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Don Pepe
Topic Started: Oct 21 2014, 04:01 PM (120 Views)
Calista Chang
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Calista was not entirely comfortable with this business transaction she had agreed to this afternoon. She had gotten a letter from a man named Jason Varey who had been recommended by one of her repeated clients who labeled exactly what he wanted, how to contact him when she had it, and where to meet once that had been all completed. Usually Calista met with her clients first to gauge how useful they could be to her, or if they were exhibiting behavior way too dangerous to sell to. She had to know that she could trust her clients, and she certainly did not trust this one. She also always chose the where and when to meet, not dictated to as if she was a subservient woman.

It was the item that made her decide to meet with this Jason. That, and the restaurant he told her to meet him at was most definitely associated with Italian mob. She could certainly use that kind of power. Also, looking up Jason Varey showed her a suspicious lack of information, aside from that he was married to an auror.

So she couldn't bring Tigs.

Calista debated hiring some of her usual bodyguards, but she was aware that Zander promised Tiger to keep her safe. So Calista asked Zander if he wouln't mind being her muscle for the meeting.

She also dressed for the occasion, as she liked to do. Calista had updated a traditional Italian performer's outfit; she wore a loose, silky, white blouse with a military collar and a deep v before the buttons began tucked into a bright red, full skirt embroidered with flowers and designs. Granted, the skirt was probably a foot shorter than it would be if it was authentic, but she liked to show off her legs. She even had a big, floppy hat and her hair was plaited. It wasn't exactly the most professional outfit - or even the most logical one - but she was enjoying it. Dressing helped her nerves in feeling that this situation just wasn't quite right.

She had Zander to protect her; she'd be fine.
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Zander Silverhawk
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Zander had been asked by Calista to work security for one of her jobs. The idea that she'd contacted him instead of whoever it was she normally used concerned him, as he was well aware (and knew she was well aware) of the promise he'd made to Tigs to keep her safe no matter what. Maybe it was just a precaution, but he suspected she might have some reason she was more nervous than usual about a transaction. He'd asked her for the buyer's name so he could be more prepared as to exactly who they were meeting, but she'd been firm on her confidentiality policy. He could respect that.

Chances were the buy would be simple: Calista got her money, her buyer got their item, and they'd all be on their way. He just couldn't shake the feeling that it wasn't going to be that simple.

Said suspicions weren't eased by the fact that they were meeting in a restaurant known for its mafia ties (but, then again, Calista catered to a very specific clientele, none of whom were prone to working within the limits of the law). He'd shown up armed today, his wand with him but, as he preferred it, more for a backup than anything else. He'd recently been forcibly reminded of how much faster a bullet could be than a spell. He wasn't about to walk into the restaurant unprepared.

Despite his reservations, he had to smile when he met her at the restaurant. She was dressed in what looked to be a variation on an Italian performer's outfit. He greeted her with a hello and a kiss on the cheek. "You look great," he added. "How are you?"

He'd cast a look around the restaurant as he came in, noting the layout, direction to the kitchen and other possible exits. "So you're just meeting here in the main area of the restaurant?" The more public the meeting, the better, as far as Zander was concerned. It was easy enough to make a discreet transaction, especially if the item was small, and if there was less privacy, there was less of a chance something would go wrong. "Where do you want me?"
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Calista Chang
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Calista hadn't been comfortable with the fact that when she showed up, the host made sure to tell her that at precisely her meeting time, the restaurant would clear out and any employees left inside were both deaf and blind. She didn't like the fact that it was likely she was being cased right that moment, but Zander had ended up needing to meet her there instead of coming along.

Luckily, he arrived just a moment after she did. She rose from her seat, her pleasure at his smile (most likely due to her outfit) soothing some of the nerves she was starting to obsess over. The compliment he gave her resulted in a little swirl, sitting back down in her seat. She wasn't stupid; she sat in the chair that gave her back to a wall and not the window, door, or entirety of the main room.

"I'm intrigued." Calista told him, smoothing that big skirt so that she wasn't flashing anyone when she crossed her knees. "This is not a normal situation for me, and this is definitely home field for him. Apparently the place clears out when my 'client' shows up."

She used the word client very loosely; she was unlikely to do business again with the brisk man who wrote her a letter.

"Thanks for coming. Our lovely kitty just wouldn't do for this job." She told him, glancing around again with narrowed eyes. "Here, yes. Oh! Bets. Let's make a bet. I bet he's seventy years old, has an old gangster accent, and wears tailor-made suits. It certainly is the right setting for it. If this really is a trip back to the past, it'll be better for you to stand behind me looking scary but not at anyone. You're pretty much decoration until you notice some sort of threat and then you're my big bad wolf."

She considered the wolf comment for a moment, a critical eye running over him, and then shrugged. It was a phrase; it didn't have to fit perfectly.
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Zander Silverhawk
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Well, that subverted the public angle that could potentially work to their advantage. Of course, if it was the sort of restaurant that would just empty at the request of Calista's client, he was pretty sure that it wouldn't have boded well for them either way.

"Not an ideal situation for you," he said. "So just try to make it as fast and smooth as possible, and then we'll get out of here."

He wondered briefly why it was that Tiger wouldn't have worked for the job. As far as he was aware, it was fairly safe for her to be out and about in Italy. But there could have been a variety of reasons for that.

"All right. I'll bet...mid-forties, maybe a little bit younger, if he needs the item himself. Maybe still has to work his way up the ladder a little." They might even be dealing with an enforcer, if it was a weapons expert who'd be showing up to look over what Calista had procured him. He supposed they'd find out soon.

"I can do that. Pretty standard security set up." It was weird how natural it could feel to slip back into that role--silent security guard; it was most of what he'd done for Phas when he'd been there. The mundane experience of guard duty had been a welcome relief, though, when compared with the rest of the things Andre'd had him do.

"When are you expecting him?"
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Jason Varey

Jason had thought long and hard on how he wanted to fulfill his life-long need to make Zander Silverhawk pay for what he had done. It would have been too simple to break his legs, to pull every unnecessary piece from his body, and cause him all kinds of physical pain until he was begging for death and Jace would grant it. It was too easy. It was more than what the boy deserved. So Jace, for the first time in his entire life, had to think upon torture.

He'd finally found a way to emotionally destroy Silverhawk, certain that he would be able to stomach it just this once. The drugs themselves were easy to procure; part of being a mob family was the riches gained by illegal activities. With a few experts advising him, he now had enough uppers, hallucinogens, and downers to put down the town he and Julie lived in. They weren't in the house, of course. He wouldn't leave that there for the kids to get into or Julie to find. She said he could kill Silverhawk; he wasn't sure how she would feel about all the stuff that came before that. In addition to the drugs, Jace had also been told to find a way to make Zander more susceptible to them. The obvious way would be to slip one of the additive ones into his drinks or food in very, very small doses until Silverhawk was lost to his body's need of it; a gateway, of sorts, for all of the rest of them. Jace didn't want to wait that long.

So the next suggestion would be starvation, dehydration, exhaustion, and blood loss. These extremes would all be quicker than addicting Silverhawk to drugs and much more aggressive to make happen. Jace knew ways to keep someone up for weeks at a time; he knew the effects of that lack. The blood loss though, he wasn't sure how to approach. He wasn't used to small slices to bleed out someone. He was afraid that if he started cutting Silverhawk, he would finish it much too quickly. So at another suggestion, he contacted a Calista Chang; black market dealer for everything, and explained what he needed.

He was curious to see what she was able to come up with.

Jace should have felt comfortable going into this meeting. He was on his home turf, back into the persona his 'family' expected. He had explained exactly what he wanted to the woman, and paid in advance. All he had to do was go in and pick it up. Instead he felt uneasy, as if something wasn't right.

And he was correct. The second Jace stepped into his uncle's restaurant, he knew. The timing wasn't right. Silverhawk was there. Jace welcomed the deep, burning rage in a much more constructive way than he had when he'd been shocked the first time. Last time he hadn't had a plan. Today he had a plan, and it wasn't ready. Not yet. Not yet.

"Right now." He almost whispered, his voice low while striding into the room with his gun already naked in his hand. There was a fierce light in his eyes this time, a smirk presiding over his lips. Jace liked that Silverhawk was playing bodyguard for the woman who would be responsible for his helplessness. From the little he'd observed, he might even get some icing right away, if he could determine whether or not the dealer was important to his...little friend.
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Calista Chang
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Calista simply nodded at Zander's 'in and out' proposition, absentmindedly watching him adjust behind her into bodyguard mode. It kind of seemed like he had done this kind of work before. Granted, with his delicious physique, one might assume but...she didn't know many medical examiners who also moonlighted as bounces or bodyguards. She would definitely have to ask about those stories later. Later, when she wasn't putting on her own business mode.

Or she would have, had the man not scared the living shit out of her. She hadn't even noticed everyone getting out, and she certainly hadn't noticed this Jason Varey walking in. She gave a small jump and then rose to her feet, raising her hand in a lavish gesture.

"Darling, you're very punctual." Calista complimented, her most indulgent voice coming out to play. Only...she was completely ignored.

Her eyebrow went way, way up, both totally insulted and fighting a sinking feeling that maybe Tiger would have been the better choice. How was she supposed to know? She was the technical brain, not the security!

"Do you two... know each other?" She guessed, crossing her arms over her chest in irritation instead. Great. She lost the bet, the man looked like a total serial killer maniac, albeit a hot one, and she could already tell that this was not going to be 'in and out'. Rude. As if she had nothing better to do with her day than watch hot blondes be all masculine and snippy at each other.

"If so? Boys, boys, you're both pretty. Can we get down to business now?"
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Zander Silverhawk
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Zander had been all set to just step and back and play the role of silent security guard through a hopefully quick and easy transaction. That all changed, though, the second he saw who her actual client was.

The second he heard Varey's voice, he turned to face him, drawing his own weapon. Though he kept it pointed to the ground--for now--every muscle in his body was tense, just waiting for Varey to give him the opportunity. He had only two restraints left: the first being that Julie wouldn't be as inclined to listen to anything he had to say if he shot her husband, and the second being that Calista was there.

His promise to Tigs stood firm in his mind. He had to keep her safe at all costs. For right now, that meant doing his best to make sure she seemed no more important to him than an employer for an odd job he'd taken to offset the pay of being a medical examiner. He only hoped she'd somehow pick up on that and go along with it. The new backstory slid into place in his mind easily, though it sat a little awkwardly as just a fraction of an alias. Still, half-truths could be the powerful basis for any lie, and he'd spent enough of his life playing at half-truths that it seemed almost comfortable to compartmentalize things like that.

"Unfortunately, yes," he replied to Calista because it just wouldn't be believable if he were overly-professional. "I'm sorry, Miss Chang. It won't interfere with your transaction." He said it without looking at her, partially to further establish Zander-the-character's distance from her; mostly because he'd been shot by the man once, and he wasn't about to let it happen again.

He had no doubt, though, that it very much would interfere with the transaction. Varey would probably not want him to actually know what he was purchasing. And then there was the very real possibility that whatever highly specialized instrument Varey was buying was meant to be used on him. Either way, Zander meant to find out from Calista exactly what it was he was buying as soon as they got out of there.
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Jason Varey

The little Asian girl in her odd outfit did not get any of Jace's attention. Instead, with Zander's body standing right in front of him, Jace could eyeball the places that he would hammer in the little tools he was buying from "Miss Chang." He envisioned chains on his arms, but also on his ankles. He imagined a dark room with a drain in the center, to truly throw away Zander's life. And he smiled.

Zander's gun coming out - oh look at that, the child relied on more than just a gun - didn't phase him in the least. Jace was pretty positive that he could shoot faster and with more accuracy than Zander, and probably live through any damage done as well.

"Hm." He said, before plopping down into a seat. It wouldn't interfere with the transaction? Fat likelihood of that. His own gun tapped against his thigh as he put his free hand palm up. "Well, Miss Chang? Did you come up with what I ordered?"

But his eyes never left Zander's
.
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Calista Chang
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Calista turned wide eyes on Zander when he called her 'Miss Chang'. It felt really weird to hear that out of his mouth, and even more than that, it caused her to feel a little panicky. Yes, she knew that a lot of the clients she worked with were dangerous and criminal, blah blah blah. That's why she had Tiger and Zander and bodyguards to begin with. But the fact that he, in all his wand-slinging, whip-slashing, big-muscled goodness, was nervous enough to make it seem like she was just an employer?

Oh boy.

She struggled with the proper face to put onto this situation. She could play the irritated and slighted woman who demands apology for the insult, or terrified and young. She could be impassive and a slip of a person; easily forgettable. But there were two guns in between her, and she merely stared at Jason Varey when he sat down in front of her and actually had the nerve to hold his hand out.

"No introductions, no niceties, and you're actually putting your hand out like I'm a delivery girl and not an inventive genius? Who the hell do you think you are?" Calista snapped, getting up to leave. Perhaps if he had come to her when she was first establishing her name, she would have had to ignore this insult. But not now. She was Calista-freaken-Chang. She deserved respect.

Except for the second she started to move, Calista found herself staring down a barrel. She froze, terrified, her eyes locked on the finger that was pulling back, time freezing, and pulling back...

Boom!

Calista went statue still, her breath ragged and overly noticeable as her blood rushed... as it...pounded. Pounded. She could just hear her heartbeat. She wasn't hurt. Nothing hurt. Oh dear merlin, she wasn't hit! Slowly, oh so slowly, she straightened up to look behind her. There was a hole in the painting just behind them and to her right, perfectly entering the forehead. When her gaze flipped back to the crazy man with a gun, he wasn't looking at her all over again.

He shot at her! That had never, ever happened before. Sure, she'd had a few bodyguards die. And yes, Tiger had been shot before. That's what the other woman was for. Calista's skin was smooth as a baby's with absolutely no imperfections. Why would anyone want to ruin that?!

With a fine trembling starting in her arms and traveling throughout her body, Calista slowly crouched down to the briefcase on the floor and set it on the table, struggling to make her hands work well enough to open it and show him eighteen needles no larger than a human hair - and hollow.

But she didn't say anything. She didn't want his attention back on her.
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Zander Silverhawk
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Damn it. Of course Varey's next move was something that would piss Calista off enough to get up like she was going to leave without giving him whatever it was she had with her. One second she was getting up, and the next Varey had fired his gun, and it took every ounce of control Zander had left to not immediately rush to her side.

He wanted to drop this whole thing and just go--take her arm and Apparate out. But he couldn't, not when there were too many variables still at play. Clearly Varey knew how to contact her. It would be safer for her if she got the deal finished.

But he had to ensure that she didn't get shot at again. He'd raised his own gun as soon as the shot was fired, aiming directly at Varey as Calista fumbled with her briefcase. He didn't even bother trying to look inside. His entire focus had become making sure she made it out completely unharmed.

"She's giving you what you wanted. Give her the money and go." He kept his tone as emotionless and cold as he could, but it was harder than he wanted to admit.

He'd lost Eve because of Varey. Eve had lost her son because of him. He'd lost El--Julie--because of him and potentially all over again now even before really getting her back. Varey telling Andre who they were--that had been the end of any semblance of a life he'd built for himself in Australia. And why? He could understand Varey working for Andre and telling him. His own hate towards the man was entirely justified after everything, but what the hell had Zander ever done besides not die when Varey shot him? Or when Andre had him captive? Was it possible that he was just that invested in his wife never knowing the truth?

Normally this didn't bother him. Varey wasn't the first person to hate him and want him dead. He wouldn't be the last. But first he'd gone to Lance. Now he'd pulled a gun on Calista and actually fired a warning shot. That was unacceptable.

"If you want to come after me, do it on your own time. Not hers." The tenuous grip he had on the detached-employee persona he had was slipping, and he so desperately wanted to let it. It'd be easy to fire off a shot, to fight him and let go of every restraint he put on himself and throw caution to the wind. But Calista would undoubtedly get hurt if it came to that, and it was that thought alone that stayed his hand.
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Jason Varey

Jace was watching Zander carefully for his reaction to what looked like his employer getting murdered. He wanted to know if this was a favor for a friend - or perhaps, a lover, though he couldn't say he remembered Silverhaw's tastes running that way - or if he was actually employed. Either way, killing the girl would hurt Zander, either by his career in the bodyguard circles, or if he cared about her. He was almost disappointed to simply see Silverhawk's gun raised towards him, but the boy didn't shoot. He sighed, about to believe that Zander really was moonlighting as a bodyguard, when he gave an order.

Sure, his face was completely focused on Jace. Yes, his voice was hard and blank. But he gave an order; true bodyguards with no relationship with their employer would always defer to their employer's decision; if it had been really dangerous, Silverhawk would have needed to get her out immediately and that decisive action would be appropriate. Ordering Jace to finish the transaction instead? Not a bodyguard's job.

And then he appealed to Jace's better nature to keep their problem to just them and not touch the dealer.

"Is that what you did?" He murmured, still lounging in his chair. At a second's notice he could sit up and shoot, but he wanted to say with his body language that he didn't particularly care that Silverhawk was pointing a gun at him. He tilted his head back at Calista and looked at the tiny needles.

"Show me that it works, and I might just walk out. Maybe." If she was that shaky about a gun being fired close to her, she probably wouldn't stick herself. Jace found great pleasure out of the fact that, if she meant much of anything to Silverhawk, she would have created and tested the first step to his demise. She would give both Jace and Zander a taste of what was to come. What a great little pawn she was turning out to be!

"Neck." He decided to elaborate, twirling his gun around his finger.
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Calista Chang
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Calista wanted nothing more to curl herself to Zander's back and be completely out of sight from the terrifying, smiling man sitting in front of her like he shot guns at his vendors all the time. Who knew? Maybe he did. She was too scared to look around to find more gun holes in the wall. She was too scared to do much of anything, including move. It was like the harder her heart beat, the less she was able to send messages to her muscles for movement, or air, or...pretty much anything but the sound.

Zander didn't come to her either, raising his own gun at Jace. She was caught between two men with guns out, one already fired. It was amazing she hadn't shocked herself yet, with how terrified she was. Just when she thought she couldn't get any more scared, something else happened. Despite Zander's words, Jason Varey seemed to be taking his time and drawing out the meeting. He looked at the needles, but he didn't touch them. He wanted proof.

It was more obvious now that he didn't know who she was, because he shouldn't have had to ask if they worked. Regardless - and so she didn't get shot at again - Calista put on a pair of gloves and picked up one of the slender needles. She took one step towards her client and found the gun that had been casually played with was now pointing directly at her again, this time at her chest.

Again her breath caught in her throat, unsure exactly what it was that he wanted her to do. His eyes looked at the needle and flicked towards Zander. Calista started to turn too, glancing back at Jason Varey to make sure this was what he wanted; he gave the smallest of nods and she hefted a big breath before raising her eyes to Zander's face. She flinched when Jason declared that it had to be the neck, glad that she had come up with a salve at the same time she came up with the coating. Only...it was back in her lab. She didn't expect to actually need it.

Now Calista knew her mistake in asking Zander to bodyguard her. With anyone she'd hired, she would have just gone up and stabbed the needle in, in a heartbeat. With Tiger, she knew that she was in control enough to just do it and Tiger would deal. With Zander, she felt like she had to ask permission. So she waited, with bated breath, for him to give her some sign that it was okay.

The derisive laugh behind her made her flinch again, shoulders tight with the knowledge she wouldn't be able to see if the man decided to kill her.
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Zander Silverhawk
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This wasn't working. Zander could feel his control slipping away the longer he was in Varey's presence. He and Calista needed to get out of there, and it was practically all he could think about. He wasn't entirely sure his just-a-bodyguard act was being bought, and he honestly wouldn't be surprised if Varey could see right through it. He wasn't compartmentalizing enough. He had to focus.

At the question, though, aimed at him, Zander couldn't help but ask, "What is that supposed to mean?" Because he honestly couldn't figure out how going after someone on his own time could have been what he did. To whom? And, after everything, where did Varey get the nerve to start taking issue with what he had done?

He wasn't surprised when the request was for a demonstration on how whatever it was worked. And of course Zander was to be the test subject. In a way, that was good. He had no idea what it was going to do, but at least he would then find out and could hopefully be prepared for it in the future. Still, the idea of anyone, even Calista, getting close enough to his neck to injure him was uncomfortable at best. Nevertheless, he gave her a small, controlled nod as she glanced up at him, seemingly waiting for him to agree, which was a relief--he'd developed a lot of control over the years, but he wasn't sure how he'd react in a situation with this much adrenaline if he wasn't given any sort of warning.
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Jason Varey

Jace tilted his head as he watched the back of Miss Chang, eating in the tension in the way she held herself, and paying close attention to just how much time it took her to show off her work. For someone with a reputation as rumor-filled and mysterious as hers, he was both surprised and satisfied to find her presumably asking permission: if Zander's nod was any indication. No, a true creator would have been eager to show off their work. And a creator of many, many immoral things shouldn't have hesitated to use her bodyguard as a test dummy.

He chuckled.

There had been a lot of humor in his face when Zander actually had the nerve to pretend like he had no clue what Jace was talking about. The mere question brought black spots to his eyes, almost deciding not to bear down on the rage. He could start right then; he could shoot the Asian to death and then jam those needles in Zander's body. He could. But because it was not the scenario he had decided on - though, if pressed too hard those scenario plans would change - he gritted his teeth and ordered, "Now, or I'll assume they are deficient and you did not deliver on your end of the bargain."
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Calista Chang
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Calista had begun to sigh in relief when Zander gave her nonverbal permission to try out her product when Jace called her 'defiient'. Deficient. She turned and gave him her best glare, the one that was blank and dead and cold. The one she had learned from a sixteen-year-old who had compartmentalized so hard Calista had used desperate measures to bring her back. Well, desperate for Tiger.

Her bristling anger caused her shoulders to square, her chin to raise, and when she turned back to Zander, her hands were steady. The look on her face relaxed upon seeing him, but only relaxed enough to get into her smug, problem-solving expression. This was her product. It was damn good, and some uppity Italian mobster wasn't going to shake her confidence.

With Zander standing though, Calista couldn't get the right angle to make the entrance of her needle work properly. Acupuncture wasn't supposed to hurt, and the vampire coating added no extra pain.

"While all this tall muscle is fun, it makes it impossible for me to demonstrate properly. Sit down." Calista waited until he had complied, her empty, gloved hand sliding over to cup his warm neck, her thumb gently urging his chin to raise up and to the side a little for her. The other hand didn't need to look for the vein; she'd stabbed enough necks to know where the jugular was.

Lightly holding the needle between two fingers, Calista let out a breath and then flicked her wrist, taking a tiny cap off the end to let a thin stream of blood start to coat his shoulder.

"If you keep the needle in, it'll bleed for a couple days before the serum wears off. If you take the needle out, it won't clot for about five hours and can be reusable for about ten quick enter and exits. I tested it. It works."

But Calista gave Zander's neck one last caress before stepping back for Jace to see.
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Zander Silverhawk
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If he'd been capable of even a little levity in the situation, Zander might have smiled at the sheer nerve of Varey to call Calista "deficient." As it was, though, he was content to know that he hadn't even had to tell Calista what the other man had done in order to get him on her bad side. Yes, he'd be getting whatever it was she had made for him, but at least he knew that was it. And he still had the advantage: now he'd be able to ask Calista exactly what was in these...needles, it looked like, and how to combat that.

He sat obediently when she told him to, but all of his muscles were still tense, ready to move if he needed to. He tried to focus on the hand that was cupping his face and not the one that was holding something decidedly sharp she was about to stick into his neck.

Drawing a breath, he only exhaled when he felt the sharp sting. It wasn't a normal needle, though. It seemed to be hollow, blood dripping through one end and out the other, the drops landing on his shoulder. He forced himself to stay seated and focused in on what she was saying.

It was harder when she stepped back, and he was too uncomfortably aware of the fact that he was sitting there, vulnerable, in front of someone who wanted to kill him. But, then again, how many other times had he done something similar over the years? What made this so much harder to handle? Perhaps it was because usually it was his own life on the line and that was it. Both times he'd run into Varey now, there were others present. Others he cared about. Lance, now Calista, both of them survivors and incredibly capable in their own way but neither of them skilled enough to fend him off. He wondered idly how this situation would have played out if it had been Tiger with them and suppressed a smile at the thought.

He wanted to speak again, demand that they wrap this up and be on their way. But that wasn't his place. The pinch of the needle as it pierced his skin had been just enough sensation to draw him back over the line he'd already begun to cross.
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Jason Varey

The look that Miss Chang gave him when he called her deficient only made him grin, more surprised than anything else that she could obtain that kind of expression. Usually only people past saving could reach that silent place where you did what you had to do - or backed up your promise that you would do whatever it took to get to where you needed to go. He doubted she was physically capable of backing up the look, and he knew she wasn't well versed in violent situations by how she reacted to his little gunshot. Still, the girl could create pretty creepy things and probably could try to hit him in his sleep.

It wasn't that worried about it, but it did make his respect for her rise - slightly. Even though she had horrible taste in "bodyguards", Jace did like women who were stubborn, confident, and could hold their own. Once she had stepped back to let him see though, Jace turned his gaze on Zander and just waited. He could see the thin stream coming out of the little needle, fully aware that if he added three to each major vein - plus the two long enough to pull out blood directly from the heart - that he wouldn't need five hours or ten re-entries. If he wanted to kill Zander by simply letting him bleed out, tiny little needles meant for entering the skin would not be it. He just needed to drain him in a way that Zander couldn't fix; drain him enough to make him weak and even more helpless.

Truly, the product was perfect.

Jace stood and walked closer, his hand snaking around Calista to put his fingers over the briefcase and close it, leaving his dominant gun hand still free, his gaze still on the blood continuously spouting out.

"That will be all." He murmured, finally looking away from the blood to grin again at Silverhawk and tap Calista's cheek. With one last, lingering look at the needle, Jace backed away from them and left, leaving his safety off until he was out of range. Now where would he put this? Perhaps under the hood of one of the model cars Julie had bought him. One of the ones they didn't drive often.
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Calista Chang
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Calista clenched her teeth hard when Jason Varey brushed her back as he went to pick up the briefcase and her nails bit sharply against her skin when he actually patted her cheek like she was a dog who had done a good job. She had to force herself not to say anything; not to anger the psycho who had shot at her because he refused to give her the respect she deserved.

Yes, he scared her. But he pissed her off that much more because of it.

It made her feel so much better when she turned around and saw that Varey had left them alone, not realizing just how much she thought he was just going to shoot them both anyways and be on his way. Her shoulders slumped with her exhale, inspecting the needle for a second before shaking her head and returning her hands to the position they had been in moments previous. She could keep the needle in, but it was possible she could stop the bleeding faster if she got the poison out of his system immediately. Calista pinched the needle and pulled in one quick motion, taking off her gloves and handing him a cloth from her bag to press against it.

"I never make anything I can't fix." She whispered, unsure now if the place was bugged. She last thing she wanted was Varey coming after her.

"So…what exactly did you do to make an auror's husband hate you so much?" Actually, Calista found it increasingly interesting than an auror was married to a man with mob connections in another country. She looked around again with narrowed eyes…but caught sight of the portrait again. She closed them immediately and gave a long shudder. It'd been a long time since she'd had to deal with an aggressive buyer who threatened her life. She usually culled out those idiots as not good enough for her clientele.
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Zander Silverhawk
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Zander did his best to remain silent and calm until after Varey had taken his purchase and left--getting far too close to Calista in the process. Movement or adrenaline would only cause more blood to flow through the hollow needle, and Zander wouldn't be surprised if there was some kind of potion coating it to prevent clotting. It wasn't that he believed Calista would have actually used it on him if she didn't have a way to stop the bleeding, but he'd rather not take any chances.

It was only after they were alone that he relaxed. Calista removed the needle and handed him a cloth which he immediately pressed to his skin. "That's good, but what exactly is it? Because I'm pretty sure I was the intended target anyways."

She, of course, asked him why Varey hated him so much, and after that, he definitely owed her an explanation. But how much should he tell her? And should he even tell her there? He was all too aware that they weren't exactly in a safe location, but the restaurant was still mostly empty, and he couldn't find it in him to care much whether or not someone affiliated with Varey's organization overheard what he was going to say. "I have no idea, since's the one who got my family killed," he said, a hard edge to his tone.

"Not...not my 'real' family. Just the one that mattered." Since running into Varey, it had been on Zander's mind constantly. And yet there was something different about actually saying it aloud, something that entrenched him in the reality of it. Six years, and he'd never actually talked about it--he had only summed things up for Lance briefly in a couple of sentences, and he had only mentioned Julie to Tiger.

"We worked for the same person at one point in time. Well, he worked for him. I was working my way into the organization so I could gather information and start to take it down from the inside. I met Eve and Julie before I went in. They were my best friends. Con artists, too, and damn good ones. Ended up teaching me a lot. And before I knew it, they were in, too, working a long game. It was successful too, for a while. Then Eve got pregnant, and Julie started to regain her memory from the time she was an Auror. Up till that point, I thought they were both Muggles. It was getting a little more dangerous at that point; we suspected that someone might be onto us. Eve wanted to keep the con going. Julie and I were planning a way out. Turns out it was Varey who was onto us. He talked--figured out the girls' plan--and we didn't have enough time to get out. Eve got shot and died. The baby died too. I got Julie out but blew my own cover in the process, and before I escaped, I was told she was caught and killed."

He pulled back the cloth as he spoke, checking to see if the bleeding had stopped, more to have something to do with his hands than anything else. "I looked for her after I got out, just in case, but I didn't find her until I ran into her at the morgue a couple of weeks ago. Now she's married to Varey and has no memory we ever met. My best guess is that he doesn't want her to find out the truth."
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Calista Chang
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What was it? That steadied Calista more than anything he could have said to her. Talking about her work? It was the one thing in her entire life that she was 100% sure of.

"It's a typical acupuncture needle that was made into a hypodermic needle by tube drawing and then re-bevelling the tip for easy access. He didn't ask me to make it hurt, so the sharper it is, the better it'll feel. Acupuncture isn't supposed to be painful anyways. Then I softened the metal by a process called annealing - I have a machine in my basement - and let it soak in a mixture of vampire venom and heparin, which activates antithrombin III in your body; thrombin is what helps your blood clot. The substance will stay within the metal for, as I said, ten entrances and exits. If simply placed in the skin, the wearing of the substance inside the metals pores will be much slower, even with the constant stream of blood. After letting the metal harden again, I took the substance in a much higher concentration and mixed it in with a bayberry wax to coat on the outside of the needle. This wax will wear off faster in the entrance and exits than with the blood running through as well. Truthfully, the best way to use my product is to stab in specific places and leave the needles there. It's more than enough to bleed someone out with, and acupuncture needles don't leave marks. It would be easy to decide that the cause of death is exsanguination, but impossible to determine how the blood left the body so long as the attacker didn't used unnecessary force with the needles and leave bruises." But Zander was telling her that it was probable that the needles were created in order to kill him. Calista wasn't sure what to say to that. On one hand, she'd never been in a situation where someone came to her for a product to kill someone she considered hers - at least that she knew about. She almost felt the urge to apologize for making such an awesome product but…anything less than genius wouldn't be worth her time or reputation.

"Back at my house I have a body butter that will clean your neck of the leftover wax residue and plug the hole so you can clot and be on your way." There. That would be the closest thing he could get to an apology for not looking further into this man's demands. When she had new clients, she learned every single bit of information about them that she could. Blackmail was a very useful tool. After that? What they did with the products she made was their business. She didn't care. Jason Varey was just going to be an unusual experience all over the place.

Although Calista didn't want to stay in that restaurant with the bullet hole and probably people listening in, she valued information and Zander was explaining a part of his past to her. She sat.

It was incredibly clear to her that Zander had not moved on from what had happened between himself and Varey, and she wondered if he had just as much of a hard on to kill Varey as the other man did to him. The whole concept of working his way into the organization, of being a con artist? She did not understand that. It made very little sense to her to be that close and personal with the person who you are screwing over. She could do it just fine from a distance, thank you very much.

"So he will bleed you to death so that his auror wife doesn't know that he was the reason her friend and baby died." Classy. "Why not just take care of him? Or if you can't, so this Julie won't get mad at you, just have Tiger do it. Then he'll get what he had coming to him for that past situation, you won't have to deal with him from that point forward, she'll be free of him, and she'll be able to be your friend and family again. Getting my father killed and ruining his empire was the most cathartic thing I ever did. Vengeance really does soothe the soul…and I know she would do that for you."
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