Greed God chapter 203

April 7th 2016 Brightedge City, Grayson Pier, 10:00 PM EDT

"You  think you're real fucking cute don't you?" I asked my dog archly. The  furry little bastard had basically taken over the house, and I'd had to  basically pick him up and carry him out to get him away from the girls.  Magnus gave a soft whine and put his head on my thigh, looking soulfully  up at me with shimmering, mournful eyes as if to accuse me of wronging  him somehow.

I rolled my own eyes. "Ugh. Fine, you're  pretty cute. I'm not petty enough to get into a bitch fight with a dog,  so consider yourself lucky. Still, you better do your best when we're  searching around here. Find me an actual lead and I'll continue letting  you exploit the girls for treats and pampering." Magnus yipped  seriously, sitting up to give me a purposeful nod, which made me smile.  This fucking dog was way too smart.

Stepping out of the  car, I released the dog too, not bothering with a leash since it was  dark and no one was around. He wasn't going to run off on me, he was too  smart for that. Plus if needed I could catch him easily enough.  "Alright." I said to prompt him. "Get started sniffing. Don't bring us  too close though. I don't want to get sucked into a full on battle down  here in the middle of the night. We just want to identify where they  are." I'd come back once the sun was up. Fuck playing fair, I was going  to kill these assholes and steal every valuable thing they owned.

Magnus  meandered down the street, winding back and forth as he sniffed  delicately. There was surprisingly little noise from him as he worked,  despite the sniffing. Whoever had trained him had done it really well.  The dockside area I was in was a strange mix of residential and seaside  property.

It wasn't a loading dock, but more of a luxury  dock for anchoring things like yachts. The houses nearby were also  extremely well made and impressive, big expensive estates, and as  walked, Magnus wound closer to first one, then the next. Finally after  about twenty minutes we approached a specific mansion, a dark and  glooming looking place out of a Tim Burton movie, and my dog stopped and  growled again.

He started to bolt forward, but I reached  down and grabbed the scruff of his neck. "Cool it, bud." I whispered.  "It's too soon." I pulled him as far away as I could get while  maintaining a decent vantage point and we sat down to watch the place.  We were far enough away that the vampires shouldn't notice us. I watched  for a few hours, seeing if anyone went in and out.

In the  end I confirmed some things. This WAS where the vampires were living.  Or unliving I guessed. There were a few inside, but not Mary from what I  could tell. My guess was that she was out hunting. I could  theoretically attack the bastards and wipe out the weak ones there, but  that didn't really benefit me. It would just scare Mary off and then I'd  have to track her down again.

So, as I'd planned, I  brought Magnus back to the car, ready to retreat. We were far enough  away that I wasn't worried about being noticed...until I was. Of course,  the people who had snuck up on me weren't Nightwing. I noticed them  pretty far out, and I could have fled if I'd wanted to, but I had no  fear of a bunch of crazy humans, no matter how dickish they were. "You  can come out." I said in a bored voice.

There was a  scuffling as a series of figures surrounded my car. I looked around in  annoyance. A sea of ridiculous humans in stupid red masks and goggles.  They looked like the bad guys from a G.I Joe cartoon. "You dress like  idiots." I informed them tactfully.

I knew who they were,  of course. I'd been warned. I just didn't know what they wanted. One of  their number stepped forward, the others falling back to reveal an  average looking man in the same kind of rough durable clothing, but with  no mask. The man was thin and had a shaved head and a scruffy five o'  clock shadow. His eyes were cold and vindictive, ice blue and locked on  me. "Monster." He intoned. "We warn you one time. Stay away from our  prey."

It was hard not to snort at the German man. "Ah,  that confirms it. You are the Order of the Van Helsings then ? I was  told your organization was like the Inquisition, but less likable.  Clearly reports of your affability were greatly exaggerated. I'm  assuming this is where you threaten me? Stay out of your way or die?" I  was curious to see what they thought they could actually do to me. I  wasn't sure if they knew I was a dragon, but they had to know I was  SOMETHING.

The man, Van Helsing, I guessed, bared his  teeth at me in an expression that really couldn't be described as a  smile. "Oh, you will die either way. If you stay out of our way, we may  deign to let you delay that event while we deal with more important  problems. If not..." He raised a hand, and all the masked figured raised  weapons, training them on me.

Some of them were assault  rifles, some were flamethrowers. I even saw a rocked launcher mixed in  there. I yawned. "Ah, I see. If I don't give in to your demands you're  planning to bore me to death. A bold strategy, and one not completely  out of the realm of possibility. I've always been easily bored. I'm not  sure the weapons will be enough though, are you confident that you can  continue to be as boring as you currently are throughout the whole  attempt? Because I suspect even someone like you might become  interesting by mistake if you try to kill me for long enough."

Van  Helsing let out a harsh laugh. "Monster, there will be no 'long  enough'. You will die here tonight, a victim of your own hubris, and as  the life fades from your abominable eyes, your last thought will be to  curse your own name. For you could have avoided th9s fate, if not for  your arrogance. If I don't end you tonight, I myself will die in the  attempt. Let it not be said that Van Helsing knew fear when facing a  beast."

I snorted out a laugh at that, dropping my  formality as I responded. "Yeah, that's super impressive and hardcore,  or at least, it would be if you were actually here. Since there are all  golems you rigged to explode on death though, the noble sacrifice rings a  bit hollow."

Van Helsings eyes widened in shock. Honestly  I had to give him credit though. If I hadn't had my appraisal skill I  wouldn't have even noticed his little plan. Rigging up the golems to  detonate might have seemed like a reckless and easily avoided plan, but  it was actually kind of genius. The non zero chance of it killing me  wasn't really the important part though. The masterstroke was that even  if it failed, the golems would be eradicated, and I would have been free  to assume the Order had been wiped out. They'd have free reign to  operate in the city undetected until they were ready to strike.

"I  have to admit." I said conversationally. "I was wondering how you'd  been active for so many years without being wiped out. I mean really,  you'd think vampires would be better at holding a grudge. But seeing  this little plot of yours I kind of get it. You're ruthless detestable  bastards who do anything to get results. I respect that. Not enough that  I won't kill you if given the chance, but I respect it all the same.  However, now that your little plot has been uncovered, don't you think  it's time for you to go?"

The antagonistic baring of teeth  faded into a mask of blank neutrality. "Oh?" He said calmly, all trace  of hate and vitriol and condescension gone. "And why would I do that." I  smiled internally. This was an actual opponent. Someone harsh and  brutal and disciplined, not to just to others but to himself. As I  suspected, being able to survive the anger of a faction like the  vampires for so long wasn't a fluke.

"Because you aren't  stupid." I said in a moment of surprising honesty. "You were willing to  burn these golems knowing they couldn't kill me, because you wanted the  anonymity of being 'dead'. Now though, I already know that these things  aren't you. Wasting them on me will annoy me at best, and at worst spook  the vampires, who we both know are nearby. Forcing them to move without  getting anything in return and wasting resources in the process? No.  That's pointless."

He tipped his head in acknowledgement.  "You are...less foolish than expected, creature. Often monsters of your  pedigree become stupid and proud." His smile this time was small and  sharp, flickering into existence like a switchblade. "A true adversary  then, for after our enemies have been vanquished." He shrugged. "Or  perhaps before, should the opportunity arise. You are not wrong,  however. These decoys could be used on an unwary target. Wasting them  here would be foolish."

Deciding to return him dumb  question for dumb question I smirked. "Oh, and how do you know that I  won't kill them anyway to eliminate future trouble?" The answer was  obvious, of course, but he'd wasted my time so I felt like I should  waste a bit of his. This whole thing had been unnecessary and I was  definitely petty enough to make him miserable over it.

He  seemed to understand because he rolled his eyes, turning to leave even  as he spoke. "Because breaking some toys isnt worth ruining your own  plans. You don't want to alert them either." He waved back over his  shoulder as he walked away into the darkness. "Farewell creature, may we  meet again when you least expect it."

I rolled my eyes,  pulling out my phone and firing off a text to Silver. I wasn't going to  chase them down and try to deal with them, but I didn't want my proxies  wiped out either. The Court had already been infiltrated, even if they  didn't know it. It would be annoying to take control directly or wait  for a replacement organization before I could arrange for the city to  become properly mine.

I turned to Magnus, gesturing off at  the vanished golems. "Can you believe these assholes? Man if they had  burned up the paint on my car I'd have showed their asses what a monster  is." Magnus snorted in disbelief and I glared at him. "Hey, I don't  need your attitude dog. Don't think that just because you're cute  sometimes I can't do anything to you. Unless you want a flea bath every  day for the rest of your life you better behave."

Despite  him being kind of an ass at times, I really liked this dog. The way his  eyes widened in alarm was pretty hilarious, and as I let him into the  car he hoped up into the seat, facing ahead angelically as if to show he  could be good. I reached out to scratch behind his ear gently for a  second before I got back into drivers side to head back to the hall.

We  knew where the vampires were, next step was to actually arrange for a  raid. Honestly, I could probably take them all solo, with the exception  of maybe Mary, who Tamlin considered dangerous and who might be C ranked  herself. Still, if I just showed up and went nuts I'd break all their  stuff. It made more sense to gather a posse and hit them in the daytime  when we could eliminate them with as little fuss as possible. That meant  I had to do some prep work. Time to merge some new vampire killing  toys.