by Phil Gabriel
Kitty-Sue turned her head slowly towards the young were, eyes widening into a maniacal glare that said “Don’t fuck with me” louder than a shout.
“Oh, puppy,” I said with a sad head-shake, “when our plane landed, you were no longer at the top of the New York food chain.”
The older were broke first, dropping his head in submission. Kitty-Sue’s knife followed him down, staying a millimeter from his carotid. Reluctantly, the younger were also dropped his head. The crowds continued to flow around our little tableau, unable to penetrate the bubble that encircled us.
“So, tell me,” I asked, “what does the voice in your head say about me now?” Kitty-Sue gave me a look like I had gone crazy.
“What voice?” asked the pup, sneering.
“Your inner wolf,” I said. “My ex told me it was like a whisper, telling her where everyone fit in.” Noting Kitty-Sue’s raised eyebrow at the mention of another ex, I gave the smallest of shrugs. A guy has to have a few secrets.
“How did she put it?” I mused while rubbing my chin. “Oh yes, pack,” I said, nodding at them. “Prey.” I nodded at the passing crowd. “And those like us.” I pointed to myself and Kitty-Sue. “Predators.”
“So, tell me,” I said, staring into their eyes in direct challenge, “what does your inner wolf say when it sees us?” I held my right hand up and trickled power into my pentagram tattoo until it glowed brightly.
Once again, the older were caved first. “Raubtier,” he said, quickly echoed by the younger. Akiko whispered a translation in my ear, but I already knew that word. Predator.
Another whisper from my ghost translator, and I corrected them, “No,” I said. “Spitzenpradator.” Apex predator. I held the silence until they reluctantly repeated the word.
“OK,” I said to Kitty-Sue, “you can let them up now. They won’t attack for now.”
Kitty-Sue pouted. “But I didn’t get my tails!”
“You can take their tails if they’re not gone in five, four, three...” At three, the two were already gone.
“So,” said Kitty-Sue as she examined the edge of her blades, “what’s this news about you having a were as a girlfriend?”
“That’s old news,” I said, “another of those things that happened before you were born.”
“So, let’s see,” she said, “there’s the unnamed were, then there’s Libby—”
“Who’s Libby?” I interjected.
“The Statue of Liberty,” said Kitty-Sue. “Don’t you call her Libby?”
“Don’t ever call her that,” I said. “Her name is Jacqueline, Jackie to friends.” I was having second thoughts about introducing Kitty-Sue to Jackie.
With the slightest nod, Kitty-Sue accepted my reprimand.
Akiko spoke up. “Why couldn’t you smell them before they got here?” she asked Kitty-Sue.
“Yes,” I said, “why didn’t my bodyguard smell the werewolves before they attacked?”
With a tight-lipped expression, Kitty-Sue answered with a question of her own. “Do you remember the bath I made you take after you screwed my sister?”
Ouch, what a way to remind me of a shameful episode. “Mmm, vaguely,” I said, wondering where she was going with this.
“They were using something like that to mask their scent,” said Kitty-Sue. “Don’t worry,” she continued, tapping her nose, “I’ve got the new scent. They won’t be able to get within a hundred meters without me smelling them.”
I had noticed that the musky scent of werewolf had been missing before the attack, but had put it down to my inferior mundane senses. I shrugged in acceptance of the fact that the wolves had come up with a new trick.
“And speaking of failures,” said Kitty-Sue, turning her attention to Akiko, “it appears another of your bodyguards had trouble today. Why is that?”
Bowing in apology, Akiko said, “Gomenosai, I couldn’t intervene...” Her voice trailed off to a whisper.
“Couldn’t intervene because...?” asked Kitty-Sue.
Time to come clean about Akiko’s restrictions. “Due to a geas I placed on her when I made her my student, she’s bound to harm no one.”
Kitty-Sue’s eyes brightened in anger as she took a deep breath. “You can’t harm anyone?” she asked, stepping closer to Akiko.
“Hai,” said Akiko in a small voice, almost a whisper.
“So,” said Kitty-Sue, “I’ve been tiptoeing around in fear of your”—she made quote marks with her fingers— “immense magical powers? Terrified of the famous Ghost Mage of Roppongi?”
“Hai,” responded Akiko a second time, with her head bowed.
Kitty-Sue surprised us both by laughing loudly. “Oh, my Goddess!” she exclaimed. “You are one sneaky spirit! Even my auntie was afraid of you!”
“You’re not mad?” asked Akiko.
“Hell, no,” said Kitty-Sue. “We love jokes. I’d hug you if you were tangible. I’m not mad at you,” she said with a glare at me.
“But,” she said to me, “your bodyguard should know if her partner is shooting blanks. We could have died if I had depended on her.”
Swallowing my pride, I had to admit Kitty-Sue was right. My magician need to keep secrets had endangered the team. “OK,” I said, “you’re right. No more secrets that might affect our mission.”
“No more secrets,” echoed Kitty-Sue. “So, what about this werewolf girlfriend?”
Turning us towards the exit, I said quickly, “No secrets that affect the mission, Kitty-Sue. That was long ago and far away.”
A quick taxi ride to the Ritz-Carlton and we were in our room. The suite was extravagant—opulent with overstuffed furniture, heavy wooden tables, and tiled floors. A vase of flowers awaited us on the entryway table.
The stereo turned on by itself and started playing an old tune by The Police: “Every Breath You Take.”
“Thanks, Euterpe,” I said to the empty room. Concentrating, I felt a tingle in my earlobes, a sign that listening devices were in the area. I looked over at Kitty-Sue, who looked around the room, her glance resting on the spots the monitoring devices were located. In the telephone, the large screen TV, even the bathroom.
Tugging my earlobe to request Kitty-Sue erect a bubble, I waited until we were secure before saying, “Fucking NSA. I can zap the devices, but they’ll know they’ve been cut off.”
With a thoughtful look, Kitty-Sue said, “I can baffle them, but they will grow suspicious at too much silence.”
Akiko raised her hand, looking every bit the student, and said, “I have a spell that might work.”
A spell to trick listening devices and not advertise the fact that we knew they were listening? I nodded at her to go ahead.
Akiko began to sing in Spanish, of all things. A language she had not known two days ago. Despite her inability to access local magic streams, she wove a complex spell that created tiny spheres of sound near each microphone and spheres of almost invisible light near the cameras.
“It’s OK now,” said Akiko, gesturing to Kitty-Sue to drop her bubble. “We can talk now. All they will hear is Spanish telenovelas.”
Kitty-Sue waited until I nodded to drop the bubble.
I approached my student’s sphere of audio magic, amazed by the complexity and intricacy of Akiko’s spell. It took a tiny amount of magic to sustain and was a marvel.
“And what will they see?” asked Kitty-Sue.
“Us, walking around, talking, drinking. I based the spell on a telenovela series I watched once called Jane the Virgin.”
I had been considering releasing Akiko from her geas so she could perform more magic. I was having second thoughts after seeing this display of skill. Skill and talent outrunning morality was one of the reasons magicians were feared around the world. She would be even more formidable once she attuned herself to New York’s magical flows.
In the background, I heard Kitty-Sue asking, “So, which of us is the virgin?”
Nineteen
Central Park Meditation
>
“Well, ladies,” I said, “it’s late in the afternoon, and I still need to work on my meditations. I’m going down to Central Park. Would you like to come with?”
“Of course, Scott-Sensei,” responded Akiko. “I also need to meditate.”
“Meditation?” said Kitty-Sue with a weighing gesture, balancing her two hands in front of her body. “Mmm, sounds boring.”
“OK,” I responded, putting my dragonskin satchel around my shoulder and heading for the door.
“Wait!” said Kitty-Sue. “I’m your bodyguard. You can’t go anywhere without me.” Looking askance at Akiko, she added, “I guess I’m your bodyguard, too. Since you can’t hurt anyone.” She shook her head at the alien concept.
I shook my head at Kitty-Sue. “Don’t think that her vow of nonviolence means she can’t protect herself or help us,” I said. “She’s almost as powerful as me, she can’t be touched by mortal weapons, she never sleeps, she can walk through walls, and she has access to an enormous amount of magical energy through the Artifact of Power she wears.”
I had a momentary internal debate before continuing, “The vow she took was to protect us from her as much as vice versa.” Akiko’s eyes widened in surprise.
“I’ll still come,” said Kitty-Sue as she picked up her tiny purse. She watched Akiko out of the side of her eyes, a newfound element of respect in her gaze.
We stepped out the front door of the Ritz-Carlton and headed towards Central Park. It was a warm summer afternoon, and the park was teeming with people. After a twenty-minute walk, we found a spot near the center of the park. I indicated with a nod that I wanted to go off the path, and Kitty-Sue set up a kitsune bubble around us.
We found a spot with the elements we needed: earth and stone, sun and sky, and a set of trees. Unlike my carefully cultured geometric garden in Las Vegas, this was a more haphazard arrangement. Still, with the proper attitude, it would work.
First thing, turn off all electronics, eliminating distractions. Kitty-Sue reluctantly put away her phone, where she had been updating her status on Tailbook. She then cast a bubble over our group.
Walking around like a dog about to settle, I found a spot with a nexus of ley lines, the conductors of magical energy. I sat on the ground in a cross-legged position.
Akiko, long hair and short skirt blowing in the wind, picked a spot directly opposite me. A thought flashed through my mind: “Is my ghost wearing underwear?” I quickly squashed it and turned my head, although I could still see her out of the corner of my eye.
With a tiny smile, Akiko made a gesture and morphed her outfit from the senior high school student combo she normally wore to her Padawan outfit of a tunic and pants. Modesty assured, she nodded to herself and floated down into the seiza position opposite me.
Kitty-Sue faced away from us, facing the nearest path, and settled into that one-knee-on-the-ground stance that martial artists use. It looked uncomfortable, but I had seen her maintain the position for hours, then leap into blurring motion when necessary.
Akiko took off her glasses and polished them on a white piece of purest silk. She perched the glasses on her nose and pushed them up until they fit just right, nodding to herself.
I had crafted the glasses when she was just a ghost to enable her to see the flows of magic. The funny thing was that the glasses were not real, just more of her ectoplasm. Unbound by mundane physics, she should have been able to see the entire magical spectrum. However, she had lacked the self-confidence to believe she could see magic. The glasses were her “Dumbo’s feather,” allowing her to accept that she could see magic. I would have to train her to eliminate the crutch in the near future so she could reach her full potential.
The next two hours were spent in meditation and trying to capture the vague wisps of magic that flowed around us. Earth, Water, Air, Fire, and Spirit, the five elements of magic. I needed to build up reserves of each type to perform my tricks.
It was tedious and frustrating. At home, I could have topped off my reserves quickly. Even in Tokyo, I had access to more magic than here. Between the burned-out tattoos and the new location, my powers were at low ebb.
At the edge of my awareness, I felt Akiko performing the same exercises, as I had taught her. It was equally frustrating for her, but she persevered. She had access to the ring I had gifted her, a potent Artifact of Power that contained enormous reserves of magical energy. However, like myself, she preferred to have her internal resources at maximum. Magic rings, wands, and collars could be lost or stolen, but the energy stored within was always available. Our internal resources were one of the few reliable constants in a magician’s life.
After two hours, I exited my trance. Still not attuned to the local magic, but closer. Pushing further would reach the point of diminishing returns. Akiko followed me up to consciousness. As always, coming back to the mundane world was a shock. Were the trees really that green? The sky that blue? To work magic is to be forever torn between two realities, always homesick for the other world.
I rose stiffly from my squat, envious of the way Akiko and Kitty-Sue floated to their feet. I had been that limber once and would be again, after a lot of work.
Kitty-Sue and I turned on our phones. I was greeted with a series of missed calls from the offices of Selene Select Partners, as well as several voice mails.
While I was looking at the screen of my phone, it rang again. Punching the “Accept” key brought the voice of a pissed-off werewolf to the speaker.
“Where the fuck are you?” he said. “I’m losing millions every day you fuck around.”
“Must be a wrong number,” I said. “See ya.” I hung up.
Twenty seconds later the phone rang again. I let it go to voice mail, listening in.
“Freeman, you asshole!” The rage in his voice was palpable as Frost went off the rails. “Where are you? Fucking Omaha. Get your ass back to New York and complete this contract or I’ll...”
I clicked on the phone, answering his call. “Or you’ll send a couple of cubs to kidnap me? That didn’t work out so well, did it?”
It could go two ways: either he’d deny they were his pack or pretend they had gone off on their own. Both explanations were bullshit. No one else knew we were coming to New York, and members of the pack didn’t do anything without orders.
He went with option two. “Is this about those two rogue...” he said with his voice turning into a feral growl.
The phone was taken by somebody else, and the next voice was the dulcet tones of Ms. Cappuccetto. “Hello, Dr. Freeman? This is Ms. Cappuccetto. We would greatly appreciate it if you could come in as soon as possible to work on our communications system.”
Her voice trembled as she continued, “I can assure you, the two men who met you are no longer with the firm.”
Kitty-Sue’s ears perked up at the sounds in the background of snarls and screams. It put a smile on her face.
“Gee, I feel so reassured,” I said. “Let me think about it.”
The screams stopped, and I could hear Frost panting in the background, near Ms. Cappuccetto. I could imagine his feral jaws closing in on her throat. “Please help me,” she whispered, then continued in a slightly stronger voice, “set up an appointment as soon as possible.”
Kitty-Sue was unimpressed. She frowned and shook her head. At my glance, she pantomimed begging for help, palms clasped before her ample chest, and then smiling in gratitude. She hates poor acting.
“Well,” I said, putting in my own attempt at bad acting, “I would really like to help you. But if you want me to work with you, I’m going to need an Oath.”
There were several seconds of silence on the line. An Oath would bind the alpha and his pack. Breaking an Oath would have severe consequences. Not the “I’m gonna sue you” type of consequences. The “die right away” type of outcome.
“OK,” said Ms. Cappuccetto, “I give you my Oath—”
I had to laugh. “Not you, honey,” I said. “Frost has to bind him
self and the pack to do me and mine no harm.”
Another whispered discussion in the background. I could tell Akiko and Kitty-Sue had questions, but they wisely held them.
Frankly, it was a toss-up if he would accept or not. An Oath would be humiliating to him, indicating he was untrustworthy. Consequences would be severe if broken, but taking the Oath would lower his reputation in the magical community.
“Just give me a minute to confer with Director Frost,” said Ms. Cappuccetto. Kitty-Sue tilted her head, listening to the whispered exchange before they muted their end of the line. I muted our line.
Kitty-Sue put one hand in front of her mouth to stifle a laugh, then made a circle with thumb and forefinger while wagging her hand back and forth. Akiko looked on in incomprehension, then as she understood what Kitty-Sue had heard, gave her ghostly blush and looked at the ground.
“Yeah,” I said, “she’s calming him down so he can make his decision with a clear head.”
Looking at the phone resting in my palm to ensure the line was still muted, Kitty-Sue asked, “What was that about Omaha?”
“He put a tracer on my phone,” I said. “The phone reported its location as Omaha. My phone always thinks it’s in Omaha. He has the resources of a billion-dollar company. He can spy on pretty much anyone.”
“Anyone but us,” said Kitty-Sue with a grin, then continued, “What happened to the two guys from the airport?”
“Oh,” I said, “they’re dead. That background noise was them getting their throats torn out.”
Kitty-Sue surprised me by abruptly crossing her arms, compressing her lips in anger, and saying, “So you sent those two weres back to certain death?”
“Yeah,” I said, “it was certain. The guy who canceled my original contract got thrown out of a fifty-story window, so I was sure those two would meet an untimely end. Why are you so concerned?” Was my ninja bodyguard going soft?
“Because it was a waste!” she said with vehemence. “I could have had two werewolf tails for the queen.”