No Such Thing as Good and Evil

Shade picked up the glass of bourbon in front of him, threw it back and chugged it, then slammed the empty glass on the bar. “You know, between my dick and my tail, I could fuck you both at the same time!” he said drunkenly. He sat at a crowded bar in between two twin elven girls. Both of them small and short with short white hair and wearing matching short sleeveless green dresses, his wings hovering behind the both of them. “Or, I could take just one of you, and plug both holes at the same time.” he said looking over at the elf to his right and winking. He began to slowly wrap his tail around her waist, but she swat it away.

“Some catch he is, huh.” she said sarcastically as she looked over at her sister.

“Seems he’s more interested in you then me, oh well, guess I’ll let you have this one.” The girl on the left replied sarcastically back, then got up from her stool and walked away from the bar, disappearing into the crowded dancefloor.

Shade watched her disappear in the crowd, then turned back to her sister. “Guess we’re going with option B then?”

The girl sighed then picked up the beer in front of her and chugged it, then slammed the empty glass on the bar as well. “Fuck it, how many chances will I get to sleep with a lucifer dragon. Come on, let’s go, but if you talk too much, I’m going to put a gag in your mouth.”

“Jokes on you, I’m into that.” he whispered.

She got up from her stool and started walking past all the tables towards the stairs in the back corner of the tavern that lead to the bedrooms.

He got up from his stool as well, took some coins out his pouch, flicked them onto the bar and then began to follow her. Then all of the sudden a tug pulled on his back. He brushed it off and continued toward the stairs, but someone tugged on him again, this time much stronger, which caused him to lose his balance from his intoxication and he fell to the ground. He’s then dragged on his ass by his tail through the crowded bar, hitting people and chairs and tables with his large wings as he was pulled past them. Drinks fell and land on him, soaking his black robes in various liquors and beers. Finally, he was dragged out of the tavern’s front door and into the dirt road outside, where his assailant lets him go.

He lay on his back for a second looking up at the stars in the night sky. After a few moments, he got up and brushed himself off, then blew a small amount of fire over his clothes to dry them. He looked up to see who had dragged him out of the bar, and stood in front of him was Aerith. She was wore all black leather armor that tightly and perfectly fit around her curves on both her chest and legs as well as black leather boots. She had a bow over her shoulder and daggers stuck out of sheathes tied to a black belt around her waist. “What the fuck Aerith? I was about to get with her. I was this close, THIS CLOSE!” He said animatedly putting his pointer finger and thumb close together.

“I’m sorry, was I getting in the way of you sexually assaulting two young girls, my bad.” She replied arms crossed.

“Just because nobody flirts with you doesn’t mean you can call me flirting sexual assault.” he mocked back.

“You call that flirting? Offering to ‘plug’ both their holes is flirting? Where did you even hear such a terrible line? Please don’t tell me you’ve been reading those awful pick-up artist books again.” He stood there awkwardly and refused to look at her like a child caught in a lie. “You have, haven’t you. Hand it over. Let’s see which one you’re reading now.” She said holding out her hand.

He took off his bag from around his shoulder, took a book out of it, then sheepishly handed it to her.

She took the book from him and looked at the cover. “101 pickup lines that will get your dick wet tonight. You can’t be fucking serious with this?” she laughed.

“Well, I just bought it, and right before you rudely dragged me through the bar, I was about to go upstairs where that gorgeous elf was going to get my dick wet. Clearly you should give it more credit!” he replied, crossing his arms in defiance.

“I don’t think the line is what she was interested in.” She opened the book, started reading through the pages and giggled to herself. “There’s no way you could think the lines in this book could you get you laid.”

“Well obviously I didn’t think all 101 of them would work. But I figured if 10 of the 101 worked, and I used all 101 in a single day, then I would have sex 10 times a day. That’s a pretty damn good day if you ask me.” He said excitedly.

She shook her head. “You’re unbelievable.” Then closed the book with her right hand and stuck her left pointer finger under the book, created a small flame out of its tip, lit the book on fire, then watched it burn to ash in her hand.

“What the hell, I just paid good money for that!” he said sharply.

“You know why she wanted to get with you? Because you’re a dragon. You could walk into that bar, take your clothes off and sit naked in the middle of the dancefloor and some whore would probably start riding you within 30 seconds. You walking around with these lame pickup lines is embarrassing.”

“Wait, do you really think so? You think If I just laid there someone would fuck me?” He replied, staring longingly back at the tavern.

Aerith sighed. “You know we are in this city for work, right?” she said irritated.

“Well, I was about to go upstairs and put the work in with that elf, if you know what I mean.” he replied proudly, then turned and winked at her.

She wasn't amused by the joke. “Can we just go take out our target and get paid? Then you can go and get rejected by as many girls as you want, and I won’t stop you.”

“Fine, but I want the record to show she didn’t reject me.” He said, starting to walk down the road, Aerith sighed once more and followed next to him.

They arrived at a large black gates in front of the mansion where their target lived. Two guards, both of them grey wolves in black suits and ties, stood at the front of the gate. A large black fence went all the way around the mansion with tall bushes and trees lining the fence on both the outside and in. “What do you two want?” The wolf on the left growled.

Aerith pulled out her two daggers from their sheathes then in an instant, flung them at the two wolves, the daggers plunged into their chests. The wolves staggered for a second, then keel over. She walked over to them and pulled the daggers out of their chests, wiped the blood off of them with their suits, then put them back in their sheathes.

“A little unnecessary.” Shade said.

“What? They’re not dead. I just put them to sleep. The daggers were laced with sleeping poison.”

“I don’t mean that, I don’t care if you killed them or not. That gate isn’t going to open, the guards on the outside never have keys in case something like, well, this happens. We’re going to have to hop the fence, we could’ve just hopped it in a place where there were no guards.” He replied.

“Well, now we don’t have to worry about them when we leave.” she responded.

“Whatever you say.”, then he looked at the sheathes around Aeriths waist. “You keep some of that poison at the bottom of those holsters so the blades get laced every time you put them back in, right?”

“Yea, and...?” she asked confused.

“Doesn’t the poison come from your teeth?” he continued.

“Yes, that’s the way vampires work.” She replied, suspicious of where he was going with this.

“So, to get the poison into the holster, does that mean you have to milk your teeth?” he said with a smirk, finger to his chin.

“That just may be the worst way you could describe it, but sure, let’s go with that.” she replied shaking her head.

“Do you just, like, bite into…”

Aerith cut him off. “Let me ask you some questions. Do you remember why we’re here?”

“Sure, to kill Aymar Bryrel.”

“And why are we killing him?”

“He’s believed to be the head of a slave ring, but the government of this town doesn’t have enough evidence to prove it in the courts. The courts are corrupt anyway and wouldn’t convict him, so the government is paying us under the table to take him out.”

“Good, I’m impressed you remembered.” She said, then leaped over the gate and landed silently on the other side. Her all-black armor and Shades all black skin and robe make them practically invisible in the night.

Shade followed suit and landed next to her. “You know, if you were trying to get me off of the ‘Milking your teeth’ thing, I’m 100% going to ask again later.”

She ignored him and looked towards the mansion. The mansion was 3 stories high and made out of white brick. A stone path with bushes trimmed into cubes and tall silver lanterns lining it lead to a circular fountain with a statue of a wolf they assumed was Aymar on top of it, with water spewing from a stone sword t statue held up towards the sky. The path then diverged to the left and right on either side of the fountain, while it also continued straight to a stair case that lead to the front door of the mansion. The path to the left and right had no bushes or lanterns lining them, and didn't seem to lead anywhere in particular. There were also 10 security guards who seemed to be patrolling the front yard, walking in set patterns. All of them were wolves wearing the same black suits and ties.

“You know, Aymar is a wolf himself. Seems he only hires his own kind, kind of racist if you ask me.” Shade joked.

“Add it to the list of offenses he’s committed then.” Aerith replied in a serious tone. “So, what’s the play here?” She said looking over at him.

He closed his eyes and tried sensing where all the security guards were, not just outside, but in. He then pointed to a balcony jotting out of the right side of the mansion on the third floor. “You see that balcony? I sense at least 2 security guards on the inside of that room, no other room has more than one, it has to be where our target is.”

“It’s as good a guess as any.” She replied. The two of them flew silently down the fence line, weaving between the trees and bushes, making sure to stay out of the light from the lanterns and over to the right side of the mansion. There they knelt down behind a large fern tree by the fence and took stock again of the situation.

The path from the fountain to this side of mansion led to a door. The door was only guarded by one guard and none of the guards in the front yard seemed to come over here in their patrol path. Not only that, but there’s were no bushes, trees, fountains or anything on this side of the mansion outside of the ones that lined the fence, nothing between the fence and the door but grass. The guard stood in front of the door that they guessed probably led to a kitchen or servants’ quarters of some sort.

“What do you think they spent less time on, the patrol path of the guards or the layout of the mansions yards?” he joked.

“All of it’s just for show. He doesn’t care about any part of the mansion that people can’t see. Ignorance is bliss, right?” She replied, then unsheathed one of her blades, took the bow off from around her shoulder and placed the blade into the bow string. She lined up the shot and released it, sending the blade soaring through the air, making a slight whistle sound as it flew. It plunged into the chest of the guard, who fell to the ground, out cold.

“Do they get good sleep?” he asked. “Do they wake up refreshed? Or is it more like when you take a nap, but when you wake up you feel worse than when you fell asleep?”

“How should I know; I’ve never been knocked out by it before.” She replied coldly.

“You do all those tests on people, all those experiments, all that research and you’ve never asked somebody what the sleep is like? It would be the first thing I asked.” He said back.

“Can you take this seriously for maybe five minutes?” She scowled. Then walked out from behind the fern, through the empty lawn, and toward the guard.

He followed behind her. “I am taking this seriously, at least more seriously than this dude took decorating the sides of his mansion. I mean it’s just empty over here. I understand it’s all for show but he couldn’t afford any bushes or lanterns for this side? I don’t know, maybe a pond, something.” She shook her head, got to the guard, took the dagger out of his chest, wiped it off on his suit and put it back in its holster. She then jumped up to the balcony, and Shade followed suit. The two then peered in through a window that luckily had its blinds up.

“Wow, lucky for us they left the blinds open.” he joked. The room was massive, with a king-sized bed in the middle of it, a wooden desk with a wooden chair to the right of it. Various sized wooden cabinets surround the rest of the outside of the room with vases and candles on top of them. There were 2 guards on either side of the room, one to the left standing beside the large king-sized bed and one to the right, standing in front of a large wall sized portrait of a wolf they assumed was Aymar.

Aerith turned the doorknob on the door leading from the balcony to the room and found its unlocked. “Its like this guy wants to die.” Shade joked in a silent giggle.

“Watch this.” she whispered back, then slowly cracked open the door. She took out her two daggers and flung them toward the two guards. The dagger aimed at the one on the right hit, knocking the guard out. But the dagger aimed at the on the left missed, whizzing past his ear, it clanked into the wall and fell softly onto the bed.

“Very impressive.” he giggled again.

“What the fuck?” the guard snarled turning as he looked at the dagger on the bed. He then turned to the door where both Shade and Aerith stood in the doorway as they blankly stared back at him. Shade pulled out his daggers and flung them at the guard so fast the guard couldn't dodge, the daggers flew into the guard’s eye sockets and he keeled over, dead.

“You see, that’s accuracy.” he said proudly walking into the room, he grabbed his daggers from the dead guard’s head, then wiped the blood off the daggers with the white bedding.

“I wanted to go with non-lethal attacks on the guards.” she said dejected.

“Maybe you should have said that before? And, why are we being so kind to them?” he asked.

“This is just their job. They’re not the slavers. They’re just people trying to put food on the table and roofs over the heads of their families.”

“Didn’t you make fun of ignorance is bliss no more than 30 seconds ago? They’re putting food on the table with blood money earned from protecting slavers. How noble of them. Should I take some pillows off the bed and put them under the guards sleeping outside, wouldn’t want them to be uncomfortable.” He then picked up the dead guard, placed him on top of the bed, then patted his head. “There, there, sweet dreams. Can I get you anything, a glass of water?” he said sarcastically.

“God, I fucking hate you.” she mumbled under her breath, then walked around the room and picked up her 2 daggers.

“Here, how about this, I won’t eat his soul.”

“How noble of you.” She replied coldly.

He then began to go around the room and opened up the cabinet drawers, then looked through them.

“Have you become a thief now?” She said with her hands on her hips.

“I mean, if I find something I want I might just keep it, but no.” He replied. “This is the only room with 2 guards in it within the whole mansion. They were clearly guarding something, and with our target not in here, I’m curious as to what they were protecting.”

He then began to take paintings off the walls. “Do you think you’re going to find a secret path?” she jokes. He then got to the large wall sized painting of who he figured was Aymar and looked at it. Aymar was an average sized wolf with orange fur wearing a purple suit and red vest in the painting. He shoved it off the wall which revealed… a secret door. He turned to her and smirked. She looked up at the ceiling. “Please just fucking kill me.”

He turned to the door and swung it open, which revealed a large dark staircase that seemed to go on forever. “Never question true genius!” he exclaimed proudly. He then created a small ball of fire in the palm of his left hand to the light the path and began walking down the stairs. Aerith sighed and followed behind him.

They walked down the wooden stair case surrounded by brick walls for minutes on end, until finally they reached the bottom. A wooden door was at the bottom of the staircase, and on the other side of the door, they heard crying, and the voices of a few men. “How many of them do you think there are?” Aerith asked.

He closed his eyes and tried to sense them, but couldn't. “I’m not sure, i think this door has some sort of protection on it. I can hear at least 2 though.”

“Are we just going to barge through the door without knowing what we’re up against?” She said concerned.

“If the guards’ strength are of any indication, I’m sure we’ll be fine.” he replied, but then noticed something. He turned his head to the wall to his left, put his hand on the wall, then his ear.

“What are you doing?” She whispered.

He then put out his fireball, unsheathed one of his blades, then lit it with hells fire. The blade was made from special material invented by lucifer dragons which doesn’t melt under the intense heat of hells flames. He plunged the blade into the wall next to him, and the bricks began to melt. He slowly cut out a square segment of brick, then kicked the wall. The bricks to crumbled to the ground and revealed a room was next to them.

He walked through the new opening in the wall into the room as Aerith followed. “How did you know this was here?”

“I could sense something else.” He said then pointed. The poorly lit room was filled with naked young girls of various ages, none looked older than 15. There was a girl wolf crammed in a bird’s cage way too small for it, an elven girl chained to a wall with throwing knives surrounding her, a vampire girl tied and gagged to a wooden horse and a fairy girl with her wings cut off, tied upside down, hanging from the ceiling. All of the girls are wore metal slave collars and none were moving or seemed to be conscious, but they were alive. In the back left of the room was a pile of 20 bodies, all of which seemed to be dead. “You think they’re just keeping one of each species? Seem to be missing some though. I don’t see a dragon, I guess we are kind of hard to find.” He said as turned back to Aerith.

Aerith, though, ignored his crude joke as her face turned red with anger. “I’m going fucking to kill them.” She repeated over and over under her breathe.

“Oh, are we done with the whole ‘non-lethal’ thing? But what about the roofs over their families? Food on their tables?” She once again ignored his comment and began walking to the door that led to the exit of the room, toward where the men’s voices were coming from. “Wait!” He said as he reached out and grabbed her shoulder.

“What!” She snarled back at him.

“Aren’t you forgetting something? Something we should do first before killing them?” He said gesturing toward the girls. He then walked over to the girl on the wooden horse, grabbed the collar around her neck and started pumping echos into it. The collar slowly began to glow a bright red, then it began to smoke and whistle, finally the stone on the front began to glow, then shattered and the collar opened and fell off, clanking to the ground. “You do remember right? If you kill a slave’s master, all the slaves linked with them die.”

She nodded in acknowledgement, and the 2 of them freed the 4 remaining slaves from their collars. Aerith stood in front of the birdcage, shaking with anger as she tried to open the metal hatch to get the girl out.

Shade walked over and put his hand on her shoulder. “After severing the girls’ connections, they probably know we’re here now. We can free her from the cage later, as long as the collar's off, she’ll be fine, but if they come in here and the fight takes place in this room, she might get killed in the crossfire.” She nodded again and the two walked toward the door, but then he paused. Next to the door was a small wooden table, and on the table was a book. He picked up the book then showed it to her. “Look at this, what a great find, especially after what you did to my other book!” The cover of the book read ’50 sure fire ways to get laid tonight!’

“Shade, I am in less than the mood right now.” She said snarled..

“You think kidnapping people and raping them is one of the 50 ways? I mean technically it’s a sure-fire way to get laid.” he said, ignoring her murderous aura.

“Are you making jokes about kidnapped children being tortured and raped?” She scoffed.

He paused. “Well, it kind of was a joke, but, it’s also a sure-fire way. Maybe a little column A, little column B.” he shrugged.

She breathed in and out a few times then pushed her way past him without saying a word, and flung the door open.

On the other side of the door was a small empty stone room that looked like a stereotypical dungeon, with no furniture at all. 3 male wolves stood in the middle of the room shirtless and with their pants down around their ankles, surrounding a small young girl with blue hair and bluish scales running down her legs. The girl was collared and chained to the floor, various bodily fluid surrounded her.

“Is that… a mermaid? Talk about rare.” Shade said.

The men gasped at the site of them and pulled their pants up. “Who are you 2?” the wolf in the middle said surprised, a wolf with bright orange fur.

“Guess they didn’t notice us.” Shade said as he looked at him intently. “You look like the man in the absurdly large painting, would you happen to be Aymar?”

Aymar looked to his left and right at the two wolves on either side of him. “Don’t just stand there, get them!” He yelled.

The two guards, both black furred wolves, weaponless and shirtless, began to approach them. Aerith, unfazed, flew at the guard on the right. She shot a small ball of electricity at him, it hit him and for a moment he was paralyzed. She grabbed his head and ripped it right off his body like she was peeling a banana, blood spewed from his neck like the fountain from the front yard. She then turned and flung the head as hard as she could at the other guard. Like a cannonball, it soared through the others guards chest then splattered on the wall behind him. The guard looked down at the gaping hole through his chest, then back up at Aerith, and fell dead to the floor.

Aymar gasped, then turned to the door leading to the staircase, but in the instant the fight had taken place, Shade had silently flown over to door like a lightning bolt. He shook his head at Aymar with arms crossed. “End of the line.”

“No, please, I’ll give you anything, money, land, slaves, you can have it all.” He pleaded as he fell to his knees.

Aerith slowly walked up to the mermaid girl, grabbed her collar and broke it off. Then slowly walked up to Aymar, took out her two blades and started sharpening them on one another, creating sparks. Then knelt down behind him and placed the two blades around his throat.

“Wait!” Shade yelled.

“What now?’ She snarled annoyed.

“Before you kill him, I want to ask him something.” He looked down at the shaking wolf “This book, does it work?” He asked pointing to the book he had picked up from the table.

“What?” he replied nervously, but before Shade could say anything else, Aerith cut his head clean off, the head falling to the floor and rolling to Shades feet, with more blood spurting into the air, lacing the ground in the sticky red liquid.

“Well now I’ll never know.” he pouted.

“Are you annoyed at me?” She replied irritated.

He looked down at the book. “Well, guess the only way to find out now is to go back to that tavern.” He said and put the book into his robe. She scoffed then went over to the mermaid girl tied to the floor. She knelt down and began to undo the chains binding her. “You think those twin elves will still be there? Elves usually have the tightest pussies.”

Aerith turned and shot daggers at him with her eyes. “Watch what you say! There's a child here!” She yelled over to him pointing at the mermaid.

He looked at the mermaid girl, covered in semen and piss, then back to Aerith. “You don’t want me talking about sex around her? Come on Aerith, let’s be fair now. Just look at her, she’s clearly had way more sex than I’ve had lately, that’s for damn sure.”

Aerith slowly got up from her knees, huge balls of electricity formed in her hands. “You’re such a fucking piece of shit!” She snarled, then threw the balls of electricity at him. They hit him in the chest and sent him flying through the brick wall into the other room. He landed next to the wooden horse, where he lay on the ground paralyzed, while simultaneously being electrocuted.