“I get a gut feeling that tells me it’s legit. I saw what you were up against and I was in the mood to help. Those mindless thugs can go fuck themselves.”
“You don’t care what I was doing up there?”
“Not even a little.”
Shay weighed the options in her head, wondering what to do when she saw something. She leaned down and reached out to turn over the piece of metal, but Lily was faster and snatched it out of her reach.
“That’s mine,” Lily said, breathing a little hard.
“How did you get that?” Shay could feel her heart rate pick up and she took in longer breaths to control it. Last time she saw that artifact it was hanging off the belt of the Ice Witch. How did a kid get it off the witch that came close to taking down Shay?
“Weird powers. I needed it. I took it.”
“It’s not that simple.”
“Close to it. Bitch didn’t anticipate my move. Got this nice little scar for my troubles.” Lily held up her arm. There was a long, thin red scar that ran from her wrist to her elbow.
“Ice did that.” Shay’s mind was working on a solution.
Lily’s eyes grew wider and she sat up. “You’ve seen her. Do you know where I can find her?”
“No, and for your sake you should stop looking for her. Why were you so desperate you’d tangle with her for that artifact? What does it do?”
“It’s not what it does, so much. It’s who it belonged to. It was my father’s. That’s the bitch who turned him in. I plan to even the score.”
“That’s something I can understand. Interested in a trade?”
Chapter Two
The terms didn’t take long. Shay agreed to help Lily with her quest in exchange for Lily’s help on a few missions. No social services, no cops and Lily could change her mind after a month. Shay would put her up in one of the warehouses and feed her. Hell, she was already feeding Peyton. What was one more mouth?
Shay helped her gather up what there was of her things, careful not to touch the metal artifact.
“What does that thing do, anyway?”
“It’s a kind of divining rod. It can help find things.”
Shay smiled as they came to a ladder. “You and I are going to get along just fine, one way or another.”
Lily scrambled up the stairs first, getting to the top in lightning speed.
Weird powers, I guess, thought Shay. She’s got fast twitch reflexes. Shay adjusted the old backpack, heavy with books and easily made the climb to the top as Lily pushed open a hatch.
They came out on a side street only blocks from Shay’s rental car.
“Where the fuck are you?!” Peyton was full on shouting in her ear. “Oh my God, I’ve lost her. Brownstone will literally skin me and make me a rug! My life is over. How do you hide from a Level Six bounty hunter? Oh Shay!” He let out a gulp and pounded his chest.
“Little dramatic don’t you think?”
Lily looked up as Shay crossed her arms and took a look around. Nothing was stirring except for the rats.
“Shay? Shay! You’re alive! Are you captured? Should I call someone?” Peyton wiped his sweaty palms on his pants and silently thanked the heavens he would get to keep his skin another day.
“I’m good, we’re good. Peyton, if you’re going to do ops in my ear you’re going to need to develop a calmer persona. Screaming goat isn’t going to cut it.”
“Who are you talking to? Never mind, gadgets, I get it. We have to keep moving. This area is never safe and those guys didn’t give up that easily.”
“Shay, who are you talking to? What’s going on there?” Lily scanned the area.
“Peyton, focus. Is the drone still in the air? Can you tell me where the herd ran off to?”
“Sure, sure. Answers later. Still on a mission. Damn, that was a close one. I mean, I thought… okay, okay. Looks like they’ve broken into smaller units and have spread out over the area. They’re wallet slapping the homeless and spreading around some money.”
“Time to go,” said Shay. She took off at a run, taking the route she had planned out for the mission. It took her on a slightly longer route back to the car but was under the darkest parts of any street and away from cameras.
Lily easily kept up, not even breathing hard and it took them no time to get to the Jeep. They loaded Lily’s things in the back and slid in the car.
Lily suddenly looked up, her eyebrows shooting up as her eyes moved rapidly back and forth.
“Hit the gas. We’ve only got a few minutes before this place will be crawling with men and guns.”
“Men and guns. Put one in their hands and they feel obligated to shoot out something. A vision I take it?”
“They look more like rapidly changing snapshots. Told you, not perfect.”
Shay heard the sounds of cars approaching as she maneuvered the Jeep out of the parking lot and took off in the opposite direction. “Not exactly fifteen minutes of lead time.”
Lily shrugged her shoulders and put her feet up on the dashboard.
Clearly Lily and her weird powers were a work in progress. Still, she pulled one over on the Ice Witch. Pretty badass… and useful.
Shay ditched the car and they took off, easily running the mile to where her sportscar was parked in a garage. Purity Solutions, the clean up service would pick the car up for her, wipe it down of all prints and any sign she was ever in it and return to the rental place. A business expense.
Lily was silent for the entire ride, watching the
