by T. S. Snow
”What the fuck is going on?” I had to raise my voice to be heard over the noise, but I at least managed to get their attention.
“Girl, make it stop,” Blair yelled back, and I smirked at the sheer desperation on her face.
I had to admit, the alarm bells were annoying as hell, but that had kind of been the point. I wanted to make sure it would attract their attention in case I wasn’t near it.
Mission. Accomplished.
“Seriously, girl, if you don’t make it stop right this second I’ll fucking stab your computer,” Blair threatened, and I rushed to her side, foregoing my coffee in an attempt to save my tech.
Nobody threatened my baby.
I had to hold myself back from hugging it to my chest and cradling it like one would a child.
My precious.
Instead, I hissed at her and lightly hit her with my shoulder so she would get the clue and leave the chair so I could take over.
Blair whispered a “thank fuck” and got up while I started typing, muting the alarm and bringing up the map with the locations to make sure of where we were supposed to target.
“Never mind, bro. Thanks for the help, but we got it now. I can even hear myself think again. See you at dinner next week,” Blair said over the phone before hanging up, and I briefly wondered who the hell had been on the other end of the line. Did she know any tech people? Maybe another Magical Engineer? Ohh, maybe her other brother was a Magical Engineer, that would be cool.
Wait a minute. Isn’t her brother a Necromancer? I frowned.
Necromancers didn’t use technology to enhance their magic the way we did, so who could she have called?
And just how many brothers did she have?
”Only two. They’re both younger than me, but Andres is the baby. Why, you want to see my family tree?” Blair answered, and I cursed when I realized I’d spoken my thoughts out loud yet again. Shit on a cracker, I had to be more self-aware. One day, I’d get in big trouble.
”No, no, sorry. I was just wondering who you were speaking with, you know, since I’m meant to be dead and you were clearly asking someone for help to find out how to work around my tech. Is your brother a Necromancer? Have Necromancers changed their ways and started working with METs too? Is he a Magical Engineer? What was it like to grow up with Necromancers? Do they really have preserved dead bodies they keep on hand so they can harness their magic? Do you know any of the spells they use and how I could adapt it into a code? Do you think your brother would mind answering some of my questions?”
Blair’s eyes widened. “Woah, there, girl. Calm your tits. Aren’t you supposed to be finding out where the mole is so we can go get him rather than playing twenty questions with me?” She smiled to take the sting out of her words, but I could see the wariness behind her eyes. Her body had gone impossibly still, like a predator deciding whether to attack or flee.
And she was right, I should have been focusing on the biggest issue at hand here. I could ask her questions until I got my answers later.
“Right. Yes. Sorry, I didn’t mean anything by it. I’ve just never met a Necromancer before and I’m super curious how their magic works. It would be so cool if I could manage to create a code with each of the branches of magic, you know? I don’t mean to bring the dead back to life using my MET or anything, I don’t want to be responsible for the zombie apocalypse. I play video games, for Goddess’s sake. I know messing with zombies never ends well for society. I just... Sorry. I’ll shut up now.” I turned back and focused on the screen in front of me. “And oh, look. I got a match. We have our mole. Or, like, we have ourselves a location.” I pointed to the flagged pin on the map, where there were four little dots all with the same color and at the same location. “Fancy a trip?”
“Hell yeah! Let’s get this bastard.” Blair exclaimed, turning away from me to get Andres’s attention. “Yo, let’s do this! We have the address,” she told him.
I raised my hand to get their attention like a kid at preschool. “Uh. Not to be a killjoy or anything, but didn’t Blaze leave to go there already? Isn’t he expecting a call from us or something to tell him the right address he’s supposed to stakeout?”
“Shit. Right. Yeah. Urgh, fine, call him.” Blair honest-to-the-Goddess pouted.
Andres patted her on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, sis, you can get the next shift. I’ll make sure to keep your bed nice and warm for you while you’re working.”
A knife materialized in Blair’s hand out of no fucking where and she advanced on Andres. “If you put your smelly paws on my bed it’ll be the last thing you ever touch.”
I stared, bug-eyed.
What in the name of Arcane just happened??
Blair had just pulled a dagger out of her ass and Andres was smiling at her! They were psychos! Both of them! High functioning psychopaths, but still.
I was getting the hell out of dodge before they synched their crazy on lil’ ol’ me.
Instead of getting in the middle of what was clearly some family business, I grabbed my phone and got up from my chair, intent on calling Blaze and telling him about the crazy.
The location.
I was totally calling him to tell him the location.
Because, you know, priorities.
“Where do you think you’re hurrying off to, Char?” Blair’s question had me looking over my shoulder and walking faster.
“Oh. I’ll just call Blaze and let him know where he should go. You kids keep having fun, I’ll be right back.” Then I ran the rest of the way to my room, opened the door, and closed it behind me.
“Why is she locking herself in her room to make that call?” I heard Andres ask Blair, and I held my breath.
“Probably for phone sex. Can’t blame her, having a man at my beck and call would definitely make me horny all the time too.” I blushed at Blair’s answer.
That wasn’t… this wasn’t… I wasn’t going to have phone sex with Blaze while he was driving! Who did that?
Wait, I didn’t actually want to know.
“Gross, Blair. I don’t want to hear you talking about your sex life. It’s too weird. You’re my sister, dammit.”
“Oh, and what? You think I don’t see you following Charisma around like a lost puppy? You’re just jealous because she isn’t calling you for phone sex,” she replied.
“First of all, she wouldn’t be calling me because we would be having actual sex which is way better than just phone sex. Second of all, shut up, don’t make it weird.”
I blushed.
How… when… why… How was I supposed to deal with this new information? What should I even do with it?
Nothing, Charisma. You’re doing nothing with it. You’re kind of dating Blaze remember? Same Blaze who sexed you up so good yesterday, you saw stars.
Yes. Right. Blaze.
Oh shit! I had to call him!
I scrolled through my phone contacts, found his name and called.
Blaze picked up on the first ring.
Handy handy.
“Hey, Little Spitfire, what’s up?” The way he insisted on the nickname made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
Do not get distracted by feelings.
Feelings are the enemy, math is your friend.
Sometimes I thought I had to work on my mental pep talks, because they sucked.
“Char?” Blaze asked, calling my attention.
Right. Work.
“Right. Sorry. Spaced out. So, we have the address for the mole, or at least, who we think the mole is. Problem is, it’s an apartment building, so, you know. Lots of comings and goings. I’ll text you the address, but I did find that the building doesn’t really have any parking space, so whoever it is should hopefully leave through the front door one way or another. So. Yeah. Should I text you the address?” I asked over the sound of his cursing.
Yup, he was totally in for a long ass day. I didn’t envy him. I’d pity him while I laid in bed and took a nap.
Kidding. Sadl
y, there was no rest for the wicked.
“Yeah, sure. Thanks, Little Spitfire.”
“And remember! Call if you see anyone from AMIA in there. I emailed Christian before I went to bed yesterday and he’s going to send me the files with all the agents they have, so I’ll forward any potential threats to you. I’ll keep an eye on which ones belong to the Nightshade family and try to screen them from here, see if anything pops up, any reason for them to have joined the resistance.”
“I appreciate it, babe. I’ll text you once I get there.”
“Okay. I’ll send either Blair or Andres to switch with you in about four to five hours. Try not to get too bored,” I said, and then I hung up, pulling up the text app so I could pass the info to him.
Truth be told, I was more worried about me being bored than Blaze. Granted, I could always entertain myself with my brand new Switch, but I doubted the others would let me use it for long.
I hoped like hell whoever the mole was, they acted soon because I had a feeling boredom might just take us all out before the resistance ever did.
36
Charisma
Sometimes, I hated being right.
You know when you watch those spy movies where they’re action packed and fast paced and everything is happening at once, and you can barely keep up with it all, while wondering how cool it would be to live on the edge?
Yeah, that was not how real spy work went.
Oh, no.
Real spy work was long ass hours sitting in front of a computer waiting for a tiny little blip to go off, or for a phone call from someone who was spending the same long ass amount of hours inside his car, staring at a building and waiting for someone who may look familiar to come out.
The joy.
At least I had my computer with me, which meant I could have more than the one program up and running.
Which meant I was actually sitting here trying to develop Andres’ MET, the one he’d commissioned from Onyx—aka me, or at least, the bogus name I’d created back in my Academy days to be able to work as a Magical Engineer even though I didn’t have a license or a diploma, allowing me to actually afford to pay the Academy fees—before my uh... accident.
It was totally an attempt on my life, but calling it an accident made it easier to compartmentalize and deal. If I spent too long thinking about the fact someone, or a bunch of someone’s, wanted me dead, I’d break. And I couldn’t afford to break, I didn’t have the time nor the manpower to fix myself.
AMIA needed me to be at the top of my game so we could flush out the mole, get all the information we possibly could from him/her, and then hopefully I could go back to living my life, having my own space and a fucking work station that wasn’t a kitchen counter.
Oh, and, you know, high-speed internet rather than this spotty shit I was having to make do with.
At least spotty internet was better than no internet.
“What are you doing?” Andres asked from behind me, and his question startled me so much, I yelped.
I brought a hand up to my chest, where my heart was beating up a samba, and glared at him.
”Warn a girl next time, for Goddess’s sake! You just scared ten years off my life!”
Andres tilted his head at me, like I was a puzzle he just couldn’t solve. “Why are you so jumpy, anyway?” His eyes flickered over to the computer screen I was doing my best to try to hide from him, and his smile widened. “Were you watching porn, beautiful? Are you all hot and flustered because I caught you in the act?”
”What? No! I’m not... this isn’t... I...” I took a deep breath to try to get myself under control, while still shielding the laptop’s screen from him. “This isn’t porn, you nymphomaniac. Is sex all you ever think about?”
Andres shrugged. “Sex is a healthy part of life. You shouldn’t be ashamed of liking it. Besides, I could totally give you some pointers, if you wanted.” He wiggled his eyebrows and I blushed furiously.
“I’m not interested in watching whatever porn your depraved mind needs to get going with you, Andres. Besides, I’m busy.”
”Uh. Uh. I never said anything about watching porn with me. You’re the one with the mind stuck on the porn, probably because that’s what you were watching. Your refusal to let me see your screen just proves my point.” He put his tongue inside his cheek in a cute but weird way that had my blushing increasing in ways I didn’t think were possible. “Besides, I was offering to give you some real pointers. Everybody knows porn can’t be trusted.”
Say what, now?
“You... what?” I sputtered. “I have a boyfriend!”
Andres’s smile fell, his entire body became rigid.
“Yes. Right. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to overstep, Charisma. I didn’t mean anything by it, really. I can’t help flirting with you, but I’ll get myself under control. I’m not... I’m not trying to steal you from Futhark or whatever.”
I’d never seen Andres being so serious in all the years I’d known him. Or, well, the years I’d observed him, really.
What? He was cute and hot and popular. Can’t blame a girl for swooning over him a time or twenty.
“Wait. No. You’re fine. I don’t even know why I said that, really. Blaze isn’t my boyfriend. I have no idea what we are, but I sure as hell know there aren’t any labels quite yet. I just... you were coming quite strong and I don’t know how to react, you know? You’re, well, you’re you.” I waved my hand in his direction encompassing all of him from his sexy messy hair, to his killer dimples, to his toned as hell legs. Even his feet were huge! And I’d heard rumors about big feet... I kind of wanted to know if they were true. You know, for science. “And I’m me. I’ve never had someone coming onto me quite like you are or, you know, even flirting with me. It’s... weird. Good weird, really, but weird. And I don’t know how to react or act or even if I should be taking you seriously or not. But I guess not, based on what you said. It’s fine, you don’t mean anything by it, and I'll uh. Learn to deal. Try to be less awkward or whatever. I don’t know, but I’ll figure it out. You... you don’t have to change who you are because of me. You’re perfect the way you are.”
Andres’s whole face softened, and he smiled.
“Beautiful... Charisma, you are the one who shouldn’t have to change to accommodate me. I actually find your awkwardness really flattering, and I love to make you blush. It’s probably why I flirt with you so much. Truth is, I am interested in you. If you said yes to any of my offers, I’d take you to bed in a heartbeat. But you deserve more than I can give you. You deserve... what Blaze can give you. He may have a stick up his ass the size of a tree, but he’s a stand up guy and he’ll worship the ground you walk on, if you’ll let him. I won’t ever be able to give you more than a few nights of sexy fun.”
I stared at him, really stared, trying to look past the easy smile and the dimples and the flirty attitude. I had a feeling I was seeing the real Andres Illudere for the first time, and I had to say I quite liked this side of him. More than I did the flirty, fun Andres.
Not that there was anything wrong with flirty Andres, but this went deeper—it was raw, real. And it left me craving more.
Dangerous thoughts to have about someone, Charisma. Especially an Illudere. You have got to stop feeling attracted to the heirs, dammit.
I didn’t know how to answer him, I didn’t know what I could possibly say that would make this... tension go away. My heart hurt for him, for whoever had broken him and made it so he thought he was incapable of love, but I also knew it wasn’t up to me to fix him.
Like I’d said, he was perfect. My idea of perfect, and that meant I couldn’t ever ask from him more than he was willing to give. That would be cruel.
Andres broke our stare off and cleared his throat, moving away.
“Wait,” I called after him. “I actually did have something I wanted to show you. I was going to wait a little bit more because I thought the timing was weird, what with the whole us trying to catch the mole
thing, but since you’re here...” I turned back to my laptop, pulling up the schematics I’d been working on.
It had not been porn, dammit. I just didn’t want him to see it before it was completed. But alas.
I felt more than saw Andres coming closer, his body brushing against my arm as he stood by my side, looking at the screen.
“Right, so. I made a couple possible MET designs for you. The first one...”
I opened the file that had something fitting of an Illudere:
A magical top hat.
Andres laughed when he saw it. “You cannot be serious.”
I shrugged. “Well, I’ll admit I started developing it more as a joke than anything, but I kind of like it? You would look so cute with a top hat. I know it’s not exactly practical but who cares?”
“Please tell me you have another option, because as much as I’m enjoying this sassy side of you, I don’t think a top hat would make for a very practical MET. Imagine trying to make that work during a magical duel.”
“Urgh, fine. Be picky.” I pulled up the second set of schematics, the ones I actually thought he’d like and that I’d been working on since the first meeting we’d had. “This is option two.”
I let Andres absorb the image that illustrated what the MET would be like, allowing him time to understand what he was seeing.
“Is that... a bow and arrow?” he asked.
“Yes and no. It’s just the bow, really. But it’s a mechanical foldable bow, really. There are no actual arrows; they’ll be lighting, fire, or ice arrows that you’ll conjure using one of the four buttons I’ll have handy. Of course, there will be a hell of a lot more specifications to it, and you’ll be able to use it for actual close range fights, too, though long range will be where you’ll shine the brightest. As an Illusionist, I figured you’d be better used to long range combat than short range. Anyway, I’ll need to discuss with you what kind of spells you want to be able to do, as well as the specifics of how your power works, since I know different Illusionists prefer to do things different ways, but overall, that’s the design. The bow itself is pretty light, and you can carry it around with you or we can maybe use a cloaking mechanism so no one will actually see you carrying it. I could maybe have my guy fashion you some actual arrows, too, but if you can have magical ones, why do you want wooden ones, am I right?”