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Turns out the Kin is just like Mafia in more ways than one. Crime syndicate, yeah. Drama worthy of a fuzzy remake of The Sopranos, yeah. All that stuff about you wearing cement shoes is different, because cement's not edible, but basically, it's all the same, no matter the species. And I knew all that, but the biggest reason they're the exact same damned thing, if movies taught me anything?
Once you've messed with them once, you're never going to stop running into the fuckers.
Not that we were family. No, the Don Furleones of their world would rather have us for a snack than do us favours on their daughters' wedding days. But even after we infiltrated and betrayed them and killed one of their bosses, here we were, talking to another one. It was treacherous ground, but we had some ammo that swung the power balance nearer our favour. Like the fact that we completely decimated the Auphe a year ago. And actual ammo.
It was going well so far, for what it was: a conversation about crime with a guy who knew all about it and had the pointy teeth to reinforce the message. He was slick, I was sullen, and Niko...well, Niko was Niko. Which usually involves being a serious badass, but today was undercut by the fact that we were dealing with a werewolf whose family tried to focus on the wolf end of the name. Inbred for wolf genes to the point of being unable to switch to the fully human side of the spectrum, he had some impressive tufts of charcoal-coloured fur sticking out of the collar of his suit in addition to the over-developed canines.
With unchecked furriness comes unchecked wolf dander, and this was no exception. The cramped office didn't help matters, nor did the fact that we had apparently showed up in the middle of shedding season. It took a lot to bring my ninja brother to his knees, and while his allergies wouldn't be enough, they could throw a wrench into this ass kickers of the supernatural world image we were trying to cultivate.
In the middle of one of the boss's sentences, Niko sniffled. Not very loudly, and the Kin boss didn't seem to notice, but it was a red flag that we better wrap this up soon; another ten minutes, and he might start sneezing. I glanced over at Niko. He caught my eye and gave me a withering glare, then turned his attention back to our new friend Sharp and Pointy across the desk.