Caroline groaned and sat up. Her right hand flew to her forehead. Almost subconsciously, she felt her arm on fire.

She yelped briefly before realizing it was just a hallucination. A part of her mind was still back in the bar when she was attacked by Victor.

Victor…

Caroline had no idea what happened. As far as she knew, her leader just betrayed all of them.

“Ah, you’re awake.” Katie walked through the door and entered the room. She was holding a cup of water. She quietly passed it to Caroline. “How’re you doing?”

Caroline looked around. “Where am I?”

“My house. Well, at the moment it’s my house. Don’t worry. It’s safe.”

“What happened back there...wait, who changed my clothes?” Caroline looked down and realized she was in a set pajamas rather than the t-shirt she wore into the bar.

“I did. Nice bra by the way. Love the color.”

Caroline coughed. Then again she knew she shouldn’t be surprised. If Katie didn’t touch her, that would be creepy. Of course, this explained why her entire lower body was sore. She wisely changed the topic. “What happened?”

“It’s a long story.” Katie briefly explained what happened. Of course, she took out some parts that the blonde didn’t need to know.

“Wow, that’s...impressive.” Caroline smiled. “I guess I should thank you. After all, you saved my life. Then again,” She lifted the blanket on her and glanced inside briefly. “it seems like you have already collected your reward.”

Katie shrugged and flickered her fingers. “Now what?”

Caroline suddenly frowned and raised her right arm. Her mark was lit up, and the next second her duplicate blade flew into her grip from the table Katie put it on.

“How can my weapon still work if we just killed its creator. I thought Kassak had a way to disable the power he gave us.”

“I don’t know how he did what he did, but I think it’s something that needs to be manually activated. As soon as he died, that trick was turned off.” Katie held her arm out and put it next to Caroline’s. The two identical marks flashed simultaneously. “Kassak must be the primary user of this power and we, the followers, are the secondary. He can actively take our power away from us, but when he’s dead that power will be returned to us.”

“That’s convenient.” Caroline tossed the blade into the air and watched as it floated there. She suddenly felt so empty.

Her entire life has been dictated by someone else. First she was controlled by her parents and was forced to do everything they demanded. Next she was hell bent on being an independent and powerful woman who could rule the world by the side of a god. But now reality struck. She realized her plan of dominating the world was nothing but foolish. Now that she thought about it, perhaps even the Blade of Kassak couldn’t rule the world. If a bag of grenades wounded him so badly Katie could kill him with her bare hands, feet, a single rocket could blast him to pieces. Everything he promised, world domination, was probably just a way to get the followers to risk everything to revive him.

Plus, Kassak was dead, and Caroline was just a teenage girl with a psychic blade. She might be much more deadly than the ordinary woman, but there wasn’t anything she could really do. If she tried something, like murdering or challenging the government, her life might just be ended by a sniper bullet from a kilometer away. She would never see it coming.

Katie tilted her head. “Ever thought about going back to your family?” After all, she was hired by the girl’s parents to get the girl back to them quietly.

“Hell no.” Caroline smiled sadly. “I can’t stand those two. All they want is to make me a perfect child and marry me off to another powerful family to forge an alliance. They want me to be a canary, beautiful but trapped, bred to entertain.”

“Well,” Katie jumped onto the bed and laid down beside Caroline. She stared into the ceiling as she spoke. “you hate your parents, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Then kill them.”

Caroline coughed again, choked by surprise.

“If you go home and pretend like you are still the canary you once were, your parents will never suspect anything. And then,” Katie licked her duplicate blade and tasted something salty. “if they meet an unfortunate accident, who will be the successor to the empire they built?”

She turned around slightly and ran her weapon down Caroline in a seductive way. Caroline blushed again and twitched slightly, but she didn’t resist.

“Who will receive all the money Mr. and Mrs. Adams owned? Adams Combine is one of the largest companies in the country, and your mother owns the better part of it. If she, say, gets hit by a car.”

Caroline’s eyes twitched. A look of ambition appeared in her eyes.

Katie smiled when she saw the look. While the Adams did hire her, she wasn’t exactly the loyal type of girl. The Adams investigated her before they hired her. Now, that was totally reasonable, but Katie didn’t enjoy being spied on, at least not like this.

Plus, Mrs. Adams did call their daughter a maniac when she talked about how Caroline hurt herself. She didn’t realize it, but Katie took it personally.

Most importantly, Katie was eager to see how things would turn out. Will the daughter slay her parents and become the queen of the Adams empire, or will the parents hold their ground and crush the rebellion? She could feel her blood pumping as soon as she ran that idea through her head.

Sure, multiple people would probably die in the making of this event, but that only made Katie smile. There was nothing more interesting than a good old family feud.

Charleston Police Department.

Detective Kirsten walked into the captain’s office for the mission report. She was surprised to see another man inside. He wore a suit and tie like he was some sort of special government agent.

“Kirsten. This is Special agent Leon from FBI. He is here for the bar case.”

Kirsten nodded, but she guess she shouldn’t be surprised. Twelve SWAT officers died. The girl that saved her life and knocked her out later fought a way out of the police perimeter. All the officers were sent into the hospital. Surveillance camera showed the girl taking five more others with her on the way out. Their current location was unknown.

When more police reinforcement arrived and searched the bar, they discovered dozens of bodies. All of them were killed by some sort of sword.

After she woke up, Kirsten filed a report on everything she saw. She had to admit the flying sword part sounded a bit strange, but she was too exhausted to think about the credibility issue.

“Detective Kirsten. Can you answer a few questions?”

“I put down everything I knew in my report.” Kirsten didn’t want to go back to that event again. The blood of her fellow officers was still red inside her mind.

“It’s just some details.” Agent Leon smiled warmly. “You want to understand what happened back there, don’t you? I can buy you a drink. It wouldn’t take long.”

Kirsten hesitated for a second before finally nodding. For some reason, she felt like her life was completely changed with that nod.

Twenty minutes later, the two reached a coffee shop outside the police department. Leon bought two cups of coffees and paid for it. He returned to Kirsten and sat down.

He went straight to the point.

“What do you know about supernatural forces?”

Kirsten rose her eyebrows, trying to be as calm as possible. “Apart from what I saw in that bar, nothing.”

“Well, supernatural beings exist, and a large portion of them aren’t symbiotic with mankind.” He took out a stack of pictures and dropped them on the table. Kirsten slowly went through them.

The first picture showed a man that hung himself. It appeared to be a suicide.

“This man was a professional killer. In one of his missions, he killed an innocent man and staged it to look like a suicide.” He glanced at Kirsten. “He made it look like the innocent man hung himself.”

“Are you saying…”

“There was no defensive wound. Keep in mind that man is a killer, but someone managed to sneak onto him and kill him before he could do anything. Autopsy showed there wasn’t any drug involved, so the man was conscious when he died, and yet he didn’t even attempt to defend himself.”

“Are you saying this killer received karma? That…”

“I am saying that man was killed by a vengeful spirit, likely the one that he killed.” He pointed at the stack. “The list goes on. For decades, these supernatural beings slaughtered ordinary people like lions hunting down sheep.”

“I belong to a division in the FBI dedicated to preventing that from happening. Some of the victims might be criminals, but most are not, and even the criminals should be punished by law, not ghosts and spirits.”

Kirsten took a deep breath. “Why are you telling me this? Shouldn’t this be some sort of top secret information?”

“This girl.” Leon took out another picture. It was that of Katie. “She met you in the bar.”

“Yes. She was the one that took down the magical blade that killed all the officers. It’s all in the report.”

“According to your description, she is also a supernatural being. Rapid healing might just be one of her abilities.” Leon tapped the picture. “We need to find her, and you are our best opportunity.”

“I don’t understand. I don’t know who she is. The first time I met her was the time when she knocked me out.”

“Precisely. Knocked out.” Leon said slowly. “First she didn’t do anything when all the SWAT officers did, but then she stepped in when you were under threat. Later, when she was on the way out, she took down seven officers in the perimeter. All of them had at least a limb broken. But you were simply knocked out and woke up a couple minutes later with nothing but a bruise on the back of your neck.”

“Are you suggesting something?” Kirsten frowned. She didn’t like where this was going.

“No. If we suspected you’re a mole of this girl it wouldn’t be me talking to you.” Leon kept his smile on. “Nonetheless, you are special, and the girl didn’t hurt you. Plus, you know the way around this city. I will need to stay here for a while, and I’m going to need some help.”

“I’ve got a job.” Kirsten refused.

“I will talk to your captain.” Leon said confidently, not doubting whether or not the captain would say yes.

Kirsten bit her lips.

Both of them thought Katie saved Kirsten because the female officer was special. They never even considered the idea that she was just in a good mood.

On the other side, Katie slid her sharp nails down Caroline’s bareback.

After she planted a seed inside Caroline’s head, things got a bit out of control. Both girls had a lot on their mind, and they desperately needed a way to let these stress off. What was a better stress reliever than sex?

“Are you coming with me?” The blonde asked after a while.

“No. I have something else to attend to.” Katie denied. She was intrigued by supernatural beings. If she didn’t have a better choice, she would gladly spend her time with the family and help Caroline set up the ‘accident’, but she had better things to spend her time on.

“Fair enough.” Caroline turned around and faced Katie. “Just give me your number. I feel like we’re going to be friends, especially after this. Oh who am I kidding? We’re definitely going to be friends.” She giggled.

Katie smiled and pulled away from the girl. She stood up from the bed and walked to a table and grabbed a piece of paper. She put her phone number down and casually slid it along her arm, causing a paper cut. She jammed the paper into the wound before pulling it out. Now that the edge of the paper was stained red from her blood, Katie finally smiled in satisfaction and handed the paper to Caroline. The paper didn’t feel complete in its pure white form.

“Goodbye, Katie.” The blonde stole another glance at Katie’s bare chest.

“Goodbye.” Katie smiled before putting on her clothes and walking out of the house.