(Walker & Esper collaborative post)
3 months ago, Dranon City
Maddie stood up and pulled her hood over her head immediately. The man before her lay slumped against the brick and mortar apartment complex that had seen better days certain, but now it was in a terrible part of town where gun shots were background noise. No one called the police here and that was the way she preferred it.
Silver Team usually opposed this behavior, but she made a point of exercising discretion in her habit as well as picking targets that were scum in general. "A shame you were handsy and demanding or we could have had a little fun before I sent you to Hell. No matter, best make it look like an accident", she mumbled to herself.
She lay the body out carefully, having studied a few of the more creative police photos of crime scenes. A personal favorite was a junkie robbed for his drugs. The practice of setting the scene was simple as long as no one saw or she would have two bodies to dispose of tonight.
Just then her ear perked up at the sound of soft foot falls. This wasn't a human, because humans even with all the background noise they may as well have been stomping through a library and ringing a bell to alert everyone to their presence. No, this creature was demon or mythical at the very least to move as quietly as it did.
A young man stepped out from the shadows, his figure slim and his sandy blond hair framing his face. "Well well, what do we have here?" he chortled. 'Looks like you've got yourself some fun after all." he began to grin and his silvery eyes took on a red glow. "How about it sist-" just before he could finish his sentence, the young man found himself suddenly flying sideways as he felt a hard impact on the side of his face. He landed in the trash pile with a crash, but quickly got up to a upright leaning position to see just who or what had hit him.
Another man, quite a bit taller than he was, stood there where he had been, and was putting his hand into the pocket of his brown trench coat. The second man was not looking at him, but rather the woman. "You're a real pain in the ass. At least make sure you're not followed next time" he said in a growling baritone. The first man stood quickly and pointed at the newcomer. 'Who the hell are you?! You think you can just hit me and act like nothing happened?!" He didn't respond, or even look his way. "I'll teach you not to fuck with a demon!" he rushed at the taller man. With a simple shifting of his weight, he slid his foot to the side and kicked out the young man's leg, and then took the same hand he had struck him with before and slammed his palm into the man's chest. this time, he flew further back, slamming into and cracking the bricks of the building wall.
The second man took back to his eased stance and glanced to the side. The demon doubled over and started coughing up blood, struggling to breath. 'Next time I hit you will be the last. Now get out of my sight" the man said in his low growl. The demon leaned into the wall for support as he started to limp away, gasping for air. Turning back to Maddie, the man spoke again. "I swear I have a sixth sense when it comes to you, woman."
"Hi Lu", Maddie replied with a giggle. Lucien had already finished off the demon with brutal efficiency, par for the course as long as she didn't need to clean up after the second one who limping away. "You're always right on time you know. Like a finely tuned watch. Say this wasn't your mark was it? I found him dead this time."
She smiled at Lucien and approached him slowly, remembering his warning of keeping her filthy succubus hands safely out of siphoning distance from him, but that never stopped her before from ignoring his warnings. "But he did owe me money for services rendered so I will just take his wallet and call it even. For that matter what brings you to my alley way at this hour stranger?"
She put one hand on her hip, another against the brick wall. Her skin tone shifted to a light shade of tan, eyes brown and hair black. Arianna was the first version of herself Lucien had met and for some reason always saw through her disguises regardless of how she appeared. It amused her that she couldn't play games with him, instead getting an eyeroll for her troubles usually.
"Do as you wish, it's not my problem." Lucien glanced over to the body, a ragged man he had arrested once before on drug charges. He pushed the thought from his mind as his eyes turned back to the succubus. "I came to give you a bit of information," he said as he ran a hand through his long brown hair to move it away from his face. "i've been kicked off the force, so i wont be the one arresting you on a failed con or any other trouble you get into anymore. I'm also moving again. To a city further up north and opening my own investigative office." He pulled wrapped up convenience store bag from his other pocket, and tossed it on the ground between them. "A parting gift, from the last bust. Just enough to look like intent to distribute, but not enough to look like a stock. I had a feeling you might need one last cover." Lucien turned to walk away without waiting for a response, but paused just after he took a few steps. He glanced over his shoulder back at the woman. "And try to stay out of trouble from now on" was all he said, and continued forward.
Present day, Selicin City, Silver Wolf Private Investigations Office.
The Argent Knights' agent left the office with a bow. Lucien sat back down at his desk and looked at the missive that had been given to him, detailing a Demon he was now hired to hunt down. Sitting under it was a missive from a Silver Team agent asking for the same job. Leaning back in his chair and placing his feet up on the desk, he wondered to himself if Jack and Virick even knew they had both asked him to hunt the same filth that had holed up in the city. Or if they knew he had already been investigating this demon from another case he was on. He placed his hands behind his head and closed his eyes with a grin. "one job, three paychecks. I'm not going to complain. At least the rent will get paid this month and the landlord will get off my back." A kettle began to whistle, and Lucien got up from his desk to grab it off the portable electric stove top. The office was small, but has his desk, a closet, mini fridge, and a cot hanging on one side. It seemed like he spent more time in the office than his apartment.
As he poured the hot water into a waiting cup of noodles, his grin faded. He sighed as he placed the fork over the cup to let it cook. "guess I cant get away from trouble after all" he said under his breath. He leaned back in his chair and rested his feet on the desk again, brushing back his hair away from his face before placing his hands behind his head. "Might as well wait here for her to show up."
A few minutes later, Maddie knocked at the door. "Lu", she purred softly between not so subtle knocks upon the door. "I see you in there so don't try and pretend you can't hear me. You probably heard me coming anyways." She leaned against the door and shifting out of 'Arianna' and back into 'Maddie'. "I need a favor."
She grumbled as she twisted the handle and eased the door open. "Typical Lu, assuming I will just barge in without so much as an invitation." With a quick glance to make sure she wasn't followed or being scryed on, she slipped inside. Today she was dressed in black boots that laced up and stopped just below mid thigh along with her signature tight jeans and v-neck shirt look. "Now Lu is that any way to treat a lady of class? Favor for a favor. I come bearing gifts in the form of pictures, but you know, hear me out at least then you can have these." She waved the manila envelope in her hand, fanning herself. "Because these are hot and you'll want them."
Lucien didn't bother moving from his relaxed position, but turned his head to look at Maddie. "If they are more pictures of you...having fun in your favorite forms, that album is over there on the shelf collecting dust" he pointed to the bookshelf on the side wall with his thumb. "If it's pictures about Lazarion and his crew, I already have all five of his aliases, all his workshop locations, his crew's routes, and a list of everyone that has been kidnapped, raped, or killed by him and his group. They went dark last week, and I've tracked them down to their warehouse on the outskirts. his entire crew is there, as well as all his victims. He only acts on the nights of the crescent moons, and tonight is a waning. I've also paced the entire warehouse in a runic stasis circle."
He sighed, "but what do you want anyway? Not like I ever tell you no anyhow."
"It seems an old friend came looking for me the last week and I really don't want to involve Silver in this. For one they don't approve of my side work to pay for my luxury apartment, but that is another story for another time." She paced around the desk and set herself down atop it comfortably with legs crossed.
"DJ DMNHNTR. I think he's an Argent or works with them. I don't you suppose you remember the night you left town and we were in the alley. That guy was his brother and he didn't think it was drugs that killed him. What is it with humans anyways? You pay for the sins you commit in blood. It doesn't have to be your blood, sins aren't picky whose blood is shed in payment. I digress. He hired someone tracker to try and find me. Got close a few times, but I managed to throw him off the trail. Silver has something against killing humans who don't have it coming and so I bring this to you. Amateur competition."
He took his feet off the desk and leaned forward onto it, a serious look on his face. "I hate it when you ask me for favors like this, but I guess I can deal with it. Virick wont be too happy about it if he finds out, but I'm nothing if not discrete." He snagged the cup of noodles from beside where Maddie was sitting, and then pointed to the second one beside it. "I knew you were going to show up, so I went ahead and made you one. Spicy shrimp is the menu tonight." knowing her, she wouldn't have even noticed there had only been one cup when she sat down, or noticed the empty cup in the trashcan beside the desk. He had used a simple time lapse spell, holding her without her noticing just before she started speaking. It gave him time to eat, see that she really did just bring more pictures of her self, and make two more cups, because he was hungry.
"I know the tracker he hired. The kid is not with the Ardent Knights, but his hound is. Guy is their first go to when I wont take a job." he slurped down some of the noodles after he spoke. "All the kid had to say was he was hunting a succubus, and the guy jumped on it." His thoughts turned tot he red missive in the bottom drawer of his desk. He hadn't planed to take that job, but now it looked like he was going to anyway. If he was going to help Maddie, he would have to make sure none of it could be traced back to either of them.
"Oh he would jump on it. I mean there have been plenty of would be demon hunters notched on my bed post. Tasty all of them. Handcuffs, blindfolds, sometimes I let them watch in the mirror too as I suck the life out of them." She giggled, not being able to resist the chance to play with words. Lucien grimaced as Maddie spoke.
"I will pass on the noodles though, seeing as I already ate some of your would be business before I came in, but I did take his envelope full of money. It's yours since it would have been like stealing from you." She dug a white envelope out of her purse. "Four hundred dollars and a picture of a pretty young thing too. What do you think he wanted with her? I do wonder."
She tilted her head to one side, thinking over it for a moment. "If only I had the picture first. The play on irony would have been delicious. Just a little shift and his eyes would have been huge." All this talk would have branded her an Iron Talon, except she only fed on scum and only when she was hungry, which had been more often lately. She had a problem and she knew it, but the high was too good to pass up, on top of the power it gave her.
"And what's the plan. I can help you know. Silver has me working intel gathering for them. Not like I am complaining. It is stable hours and decent pay, but boring and I like excitement. Still...why don't you stay at the apartment? There is more than enough room if you don't mind the cat."
"First off, don't go eating my clients. Even if he was a pile of shit, you don't do that, woman. Secondly, I've told you a thousand times before, I will not so much as enter your apartment. It's hard enough to stay away from you and those soul sucking hands with you always showing up here." he finished draining the noodles and grabbed the other cup. "And as for you helping, you leave a distinctive presence when you show up anywhere. To keep us both covered, I'll handle your tracker and the punk alone. but you can help me out with this other Silver Team case I have. I need information." He slurped down another fork full. Setting the cup down, he glanced at Maddie, pausing on her figure for a moment despite himself before meeting her eyes.
"I need you to track down another succubus and her incubus brother." He glanced away from her. "They've gotten a bit handsy with the locals, seven dead in the last month. Jack was worried it was you at first, but I knew it wasn't." He turned back to her again. "He is not to know you're anywhere near this case, got it? Some of his people still think you're involved, and I'm the only one that knows otherwise."
