5. A Thief in the Night

The sun sets slowly over the horizon; twinkling in brilliant beauty against the skyline. Stretching Iris opens one eye and chirps a complaint at me. I sense that she isn't ready to wake.

"I'm sorry little one but we need to keep moving." I quickly gather what little belonging I have and rouse James from next to the smoldering embers of our fire.

"James wake up!"

James jumps instantly into a crouch as if under attack and then growls grumpily when he realizes it's only me.

"Do ye have to wake a fellow up like that, lass?!?" Growling at me he settles onto the ground. Grinning wickedly I nod pertly.

"Wouldn't be half as funny if I didn't now would it?" I duck low as he chucks a log at me from next to the fire.

"My, my we are testy this morning! So James, we need to get to California right?"

"Yes lass, that's where the leaders of Raknath were last I knew, at our headquarters in San Francisco."

"Well traveling on foot is getting us nowhere so I say we steal." My mouth set in a grim line. James glances at me startled.

"Lass, have ye lost your mind?!?" Half shouting.

"No, but do you have any better ideas?" This shuts him up and I can see his mind turning trying to come up with something. Finally he's sighs and rubs a hand over his face.

"Fine." He says begrudgingly. He pours dirt onto the embers and standing he looks at me and says

"Where did you have in mind?" Smirking I laugh.

"Go big or go home, we are headed for the Chrysler building!" His face goes pale and he starts to sweat.

"If you're sure..."

"I am."

I take off at a run heading north. Iris runs beside me and I sense pure joy through our link. She's always so blissfully happy just to be with me it makes my heart light and I feel like I can do anything. We run for several hours before the giant building comes into view ahead of us. The streets are silent as the world slumbers.

"First things first, we have to find the Transmitter and kill the power."

"On it!" James runs off around the back of the building and next thing I know the entire block goes dark. Once he's back I look up and say

"Well that was fast. Let's go."

We walk inside and find the stairs at the back of the building and start descending, heading for the basement. Once we reach the bottom floor we hear a surge of power and the lights come back on!

"Uh oh. That's no good, guess the generator kicked in..." worried James.

"We'll just have to be careful." We walk down a hallway to a set of double doors, I look around trying to find another way to go through. Spotting a vent shaft above us I point silently and James gives me a boost up on his shoulders. I push the vent up carefully so I don't make any noise and climb into the shaft, it's a tight fit but not uncomfortable. James jumps up after me followed by Iris.

We head straight down the shaft in the direction of the doors and I find another vent that opens into the room and peer through to see below. The room is filled with computer monitors and security guards. They appear to be human, my mouth waters. I silently remove the vent and jump down into the room. They never even heard me as I sate my thirst. I look at the monitors and locate what I'm looking for.

"James! Look!" I call. On the far left is a room filled with stacks and stacks of bundled money! Looking around I find a table to our right with blueprints of the building and look for one labeled "vault." Failing to find this, I find one labeled "high security." It's located to the west through the vents so I jump back up and join James and Iris.

"We need to head west from here." I whisper. James nods and starts crawling as I follow. We reach the room and I open the vent. We jump down and I find a bag and start filling it with cash.

"Halt! Trespassers! For I am Veto and you will not leave this vault alive!" Suddenly a voice exclaims from the darkness of the room!! Whipping around I search for the source and in front of me stands a man! He has long purple hair down to his mid back and white skin flashing with rainbow script! He's one of us! Beside him is a strange creature, it appears to be made of blue fire! My mind flashes back to the flames in my fireplace, what feels like a lifetime ago...I shake myself.

"Iris" I call out and she is suddenly beside me. James stands at my back. I grab my dagger and stand at the ready.

"I'm sorry, Veto but I'm not leaving this vault without what I came here for, and you won't stop me." I snarl. I lunge at him as I cast a spell that will hold his familiar hostage. He parries my blow and steps back. We circle each other as Iris guards his familiar snarling low in her throat. His eyes widen as he realizes we have his familiar, he lowers his blade.

"Stop. Please don't hurt him. I'll tell you what you seek and let you pass if you let him go."

"I seek the way to California." I said quietly. His eyes widen.

"There is a secret passage under the Golden Gate Bridge but you will have to get past it's guardian." He said frantically. "Please that's all I know."

"I will release your familiar once we are safely out of here." He suddenly lunges at me again and I parry the blow just in time and rack my claws across his throat.

"I'm sorry." I whisper as his familiar keens loudly in grief and explodes and in a puff of smoke. His body falls to the floor and out of it rises a ghastly figure!

"I AM THE TRUE VETO AND NONE SSSHALL PASSSS" It's voice explodes against my eardrums and I cover them crying out in pain! I use a spell to block out the sound and crouch low pulling Iris behind me. Using magic again I enchant my dagger so that I can fight this incorporeal creature. Lunging once more I slash downward at it and it wraps itself around my body completely engulfing me! I can't move! I can't breathe! My lungs start to scream, my vision dims...in my mind I hear Iris frantically crying out for me. Then James casts a spell and light suddenly busts from him and fills the whole room with its brilliance. The creature screams and vanished and I gasp for air panting as I hit the ground. I lay there dazed. James runs up to me.

"Nikko! Are you okay?!?!" "Nikko!!" He pulls me into his arms and holds me. Suddenly his lips are on mine and I freeze. I melt helplessly into his kiss.

"James..." I whisper when he finally pulls away.

"I thought I was guna lose ye Lass." He says softly. I look into his eyes and pull him close to me.

"Thanks to you I'm okay. We need to get out of here."

"Can ye walk?" He asks. I nod and stand up feeling as if I've been hit by a semi, I wince. Grabbing the bag of cash I jump back into there vent and we retrace our steps and leave the building.

Once outside we head to the nearest auto shop and buy a car. It's getting light out so we decide to park and rest after what feels like the longest night of my life. I lay down in James's arms and I'm asleep instantly.

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