”Kill you?” she asked. “Of course not! You’re the whole reason why I’m here! You’re the reason for all this... We need you.” Astrid suddenly tilted her head and studied me, a light of slow understanding dawning in her golden eyes. ”You… you truly don’t know what’s going on here? Seriously? Weren’t you told anything? Didn’t Selena inform you?”

”Selena?” I asked incredulously, thinking of how my cat-girl housemate had shown me Astrid’s picture when she was setting up the date.

“Yeah, Selena,” Astrid replied.

“What would she know about any of this? All she said was that she thought you and I would get on, and that she’d set it up so that I could meet you at your place for a date. She encouraged me to come see you and wished me luck...”

Astrid chuckled. ”A date? Well, no wonder you’re a little confused. I’m going to speak to her when I see her next. She’s been around humans way too long. She probably thought it’d be hilarious if you had no idea what was going on.”

Speechless, I opened and closed my mouth. When no words came out, I settled for shaking my head in mute disbelief.

I had no idea who these men were—other than that they were from an organization who developed magitech. When the police discovered the inevitable crime scene I was standing in, would they believe that these Pentatech goons had attacked us? The corporation would have the best lawyers around. With their deep pockets, we wouldn’t stand a chance.

What were the chances of us getting away with this? Slim, I thought. The bald-headed soldier—the leader of the bunch—had gotten away, and I didn’t doubt he’d carry word back to his employers that we were still on the loose.

Hell, when law enforcement got involved in this, they would almost certainly search my car. I shot a look at my vehicle and wondered how fast I could remove the spell panel and the runes I’d painted onto the chassis. Probably not fast enough. The punishments for carrying modified magitech were not small.

Astrid walked over to a dead man, removed a small device from her belt pouch, and held it over his corpse. With a touch of her thumb, she activated the device, and the man’s body started to disintegrate into small specks of gold-colored energy. The specks formed a cone-shaped stream that flowed swiftly up to Astrid’s device, speeding up into the device like sand through an old-fashioned egg-timer. In less than 20 seconds, the man’s body, gear, and all other traces of him were gone.

“That’s… an essence battery!” I gasped.

Astrid glanced quickly at me and gave a tight nod before stepping to the next man and beginning the process again. “Best to leave as little trace as possible, wouldn’t you say?”