Tainted Soul

Tainted Soul-Chapter 2

“Hey Riley, what’s up?” I said into my phone as the three of us hopped into my car, clearly in a rush. I slid over the hood of my car in an awesome manner that deserved me ten points each. “We were just about to start talking about you.”

“There’s a job to do, Ben.” Riley replied with a sigh. “Are you alone?”

“Nope. The samurai and fairy godmother are with me.”

Both shot me stink eyes. Selene had gotten shotgun so she rapped my head painfully with her knuckles.

“Who?” Riley still wasn’t familiar with my ever-changing nicknames for our comrades.

“Kazuma and Selene, Riley.” I stomped on the gas as we blended into traffic, smoothly gliding along the road. I turned the dial on the dashboard for the radio station, turning it to a foreign area between the one and zero, so Riley’s voice projected from the speakers in our awesome spy car. “Where we headed?”

“West Porter Mall. We’ve got signals signing that our runaway is there now.”

Another mall? Clearly Lamia wasn’t as smart as I’d given her credit for. And it was nice and close to our current position…

“Are we the only three?” Selene asked before I could.

“Lucinda, Marcus, and Zachary are on their way as well, but won’t get there for a while. Can you guys try to cut off her movements so she can’t escape? Ben, you’ve seen how fast she can run.”

“Oh, we’ll do better than stop her.” I slipped into my accent as I grinned, my hands tightening on the wheel. “By time the others get there, there won’t be anything for them to clean!”

“Don’t be reckless, Ben.” Riley began to chide, but Selene interrupted.

“I won’t let him get into trouble.” She assured. “Sealing her movements won’t be a problem as long as these two keep her occupied long enough.”

“Alright.” Riley never argued with Selene for some reason. Maybe it was because she glowed with competence. “Remember to be careful around the mundane eyes—we don’t want any casualties.”

“Yeah, yeah…” I rolled my eyes as the connection shut off. He worried too much. I held my hand back toward Kazuma. “Hand me my flask, Samurai Jack.”

Kazuma shot me a glare through the rearview mirror. “Just because I’m a Japanese swordsman, I’m automatically a samurai? How refreshing.”

That was so convincing coming from him when he had a piece of sugarcane sticking from his mouth like a toothpick. I just waved my hand impatiently. “Whatever. Hand over the flask.”

“How about you focus on getting us there alive before you start drinking?” Selene gave me a disapproving glare as I tipped the flask up and took large swallows at once. “You’ll get arrested.”

“Tinted windows, hon. Just worry about your spell crafting and whatnot for when we get there.”

“I’m already prepared. You two need to find an empty area before you face Lamia so we’re agreed on where we’re luring it.”

“Dillard’s, west wing, second floor.” I said immediately. Selene stared at me in surprise.

“What?”

“The second floor’s been cleaned out. For restocking or something. Earlier this week, I went up the escalator to look for children’s clothes—to see if any of them would fit this midget with whom I’d gotten into a fight with the night before at a local tavern—”

“Naturally.” Kazuma muttered.

“And I was surprised to find the entire floor empty, aside from a few boxes and carpet. It was a disappointing trip down, I’m afraid.”

Selene scheming mind was in the middle of its tactical process, even her body exuded aura that disagreed with my motive for finding out this information. Well, she couldn’t be picky. She was happy for this turn of events.

“I think this will work out pretty well.” She thought aloud. “Great, actually. Ben, do you think you can handle Lamia on your own if Kazuma leads her to you?”

“You harm me, lassy.” I frowned at the road as I drifted into a parking outlet, pulling the breaks as I came to a slow stop expertly into a free slot amid the sea of cars. “If I couldn’t fight a B-rank for a bit on my own, I wouldn’t be alive today.”

“Really? I always thought it was going to be your over-arrogance that would end up killing you.” Selene said smartly before slipping out of the car and shutting the door behind her.