Worlds Apart (14 page)

Afraid her patient was very ill,
but not dead, please not dead,
Tina scrambled from the car,
swinging her medical bag onto her shoulder in the same movement.
She didn't push the car door hard enough and the click of it
closing was lost in her dash for the porch.

The front door stood open a
fraction of an inch. She paused. The door looked strange, as if its
ornate decoration had been burned away. Unease crawled up her
spine. She shivered.

“Mr. Ruth?” She pushed the door
further open, letting light curve into the shadows. The hearth fire
was burning out, leaving a dim red glow in the ashes.

She smelled blood and
shit.

As her eyes adjusted, a shape on
the floor took form a few feet from the cool fire. Tina hurried
over, jerking to a halt when her foot hit liquid. Pushing her feet
into the floor to keep from slipping, she squatted next to the
body.

“Mr. Ruth? Talk to me.” He was on
his back, and she reached for the carotid artery, holding her
breath as her fingers rested against his too-cool neck. Her fingers
shifted a few times, sliding in the blood that streaked his
body.

No pulse. Nor was he breathing. In
the light from the doorway, she could see his face, agonized,
terrified. The skin of his face and neck was slashed, as was his
shirt, and the skin underneath it. She heard gasping and realized
it was her own breath. She forced a cough, turned her head to take
a few slow breaths, willing herself to remain calm.

Mr. Ruth never had the chance to
die from the cancer.

When she turned back to him, her
clinician persona was in charge, eyes darting over his body. Knife
wounds. Too many to count in the darkness. Bruises and swelling
indicated he'd been beaten, too.

But why? And who?

As the light behind her faded into
deeper shadow, and a footstep sounded in the doorway, Tina
remembered what should have been her first question:
where was
the killer now?

She spun, rising from her crouch,
one arm reaching for the lamp that stood on a nearby table. For
some reason, she never grabbed it. She stood in her place, not
moving as the dark shape in the doorway stepped farther into the
room. Tina's heart pounded against her ribs, but any action was a
distant thought. The figure resolved into a woman, towering a foot
over Tina. The dim fire cast red shadows onto a pale, angular face,
with steeply arched brows over deep-set eyes. The woman had thrown
back her hood, showing hair that was black, short and
spiky.

Tina shivered as those eyes
scraped over her, but then the woman seemed to dismiss her,
stepping instead to the body. She knelt to examine him, and Tina
itched to grab the lamp and bash the bowed head.
Or run. That
would be smarter.
Unless the woman had a gun. Or could run
faster.

But it was irrelevant since Tina
could not move at all. She was paralyzed.

The woman stood, her dark eyes
hard on Tina's face. “Who are you?” she asked. “Where is your
partner?”

Tina blinked. “What partner?” She
was surprised she could talk, the way her heart was pounding. But
why was she was talking anyway? Why wasn't she running?

She yelped as the woman grabbed
her arm.

“Don't mess with me, kid.” The
woman leaned in, and Tina closed her eyes, desperate to escape that
gaze. “My name is Captain Kasia Windblood. I'm with Portal
Enforcement and I have a lot of questions. You're going to answer
all of them. Start with the werewolf. Mr. Ruth has not been dead
long, so I know he's around here somewhere.
Where is
he?
”

Tina opened her eyes, flinching at
the cold glare. She took a deep breath. “I don't know what you're
talking about.”

Captain Windblood tightened her
grip and leaned in closer, ignoring Tina’s moan of pain.

“You idiot. Do you have any idea
of the danger you're in? You took up with the wrong guy, big time.
Do you understand that you're going to die? I'm surprised you've
lived this long. But no matter what, you're going to answer my
questions before you do.”

Tina yelled as Windblood pulled
her toward the door, but her captor ignored her, walking with long,
quick strides that forced Tina to run. She tripped down the porch
stairs, the woman's grip keeping her upright. Her whole body shook
as the woman led her into the forest. Her mind screamed at her to
fight, to get away, but her body was incapable of acting. She could
do nothing but scramble to keep up, harboring visions of her bloody
body buried in the wet soil.

As she slipped through the mud,
and dodged branches, she squelched her fear in chatter, unable to
stay quiet.

“Wh-where are we going? What is
Portal Enforcement? I swear I don't know anything. I'm Mr. Ruth's
doctor, I was just checking on him. He was dead when I found him
…”

Her breath gave out and she went
silent, concentrating on keeping her feet on the ground, almost
grateful for her captor's strength as the woman pulled Tina up
steep hills, or kept her from falling on the downward slopes. The
race seemed to last forever, but at last they stopped, Tina gasping
for air and wiping rain from her eyes. It was dark under the trees,
the pale daylight unable to penetrate the rain-filled
canopy.

The captain let go of her, moving
a few steps ahead, seeming unconcerned that Tina might run away.
The woman lifted a hand, drawing a rectangle in the air before her.
Tina felt a shift in the atmosphere and light of that rectangle,
and narrowed her eyes, trying to see what was happening. Before she
could resolve anything, Captain Windblood whirled, grabbed her arm
again, and jerked her forward. Tina trotted beside her, straight
through the non-existent rectangle.

Her skin tingled and she heard a
distinct click in her mind. She stared around her, unable to
process what she saw.

She was in a different forest.
Rain still fell, but the light was brighter, the air a little
warmer. The trees were bigger, denser. But the biggest hint was the
three people standing before her. A woman about Tina's size, and
two men, tall and bulky.

They weren't there a minute
ago.

They seemed as surprised to see
her, but Captain Windblood began snapping out orders and no one
questioned them.

“Seal the portal. Blairwright and
Copper, you two remain on guard. I want to know if you catch even a
whiff of that werewolf. Riff, come with me. Bring the
prisoner.”

Tina flinched as one of the men
took her by the arm. Unlike the prickly captain, he was polite
about it, his grip gentle as he gestured for Tina to follow
Windblood. She stared into his eyes for a moment, hoping for
sympathy or explanation. Seeing neither, she swallowed, and went
with them.

~~

“I'm telling you, I don't know who
killed Sebastian Ruth.” Tina pressed cold fingers against her eyes,
seeking pressure to counteract the pain in her head. It didn't help
much, but it did keep her from having to look at Captain Windblood,
who sat across from her at a little table in the small, windowless
room they'd brought her to. They'd come through an odd village
filled with strange people, and other creatures she never imagined
even in dreams.

Captain Windblood was every bit as
strange. Once inside, her captor had stripped off her outer jacket,
and the room's light revealed a thin, angular body. Her face was
thin too, with sharp cheekbones and large eyes made stark by the
paleness of the surrounding skin. They were capped by eyebrows so
pointed they made upside-down V's. But it was seeing the same V
echoed in the shape of each ear that forced Tina to hide her
eyes.

Kasia Windblood did not look
human.

And she didn't like Tina. She
leaned forward, poking a long finger on Tina's chest.

“I don't believe you. And believe
me, you don't want to be on my bad side. I want to know everything
you did today, and who you did it with.
Talk.
And look at me
while you're doing it.”

Tina hunched her shoulders, unable
to move away from the finger. She dropped her hands from her eyes,
fumbled them on her lap, then ended by crossing both arms around
herself. She placed a leg over the other knee, another barrier
between her and her personal nightmare, and spoke to Windblood's
chin.

“I went to my office right after
breakfast. I saw patients all morning. Shar... my nurse was there,
too. Right after lunch, I drove up to see Mr. Ruth. I'd only been
there a few minutes when you came in.”

Windblood tapped her finger on the
table, a rapid staccato that echoed Tina's racing heart. She held
her breath and refused to look up.

“All right.” Windblood’s voice was
softer, as if she'd decided to believe that part of the story.
“When was the last time you saw your boyfriend?”

Tina opened her mouth, then closed
it, her bottom lip jutting out in a confused pout. “I don't have a
boyfriend, Captain. Why do you assume I do?”

The woman waved a hand in the air,
brushing aside Tina's comment. “Let me ask it this way, then: who
fathered your pregnancy?”

This time, Tina's mouth stayed
open, and she stared at Windblood in astonishment. “How did
you...?” Then she shook her head. “That is absolutely none of your
business.”

Windblood sprang. Tina threw her
arms up, but it did no good. Windblood leaped the table, grabbed
Tina’s shirt, pulled her up and flung her against the wall. Tina’s
scream was cut off by Windblood's arm, which pressed against her
throat. The captain leaned in, using her weight to pin Tina. Her
eyes blazed, inches from Tina's, as she shouted.

“It's completely my business, you
little human shit. Maybe you don't know it, but you carry the spawn
of a werewolf. I don't know how you're even alive, and I intend to
find that out. But right now, I want that werewolf. You're going to
tell me everything you know about him, and
fuck-a-god-dammed-pixie,
you're going to tell me,
now
.”

Tina whimpered. Her voice was tiny
as she tried to speak past the arm at her throat. And all she could
think to say was, “There's no such thing as werewolves.” She didn't
manage to sound sure of it.

Windblood's glare tamped down to
wary, then she pulled away. Tina coughed and massaged her throat,
staying against the wall. She kept her eyes on the woman, who
stared at her as if in deep thought. Then Windblood shook her
head.

“Oh, fuck-a-pixie,” she said, her
voice low. She returned with rapid suddenness to her chair, leaving
Tina to fumble her way back to her own seat. “You don't know, do
you?” Windblood asked her. “You think the guy is human.”

Tina started to say,
of course
he's human,
but a glance at Windblood's ears killed the words
before she spoke them. “Are you... not human?”

Windblood lifted a hand and
pinched the bridge of her nose, then rubbed her eyes in a
thoroughly human gesture. Tina watched, afraid to move. Almost
afraid to breathe.

“No,” Windblood said, then sighed.
“No, I'm not human, Dr. Cassidy. I'm an elf, although that
knowledge won't mean anything to you.” She lowered her hand,
placing it on the table, palm up. Truce.

“I will tell you everything you
want to know, Doctor. You'll need to understand many things,
considering the child you carry. But not yet.” She leaned forward,
earnest rather than threatening. “The man who fathered your baby is
a killer. He's not supposed to be in your world at all, but he is
there, and he is very, very dangerous. He's already killed
Sebastian Ruth. I need to find him before he kills anyone else. You
must tell me all that you know.”

Tina sat pinned to her chair,
trying to process it. Werewolves and elves did not exist, and the
idea that her baby was a werewolf was ludicrous. Yet, she'd come
through a doorway into a new and strange place. She couldn't deny
the oddness of the woman across the table and of the guards outside
this room.

But she remembered Clive’s smile
as they played pool, his gentle voice. His passion when they made
love. His careful control as he met her need for roughness, never
once going too far, never once hurting her, even when she was
helpless.

A bubble of hysteria rose in her,
as she thought of his insistence that he couldn't stay. She'd
thought he was just brushing her off, like a dozen other guys.
Well, if he was a werewolf, she had to admit that was a pretty good
excuse to not get involved.

But a killer?

“I don't know what to think,
Captain,” she said. “I'd have to be insane to believe you, but
let's assume I do. Maybe there is a werewolf loose in Green Roads.
But I don't think he's the guy I... was with.” She shook her head.
“I just can't see him as a killer.”

“Perhaps he was just charming you,
Doctor.” Windblood sounded tired. “How long have you known him?
What do you know about him?”

Tina flushed. “I don't know
anything about him. We just met in the tavern, had a few drinks,
and spent the night together. He was... nice.” She stared at the
table. “Very nice,” she whispered.

“Your pregnancy is not very
advanced,” Windblood said. “I assume this was only a couple of
months ago?”