Chapter 5: Catching stalkers and drinking tea

Nick didn't sleep again that night. He sat in the garage and checked the runes on his favorite pair of one-handed axes. It was an old pair of tomahawks that Igor brought him… from somewhere. Nick didn't want to know. What he knew was that weapons had to be kept in good condition, so that's what he did. It was the second sleepless night, but for the immortals it wasn't a big problem. Moreover, he had unfinished business, which had nothing to do with the creation of new artifacts.

He put a surveillance spell on his stalker and checked who exactly his new friend was following. To his surprise, the stalker was actually following him and not Bloom. But it gave more questions than answers. Nick could understand why a stalker would follow Bloom, by no means approved, but he could understand why. She was a beautiful girl with a good personality and kind soul.

And why would some strange dude follow him? There was an uncomfortable number of answers to this question.

The most obvious answer was that one of the New Life cultists found his position. These were sick bastards who considered the immortals to be some kind of gods, that it was an honor to be killed by them. That they will be exalted in the legends of the next generations.

Each and every one of them ended up six feet under.

It was possible that someone from the FBI began to follow him again. These guys were quite determined to catch one of the immortals, but they always failed. But they never came alone. Nick even got to know one of the agents close enough to call each other friends. True, Jeff was already about seventy years old, but who counts, right?

Sorcerers and the FBI have a strange love-hate relationship.

It could also be one of the conspiracy theorists. Sometimes, self-confident and insane people found enough evidence that immortals actually exist. The last lunatic decided to follow Joylin... He woke up in the Caribbean Sea dressed as Captain Jack Sparrow with a bottle of rum in his a-

Ahem.

There was a very small chance that religious fanatics began to investigate him, but after the signing of the non-aggression pact with the Vatican, such cases decreased drastically. Patrick fought tooth and nail for the magical world to see this act. He still talked to the leaders of various religions to come up with something similar.

There was still a chance that someone started following Nick out of jealousy, but Nick highly doubted it. He came to Gardenia two or three days ago; it wasn't long enough for some jealous idiot to start thinking of Nick as a competitor.

But all these assumptions were not important, because Nick was going to find out the truth from the source. His stalker was hiding in the alley across from his house, so Nick had a chance to find out what was going on.

"Hmm… intimidation always works well," he muttered as his form began to slowly change.

He could just open a portal under Fred's feet and transport him to his garage, but where's the fun in that? Nick was more interested in seeing the fear in the eyes of his enemies.

---

The nights in Gardenia were warm, at least in the summer and early fall, so it was pretty comfortable outside. Quite a few people liked to walk at night, but even in such a calm city, everyone stuck to the well-lit streets. That's why the man who was hiding in the alley aroused so much suspicion. He wore baggy, dark clothes with blue hues that contained many… unusual items.

Fred held an unlit cigarette in his hands and tried to decide whether he would be visible from the target's house. He finally lit the cigarette and took a long, long puff, filling his lungs with bitter smoke. He didn't really want to be here right now; the target was back in the garage and doing… something. There was no way for them to look inside to confirm their guesses.

Sighing heavily, he continued to stare at the garage, waiting for at least some movement. Why he was sent here without any reinforcements, Fred didn't know. But he knew that if he died on this mission, then the replacement wouldn't arrive soon.

'The order already had too few members, we can't lose more.' His pastor's words echoed in his head and he frowned. "Then what the fuck am I doing here…?" He grumbled and leaned against the wall of the building.

"Oh, I'd like to know that too." The man didn't even have time to blink as the alley filled with dim purple light.

A scalding wave of heat swept through his body, causing his clothes to cling to Fred's skin. He slowly raised his head up to the source of the heat, already dreading what he would see.

Squatting on the fence in front of him was a man – no, a demon – covered in purple fire. Instead of a head, he had a huge purple fireball, the flames of which rose a good two meters into the air. On his shoulders lay a huge two-handed ax with a blade on one side, which didn't burn in the demon's hands only by a miracle.

"Human, tell me, what business do you have in my city?" The demon tilted its head to the side, like a cat watching its prey.

Fred swallowed. He had been warned of the dangers of the mission and knew full well that the demon hunting would be the thing that would kill him one day. But on the first mission?

The fire that served as the head of the demon stirred and the two-meter fire immediately became several times smaller. "Are you serious?" The demon asked in frustration, his ax slid off his shoulders and into his right hand. "After all this suspense, I didn't think it would be this boring–" He trailed off and Fred felt like his very soul was being examined under a microscope.

'Why did he shut up?! Damn it, I thought it was just another empty suspicion, I didn't know there was actually a demon in here! The pastor never said anything about these bastards! How can I even kill the fire?! With Holy water?!'

"Huh," he exhaled. "So, you are interesting."

Without another word, the demon leaped at Fred and grabbed his face with his free hand. Pure terror filled the entire existence of the young demon hunter, he felt his skin begin to melt at the touch and screamed at the top of his lungs just before the whole world went black.

The fire of the demon immediately went out, showing Nick, completely untouched by the flames. He unceremoniously hoisted Fred's body onto his shoulder and walked back to his garage while dialing Marie's phone. What he saw in the man's memories was strange, so he decided to inform her about his findings.

As soon as the garage door closed, Nick tossed Fred onto his work table. He took out some old chains from the corner and wrapped the hunter several times so that even if he woke up, he would not be able to escape.

Finally, Marie answered his call and Nick heard a loud yawn through the phone speaker. "... Huaa~ what do you want? Didn't I tell you not to wake me up?"

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"What time is it in Russia now?" He asked.

"It's sleepy time," Marie hissed back. "What do you want, troglodyte? Talk faster so I can go back to my sweet-sweet dreams."

Nick sat down on a table in the corner of the room and looked at Fred, assessing just how bad the situation was. "Well, I found a stalker in the alley opposite my house. This guy was following me on the order of some pastor to confirm that I'm a demon. The pastor and Fred are in the Order of the New Hunters, whatever that means."

Marie didn't answer for a while, waiting for Nick to continue his story, but when he continued to be silent, she had doubts. "Is that all? No more information? You read his memoirs, right?"

"That's the thing, yes," he replied. "He's a blank, not a person. All his memories were erased and replaced by something like a personality with a couple of key mannerisms, goals and a name, not even a surname. The man doesn't even suspect that he is fucked in the head. It's disgustingly rough work, even Igor wouldn't be happy with that." Nick muttered.

This time the keyboard clicked from the speakers. "That is, we have a new organization, which is most likely managed by a magic user. They use unsuspecting people to identify demons and most likely hunt them, something else?" Marie asked, surprisingly awake.

"Fred somehow knew that they didn't have enough people. Recently something happened after which a lot of hunters died, but I don't know what… Well, he doesn't know." Nick replied, once again looking into Fred's empty skull. "I will send him to HQ, let him be examined by professionals. Maybe someone will be able to find out his identity."

Mari hummed in agreement and ended the call. Nick quickly wrote a note explaining the situation and teleported Fred to HQ, hoping the man could get his memories back.

---

The living room of the red house smelled of fresh hot tea and freshly baked cookies. Nick sat at the table and lazily stirred his tea, after a long-awaited… well, not so full sleep that night, he decided to have breakfast before going back to fix the sensors. There were only five red dots left on the map – not counting the one in Gardenia Park – and he wanted to finish them today.

He looked up from his mug when he heard a knock on the door and turned just in time to see Bloom coming inside, Kiko hopping after her. The girl looked at him with an arched eyebrow and glanced at the door. "Did you fix that wreck just to never lock the door?" She asked and sat across from him, stealing a cookie from the plate for herself and Kiko.

It was only the third day since they met, but Bloom and Nick already felt like long-lost friends who had found each other again. Bloom could often be found in Nick's house, just like Nick could be found in Bloom's house. Vanessa, whose store was temporarily closed, was at home to babysit the teenagers. Well, to babysit her teenage daughter and the hundred-year-old sorcerer – Nick found this situation very funny.

He rolled his eyes and poured her some tea too. "I'm leaving it open so that one red-haired girl can break into my house at any moment," he threw a smile in her direction. "What brings you here today?"

Bloom sighed heavily and lay down on the table. "I'm bored, and you're the only one of my friends who hasn't gone somewhere on vacation," she puffed out her cheeks like an angry hamster. "Well, Mitzi is still here, but she's a bitch."

Nick did not know who Mitzi was, so he expressed his opinion about her. But he had one question, "Who names their child Mitzi? I didn't even know that name existed, and I've met enough people with strange names." Shaking his head, he ate another cookie. "What do you usually do when you're bored?"

Bloom rolled her head to the side and raised her eyes to the ceiling. "I draw, read books, play with Kiko. Sometimes I just walk around the city." She sighed, "Sometimes I wish my mom and dad would let me go clubbing with my friends."

Nick grimaced as he recalled his club experience. "To be honest, if you go clubbing with good friends, it can be fun, but I don't get the appeal."

"How so?" Bloom asked.

Nick sat comfortably in his chair and put his elbows on the table. "The first time I went to the club, my Russian friend – Igor – tried to pick up every girl that caught his eye. We were kicked out so quickly that we caught the sunset." Bloom giggled but didn't interrupt him. "The second time I got into a club, I broke the owner's leg because he tried to molest a girl who is my sister in everything but blood." Nick took a sip of his tea and smiled. "It was a good day." Bloom looked at him in surprise, but he continued, as if not noticing her gaze. "My last time at the club… Well, I think someone burned that club down after we left."

That someone was Nick. The club was run by a family of sirens who attracted men with their singing and killed them for their meat. Nick and Joylin burned down that club along with the sirens. He didn't know if this family was part of the cover, but he didn't think it was possible. Sirens were lonely creatures.

"Sister?" Bloom asked, confused.

"Yes, Joylin, she's a few years older than me. We met when I was only twelve years old, she helped me when I was in a very bad situation and we were friends ever since." Nick smiled.

Bloom couldn't even blink from her shock. "You know, I was expecting a funny story about you going to the club, not this."

He shrugged, "Such is life." Nick took another sip. "What are you going to do tomorrow?"

"I'll go to the park, probably," Nick stiffened at her words, but immediately forced himself to relax to not arouse suspicion. "Kiko feels a little locked in the house, so tomorrow we go for a walk. I'll probably take a book with me," the rabbit nodded in agreement and took a bite on the cookie. Nick didn't know if rabbits should eat coolies, but if Bloom wasn't worried, then neither should he.

He sighed heavily and looked into his empty mug, "I'll be working, but I think I can finish pretty quickly tomorrow. If you want, we can go for a walk." Bloom nodded happily and poured him some tea.

They spent the morning talking and getting to know each other. Nick found out that Bloom was too easily hurt when he made a stupid joke about her hair. Fortunately, she didn't have time to pout and Nick managed to explain that it was just a joke. In exchange, Bloom found out that Nick didn't know how to cook at all. All of his food was packed into little boxes that only needed to be reheated or placed in the oven. He refused to say where he gets these boxes from.

They had their fun, until Nick got a message from Howard that the department was asking him to hurry up and fix the sensors. This made the immortal chuckle. They didn't even know that their contractor was actually their superior, although that was partly his fault.

Usually, all sorcerers tried to keep their identities secret, using illusions and transformations to hide the truth. Almost none of the ordinary wizards even knew that there were immortal people in the world, believing that all knowledgeable spirits were sitting in the positions of S10. Of course, those who were smart enough – or crazy enough – to check the facts, found evidence and identities of immortals, but preferred to keep their mouths shut. Howard was one of those people, he accepted the existence of something previously unknown to him without any problems.

Saying goodbye to Bloom, he went to fix the remaining five sensors, hoping that Friday would be just as calm. Unfortunately, it is on Friday that his life and the lives of all wizards will change with the discovery of a new secret. 

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