Partners In Crime

The proposal was quite an amicable settlement, and Leona accepted without much questioning: she actually much appreciated the Prince didn't use any method to compel her to choose sides. And of course Prince LaCroix himself had confessed his own intentions of doing so: she could be the force he'd been waiting for that could familiarize them with the Anarch community, and for her to do that he must maintain her neutral, independent position—at least in theory.

Right now Leona was still a normal, freelancer Neonate in name, but she had a regular major working with Mercurio, as his partner…though sometimes he would still use that secretary joke.

It was, however, literally the only thing she could complain about this occupation: she got to take the night shift for Mercurio's job, so he could spare some time to rest and focus missions that could be only done in daylight—that's his greatest advantage compared to vampires, after all. It took almost a month for Mercurio to teach Leona everything, for his role was pretty much involved with every aspect…in a management view.

The most basic ones would be watching over the blood van schedules and blood banks storages across the states, the selections of new premises and their purposes, and the most complex task among them, maybe, was to monitor the trades of everything that was needed for the functioning of Kindred society, ranging from orders of clothes and furniture to vehicles and high-tech products. They are Masters of the Households of Camarilla, North America, as Mercurio put it.

Certainly there would be time for actions, of course, for the business deals they dabbled in sometimes required "violent enforcements", especially when it came to the weaponry: they were dealing with dangerous gangs, and some fools always thought they could take some advantages because there were often only two people—and one of them was a woman—they were facing, so lessons must be taught to these sneaky villains.

It was a position that allowed you to give favors to expect worthy reciprocity, and to build up relationships in a more equal condition…at least, Leona didn't need to run around, ask for quick-cash errands to just get by; on the contrary, now she had a special arsenal consisting of all her customized weapons and two full sets of battle outfits from the courtesy of Issac Abraham, one was the promise he made her on their way to San Antonio Mountain, the other was his gratitude for her help of getting rid of the nasty Gargoyle in his favorite theater: one was all black, and the other was snowy white, both were made of advanced, military-use nano materials, and apart from the practical designs, they were well decorated just like what fashion idols would wear on the street, so she could pass the crowd in them fully-equipped effortlessly without being suspected to be armed and dangerous.

Leona enjoyed the feeling—of climbing up on the social ladder. It gave her a feeling of safety, even with the deeply buried concern of hers about being noticed by the Sabbat: right now she did have a higher profile than before, but also all the first-hand information on Sabbat movements. Instead of passively hiding and hoping she wouldn't be found, now she could take some control and make arrangements to avoid her direct contact with them.

So she had learned: even if she had to stay out of sight, it would be much easier to do so when she had the advantage.

"No update on the Sabbat epidemic?" Leona got herself ready for tonight's special, talking to Mercurio on the phone, who was on his way to pick her up.

"Nope. According to Kanker and the cannon folder you guys caught last time, their plan was to just do a zombie attack in LA and raised hell, and every Sabbat we can get by the intel we squeezed out of them confirmed the story…but well, we blew up more operations of theirs anyway, so whatever they are planning, we can at least slow them down. What about the vaccine thing, Strauss has worked it out?"

"Yes, once injected, it will permanently prevent infection...Don't ask me what's the theory, that's far beyond my knowledge, but he told me he already sent the sample to Nossies, and they will figure out how to put it in production."

"Nice, so we only get to shoot zombies in video games. Big win."

What Leona didn't know, though, was that Regent Strauss owed her big on this first sample: he took a piece of Leona's String of Curse secretly on their first private meeting to learn what Garrett had done in her Embrace, but it turned out to be the key of success in making the vaccine, and it somewhat in return helped him understand what was really special about her strings: they were like…some sort of comburent, though the comburent of what, he hadn't found out yet.

He had just made contacts with the Pontiffs, who were both his superiors and the guardians of all the secret knowledge held by Tremere clan—which was massive beyond mortal imagination—to search for any record of similar cases in history. Of course he hid the part about Leona, simply told them it was for the vaccine. He didn't want such a…prodigy and important specimen to be taken away to Europe, becoming the fruitful research under the names of others.

Just as Strauss put down the phone and walked up to the ground floor, Leona came down, wearing a black jumpsuit with puff sleeves and feathery collar, hiding guns and blades under her coat and even in her boots. Simply looking at how equipped she was, the Regent knew it would be a big night:

"What's your mission?" He asked.

"You know Velvet Velour, the Toreador girl who runs two nightclubs in LA—she went to talk to Tong's people about buying their place in Chinatown yesterday, and didn't come back, so we suspect the Tong had her." And Leona reported briefly about her task tonight, "Don't know what these human gangsters are up to, but we will see soon enough."

"Just you and the ghoul?"

"Yes, Regent. I will be back before the sunrise."

"I see. Tread carefully."

Leona took off and got into Mercurio's car, and he was piling up bags of heavy firearms on the backseat. Admiring this finely-tailored outfit Leona was wearing, Mercurio sighed: "Ugh…when it will be my turn to be Issac's super model…"

"Drive." In case there would be something more inappropriate coming out of his mouth, Leona just interrupted him and commanded.

"Come desidera, signora."

Their destination was a Tong-owned stripper club named Lotus, where entrance door could only be opened by a password known to people who were invited, and it changed every day…but certainly they've got that handled. The club itself seemed just a mundane concrete building with a neon sign of lotus flower above the door, yet once they walked inside, the lax…wantonness of sensational entertainment completely astounded Leona, who was doing her first visit to such places.

"Wow…" Whistled at the giggling, bikini girls with mermaid tails in the swimming pool, Mercurio couldn't help but feel pity, "If only we are not here for business…"

Which was Leona determined to do. She walked up to the thug who was guarding the stairs, did a little bit Dominate work and easily went past him—their leader, a guy went by the name Johnny was on the first floor, so she and Mercurio could talk to him about what they wanted with Velvet. Since they came upstairs peacefully, the bodyguards around assumed their boss was expecting them, and they made it into Johnny's VIP room without firing a single shot.

Johnny, this buff Chinese guy, was talking to someone on his laptop in Cantonese, and when the two unexpected visitors came in, he immediately stood up in panic and tried to draw out his gun with his shivering hands. It was quite an abnormal reaction for a Tong leader, even taking Leona and Mercurio's sudden appearance into consideration: he was a Tong leader after all, which should give him some composure in situations like this, but the way his face was pale and sweating…it was as if he knew the nature of what he saw—that Leona wasn't human.

"Back off! Monster!"

He shouted, but someone he was conversing with on the computer said otherwise: "Shoot her, Johnny, then you will see what I'm saying."

"No, stop, Johnny, put down the gun…"

Leona used her Dominate discipline instinctively, but strangely enough she felt some kind of invisible protection shell around Johnny, formed by the power of a jade he was wearing as a pendant. Seeing him about to pull the trigger, Leona quickly threw a poisonous dart into his head and killed him silently, without disturbing the gangsters outside.

And then, the mysterious figure on the laptop screen spoke to Leona in Mandarin, with a slight accent from the Southern China: "Miss Lee, I understand you are here to save Miss Velour, yes?"

Mercurio couldn't understand Chinese at all, so Leona walked in front of the computer, looked at the old man in white, laboratory uniform on the screen and took over the talking: "And who are you?"

"You can call me Doctor Lu, I have had Miss Velour in custody and if you want to save her, come to Fu Syndicate Building with your…human friend over there."

"Wait, what are you…"

Doctor Lu ended the video call before Leona could ask him for more information. With Johnny now dead, this strange Doctor and the location he gave them were the best clues they had right now. They took away the jade pendant on Johnny's neck, then snuck out of the club before anyone noticed anything.