by Viola Grace
Argyle grunted. “I have to hang back.”
“Of course. That is the one kind of magic you are sensitive to.”
“I will be there if the ghoul rises. Even if she manages to put in both soul and consciousness, the degradation will have caused some rather nasty changes.” He was grim. “If he rises, I will come in fast and question him later.”
Smith nodded. “We are going in to...”
“We need to hold down the necromancer. Stop the power and keep her engaged until the mages can come to collect her. Just restraint. No blood. The blood of a new necromancer is one of the easier methods of controlling the undead.” Benny grimaced. “But only after her first rising and before her locking in her power. If any of the dark mages know what is going on, they are going to be out for her blood.”
Tremble sighed. “Why couldn’t this just be simple?”
Benny grinned and put the computer away after sending the confirmation of arrival signal.
She flexed her fingers. “This is where I earn my keep.”
Argyle handed her a set of cuffs. “You forgot to take yours off your last collar.”
Benny sighed. “Sorry. There is so much I need to get used to.”
The last flecks of sunset disappeared. Benny adjusted her eyesight and nodded to Smith and Tremble.
She left the vehicle and felt for the magic. It flared and popped all over the cemetery. A very bad sign.
Tremble asked, “What am I sensing?”
“Unfocused magic. She is all over the place. We need to call in more undead. She is going to raise the entire block if they aren’t anchored.”
“Right. So find her, find her fast, and you stop her before she tangles the living and the dead.”
Benny nodded. “Right. Smith, can you shift and sniff her out? She will smell like girl and blood.”
He nodded and his features shifted into feline, his hair wild and shaggy. His head lifted, and he led them into the darkness.
Argyle kept well back, but Benny could feel him in the shadows.
Candles flickered up ahead, and Benny eased up next to Smith. She touched his shoulder, and he waited in the darkness.
Tremble came in closer, but he left her to take point.
Dealing with unstable college girls wasn’t really her forte, but she focused on the young woman who was frantically consulting a notebook as she chanted and sprinkled herbs around.
“Miaka.” Benny whispered it, coming closer.
The girl nearly jolted out of her protective circle. “Who are you? I can’t see you.”
Benny moved into the circle of light, just on the edge of the chalk outline. “Hello, Miaka.”
The girl peered at her through lank hair and blinked furiously. “I have to finish this. We will talk when Mike is with us. He always enjoyed talking to women.”
“You can’t raise him, Miaka. He won’t come back whole.”
Miaka scowled. “How do you know about it? He will be fine. I love him and he is my twin and he will be fine.”
Benny hunkered down next to the headstone, reading the name and wincing at the youth of the deceased, with the barrier in front of her toes. “He will not be fine. Why didn’t you apply for resurrection when he died?”
Miaka stuck her lower lip out. “I did. I wanted him back again, even if I would live on, but the resurrection guild wouldn’t do it. My grandmother is a zombie, and she wouldn’t die to let Mike have his turn.”
Benny closed her eyes. Only one undead was allowed per family. It kept things from getting messy when it came to inheritance.
“So, how long has he been buried?”
“A year and ninety days. Today is our birthday. I brought him a cupcake with a candle. He can blow it out when he comes back.”
Benny asked, “Have you given any thought to just bringing back his ghost? If he wants to communicate, it is very easy. If you bring him back in his body, he won’t be the same.”
“He said...he said Mike would be fine.”
“Who said?”
“The demon. A demon gave me this spell, and he said Mike would come back fine.”
Benny fought her instinctive hiss. “The demon lied. Demons make puppets out of the dead; they don’t give them their lives back. He wouldn’t belong to you; he would be the demon’s creature.”
“You are lying! He said you would lie!” Miaka hissed at her with madness in her eyes.
“Did he? What if I came through your wards and took your books?”
She cackled wildly, her stained sweatshirt and jeans exposed as she leaned back. “No human mage can get through those wards. He promised me. No mage could stop me.”
Benny sighed and stepped across the demon-cast ward. “He lied.”
Benny wrapped the book in a spell of confusion and the woman in a sleep spell. There was a bit of power stirring in the area, so she focused it upward and turned it into fire.
The form that solidified in the fire was a young man with a mop of dark hair and kind eyes. “Is she all right?”
“Hello, Michael. She is asleep. I can wake her if you like.”
He smiled and shook his head. “No. If she needs me back, I will come as a ghost. Do you think that will help?”
Benny nodded. “I think she feels incomplete without you.”
“And me without her, but I did something stupid and here I am. I never meant to split us apart, but sometimes these things just happen.”
“What artifact would you like to be anchored to?”
He smiled. “My mom gave me a fountain pen when I entered college. I just wanted a business degree.”
Benny looked at the objects on the ground. “Is this it?”
“That is the one. She can keep me with her always.”
Benny picked it up and used the summoning magic to bind his soul to the object.
“I thought it was more complicated than that.” He smiled.
“It is for most mages. I am not most mages.”
She reinforced his connection and kept an anchoring and protective spell on it. No one would dislodge him from the pen until Miaka wanted him to go.
“She might cling to you for the rest of her life, Michael.”
He leaned down and brushed a phantom hand over his sister’s brow. “I know. I am still willing to do it. I never could be the family zombie. I had a heart transplant when I was nine. My organs were shot from the anti-rejection drugs.”
Benny sighed and looked at Miaka. She glanced back, and Tremble was pounding his fists against the barrier.
Michael cocked his head. “How did you get through?”
“Oh, family secret.”
She took her knife and sliced through the barrier. Tremble stumbled forward.
“The Mage Guild operatives have arrived.”
She sat with Miaka as the operatives came to her and stumbled to a halt.
“This is Miaka Horrocks. She tried to raise her brother Michael. I managed to stop her, but his soul was already loosened and with us. I have anchored it to this pen. Please, please, keep the pen within twenty feet of her at all times. She is in an extremely vulnerable mental state.”
The male mage looking at her nodded with a kind expression. “We will take care of her.”
“Good, because I am going to check in on her. She has suffered a loss that was unexpected. She has wounds that will never heal.” As an aside, Benny added, “She has also been influenced by a demon, so keep an eye out for that.”
The mage carried her off with his partner. Benny waited for the next team to come in. She explained all the components and left them to take the bits apart.
Argyle was working with the team putting down the ghouls that had risen without souls.
Smith stayed near her, and he asked slowly, “Is she out of danger?”
Benny nodded. “I used her own magic to anchor her brother’s ghost, so it should be fine. There was also the touch of a demon in the area, and my magic pushed his out of the way. He won’t come sniffing aro
und her again. The Mage Guild will be watching her constantly.”
Smith nodded. “So, after this...dinner?”
She laughed. “Excellent idea, love.”
Tremble came up on them, and he cupped her elbow. “You did very well.”
“I am glad you think so. I want to check on Miaka at the Guild holding facility before we go home.”
“Of course, darling.”
She grinned at him. “That is Agent Darling to you.”
The undead XIA officers had finished with the ghouls, and there was a Mage Guild necromancer standing by to anchor those who had been disturbed.
It was definitely time for dinner.
Chapter Six
It wasn’t a night for tacos. They pulled into a small diner parking lot and filed in to scrub their hands before settling into a booth and thumbing through the menu.
Benny was in the mood for soup and a BLT. The coffee she ordered with it was habit more than anything.
The guys ordered a wide variety of foods, and they even had a crimson smoothie for Argyle.
Tremble had to ask, “How do you know to do all that?”
Benny grinned. “You have met my parents. Do you think I didn’t want to learn all they had to offer me? I had tutors from every species, was enrolled in every basic instruction that they could manage, taught by the best in their fields. I am not a true necromancer, but I am better than many trained necromancers. There are so many butterflies around our property in winter it isn’t even funny.”
Smith snorted.
The food was hot and filled the hole that hanging around the cemetery had generated.
The bacon on her sandwich was pleasantly crispy, and it definitely hit the spot.
“So, what do we talk about now that all the sly flirting has been put aside?” She winked.
Tremble grinned. “I suppose that we will have to engage in innuendo and seduction from now on.”
“Ohh, seduce me. That would be different. Usually, I am in the mood and I just find a target.” She waggled her eyebrows.
Smith put his hand on her thigh under the table and slowly moved it to her groin. He held her for a moment before his fingers began flicking randomly. That had an effect.
She focused on her sandwich, and when it was gone, she said, “I hope that the rest of the night doesn’t involve mages. It feels so weird.”
Tremble nodded. “You’re telling me. I couldn’t get through that ward and that is unusual.”
“It was demon-based. We have different rules, and since you haven’t had time to study yet, you won’t know them. Scholar.”
Argyle had healed from his scuffle with the undead. “What was I again?”
She leaned over and stroked his cheek. “You were all warrior.”
Smith looked at her with a slow smile. “Me?”
“Hello, lover.”
He looked extremely pleased with that.
They paid their bill and got to their feet. They only had enough time for a dinner break. Benny got the feeling that there was more to come.
Back in the car, she found their next destination. “Back to the docks. Someone has caught a mermaid in a net, and folks are drunk and abusive. We have to rescue the damsel and get her back in the water.”
Smith hit the gas, and she answered the notice with an affirmative that they were on their way.
On hour later, Benny was covered in mer-slime and wishing that she had let Smith grapple with the flailing mermaid. Benny sighed and flicked the coating off her arms.
Argyle grinned. “This is why we bring a change of clothing.”
She glared at him and looked at Smith. “Can you go to that convenience store and get me a canister of bleach wipes?”
He nodded. “Back in a minute.”
Smith trotted across the street, and she heard him chuckling the moment he thought he was out of earshot.
She sighed and checked to make sure her butt hadn’t gotten any of the slime.
Argyle leaned next to her. “So, how are you enjoying being an active agent?”
She ran her hands up and over her breasts then flicked the mermaid slime a few feet away. Tremble was still speaking with those who had captured the bitchy mermaid because she had wrecked a local bar.
The slime creature in question was being hauled toward XIA holding as they spoke.
“It has its moments. This is one of them.”
He chuckled. “You are handling it well. The first time I grappled with a mermaid, she got away.”
“The lake maids have always been cranky. It must come with being unable to have sex.”
Smith came back brandishing the wipes. Benny took them gratefully and started to get the worst of the coating off herself.
When she had amassed a large collection of spent wipes, she was down to being damp all over. “Pretend you didn’t see this.”
She summoned a ring of cleansing fire that started at her boots and flared upward with a smooth spread. Her hair fluffed out again, and she felt clean.
Smith sighed. “Why didn’t you just do that? I didn’t have to get the wipes.”
Tremble filled him in. “Mermaid slime can short out magic. We are also being watched by a few locals. Watching her flare into flame might have caused more problems than it solved.”
Smith nodded. “Oh. I have never had to deal with one before.”
Argyle chuckled. “Thanks to Benny, you didn’t have to deal with one today. It would have locked you in human form for two or three days.”
Benny asked, “Don’t you have to take a test or something regarding other species?”
Smith shrugged. “We all specialise. Tremble knows more about stuff because he is simply so old.”
Benny looked at him and smiled. “Would you have an objection to learning?”
A slow spark bloomed in his gaze. “Would you make it worth my while?”
Benny chuckled. “We will discuss it at home.”
He shrugged. “Fair enough.”
Argyle chortled. “That is one way to get him interested in higher education.”
“It is that or hand him over to my father. Either way, he is going to learn. We have a paranormal census back home, so it will be easy to focus on species he may actually interact with.”
Smith sighed. “I am not an idiot. I am just more interested in the physical effects of transformation.”
She sighed. “I don’t want to nag you, but we really do have an excellent library if you are interested.”
“I will think about it.”
It was fair enough. “Well, if everyone is ready, I will finish the reports and we can be on our way to the Mage Guild holding centre.”
The SUV was loaded up, and they were on their way.
Smith grinned. “You type faster than Argyle does.”
Benny nodded and kept her focus on the screen. “I used to write for a living. It rubs off after a while.”
Each time they completed an incident, a blank report was generated with the time the encounter was started and ended. She had to recap all of the events including the agents who enacted the control action. Benny then had to sign each report, and it was time stamped with the filing time.
She nodded at the amount of reports she had filed. “Busy night.”
Tremble patted her on the shoulder. “You did well for your first night out participating as an agent.”
She smiled and kept typing up the mermaid report. “Thanks. I did try. There is just something about that poor girl being influenced by a demon that bothers me.”
Argyle nodded. “Like Jennifer Langstrom.”
“Yes and no. But that is what has me worried. Demon influence is insidious. It won’t end just because she didn’t manage the raising. He will come after her again.”
Tremble asked, “How do you know that?”
“Because demons seek out the weak-willed and vulnerable who contain power that they haven’t realised. Just because she is in custody doesn’t mean that she will be safe
from him. Her existence tempts him, and as we know, demons don’t believe in self-discipline unless there is sex involved. Even then, it is easier with a partner to do the disciplining.”
Smith scowled. “You think she has been sexually interfered with?”
Benny shook her head. “Nothing like that. She was given hope, and now that it has been removed, she will be looking to replace that vacancy of need and want that drove her forward. She will be more vulnerable than before.”
Smith asked, “Can her brother’s ghost be turned?”
She sighed. “No. That I can be confident of. Demon magic repels demon magic. If anyone tries to hack through that spell, I will feel it.”
“Can they trace it back to you?”
She snorted and completed the arrest report on the mermaid.
“Yes. He can definitely trace the spell back to me, but he won’t. As strong as his spells were, I could pass through them without trouble. He is a manipulator and I am way past being susceptible to that kind of bullshit.” She watched the streets flow past.
Argyle broke the silence. “Were you susceptible once?”
She nodded. “I kept the silence for a while, but eventually, I told my parents. It was the last demon incident recorded in Redbird City before my parents’ abduction.”
“What did he offer you?”
“Normality. He said he could take my power and leave me a nice, normal, teenage girl. My father had changed, and my mother...well, she was still my mother, but it was different. Her illness had changed us all. Since they were sharing a soul, I felt lost, out of the loop. He said he could change it, make it like it was before. It was my lowest moment and I agreed, but not before I told my dad.”
Tremble reached forward again and squeezed her shoulder.
“Harcourt intervened, and I found the motives of Jimhal the demon as they were brought into the open.”
Smith asked, “Could this be Jimhal?”
Benny closed her eyes and remembered the blood and dismemberment. “No. Jimhal will never appear on this plane again. He is extremely dead. Dad offered him a chance to give up the prize he was seeking. Jimhal wanted to fight Dad for the territory of my mind and body; he lost.” Benny chuckled weakly. “I don’t think he ever realised that he was facing my father. If he did, he realised it too late.”
