Earthbound: An Otherworld Novella (7 page)

“Get this done before he shows up.” I glanced over my shoulder at Delilah, but she said nothing as she focused on denuding me of thorns.

Menolly wandered out to the back porch and stared over railing, keeping watch.

Fifteen minutes later we were almost done—Delilah was slathering my ass and the backs of my thighs with salve—when the front door opened. I tried to roll off the counter, but I wasn’t fast enough as Chase came rushing into the room. He skidded to a halt as I lie there, my butt wide open to the air, slathered in salve and bloody marks.

Chapter 6

“Well, I haven’t had a greeting like this in a while,” he said, laughter bubbling just below the surface.

“Not another word, Johnson. Not another word.” I cautiously eased off the counter, stiff from the pain and sores. I wanted to sit down, but one look at the hard seats and I changed my mind.

Chase wiggled his eyebrows at me, but then the smile vanished and concern took over. “Are you okay? I don’t mean to comment on your ass but damn, you have a lot of nasty bruises and cuts back there. What happened?”

I bit my tongue, trying to stem my irritation. I knew it was partially caused by the pain. Chase was actually trying to be nice and he
did
seem concerned. “We’re not sure. We got attacked out on our land by some creature, and I fell in a pile of bramble bushes. Apparently the briars liked me and wanted me to stay and sit with them awhile.”

“What sort of creature? I have a group of my men waiting on the front porch. They’re ready to go hunting, but first we need a description of what we’re looking for.”

“We don’t know what it was, but we can tell you what it looked like.” Menolly had moved in a blur, so silently that Chase let out a shout and jumped as she appeared by his side. She started to laugh. “What’s the matter, detective? See a ghost? Or maybe…
a vampire
?”

“What the hell? Don’t do that!” Chase edged away from her. I could smell the fear coming off of him, along with a spicy, meaty smell. Whatever he had eaten for dinner was sticking with him, oozing out of his pores.

“Don’t tease the detective. It’s not nice.” Part of me wanted to scold Menolly and part of me wanted to cheer her on. But the diplomatic side won.

She rolled her eyes, but muttered an apology. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“Uh huh,
right
. So what did it look like?”

“Short, about so tall.” She measured from the floor with her hand. “And it was covered in fur. It had a gnarled face, and the mouth—we definitely saw a ring of teeth.”

“It absorbed the magic I sent out it. Absorbed it, then threw it right back at me. So we know that it can feed off magical energy. Although I doubt it would object to a dinner of body parts, either.” I strained remember anything else that might help. “We don’t think it was demonic. It felt nasty, but not deliberately evil. Honestly, it reminded me of an animal.”

“A hungry one,” Delilah said.

I nodded. “Yes, true. I think it was hungry. Why else would it continue to attack us when it saw there were three of us?”

“Because we weren’t very effective against it? Because it thought it could win? But you’re right, it did remind me of a hungry animal. Only smarter.” Menolly slowly floated up toward the ceiling. She had taken to hanging out up there when Delilah and I ate, or when she wanted to think. Vampires were good at levitating, and while Menolly was still a little shaky at it, practice made perfect.

Chase stared up at her, looking unnerved. I offered him a chair and he slid into it, tapping his fingers on the table. “I can’t think of anything I’ve ever seen that would fit your description. Definitely nothing found Earthside — at least nothing that I know of, but that’s not saying a lot. So many things have come out of the woodwork since you guys opened the portals that it’s hard to say. But it sounds like something from your side of the fence. From Otherworld. Not that I’ve ever been there.” A wistful note echoed in his voice.

“Do you ever want to visit there?”

He shrugged. “I think so. If I had a good guide. I wouldn’t want to do anything against local customs and get myself in trouble. And frankly, I can see that happening.” He let out a long sigh and cautiously leaned on the table as he stood. “You girls need furniture. I see you’ve gotten a start on the place, but this is a big house and it’s going to take some time for you to fill it up.”

Delilah let out a snort. “Trust me, I think we’re going to have the time. I don’t foresee as being recalled soon. If you want your men to spread out and check the yard, that’s great, but given how strong this creature is, you might want to take Menolly and me with you.”

“Right,” Menolly said. “And nobody goes out alone. Don’t take this the wrong way, but if
we
couldn’t handle it, then it doesn’t bode well for your men going out there on their own. We’re a lot stronger than most FBHs. And we don’t want to see a body count from this.”

Chase looked relieved. “I appreciate the thought. And I’m sure my men will, too. Ever since the portals opened, we’ve been facing a lot of situations in which we’re not sure what to do.”

“It’s a learning curve for all sides.” I grimaced as I realized how stiff my legs and back were. “Sheesh, those cuts put a damper on me.”

Chase paused at the arch leading into the foyer. “Listen, I wanted to warn you about something. I don’t think you fully realize how much of an effect the portals opening have had on our society here.”

“How so?” I asked.

“It’s polarized society. On one hand, you guys are rock stars—celebrities—in case you’re not sure what that means. On the other hand, some people see you as demons. Which is their right, as long as they keep their hands to themselves. But there are some hate groups rising who are preaching action rather than rhetoric. I don’t trust them. We live in a violent world. Earthside has seen so many wars that we can’t even count them. And in this country, the answer to a lot of people’s problems seems to be found in the trigger of a gun. I’m not sure what you’re used to over in Otherworld. I don’t know whether it’s faerieland—all happiness and joy, or what. I assume not, given you are part of the military.”

I glanced at Menolly and Delilah. That seemed to be a common misconception.

“Trust me,” I said. “We’re used to plenty of violence. While we may not have guns, we have magic and swords, and both of those can be lethal. Otherworld is rife with its own form of hate groups. Rather than a utopia, Otherworld is filled with prejudice, assault and murder.”

Menolly cleared her throat. “Drug abuse is both common and legal. Slavery is legal, as well as servitude.”

“Sounds like a barrel of laughs. So you really aren’t any more progressive than we are?” Chase frowned, looking a little disillusioned.

“No,” I said softly. “Really, our worlds aren’t terribly different. We have magic, you have technology. But even there, the divide isn’t all that wide between the two. And even now the elfin mages are working on ways to combine the two.” I walked him to the door. “Go around back with your men. Menolly and Delilah will meet you there. It’s better if I stay inside. Trust me, I’m not the athlete my sisters are, and I don’t trust my magic around your men. Because of my half human heritage, it backfires all too often and can be dangerous.”

Chase gazed down at me. “I know you think I can be a sleaze, but I’m really not all that bad. And neither are you, Camille D’Artigo. So stop thinking you’re defective in some way.” And with that cryptic statement, he let himself out the front door and shut it softly behind him.

While I was waiting for them to return, I washed the dishes and puttered around, trying to keep busy. I hated feeling useless, but I was more of a liability out there than I was an asset. Finally, I curled up in the rocking chair with a book.

Forty minutes later, the door opened. Startled, I dropped my book on the floor as Delilah, Menolly, and Chase entered the kitchen. “Did you find anything?”

“No, unfortunately we didn’t. Well, we didn’t find any creature, but we found this.” Menolly held out her hand to show me what looked to be a finger bone. It was covered with runes drawn in what appeared to be dried blood. A copper wire was wound around one end, right below a knobby joint.

“What the hell?” I reach for it, then stopped. “Magic. That’s filled with magic. I don’t think I’d better touch. It might implode if my energy doesn’t mesh well with it.”

“It looks like a metacarpus, a bone in the upper hand.” Chase scowled. “I’m not sure if it’s human, or possibly Fae. Or maybe something altogether different. But I’m pretty sure it is a hand bone, regardless of the source.”

“Set it on the table so I can see it easier.” I motioned to Menolly and she gingerly placed it on the table.

I leaned down, holding my hand close over the bone. The energy radiated off of it like ripples in the ocean. The energy was forceful, although I couldn’t sense a presence behind it. I lowered my hand, bringing it closer to the bone, and the force grew more insistent, trying to find a way around the energy of my hand.

“It reminds me of a thick gelatin. I know that sounds strange but the energy is trying to find a way around mine. It has a tremendous amount of power behind it, but it’s not trying to push my hand away. It’s just trying to go around me, as though it’s trying to swallow my hand up.”

“Like the blob?”

I looked up at Chase. “I’m not sure I know what you’re talking about.”

“An old movie.” He paused, then added, “
The Blob
is an old movie about an alien creature that lands on earth. It’s a blob that grows as it swallows people up. It reminded me of your reference.” His voice trailed off and he looked almost embarrassed.

“That sounds interesting. I’d like to see it someday,” Delilah said absently, as she leaned down to watch my hand. “I can almost see sparkles. Not quite, but almost. But I think I can feel the interaction between your energy and that of the bone. It’s like they’re having an argument.”

“That’s exactly what I mean. And if I were to grab the bone I have a feeling something nasty would happen. I don’t know if it would be
big nasty
, but I know it wouldn’t be good.” I had enough of shocks and bruises for one night without trying for another. My butt still hurt even though the rocking chair had a thick cushion on it.

“So what do we do? Who do we contact about this? Do you have anybody on your force who might be able to tell us something?”

Chase scratched his ear. “I’m not entirely sure. You know, nobody has ever had to field anything like this. What if you girls help me write up some sort of procedure? We can scout out resources, maybe create a file of willing participants to whom we can refer whenever we have something like this that we need help with?”

It sounded like a good idea. “That makes sense, and it will help us get to know people around the area. Delilah, do you want to take that on?” I really wasn’t trying to foist the job off on her, but since she was the shyest of the three of us, this seemed a good way to get her out there, interacting with others. Otherwise, I had the feeling she’d park herself in front of the television and only leave the house when she had to.

She shrugged. “All right. I can do that. Chase, should I come by your office tomorrow? And while I’m there, we can finish going over what I need to know about the PI business. I suppose it’s like being an agent for the OIA, in a sense, but for private clients?”

“That’s probably the best way to look at it. All right. Do you feel safe enough tonight? Do you want me to leave a couple of men to guard the land?”

I knew how stretched thin his personnel resources were. The OIA had managed to engage the FBHs’ help in order to plant a few spies Earthside. They were also using the alliance as a way to conveniently dispatch agents whom they didn’t want to deal with, but couldn’t conveniently fire. Due to our father’s place in the Court and Crown, they couldn’t just kick us out. So they sent us on a
special mission
, guaranteed to take us out of the picture.

“Don’t worry about us. We’ll be fine. Now that we know something is out there prowling around, we’ll be careful. Maybe we can use the laptop and the internet to find out what the creature was.” The internet fascinated me. That so much knowledge was available at the touch of our fingertips boggled my mind. It seemed one of the greatest inventions, ever.

Chase stood. “All right. Call me if you have anymore problems tonight. Don’t go back out there unless you’re armed. From what you said, the creature’s hungry and is looking for lunch.”

“Aren’t we all?” Menolly said with a slow smile, staring at him.

With a nervous glance at her, he exited the kitchen. I followed him into the foyer.

“Don’t mind her. She knows she makes you nervous and so she’s going to play that up for all its worth. The more you buy into it, the more she’ll tease you.”

Chase lowered his voice. “Why does she do that? Do I remind her of somebody she hates?”

I shook my head. “Not exactly, but…how much were you told about us, Chase?”

“Just what the official documents said. You’re agents with the OIA, on special assignment. You’re sisters, and you are all half human, half-Fae. You’re a witch, Delilah’s a werecat, and Menolly is a vampire.” He looked so confused that I decided to take pity on him.

“Let me walk you out.” I followed him onto the front porch, closing the door behind us. As we paused at the top of the stairs, I closed my eyes and listened to the sounds of the night. I could hear traffic in the distance, and the sound of the wind rustling through the trees. A few birds echoed in the stillness, and Chase’s men were murmuring as they stood near the patrol cars.

“Chase, I’m going to tell you something so there are no misunderstandings down the road. My sisters and I were sent over here to get rid of us. Let’s just say that…I…” But I couldn’t talk about Lathe. The fact that we had been punished because I hadn’t knuckled under to him ate at me. I was embarrassed that I hadn’t been able to stop him.

“What is it?” Chase’s gaze was warm with concern.

Finally, I said, “We did our best, but our best wasn’t good enough. There are blots on our records. Our father is positioned within the Court and Crown, and it was the YIA’s fault that Menolly ended up a vampire, so they couldn’t just strip our commissions.”