Mob sorcery 5, p.40
Mob Sorcery 5, page 40
“Her naginata,” Vince said. “It made Juliet bleed.”
“Yeah. I’m no expert on the weird magic used in the East, but it has the same color as foxfire. I’m betting that’s not a coincidence. I got paid but I’m still in the red after everything. I was only promised backpay for Hatoyama’s shit once you went down.”
“What happened to being paid in full even if you fail,” Fia said sardonically.
Hamelin sneered. “Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up, bitch.” She sipped her energy drink and eyed Vince, ignoring the glares from the others. “Look, it’s not the money. It’s that this job stinks of political bullshit. Hell, if I told you who I met, it’d probably cause a ton of shit and I’d have to flee Aulfair. But if I do this job, I bet I’ll have to flee Aulfair. Your brain has to be full of rocks not to realize the conglomerates are fucking pissed. Quintus Hierum finally got handed the dictator role over Immanuel’s enforcers. The mayor won’t appear in public with Houou. The vampires are finally moving—”
“They are?” Fia blurted out. “Since when?”
“Uh…” The necromancer hunched her shoulders. “Forget I said that.”
“If the vampires hired you, that’s more concerning than either Houou or the Yakuza,” Vince said.
Because it meant a whole new conglomerate had taken a stand against the Lionettis. More importantly, they were interfering in the civil war on someone’s side.
“No, no, no.” Hamelin waved her hands in a panic. “Holy shit, do not take it that way. If I’m getting chased out of Aulfair, I’d like it to be for a real reason. Last time I fled the country I at least turned my hometown into zombies.”
“Wait…” Nina narrowed her eyes at her. “You mean a ‘town’ town?”
“Hicksville, USA. Can’t say I miss anyone I killed, even if I didn’t mean to do it.” The mousegirl smirked. “Growing up in rural America is rough as a demihuman. Especially orphans taken in by parents who thought their ears and tails could be prayed away.”
“Orphans. Plural,” Vince said.
“I had a sister.” Hamelin’s eyes turned hard. Her light-hearted attitude vanished as her fingers crushed the sides of her can. “Hence why I don’t regret what went down.”
Yeah, he wasn’t digging up that grave. Especially as something told him the necromancer already had, literally. The phantom that led them inside hadn’t appeared any shorter than usual, but he hadn’t looked too closely at its skeleton.
“Holy shit. You were responsible for the Georgia Panic, weren’t you?” Fia said, eyes wide. “Dad told me about it. Back in the 70s, when anti-magic fever was hitting its peak, the army and a bunch of sorcerers from Aulfair had to wipe out thousands of zombies in western Georgia. Then everyone flipped out, started their own Salem witch-hunts against anyone they thought used magic.”
Vince frowned. “Salome mentioned that once. Said it was the reason Immanuel ran their secret demon president.”
“A lot of things led to that,” Gaby said.
Hamelin ran a hand through her scraggly hair. “Look, I already said I didn’t mean to do it. I’m not taking responsibility for millions of hicks that were looking for an excuse to kill people they always wanted to while corrupt cops looked the other way. I just…” A ragged sigh escaped her lips and the necromancer stared through the dark doorway the phantom had vanished into. “I just wanted my sister back.”
If the porn wasn’t still playing, Vince might find the scene more touching and less comical.
“I figured it would be something like that,” he said, only half-lying. “I don’t think ancient history is our problem. The fact you’ve been hired to kill me is.”
“And I’d rather not do that, for a few reasons,” she said, turning back to face him. “The big one is politics, still. I’m making enemies I don’t want and can’t survive.”
“You survived being cremated and countless deaths as an enforcer. Why worry now?” Nina asked.
“Us. All of us?” Hamelin used both her hands to point at all five of them. “We’re small fries. Juliet will eventually become hot shit if somebody doesn’t bag and tag her first.”
Curious choice of words. Did Hamelin know of Juliet’s binding weakness?
“But Aulfair is full of old, powerful monsters that only act when they really want to,” she continued. “I’m a big, bad immortal necromancer, master of undeath, and probably a lich depending on your definition. Amazing. Big round of applause for me.” She gave herself that round of applause in a mocking fashion. “All those ancient, buried necromantic tomes and scraps of parchment I learned from were also written by immortal masters of undeath. Who are all very dead and aren’t coming back. No soul eggs. Just fucking dead.”
Gaby nodded. “Yeah, I can understand that. I thought I was the hottest shit, and that unicorns were the be all and end all. Then I met a vampire on a trip to Spain. Supposedly a scion of Count Estruch. Somehow, I don’t think his sire got killed by a random hermit.”
The way Gaby shuddered made Vince suspect this vampire towered over Juliet in the field of intimidation.
“Alright. So you want to stop trying to kill me,” he said. “I take it the people offering you the job wouldn’t accept that?”
“It’s fucked, yeah.” Hamelin leaned against the wall. “Technically, I only took the one job. But technicalities won’t stop one of those many-tailed mutts from breaking in here and incinerating me with foxfire. The rules mean a lot less to them than they should. Almost like they’re intentionally trying to shatter the system.”
Who else had Vince met that had been trying to intentionally ruin Aulfair’s corrupt but workable conventions?
“Are the police involved?” he asked, lowering his voice.
The necromancer stared at him. She groaned. “This is because the cops didn’t show up, isn’t it?”
“We blew up a street. Even if it’s Miura territory, there has to be a REAT team nearby.”
What truly worried him was that Kreesa wasn’t in charge of Houou’s territory. She’d been in command of Albion, then took over downtown when Frost went south. But if she’d been under Houou’s thumb, that meant the elemental in charge of their territory was probably corrupt as well.
“So you see the problem,” Hamelin said. “I figure we can make a deal. You pay me to leak info and sabotage the hits on you. Then you don’t die, the conglomerates sweep in and deal with this bullshit, and I avoid becoming someone else’s object lesson.”
“We pay you to keep trying to kill Vince,” Fia said in disbelief. “You have to be joking. When have you been a serious threat to him?”
“Oi, I—”
Vince waved a hand and the mousegirl shut up. A welcome surprise, to be honest.
“I didn’t come here to stop you from taking hits on me,” he said. “Well, not truly.”
Hamelin’s eyes narrowed and she quietly drank her energy drink.
“I have a job for you. The same one that Gaby would have mentioned,” he said.
“Huh. Huh?” She looked at Gaby. “Wait, your job was actually his?”
“I’m helping him with it. It’s fucking huge.” The unicorn grinned.
Which caused Hamelin to recoil and become suspicious. “Oh no. I’ve seen that expression on way too many battle junkies. This is insanely fucking dangerous, isn’t it?”
“You know Mei Suwa?” Vince asked.
“Oh balls. It is.” Hamelin groaned. “The Yakuza fox who is probably a reincarnated snake? She went missing after the mess you got involved in last week with Houou and…” She blinked. “Oh. Oh, shit. Then why the hell…” Her voice trailed into inaudible mumbles as she rubbed the sides of her head. “Fuck it. I give up on trying to understand the politics. Why do you want to kill her?”
“Because she’ll either kill us or escape and hold a grudge forever,” he said. “Originally, I wanted to take her out before anyone else did for… reasons. Now, I’m more worried about my ass.”
“I would be too.” Hamelin tried to leer at him, but couldn’t quite get the angle right to stare at his behind while standing in front of him. “Hey, I’ve been in enough fights to see his ass. Don’t look at me like that.”
“I don’t even think you count as competition,” Nina said. “Even if you weren’t a walking corpse, you’re the definition of ‘don’t stick your dick in crazy.’”
“Yeah, and you want my help to…” The necromancer screwed up her face. “Wait, why the fuck do you want my help? You have a ton of bruisers and can take her out? But then…”
Rather than wait to see if she could put the pieces together, Vince cut to the chase. “Mei is incredibly powerful, and is trying to gain more power. She’s not a kyuubi, but we need to treat her the same. That’s why we need all the help we can get. You’re one of the heaviest hitters we have, even if her purification magic is a counter to your necromancy.”
“You can say that again. I specialized my undead to fight mages, because France was full of assholes who hated me as much as the hicks back here. But they’d barely count as cannon fodder against a powerful fox.”
“Better to have a lot of undead cannon fodder than living,” Gaby said. “And you have to possess direct attack spells?”
“I don’t have to possess anything. Weirdos like me learn whatever they want.” Hamelin chewed the inside of her lip, which looked creepy as hell thanks to the state of her face. “How long do we have to plan and prep? This sounds like a terrible deal, and there’d be no hiding that I bailed on my current employer. But if I have a month or so, I might accept for the right price.”
“I take it market price isn’t enough.” Fia narrowed her eyes.
“Wow. You suck at ambit claims.” Hamelin grinned. “But you’re right. I’ll be giving up on a lot of cash if I accept and incurring big costs. At minimum, whatever I get up-front will need to cover what I intend to spend.”
“You’ll only get paid if you follow through,” Fia said.
“Normally, I’d chew you out for suggesting I’d bail, but I did just quake in my booties at the idea.” Hamelin’s eyes shot to Vince. “I reckon a half mil is fair. One hundred up front. Plus, I want—”
“Fuck off,” Gaby growled. “You’re trying to make up your losses from Houou.”
Vince listened while the girls argued with Hamelin. A large part of him thought paying her such a huge amount sounded insane. She wasn’t a vital member of the team, even if he needed more elite enforcers. What happened if Mei just vaporized whatever Hamelin prepared?
On the other hand, she sounded like she had something up her sleeve. Mei used a lot of barriers and even her own summons. Hamelin specialized as an anti-magic sorcerer, from the sounds of it and even the anti-magic abilities of the undead elves.
“Looks like you’re interested,” Hamelin said to Vince, grinning from ear-to-ear.
He shook his head, and she flinched in surprise. “We’re covering most of our own costs. Hatoyama’s fuckups definitely aren’t our problem. You said you wanted something on top of the payment? Then it sounds like the max will be 250k plus that.” He hesitated. “Plus costs, if you can convince Fia and Alessia they’re worth it.”
“Convince, you…” Then Hamelin’s eyes widened. “Wait, you’ll accept whatever I want?”
“He didn’t say that,” Nina said acidly. “Spit it out, rat. What do you want?”
The necromancer grinned toothily. “Simple. I want some of Vince’s blood for my own experiments. Long-term help would be great, too, but a few quarts would be perfect.”
Chapter 26
“My blood?” Vince asked, his eyebrows shooting up.
“It’s the easiest reagent you can provide,” Hamelin explained, utterly unfazed by the horror she’d inspired in the other women. “Semen is technically the most potent and effective, but I’d be stuck giving you a handy for days to get the amount I need. Assuming you’re not taking contraceptives and haven’t gotten the snip. Then it’d be salty-sweet garbage.”
Gaby and Fia slapped themselves in the face, while Nina stared at the mousegirl in disbelief.
“You really think you can jerk Vince off looking like that?” the lioness asked.
“I’d use an illusion. And drugs,” Hamelin said with a grin. “Semen’s five times denser than blood when used as a magic catalyst or reagent. Magic is life, and seventy percent of semen are the swimmers, which might as well be bismuth for spells that use living matter. Half of blood is water and empty garbage magically, and it’s not the stuff that creates new life, is it? Just sustains it. But like I said, blood’s easier. Comes back with a healing infusion.”
“I almost want to argue with you about this, but I think I’d regret it,” Fia said.
“I think there’s a more pertinent question,” Gaby said, her cheeks red. “Why do you want his blood and what will you do with it? Blood’s not as super dangerous as the myths say, but I don’t feel comfortable letting you get your hands on it. Not when nobody understands your necromancy properly.”
Hamelin sucked on her cheek, causing them to turn away from the creepy scene. “Explaining my necromancy research sounds like a bad idea. For one, you’ll probably get more creeped out. Two, this will be my raison d’être if it succeeds. But I can say I don’t plan to use it against Vince. In fact, if I’m right, I want him alive for as long as possible.”
“That could mean strapped to a chair while you use a machine to jerk me off for all time,” he said.
Gaby, Fia, and Nina turned to him with expressions of horror.
“Hey, she’s talking about doing this to me. I have to confront this realistically.” He formed a cross with his arms. “No blood unless I know what the fuck you’re doing with it. I’ll take my chances with Mei.”
“For fuck’s…” Hamelin held her nose. “None of you know a damn thing about how my magic works. It’ll be easier to show you. If you let me take a small amount of blood—a couple of liquid ounces or so—then I’ll use it to heal myself and you’ll understand.”
The group shifted uncomfortably and shot the necromancer wary looks. If anything, Vince became more suspicious.
“You want my blood to heal yourself?” he asked. “After two months, you want my blood? The ordinary human’s? Not Gaby’s?”
“Didn’t I just say you don’t understand my magic?” Hamelin’s lip curled. “My necromancy can’t handle the raw power of an immortal’s essence. No necromancy can. And everyone is happier that way.”
Her eyes flickered to the flaming lanterns in the corners, but Vince’s mind turned to a similar story he’d heard last month. From Ashley.
“Is blood magic necessarily necromancy?” he asked, causing Hamelin’s eyes to widen. “This is about the taboo of using other people’s essence, right? Immortals dislike that. A lot.”
“Huh. Didn’t expect you to know anything about blood magic. Pinned you as a thug with a thirty-foot dragon dick. Maybe you know how to use it.” She looked him up and down. “Yeah, messing with blood makes immortals nervous. That’s why you can’t buy Necromancy for Dummies in a bookstore.”
“I don’t think anyone buys those anymore, let alone from bookstores,” Fia said.
“Oh, fine. They buy some hustle culture grifter’s ghostwritten version he spam advertised everywhere whose content is stolen from actually useful magic tomes.” Hamelin rolled her eyes. “The wannabe demigods aren’t really worried about me fucking with some shitty elves or demihumans, or even creating thousands of zombies. But every new necromancer increases the risk of someone working out how to manipulate the essence of an immortal. I bet half those masters of undeath vanished because they flew too close to the sun.”
“You reanimated mystic foxes,” Vince said.
“Yeah, reanimated. They were freshly dead, too. Notice they didn’t cast anything? All that spell does is burn up the magic in their body and use it to power an undead construct. The foxes weren’t even that stable. Hence why the elves worked better. Could manipulate their magic to strengthen their bodies and add magic consuming properties.”
He had wondered why the elves had been far more dangerous than the foxes, despite the races being the exact opposite in life.
“I don’t fuck with immortal essence,” Hamelin said. “I have cred with certain immortals, and that means I get left alone. They get so much as a hint that I’m working with an immortal’s fun stuff and I’m stuffed in a furnace that won’t even leave bones behind. They’ll probably let off nuclear devices wherever they think my phylactery is kept, too.”
“Straight up admitting it, huh?” Nina said.
“Please. If we’re going to work together, it helps if you understand I don’t die when killed.” She giggled for some reason. “That’s why your blood is best, Vince. Can’t touch the unicorn. And you’re ten times the mage these titty monsters are.”
“Wow.” Fia compared her chest size to Nina. “First time for everything, I guess.”
“Don’t let it get to your head.” Hamelin glowered at the two of them, then smiled at Vince. “So, care to let me demonstrate so we can ink this deal?”
“No.” He shook his head while Daji made an approving noise in his head. “Even if I’m a better sorcerer, they’re demihumans. And you’re surrounded by elves, who are also magical in nature. Why my blood, specifically?”
She stared at him. He swore he saw the gears in her rotting head churning.
“Alright, fair.” She shrugged. “You’re flinging around an insane amount of magic. Humans can’t use meister-tier spells as regularly or easily as you, and it means you have damn impressive blood. With necromancy, that makes your blood as good as bismuth. Juliet even mentioned you shrugged off her meister-tier spells. Regenerated a hole in your stomach, shrugged off her abyss, and her immortal slayer tickled your balls at best. So you tick all the boxes I want in a donor.”
Alarm bells went off in his head. Hamelin knew everything about his feats.
