First Contract
I warmed my hands over the small fire, my back to the icy wind of northern Canada. It had been two years since I'd left home and joined the guild. You see, I'm a demigod, a son of Apollo. Unlike other demigods, there are some of us that do not go to a camp. No, we are members of a guild that handles certain problems that normal demigods don't even know about. We are the gods' assassins; wet work, infiltration, sabotage, and most infamously torture. We do the gods' dirty work, and we are very good at it, the thing that is different about us is that the gods hire us to kill other demigods, Poseidon sends us to kill Athena's kids and so on with the rivalries. This was my mission, and I couldn't mess it up. I was sent on a mission from Mars to eliminate 3 children of Athena who claimed they were the children of the true war deity, Mars didn't appreciate it so he asked the guild to help out with it. For months I had been training, working on stealth, lying, and most of all the art of the kill, I remembered those months fondly and gripped my tomahawk as I saw my targets come into view. I stamped my small fire and assessed the situation, this was a rouge group of demigods, 10 of them, and my two targets marched toward a small Inuit village, leading the others. I adjusted my white combat fatigues and sprinted down a hill toward a ledge that hung over the group, shielding them from the icy wind.
I jumped off the ledge landing with my tomahawk in the first target's head. The other target, a girl, drew a celestial bronze sword, and looked at me in horror, "Who are-" that's as far as she got before I brained her with the hammer side of my weapon. Mars had offered me a 100 dollar, 100 denarii, and 50 drachma reward for every follower I killed, so I grinned and turned toward the group and was met by an older boy charging at my with an imperial gold gladius. I caught the blade between the head and handle of my tomahawk and pulled the guy close, injecting him with hydra venom, he fell clutching his heart immediately. One of the kids bolted and I hit him in the back with my tomahawk, drawing my twin daggers, they were curved and wicked, one bronze, one gold. I killed three more before they could even draw their weapons. There were three left, a large boy with dark hair and wild eyes holding a pila, a girl clutching a battle axe and behind her a 4 year old girl with brown hair and pale skin.
The boy charged his spear leveled at my chest, I ducked under the point and stuck my dagger in his stomach, ripping it up and disemboweling him. I threw my other dagger at the girl with the battle axe, hitting her in the forehead, dropping her dead. I stood up, collected my weapons and lifted the little girl over my shoulder, we had a new recruit.
After the long plane ride and the cab ride I landed at our home base near Kansas City. I walked into the dockyard known as the guild and was greeted by a Minotaur searching our garbage, we didn't have magical boundaries around our base, but we had manpower. I threw a small, poisoned knife at the Minotaur, crumbling him to dust.
"Welcome home Ace," said a sly female voice, "I'm glad you didn't get gutted like a fish."
"So am I, is Mars here?" I asked looking to the shadows were a beautiful girl emerged, she was beautiful but in a deadly way, like if you stared too long or if you weren't an assassin, stared at all, she'd kill you. "Um, take the kid," I said handing over the little girl.
"Yeah, over there" she said rocking the little girl and pointing to an alley.
"Well done demigod, here's you're reward, 10,000 denarii, 500 drachma, and 100,000 American dollars… plus your rewards," he said handing my two flour sacks full of coins and a bundle of 100 dollar bills. He burst into flames and I was left alone with my money.
"Good first job," said the pretty girl, "You brought us a lot of money."
"Thanks, Andromeda, I appreciate it," I said walking toward the bunkhouse, I needed to sleep.