by D. Levesque
That’s when she hears the buzzing. She frowns and looks around quickly, placing her finger over her mouth to tell me to be quiet. She mumbles something and a shield appears in her hand. Something that a gladiator would wear into the ring. There are even straps that go around her arm.
Marrisa walks towards the window slowly, which is where the buzzing seems to be coming from. She turns to me and mouths, “Lights!”
I nod and get off the couch, the two bottles still in my hands, and head to the front door to turn off the lights. Suddenly it’s dark in the room, and the buzzing stops. I make my way inch by inch to the kitchen, and with the negligible amount of light coming in from the window, I put the bottles on the counter, almost dropping one as I miscalculate where the edge is. Thankfully I catch it just in time.
Remembering the spells I had just learned, I mumble the words under my breath, and suddenly I feel a stinging in my eyes, as if I had squeezed lemon juice in them. I blink away the pain, and finally open my eyes and look around.
I can see inside the room, but not in a normal light. You know those cameras that let you see in the dark, where everything is green? Well, instead of that, everything I see is a ghostly white. I can see Marrisa at the wall next to the window, and she is peering at something outside. I hold my hand up, and my hand is a ghostly white as well.
Wow, this is neat. Now that I can see, I sneak back to the couch and kneel next to it, out of sight of whatever might come through the window. I figure I need to cover Marrisa, so I call up my Foci with a thought, and suddenly in my hand, I have a dagger.
Marrisa sees what I have in my hand and glares at me. What? I have no clue what is going on, and I want something to defend myself with, I tell her with my look. She glares even more. She waves her hand down, telling me to get down. Just then, the buzzing from earlier starts up again.
Suddenly, Marrisa opens the window, reaches outside, and grabs something, slamming it to the ground with her shield covering it. The thing isn’t small. It’s the size of, well, Preeka.
“No kill!” I hear the thing shriek in fear.
“What are you doing outside my window?” growls Marrisa.
In her free hand is her Foci, which is a large handgun like mine, just not as big. Sure Kevin, a good time to compare, I think, rolling my eyes at myself.
“I have message,” the thing shrieks, and I can see from the ghostly white light that it’s a goblin, and it’s, believe it or not, uglier than Preeka. So does that mean compared to him, Preeka is cute? For a goblin?
“Why did you not use the front door, goblin?” Marrisa asks him in a dangerous voice.
“Because secret!” he screams.
“What secret?” Marrisa asks him, sounding dangerous.
“Master send me!” he screams in horror at something he sees in her face.
“Who is your master?” she growls, lifting the shield slightly and slamming it down hard on the little goblin.
It screams in pain. “Master William!”
Suddenly, both Marrisa and I look at each other, and then we look at the goblin.
“What does William Tonlia want with us?” Marrisa asks him slowly.
“Summons. Summons help,” he cries.
“Shit,” Marrisa says, getting off the little goblin.
“Turn the lights back on,” she tells me with a frustrated sigh. I just stare at her. She looks over, sees my look, and blushes. “Please.”
Nodding, I make my Foci go away, and head to the light switch, remembering at the last second to remove the spell that lets me see in the dark. Turning around, I walk back and look down at the goblin. Fucking hell, it is uglier than Preeka. Where Preeka had a wart or two, this guy has them all over. His eyes are misshaped, and I’m pretty sure he only has one tooth. How did I know he was male though? Some of that information they force fed to me? Not used to this yet.
“What do you mean William summons help? Did something happen to him?”
Nodding quickly, the goblin stands up. He reaches into his clothing, which is just rags, and suddenly Marrisa is aiming a gun at him, Marrisa and its barrel is touching his forehead. He stops, his hand halfway down his clothing, and his eyes widen, looking at her.
“Ask next time before you do that,” she tells him.
He nods, his forehead making her gun move with him. “I get?”
“Sure. Slowly.”
Slowly, at an almost exaggerated speed, the goblin’s hand goes deeper into his rags and then comes out just as slowly. Marrisa sighs but says nothing. Finally, the goblin takes out a piece of paper and hands it to her. Marrisa opens the note and reads it.
Her face goes white, then red, and finally she looks at the goblin, who suddenly screams and throws himself onto his back on the floor.
“Is this real?” she growls.
“Yes!” the goblin screams at her in terror.
“What is it?” I ask her worriedly.
She looks at me and there is murder in her eyes. “That theory you had? It might prove true. I just got a note from William saying that he was being hunted and he sent his goblin to us for help. This note,” she holds up the paper, “says that the person chasing him is none other than Gardo. The man who killed my partner five years ago.”
“Oh shit,” I breathe.
“William wants us to either help him or avenge him. Goblin,” Marissa says, looking down at the still petrified goblin. “Where was William when he gave you this?”
“Earth,” it says in a quivering voice.
Sighing in annoyance, she says, “I get that, since William was going to Earth. Where on Earth?”
“Place called Morocco,” he says.
“Morocco, here I come,” Marrisa growls.
Chapter Twenty
“Morocco, here we come, you mean?” I say to her.
Marrisa looks at me and growls. “No. I mean, here I come. There is no way I am bringing a new recruit into this with me,” she says with a snarl.
“Marrisa,” I start to reply, but she cuts me off.
“No! You are not trained for this. When we get back, we will go after a regular Bounty. Something easy. This, this is not straightforward.”
“Marrisa, that makes no sense. I am, for all intents and purposes, your partner now, and according to the rule book that was stuffed into my brain, you cannot do this without backup.”
“Yes, I can. You aren’t coming.” She bends down and grabs the goblin by his dirty clothes. Her shield and Foci disappear, and she reaches into her pocket and brings out her Portal stone.
“Marrisa, you can’t do this alone.” I am now the one growling at her.
She doesn’t listen. Suddenly there is a Portal next to her and she walks through it, with the goblin still in her clutches. I go to follow her, but unexpectedly I bounce off the portal. What the fuck! Did she just call a Portal from the second floor? Not only that, but she also locked me out of it.
While the Portal is still open, I try to think about what I can do to go after her. I know there is a spell I can cast that would allow me to track her Portal location. Then I could my own Portal to take me there. Unfortunately, right now I don’t have the ingredients for that spell.
Clearing my head, I leave the apartment and head down the stairs, passing the security guard, who nods. Once I get to the lobby, I bring out my own Portal stone and use it to bring me to the only other location that is saved on the stone. The training area. As soon as the Portal is stable, I rush into it, for once not afraid of what will happen. Once I’m through, I run smack dab into the person I was hoping to see, and the Portal behind me disperses.
“What the Gods, Kevin. What’s going on? Why are you at the training facility once more?” Luitta says crossly, picking herself off the ground. The Elf had gone flying as soon as I exited the Portal and slammed into her.
“Thank God, Luitta! I need help. I was hoping you could open a Portal for me to M.A.G.I. headquarters,” I say to her, helping her off the floor.
“Why
do you need that? Your partner can do that for you,” she says suspiciously, dusting herself off.
“Because my damn partner decided to go off on her own to find the creature that killer her partner five years ago on Earth.”
Luitta says nothing at first, but then begins to say things that, no matter the language, I can tell are swear words.
Finally, her rant winds down and she glares at me. Shit, why is she glaring at me? It wasn’t my fault. I am a trainee here!
“I know it’s not your fault. But by the Gods, that girl is just as pig-headed as she was when I trained her. Here,” she says, taking her Portal stone and lifting it out towards me. I look at her oddly and reach out to take it.
“No, you moron, touch yours to mine. You taking mine won’t work for you.”
“Right,” I say, a flush coming to my face.
The stones are magically connected to one person, and they only work for that one person. But if you touch one with your stone, they can pass on a Portal location. I take mine out of my pocket and touch it to hers. Suddenly I feel that I have a new location in my stone’s memory. Jesus, even with all my new knowledge I still no clue how some of this works. But then again, it’s Magic, right?
“Thanks, Luitta,” I tell her gratefully.
“No problem. Why are you going to H.Q?”
“I want to go talk to Pathy, see if she can help.”
“Good luck. And I genuinely mean that human. I hope your partner doesn’t do something stupid,” she says with a scowl. “She was my best student.”
“Same here,” I say passionately.
With my Portal stone still in my hand, I call up the new location and a Portal appears next to me. Once more, with no fear this time, I rush into it. And yet again, as soon as I exit I run into something, but this time, instead of me pushing someone over, I’m the one who gets slammed backward, causing the Portal to disperse again as I fall back onto my ass.
“Dammit, human. What are you in a rush for?” I hear a growl from above me. Looking up, I see it’s Bower.
“Bower!” I shout, scrambling up quickly and putting the Portal stone in my pocket. “I need to see Pathy right away. Please. My new partner might be out doing something stupid.”
“Oh?” he says, glaring down at me. At least he isn’t trying to attack me this time.
I quickly explain to him what happened after my training was done, with the party, and then later the drinking, finally ending with the goblin and what he said and who William Tonlia said might be after him. Gardo.
At the mention of the name Gardo, Bower’s face turns purple in anger. He is about to say something when a female voice says, “I’ve got this, Bower.”
Bower turns around slowly and looks over at the woman who spoke, as do I. Fucking hell, she’s hot. Tall, and all legs. She has to be at least five foot eleven, if not six feet tall.
She’s got long blond hair, and is wearing a red beret, like a model. Or a rebel. On her back, sticking out over her left shoulder, is a stock for what must be a rifle. She has blue eyes, luscious lips, and a smile to die for. And the fact that her tits are massive is what finally does it for me. I can’t help but stare.
“Carmen,” Bower growls at her. “He wants to see Pathy.”
“Yes, and Pathy has actually gone to a meeting off-site and won’t be back for another three or four hours. Can his problem wait that long? And did I hear right that this is the new human?” this Carmen says.
I brace myself for the insult that is sure to come, but instead, she walks up to me and puts a hand on my shoulder, looking up at me slightly. She purrs, “I like humans. Now that there is one that can do Magic, I might have to see what you can do. Now. What can you tell me?”
“Well, not much,” I answer, looking down at her, which gives me a magnificent view of her cleavage. “I can tell you that this Gardo guy might be going after a Sir William Tonlia. William had been given clearance to stay on Earth to learn or to go to school or something. Oh! And something about Morocco,” I say, remembering that is where Marrisa is heading.
“Shit,” Carmen says with a frown.
“Is Morocco bad?” I ask her.
“Somewhat. Humans don’t know about Magic, but Morocco is a hotbed for other races. We go there because the rules are laxer, and well, lots of things that you humans think go bump in the night are there—something about the hot weather,” she explains. “Who is your partner?”
“Carmen,” Bower says again in a growl but she holds up her hand.
“Hush. Who is your partner?” she asks me again.
“Marrisa Lalouton,” I tell her. “She’s also my wife.”
At that, Carmen’s eyes widen, but she doesn’t say anything at first. Suddenly she grins at me, and comes closer, until her breasts are brushing up against my chest.
“Oh my. So you’re Marrisa’s partner not just with M.A.G.I. but in between the sheets as well. Finally, someone took her on,” Carmen purrs.
“Hmm,” I say, not sure what is going on here.
“Carmen, if my wife hears you did anything, she will demote you. Again,” Bower growls.
“Fine!” Carmen says, frowning at him. “I promise to be good. I’m going to take him to rescue his wife. Because you know as well as I do Bower, her being alone on Earth without a partner is not good. Hell, she has never been assigned to Earth before. I have. Twice. I know my way around.”
Bower doesn’t say much at first as he glares at her. But I can see the wheels or cogs turning in his brain. He is thinking it through. Finally, almost reluctantly, he tells her, “I will be putting this down as a temporary assignment, Carmen. Don’t fuck it up,” he growls at her.
“Hey, I’m not the one who left her partner home and went on a wild goose chase that might get her killed.”
Bower just sighs and says, “Go see what you can do.”
Carmen turns back to me with a smile. She hadn’t moved yet, so her soft breasts are still against me.
“Shall we go rescue this partner of yours?” she says sweetly.
“Sure? Are you a Bounty Hunter as well?”
“That I am,” she says with a grin. She backs up and suddenly her rifle is in her hands and pointing at me. “One of the best snipers in the business. If I go after someone, they are dead.” And just as quickly, the rifle is back over her shoulder in its holster.
“And you know Marrisa?” I ask her.
“You can say that,” she says, but I can tell she is being evasive.
“Good or bad?” I ask her with a grin.
She pouts at me, having been caught.
“That’s ok. We haven’t hit it off exactly either,” I say, but leave it at that. I hate bad-mouthing someone, especially to someone who I don’t know. “So are you, hmm. I’m not even sure what the protocol is. Can I ask what race you are? You look human, so I would assume, Changeling?”
She grins at me, and suddenly she has two blond furred ears and a large blond-colored tail swishing behind her.
“Correct. And the protocol is it’s fine to ask. Most Races can change their appearance somewhat. Werewolves, Vampires to a degree, and Beasts. Take this big lug here,” she says, waving her hand to Bower, who had been standing there listening quietly. “This is what is called his non-Beast mode. How tall are you, Bower, in your Beast form?”
“Hmm, about fourteen feet?” he rumbles.
“So, I’m totally new to this, but would your Beast be a grizzly, by any chance?” I ask him.
Bower looks at me and grins proudly. “Yep! In my family, I’m the biggest one.”
“Bower,” Carmen says with a laugh. “You are the biggest one on M.A.G.I. or any police force. Bower here is our enforcer. When we need muscle, he is the one we send in. He gets the job done.”
“Just how many M.A.G.I. Bounty Hunters are there? I don’t see anyone else in the building. The only ones I have seen now are Pathy, Bower here, you, and of course Marrisa.”
“We are a small force. With you being adde
d on as the newest recruit, we are up to twenty-five,” Bower tells me.
“Twenty-five? That’s it? For eight worlds?”
“Nine, if you include Earth. Which is, as you are about to see, where most of us are posted. In most other worlds we have local police to take care of things. They only bring us in if they truly need us to investigate Magic. Earth is where all the shit happens,” Carmen explains.
“Earth? Really?” I ask her with a raised eyebrow.
“Oh, as a human, you wouldn’t know. But there is a lot of stuff going on behind closed doors, hidden in the night, that you humans don’t see. We make sure Article 1 is followed. But when it isn’t, we arrest those who break it. We bring them to their home world and pass them over to the police.”
“And the humans involved?” I ask her, remembering what almost happened to me.
“We wipe their minds. In that brain of yours, bring up the spell for Mind Wipe.”
Following her directions, I think of it, and just like that I know how to cast the spell for Mind Wipe. It’s a spell that requires no components; only that I place my hand on the person’s head and cast it. There’s a footnote in the spell’s information that says that if someone is moving, you need to cast the spell Bind first, which makes them stop in their tracks, unable to move or yell. The Mind Wipe spell doesn’t hurt, but it removes the last hour of a person’s memories. Though, if a human is involved with Magic folk and they have more than an hour’s worth of memories, they are taken in and checked to see just how deep that involvement goes. If it’s deep, the human is killed to keep the Magic folk safe.
Carmen was looking at my face the entire time I was accessing that information, and as I scowl at the end, she says, “Don’t worry. That last part, where it says we kill humans, it’s rare. Most of the time, they are just barely involved. When someone is deeply involved, we have protocols in place. We might hate humans, but we value life.”
“Good to know,” I tell her. I’m somewhat relieved, but I honestly still have no idea what those protocols would be since it’s not in the information I have.
“Now, shall we go rescue Marrisa from herself?” Carmen says with a grin.