‘Whoa, you gave me a fright,’ Celest said, jumping as Amanda appeared.
They stood in the darkness a good walk into one of the valleys in Griffith Park. Trees and scrub bushes dotted the ground around them, while the two slopes of the valley rose up on either side giving a claustrophobic feeling.
The huge park basically encompassed a large network of hills that included the Griffith Observatory several hills to their right and the slope with the Hollywood Sign a good way off to their left. There were also a few golf courses, some well to do suburbs, some Ranches and plenty of roads and tracks snaking through it.
‘They’re here? In the park?’ Amanda asked.
‘That’s the smell I picked up, I think we’re close. The scents match so keep an eye out.’
Celest walked forward, stopping and sniffing the air occasionally as they walked slowly up the valley.
There were more trees and foliage here in the lowest part of this long valley located in the middle of the park. The night felt cool and quiet apart from the sounds of insects in the trees and the constant dull background hum of the city.
To Amanda, this seemed a little too tranquil for a Nomad hide out, but she trusted Celest and followed her through the rural landscape.
Rounding a cluster of bushes, the trees quickly thinned out and stood in the centre of the clearing up ahead was a woman. She wore a long simple black halter neck dress and a few pieces of fairly ostentatious gold jewellery. She had long straight black hair and smooth swarthy skin that would have looked more at home in the northern deserts of Africa.
She stood calmly and smiled at Amanda and Celest. She seemed to be waiting for them. Amanda had paused and glanced about, looking for a trap, but none seemed forthcoming. Amanda’s Magical sight confirmed her as a Magus, and a powerful one who was able to keep her ambient Magic in check and contained, which explained why they hadn’t sensed her from further away. This woman could be dangerous.
Amanda sent a thought to Celest, ‘What do you think?’
‘No idea,’ Celest thought back through the Mental Link.
Amanda also had no idea who this woman was.
‘Welcome, come, join me,’ the woman said in an accent that Amanda didn’t recognise.
Amanda walked forward cautiously, Celest letting her take the lead now, but following close behind her. ‘And who might you be?’ Amanda asked.
‘You may call me Nefertiti, and I am here to talk with you. I wish you no harm.’
‘Really, well, we’re a little busy right now…’
‘You’re looking for Shaitan, I know.’
‘Shaitan?’ Amanda asked.
‘Indeed, you fought with him and his two charges, Lukas and Lucinda mere hours ago I believe.’
Amanda shifted her weight to a more relaxed pose, her weight on one leg. She’d changed her top since the fight. A few more rips in her jeans made little difference, but her top had been rendered useless and somewhat indecent from the ghosts’ attacks. She had her denim jacket back on as well, she didn’t need it, but she liked the look of it. She looked positively scruffy stood next to this gorgeous creature who looked like she might be from the Egyptian deserts.
‘Oh that Shaitan? I get mixed up sometimes,’ Amanda quipped sarcastically.
‘He is truly sorry for what he has done, and I am here to ask for you to leave him be,’ the woman continued, ignoring Amanda’s quip.
‘He’s sorry? Oh, that’s all fine then, no problem at all, we’ll just go and bury those bodies… I mean, come on? Are you serious?’ Amanda said, more than a little shocked by this woman’s comment and letting her sarcastic side take control of her mouth once more.
‘Shaitan is a troubled person, with many demons, and this occasionally means that he lashes out, attacks those he would otherwise mean no harm too.’
‘This “Shaitan”, as you call him, is clearly a murderer and a bleedin’ psycho, putting him out of his misery would save lives. He doesn’t deserve to live.’ All humour had drained from Amanda for the moment as she found herself a little surprised by this Nefertiti woman who unbelievably was standing up for, and trying to protect a murderous Nomad.
‘And you are the one to choose who lives and who dies? Who’s life has most or least value?’ Nefertiti said.
‘Of course not, this is based on his continued killing of numerous Magi here in Los Angeles, this is based on the facts, not my personal views on who lives and who dies.’
‘So a few Arcadians, friends of yours maybe, have died? And when considered objectively, their lives are more valuable than the life of the one man in the world who can break the barrier into the Abyss and who might have invaluable knowledge of the Archons, knowledge that might be the cause of these violent episodes? In that light, would not the lives of a few Arcadians be a small price to pay.’
‘That information would be valuable,’ Amanda answered, she had to concede that point, there would be no denying such things. But valuable to who, and who chooses what’s more or less valuable. To Amanda, the point still remained, that he had killed people, innocent people who did not deserve it and he needed to take some responsibility for those deaths. ‘But my point remains, Shaitan killed some innocents and that cannot go unpunished. It’s a matter of perspective I suppose, and depends on what’s important to you.’
As she finished her sentence, Amanda felt the build-up of Magic and wasn’t surprised by the appearance of the three Nomads from earlier, who she now knew to be called Shaitan, Lukas and Lucinda. They Ported in an appeared behind Nefertiti, Shaitan looking over her right shoulder at Amanda.
‘Aaah grand, the prodigal son returns,’ Amanda said.
Shaitan stepped out and stood to Nefertiti’s right while Lukas and Lucinda moved off to the left, a good fifteen or twenty feet away from Nefertiti and stood under the trees there, looking sullen and annoyed. Amanda fed more Essentia into her body and into her Aegis, this had been a friendly meeting so far, but could potentially erupt at any moment.
‘Amanda is it?’ he said, looking and sounding calm and serious with a curious accent that sounded like a mix of several different ones, ‘I must apologise for my actions. I, I don’t know myself these days as much as I used too and sometimes I just, well, I lose control. I don’t mean to do the things I do, I just, I’m not sure, I don’t really remember much from these episodes.’
Amanda felt surprised and at a loss for words. Hearing a Nomad, or at least, she presumed he might be a Nomad, express remorse for his actions sounded strange. He didn’t sound insincere, he didn’t sound like he might be trying to deceive her, he sounded genuine. He sounded honestly sorry for what he did.
‘Can you forgive me,’ he added.
Amanda dropped her face to look at the floor, feeling somewhat taken aback by this twist in the tale. ‘Honestly, that’s not for me to say,’ she said as she lifted her head to look at him once more. ‘I don’t think you’re lying, but the fact remains that you are dangerous, you have killed people. Heck, you tried to kill me!’
‘I’m sorry. I just lose control.’
‘Does anyone have control over you during these, episodes?’ she said, thinking that maybe his apprentices might be to blame for this somewhat.
‘Um,’ he said as he glanced at Lukas and Lucinda. ‘That’s difficult to say.’
But the implication of his look to his two fellow Nomads was all the confirmation that Celest needed it seemed as she leapt from her standing position behind Amanda and shot at the two Nomads where they stood close to the trees.
Amanda didn’t see it at first, but the sounds of a scuffle as Celest landed on Lukas and tore at him with her wicked looking claws that had sprouted from her fingers drew her attention there quickly. A moment later, however, with a quick working of Magic, Amanda had separated Celest from the Nomad with an invisible wall of energy that Celest raged against in frustration for a moment before calming down.
‘Looks to me like you need to keep your lap dog under control,’ Ne
fertiti said.
Amanda cocked her head to the side, ‘Celest may be passionate, but she would never kill innocents. Those two nut jobs, however,’ she said as she pointed to the injured Lukas, and Lucinda who had started to help and heal Lukas, ‘they seem to revel in the death and destruction they create.’
Nefertiti glanced over to the twins, who were scowling at Amanda in pure hatred, but Amanda watched Nefertiti as she looked over to the pair and then looked back at Amanda.
‘So, hypothetically, what would you want from me?’
‘That’s easy, an end to the attacks and assurances that it won’t happen again,’ Amanda said, standing firm in her position.
Nefertiti dropped her chin to look at her from behind her eyebrows. Amanda guessed she must be weighing up her options, wondering what the best cause of action would be.
The woman lifted her head and nodded, ‘very well, your demands are reasonable. These attacks will not happen again from this point onwards.’
‘And what assurances can I get, what guarantee?’ Amanda asked.
The Magic was quick and powerful, whipping out from Nefertiti, like a coiled cobra striking its prey, and crashing into the twins with the force of freight train at full speed. Their Aegises dropped almost instantly while a second effect exploded their bodies into shreds of viscera in a matter of a couple of seconds.
Amanda watched this happen, and after a moment, realised her mouth was hanging open, so closed it. Well, she thought, that certainly showed the commitment that Nefertiti had for their agreement, she couldn’t deny that.
She nodded to herself as she gathered her thoughts once more. ‘That’s… that’s a good start, thank you,’ Amanda said. The whole thing had happened so fast and had been such a display of raw power that Amanda felt slightly shocked. They might be Nomads, and their actions had made Amanda decide that they should be punished with death anyway, but this Nefertiti seemed to show an utter disregard for the lives of these two people.
They deserved death, that’s for sure, but even in such clear cut cases as this, taking someone’s life was never a choice Amanda made lightly, it would always be a last resort and would never be done on a whim.
The lightning fast choice that Nefertiti had made seemed to Amanda, not to have been well considered. Sure, she didn’t have access to the inside of Nefertiti’s head, she didn’t know what had been going through her mind, but the fact remained that this had happened a little too quickly and off-handedly for Amanda’s liking.
But she didn’t dwell on it too long, the end result had basically been what Amanda had wanted, so she wouldn’t be mourning their deaths. Instead, the whole episode just made Amanda look at Nefertiti with a mixture of fear and respect, she was not someone to trifle with.
‘Then we’re done here. Good day to you,’ Nefertiti said as she Ported away, taking Shaitan with her and leaving Amanda, Celest and two patches of gore alone in the woods.
‘Well, that didn’t go as I had thought it might,’ Amanda said, thinking out load.
‘You basically got the result you wanted, though, didn’t you?’ Celest asked.
‘Yes,’ Amanda nodded.
She still felt a little shell-shocked about the whole encounter, it all just seemed a little too bizarre to her. She had gotten the result she wanted, but not in the way she had expected. She’d thought she would have had to fight these Nomads for it, go toe to toe with them and get the result she wanted by force.
Not that she was complaining, she preferred to talk things out and not to have to resort to violence. It just happened so seldom these days.
‘So, shall we get back and let the girls know the good news?’ Celest said.
‘Yes, but let’s not mention this Nefertiti lady, I’d like to know a little more about her first. We can just say we took care of it. They won’t be bothering the city anymore.’
‘Understood,’ Celest replied.
It was early morning as Amanda and Celest sat in Central Park and watched the glow of the not yet visible, rising sun light up the sky behind the towering buildings of Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Celest had asked to return to New York with Amanda, having had enough of Los Angeles and wanting a change of scenery.
They’d Ported back and taken a walk up to the Park, wandering through the greenery for a while before choosing to sit on a bench and watch the world pass by.
They talked, and the subject of any love interests came up after a while.
‘…so no, there’s no one at the moment, and I think I might just give up on men for the time being,’ Amanda said.
‘Men are just too much trouble. I’m not interested in any kind of relationship with a man in that way. Friends are fine, but anything beyond that and it gets too complicated, and if you knew what was best for you, you would be the same.’
‘So, you like women instead then?’ Amanda asked, curiosity in her voice.
‘No, no. I’m not into women like that. I’m no dyke. I mean I just use men for that as and when I need them. I don’t get attached, I don’t want a relationship. A good shag from time to time is fun, but it never goes beyond that.’
Amanda thought she might have offended Celest with her question, and the dyke comment made her wrinkle her nose, she didn’t think she liked that word. ‘Ok so. That’s grand. Sorry, I didn’t mean to…’
‘Don’t worry about it. I get that sometimes, people see the muscles and make assumptions.’
‘I didn’t… that’s not…’
‘I know,’ Celest smiled. ‘don’t worry.’
Amanda slumped back into the bench and sighed. She must learn to stop putting her foot in it sometimes.
A little later, the small misunderstanding long forgotten, Celest left Amanda to go and explore the city herself, pledging to keep in touch, while Amanda headed back to her place, as she needed to get in touch with Victoria and deliver a report of what happened.
Tabitha walked up to Toni where she stood looking over the balcony to the club below. They were in the rafters of the building, on a purpose built balcony that let the owners, or security, look over the whole club below them.
‘Are you alright?’ Tabitha asked, slipping her arm around Toni’s waist.
Toni stood up straight and pulled Tabitha in for a hug. ‘I’m fine. As good as can be expected I suppose.’
‘Yeah, I know.’
‘I’ve been thinking,’ Toni said. They still held onto each other but pulled apart enough so they could talk. ‘You know how Mandy couldn’t bring Melissa back to life because her soul had left her body?’
Tabitha frowned, ‘yes,’ she said cautiously.
‘Do you think there’s a way around that? Do you think she could be brought back?’
‘I have no idea. I mean, what you’re talking about, that’s…’
‘I know what it is, but we’d be doing this out of love, out of something pure. She was our friend Tabby, I’m not sure I can just do nothing.’
‘Honestly, I don’t know. Maybe it’s something we can look into,’ Tabitha said.
‘That’s all I ask,’ Toni replied and pulled her lover in for another hug and held her tight.
- Nowhere.
One minute they were in the warehouse, the next moment they were in a small room, covered in white tiles with a hard raised area for a bed, but with a soft looking blanket on it. Her shackles had been removed too.
‘Alicia,’ Yasmin said. She turned to see Yasmin with her arms out, so she went to her and Yasmin hugged her close. ‘This is a gift to you Alicia, you have come so far, so you deserve a reward, I’m so proud of you.’
Alicia wasn’t sure what she had done to please Mistress so much that she would reward her with this. It seemed strange. What had she done?
Later, all alone once more, she lay on the blanket, wrapped it around her to hide her nakedness and warm her against the chill air. She loved this small creature comfort so much, after days, weeks, months maybe of the hard stone floor and the pillar she had been cha
ined too, this seemed like a luxury.
Hours later, her body bruised and abused once more, with pain filling her every thought, Yasmin, her Mistress, her abuser and her protector, hugged her close.
‘You know you deserve this don’t you. You know you have been bad and you need what I do for you now. I am helping you, and you need me. One day, soon, you’ll understand and you will be grateful. I know you will.’
Curiosity
Greenwich Village, Manhattan
Nov 24th
The day had been filled with conversations, she’d spoken to Victoria and Trevelyan about the events in Los Angeles, she’d been over the sequence of events out there several times and felt bored and exhausted by it all. How had this happened she thought to herself, how had her life become bureaucracy and administration and politics? She felt sure this wasn’t what she had signed up for.
Maybe this was what being an adult was like. At only twenty-one she didn’t feel like an adult, in fact, she didn’t feel any different than she had done just a couple of years ago.
She wondered when things might change? When would she suddenly feel like a grown up? It would probably never happen and she would feel the same for the rest of her life. Time would tell.
Celest had disappeared into the city and she had no idea where she might be now. She hoped she stayed local, Celest had proved herself to be a valuable ally a few times now. Someone she could trust and depend on, someone with a good moral compass and someone who could kick some serious ass when needed. These were all qualities that made her a valuable friend to have.
The trip had not been without some losses, though, and she really did feel for Toni and Tabitha, and John for their departed friends. She got the impression that John would fare better than the girls. She figured he’d been working these missions for Victoria for a while and had seen his fair share of soldiers killed action. It no doubt never got easier, but she felt sure that John had coping mechanisms in place to help him through it. She wasn’t sure that Toni and Tabitha did and it did worry her slightly that they might take things a little harder. She had resolved to try and keep an eye on them and make sure they were alright.
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