Ivory syndicate

The smell of blood and gunpowder was overpowering

In a small street in the middle of La Wiser two men were in the center of a mound of corpses, one standing victorious and the other dead on his feet

The dead man sporting a large hole that had burrowed through most of his torso was named Jason De Maggio, the second in line for the position of head of the De Maggio family, he had the same brown eyes and black hair trademark by his family and a tattoo on his neck of a dagger with an engraved white hilt and sheath

The symbol of the ivory syndicate

Within the syndicate there exist 4 families and 1 council

The families are the Barlow's who run the black markets, the De Maggio's who are responsible for ensuring laws and traditions are kept within the syndicate, the August family-run politics, and finally the Drake family who oversee muscle and assassinations

The 4 families directly take orders from the ivory council, there are five members, consisting of the heads of each family and one person voted by the heads to enter the council, any and all decisions made by the council must be unanimous and are law,

And what has happened on this originally quiet street is what is known as survival of the fittest, one person or group wipes out another for survival or personal gain, the man standing victorious amongst so many bodies also has the name De Maggio, or to be more specific his name is Alec De Maggio, the once fifth in line for the position of family head but now the 2ndafter he ruthlessly killed his brothers tonight, one by one until reaching Jason

Wiping his hands clean of the blood on them and turning his back on the massacre Alec took out his phone and dialed a number, a number that belonged to one Cane Barlow. When it picked up he heard the sound of running water and faint movement

"Kind of in the middle of something here" a voice answered, smooth and deep enough to make even Alec who was quite the singer when he had spare time jealous "couldn't you call at a better time?"

Smiling to himself and letting out a chuckle he replied "If your bath time is so important, I guess my news can wait" taking a fake mocking tone "just wanted to let you know that tonight ran smoothly and that your info was spot on"

"of course, it was, I have a great informant… does this mean"

"yeah" he continued taking a somber tone "they're dead… Jason, Ben, and Fiona"

The line went silent, it wasn't hard for Alec to understand, after all, they had all been friends… once upon a time

Before they realized what was needed to survive

"so that only leaves, veronica I guess" Cane eventually spoke, having personally killed most of his own siblings he knew how things were going for Alec, in the council having good relations with the other heads was always extremely important, that was why Cane was helping him after all, simply growing allies "once she's gone all that's left is for you to complete your own trial and then you succeed the position"

Every family of the syndicate had their own traditions, much like how cane had to work in a catacomb for a year Alec had his own, members of the De Maggio family all had to have killed three powered individuals with at least ten years of training in combat before becoming the head. A barbaric tradition but still an effective trial none the less and seeing as he just killed Jason in head-to-head combat unlike the previous assassinations of Fiona and Ben, he already had one down

While he continued his thought process and began planning his next move, he didn't see the man behind him, pull out a knife and he didn't know of the danger he was in until a sharp pain erupted in the back of his neck

As he collapsed dead on the floor the same hand that had plunged a knife in his neck picked up the phone and began to speak "it appears you picked the wrong brother"

(Cane pov)

Hearing a gurgling voice enter his phone followed by a large crash Cane immediately knew what had happened and the second he heard the voice he knew who it was

"it appears you picked the wrong brother"

"Hello Marcus"

Marcus De Maggio, the oldest son and the 1stin line, also someone Cane hated rather deeply, unlike his siblings Marcus had never gotten along with Cane and to this day was responsible for more assassination attempts on him than all of his siblings combined

"so, I guess you decided to crawl out of that silver-plated shell of yours" the rough voice taunted him "finally got tired of looking after the insane ghosts of the Christmas past and got back into the big game"

"no, I just was waiting for Alec to call me back after a gave your head to him on a platter" Cane parried back "sadly I guess your neck was too fat for his forklift"

The line went silent for a few seconds as Marcus decided what to do next, he never was too smart "sigh, I guess it was nice to hear your voice" he said surprising him "I now know your tongue is something I want to cut out"

"I dare you to try" Cane mocked before hanging up "Ciao"

Now he had to find a new replacement for Alec

Dammit