Mob sorcery 5, p.21
Mob Sorcery 5, page 21
She stared out the windows even as she played with Vince’s hair. Her tail tickled his legs as it shifted, and he resisted the urge to grab it.
Nina didn’t like it when he grabbed her tail. Even when he combed out her mane-like hair, he took it easy on her tail.
“I wouldn’t mind vegging out for the afternoon,” Vince said. Then he sighed. “I don’t think I’ll be allowed to.”
“Tell Alessia you’ll work if she lets you use her lap as a pillow while you debrief her.” Nina smirked.
“I’m not sure I want to find out where that might go right now.”
“Huh. So you’re not denying it now.” She poked his cheek. “Gotten over your sudden bout of self-doubt?”
“A little. There’s a lot to process from today, but…” He placed his hands against Nina’s cheeks and she raised an eyebrow at him. “I think things are good as is. Maybe we can’t avoid Houou’s civil war, but I don’t think I should jump ship.”
“But…”
“But I need to talk to Alessia first. Clear the air, then see what comes next.”
“Sex, probably,” Nicki said. “She’s so pent-up. I’m certain I heard her masturbating one night in the condo. At least she’s wise enough not to hide outside your bedroom.”
“You’d be the expert on that,” Nina teased.
Nicki squawked, and something clattered in the kitchen. Swearing followed. The running of the sink suggested she’d spilled her coffee, or maybe the milk.
“I’d ask for a coffee, but I worry you’ll throw it in Nina’s face now,” Vince said.
“Don’t worry. I’ll make you one. The megatitty bitch can get her own.” The harpy hissed, and no doubt was baring her teeth at Nina.
“Girl, your tits are huge, too. I saw the jackets you were trying on.” Nina paused, and her eyes widened. “Fuck! Our shopping. Vince, what happened to the bags?”
He stared up at her.
The bags?
Oh, right. He’d been watching the bags outside the store when Goro showed up.
“No clue,” he said. “Maybe our Lionetti handlers found them?”
Nina nearly shoved him off the couch as she ripped her phone out and began tapping away. Vince fell back into a dreamlike state of not paying attention to anything for a few minutes.
Only when Nicki’s face appeared in his vision did he return to reality.
“Hi,” he said.
“Hi.” Her face vanished and the bottom of a coffee cup appeared. “You might want to sit up so you don’t spill hot coffee all over yourself. I’m not a fast food place, so I don’t think you can sue me for damages.”
“I don’t burn easily.” Despite his words, Vince sat up and accepted the coffee.
The harpy sat next to him, practically shoulder-to-shoulder, with Nina on his opposite side. When the lioness realized Nicki had been serious about not making her coffee, she rose with a grumble and began making her own. Nicki watched her leave before leaning against Vince’s shoulder.
“Really? Not even from liquids?” Nicki asked. “How the hell does that work?”
“Magic,” he said.
Nicki glared at him. She was cute up close like this.
“I can manipulate heat at a fundamental level,” he elaborated. “It’s a basic skill of fire magic, and a good way to practice for barriers and pumping large volumes of magic through your body is to control your own body temperature. Then the things touching it. So if I spill something on myself, I can use magic to make it not burn or freeze me. Same trick as when I walk around in the cold without bundling up.”
“Damn. And the most use I used to get out of my telekinesis was reaching stuff above my head,” Nicki said. “I feel there’s a disparity here. Why’s my school of magic considered so advanced and hardcore if you can control the temperature?”
“Because I can’t rip someone’s internal organs out of their body without touching them,” he said.
“That’s basically impossible, by the way,” Nina chirped. “Maybe against non-magical civilians, but the basic resistance against magic makes it really hard to manipulate stuff more complicated than an arm.”
“So…?” Nicki tilted her head.
“It’s because telekinesis involves manipulating a fundamental physical force,” Nina explained. “The primary elements have some tangential uses, like manipulating temperature or creating wine, but they’re restrictive. Vince’s fire cage is complex shit for fire magic, but I can conjure up an earth magic equivalent with initiate-tier magic. With telekinesis, you can restrain people, fling rocks, make yourself faster, teleport—the whole shebang. It’s just fucking hard.”
“Great. So I’m full of unrealized potential and need to train hard to unlock it.” Nicki flicked one of her purple-highlighted bangs. “Given the two of you spent a whole damn month training almost full-time, and those foxes probably get up at the crack of dawn to practice every day, how many years will it take me?”
“One longer every year you waste,” Vince said.
The harpy froze, then let out a soft laugh. “Yeah. You’re right.” She leaned her head against his shoulder. “Figured I was done with that crap when I left school. Then again, I wasn’t sure I’d amount to anything.”
Nina appeared behind Nicki, causing the birdgirl to freeze. A coffee cup descended onto Nicki’s head.
After a second, Nicki swore and shot up. Nina swept her coffee away before it got spilled, quick as lightning.
“Fuck you,” Nicki spat, rubbing her scalp. “That was hot.”
“If you learned some basic telekinesis, I wouldn’t have been able to sneak up on you,” Nina said. “You have tons of time to spend on yourself now, Nicki. You worked to stay busy while we trained, but nothing stopped you from training yourself. The foxes probably can’t help you, but I know some telekinetics. I bet one or two of the Lionetti fliers might know a thing or two as well.”
Nicki bit her lip. She rubbed her arm and looked away, both pairs of black wings shrouding her body.
A gentle chime interrupted the moment, rapidly growing in volume.
“Fia or Pola are here,” Vince said.
Nina shot him a look as she walked up to Nicki. He got the message.
Leaving the two girls to their chat, he checked the panel in the entrance hall. Then he blinked.
Had he forgotten to check his phone?
The door camera feed showed Ally standing outside the door. She carried one of those thermal shopping bags in front of her, while her four red tails shifted behind her back uneasily.
Even though the bodyguard stood near her, Vince grew wary. He checked his phone. No messages.
He rang Ally. The figure on the screen jumped, then scrambled for a phone in her skirt pocket.
“Um… Vince, are you not in the penthouse?” Ally asked, eyes wide.
The bodyguard slapped a palm against her face.
“I am. I’ll let you in,” he said.
Ally blinked in confusion, but he left the camera feed behind.
By the time he opened the front door, she appeared to understand what had happened. She hunched her shoulders.
“Sorry,” she mumbled, looking down with her tails nearly flat to the tiled floor. “I saw the news and was so worried. I rushed over, but didn’t think of the security issues. Mama would be so upset.”
“She’d understand.” Vince stepped forward and rubbed Ally’s shoulders. “Has she gone home already?”
Ally shook her head and brushed a hand against her eyes before smiling at him. “She’s flying home on Friday to spend the weekend with otou-san, but says she’ll be back. She acts so calm, but I know she’s worried. When she saw the videos of you fighting that fox downtown she nearly froze.”
Huh. Based on the names brought up, Vince wondered if Kiho knew Goro personally. With five tails, Goro would likely have been alive when she fled Japan.
“Let’s go inside,” Vince said.
He looked askance at the bodyguard, but she waved him inside.
“No word on Fia or the sottocapo,” the bodyguard said. “I bet they’re taking care of business before heading here.”
A small part of Vince grew annoyed at the idea they didn’t rush to his side, but he quashed it. Fia, Alessia, and Pola ran the Lionetti Family and doubtlessly had a lot on their plates. He knew they’d have been ready to move to save him if Ronin hadn’t intervened.
Inside the penthouse, Nicki and Nina sat on one side of the couch. They smiled at Ally when they saw her and greeted her.
“Woah, you brought food,” Nicki said, staring at the bag. Then she paused. “Wait, this fast?”
Ally’s face reddened. “Um, only enough for two people. I grabbed the leftovers me and Mama planned to eat tonight.”
“I owe Kiho a meal then,” Vince said.
“She said that as well.” The fox giggled, her tails brushing against his back. “Um, I’ll need to reheat them…”
She tottered into the kitchen and pulled several glass containers from her bag. Vince guessed them to be the fancy ones that could handle both freezers and microwaves, unlike the cheap shit he’d once had explode years ago.
Nina gave him one hell of a lecture on how important the capital letters in a certain brand were. No capitals meant cheap junk, all capitals meant the good shit that wouldn’t ruin leftovers and require way too much cleanup.
“Um, are you still in trouble with the police?” Ally asked. “It was really hard to tell from the media coverage. I was checking the news all the way over on the subway, but neither the police nor the mayor had anything to say.”
Probably because they were trying to work out what the hell was going on themselves. Kreesa had been in charge, but given a bunch of orders that broke departmental policy, causing what was effectively a mutiny within the police force.
Then something Ally said reached his brain. “You took the subway? With everything going on?”
Ally hunched her shoulders once again, but continued playing with both the microwave and oven. Apparently she needed both. Also, how did she understand them without any instructions? Pola didn’t know how to use the oven in her own home, thanks to all the weird buttons it required.
“The capos said the same thing when I arrived,” Ally murmured. “But the subway is so fast and I would have felt bad asking for a lift just to come see you.”
“Alessia is rich. She can afford to cover security,” Vince said.
He partly regretted those words, given what he’d been up to lately. How much had Alessia been spending on protecting him lately?
For that matter, how much did she know of what he was up to? The Lionettis tailed him everywhere. He basically had full-time bodyguards.
“I still don’t like it.” Ally stood after placing most of her food in either the oven or microwave. “Um, it’ll be about twenty minutes. The unagi and eggplant reheat best in the oven, but without a rice cooker I prefer the microwave for the rice.”
Experience with sushi allowed Vince to recognize the Japanese term for eel. Ally had brought over something quite nice. The glares from Nicki and Nina made it clear they’d overheard.
Vince leaned against the kitchen counter, placing his back to the other girls. He sipped his coffee. Ally’s eyes flicked to it and he shifted toward the coffee machine.
“No, no, I’ll do it,” she said, waving her arms at him.
The fox practically shoved him into the corner of the kitchen, her tails waving around her while worry shined in her eyes. She smiled shakily at him before using the coffee machine with far too much familiarity.
He let her pamper him and remained slouched against the counter. “How do you know how to use all of this so easily?”
“I’ve gotten used to navigating appliances,” she said. “Otou-san’s friends all have their own. I bought different ones. If I stay in a hotel they’re different again.” She shrugged. “It’s the power of a future housewife.”
Her face nearly exploded after saying those words and she turned away, hiding her expression with her tails. Vince assumed she was turning the same color as her hair.
“I’d say you’re already a housewife, but I’m not sure I should,” Vince said. “You run your own shop, are supplying the Lionettis, are a capable enchanter…”
Ally snuck a confused look at him, her face as red as he expected. “I can still be a housewife and do all those things. I don’t want to retire like Mama and find a bunch of hobbies to fill my time. Running an Etsy store seems worse than what I already do, and she’s always intruding.”
Etsy store? Vince realized that Kiho had a lot of spare time as the wife to a retired Yakuza head. Had Ally’s store been partly run by her mother back in New York because Kiho was bored out of her skull?
For that matter, was Kiho hanging around for so long just to alleviate her boredom?
“Um, so what did happen with the police?” Ally asked.
“Oh, that.” He frowned. “The corrupt elemental that backed Houou in Albion tried to arrest me under false charges. I’m certain she wanted to shut me out of…” He paused. “Don’t tell Kiho this.”
“She might already know,” Ally said. “The reason I could sneak off on my own is that Mama rushed off. I think she recognized the person you fought, or maybe the Miura twins.”
“Everyone recognizes the Miura twins,” Nina said from the living room.
“Not the way Mama did.”
“Goro—the fox who dueled me—knew Teru, one of Kiho’s old friends,” Vince said. “And both the Miura twins and their clan head mentioned Kiho by name.”
“Clan head?” Ally’s eyes widened. “Is that who the old fox was? Why was someone so old and important there?”
“He wanted to hire me for the coming civil war gripping Houou.”
Ally’s hands balled into fists. Her tails closed around her, standing upright. “So they won’t leave you alone, even after everything. I guess Mei wasn’t lying about that.”
“Ally…” he began to say.
She shook her head. “It’s fine. Just… If Houou are causing you trouble, I want to help you. Like you helped me. It’s only right, especially now that we’re lovers.” Her tails rustled behind her.
“Thank you.”
Once she had her coffee and the food had been reheated, they moved to the dining table on the far side of the living room. They never used this. Alessia and Pola always ate on the couches or at the breakfast bar, yet the eight-seater mahogany table was spotless.
Ally separated out the various dishes. A small plate contained cold appetizers, while the main dish was a rice bowl topped with a thin brown sauce, marinated eel, and big chunks of cucumber.
“I found some chopsticks in the drawers, but you can use a fork if you prefer,” she said as they sat next to each other, their backs to the others.
Her tails rubbed against his back and she shot him nervous glances.
“I can use chopsticks well enough,” he said. “I know there’s a Japanese saying for this…”
Ally stared at him, then broke out in a fit of giggles. “I don’t think I’ve said itadakimasu for years.”
Vince barely followed what she said. “Um, thanks for the food?”
“That’s fine.” She giggled again, poking him in the side. “You can be overly sincere about the strangest things, Vince.”
They slowly dug into the food. Even as leftovers, it blew away the junk he often ordered. Sure, the restaurant food at the condo was great, but the handmade feel and love Ally poured into her food crushed the chefs effortlessly.
Or maybe he was biased.
His chewing slowed as he recalled the past week. Today had been exhausting, but the week certainly hadn’t helped.
“Vince?” Ally asked softly. Her green eyes swam with concern.
“I’m fine.” He shrugged off her look. “It’s just been a very long week. Crazy to think the heist was exactly a week ago. Everything’s been on fire since. Mei’s still at large in the south, the cops are a mess, Houou is falling apart…”
Vince placed his chopsticks against his bowl before rubbing his hands against his face. Ally’s tails practically cocooned his back—or tried, given she only had four.
“We’re all here for you.” Ally glanced back, presumably to look at Nicki and Nina. “You can rest for today now.”
He nodded and picked up the chopsticks, then took another bite. Despite his attempt, his mood didn’t change.
Frustrated, he leaned back in his chair, staring up at the ceiling again. He’d done that a lot since arriving here.
Ally remained silent this time, but she rubbed his shoulder with her hands and the warmth of her tails continued to bleed into his back.
“Rest, huh,” he said. “That saying ‘you never know what you have until it’s gone’ is truer than I thought. I never thought I’d miss that shitty apartment. But I’ve spent a week without a home, even if the penthouse and the condo are nice. I miss my bed, my place, being able to putter about when I need to think or destress…”
He laughed breathlessly and closed his eyes.
“I get it,” Nicki said. “I miss it, too. It was my first real place that felt like mine.”
Nina didn’t speak, but he knew she was nodding.
“It’s stupid when I think about it,” Vince said. “I can handle assassins, crazed eight-tail megalomaniacal foxes, fighting entire companies… But I feel more at sea than ever without a proper home, you know?”
No matter what job he did or what happened, he’d always been able to go back to the apartment. It was his fortress.
He’d lost it and now found himself holed up in the fortresses of others. Namely Alessia.
Finalizing the deal with her couldn’t happen soon enough.
“I’d say home is where the heart is, but I think you want something permanent,” Fia said.
Vince snapped upright, startling Ally.
Fia and Pola stood in the entrance to the living room together. Fia wore a tired smile, while Pola appeared more uncertain, torn between a shaky grin and deep concern as she stared at Vince.
“Permanent would be good,” Vince said.
“Then I think you might not be able to rest today,” Fia said. “You can argue with the boss later, but I think there’s a lot of shit to discuss.” She paused before walking over and ruffling his hair. “Nice to see you in one piece, though.”
