Short Story: The Cadaver Supplier

Drip... drip... drip...

The misty air fed the slick angular surfaces of the darkened alley, accumulating moisture across the sloping shanty roofs of the low buildings that crowded the narrow space, and feeding the sinister gargoyles of the taller buildings ranging above. The gargoyles drip-dripped onto the street in front of the shadows in which she crouched, ice blue eyes piercing the gloom.

Drip... drip... drip...

Waiting.

Drip... drip...

The kooler was propped up against the wall in the shadow of a wheeled trashter and her spear was held loosely in front of her knees. She doubted she would need it tonight, but it never hurt to have protection, not here, not anywhere in the capital city. Hell, she'd even take it with her into the spires where the high society dwelt if she ever had reason to go there. Not that she ever would. Not a street rat like her.

A few blocks away, there was a riot in full swing. She could hear the distant roar, the dull crashes of glass and screams of pain and fear, as city enforcers struggled to put down the protesters from the slums. The Valrathian troops would win out in the end. They always did. Nothing in this city breathed, let alone moved, against the Vampire Lords for long, without them sending swift and brutal retribution.

When it was all over, she would make her way there in the hopes of finding an unfortunate casualty, a dead or wounded individual who couldn't fight back. There were usually at least a few after violence like this, left in the street, abandoned by their fellows after they fled in panic in the face of the blaring Valrathi shotguns. Her kooler was empty, after all. She needed to change that if she wanted to eat again this week...

In the meantime, she waited and watched, hoping for some injured straggler, or some other poor soul to stagger this way, unwittingly falling onto the point of her blade. It was hardly an honorable means of survival, but there was precious little honor in this city ruled by vampires and haunted by demons.

Her ears pricked up.

Someone was coming.

⁂

Synthblood was the lubricant that kept the vampire capital city of Valmyr, and even the Dominion itself, moving forward. It was also the reason he was out on this dank night.

Investigator Yakub Crowley led the way through the warren of alleys, heading away from the sounds of crashing glass and angry hubbub. On another night, the two enforcers accompanying him, one a burly and scarred male fenrir, the other a lithe and catty female nekora, could expect to be on the front lines of those clashes, repulsing the rioters, driving them through the streets back to the slums where they belonged. On this night, however, he had requested their secondment to aid him in his investigation. Somewhere around here, in this maze of back alleys populated by the nefarious and the desperate, there was a minor league operation distilling illegal Synthblood for the black markets. Ordinarily, Yakub, a vampire himself, wouldn't have given a damn about such small-time players – after all, they provided a cheaper, if more risky source of the heavily regulated drug that lower order vampires such as himself could more easily afford. Unfortunately for this particular black marketeer, someone up high wanted their little business closed down. Permanently. The synthblood flowing steadily out of this district was of far higher quality than most back street vendors, enough that it had made some big league players uncomfortable that their own interests were being challenged.

And so, word had come down from on high that Yakub was to be responsible for making this challenge go away. He was an investigator. He would find these 'criminals' and take them out of the equation – hence the presence of the muscle.

“This ain't my idea of a good time, boss,” said the female enforcer from behind him as Yakub reached an intersection and paused, peering round a corner.

“Same,” agreed her mate, his near permanent snarl as pronounced as ever. “I'd much rather be cracking heads with the rest of the station, than getting drenched in this piss-smelling alleyway.”

“The rain falls everywhere, idiot,” replied Yakub, softly, peering into the gloom of the alley ahead. “You'll get wet wherever you are.”

“Yeah, but at least if I'm busy breaking me some protester bones, I'll be too happy to notice...” came the enforcer's sour reply. The female snorted laughter at that, not that Yakub knew why. It was hardly a funny joke. He narrowed his eyes and ran a hand contemplatively around his throat beneath his high collar, fingertips running over the many twisting and knotted scars there, the legacy of his imperfect transmogrification after taking the kiss. He often wondered if the scars were the reason he was stuck in his dead-end investigator position rather than climbing the ranks of vampire high society... but on the other hand, he was lucky to have got through the process at all, once it had started to go wrong. He could have been transformed into a lowly and mindless thrall. They were the dregs of Valrathian society, lower even than the poor damned souls trapped in the sprawling slums.

Feeling the beginnings of burning thirst just creeping into his consciousness as he contemplated their position, he pulled a vial of red out of his pocket and swigged the contents, casting the empty glass aside with a tinkle of broken glass. He gasped, lightly. As the hunger abated and the familiar sensation of power charged his senses, he focused on the alleyways ahead. Something wasn't right.

“Come on, why aren't we moving?” asked the brute and he tried to push past Yakub.

“Hold up,” said the investigator, lifting his hand in a forestalling manner.

“What is it?” asked the female.

A slow grimace spread across Yakub's face.

“We're being hunted,” he replied.

⁂

There were three of them. Two were clearly enforcers in full gear, though without their helmets. They carried stubby shotguns and each had a stun maul looped into their belts. The third figure was dressed in a long dark raincoat, but otherwise dressed in smart civilian clothes. This one reeked of vampire.

Dangerous.

She considered her options.

Normally, she would have given these three as wide a berth as possible, but they were intruding on her territory – not only that, they were perilously close to her main customer's establishment. If they were here, they were likely here for him. It was unlikely a vampire would have even come to a rundown place like this, otherwise.

From her vantage, up in the shadows of an overhanging side roof, she watched them progress through her section of ghetto. The vampire was particularly wary, as if he knew what danger he was in being here. The two enforcers accompanying him seemed far less circumspect. Probably because they thought not much out here could touch them. It almost made her want to teach them a lesson...

Of course, the reality was, she would be unlikely to come out on top in a confrontation with all three of them, particularly with that vampire present. No, her best option was to somehow split them up and take down one of them when they were cut off from their mates. Her kooler only had room for one, after all.

She rose and ran with light steps across the rooftop, vaulting to the next and away into the mist. This was her territory. They would learn to respect that.

⁂

“Come on, what are we waiting around for?”

The fenrir enforcer was getting impatient at Yakub's cautious progress.

"Shut up, you fool," growled the investigator. "I'm trying to work out where the danger is."

"Yeah, or you're just a coward," muttered the fenrir.

Though Yakub ignored the barb, the nekora cast a dubious look at her colleague. She obviously didn't think it was a good idea to be insulting a vampire, even a lowly one like Yakub. The investigator could see the fenrir enforcer was oblivious to his comrade's chagrin, however.

Not too bright, this one...

Then again, Yakub doubted his life up until that point had ever called for a great deal of intelligence. The fenrir was clearly a bully, and a sadistic one at that. He was also clearly incautious, and that was liable to get him into trouble his muscles wouldn't get him out of one of these days.

“There!” hissed the female, pointing. Yakub followed the direction she indicated.

Her eyes were good. He could only just make out the figure of a girl standing in the mists at the far end of a side alley. She was diminutive, dressed in a rugged coat with a peaked hood that obscured most of her features, except for her long dark hair, and she carried what appeared to be a complicated spear with attachments around the haft, just below the bladed head.

Yakub stared at her for a long moment in which she remained completely motionless. Then the girl stepped back, disappearing into the silver mists.

"It appears we've found our hunter," said Yakub, mildly.

The larger of the two enforcers snorted derision and shoved past Yakub.

"She's mine."

He raised his shotgun and advanced down the alleyway. The nekora made to follow the fenrir and give him support, but Yakub blocked her by raising an arm.

"No, let him go," he told her.

"What if he needs backup?" she asked.

"If he needs help with one girl, he deserves everything he's going to get."

She looked incredulously up at the vampire's face and found the complicated expression there unsettling. When she lifted her gun and tried to push past him again, he stood firm, red eyes sparkling in the dark. When he spoke again, his voice was hard.

"If you have any ambitions of ever taking the kiss, you'll do as I say." She relented slightly, lowering the shotgun once more. "Good. Head back to the precinct. We won't find anything tonight."

And with that, he thrust his hands in his pockets and stepped away in the opposite direction to the fenrir enforcer. She gaped at his retreat, but, after a long glance towards her colleague, turned and followed.

⁂

Rak moved quickly and efficiently through the maze of alleys, spinning around corners with his shotgun held ready, alert to any sign of danger.

The girl had seemingly disappeared. It took him some moments to realise his own backup had, too.

"Damn cowards," he spat. Well, he didn't need them to hunt down one little girl. Felsia was good backup in a tight spot, more than a lot of his colleagues anyway, but she was also prone to pulling her blows when she knew her opponent was beaten. That was no fun.

The vampire investigator, on the other hand, was clearly an idiot who would be no help in a fight.

A sound caught his attention and he stopped, training his ears to the eerie environment. The mist helped blanket a lot of the sounds of the city. Even the riot's clash no longer resounded here. Perhaps his colleagues had finally put the protestors down? Rak inwardly lamented missing all the fun.

Well, he'd just have to have some fun here, wouldn't he?

"Come out little girl," he called. "Throw away that spear, it won't do you any good..."

Rak heard the sound of swift footfalls and whirled about in time to catch a wide sweep of the spearhead on the body of his shotgun. It was solid metal, but amazingly the edge of the spearhead bit deep into the firing mechanism, buckling the action, and when he yanked it away and tried to fire at her, the gun jammed.

The girl grinned, ice blue eyes flashing, and withdrew the spear for a thrust to the chest.

Ha! Think again, girl! he thought triumphantly, dropping the useless shotgun and lashing out with both hands to grab the spear haft in a tight grip. The grin on her face disappeared and was replaced with a look of annoyance as she first tried to pull away, then tried to push forward once more. He was bigger and stronger, though, and with a feral grin of his own, he began exerting his superior strength to wrench the spear out of her grip.

"Bad luck, girl! Your little ambush didn't quite go to plan, did it? I'm going to enjoy taking you apart!"

She snarled and clicked her teeth together in irritation, as he slowly began to inch the spear away from his chest.

"Give it up, bitch!" laughed the enforcer. "You've lost!"

"Idiot!" replied the girl. "Take this!"

Her finger depressed on a hidden trigger in the spear's haft and the cartridges around the head of the spear suddenly lit up. They discharged jets of steam and thundered aetheric power into the spearhead, which glowed blue-white. A perfect replica of the metal blade cast in white energy shot forward, straight into his chest. It punctured his enforcer breastplate, sliced straight through his heart and erupted from his back in a hissing spray of vaporising gore. The blade of energy dissipated mere moments later. The sudden shock that froze on the enforcer's face was like an elixir. He crumpled to the floor and was dead in a matter of a few heartbeats.

The girl stood over him, the elation of her victory quickly souring, and her expression twisting into a feral glower.

"Waste of a damn aetherite cartridge..." she spat, aiming a petulant kick at the body. Checking quickly around to make sure the alleyway was still deserted, she grabbed the enforcer's ankle and began dragging him into the shadows nearby where her kooler was stashed and ready to receive her quarry.

It looked like she'd be eating well this week, after all.

⁂

The Butcher was a hulking blob of a man, with thinning hair slicked back under a butcher's cap, and vented grilles implanted into the sides of his bulbous neck, possibly in order to ease his breathing, which would otherwise have been under pressure from his copious layers of body fat. He leaned heavily on a counter that opened out onto the dim alleyway, with strings and hunks of meat hung all around him. A single security light illuminated the front of his shop.

The fact his business was still open at this late hour would have been remarkable anywhere else. But those in the know would understand the meat business was simply a front to his real line of work and would not have been surprised at all.
He lifted a corpulent hand in greeting as she moved down the street towards him, hauling the kooler behind her.

"Well, well," he rumbled, a sickening smile splitting his pudgy face. "To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit so late at night?"
She lugged the kooler round and deposited it at his feet, then hit the release that caused the lid to hiss and fold back into itself. The butcher whistled appreciatively as its occupant was revealed inside the coffin shaped box.

“Big guy. Nice and fresh,” said the butcher with some relish. “Should get a healthy batch from this one.”

“Yeah, yeah,” replied the cadaver supplier. “Just give me my payment.”

“Patience, my pretty, patience,” said the Butcher, signalling a couple of drone assistants to haul the dead enforcer from the kooler and carry him into his establishment. No doubt, they would begin hooking him up to automatic exsanguinators and processing pumps within moments.

“Hey! What's your game?” hissed the cadaver supplier. “You know you don't get to take the body until I get my payment!”

“Take a shot of chill powder, kiddo," laughed the Butcher. "I ain't about to stiff my best supplier. You know I'm good for it.”

“Yeah? And maybe I'll 'stiff' you. My spear still has a few aether charges left in it, you know?” She raised the spear menacingly to illustrate her point. It was possibly a meaningless gesture – the Butcher was bound to have hidden sentry drones ready to fire on unwanted aggressors. Still, she couldn't afford to appear weak in this line of work.

"Ha! You're right, you're right!" The Butcher leered at her and turned away, rummaging behind his store front for what she hoped was cash. A moment later he slapped a small stack of notes down on the counter in front of her, that and a few vials of dark red.

“There you go, I don't have much ready cash right now, but those vials should more than cover the shortfall."

Her eyes narrowed as she picked up the ampoules of synthblood and stared at them.

“What the hell am I supposed to do with this?”

The Butcher snorted and air wheezed out of his throat grilles.

“What do I care? Trade it? Sell it? Hell, drink it yourself or throw it in the gutter, if you wanna be stupid. It's worth more than the fee you just got on its own. Don't you know there's a shortage right now?”

“I ain't no businesswoman...” growled the cadaver supplier.

“I'll buy it from you,” said a voice from further down the alley. She spun around, brandishing her spear at the newcomer as he emerged from the misty air. “You don't need that, kid.”

He brushed past her, nonchalantly pushing the point of her spear down as he did.

“Investigator Yakub,” said the Butcher, a very fake look of delight on his face. “What a pleasant surprise! I hope you've got money to pay for your tab, this time...”

“Huh, you should be paying me, considering I just delivered ingredients right to your doorstep, Big Guy.”

The cadaver supplier's eyes narrowed.

“You're the vampire that was with those two enforcers...”

“One of which is currently being converted into your employer's main product," he agreed. He glanced at the Butcher. "I think I'm due a little margin on my order, right, Big Guy?” The Butcher waved a turgid hand in offhand, if reluctant agreement. Yakub turned to the cadaver supplier. “The offer is genuine, and more than deserved having witnessed your display tonight.”

He reached into his long coat and produced a roll of notes. The cadaver supplier's eyes went wide. That much money would get her off the streets for weeks. When he offered it to her, she snatched the roll and thrust the vials at him.

"Good to see we have an understanding," said Yakub with a smile.

"Huh, I said you could trade them, kid," grumbled the Butcher, "but I didn't mean right in front of my own establishment."

"Your 'establishment' is getting noticed, Big Guy," Yakub told him. "Maybe it’s time to relocate to another part of the city?"

"Really? Huh, maybe you're right," blinked the Butcher, before scowling at him, "but you're not getting more product for that piece of information... My red is worth more than that."

"Call it a freebie due to our mutual interest, Big Guy" Yakub replied. “Oh, and give my regards to the Noxhavens.”

“Heh! I have no idea what you mean, Investigator...”

The cadaver supplier had by this point tucked the roll of bills safely into her coat and turned away, hauling her now empty kooler back off into the mists. Maybe she still had time to find another mark now that the riot had calmed down? Tonight had been a good night, after all, in spite of the expensive aetherite charge she had been forced to use.

Yakub stopped her with a call.

“Hey, kid? You're not bad with that spear, you know? You ever consider taking the kiss?”

She paused, then looked round and fixed him with her peculiar ice blue eyes. After a moment, a chilling grin spread across her face.

“You really want to see what I'd be like as a vampire, Mr Investigator?”

She turned away again and advanced into the mist, leaving Yakub caught between a shudder and a chuckle.

“Eh... perhaps not, kid. Perhaps not.”