'What do you mean she's looking at you, I thought you were inside me?' Hunter asked confused.
[I'm actually floating over your head, how do you think I see things that are behind you?]
'How are you able to hear my thoughts then?'
[Because of the bond]
'And you're supposed to be invisible to others?'
[I am]
'Then how come she can see you?'
[I --]
"Dude," Jacob called, drawing his attention. "Let's go!"
.
.
.
The next day, Hunter woke up early and decided to wait for Jade in front of his apartment. At exactly 8 AM, the dark brown-eyed woman pulled up in front of him, "excited to finally see the agency?" She asked.
"Yeah ..." He replied before entering the car, "would Circe be there?" He asked.
"It's possible but you can never know with her, she is a very busy woman," said Jade.
"I see ... I hope I meet her soon though," Hunter said.
They drove for around five hours to a city west of Skyline called New Lanes. They arrived in front of the Public Safety and Demon Control agency building. From the outside, it looked like the regular corporate building - not at all what Hunter was expecting.
Hunter followed Jade as she walked into the building. All the agents inside were going about their business. Jade walked over to the front desk. The woman who was seated behind the counter smiled upon seeing the vampire. "Jade," she smiled brightly, "pleasure seeing you here," she stated.
"The pleasure is mine," Jade replied politely.
"Oh please," the woman waved, "This place has certainly missed you since you were assigned to Skyhill," she stated but Jade only smiles. '"I hope you won't be leaving us anytime soon?" She asked.
"I wish I could answer that but you know how it is with the work. Speaking of, I think my guy was brought in here yesternight?" Jade said.
"Ah yes," the woman said and began typing something on her keyboard. "Name?" She asked.
"Joseph George."
"He's here. An interrogation is scheduled in like five minutes on the fourth floor," she said.
"I should get going then," Jade said. "Thanks for the help Libby," she waved before walking to the elevator with Hunter following after her.
Jade pressed one of the buttons on the elevators, "that's a lot of buttons, this building must have plenty of floors," Hunter said.
"Yeah, the building has a total of 23 floors: thirteen of them are underground," she explained.
"I see." The door slides open and they walked out into the fourth floor where Leah was waiting.
"Jade!" Leah exclaimed politely, "Circe was just asking about you," she added.
"Circe is here?" Hunter asked.
"Yeah, she's over there," Leah pointed. They walked over to the head of the agency, she was wearing a white-sleeved shirt coupled with a black tie, black pants, and brown shoes, similar to the one she wore when Hunter first saw her.
Her face lits up as she sees the trio, "Jade," she smiled. The two hug before shifting her gaze to Hunter. "Can you two give us a moment?" She said.
"Why not?" Jade said, "Leah and I have an interrogation to do," she said before walking into the room with Leah.
"Hi, a pleasure to finally meet you," Hunter said. "Trust me, the pleasure's all mine," Circe replied, shaking his hand, her yellow eyes that had multiple red rings within them fixed on his teal green ones.
"I'm glad to have finally met you," said Hunter, "You didn't give me a chance to even thank you back at the council," he added.
"Sorry about that, I had a meeting I was running late for. You live with a human right? I hope you don't mind, I did a little digging and research about you," Circe said.
"... Of course not," Hunter shakes his head, forcing a smile.
"I tried not to dig in too much though, I want to learn all about you ... From you,"
[Hm?]
"I -- of course "
"I did find out about your apartment ... I must say it's a bit --"
"Modest?"
"Not the word I'd use but yeah," Circe said, a small smile on her face. "On your way out, stop by the front desk and ask Libby for the keys I asked her to get; I already told her yesterday so she should have it ready," she continued. "It's an old building but it's still better than the hole you live in; no offense," Circe added.
"Wow ... Thanks, how can I ever repay you?" Hunter smiles.
"Oh it's nothing, you're special and deserve to be treated that way," she said "Although ... You can help me answer this question," she said with a smile. "If you were trapped in a room that had two doors, one of which would lead to your doom and the other leads to safety but you don't know which is which and the doors are guarded by an armed guard each. One of the guards always lies, and the other always tells the truth, but you don't know which is which and you can only ask one guard one question. What question would you ask and what would you do once an answer is given?"
"Hm ..." Hunter said thoughtfully. "That's tough."
"Yeah, Jade and I normally give each other riddles like that though I haven't found been able to guess the answer in three months. My most recent answer was: ask one of the guards which one is the safe door and as the guard is thinking, grab his spear and threaten the other guard saying I'll cut his friend's throat if he doesn't stop playing his little game and tell me which is the safe door.' He tells me and I go through."
Hunter laughs before speaking, "isn't it cheating if I tell you?"
"No. I am allowed to ask a friend if they can provide an answer within 30 minutes without looking at the internet. I too, I'm not allowed to check the answer," she explained.
"And she's not concerned you might check anyways?"
Circe's smile falters and she takes a step forward, "One thing about me, Hunter Heffernan: when I give my word, I never go back on it,"
"I -- Err," Hunter stuttered. He clears his throat before revealing the answer. "Ask one of the guards: 'if I were to ask the other guard which was the safe door, which door would he say?' Then go through the other door," he said.
"Oh. Ohhhhh, that actually gets you out safely," Circe said.
"Yeah," Hunter smiles, "but yours seems like the faster way out," he stated.
"I know right? I'm going to come up with a riddle that would take her half a year to figure out," she claimed.
Hunter turned his attention to the interrogation room, Leah sat quietly next to Jade who looked as confident as ever. "Think about your daughter Mr. George," Jade softly, "If you answer my questions I'll see to it that she visits you at least once a month," she stated.
The hybrid finally looks up from his cuffed hands to the agent in front of him. Guilt was written over his face as he opened his mouth to speak, "I --" before the hybrid could say anything, an elongated, boneless, flexible organ burst out of his mouth, followed by another.
"What the fuck?!" Jade cussed as she jumped out of her seat and moved towards Joseph who was now bleeding from his nose and eyes. "Get some medic in here!" Jade demanded and Leah dash out. The man's pupil became frozen as if he had just been given a good scare. He falls to the table in front of him, lifeless.
Circe rushed into the room while Jade checks for a pulse. The leader of the Public Safety and Demon Control agency squats down and inspects the flexible organ that burst out of his mouth. It looked like the man's tongue had split into two and then became bigger only this organ came from below the throat.
Hunter watched in silence, both times he had met Joseph involved him getting hit on the head but he couldn't help but feel bad for the hybrid, especially after knowing he had a daughter.
[Can you go closer?]
Hunter walked into the room towards the corpse.
[Place your hand just above the tentacles]
Hunter does as the demon instructed, "what are you doing Hunter?" Jade said but Circe raised her hand at the vampire signaling her to let the dark-haired boy proceed.
[Do you feel that?]
'Yes. The tentacles have some strange magic within them. It's neither dark nor black ... Chaos maybe?'
[That's not chaos magic]
'Then that means --'
"What is it?" Circe inquired.
Hunter turns to the light red-haired woman, "The tentacles; they seem to be some strange type of magic associated with it," he stated.
[He must have taken some sort of potion that would prevent him from revealing any vital information]
"He must have taken a potion that would do that to him if he attempts to reveal any vital information," Hunter added.
"I see," Circe said thoughtfully. "It is as I suspected then," said Jade, "he was working for someone."
[Definitely]
Circe turns to Hunter, "this strange magic, what do you think it is?"
"Chaos magic perhaps?" Jade chipped.
Hunter shakes his head, "I believe whatever magic was used to create the potion is a type of magic completely alien to us."
Jade raised an eyebrow, "No way! That would me --"
"Yes," Hunter nodded, "there's a fifth type of magic we don't know about."
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