by D. Levesque
After we’d been sitting there for a good ten minutes without talking, and long after I finish my beer, Marrisa is the first one to break the silence.
“I hate humans,” she growls.
I don’t open my eyes, but simply nod at her comment—big surprise there, lady.
“I hate that I have to be married to one just to save my ass and my career. But I’ll do it for as long as it’s required. After that, you’re on your own,” she declares. There is no anger in her voice at this point, only weariness.
“Sure,” I say.
What I want to tell her is just to go fuck herself, but when I told her dad I felt sorry for her predicament, I was being honest. Damsel in distress syndrome, I’m sure. But I hate to see women in trouble.
“Listen,” Marrisa says hesitantly. “It’s not you. It’s just having gone to Earth, I’ve seen enough to hate you humans. I can well understand why we all left you. As a race, you do not have many redeeming qualities. I have met too many douchebags-” Does anyone even use that term anymore? “-and I have yet to meet a human, male or female, that has left a good impression on me.”
“You’re a cop or something like that, right?” I ask her, finally opening my eyes and looking her way. She’s in a long shirt and that’s it, from what I can see. Last boyfriend’s shirt? It actually makes her look sexy, even with that tail that is flicking next to her.
“Yeah?” she says warily.
“I’m sure you’ve only seen the nasty side of humans then,” I tell her with a shrug. I could be wrong here. “All I ask is give me a chance. I didn’t ask for any of this, Marrisa. I was ready to die. I had less than two weeks to live before this. I was putting my affairs in order. The night you ran into me, I was at a bar drinking with friends, and I was about to tell them I was about to die. Shit,” I say suddenly, sitting up.
“Don’t worry. My sister Lori has the number for this Mike person and she will call him and give him a terse message that you got home safe, later than usual, and will call back in a couple of days.”
“Oh, good,” I tell her with a gratified sigh of relief. Though the idea that Lori is going to imitate me still feels odd.
“Anyway, you’re right. Because of my job, most of the humans I have met are usually in rather less than agreeable settings. But I have also worked with your police forces on Earth, and they aren’t exactly shining examples of humans either. The amount of corruption there is staggering. Which is fine since it lets us do our work.”
“Hmm, yeah, the police aren’t exactly a good example either,” I tell her with a sigh. I stand up and ask her, “Mind if I use the shower? Do you have an extra towel? I’ll just change into the same clothes until I get the rest of my stuff.”
“Sure, there are towels on the shelf in the bathroom. Under the sink, there’s some men’s stuff there.” At my look, she glares at me. “From my ex.”
Right. Lori mentioned something about her not being able to keep a man. I can honestly see why. Fucking hell, she is short-fused. Nodding to her, I place my empty bottle on the counter next to the fridge, and without looking at her, I head off to take my shower.
Once in the bathroom, I find the towels she was talking about. Under the sink, I find items that I swear to God I would find on Earth. Do they buy our shit and bring it over? Shrugging at the absurdity of it, I grab the shampoo and body wash bottles, strip down and turn the shower on. That’s when I get a surprise. The water is cold!
What the fuck? They don’t have hot running water? I look around, and the bathroom looks like any bathroom you would find on Earth, or at least in North America. Sink, toilet, and a shower. This one is a corner unit. No tub. But no hot water? I look at the sink and it has two taps. I turn one on, wait ten seconds and put my hand underneath it. Cold. I turn it off and turn on the other one and after another ten seconds, try it. Cold.
“Holy shit!” I whisper in shock, staring at myself in the mirror over the sink. “A society of Magic, and they have no hot water?”
Deciding that I still need to get cleaned up, I take a quick shower. To be honest, cold showers might be a good idea with Marrisa in the next room. She might be annoying and pissy, and she clearly hates me, but she’s still a smoking hot lady, with a tail. And those glasses? Jesus. Thinking about that, I duck under the cold water and wash myself clean.
Once done, I towel myself dry hard to get warmed up and hang my towel on a hook behind her door, and then I put on the pants I had been wearing before. The rest of my clothes I bundle up and put under my arm. When I open the door, the light in the room is off and there is a sleeping body under the sheets. The door heading back to the living room is open, letting in the only light in the room.
Tiptoeing to the exit, I close the door behind me and head to the couch. I see that Marrisa has taken out a blanket and a pillow for me and she even extended the Lazyboy into a sleeping position. Before I can think about it too much, a yawn hits me, and I notice just how tired I am. Getting myself comfortable, I turn off the light next to the couch and within minutes, even given the situation I find myself in, I’m out.
Chapter Nine
“Get up,” I hear a female voice say, and I jerk awake.
Opening my eyes, I see Marrisa standing over me. She’s already dressed in a pair of shorts, a tank top, and a pair of leather boots that I’m sure would look better on a biker, but she is still killing the look. She has a gun, or a Foci, in her holster on her right hip.
“We need to see Lori,” she says before heading to the kitchen, where I can smell something good wafting from within.
“I made breakfast, but we need to head out quickly. Here,” she says, placing a plate on the cutout between the kitchen and the living room and then going back into the kitchen.
Rubbing the sleep out of my hands, I pad barefoot to the cutout and look down at the plate. It has toast, scrambled eggs, bacon, and beans. I look at her, impressed.
“I can cook, I’ll have you know,” she says defensively.
“I wasn’t saying anything,” I tell her quickly, grabbing the plate with the fork on it. I eat quickly as Marrisa had said she was in a rush. She makes herself a plate and turns around and then stops, staring at me.
I stop eating and look down at my plate. “What?”
“Nothing,” she replies, digging into her food. “I’m just surprised that for a human, you are so well developed.”
“Do you mean I’m not fat?”
She blushes and nods.
“Well, I wish I could say it was from going to the gym all the time, but it’s not. I used to be a tall skinny kid, and then when I got older, I hit some kind of genetic lottery, as my best friend Mike would say.”
“You look like a model,” Marrisa says, shoveling a piece of toast in her mouth.
“Yeah,” I say with a scowl. “Whenever we go out now, I’m the bait.”
“Bait?” Marrisa asks, looking perplexed.
“Yeah, my looks bait the girls in, then Mike’s money keeps them around him,” I tell her with a shrug.
“And you’re all right with that?” she asks me with a raised eyebrow.
“Yep. I’m not too fond of dating. Most people are too shallow,” I tell her with a shrug. Truthfully, it does bother me in a way that I have yet to meet anyone decent enough to look past looks and money. Guess I’m meant to stay single. Maybe I’m just too picky because of the love my parents had for each other, and I want that for myself.
“I have to agree. Most of the guys I have dated usually date me because they’re trying to get a job or a higher position in one of the departments. It doesn’t help that my dad is the lead Council member for the Council of Galactic Folks, and my sister is the highest-ranking Captain of the Vraka Police force. And then there is me, who is a M.A.G.I. Bounty Hunter.”
“So what does a Magical Agency for Galactic Investigation Bounty Hunter do exactly?” I ask her, not abbreviating it.
“We go after the bad guys,” she says with a shrug. “M.A.G.I. is
sort of like your Earth’s version of the F.B.I. but think of it on a global scale. In our case, it’s a galactic scale. We go in, investigate, and even carry out a death sentence if required. Many times, it’s not possible or feasible to bring in a suspect.”
“Like that Twoshoes guy?” I ask her, reminding her that she essentially shot him in the head in front of me.
“Like Twoshoes,” she says with a scowl. “We knew he would get away if we simply brought him in, so this way, we stopped him. Though, with him, we ended up with this complication,” she says, waving towards me. “Now, if you’re done, we need to head to H.Q.”
“Yeah,” I tell her, eating the last of my toast. Not a bad breakfast overall.
It doesn’t take us long to get to her sister’s office since once on the bottom floor of her building all she does is grab me and stamp her feet, and we end up in front of the precinct. Looking around, I see that much like the inside of the building, the outside is busy and looks like a police unit I would see in New York City. Though there are no cars in the surrounding area. Instead, folks are just walking around. There are houses lined up and down the street, and they look like the type of houses you would see if you were in old Victorian England.
“How come we didn’t just appear inside like we did last time?” I ask Marrisa, pointing to the police building.
“That was official business, so I had a pass. I used it, so now I go in like everyone else. Keep up,” Marrisa growls at me and heads towards the stairs leading into the police precinct. Once inside, the officer sitting at the reception desk just points up the stairs at Marrisa, and she growls again and heads up them, with me almost running behind her to keep up. Shit, she is fast. Once we reach the third floor, Marrisa heads to her sister’s door and is about to open it, but then I guess she decides to be polite and knocks instead.
“Come in!” I hear Lori cry from the other side.
Marrisa opens the door and waves me in. I walk in ahead of her and stop in my tracks. The chair in front of Lori is occupied. What it’s occupied by is what makes me stop in my tracks, resulting in Marrisa slamming into my back.
“Fucking hell!” Marrisa cries, going around me. “Oh,” Marrisa she says as she sees there is someone else with her sister.
What I’m looking at is impossible. I mean, I get it. I was told that they existed but come on! It’s a damn Vampire. A female Vampire who exudes sex like a drug. She is tall and is wearing a long red dress that is open at the shoulders, and strapless. She is lucky in the tits department, but what made me stop were her teeth and her eyes. Her teeth look like precisely what I would expect from a Vampire. Long and sharp, or at least the two incisors are, and her eyes are black. I mean all black. No whites. Her skin, I notice now, is white as snow.
“Mmm,” the Vampire says in a seductive voice. “You were not kidding when you said you had a human here,” she continues, practically purring.
“He’s off-limits,” Lori tells her in a tired-sounding voice. “Lady Magra Tonlia, meet my sister’s husband, Kevin Johnson.”
“Husband?” Lady Tonlia says with some surprise.
“Yes. It seems that he,” Lori points at me, “has Magic.”
Lady Tonlia chuckles as if hearing a good joke. “How very droll,” she says. Then, so fast that I barely see her, she is out of her chair with her mouth against my neck. She goes to bite, but suddenly she is thrown across the room by something I can’t see, slamming into the wall and causing a picture frame to slam onto the floor, where it breaks.
“I did warn you,” Lori tells the now dazed Lady Tonlia.
“What the hell just happened?” I blurt out in shock, a hand going to my neck. Did I just almost become a Vampire’s breakfast?
“She just tried to bite a Magus,” Lori explains without really explaining. At my confused look, she clarifies. “When a Vampire tries to bite a Magus, the Magic inside them protects them. It’s the same that would happen if a Werewolf tries to bite you. They will get the same results.”
“How is that possible?” Lady Tonlia says in shock, picking herself up. “I can smell that he is human!”
“I told you that my sister’s partner is special,” Lori tells her with a shrug.
“You wanted to see me?” Marrisa says to her sister, ignoring Lady Tonlia who is now standing up and staring at me with curiosity. Though, it’s more like if I was a mouse and she was the cat.
“Yes. We have a special request for a Bounty. Lady Tonlia, if you will explain?” Lori says, causing the lady in question to snap out of staring at me and nod in Lori’s direction.
“Yes. Where are my manners? I require a Bounty. I have the required paperwork,” she says, going to the desk and taking a sheet of paper out of a manila folder before extending it to Marrisa.
Marrisa looks at her shrewdly but doesn’t grab the paper.
“Normal cost, plus 50 percent as I have a partner. What are the full terms?” Marrisa asks her, not taking the offered paper.
Lady Tonlia doesn’t answer right away but instead looks at me hungrily, licking her lips. Finally, she looks at Marrisa.
“Double the usual fee plus expenses. Dead. No item to recover. Proof that target is dead. Half now, half when the job is finished. 10,000 credits upfront for expenses,” she says. I look at Marrisa to see if that’s a good deal, and her eyes are wide in surprise. All right, so that is a good deal.
“Before I accept, can I know who the target is?” Marrisa asks her slowly.
Lady Tonlia looks at Lori, who snorts at her. “She’s my sister. She has authorization.”
“And this young man?” Lady Tonlia asks, pointing at me.
Lori reaches into her desk instead of answering and throws something at me. Without thinking, I catch it. It’s a leather wallet, no, it’s a badge holder. Opening it, I see a gold sunburst and below that, a picture of me. Where the hell did they get that? Wait, it looks like the picture from the work badge I had with me in my pants pocket. I thought I had dropped it when I couldn’t find it in my pockets after my shower last night. The badge contains some kind of script I can’t read.
“Kevin, show her your badge, please,” Lori says.
Unsure, I show Lady Tonlia the opened badge holder with the sunburst and my picture. She looks at it, and her eyes open wide in surprise.
“Level 10?” she says in astonishment.
Nodding, Lori tells her, “Yes, but that was just a preliminary test done by my father.”
“Council member Targun tested him?” Lady Tonlia says, and she looks at me and swallows hard.
“Yes. Kevin here will be going in next week for a full test, but currently he is a level 10 Magus. My father feels that once the genuine test is administered, it will most likely be level 12 or even 15.”
“But your father is a level 15!” Lady Tonlia cries at Lori.
“Yes,” is all Lori says with a smile.
“I am sorry for trying to bite you, young man,” Lady Tonlia says, bowing quickly to me.
“Hmm, sure? All good,” I tell her awkwardly, having no clue what the fuck is going on here.
“Thank you,” Lady Tonlia says with relief. “Now, as for the target. It’s my brother. Sir William Tonlia.”
“Wait, you want a Bounty on your brother?” Marrisa says incredulously.
“Yes. My brother has been hunting, on Earth.”
“Shit,” Marrisa says vehemently. “Is he the reason there have been more disappearance in some parts of Maine, on Earth?”
“Ah, you have been reading the Earth news? Yes. My brother has somehow become feral, and I must have him eliminated before he taints the family name any further,” Lady Tonlia says, with genuine sadness in her voice.
“Shit,” Marrisa says again, but this time there is respect in her tone.
“It shall be taken care of,” Marrisa says and finally grabs the offered paper again. She skims it, grabs a pen off the desk of her sister, and signs it. She gives me the pen and points to another line, where I see she ha
d written my name in bold print underneath. I sign it as well, having no clue what I am signing since it’s not in English. Once I’m done, she hands the paper back to Lady Tonlia.
“Thank you,” Lady Tonlia says with a bow towards me and Marrisa, and then another one to Lori. Then, suddenly, she is just gone.
“What the fuck!” I blurt out.
“She ported herself out,” Marrisa says absently, biting a fingernail. Then she looks at her sister. “What is the real gig here, sis?”
“Ah, so you figured it out as well,” Lori tells her with a proud grin. “Pull up the chairs and sit down. This will prove interesting.”
Chapter Ten
“Are you sure this is where your sister’s info said he would be?” I ask Marrisa with some concern.
The place in question is a small shack off of the Gulf of Maine, just south of the township of Trescott. It is, for all intents and purposes, in the middle of nowhere. Once we got back on Earth, Marrisa ported us to a place called Bangor, Maine. The item she had used to port with was something called a Porting Device Assistant, or a P.D.A. When she told me that, I just stared at her as if she was pulling my leg. But nope, she wasn’t. The P.D.A. is a round black stone that she said worked on Magic. You just need to think about where you want to go, and it will take you there. It includes standard places, large cities from all over the galaxy, including Earth.
I had never been to Maine before. Once we got here, Marrisa walked up to a car rental place, and within fifteen minutes, had a car. The whole time we were in there I just stared at her. How in the hell? It seems that they do business here on Earth all the time, so she has a driver’s license and a credit card.
“Yes, this is it. The intel we have says he’s here,” she answers, sounding annoyed at my question. “Now shut up and let me think.”
I barely bite back a retort. That’s how it’s been since we left Lori’s office. Do this, do that, shut up. Fucking hell, she is getting annoying. I get it, I’m the rookie, but isn’t she supposed to be training me? That was the deal with her dad. We get married, she trains me as a Bounty Hunter for M.A.G.I. and she doesn’t go to jail? Guess she forgot that part. I’m about to give her a piece of my mind when suddenly we hear a noise from the shack.
