Sunset Coven 11

I definitely did not edit a thing. Too tired. Took a nap and would have slept through the night, but woke up just to type this for you guys. I could have gone on, but I'm too sleepy to continue. Therefore, you're only getting this.

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Suri shifted uncomfortably and uncontrollably in the passenger seat while Jime drove, tension riding hard down both of their backs. She waited and waited, determined to let Jime be the one to bring it up, but Jime proved resilient. Suri sighed and shifted again. "Are we just going to leave the white elephant here alone or can I poke at it now?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Really?"

Jime chuckled humorlessly. "You're always going on about one thing or another, it's hard to keep up with you."

"That means I can poke it?" Suri jabbed her index finger repeatedly in the air. "Thanks, La Reina."

Jime mumbled inauditibily under her breath.

Suri nodded her head sarcastically. "Yeah. Huh uh. That elephant. Why'd her call you Queen."

"You're honestly questioning why a guy, God or not, who can't even speak Spanish properly called me Queen."

Suri twisted in her seat. "No. Not just Queen but The Queen. I don't speak Spanish either, but I don't think that was a simple grammar error. I think he knew what he was doing with the whole La thing, and I think you know what it means and once again you're hiding something else from me. So what, are you like the Queen of all vampires or something? I thought that was only some B.S Char...whatever Sookie Stackhouse author name is, made up."

When Jime didn't respond immediately, Suri figured she just might be on the right path. "So you are." She threw her hands up in defeat. "Just fucking great. My aunt is The Queen of all vamps."

"Don't start, sobrina." Jime's grip on the steering while tightened. "No, I'm not The Queen of vampires. Yes, there is a King, but he's...he has nothing to do with me and I'd like to keep it that way."

Suri heard what wasn't said. Jime has history with the King; something the Z-man knew and knew Jime wouldn't like the reminder. Fine, if Jime didn't want to talk about it, so be it. She could just stuff that and whatever other secrets she has in that bag of hers. "You know, I'm tired of being treated like a child."

"You are a child," Jime retorted instantly.

"I may not be as old as you--"

"You better pray you live to be this old."

"I do. Every night, because everyday I wake up I prepare myself for something else you've been keeping from me that'll come to take a bite out my ass." She shifted.

"Language, darling."

"I don't need you to correct my speech either. You're not my mother."

"How sad. I like your mom. Your dads a different story."

Suri grunted. "They say the people who often can't stand each other are similar in many ways."

Jime laughed, this time with humor. "That's rich. Where did you get that from, a fortune cookie? Sage and I are nothing alike."

"Then stop trying to protect me. I can handle myself, Tia. I could do it better if I knew what I was up against, so enough with this keeping your dark past a secret from me. I don't like lies."

"I've never lied. Only omitted," she answered honestly. " You don't need to know everything. I can't even remember most of it until someone says it."

"Omissions and half truths are lies as well, so stop it. Please. Because I don't think you'll like if I figure it out on my own. I'd rather not have to cross that path again so soon," Suri spoke of the dark temptation that lived within a witch or wizard when he or she played with dark magic.

"Is it hard to control?"

She shook her head. "No. I don't think it is." she sighed. "It's just that I no longer know if my thoughts are my own or spawned from that thing." She twitched.

Jime stole a glance at her niece. "What do you have fleas or something?"

Suri reached down the right side of the seat and pulled the lever to push her seat flat back. With a simple bash of her eyes, the windows tinted. Unsnapping the seatbelt she twist around and yanked her shirt off. “It burns.”

Jime sucked in a sharp breath at the sight of the raw flesh that was once smooth skin on her nieces back. Her fangs elongated. "I'm going to take my time when I kill that dragon."

Her bra flew into the back of the car along with her shirt. A la nude from the waist up, minus the necklace that dangled from her neck, Suri rubbed her hands together, inaudible babble falling swift pass her lips. Her hands heated and the temperature inside of Jack rose.

"What are you doing?" Jime asked when Suri suddenly hugged herself, running her hands up and down her back. She shifted her gaze from the road to Suri swiftly, multiple times, but Suri continued to chant and run her hands along her back.

“Well whatever it is, hurry up. It’s hotter than werewolf balls in here.”

Suri had her eyes closed, but opened one at that common and shook her head.

“It’ll heal,” Jime told her. “It’s just taking you a bit longer because you’re fresh into your immortality.”

“There’s no such thing as immortality. We’re just harder to kill. Even we can die. All you need is the proper weapon.”

“Why such the solemn outlook on life. That’s unlike you, baby niece.”

Suri dropped her arms and spun around, lying down on the seat with her back exposed. “Wits end, I guess. First that thing with the pansy,” Pixie Fae, “then, the fight with the wolves before Jack’s bar, Jack’s bar, the fight with the wolves at Jacks bar, that banshee bitch, fighting the wolves after Jack’s bar, having my…” Suri stopped midsentence. She sighed and closed her eyes. “Now the Z-man wants to send us on one of his ever dreadful and stupid freaking quest all for his amusement…” she stopped and sighed again, this time pushing out a bit of annoyance. “Wits end.”

Jime pulled the IPhone from her pocket and connected it to the dock. “Well, lets get you out of this down and damper mood. You’re totally killing my vibe, and if we’re going to go off and make a fool of ourselves, we should at least do it in a good mood.” She pressed the play button and let whatever music James kid sister had on it play.

This kitten got your tongue tied in knots, I see. Spit it out cause I’m dying for company.

Suri pushed up onto her elbows. “This for my own musical education as well,” she chucked her head towards the stereo.

“Hell yeah!” Jime said pumping to the beat, the Chanel shades suddenly on. “Britney’s back, baby. Time for the world to recognize that.”

“Super Junior’s back too, but you don’t see me blasting Mr. Simple for your musical education.”

“Any special reason you’re all into Asian’s now?” Jime asked, a perfectly arched brow rising above the shades.

“Oh suck it.” Suri dropped back down onto the seat.

They drove in silence, or as much silence as one could have with Jime blasting the IPod the entire time. “I swore to kill him,” Suri mumbled into the headrest of the seat, her arms folded so she rested on her hands.

Jime reached out to turn the volume down. “Good.”

“Now I’m not so sure if I made that decision because the woman in me felt betrayed or if it was the darkness in me that’s driving me.”

“Hmm.”

“That’s it. Hmmm? That’s your great motivational advice to your poor niece who wanted to hear something…anything to help her out of a sticky situation.”

“You kill him, or I will. How’s that.”

“You won’t.”

Jime ran her tongue slowly over the tips of her fangs. “I will.”

Suri sat up. “You won’t. He’s mine to handle. Leave him to me.”

Jime held up her right hand to block her view. “I know that us creatures of the lore are more openly sexual then mortals, but either lay back down or put a shirt on. I don’t like having my kid nieces’ chaachanichi’s all pointing at me.”

Suri crossed her arms over her chest. “The dragon is mine,” she repeated.

“You’ve said that…three times already.”

Suri growled at her aunt.

“So for mission number 2?” Jime inquired.

“Leave that to me.”

“You know his lackey will come after you if you so much as harm a hair on Tor-Tor’s head.”

Suri laughed arrogantly. “River is the least of my worries.”

“Well, I can take care of River if you don’t mind. It’s no sweat of my back. Really. I’ll be glad to help.”

Suri tried to keep her lips from twitching, but couldn’t refrain. “I just bet you would. And the fact that he’s all types of Aztec warrior hot and sexy and those scales of his are an aphrodisiac of their own has nothing to do with it?”

“You’ve seen his scales?”

Suri nodded. “Gorgeous things they are. Not as magnificent as Toren’s but unique in their own way.”

“When exactly did you see their scales?”

“I’ll tell you that when you tell me what’s up with you and Jack Jammers.”

“Nothing.”

“I don’t like lies. Honestly, Tia, it would serve you well to remember that.”

Jime flipped her hair over her shoulder, signifying that Suri’s threat was easily brushed aside. “Lets compromise. You’ll tell me about River and Tor-Tor, when I tell you about Jack, when you tell me what it was that you were just doing to your back.”

Suri shrugged. “Simple. Healing it.”

“That wasn’t a simple spell.”

“Because, it wasn’t a spell. More like an incantation or ritual of sorts that I picked up from the medicine man.” Suri reached for her bra and shirt and redressed herself.

“Nice necklace,” Jime commented. “Never saw it before. On you.”

Suri pressed her head through her shirt and twirls to face her aunt. “You know tia, sometimes I think you’re too anal.”

“That’s funny. My last bf dumped me because I wasn’t anal enough.”

“Ha!” Suri raised the seat to its proper position. “So…about this quest thing for this potion stuff. Do we have to do it in order, or can we just pick and choose until it’s complete.”

“I don’t see why we can’t.”

“You do know I could just conjure up half this stuff out of thin air like this.” Suri snapped.

A thick hardcopy book landed in Jime’s lap. She slammed on the breaks, Jack screeching as it came to a stop along the highway. She picked up the book and flipped through it checking all the signatures. “Shit, Suri. They’re all here.”

“Technical foul,” a deep voice rumbled from the back. Suri and Jime both whipped around to find the God King sitting in the back seat, taking up all the space with his overkill of a robe. “That’s cheating.”

“Is it?” Suri countered.

“You can’t use magic to wish the objects into your possession.”

“You never said we couldn’t,” Jime responded.

Zeus eyes narrowed to slits. “My patience runs thin with you already. Do it correctly.”

Suri rolled her eyes, a quintessential teenage move, and shifted to face forward again.

“Fine, fine,” Jime resigned. “We won’t magically wish the items into our possession even if she’s a witch and magically wishing stuff is what she does, but since you never said we couldn’t from the start,” she held the book up. “This is all yours.”

Zeus smiled, a mischievous gleam in his eyes that made the hairs on the back of Jime’s neck stand. He took the book and just like that, he was gone.

Jime turned around. “Well.” She looked at Suri who frowned. “What next.”

Suri slumped in her seat. “I say we start with something simple.”

“Okay. Area 51 it is. Always wanted to go there.”

“I was thinking more along the lines of Fairy’s underwear.”

“51 first. Then Fairy. It’ll be daylight in about,” Jime checked the clock, “5 hours. That’s more than enough time to get in and out, but I don’t want to push it where the fairy are concerned. Time runs differently around them. In fact, you may have to handle that one on your own.”

“Gladly. I know a Fae. You can do number 5. I’m not touching anyone’s spit,” Suri bit out disgusted.

They took a few moments of going through the list again sorting out which missions would be best to handle alone or together and which ones the had no clue how to handle. “The naga might be a tough one to do without magic.”

“Tell me about it. Same thing for Hera.”

“She’ll smite us.”

Jime laughed. “I don’t think anyone smites people anymore, Suri.”

“Don’t laugh,” Suri warned, “I’m not the most intelligent where animals are concerned, and yeah, I know, that’s a real disgrace considering my mom’s dad being all tribal and skin-walkers and such, but do snakes have feathers?”

Jime laughed anyway. She laughed until she had to clutch her stomach. “Lets just get this over with.” She shifted Jack into drive and drove further along down the road until she found a good place to stash him. Once they exited, Suri made the car invisible again and turned to Jime. “Now what?”

“Now, we teleport.” Jime grabbed onto Suri’s elbow and flashed.

“Human!” Jime called out.

James shot up in bed, the blanket pooling around his waist leaving him exposed from hips up. “What? Does everyone want to flash me today?” Jime muttered nonchalantly. She ran her eyes over James once, then again. “Not bad, human. Not bad at all, wouldn’t you agree, Sobrina.”

Suri shrugged uninterested.

“What do you want now?” James asked, sleep lacing his voice making it far more deep and huskier than usual.

For the first time ever, Jime wondered why James didn’t have a girlfriend. Yeah, she kept an eye on him over the years so she knew all about his nonexistent dating life. Outside of taking care of his sister, he didn’t have a life at all. But that’s what made him so convenient to her. “We’re doing a little B and E tonight, along with some theft from a major government facility.” She looked at Suri and nodded.

Suri rolled her eyes. “Really? This is an all time low for you tia, dragging a mortal into something like this. Do you know what would happen to him if he was caught.”

“Which is why you won’t let him get caught, isn’t it.”

Suri sighed for the thousandth time tonight. A black bag appeared at Jime’s feet.

“Thanks,” Jime smiled. She bent down to pick up the bag and tossed it at James who caught it. “Lace up,” she said.

James squeezed the bridge of his nose trying to ward off the instant headache. How did he life end up this way? Sometimes he wondered if maybe he should have died that night in the alley. Those moments were brief and only ever occurred when the vampire was around. He’d managed to keep her a closed chapter of his life, only even opening that book once when his sister asked about that awful night. That was years ago. So many times he wanted to avoid her, which is why he had moved often, but Jime always found him, so he gave up trying. If only he could just say no and she’d leave, but that never worked any time before now.

“You know, if you don’t want to do it, you don’t have to,” the girl next to Jime said. He’d never saw her before, outside of the video footage of her performing dark magic that he scanned for Jime only a night ago. She wasn’t his type, none of the paranormal was his type, her mere presence giving him the heebie-jeebies’, but she didn’t expel that deadly aura that the vampire did. Maybe it was that she appeared to be no older than his sister. Then again, she could be older than his house and he’d never know. He rubbed his eyes and unzipped the bag. “Exactly where is this place?”

Jime rubbed her hands together gleefully. “Some place you’ll love, I’m sure. Ever been to Area 51?”

Standing on the desert land in Nevada in plain sight of the USA military, James turned to the vampire and witch. “My sister?” he asked for the twelfth time, much to Suri’s displeasure.

“Is perfectly safe,” she said for the twelfth time. “There are protection enchantments on your house, ones I didn’t place there.” She arched a brow. “Any knowledge about that?”

There were charms on his house? “No. I don’t.” Who placed charms on his house?

“Humph.”

“Quit worrying,” Jime cut in. “You don’t even have to do much. Just crack a few codes to get us in and that’s it. The minutes we get through, Suri will send you back.”

And he was so looking forward to that experience again. NOT! James had never been teleported anywhere before. It wasn’t something he wanted to experience any time soon. His entire body felt as if it had been tugged and ripped apart, twisted and set on fire. The sensation lasted on a second, maybe three, before his feet left New York wood to touch Nevada desert. He spent the first fifteen minutes vomiting and wheezing, precious time Jime couldn’t afford to waste she reminded him.

“Yes you can. We’re in the PDT which is 3 hours behind EST. Sunlight won’t rise here for another seven-eight hours.”

His attention switched back to the guards.

“They can’t see us,” Jime said. “Not yet.”

“Once we get into the artifacts room, that’ll change, but that’s when Suri will send you back. See. No harm no foul.”

Did James believe it would go that smoothly? Not in a chance in hell. He just hoped if anything did go wrong, his sister would be safe. He really should have said no to this, found a way to get out of it. There was just a certain line you don’t cross, and breaking into a government facility to steal an alien artifact was one of those lines. But how could he resist the allure of even being so close to something that has fascinated him for so long. Was it unfair that they planned to send him back before he even had a chance to see anything? Totally, especially since he was doing all the work.

“Ready?” Jime asked.

“Was about an hour ago,” Suri replied dully.

James was hesitant, but followed when the girls started to walk towards the building. Jime used the moonlight to cast a shadow to hide them completely amongst the dark.

“I thought you said they couldn’t see us,” James whispered.

“They can’t,” Jime replied.

“But cameras are tricky things,” Suri added. “Sometimes they see us, sometimes they don’t.”

“That’s very reassuring. Don’t you think this is something you should have mentioned to me before?”

“Shut up,” Jime said. “They can still hear.”

James bit his tongue and ran along the building sides to the door they would use as an entrance. The door was the one with the most cameras but least accessed. When they reached the door, James pulled out an extremely high-tech digi-pad he knew wasn’t even available on the black market yet (oh the things the lore could do), and inserted the connecting card into the card slot. With a few taps at the pad, the light changed green and the sound of the door unlocking was all the needed before Jime open it and dashed inside. James pulled the key card out and stuff the device back into his backpack before running in after them. Two guys in uniforms and guns were walking down the hall. He froze, holding his breath not to make a sound. All this secret agent spy stuff wasn’t for him. His nerves were edgy. All he could think about was being caught and his sister. Who would take care of her if he was caught and jailed for life?

Unlike him, Jime and Suri didn’t freeze; they continued to shuffle down the hallway, winding their way throughout the building, narrowly dodging pass people as they tried to locate the artifact room. He shuffled cautiously behind them.

“Use those fancy gadgets I gave you locate the room,” Jime said.

“I did. It’s three levels below ground. Only way down is the elevator that’s located in the left rear section of the building.”

Jime pushed him in front, his skin shivering at her cold touch. “You lead,” she commanded. So he lead them threw the building to the elevator they needed and down to the room. Now the tricky part was opening the four-door vault with a level 10-proto security system. This level security was techno savvy’s wet dreams, almost impossible to crack. Almost was the key word here.

It took longer than expected and a bit of help from the witch, but he managed to get through three of the vaults. He sighed and backed away from the last door.

“What? You can’t get in?” Jime asked.

“Oh, I can get in there alright, but this one is a bit more complicated. See this slot here?” He pointed to a slit hole in the wall above the keypad mounted in the wall. “Whatever it requires, we don’t have, and I don’t think even you can manipulate it this time.”

“You can get it open. So what’s the problem?” Jime asked.

“The alarm will go off the moment I breach the system and the door opens. It’ll be less than a minute before guards are swarming the place.”

“Actually,” a throat cleared from behind them. “It won’t even take that long,” a solider said, his gun trained in their general direction.

But how was that possible. They were still protected by Suri’s charm, right? “Can he see us?” James whispered frantically to Jime who shrugged causally.

“Maybe. But he can definitely hear and smell us. Stinking wolf. How low has this country sunk to let the flea bags in the system.”

James didn’t know what to do. They were caught. They weren’t supposed to be caught, and by a werewolf at that. He’d never seen a werewolf before. The guy who smaller in frame then he was, but that was obviously a delusion. Werewolves were notoriously strong and fast, equal to vampires if myths were true.

“Change of plans,” Jime said.

“Open the door,” Suri directed to him, “and help her pick out a working item,” she emphasized the word ‘working.’ “I’ll handle the mutt.”

“Let me do it. I’m stronger. Faster,” Jime said.

“Just go, tia. Get the item and get the mortal out. Once you get it, the magic’s back on. I’ll meet you back in NY in t-minus five minutes. Shouldn’t take that long.”

Jime hesitated. She would never admit it, but she was a bit nervous at the moment. “You’r—“

“I’ll be fine. I promise,” Suri cut her off as two other soldiers, wolves, suddenly entered the space between the vaults.

“Open it,” Jime said as she threw the shadow back up to cloak her and James. A second later the last vault door opened and sirens and flashing lights blared throughout the building. The sound of machine guns firing behind them made her shove James inside, leaving Suri to take care of the wolves. She trusted her niece to handle the job quickly and get out.

James stood there for a few seconds awestruck. He really was in the motherland of all things alien. That means aliens actually exist. Why shouldn’t they? Vampires, Witches, and Werewolves did. He would have loved to take his sweet time survey all the items individually but Jime’s voice thundered through the room for him to hurry up. He felt his body move despite his control over it. This was the first time she ever voiced him. It freaked him out, set his weird and wrong-o meter off the scale.

On autopilot, his body moved throughout the room careful not to touch anything and leave his fingerprints, while using one of the devices in the bag to pick up on any radioactivity that signified a working object. His journey into the vault wasn’t far before the scanner started making weird noises that could be heard off the sound of gun fire and…he didn’t even want to think about what ever it was that was making that other noise back in the vault doorways. “Here,” he called to Jime who was at his side before he finished the word.

“You sure? I don’t want this to all be a waste.”

“Positive,” he responded.

Jime grabbed it just as one of the wolves made it inside and opened fire. Jime latched onto his shoulder, which required her to reach high because of the height difference. A sharp pain resonated through him body making him shut his eyes tightly and hold his breath. A second passed and his feet landed on the floor of his bedroom where he collapsed into a pile at Jime’s feet.

She allowed him a few moments to gather himself, teleporting could be hard on those who weren’t use to it, but when five minutes passed and he didn’t stir, she grew impatient. Suri should be back by now, and James should at least be sitting up. “Come off it. It’s not that bad,” she said. When he didn’t move or respond she crouched down and shook his shoulder. “Hey.” She patted his side and pulled away a wet bloody hand.

Jime inhaled sharply, the rich smell of iron in his blood suddenly so strong and compelling she couldn’t stop herself from licking her palm clean, her fangs growing. She wanted to do it again and again and sink her teeth into his neck to drink him, and she would have if Suri hadn’t flashed into his room and grabbed her by the back of her neck just has she hovered over his neck.

“He needs to be saved, not feasted on,” Suri said. Jime whipped Suri’s hand from her neck. Moving with lightening speed she got into Suri’s face, her fangs sticking out. “Bite me and I’ll poison my blood,” Suri stated. “Bite the human and you’ll live to regret it for the rest of your unnaturally long life. You don’t eat innocents.”

Jime continued to bear her fangs but not for the reason Suri thought. “You called the dark magic again.”

Suri shifted her gaze away. “It had to be done.” She side stepped Jime and kneeled next to James to heal his wound.

A thunderous applause sounded from the corner of the room. “Good job,” Zeus stepped out of the shadow. “Two in one night.” The little metallic device Jime forget was in her other hand flew out of her grasp into his. He surveyed it. “Very interesting.” With that, he vanished.

“Douche bag,” Suri commented. “Not even a thank you to the mortal. Some god he is.”

“You have quiet the mouth on you, little mage.” Zeus said from Suri’s side. She toppled over at his sudden reappearance. He ran a finger along her neck, trailing the necklace. “Interesting indeed.” He dropped the necklace and waved a hand over James. “Until the next item is collected,” he said to Jime and disappeared.

The room was silent, aside from the quiet shuffles of James moving, Jime and Suri waiting to see if Zeus would reappear. Feet pounded along the floor alerted them of Jamie’s rapid approach. James was on his feet, before the door open. “James? Are you okay? I heard a loud thump. Woke me—“ her voice trailed off at the sight in the room. “James!” she exclaimed. “You have a girlfriend you’ve been sneaking home,” she accused, “and you didn’t even tell me. I could have stayed the night out.”

Suri’s brow arched, her hands on her hips, when she noticed the teenager was starring directly at her. She looked around the room to find Jime had already vanished. Fucking great. Jime bailed on her.