Amanda walked cautiously up to the large abandoned water tunnel and strained to see through the darkness. She hated meeting places like this but realized it was an unfortunate part of what she did. She entered saying hello quietly, her voice fluttering back to her from the chamber. The smell was something she couldn't quite place but it reminded her of sledding as a child, with a sense of fear mixed in. She felt a drop of sweat hit her hand and touched her brow instinctively, letting out a gasp at how wet her forehead was. She heard footsteps, echoing around the circular stone tunnel in a way that didn't let her get an idea of direction.

"Your team failed. That is a problem." The voice was as smooth as obsidian, the minor inflection on 'failed' made her flinch. "I need to fix that problem."

Amanda held in a sob, the unknown smell stronger know, almost stinging her nose, "I... I can make it better, I can... g-get it back! I... If I could make a call or two..."

"Ha!" She heard movement and the voice was closer, but she still didn’t know where. "You tracked it to Mesa, and your team failed. You tracked it to Malibu, and your team failed. And now", the voice was suddenly a whisper in her ear, "you want me to give you a third chance." She felt a hand brush her hair off her face, "I think not."

She took in a deep rattling breath, "I can still track them!! We have the web site, and I have more people..." She felt hands on her shirt and was pulled to her feet. "Oh god! Pleease, please don't hurt me..."

She felt herself flying through the air, more precisely, she felt she wasn't touching the ground anymore and could feel a breeze on her face. She saw an explosion of bright light as her face impacted the wall, her lip went numb and she felt teeth move. Her knee hit the ground hard, then her elbow, more light as the back of her head bounced slightly when it came to rest on the floor. She could taste salt and feel heat in her mouth, and the smell from before. She realized now what it was, remembered sledding down the hill as a child, remembered hitting the bump and landing hard on her cheek, remembered the smell of blood as it poured from her nose. She was surprised at how bright the sun was and that she could almost feel the cold snow.

She felt hands lifting her, reality slapping her out of her memory. The man's breath was cold and strangely unscented. "I want to hurt you. I want to hurt you badly, leave you here broken and dying. But I need more from you first. "

Amanda tried to speak, but her lip was too swollen to form words. Instead she made a guttural moaning deep in her throat. She sobbed at the sound. She felt a sharp pain in her neck and all the pain slipped away.

*************

She woke to see the sun coming through the trees. The heat of it burned her face, she closed her eyes in its brightness. She sat up and her head swam with pain. She felt her lip, the swelling had gone down some but she still had to force her mouth to get it to close completely. Her small foreign car was parked where she had left it, a few yards away on a dirt road. She staggered to her feet and found her keys.

She started the car and moved the mirror to see her face. She was purple, with dried blood under her nose. Her eyes were black. She winced at the sight and swore as best she could through the lips that moved like a bad botox job. She let out a breath and concentrated on her face.

As she watched, the swelling went down, her eyes became pink again, her headache subsided. She touched her still blood-caked but now normal sized lips and shook her head in amazement. She also felt a need to reacquire some of the powerful... magic? Elixir? that allowed her to heal so quickly. She also felt anger rise in her chest.

She started the car and picked up the phone, thinking of how to tell work that she will need a few days off, and wondering if she would ever really need to go back...