by Kal Aaron
“There are blind spots. I made sure he explained them to me in detail.”
“Good job.” Lyssa rubbed her chin in thought. “Then we haven’t lost the element of surprise against the Lone Five Stars.”
“I don’t need your praise. I’m a competent Torch.”
There was a hint of satisfaction in the younger woman’s voice. At thirty years old and with twelve years’ experience as a Torch, Lyssa had eight years of both chronological age and job time over Aisha. On some level, she wanted Lyssa’s approval.
The Khatri-Corti feud had mostly been a one-way affair, and Lyssa had never been sure of the best way to handle it. Her mother had largely ignored it, and it hadn’t boiled over to more than occasional verbal abuse and the shin kick until Aisha had come of age and taken the Flame Goddess regalia.
Lyssa had already cycled through different potential solutions. Beating Aisha down in the past during sparring sessions hadn’t helped. Trying to reach out directly hadn’t helped since Aisha had insisted Lyssa first admit her mother was a thief. At least now, Aisha was only trying to kill Lyssa when she thought she had a legitimate Torch excuse. That wasn’t progress, but it wasn’t backsliding.
Aisha might think of Lyssa as a thief from a family of thieves, but it was hard for Lyssa not to think of the other Sorceress as a bratty, ultra-violent pyromaniac younger sister. In some other life, where the Khatris had kept the Night Goddess, maybe they could have been closer.
Lyssa blew out a breath. “Now that we’re done with the Khatri-Corti Violence Hour and we know there’s at least one shard in here, why don’t we look for more?”
“I’ve already done that.” Aisha pointed to the column. “I searched this area for two hours before your arrival.”
“Of course, you did. That makes sense. Otherwise, I would have spotted you going inside.” Lyssa nodded slowly. “That means you were here during the shift change.”
“I had two potions.” Aisha smiled.
Lyssa furrowed her brow. “I was only able to spot one guard on duty from the outside. Are there more?”
“There’s only the one now.” Aisha’s tone dripped smugness. “I think they’re overconfident about their security or reputation.”
“There’s another possibility,” Jofi offered.
“I know,” she whispered.
Aisha wrinkled her nose. “Relying on a spirit is a type of weakness too. I won’t ask what it’s saying. I honestly don’t care.”
Lyssa gave Aisha a tight smile. There was petulance in the woman’s tone that made Lyssa think she cared far more than she let on. They didn’t have time to get lost in petty bickering or more sorcery duels.
“You’ve been searching the place for a while,” Lyssa replied. “You might be an annoying pain in the ass, but you’re thorough.”
“Get to the point, Corti.”
“Even inactive, you’d sense something from the shards if you were close enough. That means they’re probably not here, other than the sound-swallowing bad boy. That would be part of their standard defenses.”
Lyssa walked toward the column. A tiny straw doll hung from a string looped around a small stub. She concentrated and raised an arm, and a long, shadowy tentacle extended up. Her new shadow limb grasped the doll and yanked it down. She caught it in her palm and shoved it into a pocket. After a moment of consideration, she pulled the doll out and tossed it on the floor.
Aisha glared at her. “Have you lost your mind? You’re going to leave it here for the criminals?”
“I’m under an EAA contract. It’ll help things along if they process all the shards before they hand them back. We can have them pick it up.”
“It’s a waste of time to involve Shadows when we don’t need to, and we might not be able to contact them until this is all over. There’s no guarantee the Lone Five Stars will continue to use this facility. I might have put out the fires, but the damage is obvious.”
Lyssa considered that before concluding, much to her annoyance, that Aisha was right. She knelt and stuffed the doll back into her pocket, then tapped her forehead with a smile, channeling her inner Samuel as a weapon. “I’ll be handing this over eventually so they can process it. You need to think about the future. We have to establish an equilibrium of coexistence with the Shadows. Little things like this might help.”
Aisha scoffed. Her gaze moved to a scorched wall clock. “Do what you want. I’ll go get the guard. I haven’t interrogated him yet, and his rounds will bring him by this place soon. I had him ignore this area, thinking he’d already checked it. The effects of the potion won’t last forever.”
“This doesn’t have to be a big deal. He might not know anything. Let’s keep this short and to the point.
“How do we do that?” Aisha asked, sounding doubtful.
“All we need to ask him for is the name and address of whoever is most likely to know where the shards are coming in. If he claims he doesn’t know about them, we ask about special cargo.” Lyssa shrugged. “Easy.” She lifted a hand and cloaked it in darkness. “After that, I’ll handle it if necessary.”
“You’re going to kill him?” Aisha asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Of course not.” Lyssa lowered her hand. “I might not have a handy hypnosis potion, but I can put them to sleep just fine.”
Aisha snickered. “I can do that.”
“Using the spell will last longer, and it hurts them less. We’re supposed to avoid unnecessary pain and death unless our lives are directly in danger, remember?”
Aisha snorted. “These are criminal scum.”
“Maybe.” Lyssa shrugged. “But we shouldn’t make too many assumptions.”
“Do what you want with your otherwise inferior power,” Aisha said and looked away.
“Let me get my batons, and let’s go have a chat.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
After convincing the guard to leave the cameras disabled and putting him to sleep, the two Sorceresses strolled out the front door and walked away from the warehouse, still clad in full regalia. Even with their damage, it would have been an impressive sight if it weren’t a deserted industrial area in the middle of the night with no one to see.
“Where are we going?” Jofi asked.
Lyssa blinked. She’d followed Aisha without thinking. The other woman had been confident while walking out of the building, but it wasn’t like their new target, a man named Chad Sellers, lived across the street.
The guard had given them the name, address, and directions, along with a cheerful confirmation that Chad would know where everything was. He was important, the guard insisted, far more important than anyone responsible for watching the warehouse at night.
Aisha strolled into an alley and headed toward a dumpster. Lyssa followed, unsure of what was going on until Aisha ducked behind the large metal box.
Flames enveloped her body. A short black skirt, a blue top, and calf-high boots replaced her dramatic regalia. She pulled her mask off and folded it into a tiny square before palming it.
Lyssa transformed her regalia into jeans, a t-shirt, and a black leather jacket. Her cuts and burns remained. Someone stumbling across them might think they’d gotten into a nasty fight in the alley, and that wasn’t far from the truth.
Lyssa cleared her throat. “Uh, Jofi pointed something out to me.”
“What?”
“Where are we going, exactly?”
“I have a car I rented under a false identity.” Aisha nodded at the other end of the alley. “It’s around the corner. I’ll have to drive to the location to interrogate Sellers. I’d rather not wait for him to arrive at the warehouse.”
“That’s okay. I’ll revert to being the full Night Goddess and get my bike.” Lyssa peered at her. “I don’t know why or how the Elders got their wires crossed on this, but neither of us is the kind of person who’s going to back off, and I think we both want this over with as quickly as possible. Two Torches can clear out a bunch of shard-users a lot faster than
one. Whatever happens with Sellers, I doubt this situation will end with the gangsters apologizing and promising nicely never to do it again.”
“I don’t need your…” Aisha sighed in exasperation. “You’re right. The good of the Society must be placed above my desires. You can help me. You’re good for a few things, Corti, even if you’re a thief.”
“Will you shut up about that already?” Lyssa glared at Aisha, not wanting to repeat the old, tired fight. “Even if my mom hadn’t chosen the Night Goddess and even if the regalia had rejected her, it wouldn’t have mattered to you. There was no one in your family at that time or in your generation with a compatible essence. No one stole anything.”
“That’s not the point.” Aisha sounded more sullen than angry. “It should have waited for a Khatri. The tradition should have been maintained.”
“Well, it didn’t happen. Get over it before you make another mistake like tonight.” Lyssa waved a hand dismissively. “Park up the street from the address since you can’t hide your car like I can my bike.”
“I’m not an idiot, Corti.”
“No, but you do impulsive crap that raises my blood pressure. The sooner we get this job over with, the sooner we can go back to hating each other.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Fifteen minutes later, Lyssa and Aisha were hidden in the shadow of an empty house a couple of blocks down the street from Chad Seller’s place. They had confirmation of the man’s appearance from a local news article on Lyssa’s phone. They had no way of confirming the guard’s story, but the details rang true, especially the way the guard kept referring to Chad as “important” and “one of the boss’s favorites.”
Illuminated Society Torches weren’t cops. They were trained in combat to execute the lethal will of the Society when diplomacy wasn’t an option. Giving governments the ability to hire them was a way of keeping the Illuminated independent while letting Shadows feel like they had some control over sorcery.
Neither woman was there to take down the Lone Five Stars, and they didn’t care about the organization outside of the shard-smuggling. Once they solved that problem, the criminals could go back to being the concern of the FBI and the police. However, Lyssa would enjoy weakening them along the way.
Aisha and Lyssa downed some healing herbs before setting out. The effects were far from instantaneous, but between the painkiller and the healing herbs, they were both ready for another battle. Operating at reduced capability wouldn’t hurt them as much when there were two of them working together.
Lyssa had never thought she’d end up with Aisha as a partner on a job. She had to applaud the universe’s sense of humor.
An earlier sweep by Chad’s place in wraith form had netted intel at the cost of irritation. Unlike the sprawling Alvarez estate, Sellers lived in a wide, modest ranch house that didn’t look like it could hold an entire army. The man hadn’t bothered putting a fence in the front yard.
The lack of exterior security would have played to Lyssa’s strengths on most nights, but the lights were on and men were gathered at the house, drinking beer and chatting. They were visible through the half-raised curtains. She didn’t spot any weapons, but she had no doubt they were there.
Lyssa related all this to Aisha. “We’re on the clock on this, so we might have to be more aggressive than I’d like.”
“They could have shards,” Jofi said. “Exercise caution.”
Aisha eyed Lyssa with more than her usual distrust. “I don’t dislike a direct approach, but what brought on this sudden courage?”
“You put out the fires, but we left obvious signs of a fight in the warehouse,” Lyssa said. “You were right about why we couldn’t leave the shard, and the guard’s going to wake up eventually, too. Even if he decides there was a good reason he fell asleep when he goes into the back, he won’t need to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out something happened, and it involves sorcery. And that’s assuming the next shift doesn’t show up and find him.” She gestured at the house. “We have a narrow window to accomplish what we need to do.”
“You do have a small point.” Aisha sounded disappointed, but a cruel smile followed. “Then we don’t bother with tricks. We make them surrender.” She conjured a dancing flame in her palm. “We cow them with force.”
“Yeah, that’s the idea. If not, we beat them down until Sellers is the only one left conscious.” Lyssa patted one of her holsters. “This is a time when subtlety is for suckers. I think if we strike hard and fast, we can find Sellers and get him to spill what he knows. The only problem is, I don’t want to get tangled up with the local cops.” She grinned. “But I’ve got an idea about that.”
“Is it a decent one?” Aisha raised an eyebrow in question.
“It’s an idea.” Lyssa pulled the doll out of her pocket. “Didn’t you notice along the way, Little Miss Great Ears?”
Aisha stared at the door, then looked around, her eyes darting in all directions. “Ah. It’s still working.”
“Exactly.” Lyssa grinned. “Let me sneak up to the front door and slip our little buddy in. Then, we’ll go around the back and make ourselves heard. If it can cover that entire warehouse floor, it can cover this house.”
“What if they run?” Aisha asked.
“They won’t. We’re going to trick them.” Lyssa grinned. “We’re going to yell that we’re bounty hunters, and they’ll get cocky and come for us. By the time they realize what’s going on, it’ll be too late.”
“I like this plan.” Aisha rubbed her hands together.
“Good. Let’s talk about signals and get into position.”
Cloaked, Lyssa hurried up the cement steps to the porch. She cast an occasional glance at the front windows. Sellers downed the rest of a bottle of beer before gesturing around with the empty bottle. His men laughed at an unheard joke, no one noticing anything going on outside.
There had to be a border to the doll’s silencing effect, but Lyssa had gotten lucky, and it wasn’t revealed to the men inside. She approached the front door and set the doll in a corner.
Between the obvious internet-enabled doorbell and camera, she was being recorded, but she doubted if anyone was watching the live feed. Taking on criminals was part of the contract. Any complaining police could be redirected to take it up with the EAA and explain why they were allowing a major criminal gang to operate in their jurisdiction.
Lyssa took a deep breath and moved her hand away from the doll. She waited and counted to five in her head for any reaction.
Nothing happened. Step one was complete.
She wasn’t used to working with anyone other than Jofi. Aisha’s willingness to go along with her plan without trying to take over had surprised Lyssa a little.
Lyssa stood and jogged off the porch and around the corner, dropping her cloak as she approached the backyard. There might be no fence in front, but Sellers had a high stucco-covered cinder block privacy fence protecting his backyard and pool from attention.
She couldn’t have gotten away with that at her house. Maybe his HOA was afraid of him. She chuckled and realized she was getting used to life in Scottsdale.
Such thoughts could wait. She was in position for stage two.
Lyssa gave her best owl hoot impression, then winced. The noise came out more like a vuvuzela than the bird. After all the hoots she’d heard that night, it was an embarrassing effort.
Accuracy aside, the call did its work. A flash came from behind the fence before Aisha flew over it and landed in the soft grass. She hurried toward Lyssa, and the women took up positions on either side of the door. Aisha moved well, considering the only light in the yard was spilling out from under the closed kitchen blinds.
“You can go first,” Aisha whispered.
“Oh?” Lyssa asked. “Giving me the glory?”
Aisha smiled. “I’m using you as bait.”
“Whatever gets you through the night.” Lyssa inclined her head toward the door. “In that case, you blow the handle, and I
’ll go in first.”
“That’s acceptable to me.” Aisha lifted her palm and stepped a couple of yards away from the door. “Get ready, Hecate.”
Lyssa expanded her batons before adding the strength and knockout spells. “By the way, it takes special training to reach the levels of pure bitch you do. You should be proud.”
“From you, that’s a compliment. And I know you’re not so incompetent as to let a handful of Shadows with toys seriously injure you.”
Lyssa grumbled under her breath, unsure of how to take the compliment. “Be careful with your heat shield here. We don’t want to burn this place down.”
Aisha smiled. “Then we need to make sure we use overwhelming force to subdue them.”
“Let’s try to keep this from being a massacre. These guys might be scum, but think of the paperwork for the EAA.”
Lyssa moved behind Aisha’s shoulder and examined the door. It was wood, not metal, and not all that thick from what she could tell. Chad Sellers was relying on his reputation and location to protect him from serious threats.
Her breath caught. “You know what I don’t sense?”
“A future life of honor and respect?” Aisha asked.
“Very funny.” Lyssa patted her chest. “Nothing other than your spells, and unless I’m wrong, the doll.”
Aisha stared into the distance. “You’re right. If they have any shards here, they’re well-hidden or inactive. That’s convenient.”
“This is one time they should have kept more of their product. This is going to be easy.” Lyssa chuckled. “On three. Ready?”
Aisha gave a curt nod. “Just so you know, if they attempt to fight seriously with shards, I won’t hold back. I don’t care about EAA paperwork.”
“Try not to kill everyone until we get more leads.” Lyssa tapped her batons together once before pulling them apart. “One, two, three!”