Contractbound

He sat quietly in his chair in deep thought.

"Val, what do you think I should do? If we were stronger, we would be able to solve these problems easily."

He had to admit that he was no saint that would just help other people out of goodwill, but if he could, he would try to help people related to him, and in this case, it was his client. He would prioritize himself first, however, so if things were getting too dangerous, he would definitely save himself first and foremost. After some thinking, he had made a decision. Graham took his lighter and concentrated on the flame.

"Is there a Contractbound in the Police with a strong purification ability?"

The flame in his hand burned brighter and then an image gradually appeared. It was of a person that he had met several times before, the tall Police officer with a scar on his face. He had also appeared when he divined the location of a Denuder contract scroll. The image then slowly disappeared.

"This guy again?" he said in a slight surprise, "Is there no one else in the police force besides this guy?"

His first meeting with that man from the Police was less than pleasant; he had put him under control for interrogation. Luckily, he had Valentine to switch with so he hadn"t fallen under the man"s control.

"But at least now we know we have someone there that can help our client," he added.

Graham"s plan was to persuade his client, using his power, to go and seek the help of the Police to have the thing inside her purified after she came back and paid his commission fee. He would also persuade her to forget about their meeting, so his ident.i.ty could remain safe. He had done something similar before and as long as the person"s spirituality was weaker than his, it should work. It the meantime, he would deal with the adult Tiyanak if it was possible, to stop him from creating more victims.

Once he was done with that divination, he concentrated on the flame again to find out which of the fourteen men was the adult Tiyanak that had impregnated her.

"Who is the father of the Tiyanak fetus inside Anne Smit"s womb?"

The room got darker and gradually he could see an image of a man from the calmly burning flame in front of him. It was a man with brown hair wearing a pair of gla.s.ses which emphasized the sharp gaze from his green eyes. There was an easily recognized mole on his right chin; he was the man named Gerwin. After that, the image disappeared.

"Alright. Now I can make preparation. But first, let"s divine the danger and the location of that human pretender,"

...

In the second-floor apartment next door, Luuk van der Meer was lying on the floor in his bedroom with sweat all over his body. His shirt was wet and his face was pale. He had just pleased his Deity and been granted improvement with his abilities, but right now he was still too weak to a.n.a.lyze check how they had changed.

He panted while regaining his strength. The experience had been very painful; even more painful than his contract before because back then, his professor had been there to help him. Luuk, who had initially been sitting on his bed, had moved around, writhing in pain, and ended up in that spot. He lied there motionlessly for more than five minutes before finally started concentrating on the knowledge that had just entered his brain.

My abilities have evolved! It says here that now I can steal up to five tangible objects at once, granted they are from the same target and are not placed too far away from each other. That will be quite useful against people who wield multiple weapons or if I want to strip someone completely naked.

Besides that, now I can also steal one intangible object from a target at a time. What does it mean by intangible objects? Can I steal someone"s shadow? Mr. Hymes would certainly know what it means and he will give me a way to experiment with it. I"ll try to visit him after this. From now on the limit to my Theft is fifteen per day. But does it count as one count or multiple if I steal more than one thing from my target? I guess I have to find out as well.

I"ve just realized that I"ve been having this mental monologue more and more. Has something about me changed? Well, who knows. It"s not like it"s a bad thing anyway. My friends say I don"t really talk much, but can they blame me? After all, talking to myself is much more interesting.

Luuk got up from his position and put on some clothes. He wore his favorite maroon sweater and a pair of denim pants. After that, he left his apartment to visit his next-door neighbor, who was also his partner in crime.

Ding dong...

He rang the doorbell. He stood there casually. He was not in a hurry at all since he had nothing else to do today. The detective seemed to be in the middle of something since he didn"t answer the door for a while. After waiting for some time, the sound of the man"s footsteps could be heard and the door was opened. The detective was only wearing his pajama pants with no shirt on.

"Are you busy?" he asked. He had just realized that the detective had actually got a toned body.

"Yes, but I know why you come and I also have a job for you," said Graham while beckoning him to follow the detective to enter his apartment.

Being able to do divination sure is nice, he thought.

When Graham turned his back to Luuk to walk into the apartment, Luuk could see the big scar on his back. He had the urge to ask about the scar, but he didn"t want to make it awkward if it turned out to be a sensitive topic, so he worded his question carefully.

"I think the scar on your back looks bada.s.s. How did you get it?" he asked while entering the apartment.

Graham didn"t answer for some time. He approached his office chair and sat comfortably in it, while Luuk took the seat across from him and sat leisurely.

"I got it as a souvenir from somewhere. Don"t ask where," answered Graham very seriously, but his tone was rather comical instead of mysterious.

Luuk didn"t press the topic any further because Graham had stated that he shouldn"t ask more about it, so he let it slide.

"So I am he--" Luuk was speaking when Graham interrupted him.

"Why didn"t you ask why?" he asked seriously.

"What?" Luuk was confused.

"Why didn"t you ask why you shouldn"t ask where?" he explained his question.

Luuk looked perplexed, but then asked anyway since he was curious in the first place, "Why can"t I ask where?"

"Because it"s private," said Graham shortly and mysteriously.

This detective must be wrong in the head. Maybe he ate something bad this morning, thought Luuk.

"Anyway, I"m here to test out my new powers," he said, changing the topic.

"What are your new powers?" asked Graham.

Luuk explained to Graham in detail about the evolution of his abilities and the new limit of how many times he could use it per day. It was a crucial piece of information to be known by his teammate in they were to work together in the future. The man in front of him was listening attentively while nodding from time to time.

"Interesting. I think I have some idea on how your power works," said Graham while reaching out to a drawer on his desk.

Graham took out a candlestick and placed it firmly on the desk. After that, he lit it with his lighter. The candle burned brightly in that room which was already illuminated by the electric light in the ceiling. Graham then turned to Luuk.

"Can you try to steal the light from that lightbulb?" he said while pointing up with his finger.

Luuk looked up and gauged the distance between him and the lightbulb. Since the ceiling wasn"t that high, it should still be within his range. He then concentrated and started chanting.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Theft, declare the lightbulb"s light mine!"

Luuk made a swiping motion with his right hand and suddenly, the room became darker. The lightbulb had stopped lighting up the room and was replaced by the candle whose red flame illuminated its surrounding. Luuk"s right hand was still folded into a fist and something under his fingers was shining brightly. It was the light from the electric bulb that he had stolen.

The object in his hand was not tangible, so he couldn"t feel it in his skin at all, except for the warmth that it was radiating. He couldn"t see its form either, just the fact that something was shining in his hand. He spread open his fingers to see better but as soon as he did that, the object disappeared and the lightbulb in the ceiling was on again.

"I guess that means you cannot let go of the stolen object or it will return to its owner," Graham concluded.

Luuk nodded. He felt like he understood his ability better now.

"Now, can you steal the flame from this candle?" asked Graham.

Luuk observed the candle carefully and then shook his head, "I"m sure I can, but I think it will burn my hand. The light before felt warm in my hand, so the fire will definitely feel hot."

"Fair enough," said Graham and then got up. He walked over to the light switch and turned off the light. Now, the only source of light in the room was the candle flame, which cast shadows to the objects around it.

"Then steal the shadow from this pen," said Graham while balancing a pen to make it stand on the desk, "And now, try to hold on longer to see how long the object can remain stolen," asked Graham again expectantly.

Luuk concentrated on the long shadow cast by the standing pen and chanted.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Theft, declare the shadow of this pen mine!"

He made a swiping motion with his right hand and the pen had now been rendered shadowless. In his hand, he couldn"t see any extra shadow because of the way the candle illuminated the room, and he couldn"t feel any sensation in his hand either. However, he understood that he had successfully stolen the shadow because he could feel it at a spiritual level. Although he couldn"t feel it, he knew he was holding on to the stolen item because of the pen"s state. This time, he wouldn"t open his hand.

They waited patiently in the dark without speaking. The two men were observing the pen closely to see when its shadow would return while Graham looked at his watch that was lying on the desk from time to time to keep track of the time.

Tick tock...

The very faint ticking coming from the watch reminded them that time was still moving forward. The pen"s shadow still hadn"t returned and Luuk was still holding something invisible in his right hand. It was not until minutes later that he felt that something had slipped away from his hand, without actually feeling it on his skin. He looked up at Graham and the latter understood. He checked the watch the moment the pen"s shadow came back.

"Five minutes. That"s the longest you can keep it stolen,"

"That"s long enough, but while doing that my right hand cannot do anything else," Luuk added to the conclusion.

"Except maybe punching," Graham added quickly.

Their experiment with objects had given them new insights into how Luuk"s power worked. Now they needed to do a human experiment.

"Now try to steal my presence,"

Luuk nodded and chanted,

"I, in the name of the Deity of Theft, declare Mr. Hymes" presence mine!"

His right hand made the usual swiping motion and his spirituality told him that he had got something; it was Graham"s presence. The man in front of him didn"t look any different, and Luuk could still clearly see him even from the corner of his eyes. Graham then stood up quietly and walked behind Luuk, where he couldn"t be seen.

Luuk couldn"t hear the man"s footsteps at all, and when he couldn"t see him, it was as if Graham was not in the room in the first place. Graham went back to sit in his chair and spoke,

"How is it?"

"I can"t hear your footsteps, and I couldn"t feel you behind me," he explained and then opened his hand to return the stolen presence.

"That is like your Concealment, Val," he muttered under his breath and then turned to Luuk, "When you stole it, I could feel that something was being taken away,"

"So my enemies will know that I have stolen something from them?" he asked to confirm.

"Yes, but not what you have stolen," he looked at Luuk seriously, "Now let"s move on to the next experiment,"

"What should I steal next?"