Wow. This date is going better than I could have possibly imagined.
Peyton finished off his spicy chicken wing and set it on the growing pile of remnants on his plate. “I never even thought to modify the algorithm that way. That’s brilliant. I can save tons of time on a lot of data processing if I implement that.”
Amber beamed. “I’d like to say that I thought it up, but to be honest, I made a mistake in the code and it just happened to work better.”
“Hey, I’m not the person to complain about a lucky accident. They’ve gotten me this far.”
A comfortable silence descended upon the pair as they finished off their food.
Things are going super-well. Sure, I’m not exactly being a hundred percent honest about who I work for, but everything else I’ve said is true. And it’s not like she’s asking me a bunch of questions I’m having to lie about, so that’s a good thing, I think.
She seems to be into me, and she’s cute and smart, and she doesn’t look like the kind of woman who will threaten me with a gun if I piss her off.
“What are you thinking about?” Amber asked, her voice soft.
“About the importance of honesty.” He winked.
Amber smiled as they stepped through the front door of the gastropub. She pointed in the distance. “Well, that’s my car. I should get going.”
What does that mean? Did she have a good time, or didn’t she? Guess I should check.
Peyton leaned in for a kiss, but she turned her cheek and hugged him. He hugged her back.
Is this a good sign or a bad sign?
Amber released him and waved. “See you around.”
“See you around.”
Peyton could finally move his feet once the woman pulled out of the parking lot. He was still unsure if he’d had the most awesome date of his entire life or crashed and burned.
Peyton rested his hands on the back of his head as he stared up at the night’s sky sitting in a lawn chair set up on the beach. The bright lights of LA pushed a dome of illumination into the night sky. Osiris rested on his chest.
“Man looked up at the stars and wondered for so many years, and now we’re slowly blocking them, even at night. I read the other day that there are cities on Earth now where people can’t see a single star at night.”
Osiris meowed.
“Yeah, you’re right. I shouldn’t worry about that. I should figure out how I might make things work with Amber. She’s definitely my type.” Peyton tilted his head up to where several pops of light were shooting overhead and toward the ocean. “Those make me think about aliens, you know, Osiris? I know they’re real now. Maybe a lot of them are. Oriceran is one thing, but what if the entire galaxy is teeming with life?”
Several more pops of light flew overhead, and loud booms echoed. Osiris hopped off Peyton’s chest and hissed. This sort of thing had become far too common lately.
Peyton sighed and rolled his eyes. “Magic returns to Earth, and what do we get? Assholes using their wands to annoy people. Great. Thugs with wands. The aliens would probably just be thugs with spaceships.”
Chapter Thirteen
Shay sighed as she looked at the sign taped to the front window of the gated store. She recognized Tubal-Cain’s atrocious handwriting.
Due to employee vacations, Prophecy Gaming will be closed for a few days.
Not that the average person could even perceive the store to enter it. Who was the sign even for? Her?
Shay ran a hand down her face and let out a loud groan. The gnome’s aversion to using a cell phone always made getting hold of him an adventure. His recent trips out of town were making it downright annoying. It was almost like he knew she had the information and was purposefully avoiding her.
No, that’s not it. The guy thinks it’s going to take me months to find his cousin. Just bad luck, but I really could use those magical lockpicks. Could make my next job way easier.
The average human had absorbed the collective wisdom concerning security based on centuries of technology. Locks, walls, gates. Guards with guns. Magical security? Not so much.
Earth would catch up, but in the interim, there were a lot of opportunities for a woman to perform a little mischief with magic.
Shay shrugged and rejoined the flow of people passing by the shop and not paying it any heed.
Wait too long, and your cousin might move again. Don’t blame me.
Wealthy people were smarter, better, and more knowledgeable. They deserved everything they had. Luck wasn’t a factor. That was what many people assumed, particularly the wealthy themselves.
Marcus opened the jewelry box and smiled down at the sparkling diamond necklace inside. He understood that the rich were nothing more than people with money, and because they overestimated themselves, their arrogance blinded them and made them the perfect targets for a skilled practitioner of the fine art of burglary.
This looks even more expensive than I expected. Guess I’m just lucky.
A six-figure necklace shouldn’t have been sitting in a jewelry box in a mansion with no guards and a security system that didn’t include alarmed second-story windows.
People that arrogant need to be humbled. This is a good lesson for them. An expensive lesson, but still a good one. Hell, I’ve been humbled tons of times, and it’s only made me better.
The thief chuckled to himself and slipped the necklace into a plastic bag before placing it in his backpack.
“Too damned easy. I’m almost disappointed.”
Marcus strode over to the open window and the rope stretching from the window to a nearby rooftop of a huge abandoned tire warehouse. The nice home was separated from an industrial zone by a mere fence, the glamour of the neighborhood long faded into the past. The mansion was the last redoubt of a lost way of life.
Maybe that was why the couple obsessed
