"Cooking your feelings?" Jeisa's dad asked as he leaned against the kitchen door.

"What gave it away?" Jeisa replied with a sigh as she wrapped another aluminium tray filled to the brim with spicy biriyani rice, labelled the foil wrap, then added it to the kitchen counter populated by a dozen other trays filled with a dozen different dishes.

"I'll call the neighbours to let them know to make space in their refrigerators," he said with a little chuckle. "You know, I wouldn't be surprised if your shared meals have raised the property value of this neighbourhood. Everyone keeps saying they're the happiest neighbours in Wraith Hamlet."

Jeisa laughed as she began clearing the dishes she'd used. She preferred using the main house's kitchen for these big cooks because it was easier to use more dishes thanks to the much larger dishwashing space that dwarfed that of her tiny one-bedroom bungalow guest house next to the main house.

"Dad," Jeisa sighed, looking up from being elbow deep in sudsy dishwater. "The captain knows I'm on to her."

Her dad nodded. "I figured."

"I did everything right."

"I know. It's not your fault. I underestimated her." He said, walking up to help her with the dishes. "We're taking her off the list. She's no longer a part of your assignment."

"What?" Jeisa couldn't believe he'd just said that. The definitive consequence from disregarding the Red Dragon was supposed to be a certainty, like taxes and death. This is what Jeisa had been training for her whole life!

"I mean it, Jeisa," he said. "I'm calling you off this. Don't go after her."

He wasn't telling her everything and that pissed Jeisa off. She was about to call him out on it, when he said one more thing that silenced her.

"In more positive news, your third target? Remember him?" her dad asked. Mr. twenty ninth floor apartment. Of course, Jeisa remembered him. Had only just seen him yesterday. "Well, he hasn't been seen in town for the last couple of days. Looks like you've got your first target to actually heed your warning. Congratulations."

Jeisa stayed silent. To correct her father would be to admit that she'd failed in more ways than one because she'd have to tell him about the purple velvet case – the likely Weapon of Mass Destruction that she'd let slipped through her fingers several times now. In addition to hunting down the Captain, Jeisa had spent the last day hunting down Mr. twenty ninth floor apartment, the woman he'd met with and that stupid purple case, but she hadn't made any progress.

Shit.

The neighbours were going to have to buy new refrigerators to fill up.

*

Three days.

Three days and Jeisa had made barely any progress. She trusted that her father would be working his own angle with his contacts, but she'd been discreetly building her own contacts in the Warehouse district and had been leaning on them pretty hard the last few days. No one knew anything about the guy from the twenty ninth floor apartment, but she'd just gotten some news that made it feel like things were finally about to turn around.

Someone knew the woman he'd been dining with.

She was a Wraith Hamlet local. Someone who'd been here when the town was first transformed. There was even word that she may have been a member of the team that transformed the town, although no one, not even Jeisa's dad, knew exactly who was behind the town's transformation. The woman was also heavily involved with ex-military mercenaries, apparently having hired a dozen or so in the last month. This was the news Jeisa had been waiting for. She didn't want to go to her father empty handed, but this was good. She could finally tell him about the woman, Gretel. He'd know what to do, and hopefully, how to get that purple case.

But Jeisa would still have to sweeten the reveal. She'd been lying to her father, and she wanted the apology and her report on Gretel to go well. She'd have to cook something really good. A recipe that she didn't do often because it was nearly impossible to find the right ingredients. Something that would distract her dad just enough to get back on his good side after this blunder. It was both their dream to be a team that would keep Wraith Hamlet safe, and a team needed to work together. But she'd dropped that ball, and her father didn't deserve that.

It was almost sunset. Jeisa had just left the Warehouse district and she was now trawling for an ATM machine. The rare ingredients for her next culinary masterpiece could only be found in a hole-in-the-wall shop not that far from the warehouse district, but it only accepted cash.

Jeisa had fully intended to slip her black card into the machine – she really had.

She hadn't even noticed the technopath filaments moving out of her.

The jolt from sparking the ATM machine was potently heady. Jeisa immediately sank into the connection with other ATM machines spanning Wraith Hamlet. With her eyes closed, she savoured the energy coursing through her, enjoying the spinning ones and zeroes in her mind's eye that were transactions happening all over the city. Ones and zeroes that were just waiting to be transformed into zeroes and ones, misaligning orders and requests, causing undiluted, total anarchy. Panic. Terror. The power it presented was intoxicating.

Jeisa let herself slowly drown in it all. She was going to crash the ATM system. Just for the fun of it. For the deliciously thrilling, stimulating and rousing fun of it. She'd finally let that pulse, now pooling at her chest, pour right down her scorching body to that place where it would cause the best god damn orga...

The sharp trill of her phone buzzing in Jeisa's pocket smashed through her thoughts throwing her into a confused frenzy. Disoriented, she tried to sort through the jagged feelings of her mind as the technopath tendrils flowed back into her and she disconnected from the machine. No amount of air she drew in seemed to fill her lungs. She was frazzled. Disjointed. Broken. On the ground, on her knees, wishing for the feeling to pass. It oozed out of her pores slowly. Much too slow. Was she dying?

Her phone, which had gone silent for a few seconds, came alive again, buzzing in her pocket, the trilling ringtone drilling through her skull. She fumbled for the phone in her pocket and looked at the caller ID.

Cass.

Cassidy.

The name registered dimly through the fog that was clogging her thinking. Cassidy. Cass. Cass was trouble. Cass was always getting herself in strange situations. They'd hang out again these past few days. They'd met for ice cream at the mall before it got to cold outside to truly enjoy ice cream – though Cass assured Jeisa that this was an impossibility. That ice cream was a year-long enjoyment item. Cass had then shop lifted a broom during that mall date. No, she hadn't forgotten to pay for it at the self-checkout. She took it, saying that it was too big for them to think she would. Jeisa had secretly disabled the detectors as Cass walked by them.

Cassidy was trouble. Cassidy was fun. Cassidy was fun trouble. Jeisa liked Cassidy. Cassidy. Cass. Jeisa finally swiped right to answer the call.

"Hey Jeisa." said Cass enthusiastically.

"Cass." whispered Jeisa, her heart full and reverent as she breathed the name.

"Are you OK?"

"I am now." Jeisa was struggling to get commands to her different body parts. It seemed like only her voice box was responding.

"Well, aren't you the charmer." she said with a chuckle. "But, to be honest, you sound like crap."

"No, I'm good. I really am," Jeisa lied through her teeth, her body wracked with pain. "What's up?"

Jeisa had finally managed to pull herself off the ground. She looked at the ATM machine. It was smoking. Destroyed. There was one more little bang, then a few bills rained out of the machine. Jeisa weaved to her feet, picked at the bills, and pocketed the ones she could.

"Want to go to the movies tonight? Dinner after? My treat." Cass said.

Wait.

Was this really happening?

Or was Jeisa in a sparking delusion?

She didn't want to wake up if she was.

"Like a date?" asked Jeisa, slowly walking to her truck, testing if she still had control of everything.

"Sure," said Cass, chuckling. "I guess."

"Okay. Cool. Yeah. Um... what time were you thinking?"

"Pick me up around seven?"

Jeisa lowered her phone screen. It was five pm. She put the phone back to her ear. "Seven's perfect."

"Awesome," Cass replied. "See you then."

Jeisa drove straight to Cass' building after the ATM incident and just sat in her truck for two hours, trying to figure out what she was going to do about whatever was going on with her. That last spark wasn't good. There were already stories online now about ATMs all around Wraith Hamlet spitting out bills and causing chaos. Jeisa was getting dangerously close to losing herself and causing irreversible damage. Massive irreversible damage. She was the protector of Wraith Hamlet. So, why couldn't she stop herself from evolving into its biggest threat?

Even after two hours, she still felt like she'd just had twenty cups of coffee, a crate of energy drinks and a doughnut topped with glaze and covered in rainbow sprinkles. She was on edge. Having Cass anywhere close to her suddenly didn't seem like a good idea.

She stopped the ATM video she was watching and looked at her phone's clock.

Three minutes to seven.

She walked to Cass' building.

*

"Whoa! Jeisa, what are you doing?!" Cass screamed as she scrambled to cover herself after Jeisa had suddenly barged into her bathroom.

The shower was still on, drenching Cass as she tried to figure out where to place her loofah to cover her the most, although the fragrant steam obscured most of her. Jeisa's eyes went wide then she whipped her head down, pinning a sharp stare at the bathroom's off-white tile floor. Her hands were shaking, the trembling wave soon covering her body.

"I was knocking for three whole minutes." Jeisa finally breathed out, her voice shaky. Damn it, she was way too jittery for this! She shouldn't have been here.

'Like a date?'

'Sure... I guess.'

She shouldn't have been here, but how could she not be after that phone call?

"I was in the shower!" cried Cass.

"Then I tried your phone, and you didn't answer." Jeisa kept talking, trying to focus on the words to keep from shattering into a million pieces.

"I was in the shower!" repeated Cass, a little less loud.

"I thought something was wrong." Jeisa was tittering on the edge. If she fell, she wouldn't come back.

"Okay. Okay." said Cass, finally calming down.

Jeisa lifted her head.

"No! Don't look." said Cass quickly.

Jeisa whipped her head back to the floor.

"I..." started Jeisa.

She suddenly noticed Cass standing next to her, still soapy, but now covered in a robe.

"Just breathe, Jeis," Cass whispered, taking Jeisa's hand. "Just breathe. Nice and slow."

Jeisa lowered her eyes, focusing on Cass' hand in hers, and forcing herself to rein in her errant breathing. It took a few tries, but she was soon calm.

"Better?" Cass asked.

Jeisa looked up. Thick wet strands of Cass' long hair fell over her face, down the robe, her green eyes reflecting the small smile on her lips. She was the most gorgeous woman Jeisa had ever known.

"Better." Jeisa whispered back.

"Give me five minutes? I'll be done soon." Cass said, her smile widening. "Ten minutes max."

Jeisa gave her an awkward smile. "Deal."

It took Jeisa a few embarrassing seconds, to successfully send the command to her feet to leave the bathroom and close the door behind her. She was still trembling slightly from the ATM spark, but it had mostly dissipated, and she could finally think straight. However, that only meant that her brain just kept astutely pointing out that the gold stud on Cass' navel still looked sexy as hell.

This was going to be a long night.

"Okay, I'm ready," Cass called out, finally walking out of her room.

Jeisa got up from the couch, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly. Cass was in a chunky black and white checkered flannel jacket with a fleece lining and gray hoodie, over a simple body-hugging red tee that was tucked into a coal black short skirt. A pair of black stockings that disappeared into dark red, faux leather, low heeled boots finished the look. The red tee and boots were complimented by a chic, red, knitted beanie that her ebony-coloured hair flowed out of.

"You look stunning." Jeisa whispered, thinking that maybe she should have gone home and changed from her blue skinny jeans, untucked long sleeved white collared shirt, grey knit sweater that she'd folded the sleeves of her shirt over once and a pair of grey and black sneakers.

"Thank you," Cass said with a smile. "I know I said five minutes then turned it to twenty, but my hair dryer... kind of exploded and it took a while to get my hair dry."

"Oh?" Jeisa replied, a little concerned.

Cass shrugged. "Don't worry about it. I'll steal another one from the mall at some point this week. There's a really cool one I saw at the Phillips store that I've been dying to try. Until then, let's try and miss only the movie previews, shall we?"

The drive to the movies was thankfully not awkward, filled with cool music from Cass' phone.

"A girl could get the wrong idea if you keep being this nice to her." said Jeisa, grinning as she accepted the box of buttery popcorn and the giant plastic cup filled with a scarily vivid, pink coloured, slushy soft drink from Cass.

"Jeisa..." drawled Cass.

"I know, I know." replied Jeisa laughing. "You don't do chicks, and this is just a friend date."

"Exactly." said Cass with a seriously suggestive smirk. Damn it. There was no way Cass didn't know exactly what effect she had on Jeisa. No one could be that clueless. Cass spoke up again after taking a sip from her mud-brown coloured slushy and effectively stopping Jeisa's breath with the look she gave her over the straw. "On the bright side, there are some pretty girls here."

"Oh, I can see that." replied Jeisa, narrowing her eyes at Cass. She finally forced herself to tear her eyes from Cass before she had some sort of debilitating cardiac event.

Jeisa was having a really hard time containing herself, unable to concentrate. Cass was looking at the screen, seeming absolutely enthralled. Jeisa wasn't even sure what movie they were watching. Between wanting to find the power outlet connected to the big screen in front of them and bring down the whole mall and wanting to raise the chair arm between her and Cass and make out with her, Jeisa was preoccupied. The only good thing was that the intensity of both feelings sort of cancelled each other out.

"BRB." Cass suddenly whispered to Jeisa before walking to the aisle and out of the movie theatre.

Jeisa sighed, completely confused about what movie this was. She'd been daydreaming about this being a real date, and she'd just been contemplating whether she would have attempted 'the move', which is pretend-yawning then stretching her hand over Cass' shoulder. Jeisa shuddered. No one does the move. No one! It was way too lame. Or maybe it was just a classic? One that worked because it had stood the test of time? No. No. It was lame. And Jeisa was lame for having even thought about it. She was still having this mental debate when Cass slid back into her chair with something in her hand.

Jeisa almost choked on her pink slushy when she saw the case. Ten inches long, five inches wide and two inches thick, and although it looked black in the dark theatre, Jeisa was willing to bet that it was covered in dark purple velvet.

What the hell?

Cass slipped the case into her satchel and went back to watching the movie, oblivious to Jeisa's shock and questioning looks. But that wasn't the only thing that caught Jeisa's attention.

Dim lights finally came on as the credits of the movie rolled over. The walkways began filling up with movie goers loudly reliving all the action, complete with fake explosion sounds. Cass made the move to get up. Jeisa touched her hand as a suggestion for her to sit back down.

"Let's stay a bit," said Jeisa, trying to act unaffected by the fact that Cass hadn't pushed away her hand. "Maybe it's one of those movies with a secret ending after the credit roll?"

"Sure." Cass said, shrugging and sounding totally unaffected.

Jeisa barely heard her though. The real reason she'd asked Cass to stay was because she'd noticed a man walking into the theatre right after Cass had returned with the case. Maybe he had just been caught up in traffic and had just arrived right then and he had really wanted to watch this particular movie at this particular time. But Jeisa didn't think so. She might not have known exactly what movie they were watching, but she'd read the crowd, and that man was nowhere near the demographic. Even now he was still seated, trying to pretend that he wasn't casting glances at Cass.

Jeisa waited until most of the people had left what had been a pretty full cinema.

"Jeisa, I don't think it has anything after the credits. Also, I'm starving," said Cass, picking up her satchel and getting up. She chuckled. "You kind of ate all the popcorn."

"My apologies. I'll make it up to you on our next movie date. Promise." replied Jeisa, distantly. She got up alongside Cass.

If Cass replied, Jeisa heard none of it.

The case is useless without the girl.

Everyone who knew about the Red Dragon were always surprised at seeing her as the Enforcer. No, the woman hadn't been referring to Jeisa. Having just watched Cass walking in with that case, which had honestly knocked Jeisa sideways, she couldn't help but wonder if "the girl" was Cass.

As if confirming this, the creepy man stood up when Cass did. He was going to use the same walkway that Cass and Jeisa were. Cass was closest to the aisle and went first. Jeisa followed, cradling her almost empty plastic cup of pink slushy. All that was left in it was a faded pink liquid at the bottom with tiny lumps of ice. The man moved closer to Jeisa on the walkway in a bid to get closer to Cass. Jeisa suddenly turned and faced the man, stopping him in his tracks.

"Did you just grab my ass?" screamed Jeisa in the highest voice she could muster. She tossed her slushy cup's leftover contents on his face, distracting him, then punched him in the jaw, dropping him. People around her snickered, walking around the man, now sprawled on the aisle staircase.

"What an asshole." said Jeisa, feigning annoyance.

"Nice right hook, assassin." said Cass laughing and shaking her head.

Jeisa put her hand on the small of Cass' back and pushed her out of the door before the guy could recover. She tried not to think about the fact that Cass didn't push her hand away, maybe even leaning into it.

The end of this ride was going to really hurt when Jeisa smashed into that brick wall.

"So, where are we going for dinner?" Jeisa asked. She'd been vigilant from the theatre to the parking lot but couldn't make out anyone else watching them. She validated her parking and they headed to the truck.

"Rita's Ritz. It's just a few blocks from here." said Cass.

"Oh cool! I love that place." said Jeisa. "They make a mean pork belly burger, with an amazing sauce made from the pork belly's braising liquid."

"I thought you might like it." replied Cass with a satisfied look and laugh that melted Jeisa's insides.

She was relaxing a bit, but still thoroughly confused about what was going on. She opened the passenger door for Cass, closed it when Cass got in, then walked around to the driver side. She wondered about the purple case in Cass' satchel. What was in it? Why did Cass have it? And what did that mean for Jeisa, who'd been working to kill everyone who touched that case? Maybe she had it all wrong about this case.

Despite her sudden reticence, Jeisa couldn't help smiling at Cass as the truck came to life. They talked about everything and nothing as Jeisa drove them to the diner and Jeisa was loving every second of it, choosing to enjoy these last few moments of innocence before she had to finally face reality and come to terms with what she had to do, which included dealing with that purple case and what role Cass played in all of this.

Jeisa was also distracted by the struggle to keep back that almost uncontrollable need to find just one more buzz from a good spark. Just one good spark. This would definitely be the last one though. She would stop after this one buzz. Really. She totally would.

It's not like she was addicted or anything.