Nekturna

Two

South of the Vein

Green lights flashed and exploded all around Pest and Claw. They dodged and rolled taking cover behind the tavern.

"They're on the rooftops across the street," Pest sighed, "We need to get up there."

"No problem," Fang said holding his hands together to give Pest a boost.

Pest stuck his boot in Claw's hands and leaped onto the roof of the tavern. Claw jumped up behind him.

"Show off," Pest sneered sarcastically.

The green bolts began shooting toward them again nearly taking Pest's head off. They both began to run toward the attackers.

"If we close the distance we can take them out," Fang gasped as a bolt flew past his shoulder."

Pest reached the edge of the roof and leaped through the air. He glided to the roof on the other side of the street and rolled behind a brick chimney. He could see them clearly now. There were three of them. They were on top of the next building over.

Claw was still on top of the tavern. He began shouting insults at the witches, pulling their attention from Pest to himself. They began throwing bolts of magic toward Claw, narrowly missing as he dodged left and right.

Pest took a moment to plan his next move. He peeked around the chimney to see where they were positioned. He could hear that they were all male from their voices shouting their incantations and curses. They wore dark blue robes and had their faces hidden in dark-colored hoods. Two of them were focused on Claw and the third was waiting on Pest to make a move.

Pest knew Claw couldn't keep dodging bolts forever so he decided to jump out from his hiding spot and bolt toward the witches. He spun out of the way of a volley of green bolts and jumped the gap to the next building. He rolled onto his feet in front of his attacker. Pest tackled the witch to the ground. His enhanced speed was too fast for the witch to react. He stuck his dagger into the witch's stomach and wrenched it sideways. Blood pooled in its mouth and Pest pulled his dagger free and shoved it off the building.

The other two turned to attack Pest when Claw leaped over landing on one of the remaining witches' shoulders. He sunk his teeth into the witch's neck and knocked it off the side of the building onto the ground.

The last witch backed up to the edge of the roof with Pest slowly advancing toward him.

"What are you doing down here scum? What are you after?" Pest growled.

Claw jumped back to the top of the roof and prepared to attack.

"I'd answer him, witch, he isn't a patient man," Claw said angrily.

Pest kept walking toward it, holding his dagger up.

"You nearly killed us there and we'd like to know why. You bastards have stayed on your side of the vein for months. Why are you here," Pest snarled.

"I'm not telling you shit, dead ones," the witch spat at them.

Pest shot forward and thrust his dagger through the bottom of the witch's jaw and out the top of its head. It fell lifeless off the side of the roof.

"Well, that was informative," Claw snickered.

Pest just glared at him and wiped his dagger clean on his cloak.

"Not in the mood for a snack?" Claw asked.

"Witch blood is filthy, we should get back to the veil quickly. Someone might have heard that," Pest replied.

They jumped back across the street and dropped down behind the tavern. They jumped down the manhole they opened earlier and slid the cover back into place.

The sewers of Nekturna ran in countless directions to every corner of the city. They were lined with brick and no light got in aside from what little shone through storm drains. Only rats and vampires inhabited the sewers.

Pest and Claw dragged the body of the man they killed through the never-ending maze of tunnels. It wasn't long before Pest began to notice the increasing number of rats running around their feet.

"Well, Piper knows we're close," Pest grunted, "How are we going to explain what happened?"

"What do you mean? It was clearly self-defense. Those three were trying to kill us, what else could we do?" Claw replied. He didn't seem concerned.

"You know how he gets about witches though. If it were the Shadowhunt he wouldn't bat an eye." Pest reminded him.

"Maybe the Coven is declaring all-out war? You never know with them." Claw replied seemingly uninterested.

"If the Shadowhunt gets involved we're really going to be in for it," Pest sighed.

They spent the rest of the journey back to the veil in silence. After a long series of twists and turns they arrived at a large circular steel door. It was rusted all over and had a small wheel in the center that opened it. There was a sigil painted above the wheel of a rat. The Vermin Veil's sigil.

Claw grabbed the wheel and spun it, unlocking the steel door. It opened to a strangely well-furnished common room. The sewage didn't run in and it was well lit with oil lanterns and torches. The brick walls were cleaned thoroughly and in some spots were a pleasant off-white color. There was a large red circular throw rug in the center of the floor and multiple fine leather chairs and ebony end tables. It even smelled halfway decent inside.

Claw shut and locked the door behind him and patted Pest on the shoulder.

"I'll leave the explaining to you. I wasn't supposed to be out remember?" Claw whispered. He jogged off through a narrow hallway on the right side of the room.

"Bastard," Pest whispered.

Pest dragged the body to the kitchen, which was just a large wooden chest on the left side of the common room with the word "Kitchen" painted on it. He dropped the body inside and turned around and suddenly was face-to-face with a younger-looking woman.

"Oh shit! You scared the hell out of me! Why do you always do that?" Pest snapped.

The young-looking woman was Squeak. She looked to be around twenty years old despite being around a hundred. She had long red hair and tan eyes. She, like the rest of the crew, was very pale.

"He wants to see you," She said quietly.

"Did he seem in a bad mood?" Pest asked sarcastically.

"You know he only has one mood asshole," She snapped at him. She wasn't exactly thrilled about being turned into a vampire and she made sure everyone knew. She wasn't nice to any of them but she pulled her weight all the same.

Pest rolled his eyes and started towards Piper's room. He wasn't looking forward to this.