Masquerade in Chaos: Kable VonSable

by M J Hutto

  I hadn’t seen Jaylin or Thibbs yet. I hoped they hadn’t snatched Jaylin back to the InBetween for good. I wanted to see her again, at least to thank her for getting through to me and helping to get me rescued. I was wearing sweats Karmine bought in the gift shop of the hospital. Bless her, she wouldn’t even leave me long enough to get my own clothes.

  My skin hurt and the new clothes were rough against it. They smelled slightly of chemicals, and I was looking forward to having something of my own. I wanted my own bed as well. Kent was bringing me clothes, my pillow and one of my blankets. I supposed those things would suffice for one more night.

  I couldn’t bear to stay more than one night. I needed to be home, in my own space with my own things and surrounded by the familiar. I didn’t want anyone hovering or watching my every move.

  He pulled up to the front entrance and we got out. Mother met us at the front door and kissed my cheek. She took my arm and led me to my rooms. Kent had already brought my things; they were on the bed. Thibbs was nestled in the blanket sticking out the overnight bag. Thank god for Kent, for my things and for Thibbs. I sighed gratefully.

  I sat on the edge of the bed to face my mother. She was standing stiffly with her arms crossed protectively over her stomach. Her face was stark and pale and drawn. She looked like a stiff wind would blow her slight form away.

  “You’ll stay here, darling. Kent only brought a few things, but I’ll send Karmine to get more later today. You just tell her what you want. Your shop girls have agreed to take care of your pets and business until you are on your feet.”

  I started to speak. Nothing came out, so I cleared my throat and tried again. “Mother, I’m not staying here. I’ll stay tonight but I’m going home tomorrow. I’m fine.”

  Her jaw stiffened. “You most certainly are not fine. You need to stay here.”

  I shook my head tiredly. “I’m going home. I’m not going to argue but I’m not moving in here. I have a home and responsibilities. I’m not staying.”

  She tapped her foot. “Kable, I’ll not have you in the same state you were in before. I won’t have you hallucinating, psychotic and near death. I will not have it! Do you hear me?”

  I took her slender hands in my own, squeezing gently. “I’m okay Mother. I am. If I get to a point where I’m not, then I’ll call. I don’t want to get there again either. But I can’t let fear rule me. I have to live.”

  She squeezed my hands back. “If you sleep tonight, I won’t say anything about you going home tomorrow. If you don’t sleep, you aren’t leaving. Not until you do.”

  I begrudgingly agreed. I doubted she would remain silent tomorrow either way, but it was a start. I was definitely leaving tomorrow so I hoped I slept some to make it less of a battle to get out.

  She patted my hands and walked to the door. “Dorian and your Detective Aether will be around later to talk with you. They have a few questions and information. If you don’t want to see them when they get here, I’ll send them away. Honestly, Dorian should know better.”

  I looked up at her with dull, tired, burning eyes. “They’re doing their job, Mother. It’ll be fine. Just send them around when they get here. I’ll talk with them. Are there towels in the bathroom? I think I’ll take a bath and maybe nap a little.”

  “Of course, dear. And your favorite soaps and shampoos as well.”

  She walked out and closed the door softly. Thibbs flew out the bag, his light was flashing so quickly it was nearly a strobe.

  “Oh, cher. I’m so sorry. I could not find you and I could not help you. I kept thinkin’ the worse. I thought dat monster done killed you. I thought I failed you. I did fail you. I’m so sorry, cher.”

  “Slow down, Thibbs. You didn’t fail me,” I said, gratitude and overwhelming love making my voice break. “You and Jaylin made sure I got help. Y’all saved me.”

  He shook his head, “No, cher. I just don’ know what came over me. I couldn’t get a lock on you to find you. I”-he threw his little arms up- “I just couldn’t.”

  My brow puckered, “Thibbs is that something you can normally do? Do you normally know where I am?”

  He looked at me and flew up to my nose. My eyes crossed trying to keep him in focus. He patted my nose and drew back.

  “Yes, girl. I can almost always tell where you are. S’part of my job, so I can get to you when you need me. What you think a familiar’s s’posed to do?”

  I shrugged while I got up to run a hot bath. He followed me into the bathroom and perched on the mirror near the lights. He settled himself facing away from the tub, laying back on the edge like he was sunning himself.

  “I don’t know. I’ve never had a familiar before. I don’t think Granda did either, at least not one I knew about.”

  Thibbs laughed, “Your Granda had a lot about him you don’t know, girl. He had himself a familiar before you was born. The Romanian Drake.”

  My head swung up to Thibbs and my eyes felt like they might pop out. “What?!? How do you know that? A drake? Like a dragon? Those are real?”

  He giggled so hard he fell off his mirror perch. I waited impatiently for him to finish having his giggling fit. He had almost stopped when he looked me and started all over again.

  I rolled my eyes and continued into the tub. The hot water was perfumed with jasmine and eucalyptus bath salts. I felt the heat creep into my bones and relax my muscles as I settled under the water.

  “Ah, cher, you need to look at that book your Granda left. You barely made it halfway and ya skipped around a lot. The Drake is in there, but I think I met your Granda before. I remember the witch with The Drake familiar.”

  “You met Granda? When?”

  “Ohwee, let’s see. Hadta’ve been back when he was a youngin. I think he was still living in Ireland but mostly traveling and not in one spot long. I met him in, hmm. I can’t remember. Somewhere over there,” he said motioning to his right. I assumed he meant Europe.

  “Him and The Drake,” he said.

  I interrupted, “You keep saying ‘The Drake.’ What was his name?”

  “Hmm, oh. Well, you know I think that mighta been his name. Your Granda had all sorts of names for him and The Drake for him, but The Drake is always what I heard him named. He’s a prince, well, maybe a king by now.”

  My eyebrows raised considerably, mouth slightly open. Granda had a dragon prince familiar. How did one swing something like that?

  Thibbs was hooting again. “Them two used to get in the biggest pissing contests. They were both hot heads, but they made a good team. They defeated an attempt to overthrow the monarchy in England.

  “My witch, Armenia helped them. She provided the ground support and troops while your Granda and The Drake supplied air support. I had forgot all about that.”

  “Thibbs when did that happen? We’ve had airplanes for a long time, wouldn’t a dragon have gotten hurt or at least been recognized?”

  “Mon amie, your Granda was an old man. And now that you know about the InBetween and such you should realize this ain’t the only realm, no?”

  I sagged back into the tub and toed on the spout to add more hot water. I thought I’d been so knowledgeable about my world, but I seemed to be learning so many things I had no idea about. There was a lot to wrap my brain around. I turned off the spigot and relaxed further into the water leaving my head to rest on the curve of the tub edge.

  ***

  I woke to a soft knocking on the bathroom door. The water was cold and Thibbs was making soft noises of sleep. I unstoppered the plug and stood, grabbing the towel.

  “Just a minute. I’m coming.”

  The door swung open as I wrapped the towel around my hair. I glimpsed dark slacks and followed those up to the slack face of Achlys Aether. His mouth had fallen open and then he turned to face the door.

  “Oh, God. I’m so sorry. I thought you said come in. Your mother said to come in.”

  I had a huge fluffy robe in place and slid my feet into soft slippers. He turne
d hesitantly when I tapped him on the shoulder. I waved him into the sitting area of the rooms complete with a couch and chairs. I chose the overstuffed, large chair I’d had since middle school. It was soft, squishy, and comfortable. He sat across from me on the the couch not meeting my eyes and wringing his hands.

  “I’m so sorry.”

  “Don’t be sorry.”

  “I had no idea.”

  “Really, it’s okay.”

  “I don’t normally just walk in on someone in the bath.”

  I laughed and he looked up with startled eyes. “Achlys, it’s okay.”

  His eyes roamed over my face; I’d tried not to look at it much. I knew I had purple and yellow bruises on my face and under my eyes was a deep blue. My lip was split in two places and there were marks on my neck, I had no idea what they were or how they’d gotten there. I really didn’t want to think about it much.

  He scooted to the edge of the couch but sat on his hands. He tried to speak but only a small guttural sound escaped. His eyes met mine and held such sorrow I felt my own prickle in response. I couldn’t start crying again. I smiled and made it reach my eyes.

  “It’s looks worse than it is, promise.” Might even be true. I hadn’t looked since I woke up.

  His eyes never left mine. “I doubt that seriously, but you are entitled to your own opinion. I’d really like to hug you, but I won’t if you don’t want me to.”

  “I think if you hug me now, even with my brave words I’ll start to cry again. I think that will derail your original intent here. Maybe before you leave.”

  His eyes wandered over my face and took in the robe. He’d seen an eyeful, he probably saw more bruises than I had up to now, I hadn’t had the energy or desire to find them all. My ribs hurt like hell, so I guessed there were some there. The ED doc and nurse and then the photographer from the police department had looked me over extensively. I guess that meant he’d seen the photos too so nothing new to see it in person.

  I pulled my legs up, the robe around me and curled around my knees in the chair. I really wanted some hot chocolate. No sooner had I the thought than Karmine walked in with a huge carafe of hot chocolate with several cups and saucers. She also brought Dorian and some of the chocolate chip, peppermint biscotti from the shop. She didn’t stay but told me she would check on me soon after she kissed the top of my head.

  I thanked her and waited for them to ask their questions. They sat in silence looking mournfully at me. I sighed, put my feet back down and pulled the throw from the side of the chair over me.

  “All right boys, you’ve got to ask me the questions before I can give you any answers. What do you still need to know?”

  Detective Aether cleared his throat, ran his hand through his dark hair and pulled out his phone. “I’ve got my notes on the phone. I have an easier time keeping up with only one thing.”

  He thumbed through to the correct app and bit his full lower lip. He and Dorian glanced at each other. “You know we don’t have to…”

  “Guys, just ask the questions. While I’m still young. I can handle it. It’s okay.”

  Aether asked if he could record, and I consented. They asked questions about that day leading up to the attack, then about what I remembered at the shop, what I could remember about the trip there and then the time there.

  I’d had a sexual assault kit done, they didn’t find any semen so either he’d worn a condom or hadn’t gotten to that part. I didn’t remember anything like that but there were very large chunks I didn’t remember. I wasn’t devastated about that. They told me they found ketamine in the house with an atomizer device which was how he puffed it into my face.

  They told me they’d found items belonging to the other three victims from City 7 as well as things from the others. They were all small things but with positive DNA matches to the victims. There had been a scrapbook with newspaper clippings about the Chaos Killer along with the items.

  They had been sitting on the table. All of them grouped together in a box. It was very neat and tidy and helpful.

  He’d had a wall in his bedroom covered in photos of me going back years. A calendar dedicated to my schedule and life. He had even marked when my cycles were. I had no idea how he knew that. He had pictures of me from the newspaper, from school, from the website for the shop and others it looked like he’d taken from various positions near my home.

  His calendar had the dates for his readings written down as date nights. I sometimes ordered my groceries and whatnot for delivery, it looked like he was my secret shopper. He’d even written down where he’d had lunch with my mother and coffee with my father.

  I looked between the two of them shaking my head and blinking slowly. “How did I not know? How did I just now pick up on this?”

  They shrugged. Achlys spoke quietly. “He hid it well for a long time. I don’t think he became dangerous until recently. I’m confused as to why he went after these others. It doesn’t really fit.”

  His gaze traveled over my face again. “You can see his clear obsession with you and that progression to something frenzied. I can’t see why he killed others. There is a completely different set of events, like two different people. I am also bothered by him being killed.”

  “I’m not. That mother-fucker deserved to die,” this from Dorian who sat back crossing his arms over his chest.

  “I don’t mean that part, although I would rather have been able to question him and seen him brought to justice. What I mean though is, who shot him and why?”

  “We had a BOLO out for him. Maybe one of the other victims’ families recognized him and decided to take care of it.”

  “Maybe,” he lifted his shoulder, shaking his is head. “But it bothers me.”

  Dorian let his head fall back on the back of the couch after he propped his feet on the coffee table.

  “You’ll figure it out,” he said tiredly.

  “Oh yeah, you got approved for transfer to the CID. I’m trying to get your partner Galen Green too, but I think its just going to be you. I don’t think they’ll let me pull you both yet. But we can hope.”

  Dorian grinned and they did some weird high five handshake thing that looked overly complicated and maybe just a little cool. I lifted the hot chocolate to my lips to hide my smile. Mustn’t encourage them. What the hell?

  I grinned unabashedly at the two of them. “That’s great news!”

  “I think I’ve got all I need.” Detective Hottie stood and stepped forward.

  My heartbeat sped a little but not because I was afraid or upset, just because he did that to me. I stood up so he wouldn’t have to bend almost to the floor. I’d sunk into the comfort of the chair.

  He pulled me into the warmth of his arms, hugging me tightly to him. He wrapped himself around me; I felt safe and warm and treasured. He slipped something into my hand before whispering against my hair. “I owed you a present. Call me anytime.”

  He waved goodbye to us and walked out. My body shivered, I took an involuntary step towards the door, and realizing what I’d done sat back down with my comfy chair and throw. Dorian was looking at me with a calculating look in his eyes.

  “Oh, shut up. I’m vulnerable right now.”

  He didn’t say anything at first, then, “Have you looked at his aura?”

  I frowned. “Well, no. It never seems to be the right time. Either there are too many others around for me to open myself up or, I don’t know, other stuff. Mother being around, other things on my mind.”

  “How long does it take for you to read an aura?”

  “Seconds,” I said shaking my head and raising my hands up in question.

  “So why haven’t you looked at his aura, Kable?”

  I opened my mouth to repeat myself then closed it again. My brow puckered and I stared at the couch where Detective Hottie had been sitting. I ran through all the times I’d seen him and all the times I could’ve lowered my shields to see his aura. All the times I’d been so focused on the man I’d
ignored his spirit or the possibility of using my magic.

  I stared over at Dorian with a gobsmacked look on my face. He was learning back against the couch waiting for me to catch up.

  “I think you’ve known all along what kind of man he is.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “Or I let my hormones rule me like some sort of neanderthal.”

  “Don’t be stupid, Kable. Even I can see the connection. You’re being obtuse.”

  I leaned back against the chair, staring at the ceiling. I thought about just the hug. How good it had felt, how warm and safe. How his cologne smelled like a cedar forest and how he was kind and smart and incredibly hot. Finally, I thought about how he felt like home.

  And then, I thought about losing all of that and how I barely knew him and how a person shouldn’t be home. Hadn’t I learned anything in life. When you depended on people, they had such high a probability of letting you down. Not even on purpose usually, but they left. They always left.

  If you let a person hold part of your heart, they had the ability to kill you without ever firing a shot, without ever lifting a blade. Wasn’t it stupid to give someone that kind of power? Wasn’t it stupid to hand someone the keys to your soul and then trust them not to use them to destroy you?

  I opened my hand, inside was a key. Nothing ordinary, no. An old iron Victorian skeleton key. It looked like it belonged in a museum. I held it up for Dorian to see.

  “Yeah, he found a house.”

  I looked down at the key. Surely this wasn’t a key to his house.

  “No, I don’t think that opens his front or even his back door,” he chuckled. “But you know that old, old house outside town? The one with an iron gates and fence, it has a rose trellis, turrets and the whole house is covered in red ivy?”

  “Dorian, that isn’t a house, that’s a damn castle. Some asshat had that thing brought over here a stone at a time and reassembled. That place is supposed to be haunted. Did anyone tell him the history? Oh, Dorian, we have to tell him.”