Date: 2000-01-01 05:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Witches; Fantasy; Magic; Shapeshifters; Fiction; Paranormal; Vampires; Paranormal Romance; Urban Fantasy; Short Stories
Description: When Camille, Menolly, and Delilah D'Artigo are reassigned Earthside, they have no clue of what to expect. Getting situated in a new world, figuring out where they're going to live, what they're going to do, is an adventure in itself. Return the beginning, as the D'Artigo Sisters walk through the portals to their new home for the very first time. When Camille, Menolly, and Delilah D'Artigo are reassigned Earthside, they have no clue of what to expect. Getting situated in a new world, figuring out where they're going to live, what they're going to do, is an adventure in itself. Return the begin
Publisher: Nightqueen Enterprises LLC

EARTHBOUND

-An Otherworld Novella-

Yasmine Galenorn

A Nightqueen Enterprises LLC Publication

Published by Yasmine Galenorn

PO Box 2037, Kirkland WA 98083-2037

EARTHBOUND

An Otherworld Novella

Copyright © 2016 by Yasmine Galenorn

First Electronic Printing: 2016 Nightqueen Enterprises LLC

Cover Art imagery licensed via Shutterstock.com

Cover Design by Yasmine Galenorn

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED No part of this book may be reproduced or distributed in any format, be it print or electronic or audio, without permission. Please prevent piracy by purchasing only authorized versions of this book.

This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, or places is entirely coincidental and not to be construed as representative or an endorsement of any living/ existing group, person, place, or business.

A Nightqueen Enterprises LLC Publication

Published in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Introduction

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Biography and Complete Book List

Introduction

Ever wonder if the monsters under your bed are real...?

Meet the D’Artigo Sisters-three half human, half-Fae wild and sexy members of the Otherworld Intelligence Agency. Camille, a witch, Delilah, a werecat, and Menolly, an acrobat extraordinaire turned vampire, are sent Earthside, where they end up in the middle of a demonic war. Together with friends and lovers, they must use put a stop to Shadow Wing, the Demon Lord, as they attempt to save two worlds, one monster at a time.

For a long time, my readers have been asking me what happened when the D’Artigo Sisters first came over to Earthside from Otherworld. EARTHBOUND is that story. EARTHBOUND takes place around two years before Witchling, twelve years after Menolly was turned into a vampire.

So here you have it—the story you’ve been asking for. I truly hope you enjoy it!

I want to thank my usual team: Samwise, my husband, who is also my formatter and my support system. My assistants, Andria Holley and Jenn Price, neither of whom I could manage without. Thank you to my furry Galenorn Gang who make writing more fun and difficult, with their purrs, meows, hissy fits, and blankie-attacks. Most reverent devotion to Ukko—Lord of the Wind and Sky, Rauni—Queen of the Harvest, Tapio—the Hunter of the Forest, Mielikki—my bright Goddess of the Woodlands and Dark Fae Queen. And to Brighid, Goddess and Muse. And to the Fae, both dark and light, who walk this world beside us.

Thank you to my Moon Stalkers—my fans and readers—for your support and enthusiasm. You can find me on the net at Galenorn En/Visions. To make certain you get all updates on new releases, please sign up for my monthly newsletter.

Bright Blessings,

~The Painted Panther

~Yasmine Galenorn

Chapter 1

“What the hell are you talking about?” I stared at my supervisor, unable to believe what I was hearing. He had to be joking. I couldn’t have heard him right.

“I told you exactly what you need to know, D’Artigo. I’m ordering you and your sisters to report to the Otherworld Intelligence Agency tomorrow morning, where you will be reassigned Earthside. From today until your new appointment begins, Kristal will be in charge of you and I can wash my hands of your Windwalker ass.”

Lathe didn’t even blink, although I detected a smirk behind his steely cold eyes. He was enjoying this, all right, and he was going to do everything in his power to rub it in. “Perhaps on your new reassignment, you’ll have better luck with your new superior. Or, maybe he’ll have better luck with you. We’ll see how you like the boys over Earthside.”

The sneer in his voice told me everything I needed to know. This was my punishment for refusing to give him a blow job or spread my legs for him. There was nothing I could do about his harassment unless I chose to resign my commission. And Lathe knew that I wouldn’t dream of leaving service. I was a soldier’s daughter and I never shirked my duty.

But that didn’t mean I had to keep my mouth shut. Not now. Done with playing nice, I leaned across his desk. “So you didn’t get your rocks off. Boohoo for you. But you can’t exactly put that in our files, so what’s the official reason for our reassignment, if I might ask? You owe me that much.”

Lathe leaned back, eyeing me carefully for a moment before answering. “You and your sisters aren’t exactly exemplary employees, you know. Your track records are pathetic.”

“You never give us any cases worth bothering with.”

“Well, we don’t want another slip like your sister Menolly had, do we?”

I knew it. I knew there was more than my refusing him behind this. We were also being punished for making the YIA stand up to the mistake it made that ended up with my sister being turned into a vampire.

“You know that was directly a result of the YIA refusing to assign her backup when she asked for it.”

“All I know is that she failed to complete her mission and cost the YIA a great deal of time and money.” He closed the file and set it aside. “No, I’m positive a sabbatical over Earthside will give you time to think about your job performance. So there you go. Your answer.”

And that was all she wrote. There wasn’t any more to be said. Arguing was useless. There was no way I could change his mind, except by giving him what he wanted, but I doubted that it would do any good, even if I was willing. The pervert would probably promise me anything and then laugh as he came.

I came to attention, saluting him. “Will that be all, sir?” I wasn’t about to let him think he had won.

Lathe studied me for a moment, his gaze slinking over my body. “Are you sure you don’t want to beg me to…rethink my decision? After all, this affects your sisters as well. Do you understand me? I’m a reasonable man. Down on your knees…a simple task…and you can stay. What’s your decision, Camille?”

I held his gaze, refusing to even blink. Regardless of whether he relented, if I gave in and got on my knees in front of him, he’d own me for life. And I’d lose every scrap of dignity I ever had. But I knew Lathe. This was just one more head game in a long line of humiliation games.

With a shake of the head, I stepped back and saluted again, as abruptly as I could.

“Obviously, Sir, you think the reassignment is best, Sir. I can only agree. May I be dismissed, Sir?”

His eyes narrowing, he nodded. “As you will, Agent D’Artigo.”

I turned on my heel and headed toward the door, stopping to glance over my shoulder. “Does this officially end your role as my boss?”

“It does.”

“Then, since you are no longer my supervisor, I’m going to say this once and only once. If you ever try to force my hand—or mouth—again, you won’t have a dick to suck. Do you understand me? Sir.”

Before he could answer, I sashayed out the door, slamming it behind me. After fifteen years of putting up with his harassment, I was finally free. That the price for that freedom came with leaving my home world along with everything I knew…Well, it was a price I was willing to pay.

So, my name is Camille D’Artigo, and I live with my sisters and father in Y’Elestrial, a city to the southeast of the Tygerian Mountains. Located on the shores of Lake Y’Leveshan and west of the Erulizi Falls, our city-state can be a rough place to live, but it’s also beautiful. As with too many countries, our government has fallen into corrupt hands. The Opium Eater was a good leader when she came to power, but now she’s ruining our home. There’s still hope that Lethesanar’s sister, Tanaquar, will come to the rescue, but until that happens, there’s nothing anybody can do. But corrupt leadership and sleazy bosses aside, we still love our home.

We being my sisters Delilah and Menolly, and our father Sephreh. My sisters and I are half-Fae, half human. Our father is full blooded Fae and our mother Maria was human. Maria came over from Earthside at the tail end of World War II, when she met Sephreh and fell in love. She died a long time ago when we were very young. Our father has been in the Guard Des’Estar since he was young, like his father before him. Naturally, we followed in his footsteps, going into service because that’s the way things are done in Otherworld.

Because of our mixed heritage we all have different abilities, but things get frazzled and boom, problems come out to play. I’m the oldest, and I’m a Moon Witch, in service to the Moon Mother. My magic fritzes out all too often, leading to both embarrassing and dangerous situations. But the Moon Mother holds my heart, and she holds my oath. I take care of my sisters as best as I can, but sometimes, I just want to chuck it all and run away. But I couldn’t leave them. I love them too much.

Delilah’s second born and a werecat. She turns into a gorgeous golden tabby, but not always by choice. When she’s upset she’ll spontaneously change. Delilah may be second born but in so many ways she’s the innocent of the family. She reminds me of our mother, in both her fair looks and her heart. She’s a golden child, happy and kind, and gentle to a fault. And the rest of us do our best to protect her.

And my sister Menolly? The youngest, she’s a jian-tu—an acrobat/spy. She can climb the walls like a spider. But some ten years back, her abilities hit a glitch and she slipped and fell into a nest of vampires. The Y’Elestrial Intelligence Agency was to blame—they assigned her to spy on Dredge and then failed to deliver backup. What the Scourge did to her was unthinkable. Even now, we don’t discuss it. Long story short, he tortured and killed her, turning her into a vampire. Then, he sent her home to destroy all of us, but I managed to trap her in the safe room. The YIA put her in rehab. A year later, she regained her sanity, as much as any vamp ever can. She returned to work, but she carries a dark shadow in her heart and I fear one day it may prove too much for her.

Together with our father and the housekeeper and the cook, we live in a snug house on the edge of the city. The only thing missing from our lives is our mother. Some days, I think I’ll never get over missing her, even though she left us when we were all so very young.

I wasn’t sure how to approach Menolly and Delilah about this new development but when we met for our midnight lunch, I realized they already knew. They were staring at me like it was all my fault which, in a way, it was.

“I guess you’ve heard.” I set my tray of food on the table and swung my leg over the long bench. The cafeteria was bustling, but we always managed to find a place together when we were eating lunch in the building. Nobody bothered us, or wanted to sit near us. We weren’t exactly the poster girls for the A-List.

Delilah rolled her eyes. “Oh, we’ve heard all right. What the hell happened?”

I stared at my tray, not wanting to admit what Lathe had said to me. They’d be furious, Menolly would want to kill him, and that wouldn’t change the fact that we were headed Earthside, no matter what. I was still irked that I hadn’t been able to put a stop to his sleaziness early on.

“We’re not performing up to expectations. Lathe’s labeling it a sabbatical.”

“Right, and I’ll walk into the sun if you believe that.” Menolly reached across the table to take my hand. “We know what he wants from you. Don’t give in.”

“This is horrible. I don’t want to leave Otherworld,” Delilah said. She stopped, glancing over at me. “I didn’t mean you should…I’m sorry. It’s just that the thought of leaving home scares the hell out of me.”

If I were honest with myself, I’d admit that it scared me, too. But Delilah counted on me to be the strong one, and I wasn’t going to let her down. I reached out and bopped her nose.

“Well, I’m looking forward to it. Haven’t you ever wondered what Mother’s home world is like? Remember all the stories she used to tell us? Think of it—we get to see cars and electricity and all sorts of wonders. It’ll be one big adventure. And the time will pass before you even know it. We’ll be coming back soon enough.”

Menolly leaned in from the other side, though she was careful not to touch Delilah. Even though it had been over ten years, Delilah was still squeamish about the fact that our sister was a vampire.

“I think it’s going to be a blast. I’ll be able to go out at night easier—the city lights and all. And really, if things get too bad, we can come back home, quit our jobs, and strike out for somewhere else. I’ve always wanted to see more of Dahnsburg. And we’ve never been to Ceredream.” Menolly flashed Delilah a toothy grin. She was still, on occasion, unable to control the way her fangs worked but she had almost mastered the techniques.

Delilah thought it over, then gave a little shrug. “I guess it does sound like fun. Maybe over there, our half-blood heritage won’t matter so much. I get so tired of being called a Windwalker, though it hurt a lot more when I was a little girl.”

I dug into my lunch, spreading my bread with sweet butter and dipping it in the stew. “Who knows what else we’ll find? It’s a whole new world. Maybe we’ll luck out and meet the loves of our lives!”

Menolly laughed at that. “Right, and I’ll find a cure for my vampirism. No, I doubt if any of us are destined to find romance among a rough and tumble new world.”

Finally laughing, Delilah focused on her food while Menolly drank a goblet of blood. After lunch, we gathered our courage and headed over to the OIA for official reassignment.

One month later, on a blustery autumn day, we stood by one of the portals in Elqaneve, the elfin city. The city was beautiful, and the serenity beckoned to me. Elqaneve had stood for thousands of years, unchanging and unmarred by petty wars. Queen Asteria was working with the OIA, and she had briefly met us. The ancient Elfin Queen scared the hell out of me, but she had been kind and gentle.

Now, all that remained was for us to cross over. The Earthside division of the OIA would be there to greet us, along with the delegate from Earth who had thought up the joint task force between the two worlds.

Our father stood by our side. He looked like me—medium height with long black hair blended with blue highlights. His eyes were violet, like mine, and we both had extremely pale skin. He was dressed in his Guard Des’Estar uniform, and he remained stiffly at attention as we took our place in front of the portal. Trenyth, the advisor to Queen Asteria, quietly withdrew, giving us a few minutes.

“Even though I won’t be there to watch over your shoulders, I expect you to behave as though I am. You’ve never been on your own, but now, you will be responsible for your own behavior, and you are representing both your mother and me, as well as the OIA. Make me proud.” His voice held only the faintest quiver, the only sign that this wasn’t just any ordinary morning, and that we weren’t just headed across town to work. But that one quiver was enough to tell me that this was as hard on him as it was on us.

“We’ll make you proud. We won’t slack off.” I met his gaze, conflicted. Even though I was scared, facing the longest trip of my life, I also realized this would be the first time that he wasn’t running the show, constantly barking commands at me. While I wanted to make him proud, I could never do anything good enough. Maybe now I’d have a chance to prove myself. Maybe I’d be able to do something that would make him admit that I measured up.

“I trust you won’t.” He paused, looking uncomfortable as if he couldn’t figure out what to say next. Finally, he settled for, “Humans are peculiar. Your mother was an exceptional woman, but just as in Otherworld, there are many over Earthside who would rather inflict pain than do what is right. Be careful. I want you all back here, alive and in one piece.”

At that, Menolly looked uncomfortable, but Father seemed oblivious. I gave her an empathic smile, wishing that the bridge between them could be repaired. But our father hated vampires, and though he did his best to hide it, we all knew that, at some level, he blamed her for what had happened. Unfair? Absolutely. Unexpected? Sadly, not so much.

Trenyth returned. “A house sprite named Iris will be your guide while you get settled. She’s going to help you find a house. She’s picked out several based on your description of what you’re looking for, and she’ll show them to you. The money your mother left you, plus your relocation allowance, has already been transferred to your bank accounts in Earthside currency. That Maria thought to file birth certificates and get you social security cards—government issued documents that you’ll need—is a blessing. That made things much easier. Here are your OIA papers—don’t lose these. They’re important.” He handed us each a sheaf of documents. Each bundle was in a clear envelope that had a weird, shiny feel to it. We knew what plastic was, but had very little contact with it.

“Once you are there, you’ll learn to drive. You’ll be working with the FH-CSI…that would be the Faerie-Human Crime Scene Investigation unit. The man who runs it is named Chase Johnson. He’s a detective, be aware that’s his proper title. Detective Johnson.”

“Where will we meet Iris?”

“She, along with Chase will meet you on the other end of the portal. You’ll be transporting to the basement of the pub that Menolly will be working in. The portal there is a common destination for visitors from Y’Eírialiastar. I think that’s about it. Best of luck, girls. I’ll be in touch. We’ll be bringing a Whispering Mirror over to install once you have a house so you can contact me, and your father, without a problem. Please, be careful and try to have fun while you’re there.” He paused. “Camille, I know Lathe. I think I understand why you’re being reassigned. Trust me, Queen Asteria and I have the utmost faith in you and your sisters.”

I held his gaze and saw the gentle understanding there, and for once, I felt like we had someone in our corner. “Thank you for that. We can use a friend.”

“You have that in me.” And with that, Trenyth escorted us to the portals. “Do you have any last questions?”

I glanced at Menolly, and then Delilah. They shook their heads. I turned back to the elfin advisor. “I guess not. That’s about it.”

“Then, safe journeys. May the coming year go smoothly and without any problem. Blessings, girls. I doubt we’ll have much cause to talk, but if you need me, I’m here.” And with that, he motioned to the portal.

I eyed the flickering lights of the vortex. I had never been through a portal, though rumor had it the process didn’t hurt. From what we were told, it was more along the lines of being torn in half and then slammed back together. How that couldn’t hurt, I didn’t know, but I was about to find out.

I glanced back at my sisters. “You guys ready?”

“Let’s get this show on the road,” Menolly said.

Delilah turned back to wave at our father, then nodded.

I sucked in a deep breath and turned to the portal. “Okay, then. Here goes nothing. I guess we should look at this as one big long vacation. After all, how much trouble can we get into over there?” And with that, I stepped through the portal.

Chapter 2

I squinted as I tried to place where we were. We were in a dark room with no windows, although a glaring light flickered from the ceiling, bright enough to blind me. It wasn’t a candle, or magic. Then my wits came back to me as the vertigo began to vanish.

That’s right, we had just gone through a portal. Which meant we were in the basement of the Wayfarer, and the glaring light was a form of human magic—technology. Electricity. We had been warned that it worked very much like lightning. Humans generated it via vast machines, and were able to control it to fuel their lives. I shaded my eyes as I stumbled to the side. My body still tingled, as though every single cell had gone flying out into the universe and then had been snapped back, slamming into place again.

“You must be the D’Artigo sisters. Welcome to Seattle. Welcome to Earthside.” The voice was coming from somewhere beyond the glare of light, cloaked in the shadows.

As my eyes adjusted, I began to make out figures, and then with a final blink, I could see around me. The room was piled high around the edges with boxes and crates. To my left, behind the portal, a hall extended to the right. Big basement, for sure.

A man—human I assumed—stood in front of the portal. He was next to an elfin woman and a very short giant. Giants, be they vertically challenged or not, usually were on the scary side. But we had been briefed before we left that Jocko would be meeting us, and that he was an OIA agent. He posed as the bartender of the Wayfarer Bar and Grill. The OIA didn’t want the general populace over Earthside knowing they had a military presence, so they found cover jobs for us.

And my guess was the man standing next to him was Chase Johnson. Who the woman was, I had no clue. I stepped forward and held out my hand.

“Camille te Maria reporting for duty.” I paused, then added, “Over here, I’ll be known as Camille D’Artigo. These are my sisters, Delilah and Menolly.”

I glanced over my shoulder to make sure Delilah and Menolly had made it through okay. They, too, were shading their eyes, but otherwise looked fine. Delilah had a skittish look on her face and I stifled a groan. Please, please don’t let her go changing into her tabby form and racing off. The last thing I wanted to do was play chase-the-kitty. But she seemed to be holding it together.

“You doing okay?” I said softly.

She nodded. “Yeah, I’m too curious about what’s going on to shift, I think.”

The man stepped forward and took my hand. His skin was rough, as though he used his hands a lot. He had an olive complexion and dark, wavy hair, and the suit he wore appeared to be a tailored weave.

“Chase Johnson, detective for the FH-CSI—the Faerie-Human Crime Scene Investigations unit. Welcome to Earthside, girls.” His gaze lingered on me, running up and down my body to settle on my boobs. Immediately, I had his number. I had been the recipient of that once over far too many times.

“Jocko here.” The giant held out his hand and I stared at it for a moment. Giants often didn’t think about their strength when interacting with others, and I’d seen way too many well-intentioned handshakes end up with way too many broken fingers. But Jocko’s touch was light and gentle as he took my hand in his.

“How do you do? So you own the Wayfarer? Menolly will be your new bartender.” I waggled my finger at Menolly and she grudgingly stepped around me to the left, gazing at the giant with suspicion.

“Menolly, welcome.” Jocko nodded to her but didn’t attempt to shake her hand. Smart of him, I thought, given her hair-trigger temper.

“Hi.” She glanced around the room. “So, this is the basement of the bar? Looks like it needs a thorough spring cleaning.”

Jocko blushed. “I don’t get much time to mess with it. Maybe you can help.”

“I’d be glad to. Can’t stand clutter,” she said. “Do you keep a guard on the portal?”

“Yes, at all times.” Jocko motioned to a nearby desk. “We do our best to keep anybody out of here who isn’t authorized, because of the portal. We log all transfers in the journal over there, on the computer. I’ll have Tavah show you how to use it.”

Computers. During the past month, we had memorized a large vocabulary of Earthside terminology, including the names of most of the devices humans had come to rely on. We were told that part of our job would be to gain a working knowledge of most of them, in order to further a smooth integration into society. The learning curve was bound to be steep and quick, and I suddenly realized that it would be a job in itself.

“So, what do we do first?” Delilah asked, shyly moving to stand by my right. “Where are we staying tonight? And who are you?” She turned to the elfin woman.

The elf was slight, with pale gold hair pulled back in a bun and had a gracious air about her. “I’m Sharah, originally from Elqaneve. I’m one of the medical techs at the FH-CSI. The unit also serves as a hospital and healing station for the OW Fae who’ve come over Earthside to visit.”

“OW?” Then I stopped. Of course, Otherworld. We would have to get used to the jargon used here.

“I asked Chase if I could come with him to welcome you to our side of the pond, so to speak,” she said.

I wasn’t sure what it was, but I had the feeling we would be seeing more of her.

“I suppose…Delilah’s right. What do we do next? Is there someplace we need to check in? We weren’t given detailed instructions before we left. In fact Trenyth, the elfin advisor to the Queen, was the one who saw us off.” I didn’t add that the OIA seem to have washed their hands of us as much as possible. Ever since we had been reassigned, training and preparation had been mostly from what the elves could teach us.

Jocko grunted. “Welcome to the club. Get used to the fact that that the OIA doesn’t pay much attention to those of us who are over here Earthside. I don’t mean to insult you, but between you, me, and the wall, welcome to the reject pond.”

Giants weren’t very tactful. Their knowledge and skill with diplomacy ranked up there with a vampire’s ability to stand out in the sun. But all pussyfooting aside, Jocko was right. We had hit the bottom of the heap when we had been reassigned. I assumed our father knew it too, but was too embarrassed to mention it.

Chase glanced from us, to Jocko, and then back again. “I suppose we need to get you settled in. If they haven’t assigned you to a temporary place to stay, we’ll find you one.”

Feeling a wash of exhaustion—the portal had been an energy drain that I hadn’t expected—I let out a grateful sigh. “Thank you. We have the money to buy a house, but we can’t do that tonight.” My voice trailed off and I had the sudden wish that our mother could be here to show us her world. She had wanted us to see her home, that much I remembered.

“Someday, I’ll sneak you Earthside so you can see where I grew up,” she used to say when we were little. She taught us how to speak English, and she trained us in the cultural references she knew. Some of them were outdated, but over the past month, Trenyth had trained us diligently in what he could.

Our mother had died when I was around seven years old — in approximately 1952 by Earthside count. As half Fae, my sisters and I would live far longer than humans and when we reached a certain point in our lives, we would be given the opportunity to take the Nectar of Life. But mother was human, and she had fallen from a horse and broken her neck. I had seen her soul statue shatter and was the first to realize that she was dead.

“Agent Kuusi will be helping you find a house—she couldn’t be here tonight, but she’ll meet you tomorrow. But for tonight, it’s probably better if Menolly sleeps in the safe room here.” Chase turned to Jocko. “That would be all right, wouldn’t it?”

“Safe room?” Menolly perked up.

Jocko nodded. He led us around the portal, turning down the hallway to the right. Stopping in front of the first door, which had a metallic sheen to it, he said, “This room was added into the wayfarer when the OIA bought the building. It’s magic proof, and strong enough to hold a demon. You can’t transport to the Ionyc Sea from inside and you can’t use a cell phone. In fact, the entire building could crumble to the ground and the safe room would still be standing. It was created in case we have to corral any wayward visitors from Otherworld.”

“Can it be locked from inside?” I asked.

“Yes, but only if you know about the hidden mechanism. We obviously don’t show unwelcome visitors that aspect. But it allows us to bar it from inside, so the room can also be used as a panic room. Menolly will be safe from the sunlight, as well as from self-appointed vampire hunters.” He snorted, rolling his eyes.

“Seriously? Vampire hunters?” She gave him a long look.

Chase answered her. “There was a television show a few years ago. Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It was extremely popular, and actually quite cute. But the main character was a vampire hunter, and vampires became big business. Then, once the vampires came out of the closet, a number of self-appointed vampire hunters decided to reenact the show they loved so much.”

I groaned. “I’ll bet that’s led to a lot of unnecessary bloodshed, especially if these so-called vampire hunters are kids.”

“Mostly teens, yes, who think it’s all fun and games to go hunting a vampire, until they realize they’re not as strong or clever as most of the bloodsuckers.” Chase suddenly stopped. “I apologize. I’m not used to interacting with vampires who are on our side of the law.”

“Not a problem,” Menolly said, though she looked anything but pleased.

“So, it’s bad enough when the teens go off half-cocked. They do get themselves hurt. But, and here’s where you’ll have to be careful, not all of them are teens. There’s a small but vocal minority of people—human—who don’t like it that the Fae, Weres, and others Supes have come out of the closet. There are some very vocal hate groups who would love to see all of you slaughtered. And they incite violence. We try to quash their activities, but unless somebody’s breaking the law, it’s difficult. And right now, it’s not against the law to kill a vampire.”

“Wonderful, just wonderful. I can see it’s going to be a field day living here.” Menolly let out a little growl.

“It’s not illegal to kill a vampire in Y’Eírialiastar either,” I reminded her.

“True enough.” She turned back to Jocko. “Let’s see this safe room.”

Jocko opened the door. There was a cot against one wall with a blanket folded on it. A table and chairs sat on the other side of the room, along with what I recognized as a toilet and sink. Several books sat on the table and I wandered in, picking one of them up. I loved books. My mother had taught me to read English. I also knew Kathar—the language among the Fae, Melosealfôr — a rare form of Crypto language, as well as Calouk—the common tongue used in every city in Y’Eírialiastar.

I glanced at the book, running my hand along the glossy picture of some sort of ship against a background of stars. Paper here was a lot smoother to the feel than back at home. My cover job was to pose as a bookstore owner, and I suddenly felt giddy. If my days were going to be spent among stacks of books, rather than fighting and chasing down criminals, maybe being stuck Earthside wouldn’t be a bad run after all.

I replaced the book on the table and turned Menolly. “Will this work?”

She nodded. “Kind of like the safe room at home, although it’s magic proof as well. I don’t mind staying here for a day or two until we find a place. That reminds me, how long till sunrise?”

“It’s the same over here as it is in Otherworld,” Jocko said. He glanced at a bracelet on his arm. “It’s three AM right now, which means you have about four hours to sunrise.”

“Are you wearing a clock?” I cocked my head to get a better look. Mother had owned a clock. Father had brought it home to her from one of his Earthside missions, after she told him it would make her feel at home.

“I suppose so, only when you wear it on your body, it’s called a watch.” Jocko held out his arms so we could see. The metal bracelet expanded around his wrist. In the center, was a round clock face, only the time showed in digits rather than two pointers circling the hours.

“I don’t want to go too far out tonight, until we get the lay of the city. We don’t want to chance Menolly getting caught out in the sun. So why don’t you show us the bar?” I didn’t want any chance of anybody on getting lost.

“Follow me, then.” Jocko let the way toward the stairs, as we headed into our new lives.

Chapter 3

The next morning, Delilah and I woke after a short sleep. Chase had taken us to a nearby inn—or rather, hotel, after Menolly was safely locked in for the night.

We spent the first hour watching television, which left me jarred and Delilah unnaturally fixated. I found it confusing, but Delilah took to it like a fish to water. In fact, I finally had to order her to turn it off so we could get some sleep. The noise of the traffic grated on my nerves, but I had to hand it to Earthside when it came to the blankets and bed. The mattresses were soft, the sheets smooth against my skin, and having heat that didn’t require stoking a fire? Priceless.

Chase picked us up from the hotel and drove us to breakfast. The car had terrified me the night before, but in daylight, it was even worse, watching all the other drivers coming toward us and not being able to believe they wouldn’t accidentally cross the white line and run right into us. But we made it to the restaurant safely, where Iris was waiting.

The house sprite stood around four-one, if that, and was absolutely gorgeous. Her hair was long, caught up in an intricate bun that spiraled up on her head and then hung down in a ponytail from the center. She was wearing a pair of navy pants and a pretty V-neck top. Her eyes were the clearest blue I had ever seen.

“Iris, I want you to meet the D’Artigo sisters. Well, two of them. Meet Camille and Delilah. Menolly is the vampire and she’s asleep right now.” A faint shudder in Chase’s voice told me that he was afraid of Menolly. I dreaded to think of the mileage she was going to pull out of that little fact. And she would notice his fear.

“Hi, welcome to Earthside. I work for the OIA. Chase has assigned me to help you out. Camille, I’ll be helping you in the bookstore, as well. But I’m here to answer questions and to help familiarize you with the city.” Her voice was soft, but the resonance behind it hinted at a great wealth of power behind it.

“So, you’re an Earthside house sprite?” Delilah slid into the booth, staring around with curiosity. “There are so many people over here compared to home. Even though our cities are crowded, it doesn’t feel anything like this.”

“You’ll find that less so in smaller towns, but yes, Seattle is big. Not as big or crowded as some of our cities, though.” Iris brushed a stray hair away from her face. “To answer your question, Camille, yes, I’m Earthside Fae, but I’ve been over to Otherworld a number of times. I was recruited by the OIA about four years ago. I was among the first of the Fae to come out over here, and I oversaw the opening of the Wayfarer portal. Lately, I haven’t been doing much for the agency, though.” Her voice was tinged with the faintest disapproval.

“As I said last night, Iris will be helping you house-hunt. When Trenyth asked me who I thought would be best, I figured that since she’s a house sprite, Iris was the obvious choice.” Chase looked extremely pleased with himself.

Just then the waitress arrived with menus. I scanned the choices, confused by some of the descriptions but one of the words rang a bell. Mother had mentioned loving waffles.

“I’d like to try a waffle.” I handed the menu back to the waitress.

“What would you like to drink?” She waited, pencil poised over her pad.

Chase let out a soft laugh. “Bring her a double shot mocha.”

I arched my eyebrows. “What’s that?”

“Coffee. If you want to survive over here, you need to learn to drink coffee.”

I figured that if I didn’t like it, I wouldn’t have to drink it. “All right.”

Delilah wanted steak and eggs, along with a big glass of milk. Chase ordered pancakes and sausage, and Iris asked for an omelet.

As we waited for our food, I stared out the window. The cars were bumper-to-bumper out on the road. So many people, going so many places.

Iris cleared her throat. “It’s going to take you some time to get used to things, but I promise, it won’t feel so alien after a while. You’ll be surprised how quickly you adapt.” Her voice was soothing, and I relaxed as I took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

Delilah brightened. “I like television.”

“Oh good gods, save me now.” But I grinned at her.

“I take it somebody found the TV in the hotel?” Chase let out a soft laugh.

“A man was wearing fish strapped to his chest. I have no idea what was going on, but it reminded me of some bizarre wrestling match. And there was man…he was talking into…” She paused, thinking, then snapped her fingers. “A microphone. That’s it. Anyway, he’s…handsome.” She blushed and I stared at her.

“This is new. You almost never notice men…not in that way.”

“I can’t help it. There was just something about him.”

Chase’s jaw dropped. “You found Jerry Springer?” He let out a garbled sound.

Iris snorted. “Well, it’s official. Your introduction to our society is complete.”

I wasn’t sure what was happening, but it was obvious that whoever Jerry Springer was, he was infamous for something. “Leave it to my sister to discover the oddballs.”

Chase cleared his throat. “Okay, the less said about Springer, the better. Anyway, as soon as we finish breakfast, I’m going to leave you in Iris’s capable hands. But I have assigned someone to drive you around today. Yugi will be helping you. He’s one of my officers, human and an empath. He’s a good guy so ask him for anything you need.”

The waitress appeared with our food at that moment. I stared at the oddly shaped cake for a moment. Iris reached over and motioned for me to spread butter on it, and then pour a stream of brown syrup over it. The smell was overwhelming, in a good way, and as I dug in, the first bite sent me into a tailspin of flavor. The second bite was even better. As I cautiously tried the steaming drink, the nuances of rich chocolate and milk ran down my throat, along with a bitter note. I closed my eyes. I could already feel a tingle from it.

“What’s in here?”

“Coffee—espresso, actually. It’s a concentrated form of coffee. A mocha is made with espresso, chocolate, milk, and whipped cream.” Chase sounded pleased. “You like it?”

It was then that I realized he was as nervous as we were. He wanted us to feel comfortable and was doing his best to make certain we did.

I flashed him a warm smile. “It’s good. I like it, and I like the buzz. This won’t make me drunk, will it?”

“I can answer that,” Iris said. “Unless there’s something wonky with your blood line, caffeine shouldn’t have much of an effect on you, other than to perk you up, make you feel a little tense, and give you a boost in energy.”

As Chase was at the counter, paying for the food, a thin, tall man walked in with platinum blond hair. He joined us, introducing himself as Yugi.

“I see you’ve met.” Chase returned and slipped on his jacket. “Yugi, take them wherever Iris thinks they need to go. Let me know how things are going. Girls,” he turned us, “Have a wonderful day. We’ll get you settled in as soon as we can. I know this week is going to be a difficult transition time, so we’ll do everything we can to make it easier. Meanwhile, Iris and Yugi will be able to answer most of your questions. Oh,” he added, “Iris, you might want to take them down to show them the Indigo Crescent—Camille’s bookstore. The floor directly above the bookshop is where Delilah will be opening her PI business. Delilah, we’ll have a talk about the laws and regulations regarding what you can and cannot do legally, but we can do so in a few days.” And then he headed out the door without waiting for a response.

“Does he always talked so fast?” Delilah glanced at Iris.

The house sprite laughed. “He’s probably more nervous than you guys are. The FH-CSI is his baby, and even though he’s not in charge, it’s up to him to make it fly. If it fails, he fails.” She glanced at Yugi. “Can you get us a few donuts?”

Yugi nodded and wandered over to the counter.

Iris turned back to us. “Don’t say anything in front of him that you don’t want Chase to hear. Yugi is a good sort, but he owes his allegiance to Chase. You can trust Chase, but as I said, a lot is riding on his shoulders and there are things you may say that he might try to work to his advantage. You can always come to me if you have delicate questions.”

“How did you end up working for the OIA, given you’re Earthside Fae?” I stared at Iris. Her energy was incredibly strong, and I already liked her lot.

“It happens. They have recruited Fae from Earthside for many years because the portals have been available all that time, though hidden. I came on recently. I have my reasons for doing so, but they can wait till later. But I will tell you this—don’t trust the OIA to back you up. I honestly believe, and this is no reflection on you, but I think that they send the agents over here they want to get rid of. I don’t know what you did or didn’t do, but don’t rely on them.”

Her words echoed Jocko’s sentiments. So, we were on our own. If we had been back in Otherworld, it wouldn’t be so difficult, but over here? We needed to learn and learn fast.

“Thank you, we’ll take what you say to heart. How do we find a house?”

She laughed. “They don’t have newspapers over in Otherworld, do they?”

I shook my head, although the word itself was pretty self-explanatory.

Iris held up a thick sheaf of paper, covered with tiny print. There were several paragraphs circled in bright red. “These are called the classifieds. We are looking at advertisements for houses that are up for sale. I contacted a real estate agent who will meet us later on. She’s going to help us find you a house. First though, I need to know several things. What do you really need?”

And we were off, describing what we were looking for, as she scanned through the newspaper and marked several other listings. A few minutes later, we were on the road. Delilah and I were in the backseat, while Iris sat up front with Yugi, as we headed into the streets of Seattle to look for a house.

The first four we looked at were unsuitable. None of them had a way to viably protect from the sunlight, and even though one had a basement, it would have taken a massive amount of work to make livable. But the fifth house was a surprise. It was in the Belles-Faire district, in North Seattle. It was out of the city proper, on a winding two-lane road. At first the houses were thick along the sides of the road and then they began to spread out, with more room between the lots. Iris pointed out various styles to us.

“That’s a ranch, well it’s a ranch style house. I’ll explain the difference later. And that — see that three-story house there? That’s Victorian style.” She glanced at the newspaper, then tapped Yugi on the shoulder. “Turn left on Fitzweizer.”

He obliged. “Whatever you say, Miss Iris.”

I had the feeling they knew each other. As as the road began to wind even more, and houses were spaced further apart, the foliage became thicker than I’d ever expected to see in a city. Even in Y’Elestrial, most of the trees were confined to the parks. But Seattle seemed to be a conglomeration of woodland, city, and small town atmosphere all mixed together. I was beginning to get used to the traffic lights. It didn’t take a genius to figure out how they worked. Red meant stop. Green, go. Yugi slowed down when he saw yellow lights, so I figured that—over here—yellow was a cautionary warning.

“We’re looking for Victoria Street.” Iris glanced at the paper. “The realtor will meet us there.”

“What’s a realtor?” Delilah asked.

“Think of it like a house broker. The realtor acts as the go-between between the owner and the person who wants to buy the house. Realtors occasionally work with rental properties as well. Property is known as real estate. Yugi, we’re looking for number 33933.”

Yugi began glancing out of his side window, and Iris did the same on her side. As I looked at the houses passing by, I realized they had numbers printed on them. I pressed my nose against the window. We passed first one house and then another, and then we began passing posts with numbers on them that led into long driveways, where the houses were hidden from view.

After a few minutes, Yugi slowed and turned onto a gravel drive, at number 33933. We bumped along, but I was actually surprised by how much smoother the car was than a horse and carriage.

Trees lined both sides of the drive, overhanging the gravel path. I fell into a comfortable silence. The land here was beautiful, and I had the sudden desire to jump out of the car and talk to the plants. That was one of my gifts. I could speak with certain plants and sense their growth and their energy. Something inside me sparked when I looked at the land here.

“I really want to see this house,” I said suddenly, breaking the silence.

“I thought you might like the Belles-Faire area. A lot of Fae tend to live out here. The house we’re going to see is a little large, especially for just three of you, but I think you might like it. I just had a feeling…” Her voice drifted off as we pulled out of the drive in into the clearing.

Up ahead was a wide expanse of driveway, a half circle of dirt in front of a large three-story house. It was a Victorian by Iris’s description, and as I stared up at the pink and cream monster, something whispered, “Come live here. Wake me up.”

Beside me, Delilah let out a little gasp. “Did you hear that?” She was gazing at the house.

“You mean house?”

She nodded. “I think it’s talking to us.”

Iris laughed from the front seat. “I thought maybe this would be a contender. Come on, get out of the car. The real estate agent should be inside.”

As we entered the house, our steps echoed on the hardwood floors. The foyer was a little awkwardly placed, a T-shaped hall, with a coat closet directly across from the front door. From where we stood, to the left I could see a kitchen, and to the right looked to be a living room. Iris led us into the kitchen where a tall, thin woman was waiting. She was obviously half-Fae, I could tell just by looking at her, and she held a portfolio in her arms. She was wearing the most beautiful makeup I had ever seen, and I had a sudden desire to beg her to let me try it. But I restrained myself. Accosting a stranger for their cosmetics wasn’t exactly the best icebreaker.

Iris introduced us, and the realtor—whose name was Novena—led us on a tour, starting with the basement.

As we examined the tidy little suite of rooms, I thought it might work perfectly for Menolly.

“This has possibilities,” I said.

Delilah nodded. “Not much work to be done, really.”

The main floor contained the kitchen—which was huge, a pantry, the utility room, a cozy bedroom, a bath, a parlor and the living room. Two sets of stairs led up to the second story; one from beside the pantry, the other from the living room.

As we made our way up the narrow staircase, I ran my hands along the polished mahogany railing, listening to the resonance of the wood. The house was happy, but lonely. It needed a family to love it and take care of it.

The second story included three bedrooms and a bath. One of the bedrooms had a balcony overlooking the yard and all I could think about was how wonderful it would be to sit out under the stars, watching the moon. I needed to be out under the Moon Mother when she rode full on the night sky.

“This would be perfect for you,” Delilah said.

“I was thinking the same thing.”

We headed up to the third floor. The layout mirrored the second second story, for the most part. Bedrooms and a private bath, along with a narrow attic.

Delilah clapped her hands. “I could get used to it up here. Look how high it is!”

She opened one of the windows and leaned out, staring out at the branches of a huge oak tree brushed the eaves of the roof. The next moment, before I could stop her, my sister turned into a tabby cat—a blur of long golden fur and razor blades. Her clothes changed into a little blue collar around her neck.

“Delilah! Don’t you dare!” I dove for her, knowing what was coming next. But I hit the floor face first as she leapt to the windowsill and out onto the roof, scampering out of reach into the oak’s branches. I groaned as Yugi helped me up.

“Are you okay? And what the hell just happened?” Yugi stared out the window at Delilah, who is delightedly chasing a butterfly on to another branch.

“Welcome to my family,” I said, shaking my head. “In case Chase hasn’t told you, Delilah is a werecat. Only she has a problem with self-control. What the hell are we going to do now? I’m terrified of heights and if I tried to climb out there, I’ll fall off the damned roof and break my neck.” It was true. Heights, mountainsides, cliff sides—they did not mix well with my fear.

Iris snorted. “You’re not getting me out there.”

Yugi let out a sigh. “What will she do if I go after her?”

“Probably run. We need something to entice her back inside. The only thing she likes better than chasing bug are shiny things. Either of you got something like that?” I glanced over at the realtor who was stifling a grin. “You wouldn’t by chance have any ideas on what we should do?”

“Well, I might have something to help. Stand back and I’ll see what I could do. I promise I won’t hurt her.”

Novena waited until we were out of the way, then leaned out the window. She reached out one hand, and fluttered her fingertips. As we watched, a ribbon of sparkling lights unfurled from the palm of her hand, trailing out the window until it reached Delilah, who was now focused on chewing on a leaf. The dancing lights tapped her on the left haunch. Delilah jumped, her head jerking around. At first she looked startled, but then when she saw the lights her eyes grew wide. I stifled a laugh, not wanting to scare her off.

The next moment, Kitten was bouncing along behind the lights as the realtor drew them in along the branch. They rolled up just like a ribbon on a spool, but Delilah hadn’t figured out that we were baiting her. As Novena slowly stepped back, the lights followed her inside and she aimed them toward the floor. Delilah paused at the windowsill, glancing behind her at the branch, then with one mighty leap, she pounced on the sparkling lights. I slammed the window shut behind her.

Realizing that she had been conned, Delilah flashed us a nasty look and raced out of the room. I charged along behind her, but only managed to trip on a fold in the runner in the hall. Once again, I landed face first. With a groan, I rolled to the side, giving Yugi room to pass.

“Don’t let her get outside!”

The realtor followed him, as Iris helped me to my feet. Feeling bruised and battered, I stood, shrugged my shoulders back, and straightened my hair. Menolly had given me the go-ahead to make the decision on the house for her, and since I figured Delilah had already covertly approved it with her antics and loving the ‘way up high’ rooms, I turned to Iris.

“Well, I think we’re home.” And without further ado, we had found our house.

Chapter 4

The realtor pushed and less than two weeks later, we owned the house. We were able to negotiate moving in early and since we were paying cash for the place, the owner had no objections to closing quickly, especially since she had already moved out of town.

A week after finding the place, we were moved in, albeit with a conglomerate of thrift store furniture. Menolly had already started working at the Wayfarer, and we were in a taxi, on the way to the Indigo Crescent. I was about to see my shop for the first time.

“I need to head over to HQ,” Delilah said. We were already referring to the FH-CSI as our headquarters. “Chase wants to discuss my new business”

Iris frowned. “We’ll get you a ride over there when we get to the shop. But listen, girls, you have to learn how to drive this month. I know it’s a lot to take on so soon, but I’ve been running my ass off finding you rides.” Not only was the house sprite helpful, she was endearingly blunt. “I don’t mind playing secretary for a while longer, but I’ve got better things to do with my time. I’m going to set up lessons for you girls—all three of you. It will have to be at night. At least for Menolly.”

Delilah frowned. “Driving seems fun, but I have to admit I’m a little nervous. It’s not quite the same thing is steering a horse and buggy.”

“You certainly didn’t have any trouble learning how to use a cell phone.” Iris grinned at her.

Delilah snorted. “That’s different. I can’t kill anybody with a cell phone.”

In the past week, besides moving into our house, Iris had put us on a crash course in getting used to technology. She made us buy a blender, a toaster, a microwave oven, a mixer, a laptop computer, a television, a CD player, and a number of other gadgets we never would have thought of. Most of them were fairly simple, although the mixer made me nervous and I was grateful it was on a stand. The laptop was another matter, but Delilah immediately took to it. She also had fallen full-force into the joy of television and was headed toward full-scale addiction. Menolly loved the CD player, and we all thought the washer and dryer were a gift from the gods.

“Tell me about the store. What do I need to know?”

“It’s a bookstore. You sell books. That’s about it. I’ll show you how to use the cash register and how to make change, but most of your day will be talking to customers and helping them find what they’re looking for. Since I’m going to work with you, it shouldn’t take you too long to get the hang of things. You will have to learn how to set up and use an accounting system, and keep track of your profits and losses. But I don’t foresee any difficulties.”

Menolly had taken to her job in a way that none of us had expected. She had been working for the past three nights, and her mood had altered in a subtle, but noticeable, way. She didn’t seem quite so angry and I even heard her humming at one point.

As the taxi pulled into the curb and Iris paid them, I jumped out of the backseat and wandered over to stare at the bookstore. A sign that reminded me of an old-fashioned pub sign hung over the street, projecting from the face of the building. It read The Indigo Crescent, and had the image of crescent moon with a book balancing on the bottom point of the crescent.

I pressed my face to one of the large windows and stared into the dim space. I could see shelves lined with books and a glass counter that ran the length of the front. Feeling inexplicably excited, I turned around as Iris fit the key into the lock and opened the door.

She glanced at me.” Welcome to your new world.”

I stepped inside, gasping at the shelves filled with books. “We have storytellers in Otherworld, and we have our own form of books, but nothing like this. So many books…” I stared around, taking in the embarrassing wealth of visions and dreams and tales. “How can you even hope to read a quarter of all these books in a lifetime when you’re human? My mother’s people are…” My voice trailed off and I shook my head. “When I do go home, you can bet I’m taking a store’s worth of books with me.”

“Oh, this is a fraction of the books available.” Iris laughed. “You love to read?”

“I love stories. I love reading, storytelling, and everything that goes into it. I could never be a good storyteller—that’s not my path. But when I was little, my mother used to tell us stories. Every time our father was sent Earthside on a mission, she’d have him bring back books. She taught me to read when I was little, and I taught Menolly and Delilah.” I whirled around in the middle of the shop, my skirts swirling. “I’m so glad they assigned me this job. Maybe that freak of a boss of mine had some spark of regret in his heart, though I doubt it.”

“Well, I’m glad that you’re happy. Come on, let’s see the rest of the place.” She led us through the store. It was all fairly basic. There was an office for me to keep accounts and business in, a storeroom, a very tiny break room, and a bathroom. The back of the store had a door leading out to an alley. And out front, a narrow staircase led upstairs to the suite of rooms Delilah would be using for her detective agency.

We headed upstairs to the dusty suite of rooms, Iris tallying up a list of things we might need. The OIA had ensured that we had the foundation—furniture, and for the Indigo Crescent—stock. But there were no personal touches or anything to make us stand out in any way.

“What now?” Delilah asked.

I frowned. The OIA had really tossed us into the river without a boat. “I guess we do our best to make this work, if for no other reason than to thumb our noses at the OIA. Iris, this afternoon, would you teach me about the business? And do you know anybody who can take Delilah shopping for whatever she needs for her business?”

Iris frowned for a moment, then brightened. “As a matter of fact, I do know someone who might be able to help. Let me give her a call.” She pulled out her cell phone and flipped it open. As she held it to her ear I picked up the faint ring of the bell. Another second and I could hear a faint voice echoing out of the machine.

“Siobhan, this is Iris. I’m with a couple new transfers over from Otherworld, and one of them needs to go shopping for her office. I was wondering if you could take her because they haven’t learned to drive yet and I’m helping her sister right now…Yes, she’s Fae. A werecat…You can? That would be wonderful. We’re downtown at the Indigo Crescent. If you could meet us here, that would be great…Twenty minutes? Sounds good to me. Do you need the address?” She paused again, then said goodbye.

“So, do cell phones work anywhere? I doubt they would work from home—Otherworld.” Most technology wouldn’t work over in Otherworld, but I really liked the idea of being able to contact my sisters no matter where any of us were.

“Not exactly, but coverage is getting better. If you’re in the mountains or underground, or in a parking garage, you’ll usually have difficulty. But for the most part, they work fairly consistently and are getting better.” She tucked it back into her pocket and turn to Delilah. “Siobhan is a selkie. She’s with the Puget Sound Harbor Seal Pod, and is engaged to another selkie named Mitch. I think you’ll like her.”

“Oddly enough, I think there are more selkies Earthside than in Otherworld. I’m not sure why they chose to remain over here during the Great Divide, but apparently they prefer it.” I ran my hand along the glass countertop. It was smudged and dirty. “Is there a cloth I could use to clean this glass with? I don’t like dinginess, or cobwebs or clutter. It all leads to a cluttered mind, and that muddies the atmosphere and the energy of the house as well as a person. And it muddies magic, and I don’t need my magic any more messed up than it is.”

Iris laughed. “I think we’ll get along just fine. I’ll find something—give me a moment.” She hurried into the back. I heard the water running, and then she returned with a sponge and a spray bottle. “Here, I thought we might need this since the dirt is so embedded. I brought along a vinegar and water solution. It will cut the grease just as well as any harsh chemical.” She handed the bottle to me, showing me how to work it.

As I began to wash the counters she found a feather duster and started dusting shelves. Delilah was busy writing up a list of what she thought she needed for her shop.

“I’m not sure what to get, but I’m sure that I’ll find something.”

“Do you have your check book?” I hoped she hadn’t lost it somewhere. Delilah could be a bit scatterbrained at times.

“Right here,” she patted her pocket.

We each had a checking account, as well as the household account. I wasn’t used to handing over scraps of paper for goods, but it wasn’t much different than our coins and gems at home. Currency was currency, regardless of the form.

The door was open to air out the store when a man walked into the shop. I blinked. It was taking me some time to get used to seeing so many older people. Among the Fae, even the aged didn’t show it much. I was finding it hard to pinpoint what age meant over here, especially since I was older than a lot of people we had met.

The man was about five foot ten, and what hair he had left appeared to be turning silver. He was wearing round glasses, a white button-down shirt, and a pair of grey trousers. As he stepped into the shop, a wide smile spread across his face.

“Are you open for business yet?” He sounded excited.

I glanced at Iris, who nodded for me to say hello.

“Not quite, but we will be soon. My name is Camille D’Artigo, owner of the Indigo Crescent.” I held out my hand and turned on my glamour.

One thing I had become very aware of was of the effect we had on full-blooded humans — or FBHs as the other Fae called them. It was like having charm magic on constant standby. I had found that if I closed my eyes and focused, I could rein it in, but I doubted that I could ever fully hide it. Glamour was as much a part of our nature as was breathing.

“I’m Henry Jeffries. I suppose I’m what you would call a sci-fi geek.” He practically beamed as he took my hand, and the only thing I could sense from his energy was a happy joyful dance of light and color. Here was a man who was essentially happy. A rare find regardless of what world you lived in.

“Well, Henry Jeffries. While we’re not officially open today, why don’t you take a look around and see what we have.” I wasn’t exactly sure what a sci-fi geek was, but I had a feeling I was going to find out.

“If you don’t mind my asking,” he said, “are you from Otherworld?”

The hushed tone told me he was a fan. The city of Seattle seemed to have embraced the appearance of the Fae, which meant we were suddenly thrust into the spotlight. It was going to take some getting used to—essentially, we were celebrities because of our birth place and race, rather than who we were or what we had done.

“Yes, I am. And so is my sister here, Delilah. We have another sister named Menolly, she is a vampire and she’s asleep right now.” We had already decided not to bother trying to hide. It wouldn’t have worked, anyway.

Henry clapped his hands. “Wonderful! I’ve never met anyone from your world before. Now, if I could just meet a unicorn. I’ve always wanted to meet a unicorn. I wonder, do you know if they really exist?”

I caught a glimpse of Iris. She was shaking her head with a gentle smile.

“Yes, actually they do. In fact there’s an entire country in Otherworld where they live. By the way, allow me to introduce Iris Kuusi. She’s going to be my assistant here in the store.”

Henry glanced over at Iris and his eyes grew wide as she proffered her hand and he reached to take it. “Miss Kuusi, my pleasure. How do you do?”

I might be new to Earthside, but infatuation was an easy language to read, regardless of where you lived. Henry Jeffries had just developed a massive crush on Iris Kuusi. I had a feeling she was well aware of the sudden shift, because although she smiled in return, a wall rose up as she gently disengaged her hand.

“Thank you. Now, if you’ll allow me to show you over to the science fiction section?” And within the blink of an eye she was all business, guiding him over to a section of the store. She brought him a chair so he could sit down to look at the books, then excused herself to return to the counter where she sidled close to me.

“He’s going to be a loyal customer,” she whispered in a low tone that only Delilah and I could hear. That was one thing the Fae—and the half Fae—had on our human counterparts. We had acute hearing and could hear sounds outside of the human register. “But don’t you dare try to set me up with him.” She gave me a stormy look and I cringed. The winning little house sprite had suddenly become a formidable authority figure.

“I promise, I promise!” I held up my hands to show that I wasn’t about to mess with her.

“See that you don’t break your promise.” She paused, turning to the door. At that moment a slender young woman who was almost as tall as Delilah, and had hair as dark as mine, peeked into the shop. “Siobhan, you’re here. Come on in.”

Siobhan was dressed in a linen skirt and a pink sweater. She was carrying what looked to be a leather handbag over her shoulder, and her hair was pulled back into a tidy braid. She turned her piercing blue gaze on Delilah and me, a faint smile on her lips.

“Siobhan Morgan, meet Camille and Delilah D’Artigo. We really appreciate this. I’m trying to help Camille set up her shop and get it ready to open. Delilah needs to go on a shopping trip for her office. She may not know everything she needs, and I thought you’d be a good person to help her figure it out.” Iris paused, then added, “Delilah, Siobhan isn’t out of the closet. Her employer wouldn’t be all that supportive if he found out. So, while you’re in public, please don’t mention that she’s a selkie.”

Delilah nodded as I extended my hand Siobhan. Her grip was cool and calm.

She motioned to the door. “Do you mind if we get started? I can give you three hours before I have to leave for a meeting. But that should be enough to take care of some of the basics. Welcome to Earthside, ladies. I hope—I truly hope—that you enjoy your stay.” Her smile blossomed wider, lighting up her face.

Delilah collected her things and, with a last glance at me, followed Siobhan out the door as Iris and I returned to the flurry of cleaning and warding the shop.

Two hours later, we were relaxing with coffee as loud voices echoed from outside and Siobhan burst through the door, looking ready to murder somebody. Her dress was covered with mud and grass stains. Delilah followed her, sputtering, covered with speckles of blood and feathers.

“I said I’m sorry! I really didn’t mean to!” She flashed me a guilty look.

Siobhan whirled, leaning back against one of the counters. “Don’t you have any restraint at all?”

“I couldn’t help it! Honestly, it wasn’t like I decided, oh look, there’s a gaggle of geese, let’s go rile them up.”

It was at that point that I noticed that Siobhan had a number of small gashes on her legs, and both of them had bites on their hands. Delilah also had a cut across her forehead. Iris took one look at the pair and burst out laughing. She shook her head as they both turned on her.

“Wait here, I’ll get the first aid kit.” Still chuckling, she headed toward the back.

I leaned back in one of the chairs I had found in the back storeroom. “Do I dare ask what happened?”

“You didn’t tell me your sister wasn’t trained. We were over at DelTora, the shopping center. They have a man-made lake there. Well, it’s really a pond, but who’s counting? Anyway, they have geese, and the geese get along just fine with everybody.”

“Geese never get along with anybody, they’re mean.” Iris returned with the first aid kit and began opening bandages and tubes of ointment.

“Regardless of the nature of geese, they weren’t bothering anybody. That is, until Delilah got it into her head to go hunting. We were standing there, discussing where to go next, and the next thing I know, she turned into a cat and waded into the flock, trying to pounce on the geese. I tried to catch her, and that’s when the geese attacked both of us. I managed to scoop her up, but before I could do anything, she turned back into herself in my arms, knocking me off balance and sending us both toppling to the ground with her on top of me. My dress is ruined. I have to go home and change, which means I’m going to be late to my meeting, and to top off the afternoon, we were both banned from the Plaza.”

She had worked herself into a fine froth, but I couldn’t help it. I started to laugh, holding my stomach as I bent over from the waist. It sounded so ridiculous that I totally lost it. Iris tried to repress a snicker, but a moment later she had joined me, cackling loudly.

Siobhan glared at us, but then, Delilah spit out a feather and started to laugh, too. Siobhan crossed her arms over her chest, but as angry as she was, even she couldn’t resist. Another moment and she was in tears, laughing so hard.

“Good heavens, it was such a mess.” Siobhan wiped her eyes, trying to catch her breath. “I can’t believe the spectacle we made of ourselves.”

“Did you see the older gentleman? The one who was shaking his cane at us?” Delilah threw her arm around Siobhan’s shoulders. “He was so nasty.”

“Actually, I think he was shaking his cane at the geese,” Siobhan said. “He was a leering at you.”

Iris motioned for me to go get two more chairs for Delilah and Siobhan. As they sat, she began to tend to their wounds while I picked feathers off of my sister. We decided the day was done and, after Siobhan left for home, the three of us headed out to forage. The food over Earthside was tasty, but it didn’t seem to fill me up.

Chapter 5

Shortly after Delilah and I arrived home, Menolly woke. The house still echoed, compounded by the lack of furniture. As we sat around the folding card table, wondering what to do, it occurred to me that we had to start acclimating more quickly so we wouldn’t be at loose ends all the time.

“Well, at least we know Siobhan now. I think you’d like her, Menolly. She’s reserved, but nice. Though I hope that she’s not hurting too much because of those damned geese.” Delilah stared at the ceiling.

“I’d go into work but it’s my evening off and Jocko would just send me home. Anyway, I can’t drive there, and I don’t feel like walking.”

“I suppose we could call Chase to come over and talk. We know him. He talked about you all the time I was there, Camille.” Delilah glanced over at me with a grin on her face. Over the intervening days it’d become obvious that Chase had a thing for me, and while he was nice enough, I was getting annoying when he stared at my boobs and made subtle innuendos.

“Oh yes, I would just love that. We have Iris’s number. We could call her.”

“She put up with us all day, I don’t think we want to inflict ourselves on her tonight. I can’t believe we’re bored. We’re in a totally new world and have nothing to do. This is pathetic.” She paused, then jumped up. “We could watch TV!”

Menolly and I groaned. Over the past few evenings Delilah had gotten herself hooked on The Jerry Springer Show. It was as bad as some of the circus acts in the bazaars back in Otherworld, only televised rather than live. But Delilah had developed a crush on the host, and she practically drooled over him.

“Only if it’s a show other than your hot to trot fantasy crush. No, let’s do something else.” I walked over to the window, staring outside. It was windy. Blustery, really, but the rain had subsided and the moon had broken through the clouds. “Let’s go for a walk. We know there’s a pond on our land. Let’s go down and check it out.”

“Sounds good to me,” Menolly said. “I need to drink soon, though.” Her voice dropped, and she sounded almost embarrassed. Back in Otherworld, our father had forbade her to drink at the table or anywhere in his presence. In fact, he had forbid her to even talk about needing blood.

I glanced over it Delilah, who was staring at the ground looking as sad as I was.

“I’m going to propose something,” I said. “This is our house. So I’m making a rule. From now on, when you need to drink, you drink without feeling like you have to hide it. There’s bottled blood here, and neither Delilah nor I will get upset. So when you’re thirsty, go to the damned refrigerator, grab a bottle, and drink. Delilah and I are big girls. We know you’re vampire, it’s not like you’re trying to hide it. Does that work for you?” I turned to Delilah.

“It’s fine with me. As long as you don’t offer me any.”

“Well, as long as you don’t offer me part of a mouse if you catch it. I still don’t understand how you can eat those things.” But Menolly was smiling—a genuine smile, not the faint agreement that she usually made.

Delilah and I bundled up against the chill—Menolly didn’t have to—and we headed outside.

The porch off the kitchen led into the backyard. The house sat on five acres. A few weeks ago that would have seemed like a small parcel of land, but since we arrived and had seen a good share of the city, it now seemed extremely generous.

We wandered through the backyard, Delilah holding a flashlight. I glanced up at the moon and froze. She was heading toward full, beautiful and silvery in her light. I raised my hand feeling like I could almost reach out and touch her.

On the nights of the full moon I ran with the hunt, ran with the Moon Mother as she led the legion of animal spirits and the dead who followed her. I wondered if that would differ over here. Would I still run with the Hunt?

The head of the Coterie of the Moon Mother had promised me that I would, that the Moon Mother would still watch over me while I was here. But a part of me feared that I would be cut off from her, exiled from her blessings.

As I reached up, a stream of moonlight hit my hand and I felt her wash over me, racing into my blood on the wings of the moonbeam, filling me full with a gentle whisper that everything would be all right. You are following your destiny, Camille, and you have no idea of where that will lead. But trust in me.

I let out a deep breath and for the first time since we had arrived, I relaxed.

Delilah and Menolly were waiting. They were watching me, but they didn’t ask what I was doing. They knew that my magic was a private affair. We each had our secrets, each had our private little worlds that we couldn’t share with the others. But our bond was unbreakable. Even death hadn’t been able to shake it when Dredge had turned Menolly. No matter what, we stuck together.

Shaking away my thoughts, I pointed off to the side. “I think there’s a path over that way that leads down to the pond. I saw it the other day when I was out hunting for a good spot in which to plan my herb garden.”

“I see it,” Delilah said. She pointed and sure enough, we saw an opening in the bushes.

The path was well-maintained, and even though there were roots that protruded from the ground, and rocks and pebbles in the way, it was fairly easy to follow. The moon peeked through the lacework arch created by the branches of trees on either side, illuminating the living tunnel through which we walked. Her silver beams dappled the forest floor.

We walked in silence, not needing to talk. Ever since our mother had died it had been like this—the three of us against the world. Our father had withdrawn when Mother died, leaving us to our own devices, and me to watch over my sisters. Oh, he disciplined us and made sure we ate and were healthy, but love? He couldn’t show it. He was a soldier, and he had trained himself to divorce his feelings from his actions. He hadn’t been like that when Maria was still alive—the sun rose and set on her smile for him. When she died, the soldier returned full-force, and the husband and father seemed to vanish.

“I miss Lethe. She was such a good housekeeper and cook, and I didn’t realize how much she helped me until now, but she was always there when I needed her.”

My sisters had become my responsibility and Lethe had helped me shoulder it. She had stood between me and my father more than once, taking the blame for something I had missed or messed up. I begged her not to risk her place, but she insisted that I was too young to shoulder all the responsibility. She had made my childhood bearable, and as I grew into an adult, she had become more comforter than protector.

“I wonder where this job will take us,” Menolly said. “We’re stationed at the end of the universe, or might as well be. Do you think there’s some bigger reason we were sent here?”

“I thought you don’t believe in fate,” I said.

“I don’t, but…”

“All I know is that I’m looking forward to a vacation.” Delilah shook her head. “You know that’s what this is going to be.” She paused, holding up her hand and we stopped. She cocked her head and then pointed to the right often the bushes. “There’s something over there.”

I closed my eyes and reached out. Sure enough, I could sense something…some energy that didn’t feel like it belonged here. In fact, when I really focused, I realized that whatever it was, it felt nasty and vicious.

I caught my breath, backing up a few steps. “There is something there, and I don’t like it.”

“Should we go back to the house?” Delilah looked around nervously.

Menolly shook her head. Her voice soft, she whispered, “We don’t want to turn our backs on something potentially dangerous. We’re upwind of it, so it probably has our scent by now.”

A flutter rippled through my stomach. We were no strangers when it came to fighting, but over here, all the rules were different. We didn’t know what enemies we might be facing, for one thing. For all we knew, this could be some animal, angry we were in its territory. Or, it could be something worse. And we came out unarmed. There had been no reason to bring weapons.

“What should we do?” Delilah asked

“I’ll circle around through the woods, giving it a wide arc, to see what I can find. I can move silently.” Menolly softly sidled over to the edge of the tree line, then backtracked a ways up the trail.

I moved closer to Delilah. She was stronger than I, but I did have my magic though I hadn’t attempted any spells since we came over Earthside. I had been reluctant—too many backfires had made me leery, as well as too many disappointing fizzles.

I closed my eyes and reached up to the sky, drawing on the power of the Moon Mother as I called down her strength. The sky was partially overcast, and I reached out to the clouds as well, which were still heavy with rain, siphoning energy from the potential storm as I called in the lightning.

As I summoned the Moon Mother’s cold fire, I could feel her whispering. She was with me still, the same as she was in Otherworld, and she answered my need. My fingers tingled as her energy raced through me like quicksilver, gathering in my hands.

Delilah glanced around. She stepped to one side, and picked up a large stick, holding it like a club as we waited. I tensed, preparing myself to send a jolt of the Moon Mother’s energy toward anything that came barreling out of the woods.

Another pause, as Delilah and I watched, waiting. I strained, trying to hear Menolly but true to her nature, she was silent as the grave, silent as a statue. What was she doing? Why was she taking her so long? Had she been ambushed?

And then, just as I was about to go plunging into the woods to look for her, the bushes parted and a creature came racing out. Its appearance was so sudden and it snarled so loud that I almost fell over backward. It was dark and squat, like a furry, stocky little man-creature. Beady yellow eyes gleamed over a pig-like snout, and its mouth was large and wide, with needle-like teeth ringing the inside of its blood-soaked maw.

Delilah screamed as she dropped her club, then recovering, she snatched it up again. Menolly dove out of the bushes behind the creature, landing on its back. She was trying to take it down, but the creature wouldn’t fall—and that fact scared me. That a vampire couldn’t take it down meant the thing must be incredibly strong.

I aimed my hands at its abdomen and loosed the spell. The bolt of energy hit dead center, and for a moment I was ready to cheer, but the next moment, it opened its mouth and turned toward me, eyes wide as it belched out what appeared to be the same jolt I had sent it. Damn, the creature had absorbed my attack and was sending it right back at me.

I yelped, diving to one side. Oh, lovely. I landed in a sticker bush. The thorns pierced through my hands, my knees, and my skirts to impale themselves on the backs of my thighs and my butt.

“Damn it!” I tried to roll away, but the briars came with me, digging deeper.

Unfortunately, the creature remained focused on me, and I found myself staring up at the gargantuan monster. Well, maybe not gargantuan, but when you’re stranded in a strange world, sitting in a patch full of thorns that are digging into your butt, it’s rather difficult to be objective.

Delilah raced toward the creature and me, club held high over her head. Menolly launched herself toward it from the side. Unfortunately, their timing was off. Menolly collided with Delilah, knocking them both to the ground. She hit Delilah so hard that they landed on the other side of the trail. The creature let out a grunt and, once again, returned its attention to me.

As the gaping mouthful of teeth moved closer, I tried to scramble back but only managed to impale myself even more on the thorns.

“Okay, enough.” Frustration setting in, I gritted my teeth against the barbs which were stabbing into me, and forced my way to my feet. The brambles came with me and I let out a squeak. The creature’s teeth were beginning to look good next to the damned thorns.

At that moment, Menolly rushed in and grabbed hold of the creature, yanking it around to face her. She hissed, her fangs gleaming in the moonlight, and our opponent let out a welp. The next moment, it vanished as if it had never been there.

We stared at the spot.

“What the hell was that?” Delilah dropped the club she had retrieved.

“I have no idea, but please, get me the hell out of these bushes.” I struggled against the briars. I was dripping oozing blood from my arms, my legs, and even my face where a bramble had thwacked me across the forehead. In the glow of the moonlight, I saw Menolly’s nostrils flare. I motioned to her. “Back away. I don’t need you drooling at me.” I usually wasn’t so grumpy, but I had at least three dozen thorns in me, and I wasn’t feeling particularly charitable.

Menolly just shrugged it off. “We should get back to the house. We don’t know if that thing…whatever it is…is coming back. We can call…who the hell do we call? Chase?”

“I suppose so. At home, we’d gather a posse to go find it, but here…” I drifted off.

We had no precedent to go on. We didn’t know what the creature was or whether it would be back. We didn’t know who to turn to. The OIA had stranded us, and we couldn’t even contact them until Trenyth had the Whispering Mirror installed. Essentially, we were on our own. Fend for ourselves, gather the wagons, that sort of thing.

“Come on, let’s get you home and cleaned up.” Delilah wrapped her arm around my shoulders as we headed back to the house, keeping a close eye on the forest around us. We didn’t want any more surprise attacks. But we made it home without incident, although several stirrings in the brush left us jumpy.

Once inside, I leaned against the counter while Delilah tended to my cuts and Menolly tried to ignore the oozing blood. In fact, she grabbed another bottle out of the fridge and gulped it down. The scent and sight of fresh blood set her on edge. While she had managed to control the impulses, we never took chances, especially when it came to friends and family.

“Okay, any ideas at all what we were facing?” I asked, wincing as Delilah motioned for me to hike up my skirts. I rested my elbows on the counter, holding my dress up so she could see the thorns and cuts.

“A demon?” Delilah found a pair of tweezers—one of the delights of being Earthside—and began to yank out the thorns. “Quit jumping. You’ll make it hurt worse.”

“I can’t help—Youch! Damn it! Watch it.” I frowned, wishing I had a drink. A stiff shot of brandy would go a long ways right now. “I’ve seen a lot of strange things but never something like that.”

“No, I don’t think it was demon. A nasty temper, yes, but the creature didn’t seem…evil, if you know what I mean.” Menolly frowned. “I still say we should call Chase.”

“Go ahead. His number is on the pad next to the phone.”

She grinned. “He’s scared of me. I could have so much fun with him.”

Delilah cleared her throat. “If you won’t let me chase the geese, then you can’t goose Chase. While we’re at it, I want a cell phone.”

“Yeah, we all should have them, I guess.” I frowned. “Before you’ll know it, we’ll be so used to technology that we won’t want to go home.”

“That will never happen.” Delilah winked at me. “But you know how much I love gadgets.”

“Gadgets and animals. That reminds me, you will have no menagerie here. We don’t need a dozen bunnies, a herd of sheep, and a bunch of rodents in the back yard.” I glanced around at the empty room. “Though a pet would make the place feel less empty. I wonder if we’ll ever get used to having so much space all to ourselves?”

“We’ll fill the house up with furniture soon enough and it won’t seem so lonely. We should talk about hiring someone to clean house, while we’re at it.” Delilah motioned to the counter. “Okay, up on your stomach. I need to get the thorns out of the backs of your legs and your butt.”

I groaned, but did as she bade.

“Oh gods…you are pockmarked with them. This is going to take a while.” Delilah started in, one by one cautiously extracting the jagged barbs from my backside. I let out a curse and restrained the urge to kick her when she yanked out the first one.

Menolly replaced the receiver on the cradle. “He’s on his way over. He said he’ll bring a few men and they’ll check out the yard. I didn’t have the heart to tell him we have five acres.”

“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.”

“The YIA?”

“Y’Elestrial Intelligence Agency. The OIA is an offshoot of the branch. Anyway, it’s directly their fault that Menolly was turned. They sent her into a dangerous situation to spy on a nest of vampires. The leader—a vamp named Dredge, also known as the Scourge—is a terror. One of the worst vampires ever to walk Otherworld. He’s far worse than Dracula.”

Chase let out an audible gulp. “Dracula’s real?”

I gave him a long look, realizing that he had no clue how real some of the legends and nightmares were. “Yes, Dracula’s very real. He was going to be sent to the Subterranean Realms about a thousand years ago when he escaped over to Earthside, through one of the portals. I don’t know whether it was left unguarded or whether he was just clever, but he made his way over here and took up life as Vlad the Impaler. There’s a lot your history books don’t say about him, but yes, he was…and is…Dracula. And when Vlad “died” he just shifted back into his Dracula persona and took up from there. The stories of Vlad’s death are merely a cover-up. Dracula still roams the planet, though I have no idea why he’s stayed so low-key since then.”

“Well, what do you know? Maybe he got his fill of life in the public eye?” Chase let out a short laugh. “So, Dracula’s real. And Dredge is worse than he is.”

“Dredge is far worse than Dracula. Dredge is carnage incarnate. Anyway, so Menolly was sent to spy on him. She was a jian-tu, basically a super-athlete. She could climb walls, cling to the barest of outcroppings, put any acrobat to shame, walk tightropes…but our half-human blood landed her the curse of occasionally losing her grip. You see, the jian-tu are born, not bred. And now and then her skills would vanish. She fell from the hiding place where she was spying right into the middle of Dredge’s nest.”

“And they turned her?” Chase’s expression had gone from curious to horrified.

“Not at first. She actually managed to get free and had almost escaped. In fact, she made it out of the cavern system and to the hilltop above. She was hurt, but she still managed to escape. But just as she about to run over to the woods and hide, Dredge appeared. She couldn’t fight him. He took her back into the lair, where he spent the entire night torturing her. He used a dull knife to cover her body from her throat to her wrists with carvings—he basically carved her skin. Then he raped her, forced her to drink from him, and then he killed her. Of course, she was reborn a vampire. As a final insult, he sent her home to destroy her family.”

Chase leaned back against the railing. He closed his eyes as he rested his head on the newel post. “We have monsters like that over here. I suppose the fact that Dredge is a vampire makes it worse, but we have very real, very dangerous monsters of our own, Camille. Predators who prey on children, who maim and torture them. That’s one of the reasons I became a cop. I couldn’t face the thought that there were perverts running free, and I wasn’t doing anything to stop them.”

His words made me see him in a new light. Chase truly cared about his job. He cared about the innocent.

“Menolly arrived home, crazed. She was like a rabid animal, with Dredge’s instructions filling her mind. Delilah and I were home, along with one of the serving women. When Menolly came bursting through the door and I realized she was vampire, I sent Delilah upstairs to hide. I told the serving woman to get out. Then, I lured Menolly into the safe room that my father had provided in case of a vampire attack.”

“Vampire attacks are that common over there?”

I shook my head. “My father’s paranoid. He hates vampires with a passion. Menolly broke my arm in the process, but I managed to lock her in. The YIA took her away for a year. My father threatened to expose the fact that they had sent an agent, known for not having a lot of experience, into harms way. We had proof that Menolly had repeatedly asked for backup during the two weeks prior, when she was first assigned to spy on Dredge, but the YIA ignored her. Father made it clear that it wouldn’t look good to the general public to find out what had actually happened.”

Chase was silent for a moment, then he asked, “if your father hates vampires, how does he feel about your sister?”

It was my turn to hesitate. Father had treated Menolly like she had the plague. Oh, he was courteous to her, but all three of us knew that his love for Menolly had died the same day she had.

“Our father is a soldier. He loved our mother more than anything. Her death hit him hard. He withdrew, leaving me to take care of my sisters. I think over here it would be called emotional neglect. He tries to ignore the fact that Menolly was turned. He’s written her off.”

The words hurt, but they were true.

Chase sat down on the top step. He motioned for me to sit beside him. “My own father was addicted to heroin. He vanished by the time I was five. My mother had to go on social welfare—a system that’s supposed to provide for people in need, but all too often falls far short. She couldn’t cope very well. I found work as soon as I was fourteen. I worked at a fast food joint during the afternoons and delivered newspapers in the morning, while going to school and keeping up straight A’s. Later, when I was old enough to drive, I added a third job in the evenings. I became a delivery driver for another fast food restaurant.”

I looked at Chase. “I guess being a kid sucks no matter what world you’re from, doesn’t it? But to answer your original question: No, you don’t remind Menolly of Dredge. But you’re a man in a position of authority. All she’s ever received from men in power has been pain and neglect. When Dredge turned her, she lost her fiancé and her hope for her future. She lost the love of her father and bears constant reminders on her skin of that night. What can I say? Menolly doesn’t have a chip on her shoulder, she is the chip on her shoulder.”

“I guess that sort of thing would be hard to recover from. I can’t imagine what she went through. Please tell me that you found the vampire who did this to her? That you were able to stake him?”

I shook my head. “I wish, but no. He’s still out there, somewhere. If the YIA could find him, they would execute him. But Dredge has walked the world for thousands of years. The chances of finding him are slim.”

With a sigh, Chase pulled himself to his feet. “On that note, I’ll be off. Thank you for telling me about her past. It gives me a better idea of how to relate to her. She does make me nervous, but now I understand some of her reasoning.”

As he left, I slowly scanned the yard, searching to see if anything was out there. But all I could sense were the rustling of trees with their long roots diving into the earth, and the hush of animals creeping through the undergrowth. After a moment, I returned to the kitchen, locking the door behind me.

Chapter 7

The Indigo Crescent was gleaming by the time the taxi dropped me off the next morning. As I entered my shop, the smell of lemon and lilac filled the air, and Iris came bustling out from the back, a white and blue apron over her denim skirt and tank top. She was carrying a broom, and her golden locks were wrapped up in a braid that coiled around her head.

“How long is your hair?” It looked like she had masses of it.

“It reaches my ankles.” She flashed me a sparkling smile and my mood lifted. Iris had a way of making people feel happy when they were around her.

I shrugged out of my jacket and she held out her hand for it. “Have you ever cut it?”

A cloud washed across her face, then she shook it away. “Only once, and I never will again.”

It felt like there was a story there, but I decided it wasn’t my place to ask. Not if it made her look so glum. “So what’s on the agenda today?”

“Well, I pulled together a seating area over there, for customers,” she said. “And I thought we’d start out with me teaching you how to run the cash register, which will take about ten minutes. At ten, we open for business, and while we wait for customers, we can set up a ledger system. Sound good to you?”

I nodded, my mind still back on the creature we’d fought the night before. “Is there any coffee?” Ever since the first taste of the mocha the Chase had ordered for me, I had fallen in love with caffeine. In fact, it had only taken a couple days until I was hooked.

“There’s a coffee shop next door. Why don’t I run over and get us some coffee and pastries?”

“You’re just a bundle of energy aren’t you?”

Iris could run rings around all of us.

“It’s my nature. I’m a house sprite. We like to keep busy, and busy to us is what overwhelmed would be to most people. I like being active. I get antsy and edgy when I am forced to sit around too much.” And with that, she grabbed her wallet and headed out the door.

While she was gone I wandered around the shop, running my hands over the spines of the books. How many of these could I read before we were sent home? I decided to start keeping a running booklist. I hadn’t been kidding when I said that, when our time here was up, I’d be carting home boxfuls of books with me.

A couple minutes later, the jingle of the shop bell caught my attention and I headed toward the counter. And there he was: Henry Jeffries, with a huge smile on his face and a bouquet of flowers in a crystal vase.

“I thought these might brighten the shop for you.” He handed them to me, looking around. “Is Miss Iris here? I thought perhaps she could recommend a few books to me.” The sparkle told me everything I had suspected was true. He had a crush on her.

I had a feeling Iris wouldn’t be quite so enthusiastic.

“She’ll be back in a few minutes. Feel free to look around. We have a new seating area over there,” I nodded toward the front of the store. Iris’s seating area was in front of the bay window on the left side of the shop, and she had positioned a sofa and a couple of recliners into a comfortable arrangement.

Henry headed toward the stacks.

I carried the vase over to the counter. As I moved behind the glass case, I spotted a pad of paper and a pencil. I decided I might as well try to draw the creature that we had seen last night, since we had found no usable information on the net.

I sketched away, doing my best to capture the image. A few minutes later the door opened and Iris came in, a bag in one hand, and a drink tray in the other. She handed me an iced triple cherry chocolate latte. Her own drink was a caramel macchiato.

“Anybody around?”

I nodded toward Henry, who was standing in front of the science fiction section, raptly staring at the wall of books. Iris let out a little groan, then hushed herself before he heard.

“Wonderful. Who the flowers from?”

“From Henry. He asked about you,” I said with a smile.

“What are you doing?” She leaned over the counter to look at what I was drawing. “When did you see a kerakal? I haven’t seen one in years, thank the gods.”

“You know what this is?” I stared at her.

“Of course. It’s a Germanic forest spirit, and boy is let me tell you, do those critters have nasty tempers. So, why are you sketching one?”

“Because last night one attacked me and my sisters out in the woods in back of our house. We were on our way down to Birchwater pond when the thing came out of the woods and jumped us. It knocked me into a briar patch, and I’ve got nasty little scabs all over my thighs and butt. We had no clue what the thing was. Can you tell me about it?”

“Kerakals are dangerous. They’re always hungry and always on the lookout for fresh meat. Some people get them mixed up with kobolds, but the fact is they’re an entirely different species of Fae. Not only are they nasty tempered, but they’re cunning, and they eat magic. If you’ve got one on your land you’re going to have to find it dispatch it because it won’t go away by itself.”

“It vanished right in front of our eyes.”

“What happened right before it vanished? And that’s a trademark—they can phase in and out, but they cannot do so quickly. If you catch it right after it phases in, it’s not going to be able to disappear for a while. I can’t recall how long the waiting time is.”

“The kerakal caught sight of Menolly’s fangs. Then it vanished.”

“That makes sense. They’re terrified of vampires and kelpies. I’m not entirely sure what the commonality between the two is, though. Kerakals make their burrows near freshwater ponds and lakes, which would make sense given you were on the way to the pond. I know how to sniff them out,” she said. “I was trained to do so because they are thick not only in Finland, but in the Northlands.”

“You spent time in the Northlands?” That meant that she was used to rough terrain and harsh conditions.

She nodded. “Tell me, did you happen to find any sort of bone magic there? Runes written on a bone?”

“Yes, actually. Chase said it was a metacarpus. It had runes all over it.”

“Then that means they are looking to establish a colony. It’s a beacon to others of their kind—kind of like a magical radar.” At my blank look she shook her head. “Never mind, but you have to destroy that charm or you’ll be overrun with an infestation of them.”

I sighed. “Lovely. Can you come over after work to help sniff the thing out? And how do you dispatch them?”

“Well, iron would be the best way, but we probably should forego that, given it affects all of us. Or at least, I think it affects you? I know you’re half human.”

“Cast-iron and wrought iron burns our skin, but we can touch steel without a problem.”

“I have no problem with steel, either. Somehow the blend of metals seems to temper out some of the effects. I’d be happy to come over, but you need to be aware that kerakals tend to wander around at night more. Although, if it’s out and about, that means we’ll have a better chance of tracking down its lair. They have peculiar smell, mossy and mildew and bitter orange and skunk cabbage. But since autumn isn’t the season for skunk cabbage, if we smell it then we can be pretty sure that the kerakal is around somewhere.”

“What skunk cabbage? Sounds horrible.”

“A flower, actually. But it smells like skunk.”

Just then, Henry wandered up and I motioned for Iris to go help him. She shot me a nasty glance, but did as I asked.

By late afternoon, we had actually made a tidy sum. The novelty of having a visitor from Otherworld own a bookshop seemed to pay off. In fact, at one point, Erin Mathews—the owner of the Scarlet Harlot, a lingerie shop—popped into introduce herself and ask if we could host a chapter of the Faerie Watchers Book Club, a group dedicated to the study of the world of Fae and all that was connected to it, both in fiction and real-life.

“We might be able to do that,” I said, staring at her business card. “So you own a lingerie shop?” I was a fiend for lingerie, and anything that hugged my curves.

“I have some things that would look absolutely stunning on you.” Erin was probably in her late forties to early fifties. She had short hair, was somewhat stout and wearing blue jeans and a flannel shirt, and had a winning smile.

“I’ll drop by tomorrow at some point. Meanwhile, bring me the information on the club and we’ll see what we can set up. This would be a good way to network with the community.”

Her eyes glittered. She looked as though she had just won a prize. “I’ll see you tomorrow, then. We can talk more about the club, and I’ll bring in some information for you to read.” She paid for three books and strolled out of the shop.

Iris glanced at me. “You do realize that you’re about to become very well known in Seattle, right?”

I glanced at her. “I doubt that will happen. But it might be kind of fun if it did.”

“Be careful what you ask for.” And Iris went back to re-shelving some of the books.

I wasn’t sure how she had done it, but Iris managed to commandeer a town car. Delilah and I sat in back, Iris in the front, and we headed for home in style.

“What did you do all day?” I hadn’t seen Delilah at all.

“Oh, Chase kept me busy learning regulations and rules. Then we started the tedious project of assembling a massive amount of data on the Supes and Fae living in the area. We decided to add vampires to the mix, because apparently, there are several organizations whose goal it is to help vamps acclimate to human society.”

“True, if we project a unified front, it will make it harder for the hate groups to infiltrate and divide us.” I leaned my head against the seat.

“Right. And I thought that perhaps Seattle could use something like a community action council for the Supe community. But the amount of work it would take to begin pulling such a project together? I can’t even imagine how hard it would be.”

She seemed so enthusiastic that I was glad I’d asked her to do the job.

The important thing was that we integrate ourselves into the community rather than standing apart from it. That was one thing my father had impressed on me before we left.

“Camille,” he had said. “The more you hold yourself separate from the native community, the less you’re going to learn, and the more difficult your job will be. You have to create a connection. Obviously, you won’t ever fully belong to the Earthside world, but you can set up contacts and networking. That’s the only way I’ve managed all the missions that I’ve had over there. While I don’t stay long, I do have a network of friends and associates who are always willing to help. Do what you can to integrate.”

I turned to Delilah. “Keep that thought in mind. By the way Iris knows what we we were facing last night. We’ll explain when we get home, after Menolly wakes up. And Iris knows how to try and find it.”

We arrived home about half an hour before sunset. I glanced in the refrigerator, which was mainly full of bottled blood.

“What are we going to eat for dinner? We forgot to get food. Should we call a cab?”

Iris let out an exasperated sigh. “You have to learn how to drive. You can’t rely on taxis the rest of the time you’re here. And I don’t recommend springing for a chauffeur. They’re expensive. I’ll talk to Chase about it the morning and we’ll set you on an accelerated course in driving. All three of you, so no complaining, Delilah.”

“Fine,” Delilah said. “But what do we do in the meantime? I’m hungry.”

One of the things we had noticed since we moved over here was that our appetites had increased. Either that or human food didn’t satisfy us as much. Delilah and I ate like fiends. Of course Menolly only drank blood, but even she seemed to need more than she did over in Otherworld.

“We do what any red blooded American would do. We order takeout. For delivery. What do you want? Mexican? Chinese? Chicken?”

We stared at her blankly.

“I’m sorry, I should realize you haven’t made the distinction between types of fast food yet. I’ll order what I think you’d like. Meanwhile, I suggest you begin planning some sort of renovation to close off the doorway leading to Menolly’s basement apartment. If any wannabe vampire hunters get in here, it won’t take them long to find her with the door in plain sight.”

While we were waiting for Menolly to wake up and for the food to arrive, Delilah poked through the cupboards. She pulled out a bag of brilliantly colored snacks that looks like tiny orange clubs.

“What are these? Cheetos?” She opened the bag and a puff of orange dust poofed out, covering her nose.

Iris let out a snort. “Junk food. It’s a corn-based snack covered with a powdered cheesy topping. You’re much better off eating an apple.”

Delilah stuffed several of them in her mouth, and her eyes lit up in a way that I hadn’t seen since she discovered the family of mice living under the laundry. Had she been in Tabby form, they would have been doomed, but she happened to find them while carrying laundry out for the maid, who hurt her back.

Delilah had taken the mice into her menagerie, fed them, and pretty soon we were overrun with the rodents. But they were good, given the knowledge that she could dive in and attack them at any time, and Mother Mouse kept her children out of the house, and out of the storerooms in an unspoken agreement.

“These are so good!” Delilah sputtered, cheesy bits flying every which way.

I gingerly popped one of the puffs into my mouth and bit down. My mouth was instantly filled with the sensation of grease and salt and some other flavor that really didn’t taste like cheese. But after a second bite, I had to admit they were tasty. However, I couldn’t see myself stuffing them in like Delilah was.

“You’re going to make yourself sick. You’re not used to this kind of food.”

Delilah shook her head. “I have just found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Now if I could meet Jerry Springer I’d be a happy woman.”

“Somehow I think that’s highly unlikely.” Iris reached out to take the bag away from her. Delilah clutched it to her chest.

“Fine, eat yourself sick. But for your information, Jerry Springer is a celebrity. Over here that means that he’s going to be swamped with people wherever he goes, and he’s not likely to want to meet anybody…Well, I don’t know what he would think if he knew you wanted to meet him. I have no clue what he thinks of the Fae.”

“Maybe we could be on his show?”

I put my foot down. “Never. We’re not going to show where people wear fish taped to their bodies. I refuse. So don’t even bring it up again.”

“You can’t stop me from thinking about it,” she said with a giggle.

At that moment the door to the basement opened and Menolly emerged. “Good evening. So what’s going on?” She stretched and yawned. Even though she didn’t need to breathe, yawn, or even catch her breath, she once told me that occasionally she deliberately forced herself to breathe in order to feel like she was still alive.

I hadn’t said anything. What can you say to something like that?

“Well, Iris knows what we were facing last night. And I had a good day in the shop. Delilah helped Chase out today and she’s discovered the pot at the end of the rainbow is filled with Cheetos. Actually, they do taste pretty good, but it’s like eating food dipped in a dye pot.”

“Oh lovely. What a delightful image.” She hopped up to sit on the counter, swinging her legs. “So fill me in. What are we facing?”

Iris repeated what she had told me about kerakals. “By the way, that bone? Destroy it. Menolly, take it outside and smash it to bits.”

Menolly cocked her head to one side, but obliged. When she returned, she said, “It’s so much bone dust now. Why did you want me to do that?”

“Because it acts like a beacon to other kerakals, calling them in to form a community.”

“Ugh. All right, it’s gone. But, since we can’t touch iron, what can we use that it’s not going to like?”

“Well, my magic is out. The kerakals just fuel up on it.”

“Sword, if you’ve got one. Clubs are good, too. In other words: brute force. They’re tougher than they look, so don’t be surprised when it doesn’t go down on the first hit. It’s going to take a while, and meanwhile those teeth are pretty nasty. And the creatures are as strong as a horse, if one gets hold of you, you’re going to have a hard time getting away.”

“After dinner, we’ll go hunting down weapons. We are well armed. At least the OIA didn’t stand us on that.”

And that was true enough. Our store room contained a variety of weapons, from swords to daggers, to a few clubs and axes. I could work a dagger, and we had all been given sword lessons, although I didn’t trust myself with a blade that big. I wasn’t really worried about missing my opponents much as I was worried about hurting anybody who was fighting alongside me.

The doorbell rang, and Iris answered, returning with a bag full of food. “We have tacos, potato wedges, salad, and taquitos.” She spread out the food on the table. “Dig in.”

I was surprised by how good it tasted, even though some of it was a little spicy. Delilah scarfed down her share, still eating the Cheetos. Iris managed a few tacos, and Menolly pulled out a bottle of blood from refrigerator and drank it down.

When we were finished, we armed ourselves and headed out along the trail toward the pond. Iris took the lead, given her ability to track down the kerakal. Along the way, she pointed out some of the common bushes and plants endemic to the area.

“That’s skunk cabbage, the flower I was telling you about. In spring and summer it will have bright yellow flowers. And over there? That’s a huckleberry bush. The birds have been at this one. There are no berries left. They make wonderful jam so if you want to get a head start, next year be here just as the berries ripen, because the birds and bears will take their share.”

She also pointed out various trees. “The tall ones are firs. They can grow hundreds of feet tall, and unfortunately in high winds, they can and do topple. They’ve got a shallow root system and the ground around here gets saturated during the rains. We have an intense rainy season from September until late spring. Those with the broad flat leaves? They’re maple. And cedar trees right next to them.”

“We have all of these in Otherworld, though we know them by different names. But I see a number of plants that I’ve never seen before.”

As we headed down the trail, every so often Iris would stop, raising her nose to catch the wind. She inhaled deeply, held her breath for a moment, then slowly exhaled. We had just about reached the point where we’d been ambushed when she stopped.

“I can smell the residue. Kerakal all right. The question is, why is it here? They don’t usually come this far south. And they’re a lot more rare over here in the U.S. than in northern Europe. Let’s see if we can track it to its burrow. They dig deep in the ground, usually into the side of a hill or cliff.”

As we moved further into the woods, I tensed. For a moment, the thought crossed my mind that we should have contacted Chase. I mentioned it, but Iris shook her head.

“Chase’s officers are competent, but most of them are Earthside Fae. And most of them haven’t seen much battle time. He’s recruited them, but they haven’t been put to the test, yet. It’s not his fault. Devins, his boss, is a horrible man, who makes Chase’s life miserable. He takes all the credit, while Chase does all the work. But Chase doesn’t complain. He’s a team player. He’s more concerned about doing the job right than getting the credit he deserves.”

Remembering what he said about his childhood, I agreed. “He’s a good officer, who really gives a damn about the world and the people in it. And he’s proud of the job he does. I think our father would like him, to be honest.”

As we turned a bend in the road, Iris paused, holding up her hand. I inhaled deeply. There it was, faint on the wind. The smell of skunk. And I could hear the rush of water, lapping in the wind.

“The kerakal?” I glanced down at her.

She nodded, turning first this way, then that to catch the trail of scent. After a moment she pointed to the left, and we began traipsing through the undergrowth.

“The kerakal is probably awake, so keep your eyes and ears open. By the way, there’s a weak spot right beneath its mouth. If you aim for that area, you’ll do more damage. That’s where its heart is located. If the kerakal gets its teeth on you, you’re going to take a massive amount of damage, not counting the fact that it has a venom in its bite that can paralyze. It’s a temporary condition, but lasts long enough to put you out of commission for a while. Certainly long enough for it to start eating you. So be careful.”

“What are you using for a weapon?” Delilah asked.

Iris glanced up at her. “I have my magic. I work with the magic of ice and snow and mists. I can do a lot of damage if I want to, even now.”

Again I had the sense that she was leaving out part of her story. And once again, a voice inside said Leave it alone. She’ll tell you in her own time.

“But it eats magic.” I was confused.

“Ah, but it can’t eat the magic that I cast around it instead of at it. And I can cause a localized ice storm that will slow it down.” She winked at me. “It’s sort of like causing a fire storm rather than trying to set something on fire.”

Made sense to me. Unfortunately, I couldn’t do the same.

I was clutching a dagger, hoping to hell I could remember my training. It had been a while since I had actually been in a skirmish. Lathe had kept me close to the office, in hopes of catching me off guard at some point. In fact, ever since I had brought in a deadly serial killer—shortly before Menolly had been turned—he had been an ass. A man named Trillian helped me collar the freak. I sighed. Trillian. He had been the love of my life. And I was still desperately trying to forget him.

After the collar, though, my caseload had become a series of gofer duties, and I had become the butt of a number of office jokes, especially among the men who wanted to see me as an easy fuck with big boobs. Nobody respected us because of our heritage, but I tended to get the fallout worse than the others. Delilah was an athlete, and Menolly was rather surly even before she became a vampire, and nobody wanted to mess with them.

We broke into a clearing near the pond. It was the first time we had been down here, and none of us expected it to be so beautiful. Birchwater Pond was huge, almost a small lake, and the entire shore was ringed with the trail. We could circle the pond with no problem, and I had a sudden vision of holidays and rituals spent here, celebrating and enjoying the quiet wash of water lapping against the shore.

Iris snapped her fingers, returning our attention to the matter at hand. She motioned for us to follow her and, letting her nose lead her, she traipsed to the left, heading toward an embankment that led off into the woods.

“Is it over here?” Menolly asked softly.

“I believe so.” Iris paused, holding out one hand as she inched forward.

Suddenly, she froze and pointed toward a hole that had been burrowed into the embankment. A faint light flickered from within. We were too close for me to ask if the kerakal could create a magical light source, or whether it might be using fire or some other form of illumination.

We crept along behind the house sprite, weapons at the ready. Delilah looked like she was enjoying herself. Menolly had a more serious look on her face. As for me? I would have been happier back at home, safe in the kitchen. But I swallowed my fear, pushing it down, and tried not to sink into the muddy ground around us. I was wearing the boots I had brought from home and a spidersilk skirt that I was desperately trying to keep from dragging in the mud.

We neared the hole, and I tried to pinpoint any noise that might be coming from within, but I couldn’t hear a thing because the wind was starting to whip up waves on the pond. But the next moment, we were all startled by a loud grunt behind us. I whirled, bringing my dagger up.

There, standing behind us, were two kerakals, not one. And they both looked hungry.

Chapter 8

“Holy hell! Two of them!” My feet froze as I realized just how much danger we were in.

Iris pushed in front of me, and the next moment she let out a loud shout and a string of words in a foreign language. As she held out her hands, a hail of ice and snow rolled into the area, surrounding not only the kerakals, but us. As the chunks of hail and snow hit us full force, it felt as though we were being pelted by stones. Very sharp, very cold stones.

“Crap. I didn’t mean to catch us in that.” Iris let out another incantation, but nothing seemed to change.

Menolly raced forward, holding her sword high in the air. Vampires were powerhouses, and it never fail to amaze me what our jian-tu had become since she had been turned. She bounded off the ground, leaping to cover the distance, and landed in front of the kerakal to the right.

As she swung the sword, the creature let out a roar and barreled toward her. It managed to miss her swing, but as it slammed into her at full force, she kept her ground, standing against its impact. The kerakal staggered back. Menolly grinned as it let out a strangled noise and turned. Racing after it, she chased it toward the forest.

The other kerakal, however, wasn’t going anywhere. It charged forward.

Delilah and I met it, me with my dagger and her with her short sword, doing our best to hit the kerakal rather than each other. Delilah was good with blades, and she managed to land a blow, causing it to yelp in a loud guttural voice. I, on the other hand, barely managed to miss stabbing myself.

“Well, hell, that’s not what I wanted to do!” My dagger was now stuck in the tree next to me. I frantically tried to yank it out while Delilah kept the kerakal from coming after me. But she was having trouble fending it off.

Iris circled around side, trying to get a clear shot. I wasn’t sure what she could do—any magic she threw directly at the creature would be absorbed and returned back toward us. And if she caused another hailstorm, we’d all be caught in whiteout blizzard conditions.

I finally managed to work my dagger out of the tree trunk, relieved to see the tip still attached to the blade. “I’m going to try to circle around it.”

“Keep your plans to yourself,” Iris said. “They can understand English.”

Wonderful. Just lovely. I dashed to the side, trying to avoid getting close enough for it to grab. The kerakal turned its attention from Delilah to me. Maybe circling it wasn’t such a good idea after all, but there wasn’t anything I could do now. I wasn’t about to run away and leave my sisters to fight these things alone.

Delilah took advantage of being in its blind spot to bring her sword to bear again. This time she landed a firm blow, the blade sinking deep into the creature’s back. It let out a shriek, its arms flailing as she shoved the blade in deeper.

I seized the chance to attempt a blow. Aiming for the spot beneath its mouth, I darted forward with my dagger, but the blade slipped on its hardened skin and slid to the side. I only managed to graze its shoulder. The kerakal grabbed hold of my wrist and pulled me toward its open mouth. Those needle sharp teeth glistened under the night sky, and I managed to jerk to one side, out of the way as it tried to land a bite on my arm. But it still had hold of me.

“Leave my sister alone!” Delilah shouted from behind, pushing one more time. As she did so, the tip of her sword protruded through its chest. Unfortunately, that’s not where its heart was. I managed to get a firm grip on my dagger again and then, I had an idea. I stopped struggling and let it drag me forward, trying to gauge the perfect time in which to make my move.

Delilah withdrew her sword, seeing that she was doing no further damage. The creature jerked around to see what she was doing, and as it did, I had an open shot.

I drove the dagger forward, aiming for the spot right below its mouth as I shrieked at it.

Startled, the kerakal turned back around just in time for the tip of my blade to meet its chin.

I pushed as hard as I could. A viscous red liquid began to dribble from around my blade, quickly turning into a river of blood. I had managed to hit its heart.

The kerakal let go of me, stumbling back. Delilah chose that moment to bring her sword down directly atop its head. She drove the sword through the creature’s skull and on through its body, actually managing to impale the kerakal to the ground.

I backed away, watching it flail as its life drained out. Part of me felt horrible. I had killed before. We all had, but it was never easy, and I didn’t think it would ever get any easier.

The next moment Menolly returned, dragging the other kerakal behind her. It was dead. She tossed the body next to the other one. “Took me a while, but I got him.”

I noticed there were blood stains around her lips. “Had yourself a little snack, did you?”

She shrugged. “Waste not want not, and fresh blood is always better. Well, unless you’re talking about goblins. I tasted goblin blood once and I don’t think I want to repeat the experience. It’s not very pleasant. Oh, it’s fine for an emergency, but I’ll take bottled over fresh goblin any day. These things, too. Why were they here on our land?”

Iris frown, then motioned for us to follow her. “I’m not sure, but maybe we can find out. Come on, follow me.” She headed into the burrow.

“Are you sure there aren’t any more inside?” I really didn’t feel up to fighting another one.

“They usually travel either singularly or in pairs. It was probably mating season, though I’d be hard pressed to figure out which was male and which was female. My main concern is that we might find a litter inside. And I don’t know about you, but I really don’t feel like killing babies.”

I groaned. Baby kerakals were the last thing we needed.

We cautiously headed into the burrow. The illumination seemed to be coming from what appeared to be a small, magical fire, and to my relief, the cave-like room was mostly empty. No babies, no need for nasty decisions.

Iris looked around, motioning for us to wait. She seemed to have taken charge of this mission and I was just as glad to let her have the lead. I had no desire to figure out what we were doing. I wasn’t even sure what she was looking for, other than a litter of squalling infants.

But apparently she knew, because she made a beeline for the opposite wall. “See? The dirt there is fresh, not compact. There’s something behind it. They always hide their treasure in walls. Now, one of you help me clear the space.”

Menolly volunteered, digging into the dirt with her hands, scooping it out and tossing it to the side. A few moments later, a small cavity appeared and in the back of the hole, sat a chest. It was silver, about the size of a small handbag.

Pulling back, Menolly motioned to me. “I can’t touch silver.”

I nodded, gingerly reaching in. I hoped there weren’t any nasty surprises waiting for me. But my hand wrapped around the box, and nothing went boom, so I pulled it out. The box was surprisingly light. It was either empty, or it was holding extremely light contents.

Suddenly, the magical light vanished.

“Let’s get out of here. Now.” Iris pulled out a flashlight and turned, hurrying toward the opening. “Don’t dawdle or you’ll find yourself buried alive.”

We fell in behind her and, as I glanced over my shoulder, I saw that the hole was filling itself at a rapid rate. “Don’t look now but get out or we’re going to get our asses buried!”

“That’s what I said,” Iris called over her shoulder as she exited the burrow. Menolly shot out, then Delilah. I was last to beat a hasty retreat. Mere seconds after I was free of the burrow, the embankment caved in, as though the burrow had never existed. I glanced around, confused, and noticed that the bodies of the kerakals were gone.

“Where did they go?”

“Some of the Earthside Fae vanish into the mists…or maybe the astral…or wherever, when they die. They just go poof. Others, ones that are bound to the earth like the kerakals, return to the soil and so do their burrows.” She let out a long breath. “At least we found them. I don’t know what they were doing here, but I’m curious about what’s in that chest.”

“Let’s take it home before we open it. I really don’t want to spend any more time out in these woods than I have to. Not until we do a thorough walk through of the land and ward it.” I headed back toward the path, not worrying about whether the others were following. I wanted to be home, in the kitchen, with a hot cup of tea. Or coffee. I didn’t care which.

Apparently, we were all of the same mind. Delilah and Menolly fell in behind me, along with Iris, and fifteen minutes later, we were thawing out in the kitchen. We were soaked from Iris’s hailstorm, and chilled from the wind. Five minutes after we burst through the kitchen door, the storm broke and it began to rain, hard and heavy.

“I’m taking a shower before we do anything.” I grabbed a towel and headed up to my bedroom. By the time I had warmed up, cleaned off, and dried my hair, I felt a hundred percent better and was ready to face whatever was in that silver chest. As I headed downstairs, I heard a noise and saw Delilah come bouncing down from her suite of rooms, looking freshly bathed.

“You willingly took a shower?” It wasn’t that she was dirty or messy, but her cat nature came out in her dislike of being in water. She would scrub herself into a lather, then jump in the shower to rinse off.

“You weren’t the only one who was cold. Menolly’s taking a shower too—she got blood all over her when she was fighting the kerakal.”

Back in the kitchen, we saw that Iris, too, had availed herself of the downstairs bathroom. Only she hadn’t washed her hair. But she was wearing a long sweater of Delilah’s as a robe, belted with a thin sash.

“Well, now that we’re all feeling better, let’s have have a look at the chest.”

Iris set the silver box on the table and we gathered around it. There was a lock on it, and even just a glance told me it was far too intricate for me to figure out. Delilah examined it, but after a moment, she too, gave up. Iris took over.

“I used to be able to open locks, and I still have a bit of magic that might do the trick. Let me have a look.” She turned it this way and that, fingers playing gently over the embossed metal. After a moment, she let out an “Aha!” and we heard a tiny click.

She returned the box to the table. “Be my guest.”

I glanced at her. “You’re sure? What if they booby trapped it?”

“Then we might blow up the house. Seriously, though, if it were trapped, I would have set it off by unlocking it. Go ahead.”

Curiosity winning over fear, I reached forward and flipped the lid open.

A soft whoosh…as though someone very far away let out a whispering sigh…

A cold sweat broke out on my forehead as I stared into the chest. There, on a red velvet pillow, rested a clear gem, faceted and sparkling. It was the size of an apricot, with a faint flicker within that sparkled and moved on its own.

“What is it?” Delilah frowned, reaching for it. Then she pulled her hand back. “I don’t think I want to touch it.”

Menolly cocked her head to one side. “I’m not sure, but there’s magic there. I can feel it, and if I can feel it, you know it has to be strong. I’m magically challenged.”

Iris and I remained fixated on the gem. There was something about it, something that begged me to pick it up…to touch it…to caress it. Before I could stop myself, I snatched the jewel up. A sharp jolt ricocheted through my hand, jarring every cell in my body down to my core. I cried out, dropping the gem back on the pillow.

“Are you all right?” Menolly asked.

I stared at my hand where a red mark the shape of the gem had burned into my skin. A moment later, it began to fade rapidly, vanishing as quickly as it had formed. But I had the feeling that I had just set something in motion. Something that wouldn’t fade like the mark had.

“I don’t know. I’m not sure what happened. The gem burned me. It was…like a shock…a spark. I’m frightened.” I turned to Iris. “Do you know what just happened?”

The carefree expression had vanished from her face. Instead, she slowly reached out to pick up the gem. As she held it, I felt like someone was walking over my grave. Not only my grave, but all of our graves.

Iris let out a sharp cry and replaced it in the chest. “I’m not sure what that is, but it felt like it just called out to someone. It ricochet through me…Whatever this is, it’s ancient, but it feels incomplete, as though it belonged to another age. To something so old that we can’t even begin to remember what it is. It felt…like a key—like when you picked it up, the gem called out for something. Something that was once whole and is now broken.”

“What was once whole…and is now broken. I can see that,” I said softly, searching my feelings. “What do you think it was?”

“I don’t know, but whatever it cried out for is incredibly powerful. I don’t think it’s a person, though…but some sort of artifact. A weapon, perhaps?”

I caught a sudden whiff of something and froze. “Maybe it’s the power of suggestion, but I think I can smell the faint stench of Demonkin on the wind. Whatever that gem is connected to, it’s dangerous in its power and I’m terribly afraid, because I know in my heart that we weren’t the only ones to hear it. I made a mistake in opening the chest.”

It was true. I could smell Demonkin, albeit faintly—like the first strains of thunder. I struggled to understand, to connect with whatever it was we had set into motion, but then, without warning, I stood in front of the Moon Mother. She was glorious, alabaster and jet, the Huntress who rode the full moon, leading her armies behind her.

Camille…you have set into motion events that will play out…events that must play out if the balance is to be maintained. Enjoy your leisure while you can, for armies come in on the tide, and they will not wait for you to ready yourselves to meet them.

And then, she was gone. I blinked, unsure what had just happened. But I knew one thing: the Moon Mother was aware of what had happened, and she wasn’t going to tell me. I’d have to find out on my own.

When I started to tell the others, I found I couldn’t speak. My words died on my lips.

“Are you all right? You look very strange.” Iris tapped me on the shoulder.

I sucked in a deep breath, letting it out in a slow stream. “I’m all right. But let’s toss that box into the pond. Lock it up and sink it to the bottom. I don’t want it around me, but I don’t trust getting rid of it elsewhere.”

Even as I arranged the gem on the pillow again, I knew that it wouldn’t matter if we threw it in the ocean or in the Ionyc Sea. Events would still play out as they would.

“I can tell you one thing,” Iris said. “This box is made by the Great Fae Lords. It’s old past counting. Are you sure you want to throw it in the pond? It’s a treasure, Camille, and would probably fetch you an incredible price at auction if you sold it back home in Otherworld.”

The thought of selling it panicked me so much that I almost tipped over my chair as I scrambled to my feet. “No, no…just…the pond. It needs to stay in the pond.”

And with that, the discussion was over. I didn’t know where the kerakals had gotten the box, but I had the feeling they had merely been the messengers.

The three of us sat on our porch. Iris had gone home, and the storm was gushing around us. I tried not to think about the box or what it meant, but it was hard to keep my mind off of it. Delilah finished off the bag of Cheetos, as Menolly was sitting on the railing, staring into the front yard.

“So, do you think we’re going to manage life over here?” I finally voiced the question we had all been thinking for the past few weeks.

Menolly was first to speak. “I like it. I like the city and the technology…With the lights, it feels less like I have to creep around in the shadows. It’s not the same as being able to go out during the day, but it sure makes up for a lot. And bottled blood is a help, too. Jocko’s nice and I think we’ll become friends over time. I like the Wayfarer…hell…at one time in my life, I might have considered buying a bar. So, yes, it’s going to be good.”

Delilah echoed her sentiments. “I like the snacks. And television. And computers. Seriously, I’ll miss home, and I’ll be glad when we get to go back, but we might as well make the most of our vacation. That’s what this is, you know. An extended sabbatical. Let’s just enjoy the time off and kick back, have some fun, and then when we’re called back to Otherworld, we’ll have a whole new perspective.”

I nodded quietly as they spoke, but a knot had formed in the pit of my stomach. For some reason, I couldn’t muster the same optimism. My sisters made perfect sense, but I couldn’t escape the sensation that a storm was brewing on the horizon. I didn’t want to bring them down, and there was nothing I could pinpoint to back up my feelings, so I kept quiet about my suspicions.

I turned to them and forced a smile. “Let’s make hay while the sun shines. And hey, if there’s a rainy patch here and there, we’ll weather that, too. I wonder what’s going to happen. Who will we meet? Maybe there’s a chance we’ll feel at home here after a while.”

Menolly laughed. “I doubt it. We’ll probably be gone in a year, if not before then. But hey, this is a beautiful house, even if it is too big for us. And we’ve got each other.”

And there was the crux of it. We had each other, and we always would. I leaned against her, wrapping my arm around her waist. “Yes, we do. We do at that.”

The rain continued to pour, as we stared out into the night. We might be a million miles and a world away from the land of our birth, but still—we were always together.

The End

I hope you’ve enjoyed EARTHBOUND. I so appreciate my readers’ support.

I invite you to check out my upcoming Fury Unbound Series. The first book, FURY RISING, will be released in June, 2016.

If you like dragons and vampires, the second book in my Fly By Night Series, FLIGHT FROM MAYHEM, will be available on August 2, 2016. And if ghosts and Celtic mythology strike your fancy, the second book in my Whisper Hollow Series—SHADOW SILENCE—will be out on September 27, 2016!

And If you are new to my Otherworld Series, you should know there are eighteen books (a total planned of twenty-one) waiting for you! The first book in Otherworld starts with WITCHLING, so if this is your first encounter with the sisters, I invite you to read the first chapter on my website if you aren’t sure whether you want to dive into the series. I also invite you to read the rest of my work—you can find the complete bibliography in the Biography and Book List section.

Biography:

New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and USA Today bestselling author Yasmine Galenorn writes urban fantasy and paranormal romance. Best known for the Otherworld Series, she also writes the Whisper Hollow Series, the Fly By Night Series, and the upcoming Fury Unbound Series. She’s also written the Indigo Court Series, the Chintz ‘n China Series, the Bath and Body Series (under the name India Ink), and eight nonfiction metaphysical books. She is the 2011 Career Achievement Award Winner in Urban Fantasy, given by RT Magazine.

Yasmine has been in the Craft since 1980, is a shamanic witch, and describes her life as a blend of teacups and tattoos. She lives in Kirkland WA with her husband Samwise and their cats. Yasmine can be reached via her website at Galenorn.com .

Books by Yasmine Galenorn:

Fury Unbound Series:

Fury Rising (June 2016)

Fury Magic (October 2016)

Fury Awakened (April 2016)

Lily Bound Series (in order):

Souljacker

Whisper Hollow Series (in order):

Autumn Thorns

Shadow Silence (September 2016)

Fly By Night Series (in order):

Flight from Death

Flight from Mayhem (August 2016)

Otherworld Series (in order):

Witchling

Changeling

Darkling

Dragon Wytch

Night Huntress

Demon Mistress

Bone Magic

Harvest Hunting

Blood Wyne

Courting Darkness

Shaded Vision

Shadow Rising

Haunted Moon

Autumn Whispers

Crimson Veil

Priestess Dreaming

Panther Prowling

Darkness Raging

Otherworld: Upcoming:

Queen of Dusk and Twilight

Maiden of the Harvest

Daughter of the Blood

Otherworld: E-Novellas:

The Shadow of Mist: Otherworld novella

Etched in Silver: Otherworld novella

Ice Shards: Otherworld novella

Flight From Hell: Otherworld--Fly By Night crossover novella

Indigo Court Series (in order):

Night Myst

Night Veil

Night Seeker

Night Vision

Night’s End

E-Publications:

Tales From Otherworld: Collection One

Mist and Shadows: Short Tales From Dark Haunts

Men of Otherworld: Collection One

Men of Otherworld: Collection Two

Night Shivers (an Indigo Court Novella)

Moon Swept: Otherworld Tales of First Love

Earthbound (an OW Novella): April 2016

Upcoming:

Tarot Journeys (re-release): 2016

Chintz ‘n China Series (in order):

Ghost of a Chance

Legend of the Jade Dragon

Murder Under a Mystic Moon

A Harvest of Bones

One Hex of a Wedding

Bath and Body Series (under the name India Ink) (in order):

Scent to Her Grave

A Blush With Death

Glossed and Found

Anthologies:

Never After (Otherworld novella: The Shadow of Mist)

Inked (Otherworld novella: Etched in Silver)

Hexed (Otherworld novella: Ice Shards)

Songs of Love & Death (short story: Man in the Mirror)

Songs of Love and Darkness (short story: Man in the Mirror)

Nyx in the House of Night (article: She is Goddess)

A Second Helping of Murder (recipe: Clam Chowder)

Magickal Nonfiction:

Trancing the Witch’s Wheel

Embracing the Moon

Dancing with the Sun

Tarot Journeys

Crafting the Body Divine

Sexual Ecstasy and the Divine

Totem Magic

Magical Meditations

Table of Contents

- Title Page
- Copyright
- Introduction
- Chapter 1
- Chapter 2
- Chapter 3
- Chapter 4
- Chapter 5
- Chapter 6
- Chapter 7
- Chapter 8
- Biography and Complete Book List