Order of Business

"You will continue," the Praetor commanded as he set down his gavel, having quelled another interruption between Padma and Belle as they sniped at each other over some likely long forgotten insult.

"Certainly, Masters, as I was saying..I, the Lord of Darkness, Dracula.."

"Not this again," Padma complained as he rubbed his eyes and wiped an imaginary spec off of his brilliant red silk robe.

"There will be no further interruptions," Praetor Cicero ordered. Catching Dracula's slight smile at the Master of Beasts comeuppance he continued, "In fact, You have had more than enough opportunity for your statement. We will now go to the questioning." Satisfied at the startled and disappointed look from the pretender to the Dracula lunacy, he acknowledged the Dragon, that she could begin.

"I do not understand why you feel so justified in asking for the outrageous reward you've demanded?" the tattooed vampire intoned as she drank fresh blood from a crystal glass. The werewolf servant who had served her, shuffled away as he bandaged his wrist.

"I uncovered a whole new world to plunder," Dracula stated in bewilderment. Hadn't they already agreed to his terms? His mind raced as the Councilors conferred with one another. Advocate Trask was determinedly not meeting his eyes.

"It is no big thing, I think, the finding of a new world," Morte D'amour added as he stroked his waxed moustache.

"No one else has found one," Dracula replied reeling from this unexpected turn of events.

"No one else has looked. Are you really implying that I, Belle Morte could not have found this Shadow Road if I chose to do so?" The Seductress leaned forward, sighting her prey.

"I didn't say that, but..." He was sinking.

"I have found many, I am sure," Padma responded. "I just did not see the reason to make a big deal out of them. Only the weak would get so excited over such a paltry achievement."

"Ahh...yes well..," Dracula stuttered, coming to the conclusion that he was actually sunk.

"What confuses me," the Traveler, in his new Asian horse interjected, "is why did you feel that you could wait so long to inform us? We may have wished to be involved in the first contact."

"I...I'm.." dead, he thought. Didn't I have immunity?

"It's insulting," Padma declared. "A loyal vampire would have reported this immediately. Only an outlaw looking to rob from the Council would have waited." He snorted, passing Morte's new toy back to him.

"He should be punished," the Dragon suggested, her red tinged smile widening at the item being passed along as her new favorite slave, an American tourist named Jessica sat naked on the floor in front of the throne, her bald shaven head bent low as she massaged her mistress's feet and cried softly.

"Masters! I have given you the opportunity for great reward," Dracula pleaded as he felt his dreams of power diminishing.

"Yes, but you want us to beg for it. Belle Morte begs no one," she said with venom as her vampire Musette glared in hostility at the trembling would-be Transylvanian from Romania.

"What was it that he wanted?" Morte D'amour asked as he read a paper one of his staff produced for him. "Ah yes, he wants to be a Master of the City..."

"Hardly fair to the vampires we are sworn to protect within that city, to just promote some unqualified guardian for them," the Traveler said, managing not to laugh out loud. Padma couldn't contain himself and broke out laughing, earning a stern glance from the praetor.

"And he demands that we hand deliver a servant that he has failed to fully control," Morte continued, shaking his head as he inspected one of his velvet hats that a servant had recently brought back from the cleaners. Blood was difficult to remove from velvet.

"Why didn't he just give him all of the marks?" the Dragon asked Belle as she watched the Traveler roll his eyes at the passed trinket.

"He is a fool, I think. Belle Morte does not waste her time collecting servants for lesser vampires." She smiled, handing Morte D'Amour's new I-pod Touch back to him, not having understood the technology at all but still amused by the video of the dancing baby.

"What do you have to say for yourself, Vladimir?" Traveler asked sternly as he was getting his own glass filled from the teenage human girl this time. Less calories he imagined than the wereblood he usually enjoyed.

"Vladi..?.I..I'm sure that..."

"I move this order of business to a vote," Cicero interrupted. "All those in favor of 'interrogating' the outlaw Vladimir of Romania so that the Council may learn the truth of his knowledge, please announce yourselves."

The vote was unanimous, Captain Maruk al Bandi escorted the stunned vampire to the dungeons. As the praetor was preparing the next order of business, Belle Morte announced, "It is my turn, I believe."

"It is," Cicero replied. "Without objections, whatever remains of the outlaw Vladimir after questioning will be given to Belle Morte, let the record show...there are no objections."

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"I think I want a gown by Vera Wang," the blond Slayer Queen stated as she reclined in a long blue Chaos Kitty tee-shirt on the bed in Haven's apartment, looking through her life's blood, the fashion magazine.

"Where's her store?" the Lion King replied seriously. "I'll send one of the guys over to get one for you."

"You really are a dumbass, aren't you?" she said amazed that anyone could know so little about something so important.

"Babe! Words hurt remember?" He smiled as he climbed back on the bed after making his golden kitten two sandwiches. "I was thinking..."

"Oooh, does it still hurt? Ya know the doctor said not to do that...anymore!" She squealed as he pounced on her.

"Haha, you're a riot. Seriously, I cant leave here, unless I uproot the whole Pride and you can't stay in this apartment..."

"I like your apartment!" she interrupted.

"No way, Babe. No, my Pussycat doesn't stay in a little dump like this. I had one of my cats, Selena..."

"I bet you did," She jumped in again.

"Will you stop that? She's a real estate chick, and I have five different properties for us to check out, if you'll live in St.Louis here with me."

"I wouldn't live here without you, silly." She was very happy. "Now, what kind of price range are we talking?" The man really did look good in boxers.

"I'm paying for it all, you can pay me your half back in the bedroom," he said as his long partially shifted tongue slid up her face.

"Stop that! Animal!" She squealed again.

"There's a small comfy little house all the way up to a huge mansion that I probably can't afford but I'd buy it anyway, just to see YOU living in it." They kissed for a long long time. Coming up for air, he continued as his hands slowly drew the t-shirt higher and higher, "It took Dawn long enough to accept me, I HAVE to impress her with our house."

"I just wish Faith would..."

"Babe, her problem is that she wants me bad."

"Shutup." she said pulling her shirt back down.

"I'm serious, I can smell it." After blocking her painfully strong fingers from pinching him, he continued, "But as much as she's attracted to me, she's in love with you, Buffy..."

"I know," she replied somberly as he started tugging at her shirt again.

"This would be a good time to mention our threesome talk again....Arrghhh!" He missed that pinching attempt.

The shirt and the boxers both landed on the ignored plate of sandwiches.

----------------------

"You may go in now, Sir," the perky young redheaded Wererat secretary announced. Taking his hand out from under her skirt, Captain Maruk al Bandi straightened his armor and entered the praetor maximus's enormous black oak trimmed office.

"Come in, Maruk." Cicero signaled him to sit in a chair along side of Advocate Trask. "Does he hold anymore mysteries?"

"No, Sir, I would stake my life on the fullness of his testimony," Maruk replied as he and Trask accepted cups of hot spiced blood from the praetor's human servant, the famous Marc Antony, the very man responsible for Cicero's mortal death.

"Does anything remain of him?" Cicero asked as he commended Marc on the current blend of what he liked to pretend was his favorite tea from long ago.

"Enough that he will lead us to them before being delivered to Belle," Maruk answered as he watched the once great Roman emperor and lover of Cleopatra take his customary place on the floor at his punitive master's feet.

"Good, the council has decided that there is no need to rush in there without more knowledge. So you, Captain, are hereby tasked to lead a mission in which you will capture at least one of these slayers for it's review. You may take whomever you require but Belle's Arturo and the Dragon's Gaskar will accompany you...Oh, and take Marcus here also, he could do with some excitement."

"Is that wise, Sire?" Maruk asked hesitantly.

"What? Oh, If he were to be killed, how it would affect me, yes well, Captain, if we hide from every possibility-we miss every opportunity. I have full faith in Marcus Antonius Creticus, much more-so by far than when we were both in Rome."

"As you command, Sire, I will return with a Slayer or I will not return at all," he vowed, coming to his feet.

"I expect no less from you, Captain."

-------------------------

"Rami Carlyle and Jennilee Hawser, You're up," Courtney's voice on the intercom announced.

Rami had just finished getting changed into her new ninety dollar jeans. "I pity the demon that messes these up," she said to her tall blond Texan partner.

"I've got plenty of jeans, but none of them cost that much," Jenn replied as she checked herself in the mirror of the small dormitory room she shared with the tough dark skinned girl from Chicago. The Harley tee-shirt Faith gave her after finishing first in the legendary slayer's hand to hand combat training, clung annoyingly to her ample bosom. Sometimes she wanted the clingy effect, like when she was out hunting for boys, but enough demons had made comments and offers that would have made her granddaddy blush that she liked to tamp it down a little.

"I know, my mom would shit if she knew. We didn't waste money on clothes growing up." Rami thought with a smile about the woman who had gang leaders and drug dealers in fear of her as she protected her only child.

"How's Mrs.Carlyle doin?" Jenn asked, having found the right bra to get the look she wanted. She had to have that t-shirt, it was like her signature now.

"She's really happy, loves her new job in Willow's division. She keeps all the young witches fed and watered; she practically adopted the one girl on Willow's team, Blake. The three of us eat together all the time and I seen Blake wearing a sweater of mine, mom gave her." The little Slayer-witch could have refused, Rami thought, mournful over one of her favorite tops.

"We'd better get down to Load-Out before she calls again," Jenn said, holding the door for her best friend and partner and the first black person she had ever talked to. Haggard, Texas wasn't what you would call metropolitan, she thought as they ran down the stairs instead of using the elevator. Rami really enjoyed the art of Parkour and would launch herself over the railings and bounce off walls and Jenn always ended up smiling as her friend would miss a landing and swear up a streak that would make a demon cry for his conjurer.

"It's Salt and Pepper!" Courtney announced when they made it into the basement room, slightly out of breath.

"We're going with Ebony and Ivory this week, none of the demons or vampires got the joke," Rami said as she checked the roster to see the job.

"Simple patrol, in-world, nothing glamorous," the supply mistress Courtney told her. "Just a circuit around the demon bars to keep everything quiet. The police told Giles about some slimy people getting mugged around there."

"Slimy?" Jenn said, dreading where this was going and considering running back up to the room to change her shirt.

"The Vics' were covered in green slime, no one was hurt but Willow had to send Sienna to ease their minds a little," the brunette manager told them.

Jenn looked at her shirt. "Sounds like Rodney again."

"If I find that tub of goo I'm going to pound him into the ground," Rami growled out.

"Let's go. We're not getting any younger," Jenn said, just knowing her shirt was going to get ruined.