1. Macabre Marmalade (COMPLETED; EDITING)

XLI (18.2)

Todor walked through the crowded streets, his tired muscles refusing to obey him. It took him twice as long to reach the parking spot where Hillard waited by the car. The White Branches head hanged on his belt, flimsy plastic bag obscuring what is inside. Agent Hillard sat on the hood of the car holding Todor's railgun and scanning the surroundings as if expecting an army to materialized from the manhole sewers any moment now.

"Careful with that thing, mate," Todor said hoarsely before joining him on the hood. He sighed at finally letting his muscles rest for a bit.

"Those thugs tired you out, eh? Hope you didn't kill many of them," Agent Hillard said, his posture relaxing a bit.

"Thugs were no problem." He unclasped the bag from the belt and thumped it between them. "This guy, on the other hand, was a nightmare to deal with."

"What is ..." Hillard started before jumping from the hood. "That is a bloody head. A vampire head."

"Your powers of observations are incredible, Nommy. You should work as a cop," Todor said reclining on the glass windshield of the car.

Hillard made a step closer and opened the bag to look at it closer.

"That is no ordinary vampire. This is a Midnight Breezes lieutenant. The blood mage," Hillard proclaimed.

"Yeah, he was kind enough to introduce himself before mind controlling a bunch of people to attack me."

"You murdered a blood mage? A hemmomancer?" Norman rumbled in disbelief. "I might accept that you are some kind of human proto-mage. Or I don't know, using nano-tech or some spooky quantum voodoo to emulate magic. But this?" Agent shook his head again.

"It wasn't easy alright. Did you manage to get samples?" Todor said wanting to change the subject.

"Yes, a patrol came by and I sent few jars with them. Just in case I left two with me, here in the car."

"Smart thinking, Watson," Todor said jumping from the hood. "Let us go report all of this to the Governor."

"My name is not Watson. And don't expect she will be happy that you murdered one more of Breezes people."

"It was self-defense. If you don't believe me ask father Smiles. He showed up looking for us when this tool tried to attack him," Todor said empathetically shaking the bag with a head inside.

Hillard looked at him and then nodded. The car came to life and they drove through the midday crowd. When they finally reached the Governor headquarters, they parked in front of the building in spite of the protests two guards at the door loudly displayed. But once they saw Todor, all bloody and grim, and agent Hillard worried and scared expression they shut up letting them through. Ride in the elevator was painfully slow, two office ladies looking at them strangely. At last, they came to the lobby in front of the Holanador's office where male receptionist jumped from his sit upon seeing them.

"I am guessing the task didn't go so well," he said staring at them.

"You could say that. Is the boss here?" Todor asked with a loud sigh.

"She is but ..."

"No buts. We are going in."

The receptionist looked at Hillard for help but to his surprise, Norman just shook his head. So the worker just gave up rising his hands in the air before getting back to his sit.

Todor barged into the office, his feet stomping in the rhythm of his own heart. Holanador was talking with five Anadori, three males and two females. They all turned to regard him, their faces unreadable. Todor instinctively hid the head behind his back, casually waving with his other hand.