The Dark Edge Chronicles - Clan War

Negotiations

When that semicircle was done, not only was the chamber now emptied of living Hand agents, it was also empty of living White Flames. Romanescu frowned as he watched the last human operator, one of the soldiers that had brought him into the chamber a moment ago, topple to the ground. He then looked over at Lash.

To find the powerful vampire aiming his equally powerful weapon directly at him.

"It has a dead man's switch," he carefully pointed out, holding the detonator back up.

"I know. That's why you're still breathing only out of your mouth," Lash growled, not dropping the Shiva even a hair. "Try again."

"The withdrawal of all Ventru assets from the city, immunity for Demaskieros and myself from prosecution, and clear passage beyond Ventru's ability to track," Romanescu said after a slight hesitation.

"What about us?" the Nakagi councilor asked in a shrill voice, Lash's rapid fire execution of all the support operatives in the chamber filling him with cold fear. Then his head was snapping back after Romanescu put a bullet into his forehead, the Japanese vampire twisting awkwardly to the side before dropping.

That done, the slaver looked at the rest of the cowering traitor councilors.

"Anybody else want to ask a stupid question while I'm in the middle of an important negotiation?" he hissed tautly. When nobody answered, he turned back to a grim Lash.

"Well?"

"Accepted," Lash flatly replied, smoothly holstering the Shiva before leaning over to pull free the moly knife.

"Tradition demands both combatants strip to the waist without extraordinary protection," Demaskieros tightly pointed out. "And a third party selects the blades used."

Lash's eyes flickered over to the duplicitous Toreador.

"And why should I believe a word coming out of your mouth, back stabber?" he snapped even as he mentally frowned.

Unfortunately Demaskieros was actually right. Tradition demanded both strip away any extra protection and fight on an equal footing, much as such duels were fought a thousand years ago.

Lash extended his senses into the chamber as far as they'd go as he considered his next move. While he was fairly confident that he had cleansed the large space of any hiding Hand agents and all visible White Flames, the big vampire didn't put it past Romanescu to have other assets besides his detonator hiding in close vicinity to take advantage of him being more vulnerable than he currently was, sheathed as he was in his full Qos Viran battle armor with its psionic enhancements.

"While you're shuffling your feet, Lash, my finger is getting tired," Romanescu dryly pointed out when Lash hesitated to immediately react to Demaskieros's words beyond questioning them.

"Impatient to die, Marius?" Lash countered.

The slaver smiled thinly.

"I've always admired that confidence of yours, Lash. Even when I had you dead to rights in Denmark, at the Salt Palace, hung on hooks and ready to die at the hands of my cromag guards, you were promising to find me after."

The smile vanished.

"It's the end game, my old comrade. Regardless of how this goes, we've reached the end of this journey. For you, it's been a matter of weeks. But for me, it's the culmination of nearly a decade of planning, maneuvering, and manipulation. From the day I went rogue after becoming disillusioned about our mission and the meaning of it all and was recruited by Elan Demaskieros in his efforts to ruin our world, the faking of the deaths of my co-conspirators and the building of the slaving network to capture, neuter, and sell liliths to our enemies, and beginning to plot the downfall of the corruption vampire world ..."