Viper
Chapter1: Viper and Sow
9 years later, November 19…
"Come on Viper! You know I don't have that kind of money!"
"No, I don't know. 20000. Take it or leave it Myra. You know there are other people who would pay twice the price and I will take the better deal. He's only offering you because you were the one to tell Sow it was in town."
The blond woman sighed. It was a well known it their world that even if Viper was young by age, he was not someone to mess with, or in this case –bargain with.
"Ok, Ok." she said in a resigned voice throwing her hand in an "I surrender" fashion" Here. Let's just hope the boss likes it."
Viper smirked at her .What did she think he was? Some amateur? He almost snorted at the thought.
"I assure you he will. Tell him that if he has any objections he can find me and Sow the usual way and we'll straighten things out"
The blond nodded and handed over a very thick envelope and received in return the object wrapped in velvet, handed by a gloved hand. 'So she did have the money and ready too.' The boy idly thought. 'I always wonder why she prefers paying in cash, there are banks for that part…'
Myra unfolded it, eyes glinting at the sight of the piece of art, then tucked the velvet back and gingerly put it in the prepared container.
"I still can't believe Sow pulled it off! The security was unbreakable. How did he do it?" She asked in amazement. Viper simply inclined his head smiled mysteriously.
"Always a pleasure doing business with you. Good day Myra."
The young woman watched as the smaller figure melted away in the shadows and disappeared as if he had never been there, leaving her still baffled by the incredibility of the job.
"Hey Sow! I'm back!"
Viper called out before entering the flat. He knew better than to enter before calling first – it tended to be a particularly unhealthy action when the one on the other side of the door is Sow.
He closed the door behind himself and turned the keys into their locks. He stood there drinking the view that was revealed before him. There, through the archway connecting the living room and kitchen, he could see Sow sitting on one of the stools. Under a bright lamp which's light fell on him creating a spotlight in the otherwise dim room he was cleaning his favorite sniper, his fingers moving like a lover's caress over the cold metal but working with a professional's precision.
Such a sight could have been frightening for some other man knowing who Sow was, but for Viper it was as close to perfection as life can come. Viper admired the young man's appearance and his mouth curved into a small smile. He truly was a sight to behold.
Even in this position you could see he was a somewhat tall man with a slender but firm build behind which hid a cat's grace complementing an image to make the ladies swoon and enemies doubt their next move. Black eyes, so dark that they seemed to consume all light around him, focused sharply on his work but at the same time seeming to see all around, stood out on a hardened but a non-the-less handsome face and under perfect brows drawn in a light frown of concentration. It was enough to make Viper's breathe hitch.
The black clad boy slid across the space separating them kicked off his boots and pried the skin tight leather cloves off before he made himself comfortable straddling as tool next to Sow, who paused long enough to flash him the briefest of smiles before continuing what he was doing.
"Did she bite it?"
"She didn't bite" Sow stopped to raise an eyebrow at his snake's direction "She swallowed hook, line and sinker like the sweet little fish she is" he quirked a crooked smile. "What do you think I am anyway- an amateur!" he ended in a mock huff.
The corner of Sow's lips twitched and his bottomless eyes sparkled with hidden mirth at the ongoing joke between them.
"No…I don't think you are one" But he wasn't finished" more along the lines of "an inexperienced child playing…"
He didn't have a chance to end the well-practiced thought because as soon as the word 'inexperienced' had left his mouth the boy had adopted an evil smirk that quickly melted into a wicked grin when he was labeled a 'child' and had already lunged at Sow by the time the last syllables of 'playing' were uttered. As if expecting the attack, as he in fact did, Sow quickly shoved his gun away from him and intercepted the light body, bringing both of them tumbling on the floor.
They wrestled for a few minutes until with a move too fluent and quick for a normal human to see Viper had brought a wicked looking dagger out of seemingly nowhere and had Sow pinned to the floor with the knife's edge resting against his throat. Both were slightly flushed and grinning like maniacs. Suddenly Viper's green eyes sparkled in a way that Sow had never seen before and the boy lent forward until he was mere inches from the older man's face. For one insane moment Sow thought Viper was going to kiss him and then to his utter shock and amazement he did just that.
The boy's lips were soft and burnt Sow with their touch, awakening feelings the fires of which he had long thought extinguished in his soul and he returned it without even realizing what he was doing. The kiss didn't last long, nor was it anything extremely sexual in nature but it was more than enough to leave Sow wanting more, needing it. He hadn't closed his eyes during the kiss but neither had Viper and it was what he saw in those emerald depths that left him breathless even if the sole sensation of his little snake's lips on his had been enough to stun him into cooperation. No, it had been the passion, the lust and need in the boy's eyes that did that. And they were not some simple, shallow feelings – those he could easily recognize, but true ones that had no place in one so young's eyes.
Then the boy was no longer above him, the dagger was re-sheathed and intense eyes were focused on him. It was as if the boy was asking a million questions in just that one look. And for the first time in his life Sow couldn't take it, so easily standing up he broke eye contact and pulling the fallen stool up again he returned to his previous work, leaving the bright deep green gaze to burrow in the back of his head.
The second ticked by as if they were centuries as he forced himself to focus on the mindless motions of his hands and ignore the sudden chill that seemed to fill the room. Had he been looking behind him he would have seen Viper's eyes turn into a pool of blazing deathly green fires and his fists clinch and unclench as if he was battling himself to keep from wrapping those long white fingers around someone's neck.
At long last Viper's voice, colder than death and even more unforgiving, broke the silence that had fallen over the room and Sow's hands froze.
"Is Mike" the name was hissed with such venom that made the older man shudder at the confirmation of the perfect fit of Viper's name" coming to dinner tonight?"
Mike was Sow's boyfriend for the moment but he was the only one who had lasted longer than a week, almost a month in fact. All the others had been purely sexual and nothing alike a real relationship.
Steeling himself for the shouting match that he was sure would follow Sow answered with a simple 'yes' and waited. But the shouts never came. In their stead came an emotionless 'I see' that was a hundred times more unnerving than any words that the boy could have screamed. The oppressing silence fell over the room again but was soon once again broken by the boy who stalked out of the kitchen, snatched his gloves from where he had thrown them on the living room table and exited the flat, the door banging shut behind him and rattling in its case.
Sow repressed a slight flinch and let his head fall in his hands. Only Viper could do that to him, only he could make him feel something he shouldn't, especially with his profession – Guilt.
He wondered when it had all gone wrong, how it had happened so that his Viper was no longer a child.
But he knew how. The "child" had grown so fast – at three he stole his first sweet while Sow had been shopping At five, since the man hadn't seen any point in trying to hide his occupation from the youngster as the kid was too smart for his own good, Viper had demanded being taught the art of the profession and had persisted and used every dirty trick in the book , including threatening Sow he will go on his own or with one of the Families- the crime associations Sow most worked with but hated with a passion, until Sow had to give up and the child soaked everything quicker than a sponge could until he was so good that after some more machinations on the little snake's part Sow had claimed him as a partner in crime. At seven his Viper was interested in literature and science and knew how to assassinate, torture or plain kill a man in at least a hundred different ways without even being suspected to had so much as seen the victim on the street. Due to his age and extreme agility he was a supreme thief and his only match was the infamous in the crime circles Sow, though no-one knew of Vipers "work" and everyone thought he was just the "delivery boy", even if it was known the kid was no pushover. At ten the "child" had so much blood on his hands and had proven such a vicious cold-blooded killer, Sow, even with his own twisted ethics, was worried about him. He didn't forget that he himself had done the same, even more than his protégée but the little snake was so young, too young to have done what a the 24-yer-old hardened assassin and thief had. And yet the boy still smiled and joked, pouted like the ten-year-old he was, even if his hobby was collecting personal items of his victims.
Above all though he wondered when along with being a killer and a thief he had become a pervert as well because earlier when the boy had sat on his chest and had kissed him his traitorous body had responded on its own and had shown his excitement. He could only hope Viper hadn't detected it, he prayed to all Deities there were he hadn't because he knew that if Viper though that here was even the barest of chances he would not give up until he had what he wanted.
That night Mike came to visit. He and Sow had dinner then retired to the master bedroom for the night with no intention to rest. Sow's mind though couldn't battle away the image of those intense emerald eyes and the burning feeling of the sinfully soft mouth on his own. Mike didn't notice the low whispered 'Viper' when Sow came in him. Neither noticed the person hiding in the shadows that smirked to himself before seemingly disappearing in the darkness or the bedroom's door that opened just enough to let a shadow slip out.
The next day Sow and Viper were having their breakfasts together when Sow, who had been reading the newspaper's criminal section, suddenly went rigid just as he was preparing to take a drink of his coffee. He lowered the mug slowly to the table and wordlessly handed the opened paper to Viper who took it and scanned the large article on the page entitled "Surry horror story" under the older man's intense gaze. It was about some man named Vernon Dursley almost running with his car into the severely disfigured corpse laid on the highway of one Michael Stein, recognized by dental records only, on his way to work and in his shock running over a pedestrian who was taking his morning run when he lost control of the car. The pedestrian was in critical condition in hospital while Dursley had gotten away with a slight concussion and a broken wrist. Finishing it he gave it back to Sow who took the paper and put it folded beside his plate without looking away from Viper.
"You wouldn't happen to know why Mike's mangled body has been found in the outskirts of Surry this morning, no more than few hours after he left here, would you?"
The boy who had not looked up from his breakfast before did now and with an emotionless face looked right into Sow's eyes.
"No, I don't."
His eyes though told a wholly different story.
They looked at each other for a few seconds more before Sow nodded slowly and stood to wash his dish, throwing the paper in the bin on his way.
Viper returned to his meal a small triumphant smirk flashing across his youthful face before it once again returned to its emotionless mask.
Friday, March 13 next year, 1.30AM…
"Sow behind you!"
But Sow was too busy fending off the two assailants ahead and even with Viper's warning scream he couldn't move fast enough. The man behind pulled the trigger, the bullet was released and sailed trough the air. And as the capsule tore trough the air a dagger flew reaching its aim and the gun was dropped from dead numb fingers as eyes widened under the steel blade imbedded in the masked forehead. Sow's body hit the ground with a thud that to Viper's ears was deafening. The sight of his lover, his brother and farther, his all, falling to the cold ground with blood seeping from the gunshot wound on his forehead played itself as in slow motion in a world deprived of sound and other movement in the boy's mind and as the sound came rushing back something snapped inside of him.
Were you to ask anyone in the vicinity of two blocks of that alley what happened that night, they would undoubtedly tell you that they heard a wounded animal's cry. They would have told you how it made their blood freeze in their veins and their souls fill with fear. Some that understood better would have told you that it had been a cry filled with the deepest pain unimaginable, with the promise of death and all Hell on Earth, a promise a boy gave to the world that took it all from him, and one he intended to keep.
The sound of his cry echoed across the crammed space and stopped the men around Viper. Closing his mouth he gave a savage feral growl and sprang into action. Not ten seconds later the two remaining men were dead under him, Viper mauling the body of the last with blind slashes and stabs mind blank, body numb. None knew but one dark Deity on the dark side of the Moon that this was the moment all hope for the light was lost. And with every gash and every drop of blood spilt, the boy known as Viper lost more and more of his humanity and it made way for something new and far more evil to evolve.
Viper or Hell child as was being called by the press now, the bane of every man woman and child's existence that crossed his way, was for the first time in a long while laughing his head off. Four months after Sow's death he was barely keeping himself in the chair, bent over and laughing so hard that tears were rolling off the corners of his eyes. Some time later he managed to pull himself together and wiped them away while staring at the crumpled letter in his hand. He had received it earlier this morning via owl! Who sent their letters with nearly extinct birds anyway! He had opened and read it quickly and it was then that his mouth had quirked and soon a full blown maniacal laugh escaped his usually pulled in a grim line lips. Now he read it again, the grim shadow swiftly returning to his features. Harry Potter? That wasn't his name! But the owl had been persistent and it seemed more than sure the mail was for him. Now the question was: who was the dead man that dared joke with him! Magic! Whoever it was must have been very stupid or very sure of themselves to lay their life on the line for such an idiotic joke! Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry indeed. Oh, someone had quite the imagination but he'll play along if just to see if the idiot was stupid enough to show themselves. He snatched a pen and ripped a piece of paper from his notebook- the one he kept count of his kills in, and wrote a quick reply.
Ms. McGonagall,
I will be honored to attend your school and wish to enroll. However I seem not to know how to reach Diagonalley and would be grateful if you could send directions or someone to accompany me so I may purchase the needed supplies.
Sincerely,
Harry Potter
Viper snorted at the "sincerely". He hadn't been "sincere" for many years now. He tied the letter to the owl's leg and assuming it knew where to go only told it "To Hogwarts" before throwing the feather ball out the window. All that was left to do now was sit and wait to see if the little fish took the bait.
He lay in his and Sow's bed running his fingers over the cool blade of a dagger that had been his lover's last gift before his death. Viper had always had a thing for sharp, pointy and lethal objects so naturally the older man had made it a point to find the best for him. Sow…if he was someone else a lone tear would have marred his cheek, but the Hell child had no more tears to shed. The young man had been his world, never simply a father and more of a brother when they were younger.
About a year ago he had realized he held feeling different that those of a son or a younger brother towards him.
At first he had not been able to quite explain the anger he felt every time he saw Sow make out with his boyfriends or girlfriends but then Mike had come and he had understood. Until then it had been easy for Viper to ignore the burning in his chest every time he witnessed Sow and his latest conquest exchange flirtatious smirks around him or when they disappeared in Sow's bedroom, he even turned a deaf ear to the moans and the screams of pleasure that often accompanied such disappearances. He always knew the man or woman will be gone if not on the next morning then at the end of the week at most and he will again have Sow to himself. With Mike it had been different. The morning had came and went, the week had flown by but still the man came to dinner almost every evening and left to spend the night with Sow when he and Viper didn't have work to do. For the first time Sow had let Viper on his own, something he had absolutely refused to do before saying it was too dangerous, because he had wanted to take Mike out to dinner to celebrate the other man's birthday. Viper of course had said nothing of his mounting hatred towards the man, nor did he show it and continue to act as always while he planned ways to get rid of the maggot that usurped his Sow as soon as possible. The only thing that had stopped him from emptying his gun into the man was that he knew Sow would be upset.
But as the time passed the feelings had escalated to the point where they led him to that faithful evening when in an unusual display of the tactic 'act now, think later' he had kissed the Sow. What had followed had hurt him badly and he had stormed out to prowl the streets so he wouldn't have to listen to the two men and most importantly to keep him from ripping Mike's throat out with his bare hands the second he saw him.
After an hour or two he had calmed somewhat and by that time it was relatively late into the night so with the hope that the two at the flat had finished for the night the made his way back.
Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on one's point of view, his hopes were squashed as soon as he heard Mike's pleading and moans resonate in the apartment. Perhaps it had been pure curiosity, perhaps something else entirely but whatever it had been it had made him slip in the room using his ability to melt into the shadows just in time to see and hear the object of his affections come inside the other man with Viper's name on his lips. It had been that small word and that brief moment that had sealed Mike's fate.
He had slipped unnoticed out of the room and the apartment and had take position in an alley near by where he knew Mike will pass on his was home.
The man had had no chance at all when Viper had leapt from the shadows and effortlessly and with efficiency learned from repetition cut the sinew above his heels and then at the wrists rendering him helpless as a babe. He had dragged him in an abandoned warehouse near by and proceeded to torture him until the first rays if the sun had shyly broken the grayness of the early morning.
Half an hour later Mike's body had been found by Mr. Vernon Dursley
He had then proceeded to prove why exactly he was known as one of the most impossible men to argue with and had pursued his feelings towards Sow, not letting the man take a break. He knew he would eventually get what he wanted; he just had to be patient and not give up.
It had been a difficult and strained time for both after that and for the first time in their lives they fought both physically and verbally, for real. A few weeks later "the irritating snakelet" had gotten trough to the "old foolish bastard" and had been allowed to do what he wanted without every attempt, foiled or not, ending in a screaming match or/and knife threats with the occasional draw of blood. In the end all had turned out well and the two had shared some magical in more senses of the word that they understood at the time, moments together, that is before that night…the night when the Amon Family's mercenaries had caught them off guard and with a lucky shot had taken his beloved's life. Oh, they had paid dearly. For weeks bodies of members of the Family had turned up in gutters all around town. The corpses unrecognizable and always with a note stuck to the remains of their chests saying that Viper and Sow send their best wishes to the Amon Family and bide Evan Amon- the leader, a good day.
He had done that in true Sow style- mercilessly and with a hint of humor. From then on he had broken all ties to the Families and in need of a release for his pain had done the only thing he knew would ease it- kill. He swore he would follow Sow's advice and never give his loyalty to another but himself. He may pose as an ally, a servant even, but he belonged to no one and his life was his to do whatever he wished with it. The only true rule he needed abide by was satisfying his own needs and desires.
And now Viper slid the edge of the dagger over his palm and the blood that spilt was not his own in the emerald eyes, but Sow's, the pain wasn't from the wound, but from loss. He stared mesmerized at the ruby liquid that pooled on his hand and lost all sense of time and space until a rap on the door pulled him out of the dark place bathed in shadows he lost himself into whenever he spilt his victim's or his own blood.
Swiftly he wrapped a piece of cloth around his bleeding palm and donned the discarded leather gloves before moving to open the door.
He had had the intention of having some fun playing the "innocent act" but when he opened the door he changed his decision in the millisecond that took him to pounce and imbed the dart in the man's neck. The other taken completely by surprise swayed on his feet and before he could remove the dart, collapsed in the dim hallway. Viper checked the corridor and then pulled the unconscious form inside, glad that he wouldn't have to deal with witnesses.
What had changed his earlier decision was that when he opened the door he found himself facing a man, dressed in a black cloak and what seemed to be a robe underneath whose very presence screamed danger to Viper, so following his always accurate instincts he acted without a second thought.
He pulled the unconscious man in the "interrogation room" as he and his deceased partner had called it and got ready for some fun and information hunting.
Thirty minutes later Severus Snape, Potions Master and teacher at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry woke up to find himself blinded with a tight blindfold and tied to a rough feeling chair with equally tight restraints . With years of experience he listened carefully and heard the sound of another person's soft breathing coming from somewhere behind. And then a melodic silky voice told him how close exactly the person was.
"Name"
The breath ticked his ear but another sensation caught his attention- that of metal upon the delicate skin of his neck.
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A/N: Now hit that link and review!
