Playing With Fire

Chapter One

I dropped the dripping head of the Terra Wyrm by the door and stomped over to the clerk's counter. Lawrence snarled his nose delicately at the mess before he reluctantly brought his eyes to me.

"I took care of the wyrm down in the Ratsnest," I motioned towards the blood slicked albino head behind me. "I expect the deposit in my account by the morning."

Before Lawrence could reply with what I'm sure would have been a sarcasm-free affirmative, Jagger and his crew swaggered through the door. I sighed internally and said goodbye to the quick in and out I had been hoping for. Turning I leaned my back against the old wooden counter, propped my elbows on the top, and swung my gaze casually toward the three men.

"Delany, fancy meeting you here," Jagger kicked the severed head my way and I could practically feel the full body wince from Lawrence behind me at the mess.

"I'm not looking for a fight today, Jagger."

Jagger and I had what I referred to as a 'friendly rivalry' and he referred to as 'I'll kill that bitch the second I get the chance'. The hostility stemmed from my embarrassing him in front of his colleagues, if mercenaries can even have colleagues, by taking a job he had refused on the grounds that it was a death sentence. I took the job, and I think we would have been okay if I had died hunting down the chimera, but I hadn't and by not being eaten I had mortally wounded his man pride so now I was on his shit list.

Jagger snarled in what I'm sure was supposed to be an intimidating way and I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Barely. So far he had kept his harassment verbal, but I had the feeling that he was working himself up to something more physical. I was quickly losing my patience today. I was covered in sticky drying wrym blood and fluids, I had been awake for almost twenty-two hours, and my leg was aching from where the wrym had managed to hit me with some acid from its back end. The wound had closed, but the skin was shiny, red, and itchy and I wanted to go home and take a blisteringly hot shower.

"Can we skip the song and dance today? I just want to get paid and go home, same as you," I tried one last time to give him an out, but it seemed like both of us were out of patience this evening.

"Lawrence, why don't you go catalog Delany's job in the rosters, and take your time." Jagger threw him a look that clearly read pretend like you didn't see anything and Lawrence, the bastard, didn't even pause to give me a second look before slipping into the back room.

"I'll remember that, asshole!" I called after him. Jagger and his bruisers spread out into a semi circle in front of me.

"I'm about tired of listening to you run your mouth, Delany. Seems like you do too much talking, I bet we could fix that though." I wasn't sure where that nonsense came from since I was doing my absolute best to just work the jobs, get paid, and go home. It was very unlike me, but up until now I thought I had been doing a good job.

Bruiser number one grinned at me while number two just stared blankly and waited for Jagger to tell him what to do. I wasn't sure why Jagger insisted on human backup, they just ended up getting killed. It could be though, that no one else wanted to work with him. From what I could tell he was impulsive and wanted all the glory but without doing any of the work. The rest of the guys here seemed to just keep their distance from him, something I was trying, but apparently failing to do. He was a sorcerer, but from what I could tell had very little magic to speak of. Sorcerers always had a chip on their shoulder.

Jagger took another step toward me and the last of my patience evaporated into thin air. I stepped away from where I leaned against the counter and rolled my shoulders. The quicker we took care of this the faster I could open the new bottle of whiskey waiting for me at home, I could already feel the sweet burn in my chest.