FAUST 1997 "Resignation Submitted 0315.97 by Nytshaed. ©1998 Chaotic Works Inc. No part of the manuscript may be published, posted or reposted without explicit written permission by the Author. This story is of an Adult nature and is intended for persons over the age of 18.

 Swan hung of the phone slowly, and quietly. Having done that, he looked across the expansive mahogany desk he sat and smirked at AJ, reclining in the leather wing back.

"Well?"

"She's not coming back."

AJ raised an eyebrow.
"You didn't offer her enough."

"I offered her plenty. She doesn't want to come back. She has no interest in working with you." Swan said matter of factly, watching for his response.

AJ remained calm, and sighed deeply, letting out the breath he had been holding for the duration of the 10 minute phone call.
"Her loss." He said at last.

Swan grinned at his protégé' of the past 35 years, and didn't buy a word of it.
"Indeed. She's gonna regret this for the rest of her life. It will probably keep her up nights, give her an eating disorder. An ulcer at the very least."

AJ sneered, and fingered the stiletto dagger he had been holding, rolling it over, and between his fingers with the skill of an expert contact juggler.
"I'm sure she will concern herself with it constantly when she isn't busying herself with Stevie..." He hissed.

It was Swan's turn to smirk, and push the final button.
"She's going to have a baby. Sometime in the fall..."

He watched the fire and venom rise behind AJ's previously calm violet eyes, waiting for the inevitable eruption.

"Fucking bitch..." He growled, realizing her had lost her to his rival once and for all.

Swan shrugged, pondering provoking him further, he really wanted to see him blow.
"Yeah, but she's someone else's bitch now... So what do you care?" Swan said casually. His emotional attachment to her long gone.

"Not a bit..." He said after a long pause of forced calm. "If she wants to waste her life with that loser, fine. Screw her. Good riddance." He said with the casual wave of a perfectly manicured hand.

"Life in fact I'm sure had a big role in this AJ." Swan purred. Loving every bit of the torment he was putting him through. "...life and the fact that you cannot create it. Only destroy it."

"Fuck you. You're as much a mule as I am."

Swan shrugged again.
"True, but I never WANTED children like you did. I never wanted Sophie to bear my children or no man's."

With a growl, AJ expertly threw the dagger at Swan, striking him in the heart. The force of the blow knocked Swan back in his large chair. Calmly he looked down at the dagger as blood began to seep from the wound and spill out over the white silk shirt he was wearing. He shook his head, sighed calmly and pulled the dagger out. The bleeding immediately stopped.

"AJ... AJ... Will you never learn that little things like this do not hurt me?" He said looking over the dagger as it dripped gore onto his desk blotter. "It just angers me..."  

AJ looked away from Swan and out the window nearby. Murderous plot after plot rolled over in his mind, none of them sadistic or painful enough punishment for the rage and loss he was feeling. The longer he sat there, the harder it was for him to wrap his mind fully around it. She was gone. Over, finished, done, gone, out. He knew this to be the end of his failed attempts at mortal love.

The bitter taste of defeat soured in his mouth, and he summoned all the anger he could and focused it. A picture appeared in his mind, then nothing. Quickly he looked at Swan.

"They have moved. Rather Stevie has. New home, new phone, new everything. You cannot find them. They are beyond you now."

"No one is EVER beyond me!" He snarled, and rising, he left the room.