We stopped by a Meta human and me store to grab fresh clothes on the way, Whisperer had a car, a light and sporty model which felt heavier than it should as it swerved the corner of the city blocks; I took this as a sign there was something heavier and deadlier under the hood.

The shack was a good hour's drive out of town, towards the old mining area, the mines had been copper mines and had been one of the reasons Detroit was originally built in the region. There was a small hamlet way out with an old fashioned gas station, it's pumps now dry, with "Closed" signs hanging in the dusty windows. Whisperer pulled up alongside the old pump and got out, it was hot out here and I fanned myself with my note pad to keep cool.

"Looks like we're in the right area" Whisperer said "there's a small warehouse behind the station, used to use it for meat and fish storage when the hamlet had people living here" he looked over the station grounds, taking particular attention to the small path leading round back. "there's been some activity here" he said pointing to the dirt track "there are tracks" he walked over and brushed the dirt with his fingers "fresh, no more than a day old" he said "Wide wheel base, kind of like a Humvee"

"Where were you when I was stuck in the amazon?" I asked partly amazed, I'd never been very good at tracking, sure I could tell when there were things out of place, and I had a good eye for prints, but I never could get the hang of tracking by the hour, that it had been so many days since the last visit of a creature, that it had rained within the last month, it was all a puzzle I couldn't get my head round.

"What were you doing in the Amazon?" Whisperer asked

"Getting my butt singed and liberating an oppressed city" I said

"Of course you were . . ." he murmured, drawing a pistol from a holster on his back "Someone is here" he said

We made our way to the back of the station towards a small unit "Wayne's Fish Yard" swung on a sign in the slight breeze.

"This has got to be the place" I said "Sam said he thought he was by the sea because of the smell of fish"

"Did you say something about a dragon too?" Whisperer asked, I nodded "let's hope it's not around"

We snuck around the side of the building, the smell of fish was strong, and something else . . . clinical, one I recognised from Doc's clinic, medical alcohol, but why have medical alcohol in a place like this? There was no way in other than a set of double doors, the windows were blacked out and we could see nothing. Whisperer used a small blade to check the underside of the door, it was locked from the inside, a figure could be seen moving around, bulky, but it was too dim to tell if it was muscle or fat.

"We could knock the door down?" he whispered, I looked at him with a slight smile and stepped sideways through the wall and into the building, just catching the look of his surprised face as I slid into the darkness. The building inside was lit only by three spot lights, all over a small metal medical table, over which a plump figure in a powder blue lab coat stood, I couldn't see what was on the table, the light tin of music told me the worker was wearing earphones, the slight shuffling of his slipper donned feet as he conducted light jigs confirmed this, he probably couldn't hear me but if I opened the door to let Whisperer in he might see the change in light levels. I slid back outside through the wall; Whisperer shook his head at me.

"I still don't know how you do that" he said, "scares the crap out of me every time" I smiled, then he was going to hate my suggestion.

"I can get you in, but we'll have to do it my way" I said, his face visibly dropped and I explained what I had seen. He looked sick

"Are you strong enough to pull us both through?" he asked, I quirked an eyebrow, half in amusement at his nervousness, half in indignation that he would suggest I couldn't pull it off, he sighed softly and ran his hand through his hair, the dark strands falling in his face again regardless. "What do I need to do?"

"Keep your magic low" I told him, "if you're nervous then your magic will interrupt mine, then step sideways whilst I do, don't try and resist, don't think of it as a wall, more like an open door"

"What if I can't think about anything else?"

"then you'll get stuck, wholly or in part, whatever part of your body is stuck will be fused with the wall and you'll be in a lot of pain, you'll have approximately fifteen seconds to re-cast or the shock alone will kill you" he looked even paler, but his mouth was set in a grim determination

"Have you ever done this before?" he asked "I mean, taken someone with you?" I thought back to Chicago where I'd dragged Convoy through a wall to escape a hail of bullets. It had been easier back then, Convoy didn't know what was happening, his mind on the gunfire, and not on the cast, he was also not a mage with no opposing magical energy . . . mind not on the cast . . .

"Not exactly" I told him. I put a hand on one arm and looked him dead in the eyes "ready?" he took a breath and nodded. I place my other hand on his cheek, the slight shadow of his beard felt rough on my hands, I felt the heat creep to my face as I leaned in and let the magic build, I felt the rise of his own magic, felt the tensing of his muscles as he fought to keep the energy down, the play of his magic over my skin like electricity, I closed my eyes and placed my lips to his, the surprise of my action made him jump beneath my hand, then the tension melted away as he responded with his own kiss, his hands snaking up around my back and into my hair to pull me closer to him.

I cast the spell and stepped sideways, pulling him with me.

On the other side he broke off the kiss slowly, as if savouring it, his arousal was evident and he immediately flushed crimson as he realised I'd started the kiss to distract him, it amused me to see a grown man blush like he did.

"Some distraction" he whispered, his voice hoarse, husky. I fought off the urge to continue, the sound of the worker humming to his latest tune snapped me from my thoughts

I turned to the room and pulled a blade from my belt buckle, a memory blade, pliant and material until released, I took a moment to remember the train I had acquired it, when I had first met Whisperer. . .

"Where did you pick that up?" Whisperer enquired, curious, memory blades were rare and horrendously expensive.

"Bad guy" I murmured, ignoring him to take in the inside of the warehouse. I saw nothing beyond the lights, but heard no one else, I slid away from the heat of Whisperer's body and slinked around the edges, careful of my footing, ordinarily I would cast invisibility, but two passes through the wall had drained me of a fair amount of magic, I already felt light headed, my senses a little dull. Whisperer started to walk the opposite wall, not quite the sure footedness he usually held, the nausea affecting him too it seemed.

My already delicate stomach fell away when I got closer to the table, on it lay a woman, face down on the table, the nape of her neck open and exposed, her black hair pushed crudely to one side, pulsing in the opening was a creature, purple and slimy, it grasped and coiled around the woman's spinal cord, and it looked distressed.

A comm. unit rang out, the worker paused and the music was cut off

"What?" he snapped, visibly irate at the interruption "no, I tell you, it no work yet" the accent was thick, Italian "he no work with the creature, woman you bring me no good either, not strong enough for the bambina" he moved away from the table and pulled away his gloves. "no, no you give me bad peoples you get bad merchandise, the shipment needs good hosts to live" he ground his teeth "shipment comes in tomorrow, the little bambinas need host by day after next" another pause then the worker blurted out a string of words which sounded much like profanities "bambinas listen to strong men only, they no listen then you no strong leader" there was an audible click as he broke the comm. link, he grumbled to himself before turning back to the bench to survey his work, I heard the trigger of a gun hammer and saw Whisperer step out of the shadows, the worker froze and turned, his face frightened, clearly he hadn't been expecting anything like this

"Is she alive?" Whisperer asked, nodding to the woman on the table, the frightened man shook his head, he was old, grey, his teeth yellow

"She no strong" he said "Bambina need strong host" he said, his voice shaking, he raised his hands to his head in submission "Mister Arkut tell me I do good job" he said "Not my fault the cattle are bad, he want to control cattle then he needs strong cattle"

"Gregory Arkut?" Whisperer asked

Understanding dawned on the worker too late that he'd said too much, he turned to try and run, tripping over his own feet and landing heavily, he cried out as he hit the floor, as he tried to crawl away he favoured his left side; his right ankle seemed to swell before my eyes. Whisperer walked over and placed a boot on the guy's back pinning him in place.

"You'll answer my questions" Whisperer told him, the feeling of magic swept out over him and surrounded the struggling worker, few men had the power to resist Whisperer's magic, and this man was no different. He started to cry and babble in his own tongue, Whisperer changed tack and shot questions in the same language, I used the distraction to check on the woman, she was indeed dead. The creature wrapped around her neck waved out a purple tentacle as if to search for a new host, I stepped back and shuddered.

"Ghost" Whisperer called me over "the tattoo" the sobbing worker had lost a shoe as he had crawled away, his feet bare showed a dragon tattoo across the top of his now swollen foot "there's your dragon" he said, his head snapped towards the door

"Down!" he shouted, grabbing me and rolling me under him as the door blasted open, we rolled towards the nearest wall, Whisperer let out a shot with his gun, gunfire erupted around us, cutting up the table, the woman and the screaming worker. Arkut was cleaning up the mess. "Can you cast?" Whisperer asked as we dodged behind a barrel of salt.

"Barely" I said surveying the wall "we need to get out of here"

"Take my comm. unit, get it to Lathain" Whisperer said pulling a small recorder from his belt "he needs to stop that shipment, it's more of those things" he said, he popped off a few more shots and reloaded with one hand, the move practised and efficient "I'll hold them off"

"Better idea" I said grabbing him by the waist and surging my magic, I used the element of surprise and all my force to throw him round, the spell cast as he hit the wall and rolled through it "you tell him" I had no way of communicating to Lathain, where Whisperer did, the gun fire ceased and men spread out "I'm coming out!" I called out, "I give up!" I raised my hands over my head and stepped gingerly from my hidden corner, four rifle barrels bore down on me, behind them I recognised one of Gregory Arkut's body guards, I wasn't guessing any more.

The body guard lowered his rifle and stepped over to me, a look of utter contempt crossed his face before he grinned evilly and punched me in the face, there was a momentary flash of pain before the lights went out.