Phil led us out of the basement and into the kitchen. He pulled a string behind the fridge. A medical table lowered from the ceiling and spread across the counters on either side of the room.

“Up,” he said to Candy, patting the mattress. It wasn’t so much a demand, but a strong request, and Candy acquiesced without question. She hopped onto the table and laid down. Phil opened the fridge and pulled out a collection of nodes that he placed on her temples, across her chest, on each wrist, and along her stomach and thighs.

“They’re so cold,” Candy shivered as he placed each one.

“I’m sorry, my dear,” Phil said. He blew on the last node and shrugged before he placed it on the middle of her chest. “Unfortunately, I am cold-blooded, which means that didn’t help much. It was a performative show at best.”

“I still appreciate it,” Candy said, bracing herself for the chill. “Sometimes, all we have is the performative.”

“How right you are,” Phil said. He opened the freezer and started typing on a computer console inside the door. A long metal cartridge as large as Candy descended from the ceiling. “Don’t move. This won’t hurt unless you move. In which case, it could lead to a nasty case of dead.”

“Is it safe, then?” Candy asked. “If it could kill me?”

“Oh, gods no,” Phil said with a smile. “Let’s begin.”

He typed away on his console while a red beam covered Candy’s legs and moved up to her naval, then to her chest, and finally to her face, before making its way back down. Three times it trekked from the soles of her feet to the tip of her head.

“Scan complete,” Phil said. He turned from the console to watch the scanner work. “Now, the fun part.”

The scanner let out a slow moan and then shot a thin, precise beam into the right side of Candy’s stomach, two inches from her naval.

“What does it mean?” I asked.

Phil reached into one of the kitchen drawers and pulled out a thick marker, marking the position of the beam on Candy’s stomach with it.

“That tickles,” Candy said with a giggle. If I didn’t know any better, I would think she was flirting with Phil. Not that Phil wasn’t attractive, but he wasn’t really human. I had never even seen a girl interested in him when he wore his human suit, let alone in his alien form.

“There is a tracker in Candy’s stomach,” he murmured, turning back to the console. “Though it’s not a technology that I’m familiar with.”

I shook my head. “It’s not tech at all. It’s probably a tag.”

When you wanted to track somebody magically but didn’t want them knowing about it, you used a tag. It let you keep tabs on anyone you wanted with a simple map spell. Of course, any witch, wizard, or magical creature worth their salt would know how to remove a tag. A human wouldn’t even know to look for one.

“Well,” I took a deep breath. “It looks like you might have been telling the truth.”

Candy pulled down her shirt and shot me a look. “Duh. I told you. I’m a lot of things, but I’m not a narc.”

“No, you’re just a liar.”

“It’s better, though.” Candy said. “I didn’t snitch on you and get a bunch of people killed.” She sat up. “How do we…get it out?”

“I’m going to need a wand.” It was a delicate procedure, and skin was pressure sensitive. I would be as likely to blow her up as remove the tag. “At least this gives me a reason to go searching for it.” I searched her face. “You are sure there wasn’t a wand in the car when you got into it?”

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

“I don’t know. What is a wand?”

Grrr, humans, especially humans that didn’t read fantasy.

“It’s like a long stick of wood,” Phil said. “Unimpressive unless you know what to look for.”

Candy shook her head. “Nothing like that. It was pretty clean inside.”

I stroked my chin. “Balaam and Moloch were busy bees that night. If only I knew where they went after your shop.”

“They told me they were going right to their boss’s house. Something about you getting away and that he wouldn’t be too happy about it. They seemed kind of nervous, too.”

“If they still had my wand when I vaporized them, they would have used it. Even dummies like Balaam and Moloch would know what kind of power it could unleash on the world—on me. That means they had to get rid of it before the sushi shop.” I thought back to everywhere Balaam and Moloch stopped. Before the car shop, they stopped at a gas station, and then—then they stopped at that apartment. That had to be it.

“Do you think you can watch this one here?” I asked Phil. “I usually wouldn’t ask, but since she’s pretty much been cleared, I feel a little better about it.”

He shrugged. “I don’t see the harm. I mean, anybody tracking her already knows she’s here, right?”

“Unfortunately, that’s sound logic.”

“Mine usually is, for better or worse.”

I didn’t like leaving Phil to fend for himself and had to remind myself that he was capable. He had survived on Earth for decades, and his tech was more advanced than even the smartest humans on Earth would fathom for millennia. Still, he would always be the gawky kid trying to cover his alien body in a gawky holosuit…and doing a horrible job of it.

I could have simply portaled over to the house, but I needed to clear my head. Driving did that for me. I didn’t mind when I ended up hitting traffic. I wasn’t sure what my plan would be when I reached the apartment, and I had the whole ride to figure it out. Even in the dead of night, gridlock happened in Los Angeles, which was part of its charm and frustration.

There were six apartments in the complex, but only one had a series of wards and hexes on the door to prevent somebody from disturbing them. The “bust in and take what I want” approach was off the table unless I wanted five years of bad luck and a nasty case of diarrhea as a kicker. Luckily, I was used to dealing with criminals.

I put on my brightest smile and knocked lightly. A heavy knock would sound like cops, and I didn’t want them on edge. I heard mumbling from inside the apartment and several pairs of feet shuffling around. Finally, a fit man in a form-fitting tank top opened the door. He rubbed his bald head at the sight of me.

“Hey, mama. What can I do for you?”

“Two rather large men would have come here to unload something a couple of weeks ago. I’m looking for that something.” They were changelings, one of the easiest types of monsters to blend into the scenery. They were lucky because no matter what happened, all they had to do was slip on a new skin and disappear.

“I’m not int—” He tried to close the door, but I slammed my hand against it to stop it. Changelings were wily but weak. “Get off.”

“Do you know who I am, son? My name is Ollie, and I can be your best friend or your worst nightmare. It’s your choice.”

“Yeah, I heard of you.” He scratched his chin. “All right, all right. I’m listening.”

“What’s your name?”

“Carl. That’s the only name I’m giving you.”

“Smart.” Some fae bartered in names, and he was too smart to give me anything I could use against him. “Two men came here several weeks ago, on the Solstice, late at night, with something to trade, something very powerful, and very rare. It was not theirs to give. It was mine. And I would like it back.”

He sighed. “I knew that story was too good to be true. Yeah, I got it. Come in.” He moved aside so I could step inside. Six other guys dressed so similarly that I couldn’t tell them apart sat on worn sofas watching Jaws in Spanish. “They told me they found it in a shipping container they stole.” He crawled over the other men and pulled a hollow box off a bookshelf empty except for different bits and bobs. He opened the box and pulled out a wand—my wand. “This it?”

I nodded. “It is. If you give it to me, I’ll keep my end.”

He shook his head. “Afraid I can’t do that. You help me, and then, when it’s all done, you can have your stupid wand.”

“Maybe I’ll just kill you now.”

Carl laughed. “You can try. Even if you get through all my associates, this place is spelled up the ass to protect me. If you touch me, it will destroy you.”

Was he bluffing? Probably not. He probably worked with lots of dangerous people, and warding his house for protection made sense. I wasn’t in a place to take a chance. “What can I do for you?”

The smile spread slowly across his face. “You probably know this, but you have a bit of a reputation on the street. Word is you have a price on your head, two million. So, I figure you owe me five million for the wand and then another two on top for not turning you in, plus interest, of course, so let’s make it an even ten.”

“Ten million dollars? That’s your price? I don’t have that kind of money.”

“That’s okay. You can pay us in product. Not just any product, either. We had a shipment confiscated by the cops. I hear you can open portals anywhere you want, whenever you want, wherever you want. I want you to get me into that warehouse so we can get back our product. Zip in, zip out, then we’re even, and you can have your wand back.”

Criminals think so small, but I wasn’t complaining. “Draw me a map and get me an address, and I’ll get you inside.”