Crazy Seduction(erotica)

The case of the death of Thane del Neev was still open. She didn’t consider it a failure as she wouldn’t stop until she found the guilty party and ended them.

Her destination tonight was an apartment in a building next to Central Park. She’d be staying there during her visit.

She would meet her client in a seventeenth-floor suite after dropping off her carry-on luggage in the apartment the Council kept for these purposes.

Minkah watched the city out the window and marveled at how much it had changed since she’d last visited.

When the taxi finally stopped before the building, she paid the driver and got out. She stretched her tight muscles as she panned her eyes around. She noticed a small sign across the street indicating the Metropolitan Museum of Art was nearby. She hoped she might get a chance to visit while she was here, but the mission took precedence. Her eyes tracked all nearby motion, and before she got dizzy from the sheer volume of it, she set off across the sidewalk and went in the front door.

She went up to the fifteenth floor, found the door to the apartment she was to use and punched the code into the digital door lock to open it. She listened and took the scent before flipping the light switch next to the door. A single floor lamp in the corner of the living room illuminated a mostly empty space. She entered and took in how minimally furnished it was. Essential requirements were met with no concern for style. The room contained two mismatched high back chairs, the lamp, and a small table between the chairs.

The dining space had a card table with four steel and vinyl padded chairs pushed up against the windows. A small lamp sat on the card table. A basic kitchen faced the dining and living rooms.

She moved to the bedroom and saw a single, double bed, an end table with a cheap lamp on it, and a small three drawer bureau. She left her carry-on on the bed then immediately left the apartment to head back to the elevator to go up two more floors. She saw the meeting would take place two floors above the unit she was staying in. She knocked on the door and listened. The privacy field must have been active as the lock clicking open was the first sound she’d heard from inside.

When the door opened, she looked down into the suspicious gaze of a red-bearded dwarf. She recognized him as Rand von Deussel, Council Investigator for the Eastern United States and cousin of Thane del Neev. She wondered why he was here tonight. Was he working in his investigator’s capacity to assist with the new assignment, or was he here as the cousin looking for vengeance?This content © Nôv/elDr(a)m/a.Org.

He grunted quietly, stood aside, and gestured for her to enter. She did, and when the door closed behind her, she felt the slight pressure change from the privacy field engaging. She walked down the hall to enter the living room. There was more furniture here than her unit had. Two couches faced each other across a coffee table. End tables, a small area rug under the table, and pleasant scenic pictures in frames hung on the walls.

On one of the sofas sat a woman in her sixties, dressed in a tailored business suit: Lise-Anne Hoek, Minister of Security and Minkah’s contact.

The assassin sat on the sofa across from Lise-Anne. “Why is he here?” she asked, gesturing to the Dwarf.

Rand scowled as he took a seat next to Lise-Anne.

“I’ll explain that momentarily. I see we are dispensing with the niceties,” the Minister said with a weary look.

Minkah saw the strain on the face of the woman across from her. That made sense considering how difficult her job had become in recent weeks.

The older woman slid a dossier across the coffee table. “You weren’t the resource I originally requested. The target’s unique circumstances escalated my request to the highest levels, and the Chancellor himself insisted I wait for your availability. I understand your specialty is assassination, but your reputation for managing difficult assignments made you the best candidate for this one.”

Minkah’s brows rose when she heard the leader of the Hidden Races Council administrative branch had involved himself in one of her missions. That raised the stakes. She frowned as she opened the dossier.

There was a collection of candid pictures of the target taken from a hidden camera as he was walking outside. One showed him smiling as the sun was on his face, and he looked genuinely happy. Looking at the other images, she noted that he was tall, muscular, and handsome with shoulder-length wavy brown hair. One image stood out in the set and caught her attention. The target was walking within a group of people on a busy city street, likely on their way to work based on the quality and angle of light. A couple of women behind him were visibly checking him out with admiring smiles on their faces.

She could read a lot about a man from his eyes in candid photos like these. She was a little puzzled as his expression didn’t show the confidence she expected from such a large, good looking specimen. She knew it was just one still image but using it as context, the remaining pictures showed he was more comfortable alone than amongst strangers.

Her eyes returned to the image of him enjoying the morning sun. She thought he looked most attractive in that picture. It seemed a shame to terminate him but if that was the job, so be it.

She looked at his biographical data and froze. She looked to Lise-Anne incredulously. “His adoptive grandmother is Baba Yaga?!?”

The woman had the good grace to wince. “Yes. She has demonstrated a certain… level of… concern for his well-being.”

Minkah slowly set the dossier down on the table’s surface and pushed it away as she gave the two people across from her a stern look. “As you indicated, my specialty is assassination. A termination mission is out of the question for this target. I’m not suicidal.”

“That’s one of the reasons why it’s not a termination mission,” Rand growled.

Once more, Minkah’s eyebrows inched upwards. “One of the reasons? You need more?”

Lise-Anne frowned as well. “There is also the possibility that his continued survival is required to keep the Fae alive.”

Minkah made a choking sound. “Why were my services requested?!?”

“Read the rest of the docket,” Rand said in annoyance, pointing to the file.

The assassin frowned but picked up the docket and continued reading past the reference to the witch.

As she read, she caught the motion of Rand glancing at his cell and heard his quiet grunt of exasperation. She looked at him, but he shook his head, so she went back to reading.

Finally, she set the docket on the coffee table again. “It’s not an assassination. It’s an abduction and containment exercise. You must have teams available for that who’d be able to take a single target. I don’t understand why I’m involved at this point.”

“Due to the possibility of interference from the crone, his continued access to the Fae’s Global Overlay Spell even though we have reason to believe he lost this, the potential for Fae surveillance, his link to a domain of Wild Magic which may thwart magic attacks, and the number of Wild Magic powered beings who stay close to him, information on them is included in the dossier, we need your expertise for engineering an extraction plan,” Lise-Anne insisted. “Everything you do up to the moment you pull the trigger is required for this mission. This time, instead of killing him and escaping, you’ll capture him and get him to containment. The Chancellor was explicit that we need your expertise.”

Minkah was secretly pleased that the Chancellor held her work in such high esteem, but this wasn’t a time to bask in praise. She couldn’t make reasonable and rational decisions if she was high on accolades.

She looked at Rand, who was almost vibrating with his frustration. “Did the message which upset you involve the target?”

He held her eyes, then nodded. “There’s been another sighting of the bloody Aurora Borealis. This time they were able to identify it was centered over Jersey City, where the target lives.”

Minkah frowned. “A lot of people live in Jersey City.”

“Only one of them is linked to the Fae’s healing spell,” Rand explained. “When the magic is concentrated, it looks like wispy green curtains in the sky.”

Minkah picked up the docket once more and scanned the biographic data page. “This says he’s a conduit, not a wielder. How could he influence the Fae spell?”

Lise-Anne sighed as she was treading on more secrets. “He used to be connected to a magical artifact which was directly bound to the Fae’s healing spell. This artifact was taken from him, but somehow he’s still able to interact with the spell… without being a wielder.”

“What good would it do him if he cannot use the magic?” Minkah insisted.

“He has friends who are wielders, but they aren’t linked to the Wild Magic, so they could use the Fae’s magic he gathers to him,” Lise-Anne said as she recalled the file. “They live in the same building too. Yuko and Jun Imamura. They’re Kitsune. Mahati and Kali Chandra. They’re Nāga.”

Minkah leaned back against the couch cushions as her travel fatigue seemed to suddenly catch up to her.

Nāga. Shit. They could be seriously powerful opponents if it came to that. She’d taken a Kitsune down before. They were not as much of a threat.

Her eyes widened as the name finally registered. “Chandra? As in Indrani Chandra?”

Lise-Anne nodded. “Her daughters.”

Minkah grimaced. More complications. Still, she knew she was going to take the job. Damn.

“I work alone. I don’t want or need people interfering.” She saw the two across from her relax as they took that as her acceptance of the mission. “That said, when the target is isolated and ready for transport, I’ll require immediate assistance in getting him to the containment center. The collection team will need to be nearby.” She frowned as she tried to recall if the file mentioned the destination.

Lise-Anne slid another sheet across the table to her. Minkah looked at her in question. She’d withheld the location?

The Minister of Security leaned forward. “This containment facility is completely off the books. No record of it exists. Outside of the three of us, only the Chancellor is aware of its existence, but even he doesn’t know its location. Its function is to contain risks to our secrecy and security, which require study before termination. This target will be a permanent resident. To ensure you are not observed by the Fae, a Pixie surveillance team will be used as spotters for Fae. They will report to Rand, and he will be your collection team. Until you complete the mission, he will be at your service. As you wish to work without interference, he will be nearby, able to respond within seconds when contacted.”

Minkah frowned but understood this was the best she could hope for in this mission.