Chapter 4

The meeting with the Governor’s representatives went about as well as planned. Everyone was scrambling to save their own ass. One of the more laughable questions was if the groups that were threatening lawsuits had contacted my firm. I let them know that I was almost as hated by the bleeding hearts as they were. Of course if these groups could bring the money that a government or big oil contract could, then we would be best of friends. I do love capitalism.

After they left I had a few minutes to think about my reaction to Xandra. I ran a couple of incantations looking for any trace of magic she could have slipped by me. As I feared there was nothing which meant that my reactions were coming from myself. It might be time to terminate the contract with her. Of course that meant she would try to kill me as soon as she could. That could be fun. Damn I would miss her though. Running some quick meditation exercises, I was able to get back to center before she entered.

The door opened and she swayed into the room.

“We are extremely popular in the lower planes right now.” She grinned.

“I take it you didn’t have any trouble finding new succubi to slip into Sarif’s little plan?” I asked

“Oh yeah, they jumped at a visit to the prime material material plane and the opportunity to feed on some souls. You will have to summon them and give them their orders but they are excited. There was even talk of taking a day and submitting us to all types of hedonistic pleasures.” She grinned and shuddered with excitement.

“Of course you don’t have the same deals in place with them so you wouldn’t survive, but what a way to go. Now talk to me about taking down those white clad freaks.” she said as she dropped into the chair across the desk. Everything jiggled deliciously as she crossed one long leg over the other.

“Nothing really to tell.” I replied “ I had jumped into my fiend mode so I could take a fly around the city to clear my mind. Just for shits and giggles I pulled up my mage sight and saw the tell tale green of a necro and the white of the Paladins. I normally would let things go, but at that moment two on one seemed a bit unfair. Especially since I didn’t see our new friend attacking. So I decided to step in. Turns out they didn’t have a writ for her so I was able to place her under my protection and goad them into a fight. They were just pups and couldn’t focus enough to avoid my soul siphon so it was a pretty easy play.”

She snorted.

“You know boss, when you are trying to impress a lady with your battle prowess you should focus more on the blow by blow.” She said drawing out the last three words seductively.

“Well when I find a lady to tell the story to, I will be sure to do that.” I grinned back at her.

She fake scowled for a second then broke into a chuckle. Her tablet appeared in her hand and she started tapping at it with her long delicate fingers.

“The meet and greet went well for Chloe’s brothers, so I will expedite the paperwork and get that rolling. By all accounts the younger one is great with tools and shows decent mechanical aptitude. The older one seems to be leaning to literature, english and history. Speaking of history what are we looking for in the shipment from Omar?”

I reached into my desk and took out my spiral bound notebook. I flipped to the page I wanted and slid it across the desk to her. There was a sketch of a cuneiform cube with a crack running down the center. Xandra and I were the only ones who could read the code I had written. Her eyebrows shot up when she got to the interesting part.

“So you think this will lead us to the mystical component of the Keychain Project? Interesting indeed. It will be pretty ballsy to move in that region of the world though. It is a quagmire down there. Politically AND literally.”

“I need to see if it is even true.” I replied “If it is we will have to call in that favor from Blackthorne.”

Two years ago my firm had represented a mid level cartel boss and managed to get him off via technicality. Six months after that the CIA wanted me to make an introduction to help broker an arms deal to help keep the Panama region in flux. Blackthorne was the CIA front operating in the region so they took over distribution. When one of the cartel rivals intercepted the shipment things got really tense. The CIA wouldn’t do anything seeing as how they were getting the instability they wanted and my reputation was on the line since I was the one who orchestrated the initial meeting. I summoned a 6 pack of rage demons and sent them into the warehouse where the weapons were. Rage demons being what they are it was said to be the worst massacre and the most disgusting display of human remains any of the cartel had seen. We managed to luck out and catch the rival cartel with all of their lieutenants which effectively crippled them. Since neither Blackthorne nor our friend claimed responsibility it was assumed they both orchestrated it. Blackthorne went international with a reputation of being nasty and our cartel friend went to major player status for being so ruthless with his rivals. And both entities owed me a favor. Neither knew about my supernatural status, they just knew that I could get things done.

“Ok so we will look for that cube, what do you want to do with the rest of the stuff?” she asked.

“Catalogue and keep any mystic items for review. As for the rest of the stuff, use our back channel through the mosques in Dearborn and get the relics back to where they need to be. Tell them about how we admire their heritage and want to give back to the community, yadda yadda. Make sure to get some future promises of cooperation from them. Now it is time for me to go talk to my new apprentice.”

Xandra walked over to me and drew in close. She turned her back to me and drew my arms across her body in an embrace. I closed my eyes and enjoyed the sensation of just being close to her. She surprised me by twisting her head and giving me a soft kiss on the lips before cuddling in a little closer.

“You aren’t getting rid of me boss. If I am yours then you are mine.” she whispered.

I kissed the top of her head in response and teleported us home.

We seperated from our embrace as we stepped out of the teleportation circle. Surprisingly Chloe was already there with a few different magical texts open on the table in front of her. I noticed she had moved the fruit bowl closer to her work area so she could eat and read at the same time. She looked up and threw an acid bolt at me. Instinctively I raised a shield and even managed to toss a rebound incantation in before it struck. The bolt bounced off my shield and headed straight back at her. She got a shield up and it not only splashed harmlessly, it almost looked like the magic strengthened the shield.

Xandra crouched down down and moved off to the left of the young girl. Chloe dropped her shield for a split second to launch a stasis bolt at the red head. Seeing the shield down I tried to send out a soul siphon tendril but she got the shield back up. Dancing around the poorly aimed bolt Xandra ended up right behind the necro. Xandra launched herself at the unprotected back of the young girl while I shot a thin beam of focused fire from my finger and targeted the shield. Chloe then did something I had never conceived of. Her shield expanded out hitting Xandra mid air and throwing her back into a couch. Of course as it expanded it thinned and the laserfire I was throwing out got through. It wasn’t very hot by the time I got through the shield but it did make her stop for a second. Piggy backing on the laser I sent a soul siphon tendril. It made contact just as her shield closed but I was able to strengthen it so it wouldn’t get cut off. She knew something was wrong when her power started draining.

“Okay pup, playtime is over. Drop your shield or I go looking for a new apprentice.” As I said this I tugged a bit of her power through the tendril.

She dropped her shield and looked at me sheepishly. I formed a fist of air and sent it right into her gut. As she doubled over I summoned a globe of water over her face for an instant. As she breathed in she started coughing. Another gentle push of air sat her down on the couch as I went over to check on Xandra. She was sitting on one of the couches with her legs crossed and a very pissed off look on her pretty face.

“As an interplanar I should have gone right through her shield. You know that!” she spat

“Hell beautiful, I have never seen someone turn a shield offensive that quick. I don’t think she left off the defensive capabilities. The only thing I can think is that she was powering it with spirit. But even then to wield her spirit magic and regular magic simultaneously... “ I left it hanging as the implications were too much for me to consider. A freaking Archmage Necromancer? As I heard Chloe starting to catch her breath I sent two more fists of air into her gut. It was time to start training.

I felt Xandra rise behind me as we walked over to our diminutive assailant. I looked down as she was trying to catch her breath.

“Explain!” I ordered.

“Had ... wheeze ... to see ... cough ... if you were really that ... UGH ... good.” she managed to get out.

“Do you realize how fucked up that logic is? What would be your baseline as to how good I am?” I asked.

“I kill people. I hate it but I have killed almost everyone I have come across for the last two months.” She had caught her breath and now looked equal parts terrified and angry.

What the hell? I sat down next to her and looked her in the eyes.

“It is time to hear your story”

She grabbed an orange from the fruit basket and bit into it to start a hole that she could peel from. As she talked she seemed engrossed on taking the skin off of the fruit.

“My parents both worked at Chrysler before the recession. That is where they met and they joked that they had a blue collar romance. I remember early on we had pretty much everything we could ask for. To make a long story short. Both lost their jobs, both contracted cancer, and both died within weeks of each other. We lived with my uncle but he was having his own issues. I told a school teacher that my cousin was perving on me and they called in child protective services. They investigated and found that he had been molesting his kid sister so we got kicked into the system. We were able to stay together at one house for a long time. The place was clean and the foster mother was nice enough. When she got custody of her own grandkid someone had to move out. Since I was seventeen I left so my brothers could stick together. I got placed with a serious perv couple. The night I turned eighteen I was sleeping and the guy busts into my room high as a kite and drags me downstairs. Two of his friends and the landlord were down there. To make a short story even shorter they each took turns in my mouth and pussy. I was a virgin up to that point and they kept loving the fact that they got a “cherry bitch”. I tried to bite down and took a hard shot to the jaw.”