by J. C. Diem
“I can’t actually use magic,” I confessed. “These tattoos were branded on me when I was a baby.” More had been added to suppress my powers as I’d been growing up, but I didn’t mention that.
“This seems like a very dangerous and strange dimension,” Jack said in a disturbed tone. “Is everyone on this world going to try to kill or maim us?”
“Probably,” I admitted, feeling guilty even though it wasn’t my fault they would be hunted by the humans.
“It isn’t much different from our world,” Jill said glumly.
“Brynn thinks you guys are refugees,” I said, pointing at the lamia.
“She is correct,” Jack confirmed. “Our world is at war and our lands were invaded by our enemies. Our magic is weak, so we weren’t chosen to be soldiers. Most of our friends and kin have been slain. We’re the only two left from our village.”
Jill took his hand and they linked their fingers together. I noticed they only had four fingers instead of five. “If we return to our world, we will surely die,” Jill said. They exchanged a long look, then turned back to me. “What do you intend to do to us?”
I repeated the question to Liam. “I’ll have to call Uncle Mark and fill him in before we can make any decisions,” he said. “Tell them what I’m going to do, but reassure them that we won’t kill or torture them.”
I relayed his message to the anxious couple, then we waited for him to make the call.
Chapter Forty-One
AGENT STEEL ANSWERED his phone after a couple of rings. “Liam,” he said in greeting. “I hope this call isn’t about Agent Franko.” His tone indicated that he expected us all to get along with the alpha despite the trouble he kept causing.
“Not this time, Uncle Mark,” Liam replied. “We tracked the silver-skinned beings down and are currently talking to them.”
“They speak our language?” Mark asked in surprise.
“No. The female we’re calling Jill cast a spell on Alex so she can understand them. We’re calling her mate Jack.”
There was silence for a few seconds before our boss spoke. “You allowed an alien to cast a spell on one of our agents?”
Nick put his hand on his brother’s shoulder to show his support when Liam blanched at Agent Steel’s chilly tone. “Crowmon sensed their magic isn’t strong enough to be dangerous to us,” Liam said. “They’re refugees from a war on their planet.”
“I see,” Mark said. “Why did they choose to cast the spell on Alex?”
“Because of her tattoos,” my brother explained. “They sensed she’s already connected to magic and deemed her to be less of a threat than Crowmon.”
“Your parents aren’t going to be happy about your decision,” Agent Steel predicted heavily. “Ava and I will be there shortly. Warn Jack and Jill that Ava is a magic user.”
He hung up before Liam could respond and our leader let out the breath he’d been holding. “That didn’t go over so well,” he muttered.
“What did he say into that contraption?” Jack asked in a worried tone.
“He was talking to our boss,” I said before they could panic. “Mark and his wife will be arriving soon. Ava is a nagi, which is a type of magic user.”
“How will they get here?” Jill asked.
The air shimmered, then Mark and Ava appeared along with Zeus. “That’s how,” I said, pointing at the Rottweiler. “He’s a cross between a ghost and a zombie.” I wasn’t sure how they’d known where we were, since Liam hadn’t told them our location.
Zeus grinned up at me and showed me images of him using the faint link he had to me through his mistress to find me. He’d brought them here the same way Emma could use the zombie highway to take us to a location the twins had been to. The only difference was that he’d used the ghost plane to travel to us. Speaking of Emma, she was glaring down at the wraith hound in hatred.
“Where’s Agent Franko?” Agent Steel asked when he noticed the alpha was missing.
“Emma took him back to the base when he refused to follow an order,” Liam replied. “Hi, Aunt Ava,” he added and gave the nagi a hug. Nick and the others gave Ava a hug as well. Yas and I hung back, once again feeling like outsiders.
Jack and Jill watched the exchange and relaxed even more at the signs of affection. “They are a family,” Jill said in realization.
“I don’t like that creature,” Jack said, gesturing at Zeus. “It isn’t a natural born animal.”
“Zeus was just a normal dog once,” I told them. “But he died and was brought back to life before his soul could leave his body.”
“Did the same thing happen to that creature on your shoulder?” Jill asked.
I looked at Emma and her nose twitched. “Sort of,” I hedged. “She was brought back to life, but her soul had already moved on.”
“The dead are able to live again in this world,” Jack said in horrified amazement.
“Yeah, but it’s pretty rare,” I said lamely.
Agent Steel and Ava had taken in my exchange without speaking. I knew Mark was filing this all away in his mental database. “Will they allow me to converse with them?” Ava asked. The nagi was beautiful, with Asian features and long black hair. Her figure was slender and she was slightly taller than me.
“The nagi wants to know if you’ll cast the communication spell on her,” I said to Jill.
“She is very strong,” Jill said, eyeing the magical woman. “The spell will work on her.” She stepped forward and repeated the spell on Mark’s wife.
“Welcome to our world,” Ava said in their language. “I understand you were brought here by the unknown creature we are searching for.”
It wasn’t a question, but the couple nodded. “So it would seem,” Jack confirmed. “We didn’t intend to come here, but now that we are, we are asking for asylum.”
Mark’s eyebrows rose when Ava repeated the request. “I’m sure that can be arranged, but we’ll have to evaluate you both first,” he said diplomatically.
Ava passed the message on and the aliens shared another look. “We are willing to submit to your tests,” Jill said unhappily, knowing it was unavoidable. “As long as neither of us are harmed,” she added.
“You have my word that you’ll be safe in our facility,” Ava promised them.
“We won’t be shot again?” Jack asked her warily.
Ava looked at me for an explanation. “Agent Franko thought Jack was going to attack him and shot him,” I told her. “His bullet would have hit him in the chest if Yas hadn’t shoved him at the last second.”
Mark frowned at being left out of the loop when his wife pressed her lips together in disapproval. “No one will shoot you,” she vowed. “We have medics who can tend to your wound.”
“Are your kind capable of interdimensional travel?” Agent Steel asked after Ava had translated their conversation. His tone was casual, but he seemed tense.
“Some of our kind possess far more magic than we do,” Jill replied. “I would not be surprised if our strongest magic users can move between worlds.”
“Why do you wish to know that?” Jack asked, then came to a conclusion. “You’ve met someone from our species before.”
Mark inclined his head in confirmation. Ava’s eyes widened when she remembered the being he was thinking about. “She was deemed to be a threat to our world and is being held in a secure prison,” he said.
“Like any world, we have good and evil people among our population,” Jill said. “Neither my mate, nor I intend this world any harm.”
Ava reached out with her magic and I sensed her delving them. “They’re far weaker than the being we discovered in the EERI facility,” she said to her husband. “I don’t think they’ll be a problem.”
“Good work on tracking Jack and Jill down,” Agent Steel said to us all. “You did the right thing by calling us to speak to them in person. Ava, Zeus and I will transport them to one of our PIA facilities for evaluation.”
Liam brightened at the praise
and straightened his back slightly. “We’re just doing our job, Uncle Mark.”
Our boss clapped my brother on the shoulder, then asked Ava to let the couple know they were about to be shifted to a new location. Zeus took them all to the facility Mark had chosen and they vanished from our view.
“That was one of the more interesting missions we’ve been sent on,” Sydney said as we gathered into a group.
“We can’t leave before we figure out a way to convince Sheriff Unwin the aliens are gone,” Nick said.
“Maybe we should dig up a couple of corpses, burn them to ash and pass them off as Jack and Jill,” Yas joked.
Liam looked at her, then grinned. “That’s a very good idea, Agent Porter. We can bring Charles here to pretend to test the ashes and say they’re not from this world.”
“Sometimes, I amaze myself with my genius,” the vampire said without a trace of modesty.
“Now we just need to find a couple of bodies,” Brynn said and everyone looked at me.
I made a face that I was going to have to be a cadaver detector, but nodded. “We should probably look in the cemetery,” I said glumly.
“Don’t worry, Alex,” Liam said and slung his arm over my shoulder. “You won’t need to raise anyone from the dead. You just need to find them for us. We’re not cruel enough to burn zombies just to cover our tracks.”
It was a relief that I wouldn’t have to raise my first human corpses only to see them immediately being burned to a crisp.
Chapter Forty-Two
LIAM USED HIS CELL phone to search for nearby cemeteries. We had three to choose from, so he picked the newest boneyard. “We’ll need corpses that still have meat on their bones to burn,” he said when I cocked an eyebrow at him.
“That makes sense,” I conceded. I’d expected him to choose the oldest graveyard that didn’t see as many visitors.
“Where are we going to burn the bodies?” Syd asked.
Liam gestured at the field that surrounded us. “Right here should be fine. We’ll use the barn for cover, so the family who owns the property won’t see what we’re doing.”
“How are we going to steal the bodies?” Brynn asked.
Emma’s nose twitched and I picked up on her thoughts. “Emma says she’ll be able to get them for us without anyone knowing they’re gone.”
“Roadkill saves the day once again,” Yas said with a grin. “What would we do without her?”
“She’s pretty handy,” Nick agreed.
My minion basked in the glory, well aware of how valuable she was to us all.
“Yas, Alex, Emma and I will go to the cemetery,” Liam decided. “The rest of you, search for fuel we can use to burn the bodies with. I’ll contact Charles and see if he can help us out while Emma is exhuming the corpses.”
“I bet we’ll find fuel in the new barn,” Crowmon said speculatively. “Do you want me to scout ahead?” he asked his crew.
“How are you going to pull that off without being seen?” Nick asked skeptically, knowing Crowmon couldn’t zoom out of sight of the humans.
“Lad, I’m a trickster god,” the deity reminded him mischievously. “What’s the point of playing pranks on people if I can’t hide and watch the fun?” He clicked his fingers and vanished to prove his point. He had enough energy stored to be able to teleport short distances.
“We’d better go after him before he gets into trouble,” Brynn suggested. They took off towards the newer barn, while Emma transported Liam, Yas and me back to town.
Using our enhanced speed, we sprinted to the cemetery Liam had chosen. A few mourners were visiting graves, but we skirted around them without being seen.
“Can you sense any reasonably fresh bodies?” Liam whispered as we hid in the shadows of some trees.
My necromancy rose and I quested through the graveyard. I sensed hundreds of bodies in various states of decomposition. A sense of waiting came over the cemetery as the dead felt me delving them. I knew I could raise every single one of them if I wanted to.
Yas elbowed me in the side to snap me out of the daze I’d fallen into. “We just need two bodies,” she reminded me. “We don’t need the whole boneyard shambling around.”
Glad she’d helped me regain my focus, I quested again and found two corpses that should be suitable. “Those two, Emma,” I said and showed her the locations of the graves I’d chosen.
Leaping to the ground, the zombie sank into the soil. I watched through her eyes as she appeared next to the first coffin. She punched her tiny paws through the wooden casket and tore a large hole in it.
“Is that Emma?” Liam asked as he took his phone out to call Dr. O’Brien. The humans couldn’t hear the muffled noises coming from beneath them. Only beings with supernatural hearing could have detected it.
“Yeah,” I confirmed. “She’s just grabbed the first body and took it back to the field.”
Liam called Charles and the doctor answered after a few rings. “Hey, doc,” Liam said. “I could really use your help with something.”
“Are you alright?” Dr. O’Brien asked in concern. “Is anyone hurt?”
“We’re fine, but I need you to pretend to test a couple of corpses and convince a local sheriff that they’re aliens.”
“Aliens?” Charles asked, voice going up a few octaves.
“They were brought here from another dimension and they have silver skin,” Liam explained. “Uncle Mark is giving them asylum, but we’re going to pretend we killed them so the humans will think they’ve been eradicated.”
“I see,” the doc said. “I can rearrange my schedule to free up some time tomorrow morning. Will you send Emma to retrieve me?”
“That’s the plan,” our boss confirmed. “I’ll get Emma to drop you off at an SUV, so you can drive to where we’re about to burn the bodies she dug up for us.”
“I’ll bring suitable testing equipment,” Dr. O’Brien said with a hint of excitement in his tone. “I don’t get to do field work very often.”
“Thanks for this, doc,” Liam said, then the pair hung up.
Emma had returned to the graveyard during his phone call and had moved to the second coffin. She’d broken a hole in it, grabbed the body and transported it to the field. She returned to us just as the conversation ended.
“Whew,” Yas said, waving her hand in front of her hooded face. “You smell like your nickname, Em.”
Emma’s nose twitched. “She says you can retrieve the bodies next time,” I said to the vampire.
“Nah, I’m not a corpse thief,” my bestie joked.
“We’d better get back to the others,” Liam said, anxious to be reunited with the rest of our team.
Emma returned us to the field just as Nick, Crowmon and the girls arrived. Crowmon was carrying a container full of fuel. “This should do the trick,” he said, pleased that he’d found what we needed.
“We could have retrieved fuel from our base, but it’ll seem more authentic if we borrow it from the locals,” Nick said.
“That’s exactly what I was thinking,” Liam agreed.
“Wow, it’s almost like you’re twins or something,” Yas said in mock amazement.
Both of my brothers cut a look at the vampire, but knew better than to respond. She’d just say something else to ridicule them.
“It’s a pity the alpha hole is missing out on all the action,” Sydney said without a trace of actual sympathy.
“Maybe constantly being sent back to the base like a naughty child will help him realize he’s a douche nozzle,” I said without much hope.
“As if,” my bestie scoffed. “Franko isn’t capable of seeing his own faults. He thinks he’s perfect just the way he is.”
Liam and Nick examined the bodies that Emma had placed a short distance from the barn. The dilapidated structure would hide us from the humans, but the sun was rapidly setting, which meant we had to act fast.
“Let’s light them up before the sun sets and the family sees the flames,”
Liam said.
Nick took the container from Crowmon and we all stepped back as he poured a generous amount of gasoline onto both bodies. “Does anyone have a lighter?” he asked when he was done.
“Stand back, boyo,” the jester said. “I’ll take care of this.”
Nick put the container down a safe distance away from the soaked bodies, then we waited in hushed expectation.
Lifting his hand dramatically, Crowmon clicked his fingers and flames burst from the corpses. Burning white hot, we all flinched at the brightness and had to move back a few yards from the intense heat. “Oops,” the trickster god said guiltily. “I might have given it a wee bit too much oomph.”
“It’s perfect,” our boss said as the corpses quickly burned to ash and bone fragments. “Good job, Crowmon.” They would be impossible to identify as being human just by looking at them now.
Preening just like Emma did when she received praise, the deity extinguished the flickering flames with a wave of his hand. The smoke dissipated as well. Just as we’d hoped, we’d gotten away with our plan without the nearby family noticing what we were doing.
Chapter Forty-Three
NOW THAT THE DEED WAS done, Liam called Sheriff Unwin. “I have an update on our search for the aliens,” he said after they’d gotten their greetings out of the way.
“I hope it’s good news, Agent Levine-Garrett,” she said brusquely.
“We tracked the aliens to a property outside of town and they became hostile,” he reported. “Unfortunately, we were forced to kill them both. We had to use fire, since our guns had little effect when we shot one of the beings yesterday.”
The sheriff sucked in a breath and let it out in a rush. “I want to see the bodies,” she said. “Where are you?” He gave her the address of the property. “I’ll be there shortly,” she said and hung up.
Fifteen minutes later, we heard two cars approaching. Sheriff Unwin’s cruiser pulled into the driveway and parked near the house. A second vehicle parked behind her. The parents came out to see what the problem was. They were too far away for us to hear what Unwin was telling them as four of her deputies surrounded her.