Dante’s Inferno was closed when we arrived, though that wasn’t to

  say I was ever unwelcome there. Always a place waiting for me so long

  as I could find parking nearby, with a key to metal front door under

  its neon sign on my keychain. Door locked behind me, making sure the

  air smelled fine, and Sigyn and I not even five steps in before a

  familiar form dropped from the ceiling.

  Pure white and lightly transparent except a glowing red mark on her

  forehead and chest, dressed in the colonial clothes she’d worn

  since the 1700s, Calliope smiled down at us with a broad grin.

  Floating “laid” on her back at eye level, head lulled back as she

  declared, “Mary Cherry! It’s been a couple months, Vergil said

  you might be swinging by later. We hanging out or just doing

  business? Know you aren’t feeling up to lending the body still.”

  I held in a small laugh at the enthusiasm, half-covering my mouth as

  I gently admitted, “business mostly. Vergil was gonna talk to me

  and Sigyn about mercenaries, um… have I introduced you to Sigyn

  yet?”

  “Oh! Your birthday last year, but haven’t really seen her since,”

  Calliope chirped, spinning to hover upright in front of the girl and

  immediately pulling her into a hug against her chest. Sigyn letting

  out the Noise of someone

  neither expecting to pulled into a hug nor ice sculpture as Calliope

  giggled, “great

  to see you again, girl! How’re you doing, I love your hair.”

  Sigyn nodded, a little red to her cheeks I was sure wasn’t all the

  chill as she stepped back and muttered, “like yours too. Very

  vintage.”

  “Oh you’re hilarious, Scorpion hits me with that at least once a

  week,” the ghost rolled her eyes as she floated back, seeming to

  suddenly remember, “speaking of! He’s on the third floor, knows

  about mercenary work too. You should talk with him till Vergil gets

  back.”

  “How long should that be?” I asked, already starting to the

  elevator while Sigyn and the ghost followed me, pressing the third

  floor button while settling against the back wall. Barbie stood next

  to me, my eye fixing on the ghost — well, other ghost — to look

  for any sign she saw the girl as well.

  Calliope didn’t even seem to look her way, and only let out a low

  whistle seeming to think on it for a while before hesitantly

  admitting, “soon? Went out for some groceries, said he’d probably

  swing by and get lunch on the way there or back. That was a couple

  hours ago, so can’t imagine you’ll be waiting too long.”

  “Well, hopefully not, still had a few things I needed to do today,”

  I said, the door thankfully opening a few seconds later to the third

  floor of Dante’s Inferno.

  Set up with several tables and chairs, and a bar stretched along one

  wall, the club was currently empty with harsh white lights filling it

  compared to the normal club lights. The only other person there

  Scorpion, sat at one of the booths reading a magazine with a woman in

  a bikini laid across a car’s hood on the front.

  A tall and muscular man, he was wearing a pair of torn jeans with a

  tight black shirt that showed off the various scars he wore along his

  arms and upper chest. The tattoo of a scorpion on his neck his

  namesake, I had to assume really, barely obscured by greased back

  black hair. He smelled too strongly of hair products and cheap

  cologne, an almost acrid chemical aura that hid his natural scents

  and made me turn my face in disgust. His smile never breaking even as

  he looked up while we approached, holding up one finger a moment

  before tossing the magazine aside pages down.

  I had to take the dig as I asked him, “you know there’s websites

  for that on your phone, right?”

  “Yeah, but nothing beats physical media, now does it?” Scorpion

  chuckled, his eyes darting to the magazine a moment before he

  awkwardly added on, “was reading it for the articles though. Was an

  exclusive interview about the new exhaust system in the…. That’s

  beside the point. What are you doing here? Didn’t even know you

  were making card night, let along bringing friends.”

  “Came here to talk to Vergil about mercenaries, Calliope here says

  you know about that too though?” I asked, Calliope shrugging as she

  disappeared into the ceiling leaving me behind. Sigyn and I left on

  our own while I waited for an answer.

  Scorpion, for what it was worth,

  taking it in stride as he shrugged and admitted, “ran with his ex

  for a few weeks, before that incident with the crematorium,

  did some private work before that. What do you need to know? If you

  want someone dead, I’ll do it. Well, no, I mean… okay, wait,

  yeah, let me do

  it if you’re looking into that sort of thing.”

  “I’m not hiring an assassin,” I stopped that line of thought,

  pausing a long moment before adding on, “well, wasn’t considering

  it for right now,” Sigyn’s confused expression making me quickly

  change the subject, “we need some answers about how they work, and

  especially about pricing I guess? One from Germany tried killing my

  dad yesterday, there’s apparently around a dozen in the city. I’ve

  never had to deal with European mercenaries, or… well, this is all

  new to me, and The Lady seemed out of her depth too, so-”

  “You know his name?” Scorpion interrupted, barely looking

  interested in the idea of attempted murder or mysterious while he

  started picking his nails with a pocket knife.

  It took me a moment to realize what he meant, and even longer to

  remember what it was as I opened my phone. Scrolling through to my

  notes for a moment before answering him, “The German Sword, which…

  what sort of fucking name is that?”

  “Eurasian Mercenary’s Guild, tough break,” Scorpion hissed at

  that, his smile not breaking as he admitted, “I mean, technically

  they work all over, just not as many members outside of that.

  Underground organization, gets contracts out there, you pick a unique

  code name that everyone uses for you on jobs. Insures it’s harder

  for things to get traced back to you if someone starts investigating

  reputations, and means no one official gets confused for someone

  else. Had to get special permission from the old guy to let my code

  name be Scorpion.”

  “And you knew the German guy?” I asked hesitantly, not sure how

  much it’d help but figuring there was always something there.

  Scorpion’s pause giving some dread and hope in equal measure, the

  man letting out a long sigh before he started, “Hjlamar, didn’t

  know his last name, or… maybe I didn’t know his first name, not

  sure. Swedish mercenary, born in Stockholm and-”

  “Isn’t he the Sword?” Sigyn interrupted, getting

  both our attention before she lowered her head and muttered, “sorry.”

  “Look it’s an advertising thing, no one’s going to hire a guy

  naming himself after Sweden,” Scorpion started, looking ready to

  move on before he admitted, “well, there were the Swede Brothers,

  but they were from Finland.”

  “How much does it cost to hire a Guild member then?” I

  interrupted, the man looking confused again before I explained, “a

  few dozen came through to talk to someone, apparently a dozen are

  still in the area? Looks like a couple groups and some individuals.

  How much is that, I mean, what sort of people are we looking for?”

  Scorpion let out a low whistle, tapping the tip of his pocket knife

  on the table a few times before admitting, “depends on a lot of

  factors. Baseline it’s twenty percent down with the guild, that’s

  the membership fee, rest gets paid off upon completion of the job

  with refund if no one takes the job. Usually price is a matter of

  reputation, danger associated with the job, additional instructions,

  all that. Someone’s killing The Lady’s informants right?”

  “And hunters,” I agreed.

  “Right, German Sword got sent after your dad, which means…”

  Scorpion stopped, a small chuckle escaping him before he realized,

  “open auction, you’re looking at a millionaire for how many

  people are out here and how many contracts there must be. Not single

  digits either, unless this is personal, this amount of

  death and talent is a million easy, hundreds of thousands in down

  payments at least. I mean-”

  Scorpion paused mid-sentence, his smile almost turning cocky as he

  slowly rose to his feet. Finger to his lip as he went to Sigyn and

  led her towards one wall with a hand on her lower back while he

  looked back to me with a knowing nod.

  Something was coming, though I wasn’t particularly hearing or

  smelling anything out of the ordinary. There should have been some

  sign, he wasn’t on a laptop or phone, nothing in his ears, but all

  the same…

  I stepped back, taking up a spot near the spiral staircase and

  elevator where I’d have a little more warning. Either the sound of

  the elevator about to open or someone coming up the stairs, where I

  could slip a little farther back and prepare for them. Scorpion

  pushing Sigyn into a closet behind the bar before he turned back to

  me and clapped his hands.

  “Sorry, lost my focus there a minute,” he laughed, genuinely

  laughed, leaning against the edge of the bar like nothing had

  happened as he continued, “open auctions. Normally the client puts

  together a profile and initial offer for a target, the Guild helps

  give an idea of what’s a good offer if needed and takes out their

  down payment based on that. Few thousand for Stacy the suburban teen,

  and… well, once we get into supernaturals and hunters? A lot more.

  The Guild knows about them, individual members usually don’t until

  they first get a mission dealing with them. If you’re in a rush,

  need a lot of people dead, don’t want to wait? Offer twenty percent

  more than standard, any mercenary can show up and will make an offer

  on doing it. Forty-eight hour period where you’re supposed to let

  people bet on who can do it the cheapest once the first offer comes

  in, but that gets ignored for people in a real hurry.”

  “So there was a betting war for who got to kill me dad?” I asked

  dryly, not sure how else to react to that. I was never going to

  understand this sort of world, and maybe it was best I didn’t.

  Scorpion shrugged, smirk twisting as he merely replied, “I wouldn’t

  try for him for less than fifty. Possible someone swiped it up cheap,

  or the client wasn’t honest about what sort of man your father was;

  hell, maybe someone said they’d do it for a little more in exchange

  for a little extra. We’re going to see.”

  I was about to ask what he meant when I finally heard it. Soft

  scraping and jingling of metal, not from the staircase or elevator

  but the wall beside me. One of the black tinted windows meant for

  more decorations than anything thumping with something heavy hitting

  against it.

  Scorpion nodded me towards the window while he moved to lean against

  a table in front of it, and it didn’t take me long to get the

  message. Scurrying quiet as I could to press myself against the wall

  next to it while the sound of a soft suction squelched against it.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  The urge to ask what was going on stopped only by someone calling

  out, “clear.”

  I dropped, head between my knees, hands holding the top like the

  tornado drills at school and not a moment later my entire body nearly

  wrenched to the side while I crumbled in on myself. Not so much a

  as a wave the impacted flesh like a brick wall, made

  every organ in my body feel like it was wiggled inside me, for a

  moment not even hearing a ringing and then only that. My eye blinking

  once and twice and only then realizing the smoke wasn’t just a

  blinding light, nose not even feeling like it was working through

  whatever dust filled it, fingers reaching to brush my ear and coming

  away red and sticky.

  The wolf howling, screaming, wishing to lash out, and only as I felt

  my eardrums knitting back together and the smoke cleared realizing it

  was me screaming.

  Only brought out by realizing there was a gun in front of me, a man

  in all black with a ski mask holding an assault rifle a few feet away

  from me. Three others throughout the room, all similarly armed and

  dressed except for the one at the lead. Or… no, different colored

  undershirts, worn under bullet proof vests, trying to maintain clear

  distinction. One in front of me was afraid, the scent was filling my

  nose as it unclogged, he was balancing his weight away from me and-

  I had to let out a small growl, trying to push the wolf back as I

  looked up to the man, seeing him as a wolf. He flinched, looked away

  briefly, and I snapped my eye back by the time he was looking my way

  again. The terror not leaving his eyes, though looking a lot more

  like he was questioning whether he’d actually seen that.

  Scorpion still unbothered, pulling a carabiner from his belt and

  tossing it to one of the men with a shrug. Still smirking as he told

  them, “small key next to the fob for the elevator. Catherine’s

  upstairs if you’re looking for her, Vergil’s out though I assume

  he’ll be here soon. If you’re lucky he won’t even notice the

  blown out window and smoke, he’s rather oblivious.”

  Whoever he’d given the key to looked around confused, though seemed

  to not mind running with it as he passed the key off. Telling them

  something my still ringing ears couldn’t hear just right, and

  gestured them on. One of the mercenaries running to the elevator, the

  other one going down the spiral staircase with their rifle held tight

  to their chest.

  The man left in front of Scorpion waiting for a long moment before

  asking, “you’re not worried?”

  “Kinda figured this would happen one day, I just think it’s

  better to get ahead of it,” Scorpion responded with a shrug,

  nodding my way before adding on, “also, like, no one here is in any

  real danger. There silver in that guys rifle?”

  The both glanced back towards me and the man threatening me, his eyes

  betraying the fact he was putting together a (probably accurate)

  theory on what I was. His fingers flexing just a moment before

  resting firmly on the trigger while he declared, “there is.”

  Southern? South western? What was that accent?

  I sniffed the air, not particularly believing him and at the same

  time not wanting to trust some slight intuition. Silver on the air,

  but at the same time…

  A figure crouched on my good eye’s side, the wolf growling a little

  as my head snapped to towards it to be greeted by Barbie knelt beside

  me. An almost curious look to her eyes as she let them run over the

  man’s rifle, tapping her nose a few times before telling me, “he

  has a sidearm with silver bullets, the rifle doesn’t have any in it

  though, does it?”

  “How do you know that?” I asked, not caring about the confused

  looks that got me, “tell me or I’m not listening. I’m not dying

  because a hallucination-”

  “Mary,” Barbie interrupted me with a smile, booping my nose with

  an icy finger, “just listen and we can talk after. Something’s

  coming up anyway, figured I’d need to break down and do it soon

  anyway.”

  I nodded, trying to figure out whether that was a reliable source or

  not as I looked back to the man in front of me. His aim trembling but

  kept trained straight on me, my nose sniffing the air once more

  trying to figure out if there was anything there that could have been

  missed. Barbie wouldn’t have known that much about guns, a

  hallucination wouldn’t know more than me, what was giving it away?

  “Mary, just listen to the girl,” Scorpion sighed, looking

  confused only as I looked at him so myself. Only after a moment

  starting, “am I not supposed to see-” before I jumped into

  action.

  My hand darted up, gripped the rifle with my palm over the barrel and

  forcing it up as the man let out a stream of bullets. Everything from

  my fingers to my shoulder erupting in a burning agony, blood and bone

  flinging outwards, but the recoil in my favor. The barrel digging

  into the hole in my palm it was creating, kicking back, it barely

  took any effort for me to twist the gun from the man’s grip.

  No more bullets flying towards me, even from Scorpion’s man, the

  mercenary in front of me fumbled for the pistol on his hip while I

  charged forward. My right hand a broken mess, that entire arm feeling

  like it’d struggle to work right now, my left dove forward as I did

  my best to hold a partial transformation.

  Nothing strong, not the hybrid form that inspired plenty of legends,

  but growing my nails out a few inches and strengthening them. Letting

  them turn into hooked claws, a scream escaping the man’s lips

  before a moment later being cut off as blood misted the air. His

  trembling hand managing to draw his handgun and half aim it towards

  me before I let the wolf take over for only a moment.

  Every ounce of weight I had thrown forward in a pounce, knocking him

  flat on his ass and pinning his gun to the ground with one hand. My

  partly transformed muscles cracking bone under my grip, and still

  very human teeth finding his neck, digging in to help along the

  bleeding. A chunk of meat coming up with my head and only barely

  avoiding going down my gullet as I spit it back in his whimpering

  face.

  My breath quick and heavy, face burning to the chest as I watched the

  man’s eyes slowly stop their rapid twitching and felt his struggle

  die away under me. Only as the last of the life left the half-one

  under me that my actions set in, my heart dropping into my stomach as

  I looked over to a horrified Scorpion.

  Every second of silence a chorus of drumming hearts in my ears, the

  ringing slowly dying out even while my hand twitched and tried

  healing. Too much of the bone and muscle damaged to be a quick fix,

  probably a longer heal. My worry about that only stopped by Scorpion

  clearing his throat before hesitantly starting, “Mary.”

  “Yeah?” I asked with a gulp, glancing towards the broken window

  behind me, wondering if the fall would break my bones enough to make

  running impossible.

  “Remind me to pay you back for that twenty you loaned me last month

  before you leave,” the man finished off with a slow nod, boot

  grinding into the prone figure in front of him, “I don’t want to

  ever be on your bad side.”

  “Understood,” I answered slowly, words almost slurring, my body

  only feeling fully under my control once more as my heartbeat slowed

  to something resembling normal.

  Stumbling to unsteady feet I walked over to Scorpion and the

  mercenary he’d taken out. The man both alive and conscious, with

  just Scorpion’s pocket knife dug in at an odd angle in his shoulder

  and his arm stuck in a crooked pose. Scorpion’s boot on his other

  hand, and looking like he’d hardly expended any effort in the act

  even compared to me.

  My breath finally slowed to normal when the elevator door opened, and

  Vergil walked in carrying a large bag in one hand and pulling a wagon full of grocery bags in the other. Whistling softly as he left his wagon in place and walked out declaring, “who wants Chinese! Mary,

  got you some orange chicken with rice, know how much you love that.

  Didn’t bring any for our guests, sorry about that.”

  A relatively tall man, Vergil looked almost like a wild man in

  appearance. His hair and beard long and gray, and looking barely

  trimmed or tamed. Jeans tattered at the bottom, button-down shirt

  kept most of the way undone, books ragged and old despite how many he

  could probably afford. A face that looked much younger than you would

  have guessed from his hair, and especially from everything I’d

  heard of his relatively secret life.

  Scorpion spoke up before I could, almost cold as he reported, “four

  individuals, one went up to Catherine, one after you. Mary took out

  one here, I incapacitated this one.”

  “Yours give you any trouble?” I asked hesitantly, realizing there

  wasn’t even a spec of blood on the man’s shirt only as I did so.

  Vergil didn’t even seem like he’d noticed the scene around him,

  just shrugging as he admitted, “ran into him. He wasn’t too much

  of a problem. Imagine Catherine’s having more fun with hers right

  now, but I’m not really wanting to check. I do want to know what’s

  going on here though, Mary.”

  “Why me?”

  “I feel like you bring a lot of the weird company here,” the man

  responded, and I couldn’t really argue with that.

  All the same I had to do my best and gave him the long and short,

  “mercenaries are killing contacts of The Lady and Hunters. They

  were probably going to be after you whether I was here or not.”

  Vergil nodded, his eyes narrowing as he stared down at the prone man

  and walked over to crouch by his head. His voice a low growl as he

  started, “is that so, and who do you think you are to-” Vergil

  removed the man’s mask, the two of them staring at each other for

  several seconds before he almost giddy asked, “Seo-jun, that you?”

  “Dan?” the man asked, somehow smiling despite the knife in his

  shoulder and boot on his hand, “son of a bitch, thought you died

  back in-”

  “Kentucky! Oh I forgot all about that,” Vergil laughed, pushing

  Scorpion away and helping the man stand, “Christ, how’s life?

  It’s been, what, fifteen years? You doing anything lately?”

  “Man, you don’t know the half of it. Got married, just had a kid,

  changed my code name few years back, going by Iron Ronin now and

  that’s-”

  “You’re fucking Korean.”

  “Got married couple years back, you listen to me?” Seo-jun

  interrupted laughing, “moved in with the wife’s family in Sanuki

  and the name gets me more local work, don’t need to go far from

  home unless the pay’s good. Only reason I’m out here is we just

  had a kid, wanted to do a couple big jobs so I could take a couple

  years off from the Guild to be there until we could both get on the

  field again.”

  “Why didn’t you invite me to the wedding?” Vergil lamented,

  only a second later remembering, “right, Kentucky.” Both men

  staring each other down before breaking into a snorting laughter as

  Vergil continued, “hey, I’ll make it up to you. Come on, let’s

  get you patched up, think I still have a couple gold bars hidden in

  the basement from the Kentucky job, we can consider it a late wedding

  present. Besides, Catherine’s going to be entertaining herself with

  her merc for a while, I can put the groceries in the fridge down

  there for now.”

  I watched the two of the working, not sure how to react and only a

  moment later realizing I was still stood there covered in blood from

  the man’s friend. Maybe not giving the best apologizing, but doing

  my best all the same as I muttered, “sorry about um, the killing

  your friends.”

  “These fuckers? They took the coworker jobs, I took the Vergil one,

  didn’t know who he was, figured we could work together,” Seo-jun

  confirmed, looking me over a long time before adding on, “don’t

  come near me though, you’re fucking terrifying.”

  “Understood,” I admitted hesitantly, looking around a long time

  before realizing the mistake I was making. Only as the Vergil and his

  friend were halfway to the elevator dashing up to ask, “wait, can

  you tell me who hired you? Or at least like, anything?”

  “What? Oh yeah,” the mercenary chuckled, rubbing his chin a

  moment at the thought, “can’t say who hired, too much regulation,

  I’ll get killed if they find out I gave away a client.”

  “Not an exaggeration,” Scorpion added on for him.

  “Ah, well… right, guns,” the man chuckled thinking about it,

  awkwardly pulling his handgun out with his one good hand, hissing as

  he aggravated the knife in his shoulder. The pistol passed along to

  me as he explained, “we were supposed to execute them with these

  guns, that was specified. Figured you’d figure that out from the

  corpses here. Didn’t need to leave them, but we’re supposed to

  leave any bullets or casings.”

  I nodded, looking over the gun slowly while Sigyn stepped out of the

  closet finally, the poor girl looking around wide eyed as she slowly

  asked, “can I come out now?”

  “Oh, you’re here too!” Vergil laughed, already in the elevator

  as he called out to her, “you can have my sweet and sour pork! I

  had something to eat on the way here.”

  Sigyn’s horror at the blood and the gore seemed short lived as she

  went straight to the takeout bag, the container of food already out

  and carried to the second floor while I was still looking the gun

  over. After a few seconds ejecting the magazine and immediately

  getting hit with the smell of the metals within.

  Iron and silver, alternating bullets, shells were reloaded by an

  amateur, or… maybe closer to say like one.

  Not something a hunter would ever do, magazine fed pistols were

  usually smaller caliber, left casings behind, and were harder to fix

  if the iron or silver bullets fucked them up. Large caliber revolvers

  were the preferred choice for hunters, impact and less evidence at

  the scene preferred, but at the same time…

  A lazier person would just look at the scene and think it was a

  hunter.

  “I’m starting to not like what this is looking like,” I told

  Scorpion, the man chuckling for a moment as I pulled him aside. Away

  from the spiral staircase, as if it was likely she’d overhear us

  that far away, and only then asking in a whisper, “you saw Barbie

  too?”

  Scorpion furrowed his brow, looking over me, over my shoulder and,

  tilting his head behind me, asked, “just a ghost isn’t she? Any

  reason she shouldn’t be around?”