Walking through the darkroom, music hums in the background, it's different from anything I've ever heard. High pitched and deep at the same time, thumping like a heartbeat, much like the club in Hungary louder. 

The people surrounding us don't dawn their masks, I opt to remove mine as I flush at their revealing clothes. Leather-clad bodies with hardly a scrap of modesty left.

 A slender female passes us, only wearing colored tabs over her nipples. I grab Tonic's arm, "What is this place?"

"I come here to unwind. It's like a pub." Unwind? 

He smirks at the face I make; I imagine he does a lot of unwinding considering the patrons. "Man has needs. It's been a while, anyway. The owner is a good person; she's on our side." 

Ever since the introduction of females to my life, I find that things have gotten much more difficult. Life was simpler when a male, lycan hoard, surrounded me. Men were easy; women were smart. "Jealous?" 

I pull my lips into a thin line. What an odd question.

"Why would I be jealous?"

Does he forget that I'm happily involved with his father? Maybe he doesn't care. Tonic shrugs casually as I follow him through the masses.

 I'm racked with the fear that there isn't a structure that could keep my warlord from searching for me, yet, he seemed so sure of my capability yesterday. Wrapping my arms around myself, rubbing my biceps to warm up, It bothers me, just slightly, to think that he is lounging back and enjoying his grandchildren while assuming that I am just fine.

I can't even ask Artifice what he's doing, not with the block he put on his person. I note that even with the noise of the music, it's quieter the further down we go. The lights flicker and flash, throwing colors on the shapes of gyrating bodies. "Cutie." A woman drags her hand down my back, pinching my bottom. 

I jump, wheeling around to get away from her. 

She winks, "What's up, Tonic? Cute friend." Her slender form is only covered by a netting-like material, that barely smushes her breasts together.

"Thanks. I think I'll keep him." He puts his arm around me, only to grunt as I thump him harshly in the ribs with my elbow. "Where's the boss?"

"Soli? She's up top; someone took out a pipe. Big mess going on around here." Her accent is strange; Tonic tells me everyone in New York talks that way. 

I find it almost hard to understand her as he guides me away, and we climb a set of wood stairs. It seems so silly to be excited about wood, and I slow, tracing my hands over the railing as I try and envision what type of tree it came from. 

How could one miss trees so badly? 

"Did she say someone took out a pipe?" 

He nods.

"Don't know who that was." The sarcasm drips from his voice. It takes all my political training to keep a straight face, I would have to gift him an 'I told you so', later. 

We enter the large room, the heavy doors slamming behind us. I could groan as I looked around the dimly lit room, clad with the mass of people lounging around in various states of discussion.

I know this too well; it's the rebellion all over again.

My gaze turns sour as I lock in on him, and I grab his collar, yanking him down to my level. "Tonic. I swear to whatever god spat you out, if you are in the bloody Mafia, I will drag you back out to that crater and throw you in myself. What the fuck is going on?"

He clears his throat as a woman stands before us, she crosses her arms under her breasts, cocking one hip as she raises an eyebrow at us. 

Her skin is sun-kissed, a lovely tan, and her dark, kinky waves cut short, almost jaw level. It billows around her head in a type of orderly chaos as she watches us with her pale eyes, hazel in color. She's large chested, nearly matched by her ample hips.

One might admire her body in our time, it was a sign of wealth to be so healthy. She wears a pair of jean shorts that she's all but falling out of and a simple tank top, her breasts freely swing beneath, and I avert my eyes. 

What kind of boss dresses so poorly? She's even barefoot. 

"What crater?" She has an accent; her voice is thick and low. "Who's your friend, Tonic?"

"Soli!" He greets her with a broad grin. "This is Nic. Nic, this is Soli." She extends her gloved hand, though I notice the fingers have been snipped off. Her skin is warm, I question her origin as I shake with her; this seems to amuse her.

I offer a low nod, and she raises a brow, tilting her head as if she can't see me clearly past her mane. Awkward, I'm not sure if I should bow or question her breeding.

"What was that?"

Tonic elbows me. "He's not from around here." I resist the urge to hit him back.

"I'll say. He's weird. Weird hair. Weird smell. What did he mean when he said crater, Tonic?" She says his name pointedly, adjusting her stance.

"Did we catch you at a bad time?" He must be referring to her clothes, and she brushes her hair back, tangling her fingers in its mass.

"Nah. It's just fucking hot." I hear a distressed cry from the background, and she sighs. "What do you want, Tonic? Giselle is not here if that's why you're sniffing around, and I don't think this one is her type anyway."

He chuckles, his expression makes her smirk, and I feel as though there's an inside joke as she glances back at me once more. Her full upper lip curves as she takes me in, "You two look like you just came in from causing some trouble. Why is it I feel you're the ones who fucked up my pipe?"

"Tonic, is this really necessary?" I sigh, bothered by the amount of unnecessary swearing and the accusing nature of the conversation. While I understood the need to blend in, having to constantly avert my eyes from the pendulous breasts before me led me to believe this wasn't the scene where I could be my best self. If someone else could handle these negotiations, I'd be better off walking the two days back home in the insanity outside.

"Depends on where you're coming from, sir." She questions, wrinkling her nose just slightly. "I've got a busted pipe and a whole assload of guilt standing before me." 

"I don't see the need to explain myself to someone who's hardly even wearing her undergarments, let alone the owner of a brothel." 

I hear the rhythmic click all around us, and when I roll my eyes, I notice there is a full arsenal of guns pointed directly at us. Tonic holds up his hands, calling them all to stand down as Soli nods, decided on her path as she purses her lips. "Two idiots in exchange for months of rebuild. Hardly seems fair, but for Tonic, making it quick and painless seems like the right thing to do. See ya in hell, Tonic."

The mannerisms were all too familiar, the lack of clothes and the pack mentality, I was looking at a female lycan. "Tonic said all the wolves were gone." I retort quickly, catching her eyes.

Soli hesitates, only to snort in amusement. "Well. I haven't been in town long, just a year or two. Do you believe everything this one tells you? Do you always talk this much when you're about to be slaughtered?"

It was all beginning to make sense. This could very well be a bluff, or perhaps I was proving just frustrating enough to warrant some taunting before we were shot. "I'm just trying to figure out who I'm dealing with. So, does that mean you're an Alpha?" 

She hesitates, looking me up and down. "You're not a lycan."

"But, I know one, and you remind me of him. Wouldn't you rather know about your pipe? What we found in it? We got off on the wrong foot, I mistook you for something else... now can't you allow that you did the same for me?" 

Soli snaps her fingers, and I shut my eyes, only to find that the guns lower. Slowly, she circles Tonic and comes back to his front, pulling a gun off his belt and sticking it onto the holster on her hip. With one flick of her finger, she motions us to follow her, stalking out of the room like a jungle cat.

"Out." Her voice is short as the occupants drag the tied man out with them. She sits in a chair, folding one leg up to rest under her thigh as she takes us in."You smell like magic, which is reason enough for me to slit your damn throat. Tonic was out of his damn mind to bring you here. What good could you possibly do me?"

"I'm a Solomonari." 

Tonic curses and shakes his head at my honesty. Her eyebrows raise slightly.

"Are you turning him in for the reward, you cheap bastard?" 

Tonic holds up his hands, and I can tell I've made a mistake. "No! It's not like that. He's a friend. He's going to fix the earth." 

Her laugh is sickened, filled with malice. Soli shakes her head, kicking her foot to spin the chair in an idle circle as if turning around might find her in another set of circumstances, yet here we stand. 

"Soli, we can not turn him in. He's important to the cause. Our cause."

"Magic never done shit for me or you, Tonic. You damaged my pipe and brought me this spoiled prick. I'm sure you're here to ask me for something, adding insult to injury. Do you remember what will happen to us if you get caught with him? Do you remember how many of them turned us in? We come before them, Tonic." 

I'm illegal. I remember Marcello telling us that the Media would collect me; the government wanted to harvest what I had, but even being in contact with me was a punishable offense. I suppose it was all too good to be accurate; this world couldn't have changed too much from our own.

"Ya can't just walk around, asking people if they're lycans and telling people what you are. You're going to get yourself killed. You're going to get us killed, more importantly. This is why we need to put creatures like this down, Tonic. Not bring them to your damn friends and family."

I blink at the insult, so she was intending to put me down, and spare him? Then why the theatrics? Was it for my benefit? 

"Soli, it's just for a day or two, then I'll take him back where he came from. I won't be in your way; I'll owe you a favor. Maybe Nic can help you out? He can control water." 

I watch her muse, kicking her foot casually as she decides if helping us is worth her life. Yet, after a long moment, finally, her eyes land on the hazy window and I hear her mutter to herself in Spanish with what could only have been a string of profanity.

"If we get caught, I'm handing you both over and collecting the reward money for myself."

Tonic nods, "Wouldn't have it any other way."

Sorting through the boxes on a low shelf, she finally produces a key, making her way over to us with quiet distrust. "Maybe learn some manners in your stay here, people got it hard enough without someone like you judging them. Go to room 309, report back here in the morning, and I'll have a job for you to do. One day, one job. I'm very fair." 

Sweat rolled down her brow, her body seemed to be glistening in the thin layer of clothes. It'd be hard to imagine dressing in the body suit as a lycan living in a hellscape such as this. Tonic himself seemed to be struggling with the temperature.

Soli places the key in Tonic hand with a heavy sigh. "You better fix this shit, Red. We ain't gonna make it much longer." Departing, she leaves us to finally exhale the breath we'd both been holding.

Following Tonic back through the crowd, we enter the decent room, though it's small and only has one bed. "How do you know she's not going to turn us over?"

"She hasn't yet. She's not like the Mafia or anything; her jobs are personal. She deals in alcohol as a business; lycans can't work in the city, so we're undocumented as far as the system goes. Soli has a big heart, she takes in a lot of misfits who don't have anywhere else to go." 

He gives me a pointed look as he begins the process of pulling off his vest and belt. I sigh, doing the same myself as I twist out of the garment and flinch at the discomfort of my bruise from the bullet. "Her jobs are usually pretty easy, getting a shipment for her or something. No killing, no robbery-"

"Just illegal substances?"

"Hey, alcohol isn't illegal, her selling it is. It's just nice to be involved in something that isn't going to get anyone murdered. Well, except for us. It's a clean business." 

I parted my lips, staring at him in complete disbelief at his ability to shrug off this way of life. Illegal business, illegal to exist, turning each other over to a government that would own us. it didn't seem much different than my own time in some aspects. I suppose some things never change.

His lips pull into a thin line as he removes his belt, taking slow steps to sit on the overly plush bed. His hand moves to skirt through his hair, and finally, those chocolate eyes catch my gaze.

I'd have to submit on this one, I owed her for giving us a place to stay and I did regret destroying her pipe. Even if she was course on the outside, she did seem like someone Tonic trusted. 

"One job, but I think you need to think about who you align yourself with. Gary and Tonya, they're good people. Think about your father; he would give anything not to have done this shit and now look at what you're doing. It bit us again, and again, and it never ends. You need better friends Tonic, why are you coming to a place like this?"

He stands, approaching me until he stands before me. He's clean-shaven, his broad chest stretched by the lycra material, and I watch the casual expansion of his chest. While he's never been as large as Verando when I knew him, he gives him a run for his money now. 

I sigh, averting my eyes and crossing my arms. Why does he have to look so much like his father? His hand comes to catch my chin once more cautiously, and I grasp his fingers, lowering them back down and away from another tender embrace. I don't want him to touch me; in fact, I want him to stop trying to connect with me. 

This isn't right, this isn't what I need right now. "Why?"

"I think you and I have been having different conversations. I love your father; I love Verando, I don't want him to see this."

"You don't want him to see this, not that you don't want me to do it?"

 I think about my phrasing and squeeze his hand before returning it to his side.

"You know what I meant. I want to sleep; if you touch me, I'm going to freeze your bits off, understand?" I slide out of my clothes so that I'm just in my boxer briefs and swiftly rush over to the bed to jump in and get under the covers, hiding from his prying eyes. "Good night, Tonic."

He slides out of his clothes, and I try not to steal a peak as he climbs in beside me. "Good night, Nic."