my hand in, going nearly to the elbow. I sometimes wished I hadn’t gotten it spelled to be so deep, but as long as security missed it, I knew I shouldn’t complain.
I pulled out a variety of weapons. The sai were my standard defensive weapons of choice, and I placed them gently onto the table. Next, I carefully pulled out my shuriken, especially careful with the edges, even when they were in their carrying case. Nearly everything I owned was treated with poison, generally my own venom. While it couldn’t kill me, it would cause some unwanted side effects I wasn’t in the mood to deal with.
Trying to dismiss the idea of accidentally hitting myself with my own venom, I grabbed the two guns I kept in the bag, a Beretta M9 and an M4 carbine. I laid each gently on the table, wondering why I forgot to put them in their carrying case.
Oh, yeah. I was attending a Trial. I needed them ready to go at any moment.
I unloaded them and broke them down, readying them for cleaning.
Next came the weapons I was raised to use since birth, owned by my family for centuries. I used these when I was feeling particularly nasty or sentimental. The kirpan seemed like an ornate dagger for ceremonial purposes, but I knew how to kill someone a thousand times over with it. The talwar was a saber my father taught me to use. Two pieces of home I rarely used anymore, but I hauled them around for when the mood struck me.
“I carry too much shit,” I mumbled, beginning the long process of cleaning everything and putting them away. It would take me most of the night, but I didn’t let that dissuade me. There was plenty of time to relax now that I was back in Phoenix. I cleaned off my venom from the blades, rendering them just sharp steel again. I put everything away in different display cases around my house. The dagger, I tucked under my pillow, always ready to protect me.
Just in case.
I yawned and checked the time, groaning as I saw it was past one in the morning. I wasn’t tired enough to sleep and realized I was probably going to pull an all-nighter. Feeling restless, I went onto my back porch, looking out over the desert that surrounded my home. The night was eerily quiet, and the stars dazzled overheard. I could see the fuzzy outline of cacti on the horizon, and Harquahala Mountain loomed over me. My actual address said I lived in a town called Aguila, but I always pointed people to the mountain and said, ‘there.’
It was a hot night, over eighty. The dry heat made me feel rejuvenated, waking me up and giving me a dose of energy that had been missing while I was inside my carefully temperature-controlled home.
As I stood out there, I remembered Paden’s request and resigned myself to dealing with it. I checked my back pocket for the bounty and mumbled incoherently as I realized it was probably still in my car. I went inside the garage, grabbed it and my laptop, then went back onto my porch, setting up to work under the stars. I wasn’t in the mood for cloistered, constricted rooms. Working under the stars was one of my favorite things to do, especially during the end of a hot summer. Winter was going to come soon, and I was going to be slow on my feet. I had to enjoy the heat while it lasted.
“Who are you?” I mumbled, looking over the bounty as my laptop connected to the internet. “Raphael Dominic Alvarez. Who are you?”
Starting simple, I went with a web search, looking for any reference of this Raphael Dominic Alvarez. The picture was old, that much was clear as I looked through different hits. If he’s been missing for ten years, it had to be a picture of when he was younger. He looked like he was in his early twenties.
I grew bored quickly and reread the bounty. It was put out by Mygi Pharmaceuticals. Strange since they were a supernatural pharma company, dealing in ways to help different species control difficult aspects of their lives. They were the lead researchers behind medication to potentially curb a vampire’s bloodlust permanently. They also tried to develop drugs and remedies for werewolves and werecats, giving them a break from their curse.
Frowning, I was beginning to see what Paden meant. There was no way the guy