It was time to take Whispy’s advice and kill the enemy by getting rid of every last piece of her body. Complete and total destruction.
Don’t ever even think about fucking with my woman.
With a roar, James released his attack. The massive green energy ball crashed into the downed Aiyn. A massive shockwave knocked him back and blew out the surrounding walls and support pillars.
The wooden walls became burning particles in the heated wind, but the concrete pillar cracked, with many small pieces shooting from it as if some giant had walked up and struck it with a massive hammer.
Maximum adaptation to own attack, Whispy reported.
When the dust cleared, James crawled back to his feet with a grunt. He marched forward as he sought any sign of his enemy, but there was only a blackened crater where her body once lay.
Need to be sure.
James stared at the crater, growling, almost expecting Aiyn to regenerate and pop back in to taunt him, but there was nothing. He stood there for a good minute, waiting, his anger drifting away and his heart slowing.
No body or stray silver specks remained, only a burnt crater, smoke, and dust.
It was over. He’d achieved his goal: total obliteration of the enemy.
The amulet’s whispers quieted, replaced by satisfaction slowly suffusing through his mind and the rest of his body as the tension drifted out of his muscles.
James’ claws and blades retracted and the tendrils of armor retreated as well, which left him a shirtless man in ripped pants. Now that the battle was over there was residual pain, but not much. Most of his earlier deep wounds had already healed.
“Total fucking victory, huh?” James muttered to himself.
If he’d met the shepherd before achieving advanced mode, would he have had a chance to convince her to leave him alone? Given everything she’d done, he doubted that.
It didn’t matter if it was street thugs in LA or interplanetary assassins, the rule remained the same: don’t fuck with him if you wanted to live. At least there weren’t hundreds of Nine Systems Alliance people waiting to come after him, based on what Aiyn had told him.
James surveyed the area. The building hadn’t been destroyed, but half of it was a smoldering pile of debris.
At least I managed to only destroy half a building, Shay, he thought.
Recommend quiescence for continued cellular regeneration, Whispy reported. Maximum efficiency in current form has nearly been reached. Additional adaptation remains possible, but recommend genetic and cellular modifications for future Forerunner transformation achievement. Possible interface capability issues may arise due to local lifeform genetic code interference.
James let out a dark chuckle. Whispy had made him more human all those years ago, and now he was bitching about him being too human. He was more interested in something pragmatic.
Will Forerunner mode make me stronger? Tougher?
Yes. Forerunner transformation required for primary directive.
Which is?
James had asked many times before, only to be blown off by the stubborn necklace, but if it were ready to take him to his final transformation, it wouldn’t have much choice but to tell him what it wanted.
Primary directive…error, Whispy admitted. Conflicting primary directives. Non-resolvable.
List them, James demanded.
Primary directive: Achieve full local tactical domination appropriate for symbiont matrix sharing with Vax Vanguard and initiate tracking pulse to summon Vanguard to target planet for cleansing.
Primary directive: Destroy all Vax symbionts.
James let out a loud laugh. “You did it, Mom and Dad. You hacked the symbiont. He hates himself so much he didn’t even want to think about what you told him to do, and he’s been erroring out and letting me stay in control ever since. I don’t even know if he could take control even if he wanted to.”
Does Forerunner mode require tracking pulse to be sent? James sent.
No. Pulse requires full tactical control by enhancement symbiont.
James smirked. But even if you can do that, you can’t have control because I won’t hand over the keys.
Link error acknowledged.
We’re never going to call them, James sent. We’ll never achieve that primary directive, but here’s a truth for you, Whispy. We’re never going to achieve the other primary directive either. You and me, we’re going to stay together, because someday one of those Nine Systems Alliance bastards might come back, or even one of these Vanguards, and we’re going to turn into a Forerunner and destroy them. We’re going to reduce them to nothing, just like we did with the shepherd. Do I make myself fucking clear?
Whispy beamed back excitement at the possibility. Apparently, in the end, he didn’t care as long as he got to help the bounty hunter kick ass. James didn’t mind. That he could work with.
Go ahead and make the modifications, but maintain my humanity, James sent.
That will extend time required for modifications and lower efficiency.
James snorted. I’m not Aiyn. I’m not giving up everything. You made me mostly human when I was a kid, and I’m staying that way. Do what I say.
Entering quiescence and initiating long-term cellular and genetic modification, the amulet replied.
James didn’t feel any pain. Every other Whispy modification had hurt. Maybe he was still keeping his humanity after all, or maybe the amulet would spend months doing the modifications. At that moment, James didn’t really give a shit.
He brushed some of the dust and grime off his exposed torso before heading toward the edge of the property, unsure if there was still interference.
“Heather, can you hear me?”
No response.
James reached up and patted his ear. No earpiece left. Not surprising, considering all the damage and transformation.
Aiyn had been defeated. Not just defeated, completely obliterated. The future was wide open for James, but there was at least one outstanding problem he needed to handle that shouldn’t require him to blow up anything.
“Damn it. Maybe it would have been fucking epic to propose before the battle after all.” James’ stomach rumbled. “Shit. We’ll grab some In-N-Out tonight and go to Jessie Rae’s tomorrow morning. I can figure something out after that.”
24
James finished his shower. He turned off the water and stepped out into the steam-filled bathroom, feeling refreshed now that he’d gotten the grime and dust off him. Having a hospital collapse on a man was a good way to dirty him up, let alone getting knocked through walls.
She did all that, and in the end, it wasn’t worth shit. Don’t know if that means her plan was weak, or I’ve just gotten that strong.
James toweled off. He’d brought his change of clothes with him into the bathroom with the knowledge that if he walked into the bedroom without his clothes, Shay might jump him, especially after the night they’d had. As fun as the idea was, if they started something while they were still in Los Angeles, they would never make it to Las Vegas.
Spontaneity had been stuck in his head since their drive back from the hospital. All the relationship podcasts mentioned how important it was, but then they talked about proposals as something that should be planned in most cases. It confused him, and the whole subject was confusing enough already.
Anna’s advice argued the opposite, and something about it felt right at gut level. Maybe it was because she was hundreds of years old and not human, or because he’d actually talked to her face-to-face, he trusted her opinion.
Even though he wasn’t sure any particular opportunity would arise in Las Vegas for a solid fucking epic proposal, spending a couple of days there on a whim in a place that catered to people’s spontaneous whims sounded like a better idea for stumbling into proposal possibilities that might be epic than sitting around in Los Angeles watching the same shows and going to the same restaurants.
It wasn’t that LA didn’t have plenty of venues, but i
t had just been too much a part of his KISS routine for his entire life. Everything about LA felt comfortable and safe to him, as opposed to Vegas. He’d been there many times, but the truth was, the city still held many surprises for him.
With a quick shimmy, James donned his boxers and then his pants. He grabbed a t-shirt next. They weren’t going to Vegas to kick ass, so he could be casual and not worry about a heavy tactical outfit.
I swear that if some fucking genetically-engineered magic monster pops up, I’ll beat it down the first fucking day and we’ll continue on our mini-vacation.
After James put on his clothes, he stepped out of the bathroom. The steam billowed out into the cooler bedroom where Shay sat cross-legged on the bed.
She cradled James’ phone between her shoulder and neck as she held up her own phone and typed in a message. “Yeah, yeah. Thanks, Mack. After everything that happened, I think just letting him relax for a couple of days might be helpful, but I’ll make sure he gets you all the information you need before the end of the week, and I’ll let him know. Talk to you later. Again, thanks for all your help.” She set her phone down and held James’ phone out to him.
James frowned. “Why didn’t you tell me Mack was calling?”
“Because I thought you could use an hour where you didn’t have to worry about Aiyn Noraz Hal and her bullshit. That bitch rode you for months, and you shouldn’t have to immediately care about her, considering all that shit you just went through.”
James narrowed his eyes. “Is she back? Did she regenerate after all?”
Shay shook her head. “Nah, that was just Mack getting basic information about what went down. Your terse text to them wasn’t very descriptive.”
“I was in a hurry.”
“Don’t I know it! He also said that because you blew her up completely, there might be some difficulty getting the bounty processed, but he’s pushing for it based on your record with the department and city. I doubt the LAPD and the City and County of Los Angeles want to stiff James Brownstone, especially when the LAPD was the one begging you to go after the Silver Ghost in the first place.”
“I don’t care that much about the money, but I’m glad to hear it.” James looked down at his phone. “Let’s go to Vegas.”
Shay’s brows lifted. “Vegas? In the middle of the night? Why?”
“Because tomorrow I want to get some Jessie Rae’s.” James shrugged. “I earned that shit, and I want to eat as soon as I can.”
“Jessie Rae’s won’t be open by the time we get there, though,” Shay replied warily. “You know that, right?”
“Then we’ll stay overnight. If there’s no room in the loft, we can get a hotel. If we’re already in Vegas, I won’t have to drive there tomorrow. I don’t want to think about bounties or alien shit. I just want to relax with you and eat some barbeque.”
A faint smirk appeared on her face. “A hotel in Vegas, huh?”
Why does she look like that? Am I missing something?
“Yeah, not like they’re hard to find,” James replied. “If the LAPD needs shit from me about Aiyn over the next few days, they can just call me.” He frowned. “You didn’t tell them the truth, did you? That’ll just complicate everything, and then it won’t be over for a while.”
Shay typed another message into her phone. “Nope. As far as they’re concerned, the Silver Ghost was just some strange vigilante whose identity may never be known. I think the big fucking crater you left was enough closure for them. Let’s be honest—they were pissed because cops got hurt and they thought there was going to be a gang war. You solved both their problems.”
“You think they’ll find anything? Like a nanite or some weird radiation or shit?”
Shay considered that for a few seconds and shrugged. “I’m sure they’ll have forensics, conventional and magical, sweep the area, but it’s not your problem even if they do find nanites or something, now is it? You didn’t say one thing about who and what the Ghost was, you just went after her at their request.”
“You don’t think it’ll cause problems with the government?”
“Maybe, but it’ll be more of a problem for the LAPD than you. That’s one of the things I’m having Peyton watch, and that’s what I’ve been writing him about for the last few minutes.” Shay set her phone down. “He noticed unusual military activity that apparently started in the last few days. It might be a coincidence, but I don’t know. Given that we know the government is involved in this alien shit, I don’t want to ignore it totally, but I figure it’s not something we’ll have to worry about in the next couple of days if you want to spend time in Vegas.”
“Was this military shit in LA?” James replied. “Maybe they were planning to go after the Silver Ghost themselves.”
“No, that’s just it. The activity was all over the United States; unusually high deployment considering we don’t have any major wars going on. Peyton’s in some DOD systems, but he’s scaled back because we don’t want to bring the entire government down on us. Officially, the Pentagon’s claiming they’re doing some sort of countrywide readiness exercise, but there’s a lot of fancy and expensive equipment being moved around, and it’s not a previously scheduled exercise. There’s also some hint of PDA involvement, but it’s dangerous to poke around in their systems because Peyton doesn’t have a good way to counter magical hacking.” Shay snickered. “Yeah, speaking of that, it’s probably going to get annoying in the future. Eventually, both of us are going to need magical types to help Peyton and Heather.”
James sat on the edge of the bed. “I’ll worry about that shit when the time comes. For now, though, it doesn’t sound like this military thing has anything to do with me, or they wouldn’t have activated people all over the country for it. They would have just done shit like Aiyn, either near Los Angeles or Las Vegas, so they could get at me if necessary.”
“That’s what I’ve been thinking, but it’s hard to be too paranoid when we’ve just gotten done taking down an alien who pretended to be a billionaire for years and did everything from sending a fake Wendigo after you to hiring me and one of my archnemeses at the same time on a tomb-raiding job.”
James grinned as he pulled a pair of socks out of his drawer. “You see? That was her problem. All that complicated shit kept blowing up in her face. Going to someone and just beating them down—not a lot of moving parts in that plan to fail.”
“Oh, don’t get too full of yourself, Captain KISS,” Shay replied. “Your latest takedown required two hackers running around planting false messages on the internet to lure an alien to a particular abandoned hospital at a specific time. This wasn’t exactly you having Tyler call someone and getting them to agree to a pay-per-view.”
“Whatever. The principle’s the same.” James grunted.
Shay’s expression softened. “And what do you plan to do if the military comes after you? Could you really fire on them?”
“We don’t know they’re coming at me.”
“But what would you do?”
James frowned. “Get away, I guess. If they didn't kill me, that would give me a chance to find someone to help me. Let’s just hope it doesn’t come to that.” He grimaced. “Shit, better set out extra food and water for Thomas before we go. I was worried about him and the doggie door, but he’s fitting okay even with the extra weight.”
“If you’re worried, you could always have Mack watch him. I mean, your dog isn’t exactly a handful. He spends most of his time just sitting by chairs and relaxing.”
James shook his head. “I figure we’ll be in Vegas a day or two max. Just a quick trip. Don’t want to inconvenience Mack, and it’s good for Thomas to remember that I have to leave every now and again.”
“Vegas it is.” Shay stared at James for a moment as if carefully examining his face and trying to memorize it. “Okay, then.” She hopped off the bed. “I’ll throw some shit in a bag.” She headed toward the closet. “Quickie wedding chapels aren’t fucking epic,” she murmured a
little too loudly for it to not be on purpose.
James blinked.
Don’t know if she’ll be pissed that we’re not doing that shit.
25
Shay let out a long yawn as they headed up I-15 North, their headlights cutting through the thick darkness. As tired as she might be, the one advantage of driving in the middle of the night was that there weren’t a lot of cars on the road. She didn’t remember seeing one in the last hour, but most people weren’t crazy enough to go on late-night runs to Vegas so they could have their preferred barbeque the next day.
He did earn it. Too bad he couldn’t have picked a local place for his reward. How the hell does traveling to another city fit into the Brownstone KISS philosophy?
Shay smirked and glanced his way. Apparently, the only things allowed to be complicated in James’ life were his woman and his barbeque.
I’m glad I don’t have to make him choose between me and the barbeque. He might choose the barbeque!
James hadn’t said much in the last hour, staying in what Shay hoped was thoughtful silence about a pending proposal. She’d tried not to harass him about it, but her patience was running thin. A long engagement was one thing, but she already knew he wanted to marry her, so the clock was ticking in her mind.
Then again, how much could a woman complain when she was the one who had set up the difficulty to begin with?
Would it really be so bad if he just got it over with? It’s not like I’ve ever been the type of woman who wanted a big, impressive wedding with the fancy dress and all that shit, so it’s not like I need a proposal like that. What was I thinking when I said that to him?
Maybe it was a mistake to give him that speech about his proposal needing to be fucking epic. It’s pretty fucking epic for James Brownstone to want to take that step at all. Or I could propose to him? Fuck, I don’t know.
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