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The dragonkin war-mage dragged me to my feet and tightened a collar around my neck. With a sharp jerk he began leading me through the alleyways. His companions had no problem with giving me a shove or kick to keep on track, or just when they felt like it. Embarrassing as being kidnapped was I was really enjoying the rough treatment. The dragonkin noticed and I heard them talking amongst themselves in one of the old languages. I wasn't too sure what they were saying but they sounded rather put off. I guess they're use to people cowering and begging rather than getting a kick out things.

My good mood was soured slightly as I thought about who they worked for. A long time ago he was just known as Reaver. Now a days what he's called depends on who you ask. Most know him as The Gentleman. He had his start as a skilled pickpocket but found he had a talent for manipulation. After that he got in with one of the Heart's major crime syndicates and quickly worked his way to the top. Along the way anyone he couldn't charm or outwit had a bad habit of turning up dead. He still runs things today and is as polite and civil as ever, at least until you're no longer useful.

These thugs were on the lowest rung of the syndicate's ladder. They're the kind that get sent out to do the type of dirty work that the higher ups couldn't stomach. Mostly because the higher ups are too busy playing politics these days. No doubt that Reaver wanted me so that he could earn a few favors from the police. That or I pissed him off sometime recently, it gets hard for me to keep track of these things after a while.

Eventually I sensed the presence of a crowd milling about around me. Seems I had been lead back to the main roads. Unfortunately, given the nature of the Heart, someone being dragged about on a leash wasn't all that uncommon. So much for anyone playing the hero then. Also if we were back on the main roads then we had to be close to Reaver. Not too much of a surprise, he owns quite a few of the clubs and dens around here...if we're where I think we are.

While I was still trying to figure out where we were from the surrounding noise I was suddenly thrown through a door. I hit the ground hard and my escorts laughed as they hauled me back to my feet. The rich smells of dragonkin cooking filled my nose as I was dragged along a tile floor. Judging from the lack of people yelling and making a fuss over mu current state this must be one of the syndicate restaurants. No point in forcing my way out then, even I don't want to kick off a one man war against one of the Heart's larges crime organizations. Not yet anyway.

I was dropped unceremoniously into a chair and the hood was yanked off. I blinked in the sudden light and looked around. The walls were decorate with traditional dragonkin artwork, lots of vivid colors and sweeping lines. Everything else was dark hardwood, which just served to make the murals seem brighter. The light came from small orbs of color that floated through the dining room, the shadows constantly shifting and making the paintings seem almost alive. It made me feel a bit seasick to be honest.

Seated across from me was a lithe dragonkin, slim and deadly as a rapier. His dark blue scales glittering in the constantly shifting light, Reaver gave me a warm smile but his eyes stayed cold and hard.

"Alex, it's been too long. I apologize for the thorn manacles, but after last time I'm sure you can understand the need for caution." His voice matched his looks. Elegant and smooth but with a dangerous edge.

I just shrugged. "I don't really mind, but the kidnapping seems a bit unnecessary."

"I suppose you wouldn't. As for the kidnapping, well, last time I sent you an invitation you sent it back with very... detailed instructions on what to do with it." He chuckled.

I smiled, if I remembered correctly it was owing postage as well.

"Although I must admit I was a bit surprised when Uusur sent word of where they found you." he said, looking me over. "Though I suppose I shouldn't be, you've always had some eccentric tastes."

I'm assuming Uusur was the war-mage. "It's really not that bad. The skirt provides a very nice breeze. The thong on the other hand really rides u..." My voice trailed off as Reaver held up a hand.

"We don't need to go into the details."

Our conversation continued for a while, jumping from one topic to the next. To anyone listening in it probably just seemed like two friends catching up after not seeing each other for a few years. To anyone actually paying attention however, they would have heard the soft clinking of the thorn manacle chain as I tried to work my hands free as well as the venom in Reaver's voice. Finally after half an hour of idle chatter things finally came to the matter at hand.

Reaver's expression never changed as he rapped his knuckles against the table. Almost immediately a scaly arm wrapped around my neck and I felt something sharp dig into my back followed by a vicious shock. It was strong enough to make my legs go numb. I glanced up and saw the war-mage standing over me, his eyes glittering with malice.

"Thank you, Uusur." Reaver grinned. He rose and slipped a plastic case from the breast pocket of his suit jacket. I snarled and struggled but as I tried to stand Uusur sent another shock through me. I collapsed, twitching and jerking as the spell ran through me. Out of instinct I tried to ready a spell but almost immediately the thorn manacles tightened, burying tiny needles into my wrists which quickly sapped my energy.

"My apologies again Alex, but Mr. Koch was a valuable asset to an upcoming venture of ours. Now that he's dead... well, debts must be paid." He drew a syringe from the case and readied it.

"Nothing personal my friend."

Bullshit.

He pressed the needle into my neck and I felt the burn of some kind of sedative being injected straight into the vein. Whatever the stuff was it worked fast.

I came to my senses a short while later and found myself somewhere very cramped and dark. I also noticed the thorn manacles were still in place, which was a bit worrying. I wasn't accustomed to not having my magic readily available. It might be difficult to get out of..where was I anyway? I felt around with my paw and my nails scrapped against what seemed like cardboard. Well, not the worst place I've woken up then. I thrashed about and quickly kicked my way out of the box. I then yelped as my paw whacked hard against solid metal. Sighing I ran a paw along whatever it was I hit. To my disappointment it felt like a larger steel box. Then my paw ran over what felt like a gas jet. Well fuck, like many restaurants in the Heart, this one had an incinerator for trash.

This was going to suck.

I lay there for a few moments waiting for the flames but after a minute or so when nothing happened, I got bored. As I waited I thought I heard someone shuffling about outside my makeshift prison. Curious, I tried to twist around so I could hear what was going on but the incinerator was too cramped and all I accomplished was getting myself stuck in a rather awkward position. Still it got my ear just close enough to the door for me to hear what was going on.

"Are you sure this is going to work Uusur?" It sounded like Reaver.

"He isn't a phoenix." Came the rough voice of the war-mage.

No, but I had a feeling I was about to do a pretty damn good imitation of one. Let's just hope I could pull off the whole show. More importantly, why do so many people miss out on the whole immortal thing? It's not like I go out of my way to keep it a secret.

"Alright, make this quick. I don't want to risk him worming his way out. The rest of the council is already riding my ass over this whole mess." I don't know if it was because of the heavy steel door distorting his voice or not but Reaver sounded a bit anxious.

"Certainly, just a few more things to take care of first." There was a slight shift in Uusur's voice but I couldn't quite place it.

I heard the sound of the basement door shutting and a heavy bolt being thrown. It was followed by something that sounded like a length of pipe being dragged across the floor for dramatic effect. I heard Reaver demanding something in Draconic but it was too muffled for me to make sense of it with my limited understanding of the language. The voice that answered sent chills down my spine. It started out as Uusur's voice but it rapidly fluctuated in pitch and tone. At a few points it sounded like several people talking at once. As the changes started I though I heard Reaver try to yell for help but it was cut short by the soft thump of metal on flesh, followed by the sound of a body being hoisted into the incinerator bay next to mine. Then the voice turned to me.

"I have no doubt that you're awake in there Derleth." The voice shifted again and slowly became Reaver's. "It is most unfortunate that you had to be the one guarding Mr. Koch, but I am bound by my master's orders." I heard the shapeshifter setting dials on the incinerator control panel. "My master tells me you can regenerate from fatal wounds, but how well can you regenerate from nothing?"

To be fair I really didn't know. I've been burned alive before but those times there's always been something like bones or charred flesh left for me to regenerate from. A modern incinerator like this would leave only ashes.

"No answer? Well perhaps I'll see you later down the road. If not, well, I'll just earn my freedom that much sooner."

Hmmm... that just gave me quite a bit to work off of once I got out of this. Though that may take a rather long time depending on what was about to happen.

A few seconds later there was a soft click followed immediately by the roar of flames. I was instantly enveloped in blistering heat, even before the fire reached me. My skin didn't even have time to blister before it blackened and cracked. My nerves screamed in an utterly delightful way and I writhed about in pleasure. But it was short lived as they were quickly burned away. Darkness followed not long after as my eyes ruptured from the heat.

It took just minutes from my body to be completely destroyed. I floated about the incinerator as little more than a disembodied presence, unable to see or interact with the world in anyway. Normally I would have found such a novelty rather interesting, but since I couldn't feel anything it was really just kind of boring. I was dimly aware of my ashes being removed and carried away. That left me with a bit of a dilemma. I could follow the faint traces of my body's energy in case it started to regenerate and draw me back, or I could drift off and see if I eventually regenerated around whatever it was I was now.

I decided to stick with my ashes, mostly because they were one of the few things I could still sense. Eventually they stopped moving and I settled over them. Not much to do now but wait to see what happens. Hours passed, or at least that how it felt. After a while I though I sensed a slight tug at my essence. I couldn't quite tell if it was caused by my body beginning to regenerate or if someone was moving my remains. Either way I quickly drifted towards it and wrapped myself around the source of the tugging.

I woke up to a familiar smell. A soft feminine scent that lay over the harsh scents of blood and sex. Seconds later I bit back a lusty moan as my nerves started to scream again as I felt cool air against raw muscle. I cracked an eyelid and didn't even try to stay quiet as light stabbed at my eye. Slowly things began to come into focus and I saw that I was stretched out on a dark leather couch. The room I was in was actually fairly dark but to my new eyes the soft gas lights felt like knives. I looked away for a moment then glanced down at myself. Most of my flesh still hadn't regrown and what little bit that had was raw and extremely sensitive. I ran a finger down my chest and shivered with pleasure. I loved it when I wound up like this, though it was a shame that I hadn't had a good fight to go with it.

From what little of the room I could see I could tell it was Alice's sitting room/study. I've seen it from this angle often enough, when Alice was nice enough to remove the blindfold. Even though I now knew where I was, I still wasn't sure how I ended up here. Before I could ponder that for long I heard the soft sound of peaceful breathing and a slight bit of movement caught my eye.

I glanced over at the other person in the room. Alice was fast asleep in the couch across from mine, though she still managed to settle into her usual way of sleeping. Which involved curling tightly around herself and resting her head on her tail. A partially disassembled .357 magnum was spread across a tray that she had left on the coffee table between us. She must have heard me move for she woke up a few moments later. She yawned and the soft light glinted off her steel fangs, the tiny pinpoints of light were like needles in my eyes. I made no effort to look away as she gradually uncurled and stretched, it always does such interesting things to her already impressive figure. She sat up and rested her paws on the coffee table between us.

"Bout time you woke up, how you feeling?" She muttered.

"Anyone ever tell you the pads on your toes look like pink jellybeans?" I rasped, my throat still raw.

She gave me an exasperated look. "Yeah, you're fine. And you owe me a new couch, asshole."

I sat up, biting my lip to keep another moan down, and looked at the spot I had been laying on. The leather was heavily stained with blood and other fluids, I guess this regeneration wasn't a clean one.

I shrugged, "I'll take care of it, eventually. So how'd I get back here?"

"Malak was rummaging about in a dumpster and found a dragon horn with most of a wolfkin skull growing from the base. Not too many like that even around here and even fewer where you can watch the fangs growing back. He couldn't find the rest of you so he brought your skull over here to see what would happen. That was about eight hours ago." Alice told me. As she talked I squirmed as I felt the rest of my flesh regrow and my fur began to follow suit. It tickled.

"By the way, Todd came by a while ago with some books for you. He seemed pretty put off when I told him you were sleeping off being dead. So I'm guessing something did happen at the club?" Alice leaned forward, her crimson eyes glittering. Something told me she wouldn't let me go anywhere until I told her all about it. I leaned back and gave her the full story of what had happened from the time I got to the club to my run in with the shapeshifter and Reaver.

"Sounds like a fun one." She purred as I finished.

"Don't think he's really into your kind of fun." I told her.

"Such a shame." She pouted. "Anyway, what ended up happening with Reaver?"

"Pretty sure he was knocked out and burned alive. The shapeshifter is probably running around as him now."

"Brutal."

"Yeah, this 'shifter is a nasty one..." My voice trailed off as I lapsed into thought.

After a moment or two I got up and headed straight for the shower. I had a pretty good idea for what to look for in the books but I wouldn't hear the end of it from Todd if I got bloody fingerprints on the pages. Alice watched me go, she was used to these kind of moments, before turning her attention back to the magnum. I heard her quickly reassemble the weapon and check the action, all in the short time it took for me to get to the bathroom.

Once I was clean I returned to the study after fetching the books, mostly all old tomes that weighed what felt like half a ton each. The books reminded me that I was with Todd, well June at any rate, when the shapeshifter found me. That made me a bit worried so I fetched Alice's phone and called the Heart library.

"Heart library, front desk. This is Todd." he sounded alright, which was a good start.

"Just Todd? No last name?" I was pretty sure he could hear my grin.

"Alex!" His voice perked up almost instantly. "Alice told me all about your... um, condition..."

"All in great detail I take it?"

"Yeah. She seemed to enjoy it." He sounded a bit ill just thinking about it.

"What, my condition or your reaction?"

"Probably both."

I chuckled and told him what little I had found about the shapeshifter during my run in with Reaver.

"Sounds like a nasty one, you really think it'll come after me?" All things considered he didn't sound too nervous about it.

"As long as its master doesn't think you're a threat I'm pretty sure you'll be fine. But it'll probably be a good idea to stay somewhere public and safe for now." I told him.

"Alright I'll just stay here for a while, I can camp out in the break room for a few days if worst comes to worst."

"Sounds good."

"Oh and before I go, June wants you to give her a call once this is all sorted out."

I smiled and agreed before letting him get back to work. Turning back to the rest of the study I found that Alice was busy breaking down and cleaning her shotgun.

"Didn't you used to have a day of the week dedicate to each gun?" I asked, moving the books onto the small part of the table she wasn't using.

"Since when did I ever stick to a schedule? Besides, I ran out of days of the week."

I've never heard anyone sound so innocent while oiling the trigger mechanism of a twelve gauge.

"That's no surprise." I muttered, picking up the first book.

Alice chuckled and we settled down to focusing on our respective tasks. I quickly looked through the stack of books and set several aside. Since the shapeshifter mentioned something about a master that lead me to believe it was some kind of summoned entity which meant I could eliminate any of the tomes that focused on mythological shapshifters. I've seen what happens when people try to bind the mythological ones to their will. It usually ends with someone else scrapping the mage off a wall or two. There was also a book or two about shapeshifitng spells but I had a feeling I could rule those out as well. A freelancer wouldn't refer to their client as "master".

I picked a tome from the pile and cracked it open. As I scanned the weathered pages I felt my heart sinking a bit. I really didn't have much to go off of for identifying this shifter. I didn't recall seeing that pouch around its neck when it was imitating Uusur. Guess that was something cooked up by its master. Beyond that I just had the whole regenerating from dark mist when injured and its voice to work from. Something told me this was going to take a while.

Many hours later I awoke with a start as I hit the coffee table face first and whichever book I had picked up last hit the ground. Grumbling to myself, I picked it up and quickly made sure there wasn't any damage, satisfied that it was OK I gazed blearily around the room. Alice was gone, most likely upstairs, and the room was dark. Guess I'd been out for a while.

I cast an annoyed glance at the books and decided to head upstairs myself. Before I passed out I wasn't having any luck beyond cryptic hints and vague tales of otherworldly creature that can imitate any form. All in all it wasn't really anything that would help me figure out the identity of this particular one. I was starting to get the feeling that I would have to take a different approach to sorting this mess out and the best way to start would be by getting a decent bite to eat. It's hard to think straight when you last meal went up in smoke, along with the rest of you.

I headed upstairs and settled down at the bar. I waved Ross over and it was like the cultured monstrosity read my mind. He came over holding a pad and pencil, they seemed comically small in his massive claws.

"Alice informed me of your mishap yesterday. I assume you would like something to eat, Mr. Derleth?" He rumbled.

I nodded and quickly placed an order. Ross turned back to the grill at the back of the bar and in seconds the long tendrils that trailed from his face began to nimbly dart about. I watched him cook, there's something about the strange and precise movements of the tendrils that I have always found hypnotic.

As I waited Alice worked her way down the bar until she was right across from me.

"Guessing the books didn't help?" She asked, a smug little grin pulling at the corners of her muzzle.

I grunted and shook my head.

"So you need a new approach... any ideas?"

"Got a few. The 'shifter made things sound like a power play. If someone is try to topple Reaver's syndicate then there's a few people that probably know about it." I muttered. The whole time I was keeping my eye on Ross, my stomach growling as the smells from the grill drifted over.

"Guess you'll be on your way to meet them then."

"After dinner. You're not joining me?"

"Nope. Amateur night starts in a few hours."

That's when the twins Jess and Tessa waved at me from down the bar. The Heart's own two headed nympho wolfkin: no surprise what they were here for then, asides from their usually nights out on the city. I also noticed that two poles had been set up on the bar's small stage. Good to know Alice had her priorities straight. Though to be fair I didn't expect the murder and mayhem to start in this case for a while.

And nothing would be happening until after I ate. Luckily Ross brought my dinner over just a few minutes later. Once I had a bit to eat and my brain started doing things, I wouldn't quite call it thinking yet, I began to fish up the names of the informants that I knew of. The one I kept coming back to was Anya. She was at the gathering right before all this went down and she was the best connected of all the ones I know. Well now I knew who to visit, right after I finished eating. Priorities, you know?