Chapter 7 – Deliveries.

  “But where is the evidence? You say these people are a constant danger that prey on humans but as far as we can tell they are no more violent than us. Frankly pastor Fulton, I refuse to infringe on their rights just because they are a different race let along condone these nazi like tactics.” – Virginia senator while hearing objections to the repeal of the Paranormal control act.

  Kurt and Val tromped into the living room after their morning out on the town. Kurt said it had been a pretty good morning. Val thought it was a little overwhelming and slightly disappointing. Kurt said that asking John to keep an eye out for suspicious things was a good start. Val thought that it was literally the bare minimum they should do and secretly thought Kurt really just wanted a burger.

  “Alright. I get it.” Val said after dropping her bags on the counter and slumping on the couch. “Those were some pretty good milkshakes.”

  “They bring the boys to the yard.” Kurt murmured. He declined eborating after getting a raised eyebrow from Val. “Let’s go clear out some boxes. The truck should be here soon. Then we can look at hooking up the new television.”

  “Ugh, I am literally so full. I thought walking through the store would help but I was so wrong.” Groaned Val from her reclined position.

  Chuckling a little, Kurt started making his way down the hall. “Well, you did order an extra side of fries.” Seeing that she still wasn’t moving Kurt tried another tactic. “If you leave it all to me, I guess you can’t snoop on what is in those boxes.”

  Never before had he seen the cartoon cat running but not going anywhere py out in real life. Right before his eyes, Val rolled off the couch and scrabbled forward, nearly on all fours as she tried to bolt for the spare bedroom with a determined look on her face.

  Problem being that she had already taken her shoes off and socks on wood floors had less than ster traction. Fwump. She hit the floor face down and arms out as she tried, then failed to break her fall. Kurt winced and started making his way over as she groaned into the wood floorboards.

  “Oof. That was rough.” He commented while helping her up by grabbing a hand and hoisting her to her feet. “Are you ok?”

  “Mmm. I am now.” Val said while trying to snuggle into his embrace.

  Kurt clicked his tongue and pivoted out of her way, watching her sway he hips down the hall. “Tsk. Tease.”

  Val looker over her shoulder, smirking at him. “It’s not teasing, I just want you to py the game.” She then wandered into her room, leaving him standing there looking after her.

  Kurt was not sure what to do. Well, he knew he should go help move those boxes, but he didn’t know what her game was. Did she like him in that way? He certainly found her appealing. It had only been a day but so far, she had been fun, curious and actually rather sweet. He had thought it was cute when she got caught out and her little game was derailed. Should he go for it or keep pying it cool?

  With a sigh, he followed after her. His decision was to push back a little, see how it went. Worst case scenario he can still pump the brakes and back off. Yeah, that would work just fine. With a new pn, he walked into the room and stopped dead in his tracks.

  Val had stripped off her shirt and was now just wearing a tank top and jeans. To be clear, that’s all she was wearing as far as Kurt could tell. She just looked back at him and pointed to the boxes, waving a hand over them. “Which ones do we start with and where do they go?”

  A few moments earlier, after Val had turned the corner, she sprang into action. She quickly ditched her shirt, not wanting it in case she got sweaty but also so she could put the girls on dispy. She then managed to get her bra off, tossing it in her duffle bag and rolling her shirt back down.

  She was going to push a little more today. Her vixen was telling her to move their situation forward a little. She certainly hoped that this would work. She had just a few moments to strike a casual pose before Kurt rounded the corner and stopped dead in his tracks.

  “So? Which ones?” Val repeated.

  “How about we ah, work our way from front to back.” Kurt said as he stepped over to the first of the boxes.

  “Oh, starting at the front is always a good py.” She winked at him. “Don’t you want to lose some yers? It could get rather warm with all this heavy lifting.”

  Kurt stopped and considered. He remembered his pn from a few moments earlier and decided, why the hell not. He pulled his over shirt over his head, leaving him in just a tight undershirt shirt. He didn’t bother taking off his gun, fully accustomed to it always riding in his waistband.

  Val had to admit, for being a skinny guy, Kurt was jacked. She knew that was likely from his elven side, the race being naturally thin. But the lycan bit really gave him something extra to work with. The under shirt he was wearing did more to highlight his figure than not since she could see how it was stretched by muscle.

  They moved a few boxes into the hall, Kurt saying that they would be best downstairs. True to her word, Val snooped in the boxes as she moved them. She was disappointed to see that much of what was in there was clothing for the colder months. She was pretty unsatisfied in the findings but it also reminded her that she might need more than what was in her duffle bag or what was coming from her room in the order.

  “What’s this?” Val said after she opened a box that had some cabling in it along with some other electronics. She hadn’t seen much in the way of personal electronics since being here. Kurt had his phone and that was all she knew of.

  “Oh, just some adapter cables I had from my old pce.” Kurt said after moving a crate out into the hall. “I didn’t have a DVD pyer or streaming device. I just hooked my ptop up and pyed movies from my hard drives.” He pointed to the external hard drives sitting in the box.

  “That seems inefficient.” Val commented.

  With a shrug, Kurt took the box and moved it to his room. “Worked for me. It also gave me a huge dispy for my computer, so it wasn’t that bad. Lots of guys ran something like this in the barracks.”

  Another thing for Val to ask about, his time in the army. But that would have to wait for ter since they had finished clearing out the room. Before either of them could do so much as say a word, they heard a truck coming up the gravel drive.

  “Oh, is that your stuff?” Kurt said while walking to the door. Instead of a box truck, he saw what looked more like a wrecker or recovery vehicle with a short shipping container on the back. The truck was painted dark grey and had a small white logo on the driver’s door. The logo was the exact same one on the folder of papers that Kurt still hadn’t opened.

  A human looking man opened the passenger door, standing halfway out and called over to him. “Oi, where do you want us to drop the crate?”

  “Over by the garage!” Kurt yelled back and got a thumbs up from both the driver and passenger.

  The truck made a slightly awkward, not quite 3-point turn and backed into the grass near the garage. Unlike what Kurt expected, the bed of the truck didn’t tilt. Instead, a boom arm lifted the shipping crate off the back and set it gently on the grass.

  The co-driver came walking over with a clip board. He must have been wearing a charm to make him look human since he smelled heavily like dwarf. “Kurt? Ok, sign here please.” He gestured to the bottom of his form. “The crew will be out tomorrow morning to set it all up but, in the meantime, don’t fucking touch it. Don’t open it, don’t poke it. Know what, don’t even look at it.”

  “Um, ok?” Kurt was confused. Did they drop off supplies or a bomb? “Anything else I should know?”

  “Nah, that’s all.” The dwarf said. “You have a good one and good luck.”

  20 seconds ter, the truck was pulling out of the drive, headed back to… wherever it came from. Kurt was about to go back inside but before he could, he heard a honk and turned back around. A red and white box truck with the furniture company logo was coming up the drive.

  The truck backed its way up to the house and a couple burly young men hopped out. “Delivery for Val?” one of them half asked. “Couches, end tables and some bedroom furniture.” He read off his clipboard. “And a second one for Kurt with a dining set?”

  “Oh, that’s us!” Cried Val as she came skipping out the door.

  The back of the truck rolled up and showed the neatly broken down and stacked furniture. “Where is it going?”

  Val pointed them in the right direction, and they began moving the furniture with practiced efficiency, skillfully maneuvering the long pieces through the narrow gaps. The stairs proved no issue and other than having to get creative with the dresser, everything went smooth.

  After a quick signature, Val was back inside and making her bed. The movers had actually set up everything so there wasn’t much for them to do except make some small adjustments and put things away. Kurt left her to it while he went and continued with his own unpacking. He had just finished putting away his cold weather clothes and putting his shirt back on, when he heard another car on the gravel.

  Seeing as he wasn’t expecting anyone else, this one set off arm bells. On his way to the door, he pocketed another magazine for his handgun. When he reached the kitchen, Val was standing near the counter, looking at the car that had pulled up. “Is that…” She trailed off as the doors opened and 3 men stepped out. The driver looked over to the one holding the tablet who nodded once.

  The driver approached the door and Kurt decided to meet him on the porch. “Can I help you?”

  The strange man stopped at the foot of the steps. “I have some questions for you.” He said, not even introducing himself. The breeze was just enough for Kurt to smell that he was human but there was something else. The other smell was faint, and he hadn’t come across it yet to know what it was.

  “Oh, no thanks.” Kurt said, trying to dismiss that situation. “You can leave now.”

  Val’s phone dinged and a moment ter she was suddenly closer. “Kurt, something is wrong.”

  The man must not have heard her since he didn’t react. “I don’t think you have much of a choice in the matter.” He said ftly while the other 2 men came up behind him. “You are going to come with us and tell us what you know.”

  Kurt was running through the situation as fast as he could. No identification. No badges. Pin clothes. Unmarked car. He didn’t see the line of body armor under their shirts. Already warned them to go away. “And if I refuse?” One of the men in the back suddenly plunged his hand into his jacket.

  The odd thing about elves and half elves is their reflexes. They don’t necessarily have the strength or speed to fully use them, but they have reaction times far faster than a normal human. Another odd thing is that lycans have incredible strength and speed but not the reflexes to make full use of them. So, what happens when you blend the power of a were creature with the mental capacity of an elf? Kurt is what happens.

  The front man had also begun to reach for something in his waistband, but Kurt was faster than all 3 and he took a rge step backward. Left hand on shirt, right hand on gun, draw, put the dot on the first one’s chest, finger on trigger, pull, pull, pull, pull, pull. He let the recoil walk the rounds up the torso and into his face. Transition, man in the back left. Center of mass, pull, pull, pull, pull, pull. 2 bill drills from concealment in just over a second.

  The st man, closest to the car had managed to skin his weapon and put a shot on Kurt, or a version of Kurt. The dart went wide by a couple feet, pierced an illusion and stuck in the wooden wall of the cabin. Just after the dart was fired, half a dozen 10 millimeter jacked hollow points started impacting his torso and he dropped as the 4th severed his spine.

  Val had gotten a text alert from Penny saying that those guys were trouble. She had then cast an illusion over herself and another one over Kurt. Hers was a simple invisibility, erecting a static image of the house behind him. Kurt’s was massively more complex as she had to copy his form before putting the illusionary ‘picture’ over his real body.

  Once the action started, she sent the false image darting off to the right while the real one stepped back inside the door frame. The damn pistol he was firing kept throwing concussive bsts up in front of him as he drained the magazine in what seemed like 3 separate bursts of full auto. She was very impressed that he didn’t miss until the st guy suddenly went limp and the 5th and 6th rounds went over his head.

  She watched as he stepped back behind the door frame and reloaded. He flicked the old magazine out and shoved the new one in so fast that only the ctter of an empty magazine told her it had happened. When he pressed the gun back out and pivoted around the door frame, she approached cautiously.

  “I have us hidden by an illusion. Penny is sending assets to us now.” She began talking in a low and calm tone. “They will try to teleport in the middle of the drive so don’t…” She was interrupted by a blue ring of light that fshed upward from a couple inches off the ground. In its pce was 5 heavily armed individuals.

  They were all wearing an olive-green uniform with earth brown colored equipment. They had what looked like a slim version of modern body armor and all carried a type of M4. Their ck of helmets also showed that they were a mix of elves and a strange blue skinned race that Kurt hadn’t seen before.

  After they dropped the remaining few inches to the ground, they all spread out, 3 took cover next to the garage and house while 2 of them ran toward the car with rifles up. Of those 2, one stopped to look at the man on the ground while the other cleared out the car. The elf that stopped over the man by the car pulled out a green box about the size of a deck of cards.

  He then pced the box on the man’s chest and activated it, causing a shimmering green field to encapsute the man on the ground. The duo then moved off toward the house, stopping briefly at each of the other two before moving on. They didn’t deploy any more boxes.

  “Hey, HEY! Friendly! Ordo Stabilitas!" The first one shouted and turned his shoulder to Kurt after seeing him in the door.

  Kurt felt a hand on his side that ran up his back and onto his shoulder. “Hey, it’s ok, they are with us.” She was pressed tightly into his back. “See the patch? That’s our logo and I recognize the teleportation spell. It’s ok, were fine.”

  Blowing out a deep breath, Kurt tried to rex. The adrenaline was beginning to leave his system and he suddenly developed a slight tremor as his muscles began to ease. “Phew, Ok.” Was all he could say.

  The two ordo troops then continued on. One ran past the door, stopping at the corner of the house and pulling security over the back yard while his buddy stopped to talk to Kurt.

  “Trooper Kas’Tag." The blue skinned man said as he pulled an ID card out of a pouch on his armor. The card showed a picture of the man on a yellow background with several lines printed alongside. The card said he was a Nalk’To, whatever that was.

  “Agents Kurt and Val.” Kurt said, extending a shaky hand and receiving a firm shake and a knowing look. “You guys are fast.”

  Kas’Tag snorted. “Not as fast as you. I’m going to have to watch the recording on that one. You dropped 3 guys in less than 3 seconds.” He raised one of his purple-brown eyebrows. “That was impressive to say the least.”

  “Um, what recording?” Kurt said, gncing at Val. “I don’t have cameras.”

  “Our recording.” Val said. “We have a sort of satellite that we use for surveilnce. I can ask Penny to tell you ter.”

  Just as Kas’Tag was about to speak, one of the other elves that had broken off of perimeter security to look around in the car came over. “Sir.” He said before handing him the tablet that Kurt remembered seeing.

  Neither of the two troopers tilted it in such a way to let Kurt see the screen but he had a good idea of what was on there. The tablet was stored away and Kas’Tag gave a couple orders, gathering his people. “We can handle clean-up of these 3 and their car.” He said.

  “How are you…” Kurt began but was silenced as 2 red fshes and a green one strobed in the corner of his vision. The bodies had vanished into thin air. “Um, the car?” He looked over to see the other Nalk’To unrolling a decal and taping it to the roof.

  “Recovery talisman. Only works on objects.” He said while watching the rest of his squad load the clothing and weapons of the 3 men into the back of the car. “One will be interrogated before disposal and the other 2 are off to the necromancers to see if they will spill any secrets under their tender loving care.” He shivered at the mention of necromancers.

  “Wait, we do that?” Kurt said. He was more than a little surprised at that tidbit.

  “Yeah, but only in some cases like this one. We don’t really know where these guys came from so now…” He was interrupted by an elf running up with another decal and unrolling it on the porch. “Ah, this is a concealment talisman, the building and its occupants will be hidden from those that don’t know of it for the next…” He tilted his head and read a bel. “48 hours. I think when they get the hub running, they will remove it since it will be redundant.”

  “Time to go boss.” One of the elves called.

  Kas’Tag looked to Kurt with a hesitant expression, but Val came to the rescue. “It’s ok, I have been around for a while so I can fill him in on some of it.” Her words seemed to provide some relief as the man nodded in thanks then joined his squad around the car.

  After another bright ring of light, this time descending, and they were gone. The only thing left behind was a trio of blood stains in the gravel. Kurt sighed, walking over to the corner of the house. He came back dragging a garden hose and began rinsing the blood off the light-colored rock.

  Val watched him work, knowing better than to interrupt him. She would stay nearby, just in case but busied herself by retrieving all the casings that had been ejected into the kitchen. She policed the brass and empty magazine, setting them on the counter in a bowl for Kurt to do with as he wished.

  As she worked, she noticed the size of each case was a bit odd. Thinking something was off, she turned the empty brass over and looked at the head stamp. ’SPEER 10MM AUTO’ was stamped on the rim. Things were making sense now. The extra report and muzzle fsh from the pistol came from the caliber more than the type of pistol.

  She then walked out to the deck and started looking along the walls. She had thought one of them fired a shot but couldn’t …there. A rather rge dart with a puff tail was sticking out of the wood. She went and got a towel before pulling it out with more than a little effort. She pced it in Tupperware container to make sure nobody got poked. She wondered if the order could figure out anything with it or, perhaps Kurt could with his magics.

  Either way, it would have to wait as she watched Kurt finish up, waiting for a good moment to approach him and get a little close again. Her tail wagged as she thought about cuddling with him on the couch tonight. She was looking forward to the excuse to get closer so much that she didn’t care about the movies anymore.