24. Tacitianus

24 – Tacitianus

The bouncer with the chrome head-butting ridge was on duty when Hector walked up to the Velvet Strip a couple of hours later. Not that the guy was actively watching for customers; the club wasn’t open. He was just sitting in a chair inside the door, guarding it because it was unlocked.

Like many successful businesses, Grando and his boys got to work early. Hector, in a far better mood than the day before, nodded to the thug, and the man nodded back. He seemed less hostile—maybe it was Hector’s confident stride, maybe it was his body starting to show the improvements of two levels’ worth of potentia.

He’d gotten in a good workout back at the gym, and the funny thing was, he hadn’t been the only guy lifting weights in jeans. He’d spared his shirt and jacket by removing them, and, again, he hadn’t been the only shirtless guy in the place, either. Nobody had challenged him. Nobody had asked for his membership card. He hadn’t even seen Pete, so he had no idea who had opened the place up. Regardless, he’d had one of the best lifting sessions of his life—not because of the amount of weight, obviously, but just because of how damn good it felt.

Two of the dancers on one of the stages, working through a routine, stopped what they were doing and watched him walk by. It took a minute, but Hector realized he knew one of them—Sadie. He looked at her, met her eyes with his, and maybe it was the endorphins left over from his workout, but for some damn reason he smiled and nodded.

“Hey, Hector,” she said, her voice a little tremulous, like she wasn’t sure she’d made the right decision to speak to him.

He paused and, careful to keep his eyes above her shoulders, replied, “Sadie.”

“Um, this is Lexa.”

The other girl waved, still looking to the side shyly. “Hey.”

“Right.” Hector shrugged and gestured toward the back of the club. “I should—”

Sadie hurriedly spoke, talking over him. “Just wanted to say thanks. I mean, for, you know…”

Again, Hector’s damn tongue started moving on its own accord. “Wasn’t anything. I was in a bad mood, so—”

“I get it! It’s okay.” Sadie smiled, then nudged Lexa. “Let’s go. Back to one.”

Dismissed, Hector turned and, with the sound of their music accompanying his steps, walked toward the storage room. He wasn’t surprised to see Orin sitting at a table nearby, and when the enforcer looked up, Hector slowed and pointed to the door. “He in?”

“Man, am I glad you’re an early riser!” Orin chuckled, pushing aside the sack of food before him. Hector smelled fried potatoes and eggs, and his mouth watered. “Yeah, he’s in there. How long you think you’ll be?”

Hector shrugged. “Five minutes or an hour, depending.”

“Okay. I’ll be out here. Cool if we take care of…that business we discussed?”

Hector nodded, but stepped closer to the bruiser’s table. “How’d you gain levels?”

“With my system, you mean? You know—used a scraper.” He shrugged.

Hector held out his hand. “Let me see it.”

Orin frowned, but he reached around to the back of his belt and pulled out a bronze-colored plasteel device that reminded Hector of the kind of brush you’d use on a dog, only the teeth were tiny diamond-glass probes with rounded tips. He took it and turned it in his hands, examining the maker’s mark: Brondak T-11. Careful not to grip the handle, he touched the trigger, and a set of micro needles snapped forth, right where someone’s palm would be if they were holding it properly. The probes would pull aura, and then the device would send it into the user’s bloodstream. “What grade?”

“Grade?”

“Yeah.” To Evie, he mused, Bronze, I’m guessing, because of the color. What do you think, Evie?

//According to their local net page, that’s a “D-Grade” scraper and would actually be equivalent to what you consider “copper.”//

Hector tried to keep his face neutral, hiding his disgust as he passed the device back to Orin. “You’re losing a lot of potentia by using that.”

The enforcer frowned, doing nothing for his already frightening countenance. “Yeah? I know there are more expensive ones, but they aren’t exactly easy to come by down here.”

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

“How are we splitting?” Hector asked. He wanted to demand all scraping rights, especially considering Orin was wasting about eighty percent of the potentia by using that device, but he didn’t feel he had that kind of clout—yet.

“Well, since you’re helping me out, how about two for you and one for me? You know, assuming we drop at least three guys.”

Hector nodded.

“Uh, Grando told me you could’ve scraped me. Thanks for holding back.”

Hector turned back to the storeroom door. “Don’t thank me.” With that, he turned the handle and stepped into Grando’s “office.”