"Come on.” I slid out of the booth. “I'll tell you on the way."
Chapter Crash rolled up onto his toes and whistled. “You say a Brimstone Cleaner pulled this off, yeah?" "From what I understand,” I admitted, looking over the gorgeous park before us. The sprinkler system had apparently come on while I was gone. Beneath the industrial strength streetlights the wet grass glittered and twinkled. It struck me. The illusion was so complete, so well thought out, that it had a sprinkler system. It was simply amazing. "This bloke worked some powerful mojo,” Crash added as he stuffed his hands in his jeans pockets. “I don't know what you expect me to do. This is beyond even me." "Don't give me that line, Crash,” I warned him. Crash couldn't take his eyes away from the park. He seemed transfixed by it. I stepped closer to him. “What do you see?" "Colors, Rose,” Crash breathed. “My God, the colors are breathtaking." With my preternatural sight, I could see some of the telltale signs of magical use, but I was sure it was nothing like Crash could perceive. Magic left a very specific fingerprint that often times looked like a television screen when it was slightly out of whack. Colors jumped and shimmered over objects randomly creating a beautiful prism effect. The more powerful the magic, the more brilliant the colors were. I knew then that the lowly Cleaner Witch had nothing to do with this. The magic users delegated to the Cleaners were indeed powerful, but this was well beyond that. This was simply incredible. But there were always seams where the magic was stitched to reality. The trick was finding and exploiting them. "What exactly are you looking for, Rose?” Crash asked, finally turning away from the park. “I mean, why are we here? You obviously didn't bring me out to play on the jungle gym with you." "This used to be a Vampire nest.” My tone was flat and even as I stared. “I need to know if there's anything left."
"You can tell there's nothing left,” Crash said, motioning to the park before us. “You don't need a bloody Razer to tell you that."
Crash, much like his name implied, was a Raze Demon, a destroyer of things. His species had the particular ability to bring down anything, including complex spells. He had a unique understanding of the world, not seeing it as most of us did. He saw patterns in everything, and with that talent, he saw how to undo them. He was a living wrecking ball, capable of wiping anything from the face of the Earth. Razers made especially good thieves. There wasn't much they couldn't break into. It was a simple matter of making the vault door nonexistent and they were in. I had caught him fencing stolen goods twice, and once during an actual robbery. He had chosen to knock over one of the smaller casinos off the Strip in hopes he would take enough to retire somewhere. Instead, he had lost his focus during the heist and
The Brimstone Betrayal
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