Chapter 1

The old man sat quietly and waited for his contact to arrive. The coffee shop was busy was today, but all the people sitting near him were his bodyguards, disguised as normal costumers.

You could never be too careful when dealing with rouges, the old man thought, this rouge in particular and his contacts.

“Mr. Cronis, early as always,” said the short man that walked up to his table. He was a light colored fellow, nothing dark about him.

“What do you have to report?” Mr. Cronis asked.

“Actually, I found one of his contacts. She's waiting over by the door,“ the short man said, proud of himself.

“Have her come here, then,” Mr. Cronis said sharply. The sooner this was done, the sooner he would win.

Marlin sat before the old man, smiling at her own cleverness. She could smell his unease and the twelve Solarain bodyguards around him. Just imagine! The one he fears so was before him, and he doesn't even know! Hilarious!

“Now, Miss Muse, I have a job for your 'friend',” the old man said.

“What would that be, Mr. Cronis?” asked the very amused Marlin Muse.

“All the information is in this,” he handed her a plain white envelope. “It has everything He'll need, blueprints and such as well as how to reach me again if He wishes to take the job.”

“And payment?”

“Will be discussed if He contacts me.”

“All sounds in order. I shall make sure they get it,” Marlin rose. “Have a nice day. Oh, and by the way, I'd hide your twelve bodyguards better.”

She left.

Back in her apartment , Marlin stretched out on her sofa and picked up her phone. She dialed her friend, Brain.

“Hello.”

“Bri, its Mar. I've got a new job prob. When can you be here?”

“I'm at work, Mar. I can get over there at seven at the earliest, you know that, you silly cat.” Brain said with a sigh.

“Fine,” Marlin yawned, “I'll just take a nap. Its three, isn't it?”

“Have a nice nap.” he hung up.

“Well, touchy, aren't we?” she put the phone on the charger on her way to her bedroom. She took a quick shower and stretched and curled and wiggled on her bed. She finally settled into a half-curled, half-stretched position and drifted to sleep.

A pounding at the door woke Marlin up. She rolled off her bed and when to answer it.

“Hold your horses, jeez,” she called as she entered the living room. “I can only go so damn fast.”

Marlin opened the door to find a very impatient man at her door. He was taller than her, but that wasn't saying much considering she was 5'2”. He had short blond hair, tan skin, and light blue eyes. A perfect example of a modern Solarain in light colored jeans and shirt. Brain Hayes was a perfect connection for a theft, coming from and friends with the Solarain business tycoons and the Light Court.

“You do own an alarm clock, right?” he asked as he came in.

“Yep, but I hate that thing,” she said as she went into the kitchen. “It wakes me up!”

She heard him sigh heavily as she got out some soda pops. She called, “The info on the new offer is on the coffee table.”

“You read it yet?”

“Nope.”

Brian sighed as she walked back into the living room. “You are halfway to useless, you know that?”

“I'd like to see you pull some of the stunts I do on a weekly bases.” She tossed him a diet soda and plopped down in one of her chairs. “I'd love to see you slither down a chimney or dance around beams of light that would not only set off alarms, but cut off some bits and pieces of you.” She thought for a moment. “I did both of those just last week and then some.”

“Uncle, uncle. You win.” Brain started reading the papers. “You could at least have scanned them.”

“Ah, but then you would be useless.” Marlin smiled evilly. “You know what would happen if I ever decided you no longer had a purpose.”

Brain's face paled to the point of becoming translucent. He broken into a cold sweat and his eyes were filled with terror. He started to shake uncontrollably. He alone knew the full extent of her abilities and he also knew that his social standing, no matter how high it was, could never protect him from her if Marlin decided to kill him.

He raised his gaze from the papers in his hand to look up at her. He was startled to find that her nose was barely an inch away from his own. His gaze was locked by hers.

There was no threat in her gray-green eyes. There was laughter.

“I would marry you to give you a purpose!” She kissed him lightly on the end of his nose and sat back down. She held a chip bag out to him. “Pork-rind?”

Brain laughed and took a pork-rind, feeling relief in every fiber of his being. He should have known she would joke, that his childhood friend wouldn't really kill him. That was a hard thing to remember with Marlin. It was probably because of the fact that she was the most deadly cat among the Solarain and Lunamen cat-shifter races. Hell, the humans even though so and they're blind as bats.

Brain turned his attention back to the job offer. After several minutes, he said, “This is very cut-and-dry. The item to be stolen is an insignia pendent. The pendent is a silver crescent moon with a black onyx cat sitting alertly in the moon with an emerald eye. The pendent belongs to....... Jason Nightclaw.” Brain met Marlin's newly intent gaze. “It says he always has it with him.”

“Hmm.” She sat back and toyed with her long, jet black hair. “Jason Nightclaw, head of the Nightclaw clan, Lord of the Dark Court, panther shifter.” She said as if she was reading the information from Jason's bio. “A huge power in the cat and the human societies. The rumor is that none but the Lord of the Light Court and the Rouge are his equals.” A smile broke across her face. “What a challenge!”

Brain looked a little worried. “Marlin, I don't like this. I got a bad feeling.”

“Yea, I got a weird feeling, too.” Marlin's gaze turned hazy, as if she was about to faint. “But I don't think it is ill coming from Lord Nightclaw.”

“You're going to do it.” It wasn't a question.

“Yes, I am.” Her eyes refocused and she smiled again. “It is going to cost Mr. Cronis a pretty penny, though!”

Brain nodded. He didn't expect anything less. It was time to see how much the Solarain would pay for the pendent.

Reviews

[.quan.011.]

This is a good read and can't wait to read the rest.

[James Watts]

The coffee shop was busy was today, (one too many "was")

Mr. Cronis said sharply(Avoid -ly adverbs in dialogue. You will also want to avoid as many -ly's in the body of prose as possible. Weakens the work. Some you cannot remove, but the majority can with simple rewording. In dialogue the general rule is to just omit the -ly)

Not a bad start. Good work.