Twenty minutes after the conversation at the Starbucks, Katie and Katherine found themselves getting out of Katie’s black SUV, which was parked in the parking lot of a supermarket.  

Just as the two hoped, the drive from Los Angeles was uneventful. Katie swore there were waves of New Faction scouts hiding along the way, ready to pounce on any Old Faction member that was foolish enough to stray this far from home. Either way, neither Katie nor Katherine could be detected by these sentinels.

Finally, after fifteen minutes of driving on the speedway, Katie followed Katherine’s directions and arrived at a supermarket in a worn-out town. This definitely wasn’t the busiest way into the city. Then again, given the abilities of the Old and the New to deceive human senses, being around civilians was useless in terms of offering protection. In that case, it would be wiser to take the less common way and try to sneak into the city. 

Unfortunately, by the look of things, that plan failed miserably. Despite her best attempts, the spy was still caught. 

“So, you got anything?” Katie turned to the older woman standing beside her. This parking lot was surprisingly busy, given where it was located. There were quite a few ordinary people all around them. Some were going back to their cars with bags of groceries. Others just arrived, and were locking their car doors. Katie scanned them, not sensing anything special from these people. 

Katherine glanced around as well. A purple light radiated from her pupils as she whispered a few words that Katie, even with her refined senses, couldn’t hear. The old woman scanned the people around them before coming up with a conclusion. 

“They aren’t New Factions. They’re definitely not Dark Pantheon, and I couldn’t sense any weapons from them, so not Section U. They don’t give off the disgusting feeling of Ascendants either.” It was obvious she was frustrated. If the New Factions left a few scouts here, then perhaps they could find a few sources of information to interrogate.

As of now, it appeared like they had to do things the tough way. Katherine turned to Katie. 

“We should split up. I will stay here and try to track the magic scents to figure out where she was taken. Ms. Lockwood, please look inside the building. Try to find some clues. Come back here if you find anything.” 

Katie nodded slowly. Clues? Fair enough. She would offer to protect the old woman, but considering this was someone who had lived for hundreds of years...that felt a little unnecessary.

She started making her way toward the supermarket, wondering how she could find the so-called clues. She was fine at deducing and reasoning, but she was never quite a detective. Most of the time, her enemies just straight up attacked her or sprung their traps against her, revealing their plans in the process. Trying to find leads to follow could be a little difficult. 

Hmmm...what would characters from tv shows do in her position? Maybe she could check the security footage? That sounded like a good place to begin. Would the manager of the supermarket allow her to do that? Who cares? Definitely not her. 

Suddenly, as Katie was deep in thoughts, she felt herself bump into someone. She looked up and found that someone said to be a young woman, no older than Katie herself. She seemed to be looking down on her phone as she was walking. 

“Oh, sorry.” The girl looked up at Katie and gave her a polite smile. Katie returned a grin of her own, and moved to walk by her. 

Just as Katie had her back turned on her, the young girl suddenly snapped around. The ordinary look in her eyes were no more, replaced by steel resolve. Her hands reached into her pocket and pulled out a blade, which she quickly reached around Katie’s neck and pressed against Katie’s skin. Just as Katie felt the icy sensation of the cold steel, the girl pulled the blade back, slicing open Katie’s neck. 

Katie coughed as a stream of blood darted out of her neck. For a second, she just stood there with her head tilted and observed the blood rush out in silence. Most would clutch to the injuries on their necks and desperately try to stop the blood loss. To that, Katie simply snickered. Did she look like an ordinary human? This injury was just child’s play to her!

A few seconds passed, and Katie was somewhat surprised to see that the blood was still going. Ok...she would’ve expected her wound to have healed itself by now. Ah well...slowly, she turned back to the girl with her head lowered and raised a finger. One second please…

She could distinctly feel an odd energy circulating at her wound. This energy wasn’t volatile or corrosive. It was just...numbing. It was as if at the point of contact, Katie’s powers were nullified, at least for a brief period. Still, that wasn’t nearly enough to kill Katie, and as soon as the energy completely faded, the wound would heal itself once again. 

Yet Katie had no time to waste on trying to exhaust the nullifying energy with time. No...she always preferred more brutal ways. With her right hand, she reached into her own neck and dug her fingers into her own skin and flesh, Her fingers closed in around the part of her that was contaminated by the energy, and with a single pull, she yanked pieces of flesh out of her neck. 

As soon as the energy was gone, her neck started healing herself once again. It didn't take too long for Katie to go from a monster in a horror movie to a decent-looking young woman. 

To her credit, the assassin reacted as quickly as she could. Her blade struck out, going right for Katie’s heart. Since a throat slit didn't work against this abomination, maybe a stab to the heart would finish the job? Unfortunately, she never got the opportunity. 

Ultimately, it was clear that the girl was still human. An incredibly fast and well-trained human, but human nonetheless. Katie? Not so much. As far as Katie was concerned, the girl was almost moving in slow motion. She could land a few hits with surprise on her side, but in a fair fight? 

It didn't take Katie more than two seconds to pull the blade out of the girl’s hand and knock her to the ground with one punch to the face. She controlled her strength and the girl lived...for now.

“Honestly, I would like to thank you, and not only because that was really fun for me.” As she pulled the injured assassin off the ground, Katie casually started chatting to her. “I had no idea how to do investigations or find clues. It’s honestly too kind of you to offer yourself up to me and help me out. Now, let’s see what my friend can get out of you...”

The punch clearly left the assassin in an agonizing position. There was blood dripping down her nose, but for someone who just got crushed in combat, the girl was surprisingly resilient. Even as Katie’s hands were holding onto her, the girl found the opportunity to send a kick into Katie’s stomach. 

Katie didn't even budge. Really? A kick? What was that going to achieve?

Slowly, with the captured assassin, Katie started making her way back to her parked SUV and to Lady Sorcerer Katherine. Even as she was struck, she heard distinct sounds of movement from the Lady Sorcerer. It seemed like she came under attack as well, not that Katie let that make her more serious in how she dealt with the girl. 

What she saw next made her eyes widen. 

“Oh you’ve gotta be kidding me!”

Not far away from where Katie first left her, Lady Sorcerer Katherine was on her knees with a knife sticking out of her heart. A look of agony was in her eyes as her body slowly collapsed. Two men were standing in front of her. They took the disguise of innocent pedestrians when in reality they were anything but that. One of them pulled his blade out of the Lady Sorcerer’s heart, taking advantage of her overconfidence, it seemed.

All the other pedestrians that were around the parking lot stopped their act as well. One by one, they closed in on Katie with murderous intent. There were at least a dozen of them around here. In fact, all the people Katie thought were civilians seemed to be undercover assassins...and somehow, they were able to deceive the Lady Sorcerer’s magic. 

It appeared like the assassins completely took Katherine by surprise. The Sorcerer didn't have Katie’s regeneration capabilities, so she was killed almost immediately. None of her spells or sorceries or years of experience managed to save her. 

At that moment, as she stared at the body of the leader of the witch covens in Los Angeles, Katie was beyond speechless. Ok...what the actual fuck? Come on! You’re a two hundred-year-old witch! You’re supposed to be able to wipe out entire armies and summon legions of demons to your service with your spells! Are you really just gonna die here? Seriously? 

Somehow she knew this wouldn’t be good for her relationship with the witches…

As she was still standing there in awe, the two men responsible for Katherine’s death turned to face her. One of them glanced at the girl Katie was holding onto, and his expression quickly changed to anger. 

“Unhand her and put your hands above your head, you witch abomination!” He demanded while raising his blade in a threatening manner. “Do it now!”

Katie pretty much ignored him. It would take a lot more than a few words to make her give up. She did drop the injured assassin, but that was only because she decided to run her right hand across her hair in another one of her many acts of frustration. 

She never answered the man, but for some reason, the man kept on talking. 

“Give it up, witch! This one is your leader, right? Your Lady Sorcerer? Well, she is dead now, and if you don’t want to suffer the same fate, then you will surrender yourself at once!” 

Once again, Katie didn't answer him, and the man simply went on. 

“After you surrender, we will take you to a spot on Route 91, which is around 25 minutes of drive away from here. We will hand you over to a team from Area X. They should be a team of four. They’re in a large van with the windows tinted black. I have no idea where they will take you or what they will do to you, but this is what we did to the girl we captured around here a while ago...”

Just like that, the leading assassin went on and on and told Katie everything, from the things he should be saying to the things he should definitely be keeping a secret. Katie looked at him with even more surprising than when she first saw Lady Sorcerer Katherine die. Ok...how the hell did someone as chatty as you become an assassin? 

And then she realized it. This wasn’t just being chatty. No...this man was either a traitor that was terrible at keeping his secret identity a secret, or he was under the influence of something wicked. 

The man beside him came to the same realization. He snapped to his squad leader, but before he could say anything, a scream left his mouth. Katie watched as life was literally drained from the man’s face. Within seconds, he went from a young man in his twenties to an elderly who could barely take a step before collapsing. 

The other assassins snapped around, looking for the culprit. But before they could find anything, the same thing happened to them, and following a wave of chilling screams, all of them were on the ground, barely able to breathe on their own. 

As far as Katie knew, only one person was capable of doing this. Add that to the talkativeness of the squad leader...Katie took a breath of relief and turned to the side. There, Lady Sorcerer Katherine stepped out of thin air. 

“Ok...that’s a lot more reasonable than if you just got killed by two random assassins.” Katie shrugged and took a breath of relief.

The squad leader kept on talking. There was a look of fear in his eyes as he was aware of what was happening, but his lips just wouldn’t stop moving. Katherine forcibly extracted everything he knew about this mission and what went down with the spy. Apparently, the squad took the spy by surprise. They posed as ordinary pedestrians, just like what they did to Katie and Katherine. Once they got close enough, they struck down the unsuspecting witch, knocking her out before she could cast a single spell. 

The witch was delivered to another team from Area X, another New Faction Katie never heard about. 

Apparently, there was originally only a three-man squad positioned here. After the witch was taken out, more units were dispatched here to ensure that they could take the reinforcements of the witches by surprise. Unfortunately, their numbers meant nothing against someone as powerful as Katherine. 

As they got all the info they needed, Katherine drained the squad leader of his life as well. Katie snapped the neck of the female assassin that tried to take her on alonely. To take care of the bodies, the Lady Sorcerer summoned a demonic beast and devoured all the corpses. Even Katie had to admit watching a giant worm-like creature devour a dozen bodies were somewhat disturbing. Just a little. 

As they got back onto the SUV and started moving again, Katie glanced at Katherine. 

“So, that was exciting, but...care to explain what the hell just happened? What is Area X? And who the hell were those people?”