Raines of Fire: The Alexa Raines Chronicles (2 page)

“You really should get some rest.” 

The beers had been bought, the toasts toasted, the laughs had.  The girls had gone home, or to their boyfriends, or wherever they went when they weren’t working for her, leaving Alexa alone in the dingy office above a
Caribbean take-out joint to do the paperwork.   There was, for starters, the repair job on the Kawasaki, and the pending lawsuits, and the matter of legalizing what was, essentially, drug money she received as payment from her
client
.  Alexa didn’t ask who her patrons were, or why they wanted her services, but it didn’t take too much imagination to figure out where the wads of worn bills in denominations of twenty dollars or less come from. 

Michael had slipped in silently—it was eerie, how quiet he could be.  Alexa shook her head.  “Business,” she
sighed. 

“I seem to recall you had more business,” he said.  “In Indiana.”  He had a soft, high-pitched voice.  That, combined with his thin re
ediness and his round glasses, gave him the air of a fussy librarian.  He couldn’t even stand seeing crumpled paper on a desk, yet somehow, he could procure her access to the seediest criminals, make lawsuits that she’d been certain would bankrupt her disappear, arrange for false passports and documents,
and
somehow manage to be at the office of Raines Adjustments before she got in every morning.  He was the first person Alexa had ever hired, and the only one whom she’d kept for the twenty years she’d been in business.   He was the only person who knew what she truly was, inasmuch as she knew what she truly was. 

At one time, the priests that had
fashioned her had told her, but four-thousand years was a long time ago, and what memories remained of her creation were dim compared to the purity of the rage that had driven her to kill those priests.  That was the only thing she’d known—that somehow, their magic had kept her soul trapped in her body, even as it burned in the fire she’d been imprisoned in.   And somehow, she was able to become whole again, to remake herself from nothing, if only to exact her revenge on the priests.  It was the first of many times that she’d rise from fire into a new life, each one better than the one before, but none had the innocence of her life before she’d been cast into the flames for the first time.  Sometimes, she wondered if it was a fair trade. 

“I do,” she said, now.  “But I don’t know about this case,” she said, sliding the folder towards him.  “It seems weird.  Wiccans
celebrate nature and the magic of life.  ”

He opened the folder, scanned the contents.  “
Even naturalists have enemies, Alexa.”

“Oh.   Well, anyway—like I said, it’s weird.  Why would anybody target a bunch of kooky naturalists?”

Michael shrugged.  “You know serial killers better than anybody.  Why do they target the ones they do?”

Alexa shook her head.   It was, in the end, always about power, but what Michael meant was, “What makes them crave power over those they target?”

“You should go home now,” Michael said firmly, putting his hand on her shoulder.  He pushed her out of her chair.  “I have your private jet prepping for an eight-o-clock flight to Indiana.  You’re due at LAX at six.”

Alexa told herself she should be used to being bossed around by him by now.  But it still made her bristle just a bit when she got up, grabbed her coat, and finally went home.

The flight to Indiana was almost uneventful.  Alexa had only a small carry-on, containing her clothes and a toothbrush; she carried a tablet computer because she needed to brush up on her knowledge of Wicca, Edgar Faust and what was in Indiana.  There was a lot of information on Indiana, but not much on Wicca.  There was absolutely nothing on Edgar Faust.  This troubled Alexa more and more as the flight progressed.  She had no doubt that Edgar Faust was an alias, but the fact that not even the alias had an online record was highly suspect to her.  She even called Michael on the in-flight phone, asking him to search through the law enforcement records and whatever government databases he had access to.

Alexa
knew she was exhausted.  Weeks of hunting those animals in the biker gang had drained her emotionally and physically.  At the moment, even if she had to heal a minor wound, there was probably not enough energy stored in her to do so.  But as long as she was careful then sex was the easiest and safest way for her to recharge herself.  Besides she was horny as hell after abstaining almost a month! 

The answer
to Alexa’s plight came in the form of the new flight attendant that Michael Rollins had just hired for her private jet. A young woman with short dark hair and wearing an extremely tight fitting uniform. When she walked by, Alexa reached out and touched her arm, sending just the slightest amount of her own life force into the woman.  The attendant stopped and looked down at her with a look of surprise.

Normally, Alexa would never have to use such a gambit to gain the sexual attention of someone.  She had
seen a lot of combat lately though, and she was almost sure that her overexcited pheromones could be felt by everybody that she passed.  Alexa desperately needed a release!

At first it didn't look like Alexa's advances were going to be reciprocated, but then
the flight attendant smiled, leaned down and huskily whispered. “May I help you ma’am?  My name is Katie and I would be happy to do anything at all to make your flight more…
pleasurable
.” 

“Yes, Katie, you can help me.  Could you bring two large flutes of champagne to the rear of the cabin and open my folding bed? 
I’d like to lay down for a while.”

Alexa watched as the young woman sensuously
made her way down the corridor, her ass was something to marvel at, and Alexa wanted nothing more than to sink her teeth into each cheek. Katie oozed sexuality, and her intentions were very clear by the way she licked her lips with her tongue that she was prepared for an encounter with her new boss.

Alexa waited
while Katie dimmed the lights and then she made her way down to where the young woman was waiting for her. They stood looking at each other, undressing each other with their eyes, till finally Katie opened up the fold away bed and Alexa slipped into it.

Alexa continued to gaze into the young woman’s eyes while reaching out and gently pulling her
onto the bed beside her.

There was not
a great deal of room to do anything, but that only made the heat between them burn a little bit hotter. It wasn't long before they were kissing, and Alexa didn't exactly know who had initiated the first move. All she knew was that her tongue was now in this woman's mouth, and hers was curling around her own. The feeling was indescribable, as they started to use their hands to explore each other's bodies. All thoughts of work were gone, and the only thing that they were thinking about now was what kind of pleasures were in store for them.

“I don’t normally do this, but when you touched me, there was an electricity that I could feel in the air, and it was something that I just couldn't
resist.” She said this with an air of self-confidence mixed with a little bit of nervousness. Alexa could feel her trepidation in the way that her body was trembling to her touch. That didn't last very long, and she suddenly sighed, throwing back her head, as Alexa put her hand underneath her skirt. “Yes, more, please…I need this…I need you.”

It was nice to feel wanted,
to be wanted.  Alexa pulled this beauty towards her while spreading her long legs.  Knowing that this union wasn't going to last long, Alexa leaned forward and touched the tip of her tongue to Katie’s womanhood. Looking up at her face, Alexa saw that this young woman was now pushing her fingers into her own mouth, just so that she wouldn't scream out her joy at feeling Alexa’s tongue.

“
MMmmmmmmm.” Alexa was playing a happy tune with her tongue buried inside the woman, while at the same time rubbing herself with her thumb. The poor girl didn't really know what was happening, until she was biting down on her knuckles, as her orgasm overtook her and shot her to new heights of sexual pleasure.

Alexa’s
amorous hunger consumed her, and before long she was reaching up and ripping the flight attendant’s blouse completely open. She was a little surprised to see how well-endowed she was, as it didn't show through her uniform.

Standing up, Alexa took
Katie by the hair, forcing her tongue down her throat, while pinching her nipples and pulling them away from her body. She licked down her neck, lightly nipping at the skin, before moving down her cleavage, taking the time to circle each nipple.

Katie
couldn't believe that this was actually happening.  Slipping around, she turned Alexa onto her stomach, repositioning her until her nicely formed ass was bent over the edge of the bed. Her mouth went after Alexa's ear, licking and biting the lobe, causing Alexa to thrust her ass back against her. It felt like there was a blue hot flame going back and forth between them, as Katie moved to her knees, pushing Alexa's legs out, and then raising her skirt, until it was over her ass.

“My god, if I had an ass like yours, I would never be alone again.” Alexa giggled, but then made a slight moan as
Katie kissed each of her bare cheeks, until finally spreading her open like a newborn flower. This wasn't exactly Katie's first time, but it had been awhile since she had sunk her tongue into anybody that looked as hot as Alexa. She didn't waste any time, pushing herself forward until she buried every inch of that oral digit into Alexa from behind.

Alexa grinded against
Katie’s lips, getting Katie’s tongue as deep as possible within her folds. Katie was surprised to feel just how powerful her inner muscles were, as they tried desperately to rip her tongue out of her mouth. Holding Alexa’s hips with both hands, Katie drew her tongue away, and then plunged back in again repeatedly in rapid succession. Katie suddenly had an interesting thought, wondering what would be like to fuck this beautiful creature with a real cock. If she could somehow wish in that moment to have a large appendage between her legs, she would have been happy to slide it deep inside Alexa.

In lieu of that, she used her tongue as a battering ram, shooting it in and out of her so fast that her juices were streaming down her chin. “Fuck, yea, I knew just from looking at you that you were the one that I was craving…
ahhhhhhhhh.” She kept her orgasmic exclamation to the bare minimum, showing great restraint in not screaming out her release. This was a distraction worth taking, and something that she needed to give her the extra boost of energy to go forward into this new assignment.

Katie
got a little forceful, pulling her hair back and kissing her, letting her taste her own essence on her tongue. This only made Alexa go after her with her own mouth, licking her face and making sure that she was presentable before they both returned to work and the harsh reality it represented.

For the remainder of the flight e
ach time that Katie walked by, Alexa had this deep desire to take her once again, but their union was meant to be short-lived, and a bright flame that would burn within them both. Alexa was now able to concentrate on the job at hand, going over everything she had on Edgar and Wicca in general.

When the flight landed, she received an email from Michael.  Hidden amongst his discussion on whether to use the Wedgewood and cut crystal for the (nonexistent) dinner party, or to go for a more downscale, informal party was a coded message:  nothing could be found on this Edgar Faust.  There were a few dozen other people named Edgar Faust in the world, all of them accounted for, none of them in Indiana.

Alexa sighed.  This sonofabitch was too good at concealing his tracks.   She wondered how he’d managed to get
a hold of her number, since the only way to find it was to contact someone who did—and those types of people did have records.  She got into the car that Michael had arranged for her and drove out into the middle of no-where-ville that was the outskirts of Indianapolis, Indiana.   It was, in all honesty, quite a nice suburb, neat houses in small, trim lots.  It was a pleasant enough neighborhood, if you could discount the 1970s vibe of the place. 

The address Edgar had given her was a small shop, in an old strip mall that had mostly shut down.  The plate-glass windows in most of the stores were broken, or papered over in yellowing newspaper, and the only other store that was still operational was a thrift
shop, whose window was cluttered with lamps and old dolls.  Next to this, the “Wiccan Society” office, with its hand-painted sign, and a dreamcatcher over the door and notices for missing cats taped next to “Come to our Meet-and-Greet” signs, seemed downright cozy.  And Edgar, a surprisingly young man with a surfer’s shag and enough hemp jewelry around his neck and wrists to get a horse high, looked prosperous, even though there was nobody else in what they called an office.  Even so, he looked exhausted, as though he hadn’t slept in days.  Alexa supposed that, if she were a member of a group who was being hunted and killed, she wouldn’t have slept, either.

“Thank
the God and Goddess you’re here,” he said, as he stood up to meet her. 

She shook his hand, but that was in spite of the feeling, which had been growing ever since she’d agreed to take this case, that there was something off about this man.  His life signature—whatever it was about living things that she could sense—was
off
, somehow, as if he were only pretending to be alive. 

Edgar said, “We just received notice of another member of our coven—“Alexa had to suppress a smirk, because she knew what
real
witches were, and they did not form covens “—ten minutes ago.  I told the police I was hiring a—“

Alexa held up her hand.  “Where’s the body?” she asked. 

Edgar brightened.  “I’d heard that you were diligent,” he said.  He glanced at a square of paper on his desk.  “In the middle of Bryan Park,” he said.  “That’s—“

But Alexa was already back out the door.  Instinct, honed over
four thousand years, told her that Edgar was more than he’d seemed, and that if she stayed any longer, he’d figure her out.    He watched her get into the car from the door, smiling awkwardly as he waved good-bye.  She gave him her friendliest smile, but on her way to the park she called the last member of her team, Andie Greene.  “I need you to be invisible,” Alexa said.  Andie almost never spoke, and she didn’t confirm Alexa’s request.  Nevertheless, Alexa felt the silence change over the phone, and she hung up, feeling safer already.