Bound Together (13 page)

“I'm sure
that
always ends well,” I muttered, my tone sarcastic.

“There are many reasons why specters are summoned, but to increase the power of one's magecraft is a common enough reason. Specters, like all spirits, are capable of far more powerful astral manipulation than any human and thus can have far-reaching effects. All specters will eventually cause chaos, death and destruction. This is why AEGIS has sworn to destroy any specter summoned into the world.”

It was a lot to take in at such short notice. Usually such data-heavy lectures were enough to put me to sleep, but I was trying my best to take this job seriously. After all, I took the salary seriously and after having run-ins with two different types of specters, I knew that the missions themselves would be deadly serious.

“I understand this is a lot to take in all at once, but it's important,” Star continued. “The data we share with you here and during your cases can quite easily be the difference between a successful mission and potential loss of life.”

“I already explained some things to her,” Misaki pointed out.

“Good. The better informed the two of you are, the more success you will have at clearing cases. An encrypted file will be sent to your mobile device when you leave this outpost. It will self-extract and allow you to decrypt messages from me and access the list of active contracts.”

It wasn't hard to tell that the meeting was over. I pushed out from underneath the conference table and stood. Misaki followed suit. I reached out and shook Star's hand, surprised at how strong her grip was. Guess I really shouldn't have been surprised, though, since as a case manager she probably worked her way up through the ranks and was once in the same or similar position as me.

“Good day, Miss Ashley, Miss Misaki.” Star's faint smile widened as Misaki dipped into a graceful and very formal courtly bow. “AEGIS expects great things from the both of you. Please, return the way you came and leave the temporary security passes with the receptionist.”

act two

/

together

casework

I blinked and tried to hold my eyes open, but it was becoming increasingly more difficult as the hours dragged on. If this was what normal police work was like, I was really very glad I'd never actually become a detective.

I glanced over at my partner and my expression soured. As usual, Misaki looked the pristine picture of perfection, alliteration totally intended. Unlike me, of course, Misaki drew virtually all of her power from my own mana stores. This worked out for both of us because I had no idea how to use the astral energy sleeping within.

It had been two weeks since we accepted the offer as independent spirit hunters on retainer to the government supernatural crisis-management agency, AEGIS. So far it was a pretty sweet gig. We took on cases that AEGIS offered to its collaborators and did what we had to do to find the specter in question and take it out.

Most of the cases were straight-up kill orders, the agency's own investigators having done the legwork and deciding the specters in question were powerful enough to require a True Relic wielder to take them out. Specters that powerful would leave behind a considerable amount of miasmic ash that Misaki could convert into quintessence.

AEGIS handled the indies in the best way it could, I supposed. They found us jobs to do that fit the various skills we had, but that wasn't even the most important part. There were methods to convert miasmic ash without a bound spirit's aid, but they weren't nearly as efficient.

They didn't actually
need
us so much as they wanted us on their side. They wanted to make sure we didn't end up fighting them. The other stuff was mostly just a bonus, and yeah, there were times where a True Relic and its associated bound spirit were the
minimum
level of firepower needed to take out a particular target.

Tonight, however, I was doing an investigation mission. These were pretty common for us, with Star being almost fanatical about tailoring the offered contracts to the indie's particular skill set. Indeed, my ability to ferret out mysteries was considerably more well-developed than my combat prowess. And that's putting it
mildly
.

“I'm hungry,” I complained. “How much longer do we have to stay out here?”

“I'm not sure, but I don't think the specter is going to stay hidden much longer. The information we received from Star suggested that this one makes regular moves during random intervals each night, but the random intervals are contained within a fairly narrow window of time.”

I suppressed a groan. That “narrow window of time” was closer to six hours in length, which wasn't all that short when you really wanted something to eat. I reached into the pocket of my battered leather jacket and pulled out a small package of sour candy, popping one in my mouth. It sure as hell wasn't a cheeseburger, but it was something and it got rid of the stale taste.

Misaki's ears twitched and she traced a runic pattern with the fingers of her right hand, using some sort of magic that would allow her to expand her ability to sense miasma. I knew she wouldn't be able to expand it too much without essentially becoming an active sensor and risk tipping off the specter we were trying to find.

“Anything yet?” I ate a few more of the sour candy, wishing I had a sour margarita instead, along with a big fucking burrito. And a cheeseburger.

She glanced at me and grinned. “It's moving. I've got a fix on it. Two blocks from here, that mid-height office building on the left side. I think it's been possessing a body.”

I blinked. “Why would it do that?”

“Remember, a specter possessing a body can't be detected easily.” Misaki shifted in her seat and concentrated on her seeking spell. “Probably the specter's been reusing it to hide periodically.”

“Wouldn't the people in the building, I don't know,
smell
a corpse?” I wrinkled my nose and started up the engine. The car's electric motors whirred to life. Thankfully the batteries were good and we'd avoid burning expensive ethanol. Reminding myself for the fiftieth time that evening just how much AEGIS was paying us, I pulled away from the curb and started down the street, heading toward the direction Misaki indicated.

“Not a corpse, a body,” Misaki corrected. “Possession doesn't kill the body, just the mind so that the spirit's mind can take its place. If we manage to find the specter before it hides inside the body again, we'll likely find a living, breathing body, but devoid of consciousness.”

I made a face and sidled up alongside the office building in question. It was well past midnight, but the building wasn't completely shut down. Lights were visible on several of the floors. Well, the janitorial staff needed light to see, but I also suspected there were more than a few execs burning the midnight oil.

“You think her theory's sound?”

Misaki nodded as we got out of the car. “It fits the facts we've been able to determine. The specter hides in a body for most of the day, pops out for about an hour, does something, then goes back into hiding again.”

“Yeah,” I muttered. I pulled a cigarette out of my jacket and lit it, blowing out a plume of smoke. “Star was right on the money. It's got to be industrial espionage. There's really no other explanation for something like this.”

“I've got an exact location,” Misaki announced.

“Where?”

“Twelfth floor, near the east side of the building. Come on, let's go before the thing disappears again and we're stuck out here for another six hours tomorrow.” She took off like an arrow, heading for the looming office building.

Since another stakeout was the last thing I wanted—right now my mind was completely focused on Mexican food and booze—I ran after Misaki, catching up with her easily. Her physical prowess wasn't great, even for an immortal spirit; her original creators must've prioritized magical power over brute strength.

One of the downsides of being indie was that we didn't get those shiny FBI shields that would let us into places we otherwise couldn't go. If we needed to get through red tape, our handler would give us some manner of falsified paperwork necessary to complete whichever case we might be working. In an investigation like this, though, we were pretty much on our own. Since Star had no idea where the specter was in the first place, there was no way she could get us some fake papers to bullshit our way into the building.

That left breaking in the old-fashioned way. I stopped next to Misaki at the side of the building where she had already started tracing a runic sigil of glowing light into the air. She was working some powerful magic and I had a pretty good idea what she had in mind to get us inside.

“Time to fly like the wind?”

Misaki smiled, but didn't respond, instead concentrating on her invocation. She'd done this once before on one of our first cases when a specter turned out to be the sort that had wings and could fly. That time, though, she only cast the spell on herself, took off into the air and chased the damn thing down, burning its wings off with her signature flame. She made a case that could have been a real pain in the ass into a fast, easy kill and a wealth of quintessence.

The runic circle blazed with brilliant golden light and I felt myself becoming lighter. My feet started to leave the ground. Gravity still seemed to affect me, but I knew if I willed myself
up
, then by the stars I would go
up
!

Misaki was already hovering a few meters above the ground. She reached a hand out to me and beckoned for me to follow. I willed myself to accelerate up and... I did. My body started to rise, faster and faster into the air. It didn't take long for the both of us to ascend to the level of the 12
th
floor.

The wind was a bit stronger this far off the ground. It whipped my hair around my face and howled in my ears. I turned to Misaki and nodded, willing myself to float closer to the window. The office beyond this particular window was darkened and empty, making it as good a place as any to breach.

I flicked my cigarette butt into the wind and drew my automatic. No, I wasn't going to shoot the window open—that would be the opposite of stealthy—but I wanted to be ready to fight just in case the specter detected the magic Misaki used.

Misaki floated to the window and placed her hand on it, waking the power within her once again. Silver-white light pulsed through the glass and metal making up the exterior of the building, forming a circle about a meter in diameter. She tapped the center lightly three times.

Within the bounds of the circle all matter disappeared, phased out of physical reality into an extra-dimensional space. The edge of the glass was impossibly smooth and clean, as if it had been cut by a laser, but it wasn't hot at all. Misaki flew through the opening and I followed suit, willing myself to settle on the floor and allow gravity to reclaim my body.

“I'm canceling the spells,” Misaki warned. She closed her eyes and made a sharp cutting motion across, drawing a simple glyph of dispelling in the air that glowed a fierce white. I felt my body become heavier as the ability to negate gravity disappeared. The window, too, was back just as it had been before.

“You can do that more than once, I hope,” I quipped as we took a moment to get our bearings.

“Yes. We'll be able to return here after we eliminate the target and leave the building the same way we came in. The specter is preoccupied with its invocation. If we find it quickly, we might catch it with its defenses down.”

I didn't think that was too likely. If Misaki was right and the specter was in the middle of casting an invocation, it would be vulnerable for several minutes and almost totally unaware of the world around it. The specter probably felt safe in doing so due to the fact that most humans wouldn't be able to wound it, even with its barrier inactive.

With Misaki and the Relic, I didn't fit into the category of “most humans.”

“If the thing puts up a fight, we'll get to see if these MQ rounds Star got us are actually effective.” I may have sounded dubious, but I was more accurately nervous. Learning how to use a weapon like the Relic would take time. Anything that could make the weapons I already knew how to use more effective would be a boon.

“It's not wise to rush into battle with an untested weapon,” Misaki warned.

“Star said they've been using them for a few months with promising results, so I wouldn't exactly call them 'untested.'”

Misaki shrugged. “I suppose we'll find out for sure soon enough.”

“True. Regardless, if the specter is preoccupied with its invocation and isn't actively trying to kill me, I'm just going to walk up to it and cut it in half.”

“The sensible choice.” Misaki giggled.

“Come on, let's go.” I unlocked the office door from the inside and strode out into the development floor. This particular office was laid out in such a way that the higher-ranking employees had their offices around the outer edge of the building, leaving the entire inner section as a huge, completely open room that could be configured in just about any way imaginable.

Currently the development floor of this data security firm (how much of a coincidence is that?) was laid out in a sort of open/flowing design. There were dozens of desks, but no cubicles, nothing to hide the individual programmers and software engineers away from their fellows. The desks and computers were arranged in an amorphous, almost organic sort of way rather than strict and neat rows. Creative, but all very ordinary, the sort of things you'd expect to find in a software company run by young entrepreneurs.

In the center of the development floor were two things that
definitely
were not like the others. A body lay on the floor. It was a middle-aged man with dark skin and a shaved head wearing the uniform of the private security firm tasked with guarding this building. The body appeared to be sleeping, but the
other
thing in the room told me the mind that once animated that body had long since destroyed.

The specter itself stood in near the body. It had a roughly humanoid shape, but seemed to flicker halfway in and out of the physical plane. The creature was tall, over two meters in height and wore no clothing or armor. Its skin appeared to be made up of tiny crystalline facets of a dull reddish color that pulsed with inner light.

I studied the spirit more closely. Its arms were slender and hideously elongated, long enough that they'd drag the ground if it let them relax at the sides. The arms were jointed in multiple places: at the shoulders and wrists like a human, but it had three elbow joints in each arm, ending in small hands with enormous glass blades for fingers.

Misaki's tail lashed in alarm. “A shardwight. Brittle and takes impacts badly, but
very
fast, prefers melee combat over offensive magic.”

“Well, you were right,” I whispered to Misaki. “The specter's totally caught up in its invocation. Can you tell what it is?”

“Not without alerting it to our presence.” Misaki's hands lit up with brilliant flame as she summoned killing magic. “Don't try to kill it with a single stroke. Without absolutely perfect accuracy, it'll have time to counter before you can land a follow-up strike on the core.”

I winced at the dubious but realistic assessment of my skill with a sword. I was getting better with practice, surely, but if Misaki was right about this specter—and she usually was, thanks to her centuries of experience—it would carve me up into tiny pieces if I was even a millimeter off.