Rajisa sat on the broomstick, looking down at the manor house. It was an old one, rectangular and with the roman style columns so popular with the mundane nobility. Carefully tended green gardens spread out from it, shaped into precise geometic shapes. It reminded her vaguely of a diagram she had seen in the Collective.
John, John, what would she do with him? As much as she, well, loved him, being around him was like being around a lightning conductor. He was a puppy, so eager to help he ended up being a danger. And yet, she could not quite bring herself to seperate from him, not yet.
Movement. A Bentley, black, moving along the (carefully neat) driveway. She hoped that John was paying attention down there. She raised her hands, always a fun thing to do on a broomstick, and slowly began to gather energies. She didn't want to alert them after all.
John, having managed to do this right, at least, triggered the holding spell. The bentley stopped. A part of her mind whispered that such a brick of a car looked better while stopped. She then released her spell, another holding spell, but one that targetted the hearts of the men inside the car. Not a spell that was encouraged by the Collective - mundane doctors didn't like entire cars full of heart attack victims - but if it got the job done, she was happy. There was a brief lurch as her magic drained energy from the surrounding area, including the broomstick, and then it was done. She swooped down, landing next to the car with a soft scatter of gravel. She had to be fast - the people inside the manor house would not be slow in reacting to her appearance. Reaching for the car door, she noticed at the last second the small symbol on the door handle. Jerking her hand away, she glared at the shocking spell.
Trust these men to put that on their door. She reached down, and pulled a dagger from her left boot. She slashed it up, then down, and then uttered a few sylables. Finally, she scraped the dagger along the doors symbol. There was a quiet hiss, and the symbol faded. At that moment, there was crunching gravel behind her. Spinning around, she raised the dagger, only to realise it was John.
"Silly idiot! Get back to the trees! Now!"
Without waiting to see his reaction, she opened the car door and reached inside. Leaning over the body of the man, she looked at the machine-spirit. It sat in the middle back seat, between two corpses, staring into air in front of it. Grabbing its hand, she attempted to jerk it out. As she had a lack of success, John spoke.
"Perhaps if you removed the body first?"
"I told you to leave!" She angrily replied. Then she pulled the corpse out. John, apparently as unable to take orders as always, pulled it away a bit, but didn't leave. Hissing in frustration, Rajisa grabbed the machine-spirit and pulled it out of the car. Once it crossed the door, it seemed to wake up. Looking at her, it frowned.
"Are you mundane?"
"No," Replied Rajisa, "I am not. I am Collective."
"Collective..." Sighed the machine-spirit. "Release me?" It asked, staring around at the grounds and gravel.
Rajisa raised the dagger and slashed it across the machine spirits face. It blinked slowly as it faded out of view. She turned around to see John with his arm raised.
"You stabbed it!" He nearly shouted.
"I released it." She said, matter of factly. Climbing onto her broom, she turned to him. "I shall see you at the house, after I calm down some. I need to think things over, and you need to stay out of trouble."
As she zoomed into the sky, she did not pause to wonder why the manors residents did not act or interfere, or see the shapes following John as he creeped, by way of most of the twigs he could find, out of the grounds.