THE WAR CITY OF PARABELLUM
SEPTEMBER 13/10 N.U.E
.. : ..
MAX
Vampires and werewolves are incredibly sensitive to blood and death, those were forces and elements so powerful that as long as you've been in contact with them, they would leave a stain on you, like a sort of mark that would never be erased. Three people, a woman and two men. The woman was had come in contact with blood and death, and fairly recently too. Of the other two men, one of them was so stained and dipped in blood and death, it was almost suffocating to stand near him.
But that could be just because he was a former soldier, the well toned body and the tribal military tattoos unique to the envoys was etched on one side of his face. And even though death hung around him, it was quite stale, and he had no to do connection with Malik. The second man was clean, too clean in fact. But the innocent look, coupled with the slight deferential posture let me know that he was feeling pretty intimidated. Whatever these guys were here for, the second guy was pretty much a rookie. That or he was held in awe by my awesome Looks.
"Good evening your Highnesses, my name is Veronica Dixie, I'm a representative from Dark Moon entertainment. We represent up and coming stars, helping them manage their fame and giving them a boost in whatever career of their choosing. I must say prince Michael, that you have the voice of an angel, and so too does the young girl besides you. I would like to manage you both, to help you pursue new and great heights of your music, you would be able to achieve much more than just playing for scraps in a Tech expo. You would become a mega star equal if not greater in fame than your own sister, so what do you say?"
Wow, she really strikes when the iron is hot. And judging from the very annoyed looks on the face of the other two, it's obvious they were here for the same thing and she beat them to the punch. She's fierce, I'll give her that. But the longer she spent close to us, the more I'm sure she has something to do with Malik's death, and as if to confirm my suspicion, my bio comes came alive as my right pupil glowed.
My vision changed as the augmented reality functions of my bio coms showed a small blinking message icon. With just my thoughts, I opened the message and saw that it was from a Lisa, probably the sales manager who I just gave a generous tip to, just so she could find out the sales record of Malik's hover board. Looks like she came through for me; and would you look at that, every purchase that Malik has made in the past week alone, including three nights in the blood moon hotel had been paid from the credit card of one Ms. Veronica Dixie.
Right now I'm trying to ignore the fact that a sales manager at an expo who I just asked for a sales report, could actually retrieve an entire week's worth of credit report, including purchases that were made at other establishments other than the place where she works. This chick is obviously a hacker, and a very good one at that, but let that be a mystery for another day, looks like Mike is not the only one who found talent in a place like this.
Just after Veronica introduced herself, much to nervous and anxious expression of the girl Mike just sang with. She seemed a bit older than us, maybe fourteen or fifteen, but she was so starved and poor she seemed so small. This was an opportunity for her life to change, but it was obviously hanging on the decision and words of Mike, she was getting desperate, obviously so, but there was nothing she could do but watch as the remaining two men introduced themselves and the entertainment companies they represented, also offering the same deal as Veronica, a chance to become a star.
"Ms. Veronica I believe you represented the now deceased Beast Master finalist Malik right?" Mike suddenly asked right off the bat.
I felt like slapping him, I'm supposed to be the brash one, the person who acted and spoke without thinking, so why was he blowing our cover, this woman will know that we're on to her. But the reason became painfully obvious to me almost immediately, and it was because of the girl he just sang with. Veronica's entertainment company was without a doubt the most famous of all the three that have been introduced, however she's dangerous, and by extension so too are the people she works for.
"Well yes, and while what happened to him was quite tragic and cruel. Our company mourns with his family and the nation, he was really a peerless talent and very young too. But we have to move on, and I think the best way to honor his memory would be let the spotlight land on the next big star, or in this case stars." She said, using a soft and flattering voice accompanied with an elegant smile. Too bad that smile's wasted on Mike, the dude's blind after all.
"Hmmm that's really generous of your company Ms. Veronica. By any chance were you like Malik's manager or handler, I'm not sure what the term is." Mike said acting embarrassed as he rubbed on of his hands behind his silver and blue hair.
"Oh no! unfortunately that role was given to someone else in the company, I never had the pleasure of working with young Mr. Malik before his gruesome passing. It's a shame though, I heard he was a very charming young man."
Damn! She's a good liar, top notch, first class, she deserves an award for being so good an actress. She would have fooled a lot of people, vampires and werewolves included. Unfortunately Mike and I are freaks amongst our own kind. Her heartbeat might not have changed, her pulse remained calm, but she broke out in a cold sweat, too little to be noticed or attributed as anything other than the fact that she was talking about the unfortunate death of a young man. However the thing is, if she was faking remorse your words and expressions would let you know.
But she was a master at her craft, so expressions and words matched, and she was being professional. But inside of her there was no change, no matter how powerful you are, there's always physical reaction when the topic of death is mentioned. Not even my father, a dragon king and a werewolf a thousand times more powerful than me can escape from that fundamental rule. She has gold control over her reactions, but no one can fully control their body's reaction, not to mention she has Malik's scent all over her, blood and body.
"Well that's a shame, I have it on good authority that Malik was really close to a woman from your company. Your name had come up, but I'm guessing it's someone else. Please the police are currently carrying out some investigations about Malik's murder, and based on a recent discovery made by me and my friend here, we've discovered that Malik was killed by a female, probably someone from your company. We're on our way to the station to make a report now, and due to that, at least until the investigation is concluded and it has proven your company has nothing to do with it, I can't sign any agreement with your company, and I can't in good faith let Monna here do the same. As for the rest of you, how about you prepare a contract, though it won't be for me, but rather for Monna here, and then deliver it to the blood moon hotel in three days. If it's really good, I'll have her sign with you guys. I'm no really ready to be a star just yet, but Monna is a talent that you would be very stupid to let go of. Are we in agreement?"
Mike asked the two men with an even tone, after systematically eliminating Veronica from the equation and painting a bloody target on our backs! Fuck!
Mike likes to tell everyone that I'm the most perceptive person he's ever met, though I think that's stupid, how many people has he met? He's only twelve, and he's a bloody loner. However he's right, not to sound so arrogant, but I'm a cool guy.
But Mike apart from his ridiculous talent with music, had the most powerful mind I've seen. He could scheme with the best of them, and when I say the best, I mean his mom Asha the Speran goddess of the moon, David Iye Johnson, the dragon king of the mind dragon of Wisdom, and last but not the least my own mother, Ming Bae King, dragon queen of the fire dragon of Destruction.
Obviously he painted a target on our back, leaving Veronica with the choice of either running away, or trying to kill us before we get to the police station. As for the other guys, he put them in a tight spot. Monna has an amazing voice, it's beautiful, but she's a nobody, Mike's a prince, and why they wanted was Mike. They only extended an invitation to her as courtesy to Mike, plus she had a decent enough talent so it's not so bad, two for the price of one.
But Mike has no intention of being a professional singer, at least not yet anyway. But he knows Monna needs her life to change, Mike always said that you can't ever really know a person until you sing with them, that music is a doorway to the spirit and soul, the very being of a person. It's why we spent hours upon hours singing together, we've been doing so ever since we were children. I'm not as good a singer as he is, but we work well together. Anyway the men can't refuse to get a contract for Monna, not when the Grand Prince of Spero himself asked them to do it.
He's not leaving anybody a choice, not even me. He's making everyone play to his own strategies and his own plots. If I was not so proud of him, I would probably be terrified. If he's this conniving at twelve, what would he be like at eighteen or twenty, what of thirty or a hundred. Damn! High king Kael and his wives have created a monster, and there's no way I had a hand in this, yep! No way at all. I definitely didn't encourage this.
"Max could you please get a guard from the hotel to come fetch Monna. Tell them to have her fed, get her some proper clothes and make sure she's comfortable, in the meantime we need to get to this station." Mike said, still in his supreme, conniving leader/politician mode.
"Oi! I'm your best friend not your assistant, do it yourself." I said to him with an annoyed look on my face.
"I would, but I'm blind you know, I don't have any bio coms to rely on. Won't you help your best friend, you're so cruel."
To the people watching this was probably a cute scene, and they would be right. Investigations and plots aside, we're just a pair of twelve and thirteen year old boys. We forget most of the time that we're still practically children, and in times like this it comes out. But either way the blind monkey is right.
"fine! But this is the last time I'm making your calls for you, get a cognitive AI or something.... Alright it's done, let's get going."
We weren't really heading to a police station, because I'm not sure the evidence we've gathered so far would be admissible in a court of law. This was just Mike's attempt at getting Veronica to expose herself, and the fact that we're children should help make her underestimate us. Damn! Looks like this night is just going to keep getting longer and longer and longer.