Contractbound

Graham said shortly while looking seriously at Luuk.

"Okay,"

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

He swiped with his right hand but felt nothing. His spirituality didn"t tell him that he had successfully stolen something either, unlike before. Graham, who was sitting across from him, didn"t look like he had been affected in the slightest.

"It failed," said Luuk.

"Yes, I can see that," answered Graham shortly, then asked, "Do you have a theory why?"

Luuk went into thinking for some time. He was racking his brain for any information that might help him give an explanation of why his ability had failed.

"I think it"s related to my limitation. I cannot steal body parts from a living human either because it will affect their bodily function. I guess it"s the same for consciousness," he explained.

"That makes sense," answered Graham after listening to Luuk"s explanation. It aligned with what he had theorized as well.

Graham was finished with the experiment, so now he needed to turn on the light to allow him to see better. However, he was too lazy to get up from his chair, and it would also be a good opportunity for him to take his turn to display his power to Luuk, so he just looked at the light switch near the door and chanted.

"I, in the name of the Deity of the Tongue, order you to switch yourself on!"

Click!

The switch moved by itself and the light bulb in the ceiling was turned on. With the light from the electric bulb, he didn"t need his candle anymore, so he blew out the flame and it vanished into a thin line of smoke.

"Why are you not at university?" he suddenly asked his guest.

"Uhm, I"ve asked my friend to sign my attendance for me," he said guiltily.

"So that means you"re free, right?" asked Graham, sounding persuasive rather than inquisitive.

s.h.i.t. I have a bad feeling about this and I have actually planned to just lie down all day at home today. Should I lie?

Luuk looked at Graham and just as he was about to open his mouth, Graham took out a lighter from his pocket at lit it up.

"..."

Luuk definitely couldn"t lie because the man in front of him was both a detective and a divinator.

"Yes, I am free..." said Luuk finally. He sounded rather dispirited.

"Great!" he put out his lighter fire and then added, "I need your help dealing with a supernatural creature. I"ll pay you five guilders, with increment based on the overall difficulty of the mission,"

Luuk actually liked going on missions with the detective because although it was often dangerous, in the end, they never suffered a lot of damage. On top of that, the money was good and most importantly, he could experience real combat and the chance to use his abilities in sync with his teammates. However, today he was just feeling very lazy, especially since he had skipped cla.s.ses with the sole intention of lazing around all day; he didn"t really like changing plans.

"Uhm... sure. Do we need Jacco as well?" he said reluctantly.

"Yes. Even if he is busy at his restaurant, I will deal with it. But knowing him, he will jump head first at the chance to fight," Graham said nonchalantly.

"Yeah but he never actually fought. He was always just playing with his drum," Luuk said jokingly.

"True. But that drum is exactly why we need him. If we could strap a drum on a pig, I would also take the pig with us," he jested, then said seriously, "There actually is one more person, but I don"t know if he is even still alive right now, so we"ll just go with the three of us."

"As long as it is not too dangerous. What"s the mission?" asked Luuk.

"I"ll tell you once we meet up with Jacco, so I don"t have to explain twice. Now I believe you and I need to get ready first. We"ll leave right after we"re all set," he said while getting up from his chair.

Graham walked to the door and let Luuk return to his own room to prepare. Meanwhile, he also needed to get ready. He had done divination regarding the mission and was going to prepare when Luuk interrupted him earlier. He had also planned to take Luuk with him to deal with the Tiyanak, but he had come to him first, which made his job easier. On top of that, his abilities had evolved, so he would be much more useful.

"Tiyanaks need to be bled out to be completely dead, so definitely no gun today. And besides, it is too loud to be fired in the city and I don"t have normal bullets," he muttered while putting on a shirt and a pair of pants.

"The talismans are unlikely to work, but we"ll bring them just in case," he put on his coat and stuffed some talismans and split them into two pockets.

"Val, it will be our first mission involving killing that we do in the morning, I think. Tiyanaks are active at night, which means they will be stronger as well, so this is the best time to do it," he spoke quietly.

Graham was now ready, so he turned off his office light and left his apartment without forgetting to lock the door. Luuk hadn"t come out yes, so he was still getting ready inside his own apartment, although Graham didn"t know what Luuk had to prepare because in their previous missions he had never brought anything but his knife.

He stood patiently at the door as he had always done before. It took the medical student some time to get ready. Graham had waited for more than five minutes before finally, he heard the sound of the door being unlocked and opened. It was Luuk, who was now wearing a different outfit from what he had before: a dark sweater and a pair of denim pants. His sweaty shirt had probably been replaced by something underneath his sweater.

"Ready, young master?" asked Graham sarcastically.

"Yes, sorry. I had to take care of a lot of stuff first," answered Luuk with a tone that wasn"t any less sarcastic than Graham"s.

He wasn"t actually doing anything the first few minutes after they separated. He lied down on his bed and let his mind wander while gathering the will to get going. Once he had touched the bed, it was even more difficult to get up, so he ended up lying down for a while.

"Let"s go to Jacco"s now," urged Graham.

The two men walked downstairs and out of the apartment building. The restaurant where Jacco was working was located on Grotemarktstraat, and they didn"t feel like walking that day, so they stopped a public motor carriage and got on. It didn"t take them long to arrive at their destination.

"He will pay," said Graham while quickly got out of the carriage, leaving Luuk no chance to react.

Luuk reluctantly took out some pennings from his wallet and paid the driver. After paying, he got out of the carriage and looked at Graham in disdain, the latter pretended not to notice anything.

It was very busy that morning on the commercial street. It was only ten in the morning, not even close to the lunch break, but people were bustling about. They were packing many of the stores and restaurants on that street. Graham and Luuk weren"t interested in stopping by another place; they went directly to their destination; the medium-sized restaurant called Moeders. It was a pretty famous restaurant around the area apparently, because every time they went there, it was always busy.

The two men entered the restaurant and sat at a table. Graham hadn"t had breakfast, so he planned to eat there as well while Luuk was just following him. He apparently hadn"t eaten either, so he would also eat while they were there.

A waiter approached them with the menu and offered it to each of the customers.

"Give me onion soup and a cup of hot chocolate," said Graham confidently.

"I want porridge and black coffee, please," said Luuk after browsing through the menu,

"And also tell Jacco, Graham is looking for him," added Graham before the waiter left.

The waiter wrote down their orders quickly and left their table to pa.s.s it on to the chef, who was apparently Jacco himself.

The two men waited patiently for their food while occasionally chatting about random stuff. Their food arrived not long after, and they started eating right away because they were already hungry. Some moments after that, Jacco came out of the kitchen still wearing his dirty ap.r.o.n.

"You"re looking for me, detective? he asked loudly not on purpose; it was just his voice.

"Yes. I have a job for you, and we need to leave immediately," said Graham.

"What job? And I can"t just leave the restaurant like this. The other chef will only come much later," he said honestly.

Graham had expected Jacco"s circ.u.mstances, so he had also thought of a solution.

"Leave it to me. Where is the manager?" he asked seriously.

Jacco pointed at a door next to the kitchen door and Graham got up from his chair and walked up to the door leisurely, his hands were in his pockets. He knocked on the door and was let in by someone from inside. The other two, who were still sitting at the table, was watching intently.

"What do you think he"s gonna do?" asked Jacco curiously.

"Probably threaten your manager to let you go," Luuk shrugged.

Jacco"s eyes opened wide and small droplets of sweat began forming on his forehead. He wasn"t scared of many things in life, but his female manager was one of the exceptions. He was waiting anxiously for Graham to come out.

Thud...

The door was opened all the way through and it hit the wall lightly. Graham walked out of the manager"s office back to the table where the other two were sitting.

"What did you do?" asked Jacco worriedly.

"Don"t worry. She has agreed to call your subst.i.tute to come in right away. We just need to wait," he said casually.

"For real?! How did you do that?" Jacco asked in disbelief. His manager had always been a difficult person to deal with because of her stubbornness. However, Jacco didn"t know about Graham"s persuasion power.

"Trade secret. Now about the job. I need your support to eliminate a supernatural creature. I will pay you five guilders with an increment if it turns out to be more difficult than I judge,"

"Another supernatural creature? Is it a wraith?" asked Jacco.

Luuk, who didn"t know a lot about supernatural creatures, was also listening with interest.

"No, This time, it is called a Tiyanak. They are like vampires that are common in literature but should be weaker. We need to behead it and let it bleed out to kill it. It also had the form of a human, so don"t be fooled."

"Such a thing exists?" asked Jacco in surprise. Ghosts were easier to believe than blood-sucking human-like monsters.

"Yes, but they are active at night. During the day they are usually hiding. I"ve done my homework so just follow my lead," he said confidently.

"Why don"t you just tip the Police and let them deal with the thing?" asked Luuk.

Graham shook his head in disapproval and said, "I cannot just do that, can I? As an outstanding citizen of Sloten, I have to make sure I eliminate anything that might threaten the safety of the citizens."

He spoke with a straight face without flinching, although what he said was a blatant lie. His actual reason for dealing with the thing himself was because he was curious about what a Tiyanak was like and especially about what it would drop upon its death. If it turned out to be too difficult, he would then give an anonymous tip to the Police.

Thud!

Suddenly, the kitchen door was opened and a man in his early thirties came out. He walked straight towards Jacco and spoke.

"Jacco, I heard from Mrs. Gurman that you have to go to the hospital for your hip correction surgery. What even is that?" asked the man to Jacco.

The man appeared to be the subst.i.tute chef for him and he had just arrived at the restaurant and entered through the back door. He was still carrying his backpack and hadn"t changed to his chef"s attire.

"Uhm... yes, that"s right. My hip was dislocated, so I need to have it corrected as soon as possible," said Jacco uncomfortably.

"I heard from her that it happened during your dance practice. I didn"t know you liked dancing," asked the man in disbelief.

"..."

Graham pretended not to hear anything. He continued to finish his food with a straight face and drank his hot chocolate until the last drop.