17 comments/ 14018 views/ 39 favorites Dark Arrow Ch. 01-03 By: DarkTerra Hello everyone. This is my first submission, so I crave your indulgence. I do not like to write without trying to develop a convincing world and character for that. I hope I have done that here. Unfortunately due to that the page number of the submission has blossomed into much more than I initially intended. I did not set out to write a quick stroke story, but I found that by the point I had the characters where I felt the sex was not being forced into the story it was longer than even I am accustomed to. Ideally this would be broken up into likely three separate submissions however since this is my first attempt here I did not want to have a first submission that did not include the sex. As a result I am posting this in its entirety as chapters 1, 2, and 3 of this story. If there is interest I will add more chapters. For those of you looking just for the sex you will miss a great deal of the underlying tension that leads to the eventual sex and some of this scene may not make as much sense as I hope it does for those who read the entire submission however if you are interested strictly in the sex you can skip to page 7. Thank you all for your time in reading this. Feedback is always welcome. I hope you enjoy your first trip to the world I attempted to craft. ~~ sincerely DarkTerra ***** Erillia hugged the shadows as she stalked her prey. For days now she had haunted the shadows following and waiting for a clean shot. She scoffed a bit at life's twisted sense of humor. Had she not grown up on the outskirts she would have never learn the so called primitive skill of hunting. Had the outskirts not been so impoverished that they couldn't afford ammunition for their rifles she would never had discovered the art of making her own weapons. The skill to turn wood, string, and feathers into a deadly tool was fast dying out. If not for the very reason that those in the city proper looked down on the destitute members of the outskirts she would not be where she was. They had crafted the very nightmare they now lived in fear of. She slunk into another dark corner, marveling at how easy this had become for her. It was more often than not harder to hunt for her food than it was to hunt her targets. The smooth rasp as she plucked an arrow from her back and skillfully nocked and drew it in one swift motion was a comfortingly failure noise. Her target was Nathan Bicormish, steel works mogul. The irony of the situation was not lost on Erillia as she glanced at down her onyx black arrow at the leather bound grip, the only part of her bow other than the string which was not made of discarded steel, and smiled. Her target had enjoyed the soft life of the upper class city dwellers. His girth made tacking and targeting him much easier, and the force her custom bow imparted would be more than enough to insure lethal penetration. At this distance she estimated she would have approximately 5 seconds from the moment she released the arrow until she had to be gone from the street. She smirked, that was plenty of time for a hunter of her caliber. "The reaper sends her regards." she murmured as her fingers began to relax on the string. She saw the movement from the corner of her eye as the string left her fingers. It happened so fast even her eyes had a hard time tracking it. A man, who appeared to be in his mid-twenties, burst from the shadows behind her target. He didn't try to shove Bicormish out of the way, or warn him of the danger. He simply grabbed the rotund oaf by the shoulders and slammed him over backwards to the ground. Her arrow passed with in centimeters of its target, cleaving through his overcoat and embedding itself in the mortar of the restaurants brick façade. Cursing beneath her breath Erillia quickly secured her bow to her back reflexively and faded back from the street. She paused after a second however and froze in uncertainty. Her entire reputation as an assassin was built on the fact that she took any job, and had never failed. She was subtle, but deadly. She wouldn't be able to compete with the roving gangs which sold a similar service, but whose methods were far more flashy. Her unfailing success had allowed her to demand a price far above what her competitors charged. Now thanks to one young hero her entire livelihood was about to go up in smoke. "Cock sucking son of a whore!" She swore softly as she glanced back at her target. The sound of hover cars arriving startled her into action. She moved swiftly blending into the deeper shadows of the alley ways. Moving towards the center of town and more lit areas instead of back towards the outskirts she silently prayed these cops weren't more skilled than those usually dispatched to deal with her targets. Bicormish was her most high profile target to date, though her work was becoming more and more well known. She needed this job. The exorbitant fee she had been able to negotiate would have allowed her to go dark for several moths maybe even a year if she was really frugal. Hopefully it would be enough time for her unique signature to fade into the backs of the investigators minds. Unfortunately her near miss meant she now had two choices. Try and finish the job or give up her 100% success rate and with it her ability to demand the prices that she needed. She darted through a few more alleyways and finally ducked under a darkened doorway and sagged against the greasy bricks. hunching over holding her head in her hands she racked her brain for a solution to her situation. She'd begun taking this type of work simply to improve her lot. She'd had dreams of slowly earning her way into better parts of the city, but she knew now that was never more than a pipe dream. Even if she were to earn enough money to afford to move into a better area she would never be accepted by the inner city dwellers. More over should she attempt to force her way into that social circle she would no longer be accepted by those who scratched out an existence in the outskirts. With this job though she had begun to have hope that things might be changing. She'd never be able to change her lot in life here, but if she could earn enough she just might be able to change it as part of one of the colonization missions off world. "New world, New life." The advertisements for those missions had seemed to haunt her dreams and whisper in her ear ever since she had taken this contract. She know she would have to lay low after this one, but even if she had to lay up and spend everything she earned from this job it would establish her as a top level assassin. Bicormish might be a big fish for her, but there were far bigger fish out there. If she could land even a few similar contracts after her vacation she could save up enough to get off this god forsaken rock. Colony life was hard for many people because it required hard manual labor and the ability to survive, but for Erillia that was her daily existence. At least if she was on a colony her struggles might actually matter in the end. Now though she had to either risked everything and went back to finish the job on a target who was spooked and likely surrounded by guards and police, or she resigned herself to being a two bit thug and assassin for life. She wouldn't live long in that life on her own, so she would be forced to join one of the gangs that liked to think they ran various areas of the outskirts. She ground her teeth and rested her head against the door frame cursing her luck. Taking a deep breath and blowing it out slowly, she did a quick inventory check. She didn't bring her lock picks and hacking tools this time because the woman who hired her had demanded that this be done in public. She had a few rope snares with her though, since she had planned to leave the city for a few days to do some hunting and let the hue and cry die down. They might double for a garret if she could get close enough. It would be a silent kill, and less messy and obvious then if she slid a knife between the fat bastards ribs, but it still left her with one problem. The reason she had chosen to use her bow for this rather than employ explosives or poison was for the signature. No other assassin in terra used a bow and arrow. If she used her weapon of choice no one could dispute this was her job. She straightened up and narrowed her eyes. Bow and arrow it was, but if she was going to do this it would have to be now, before they took Bicormish in for questioning and assigned guards. He wouldn't be allowed back into public until they determined who had hired the assassin and who the assassin was. She'd still get him, no matter the security she could eventually find her way through it, but by then it would be late. No it had to be now, and it had to be public. She glanced up at the skyline for a second considering a long range attack, but quickly shook that idea off. There were too many cameras, motion detectors, locked doors, and other complications trying to get to a roof or room that would have the vantage point she needed. That was why she'd decided to take her shot from street level in the first place. The street wasn't really an option, at least not from this side of the street. She couldn't cross the street with her bow in plain sight either, and even if she did manage that there would be far too many people crowding the area for a clean shot. She groaned, and shook her head. Hand to hand it was, she tried to shake off her growing sense of impending doom as she slung her quiver and bow off her shoulder, but it just settled over her more firmly. Quickly pulling the pins and detaching the arms from the bow, she dropped the pieces into the quiver and wrapped them in her coat as she moved away from her resting place. The alley rejoined the street a couple hundred yards from where a crowd now gathered around the police cruisers. Quietly she crossed the road, dropping to a knee in the shadows of the alley as she surveyed her approach. She carefully placed her quiver under some trash, positioning it so that it was well disguised, but easily retrievable, since she expected to be coming back for it in a hurry. Plucking an arrow, she concealed it in the sleeve of her ragged coat before sliding out of the shadows again and joining the throng of people jostling for a view. Moving like smoke she squeezed between bodies, carefully moving through the press of the crowd until she could see her target. The police had only brought two cruisers she noted with relief. Had they followed the established protocol she would have had a much harder time getting to her target. They should have swept in with four cruisers and two transports. Eight officers to form a cordon around the zone and two transports to whisk the target and retrieval teams away so that it was unclear which transport held the target. To calm her nerves as she moved forward she mentally rehearsed the police action plan for assassinations. They would split the transports in opposite directions, and sent them to different stations leaving the assassin to blindly guess from distance which transport to target. The upper level assassins in Terra had learned these practices by now. They were more likely to simply raise the alarm and destroy both transports, Provided their client paid enough of course. Erillia however wouldn't be able to take out the transports. What few explosives she had access to might do the job if they were on the ground, but once they took off she wouldn't be able to touch them. "I don't give a good god damn how many prisoners you have to transport today!" The tenor roar of the sergeant boomed out over crowd, startling many of the gawkers and scattering the closest bystanders like doves from a hawk. "I've got an attempted assassination down here. We can't fight the rat bastard and the stupid SOB has no idea who would want him dead. I've never seen an assassin use a bow and arrow before, but if the Good Samaritan hadn't acted we'd be here for a homicide, not an assassination attempt." There was a pause as whoever the sergeant was speaking to responded. Erillia was close enough now to see his face flush in anger at what he was hearing. "Listen you fucking asshole," He roared, his voice strident with his anger. "I don't know why his personal deflector didn't stop it. I do know that I'm standing here with an exposed target, I don't have the assassin in custody, I'm four officers short, and I'm holding the target's jacket . As a result I can clearly see the rip the arrow put in that jacket, and I can see the bloody arrow is over an inch deep in the mortar! I don't care who you have to pull. I don't care what kind of paper work you have to file later to explain it. You get me the god damn transports down here NOW!" Erillia smiled She'd only been at ½ draw on the bow. If she drew to max that arrow would have gone nearly three inches in, but the stress on the shaft would have snapped it off. Not to mention that it wouldn't have penetrated Bicormish's personal shield. The deflector shields had been a marvel of engineering six years ago. Not more than a trinket for the intellectuals and super rich to toy with for fun. With the prevalence of assassins here in Terra however, they had swiftly moved from a pinnacle of engineering to a basic necessity for the upper class. They were meant to stop any projectile, and the first prototypes were effective beyond anyone's wildest dreams. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your perspective, a problem was quickly recognized. People who needed the protection would be unable to eat, or shake hands, or shower even unless modifications were made. The compromise was to modify the ion projection field to respond to speed, which had seemed the perfect answer. It could be tuned now to allow the person to eat, drink, and fuck without ever taking the shield off. The risk for a stabbing was increased, but that required close contact. With the exception of fucking close personal contact was something that those who needed these shields seemed to naturally avoid. In addition, most assassins capable of hunting the bigger fish weren't looking for a suicide attack. Getting up close and personal was effective, but it required skill to get that close to your target, and the challenge was that once you struck getting away was practically impossible. Her bow however sent an arrow to her target just slow enough speed to pass through the shield but gave her the added range and accuracy that a throwing knife simply couldn't match. If she drew to max of course then the arrow would exceed the speed threshold and the deflectors would stop it. Though she was used to drawing at full for hunting she had also learned how to alter the draw while maintaining her accuracy and the majority of her range. What little range she did lose was negligible in the confines of the city anyway. Erillia fingered the bulge in her left pocket as she thought about the reasons why the established assassins didn't attempt what she was about to do. She sighed softly and slid closer, popping between two burly men and finally gaining the front row of bystanders. One of the officers glanced at her as she squeezed into the front, but quickly looked away. She fought down her smirk at that, but really she couldn't blame him. The assassins of terra tended to be either flashy showboats, or hulking bruisers. The uniqueness of the signature no doubt had them expecting some gaudily dressed fop with a shiny golden or silver bow and a flowing cape, or some other such nonsense. She had to admit if she had been successful and built a career and name for herself there would undoubtedly have been copycats who would have dressed exactly like that. Small wonder then that the police were ignoring one small, ragged looking, waif. Particularly since there had never been any female assassins of the caliber needed to fire that shot and evade detection. There had been a few women to wear the assassin mantle, but as far as history recorded they had sold their bodies and poisoned their targets during coitus or otherwise avoided direct combat. None had dared to take up a weapon to hunt down their targets, and for that Erillia thanked them. None of her targets nor the authorities expected a woman to be a fighter. No one thought that a person, let alone a woman, could pack the power and speed needed to be a lethal opponent into a frame as slight as hers. Indeed at first glance one would not expect her to exceed 54 kgs, though, due to her intense exertions while hunting and her weight training after she started selling her skills, she tipped the scales closer to 70 kilos. Her frame was slight, but she was as hard as the steel and titanium bars that formed the skeletons of the star ships that she dreamed of riding away from this hell hole. No it was small wonder that the officer had over look a ragged dirty woman. Her raven hair was tied back harshly and likely matted with sweat and dirt, adding to her appearance of being a street urchin or common whore. The only thing about her that might have drawn a second glance were her eyes. Ice blue, so light they almost appeared glacial white at times, or, in the right light, like the waters of the fiords she read about during her short time in the mandatory schooling. Schooling was hardly an adequate term for what was given to the children of the outskirts. The teachers were there to teach them just enough so that they could read the police announcements and warnings. It also drilled into the outskirt residents that they were inferior and unworthy of the teachers' time, though that wasn't one of the stated curriculums. Just because she understood the reason for being overlooked as a threat didn't mean it did not irritate her. If not for the fact that their ignorance was giving her the opening she needed she would have been positively pissed at being overlooked. As it was she couldn't help by smile at the lesson she was about to teach this crowd of onlookers. The crowd on the far side of the circle from her position had begun to get agitated and the police had focused their attention in that direction. They had also ushered Bicormish away from that side, inadvertently shoving him towards her side. Choosing her moment as a fresh outburst from the crowd caused the officers in front of her to glance over his shoulder; she shoved back hard into the men behind her, elbowing one in the gut as she did. The man she elbowed reacted predictably, grabbing her hair and shoving her away from him shouting curses and threats. She stumbled forward and allowed the forward momentum to carry her to the ground as if she had tripped, right in front of the officers. "Stupid little cunt! Since you're so ready to go to your knees maybe I should show you what a girl like you is good for," He growled. He made the mistake of following her forward without stopping to look at where she had landed. As she had hoped the officers spun around on seeing her lurch forward, but his attention had not fully focused before the man she had targeted surged forward towards them. His hands dropped to his waist band as he advanced, and Erillia finally allowed the smirk she had been holding back to come out. The man was focused on her, and she had no doubt he had every intent of fulfilling his threat as he reached to remove his jeans. The officer however had barely heard the altercation, and seeing a good sized man bulling his way forward and reaching for what he believed to be a weapon concealed in the man's pants he reacted on instinct. His weapon cleared its holster and a second later the crack and sizzle of a plasma bolt silenced the crowd. She glanced over her shoulder to see her would be rapist gaping stupidly at the officer, before slowly tipping forward and crashing to the street. His fall was like a trigger. Screams went up as the crowd rushed to get away from the body. Warning shots cracked out from several sides, and the officers began roaring instructions to the crowd. Dark Arrow Ch. 01-03 All attention was firmly diverted to the seething mass of humanity as the crowd roiled around them. Even Bicormish was too preoccupied with those outside the circle of his police guardians to spare more than a cursory glance at Erillia. She rose slowly as if dazed, and moved the arrow in her grasp into position for a strike. He was slowly backing towards where his car was still parked when she made her move. With the commotion no one noticed her slide over next to him. "Hello Nathan." She murmured. His head snapped around to stare in horror at her as understanding dawned. "That's right," She purred, smiling broadly now, "I am the Reaper, and I've come for you." His eyes round in terror he opened his mouth to scream, but she struck first. She drove her arrow up through his right jugular and into his spinal column, imbedding it deep between the atlas and axis she wrenched the shaft to the side and quickly stepped back as blood flowed freely. Bicormish's body collapsed backwards as she took another step back and reached into her left pocket. The body hit the pavement with a dull thump, eyes rolled up into his skull, and convulsed on the ground as his blood stained the pristine white shirt he'd worn that night. The gleaming black arrow stood out in stark contrast against the red and white. She couldn't have hoped for a more striking image, or a more prominent display of her prowess and signature. Now she just had to escape before the cops gathered their wits and gunned her down. She drew the two smoke grenades she always carried with her on a job from her pocket and popped the pins. Dropping the first just in front of her, she turned and lobbed one away from her into the crowd on the far side of the police. She knew that screams must be coming from the crowd and that police were bellowing orders, and she could hear a buzzing of commotion in the background. For the most part however the pounding of her own heart drowned out all sound, and for a second she almost questioned the decision to use the smoke. On instinct she dropped and rolled forward, gasping as the heat of a plasma bolt caressed the skin on the back of her neck as it passed. She lurched forward towards the police at first as smoke filled the area, but as soon as her vision was obscured she spun and dashed back towards the alley where she'd left her weapons. As she hoped the second smoke grenade convinced the police she was headed towards the outskirts rather than back into town. She almost laughed. Any sane assassin would be running like hell for the outskirts, but then any sane assassin would not have just stabbed a man in the neck with an arrow within mere feet of four police officers. She merged with the rushing crush of the crowd as they scrambled away from the area, and lost herself amongst them. Dashing quickly into the alley as they passed she quickly slung her quiver over a shoulder and sprinted away from the street. Chancing a glance back at the street, she was pleased to see no one was chasing her and she didn't hear any shouts that would indicate her flight had been noticed or that the cops were headed in her direction. She breathed a sigh of relief and did a quick calculation. The police would spread out methodically as they were trained to do, and others would converge now that this was a murder. Soon there would be a search grid all around her and her ability to slip away would be extinguished. However the nearest station that could respond would not arrive for nearly fifteen minutes if they followed protocol. They would come in six blocks north of her and the two groups would slowly come together starting at the outskirts and then sweeping back towards the center of town. They would also bring dogs that would scent her in a second if they had anything for the dogs to identify. She was good, but she had no doubt that the dogs could pick up her scent, simply from where she had kneeled on the ground, she'd see that done before. The dogs would be flown straight to the scene, but they wouldn't arrive for a good five or ten minutes, and it would take them some time for the dogs to find the scent and catch up with the search. She grinned, if she was even close in her estimation she could easily out distance the search if she followed the lead officers and simply slid past on the edges of the pursuit. She was still smiling as she turned right into another alley that paralleled the route the police were taking. The smile vanished as she saw a dark shape emerge from the shadows in front of her. The movement was so fast she didn't have time to stop herself and could only try and guard herself from the flurry of blows that rained down on her. The first punch broke her guard, but she bought enough time to dodge the second haymaker. Lashing out with a kick she was gratified to hear a startled grunt as her foot made solid contact with her opponent's ribs. That gratification was obliterated as the shadow closed the distance between them. She barely had time to register that her attacker was the Good Samaritan who had saved Bicormish from her the first time before he drove a knee into her abdomen with enough force to double her over. She didn't have time to process the ramifications of his presence here, or what would happen to her if she lost before a second knee collided with her nose. The force snapped her head back and lights and colors to explode through her vision. She let out a light groan and staggered back trying to maintain her balance, swaying drunkenly as she tried to clear the cobwebs. She lost track her opponent as she fought to remain standing, until she heard a chuckle from behind her. "You're a tough one, I'll grant you that. I suppose you'd have to be to pull off what you did tonight." She spun to face the voice and her eye widened in alarm as she registered his incoming fist just a second too late. Pain exploded through her head once more, but there were no lights this time. This time everything went suddenly dark, and she pitched forward and slammed into the ground. As her mind shut down she heard a faint sigh from above her. "Now just what am I going to do with you?" He murmured in her ear as he lifted her, and tossed her over his shoulder. Then silence engulfed her. Not a bad way for an assassin to go, she mused, considering the other options. She just prayed she didn't regain consciousness. Some time later she woke with a start. Her eyes flew open, and she was immediately assailed by thoughts and sensations. Her head pounded, and her entire body felt swollen and bruised, but she was amazed that she had woken up at all. Part of her was sickeningly glad that her pathetic excuse of an existence wasn't over yet, but another part of her wanted to scream in frustration. If she wasn't dead yet then someone had something they wanted from her. Either that or she was going to be the centerpiece in a torture scene that would make an advocacy inquisitor loose his appetite. Her eyes took in the dimly lit room as she attempted to regain her bearings and composure. She was resting on an old mattress, which from the smell of it had seen a few floods. Based on the broken glass, boarded up windows, brick walls, cavernous interior, and exposed steel girders she would hazard a guess that she'd been hauled almost completely to the opposite side of the town. This place gave all the signs of being one of the old industrial complexes. She tried to look around without moving enough to draw attention, but even the slightest motion caused a surge or pain and a moan slipped out before she could bite it back. "Welcome back." She snapped her head towards the deep bass voice, but immediately regretted the move. She groaned as a wave of nausea and pain swept through her, and he chuckled. "I wouldn't be too quick to go jerking about. You had a nasty little fight. I'm afraid I had to give you a concussion and you probably would have had a subdural if I hadn't gotten you back here and patched you up." She found the strength to grit her teeth and open her eyes to glare balefully at him. "And just how did you patch me up," She ground out. He smiled and held up an autoject cartridge. "Short life nanos of course. Cure just about anything." He smiled at her, and then chuckled as she furrowed her brow. "I know these things usually leave you feeling a tad bit better than you probably are right now, but these things are expensive. The med scanner recommended two full doses to completely heal you, but only a half a dose to stabilize you. Considering the cracked rib you gave me from that kick required a quarter dose to heal I figured I'd just save some money and give what was left of my cartridge to you. I wanted to save you, but after that brawl I didn't want you up and fighting fit the instant you opened your eyes." She narrowed her eyes, and tried to shake lose the groggy feeling that still clouded her mind. He hadn't killed her, and that was a major plus at first glance. However the sentence for attempted assassination was brutal, and the sentence for murder even worse. If the assassin failed, their fate and how their punishment was conducted was left entirely up to their intended victim. None had ever been shown mercy to date, and it was always a public spectacle as they were tortured in whatever manner the victim deemed hideous enough. Nowadays Erillia wasn't entirely sure that some of these attempts weren't coordinated by the victims themselves. The show they put on torturing their attackers seemed more designed to strike fear into anyone stupid enough to take out a contract on them or otherwise cross them. Since her target was dead though her fate would be in the hand of the tribunal court and the sentence for murder was death by disembowelment without fail. So had he picked her up simply to turn her in? Could there be a reward out for assassins she didn't know about? No one would save an assassin simply out of the goodness of their heart, and he'd clearly been out to thwart her. She shuddered as she felt a sudden chill was over her, but she forced her fear back and eyed him with a disparaging glare. "Who are you, and why don't you want me fully healed? I'd think I'd make a better spectacle getting my guts pulled out of me if I was in better shape. More ability to scream; less likely to pass out or die quickly." She had meant it to be a sarcastic comment, but even to her ears it came out bitter. He looked at her quizzically for a moment and then broke out laughing. "I'll admit that it was my job to keep that man safe. Someone paid good money for me to stop you from doing what you did." He paused and looked her over. "I've never lost a client before, and the fact that you managed to break my track record irks me. However I also have to admit that, after I realized you'd done the unthinkable and gone in for a hand to hand kill, I was pulling for you to get away." She cocked an eye at him, and he laughed. "Believe me, I can understand why you think I'm just messing with your head, but I'm serious. Anyone who has the balls to do what you did," He looked her up and down and then smirked, "well figuratively at least, deserves better than what they would do if they caught you. You can call me Ren, and you lady..." He fell silent suddenly and his brow furrowed. She shrank into the mattress as he shot to his feet and paced the room. For a few minutes she could only stare at him as he stormed around the room with a murderous look on his face. Suddenly he froze. She frowned as he remained rooted in place as seconds ticked into minutes. Suddenly he spun towards her, his face a mask of fury. She shrank into mattress as he rushed across the room, cursing as he dropped down onto the mattress. She screamed and tried to scrabble away from him, her hand clawing at the mattress as she tried to get free only to have him cease and jerk her sharply towards him. In one fluid motion he grabbed a set of cuffs from his hip and secured her wrist. Swiftly transferring his grip he snagged her other wrist and jerked her to him. "Please don't," She gasped in a choked voice, startled at the sudden shift in his attitude and overwhelmed by the ease with which he'd subdued her. "Don't what?" He asked scowling at her. Then he shook his head. "We don't have time for this, DO NOT MOVE!" She nodded silently, shuddering at the force and anger in his voice. He jumped to his feet and ran to a bag hung from one of the nearby pillars. Rummaging in it for a second he whipped out two packages, then glanced at her. He frowned slightly and dug back into the bag, coming up with a third box. He hurried back over and opening the boxes and spilling their contents onto the bed and grabbing items as soon as they spilled out. His hands flew with practiced motions, but his body was in between her and whatever he was doing. She gasped as he suddenly spun around and jerked her arms out using the cuffs for leverage. The soft hiss and click of an autoject startled her and she swore as she tried to jerk her arm away from him. He tossed the cartridge away and slammed a second autoject into her deltoid. "What the fuck, you bastard!" She screamed, lashing out at him with her legs. He pinned her down easily, kneeling on her legs. "Hold still damn you," He hissed "Fuck you, what the hell did you just inject me with." She tried to jerk away, but he didn't budge no matter how she twisted and pulled. "Keep wiggling like that little one and you're going to have even more to worry about than you already do." He growled dangerously in her ear. She froze as he ground his meaning into her hip, and he chuckled. "Yeah I figured that would make you stop. For a smart girl that was a dumb move." She glared at him, but he only snorted. "I'm serious. If I HAD injected you with some poison or tranq you getting worked up like that and thrashing around would just have spread it faster." She frowned as she realized he was telling the truth. He smiled as he felt her settle and some of the tension left her body. "What I injected you with was another dose of short life rapid action nanos." He pause as if weighing how much to tell her. Finally he sighed and met her eyes. "I also injected you with a dose of long life multi action nanos. He reached behind him and grabbed the two boxes, shoving them into her hands as he moved off of her and stood. He reached down and retrieved the third box and shook out another autoject which he quickly primed and then injected into his left arm. She glanced at the boxes and saw that they claimed to be exactly what he'd said they were. She frowned at that. "Long life nanos are extremely expensive and highly regulated. How did you get your hands on one dose let alone two doses of it, and why did you give me a dose?" His face darkened and he jerked her to her feet. Hurrying her along as he grabbed a large duffle style bag off of a hook set into one of the support beams before heading towards the far side of the building with her in tow. "Because I was wrong," He murmured as he tugged her with him through the door and back onto the street. She glanced at him, nervous at his sudden frenetic behavior. "My contract isn't a failure yet," He growled, dragging her along down the streets. "I was paid to make sure he lived OR to bring anyone who killed him to justice." He shot her a glare that withered her with its intensity. "Who hired you!" She stared at him for a second as her mind tried to catch up with the situation. "I don't know," She began, but broke off in a gasp as explosions rocked the air and heat bloomed behind her. The shockwave nearly knocked her off her feet, but he gave a jerk on her cuffs to right her. She looked back for a second at his muttered oath and stood frozen staring at the building they had just exited as flames engulfed the rubble that was left after the explosions. He spun her to face him and shook her like a child. "Does it look like we have time for any silly ethics you think you have about selling out a client of whatever nonsense you're thinking." He thundered. "It's not that," She snarled, anger rising in her as she shoved him with her bound hands. "I truly don't know who hired me. Two weeks ago someone approached me and asked about engaging my services. They knew I'd done some work, but wasn't a big player. They said they thought I could pull this off though because I'd never had a mark get away before. I negotiated the price I wanted and received confirmation of the payment." She shook her head, and rubbed her temples as she thought back over how she'd ended up here. "I didn't ask them who they were, and they didn't volunteer. If things went south it wasn't like I was going to be able to hunt them down and make them pay for screwing me now was it! Besides even without the pay this was a chance to make a name for myself. I would have been able to actually make enough off my contracts to make a difference in my life." She sobbed the last out as she sagged against him. "Then why this," He gestured to the smoking building remains behind him. "Why would someone hire me to protect Bicormish just days after you'd been hired to kill him. He hadn't done anything unusual to piss people off recently, and by all accounts he was one of the better liked moguls in this city. I thought this would be the easiest job I'd ever taken. The guy was a freaking nut about his personal space and never took risks, and as far as anyone knew it wasn't likely that he'd have a contract taken out on him." He glared at her as he spoke. "Then out of nowhere here you come, and not only did they find some young hotshot willing to attempt a public contract, but they found someone who actually might pull it off. On top of which your weapon of choice and signature are unique, so none of the established groups would be suspected. You're the perfect storm for this, and they pitted you against me for some reason. The timing is too coincidental to believe this wasn't planned. So why pit me against you. They had to believe you had no chance of success against me, so why pick you. They had to be trying to draw me out, so whoever did this is likely one of the established assassins. It kills two birds with one stone. They get rid of me, and they take out an upstart assassin by giving her a job where she gets in over her head. By all rights you should be out of their way now." Her head snapped up when he said that, and the picture began to coalesce in her head. "I think you're wrong on that. They didn't pick me because I wasn't good enough to get my target with you interfering. They picked me because they knew I would be so desperate not to fail that I'd do anything to secure the kill. Even something as suicidal as a close quarters kill. On top of that they knew I used a bow, and that my weapon is one of the very few that can give you distance and still get through a personal shield." She groaned as the magnitude of her stupidity hit her. "I'm probably the only person who could successfully get that kill the way they wanted it. If they had picked one of the normal assassins it wouldn't have made waves, because everyone's used to seeing transports get attacked or cars explode when they stop to drop off some mogul or other. There hasn't been a successful high profile public assassination that only took out the intended target for almost as long as I can remember. They knew I'd get the kill no matter what, so their target would be dead. If I pulled it off and got away clean they got the shock and police response they seem to want. Maybe they just want more police presence or maybe they were planning to take credit for it, but either way that only works if I disappear permanently." She broke off and leveled a finger at him. "You're the key for that. They had to know you wouldn't take me killing him well and you'd feel honor and duty bound to track me down. If you did they had to know I wouldn't come along quietly, so I'd be willing to bet they were counting on you taking me out. Bicormish was a lightning rod for something. They're using him to send a message to someone and we're the packaging." He shook his head slowly, trying to wrap his head around where this had all gone wrong. Everything in his training screamed at him that there was something more going on here, but he couldn't fault her logic. Dark Arrow Ch. 01-03 "Shit that's bloody brilliant," He muttered. "I've been very careful to stay out of public eye. This is the first time I've ever had to personally stop an attack. Any other time I just warn the cops that an attempt is going to be made, sent a letter to the target about what was being planned, or simply caught the assassin while they're setting up and left them gift wrapped for the police somewhere." He stared at her with something akin to admiration, and chuckled. "You though, I knew you were coming but I didn't know when or where. I had to trail the client constantly, and I still didn't see you until right before you took your shot." She smiled and chuckled quietly as well. "If it makes you feel any better I didn't see you until you came flying out of that alley and threw him to the ground," She said, sizing him up more fully. She had to admit that even if she had seen him she might very well have discounted him. He didn't look the body guard type. "But as much fun as this conversation has been," She continued, "if they're going to bring a building down to try and take us out I think we should probably get the hell out of here." He nodded in acceptance and spun on his heal, dragging her along by the cuffs. They ran in sync, as she quickly found his rhythm and pace, but he never let go of the cuffs. They were moving through a part of the city she'd never personally seen before. She'd been near here only once when she went to the lake north of the city to hunt and fish. She came to a sudden halt as he suddenly flattened himself against the wall, just before another intersection, and went deathly still. She froze as she heard a commotion from the street ahead of them. Slowing her breathing, and concentrating on what she could hear, she tried to pinpoint how many people there were waiting for them. "The boss said they were seen headed this direction after the explosion before they disappeared so we're going to wait here until they show up or we get told to pull back." She started as the man's voice suddenly boomed out just around the corner from their hiding spot. Ren slowly crouched down, tugging her down as well, and cut her a look raising his finger to his lips. She could have snorted if it wouldn't have drawn attention. Avoid alerting the group hunting you where you are? Now there's a novel concept. Still she hunkered down more, and sent up a silent plea to anyone listening that they wouldn't be discovered. Chapter 2: The crunch of a booted foot heading in their direction left Erillia holding her breath as her heart rate spiked. Ren however rose to his feet slowly; calm radiating from him as he stood poised. It was like a still life for a few seconds as they waited for the next move. The stillness was shattered as the man who had been speaking rounded the corner into their alley. Ren exploded into action in an instant. The man's eyes barely had time to go wide before Ren had planted a knife in his windpipe. Grabbing him as a shield Ren swung around the corner as he drew a plasma pistol from his waistband. Erillia fought the urge to close her eyes and cover her ears as screams and shouts punctuated the next few seconds, interspersed with the sharp crack and sizzle of energy weapon fire. Shards of brick and mortar exploded around Ren as he exchanged fire. She hated the sounds of a firefight. She hated the sound and smell of the plasma, and the screams of those hit who didn't die instantly grated on her sensitive ears. She didn't dare close her eyes though, because if Ren went down she was beyond screwed. She might not be able to fight because of the hand cuffs, but she could damn sure run rather than let them kill her where she sat. But when the screams died, leaving behind the smell of burned flesh and the indescribable tang of plasma fire, Ren was still standing. He spun back to where she couched and snagged her by the cuffs again. Hauling her after him he sprinted out of the alley, pulling her along over the scattered corpses of the six men who had been waiting to ambush them and the debris left from the firefight. "Move," He growled in her ear when she slowed to gape at the wounds on the bodies. There were no penetrating burn wounds like she was used to seeing from plasma weapons. Rather the skin and cloths were scorched as if they had been hit with a flame thrower rather than a plasma bolt. "What happened to them!" She gasped as she was drug forward by her wrists. She didn't think he was going to answer at first as he simply drug her on faster towards the edge of town. She could see the trees outside the wall coming up fast, when all of a sudden Ren slowed and stopped about a block from the wall. "You use a bow because it will penetrate personal shields," he said turning to face her. She nodded though she knew it was barely a question, He'd already deduced her reason for using her weapon. He didn't know she'd happened on this information by accident and that her weapon was a weapon of necessity rather than design at first, but he was right she'd continued to use the bow because it could penetrate the shields. He grunted in acknowledgement of her nod, and paused for a second as if gathering his thoughts. "I don't know how you happened to figure that out, but in answer to your question I'm what happened to them." He muttered under his breath, looking around them as if expecting another ambush. "I was trained in all types of combat. They spent a great deal of money making sure I knew how to kill in every conceivable situation. Having your enemy show up with a shield would be a real shame if it ruined all that training. So they showed us ways around that. One is to control the speed of the attack, like you do with your bow and arrows. The other is to tune your weapon to a specific frequency. It's an unavoidable flaw in the technology of the shields." He saw her expression and glowered. "I don't have time for the full physics lesson, and to be honest I barely understood it myself. The gist is that, if a shield is struck with the proper resonance frequency the energy is absorbed but the heat generated by the absorption is so great it can't be dissipated. This causes the wearer to be boiled, essentially, and the cloths and skin often char from the heat." She blinked in astonishment. "That's a rather serious flaw. If that's true, why would anyone use shields, a simple tuning of a weapon and the shield isn't a defense but a death trap." He chuckled and she fell silent, watching him. If he wanted to elaborate he would, but it was clear he wasn't going to be rushed into it if he didn't. Finally he shook his head. "Your right, except it's not a simple tuning. You have to alter the containment algorithms in the guns." She thought her eyes would pop out of her head at that. She'd heard the term slack jawed before but until now it hadn't really sunk in how someone's mouth could simply hang open. "That's suicide!" she exclaimed. He laughed outright at that. "Yeah that's what they tell you, and they aren't far wrong. Get the alteration sequence even a hair wrong and the gun explodes. Get a speck of dust in the system while you're working and the gun explodes. Get the frequency adjustment to high and the gun turns into a very very big bomb. Get it to low and the containment fails the instant it leaves the barrel and you're the one getting flash fried." He paused again and his eyes lost focus. Then he shook his head as if to banish some memory that haunted him and sighed. "If you don't make any of the thousands of missteps though you're left with a gun that has very little reduction in range but which will essentially ignore all shields. I'm not surprised no one knows about it though. You watch. This time tomorrow the advocacy agents are going to be all over this. Which means that thanks to your little stunt I have to get out of the city for the foreseeable future, since I'll be one of the first people they look at for this." He fell silent and turned to gaze at the wall. "All shields?" She hated the quiver in her voice, but she couldn't help it. There was just something about Ren that shook her to her very core. He didn't acknowledge her question at first and when he did it was with a simple nod of the head. She stared at the man before her, and finally her innate curiosity would not be ignored any longer. "Who the hell are you really," She muttered. "More importantly just who the hell trained you. You talk like you were trained to be an assassin, but you're here protecting people. Dangerous modifications of weapons to bypass shields hardly seems like something they'd be teaching bodyguards." He was silent for a long time, then he turned and faced her. "You're a smart girl. I've given you enough clues as to who did the training already. If you and I live through this mess and stay out of jail maybe I'll tell you more. As for who I am, I told you the truth about that. My name is Ren. Well actually my name is Renald, but that's just hideously pretentious so I go by Ren. My family name probably wouldn't mean much to you, and it's not like you'll be looking me up in the phone book after all." She opened her mouth to protest but he held a finger to her lips. She felt a strange heat as he held it there for a second gazing into her eyes with his. She shuddered at the intensity of that stare. There were depths to those dark green eyes that made her scared to even imagine what lurked in them. She looked away, but he gently took her chin in his hand and turned her to look into his eyes again. "I've gone to a great deal of trouble, and a good deal of expense to keep you alive this far little one. Now I need to you listen very carefully to what I'm about to tell you." He paused, searching her face and eyes. She realized he was waiting for her to indicate her acceptance, so she nodded. "Good girl." A thrill shot through her as he cracked a small smile and murmured those words. "Now I'm going to undo your cuffs." Her eyes shot open in shock and he chuckled. "That's right I'm going to give your freedom back. It's not like I have a choice though. I can't carry you up the wall, so you're going to have to climb yourself." "What's to stop me simply running away," She muttered, "Or attacking you?" He shifted the bag on his back and opened it. Fishing inside for a moment he held up something which made her breath catch in her throat. "My quiver!" She gasped in shock. "Complete with your bow. I must admit I was impressed with the way it disassembles. It makes storing it and sneaking it into areas where they're watching for weapons much easier I'd imagine, but from the design and the decorations you put on it I'd hazard a guess that this was made for hunting game not people." She held her breath as his gaze swept over her again before locking with hers again. She muttered a curse as she looked away, embarrassed that she was the first to break the stare again, but unable to hold his gaze any longer. "Now I said I'd free your hands, but if you want this back," he shook the quiver to emphasize his meaning, "You'll have to follow me over that wall." He arched an eye at her as he reached out and unlocked the handcuffs. She briefly considered making a grab for her quiver and running for it, but in the end there was little point. She couldn't go back through town. Not with the amount of attention she'd have on her after the murder, the explosion in the warehouse, and the firefight they had just been in. She'd never make it through the police search cordon now, so she'd have to scale the wall and try and skirt around the town back to her place. It was a good 50 miles if she played it safe and kept a mile or so outside the walls where there was cover. So if she was going to go over the wall anyway it might as well be on Ren's good side at least until they were there. Assuming of course this man had a good side. She was still alive, so that spoke well for him, but she had also witness him incinerate six men and not bat an eye. She could kill without feeling, but the kind of indifference he showed for the pain of those deaths was beyond even her. Her kills were as quick and painless as possible, not just for her victims but also for herself. She could kill but she couldn't stand to watch anyone or anything suffer. So avoiding angering this man was the best choice for the moment even if letting him keep hold of her weapon. So she met his gaze and nodded her acceptance of what he said as she began rubbing her wrists where the cuffs had slowed the circulation. "I can't say it doesn't bug me, but you've kept us alive this far so I'll play it your way," She said standing and stretching. "Good. Now, here's what we're going to do. There's a sewer grate a couple blocks up. The monitors on it are broken and they've never gotten around to fixing it. We're going to ground for the rest of the day." He stared at him in shock, but he held of a hand to forestall questions. "I know, I know but we're almost a half mile from where that firefight happened and it will take them a good three hours to come up here and start searching. Sundown is just four hours away so we're going to hole up and wait for dark. Then we're going over the wall." She nodded as he continued speaking. "Most people are scared of the outside world. They know there's poisonous snakes and all manner of creatures out there that they don't know how to deal with so they wouldn't dream of actually escaping the city that way. That's one of the reasons murder is so hard to get away with these days. People aren't running their hiding. If you hide eventually you will be found, but we're not hiding, we're running the hell away. But the wall does have monitoring devices at certain points and while they probably wouldn't notice us now I can guarantee they won't notice us in the dark so we're taking the risk of waiting for dark." She nodded once more as he finished layin out the plan. "And after dark," She asked after a moments silence. "Then we come out quick and quite. Move carefully to the wall and then sprint up and over and then keep running until we're under cover. Have you ever rappelled?" She nodded her head. When she was young and just starting to hunt with her father her arms hadn't had the strength to safely climb down the entire way. Fearing that she would fall and get hurt her father had shown her how to rappel and the two continued to rope down and up together even after she had developed the strength to freeclimb the wall. She hadn't used a rope since he'd died five years ago. It just hadn't seemed right, because every time she looked at the rope she remembered their tradition of climbing together and racing each other down. He'd always let her win. Even when using a rope would have helped when she was weighed down with a fresh kill she hadn't had the heart to rope up without him. She took a ragged breath. Even know after five years, three of them spent killing other people for a living, thinking about her father still brought the tears dangerously close to the surface. She shook it off only to find Ren staring at her with a penetrating gaze. She shuddered as that stare seemed to bore right through her. It was like she was a book and he was reading every bit of her. As if he could, just by looking at her, know what she was thinking and worst of all feeling. She felt a rush of heat, which she would have attributed to anger at his prying gaze if not for the fact that it settled firmly between her legs rather than in her chest. God if she didn't know better she'd think she was starting to get turned on by his commanding attitude and the way he seemed to see right through her defenses. She shook her head, and felt another rush of heat. This one definitely of anger, though she wasn't sure if she was angry at Ren or at herself. She would never admit it, but she hadn't gotten where she was by denying the obvious. She could feel herself getting wet when he stared at her that way. That first rush had been arousal pure and unadulterated. Her mind might rebel at the thought, but her body seemed to have no qualms about what it wanted. For the first time in 25 years she wanted the closeness and intimacy of a man. She had been curious once before and had gotten burned for that curiosity, but having now truly experienced desire she knew that first time had paled to insignificance compared to what she felt now. It had been simply mental curiosity about things she didn't know about. Her mind of course kicked in reminding her of what had happened the last time she got curious and let a man get close to her. It seemed that her body didn't care about the past, or about the timing, or really about anything but the here and now. If he had shoved her up against the wall and taken her right there she almost thought she would have screamed for joy and helped him rather than trying to fight him off. She had always scoffed at those silly girls who talked about being caught up in lust and doing unspeakable things in the heat of the moment. The idea of burning with lust had always made her laugh, but now she was beginning to think she was the foolish one. Lust it seemed was very real, and right now if Ren wanted to set a match to her she would quite happily burn. Only he didn't move to ignite the flames that were smoldering in her. His hands and face twitched, and she sucked in a breath, certain he was about to ravage her and set off the inferno she could feel building in her, but he didn't. Instead he turned and motioned her to follow him. He moved with quick, practiced movements as he quietly moved from alley to alley, tracking diagonally to the wall for another four blocks before stopping. She stopped a few paces behind him but he motioned her to come forward. She crept up next to him, and he jerked his finger for her to look around the corner. She knelt and slowly leaned around the corner as he made way for her. The road was clear, but up ahead was the familiar orange and black cap of a sewer entry. As he had said she could see that the lock was ajar and that the electronic access pad was dead. The smell almost made her gag, and she wondered how safe it would be to be breathing the fumes from those tunnels. Turning to ask Ren about the air she was startled to find him right behind her with a respirator held out to her. It had taken her but a few seconds time to observe the road and sewer entrance, but in that time he had opened his gear pack, retrieved two respirators, and already donned his. Wordlessly she took the mask and quickly slid the strap over her head. A few seconds of adjustment later she had it firmly in place. Ren cocked and eyebrow at her and held out his hand with a thumbs up signal. She nodded and returned the thumbs up. He quickly rummaged in his pack again and came up with a spray bottle. Surprising her he brought the bottle up right next to her face and released a burst of the aerosol spray into her mask. She jerked back out instinctively before realization donned. She almost laughed at her reaction, and she could see the laughter in his eyes as well. Of course if this area was toxic and he was serious about keeping her alive then he would have been a fool not to do a fit test. The spray would have made her cough, or vomit if the mask hadn't been properly fit, but thankfully she had adjusted it appropriately. She held out a thumbs up again, and he nodded. Returning the spray to the bag he brought out a pair of gloves and goggles which he passed to her before retrieving another set for himself. Moving next to her he pulled his mask down enough to whisper in her ear. "I'll go first. Give me a hard thirty count once I go down the hatch then follow me. Close the lid after you and go down the ladder. I'll meet you at the bottom. Once you step off the ladder do not move until you see me. One wrong step down there is almost certain to kill you." She nodded her head, and took a deep breath getting accustomed to the slight plastic scent that came from the respirator. He stepped back and reaffixed his mask before donning his gloves and goggles. He gave her one last thumbs up, which she returned then stepped forward and glanced both ways before quietly slipping from the alley and rushing to the sewer lid.