death quick.”

    The pathetic excuse f or a man just began to sob, but he knew he would die no matter what, so he conceded. “It was…the man with the red eye and golden eye… He swore that the Lycans would be able to defeat you!”

    “No Lycan can defeat me unless they fight with their heart…and those creatures no longer had hearts…I AM a Lycan you fool.” With that her blade kissed his neck, sliding across the pale flesh as it parted and blood pooled onto the hollow of his throat, a few stray streams wetting the front of her shirt as a drop landed on her lips. “Thank you for the information.” Was all she said as she licked it off, having kept to her promise of making his death fast.

    {Was he truthful?} Ookami asked quietly.

    {Yes, no one can lie under the truth geas I placed him under.} She answered.

    {But didn’t Kisho say he had no intention of harming you?}

    ` {There are more than one man in the world with one red eye and one gold eye Ookami…we just need to figure out which one wanted us dead tonight…}

    The cat nodded thoughfully and they exited the room, heading towards the trap. No words were spoken as she opened the door and they both stepped inside.

    His eyes were orange, feral, but alive, unlike any of the others they’d defeated previously that night and around his wrists were manacles, broken chains hanging from them. Shaggy brown hair went down his back in a pointed main and he stood almost half hunched, looking at her with his mostly humanoid face set in a snarl, long yellow fangs sharper even than hers. In this half transformed state he was grotesque, until Namea realized he was NOT half transformed. This creature had been born thus, half Lycan form, half human form…and it was no common Lycan wolf either, but a Hyena, one of the more elusive shifters, and crossed with something else… “Lion..” She murmured. Her eyes almost held pity for this poor creature created of man’s desire to have the perfect being enslaved for their use as a common hunting dog. And she could very easily see why this creature would be of those two forms. Lycan Hyenas were known for the speed and passion with which they killed and the pure ferocity of their animal forms. Lions however were renowned for pure strength and brute force, capable of taking on almost any other creature easily. Desires for perfection led to cross breedings like these…done with no regard for the results. 75% of the time if two such incompatible shifters mated there would be no offspring at all. If by natural occurance a child did emerge, it would hold the traits of one or the other parent, most likely the natural born one as opposed to one who was changed. But occasionally in such a union would come a strange beast like this, most often dead on birth, or within a few hours, if not, the mother or father would do it themselves, rather than have such a savage creature exist. Science however, was a different story…with its technology mankind could force a child to exist, but the toxins pumped into the mother would always result in such a mutant, and obviously this is what had happened here.

    “He’s..Like me…” She said sadly, her eyebrows drawing together. Indeed he was, in a way like her. Neshira was no mutant, but a half breed created to get the perfect weapon, created by her father, a demon who purposefully impregnated a Lycan woman. The traits of failure shared by herself and her brother were not immediately obvious, they looked perfectly normal, but both had absolutely no access to their demon powers beyond what tiny bits had escaped the block that lycan blood created within them. In her opinion, this was more of a blessing than a curse.

    Her thoughts were shattered as the monstrosity scented her and snarled, looking up through those strange eyes, and obviously not seeing her very well as it charged. For a creature nearly blind it was accurate though and she barely missed becoming shredded meat as she leapt to the side. He was fast, every bit as fast as any other hyena, and by the looks of his leanly muscled frame he was well trained in the art of combat.

    Six inch claws aimed for her face as she ducked into his guard, intending to end his life, but she missed, her knife sticking into the leathery hide of his shoulder and doing nothing but angering him further. Ookami attempted to distract him, jumping on the thing’s head but it tore him away and he landed against the wall with a sickening crunch, laying still. “Ookami!!” She cried out, her eyes huge until she looked at the beast angrily. “You monster, I have no pity for you, and I shall have no mercy either!”

    Her speed came up with rage and she snarled as her body shifted subtly to the half form she seldom used, black fur covering her rather than skin, her claws and fangs lengthening, ears pointing and sticking from her hair as a long black tail sprouted from her. Leathered black wings ripped from her back and she cried out in pain as the shift completed itself and she stood before him in all the glory of a Lycan half form with the demonic wings of her father’s clan. Black flame sprang up around the creature and it looked around in confusion at the swirling dark shapes, all the same in its mind, just as she was. While it was distracted she struck, daggers lancing out into both shoulders this time, both sticking as the first had, but her purpose was to anger it and it worked as the creature gave a bellow and leapt up for her. As it leapt up, she came down, her chain blade whipping around her and wrapping around its neck before she pulled.

    With a dull thud the creatures head fell to the concrete floor and its body toppled to the side, lifelessly. Namea stood victorious, but she didn’t care as she walked towards the body of the cat, her dearest friend. “Oo..kami…” She murmured, sniffling as she scooped his limp body into her arms, tears running down her face.

    {Oh stop playing around Namea, lets get back to the Bloodlust…Don’t act like you didn’t know what I was trying to do…}

    She laughed. She had indeed known his plan. {Make me so angry and mournful that I transform?} Came her reply as she slowly shifted back, wincing in pain just a bit, though the shift back to normal was much less painful than that of the shift to that form.

    Ookami Nodded and leapt onto her shoulder, licking at the small scratch, one of a few he’d received as his only lasting momentos of the night’s work. {Why are they never simple and clean…} he complained.

    {Sometimes they are…but…would you really want all of them to be so boring??} She asked with a chuckle.

    {If I was meant for a boring life, I’d either have been born a normal cat or Liekt wouldn’t have brought me to you missy.}

    {Then I’m glad you weren’t meant for a boring life, because without you, I don’t know what I’d do.} The tiny assassin answered, walking back through the blood bathed hallway to the stairwell, up to the storage room, through the tiled corridor, and onto the roof before she leapt to the street, making her way back through the shadows.

    Soon enough they reached the wherehouse district and a smile crossed her face as she saw the bloodlust. “Home.”