It Never Rhines but It Pours (2 page)

When my husband, Mark, didn’t remember a huge altercation between Sarah and myself, the altercation that forced me to use my Voice for the first time in years, I knew she had a gift. My gift is vocal, hers is more mental. She can change people’s memories. My parents didn’t know that she was running around dressed like a gothic whore with a groping boyfriend. She had changed their memories. That still ticks me off. I would like to point out that I
never
used my Voice against my parents.

Cecily did a little research for us and discovered that we are descendents of the Rhine Maidens. Remember Odysseus tying himself to his mast and stuffing his sailors’ ears with wax so that he could listen to the sirens’ song? Those sirens were Rhine Maidens. A couple of them got it on with humans and then abandoned their subsequent offspring. Rhine Maidens weren’t known for having much human empathy. The children of those children and so forth eventually married and were my parents. Somehow the magic strain skipped all those generations and landed on Sarah and me. Our other brother and sister have no abilities that I know of. Just lucky, lucky me and my annoying little sister.

All this probably sounds great. I mean, who wouldn’t want to be boss of the world? Imagine what you could do if everyone had to obey you! It has a catch. Isn’t there always a catch? Not only does my Voice only work for about ten minutes, give or take, depending on how mentally strong the person is, but if I use it too often I run the risk of turning immortal. Sarah is thrilled by this. She thinks being immortal sounds fabulous. She is an idiot. Did I mention that she is sixteen? It goes with the territory.

So, Sarah and I were allowed to join the USB as humans. Big whoop. Even better, we were allowed to live. I still have a hard time wrapping my head around it all. I know my ability is real. I’ve seen it work. But come on! Witches with magical powers? People who turn into animals? How can that possibly be? How could humans be so oblivious to what is going on around them?

Speaking of hard to believe, I’ve also been told that aliens are coming to earth. Yep. Aliens. I laughed too. How sci-fi can you get? The big hoopla about our joining as humans had a lot to do with the possible alien invasion. The witches and some other members wanted to declare open season on humans. Come out of the shadows and start killing people. The witches in particular get most of their power from death magic. The more humans they are allowed to kill, the more power. The more power, the better their ability to protect earth if the aliens are not friendly.

The vampires also would potentially benefit from not having to hide anymore. Instead of drinking from blood banks or other undercover means that I don’t want to think about, they could go on a rampage and “stock up” as it were. Same for some of the other magical species. If staying hidden was no longer the primary objective then, theoretically, they would all be more powerful and therefore less likely to be wiped out by an alien attack.

I, understandably, had some huge problems with this. As a human I thought it rather important that I protect my species. Being the occasional snack item is bad enough, but becoming the main course would be horrific. Cecily backed me up on this. She, and others, believe that coming out of hiding would be a mistake. Either humans would freak and start the witch hunt of the ages, or humans would be wiped out and then the magical beings would have to start feeding off each other. World War III. I wasn’t too concerned with the war part; after all, we humans would all be dead at that point. I was more concerned with the “all being dead” part.

By joining the USB as humans, Sarah and I effectively kept the protective status on all of humanity. We argued that if there are two, then there must be more. I’d like to be able to meet them, but I’m working on the assumption that they are out there. The witches are still trying to argue that our membership should be revoked and we should be executed. It might have something to do with a certain fertility statue the Fae and werewolves had me steal from the witch’s abortion clinic. The bottom line, the witches hate mankind in general and me in particular.

The downside of being a protected member species of the USB is the taxes. Every species has to pay a tax. Sarah is underage and unemployed. I’m married with a joint bank account and a husband who I haven’t gotten around to telling the truth to yet. I know, I know. Marriage is built on trust. That is exactly why I can’t tell him. It would destroy his trust in me. I’ve racked up too many lies at this point to come clean. Or so I keep telling myself. I’m just a big chicken. I’m scared Mark will leave me if he knows the truth, and I couldn’t stand to lose him.

We had to work a deal to cover our taxes. Sarah and I are now members of the same hit squad that tried to assassinate me. The Guardians. Our job is to use our combined abilities to cover up any magical mishaps. No classes, no training, just “get out there and clean things up!” Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how annoying she is being, Cecily was able to join our team. Part of the job is whacking any supernatural being who crosses the line and gets caught. Or who, in the Guardian’s opinion,
might
cross the line and
might
get caught. Lots of room for leeway.

Cecily was delighted with her part of the team. Not only did she get to carry a wicked big sword, but she was also
allowed
to use it to chop people’s heads off! And, triple bonus, she had permission to drain the victim, I mean criminal, of blood if she so desired. Heaven for a vampire. I wasn’t so thrilled. I was okay with manipulating human minds and erasing memories so that they didn’t stumble upon the supernatural world, but being jury, judge, and executioner was a little over the top for me. Which would be why
I
wasn’t carrying the dumb thing.

“They have a metal detector,” I stubbornly pointed out to Cecily. I was really hoping she would leave it in the car and thus not even have the possibility of using it.

“Piper,” she yawned again, “it’s a magic sword. No one will see it, feel it, smell it, nor will it set off a metal detector. Relax.”

I made a face at her. Relax my backside. Our very first job and we get witches gone wild in Kissimmee. Close to our home town of Melbourne, which is why we were assigned the job, but still a little big for first-timers.

“All right, ladies,” I said, “Let’s go over the plan one more time.”

“Good grief,” Sarah whined, “It’s a million degrees out here. Couldn’t we have gone over it in the car?”

“I didn’t think of it in the car,” I answered regally. “Okay. Here goes. We walk in. I say that we are the legal representation for the guy and command them to take us to him. Sarah, you be changing their memories as we go so they don’t remember any of this as soon as my command fades. I command them to let him out. Here’s where you come in, Cecily, you keep him under control until we get out of the building. Sarah, still changing those memories. Quick and simple. In and out. Any questions?”

They both shook their heads. We had gone over this a bunch of times on the drive over. I was just stalling for time. I did not want to walk into that police station. It was a pretty building with red brick on the sides and huge curved walls of glass in the middle. Pretty scary. It looked huge to my smaller town eyes. The parking lot was small and curved around the front of the building where the mandatory flags hung listlessly in the mid-day heat. We would start to draw attention if we stood out here much longer.

I took a deep breath, “Okay then. Let’s do this.”

Chapter Two:

The Hit

It was rather anti-climactic to be almost totally ignored when we walked into the police station. We stepped through the metal detector, having our purses rifled as we did so. They took my tweezers but Cecily breezed right through with her claymore strapped to her back. Guess she was right about its magical discreetness.

I walked up to the main desk and waited, and waited. The police officer receptionist was busy filing her nails and chatting on the phone. She wouldn’t even make eye contact. I tried clearing my throat. Still no response.

“Use your Voice,” Cecily whispered in my ear. Easy for her to say, she had already come to terms with living forever. I still wanted to be normal. I was only going to use my ability if I had to, and not a smidgen more. Cecily could just learn a little patience.

Sarah was draped next to me reading a newspaper that had been left open on the counter. The police officer working the metal detector was not making eye contact either. He was too busy staring at Sarah’s butt. I sighed.

“Check this out, Piper,” Sarah said in a low voice.

I tried a subtle hand wave in the peripheral vision of the receptionist. She glared at me like I’d yelled something rude and held up one finger. Was that one more minute? Or one warning? I wasn’t sure. “What?” I said to Sarah.

She slid the newspaper in front of me. It was a local paper, the Osceola News Gazette. I’ve always wondered what a gazette was. Sarah was pointing to a human interest story. The headline read “Human Lie Detector Wows Audience.” It was a short enough article that it only warranted a small picture of a boy’s face. I skimmed it quickly. Some young man claimed to be able to tell when people were lying. He had done a show at a local community theater and impressed everyone with his accuracy.

I looked blankly at Sarah, “What about it?”

“Human lie detector,” she said.

“I can read.”

“Human. Lie. Detector,” she stressed every word.

I shook my head, “I’m not following you here.”

She gave me a look laden with meaning, “
You
know,” she stressed the first word.

I was really missing something here. “What? He reads body language? Like the guy in that TV show?”

“Maybe,” she sounded all mysterious. “Or maybe not.”

I finally got it. “Oh.” I blinked. “I don’t know. Maybe.” Maybe his ability went beyond reading body language and into a real ability. A magical ability. That would really take some of the pressure off at the USB if we could produce yet another magical human.

Cecily was reading over my shoulder. “Ah.” She got it instantly.

The woman behind the counter was wrapping up her phone call. “We’ll discuss this later,” I mouthed and was ready with a big, fake smile as soon as the phone hit the cradle.

“Hi!” I said with forced cheer. “We’re here to see Richard Parker.”

There was instant wariness in the room. I felt very uncomfortable. “And you are?” the lady asked.

I kept my smile going. “His legal representation.”

Wariness turned to disgust. “I see,” her mouth was turned down in disdain. “Your name please.” She held out a sign-in clipboard.

I felt so sneaky. I knew the clipboard was coming and I was ready for it. The last time I had to write a false name on a clipboard I had totally blanked out. This time I was prepared. I wrote Arabella Mansfield. Yeah, I didn’t know who she was either until I Googled the first female lawyer. I thought it was a nice touch. It’s the little things that make for a really professional job.

I handed the clipboard to Sarah who scrawled “Mary Smith.” Very unoriginal. Cecily’s was so sloppy I doubt even she could read it. She handed it back to the police officer.

“IDs, please.”

Here came my part of the job. “You don’t need to see our IDs,” I commanded with the Voice. “Please take us back to Mr. Parker at once.” It was pretty cool. I always felt like a Jedi warrior when I used my Voice.
These are not the droids you are looking for.

“I’ll buzz you into the back,” the woman said. “Go around the counter here and wait at the door on the right.”

We obeyed and, when the door unlocked, pushed through into the back hallway. An intercom clicked by my head. “Go down the hallway to the end and the officer there will let you into the cell area.”

“Thanks!” I waved to the air. I assumed that they had cameras watching everything in this building. “Did you-?” I asked Sarah about the memory fixing.

“Yes, Piper,” she rolled her eyes. “I know what I’m doing.”

“Shall we, ladies?” Cecily inquired. I still couldn’t believe that no one could see the giant sword on her back. I hoped that whoever cast the invisibility spell on it had thought about cameras. Holy crap! What about vampires? Wasn’t there something about not showing up in mirrors or on film?

“Do you show up on security cameras?” I whispered to Cecily as we walked down the hallway. Man this place was dirty! The walls were scarred concrete, the floor was also plain concrete, and naked light bulbs hung from the ceiling. Talk about inhospitable. I guess criminals shouldn’t expect the Ritz when they got caught.

Cecily smiled at me, “Another old wives tale, Piper. Quit worrying so much.”

“She’s always been like this,” Sarah chimed in.

“Yeah, whatever,” I grouched. “It’s not like I don’t have legitimate things to worry about here.”

We reached the far door. There was another intercom on the wall surrounded by a wire cage. Things must occasionally get rough back here. I pushed the button and said, “We’re here to see Richard Parker.”

The door buzzed and we went through. There was another desk with computer and police officer guarding the entrance to the cells. A floor to ceiling gate was locked with a heavy padlock and I could see prisoner cells through the bars.