The door strained as the beast outside smashed it. It smiled through the cracks, wearing her master’s face like a mask.
“Such foolish little girls… Don’t you know the forest is dangerous at night?”
The door’s magic defenses wouldn’t hold. If Helena’s spell failed, they’d all die.
Yet she strode forward, using rage to smother the fear. With a flick she unlatched the door. Then she flung her curse forward.
“Yes. The night is dangerous. There are witches about.”
—–
Helena’s eyes snapped open, the dream vanishing into the depths of her memories.
Something was odd. This wasn’t her bed. She tried to peer through the darkness of the room to figure out what was going on.
Then her mind caught up to her body and she relaxed. Apparently running to the police station had been the right choice. Nothing had attacked her while she slept. At least nothing outside of Phobetor’s realm.
She sat up and stretched, then hissed as a twinge of pain hit her. It seemed she wasn’t fully healed. Though some of that might have been her arm complaining from sleeping on it funny. Helena summoned light, then reached behind her to grab her mirror from home so she could check her wounds.
The cuts on her back were almost gone, reduced to raised red lines. The slashes on her arm still had some scar tissue, but they’d healed otherwise.
She whispered a few words and her magical wards became visible. Some of the earliest spells a magician learned were spells to prevent physical and magical harm. No magician wanted to die from slipping in the bath. Normally she kept the mystical protections hidden, but right now she wanted to see how strong they were. Their glow was a little muted, especially the wards against physical attack. They were still stronger then the wards say Gold Rat Hsu had. But she was a duelist at heart, and today she was going to be fighting another magician. She’d have to be more careful.
As the glow of her wards faded she started summoning up the items she’d need this morning. A proper dress, and a better set of magical supplies. A comb and some other toiletries to freshen up. Her knife, and some of the stronger magic items she possessed.
When she’d collected everything she needed she turned to making herself presentable. Then she carefully placed the mirror and other items she wasn’t going to take with her on the desk, scrubbed out her alarm rune, and opened the door.
There was an open paper bag sitting outside the door. Peering in the top she saw a couple donuts. After a quick spell showed there wasn’t poison or some magical trap she picked the bag up. A note was written on it in thick black pen.
“Figured you’d want breakfast. Not the best but it’s what’s open at four A.M. I’d say stay out of trouble, but if the Inspector’s got anything right about you that’s impossible, so I’ll simply say Good Luck.
-Chris.”
Helena smiled. It had been a long time since the authorities had been on her side. The smile faded a bit when she remembered that time was also when someone had tried to murder her. She stretched a little and headed downstairs to get some tea to go with the offering of food.
The giant room downstairs was even busier than last night. Every desk was filled with police making calls, sorting documents, and talking with other people. It was a chaotic mess, but maybe that’s what was required to run a city the size of the Immigrant Realm. Two million people living in one area was harder for Helena to comprehend than any magical realm she’d passed through. Her home city’s population could be measured in thousands and it had been massive for her realm.
Helena skirted around the edges of the room and brewed herself another cup of tea. A few people gave her odd looks but no one came and questioned her. Hopefully they questioned other people that randomly walked in and stole their tea more thoroughly. Then again it was possible everyone knew she was supposed to be there. ‘Short woman wearing a witch’s hat’ was a fairly easy description to pass around the office.
The donuts were almost too sweet. Helena never understood how Americans could stand all the sugar they put in everything. Fortunately it was common practice to sweeten your own tea, so Helena was able to wash the sugar from her tongue. At least it was filling.
She was finishing off the second when Kilduff walked out of an office. Now that Helena was more awake she could see the fatigue lines around the man’s eyes, but he didn’t seem to have slowed down. His eyes fell on her, and she gave the man a polite nod. She owed him for his help, so she put aside her normal verbal jabs.
The Inspector grimaced at her before walking over to the drink table and filling a mug with coffee. Only after he’d taken a sip did he wander over. “I don’t know what demon you bargained with to not be suffering now girl, but it must have required a great and terrible payment.”
“No demons,” Helena replied. “I just poisoned myself.”
“Poison usually makes people less awake,” Kilduff said.
Helena gestured towards the man’s drink. “I’m pretty sure whatever’s in that cup has to be terrible for you in the long run.”
Kilduff sipped the coffee again. “Better than bullets in the short term girl.” His expression grew more stern. “Are you up for a fight, lass?”
“I should ask you that. We’re ambushing a true magician. I have experience, you don’t.” Helena sipped her tea. “Fortunately, we outnumber him. And he’ll have just wasted a lot of magic moving an entire warehouse full of goods.” She grimaced. “He’ll probably try to run. It’s the smart move, especially since he doesn’t know what tricks we’ll have.”
“I usually don’t like it when criminals run from me, but in this case I’ll accept it as a blessing. It’s better than a brawl.” Kilduff said. He drained his mug, then placed it down on the counter. “Right. Let me speak with the boys cleaning out the warehouse, then we’ll go arrest a servant of Satan.”
Helena finished her tea and followed the policeman as he stalked off. “Why is the murderer just a servant of Satan while I keep getting called a bride?” she muttered.
Kilduff walked through a number of hallways to a pair of large double doors. He pushed on through revealing a massive room filled with lockers and strange gear. Twenty men and women were strapping on the odd armor and weapons that the warriors of the Big Apple used. The black buff coats and helmets looked somehow both crude and futuristic to Helena. She also noticed most of the guns they carried were bright orange. An odd choice given that everything else was black.
“Your men ready Lieutenant?” Kilduff asked one of the men at the front.
“In fifteen, Inspector.” He lowered his voice. “The rookie was wondering about the squirt guns though. Think we should keep him back?”
Kilduff nodded. “Aye. I doubt you’ll find anything, but if you do I don’t want any mistakes. Daft bastard might try shooting the demons in the head and we all know how that ends. Time enough to train him right later.”
“Yes sir. The kid doesn’t need a friendly fire incident on his hands, and I don’t need to get shot,” the man said. “Then we’ll move out after the weapons check. Sure you can’t come with us, sir?”
“Sorry lad, but no.” Kilduff jerked a thumb back towards Helena. “The witch is right when she says the Triads will clean up and run away. They’ll take the goods and use their lawyers to muddy the trail so we can’t catch them. They’re scum, but they act like it’s a business, and money’s all they care about.”
The Lieutenant nodded. “Right sir. Good luck on your hunt then.”
“Send prayers too, I’ll be needing both,” Kilduff said before walking back to Helena. “Off we go then.”
“Of course.” Helena started walking towards the large door marked ‘Exit.’ “So, squirt guns?”
Kilduff grunted. “How else are the men going to fight demons? Ask them nicely to hold still while they pour holy water on them? The things look ridiculous but they get the job done.”
Helena nodded slowly. It wasn’t the question she asked, but that explained it. Holy water weapons. Apparently the people from the Big Apple were smarter than she’d thought. They’d designed a powerful anti demon weapon despite the fact demons rarely entered the realm.
As they walked out onto the parking lot around the police building Kilduff looked over his shoulder. “We’ll be taking the Culver street entrance just so you know.”
“The sewers. Wonderful.” Helena started fishing around in her bag for some peppermint. She had a feeling she’d need a spell to clear the air if either of them was going to surprise anyone.