Chapter 31: Chapter 31: Frenemies

Brigette hurried out of her apartment and towards the town hall where her dad worked. She had heard the gunfire, everyone within the city had heard it unless they were deaf. That amount of violence didn’t go unnoticed. The fact that she didn’t hear the few remaining police cars screaming toward the scene gave her a bad feeling.

She was terrified, not for herself but for her father. She ran through the crowds of people, all trying to find someplace safe, or at least out of sight.

Her goal was a bit different. She needed to use the fighting as a distraction to get to her father and get him away from Franka. She didn’t know if it would work but it was an opportunity she couldn’t squander.

As she was rounding the last corner towards the city hall, a group of trucks rolled up. They screeched to a halt on the sidewalk in front of the building and burly-looking men jumped out and raced up the stairs. She realized she was too late.

Brigette managed to stifle the agonized scream that attempted to escape her lips. Along with the men came a short woman, who she immediately recognized.

She had only recently learned of Gail and what she was capable of. Thanks to a sealed envelope that was slipped under her door a few nights back. She had first suspected the information had come from Norman. But she quickly dismissed that idea. The man was sweet but he didn’t come off as the cloak-and-dagger sort. Nope, this was someone else. Someone who knew all the players but wanted to remain anonymous.

Seeing Gail head into the building was like a bomb dropping. Brigette fell to the ground and openly wept. She knew it was too late to save her father now.

***

Franka was sitting in her office writing out a letter when her door burst in and shattered against the wall.

Startled, she screamed and scrambled back as a wall of muscle she recognized entered the room, quickly followed by her friend Gail. So caught off guard by the intrusion, it took Franka a moment to compose herself.

“Why is he here?” Franka hissed, pointing at her husband.

The man gave her a goofy grin and waved, “Hi, Franka!”

Franka couldn’t help sneering at her foul husband.

“Move out of the way you imbecile!” Gail slapped the man on the arm, eliciting a wince from Franka’s husband. As if the ninety-pound woman could ever physically hurt him.

The man did as he was told and moved to the side of the small office as he rubbed the spot that Gail had slapped while looking like a scolded puppy. A look that gave Franka great joy.

“Sit down, Franka, we need to talk.”

Franka momentarily eyed the open door, estimating her chances of escaping the room. She decided to sit down.

Franka was nothing if not adapatable. “Gail, it’s always nice to see you. But you could have knocked. To what do I owe the pleasure?” she replied in a calm voice.

Gail loomed over the desk, as far as the shorter woman could loom. Franka expertly controlled her smile to keep from grimacing at the woman’s disfigured face. The closeness also brought a distinctly unpleasant odor with it. Franka wasn’t sure what it was until she spotted the blood splatter on her friend's clothing.

“You know, Franka, I’m starting to think you don’t care about me. First, you fail to notify me about a possible necromancer.”

“I gave you what I-”

“Shush,” Gail pressed a blood-covered finger over Franka’s mouth.

Franka winced but she didn’t dare move and she kept her mouth shut.

“Then I get blindsided by Sin and his goons. All because they followed your courier.”

Franka was confused. “What courier?”

“That Toby fellow.”

Franka cursed internally. Of course, it was that man. Franka was about to respond but Gail cut her off as she continued.

“No matter. It may have cost me some thralls but I dealt with most of Sin’s men. But that’s not why I’m here.”

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Franka swallowed the sudden lump in her throat. She had a bad feeling.

“I’m here because I’m sick of playing backstage. Getting secondhand information, assuming you deign to even offer it to me. No, It’s time for me to take a more active role in how this town is run.” She snapped her fingers and the current Mayor was dragged into the room. The man still struggled to free himself but the men holding him were equally his match in brawn.

“Don’t do this, Gail.” Franka plead. Certainly not for the sake of the new mayor, or her friend, but for herself. Gail didn’t need to know that though.

“Oh, it's already done,” with those words, she walked up to the Mayor and pressed a finger to his forehead.

This was the first time Franka got to witness the process of Gail’s more destructive magic. A cold wave of dread and disgust shivered up her spine as Gail’s finger sunk into the man’s skull like it was soft butter. The Mayor started shaking violently like he was having a seizure. Then a dark flash emanated from the point where Gail’s finger met the man’s skull. After that, the man went limp and Gail slowly pulled her finger back out.

Gail wiped a dark substance off her finger and onto the unconscious Mayor’s shirt. “I should thank you. This was the easiest conversion I’ve done so far. The man was practically brain-dead already thanks to your control. But don’t worry, Franka. I still have a place for you in my new administration.”

Franka started to smile but it quickly faltered when Gail turned towards her. There was no empathy or compassion in her friend’s eyes only the cold and cruel look of someone who thought of you like a speck of dust. Franka would know, she had used that look on plenty of people before.

“Grab your dear wife and keep her safe.”

Franka screamed and bolted for the door, but her husband quickly caught her. “Gail say’s we’re going to be bestest friends again.” Franka wailed as she was dragged down the corridor.

***

“Boss, we lost contact with the men sent to assault Gail’s place. What do you want to do?”

Thomas Sin pondered the situation he was in. It was obvious now that he and everyone else had been played. After seeing Toby at Gail’s place, dropping off healing potions, it became clear what the end goal had been. The necromancer and that Toby kid were behind the setup. That necromancer’s whole naïve and innocent act had thrown him off though. He should have trusted his gut and put two into the necromancer’s skull on that first night. The whole overacting and vomit drama in his kitchen was just so over the top.

Thomas was man enough to admit when he had been bested. He didn’t know what the necromancer’s ultimate goal was. Thomas didn’t think it was something as simple as just riling up the town and getting everyone to fight each other. Someone who had gambled their entire future on death probably didn’t have any good intentions in mind. Sin had met contract killers like that. Stone-cold psychopaths who would kill their own mother if someone made them an offer. The one thing they had in common was the ability to fool people into thinking they were something they were not.

“Have the boys in the lab made any progress on the healing potion?”

“I haven’t heard anything yet,” Eugene replied. “But we got plenty of the blood.”

Thomas grunted. It meant he would need the necromancer alive then, at least for the short term. “Notify the other chapters to keep an eye out for our wayward necromancer.”

“What about the other two?”

Sin shrugged. “They aren’t needed.”

The conversation paused as another SUV pulled up. Thomas opened the door, but before he got in, he turned back to Eugene. “Shut down operations in the city. We will reassess and decide what to do from a new location.”

Eugene nodded and already had his phone out. Thomas would let Eugene deal with getting the remaining assets out of town. He would have preferred to run down the necromancer himself but they didn’t have the manpower to do that. Not after the failed attack against the witch. Besides, those three would show up in one of his towns eventually. Traveling in a vehicle would make them stand out. And once his people knew where they were, they could easily grab them.

***

Over the next day, Norman had plenty of time to think since the van needed to charge. And despite that stupid oath, Toby made Norman agree to, he bounced back and forth on sticking around or just leaving Toby to his fate. Certainly, Anna being there affected his choice a bit. But in the end, it came down to Norman’s own survival that made him choose to stick with that slimy asswad Toby.

Norman knew his strengths and weaknesses, he knew he wouldn’t survive more than a few days on the run by himself, especially on foot. He simply didn’t have the skills to rough it in the country and moving from house to house to try and stay ahead of Sin’s men sounded like a good way to get shot. If not by Sin’s men, then by some nutjob that might be holed up in a home Norman might have to break into.

This was all assuming Toby didn’t do something to throw him under the bus right after they parted ways. The fact that Norman was able to think about that possibility meant that that scheming bastard Toby would likely have thought about it as well.

So while it made his gut churn with disgust, he inevitably decided to remain with the brother and sister pair for the time being.

At least this way he could keep an eye on Toby and use his skills as a trained alphabet agent to his advantage. This sure as hell didn’t mean Norman trusted or forgave the man. Nope, that bridge was burned. But as they say, keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Actually, Norman thought that was a stupid saying. If he did that, he would be standing next to Sin at the moment. He amended the saying ‘Keep your friends close and your enemies closer only if they are reliant on you’. Yeah, it didn’t roll off the tongue as nicely but it didn’t sound so idiotic.

Eventually, Toby would need to pay for what he had done. Not that Norman was the type to seek revenge but the man needed to learn he couldn’t treat people this way without some repercussions. What those were, Norman couldn’t say, he had never imagined he would be in this sort of situation where he had to come up with a punishment for someone. Toby being stuck as an undead was a good start though.

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