1. Macabre Marmalade (COMPLETED; EDITING)

XLVIII (20.3)

They sped up their pace going towards the clamor. The sounds became louder and louder before the duo broke into the large room with cages hanging from the ceiling. There six Morgothlites fought a horde of fifty vampires, Cassandra among them screaming orders. His heart started beating faster as he unleashed a large ice spike that pierced three vampires to the wall. The mute girl started shooting in three bullet bursts, her aim impeccable, every shot hitting the head. She was clearly skilled.

Cassandra heard the commotion and her eyes fell on Todor. She rose her summoned ax high.

"Hey, there hon. Nice of you to join the party," she yelled over the din.

Todor sent a cloud of ice needles to clear the path before half running half sliding across froze floor towards Cassandra. He swung his sword, gore flying with every rise and fall of the blade along the way. He glanced behind himself and got surprised that mute girl was keeping up with him. He finally made his way to Cassandra and smiled broadly.

"I guess I shouldn't have worried about you," he said as he tried to catch his breath. She blew him a kiss before splitting the head of a charging vampire with an ax. The foul black blood splashed across her crimson face.

"Let's clear this up before we talk," she said before swinging her ax again. Todor nodded and turned towards the decreasing number of foes around them.

Ezezu, you think we could try lighting now? he asked the ghost and from her, a wave of joy assaulted his senses. I thought you would never ask. When I was alive I had zero affinity for it so I always envied people who could fry people with lighting. Todor grinned savagely and dropped the sword. The blade didn't fall which meant Ezezu caught it with her ghostly presence.

Todor slapped his palms together and formed a ball of mana between them. He slowly transformed it into crackling lighting that started to buzz and hum, sending small red sparks left and right. Slowly he separated his arms letting mana elongate between his palms, turning them into a rope of red lighting that danced and waved only anchored to the centers of his paws. His fingers spread in a rigid gesture of someone who was surprised by his own actions. The untamed lighting lost its roots on his left palm and started coiling and uncoiling like an angry snake. By instinct, he grabbed it in the middle with his right hand and held it high by his ear as if he was preparing to throw a spear. With a jerk he threw it into the crowd of fifteen or so vampires where red lighting spear exploded, sprouting tiny tributaries that lashed around. Each vampire touched by lighting started convulsing and after a few seconds turning to ash. From the group of fifteen, only four remained, and those four were stunned and groveling on the floor, blind and impotent. One of the Morgothlite warriors stepped in and finish the wretches with a heavy-handed stroke of his sword.

"Wow, you are going all out," Cassandra said as the sounds of battle died down around them. "It could have been helpful if you knew how to explode dozen of people back when we were attacked by war golems, at our first date."

"I was unable to do this, then," he said with a smirk which was covered by Cassandra's lips soon after.

"Thank you for coming for me," she said after half a minute, stepping back from him.

"How did you guys freed yourself?" Todor asked, looking at the Morghtlite warriors that were whooping and slapping each other on the shoulders. Two were females and three were males, but all of them wore very little, their overgrown muscles shining with sweat and gore of battle. Cassandra looks slender and lean in comparison even though by human standards she was on the larger side and quite close to the peak of the human physique. But she is not human, Todor reminded himself. She let herself go while living in the city, trying to blend in.

"Some dark-skinned hemmomancer put a suppression field in our cages so we couldn't draw on our martial arts which use mana. But a few minutes ago the field just disappeared so we used the opportunity to escape."

"It must have been Morning Wind. He is dead now," Todor said looking around at the vampire corpses. Some of them turning to dust, while some of them acted like normal cadavers, bleeding out on the floor.

"You killed him?" Cassandra said hugging Todor and smiling fondly.

"Not me, Ezezu stabbed him," he said pointing to a dancing sword a few steps from them. Cassandra glanced at the blade that waved at her.

"Your maharoon wields your sword? What else of yours can she wield?" She said looking coldly at him through her lashes. "More importantly, you found my little cutie of the roommate," she added.

Todor blinked at her, uncomprehending before looking around and spotting a mute girl who held his pistol loosely and staring at him. He didn't really notice how the girl looked, he was too occupied by getting to Cassandra in time before they hurt her. Now he saw that Wendy's hair grew slightly since last he saw her.

"It seems you let other females use your weapons far too much," she said through her teeth, a hint of reproach entering her tone.

"Are you pulling my leg?" Todor said turning his attention back to Cassandra. She grinned at him.

"Yeah ... mostly. But for the future, in my culture, letting a woman use your weapon is a big deal," as if just remembering something she turned to other Morgothlites who just stood and looked them. "Oh, Teddy, these are my clansmen. They came to the city a few weeks back but Midnight Breezes people snagged them before they could find me. Everyone this is my current boyfriend, Todor Corpus."

One of the Morg women stared down Todor up and down and snorted.

"If I didn't see him fry a dozen bloodsuckers with a lighting bolt I would have called you an idiot," the Morg woman said.

"Yeah, he looks like some human dandy waster. Never thought you would go for such a thing, Kvalsh," one of the men added.

"We went over this, I am Cassandra here," she said hotly.

"I am sorry, but I need to find Midnight Breeze and cut the snakes head," Todor said. He felt better but seeing Cassandra safe didn't quench his thirst for revenge. Or is it justice? he wondered idly.

"Alright. We need to talk, Teddy. After you deal with that bloodsucker," she said seriously. Todor glanced at her and she looked down.

"Is something wrong?" he prodded.

"Now is not the time. Go do your job, save the city or whatever," she bit her lip. "We will talk once all of this is done. Promise."

"Alright," Todor said slowly, unsure of what was the meaning of her words. "In that case, go to the main hall of Midnight Breezes casino if you can. Irry and few others are holding on against a small army of vampires. They might need your help."

She nodded and waved for her small troop of Morg to follow her. Todor turned to go when the mute girl stepped in front of him. She proffered his pistol holding it by the barrel.

"You keep it," Todor said wanting to go right away. The girl squinted at him and pointed at her chest. "Yeah, you can keep it. I don't need it anymore. And you should go help them as well, you look like you know your way with a gun."

She nodded slowly before snorting softly and grinning. She straightened herself up stiffening her spine and saluted. The movement looked rehearsed and had an air of casual familiarity that only comes after years of use. She waved with his pistol again and pointed at him before miming drinking.

"Sure, once the city is safe we can have a drink," he said with a smile before turning towards a large door on the other side of the room.