“Okay that wasn’t that bad,” Dick said once they were on the train back. Samantha stayed behind with Betty so he and Lily were riding home. Laid out against his seat he smiled over at his best friend who gave him a slow eye roll.
“I seem to remember my partner leaving me behind during a ‘wraith’ attack.”
Dick shrugged slowly. “I knew you’d be fine. Totally in control.”
“Uh huh,” she said mumbled and jabbed his forehead. “You’re lucky I can think on my feet.”
“That’s what I thought.”
Shaking her head again she stood and chuckled. “The exercise was nice. I’ll say that. We’ve been just throwing ourselves at the wraiths and working on chemistry. Coming up with actual strategies and plans beforehand is definitely smarter.”
“Plus I get to start naming some of our new moves.”
“Of course, that gets you excited,” she giggled softly. “You and your battle cries.”
“Hey it’s been kick ass every time I’ve said it so far.”
“That’s what you believe,” she said and paused. Dick stopped as well and both of them heard the ringing in their ears. The train came to its stop and both of them immediately jumped off.
“Where is it?”
“I think down seventeenth street.”
“Let’s go.”
Tapping down the steps they moved together stepping around people until they were on the street. Lily took the lead running down the street letting the ringing be her guide of where she was going. But this time things weren’t going as she imagined. Normally when they did this they started moving away from the city but they were definitely running deeper as more people showed up and the sounds of the cars echoed around.
“What’s going on? Wraiths aren’t normally active deep in the city.”
“No they’re not and did you see those people?”
Initially he hadn’t but as he looked up them he saw a lot had dust on their faces or clothes but the few faces he did see they had panicked eyes
“What the heck is going on?”
“I don’t know,” Lily said wincing as the ringing got louder. “But we’re about to find out
Rounding another corner, they heard an explosion followed by screaming. People were streaming past them covering their heads but none of them seemed to understand what was happening around them. They heard loose words here and there from monster to terroist.
Lily and Dick however could see the creature looming over the intersection. A large six-armed wraith was screeching into the air and it made both warriors shout in pain. Its skin was a sickly pale green parlor that glistened in the afternoon sun. It didn’t have eyes that either could see but its mouth was just a gaping hole, lined with teeth. Two arms grabbed a woman off the street before shoving her into its mouth, folding her like a piece of pizza.
“Okay that’s not okay,” Lily said. “Let’s go Dick.”
“Way ahead of you. Manifestar!”
The chains manifested around his arms and clinked against the ground. Lily’s arms appeared at her sides and the cloak around her shoulders. “Game plan?” Dick asked and Lily stared at the wraith. It was reaching for another person but the activation of two geist that close to it got its attention.
Letting out a screech it leaned forward and started running forward using two arms as a second pair of legs and shoving the other cars away with the other four. “Tie up its arms and bring it down. A wraith that big can’t be that smart. I’ll keep it distracted. Once you’ve got it I’ll try to finish it off.”
“Be careful,” Dick said and darted away wrapping his chains around his arms and ducking behind abandoned cars and avoiding people. Lily stared the wraith down and folded her arms. The hands flexed to life and shot forward one curled into a fist and punched the wraith in the jaw with enough force to knock it down. The other hand slashed across its mouth scoring five bright red lines across its face.
It jerked at the blow but the hands flexed immediately. Grasping for a car it turned and threw it right at her. Watching it flip end over end Lily waited as the arms rushed back and grabbed the hood holding it in the air. It stopped just short of hitting her and with a swift turn the car went flying back at the wraith.
Crossing three arms it blocked the brunt of the car as it flipped aside. It reached for another car when Dick’s chains flew out and wrapped around them from behind. With a startled hiss it was dragged backwards and Dick grunted in shock trying to keep it down as best he could. “This is a big one!”
It hissed again and Dick slammed his wrist together to keep the creature locked. It was tugging but apparently this things strength was its power and not innate because even though it was pulling, Dick wasn’t powerless against it. “Anytime now Gringa!”
Lily ran toward it her arms floating beside her as she focused on the creature’s throat. She just needed one good hit and she wasn’t close enough to do that yet. Before she could get much closer she heard Dick shout and then a crash. The wraith let out another roar but there was more to it this time. She stared into its mouth as it glowed to life and suddenly flames flew at her in a wave.
Grabbing her cloak, she whipped it in front of her and the flames parted but the heat was intense. Stepping forward slowly she made steady progress against the flames. And suddenly they abated. Glancing over her cloak she saw the wraith had a chain around its neck now.
“You okay?” she shouted.
“Yeah! Take it down por favor!”
“I got it!” she ran forward and swung with her arm. The claws followed the arc and cut open its throat. Its hiss faded away like dust and the wraith collapsed into nothing on the ground. Dick let out a breath and rubbed his shoulder, his arm hanging at his side. Shocked she ran over to him and touched his arm gently.
“You okay?”
“Probably. Just dislocated at worst. Turns out this thing is good at kicking.”
“Don’t be reckless,” she said and then looked at his arm again. He shook his shoulders and let it sway at her. She rolled her eyes and brought her arms over. They floated, one grasping his back and the other taking his arm.
“Wait Lily don-!” he let out a strangled cry and then dropped into silence rotating his arm slowly and glared at her. “Thanks Gringa.”
“No problem Dick,” she smiled sweetly and then let the Geist fade away. Dick did the same and she looked at the chaos still around them. “Let’s make ourselves scarce.”
“Definitely.”
The pair of them ran through the smoke and coughing of the fire and rounding a corner. They heard the sirens and that was a good sign that help was coming. Rotating his arm again he winced slightly but kept going until he got comfortable. Sliding his hands into his pocket he sighed.
“So, we were really cool right?”
Lily glanced at him. “What?”
“We were chevere. We took down a wraith that big like no hay de que! We’re pros at this!”
She rolled her eyes but smiled. “We’ve been doing this for at least two years Dick. I should hope we were good at this by now.”
They hit the corner and the light was red. Dicks phone went off and he glanced down and saw Samantha was calling him. He started to answer it then stopped at a voice behind him. “Richard Rhodes. Lilian Louis.”
The pair looked at one another and then looked over their shoulders. A man and a woman were standing attentively. Both were wearing business casual wear. The man had brown hair tied in a braided pony tail, tanned skin and a scowl so deep that it must have been natural. He was chewing on a toothpick. The woman’s face was much more muted, staring at them almost emotionless. Her hair was pale blue and cut in a short bob.
She was holding a tablet, glancing down at it once and then looked back at the pair of them. “First I would like to commend your handling of the wraith. If you hadn’t done it so quickly we may not have been able to evacuate the area as efficiently as we did.”
“Gracias?” Dick said glancing at Lily confused. He didn’t know who they were but if they knew about the wraith that meant either they were wraiths or they were also warriors. Obviously one of those was better than the other in this instance. Dick felt himself tensing in case he needed to call his Geist.
“But we both must ask you to come with us,” she said motioning toward the street where a car was parked and one of the doors opened.
“Why?” Lily asked equally cautious. “I’m sorry but we have no idea who you two are and we’re not keen on just going with strangers.”
The guys scowl got deeper and he opened his mouth to say something when a familiar voice diffused the fight before it even started, “Go with them you two. Please.” They both turned to look behind them and Betty walked over looking past the pair. “Irma. Sirius. I didn’t expect you two to arrive.”
“Well the matter was urgent and considering the severity of it the commander wanted it to be carried out sooner rather than later,” Irma said curtly and then looked toward Dick again. “You especially will have many questions to answer.”
Dick raised his hands and shook his head. “What the heck are you even talking about?”
“You really don’t know when to just do what the hell you’re told do you?” Sirius finally said half bark and half shouting. “Just get in the car. This is your fault anyway.”
Dick turned and glared at him taking a step forward. “I’m not going anywhere. Especially when I know I haven’t done a single thing.”
Sirius took a step forward but Irma raised her hand. Tapping her tablet a few times she turned it around and on the screen was a picture high definition picture of Rey. Looking every bit the twin that he was. Any smart comment he may have had died in his throat and he just stared dumbly.
“What is that?” Lily asked stepping in front of Dick. “Why are you showing us a picture of Dick?”
“Don’t play dumb!” Sirius barked and held out his hand. A throwing axe manifested in his hand and the tip had a fine glowing blue edge to it. “You know damn well that that’s his brother. His twin. An abomination of a wraith and a geist warrior. A monster.”
“Callate, carajo!” Dick shouted his chain not only forming around his arm and whipping straight at the warrior. Before it could go too far one of Lily’s claws blocked it and the chain wrapped around the claw tightly making it sink to the ground. Dick blinked shocked at his own actions.
Irma continued to look at them passively but then focused on Dick. “Your love of your brother is admirable but your brother is not the innocent you like to believe. We are here because one of our warriors was found critically wounded. Her partner saw this man standing over her. She engaged him and was heavily wounded. She’s recovering now. Your brother assaulted a warrior and comatosed another. A brother of unknown power and danger that you all hid from the Legion.”
Sirius spat, “You all lied of the events last year. For that alone you’re going to be punished but if it turns out your brother is the reason for her injuries you will all be held accountable. No telling how many others he’s eaten.”
“Mi hermano wouldn’t do that,” Dick all but shouted and Betty squeezed his shoulder.
“We’ll have our chance to defend him and ourselves in due time. But we cannot do that here,” she said softly and glanced at the two warriors before them. “Nor can we harm our position by getting into a fight with them. Be smart Dick.”
He grit, his teeth together but she was making sense. More sense than he wanted to admit. Looking over his shoulder he looked at Lily but she nodded as well and he resigned. “Fine. Let’s go.”
As they walked toward the car, they each got in the back the three of them and were watched by Irma and Sirius. Once they were in Irma got in the passenger seat and Sirius the drivers. Starting the car Dick paused and glanced at Betty. “Is capitana going to be at where ever the heck we’re going?”
“If you mean Samantha yes she is at the facility,” Irma said as Sirius started the car. “She will answer for her part in all of this.”
Dick stared at her his brows furrowed with his frustrations but he looked at the ground. Lily’s hand found its way over to his own and squeezed it. He didn’t look over at her but squeezed back. Counting from one in Spanish under his breath he tried to keep himself under control. The car pulled onto the street as they drove away and Dick’s thoughts weren’t of his own safety. He was scared for his brother.
The Harlequin Library 