"Is he here?"

"He should be, I noticed the club owner come in a moment ago."

Xena nodded her head, as Agent Daniels continued to glance up at the higher floor where the VIP section was.

They both kept their eyes peeled to the club entrance. If Richard Mascetti was to come in, they would make sure to catch sight of him as well as who he brought along with him. Whoever it was might just be the Assassin they were looking for.

"Let's get a bit closer." Xena suggested.

Both of them casually made their ways through the sea of bodies till they were closer to the club entrance. They merged into the bodies of people, pretending to dance. But in reality, they were on full alert, stealing glances at the entrance.

"What if there's another entrance we don't know about." Xena now said, "I doubt a gang leader would enter through the front of the club."

Agent Daniels paused for a while, seeming to be deep in thought. "Maybe. But Richard Mascetti isn't just any gang leader, he's untouchable, so he doesn't have any reason to be discreet."

Xena had to admit it, he had a point.

They continued to dance with the music blaring around them as they kept their eyes peeled. The anticipation was eating up at Xena and she found herself hoping that Richard Mascetti would just show up so they could gather what they could and be done with it. She was really not enjoying the sweaty bodies that had constantly been bumping into her. More than once, Xena had to hold herself back from outright shoving someone.

"Still nothing." Agent Daniels murmured.

Xena had been thinking the same thing, Richard Mascetti should have been here by now. Then an icy feeling suddenly settled over her. She had a gut feeling, an instinct that something wasn't quite as they had thought it to be, that something else was going on that they were not aware of.

"Daniels-"

There was a loud explosion.

All around them, people had immediately sprung into action, screaming and yelling, running around. Everyone was heading straight for the club exit.

"Vale."

Xena was already a few steps ahead of Agent Daniels. She had drawn her gun that she had kept tucked in her waistband and now pushed herself through the crowd in the direction of the explosion. Agent Daniels was following close behind her. From her peripheral vision she noticed he had his gun drawn too.

Just as Xena had guessed, something was happening. But what, she didn't know.

They managed to make their way through the panicking swarm of bodies. The music playing had been drowned out by the sounds of yells and screams, it was almost comical that the music was still playing amidst what was going on. No doubt the DJ must have also run for the exit the moment he heard the explosion.

Xena arrived at the scene to see it already overflowing with security guards.

"FBI!" Agent Daniels yelled, raising his badge in front of him.

Immediately, the crowd of security guards parted for them. Xena followed behind Agent Daniels, clutching her gun and keeping her eyes peeled as they looked at the scene before them.

It seemed like a small bomb of sorts had been set off. A number of the security guards had been injured, but nothing that looked too fatal. What she noticed however was a part of the roof that had fallen in, blocking the pathway inside.

"What's behind there?" Xena asked a guard standing close by.

"That's the VIP lounge." He replied.

"Is anyone in there?"

"Just the owner of the club and some security guards, but I imagine they have left from the back entrance already."

This made Xena's brows crease in confusion. Something wasn't right. Sure enough, somebody had dropped a bomb which had been what was responsible for the small explosion. But it seemed whoever did so had not done so to harm anyone. From the impact of the explosion, Xena could deduce that the bomb that had been dropped wasn't bigger than a hand grenade. Furthermore, the roof that had fallen in didn't seem to cause any significant problems seeing as there was another exit.

Unless...

The creases in Xena's brows deepened as she thought. There was something else going on, she could feel it in her guts.

A distraction.

Just as the thought crossed Xena's mind, there was the loud sound of consecutive gunshots. Whatever last bit of calm there was flew out of the window. The screams from the clubbers had intensified tenfold, and the mob of bodies at the club exit had turned to a stampede.

"Where's the second entrance?" Xena practically yelled at the guard, who appeared to be in a state of shock with everything going on around them. He had barely pointed it out to her before Xena was on her heels, running. Everything was making sense to her, she understood what was happening.

The bomb had just been a distraction. That, and it kept the club owner from having an escape route.

Xena felt that she might be too late, yet she kept running. She kept pushing herself through the sea of bodies that had now turned to wild animals.

No doubt, this was the work of Richard Mascetti. It had him written all over it, this had been him from the start. He had never planned to show up, instead; he wanted to take out the club owner and had set up his meeting with him as a cover. Xena knew that the Assassin they were after was the one behind this. It had to be him, after all, who else could pull off such a meticulous, well thought out plan?

Xena now arrived at the back entrance, running through, her gun aimed in front of her. She came upon the bodies in the VIP lounge, still glancing rapidly around her as she bent down and felt the pulses of the men on the floor.

Just as she expected. They were gone, their bodies were cold all over. They were now nothing but corpses.

The other guards had now arrived at the scene. Xena left it to them and began to make her way out. No doubt, the Assassin was around somewhere and Xena was determined to catch him. After all, this could be one of the few chances she had to do so. God only knew the next time she would be in such close proximity with them.

"Agent Vale."

It was Agent Daniels, but Xena could barely even stop to talk.

"I'm going after the Assassin, call it in, another assassination from Richard Mascetti."

Xena kept moving. The majority of the people had now made it outside of the club, but the commotion all around had not calmed down in the slightest.

Xena scanned the faces of as many people as she could. She analyzed their body language, tried to find anything that could give her a hint, anything that could scream 'killer' to her.

She made it through the crowd of people and was now standing outside the club, her eyes darting around her frantically. It had to have been midnight at this point. It was pitch black, which only added to the panic that everyone was feeling. Xena continued to glance around feverishly. She knew the darkness would serve as a convenient coat under which the Assassin could hide, but she was determined not to let that happen.

Xena began running around the car park, trying to find any tell-tae signs, signs of blood, the lining of what could be a gun in anyone's clothing bu, but sheuldn't pick on anything.

People were screaming, running all around her, and she slowly began to feel as if her world was spinning, as if she was slowly losing it. Still clutching her gun tightly in her hands, her knuckles had begun to turn a pale white color.

Xena closed her eyes and drew a deep breath to steady herself. When she opened it up again, she almost thought her eyes would pop out from who she saw. It was Venus, standing a little distance away from her.

Xena suddenly remembered earlier on in the night when she thought she had seen the woman. It had been her after all.

Xena tucked the gun away, concealing it from view as she began approaching the woman that was yet to notice her.

"Venus?"

Xena didn't think it was possible for Venus to look even more surprised to see her than she was. The look of shock that was on her face was innocent, her eyes were wide and Xena felt her insides go turn to mush just seeing her.

"Xena." Venus said.

The way she breathed out her name sent Xena into an internal frenzy. She wanted to hear the smaller woman say her name more.

Xena took the opportunity to get a good lookk ather. Venus was dressed in a short sparkly dress that hugged all her curves in the right way. Her dark locs were cascading over her back in a half-up, half-down hairstyle. She was wearing a lot of glittery make-up. Xena thought she looked gorgeous, but at the same time couldn't help thinking how out of place it was to see Venus at a place like this.

"Are you okay?" Xena asked, thinking about how scared the smaller woman must have been. She reached her arm out, softly resting her hand on the shorter woman's upper arm.

There was a pause.

"I d-don't know." Venus finally stuttered out and Xena felt her insides squeeze at hearing the uncertainty in her voice.

"You came with friends, didn't you? Where are they?"

Venus didn't reply.

Immediately Xena felt her blood boil. Her friends had probably run away the second they heard the explosions, not even bothering to look out for Venus. An overprotectiveness suddenly dawned over Xena. It was unlike anything she had ever felt before.

"Come with me. I'd drive you home."

Xena had immediately forgotten about the real reason she had come outside in the first place.

Suddenly, everything else was secondary to her. Xena had immediately forgotten about the real reason she had come outside in the first place. Her priority right then and there was Venus and getting her to safety. There was just no way she was going to leave her out there when a killer was on the loose.

———-
Hi All!
I hope you're all doing well (:
A little life update, I'm moving back into college tomorrow and I'm hoping that we don't get sent back home because honestly I don't know how I would deal if that happens ...
But don't worry, uploads will still be frequent. I'm almost done editing the entire book and I can't wait till I've published the entire thing (((:
Okay, bye for now (:
-U