Chapter 5

Morning greeted me far too soon, with a ringing room phone and Karl's unhurried voice.

"Freshen up and grab your kit, we've got an adventure today"

I tried to process this random bit of information "What are you talking about? Adventure?"

"Yeah, new portal just opened 20 miles from here. We can discuss it over coffee. Just follow the smell and you can't miss the dining hall."

Coffee. The magic word that makes early morning phone calls tolerable. With that in mind I dragged myself from this warm, soft and comfortable bed. Karl's coffee had better be good.

Now showered and dressed in a combat friendly outfit of black leather pants, a light blue silk blouse under a black leather under bust corset and my favorite mid length leather trench coat I was ready to face the day.

Following my nose to the dining room, I was surprised to find Karl not alone. Instead he is sitting at a table with a very young looking female vampire and a male human in a black suit, who was wearing sunglasses indoors.

"Good, you made it. You remember Narishma from the meeting?" Karl nodded his chin in her direction in case it wasn't obvious. "Her and her partner are the ones that found the portal. Unfortunately they're both huge nerds and not combat specialists, so they've come to enlist our aid."

This brought an evil look from the human, and light laughter from the Vampire.

"You never change do you? Always quick to pick on the support staff as soon as you get your intel." The vampire quipped at him.

Seeing this conversation going nowhere fast, I decided to intervene.

"How did you locate the portal so quickly? Doesn't it usually take some time to track down the actual disturbance?"

Karl ruffled the vampire's curly black hair with a smile. "Little Ari here was a necromancer's apprentice when she was turned. Now, Vamps might be a bit lacking in the magic department, but necromancy is right up their alley, if they can train their mana pool before they die." Narishma rolled her eyes at the nickname and head pat, but nodded in agreement.

Realizing that this explained nothing at all, the black suited man extended his hand in greeting. "Welcome, since it seems I won't be getting a formal introduction, I am Agent Smith." The perfect political handshake, not too soft, nor too strong. Agent Smith is living up to the generic nature of his name. "What they mean is that her necromancy skills detect deaths within a certain range. Extended out it is vague, but a large number of sudden deaths in an area is suspicious, so we checked the satellite feeds to find the portal."

"Yeah, what the spook said" Karl agreed.

Narishma looked my outfit over once with a conspiratorial smile.

"Going by your fashion sense, you've found the right partner." I felt my face heat and I'm certain her vampiric senses had no trouble picking out that I was blushing at her insinuation.

"I kid. But back to business, a bit of armor might be a good thing today, even for a Lycan. Satellite images show what look to be Orcs gathering around the exit of the portal. Definitely hostile, and increasing in numbers."

Orcs, 7 foot tall pig faced humanoids known for their sense of smell. Intelligent, and like to attack in large groups, to increase their chances of taking prisoners. Despicable creatures. At least I won't feel too bad about my first combat mission other than guarding against rogues at the Pack border.

Narishma looked over at Karl "Now remember, the council has already reprimanded you twice over code violations, so don't go too crazy until you're at least out of range on the other side of the portal."

Karl just laughed "I know, I know. No nukes, no chemical weapons. Don't blow up the civilians, yadda yadda"

I hope he's joking. I mean he's got to be joking right? Can arcane magic make chemical weapons? He did say he can summon many simple objects.

Seeing my mounting panic Karl placed a comforting hand on my shoulder.

"No worries partner, we're just having a laugh. It's all in good fun."

Thank the Moon Goddess, I was worried for a second there. But the look on the Vampire's face is giving me a suspicion he might not be entirely joking.

"Do we need any sort of special weaponry to deal with the threat?" I questioned, not trusting my recently gained knowledge of foreign being biology.

"Nope! Claws, knives, guns and spells all work great" Karl finally showed the smile he'd seemingly worn all day yesterday. "Just skip on the clubs and spikes. Their skin is tough and covers a heavy layer of fat that absorbs most blunt impacts and short blades."

"Today I was going to go over teamwork and getting familiar with how we both fight, but now is as good of a time as any for a live action crash course." he continued.

"You two combat maniacs have fun. We'll be right here in the control room in case you need assistance" Narishma waved over her shoulder as she and Smith got up to leave.

"Grab a heavy breakfast, I've packed a weeks provisions already, so we can leave in an hour" Karl nodded at the buffet set up along one wall of the room.

Every breakfast essential was present and accounted for. Scrambled eggs, blueberry pancakes, yogurt, muffins. 5 different juices, coffee, tea and a whole table dedicated to assorted meats. All appropriately hot and cold, despite no visible temperature controls.

"Hey Karl, what's up with the magic buffet?" I asked while stacking my plate high. Lycans, even us small ones, have a very high metabolism.

"It's enchanted to create what the people in the room desire. Don't drink the Tomato juice, it's blood"

Well, that's not creepy at all. I wonder if blood in a glass is served hot or cold? No, best not to dwell on that.

"Who does all this? The buffet, the self cleaning rooms and the magic garden?"

"The safe house was set up a few decades back by the whole of the Combat Mage batallion for our own protection and personal use" Karl replied "Select others, like Ari helped with the enchanting in exchange for access, but it took years to get it all done. The farm sits on a minor ley line junction which powers most of the facilities. The users supply the rest."

Karl laid out a map of the facility, 500 suites on 20 levels, with 5 more floors dedicated to various meeting rooms, training facilities and what was labelled as a Sauna and Spa?

"Did you guys seriously build a spa in here?"

"Narishma's idea. It's even got attendants to do massages and manicures." Looking at his hands, I definitely need to drag Karl in there once we return.