Ice Ice Baby- Ch 3
Tam woke with excitement at dusk, she had gone to sleep damn near giddy and upon opening her eyes, she looked up at the rickety wooden bunk she almost chuckled. She quickly looked around but saw no one else in her room; a tingle course through her body as she anticipated that by dawn she would be a Bishop of New York City. Mentally she reviewed the plan until she was certain that everything would go smoothly, and looking at a small clock she knew it was show time. She quickly left her room, making a few calls to ensure that everything was in place. She left through the back door and walked the three miles to the bar, she wanted to look in bad shape and the walk in poorly fitting shoes left her sore and she played it up with a limp. She settled in a corner near the stoop of the bar, curled up and waited for Icy to come retrieve her,
The next few hours were some that Tam would commit to her memory as some of the best of her existence. Things could not have played out more beautifully if they were scripted and rehearsed. Icy came to collect her boy persona and promptly sympathized at the beating. To her absolute thrill, Tam got to puke on some satin shoes. Icy was wearing some satin high heeled creations, there was no other word for them, and as she leaned down to give the "boy" sympathy, Tam got the wicked idea. The feet were stuffed into shoes about three sizes too small, looking like pale lumps of dough surrounded by glittering satin shoes of chartreuse.
"Did she hit you lambkins?" Icy gushed and oozed, trying her best not to look annoyed and scare off her information.
"Yea, for not being on time, but I got good news for you." Tam said, wincing in pain for Icy's benefits, the shudders helped her get over her urge to laugh. She quickly reigned herself in and got down to business at hand. "She is going to deliver the book to some old book buying near the University of Maryland, at the College Park metro stop."
Tam almost gagged as Icy crushed her in a smothering hug of excitement. Then she was abruptly pulled to her feet and drug through the club, out the back and pushed into a car where Icy proceeded to sit half on her in the back seat. Tam pretended to be meek and quiet and tried her best to ignore the vapid prattle that was streaming on next to her, she could not afford to drift off into another brain fugue, but it was hard. They came up to the College Park stop eons later, at least that's what it felt like to Tam, and she clambered out as quickly as she could. She had not felt pure joy in years, but getting out of the sticky, smelling car and away from Icy gave her a feeling that just might have been. Quickly she ran down the steps and gained a blessed few minutes to herself as Icy rapidly lumbered down the stairs, but had to be careful in navigations so she didn't fall on the heels that were too tall for her, Tam urged her on in hushed whispers, navigating down into the sub sections of the metro-rail system where no humans dared to tread. It was dark, dank and too moist but still Tam kept the pace up, zig zagging through the underground so that even if Icy were paying attention that she would have a hard time retracing their steps. After twenty minutes of moving about they came to a ladder. Here was the only part of the plan that Tam figured had a flaw, it might be difficult to explain why some regular antique book dealer had a ladder to the subway beneath his store. Even still she kept pace and rapidly climbed up the metal rungs. A very feral smile covered her lips as she head Icy clang her way up the ladder.
As Tam entered the room, she almost laughed. Standing over in a dimly lit corner a blonde and an old man stood looking over a book. Tam moved out of the way and gave a helping hand to Icy. As soon as she was in the room and saw the blonde, Icy moved toward her and Tam shut the trap door, quietly locked it and stood on it for safe keeping. As Icy walked over to the couple"Tam" turned to face her and gave a small smile.
"So you thought you could cheat me Tamara Stone?" Icy said in a high pitched whine, sauntering over. "I want that book back now! I knew it was valuable and it belongs to the Prince."
"Tam" laughed a hollow and cold laugh that held no humor in it and walked to meet her halfway. The real Tam followed behind ready to make her reveal and see what Icy would do in the face of her imminent demise.
"I didn't think I could cheat you Ice, baby. I thought I would kill you." The impostor Tam said.
Icy laughed a high pitched sound that was supposed to pass for menacing; at least Tam postulated that was the purpose. She stood quietly by, watching Icy make an ass of herself.
"You think that you will be able to kill me? I am better lineage than you. My sire was sixth generation, and his sire before him was Prince! You have nothing on me; you are nothing, no titles, no lineage and no contacts save me! I could have made you but you tried to cross me and failed." Icy said, pulling up her sizable girth in self-importance. "I have the real power here, you have nothing."
"Do you have good vision?" Tam said, stepping from behind her to stand next to her doppelganger, and let her false appearance melt away into her true visage.
Icy did a double take, and then nervously twittered. She finally took a good hard look around her, and panic shone brightly from her eyes. Tam and not-Tam dance around with each other.
"Too bad we don't have three, because then you could play Three Tam Monty." Tam laughed, liking Malice's style but not so happy that someone else could impersonate her so well.
When the impromptu dance finally ended the duo stood side by side.
"Now, who is who Icy?" the impostor said.
"It doesn't matter. Not like this farce will get you anything. When I go back and tell the Prince you will all be cast out and hunted." Icy said.
To Tam's amazement, she really believed what she was saying. There was no out; Icy would never leave the small room, Malice chuckled, not a pleasant sound at all. He stood next to Tam and from her peripheral vision she saw him wave his hands. She took a step side-ways, partially not to be hit by his hands but also to avoid whatever was going to happen. He grew taller, and took his own face back. He raised his hands and all around them Sabbat members took a unified step forward. A loud snap echoed around them as approximately forty feet the floor at the same time. Even still Icy kept her composure something Tam would never haven given her credit for being able to do but even still her nervousness betrayed by the ring she twisted on her finger.
"You really think you are going to be able to leave here and see your Prince " Tam sneered. "Of course you would - you actually thought we were friends."
Icy turned her head and looked at Tam through narrowed eyes.
"You stupid bitch, I was trying to give you something to make a name for yourself. I figured we knew the same crowd so I was giving you a leg up. You have done so poorly for yourself, that I felt bad for you." Icy said and then smiled. "Of course being nothing but a pauper you don't understand the powers of having a Tremere wizard in your debt. All of you from the Sabbat will wish you had died instead of trying to take on the DC Camarilla! As for me, you stupid pathetic saps, I am the eyes and ears of the Prince. Nothing happens without me finding out about it - you think I was tricked into coming here? You think I can't escape and report this uprising to the Prince and take your lives? Breathe deep my "friends" I have a rich lineage and a powerful sire. Behold the wonders that are me!"
Then something happened that would give Tam pleasant dreams for the rest of her life. Icy focused and began to mutter an incantation. Tam's eyebrows rose incredulously as she recognized the start of a powerful spell - but knowing the requirements she tried hard not to laugh. The rest of the Sabbat stood and watched her, not flinching nor moving. Tam walked around her, looking around to see if any of the needed preparations had been met, they had not. This was going to be interesting. Growing louder with each word, Icy gestured and looked very serious. She finished incantation with a flourish of waving arms, and looked properly stunned when her finger wearing the ring transported off to who knows where. The rest of the Sabbat members closed in with very nasty smiles upon their faces. As Tam unlocked the trap and descended the ladder, she could hear shrieks of pain and the start of the frenzy amongst the Sabbat members. Lower generation or not, she didn't want any of the crazy broad's blood in her.
Tam surfaced at the metro station, quickly grabbed a cab to their airport and flew home. Her slide card worked on the door to her new condominium. She stooped to survey her new home. It was lavish without being gaudy. She called up her servant and told him to bring a celebration meal home for her. She was happy with her work, she rid the world of the useless Icy Falcon, while she was now Bishop of New York City and to top it all she had a copy of the first four from the chapters from the Book of the Dead.
Life was good.