Friday, September 28, 2007

A Pleasant Conversation

"Say that again, but without all the spit."

Tiger Shark growled at Leth, glaring at the request. "Thaa's hard ta do wiff maa jaw wrrd shut." The genetic slayer hissed in past his ridges of sharp teeth, inhaling all the moisture leaking between them.

Lethane grinned unsympathetically and took another shot of his favorite beer, Rogue. It was bitter, briny and it hurt like an angry mob going down. Perfect.

"Yeah. That really had to suck." Lethane looked around at the small room, smiling. "But hey, you got your own private suite to recover in, right? Mako treats his marshalls well, huh? Cable, a nurse on call and all the booze you can drink."

The piscine predator's gill slits flared in frustration. "Yeaa... Like ahh cahn drink anything like thisss. Assholl."

The blue bastard sitting beck to his bed raised the last of his bottle in a salute. "Good point. It'd be a shame to let all this go to waste though, so I'll help you finish it off." He swigged down the rest of the caustic brew and fetched another from the fridge. "That okay with you, Flipper?"

Tiger Shark just glared again, staying silent until he finally tired of watching the elf-looking son of a bitch down all his beer. "Cud you leave? Now?"

Lethane shrugged, pouring himself a glass of something considerably harder than beer. "Okay, okay. But first I need to make sure I got this all right. Then I'll go. Fair?"

The shark-grafted villain groaned in his recovery bed but nodded as much as the brace allowed. "Fine. Anything. Juss ashk and then get losht."

Swilling down the swill, Lethane didn't even bother trying to his his amusement at the injured man's injury lisp. "Okay, mate. Jusht keep your fins on."

Tiger Shark snarled, biting back the pain of doing so in his fury. When he got out of this body sling, him and blue boy here were throwing down. Preferably in a back alley, from behind, with however many thugs Shark had left. Oh yeah. It was so on.

Lethane pooured another tall drink and tilted it in a mock toast. "So, Lord Mako wanted you to recover Remorah's pendant. Right?"

Snarl. "Ah already told you that."

"I'm just getting it all straight. You went into the Last Word cemetery with your goon squad lookin' for trouble and hoping for an easy snatch." Lethane grinned and shot back the rum. "But things didn't go as planned, did they?"

Growl. "No. Like ah already shaid, ashholl. There wash summone already there."

"There sure was. And you told me the bug guy was trying to break the pendant with his bare hands?"

Tiger Shark nodded. "Yesh, yesh, yesh! Get on wiff it!"

Lethane shook his head. "No patience at all. Fish today, I swear..." Aother glass of rum disappeared down his tattooed throat. "Fine, so you broke in, found Kalinda's Chosen pet trying to break the damn thing with just fists and fire. So you... jumped him?"

"Nashurally. Ann ah beat him down too."

Lethane raised an eyebrow, making a point of looking over the broken shark-man from head to toe through his half-empty drink. "Really?"

"Sherioushly! He went fruu mosta mah guys doing it but ah had him on the ropesh!"

"Oooookay. So what happened?"

Tiger Shark looked away, growling and falling silent. Lethane nudged him but it was obviously the tug wasn't going to say any more. Not without some convincing first. He was okay with that, though. It had be a while since Lethane had really gotten to bust someone up nice and slow. He'd heard somewhere that sharks were all cartilage. No bones.

A few loud seconds later, he discovered that sharkmen had plenty of bones. That and Tiger Shark now had two fewer intact ones in his left hand.

"Dammit! Ah'll tell you! Shycho!"

Lethane rewarded the now-behaving thug with a shot of rum past his wired lips. Most of the drink actually made it into Tiger Shark's grateful throat. Blue hands poured another, holding it up with the obvious intent of giving him another if he started talking again.

"Ah told tha idiot thaa he couldn't break thaa thing that way. Poshiden's cresht is uselesh to warmbloods. It'sh only good for ush shea creatures. Coldbloodsh, ya know? Only we can wear it and only we can hurt it."

Lethane was already doing the math. "Then what?"

"He..." Tiger Shark hesitated. Another free drink and the implied threat of another broken finger loosened his swollen tongue.

"Then what?"

"He beat the hell outta me wiff the cresht until it shattered. I blacked out affer taht." Tiger Shark was glowering now, the absolutely worst combination of embarrassed and furious.

Lethane didn't hide this moment of amusement either. He laughed until Tiger Shark was literally seeing blood, the shark-spliced marshall glaring at him through crimson eyes. Lethane picked up the bottle of run, grinned without giving even the slightest damn and turned to leave. This delicious humiliation was going to keep him warm all winter

"See ya around, Shamu. Better luck next time!"

Tiger Shark fund his voice just before Lethane made it to the closed door. "Oh, ah'll have all kindsa luck next time, bashtard! Ah gotta tase o' Bloodravyn's blood so I can track him anywhere now! Ah'm hungry for ex-hero and he'sh gotta hit thaa spot juss fine!"

Lethane stopped. He looked down at the rum.

Well. Damn. Lethane had plans for Ravyn, plans that didn't involve him being dead just yet. Tigger here was a chump but the bloody boy scout wasn't very good at watching his back.

Damn it... Oh well. Time to be a bad guy.

"One problem with that plan, Sharky." His voice was cold. Dark.

Tiger Shark narrowed his lidless eyes. "Ann what'sh that?"

With one swift stroke, Lethane shattered the bottle against the wall and drove its jagged neck into Tiger Shark's wrenched one, piercing brace, skin and veins. As the shocked villain's blood washed over his face, Lethane pulled back his thin lips to reveal fangs of his own.

"I'm hungry too..."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

*grins*

That is a pleasent conversation. I always liked sushi..