Life sure was weird sometimes. One moment you were haunting your little junkyard, the next you were caught in a demonic war against humanity. Or maybe that was just her. Karla stopped questioning the why of it all shortly after she learned she could shapeshift. And that was long before Lui came around, turning her from scary ghost to undead knight for reasons she still couldn’t quite wrap her head around.

But that was fine. Because thanks to him, it wasn’t just her acting crazy in the junkyard anymore. She finally had other people to play pranks with. Or in this case, commit mass atrocities with.

“Everyone! Switch to thermal vision!”

Karla ducked down, hiding in the dirt at Felissa’s call. She’d gotten lucky in putting the fear of death in all their brains, but she knew better than to rely on the same old tactics with the monster killing experts. Especially since Felissa clearly wanted her dead.

Right. Let’s see what we got.

She peaked out just enough to get a read on her surroundings.

The mages had huddled together, guns waving in all directions as they’d dawned goggles that Karla vaguely recognized. Lui had spent a while drilling into them just how dangerous the tools and charms the PIB held were. Though they only had the stuff from Mayor Tupwell’s house to go by, it made since they’d have more countermeasures in place. And given how fast several mages turned their guns on her, she could only assume their goggles made illusions useless.

Great.

She ducked down as a spray of gunfire came at her.

Well, so much for that. Gotta get a little more creative.

She concentrated on the world above ground, senses reaching out as her voice became projected in all directions. Though she could send illusions several blocks away, sound was a bit trickier. She really had to focus to get it just right.

“Are you afraid?” she asked in a small, sickeningly sweet voice.

The words echoed off the walls of nearby buildings. Off the ground. Their bodies. She repeated it over and over, letting it seep into the psyche of all the mages around her.

“Are you afraid? Are you afraid? Are you afraid? Are you afraid?”

She managed to take peak while the mages were listening, though this time she wasn’t sticking her head out like an easy target. No, she’d been taught better that. Gingee wasn’t the only one with good senses. Granted, she couldn’t hear as well over her own voice, but she didn’t need to. As long as they were in range, she had an easy means of knowing where her targets were.

“Are you afraid? Are you afraid? Are you afraid?”

“Dammit!” someone shouted. “Show yourself, demon!”

“Just stay calm!” Felissa ordered.

But it was already too late for that.

As the group huddled with guns raised, Karla moved a ghostly hand under one mage’s chin, ethereal body floating between them all as she leaned into his ear. Even going as far as casting a sideways look at the one mage who spotted her coming in time. Not fast enough to react, of course. No, she made sure of that. Because as fast as Felissa’s blade was, Karla’s voice traveled much faster.

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“Are you afraid?” she whispered. Or at least, to the other mages it would sound no louder than a whisper. Not so much for the unlucky man she’d targeted.

As she drew close to his ear, she let her voice project directly to him and only him. A cascade of sound that would have been nothing short of a gunshot to his eardrums. To his brain. As far as skills Lui taught her, it was her strongest ability as a banshee. And one she relished in watching just how terrified it made the other mages react to seeing.

Almost like a manakin, the mage she’d spoken to went completely limp, falling flat on the ground. Karla eyed the others with a hungry smile, most too shocked by the sight to react beyond a gasp. Felissa not so much. She was gunning for her about as quickly as Karla hoped, though she disappeared before the blade could cut her.

“Dammit. Rezi? Rezi?”

She could hear the slight panic in the woman’s voice even if she tried to hide it. It was nothing like how she’d acted that day in the alley. Or at the junkyard. She’d been cool and collected back then. Karla’s mistake, as she wasn’t afraid to admit. Since she wasn’t very good at the whole one-on-one thing, she should have known to never fight a crazy mage head-on. Even as a distraction.

She may have been a knight, but she was still a ghost at the end of the day. And ghosts didn’t fight with weapons or guns or the many empty threats she’d always scream at people until they ran away.

“Karla! Karla!”

She smiled. Not just because Felissa had bothered to learn her name, but because she could hear it clear as day how well all that training was working out for her.

“Karla!”

She rubbed her hands together, picking her next target from the increasingly frightened group of mages. As her voice projected a second time, she came bolting from underground, just in time to see Felissa hone in on her again. Right on cue. She dropped another guy off in the time it took her blade to miss a second time.

“Dammit! Is hiding all you can do?”

She dropped another of the mages.

“Monster! Get out here and die!”

Another went limp.

“Karla! Karla!”

Down went some short lady.

“Stop. Just. Stop.”

Karla felt pride swelling in her ghostly heart. As usual, Lui had been right. Scaring people. Playing pranks. It was all just scratching the surface of what she could really do as a banshee ghost. Because when it came down to it, scaring people wasn’t what she was good at. Messing with their heads was always the real way a ghost like her could fight.

“But there’s still so much of you left,” Karla let her voice project to the four remaining mages. Or three as she ended up dispatching another shortly after that declaration.

As she watched Felissa and the others, she noted the desperation in her eyes. The panic and anger too, but more than anything the desperation stood out to her. She half expected her to start begging. Wouldn’t that have been funny? It would make up for how cocky and arrogant she was the last two times they fought. In fact, Karla was just about to prod her a bit further when she felt a car slam into her side.

The sounds of screaming and flashing lights blended together in the blur that was Karla’s world. She opened her eyes to find pain lingering on her ghostly body. Actual pain. She almost expected to see blood when she touched her head. Lucky her she didn’t see anything but her own hands.

“Major! Are you alright?”

She didn’t recognize the voice, but she did recognize the sensation of being hit. Like someone had just thrown a mid-size sedan at her face. Something she knew Felissa was nowhere near strong enough to pull off. Especially not in her state. But there was one person she knew had that kind of power. And she knew the attack didn’t come from him.

Flying out from the building she’d landed inside, Karla saw the streets in front of their news station were filled not with mages, but armed soldiers. People brandishing rifles and grenades. Guys in fancy suits who all seemed to crowd around two individuals in particular, both of which drew immediate confusion from Karla.

They both had golden caterpillars for eyebrows, the older shouting orders to the rest of the group. And for some reason, the younger one was glowing white.