Fabrica Damnatorum
"You're brooding again." A silky voice purred and leaned back on leather seats, lifting her leg and extending it to the opposite seat where she rested her toes. "Don't be like that, Jack." He kept his head low under the hat and grabbed her foot, rubbing his fingers through her toes. The vixen groaned and slid lower on the seat trying to get a glimpse of his face and sighed. "Do you think this is going to come off as attractive?"
The buck across from her lifted his head slightly and pressed his paws between her toes, watching her slide down lower on the seat as he smiled. "Do I need to come off as attractive?"
"No." She giggled as he lifted her foot, pressing his nose to her big toe. "Don't do that before we even get started. You've been planning this and scouting it out for months on your own time. If you screw around, you'll lose your only chance to meet them because I'll lock you in the car." Jack chuckled and let go of her foot, peeking up from under his hat as she sat up in the seat.
He leaned back and looked out the window, lost in thought as she moved to the seat beside him. "You're nervous?"
He curled his fingers around hers when she grabbed his paw. "I'm not sure nervous is the right word. Apprehensive perhaps."
"They'll love you, Jack."
Jack looked back at her and shook his head. "This isn't exactly the best way to go about meeting them, Skye. I'm afraid I'm going to step on toes and I haven't been able to get a good idea what they might think by what I've learned."
Skye scoffed. "A farm girl who became a cop and a street boy who used to be a con artist. Not much to learn if you ask me. You grew up on a farm, I grew up in the city, I can't see how we could be that different. I don't get why you're so worried about it."
"I didn't find out much about him or her. He's been… sliding through and around the law for years and there wasn't much on his childhood to find. Parents died right after he turned legal. Her, she has so many siblings she got lost in the mix as far as being able to sort out her personality. They aren't that far from our ages, relatively speaking." Skye threw her head back laughing as he smirked. "They just got started in the business later. They're the only other rabbit and fox in any kind of position like this. The only difference is they're in the spotlight. We aren't. I'm risking changing that doing this and they may not like how we come into the picture or appreciate the introduction I've planned. Technically; we are crashing their party."
Skye looked out the window and shrugged. "In the business...Is that what you're calling it now? If they aren't interested, they aren't worth the time. I'm not exactly happy about playing second fiddle to this whim you have. Why are we having to go about it like this anyway? Plan B is a sure-fire way to make sure you get what you want."
Jack chuckled as the car stopped, and opened the door. "Silly girl, you're my fiddle. Plan B is a last resort. I couldn't find any other way to get in the door with them. They're almost reclusive. They seem like they're creatures of habit and this is one of the only ones they have that would allow us into the picture without explanation."
Skye giggled as he helped her out of the car. "Reclusive creatures of habit…we'll try it your way first. I better be your only fiddle." She looked around and rolled her eyes. "Ugh. It looks like everyone's already here." She smirked as she threw her coat into the car and watched Jack look her over before he took a breath and lowered his hat over his face again. As the door closed a hush fell over the crowd that had gathered, watching her glide to the entrance. Jaws dropped as the dark blue skirt she was wearing let her long legs twist around the fabric that was slit all the way to the hip, a diamond studded belt looped around her waist. The matching top was half cut and tight fitting with one side dangling to her waist. The top was low cut and let the puff of fur around her neck scrunch up when she lowered her head in a sultry smile as she waved a card in front of the bouncer. Jack kept his hat over his face and smirked as the cougar at the door removed a red velvet rope and opened the door. Several others in suits followed behind her as he dipped his head. The crowd grumbled or gasped as Jack slid his feet along the ground behind Skye, turning like he was dancing as he handed the feline a bill and slipped in behind her. Ears perked and people bounced in the line outside as the music in the club switched and grew louder.
Nick looked at this watch before he checked himself in the mirror and growled. "You can do this… again. Just be your old sly self and try not to …." He shook his head as he grabbed his car keys and headed out the door. The fox smiled as he stepped to the curb and laughed at the little car pulling to the sidewalk.
"Hi Nick!" A bubbly voice called as he twirled his keys in his paw and stuffed them into his pocket.
"Ben, I guess I'm not driving tonight."
"You forgot?" The cheetah asked as Nick opened the door and slid into the seat.
"Yeah, I did. I've had a lot on my mind and wasn't sure this was a good idea. Sorry." Nick closed the door and pulled the seatbelt over his chest as the friendly cheetah smiled.
"We don't have to go to that place. There are others. We don't even have to go to a club at all! We could just go have dinner and watch a movie or something."
Nick looked at him and the cheetah's ears folded back when the fox sighed and closed his eyes. "Aren't you supposed to be meeting someone tonight?" Benji cringed as Nick smiled. "I don't want to ruin your date, Ben. I already feel like a tag along."
"Awe! Don't think like that, Nick! We want you to come along. It's better than sitting at home moping around. Especially after Finnick said he had other plans. Not much of a friend if you ask me."
Nick chuckled as the car pulled away from the building and headed down the street. "He's alright. Just a horny little thug. You wouldn't believe how much tail he gets, and now that I'm a cop I sort of scare off a lot of his prospects. Not exactly the savory type he hangs with. Not that I can say I hung out with any better before."
Benji sighed. "Still having problems adjusting? It seems like you've made a lot of friends since you started. It's only been a couple of years."
Nick shrugged. "I have. Its just different. Everything is different. I'm not sure I'm in the right line of business anymore."
Benji slowed the car and pulled over. "You're thinking about quitting?" Nick looked at him and smiled as the cat turned the car off and frowned. "You can't let one breakup change the rest of your life. Even Bogo's said you're one of the best cops we have!"
"I don't know Ben. It's not just the breakup. She's still my partner. We spend so much time together and I just can't wrap my head around it. Still spending so much time together and still wanting to be… We didn't breakup because we don't want each other or were fighting." Nick looked back at the cat and tried to smile as his ears perked.
"You know you can tell me if you need to talk. I'm not going to gossip about anything personal like that."
"I know Ben. But I think it's one of the reasons Finnick doesn't want to spend a lot of time with me anymore. I live with the guy now and he avoids me. It's not something anyone can help with or wants to hear about. It's personal and I'm not sure it's something you'd understand or that she'd want me talking about. I mean she knows I hate dancing, but she still wants me to come out doing things like this with her. She doesn't even want people to know we broke up and I don't think this is how things should be."
Benji smiled as he took the keys out of the ignition. "I don't think she wants people to know because she likes the attention you get as a couple. I'm sure she wants things to work out and is hoping you'll get through it."
Nick chuckled. "I know that's what it is. I wish it was that simple, Ben." He opened his door and groaned at the line around the corner from the club entrance.
"Hey Nick!"
Benjie laughed as Judy nearly knocked Nick off his feet. The fox rolled his eyes as she wrapped her arms around him and rolled her head under his chin. "Hey, Carrots."
"Nicholas Wilde and Judy Hopps." They both looked up and raised a brow as the door mammal folded his arms over his chest. A burly hippo they'd met a few months ago, who always looked like he might be eating to much cheese.
Nick cocked his head and frowned. "Franklin? I thought Jasper worked on Friday nights. That cat hasn't missed a shift once since we've been coming here."
The hippo flipped his ears back and forth and smiled. "He's inside. You're being requested as guests of the visiting VIP'S. You may bring any other guest along."
"Who are the VIP's and why are they asking for us?" Nick asked as Judy shrugged. "Besides that, Ben may be waiting or someone."
"I don't know their names, but they seem to know you, or want to. Why waste the opportunity not to stand in line?"
Nick looked at Judy and the doe narrowed her eyes before looking back at Benji. Clawhauser shrugged. "Ossy is already here so I can go in if you want me to."
Nick smiled as Judy looked up at him chewing her lip. "Don't do the eye thing, Carrots." When they grew bigger, he rolled his eyes and laughed. "One of these days I'm going to learn how to say no to that look."
Judy hopped up and down and hip bumped him as the hippo stepped back and extended an arm towards the velvet rope across the door. Once through the door the fox looked back almost frowning as it closed. A look around the club and he tilted his head to the right, flattening his brow. "Nick? What's wrong?"
Nick shook his head and sighed. "Familiar. The whole atmosphere in the place is…"
"Jumping?" Benji asked as he looked around and laughed at the bouncing music, lights, and people on the dance floor.
Nick almost frowned as he looked around again. "That's my point, no one's at the bar, no one's at the tables. Some of the regulars in here never leave their spots. I don't even see anyone serving drinks."
Judy looked out and smiled at the large group on the dance floor as Clawhauser slipped into the crowd with a smaller cat. "Benji?" He looked back at her and scrunched his nose as his cheeks flared and pointed to a small ocelot pulling at his paw. She giggled as he disappeared. "Come on Nick, can't you just relax? Why do you always have to be so suspicious?" Judy's ears dropped as he glanced at her and looked through the crowd.
"Go ahead, Carrots. I'll be at the bar."
She shrugged before bouncing off into the crowd after Clawhauser and his date, but her attention didn't stay on them for long after she spotted the pair. She was flipping her ears back and forth at the odd sound she kept hearing and stopped, staring as Nick seemed to circle the crowd looking for something. When his eyes kept jumping and narrowing on another area, she turned and gasped at the vixen in front of her. "Judy Hopps." There was an audible hiss at the end of her name that seemed to float on the air. Judy stopped cold. It was as if the vixen's voice had frozen her to the floor and all she could do was look up with her mouth open. "Cat got your tongue? You're not afraid of foxes, are you?" The vixen smiled as Judy shook her head and stepped away, until she backed into a familiar scent that had her turn and bury her face in Nick's chest. The red fox stood there with his eyes narrowed on the vixen as she lifted her nose and howled, sending the crowd into a scurry of motion that surrounding her as she smirked and backed away. Making a show of every move she made as she glided along the floor.
Nick's lip twitched as a tall figure in a white suit came out behind her, a white fedora with a bright red strip that matched his tie lowered was on his head so his eyes and face remained hidden. He tipped his head to the side and narrowed his eyes as the dance floor erupted. Judy peeked back letting her jaw drop as the crowd around them swayed back and forth behind half a dozen others in black suits. Her brow raised as she caught the bunny ears coming from under his hat. "Nick, I've never seen a rabbit that tall before."
"He is not a rabbit, Judy." Nick said in a dark voice that had her ears rise. The only time he ever used her name was when he was worried or there was something to be worried about. Judy watched the buck grab the vixen and twirl her out before they were moving in a heated exchange of rhythm. Judy's jaw dropped as the buck twirled the vixen on the floor and into a lift over his head. He was holding her up with one arm before she curled around his body and ended up sliding between his legs and stopping on her knees facing them. When he grabbed his hat and started tipping it up, Nick pulled Judy closer and turned her head into his chest. He looked at the others behind them in black suits and frowned as he backed away with Judy and shook his head. The red fox smirked as the buck lifted his hat, exposing blue eyes that pierced through the lighting in the room.
The vixen, backed away as Nick lowered his head and smiled. "Jack…."-*
The crowd had gone still watching them dance as Jack pulled Skye into a twirl and smirked. "He's stronger than I thought he'd be."
"Jack." Skye almost growled as the buck pulled her closer and smiled. "It's more than that."
He laughed as he set another set of moves into motion that swung her out and back to him again. "What? You think we're out of their league."
"No." Skye pulled away and shook her head. "I think they're out of ours, or he is."
Jack stopped and took notice of the crowd watching and turned to find the red fox with his head dipped over Judy's, his ears pinned back and an expression he flinched at. Neither of them were with the rest of the group and the doe seemed lost in the fox, while the red fox himself just seemed to be studying them. Nick raised his head as he cradled Judy's ears to his chest and let his front teeth show. A low whistle ran through the room and sent Skye cupping her paws over her ears, screeching as she landed on her knees. Jack backed away in shock as he grabbed the vixen and tried to pull her away. The ones that had followed them in wearing black moved forward. Nick narrowed his eyes before he let off another sharp whistle that had them, along with everyone else in the club shaking their heads like they'd regained their senses.
The crowd dispersed as if nothing had ever happened, leaving Nick and Judy facing Jack and Skye. The vixen barely pulled herself off the floor as Jack scowled at Nick. "Comedens Damnatorum…. It's not possible. All your kind were killed."
Nick scoffed as he smiled. "As was said of the Publicanus Si Condimnabutur's. For the damned and those who believe I am not among them, I think you will find many things possible in Zootopia." Nick looked at Judy and smiled as he held a paw out. "She will be coming with me." Skye looked up from Nick's paw growling, but as soon as their eyes met, her face fell and she rushed forward wrapping her arms around him. Judy cringed as her teeth showed. With another whistle the vixen pinned her ears back and buried her face in his chest. Jack growled and stepped forward, but was halted as Nick snapped his fingers.
The black suits that had followed him and Skye in moved closer to Jack, setting his fur on end. He frowned as he looked at Nick. "You haven't turned her yet, but she's not under your hold. I have a proposition for you, Eater of the damned."
One warning glance was all it took for Jack to back away as Nick narrowed his eyes and pursed his lips. "You want her back? I suggest you make a point of leaving town. Whatever it is you're looking for here, you won't find it. If you think you have, find an acceptable alternative elsewhere, or I will keep her."
Jack looked at Judy and dropped his head frowning. "Skye is not my prisoner, no more than she's yours. I know everything about you, and her."
Nick turned to leave with Skye and Judy and looked over his shoulder smiling. "It's not like your kind to take a mate. She will be unharmed and free to leave once I have secured the safety of my own. Now, so there is no misunderstanding…do you really want to threaten an eater of the damned, when you yourself are the damned, or assume you know everything about me, when obviously- you don't. If that were the case you wouldn't have been foolish enough to attempt this at all. All I have to do is open my mouth and you will disappear. If we truly are the last of our kinds, neither of us have lived this many centuries without killing thousands of the others. Your mate is among the damned as well, but not inclined to it without persuasion. Like the kind you have over the people here. Easily waned into acceptance and entertained by flashy tricks, I am not. If you're so sure that is the case, she'll return to you on her own. Don't make the mistake of assuming I didn't take that as a threat, or that I won't do more than talk the next time we meet."
Jack looked around and scowled. "Like you aren't doing the same with your little tricks right now, they aren't even paying attention to us or what's going on. What makes you think we're so different? I never understood why your kind thought you were better than us."
Nick looked around and shrugged. "I've killed thousands, all your kind. Never a mortal. I have nothing to hide. My kind uses this technic solely to protect, not to entrance. It's not just the girls I'm protecting by hiding things from the mortals here. The same can-not be said of you, I'm sure. Think hard. Does the name Wilde not come to mind? Say about…1397? I remember how you obtained the name, Savage. I was there. You have a very pretty pattern and a very short temper when someone mentions it, or I could give you the direct quote, but that would be...tasteless."
"You were there? But only one of your kind survived that battle. He was the…"
Nick took a deep breath and gave Judy Skye's paw. "Stay with her. She's a Cantor Animarum, harmless unless provoked or driven by another's desires." Judy looked at him funny and he smiled. "A soul singer, the opposite of a Siren. Also the reason I didn't scent him before we came inside." Judy nodded as she grabbed Skye's paw and Nick stepped back to Jack in contemplation. The buck's ear twitched as Nick frowned. "At the end, the only way to become what you want more than anything else will cost you what you love the most- either way. It's not something I will give you or anyone else. If I made a mistake, I will remedy it through nothing more than your next move. Seeing something extraordinary will change the darkest soul. Be happy with what you have."
"Are you?" Jack asked as his eyes switched back and forth between Nick and Judy.
Nick stepped closer and Jack shook his head when the fox pulled his hat off and got a good glimpse of his ears. "You're incomplete. Missing the final black mark above your left ear. You need another kill to finalize the transformation. Its why you need her help entrancing others. I have been adapting every century and have learned to fit in well with mortals. It doesn't mean I didn't become severely jaded by them. You're young, and what you're seeking is a fairy tale that doesn't exist. Though we may appear similar in age as far as physical traits go, I am very old. Older than any you've ever met. I can no longer smell flowers, taste meat or fruit, feel what I touch. Until recently I couldn't see anything in color. There was only one thing that hit all my senses over the centuries, it's so strong right now that I've lost touch with almost all my senses being so close to it. The scent of the only thing I was created for doing. There have been no deaths reported in centuries by your kind. Take your leave, Savage. She won't be able to hide you while I have her. The next time you ask if I'm satisfied with the life I have, ask yourself; what would he need to do to change it."
Nick let off another sharp whistle and the crowd fell into its usual habits. He tossed Jack his hat as Judy waved at a confused Benji. Nick led Skye and Judy through the exit. Jack was left there with his mouth hanging open before he flattened his brow and seethed…