Sorceress, Interrupted - By A. J. Menden Page 0,61
I really need help, I won’t have hands free to push buttons, work spells or any of that kind of thing. So I better get going. Alone.”
Cyrus’s eyes brightened. “I’ve got it! This is what we do. Mindy, do you have a spare communicator lying around? One of those really tiny ones?”
Mindy nodded. “There’s one in the weapons cabinet, left over from when either Kate or Luke was still working here. I’ll just take a look.” She went over to what looked like a closet on the other side of the room and opened it up to reveal all sorts of crazy devices, some that looked like weapons and others that looked like computers mixed with toaster ovens. She dug around for a while before coming up with a small black box. “Here you go. One communicator.”
“Can you lock it so that it’s continuously transmitting?” Cyrus asked, watching her gently lift what looked like a clear stamp out of the box. It hung delicately from one of her fingertips.
“Yeah, I think so. The programming will only allow a one-way conversation, though. She’ll only be able to talk and not hear us.”
“That’s okay. Like she’d listen to us anyway.” I childishly stuck out my tongue at him, but he just winked and added, “We can use this to monitor the situation. If we hear something bad going on, I can jump in there and lend a hand. This way we don’t have to scare her friend, and we don’t have to hurt her ego about being the biggest, baddest, lone-wolf magic-user in the world.” He gave me an amused look.
Mindy nodded. She brushed my hair back and placed the square of plastic behind my ear, just below the lobe. “It sticks to the skin,” she said. “Usually you’d push the button to talk and then release it to listen, but I’ll fix that.”
She messed around for a few more moments, pushing the device on my ear, then holding up what looked like a small phone and pointing it at my head. Pushing buttons on it, she frowned. Finally she nodded. “Looks good.”
Her voice was echoed in the speaker near one of the monitors lining the room. As I moved a bit closer, it squealed with feedback.
“Definitely working,” Cyrus said, holding his ear in pain. He motioned to me. “Go on, do what you gotta do. But be careful. And if you need anything, don’t hesitate to give me a shout.”
“Are you concerned about my well-being now?” I teased.
He gave me a long look. “If I say yes, would you hold it against me?”
“ ‘It’?” I asked. “Which bit of me’s that?” He just stared at me, so I shook my head and said, “I’d never do that.”
“Then, yes.” He leaned forward and planted a kiss on my forehead. “Be careful.”
It was oddly comforting, that kiss, in the wake of the one we had just shared in the hallway. This gentle display of affection was like a glass of cold water on a hot day, and I enjoyed it for a moment, then glanced over to see Mindy openly gaping. It had probably been a shock for her to see us go from good-natured bickering to whatever this current interaction was. It was a bit of a shock to me, too.
She noticed me eyeing her and looked down, as if the computer monitor in front of her was the most interesting thing ever.
I was touched by Cyrus’s comments and gesture but tried not to make a big deal of them. “What’s the big deal?” I said. Though I didn’t believe it, I added, “I’m not that easy to kill, and this is probably just London overreacting. The EHJ will spank both the Dragon and this Hacker person and we’ll all be laughing about this over drinks in no time.”
“From your lips to God’s ears,” Mindy said. “Be careful, Fantazia.”
I gave them both a mock salute and cast my teleportation spell.
The next thing I knew I was standing in the hallway of an apartment complex. London’s apartments. She was a player in the magic community, but somehow this hadn’t translated into wealth—either that or she was cheap and didn’t spend any of her profits. She lived in a small, cramped and dirty building that was once an old hotel and restaurant. I’d heard her say once that pretty much all the developers did to make it residential was knock out a wall or two between hotel rooms and replace the extra bathroom with