Mob Sorcery 2 - Ch26

Chapter 26

Ally’s humble little storefront looked as empty as always. Although right as the group approached, a suited demon stepped out the door. He ignored Vince and the others and didn’t even bother holding the door.

Ronin frowned at the demon’s back, but entered with the rest of them. Fia entered first, mostly because Vince held the door for her.

“Welcome!” Ally’s voice called out. “Let me know if I can help you with anything.”

Fia’s lips quirked upward, which told Vince enough. He slipped in after the wolfgirl and saw Ally’s face fall, only for her to perk back up when Ronin joined them.

His favorite fox—really, the only fox he knew—had taken on the glamour of a wolfgirl with brilliant red hair, a big bushy tail, and form-fitting clothes that matched Fia’s style. Ally actually possessed a bust in these clothes, although Vince half-thought she might be using an illusion to enlarge them.

“Oh, Vince, you brought friends?” Ally asked, then gasped as her eyes fell on Nicki. “Wow! You look amazing today. Did you manage all that with those dyes I sold you?”

Nicki’s wings fluttered but she rushed the counter to show off her new look. While Ally gushed over the intricate illusions and commented on her contacts, the harpy preened.

“You have to let me take a photo of you like this. I can’t believe how much you’ve done with the dyes. I always assumed you’d need a proper illusion tool or elixir for such a complete transformation,” Ally said.

While the fox took photos of Nicki, Vince and the rest poked at the many items for sale. Ronin gawked at the shelf containing all the magic tools, while Fia rummaged through a clothes stand in the corner.

“Well?” Vince asked.

“These aren’t as good as Nina’s, but I’ll admit I’m interested,” Fia said. “Enchanted clothes are a pain to get. You can’t just throw magic into any fabric, as ordinary polyester and cotton can’t hold spells properly. It’s why I never bothered. Finding a trusted tailor and enchanter, choosing the right spells and materials, and then getting multiple outfits done, because you know one will get damaged…” She shook her head.

“So how the hell does Nina have one?” he asked. “I’d figure that the Lionettis could afford them if she can.”

“Alessia would go broke if she tried to deck us out.” Fia placed the pants she’d been looking at back on the stand. “Nina refused to tell me, but I bet she dropped at least a hundred grand on hers. Dunno how many spares she has.”

“Just one.”

Fia shot him an odd look and he shrugged.

“I do her laundry. Even if she rarely wears her enforcer outfits, they need to be taken care of. Otherwise they’ll become stuffy and useless.”

With that said, he struggled to see how Nina’s clothes could be worth as much as Fia said. Sure, she’d made the care instructions super clear, but would she trust him to take care of something worth literal years of rent?

Then again, if he hadn’t, Nina would have left her clothes to grow moldy.

Vince rifled through the clothes on display and still struggled to see how he might pay tens of thousands for some jeans or a jacket. Especially as he’d need to be sure of what enchantments were laden into them. He could feel the barrier built into each piece of clothing, but he could cast his own barriers. Nina’s outfit had far more to it than just a barrier.

“Hey, Vince, you bought your cane here, right?” Ronin asked, pulling Vince from his browsing.

He joined his friend by the shelves full of magic tools. Ronin had a metallic bracelet in his hands and appeared confused.

“Yeah,” Vince said. “Ally helped pick it out.”

The fox’s ears perked up and she looked away from where she was taking a photo of Nicki, who had removed her jacket. Vince tried not to look in their direction, as Nicki’s clothes left little to imagine, especially looking like she did today.

“I know the Lionettis are paying you well, but this well?” Ronin stared at a familiar stone dagger. “I’m saving up for a good telekinetic magic tool, so that I can stop perps from fleeing so easily, but this is exactly the stuff I was talking about earlier. Fancy stuff that would break my bank. Any of these foci would be worth what I pay in rent.”

“The cane was worth what I pay in rent,” Vince said drily. “That’s why I got Alessia to pay for it.”

And then some, given Ally had lied about how much he paid for it. He’d somehow made a profit by buying a new focus.

Ronin looked at his cane and his lips thinned.

But before he could say anything, Ally flounced up to them. She’s returned to her fox appearance and one of her tails rubbed against Vince’s back. When he glanced at it, the tail pulled back and Ally’s face reddened. She didn’t acknowledge him.

“I promise my prices are very fair,” Ally insisted. “Anything you get here is far better than the same product elsewhere in the laneway. And affordable.”

“Given catalyst prices, I doubt you’re selling them that cheaply,” Ronin said. “That was your local Immanuel dealer who left earlier, right?”

Annoyance flickered across Ally’s face. “No. He was the muscle assigned to me because I buy from one of their middlemen. What catalyst dealer would visit their customer? That would get me in all sorts of shit, officer.”

Fia and Nicki giggled while Ronin hunched his shoulders.

“Seen through,” Vince said. “He’s off-duty and a good friend, Ally.”

The fox rolled her eyes. “If I was worried about being busted by the police, I wouldn’t have a store in the middle of the city.”

“With so few customers, how do you even afford rent here?” Ronin asked.

“I have customers,” Ally insisted. “You came here with one.”

Ally’s tails practically encased Vince as she spoke, but they hovered just out of reach. He wanted to stroke one.

Something told him that Ally would boot him out of the store if he acted on his thoughts.

“Why’s Immanuel’s muscle visiting you?” Fia asked.

Ally’s tails froze even as she looked at the wolfgirl. “There was an incident on Friday night. It’s nothing serious.”

“Immanuel don’t send demons to random stores for trivial matters. Something went down. I might have been preoccupied that night, but it’ll come out soon enough.”

“It will, yes.” Ally sighed and retreated behind her counter. “How are you doing, by the way? You’re a Lionetti, right? I’m glad that both of you are doing well given what I saw on the news.”

“We’re good. Thanks to your infusions,” Vince said.

As if keen to change the subject, Ally perked up. “You used them? Were there any side-effects? Did they work as well as I promised? It’s not often I get the chance for direct feedback from a customer. Back in New York, it was common enough, but most of my sales are indirect here.”

Indirect? Vince wondered who she sold to. That sounded like a corporate sale, which left him curious as to how she had enough infusions to sell over the counter if everyone was snatching them up due to the conference.

“The only side-effects involved not dying, so I appreciate that,” he said.

Ally’s eyes widened. “Dying? Are you sure you’re alright? My infusions are powerful, but…” She bit her lip.

“Given how quickly they healed him, powerful is an understatement,” Fia said. “And you didn’t answer my question.”

Visibly annoyed, Ally huffed. “Houou… caused a scene here. I’ve been encouraged to take legal action against them and Immanuel is poking into my affairs, as I’m technically under their protection because I buy catalysts from them.”

“Even though this is Houou turf,” Ronin said.

“It’s not like I can buy from them,” Ally said.

Fia crossed her arms. “A scene. You mean an attack.” Her eyes widened and she looked at Vince. After a few seconds, she scowled. “I can guess why. But I’ll drop the topic for now. If you’re the supplier of Vince’s infusions, I’d definitely be interested. Hell, the entire Lionetti Family might be, if you can supply us.”

“Um…” Ally bit her lip. “It might take a bit. I still need to fulfil an order for another client. But I have enough to supply you right now.”

Fia stepped up to the counter. Once there, she tried to surreptitiously slide her phone across the counter. Vince only just caught the motion before one of Ally’s tails blocked his vision.

What were those two communicating in secret? Whatever it was, Ally pulled out a small box full of infusions.

“I need a few of those as well,” Vince said. “I might come back later in the week to grab a magic tool, but I’m here for infusions.”

“Oh. I can do you a deal if you also buy a tool.” Ally smiled brightly at him, appearing almost like the sun with her brilliant red hair and tails. “Um, although if you don’t know what you want…” She frowned abruptly but said nothing.

“Do I get a deal if I buy a magic tool?” Fia asked, her eyes gleaming with mischief.

Ally shot a sidelong glance at the wolf, but pretended she hadn’t said anything. Fia grinned.

After some dithering, Vince ended up with another batch of magic-restoring infusions, plus a couple of healing ones.

“If you’d like, I can hold the payment until you come back for your tool.” Ally’s tails wavered. “Also, I wanted to ask if you were free on Wednesday. A friend of mine really wanted to meet you, and I’m having lunch with her. You could choose what you want then, pay for everything, and then join us for lunch.” She looked at him expectantly with wide eyes. “Please?”

Fia snorted and covered her mouth with one hand, while Ronin and Nicki ignored them.

“Sure. I have time. Who’s the friend?” Vince asked.

For some reason, Ally’s expression faded a little. “Oh. Just a fox I know through my father.”

Vince became paranoid. “This isn’t getting back to your father, right?”

He worried that he might be forced into meeting Ally’s parents due to being—to his knowledge—her only customer. Part of him doubted that she had a client for her infusions, even.

Ally laughed. “No, no. I’m trying to keep him away from Aulfair, actually.”

“Then it’s a date.”

Smiling at him, Ally wrapped up his infusions before helping everyone else. Fia grabbed a bunch of infusions for herself and nodded at the cost. Vince kept his thoughts to himself.

After all, he was certain that Ally was charging her twice as much. He’d bring it up to Fia when they left the store, because it might be due to some corporate deal. If the Lionettis wanted to buy out Ally’s supply, it stood to reason she’d charge more.

Ronin ended up buying the bracelet for a few grand. His expression when Ally told him the price suggested he expected to be robbed for it.

Although if a basic telekinetic bracelet cost three grand, Vince worried what he might have to spend for the stuff he was interested in. His attempt to learn a melee spell fell short of what he might need and wanted something akin to Pola’s claws or Fia’s flame blades. Hell, the illusion tool Nicki discussed with Ally cost two grand, and it wasn’t Ally’s best quality.

“Um, it’s not that it’s cheap,” Ally explained. “But it does need regular recharging and recasting to maintain the illusion. My best work is more like the tools you’re used to. It effectively lasts forever, or might only need to be recharged once a year.”

“But you’ll recharge this one every month for free,” Nicki clarified.

“Um, for the first year. It’s part of the price.”

The harpy fluttered her wings and tapped her feet on the floorboards. The noise she made reminded Vince that she still had talons beneath the illusion. Especially as her toes didn’t touch the floor during the gesture.

“I’m still not sure,” Nicki muttered.

“I’ll cover it as your bonus,” Vince said. “From Friday night. But you should be certain of what appearance you want.”

“Well, this one is…” Then she paused. “No, that succubus was right. I should create my own appearance. Not just copy that slut on all the ads.”

Everyone shot Nicki a strange look, but she ignored them. Vince found it amusing that Nicki still called the artificial birdgirl on the billboards a slut despite copying her appearance.

In the end, they left after Fia and Vince exchanged numbers with Ally. He didn’t know why Fia wanted her contact details, but he needed Ally’s number so he knew when lunch was happening on Wednesday.

Once outside, they trundled down the laneway. The lines hadn’t moved as much as they should have. The doggirls remained firmly entrenched outside the succubus’s store. Part of Vince felt glad that Ally wasn’t busy, but he also knew she deserved to be and how much it must hurt to be ignored on such a busy street.

“Those infusions aren’t kickbacks for bringing us there, right?” Ronin asked while adjusting the bracelet on his wrist. “The prices were almost too good to be true.”

“Speak for yourself,” Fia muttered. “I won’t say I got ripped off, given it’s so damn hard to buy infusions right now—let alone ones that can heal a gaping hole in my chest—but I reckon she’ll give Alessia a run for her money when the two negotiate.”

“Is that why you got her number?” Vince asked.

“Yes. Not so I can arrange a booty call, like you.”

Nicki laughed, her wings bumping against Vince in the process.

“I was going to ask about the price you paid,” he said.

“I’m not her favorite customer, so I don’t get generous discounts or insane magic foci that should cost like thirty grand.” Fia gave him a sidelong look. “I’m a corporate enforcer. It’s normal for me to get reamed on infusions and the like. Chances are the price I paid is what she sells to her client.

“Are you sure she has one? Nobody visits her.”

“She’s paying her rent somehow, and Houou fucking hates her. I bet her client is Immanuel, given the visit from that enforcer. Houou’s pissed she’s supplying the competition. Fucking insane that they’d attack her store, though. It’ll be all over the news. People will eat up fox-on-fox violence. Trippych might even interview her personally.”

Ronin nodded in agreement as the group stopped on the street at the end of the laneway. “Attacking a store, even if it is supplying a rival, is an outright crime. There’s no news reports of it, but if she’s considering legal action, there’ll be a police report somewhere. An arrest might have been made.” He paused. “Anyway, I’ve spent far too much for one weekend and I’m back in Albion for another 12-hour shift tomorrow. I need some rest. Later.”

They waved him off, and considered grabbing some drinks. But as they crossed the intersection, Fia appeared less interested in a drink than a chat. She stopped Vince outside the coffee shop.

“Go and grab a drink, Nicki,” Fia said. “Just want to talk to V.”

He waited for Nicki to enter the store, then looked at the wolfgirl. “What’s wrong?”

“Two things. One that I’m not entirely certain of. Another that I am.” She stared at the laneway, as if expecting somebody to walk out of it. “Ally got hit by Houou because of you. The timing is uncanny. Same night that they hit us? Somebody threw a tantrum because she gave you infusions and stopped their assassination attempt.”

“You’re certain of that?”

“Okay, maybe certain is too strong, but the timing is concerning. The other thing…” Fia looked up at him and brushed her hair behind one ear. “Be careful, Vince. I think you’re in somebody’s sights. Getting so much fame and attention so quickly might have painted a target on your back. If Houou’s attacking civilians already, they won’t hesitate to try to take you out, crime or not. Things are lining up too neatly for my liking.”

“What do you—”

She shook her head. “I need to look into things. That’s my job, especially as your handler. And friend.” One of her hands brushed against his arm and her tail batted his rear. “Anyway, I’d offer you a ride, but Nicki nearly had a panic attack the one night I drove her home. Girl did not like being cooped up. Remember to talk to Nina before loading her up, by the way.”

Before Vince could clarify who the “her” in that last sentence was, Fia crossed the intersection and left. Distraction marred her expression.

Personally, he hoped she was also careful. Hadn’t she been one of the targets of Friday’s attack?

For now, he enjoyed a little more time with Nicki and some more coffee. No eggs involved.

He did wonder about Ally’s friend, however. Come Wednesday, he wouldn’t need to wonder. But who knew what might occur in the two days before then. Fia’s warning rang out in his mind as he left the coffee shop.

- - - - -

Commentary: FYI, the Heretic Spellblade 6 audio is up for pre-order on Audible right now. So go grab it if you want. I got the MP3s yesterday and a certain fox's voice is perfect.

Anyway, I sense quite a few people are disappointed with the pacing of recent chapters (or maybe you just don't like Nicki). I won't change it for the book (other than reordering the Ally PoV), but I'm unlikely to have a long section without action again. Similarly, because of the knock-on effects of the massive battle in the middle of the book, I'll probably avoid doing something like that again.

Otherwise, floof, shopping, Ally showing favoritism, and setting up a meeting with the Yakuza.