Into the Twilight: a Between the Worlds Novel Read online

  The leader sighed, “The truth, that Amy died for the cause and that they identified Jerry but didn’t catch him. We’ll all have to share the burden of helping him hide for the next few months until this is done.”

  “You really think the Elven Guard killed her?” the woman said uncertainly. She knew that they were denying involvement in the shooter’s death and as much as she hated the elves she had never doubted their honesty.

  “Her throat was slashed. The Guard carry swords. It’s pretty obvious what happened,” the leader said, rolling her eyes.

  The other woman bent over, her brown hair swinging in front of her face, and began picking up the things she’d thrown. “We’re so close now. We’re almost done with this. But I won’t risk her being killed.”

  “Well what’s done is done.” The leader said tapping her manicured nails impatiently on her leg. “We can’t waste effort being upset about things we can’t change. We need to focus on moving forward.”

  “Fine, but from now on you leave her to me,” the woman said. When the leader started to open her mouth to protest the woman held up a hand, cutting her off. “I mean it.”

  The leader sighed. “Alright, but you have to up the ante. She’s doing too much to help them. You have got to take her out of the game, or I won’t have a choice but to let someone else handle it.”

  A look of grim determination came over the other woman’s face, her lips pressing together and her eyes going cold. “I’ll take care of everything.”

  Chapter 1 - Monday

  There was always something unreal about Monday mornings, as the work week started over again and the weekend was left behind. Allie woke up to find Jess lying next to her, awake. He had clearly been watching her sleep and she found herself caught between finding that annoying and finding it creepy. Meh, she thought, trying hard to shield her thoughts from him as she yawned and rolled over, the novelty of having him live with me has definitely worn off. That didn’t take long. Gods who’d have guessed I’d be sick of having him around all the time within the first four days? She winced slightly at the thought. Don’t complain, if it wasn’t for him being here I’d probably be shut up in some corner room at the elven Outpost, safely tucked away from all this madness and slowly going crazy from sheer boredom. Allie couldn’t help but keep expecting Zarethyn to change his mind about letting her remain in her own home, but so far he seemed content to let her go her own way as long as Jess stayed with her. She wasn’t entirely happy that he was only living with her under orders, but on the other hand with a serial killer who targeted mixed blooded girls still on the loose, and after being shot by a stranger who was later found dead, she couldn’t deny that it seemed a reasonable precaution.

  He reached out and stroked her side lightly and she shivered, turning back to face him and feeling bad for not appreciating him more. He was certainly thrilled with the situation and even now she could feel his happiness, like the light of the sun through her bedroom window, as a warm glow surrounding them both. With the combination of her innate empathy and the magical bond she had created between them she could both hear his thoughts and feel his emotions all the time, although normally she could ignore them, like the sound of a conversation in an adjoining room. Physical contact, however, made it almost impossible to block, and as he caressed her side she heard his thoughts in her mind, as clearly as if he were speaking out loud, If only I could remain here forever, always by her side…

  Allie repressed her irritation, realizing that she was overreacting. To herself she thought Apparently I am not a morning person today. Then to him she reached out and thought “Good morning. You know if you stayed here forever you’d lose your place in the Guard, not to mention we’d both get hungry eventually.”

  He laughed, leaning forward to rest his chin where his hand had just been, “Good morning my heart. How do feel today?”

  She rolled onto her back so she could look at him more easily, her eyes tracing the lines of his face, his long light blond hair falling across his face and arms, the delicate points of his ears visible through his hair, finally meeting his eyes. She fell into their vibrant green, her mood softening. He rested his head on her stomach, looking up at her as if he meant what he’d said, that he’d be content to stay there forever. “I should feel exhausted. The spell I used to heal Bleidd was at the very limits of my ability. I still don’t think I’m up to casting anything more complicated than a minor glamour right now but I don’t feel terrible.”

  He smiled, “I’d like to think that I helped with that.”

  She blushed, but for once didn’t deny it, “You know you did. When my energy is really down I can’t seem to help taking yours.”

  “You aren’t taking it my love, you are taking nothing from me. I have told you many times that if you can use my emotions to strengthen yourself you should do so,” he said calmly. “I do not understand why you feel so conflicted about this. You weaken yourself by resisting your gift, your own abilities. Stop fighting against what you can do, and embrace it instead.”

  He smiled again, his expression playful, “And I am more than willing to give you whatever you need at any time. Especially as you so strongly prefer the pleasant emotions.”

  She started to argue and then stopped. Instead she felt his love and contentment surrounding her, filling her. She frowned but had to admit that his emotions did empower her; she absorbed them and used them to replenish herself. After being shot and using a major spell to save her friend’s life she should have been exhausted – in the past she would have been – and yet besides a feeling that she couldn’t muster the magical energy to cast any spells right now she felt fine. And if she was totally honest despite her fears there had never been any indication that absorbing his feelings harmed Jess in any way. “You may be right,” she thought reluctantly. “It doesn’t seem to hurt you.”

  His smile widened, but he didn’t press the point. Instead he focused on a different subject, “And how is your arm?”

  She raised her left arm, holding it up so that he could see the faint white lines high on her forearm that were the only evidence of her injury. “You can barely even see the mark, and it doesn’t hurt anymore.”

  He reached out, his fingers lightly tracing the scar. “I am amazed that it has healed so well and quickly.”

  “Really?” she thought back, genuinely surprised that he thought it had healed well. “I’ve never seen wounds healed by elven magic scar at all, usually it heals without a mark. I was surprised when this one didn’t.”

  “This was a steel bullet my heart,” he thought back sadly. “Any weapon of iron will cause a wound that is much harder to heal. Brynneth is actually very skilled at healing such injuries, or the scarring might be worse.”

  When he said that she didn’t think about her own injury but about Bleidd’s and she began to understand why it was shocking to everyone that he had lived. She clenched her left hand, feeling the muscles in her arm flex. There was no residual pain or stiffness, even though she knew there should be. Jess watched her closely and she could feel his curiosity. “Well,” she thought back finally, “I’m grateful it has healed as well as it has. I will have to remember to thank Brynneth.”

  She switched suddenly to speaking out loud, wanting to hear the sound of her own voice in the silent room. “What’s on your agenda for the day?”

  He gave her a long look, not liking the change to verbal communication instead of the more intimate mind-to-mind speech that was a unique side effect of their bond, and which allowed him to sense her emotions to some degree. “I am to return to the ritual site and see if any new evidence can be found, and then later this morning we are to meet at the police station to discuss the current situation with the detectives and attempt, again, to convince them to reform the joint task force.”

  “Do you need me there for that? As an, umm, cultural intermediary?” she asked, reaching out to brush some stray hair out of his face. She still wasn’t comfortable with her position in
the Guard, nominal as it was, but she also didn’t want to shirk her duty.

  He hesitated. “Well…ideally yes, but I know you have your store to run and I did not want to ask you to close it for this.”

  “It’s all right,” she said, thinking of the blood and mess behind the building from the shooting. “I have to meet with the police this morning anyway, so I already planned to keep the store closed today.”

  “Detective Riordan has asked you to meet with him?”

  “No, I asked them to meet with me,” she said, cocking her head to one side.

  “Interesting,” he murmured, with typical elven evasiveness. She knew full well he wanted to ask her why she had arraigned to meet with the police, but was hoping she would volunteer the information on her own without him having to ask a blunt question.

  “Interesting?” she repeated playfully, intentionally mimicking his tone.

  “I am curious why you want to meet with the human police, but it pleases me that since you are closing your store anyway you will be able to attend our meeting,” he said, caressing her face lightly. She sighed and leaned into his hand, making him smile.

  “Well, I’d like to get my car back at some point soon,” she said. She wasn’t sure she’d have any luck with that but calling and asking politely hadn’t gotten her anywhere so she’d finally decided to be more direct. She pulled away from his hand reluctantly. “We’d better get moving. It looks like it’s going to be a busy day.”

  Smiling mischievously he shifted his face against her side and kissed his way up her ribs. She giggled and squirmed away, only to find herself held in place, as he pressed her back. He kissed his way up to her breast and she stopped laughing. “Jess, really we’ve got a lot to do today.”

  He smiled wider, his lips circling upwards, making her shiver. She felt the energy of his arousal like honey in the air, thick and sweet, and she drank it in despite her own intention to convince him to stop teasing her. As the energy filled her she changed her mind, liking the way it danced beneath her skin. She shoved him back hard, rolling him over onto his back; his disappointment was palpable until she slid upwards, straddling his waist. “You’re incorrigible you know that?”

  He filled both hands with her breasts, grinning. “From this perspective it’s more than worth it.”

  She shifted herself back, moving along his body until his breath caught and he arched himself up beneath her like a cat stretching, every muscle straining. “Oh is it?”

  “Allie,” he groaned, his hands shifting down to grip her hips and move her further, until their two bodies were firmly locked together and she was gasping as well. She had very little experience with sex, even after a few months in Jess’s bed because he went slowly with her, and this was new but she let instinct control her actions. She moved the way her body told her to move, following what felt good, allowing the emotions to guide her and feedback on themselves until everything else fell away.

  When they were both spent, she lay across his chest their bodies still joined and she decided that maybe having him live with her wasn’t so terrible after all. This certainly wasn’t a bad way to start the day.

  ***********************************

  The knife rose and fell long after the girl had stopped screaming and long after she stopped moving. Not until his arm started to ache did he stop, and even then he felt a burning, all consuming fury. The others would be angry that he had left the safe house they had set up but he didn’t care. He was sick of hiding, stuck in a boring room watching tv, waiting around until they needed him to perform the next ritual. He needed to feel blood on his hands, to hear one of those mixed-blooded bitches begging for mercy, knowing he wouldn’t give it.

  Looking down at the bloody ruin that lay on the ground his rage settled into a dull resentment. He took a deep breath, letting the adrenaline rush clear his head. He’d lost his home and the girl he’d been keeping there, and that was almost more than he could bear to think about. The thrice-damned Elven Guard and that half-blooded bitch had ruined everything. It had all been so perfect for the first time in his life. He’d had everything he’d wanted and all in the name of saving the human world from Fairy contamination. And they’d ruined it all, everything. Almost everything. He could still serve the greater good by killing the mixed blooded Fairy girls. He still had purpose.

  And he still had his freedom.

  *********************

  Allie walked nervously into the outer lobby of the Ashwood police station, feeling uncomfortably like an intruder. The small square room was painfully plain with only a single bench against one wall. To the left was a door with no knob, only an odd flat metal piece where one should be, and a keycard reader on the wall next to it. Opposite the entrance was a small plexiglass window, with a shelf in front of it and an opening for passing small items back and forth; the other side opened up to the inside of the police station. On the wall next to the window was a small hand written sign with the barely legible words “Push button for help” and a small red button. Allie walked up to the window and hesitated, unsure if she should push the button or if it was only for emergencies. The few times she’d been to the station before she’d come with Syndra and they’d always gone in the back entrance, not the front. After several minutes standing indecisively without anyone coming to the window spontaneously, she finally gave in and risked pushing the button.

  A moment later an older man in uniform appeared, looking mildly curious. “Can I help you miss?”

  “Umm, yes. I have an appointment? With detective Riordan?” Allie said, hating the uncertainty in her own voice.

  The strange officer smiled kindly, perhaps sensing how nervous she was. “I’ll let him know you’re here as soon as you fill out this visitor’s log,” he said, sliding a clipboard through the slot.

  “Okay. Thanks,” she said, taking it and quickly filling in the information before passing it back. The officer disappeared and after another minute of standing, with her bad ankle starting to ache a bit, she limped over and sat down on the worn wooden bench. She hoped that the police would listen to what she had to say, and she worried that they might take advantage of her coming here voluntarily to ask her questions she didn’t want to answer about the shooting. She shifted uncomfortably in her seat and hoped she wasn’t losing too much business by shutting down the store today. That train of thought only raised another fear as she realized that the shooting must have made at least the local news. This is going to stir everything back up again, she thought. I’ll have even more tourists and curiosity seekers coming in bothering me, wanting to know details…. In her mind’s eye she saw again the terrible gaping hole in Bleidd’s chest where the bullet had torn its way out and she shuddered, trying to banish the memory.

  The side door opened with a heavy click, startling Allie into flinching reflexively. She looked up and saw detective Smythe, Riordan’s partner, peering out at her around the door. He smiled when he saw her sitting on the bench. “Good morning, Ms. McCarthy. Come on in.”

  She smiled back, relieved to see a familiar face, “Good morning detective, I’m sorry I’m a little bit early, I had to get a ride in and I guess I was so worried about being late I kind of ended up going too far the other way.” Oh dear Gods you’re babbling shut up! she thought to herself as she stood and crossed the room.

  His smile widened as he held the door open for her. “Don’t worry about it. It’s just as easy for us to see you now.”

  His eyes flicked down to her waist as she moved past him, and he continued, “I’m surprised you aren’t wearing your badge.”

  “What?” she said, flustered at the reminder that she had let herself get tricked into joining the Elven Guard, the Fairy equivalent of police, even though her work for them was along the lines of a specialist. Her hand immediately grabbed her pocket, the reassuring shape of the badge pressing through the denim against her palm. “Should I be? I mean I’m not here on official Guard business or anything.”

  �
��I know, but I’d wear it if I were you. I hate to admit it, but you’ll get more respect and better treatment around here if you have a badge.”

  “Oh,” she said, frowning slightly. As they walked down a hallway plastered with various training posters and official memos, she pulled the heavy gold badge out and clipped it to her waistband. “I didn’t think most people liked the Guard that much.”

  He actually laughed, an unexpected sound out of someone Allie had come to think of as typically very stoic. “No I guess most people don’t. Not sure why that is, really, but around here a cop is still a cop even if they have pointed ears. Ashwood cops may not like the Guard all the time, especially when there’s an issue over who’s handling what case, or when the elves get pissy about something, but generally we’re all happy enough to see the Guard show up when we need them.”

  Allie’s eyes went wide at what was possibly the most honest assessment of the relationship between the two police forces she’d ever heard. “I guess that’s fair enough. Not that I’d dare speak for them, but I imagine the Guard would say something very similar about the Ashwood police.”

  He gave her a lopsided smile, one side of his mouth twitching up, as if he were trying not to laugh again, as he stopped in front of a non-descript door. Allie felt herself tense slightly; she knew full well that the detectives had desks in one main room because she’d visited it with Syndra. This was something different, someplace she’d never been. As he opened the door, she stood her ground in the hallway. “What’s this?”

  He looked surprised at her resistance, his dark eyebrows going up towards his hairline. “Technically it’s the room we have set aside for non-human witnesses to give statements, but basically we’re using it today just to have a quiet place to talk.”