As I was leaving, I had the doormen call me a cab. Physically, I was fine, but a headache of monumental proportions lurked in the wings, and I didn't want to walk to a pay vid. Within minutes, the car flew down; doubtless, such cabs fought over the rich territories. I rested my eyes as we flew home; the lights from the floating ads illuminated my eyelids as we moved out of the more affluent section of the city. It was still the middle of the night, and the vehicle was almost silent except for a muffled rush of air. Fortunately, the driver wasn't a talker.

When we landed, I gave the driver an account number to charge, along with a generous tip. He still glared at me; I suppose he was used to people just beaming the credit information through their implants. Well, I guess he'd have to work his fingers for this tip. I tried to be sympathetic and failed miserably as I walked to the door, threw it open, ripped my stained and tattered shirt off, and tossed it into the recycler on the way to the shower. At the rate I was going through clothes, I would have to get Jeremy to redo my wardrobe.

“Well, far be it for me to complain about letting it all hang out, but I hardly know you,” a female voice called out as I had my hands on my pants. I blearily turned around to see Mei dressed in a cozy pink night robe with ruffles around the neck and cuffs. I removed my hand from my pants and covered a yawn.

“Oh, hey Mei, what's up,” I yawned again.

“Your clothes look like you were skating on broken glass,” she offered cheerily. The description was rather too close to what had happened to me, so I just grunted. “Jeremy told me that you were going to speak with the master of the city. Did they not take it well?”

“Hmm, it was about what I was expecting but less than I had hoped,” I tiredly spoke. “Give me time to take a shower and a nap, and I'll fill you in.”

She nodded and turned away. I was not at my best, but I couldn't help but notice that she wore her sword on the back of her robe. Usually, it just vanished. Hung on her back, it looked out of place; it didn't match the fluffy robe. Maybe I would buy her a pink scabbard if she was still around for Christmas. Sighing tiredly, I slumped off towards the shower. Once inside, I casually ripped off the pants and stepped into the shower. Like most of my possessions, it hailed back over a hundred years. It was a bit more expensive to install and maintain; however, the sonic showers were deeply unsatisfying, even if I didn't have the hearing of a shifter or a vampire.

Ignoring the regular spigot, I slapped the big red button on the wall with “DANGER” engraved on it and enjoyed the hissing sound as boiling water sprayed from all four nozzles around the chamber. I just stood and let myself relax as I enjoyed the heat and fizzing sensation of the water. I had wanted to have saltwater holding tanks installed so I could have superheated water, but it just wasn't worth the hassle even when money wasn't a genuine concern.

As my muscles slowly relaxed, I grabbed the soap, a slab of pumice, and started to scrub hard enough that powdered bits of rock began to collect at the drain. After twenty minutes, I was finally feeling almost myself. Turning off the water, I grabbed a nice big towel and draped it over myself. As I opened the bathroom door, the steam billowed out, making a nice contrast to the warmth. I heard a startled exclamation from another part of the house and called out, “Give me an hour, and I'll be ready. There's an air horn in the kitchen if I won't wake up.” I only intended to meditate for a bit. As tired as I was, if I started sleeping, I literally may not wake up for a week.

Fortunately, the horn was not required. An hour later, the pounding in my head had subsided to a faint ache behind my eyes, and a small amount of my reserves had come back to me. I wouldn't want to do any tricks at the moment, but it also meant I wasn't trying to think through a haze. I shrugged into a new set of clothes and walked into the living room while stretching my arms behind me, allowing the stretch and tension to soothe me as subtle pops sounded in my joints. Sometimes, this form felt so cramped. I am sure it was all in my mind, but the stretching helped.

Mei sat slumped over in the recliner, and the antique vid player was replaying one of my old videos. The original version was black and white, but she had turned on the three-dimensional simulation, and the wall looked more like a window into another room rather than an old-style movie. I stopped and stared, a bit nonplussed. I kept that feature off for a reason; a three-dimensional image without auras gave me a headache as my mind tried to see more than was there. A two-dimensional image looked fake enough that I didn't subconsciously try to fill in the blanks. Mei had nodded off, so I moved over to the vid and turned it off. I was glad she hadn't turned on the voice control or Class IV AI. That completely creeped me out. It also tended to explode soon after.

I reached over to shake her awake, and with only a slight tingle of my sixth sense, found myself on the floor face-first on the floor with my arm stretched behind me in a submission hold. I looked over my shoulder and said, “You really know how to sweep a man off his feet.”

“Oh, sorry, you surprised me,” she apologized sleepily as she released my arm. I got up and stretched again. That had actually felt pretty good.

“No problem, you look tired,” I noted as I saw her sleepy eyes. She fell back to the chair again.

“It's just politics. It's, in turn, boring, infuriating, and tense,” she yawned and rested her head on her arm. “And yet it's frowned upon to rip someone's spleen out while trying to convince them to do something.”

“That doesn't sound good,” I offered sympathetically.

“It went far better than I had hoped. Conrad has already made his rounds and beaten the stubborn ones. All I had to do was follow up and set out the plan.”

“Okay... that sounds good,” I hesitantly stated.

“Bah, werewolves are just cantankerous. Everything is about pack status. Supercilious little pricks,” her voice died down to a mutter. “I had to challenge the beta and beat him bloody to get them to stop trying to one-up me and do something.” She gave a slight smile at the memory. “Tomorrow, I'll speak to the panther pack. They have less of an attitude problem, but they have horrible organization.”

“Like herding cats,” I said, nodding, repeating Conrad's observation.

She stared at me a moment before her mouth twitched. “Yes, exactly. Shouldn't be any fights, though, just a matter of lots of micromanagement. How did your part go? You looked like you went through the grinder, and your clothes had taken up religion.”

I sat on the couch and propped up my feet. Staring off through the window in thought, I answered, “Should we be worried that Jin has so thoroughly cowed the vampire's Grand Council that they would rather see this city literally go to hell than confront him?”

For a moment, Mei looked surprised. Then an expression of resignation spread across her face. “I shouldn't be surprised. I am, but after all this time, I shouldn't be.”

I had an idea of what Jin had done to the vampires, so I didn't say anything. My little infiltration trick wasn't genius on my part. It was more logic and instinct. Why fight through an enemy’s armies when you can sneak your way to the top and decapitate them directly? If Jin was such a great mage, as people seemed to think, he probably hadn't developed mental abilities such as mine. Very few have that combination. However, almost all breeds of my race are skilled shape changers, and magic tends to be more flexible than psionics, even if it's not as good at subtlety or mind manipulation. Assuming Jin was a dragon... or even a major demon, chances are Jin simply took on the shape of a lieutenant, found them alone, and killed the councilmen one at a time.

No matter how old, a vampire will die in one bite and swallow by a dragon and many of the larger demons. Sure, they taste terrible and give you serious gas for a few days, but they never come back from that. Just the thought twisted my mouth in disgust; I have never tasted anything as bad as the undead. I may be immune to poison, but some things almost make you wish they would kill you. Just make sure you don't swallow them while they are wielding a rune weapon. That is pretty much suicide, and any sensible supernatural predator knows better.

“Hey now, he's scary, but the lady from the council gave the go-ahead for the master of the city to gather information for us. We'll have the location of the dimensional interstices in a week or two.”

“The what?”

“The nodes.”

“Well, I suppose we should be grateful for that,” she said doubtfully.

“I wouldn't expect them to participate in our glorious charge upon the Empire of Evil, but they don't want the gates to hell to open any more than we do,” I added cheerily as I slowly stood up, stretched again, and walked over the fridge. I had promised myself a decent feast with no poisons added. Maybe a little grated silver or gold, though. I had no idea it tasted so good. Seems a bit of a waste, though.

Mei looked at my back with an expressionless stare. “Evil Empire. Right.”

“Jin isn't going to go away on his own. The vampires say he's been around for hundreds of years. You can't just ask him to leave and expect it to work.” Besides, if he left, he might take his books with him. If we could kill him quickly enough, we might get to an unguarded stash. The books would probably be magically sealed, but I had to keep hoping.

“I know that,” the tiny Asian exclaimed as she stomped over in her robe and pink slippers. “I have been after him for more years than you can imagine. It would just be nice to have a little support.”

“Well, you got me and probably Conrad and maybe the shifter packs,” she snorted at this. She seemed to have had some doubt about how cohesive the packs were. I ignored her and continued, “And depending on how fast the mayor can get his butt in gear, you just may have Conrad's special crimes force behind you.”

“Is that actually happening? It makes sense, but it would be a first in the country,” she mused, distracted from her gloom. “Wait a minute. Conrad's going to be in charge?”

“He is the mayor's golden boy, and you say he's the pack’s abattoir,” I teased her with a smile. I was rewarded with a snort of laughter. She had really loosened up. I think the silk robe must have relaxed her. Or maybe kicking some werewolf's ass had acted as stress relief.

“That’s pack Arbitrator.” I think she muttered something about a nitwit, but I was burying my own amusement in a ham sandwich. My guests had eaten the larger foodstuffs earlier, and I would have to settle for a smaller fare than I would have preferred. Since I arrived in the city, hunger had been a constant companion.

“Anyway, the chances are that the real danger won't be until the solstice or equinox, so we have a little bit of time. Worst case, it's a few weeks. We could have a veritable army if luck is with us by then. Which is good because our bad little wizard seems to have some shifters of his own under his thumb.” She grunted in agreement and pushed me out of her way as she dug into the fridge for her own late-night snack. “Have you asked the pack about any new or strange shifters in town? I thought you guys were loony over territory.”

She froze in her preparations. Guess she hadn't. “Good idea,” she grudgingly admitted. “I suppose I'm not used to having support. I didn't think of that. Usually, I have to mince around the packs to get permission to move around a city without being challenged at every corner. I'll ask Conrad to look into it.” She seemed to sense my raised eyebrow. “He's the Arbitrator. It's his job. Inter-pack politics makes me want to gut them all.”

“By the way, where's Jeremy?” I asked her, getting a fourth sandwich ready.

“He had to go home to sleep,” I turned to look at her. Usually, if there was an emergency, he stayed in one of the spare rooms. Well, not the last time he got shot, but... “He couldn't sleep. Humans get nervous around vampires and shifters.”

I stopped mid-bite. I had forgotten that no other supernatural bothered to hide their aura. Or maybe they just didn't have the awareness and control. Of course, Jeremy couldn't sleep here. I was getting pretty good at basic wards and minor circles. Maybe I would ward one of the bedrooms to keep out the excess energies my new guests were putting out. Just carve it into the wall and use a patch kit to cover it.

“I guess it's just as well; he needs his sleep, so I shouldn't disturb him until tomorrow.” It’s not like I could anyway, since I didn't have a working vid terminal in the house. Maybe he had fixed it along with the holo player function, but it would likely break down again within a day. “I'll go to the market tomorrow and call him from there when I go shopping for food. Again.” Shaking my head as I looked at the empty fridge. Geez, wasn't it full this morning?

I could almost hear Mei do a double-take. “You don't have a vid terminal?”

I snorted in disgust. “Come on, you know I have been researching magic? My research blows out almost all the new quantum circuit crap they are sticking in the new stuff.”

“Oh, I didn't notice,” she muttered, somewhat subdued.

“You'll feel it when I test out my stuff. Vampires and shifters are sensitive to it. I hear it tickles. It's the same thing that happens whenever magical artifacts are active. Didn't you ever notice the lights flicker when you draw your sword?”

“No, I am usually preoccupied when I do that,” she replied with a hint of annoyance.

“Hmmm. It is usually harmless, but they seem to put the fancy stuff in almost everything these days. I wouldn't draw your weapon in a floater.” Prolonged exposure of even a minor supernatural’s aura degraded even non-quantum circuits. I can't believe no one paid attention to the increased breakdown statistics in specific regions or populations.

“Are you serious?” she snapped out.

“Yep, it could be bad.” No doubt a shifter wouldn't be scratched by a mundane crash, even from a few hundred feet, but she might land on some poor mortal smuck.

“Anyway, I'll call him tomorrow. I'll need his help with something.”

“Are you sure you want to get a human involved in this?” I shot a look at her. My disguise as a human psychic sucked. I would imagine she thought I was some species that hadn't been outed yet. She was right, but I had hoped my cover would hold up better. Based on earlier tonight, it seemed the vampires weren't fooled either. Damn.

“You can use my terminal,” Mei offered. I just sighed and shook my head. Her terminal wouldn't work past tonight once I did the wards on the spare room. I reminded myself to make sure the new functions on the living room vid player were shut down before I started. I didn't want to blow up the telly. It got to be a pain to find the older models for replacements.

I used Mei's wrist terminal to leave Jeremy a message, and since I was up, I went into the spare room Jeremy used on occasion and used an elongated fingernail to scrape a crude ward on each surface of the room. For such a simple function, it was all it needed.

Then I got the spray and matching Fixit patch to coat it. I watched as it bubbled before settling into the wall, indiscernible from the area around it. It was old stuff from before the nanite ban, but it still worked better than the newer mixes. Even though they may be dangerous in some way, you couldn't beat them for fixing walls. I had stocked up on it as much as I could through the black market. You could buy lots of things in the Blight.

After my domestic duties were done, I used Mei's wrist terminal again to order more food. It hissed and popped but still mostly worked. It was pretty big for a modern phone, so it might have been old enough technology to not self-destruct in the face of a ward or two. I figured I might as well use it before it decided it had enough.

I was still dragging a bit, so I went back to my room and meditated until mid-morning. Meditation is better than sleep for restoring your mental or magic reserves, but it just lacks the satisfaction you can get after sleeping for a week. After this was all over, I would have to block out some time for a quality snooze. By the time I was ready for breakfast, I was feeling like myself. My tooth had fully grown in, and I was anxious to begin the day. Mei was too because she was gone already. I snorted in disgust. She had way too much energy.

The boxes of groceries were out front. I hadn't noticed the delivery, which had been good for my rest, but probably boded ill for how on guard I likely should be. Shaking my head in disgust, I took the supplies in and loaded up the fridge. I had ordered a goodly assortment of precooked foods since I had doubts about how much time I would be able to spend on food preparation. It came in handy for breakfast since I just pulled a drumstick of the turkey and crunched on it while I cleaned up around the house. By the time Jeremy arrived and let himself in, I was ready to go out about town.

Our trip was almost quiet except for the moaning and crackling of the subsystems of the aircar. Jeremy had an older model. He calls it vintage. I call it a suicide box waiting to kamikaze onto the pavement if you sneeze wrong. If it were any older, it would have been ground-bound. It had character, but I never figured out why he kept it. I paid him well for his time, and he likes to keep up with the times when it comes to his other gadgets. He may always remain a puzzle to me.

He was frowning and tapping his finger on a gauge at that moment. I swear it was a glass and spring analog face readout. It must have been a re-fit since even with the most militant round of nostalgia binges the world has been through, I never heard of them going that far. When he started cursing under his breath, I knew something was up.

“How do you feel about making a quick stop at my parents’ house for a quick charge?” he asked in between muttered curses.

“You’re out of power?” I asked, glancing once more at the dial. The more I looked at it, the more it looked like a gas gauge, except for the fact that nothing has run on gas for over seventy-five years. Oil is considered an endangered resource and illegal as hell to use. “Why not pull into a parking hangar? I've seen people charge up in less than five minutes.”

Jeremy was silent for a few seconds and then explained. “Remember how I mentioned the car was an antique?” he tentatively started. “Well, the power tap isn't compatible with any of the current hangars.” A mixture of sheepishness and pride colored his voice. I just shrugged. I wasn't in a hurry, and if I mentioned that he should get a new car, he would just bring up my distrust of technology. He would be right too. Even I would hate to be that much of a hypocrite.

“Fine with me,” I sighed as I looked out with my usual envy at the scenery. The buildings in this area were somewhat new. Which meant that they looked like mirrored walls as the facades reflected the scenery around them in all their glasslike glory. I preferred the brick-and-mortar look, but that never came back in style. Perhaps it was too expensive to recreate.

The car swooped down an alley around the corner and smoothly joined another stream of vehicles. A tiny light illuminated the dashboard, which I assumed was the autopilot synching us with the traffic before it went out to give the driver back the illusion of control. If the sensors detected a possible hazard, it would go back on, and Jeremy would be left metaphorically spinning his wheels as the floating traffic buoys took over.

“Aren't we close to their apartment?” I asked, taking note of our location. I didn't come over often, but I was familiar enough to recognize the area.

“Yeah, right here,” he said as he turned into an alley and then set down next to an old-style garage opening. Since we were going to be a few minutes, I stepped out to stretch my legs and admire the small strip of sky I could make out hundreds of feet above us. I heard the whisper of a door sliding open inside the garage. I peeked inside and was rewarded by a small child-sized missile latching onto my leg.

“Hey, Mister Derek,” the tiny girl squeaked shrilly. She was a petite blond, not three feet tall, and all arms and legs. I awkwardly patted her on the head. I never spent much time around human children and didn't know how to treat them.

“Hello, Elisabeth,” I smiled at her. She was cuter than a puppy, but I have been told that children are a lot of effort to keep. My race is hatched knowing how to talk, change shape, and toss a car on things trying to eat you. I had no point of reference.

“Hi, Derek! Jeremy, I need help with my physics homework, and Mom and Dad aren't home from work.”

“Beth, I really need to get the car ready to go,” Jeremy looked between the car and the child in exasperation. “What's wrong with the Nanny bot?”

“It's too stupid to help without a special program. My teacher says the robots have to be dumb, or the Tinman Wars will start again.”

Since he was looking indecisive, I decided to help. “Jeremy, why don't I help her a little bit, and you make sure we don't go down in a ball of flaming debris.”

“Derek, it’s only a recharge. It'll only take 30 minutes at most,” he sighed. He was used to me mocking his vehicle, so he let the issue drop after that. “Besides, even though the computer is old, it will doubtless blow up once you touch it.”

“For thirty minutes, I think I can keep the old mojo reigned in,” I said thoughtfully. “If I use the holo interface and avoid contact, I think I can keep it together.” Jeremy just shrugged absently. Once thoughts of his baby filled his mind, there wasn’t much room for anything else.

I followed the child inside, and once she stopped running around in circles in the living room, she brought up the lesson projected it on the living room wall. I suppose she wasn't old enough for an implant yet. I realized with some chagrin that this was all going to be on the house system, and no books were available. Reigning in my magical energies, I hesitantly took control of the system after having her activate the holo controls and had it review the lesson. The interface was very streamlined. Hmm, Quantum physics. The primary school of thought had been disproved, yet quite a lot of the principles had been reused when they finally got the Grand Unified Theory to work. It was also a little beyond my studies. Getting familiar with the tutorial system layout, I directed ten lessons to fundamental Newtonian physics. I paged through the lessons as quickly as possible with just a slight psionic push to keep my reading speed up. In ten minutes, I had caught myself up to Elisabeth's lesson and had a decent idea of how to help her. The display was also starting to go a little fuzzy from my presence, so I tried touching it as little as possible. It was a holo interface, so I doubt it made a difference.

The child had been patiently waiting off to the side. She had brought up another holographic display and was dressing up dolls using some sort of fashion designer simulator. She seemed reasonably bright for a human, and we were mostly through her lessons when her brother walked in.

“How goes it?” he cheerfully asked.

“Mister Derek's fun,” the girl solemnly stated, “He makes the house computer do silly things.” I hadn't realized she had noticed the glitches. Maybe she was more intelligent than I thought.

“I think we got a lot done,” I added my own two cents worth. “Beth is smart as a whip.” That got a smile out of her brother and a frown from Beth.

“Whips aren't that smart,” she pouted.

“That’s just a saying Beth, it means you’re a smart cookie,” her brother clarified. She shyly smiled at that. “Time to go if you're still wanting to do your thing.” Jeremy directed at me, adding under his breath, “Whatever that thing is...”

“Sure do.” I started to walk towards the garage and paused a moment to look behind. “It was fun Beth, next time I'm over; we can do it again.” That seemed to perk her up a bit, and she was vigorously waving goodbye as we left.

“Nice kid,” I offered as the car moved out of the alley to merge with the traffic. “She seems happier than the last time I saw her. I think she took one look at me and ran out of the room.”

“She's pretty shy around strangers. She also is a certified genius, and that tends to do terrible things to your socialization skills.”

I grunted at that. I hadn't noticed anything wrong with her social skills, but I would leave it to the humans to judge.

“I hadn't realized you knew advanced physics,” Jeremy said after a moment of silence.

“It's easy to pick up the theory. However, my experimentation with magic kind of eliminates practical applications. It's just a subset of the laws that govern the multiverse.” It also helps when you have a brain the size of a fridge. It's not all there just to cushion my skull from impact.

“Isn't she kind of young to be your sister?” I asked, casually changing the subject. I didn't want this to slide into an awkward silence. “Your parents must be kind of old to have kids.”

Jeremy looked at me for a moment. I knew he was distracted when the autopilot light flickered a few times. “I sometimes forget that you’re not from around here,” he started slowly. “My parents are in their seventies.” I was a bit startled. I was pretty confident that was too old for breeding. Were the geriatric drugs that good? “They grew up when nanites were just coming on the scene. For years, almost all the technology was nanite-based. It was the superior technology. Better than almost anything we use today, especially in medicine.” He paused in thought before he continued. “Immortality was one of the first things they designed nanites to do. It was an easy brute force method; just program them to maintain the status quo. If a cell is damaged, just rebuild it exactly as it was. Youth, health, and regeneration all in one simple design.”

“Um, hold on. I thought nanites were outlawed.”

“Yes, things were very comfortable until the Australian Meltdown.” I mouthed the term to myself. I had heard about some riots during it but had never bothered to look it up. It had ominous written all over it. “An Australian nanite lab had a batch of nanites go bad. The entire continent had been reduced to its constituent parts within a day. It was more a miracle than anything else that it wasn't programmed to bind to water. It stopped at the coast and the UN bathed the land in plasma hot enough to break the nanites down into their atomic parts.”

I was staring at this point. I had known this planet had some history, but that was pretty bad, almost as bad as what had devastated my world. “So it was banned after that?”

“Mostly,” he paused again before continuing. “Keep in mind that nanites did everything for us from factories to medicine to robots. Everyone alive at that point had medical nanites in them. It took a decade to convert from a nanite-based society, and it might have stalled if there hadn't been other nanite plagues. Smaller, but by that point, everything was high profile.”

“So no nanites anymore.” Now I felt bad about buying my black market patch kits. Just not enough to throw them out.

“Mostly. The medical nanites were tough to extract without killing the host, and the research needed to remove them safely was banned on Earth. So everyone with medical nanites has to report to their doctor weekly, and there are some ugly fail-safes in their homes in case something mutates.”

“So you're saying humanity had immortality and a good dose of invulnerability and gave it up.”

“Mostly.” Okay, now I knew he was doing that on purpose. “We have medical treatment that can give a fair approximation of immortality. Regeneration and cloning therapy can heal almost as well as the supernaturals that revealed themselves recently. Still, they aren't nearly as portable, and often it’s a race to get to the hospital.” He sat in thought for another moment. “Although they are doing really impressive things with resuscitation treatments. Still, if anyone is really desperate to live forever and be able to regrow limbs without cloning or being changed into the undead, they always have the option to move to Mars. Nanites and research with nanites are legal out there, and they haven't had a catastrophic disaster... yet.”

“Fair enough.” I sat quietly in thought and wondered how I hadn't noticed the immortal humans wandering about. Sure, almost everyone looked young... Okay, I should have noticed that the only older-looking people I have seen are the vampires and the shifters, but it didn't register. I think I have seen older people in the Blight, and of course, Eddie Prince looked pretty haggard. I suppose the rebels and the social dropouts don't get free health care. There was probably a story behind why Kingston looked how he did.

It crossed my mind why in a non-aging society, there wasn't a population problem, and it occurred to me to wonder if a low birthrate offset it. Did the sheer number of the near end-of-world apocalypses account for the average population volume?

I had given up my contemplation when we reached our destination. Jeremy parked his vehicle in a convenient location on the almost barren street. I suppose the floating hazard lights and the condemned holographic signs floating around the entire block discouraged people from getting too close. How about that?

“So if this magical room of horrors is going to go critical in some unknown time in the future, how can you be sure it won't pop while we are down there?” my human companion asked in an overly patient tone.

“I'm psychic; I can usually tell when the world is going to end,” I replied flippantly as I climbed down the ladder into the sewer system. Yep, it still stank.

“Well then, I don't suppose you can buy me the next winning lottery ticket,” Jeremy asked as he settled next to me. He took two sets of nose plugs out of his pocket and handed me a pair.

“Only if the world will end if we don't win,” I sallied back as I stuck the plugs in my nose. They became soft from my body heat and sealed seamlessly against my skin. I took a deep breath and enjoyed the lack of stench. Did I mention that Jeremy is my best friend? The plugs are one of the many things he does to earn that title.

“Won't the police have set up surveillance?” he asked as we retraced my path to the extensive underground chamber that had been set up as the circle matrix.

“I am sure they tried as hard as their little hearts allowed, but with the amount of magic floating around down there, they won't get anything working unless they train a monkey to turn a film reel.”

“I thought you said they were going to set up some force fields?”

“That's what I suggested,” I said as I rounded the bend and came to a glowing blue wall that had not been there previously. I held out a hand to stop my companion from breaking his nose on the field in front of us. “And it looked like they set it up. It's pretty far from the circle barrier. Also, they almost certainly called in the military to do it. The military has pretty good shielding. Set up right, it's pretty resistant to magic, as long as it's not right on top of a node. Sensory systems, though... it doesn’t take much disruption to turn order into chaos.”

Jeremy kicked a bit of dried sludge at the barrier, and fat sparks erupted from where the matter was repulsed. Not vaporized, just kicked back with a bit of energy. Nice to know the authorities in the city took into account someone accidentally wandering down here. In the deserted sewer. I was surprised they hadn't placed a human down here. Perhaps they were short-staffed or had actually taken my warning to heart.

“If there's a force field here, why exactly are we down here?”

“You’re my backup plan. Do you remember when you first met me?”

“How could I forget? Your clothes were almost completely charred off, and you were staggering out of an alleyway.”

“Yeah, those were the good days,” he just looked at me. “Okay, maybe not. Anyway, do you remember where that alley is?” Again he simply looked at me. I suppose that was a stupid question. I think he has something very close to a photographic memory, though I am not sure if it's natural or from his implant. He comes from a family of geniuses, so I suppose it may be natural. “There exists in that alley, on the ground, a large rune. When I use certain abilities, I am shunted directly there.”

“Is that what happened last time?” he asked in a measured tone. He had first seen me drunkenly meandering out of the alley looking like my clothes had been burned off, but what he didn't realize was I had spent several hours laying in a pile of trash with my skin and everything down to my muscles vaporized into nothing. I hadn't known you could be so paralyzed with agony until I was huddled there waiting for my skin to grow back. That had been my first and only attempt to use my native ability to move between dimensions, and when I had gotten a tiny glimpse of how thoroughly I had been trapped in this city. Supernatural creatures have an enormous pain tolerance, but I think I had reached my maximum that night.

“Yes,” I quietly replied. He didn't need the details. If it gave me nightmares, then it wasn't good to dwell on.

“How does that affect this?” he nodded towards the force field.

“Well, hopefully not at all. You're my backup plan in case the shit hits the fan.” While I was saying this, I tried to clear the muck away from the sewer wall by scraping my shoe on it. I would need a place to sit. “I can separate my spirit from my body...”

“Astral projection? It's real?” he interjected, somewhat startled. I looked at him. “Right, of course, it's real.”

“Yes, of course, it is,” I mimicked him with a smile. “If it all goes well, I can move through the field and circle barrier and take a look at the wards and circles inside and pop back to my body.” The circle barrier was questionable. It depended on how the creator had defined it.

“What if things don't go so well?”

“I haven't tried this since I was... stuck here. There's a chance that once my body does not anchor me, I could be drawn to that alleyway you found me in. If that happens, I won't be able to get back in my body until it takes up the same space as my spirit.”

“Which will be glued to the rune in that alley.”

I shrugged uncomfortably. “Yeah. That.”

“I am glad you're trusting me with this,” he said with a slight smile. “How will I recognize the rune?”

“Oh, come on! How many runes do you think there are in the damn city?” I exclaimed indignantly before I saw his smile widen. Ah, a joke. I hate being on the wrong end of them. “Right. Haha. For your reference, it will look like a larger version of one of the symbols on my chest. You may remember from that night.”

He frowned and nodded. Likely he was still trying to connect the dots. He's smart, but he doesn't have all the pieces, and I didn't feel like discussing it. I sat down in a slightly cleaner area on the floor and closed my eyes. Gathering my concentration, I forced my sense of self to move without actually moving. It is as strange as it sounds, and you may have to be a teeny bit crazy to get it to work. After a moment of resistance, I felt myself break free, and it immediately felt like I was caught in a strong current. Looking around, I found I was in the tunnel with my body sitting on the floor and Jeremy standing over it with a concerned look on his face. Everything more than twenty feet was lost in a fog, blurred beyond recognition.

I was slowly moving backward despite my feet not moving. Traveling on the astral plane is more a matter of perspective. In theory, you can will yourself anywhere you want instantly and not have to go through the distance in between. In practice, even though you have no physical body, it's safer to force yourself to think that you do. Those who evolved inside a body tend to dissipate when they forget that. Of course, there's a fuzzy line in between tricking yourself into believing you have a body and spreading out to kingdom come. Between these extremes lies the part where the astral plane is useful.

Seeing the world move around me, I realized that the anchor rune must be drawing me out, and I did my best to firmly concentrate on the concept of a physical body. Because, of course, a solid body did not float away on its own. As I forced myself to believe this, I gradually stopped drifting and came to rest next to the wall. I sighed with relief and made a point not to notice that this very action was impossible. If I had gone through the wall, it would have been challenging to convince myself that I was solid enough not to feel the pull.

At this point, Jeremy was out of my limited visual range, but I was through the force field the city had set up. I didn't even see it from this plane. That was good; it told me that the police barrier was purely a physical phenomenon. I turned down the tunnel and headed toward the circle master's sanctuary. I made a point to pretend to feel the ground beneath my feet as I moved. I needed as much reinforcement as possible. Keeping to the physical body concept limited me, but it also protected me. Unfortunately, it would also be pretty tiring to play pretend without a break until I was back in my body.

I could tell when I stepped into the large chamber as the walls gave way to the ever-present fog. It didn't have the same impact as before simply because I was cocooned within the fuzziness around me. No matter how large the room was, my personal space was a twenty-foot bubble around me. Moving deeper into the room, the circle barrier was barely visible as little more than a shimmering bubble. I took a deep breath and stepped through it. Only a faint resistance met my stride.

The fact I made it through told me that the circle had been defined as a purely physical effect. It wouldn't have taken almost any effort to fortify it against magic and spirits. If that had been the case, I would have had a terrible time getting through, if it was possible at all. Ironically, the wards I had in my home were the complete reverse, barely able to give a vampire a rash but should be completely solid versus the less than physical.

The world started to move around me once again, telling me that I had let my attention stray. Letting myself imagine the feel of the ground beneath my feet and the air through my lungs, I came to a halt once more. I had to hurry before I began to drift off.

I crisscrossed the area inside the bubble, getting a feel for the area. As before, I noted the matrix of circles were all linked, and the central circle had a hastily inscribed trigger effect attached to it. I could tell it was done in a hurry because compared with the perfect symmetry of the other arches and circles etched on the floor, the trigger was slightly off-center, and the depth varied somewhat. Still obviously done by a master, but one who was in a hurry.

I strode down the rows of circles, categorizing them. Fire, death, energy over in the center. Next to the control circle was the now-defunct dimensional circle construct. On the other side was the barrier circle with a neat little circle that seemed to be directing the ambient energy into the entire matrix. I took note of the symbols that denoted the coordinates. I was a little at a loss. I could try to catch the psychic scent of the circles. Draw out images of their creation and hope to backtrack through experimentation to learn how to recreate them. The problem was that I wasn't very good at psychometry, and even if I were, it would take a large amount of concentration. Concentration I couldn't spare without being pulled away by the tide I could vaguely feel even now as I studiously ignored it.

Putting off any decisions, I walked once more around the shimmer that made up the room’s primary protection, paying closer attention to the walls. This time around, I caught sight of seams in the wall. A closer examination showed that this might be a door. Usually, this would be good news, but I presently lacked solid hands to open it. This made it a tad tricky. With one last imaginary breath, I let myself realize that I really had no body and therefore lacked the substance that would make a door the barrier it should be. As soon as my hindbrain realized this, I felt the riptide of the anchor take hold, and I began to move. This would have been good, except it was in the wrong direction. I marshaled my force of will to propel my point of view towards the door and slowly came to a halt, and then, even more shakily, started to move in the right direction.

As I passed through the door, I noticed the world’s colors faded, leaving only shades of gray. There was no light in the next room, and only my exceptional vision allowed me to see. Go me. I studiously avoided thinking of my sheer lack of physical eyes. I stopped myself and began the process of tricking myself into believing I had a physical presence.

It was more difficult this time. The sensations I forced myself into experiencing came back one at a time. The floor, then the air in my lungs, and finally the feel of the clothes against my skin. I think I also had some imaginary sweat dripping from my nonexistent face. It was much more challenging than the first time. Mental fatigue was setting in. Not to mention that going through walls and doors made it harder to pretend you were solid.

When I could finally spare the energy to take in my surroundings, I smiled. I was in a small study. To one side, I saw shelves set into the wall stacked with ingredients. Doubtless concoctions of gold, silver, mercury, blood, and dozens more chemicals for use in drawing circles and wards. Wards like those that glowed softly in my sight on the walls and floor. Smaller and simpler in purpose than the large circles outside the room, they were similar in function. Fire, death, paralysis all triggered by physical movement on the door. The paralysis was new, and the wards. However, they functioned to bring into being the same phenomena as the circle, were also very different—runic shorthand invoking the fundamental entities tied to the bedrock of reality, the Firmament.

These wards could have an expression on the physical that my primitive wards at home could never hope to. I was a bit concerned about powering wards through ties to unknown entities, but I knew enough to realize that this was indeed the correct way to create one. Supposedly, it was like using a solar panel to absorb energy from the sun. The sun never misses it and hopefully doesn't get pissed at what you're doing with it. In theory.

Forcing my attention from the wards, I swept the rest of the room with my eyes. The elaborate desk in the center of the room looked out of place. It was of far higher quality than the shelves and covered in scattered parchment, some of which had fallen to the floor. Against the second wall was a folding table with the various instruments of alchemy adorning it. They resonated with ideas and concepts deep inside me; my ancestors were masters of alchemy, and I knew that if I just thought about it a little more, secrets I never knew or even occurred to me would be revealed. I blinked and looked away.

Noticing I had drifted a few feet closer to the door, I firmed my resolve and looked at the final wall... and almost lost all my hard-earned concentration. Books lined the walls ensconced in their sturdy little shelves. I forgot to breathe and had to force myself to remember my body. Why the heck were these still here?

Well then, Christmas came early this year. Assuming I could find a way to get to these before they were all burnt to ashes or the owners returned. I walked over to the embedded shelves and scanned the titles. At first, I couldn't read them. Then, in a slightly disorienting wave of vertigo, the language resolved itself into coherence—a lot of books of general references. Whoever owned this study had a mediocre memory and needed help remembering alchemy’s details. I shrugged; the person's mastery of circle and symbology more than made up for this foible, in my mind.

Many books had titles that were promising but ambivalent. They seemed to hint that they were arcane in nature, but not obviously so. And finally, what I was looking for: books whose titles included wards and circles. Far fewer than the others. I can only suppose that a master at a trade wouldn't need so many reference books.

I sat on the desk and pretended that it was supporting me. So many riches and I couldn't touch them. I couldn't see the entire wealth of books, but they didn't seem to be trapped with wards. I could only assume that the circle master believed that it was sufficient to ward the door, and he knew the final trigger would purge this entire area. Unless he thought he was coming back. After all, the barrier was almost impervious by purely physical means without destroying large portions of the city, and the self-destruct wouldn't trigger for a few days. Maybe he was coming back. If that were the case, I would have to leave a surprise in place.

Shaking my head, I stood up again and returned my attention to the desk. The papers were written in the same language as the books, and I read what was visible. It mostly seemed to be a report from the zombie master, Baron Samedi. They were two different people. Considering the sloppiness of the circles in the house of carnage the police found in the Blight, the owner of the desk and the lab was likely his superior. Talent doesn't always equal authority, but it's usually a good guess when it comes to magic cabals.

As I read the parchment, my eyebrows rose. These fellows came from a dimension similar to my own—too much magic in the world, causing massive random holes to other dimensions. The reports the circle mage got from home were pretty grim—lots of rampaging demons and many fatalities. The pages I saw that seemed from Baron were reconnaissance reports. No references were made to any gangs or crimes, which made me wonder if the fellow had his own side game going on. I would love to have heard the reason Baron Samedi gave for why the police were storming the base. If the crumpled papers on the floor and the chair standing tilted against the wall were any evidence, someone was upset.

I was about to go back to the bookcase when I got a glimpse of something that stopped me cold. One page was covered with Baron's report, but I could make out the Chinese closing signature. Jin had signed it.

I barely stopped myself from floating through the door again as I regained my focus. I looked at the covered page and back at the bookcase and shrugged. Oh well, the city’s two most powerful beings were connected. As bad as that was, I now had an opportunity I had been waiting all year for.

I strolled towards the bookcase. Just like I could use psionic energy to teleport myself short distances, I could also teleport things that had been in extensive contact with my aura to my hand and, though more complex, teleport objects away from me. The astral plane is not truly a separate dimension. It is so intertwined with the physical world that it may be better described as the next layer of the physical dimension. Each dimension has its own astral plane, but I was damned if I knew if they were interconnected. I doubted it, but I had always been wary of exploring it too far. It’s not meant for those that have bodies. Nevertheless, it is possible to manipulate the other realm from its opposite with enough effort. It's just really difficult. I looked at the shelves of books, and I swear my mouth dripped ghostly saliva. That was worth a lot of effort.

I moved until my technically insubstantial body was pressed up against the books. It took a little bit of contortion, but I could stretch out and contact as many of the books as possible. I won't go into details about my positioning because I have no doubts in my mind that I looked thoroughly absurd. I didn't care at that moment. I focused on where I wanted to send the books and flooded the volumes with my energies while pushing them through space.

It felt like my head was exploding, and at the same time, my ghostly body had sprung a leak. My life force rushed out, giving me the illusion that I was being propelled back out of the room and through the door, across the circle chamber, and tumbling through the wall. I attempted to gather my focus, but after all the energy I had expelled, it was impossible to round up enough to convince myself that I had a physical presence. I shouldn't be able to be sucked through the intervening space to my personal anchor, located in that tiny out-of-the-way alley that I had done my best to avoid for a year.

The scenery flew by in a blur, everything blending together. The very fact I saw shades of light and dark and colors mixed in the fog should have proved that I had finally been drawn back to the surface. I could have attempted to stop my travel to my own personal magnetic north, but I was tired and dazed and barely cognizant of anything by then.

I have no idea how long it was before it finally registered that the world had stopped moving. I was drifting on top of the rune that tied me to this place. I was so tired and strung out that I may have been in danger of spreading out until my consciousness was completely snuffed out, except for that same anchor that would not allow me to let go. It tied me to one point much like a kite blowing in the wind but unable to move.

This was a mixed blessing, as I was held to the rune in an almost comatose state. Too tired to move and unable to let go. Those with physical bodies are not welcome inhabitants of this plane, and I would not be getting any more energy from rest without my physical shell to provide a safe harbor. So I floated in a single disembodied point of view and endured.

I must have zoned out because I was back in my physical body when the world started registering again. While I suppose I should have been grateful, I also had a migraine that would not allow me to think of anything else, and there were people nearby that wouldn't shut up.

“You’re fortunate I haven't let the police pick you up already,” a familiar deep voice was growling. “I am giving you miles of leeway, but I need something to tell the mayor when it’s reported that a civilian detective and the Professor were walking around the crime scene, and then said detective was seen carrying the other like a sack of potatoes all over the city.”

“You'll know as soon as the Professor wakes up,” Jeremy's voice drifted to my ears, setting off renewed explosions of pain.

“Why do I have to wait for him to wake up in the first place?” the other asked. At this point, I was able to identify the voice. Conrad.

“Either shut up or shoot me,” I groaned. Shooting sounded good, except it wouldn't kill me, and the jarring would probably just cause more pain. I moved my arm over my eyes which helped keep the light out and felt around with my other hand. The unnaturally smooth surface of the rune was underneath me, and the alley wall was next to me. I struggled to push myself up against the wall.

“Well, he seems to be awake, if not happy about it,” my friend offered. “How about we give him a few minutes to get himself together?”

“Fine,” the large shifter grunted. A moment later, I heard their footsteps recede and listened to their faint voices, apparently from the entrance.

“How did you guys even know we were there? Derek said your sensors would be useless. Did you set up a string of tin cans we didn't notice?”

“Believe it or not, that was one of the things they suggested. Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed, and we settled for surveillance.”

“I'm pretty sure I would have noticed someone following us.”

“Not on you! I didn't realize the Professor and his flunky needed a keeper until now. The surveillance was on the sewer entrance. That plus an older system allowed us some minimum coverage.”

“Flunky? That's a bit harsh,” Jeremy trailed off. I imagine it was hard to argue too vigorously about the description. After all, I did hire him to do a lot of my work.

“I like to think of Jeremy as a subcontractor,” I croaked out. My spirit was slowly synching to my body again, and the pain was slowly fading away. The exhaustion was still there, though. I was drained even more thoroughly than I had been the night before. I hadn't even thought that was possible.

“Are you ready to talk about your blatant disregard for a crime scene?”

“Any chance you could wait until I can recover a bit and maybe get something to drink,” I asked hopefully.

“No. I may be in charge of the new division, but considering how high profile this is getting, I still have to explain why our technical expert was walking around ground zero without an escort.”

Wobbling to my feet, I swayed over to the two men. I wasn't feeling up to much, but I wanted to get out of the damn alley. Just being there made me claustrophobic. Once I reached them, I leaned against the building and gathered my strength.

“Conrad, I got some good news and some bad news,” I said with as much cheer as I could gather.

“Ah, Christ on a crutch. Not again.” The armored shifter shook his head in exasperation.

“Yes! Again,” I stated loudly and then winced at my own volume. “I went in the lair in astral form to look around...”

“And was there a reason you didn't do this before? Like when I actually had Cromwell escort you there?”

“Astral projection can be pretty dangerous.” At least for me these days. “I needed time to prepare, and considering the risks, I wanted to be with someone I knew and could trust in a not-so-normal situation.”

Conrad looked between Jeremy and me before he gave a grudging nod. “Fine, any reason why you didn't ask for an escort once you had your flun... subcontractor?”

I stood there a moment and looked at Jeremy, then back at Conrad. Shrugging, I said, “I got nothing. Didn't even think of it.”

The shifter sighed. “Fine. What did you find out?”

“Well, I explored the area pretty closely. My original guess was right about the circles being linked together and set to go off when the ley line tap gets low enough to let the barrier down.” Conrad nodded; he knew about this part. “Now that I have had a chance to see the circles closer, I am pretty sure that Baron Samedi is not the circle mage.”

“What the...”

“Yes, the artistry is completely different. It’s obviously done by a different hand than what we saw in the house over by the Blight.”

“So all those warnings you gave us about a circle mage...”

“I was describing the worst case, which at that time was assuming the zombie master knew more magic than animating the dead.”

“But there was another mage there,” interjected Jeremy.

“Yes, who knew my worst case could get worse,” I added flippantly. I was starting to feel human again. Which was not so great considering I wasn't actually human. “We were lucky that my advice happened to be still applicable. It turns out that the portal circle was for another dimension. This means that we have at least two magic users from another dimension coming in.”

“Pretty small for an invasion,” Jeremy interjected. I had been leading up to this, so I was a little disappointed that he had sprung that one.

“Yeah, a bit small, but I saw a side room with correspondence still visible. They were mostly reports and...”

“A group of just two people wouldn't be writing reports,” Conrad put in his own two cents.

“Geez, hold your horses,” I pouted slightly. “Yes. Two people would not bother with reports. Also, some of the reports seemed to be from other people. From the mage's home dimension.”

“What did they say?” my curious friend asked, cutting off what was likely a similar question from Conrad.

“They seemed to be status reports from home. It’s pretty ugly over there with raging ley lines and demonic portals.”

“Raging ley lines?” Conrad asked, obviously not wanting to hear the answer.

“Um, not really an official term, but if the world’s magical energy reaches a certain level, it tends to flow into ley lines, like rivers after a big storm. They get swelled and very visible. After a certain critical point, ugly and somewhat random things happen on them. Portals to hell, rain of frogs, tornadoes. Things like that.”

“Doesn't sound like they were trying to escape it, though. Why set up a petty crime ring if you are just trying to escape your world?” Conrad asked.

“And if it’s just escaping, why have the report?” Jeremy chimed in.

“Oh, the crime ring seems to have been Baron's side thing. The reports never mentioned them. I imagine his superiors still don't know exactly what brought you down on them. Assuming they were his superiors. It can sometimes be tricky to figure the politics of a cabal.”

They looked at me blankly for a moment. “What's a cabal?” my detective subcontractor asked.

I stared back at them. “You know, a gathering of mages—the good old boy’s magic-user club. Usually dark mages, but it could be whatever. Also known as covens, though that’s more of a Wicca thing.”

“Wicca?” Jeremy asked curiously.

“Dead religion as far as I can tell. It’s not relevant. What matters is that there were two on this side, but there were more involved.”

“But involved in what? If Baron Samedi was running his own operation, what were they here for,” Conrad muttered.

“I can't be sure. I didn't see anything more than a signature, but I did see a letter signed by Jin.” This statement had a gratifying impact. After a few long moments, the silence started to feel a bit awkward.

“Son of a... I thought Jin just wanted to summon a demon,” the officer trailed off.

“Demon lord. I am pretty sure he can summon minor demons already. The vampires are complaining about minor pests that may be minor demons.”

“Things just keep getting more confusing,” Jeremy complained.

“Probably going to get worse before it gets better,” I nodded wisely and maybe a teeny bit pretentiously. Jeremy elbowed me in the gut. It actually staggered me in my weakened state. “So, think it was worth breaching police protocol?”

“Fine. You’re a hero. Let's go to the station so we can get a statement.”

I coughed uncomfortably. “Well, I am pretty beat. Any way we could do this later?”

“No. I really think we need to do this now,” Conrad deadpanned. Maybe I should have sprung this on him later. After I had a nap.

“Officer Conrad, would it be alright if I sent a detailed report to you as soon as I got Derek home?” my friend offered. Conrad had started to vigorously shake his head when he continued. “I think you know the effect the Professor has around technology. Due to his research into magic, he can be kind of damaging to it, very much like the older vampires are. Do you really want him around your shiny new facility?”

I could see the conflicting emotions cross the burly shifter's face. Annoyance was the big one, followed by a bit of anger, then finally exasperation and acceptance. Conrad himself was supernatural, and I am willing to bet that if he projected a bit, he could short out a machine or two. Come to think of it, if the new supernatural branch was going to be populated by shifters and vampires, then the facility better have military-grade equipment, or they would be catching criminals with stone knives and slingshots.

“So be it. I will come around in an hour for the report. Have it ready, or we'll be taking a trip.” With that ominous warning, he turned and headed away. I looked around and saw Jeremy's vehicle and started heading towards it.

We got up right next to the craft before Jeremy paused and faced me. “So, are you going to fill me in on why you tried to bury me in a pile of books?” He had a slight grin of amusement on his face as he gestured towards his back seat. My own expression was doubtless even more gleeful as I peered through his window at his rear seat and realized it was covered in stacks of books.