It's just an idea for now, but I'll try and have a chapter up soon
Chapter 1
She was so close she could taste the scent of his musk on her tongue.
While the sky was dark with clouds, the slate rooftops and green canals were brought to life with vivid colour, the crackles and pops of fireworks regularly sending the courtyard into stark view. The courtyard was as if a mirror of the sky, a plain and featureless floor given energy by the dozens that twirled and laughed, wearing all the colours one could think. Merriment and music, the smell of wine and gunpowder, the ever present stale filth of the canals for once blissfully covered, while the heat and the closeness had her uniform clinging to her skin.
Her senses were being assaulted in every way, and it only heightened her concentration... her excitement. She kept it hidden though, keeping her cool. The dancers parted for a second, and her target was visible to her, and his eyes trailed over her for a second before the crowds surged once more and stole him from view. Her stomach clenched at the eyes contact, but he didn't seem to suspect. Her Creed robes had been forgotten, instead wearing a beautiful but typical dress of light green, a mask held to her face, white and decorated with glittering little bits of tinsel, her mane of ginger hair for once let down. A paper fan was in her other hand, a new fashion that was all the rage in Venice, and yet so practical in this heat.
While her costume may have seemed rather eye catching, she was as if a fish among a school, seen, yet never noticed.
The music picked up, the peoples feet changed pace to match, and with it, her heart began to slam. Every twirling trade of partners brought her a few more steos towards him, until they were seperated by a space of barely both of her arms. She tried to look disinterested, but her light green eyes flashed, sweat forming upon her brow. And then, he passed his current woman on, and she was twirled into his arms. This, she had expected, yet she could not have helped a second of panic deep inside her stomach, her bowels clenching for nary a heart beat, before she began the steps.
Her target, Benedict Friviosa, was drunk and unshaved, though she got the impression he might have been quite the gentlemen. Manners or not, his extortion ring had poked it's head out, and all she needed to do was cut it, then make sure the body died. If it grew another head, she'd be there, waiting for it... As he tipped her back, she fanned herself, giving him a wink, and tested the Hidden Blade in her sleeve as she was pulled up into a twirl, making sure it worked, getting a feel for it, as she always did before the kill. Her fan would help add another layer of concealment, and all she needed to do was twirl to the next partner, and he would stumble to his neck woman with his life bleeding out over his top, neck severed.
She was tipped back again, and something caught her eye... a shape, standing stock still on the roof tops, like a shimmer of air. The fireworks that erupted in the sky gave the area an odd twinkle, like a fire viewed through crafted glass. But before she could concentrate, it had slipped away. She put it down to her imagination, but she felt watched... and she had always trusted her instincts. For the briefest second, her mission slipped from her mind.
The music picked up, their feet pounding the floor, the speed of their twirls increasing, her pulse racing to match, and with each step, she flicked the blade out under the fan, the swish and clack matching the hammering of the dancers. She counted down, knowing exactly when she would be passed on, twenty seconds she countered... he laughed and threw his head back, hand groping down her dress, almost to the knife belt at her hip. 10 seconds, she counted, her eyes locked on his throat.
And then, something happened.
There was a shimmer of air, just in the corner of her vision. Her body naturally tensed at the sensation of movement, and suddenly, Benedicts eyes flew open. His neck exploded outward, as if razor sharp wire had been yanked tight, severing the jugular and splattering her in his blood. The head was yanked violently upwards, and to her horror, she saw the head seem to rise up out of his body like a snake, his spine crawling out. The limb body collapsed to the floor at her feet, and the shimmer behind it regarded her... at least, she thought it did. An invisible hand caressed over the still slick spine, and a series of clicks sounded, like the hollow wooden shakers the jugglers had used.
It took a second for the screams to register, but she was paralyzed with a new sensation she had never felt before. She had touched on it's edges, but this was the first time she had felt real, true fear, locking her legs in place, keeping her hands from doing as her mind instructed. It was only when she was shoved by a fleeing woman that she was brought out of it, and the shimmer was gone.
With the crowds dispersed and the guards converged on the scene, she found her place of solace on the roof tops, where she usually went after a job was finished. But this time, she was here for another reason... for comfort, reassurance, things she hadn't quite understood. She was shaking all over, her eyes still wide and disbelieving. She looked at her hands, covered in blood, and then down to her dress. It was not like this was the first time she had ever seen blood, but never had she seen violence quite like that, and the feeling of the unseen aggressor shook her to her core.
What had she just witnessed?
Under the streets, in the reeking humid space of the canals, a dark figure worked. Strange devices rested on hand carved shelves, indentations in the walls. The broad shoulders blocked out a large segment of green tinged stone, long hair flicking now and then as he reaching out for certain items. There was a hiss, and smoke, and then Benedicts clean, bleached skull and spine were placed upon the one blank wall. His first kill... and he intended to make sure it was only the first of many.
Even from the rooftops, where Francesca made her brood, the victorious, snarling wail of the creature was heard.