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Story: The Siren

Their tall glasses clinked to a toast. Lucienne sipped her wine, savoring its clean bite, and gazed at Vladimir through the crystal brim. Vladimir put his wineglass down, and then slowly took Lucienne’s and set it down.

“A dance, m’ lady?” Before she gave her permission, his hand was already posed on her bare back. His other hand curved around hers. It was warm, solid, and tender. She felt wonderful to be in Vladimir’s strong arms, but for a second, her mind drifted to Ashburn and his hypnotic touch. She forced her thoughts back to her current partner and threw her arms around Vladimir’s neck.

They moved to the flowing rhythm of the music with matching grace. Vladimir pulled Lucienne closer, his face pressing against the side of hers, her curls dancing between them. Lucienne could feel the rough shave of his chin, and then the small of her back stiffened.

“Relax, milácek,” Vladimir coaxed in her ear. “It’s just a dance. Let’s enjoy it.”

“Someone’s here!” Lucienne hissed. “An invader.”

A figure in a hooded black coat blurred past them and whooshed into the night sky, leaving a trail of light. The candle lights on the rooftop snuffed out with the sound of a sigh.

Pulling away from Vladimir, Lucienne sprang to the telescope, training its lens toward the fading flash of light. The telescope caught the mysterious visitor before the spark completely zoomed out of the focus of the lens.

Riding on a transparent motorcycle-like machine that seemed made of light, Ashburn looked over his shoulder.

Lucienne stepped back with a gasp. The farm boy had followed her back to Sphinxes and crashed her date. He had warned her to stay away from him, but why wasn’t he keeping his distance from her? Was he taunting her, or was he unable to stay away from her?

And what flier was that? It was faster than BL7!

Then Vladimir spotted Ashburn in the telescope’s adjusted lens.

“What the—?” Furiously, Vladimir pulled out his encrypted Eidolon and dialed Kian’s number. “There’s an intruder in the Sphinxes air space.” After he warned Kian, he dialed Ziyi’s lab in the castle. “What is going on up there?!” he shouted into the phone. “You’re allowing a trespasser to fly in and out!” Black fire lit in his eyes. “Who’s on guard tonight?” He slammed his Eidolon shut and turned to Lucienne. “Let’s go to the castle. I’ll shoot him down!”

“Calm down, Vlad,” Lucienne said, face paling. When she looked into the telescope again, Ashburn was gone.

~

Vladimir screeched his Audi to a stop at the gate. He jumped out of the car and hurtled into the castle. Lucienne tried to keep up in her sky high stilettos. When they reached the north wing, Vladimir headed toward the defense room.

Lucienne wrapped her arms around his waist, half dragging and half coaxing him toward Laboratory SX1. “Vlad, I have a better idea.”

Seemingly distracted by Lucienne’s touch, Vladimir followed her. Then, just as quickly, he refocused his attention back on Ashburn and was indignant. “He sabotaged our date!”

“We’ll resume our date right where we left off. Now come with me.”

Vladimir in his tuxedo and Lucienne in her gown hurried into Laboratory SX1.

The lab personnel and Ziyi were at their posts, frantically entering codes, rewriting programs, and testing equipment. No one seemed to notice that Vladimir and Lucienne were overdressed. The system had been compromised. It was more than a slap in everyone’s face.

“I’m so sorry, Lucia. We failed to trace the invader,” Ziyi said with gritted teeth and a beet-red face, her fingers flying across the control panel.

“It’s Ashburn Fury,” Lucienne said.

“He blocked Dragonfly again! And none of our tracers can function.”

The door chimed open. Orlando stomped into the lab. “The weapon system is off line. Kian’s in the field with the technicians, checking servers and cable lines.”

Ashburn is making my people look like fools.Lucienne shut her eyes for a moment to collect her thoughts. When she fluttered them open again, she turned to the lab personnel. “Unplug all the computers, save one beta and one quantum. And turn off all other devices, except for the dark-matter detector.”

Her staff turned to her with a confused look.

“Now!” Lucienne said.

The crew obeyed. Two of the technicians efficiently engaged a tracing program on dark matters on the beta computer.

Lucienne opened the charm locket on her necklace and released the pin. The net clip that held the Eye of Time separated it from the Twilight Water. She placed the Eye on a sensor that linked to the beta.

Orlando and two commandos stood by with fire extinguishers, looking tense.