Another night of the ticking timer as the couple went into their night state, the mafia boss and the infamous slayer. However, something different is in the air around them, and yet, none of them utters a word, or their men speak about it, except the timer.
"Are you ready to play?" Skylar, being in her usual Rose Slayer façade, asked, grinning like a sinister huntress in dark clothing with only dark red lace blocking her sight.
"With you? Always." Vincencio, as the Night Hound of Midnight Guardian's boss, responded coldly yet amused.
"Then let's make every tick count." She said coldly, but her eyes beneath her mask flickered in blood and a sinister death ready to play against a selected prey.
"I love it when you speak like that." He chuckled coldly but amused as he draped his wife's coat on her shoulders.
"I know you do, that's why I said it." Seductively, Rose Slayer whispered, fixing his collar beneath his suit.
"Good because my men were in their positions, checking things tight but careful." He grinned darkly as he checked her dual blades, wiping them a little before giving them to his wife.
"That's good, and even Medina watched from our pack; the rest of my men scattered around the city waiting for their cue to start." She replied, informing him about her men readied on their position while checking his dual guns' magazines before handing them to him.
"Then let's move and put everything in their places for our favors." He said, looking at his wife one more time, checking her stunning dark looks, breathing her intoxicating scent that never fails to excite and calm him at the same time, before whispering sweetly, "So, I could have you again afterwards."
Rose Slayer shivered, but she leaned her back on his as soon as he whispered those words. She loves it whenever he tries to woo her, but knowing herself when it comes to taking control between them, she turned, pulling his neck closer to hers. She inhaled his scent, making her fangs extend, yet her lips seductively kissed her mark against his skin. Vincencio shuddered a little, but loves it.
"Then brace yourself not to walk again." She whispered sweetly before capturing his lips and vanished like a popping air passing in their bedroom. Then, through their private telepathy, she added, saying, "Let's meet at the BTP. Silas already secured our area."
'Noted.'
As the Night Hound went to his first destination, Rose Slayer began playing her game. She became a chameleon as she blended into the crowded street in the central city, dropping by some shops to buy goods or to deliver requested goods, but that was not the only thing she did. She spied the movement from the shadows, but she thought she had no idea that she was also being watched.
"Pity." She smirked beneath her helmet as she restarted the engine of her motorbike before adding, "They had no idea what's brewing already."
'Babe.'
"Did you just babe me?" she responded to the sudden telepathic message from her husband.
'Sorry but not sorry.'
"Whatever. Say what you want." She said while driving her motorbike, sensing she was also being followed. She didn't care about it since it was playing according to their plan – her being bait.
'Lesley told me about the shipment that they requested, and without realizing how my men work, they didn't even hide what's inside.'
"Let me guess, bodies." She guessed amusingly, making some turns to do another drop off deliveries and a secret notification to her men around the city.
'Yes, and their scents were odd.'
"Odd, like they were filled with aseptic scent." She made another guess before driving her motorbike again, heading to her next stop while being followed.
'How did you know?'
"You've been telling me by our bond, duh." She pointed, making Night Hound amusingly chuckle.
'Ohh, I almost forgot that. Anyway, do you want me to dispose of it?'
"No, because any moment they're going to move." She made another guess, making Night Hound skeptical but still amused by his wife's weirdness.
'And you're getting weirder from pointing it out.'
"Possibilities, Night. We're dealing with a lunatic doctor and scheming men working for him." She answered coldly, filled with darkness, making Night Hound shiver despite being away from each other.
'True.'
"And besides, I could see threads of the souls who were forced to be bound with them, especially around him." She said, adding serious information about what she could do now that she was getting close to her full awakening.
'I see, and then I'll make sure they won't break my containers here.'
"They won't if you put something in your container to prevent them from wreaking havoc." She grinned darkly, making a few more turns before she parked her motorbike in the free lot near the Black Tower Prison, or the BTP. "I'm already here and being followed."
'They already told me about it. Don't worry, they were on standby to divert their attention.'
"Make it thirty minutes top. I have to ensure the Blue Rose Park will be enough for the last stage of the game." She requested as she walked to the free lot where some of the builders, her men, were in the middle of the pending construction.
'Then the timer ticks now. Make it count, wifey.'
"Same goes for you." She replied, smirking before cutting their private telepathic conversation and went into the mode of the role she was playing as the moment – a boss. "I've got you're call. Any problem here?"
"After the sudden incident with the SaiRus Corps, some of our men encountered another, which made them injure." The construction site manager answered calmly, yet was aware of the task at hand.
"I see, and the construction?" Rose Slayer asked calmly, but using her authority as Skylar's boss, a façade.
"It is stable, but it's going to be delayed." The manager answered as they checked the unfinished construction.
"That's expected if we're not going to change or add manpower here." She said, agreeing before deciding, "Hire anyone who needed extra income. They needed to be here tomorrow and start helping around."
"Yes, boss." The manager nodded.
"Go home, I'll check around." She dismissed but left a hidden message that only they could hear, informing, "And be on guard. I've been watching."
"We noticed. We're ready when you need our hands on the deck." The manager replied softly as they kept their slow pace, still checking the unfinished area.
"Appreciated, but don't get entangled with my dirty hands." She whispered with care, making the manager smile. That's why they loyally followed their general.
"General, we followed you not because of it but because you always keep your word and ended the bargain with flying colors in our favor. This is the only way we knew how to repay your kindness." The manager whispered, admitting the reason for staying loyal to their general.
"Then do me a favor, just watch my back whenever I can't and tell me honestly about it. That's all." She whispered, patting his shoulder gently.
"Roger that." The manager whispered, bowing respectfully at her.
"Dismiss but on standby." She dismissed, adding her last command for the night.
***
Alone at the unfinished construction site, Rose Slayer became even more wary of her dark surroundings. She could feel a threat lurking in the shadows, but still wore a mask, pretending to be oblivious of the danger eyeing her like prey.
"They thought I was an easy target, but none of them knew how lethal I could be…" She thought amusingly while touching and checking some parts around the construction site before grinning to herself, saying, "…particularly at night time."
However, with each touch and check that she was doing, she was also marking the rest of the plotted security around the area that she had once put around before battling her brother. She liked how the secret marks around the construction were still holding after their "siblings' battle," but now she was dealing with Rudolf's souls and his men's schemes; she had to double the security around the area with her newly formed ability.
"Let's make things even more epic now that I've gained something else." Amused, she thought to herself, making a few strings around the area. It was indeed a web string, but beneath it, there was a strange but lethal string hidden, blending with the web strings.
As she skipped into the darkness of the unfinished construction, Rose Slayer also began triggering a few old security systems that she had magically wrapped around the area before. And when the stalker in the shadow began stepping in, thinking she was alone, the ground became muddy, preventing them from stepping any closer, and pretending to be oblivious, Rose Slayer walked like nobody followed her. She just walked around for the last time, and before she could reach where her motorbike was, a man tried his best to knock her out, but with her reflexes, he was able to flip him.
"Oh, sorry, my bad. Are you okay?" Rose Slayer panicked, faking her worry as she crouched down, but when she touched the man's hand one more time, a mark invisibly wrapped around his wrist, crawling down secretly to his chest, targeting his heart. "It's bad to approach a woman from behind, particularly at night."
The man was about to spit, but when he locked eyes with her, he was stunned. He was not manipulated or lured by her vampire alluring ability, but he was, instead, cornered. Even in the thought of hurting her, his chest tightened, preventing him from hurting Rose Slayer.
"Are you okay?" With faked worry in her tone, she asked the man helping him up.
"W-what did you do to me?" He stuttered a little, panting even, making Rose Slayer look at him, offended.
"Excuse me, me?" She scoffed, feeling offended although it was fake before adding bluntly, "What could I possibly do to you when you're the one who approached me? Why do you do it anyway?"
"My boss…he wanted you alive…for something…" He stuttered, breathing hardly but glaring at her, demanding while growling, "What did you do to me, bitch?!"
Rose Slayer kept her façade and played it cool, pretending to be an ordinary boss with skills. She squinted her eyes, pretending to be reading the man's expression, but beneath her façade, she was laughing like a madwoman winning a grand prize.
"Your boss? He could have met me in person and talked business." She sighed disapprovingly, but her cold tone sent a shiver down the man's spine, making him quiver in fear before she looked deeply into the man's eyes, asking, "Who's your boss? I could arrange a meeting with him instead of doing harsh things like this?"
"Rudolf Strange, he wanted you for something…he says that only you can help him and not your mother." With gritted teeth, he responded like he was forced, even though Rose Slayer was not doing anything to him, yet. It made him mad, thinking he was manipulated, but he wasn't, shouting, "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME?!"
"Why do you keep asking that when I'm not doing anything but ask you?" She refuted calmly but filled with ice, making the man cower again. He doesn't understand that crossing a bloody slayer would be asking for a deathbed. Then she added, stating a fact, "And besides, you're the one who came to me when I was about to head home."
"I-YOU!" He tried to retaliate, but his body went limp, making him gasp for air, mumbling, "What have you done…"
"Tell your boss if he wants a meeting, he could reach out personally." She commanded firmly, filled with ice before adding a consideration, saying, "If he wanted to meet asap, as in right now, then make a call and bring him to me. I'll wait there in ten minutes, but there was no sign of his shadow, then I'll send you to the prison."
"You mean…" He was skeptical, but sensing no malicious intention from Rose Slayer aside from honesty, he clenched his phone, ready to make a call.
"Go and call him. Ten minutes. If he's not here at that time, I'll leave, and you'll be in prison." She repeated, colder than before, and walked back to the construction site without waiting for his response. But she knew it, she knew that the captured man would call him right away before thinking sinisterly, "Make a wrong move, your deathbed will be served surprisingly before you."