2016
"Bianca, wake up," Lyn said, standing in the doorway of Bianca's bedroom. Bianca groaned, burying her head further into the pillow. "Bianca!"
Bianca lifted her head, slightly opening an eye to look at the clock, waiting for the blurriness to go away. When her vision cleared enough she saw it was four o'clock in the morning. She dropped her head back onto the pillow.
"Too early," she mumbled, the pillow muffling her words.
"Michael's at the front door. You've got a job to do."
"Can't we do it tomorrow?"
"Bianca, get up now before I make you."
Bianca lifted her head and stared directly at her mother. "What are you going to do? Burn the bed?"
"Don't try me," Lyn said, holding out her hand and powering up an energy ball.
Bianca groaned, shifting her body, and finally pushing herself into a seated position on the edge of the bed.
"Happy now?" she asked.
Lyn put the ball out, turning and leaving the room. Bianca slipped her feet into the furry slippers that sat on the floor at the side of her bed, rubbing her eyes as she shuffled her way into the living room.
"You're not dressed?" Michael asked incredulously, as if it was midday and she should have been up for hours.
"I just got up. Why would I be? It's four am," Bianca retorted.
"Job's not over. I would expect you to be ready at any hour," Michael explained. She groaned. "Well hurry then, he's on the move already."
Dragging herself back to her bedroom, she opened the closet and stared blankly at the clothes. She didn't know what to wear. Pulling something random and warm to combat the cold weather from the hanger, she tossed it onto the bed, searching around in one of the drawers for a thick pair of socks. Changing quickly, she began to feel a little more awake as she made her way back out to Michael.
"Have fun!" Lyn called cheerfully as Michael guided her out the door. Bianca glared at her mother over her shoulder. If she was so chipper at this hour of the morning, then she should be the one going out instead so Bianca herself could claim some more shuteye.
Glancing around the hallway quickly, Michael shimmered them both out. Bianca opened her eyes slowly, trying to adjust to the darkness that surrounded the pier. Michael pushed her towards one of the warehouses and they slipped in through a slightly ajar door.
"So where is he?" she asked, her voice a little louder than a whisper. Michael pressed his finger to his lips and gave her a stern look.
"Be patient. He's in a vehicle, we're not. Shimmering is a much faster way to travel."
Bianca nodded, rolling her eyes. He was speaking to her as if she didn't know anything. She knew she was still half-asleep, but he didn't have to belittle her like that. Michael pushed her behind a heaped collection of crates and scaffolding, climbing over her legs to sit beside her. Bianca rested her head back against the wall and closed her eyes. Michael shook her gently and she opened her eyes again.
"Stay alert," he said.
"He's not even here yet," she sighed. "Can't I just rest until he gets here?"
"No, you can't count on things going exactly to plan. You have to be ready for any obstacle that may come your way."
"It's so tiring. Why does it have to take so long?"
"You think this is long?" Michael scoffed, turning his head to look at her. "It's only been four days. Three years ago I was in Germany for six months. I spent forty days tracking a target through the back streets of Berlin. So don't tell me this is tough, because it's simple compared to that."
"You know I haven't been doing this long. Stop expecting me to know how everything is done."
"I'm not expecting you to know anything. That's why I'm advising you."
"My Aunt Kate says your advice isn't worth a penny," Bianca said snidely. Michael smirked.
"She would say that. She had to put up with me in Belgium for three weeks after."
"So you have known each other a while then."
"In a manner of speaking. Belgium was enjoyable. She's a fun girl to work with, not exactly the best, but she manages to fluke things quite well."
Bianca turned her head, lowering it a little to look at him. "What about me?"
"You're still on a learning curve," he responded.
Sliding his feet forward, he pressed his palms to the ground and lifted himself to his feet. Bianca looked up to him, confused.
"Where are you going?"
"You're no good in this condition. I'm going to get something to help you," Michael said, brushing his hands.
"To help me?" she repeated. With those words the only thought that struck her mind was the reminder of the clandestine actions of the medical department, and Danny screaming through the doorway as they 'helped' him. "Drugs?"
"No, coffee."
"Oh." She smiled, biting her lip as she looked down in embarrassment.
"Don't doze off in the meantime," Michael instructed, shimmering out and leaving her on her own.
She lifted her head again, looking out across the empty warehouse. It was dark, pinpricks of moonlight shining through the cracks and high windows casting a pale glow over the rungs of scaffolding that stood towards the centre of the room. Planks of wood lay across some of them; others were just metal bars bare and naked without any coverings. The floor was obviously dusty, and the warehouse unused for quite a while. Bianca squirmed, thinking of the possibility of rats hiding out in the stray netting. It was enough to convince her not to fall asleep. Fighting to keep her eyes open, she stared at the doorway and waited for it to open. Her eyes felt raw, as if she had not slept in days or had been crying for hours. She knew it was the lack of sleep that she'd had to endure. With some passing thought she wondered how Michael had managed to do it for forty days on his own.
The door slid open and a man walked in, two scaly looking demons at his heels. Bianca sat up straighter, craning her neck to watch them. A fourth shimmered into the centre of the room and Bianca glanced next to her. Michael still wasn't back. What was she going to do on her own?
Looking back to the group she could see they were now speaking in hushed tones. She strained to hear what was going on but she wasn't close enough for any sentences to be audible. The odd word here and there wasn't enough to help her piece together what was going on. Michael knew more. Michael should be here. He was the one who had memorised the file. He was the one who knew what to do.
"Thanks for that, but we won't be needing you anymore," her target said. Powering up a flame ball he threw it at the man who had shimmered in. Bianca watched open-mouthed as he disintegrated. He turned back to the two scaly demons. "Time to leave, boys."
Bianca moved, undecided whether to stop them or sit by and get herself into trouble with Michael for letting them go. The movement made enough noise to catch their attention and they looked over in her direction.
"Guess that got decided for me," she said quietly to herself.
"What was that?" her target asked.
The two scaly demons began moving in her direction. Shimmering out she reappeared in the centre of the room behind her target, kicking him to the floor. Somewhat pleased that all those martial art training sessions Michael had given her now paid off, she almost missed the two scaly demons retracing their steps back to her, spewing forth vile yellow venom from their mouths. Bianca dropped to her knees, watching as the sickening coloured strings flew over her head, seeing the metal where it finally hit bubble and froth. Grimacing, Bianca turned her attention back to her target, trying to pull the suitcase from his hands. What she hadn't expected was for him to swing his foot around and sweep her back onto the ground. Fighting to regain her footing, she saw that he had gotten there first, summoning his two lackeys to grab her. As she finally stood, one grabbed hold of her arm. She tried to shake him off, to no avail, and instead brought her hand around, the fist connecting with his shoulder to throw him off-balance. His grip loosening on her arm, she turned her hand in kind to grab his, twisting it as much as she could, trying to put some distance between them at the same time. She felt something drop down around her neck, yanking her back and pressing on her trachea. Coughing, she realised it must have been the other scaly demon. Lifting her foot she tried to kick the first one away, her hands travelling to the object that was cutting off her air. Throwing her elbow back, she hit him in the stomach. Winded, his grip slackened, dropping the rope to the base of her neck before it was pulled tight again as his arms instinctively pulled back. Bianca instantly choked, realising that was not the best idea. She felt her foot slip as she tried to gasp in the single breath that would not come, collapsing to the ground as the scaly demon fell away behind her. Michael stood in his place, a cup of coffee in hand. As the target moved towards him, Michael tossed the cup his way, the burning liquid splashing across his face and instantly blinding him.
"Sorry I was late," Michael apologised quickly.
The first scaly demon charging him, he stepped out of the way, shimmering further from Bianca towards where the rigs of scaffolding stood. The two scaly demons gave chase, one of them quicker than the other as he closed in on Michael. Michael ran up one of the planks of wood, leaping for the end as the demon sprayed its venom towards him. The plank lowering under his weight and lifting on the other side, it smacked the demon under the chin, his spray ending up on the scaffolding somewhere overhead. Slipping his way through the bars, Michael swung himself further and further up the levels. Bianca watched in awe, astounded with his skill, amazed to see that the ripple in the muscles of his arms as he transferred from one bar to another made it look as if he was a professional gymnast that did this everyday.
Placing his feet on the edge of one of the bars, Michael gripped the steel tightly as he swung himself around, trying to gather a fair amount of height, before pivoting towards the two scaly demons feet first, knocking them both flat onto the ground. Leaning over them, he conjured himself an athame, whipping it from the side as if he had pulled it from his boot, keeping it low towards the two bodies on the floor underneath him. Glancing up he saw Bianca was still seated on the floor, the target hurrying to make a quick exit through the warehouse entry.
"Bianca!" he shouted. She glanced up at him. He nodded towards the door. Turning her head quickly, she pushed herself up a little, throwing her hand forward, the energy ball slowly rolling into a larger form before shooting off her palm towards him. Hitting him squarely in the back, she watched as he burned up, turning her head back to look at Michael and seeing that he had dealt with the other two demons.
"Good. I'm pleased. You've learnt something," Michael said, straightening.
Bianca balled up the rope that lay across her lap, throwing it viciously to the side. She had tried her best, and still needed him to help her. She wasn't sure if she was ever going to live up to the height of potential he had crafted out for her. Pushing herself to her feet she shimmered out after him.
"We're going to try something different today," Michael said.
"We are?" Bianca asked, watching as he walked across the room.
"I think you've proven yourself. We can take you up another level."
Bianca smirked, satisfied she had accomplished something, pleased that Michael was happy with her and thought highly enough of what she'd done to give her the opportunity to do more.
"What I want to do is fine tune your skills. You've kept up your studies, I presume?" He expected her to say she had. Bianca nodded. It was just about the only thing she could do outside of this room. "Excellent. So before we get more involved in different aspects of your powers, I'm going to work on your senses. The most reliant sense is, of course, sight. Your hand-eye coordination has improved remarkably, but now you need to start picking up on the little things that people don't notice. Detail your surroundings in your mind. Be aware of what's around you that you can use or can be used against you. Keep a close eye on your target. Use me for an example. Can you see me?"
"Yes," Bianca answered bemused, as if he'd just asked the most ridiculous question in the world. He shimmered out. "Not if you do that I can't."
When he reappeared he was directly in front of her. She jumped a little, startled that he'd come so close.
"Be aware," he said quietly, his eyes studying hers. "Transportation abilities enable more efficient surprise attacks. You or anyone else with the power will use it to their advantage. This is why you can't rely on sight alone. Don't neglect your other senses. Touch."
He took her hand, lifting it into the air. She barely noticed the motion except for the feel of his hand against hers, the efferent warmth of his palm as it wrapped around her fingers. Her gaze lowered to their hands for only a brief moment, as if to convince herself what she felt was actually happening, before rising again to meet his eyes.
"Taste. Smell. Sound," he continued, leaning in close to her ear as he whispered the last word.
She was captivated by everything about him. Feeling his breath on her skin, she drew in a deep one herself, slowly letting it out as she realised how close his face was to hers. Just the slightest turn of her head and their lips would be touching. Instinct taking over, she began to turn her head to do so, but it was at this instant he decided to pull back, her hand falling as he let it go. She watched somewhat disappointed as he walked away.
"So if you are blinded or caught in darkness – and don't think you won't be, luminakinesis isn't part of your anatomy…"
Bianca found her attention drifting, barely listening to what he was saying. She folded her arms, pulling them tight, her gaze falling to the floor as Michael reverted to teacher mode, both belittling and instructive in his approach.
"I'm boring you, aren't I?" he questioned.
Bianca's attention snapped back to him. She swallowed hard, wondering if she'd been caught out. She hadn't been focusing on anything of a work-related nature. She had been thinking about Michael, caring more about the person inside, behind the entire analytical stone-cold persona. She had been getting closer to him over the past eighteen months, and during that time she'd seen glimpses of the real him, not this charade he was trying to put up for the Phoenix coven. It seemed like he would only ever let her see the hidden side of him, just like that first time she had walked into the training room and saw his amusement in the way they had been keeping a secret from the others. It made her feel special; made her feel as if someone else cared about what she thought and felt.
"Should I make this more entertaining, then?" He pulled a long piece of dark cloth from his pocket as he slowly walked back to her. "Well, I can't lie, I had this planned anyway - just speeding it up a bit so I don't lose you completely."
Bianca watched as he unrolled the dark length of cloth in his hands, pulling it apart so that it stretched from one hand to another. She unfolded her arms, dropping her hands to her sides as she watched him get closer, smiling as her gaze travelled from the object in his hands up to the lightened expression on his face.
"Michael, what are you doing?" she said with a nervous laugh.
"Testing your senses," he explained. "But firstly we have to deprive you of your sight."
She lifted her hands as the blindfold came closer to her eyes. Taking it into her grasp, her hands brushed against his as her thumbs hit her cheekbones, smoothing the dark material across her eyes as she closed them. Her hands followed his back, stopping at the sides of her head as he reached behind her to fasten it with a knot. Again she could feel how close he was to her. Again she thought about brushing her lips against his, the only thing holding her back was not knowing exactly where his face was. And again he pulled away, backing up a few paces.
"Follow the sound of my voice," he said. She turned her head towards where she thought it was coming from. "Good. Now I'm going to quit speaking in a minute, and I want you to point out where I am. Use everything that's available to you, master your senses."
He stopped speaking and the room fell silent. Bianca strained to hear something, wondering if in some way she should be developing a sixth sense at this point so she could find him. Then she heard the first footstep. She waited for another just to be sure before pointing out a direction. She heard them coming closer, heard them travelling further away. Heard them to the left, heard them to the right. She heard him making it a little harder, mixing it up a bit by shimmering into different spots so that she couldn't keep track of the direction he was going. As he shimmered closer to her she could feel the ripple in the air as he appeared. It was something she had never really noticed before. She went to grab behind her and heard him step back, just out of reach. She heard him take a step to the right and pause. She heard more steps somewhere in front of her now, still off to the right. She smiled, he'd shimmered again; she was learning his game now. Just as she was about to confidently point out where he was she heard him behind her again, where he had been before, taking another step.
"Michael?" she called uneasily. More footsteps, in front and behind, but no-one answered. "Michael, where are you? There're two sets of footsteps in here. There's more than just you. Who else is here?"
There was still no answer. Soft whispers, but nothing directed at her. She could feel panic start to slowly rise in her. What if something had happened to him? Unless he really was just playing a game. Feeling anxious and annoyed she called out to him again. She began to reach up to the blindfold.
"Go."
She lifted her head in an instant towards the voice. It was Michael's voice. What was he doing? He was in front of her now, joining the other footsteps. They weren't close enough for her to reach out and touch, but they weren't so far away that she couldn't hear them.
"Who's there?"
She barely got the words out when she felt a warm sensation inside her spreading outwards, everything feeling like it was disintegrating. Frightened, she reached up for the blindfold, picturing the room in her mind, knowing it would be there when she pulled the dark cloth down. But the further she stretched her hand, the more she felt like she couldn't reach it. She felt herself scattering, floating, completely disembodied. When she felt stable enough she grabbed hold of the blindfold and yanked it down, letting it hang around her neck. The room still looked the same, only there were two people in it now apart from her - Michael and another tall, slender man with light brown hair who looked to be in his twenties. The stranger gave her a warm smile as if she knew him. Her attention fully focused on Michael, she glared at him.
"What the hell was that? What are you playing at?"
There was no reaction from Michael which annoyed her even more. He seemed to be studying her like some science project, waiting to see what the effect would be. Trying to work out what the weird sensation she had felt was she glanced down and saw her other hand reforming from ash into long, slender fingers. It looked vaguely familiar, like she had seen it before, but it was a very long time ago, and not her but someone else. Quickly she looked back to them.
"What did you do to me?" she asked.
This time Michael decided he would speak, taking a step forward as he nodded back towards the other young man.
"This is Greg. He's a witch too. He just blew you up," Michael said matter-of-factly.
"What?" she shrieked. Michael walked closer to her.
"What you just did, that's called reconstitution. Just like the legend of the Phoenix that's our mark, you have the ability to rise from the ashes and reform. Typically you'll be able to do this against someone with the power of molecular combustion. With any other being they would be able to completely destroy the body and that's it, but the Phoenix has been blessed with the power to reform on such an event. I needed to show you this," he said stopping in front of her and lowering his voice, "because this is a power you can use to fool your enemies. This is something that is extremely rare to have. Value it. Use it."
"Why did you do it that way?" she asked quietly, upset that he had played her and tricked her into it. What if she hadn't had that power, what if she couldn't do it? She'd never done it before. Could he rely solely on instinct for her to make such a thing occur?
"Because if I told you I was going to try to kill you, you wouldn't trust me," he answered softly.
"Are we done here?" Greg called out. "Cause I've kind of got a lunch thing to get to."
"Sure," Michael said, waving him off without looking at him, his eyes on Bianca as she searched his face for answers. Realising that he was being ignorant, he turned to watch the young witch leave. "Thanks Greg."
"No problem," Greg called, waving back. He pushed the door open and Michael turned his attention back to Bianca.
"You understand?" he asked. She nodded quickly. "I'll see you tomorrow then."
Keeping an eye on him as she backed up, she gathered her things and raced from the room. She needed to work out what had just happened. She needed to get her head together. She couldn't focus otherwise, and without focus Michael would think her hopeless. Slowing her pace down, she took in a reassuring breath as she pushed the door open and walked out into the open air.