by C P Sennett
I looked down to the blonde’s face for any information I could glean on her. “I love your mask it is very...authentic.” I said.
“Is it?” she giggled “That’s so nice of you to say. And, I’m very pleased to meet you.”
“Likewise.” I replied.
“So, you like my mask then Eddie? It’s just some old bit of costume jewellery I picked up from a junk shop really. It’s nothing special, I had hardly any time to get ready but Ali insisted that I came tonight. She said I simply had to come out and meet more people, so…here I am as they say.” she finished with a cheeky giggle.
“Did she now?” I asked smiling with my most disarming smile as I looked over at the dark-haired Ali and then back to the blonde Fern. “It seems you have good taste in friends Fern.”
I looked deeper into Fern’s face. Her lovely bright blue eyes were so clear that at times they looked grey. They were also the perfect complement to her pale complexion. She was stunning, like some Scandinavian catwalk model, I hoped, as most of her features were still behind her mask.
Then, Tommy opened his big mouth...
“Hello there Fern, Eddie here was telling me how he’s looking to keep a low profile as he thinks one of his exes is here.” he said, with a host of theatrics, spilling some of the contents of his large whisky glass, now only half full.
Thanks Tommy, I thought…
Fern seemed to pick up at the sudden tension in my arm at Tommy’s big mouth. I took a quick scan around the room again. I was fighting hard to remember why I was actually here. Then, I realised I really needed to get away from this small talk. As delightful as it was, I had to remain focussed and not give in to these two lovely women and the promise of another boozy night out with Tommy.
Fern, however, had other ideas, and seemed to take Tommy’s cue for devilment. “Oh, so I’ve someone to make jealous, excellent!” she purred, as if she was well up for the challenge. In fact, I’d go so far as to say her delicate half hidden face seemed to light up at the prospect.
“I’m sure I can prove good sport and keep you away from any nasty exes Eddie.” she said while running the palm of her hand down the left side of my face. I tensed again, this was unusual territory. A stunning woman interested in me wasn’t entirely uncommon, it occasionally happened and the chance of some casual sex wasn’t something I usually passed up especially with what could well be a knockout of a girl. Then again, I had to stick to the job in hand. Inwardly it made me wince. Crap, as usual, all business and no pleasure, it’d been like that for months now and it stank!
The actual reason I was here was my Broker, Monika, she gave me this job and most of my work of late. She would also cut my balls off if she knew I was out chasing blondes when I should be doing what her client was actually paying me to, which was to find any signs of a young, missing girl called Tabitha.
“So, Mr Holt, who do I have to make jealous?” asked Fern.
“Nobody” I replied as she began to feel the unspectacular muscles of my right bicep. “I’d sooner keep things civil and as low key if possible.”
It was at this point Ali spoke up. “Thomas my dear, shall we give these young ones a bit of time to get to know one another?” she said to Tommy’s obvious delight as she used her feminine skills by pressing her body tight to the helpless Irishman.
Tommy took a big drink of his remaining whisky. “Yeah, have fun Eddie, we’ll give you some space. Also, remember you owe me one.” he said loudly, now holding up his near-empty glass as he motioned that he and Ali were disappearing into the throng of people.
I took a deep breath and was about to object at being left alone with a woman who was most likely out of my league. Ah hell, she was definitely out of my league and I didn’t even know what she fully looked like yet.
Then, I felt a familiar short sharp pain in my right hand. I got this occasionally and it was never for anything good. When it struck it usually felt different but the ring on my right index finger was one-part alarm, one-part body armour to someone in my trade. All my antique hunting isn’t without its occasional rewards and this was one of them. Something I got from a special trip into the forests of Paimpont in France, about ten years ago.
I raised my right hand, not hard enough to break from Fern’s gentle hold but she noticed that I had flinched in pain and stepped in front of me. I had to marvel as she expertly moved in between the small group which had instantly filled the space vacated my Tommy and Ali.
“Something the matter?” she asked with genuine concern, as the people closest to the band slowly began to find their seats at the expensive dinner tables.
“No” I replied, “an old tennis injury which plays up from time to time.”
My casual reply seemed to satisfy her as she began to rub my arm. “So, Eddie what did you say you do?” she fixed me with her cool water, light blue eyes. They looked so pure and bright that they forced me to swallow before I fully remembered myself. A gesture which didn’t go unnoticed.
“I didn’t.”
“Oh…I had figured you for a brooding Mr Darcy type, all dark and sombre I bet. Seems I was right.”
“If you only knew the half of it.” I replied with a big smile.
Fern raised her hand up to me and slid it effortlessly behind my neck. She also noticed me watching her arm as it moved up. “It’s about to get rather noisy here. Would you like escort me to the balcony...or…to the gardens perhaps?” she hinted at much, both with her voice and her eyes. A lesser man would have taken the bait and had her halfway home in a taxi by now. Boy, someone has cursed me as I remembered I still had a damn poxy job to do.
“Fern, I would love to but I’m here looking for someone.” I said swallowing hard.
“Oh” she said, sounding a touch deflated as her smooth shoulders slumped. “We’re all looking for someone Eddie but I thought you would have found what you are looking for tonight?”
“Don’t take offence, I’m new to this sort of thing.”
“What sort of thing?” she asked coyly.
“Have you had much to drink? I’m sure there are many nicer, younger guys here tonight who are more your type? You know, athletic, easier on the eye and richer than me.” My mind was now in full battle with my loins and slowly dragging my body back to work mode. Yes, that’s it I thought, work mode, focus Eddie, bloody focus!
“Don’t think so little of yourself, or me.” Fern quipped, sounding a little annoyed as she expertly touched her earing, drawing my attention to her lovely, thin, neck. “Besides I bet you are very nice and manly looking when you take off that mask.”
I gulped again as she continued. “This may be some antiques dealers ball but I bet you aren’t that old either.” she guessed as she moved closer to me raising her other hand up from her earing as if to lift off my mask.
I gently held her wrists and managed to keep hold of my beer bottle. Which, until now, I had forgotten. “No peeking.” I warned her, with a fake smile.
“I don’t want to look.” she said slowly, pressing herself against me as she stretched up a little further. I gazed down into the palest of eyes as she drew upwards towards me, her lips lightly brushing mine for the merest hint of a second…WOW!
“Ok, Fern you win. Let’s take that walk.”
Chapter 2
We walked towards the building exit, arm in arm. I noticed she had a stole behind her as I opened the outside door. She lifted it up to her shoulders. A stole is that funny bit of a woman’s evening dress you only ever see at posh parties. To most men, it looks like a curtain tie but it’s a sophisticated part of high society, or it used to be. Fern had one to match her dark blue dress which had a high split showing off her long slender legs.
“After you.” I gestured.
Fern smiled as we walked outside. It was dark, and a cold blast of fresh air met us that indicated a wet winter was coming. The cold air as well as the smell of the weather to come helped to clear my head. I have a nose for the weather, always have had.
I took a sip of my beer. “It’s a nice night for the time of year.” I ventured.
“It is?” she replied, casually looking up at the stars. “Shall we Eddie?” she asked, motioning for us to walk away from the main building. I looked toward where she was suggesting that we go. Deeper into the darkness, deeper, towards the cars.
“Sure.” I said with an innocent smile as I followed her lead.
I walked with this wonderful young woman. Instead of arm in arm, we were now hand in hand as she was a few feet from me, turning effortlessly on the uneven ground and looking around.
“Don’t you love nature?” she asked.
I nodded as I watched her gazing around and even up at the sky still wearing her elegant facemask.
“Are you going to let me see who is hiding under that mask?” I asked this time.
She shrugged and put her index finger to her lips. “Shush” she said quietly with a wicked grin. Then, we walked in silence past a few badly-parked cars, on the way to the rear carpark. We were now arm in arm again as Fern pulled me closer. I quickly used the available light shining down from the venue’s own lamppost as we passed to see if there was anyone else about.
Fern noticed me do this and spoke. “Is there anyone about? I didn’t want anyone to interrupt our time together.” I raised my eyebrows and quickly finished my cold beer.
After twenty seconds or so. We passed some outhouses on the way to the carpark.
“Are you cold Eddie?” she asked.
I shook my head, smiling at her.
“Good.” she said, before she stopped us and slowly walked me back to the wall of the second outhouse. “You said you liked my mask earlier?” It was almost a whisper on the evening wind as I felt the expected bump of my back reaching the outhouse door. On both sides of us were nice looking winter hanging baskets. My heart raced and then went into overdrive as she leaned into me.
Her mask added just enough to the night air, oh boy, I thought.
“Do you like me Eddie?” she whispered. “Do you want me?” she said with little more than a breath. I dropped my now empty beer bottle onto the dirt of the flower bed which ran the few feet from the main road to the small outhouse.
We embraced. I moved my hands up just past the middle of her elbows holding onto her arms by the bicep. “Not like this.” I said, through gritted teeth.
“Huh?” she replied, sounding confused at the rejection.
“You heard.” I said, keeping my voice hushed.
“No, you DO want me Eddie Holt.” she said forcibly, almost as a command.
My voice became flat and my demeanour blunt. “No Fern, or whatever the hell you are called, I don’t want you.”
She stood there dumbfounded as she stared at me open mouthed. I wanted to make a joke about blonde Essex girls but for once I couldn’t think of one. I needed to keep my wits about me as now I was on edge as I didn’t know for sure what she was, but I had a good idea.
“Eddie, we need to be together.” she said, “You want me.” With the confidence in her voice wavering she laid her elegant hand and painted fingers lightly on my chest.
“No Fern, I don’t. Well I kind of do but as nice as you are and all.” I said looking down at her. “Your game, this game, it’s over.”
Her posture went from confusion at my rejection to anger in an instant. Not as some monsters might but it looked every bit as an angry blonde would. “Who are you?” she demanded, trying to break free from my now tight grip. “Who are you?” she repeated, with a hushed but angry voice.
It was at this point my game was also up, I realised, cover blown.
“I am not someone you want to cross and your tricks, they won’t work on me. What are you?” I demanded as I continued to hold her tightly.
“How…what, who the hell are you?” she said, still wriggling in my grip.
“You first, what were you planning to do to me once I was out here with you. It’s a cold night but you’ve hardly noticed despite being outside in a barely there dress. Come on…sprite, fey or…I know a me...” was all I managed before her ever so elegant knee came crashing up between my legs.
The blow was hard, and it caught me by surprise. I let go of her and she stepped back as I fell forwards and to the side landing in the flowerbed. One hand on the family jewels waiting for the ache that typically follows when us men get hit there. The other hand broke my fall as the cold wetness of the pathway soaked through my trouser leg.
I quickly looked up through the mask waiting to see what would happen next as my hand fumbled for the beer bottle I had dropped earlier. As my fingers grasped it, I kept my eyes on her as her gaze locked firmly on my still masked face.
“What the hell are you Eddie? Tell me and I won’t hurt you anymore.” she demanded, not sounding overly threatening but in the dark and with me on the floor and my little Eddies crying in pain, I couldn’t take a chance.
A lifetime of training came into effect. My mind leapt to join my body and in unison they set about defending me. I reached out with my right hand, no longer protecting my groin as my lips retraced ancient words. Old words of power that with enough will and knowledge can be used to shape energies. Energies you would call magic.
My hand grasped her as I spoke the incantation, closing my fingers quickly. The inhuman words known only to a few took effect, but I was altering this spell, as I often had to on the fly. I was down and unsure how potent my foe was, but I needed to act. The beer bottle was an improvisation as a focus for the entrapment spell I was using. The spell erupted from my outstretched right hand. Fern was struck by a strong invisible force which came from me and held her in place.
I moved my left supporting hand up with the beer bottle in it to meet my other already outstretched hand. I cost me my balance as my right shoulder hit the wet floor but as I did so the magic took effect. Few others would see anything if watching but I saw and felt the spell grasp at whatever Fern was. Magical energies coalesced from me and around us, they took hold of her physical form and forced her into her natural form.
The lovely masked girl I had seen before me changed into something different. As the spell forced her change, when she was no longer solid as before. Now she was drawn violently into the palm of my right hand as a small ball of clear blue light.
I could feel her coldness in my hand as I hurried to move it over the top of the empty beer bottle to which I clung for dear life. Then, using my will I drove Fern’s ghostly, pale blue light body into the dark brown beer bottle. She flared into light as she went in and then when inside she shone brightly. It was as if a piece of the moon had been pulled to earth and forced into the bottle. A beer bottle with just my thumb over the top as if to hold her in place.
It was at this point I rolled back on the floor, reminded suddenly of the pain in my groin…
...gradually it started to subside. Thankfully, I managed to keep my thumb over the bottle as I lay on the floor. My eyes closed holding in the ache in which swept across me… Bitch!
Then, as soon as I was able, I needed to move. I couldn’t see much from where I was as I was lying on the ground, surrounded by a load of low, neatly cut young bushes forming a new hedgerow with a few late blooming flowers. I was on the floor, laid out so low a child could have stepped over me.
I looked at the bottle in my hands as it shone brightly. I was thankful that she was in it and the bottle was holding its shape. Fern, I suspected, was a mephit of some kind. An elemental spirit of sorts. An air one I thought by the looks of her and she had a good knee as my stomach promptly reminded me.
Now, I knew a bit about mephits, just the basics really in that they drain emotions from things and they love human emotions more than anything. Think of them like emotional crack addicts.
>
The more worked up they get you the better they feed. Some are said to crave different types of people as I recalled, yep, they can even have a ‘type’.
I’ve a few books on them. Some unpopular views, given my clouded memory at this point in time, are that all favour different emotions depending on the element. Either way, she wasn’t what I first thought she was, and I didn’t believe she was anything to do with why I was here. One supernatural problem removed, which was good, but now I had to do something with her.
This has all got very screwed up I thought, why couldn’t she be normal and turn up on a night when I wasn’t working. I tell you, my life really sucks sometimes!
You see, I couldn’t set her free as she might harm someone else. Mephits mostly don’t take on too much and they are certainly not anywhere near the worst thing a person can meet. These things can do some harm though, often accidently. Think of a police officer who lost his courage before he needs it. That could lead to him not facing down a criminal and others getting hurt. Or, an alcoholic going home with no shame and turning to rage instead. Things can get bad with them around but air or mist ones, I wasn’t sure which one Fern was yet, could easily cost someone their marriage or worse. For me though, marriage wasn’t likely to be something I had to worry about.
I slowly got up off the floor, to my knees. I suspected she would be able to hear me, but I doubted she had the power to reply. I looked at the bottle for a moment, seeing the ball of energy, its centre growing and pulsing with what I suspected was anger and perhaps fear.
“Fern, I’m not going to hurt you, I know you’re a mephit. I’m going to trap you but only for a long as necessary.” No sooner than I said this, the brightness of the bottle flared up in protest, doubling in intensity.
“Calm down.” I said, trying not to sound threatening. Anyone seeing me would think I was just some pissed guest talking to a beer bottle apart from the fact it was glowing. “I’ve something to do at the party and then I’ll set you free. It won’t be any longer than it has to, and you are perfectly safe in the bottle, honestly. I won’t harm you.”