Mindplay and I took a bus to Las Vegas. He paid for the ride even though I told him I could pay for my own. I did end up paying for BD.
As the bus made its smooth journey and during one of the quieter moments between Mindplay and me, he asked, “What is your asendeit ability?”
I was unprepared for the question, so I simply turned to him and responded, “My what?”
“You know, that ability that comes when one is under immense stress. The manifestation of your will to live. Your all-powerful--”
“I know what an asendeit ability is. I just didn’t hear you the first time.”
“I know. I was just messing with you. But it would be nice to know since we will be working together, and I didn’t get a good look at it last time.”
I took a moment to think about how I should respond. I looked over to BD and asked in my head, Should I lie or tell the truth?
She gently responded. It may be easier for him to understand if you lie. However, your abilities don’t share enough in common with how I know asendeits. Unless you can fib your way through this, there is no harm in telling him what you are comfortable with. I’ll follow your lead as always.
Thank you, and then I continued the conversation out loud, looking at Mindplay, “My abilities are not that of an asendeit.”
Mindplay looked concerned at that. “What do you mean?”
“Tell me, inspector, do you believe in magic?” Mindplay went from concern to disbelief, but before he gave his answer, I told BD to sit on my hand and revert to her small dragon form. Mindplay watched in wonder as she did as he seemed to try and rationalize what was happening. No one else was around to witness what was happening or were too busy with their own distractions. I continued, “The world of magic is real, and that is where my powers come from.”
“So… this is magic?” Mindplay inspected BD as best he could without touching her.
“Do you believe me?”
“You’re… not lying, and this is neither some form of technology nor illusion. I doubt you’re making it change since I’ve never heard of an asendeit doing anything of the sort.”
BD spoke up with an offended tone. “I’m a she, not an it.”
Now leaning away from BD, Mindplay asked, “And it--I mean she--can talk as well.”
“Might as well rip the whole bandage off,” she said, understanding that Mindplay could not know how to address her. She was happy enough to see that he was trying to learn.
I spoke up next. “You’re taking this rather well, all things considered.”
“Should I not be?”
“I nearly had a panic attack when I first found out. Then again, I was on the verge of death. Everything after was calmer in comparison.”
“You weren’t born into this world of magic?”
“No.”
Mindplay took a moment to think. “So, what is Shadow Fang?”
BD took the chance to answer. “Put simply, a vampire. He can walk in the sun due to his age, but it seems he has a ways to go.”
“And his arm thing? Is that something all vampires can learn to do?”
“No. He is a special case, but I can’t say with confidence how he manages to do that.”
“And what about those other people that were fighting Shadow Fang? They didn’t seem friendly towards Silver.”
“I have my suspicions, but I couldn’t get a good look at them.”
I then said, “I’m curious about them too. They were able to deal with me easily. Though I don’t know if that is due to my lack of experience or their proficiency to do what they could.”
Still keeping a severe tone, Mindplay turned the conversation back to me. “Going back to the original question, what can you do, and by extension, what are you?”
I looked down at my hands, then turned them over to reveal my tattoos. “They called me Silver, The Iron Werewolf. Aside from the increased strength and agility, my body is harder to damage, and my fingers can turn into golden claws when I flex them a certain way. If I tried, I would assume I could also become a full wolf or human-wolf hybrid. Is that right, BD?”
BD nodded her head. “You don’t go into your ‘full’ form often.”
Mindplay asked, “Is there a reason for that?” BD fell silent. I could feel a heavy cloud of dread come over her, and it was like Mindplay could feel it too. “It’s fine. So, a world of magic.” He leaned back on his seat with wonder in his eyes. “That might explain the Egypt Anomaly.”
The dread cloud left BD as she perked up at the sound of the grand jungle city. “What about Egypt?”
“It’s the only lush jungle in all of that part of Africa despite the climate not being able to support it. It was concluded to result from a powerful asendeit, but things were not adding up. Do you guys know what’s going on?”
BD began to think. “I know it’s the work of a magic item, but it happened before my time. Silver was there when it happened, but he doesn’t remember.” She kept her eyes on me when she said it. I only smiled and looked out the window as the two continued to talk.
She went on to explain that I was one of many reincarnations of the one called Silver, but every rebirth would lose memories of the past. They then moved on to topics about Atlantis, the Underworld, and Skyland, but I paid them little mind until our bus stopped at Las Vegas.
The large towers blocked the evening sun, and the air was cold and refreshing. I looked around the Desert Oasis in amazement at how brightly colored the buildings were, even during the day. BD was in her bird form, resting on my shoulder and ruffling her feathers against my neck. Mindplay was right behind us with his phone in his hand.
This was not the first time I was in a big city, but the first time I felt alone. So many people were freely using their abilities, from someone bolting past us to someone clinging to the windows to clean them. Mindplay helped me focus.
Mindplay explained that he used street cameras to deduce that Shadow Fang was going to Las Vegas. Shadow Fang kept close to the buildings until he turned a corner into an alleyway and was never seen by the cameras since.
Once we got to the ally, we searched for trapped doors or any other ways Shadow Fang's group would have disappeared. Mindplay held his phone over the area and snapped pictures everywhere he could.
“Why are you taking pictures?” I asked.
“I’m scanning the area for anything we could use as a clue,” Mindplay responded.
“And you did that all with just your phone?”
“Technopath, remember? Designed the application myself.”
“Did you find anything?”
“I might have. It’s a hunch, but I think they came here to meet someone.”
I closed my eyes and went on instinct, assuming I could sniff evidence of Mindplay’s hunch. I could smell blood, sulfur, and leather.
“Did you find something, boy?” said Mindplay. I was on the ground where the smell was the strongest. I didn’t realize I was moving into that position and quickly got up. I gave him a nasty look as he started laughing. “Sorry. But really, what do you have for us?”
“There were three other scents around Shadow Fang, but I don’t know where he went from here.”
“Three others, huh? Two people were walking with Shadow Fang, so my hunch was right about this being a meeting place. But how would he have disappeared even from your scent?”
“They might have used a portal for a safe exit,” BD inputted. “They wouldn’t have any portals to get into the city, so they walked here.”
Mindplay continued the thought. “I wonder if the person they met has some importance in this city. Would have to if meeting here was the only option. Silver, can you sniff out the one Shadow Fang came to meet?”
“Shouldn’t be hard,” I replied and went to search.
“Try not to get on all fours this time,” I half-heartedly punched Mindplay for saying that, but he dodged the attempt.
It took me a while to separate the new smell from the others, but once I did, we quickly found ourselves at a casino right next to us. It was called Twilight Moon. It had a blue and purple logo of a moon with a deer skull in the center. We walked inside and were met with flashing lights trying to grab our attention to their tables while blinding us to the patrons that lost their earnings. Almost every worker was wearing a deer skull mask. The mask had blacked-out eyes and was painted with bright colors. I tried to follow the scent, but the whole building smelled of alcohol and coins.
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“They definitely came through here,” I said over the music, “but I can’t tell where they went.”
“We don’t know what they look like, but they might be a worker here if my suspicions are correct,” Mindplay surmised. “Were there any other details you could gather from the scent?”
“They might have been a vampire.”
Let’s ask around and see what we can gather, said BD in my head. I relayed the thought to Mindplay, and he agreed.
“We should split up to get as much information as possible. Here, take these.” He went into his bag and gave me a one-piece earphone. He put a matching one in his ear. “This allows me to keep in contact with you.”
I put in the earphones and approached the bar while Mindplay went to the roulette table. He made a few test calls to ensure everything was working and instructed me on using the earpiece.
I assumed that if anyone who worked here was a monster or was aware of the magical world, they should recognize me by my attire. This would include the person we were after, but they might as well be invisible until we learn more about them. As I expected, the man at the bar recognized who I was. His sharp canines suggested that he was another vampire. Aside from his teeth, his red hair was a unique trait.
“There was talk that Silver was back, but I never imagined he would come here,” he said dryly.
“I’m looking for Shadow Fang,” I said bluntly. “Isheram told me you might know something about what he’s been doing the last couple of years.”
The vampire’s face twisted with frustration at the mention of the criminal. “If we had that information, we would have already strung him up by his toenails for the headache he’s put us through.”
“Then, can you tell me about his past? Anything will help at this point.”
“What’s more to know?” he said with more frustration. “He killed a human he wasn’t supposed to and almost put us in a war.”
His negative tone was slowly getting to me, but BD helped keep me calm.
“Why would he do that?” I asked once I was calm.
“I don’t know. Maybe he was feeling like being a jerk that day.”
“Think,” I said with a growl boiling out of my throat. The vampire jumped at the sudden change in tone. “I’ve only had a handful of moments with Shadow Fang, but he comes off as calculating. Are you really going to tell me he carelessly stumbled into a known rival’s territory for a snack that would have cost his kind a war?”
The vampire's eyes cleared of agitation, and started to think about the situation for the first time. “I thought it was weird that someone of his status would do something stupid. There were suspicions that the Order of the Eye was after him.”
I knew it! Exalamed BD.
Who are those guys? I asked her.
Long story short, monster hunters.
The vampire continued. “The rumors say that Shadow Fang was captured by the Order, which might explain his need to feed on anything he could get his hands on. There's no reason for the Order to feed him aside from keeping him conscious.”
“And you didn’t notice his disappearance?”
“Suspicions were building, but by the time anyone got concerned, it was when the incident happened.”
If that was true, I felt the vampires were too quick to throw one of their own under the bus to save face, but I remembered something about Shadow Fang not being very popular. It might explain why they waited so long to look for him.
“There’s another reason I’m here,” I said, bringing up the main point I came to him for. “Shadow Fang came here to meet someone.”
“You saw him?! Here?!”
“Just outside this building, but I lost sight of him. I want to know who he came to meet.”
“What makes you think I would know?”
“That person came in here and was a vampire making me think that they, at the very least, work here.”
“This so-called ‘informant,’ did you see them?”
“No.”
“Then I don’t know how to help you.”
Before I could pry more information out of him, Mindplay came on the phone. “Yo, Silver. I figured out who was speaking with Shadow Fang.”
I turned away from the vampire to respond to Mindplay. “How did you manage that so fast?”
“Not important. The bad news is the person is at the bar you’re sitting at.” Before I reacted, he quickly continued. “There’s more bad news. Remember the girl with the white hair?”
“I would like to order something.” I slowly turned around at the female voice. The girl wore a hood covering some of her long white hair. The vampire was petrified. His lips moved just enough to get the words out.
“We don’t serve people like you here.”
The girl chuckled and turned to me. “Can you believe that? And here, I thought this was a free market. I need to talk to this guy alone. I’ll buy you a drink for the trouble.”
BD was shivering, ready to strike when needed. “I can’t do that. I need him to get to Shadow Fang.” The girl looked frustrated that she couldn't get rid of me.
“This is personal. I’ve been after that vampire for a long time.”
“Same.”
It was a standoff between the four of us. If one of us moved, everyone else would react, leading to a struggle with no easy victory.
Mindplay spoke to me again on the phone. “Security is making its way to you.”
I looked over to see where said security was coming from, but that gave the white-haired girl a chance to kick the leg of my chair, causing me to fall. She tried to parkour over the counter, but BD had transformed into her dragon form and used her tail like a whip to throw the huntress off balance.
This was enough for the red-haired vampire to run for the door, using security to block our path. Other patrons lost interest in their games to see what was happening, and a crowd quickly formed. Mindplay used them to slip out of sight to slowly get to the door. As I got up, the huntress was casually dealing with the security guards and quickly got to the door.
“I won’t be able to keep up with you guys,” said Mindplay. I tasked BD to help him, and she rushed underneath the legs of the participants to reach the investigator. BD’s body morphed, and began to wrap herself around Mindplay. Mindplay’s backpack was covered in BD’s new form, which looked like the backpack but now had wings and was BD’s colors. We quickly made our way out of the casino, and Mindplay took to the skies.
The sun was really low now, and the city was coming alive. The city turned into a show of multi-colored light shooting into the sky. From his vantage point, Mindplay updated me on where to go. The vampire and the girl made their way across the street while being honked at by passing cars. I watched as the girl leaped over the cars giving her a chance to catch up. I didn't want to try my luck at parkour, so I weaved around the halted traffic and continued the pursuit.
People were already out of the way as I went by, giving me enough room to run after the huntress and the vampire, but they were still too far away.
“Mindplay,” I began to say while keeping a steady breath. “Is there any way you could slow them down?”
“Not unless you're ok with accidents,” he responded. “Hey, BD. How fast can a vampire heal?” I didn’t hear the response, but it must have been good. “Good. Get me close then.”
And with that, I watched from the corner of my eye as Mindplay swooped passed me, and then a second later, there was a gunshot. The vampire stumbles after getting shot in one of his legs. The area was filled with screams and people getting to the ground for protection. The girl only stopped to try and throw what I could assume were knives at Mindplay, but BD kept him out of harm. While the white-haired girl was distracted, I took my chance to pass her. She missed her chance to slow me down. I extended my claws and stabbed them into the vampire's shot leg. However, as I tried to pull him closer to me, I only had the weight of his leg in my hands. He had cut it off and tried splattering excess blood into my eyes. He missed, but my shock gave him enough time to jump onto the side of a building and start climbing up.
More gunshots filled the air as Mindplay tried to knock the vampire down, but he didn’t stop moving even when he got hit.
The girl was already following the vampire, grabbing onto every edge her fingers could hold. I used my claws to follow, creating sizable holes as I climbed. Even though I wasn’t used to this kind of movement, it seemed I was quicker than the girl who, at this point, struggled to hold on to the edges. Before I could feel good about my heavy lead, a foot pressed against my face as the girl used it as a launching pad. She managed to land next to the vampire but had to pause to get a good grip. The vampire took his chance and kicked her off the side of the building with his…. Newly grown leg? That didn’t seem right.
As the girl fell, I could hear Mindplay say to BD, “What do you mean that’s not normal?”
I didn’t get the chance to respond as I used one of my now-retracted claws to catch her. She seemed shocked for a second, only to immediately take the opportunity to get back to the building’s side. With my good act of the day fulfilled, I shot myself upwards to catch up to the vampire. His speed had increased, causing me to miss calculating where he would be and miss my attacks. He eventually reached the top, and I could hear gunshots again. Mindplay kept him at bay by trying to go for the legs again. I, too, was now at the top, and things weren’t going as planned. BD had placed Mindplay on the roof and was wrestling with the vampire trying to keep him off Mindplay. Mindplay abandoned the idea of using the gun as the only signs the vampire was hit were the bullet holes on his shirt.
I heard Mindplay say from the earpiece, “I’m out of this fight. I still got your back.” I watched as the vampire flipped BD over him and approached me. “According to BD, this guy's healing is different. Go for the head.”
“Easy for you to say,” I said, straining to keep my footing as I blocked the vampire’s full-weighted kick. Probably aware of his head being a weak point, he relied on his kicks to keep me at bay. I tried retaliating by cutting off his legs again, but he was too fast and blocked every hit. As he was about to push me over the edge, BD came from above and pinned him down.
She was about to bite off his head, but then her mouth filled with red crystals from the vampire through his flesh. Now that BD was stunned with pain, the vampire used his legs covered with red crystals to push BD off, and he was quickly back on his feet. BD reverted to a more diminutive form just as a hail of crystals was shot at me. BD used me as cover as I took the attack. Any damage my hood took instantly repaired itself. The crystals returned to the vampire's body, turning into a liquid as they did.
BD was fine for the most part, but the crystals were definitely doing more damage to her than they were to me.
“There!” screamed Mindplay. “Those crystals are made from his own blood. If that’s the case, he should be weaker during that time.”
But how do I abuse that? Even if I don’t take damage, the blowback will stun me long enough for him to assimilate the blood.
The vampire turned to Mindplay, raising his arm at him. He shot a blood crystal, and I tried to block it, but I would be too late. However, the crystal was knocked down by a knife that came from behind me, and the white-haired girl landed beside me. She made no hesitation in going for the vampire with her tonfa blades. She kept low to the ground, only to stand right up once near the vampire. She threw a short series of punches at him, many of which hit but only healed as soon as they were made. The vampire created spikes in the areas the girl targeted the most, forcing her to stop. This allowed him to produce crystals on his hands, and he started swiping at her. She blocked each one taking a firm stance that barely budged.
She made an opening for herself, punching with both tonfas towards the vampire's chest. The blades extended, giving her enough distance to still hit the vampire without getting her hands punctured. The blades hit the crystals, pushing the vampire back, but this was more to his benefit.
I heard Mindplay tell me to run, and I ran between the vampire and the girl. For a split second, I noticed that I didn't hear Mindplay’s voice so much as I was getting heaps of information downloaded into my mind. They came together as a step-by-step plan that felt like something that I had rehearsed. There was no more time to think as I turned my back toward the oncoming crystals while standing before the girl. The crystals felt like high-pressure water from a shower, and I struggled to stand up straight. As part of the plan, I grabbed the girl's arm, ensuring she saw my signal. I put a finger to my neck and made a cutting motion, and once the hail storm was done, I threw her in the direction of the vampire. I didn’t at the time know if she saw my signal or trusted that she understood its meaning.
My doubts were lifted when the girl twirled in the air with her blade extended, slashed cleanly at the vampire's neck, and gracefully yet powerfully landed in front of Mindplay. The crystals turned back to blood as the vampire fell, and his head rolled off his head with a look of surprise and then fear, realizing he was immobile.
Excitement swelled within me. This was the first time since my fight with Chase that I had won a battle with my new powers. I could have jumped in a freeze frame with triumphant music in the background, framing this moment forever.
That was until I heard the girl standing upright scream to the high heavens, “What the hell is going on!?”