Prologue

Bright green eyes radiated out from a tanned face; rain dribbled down from her dark bangs. The night surrounded her in shadows as she made her way quietly down the silent streets toward her destination. On the right side of her neck, right above her shoulder, was a tattoo of a dagger surrounded by poison ivy vines. She was normally a poisoner, but sometimes, such as now, she had to get her hands dirty and kill the targets personally. Ivy smiled as she made the last turn to the left; her victim’s house stood only a stone’s throw away. Unlike the other poisoners in her trade, she didn’t mind taking things into her own hands. Pulling her black elbow length gloves on, she cracked her knuckles and stretched out the kinks in her neck and shoulders. This was going to be fun.

The house was dark and quiet, just the way Ivy liked it. Shimmying her way up the drainage pipe, she crawled over onto the balcony on the second floor. Strolling up to the balcony’s door, she quickly checked it over for traps or alarms; there weren’t any. There was a camera however, in the top left hand corner of the balcony. Turning, she smiled brightly at it, before flipping it off. She then jimmied open the lock on the door and entered the house. Quickly, but quietly, she hurried down the darkened hallways until she reached the master bedroom. After checking for alarms again, she jimmied this door open as well and entered into a room echoing with loud snores.

Ivy’s nose crinkled as she approached the bed and the sleeping man upon it. The room was covered in filth; every piece of furniture, minus the bed, was layered in grime, garbage and refuse almost entirely covered the ground. And boy did the room reek. Her eyes watering, Ivy continued slowly to her victim; watching her steps between watching the bed to make sure the target did not waken before time and she did not step in any excrement. How could someone live like this? Especially someone who was rich and powerful?

Finally reaching the bed without incident, Ivy pulled a garrote out of the pouch strapped to her right hip. She had always preferred using pouches over her pants pockets; it was easy for things to get stuck in a pocket at a pivotal moment, with pouches she didn’t have to worry over that as much. Wrapping an end of the wire around her right fist, she ducked slightly to grab a barely noticeable shoe off the ground, before throwing it at the wall length mirror on the other side of the room. The shoe collided with an audible smash that sent shards of glass flying through the room. Somehow she doubted anyone would ever notice.

Her victim jerked awake at the noise and bolted upright, staring at the busted mirror. Ivy’s profile was barely discernable in the remnants of the mirror; her mysterious green eyes glowed slightly in the darkness of the room as she wrapped the wire around the Governor’s throat and pulled tightly. Her smile was purely malicious as she watched the man struggle and jerk while she strangled the life out of him. When he quit moving, she quickly checked for a pulse. It wouldn’t do for her to become sloppy now and leave a job half done.

Satisfied the Governor was truly dead; Ivy coiled the garrote back up before replacing it in the pouch. She could just barely hear sirens in the distance. Turning away from the bed, she hurriedly left the room from the way she came and exited the house out through the door she entered from. This time she ignored the camera and the drainage pipe, as she ran across the balcony and did a front flip over the railing. Landing in a crouched position on the ground, Ivy smiled again. Her job was just too easy.