Warriors, Artisans and Protein shakes

Solomon's head jerked so sharply to the right that he thought it might fly off his shoulders. Tanith Low's hand had moved back and then forward so fast that he hadn't noticed until an almightly power-slap met his cheek. Solomon rubbed his burning jaw and grimaced. Fuck, that hurt, he thought then looked at Tanith. Her eyes, green as a cats, glittered with apparent fury. Her blonde hair framed her face like a mane. Truly, she looked terrifying.

Then, she growled one word, and it wasn't a hello...

"Death Bringer?"

Solomon blinking in surprize at this word coming out of Tanith Low's mouth. For a moment, he thought he had just imagined her saying it, the two seemed so unconnected.

"What?" he panted, hand still on his cheek. He played dumb, as much out of shock as a tactical move.

Tanith still wasn't backing off.

"You think that Val is the Death Bringer?"

He remained dumb, "I-"

"You think that she is your new saviour? Your Messiah, your next Lord Vile-"

"Okay, stop right there," Soloman said, regaining his composure and also some anger. "Whatever you know about the DeathBringer, and apparently it's more than I would have thought, it's not the whole story. Lord Vile was scum. We Necromancers acknowledge that."

"Yeah but you still think that Valkyrie is capable of being like him," Tanith said, continuing even as he opened his mouth to retort. "That...that she is capable of murder and of destroying the world, breaking the barrier between life and death, and commiting mass genocide, just like he planned, just like he did-"

Solomon clapped his hand over her mouth suddenly and pulled her closer to him to shut her up. It didn't really work-she still struggled and hurled abuse athim through his fingers. But at least it was muffled.

"Listen," he said in hushed tones, "You...obviously know alot more than you should about the Death-Bringer. But talking about it here is dangerous for you. If I'm to explain myself to you or tell you more we can't do it here."

Tanith stopped struggling for a moment and just looked into his eyes. Hers were dark green, a hazel colour, and they were angry, fierce. In them he saw is own pale reflection and glassy blue eyes staring back at him. It was an odd sensation. For a moment there was nothing but this. He hadn't stared into a woman's eyes like this since...since Ombra...

And then Tanith Low bit his middle finger.

Solomon yowled in pain like a wounded cat and jumped back from her. Tanith spat on the ground and glared at him.

"Why the fuck did you do that?" she demaned. "It's not like I was fucking ranting or anything."

"Oh weren't you?" Solomon snapped ,clutching his hand and glaring back at her. "Why the...hell did you bite me?"

"Because you clapped your fucking hand over my mouth!"

"Your language if the epitany of femininity."

"Shut up. Anyway, why would I want to listen to you explain yourself?"

"I don't know. Maybe to find out more about what is expected of your friend?"

"Oh yeah?" Tanith stepped toward him, half smiling. "How about I torture you or threaten to rip your fucking head off instead? Then you'll tell me faster."

"There's that language again..."

"Oh you want fucking language, darling? I'm from the Eastend. I know some places where you'd hear some riper language than mine. Hell, I could even take you to some here."

Solomon blinked at her. "Is that...is that you telling me you'd actually sit down in some place with me to talk?"

Tanith, now breathing heavily in her exertion and anger, looked him up and down for a fraction of a second, then nodded. "Sure, yeah. Yeah we'll talk. And you'll tell me about this Death Bringer nonsense."

"Right."

"Right."

"Fine."

"Fine."

"Good. We'll take my car."

"Good but we're coming back for my bike." Solomon nodded at her and gestured toward the gates of the graveyard. The walked towards the exit together, Tanith making sure that she was walking beside him all the way, and not behind him. Solomon almost smiled.

Unknown to the two acquaintances, standing hidden behind the mausoleum with a smirk spreading across his face, was Craven, little cogs turning in his head.

Solomon drove into the city centre in his black Mercedes, Tanith in the passenger seat, taking control of the radio but not the conversation. Solomon parked near Merchant's Arch and the two crossed through into Temple Bar.

They crossed the square and Solomon led them to a cafe that he was fond of. It was hidden in between an old world pub and a sushi bar, and was sombre and sophisticated in decor, if a little dark for eleven o'clock in the morning. But he was a Necromancer. He was naturally drawn to places like this, like a moth to a flame. Also the fact that a person had been stabbed in this building twenty years previous and their ghost supposedly haunted the place added to his fascination.

Solomon stepped forward and just as he put his hand out to push open the door, he heard a throat clear behind him. He turned around and saw Tanith standing there with her arms folding, one eyebrow raised.

"What?" Solomon asked, puzzled. Tanith nodded at the cafe.

"You've taken me to a goth joint?" she remarked increduosly. SolomOn blinked at her.

"It's not a goth joint," he replied, somewhat defensively. "It's a perfectly respectable cafe."

"Yeah, decorated like somewhere the Addams Family would hang out," she said, throwing out her arms. "If you expect me to talk with you about Val and 'explain' yourself, I'm choosing the place."

"Oh really?" Solomon said with a smirk, stepping toward her, "And why should I let you do that?"

"Well..." She stepped toward him and for the first time that day, she smiled at him, albeit flirtatiously and coquettishly, "Don't you want to know how I know so much about your Death Bringer?"

Solomon looked at her strangely, with a smile creeping across his lips, "I would like to know that actually, yes."

"Well, good," she said, and that pretty smile settled into a smirk. "Then follow me."

With that she turned on her boot heel and strode through crowd. Solomon watched her for a moment, then eventually decided to follow her, struggling to keep up.

Tacky showbiz memorabilia covered the walls and rockabilly filled the air, teamed with the shrieks of children at tables of families, and the buzz of chatter in the over crowded restaurant. The smell of burnt burgers and vinger drenched chips hung in the air, and Solomon glared at Tanith with blue- grey eyes full of loathing from across the table of the booth they had miraculously managed to get.

Tanith twirled a blonde curl around her finger as she read the equally tacky laminated menu.

"Hmm, I hate this drinks menu," she commented, sounding off-hand. "Isn't it a disgrace that they don't have protein shakes?"

"I hate this place, Tanith," Solomon said slowly. "Thunderroad, Tanith? Really? You couldn't think over anywhere better to go?"

Tanith looked up from the menu and stared at Solomon with her dark eyes calmly. Her pretty face was serene and without anger, her mouth unsmiling but not unhappy.

"Well, as it was my choice where we were going to go, Solomon," she said slowly and calmly, like a school teacher speaking to a child. "So obviously I was going to pick one of my favourite places. But the actual Temple Bar has a new owner, who is a prick, so I wasn't going there, and that place that sells the potato pizza is closed for renovations. So basically, this was my third choice."

Solomon blinked, looked around and then looked back at her from under his eyelashes. "This, was your third choice? Tanith...why? Why do you like this place? Strangely, I thought that you might have a bit more class."

Tanith narrowed her eyes. "Sorry to disappoint Solomon, but I do actually like Thunderroad. For two reasons. One, the food here actually is good..."

"Yes, if you like the taste of melted rubber," Solomon interjected with a cruel smile, "Or, as they like to call it, Dubliner's cheese..."

"And two," her eyes flickered to something over his left shoulder and she grinned, "The scenery's not bad."

Solomon looked over his shoulder with a puzzled expression on his face, and saw two handsome waiters approaching, one with blonde hair, one with light brown, both well-developed and speaking in Polish. They looked over at the table and smiled at Tanith. The blonde one flipped open a notepad, and walked over.

"Hello," he greeted in his thick accent, and in Solomon's opinion, with an equally thick manner. "You know vat you like?"

"Oh yes, I know what I like, alright," Tanith replied with a cheeky grin. Solomon cleared his throat loudly, and succeeded in diverting the waiter's attention.

"Yes, I think we'll have two cappachinos, when you're ready," he said quickly and brusqely. The waiter, nodded and brought his pen to his notepad, then frowned.

"Two..coffees..." he asked, slowly. Before Tanith could help him, Solomon chipped in.

"Yes, two of those coffees, you know, with the foam on them. There's a good boy."

The waiter gave him a long hard look which Solomon countered with his own, then wrote down the order and walked off with his buddy. The waiter with the brown hair gave Solomon a dirty look as they walked off. Solomon looked on with a strange pang of jealously throbbing inside him. He put it down to the fact that the two of them had such amazing pectoriales compared to his own skinny, pathetic frame, nothing to do with the effect they had on his associate.

Tanith gave them an apologetic smile, then turned back to Solomon, keeping the grin on her face.

"You... a little bit of a bitch, you know that?" she said. Solomon looked at her in disbelief.

"What, you think that I'm a bitch?" he asked. Tanith blinked, dropping the smile.

"Are you implying that if anyone's a bitch around here, it's me?"

"What? No, I...I'm just asking, why am I a bitch exactly?"

"The way you sniped at that poor waiter!"

"I snipe at alot of people."

"What, do you not like Polish people?"

"I dislike gays too."

"What?"

"Look, are we going to talk about Valkyrie, or not?" Solomon asked in a rush. He took a deep breath and looked up at Tanith. She stared at him with a look of obvious loathing. Right honey, as if I don't feel shitty enough, he thought bitterly.

After an eternity, she spoke. "Right. Well, I'll start by asking, why do you even think that Val is the Death Bringer.?"

"She's more advanced than any of our students," Solomon told her with a shrug. "Students who have been with us since they were infants. She's got a talent, an aptitude for the art of Necromancy, that none of us have seen the likes of since Lord Vile."

"Alright, so she has the talent," Tanith admitted, leaning forward on her elbows. "But do you really think she has the...the..."

"Ability?" Solomon suggested. "To break the barrier?"

"Capability," Tanith's eyes turned sad. "Do you really think she's capable of such a thing?"

Solomon looked at her for a long moment, wondering how much she knew. He licked his lips. "Such a thing..."

"As saving the world from itself," Tanith said, her anger returning. "That's what the Death Bringer does, yeah? Breaks down the barrier between life and death but in order to do so has to kill everyone on Earth."

"Let me ask you a question," he asked, leaning forward as well. "How exactly do you know so much about the Death Bringer and our business?"

Tanith looked at him for a minute, then looked away and shrugged. "Val told me."

"No," Solomon said, a smile creeping across his lips. "No I don't think she did. You know far more than even I told her and you speak with such fury. You know alot."

Tanith stared at him hard again with those eyes. Solomon was usually quite good at making people quiver beneath his own cool gaze. But Tanith seemed to have the same talent. He was starting to feel uncomfortable with her glaring. Then she looked away to inspect her nails.

"Alright," she began casually. "If you must know, my mother was one of you guys."

Solomon was thrown by this. "Your mother?"

"Yes, my mother."

He looked at her. "But you're..." He gestured to try and help himself explain.

"Normal?" she suggested. Solomon nodded. Tanith smiled, and this time it was almost genuine.

"My mother met my dad during the war. He wasn't a Necromancer, but they fell in love so she left her Temple to be with him." Her eyes turned sharp again. "But I'm not telling you who she is, so don't ask. Just in case..."

"In case...I tell the authorities and they hunt her down?" Solomon guessed. Tanith looked at him, then nodded tightly.

"I wouldn't do that," he said softly, dropping his masquerade of arrogance for a moment. Tanith laughed cruelly, not buying it.

"Why wouldn't you?" she sniped, leaning forward. "Anyway, I'm not risking it. All you need to know is that she was a Necromancer, and she quit. And she told me stories...of the war and the people that fought in it. And, of course, of the Death Bringer. The way most parents would their kids stories of the boogie man."

"Hmm," was all Solomon said for a moment. Then he smirked.

"Did she tell you any stories about me?" he asked playfully. Tanith pretended to consider that for a second.

"Hmm, let me see. Did she tell me any stories of the extraordinary Solomon Wreath...nope, none that ring a bell."

Soloman let out a chuckle. Tanith grinned a nasty grin.

"But then, Necromancers aren't really known for their heroics, are they? You guys stay in your Temples and plot. That's all."

"That...is true for the majority of Necromancers, yes," Soloman agreed, but looking at her sternly. "But there are representatives from the various Temles, who have to work outside the Temple. Like me." He looked at the table, then chuckled darkly. "Here's a question for you Tanith."

"Shoot," she said coldly. His silvery eyes met her gaze.

"If your mother was once one of us, then don't you think it is slightly hypocritical of you to despise Necromancers?"

Tanith looked at him. "No, not at all."

"Really?"

"Mm. Would you like me to tell you why?"

"Go on."

"Coffee?"

The two were awakened from their heated conversation by a Polish accent, and looked up to see the buff blonde waiter looking down at them, holding two cappachinos. Tanith and Solomon also realised how they were leaning over the table towards each other. They hadn't realised they had leaned toward each other so much as they were talking. Their faces were barely inches apart. The two cleared their throats and leaned back in their seats, taking the coffee and thanking the waiter. He nodded at them, smiling at Tanith and glaring at Solomon, then walked off.

The mood of the table had lightened into a strained awkwardness. Solomon looked at Tanith, who had begun to sip her coffee.

"I'd still prefer a protein shake though," she muttered between sips.

"So...why don't you think it's hypocritical?" he prompted, raising his dark eyebrows. Tanith looked at him from under her thick lashes, sipping her drink. Then she smiled.

"Because,"she began, laying down the mug, "of what you lot would do to my mother if you found her. And don't deny it. You would kill her, or enslave her for life. In your eyes, she is a heathen, and regardless of the reason that she left the order-that she fell in love with a non Necromancer and that she was pregnant with my big brother-you guys, would have her killed. That...small mindedness, is what I hate."

"I adore the way you kept saying 'you' while looking at me as you explained that," Solomon, said, leaning back and staring her in the eye coldly.

"Another thing I hate about you guys," Tanith continued, "Is the fact that during the war, you did...next to nothing-"

"Alright, that is NOT something you can pin on me," Solomon chipped in, holding up one finger."I did fight during the war. Just ask Skulduggery that."

"Oh yeah, what side?" Tanith asked. Solomon chuckled and looked at the table. She was good.

Tanith bared her teeth. "See? Or did you switch sides alot, huh? Is that what you tend to do, Solomon?"

"Tanith," he began slowly, smirking, staring at his coffee. "Haven't you ever deliberated about a choice you had to make, a side you had to choose, and so stayed on middle ground until you knew which one to pick?"

Tanith thought about that for a moment. "Well yes," she replied slowly, looking him in the eye. "Like... choosing between Rocky Road and Raspberry Ripple. Never Mind the Buzzcocks and Mock the Week. The Ramones or Guns n' Roses. But never, you know, between good and evil, like!"

She said this last bit so sharply that Solomon was almost shocked. Then he laughed and looked down at the table miserably.

"Tanith, why do you hate me so much?" he asked, keeping a smirk on his face as he looked at the tablecloth.

"I never said I hated you," she replied breezily. Solomon chuckled.

"It's not generally something that you tell someone off hand, Tanith," he said, looking up at her. "But its something that someone with any sort of intelligence can tell."

"Right, so, you want to know why I despise you so much?" Tanith asked.

"Yes, I do."

"Right...besides the whole Necromancer thing and the fact that you think my best friend is ready to destroy the world., thing, yeah?"

"Yes, besides that," he said still smirking. She leaned forward on the table and stared him right in the eye.

"You are arrogant," she began and he scoffed. "Vain, and self-indulgant. You are absolutely full of it, you think that you are God's gift. You are selfish, sneaky, dishonest and forget to tell people important things. You think of no-one but yourself and you are completely absorbed in this stupid religion of yours."

"Oh really, is that what you think of me Tanith?" he asked coldly back in his chair, his eyes hard and glittering.

"Yeah, that's what I think."

"Really, because I have absolutely no problem with you, Miss Low. I never did."

Tanith looked at him, and for a moment he thought he saw a flicker of remorse across her face. She blinked, and her eyes grew soft. Then she was back to herself.

"Well," she said, shrugged, "That's nice."

He noticed that she was annoyingly sexy when she was being pig-headed.

"Also, I thought you liked arrogant blokes," Solomon mused, sipping some coffee. "Considering how much time you spend with Skulduggery Pleasant."

Tanith's eyes narrowed. "That are you implying?"

"I'm not implying anything."

"Are you sure, because you sound like you're impying that I have a thing for Skulduggery."

"Well do you?" he asked, leaning back in his chair and smirking. She looked at him in disbelief.

"No," she replied adamantly. "No, I don't. He is my friend, we fight together but that is it. To tell you the truth, we actually tend to fight each other."

"Really?" Solomon asked, raising a disbelieving eyebrow. Tanith looked at her coffee.

"Yeah we do. You might not believe it but we fight all the time." She sighed and her voice actually turned sad. "They're usually disagreements. Over Val or tactics or...something. He screams at me. He screamed at me once he fond out that Val had enlisted a vampire's help to help find him, and that we knew she was doing it.

"Oh understood why...he cares about her, he wants to protect her. But I had never seen him that angry before."

Solomon was taken back by her confiding in him. That's what she was doing after all. She seemed taken back too.

"Why the fuck am I telling you this?" she asked bluntly, but not aggressively, looking back up at him. He smiled and shrugged not wanting to fuck up again and make her angry with him.

"I don't know," he said honestly with a shrug,"Maybe just because I'm the only one here."

"I guess that's right," she said with a small laugh. "I mean, I can't slam Skulduggery in front of Val, because she adores him, and then Ghastly's his best friend, so I can't talk to him...and there's no-one else around that I could tell without fearing that it might get back."

Soloman chuckled slightly at a memory. Tanith looked at him.

"What?" she asked, calmly (thank God).

"Well...you know, I used to be partners with Skulduggery," Solomon told her slowly. Her hazel eyes widened considerably.

"Seriously?" she asked, astounded. Solomon nodded.

"Yep," he replied as she sipped on her coffee. "During the war...at one stage we had to carry out investigations together. Possibly one of the reasons why we rehabilitated ourselves as detectives. But I was never as close to him as Valkyrie is, or any of you are. But we worked well together. We disagreed constantly though. Skulduggery had different ideals to me..." He looked at his own mug. "So I told him I would investigate with him, nevermore."

"Quoth the Raven," Tanith said absently, taking another sip. Solomon stared at her at this.

"You...you know Poe?" he asked, in irrational disbelief. Tanith gave him a funny look and shrugged.

"Sure," she said with a half laugh, "Who dosn't know 'the Raven'." She then began to recite.

" 'Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary/Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore-"

" 'While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping." Solomon continued eagerly.

"As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door." She concluded with a smile smile. Then she caught herself and the smile dropped. She shrugged as if indifferent.

"It is a classic, but there are other ones I prefer," Tanith told him, sipping from her tea. Solomon couldn't keep the smile from creeping across the corners of his mouth. "Such as?"

"Well," she said, laying down her cup. "Besides the detective stories of Auguste Dupin, I like 'A Dream Within a Dream'. And that weird one, 'A Valentine'.

"Really?" Solomon asked. Then she began reciting again.

Solomon looked at her, not realising that his mouth was half open. He felt...stunned. And she looked smug.

"You...how are you...so fluent?" he asked, stuttering in awe.

Tanith let out a laugh and played with her cup, a smile on her lips. "I went to Cambridge."

Solomon looked at her. "You what?"

"It's true. You wouldn't think to look at me now, now would ya?"

Solomon looked at her for a long moment. This woman...she was full of surprizes. He suddenly had an image in his head of him getting out of his seat, grabbing her and smashing her up against that wall, sinking his teeth into her neck and her crying out in pleasure-"

"Solomon?" Solomon awoke from his unwelcome vampire-like fantasy to find Tanith staring at him with a smile on her face.

"You sort of... zoned out there Sol," she said, still grinning. That was the first time she would use his nickname. "You okay?"

"I'm fine," he said hastily. "So, um, you said you liked Dupin. Have you read 'Murders in the Rue Morgue'?"

And so the two of them spend the afternoon sat there, as the world went by around them, no longer talking about dark deeds and Death Bringers and the end of the world. They talked of literature and Tanith's days at Cambridge, Solomon's days in Rome and the Middle East, then onto plays and movies.

Ironically they were eventually asked to leave at a busy hour by the very waiter Solomon had ticked off. The two continued walking and talking around Temple Bar until eventually the sky looked grey and dismal and Tanith announced that she wanted to get back to her bike. Solomon agreed to take her and so they headed back to his car.

As they reached the Merc the street was quiet enough apart from the cars and taxis going by. Before Tanith got into the passenger seat Solomon called from the opposite side of the car, "I had a...surprizingly good day today."

Tanith looked over at him, her golden hair framing her face. She nodded curtly.

"It was...okay, yes." The warmness that had come into her voice, the real Tanith that he had seen during the afternoon, had evapourated. She looked at the ground.

"We got off topic, Mr Wreath," she said seriously, eye gazing at the cement. "We shouldn't have. We were supposed to be talking about Valkyrie."

Solomon frowned. "I...I know that, but we...just got distracted I suppose..."

"Yes,well, we shouldn't have," Tanith said firmly, looking at him with an apathetic expression on her face. "And I had so much else to ask you. So I suppose there's...no other solution than to meet up again tomorrow."

Solomon blinked at her. "Are you...are you serious?"

Tanith nodded. ", at noon. I'll meet you under Merchant's Arch again, okay?"

"Um..yes, of course." He stuttered, trying to regain some composure.

"Good. I suppose it's only right that you get to pick where we have our coffee tomorrow, so. Or...protein shakes..."

"Yes, I...suppose." Tanith looked at him for a moment, then the serious look struggled to remain on her face, and she smirked.

"Get in, so," she said, and she got into the passenger seat. Solomon blinked at the car for a moment, then smirked and got in.

A/N: Ta-da! And so an unlikely pairing begins. Tune in next to here Tanith and Solomon talk about necrophilia and Hitchcock. Enjoy!