Forty-Three

Liz woke up abruptly, sitting on the bed, stiff as a stone. I didn’t know for sure what was going on, but something was not right. I held her to me and closed my eyes, feeling my surroundings. Lots of energy was coming from the outside. They were quiet, but I could pick up the snappings of twigs and steps on the snow. The last few days were so chaotic around us, I didn’t inspect her house enough to see how safe it was.
“Liz… There’s an…”
“Shh! Listen.” She cut me off and turned to me. “Come, let’s get dressed.” I pulled her back to bed when she was halfway out of the mattress. “What are you doing?” She hissed at me.
“There are people surrounding the house. I can feel four, maybe five of them.”
“And what do you expect? We stay here like sitting ducks, waiting for them to find us?” she spat, narrowing her brows at me, trying to get up.
“Let me handle this!” I told her and got out of bed.
“No! Stop being an asshole and follow my lead!” She jumped out of the mattress, and when I tried to grab her again, the little weasel shocked me. “Don’t even think about it, I’m not in the mood!” She warned, upset at me as she snitched her clothes from the floor, wiggling into them. I followed her, since whoever was outside was closing in.
“Let me handle this! It will be easier.”
“No, it won’t.” Liz faced me. Her eyes had a light glow in them, and it didn’t sit well with me. “What are you gonna do? Kill and impale them all?”
“That’s not fair, Liz.” If she wanted to get back at me, she did. I didn’t expect such a cruel remark. She stopped for a minute and inhaled.
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.” Her fingers were on my cheek, gentle. “Look, I need to see who’s behind all this. Who wants my head on a spike! Can you understand me?” Little did she know how much I understood her. “This house has a complete alarm system designed to serve my needs. Please, trust me on this, Grizzly.” Her lavenders met my eyes and there was nothing I could do but give her the chance to prove herself.
“Ok, what do you want me to do?” Outside, steps muffled by the snow got closer to the house, and I could see someone’s head through the blinds. Whoever they were, they were sneaky.
“Nothing… for now!” She answered me as she knelt closer to her dresser, taking the rug out of the way and hitting somewhere on the wooden floor. A hatch opened.
I walked to her and to my surprise, the little compartment was full of different weapons. She got a dagger and put on her waistband, throwing a bigger one in my direction. A beauty from the 17th century.
“Don’t you have a sword in there, do you?” I smirked at her.
“Sorry, Vlad.” She grabbed two more pistols and ammunition I’ve never seen before, closed the hatch, and put the rug back in place, turning to me. “Come, let’s go to the bathroom.” She signaled, and I followed suit. “Here, see this bottle of shampoo on this side, it’s a lever, you pull down, and this door opens!”
Her eyes glinted, and she had such a stealthy smile on her face. I wanted to kiss it away. If this was not déjà vu, I didn’t know what it was. In the middle of her shower, an entrance appeared, and stairs would take us underneath the house. We heard the front door coming down as soon as we stepped inside and closed the entrance behind us.
“What is this, dragă?”
“My headquarters, Grizzly.” Liz laid her weapons on top of the desk. “Things are about to get ugly, no one invades my home without consequences, and prepare yourself to see what the 21st century has to offer!” She hissed and sparks crackled in the air as we ended up in a room full of equipment, and I had no clue what they were for.
“What are all these!” I looked around. Everything was so foreign to me. I envied Anton. He would know about all these gadgets.
“I call it progress. Have a seat, love.” She winked, giving me the most beautiful, glowing smile. Even though the situation pissed her, I also sensed she was as excited as a child with new toys. “All these above your head are screens. On top of this desk, I have a computer with a keyboard. We can do a lot of things with it. Watch it.” She typed a few commands, and on each of the six screens, her house came alive. I couldn’t believe my own eyes.
“Is this some kind of magic?” I blubbered, more to myself than to her. My eyes glued to the screens.
“No magic. I have installed cameras all over my house, in and out. They’re tiny little devices, placed in strategic points, and they capture images and send them here, to this computer, so I can monitor everything.” She took her eyes off that thing for a little while, explaining it to me and fumbling in a drawer. “Here, this is a camera.” She threw the device at me, and I looked at it, it seemed nothing, just a little thing the size of an olive.
From one moment to the other, the air got heavier. Her eyes were stuck to one of the screens as her anger grew. The feeling of betrayal filled the air, and she wasn’t even aware her emotions were getting out of control. Something or someone got on her nerves. Fury slowly built within her.
“Calm down, your distress is charging the air, Liz.” She looked at the screen, showing her living room, her eyes shooting daggers at whoever was there. The waves of anger emanated from her like a reversed magnet, but there was also a deep feeling of disappointment stressed in those waves. “What’s wrong, dragă, talk to me, I feel your distress.” She zoomed the image on a man, getting a closer look at his neck, on a spot between the mask he wore and the collar of his jacket.
“Is that Jack? I think that son of a bitch is Jack! See that scar?” She pointed at him. “The only guy I know who has it, is Jack! Fucking traitor!” She yelled, hitting the table.
“You have a nasty mouth in this lifetime, Liz.” I scolded her, but it backfires. She turned to me, her eyes full of mischief.
“But it makes you howl with the naughty things it can do to you, Grizzly.” She threw me a kiss that reached places I prefer not to talk about, then her eyes glued to the guy again. “I’m gonna fry this rat. I swear, he’s dead meat!” She screamed. “I trusted him! He was my friend!”
“Liz! I don’t think it is prudent for you to have men as friends, for my sanity, your sake, and their lives.”
She gave me the evil eyes, rolling them up. “Shut up if you want to get out of here alive!”
“Liz, watch it! Now, breathe.” I came closer to her and put my hand on the nape of her neck, massaging. She needed to calm down. “Things are heating up here, dragă. You’re gonna blow everything up. Breathe!” I asked her. She tilted her head up and glared at me, but closed her eyes and inhaled sharply.
There were three men inside the house, and two kept watch outside. They were not there to steal anything I could see through the screens. They were looking for her. My jaw clenched, and a nerve snapped in my neck. How dare they threaten her? I ground my teeth to the point of feeling pain.
“She’s not here, boss. We searched everywhere.” Voices filled up the room. I looked for them, trying to see where they were coming from.
“Relax, Vlad. There are microphones with the cameras, audio devices, they are not here.” She smirked when she saw my confusion, but she tensed up again at the sound of their voices.
“Shit! Shadow, won’t be happy with us. The slut has already escaped us once, up in the woods. Now I understand why they call her a ghost.” The taller one snarled.
“If you expected less from her, you’re as stupid as a mule.” The one she thought was Jack praised her. “Alex knows her craft, and if you took her as one of our regulars in the agency, you underestimated her, my friend. She’ll find you, and you’re as good as dead.”
“Fine, let’s bug the house and leave.”
“It was him in that freaking cabin, frying my ass off. The entire time I knew the voice, I just couldn’t place it. It was him all along! But why? Why did he turn on me? Who’s this Shadow person?” She mumbled through gritted teeth, and the surge of energy rose within her again.