I still felt a bit off after the night and morning in bed with Gemini. Good, but everything was off kilter. Well, more off kilter. It wasn’t like my life made much sense nowadays, but at least it was daytime when I woke. This day, and there was even a bit of sun looking through the clouds now and again, had a weird feeling to it.

  It must have been the fact that no matter how normal I was trying to make last night, I could still feel that bond with Gemini. Like it was a physical thing residing inside of me, perhaps even a part of her that let me connect with her on a metaphysical level.

  I was heading for the docks to pick up my delivery from Gordon. New knives, new bullets, and bombs. Bombs with pellets that had some white gold in them, and a whole lot of other fun stuff. If I got caught with all that I would spend a very long time in prison.

  Gemini left to try and contact the people we might need. Though, I hoped we could come up with another idea that would make that unnecessary. She had told me that Jihan would have to be informed and would perhaps even have a suggestion or two about who to contact.

  That the Outsiders were playing fast and loose in almost the same way that the Dockside Pack had done was a bit concerning. Follow the letter of the law but not the intent kind of thing.

  Gemini had been very mysterious about our only option to Crazy, Demented, and Insane. That was what I had named the three supes she was suggesting. Two were women; Nalia a Zmei and Gena a Strigoí. I knew what a Strigoi was, it was a vampire. I knew that much about folklore, at least.

  A Zmei was a were, Gemini had to explain it to me, that once was thought of as as Ogres, but were in reality a type of bear shifter, or werebears. Only, their bear form looked more like a giant monster bear. And the monster part of it was more obvious than the bear part.

  Both women were homicidal maniacs if I had understood everything correctly. And they both had very good reasons to hate Jacóbi.

  Nalia had been exposed to Jacóbi’s experiment of breeding Gh?la. That hadn’t turned out too well. Years of torture and rape had left her insane, with no hope of regaining sanity. She lived for decimating Jacóbi’s following in the vain hope of getting a shot at him. There was no direct evidence for Jacobí’s involvement, which was why he was still walking around. But Nalia was sure it was Jacobí who had behind it all, claiming to have heard him in the facilities she had been held.

  Gena was a different story. Her mate had been killed by Jacóbi when he, as the low lord of the Bore Gh?la, had risen to take power of the Bore clan. He did it so that she would be mateless forever. Jacóbi had seen them as his slaves, and slaves didn’t mate. It was pure sadism – pure evil – in my book.

  I wasn’t sure I understood everything. No, I was certain I understood very little, but what happened to Gena and Nalia seem to go beyond cruelty or evil. It was sick and disturbing.

  Jaim had less reason for his hate. He had done much of Jacóbi’s dirty work in another city but had been betrayed to the Brood Lord Nicóla and dumped like so much garbage. Jaim had escaped after being tortured and hideously scarred, and now only lived for sending Jacobí back to his non-existence.

  Gemini made me understand that stories like this, while not common, were not unheard of. Beings of enormous power and very, very long lives sometimes did loose whatever compassion or ethics they started out with. The Gh?la was a whole ‘nother kettle of fish. The Non-Born were mostly amoral, narcissistic, and self-serving if they weren’t evil.

  From what Gemini told me it all came back to the Compact. The compact was written after millennia of conflict after the Non-Borns left the world. The Conclave of the Compact, the Ug’Ken, spoke for all supernaturals everywhere. It had representatives from each group in the Compact.

  Then it started to get confusing. The regions were ruled by Councils that could have representatives for each group that had organized, but they were obligated to consider all supernaturals that lived in their sphere of influence. So, a region was comprised of different groups that, depending on the power balance, was mirrored in the Council structure. Then, just to make really chaotic, all groups had regional groups that were led by some powerful individual, like the Cahal for the Breeds, Master of Clans for the Gh?la, the Brood’s Hikau Khausut, and the Outsider’s A’Kurios. These leaders reported and took part of decisions higher up. Each group wasn’t solely one type of supernatural, but each group tended to keep to themselves.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  The Brood’s regional ruling body was called the Thing-Heimr or Thorpe, The Brood had their Khorhurd, and the Gh?la had their Ukkin Gidim. The Outsider was added later to the Compact and their ruling body were called the Synderion.

  The Outsiders consisted of Brood and Breed, with some few psychics. Dissidents for the most part, but some were born into the Outsiders and they seldom joined any of the pure bred factions.

  By the time Gemini reached the structure and names of regional groups, I wanted to plug my ears and bang my head against the wall.

  There was one thing that stuck in my mind like nothing else. Of all those things that she told me there was one thing that really scared me – that no Ghoul had ever broken faith. Never gone against their leaders.

  Now that was scary!

  There were different factions inside the Gh?la, working at different goals and even being enemies and killing each other, or sending them back from where they came. But within those factions no Ghoul had ever gone against their own clan.

  I arrived at the docks just before sunset. It was a nice day. Not something I saw a lot of in my near future.

  Gordon, my supplier, had his drop-off point among the shipping containers, in a part of the docks that had no cameras. That might have been a security risk, but this part of the harbor was a syndicate transit point and they kept this part of the operation clean. There was no electronics surveillance allowed inside the area, only from the perimeter and outward. That was agreement and they all kept to it.

  I was trying to sniff out Gordon as I walked among the shipping containers. He had been waiting for quite a while, considering his scent was everywhere. I sensed and smelled him but acted like I didn’t know here he was.

  “What the hell have you been doing?” Came an angry whisper from behind one the containers had I just passed.

  “Ah, Gordon...why do you ask?”

  Gordon pulled me behind the nearest trailer. “Well, aside from the fact that every amateur in Illinois is out gunning for you – which by the way would be ‘effin enough – but I also had a very unpleasant visit by your regular boogie man yesterday. That would be boogie man in the literal sense, Maria! Like loooong black leather coats and growling!”

  I shook my head. “Got a name?”

  “Oh yeah. Dominic!”

  “Fuck!” Not that it scared me, but I couldn’t protect everyone from the supernatural.

  “Nooo? You don’t say?” Gordon said sarcastically. “These guys, Maria, are the stuff of nightmares, or myths. They are not something you – “

  I interrupted him by extending my claws and drawing them down the side of the container, scraping off paint and metal in long curly stripes.

  “You were saying?”

  “Ah, but you...I’ve never...I mean you have never g...but...” Gordon wasn’t making much sense.

  “How the hell did they know to look you up? Dominic wouldn’t have had time...ah he did his homework. From before our first talk.” I said to myself.

  “When did you become...changed... ?” Gordon finally got out.

  “For some time, Gordon. They question is what to do now. I don’t like to involve you, so I’ll take my shipment and I’ll keep my distance. At least until this is over.”

  “Bah, don’t be an idiot, Maria. I have lots of other customers. One more won’t make a difference.” Suddenly he was Mister Brave. “But I never figured you for one.”

  “I would have been surprised if you did.” Wasn’t that the truth?

  “Okay, I guess I don’t have to tell you how to go about it for Brood or Breed. But a tip if you ever go up against the Gh?la; cut off their head or stab them in the heart, and bury their head...far away from body. If you can, dip a symbol or an image in their blood and burn it as an offering to the Apkallu. It should mess them up a bit.”

  “The Apkallu?”

  “Yeah, they were powerful Firstborns that were sort of killed, I guess you can say. Some of their power is still of this world, and it fucks with a Ghoul’s power to return. It won’t kill a Ghoul, but it will make it harder for them to return for a while…perhaps a thousand years or so.”

  “Okay…anything else?”

  “Yeah, not everything dies, Maria, but hacking it to pieces and spreading them around will do the trick for most of the Cursed. And there are two very long knives in the bag in addition to your very expensive order. 5160 steel. Some other metals in there as well vanadium along the flat of the blade. And a few others that make it damn strong and flexible. This cost me a lot of money, Maria, more than you paid. But, you can pay the rest when you can.”

  “Why, Gordon!” I said pleasantly surprised

  “No biggie...” Gordon shrugged.

  It was, but there was no need to embarrass him.

  I slung the bag over my shoulder. “I-“

  The phone interrupted me.

  I gestured a thanks to Gordon and started walking. “Maria,“ I said into the phone.

  “'Dis shit isn't what I signed up foe', Maria,” Shaun’s sounded mad as hell.

  “What’s happening?”

  “Mo’ of ‘dose assholes showed up. ‘Dey kill’d Marc an’ ‘dey a’staring at Tony’s shop. Can’t pin de’ bastards down without lightin’ up da’ whole block’, man! Tha’d bring de’ popo, foe’ sho’!”

  I didn’t need much more. “Stay out of the alleys, Shaun! I’ll be there as soon as I can. Keep them occupied. Stay in view of people and shout at them. Make them stand out, until I get there. They won’t be trying much out in the open as long as everybody’s got their eye on them.”

  “Maria, dis’ be-“

  “I can deal with this, Shaun. Just do it! Don’t let them draw you into the alleys, because you won’t stand a chance.”

  “’kay...if ya’ nail ‘dese bastards, I’ll owe ya’ one! Marc was one o' mine!”

  “Sooner or later, I’ll kill them dead. Just keep them occupied!” I snapped.

  Someone was trying to up the ante. If Tony’s death didn’t start the war, they probably figured that killing off the whole family would get it started. In this they were probably correct. Killing gang members got them nothing though, so it had to be as a warning for Shaun.