<Not yet. The cat-la—Jessikah is going to try and calm them down.>
“Stop being such chickenshits,” Richard said, brushing Tony’s hand away. “He’s not even a threat.” Richard pointed at me. “You’re scared of a guy with a dog? What’s wrong with you? Mage the hell up. We’re doing this.”
“I don’t know,” Tony said, shaking his head. “He feels weird, and that’s not a regular dog.”
Now, I really felt insulted. They knew I was there…but I was being intentionally dismissed. If this kept up, my feelings might actually be bruised or something.
Still I waited. This wasn’t my fight…yet.
I wasn’t going to let them beat on Jessikah, but I needed to know if she could handle herself. I had a feeling that Evers and Talin were going to be significantly more dangerous than three low-level mage punks trying to establish how badass they were. I didn’t even want to think about facing a semi-dark Monty. I chuckled to myself again. A semi-dark Monty sounded like something I would say to a barista. It was becoming increasingly apparent that my energy signature was screwing with my thought processes.
“Would you like to file a formal complaint?” Jessikah asked, really attempting the diplomacy route and failing spectacularly. “If you give me your name, I’m sure I could—”
“File this,” Richard said, forming an orb of bright yellow flame and unleashing it. “Burn, bitch.”
EIGHT
Before I could draw Grim Whisper, Jessikah moved.
I was surprised at her velocity. She flicked the burning orb away with one hand, diverting its trajectory…right at me. I jumped to the side, avoiding the orb as it crashed into the wall behind me, destroying some of the bricks.
“I’d prefer not being collateral damage today, thanks,” I said. “Can you handle them, or do you need help?”
“It’s being handled,” Jessikah said, without turning. “Please stay back. For your own safety.”
“That wasn’t much of an orb,” I muttered to myself, examining the minimal damage, as Peaches padded forward. “Wait. She’s got this.”
Peaches stopped with a low growl, causing the mages on either side of Richard to take a step back.
“Attacking a Black Orchid agent is a punishable offense according to statute 3.141592, Section P, subsection I,” Jessikah said, forming an orb of dark red energy. “I’m willing to let you off with a warning—this time. Will you cease and desist from your current course of action?”
I’d never heard of the statute, but it made sense. If the Black Orchid was some sort of mage police, attacking them would have consequences. Painful ones.
Richard formed another orb…larger this time.
“Richard,” I said, letting my hand rest on Grim Whisper, “don’t be stupid. She doesn’t want to hurt you, but if you keep flinging your balls of flame around”—I glanced at the destruction of the wall behind me—“lame balls of flame I might add, I will shoot you and your friends.”
“Don’t worry, freak,” Richard answered with another sneer. “I’ll take care of you and your mutant dog right after I’m done with her.”
I looked from my hellhound to the minimal damage Richard’s orb had caused to the wall, and shook my head.
“Did you not have breakfast this morning?” I asked, thumbing over my shoulder to the wall and moving forward. “I hope you have more firepower than that.”
“Enough to deal with a freak like you and your mutant mutt.”
Jessikah raised a hand to me and I stood down.
“Just so you know,” I said, moving back, “I’m not appreciating the insults.”
“Please let me handle this,” she said, without turning away from Richard. “Is this your final response?”
Richard nodded.
“You die today, Orchid,” Richard answered with a sneer. “We’re going to make sure of it.”
By this point, Richard had lost his bookends. They had moved so far back, Richard was basically standing alone against Jessikah. She cocked her head to one side.
I made sure my mala-bead bracelet was free and accessible. His orbs didn’t seem to have the power to do serious damage, but that didn’t mean I wanted to get peppered by them either.
“I don’t think your friends agree with you,” Jessikah answered. “Seems like you’re on your own.”
Richard glanced to his sides and cursed under his breath.
“You cowards,” he said, forming another flame orb. “She’s nothing. I’m going to make sure you two hurt when I’m done here.”
They took off at speed.
<Can I chase them?>
<No. We deal with the leader.>
Richard was a bully. I was seriously considering just shooting him and calling it a day, but Jessikah wanted to deal with him. I knew better than to step on a mage’s fragile ego.
Without taking her eyes off him, Jessikah responded with a short nod.
“You’ll be too busy dealing with your own pain to inflict any on anyone else,” she said. “Last chance to surrender.”
Richard answered by throwing his orbs at her, but she was already moving. After her last move, I anticipated she’d be hard to hit, and I pressed the main bead on my mala bracelet, activating my shield. I made sure Peaches was next to me.
One of the orbs bounced off the shield and caromed into a parked car, causing a dent. The other orb sailed past, missing us completely. Anemic and inaccurate—this mage needed to go back to mage school, or wherever it was they trained. Even my magic missile wasn’t that weak.
Jessikah unleashed her orb.
From the moment she formed it, I knew it was stronger than Richard’s. It wasn’t quite at Monty’s level, which only reinforced the fact that sending her after Monty was a one-way mission.
Her orb slammed into Richard, punching him in the chest. He was airborne a second later. The look of surprise lasted until he crashed into the concrete, where it was quickly replaced by a grimace of pain. He landed hard and cursed. I saw him slowly make his way to his feet before I shot him, once.
Jessikah whirled on me with a look of surprise and anger.
“You shot him?” she asked, walking over to where Richard lay. “Did you…?”
“It’s the middle of the morning on 1st Avenue, and you
