Summoned Again?

Sandy showed Lisa and I the next building and it was my building. I didn't let anything show, however. I pretended everything was new and I hadn't seen it before, made disparaging comments about the building at appropriate moments when asked, and we moved on. The last building was the worst of the three; but, it was in a prime location and was also the most expensive. I pretended to like some of the things and pointed out the flaws, then we left and went our separate ways.

Lisa drove me back to the construction site. “You didn't like any of them.”

I sighed and did my best to feign resignation. “I need to pick one, so maybe I should get your opinion.”

“Mine?” Lisa asked.

“You're getting the commission for the sale, right?”

“No, for the purchase. Sandy gets the commission for the sale.” Lisa corrected.

“Oh. Then don't pick the expensive one.” I said and she laughed.

“That leaves two.” Lisa said and went quiet as she thought about it.

“I'll say right now that I don't want the first building because of what happened.” I said and she nodded.

“That means you're stuck with the second one.” Lisa said. “Are you okay with settling like this?”

“I have to be. I need the room for offices, the extra apartments for employees, and the amenities, even if we have to pay for parking next door.” I said in a slightly defeated tone. “I don't suppose the parking structure is for sale?”

Lisa gave me a look, then she looked at the road. “I'll make a few discrete calls and see who owns it.”

“Thanks.” I said. “What are your thoughts on the price of the building I'm so happy to try and buy?”

Lisa chuckled. “I'll get the inspector's report and I'll pound the owner with violations that are going to cost a fortune to fix.”

“Wonderful!” I said and smiled at her. “Less upfront cost will definitely let me fix the place up.”

“You're going all out on it, aren't you?” Lisa asked.

“If given the chance, yes.” I said. “If my guess is right, I'm going to have a lot of people that will want to live there because it's so fucking awesome.”

Lisa laughed. “You're cursing a bit too much, you know.”

“Yeah, but it makes you laugh.” I said and she laughed again.

Lisa came to a stop at the construction site and gave me a longing look. “You know, if I'm really horny...”

“I would like nothing more than to fix that for you.” I leaned over to give her a quick kiss. “You already told me that love your future husband, though.” I said with a smile and she nodded.

“What if I just want to talk?” Lisa asked and waggled her eyebrows at me.

It was my turn to laugh as I remembered her making chewing sounds as she pretended her lower mouth gobbled me up the last time we had sex. “That was the best.” I said and gave her another kiss. “The absolute best.”

“It was.” Lisa said and smiled wistfully. “I'll do up the proper papers and get things rolling.”

“Thank you.” I said and climbed out of the car, then pat the fender as she drove away.

“Hey, boss.” The foreman said and I walked over to him. “Did you have fun?”

I smiled. “She's engaged.”

“Uh huh.” The foreman smiled. “The question hasn't changed.”

I smiled back and slapped him on the shoulder. “Get back to work.” I said and the both of us did.

Lisa was my champion and slayed the evil old owner of the building I wanted. She knocked several million from the price, which just happened to be the same amount she would be getting from the sale, and I couldn't have been happier with her. I had Jenny show up and had her as the primary owner of the building. That shocked both her and Lisa, since they both thought it was going to be my building.

Lisa also found out who owned the parking place next door and they sold it to me for a reasonable price. Of course, it came with the small crew of parking attendants and the whole salary thing as well. I had Craig add it to his workload for the building and he barely even glanced at it.

“Hey, guess what? There's like a dozen apartments free in the building.” I said.

“Do you know how much it's going to cost in rent there?” Craig asked.

“Yeah, nothing.” I said.

“I might not be able to afford to move...” Craig stopped talking and stared at me. “What did you say?”

“I told you I'd get you a company car and an apartment at the new building.” I said. “Are you paying anything for the car?”

“Well, no.”

“Gas?”

“Company card.” Craig said.

“Food?”

“Ditto.”

“Salary?”

“Ridiculous.”

“Is that good ridiculous or bad ridiculous?” I asked and he chuckled. “Okay, good ridiculous.” I said. “I told you that you're doing me a favor here and I look after my people.”

Craig nodded and his cell phone rang. “The decorating company is requesting an emergency meeting.”

I chuckled. “I bet Lisa just handed them the inspector's report.”

“No doubt.” Craig said. “Are you free right now?”

“I'm standing here, aren't I?” I asked and he laughed.

“You're spending too much time with the foreman.” Craig said and told them to come right over. “You know they are going to request a construction crew.”

“Surprise surprise, I seem to own the perfect company.” I said with a grin.

And so it went.

We split the workers between two job sites and the work didn't slow down or became harder with less people, because I was taking up the slack and doing a lot of the extra work after hours and on the weekends. With no one around, I could be a whirlwind of activity and do several jobs at once. Having an inventory that let me store pretty much everything, made construction a breeze, especially when you didn't need tools and just used strong hands to do things.

Of course, I also called a mandatory break and gave everyone a week off. A few of the guys protested, until I said that they were still getting their standard two week pays. I was cheered for that and everyone enjoyed their time off.

I didn't.

I had discretely acquired several nice Japanese samurai swords, real ones, and they were razor sharp. I followed the details of my visions to track down Sandy's family. I used my Divine Sight like a guide and did my best to dispatch each and every member of the extended family, starting with the grandmother.

To my surprise, she hadn't been expecting me and didn't know who I was. I apologized that her granddaughter had sent me and then took her head. Thanks to Divine Sight, I knew what to do to make sure that the karma of her life of voodoo was cycled back onto her and not transferred onto me. I destroyed her altar, her ritual blood hookah, and I burned the place to the ground in a specific ritual.

The rest of the family followed in her wake. None of them knew me and I was grateful that Sandy's seer blood hadn't been carried over into anyone else. I didn't get any mixed or mangled visions as I took care of them all. I felt bad about the children... at first. Those Divine Sight flashes told me what they would do if they grew up, especially without family and vengeance on their minds, and I dispatched them, too.

The Japanese swords were worth their weight in gold for the job. I left there, free and clear, and no trace of what I did was left. In order to cover up my crimes, I set fire to the local area's forest and called in the warning an hour after I left. By then, the gasoline I had spread all over had the fire well out of control and all they could do was evacuate. No one else died.

When I arrived at Sandy's house, I had a dozen different flashes of how the encounter was going to unfold. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, let it out, then stepped out of my car. I picked up the small bag and carried it to Sandy's front door. I did my best to ignore the visions as they kept playing and changing with each step I took.

I couldn't falter now, not after all the hard work I had done, so I rang her doorbell. The door opened and a very surprised Sandy stood there. Her mouth was frozen in the open position, her face filled with surprise, and I handed her the bag. Her expression didn't change as she took the bag and opened it.

“No!” Sandy said and reached in to take out the still beating heart of her grandmother.

“Her debt is yours now.” I said and took a samurai sword out of inventory and sliced it right through the grandmother's heart and shoved the blade into Sandy's heart. A pulse of sickly yellow energy passed through the blade from one heart into another, then both the heart and the blade turned to dust and faded away. “Karma's a bitch.” I said and walked away.

I had no flashes of Divine Sight as I walked back to my car. I climbed in and looked back at Sandy. She was no longer the striking black woman that she used to be. All of the old woman's debt was sucked into her and her body grew old and decrepit. Her black hair turned grey and then white, grew several feet in length, then she dropped to her knees as her strength left her.

Sandy cried out as her knees shattered like glass and she fell to the ground. Her arms crumbled when she tried to catch herself and then her screams cut off as she landed face down and her head deformed from the impact. Her body twitched and shivered as she laid there and died. I sat there and watched it all as I burned the image of it into my memory.

I needed to remember what happened to anyone who crossed my family. I didn't care if you came after me, since I was fair game. Going after my sister? Nope. That is never, ever happening.

I put the car into gear and drove off, sure that no one was ever going to pin a murder, or series of murders, on me. The murder weapon and all evidence was so much dust, as was the motive. Who was going to believe that they all died because I had a vision that they were going to cast a curse on me?

That's right.

No one.