If it had not been such a hot day, the chill of the water might have sent a shiver up his arm. Reaching deep into the soapy bucket, Markus retrieved his rag and picked up where he left off, caressing the black paint until he could see a familiar face in its sheen. As if conjured, a fox materialized above his reflection's shoulder. He knew better than to turn. Fiona was there, and if he turned, she wouldn't be.

At least I know where she is… behind me.

"What are you doing with this thing?" the vulpine asked.

"I asked Ixis if I could keep it."

"And he let you?"

"He had the registration cleaned up," the kid replied to his furred shadow.

"Those favors don't come cheap, you know that right?"

"One foot, two foot."

"What?"

"Something my grandfather always said, if you put one foot in, does it really change anything by putting the second in too?"

The fox grinned, brining her face up next to his, admiring her set of sharp teeth in the paint's mirror like surface.

"Missed a spot."

"No I didn't," he continued washing.

"Well you can finish up later, we have a job to do."

"It's the weekend," Marcus sighed as he scrubbed a fender. "Wherever you need to go can wait."

"I told you, favors don't come cheap. Ixis asked specifically for you to drive this."

"Chasing down more thugs already?"

"Not exactly, we're picking up his wife…" the vixen trailed off as if she were unsure of how to elaborate.

"What?"

Marcus hadn't known Ixis long, in fact it was only yesterday that he had learned the man even had family at all. That, however, didn't stop this request from feeling extraordinarily out of place.

"I know," Fiona trailed off. "I don't like it either."

"Why us?"

"It means he trusts us."

"I didn't think he trusted anyone."

"He doesn't."

"So we're the two people at the bottom of the list he trusts the least?"

"Something like that probably."

Marcus couldn't help but look up at her blankly, hoping for more of an answer.

"That Dominion Agent we found for him really shook him, or as much as you can shake a man like Ixis. The things he knew. The things Julian knows. If I had to guess Ixis is circling his wagons, getting his family safe until he can flush the rats out."

"If something happens to her…" the kid began, "even if it's not our fault."

"That's why I don't like it."

With a sigh he tossed his rag back into the bucket with a splash. He would have to finish this later.

"Downtown," the fox said as she opened the passenger door.

Whether it was the two of them attempting to be being professional or being too nervous to speak, the car ride was quiet. The occasional glance he stole found a vixen with her ears standing on end, eyes peering our every angle of glass.

The hotel the fox had directed him to was the kind of thing world-class celebrities stayed at. It didn't surprise him that the family of the city's premier crime lord could be found at such a place.

Then again, he mused to himself, what's she doing here when she lives 30 minutes away?

It was a question he knew better than to ask, and after all, Ixis had sent him. Surely, whatever her reasons for being here were known to him.

Within moments of him reaching for the handbrake, a tall woman, dressed a black ankle length cocktail dress made her way towards his car. Marcus made a move to get out of the car to assist her, but before he could even unbuckle his seat belt, the woman was already buckling hers.

"You two," the woman sighed as Marcus stared blankly into his mirror, "why should I have expected anything else?"

"Sorry?" the kid felt the need to inquire as he put the car into gear.

"Do you know how many times I have wondered who he thinks his child is? The way he talks about the two of you… well you certainly wouldn't think it was Patrick."

Marcus felt and overwhelming need to be quiet. He didn't need to or even want to hear the things that were being said. A quick glance at Fiona confirmed that much the same was possibly true for her as well.

"A boy with a good head on his shoulders," the woman mocked Ixis' foreign accent as she locked eyes with Marcus through the rear-view mirror. "I could go on, but I might make myself gag."

"Just washed the car, mam," he felt the need to point out, "no need to go on."

As if she hadn't heard him, the woman removed a cigarette from her purse and lit it. With a sigh, Marcus rolled the back window down an inch to let out the stench of her tobacco.

"And then of course there's his other pet," Naugus' wife began before taking a long drag, "the one who aught to be wearing a collar, lest she for forget who she belongs to."

Marcus had never seen the hairs on Fiona's neck stand up before. The vixen was likely irate, but knew better than to show it.

Leaning forward the woman exhaled a large helping of smoke in the fox's direction, "do you want to know what he says about you behind your back?"

Only the rumble of the road filled the cabin of the car.

"No?" she inquired before again indulging her nicotine craving, "If she didn't have the misfortune of being born a Mobian, she could probably do anything."

Marcus was having trouble focusing on the road, he was too interested in seeing how Fiona was going to react.

Ixis knows how to pick 'em, he deiced. She' as crazy as he is.

"You know he told me the same thing once, well not the Mobian part. Told me I could do anything, that the two of us could have it all. This city, the world."

It was hard not to cringe when the woman tamped out her cigarette on his freshly cleaned window.

"Silly me," me she continued. "I was young, naïve, and thought I had perhaps found love. And now I find myself riding around the city at his direction, playing second fiddle to a man who hasn't the foggiest of what he's doing."

"He's the most feared man in the city," Marcus pointed out.

The woman snorted, "have you ever heard the saying that behind every successful man, there's a strong woman?"

All he could do was shake his head.

"You're look'n at her. Before you," she motioned to the fox, "there was me. His little queen of the underworld. Then Patrick came along. Never figured myself for the motherly type, but here I am. So I guess at the end of the day, we're all the same, just Ixis' little pets, running around doing as they're told. Not the life I had planned out for myself, you know?"

Marcus was too young to have planned his life out. He was still too busy flying by the seat of his pants to have considered doing that.

"What was?" he couldn't help but inquire. "The life you had planned out…"

There was a chuckle from the back seat, "If I said Ixis' goals seemed pedantic next to mine, would you believe me?"

"I mean, I'm not even sure what he's trying to do, so maybe?" Marcus replied as he flicked a blinker and turned down another boulevard.

"He wants to run this city. My plans never stopped there. They just kept going."

"And now a ten-year-old boy is holding you back?" Fiona finally piped up.

"No, I wouldn't say he's holding me back so much as he is refocusing my efforts. I hadn't considered that there are not many of my kind left."

"Your kind?" Fiona rolled her eyes. "I only need to look out the window to see one you furless creatures. Please forgive me if I don't shed a tear."

"Consider yourself forgiven," the woman responded, "but human is only half of what I am."

"What's the other half?" Marcus felt the need to inquire.

"Silvano."

"Silva-what?" the fox next to him mocked.

But Marcus didn't dare. He slowed the car to a crawl just he could turn around and look at the woman for himself, no mirror, no chance for illusion. All he could do was stare. She was rare to the point he wasn't sure whether to believe her. Then again, the people who invoked that name were either crazy or liars. With her, there was an equal chance of both.

"Do me a favor darling, focus on the road."

It was hard to take his eyes off her now. It was like seeing a phoenix or some other mythical creature that wasn't supposed to exist. Reluctantly he turned his gaze back towards the road. He had gone into this situation apprehensive, now he was petrified.

"Huh," the woman mused, "not many left like you."

"W-what?" he hadn't been paying attention to her question.

"What's your name?"

"Marcus."

"No, no, your sir name?"

"Smith."

"Fat chance of that. You're so young, but the fear looks very fresh. It warms my heart, really."

Sinking as far into his seat as he could, Marcus focused on his mission. Driving was easy, but driving the devil around was something else entirely. He wanted to ask how she was still alive, how the inevitability of her situation hadn't caught up with her, but he couldn't bring himself to do it.

"You're acting like that name is supposed to mean something in this town," Fiona dismissed their passenger.

"It used to," the woman promised her, "I aim to make that true again."

"I'll do my best to be scared."

"Good," the woman replied politely.

Marcus elbowed his friend, suggesting that she knock it off.

"What, don't tell me you buy into her spooky story," Fiona mocked him.

"I do."

"All because of some name?"

"All because of an old name."

The fox turned back to find the woman wearing a frightening grin, "Now I see why Ixis likes you, Marcus. You are smart."

"And you're crazy," he finally mustered the courage to reply. "Even if you are a… why haven't you…"

"Change my name, run from my past in attempt to save myself like all the others?"

He nodded in the mirror.

"Because I don't believe in silly little curses."

"You should," the kid felt the need to point out, "there's a reason there aren't many of you left."

"A curse only has power if you let it. My family went paranoid looking over their shoulders. The only thing it got them was dead. I've been living worry free my entire life without a scratch to show for it."

"What the hell is a Silvano," Fiona finally demanded, frustrated with being out of the loop.

Marcus let out an exasperated sigh, "It's an old-world name. Her family used to command an empire's worth of power and fortune."

"Still have the fortune," the woman quipped from the backseat.

"But then, well, the family was cursed. And one by one they've all died off. Generation after generation, accidents follow in their wake."

How Ixis suddenly became a household name made a lot more sense. The Silvanos were like the boogeymen of the mob world. They held a secret type of power, and if Naugus was married to one of the few remaining heirs to an old-world name like Silvano, then there was no end to his influence around the world.

"Doesn't seem scary to me," the fox lamented.

"If you knew how they ruled it might be… or that half the Silvanos to date have died in transportation related accidents."

Silvano deaths were not without collateral damage. Sometimes hundreds or even thousands would perish along side them just to remind the world that the name was to be feared, only for different reasons. Passenger jets, ocean liners, it didn't matter. If there was a Silvano aboard, it could spell catastrophe.

"Come from an old family yourself, don't you?"

Marcus nodded. There was no greater enemy in all his family's history than what the woman in his back seat represented. If it were not for the curse of the Silvanos, his family might not have achieved the status they had today. No one had been able to usurp their death grip over the world.

That, however, was hardly what was important at this moment. He had to remind himself that before being a Silvano, this woman was Ixis' wife. While he had been told the stories about the likes of her, he had seen firsthand what her husband would do to those that didn't hold up their end of the bargain.

Marcus nodded silently to the fox next to him. He wasn't sure how long the all too familiar headlights had been tailing them.

"I see them," she confirmed with a quiet growl.

"I think you'll find that my destination is just up here on the right," the woman in the back commented.

There was little to no chance he was going to let her out of the car with two of Julian's goons following them.

"Think we'll circle around the block ma'am, make sure everything is all clear."

"Why bother," came the woman's callous reply, "you already know it's not."

The kid couldn't help but hesitate, he had never had to tell anyone there were trained killers following them before. Even if at this point in his life it seemed like just another day, he was uncertain how a Silvano would handle such news.

"Just here is fine," she insisted as coasted up to the curb.

"Ma'am," he said firmly, " I can't let you out of the car yet."

"Why not?"

"Ixis gave us firm instructions to keep you safe."

Laughter erupted from the back, "I very much doubt that. Your orders were to take me from the hotel to here and nothing more."

"Keeping you safe was implied," Fiona finally decided to join the conversation. "If something happened to you on our watch..."

"Oh no," the woman gasped in mock outrage, "what would happen? Would he call you bad names and throw one of his little tantrums? Or are you scared he's going to hurt you this time?"

Her smile grew in the same way Ixis' did, knowing she had hit a nerve. It was hard to meet her gaze head on. The car had pulled up behind them now. Marcus could see both of the men through their tinted windshield. They seemed unusually content to wait for whatever happened next.

Marcus glanced at the fox, hoping for some guidance. It didn't look like there was an easy way out of this situation, and their passenger could not have relished the situation more.

"Now if you'll excuse me," the woman began as she reached for the door handle, "I don't want to be late for my meeting."

His gut told him this was all wrong, and for better or worse his intuition hadn't steered him wrong yet. With a jolt, he put the car back in gear and tore down the street.

"What are you doing?" the two women in the car inquired.

He was running. Those men, if they were anything like the other two, they wouldn't think twice about killing all three of them.

Seeing the Taudi's headlights in a mirror, he knew this wasn't just a drill.

Swerving into oncoming traffic, he sent traffic into a disarray as everyone scattered from his path, horns blaring.

"Start talking," he demanded to his newest client.

"How dare you speak to me like that."

"Save it for someone who cares lady, you're not my boss. I know a setup when I see one."

Fiona shot him a look that suggested she agreed but that he shouldn't have said anything.

"I should have asked for the ogre," the woman in back sighed.

"Ixis didn't so much as give us your name. Only told us to escort you from the hotel to Station Square. It wouldn't be much of an escort if you went missing the moment we dropped you off, would it?"

"Stop," she demanded, "or you'll get us killed!"

"Suddenly afraid?" the kid inquired. "Thought that curse was all bogus."

"It doesn't account for idiots!"

"Start talking!" the kid demanded as he reached for third gear, the engine roaring as he took aim a busier section of traffic.

"Keira!"

"What?"

"My name is Keira."

"And who are they, Keira?" Marcus asked motioning to the Taudi trying to keep pace.

"I suspect the individuals I was to meet."

"You mean you don't know who you're meeting?"

"He never tells me who."

Well that certainly sounds like Ixis. But why them?

Pulling over to the curb, Marcus came to a stop.

It was Fiona's turn to be outraged, "What are you doing, you can't stop here!"

"Keira's supposed to meet them," he shrugged. "If that's what Ixis wants..."

"Not exactly what I would call obedient pets... I'll be sure to order a spanking for the two of you!" the woman remarked snidely as she exited the car.

"If Ixis had told us who you were meeting," the kid pleaded.

"Oh honey," Keira chuckled, "who said anything about Ixis? Now stay here while I clean this up."

As the door shut his stomach sank down into a pit so deep he thought he would vomit. Peering over at the fox, her eyes filled with a rage so red hot the vixen's eyes looked as red as her fur.

"Do you have any idea what you just did?"

The truth was, he didn't. He was still trying to put it all together.

"No," Marcus replied as he switched his gaze to a side mirror.

"I've never failed him," the fox screamed. "Ever! I trusted you! I'm as good as dead," she yelped.

Keira's body language was alarming to say the least. She knew these men. There was faking a smile, and then there was the warm conversation flowing freely between the three. If Fiona wasn't so busy screaming at him, he suspected she might be able to hear what they were saying.

"Marcus!" Fiona continued to shout, "he's going to kill us. Ixis will kill us for this."

"Only if they don't first," he nodded at the mirror.

Ixis' wife was waving the two men on towards the car. The kind of wave that said after you, I won't stop you, I might even join you.

"You're on your own," the fox sighed. "This is your mess, we're done."

"What do you mean we're done...?" but by the time he turned to face the vixen she was gone.

There was a sharp nock on his window, the kind that only steel made.

This should be fun.

Marcus rolled down the glass, trying his best to ignore the gun.

"Where's the fox?" the gruff man inquired.

He couldn't help but laugh, "I'd tell you I don't know, but you wouldn't believe me, so let's go with the trunk?"

"It's not in the trunk, is it?"

It?

"Probably not."

Turning back towards the others he filled them in, "Fox isn't here."

"What do you mean," Keira demanded. "She was sitting up front."

"Come see for yourself," the man grumbled.