Visions Across the Veil

by Gretchen S. B.

  HJ reaches across the table and touches Narcissa's hand, this time there is no flash of a future vision and the younger woman gives her a less than convincing smile. "This isn't your fault. Don't go thinking it is. I'll head out now. Let me know if there's anything my family and I can do to help you hunt down whoever this is. We can't afford to be fractured. Keep me updated please on what information you find, and I'll pass it along to the Western Washington Night World at large. Or at least to the Magical Practitioners down there."

  Narcissa places her other hand over the younger woman's and the two of them smile at each other. A smile that says they know they’re both in for a fight but they also know they aren't alone. Even though Narcissa knows without a doubt she isn’t going to be here for this particular fight. If it is between her standing up to something evil and dying and putting one of the brothers she loves so dearly in danger, the first option wins out hands down, without any second thought. She will do what she can to prepare those she knows will fight against it, but beyond that all that is left is to make preparations for her death.

  Narcissa pats the younger woman's hand before removing her own. "I'll keep you appraised of what I can. If it feels as if some tidbit of information can't be handed over by conventional means, I will send Bandit or his twin brother down to you."

  She watches out the corner of her eye as Bandit stiffens. She knows his reaction is less about being sent as an errand boy and more about him knowing what sending a single messenger means. He and his brother have been secret messengers several times in their lives. It kept them alive once or twice. So he knows what kind of messages can only be sent in person by a third-party. He, more than HJ, knows how badly that bodes for the Night World at large.

  HJ gives her a bit of a watery look before standing up and taking the stack of books on the table in front of her, not noticing the stack is suddenly smaller than it was when she went outside the first time.

  "You don't have to get up. I'll let you know when I get home and have told my family what you told me. I'll just say everyone's in the know now or something equally as cryptic. You take care of yourself, Narcissa. You're far too important to all of us to put into jeopardy."

  Narcissa snorts, she can’t help it. It isn’t just the statement that makes her snort, it’s the irony of the situation only she, and to a certain extent Harold, are aware of. "Drive carefully. Shoot me a text message when you get home. Just so I know you're safe." She turns to Bandit. "You see her out. Make sure she gets in her car and on the road safely and that nobody seems to pull out behind her." She adds extra emphasis at the last part so Bandit knows without a doubt why she is sending him out there.

  If someone is following Harold that doesn’t mean someone would follow her or Rex but it isn’t a risk worth taking. She’ll have to be more careful about things now, more covert.

  She can’t quite make herself smile when she waves as HJ leaves the house. As soon as the two of them are out of earshot Narcissa picks up her phone and calls Rex. The man is practically attached to his phone so she isn’t surprised when he picks up within two rings.

  "Twice in one day, Narcissa, don't I feel popular." He chuckles to himself.

  "This isn't a social call, Rex, we have a problem." She can practically feel the other end of the phone becoming more and more somber as she relays to him what Harold told her and about the situation HJ found herself in. By the time she finishes, Bandit has come back into the room and is sitting across the table again watching her like a hawk.

  "This isn't good news, Narcissa. None of this could be anything but bad," Rex warns as he processes all the information she just gave him.

  "I know; normally I wouldn't spring all of it on you at once but given the situation I think all of this information needs to be spread as far and wide as fast as possible if we're going to figure out who's blocking the flow of information to the Council and who could possibly be our traitor. I'm willing to bet it is the same person."

  There is tapping on the other end, Rex tends to fidget. His favorite is drumming his hands and fingers on whatever table or surface is in front of him. "I suppose this needs to be as incognito as possible so we don't spook the person into hiding or doing something more drastic. I'll start reaching out this afternoon as subtly as possible. There are a handful of people I would trust with my life. I'll let you know if I hear anything and I'll let Harold know as well. I think it’ll be safer for the three of us to stay in contact. I don't think anybody's been following me, but I can't say with certainty now that we're talking about…" There is a pause and some noise in the background. "I have to go; one of my pupils is here for a lesson. He's pretty green, the kid’s only fifteen but he has skills. This is not something I want to discuss in front of him. I’ll start reaching out as soon as he leaves. I'll talk to you soon, Narcissa."

  They say their goodbyes and hang up.

  This is the part she’s been dreading. Tiptoeing around Bandit so as not to give away the parts of information she knows it isn’t wise for him to have. Knowing the brothers, they would risk their lives for her as she would them, but she has one up on them because she has more information than they do. And Narcissa plans to keep it that way.

  Bandit leans in across the table as much as he possibly can, folding his arms as if he’s able to read her thoughts. "Are you going to tell me what the vision actually showed? And don't tap dance around it, I want to know what actually happened in the vision, not the gist you gave HJ. That girl is smarter than I think you're giving her credit for. She knew you were giving her a watered-down version as well."

  While it isn’t ideal, Narcissa is happy HJ could figure out there’s more to the story. It would be good for the Night World at large if she didn't always take things at face value like a lot of MPs do.

  Narcissa takes a deep breath as she prepares her thoughts then realizes that action alone telegraphs her intentions, so she stops midway and stretches trying to appear as if stiff joints need her to move. "He saw a struggle. I was in the vision as well. Another and I were talking about a traitor in our midst and how we should've known sooner. He figured between the vision and the fact he's been followed recently, there is a problem.

  "There is no way it's nothing. If someone is blocking information to the Council it means they could manipulate what information is coming to and from the Council. We’re somewhat lucky in that the two councilmembers who can call the strata enforcers are not any of the same people who handle communication to the MPs at large. The downside is you don't know how many of them are working together against the rest of us.

  "I need to make some phone calls. I'll keep you updated but you can go back to fixing various things around the house. There's nothing beyond reaching out to others I can do right now and there certainly isn't anything that can be done on your end."

  Bandit watches her for a full minute. He is clearly unhappy with the situation and trying to worm a way to fix it. He finally seems to give up and with a giant exhale he pushes out of his seat using the table for momentum and yanks his phone out of his pocket. "Fine, I'll go back to housework but I'm calling Buck first. I have a few things I need to get in order but from here on out, until this is solved, Buck or myself are staying with you at the house twenty-four seven. We're not leaving you unprotected until we know what the situation is."

  He storms from the room. Panic flows through Narcissa's veins. The last thing she wants is the brothers involved. She can’t risk them, they mean too much to each other and too much to her. She has to find a way to get Bandit to back down.

  Simply telling him she doesn’t want their attention won’t do it; in fact it would do the opposite and he’ll know she’s hiding something.

  Now with a secondary problem, Narcissa lets the brothers work out their plan without interruption. Once they have a set plan she’ll know what she is working with and can move from there. Until Bandit tells her what he and Buck are thinking, she needs to move forward in reaching out t
o the various high level MPs she knows and trusts. It is going to take time to reach them all but considering they don’t know how widespread this problem is or how long it’s been going on, it can’t wait. Not to mention, according to Lloyd, things will reach a head, for her at least, within a month.

  Chapter 5

  Bandit stays with Narcissa four and a half days. He fixes everything in the house that needs fixing but apparently has to meet someone. He is rather vague about the meeting, which makes her question the legality. He says he will be back within the next two to three weeks and then he’ll stay with her for a month before he switches with Buccaneer. The timeline has made Narcissa sad but also gives her hope. If she’s honest with herself, Narcissa never thought she would be grateful death would be coming soon. The fact that she hopes death comes before one of the brothers can get to her makes her a little sick to her stomach, so she tries not to think about it as she and her network of MPs work on the problem of the Council.

  When Bandit leaves, Narcissa makes him take the thin book with him to give to HJ next time he is in Washington. He makes several sarcastic, biting jokes about her forgetting this one time but beyond that he doesn’t seem to catch on that she did it on purpose.

  He does not particularly protest the size of the boxes being shipped to Rex and Lucia. Narcissa hadn’t expected him to complain about the weight, Warriors are the strongest members of the Night World. Her boxes would be a piece of cake. She expected him to question the number of items she is getting rid of, especially since there are also several smaller boxes and packages going out to various other Magical Practitioners across the world. She depleted quite a lot of the texts in her shed. As she packed the boxes she asked herself, 'Is this something I want them to find if whoever kills me ransacks the house?' There is no doubt in her mind that whatever is coming for her will be of the Night World. She can’t believe some random breaking and entering will be what does her in. She has wards deterring that kind of thing on the house and she knows they are strong enough to still be in working order.

  Throughout the trip to the post office on his last day, Bandit remains silent, frowning in displeasure at how much stuff they are shipping. Beyond that he doesn’t vocalize his displeasure. When they arrive back at the house he comes back in to say goodbye and take some of the food she packed up for him. She doesn’t know where he is headed or how long the trip will be, so she made him cornbread and various other things that can be eaten on the go. Bandit of course thanks her, though not in his usual spirited, feisty way. He then gives her one of the longest hugs she'd ever had in her life.

  For a moment she wonders if he knows they won’t see each other again. Or whether he is just sad about her getting rid of so many possessions. Either way it is a sad parting and by the time she shuts the door behind Bandit, the tears are leaking out of her eyes. She tries to console herself with the idea that at least she got to say goodbye to one of them. She is closer to the brothers than anyone else and the thought of what her death might do to them breaks her heart and spirit into a million pieces.

  She lets herself cry and wallow in sadness and self-pity for a few minutes. It is a little indulgent but there’s no way around it. She then takes a deep breath and forces herself back into the composed state she has been carrying on with since talking to Harold.

  She knows the next step is to call her niece and nephew. She has some family heirlooms they might be interested in. Talking to them right away so she can ship them out is a good idea. Plus, even though she's never been as close to them as she would be if she had stayed down South, she does still love them and they are her family. Pushing herself off the door, Narcissa physically brushes herself off and heads into the kitchen where she left her phone.

  Chapter 6

  "There's too much resistance involved for this to be just one person, Narcissa," Rex concludes during their phone call to check-in. “By the way, have you heard from Harold? I know he has a tendency to go off-grid and I shouldn't be worried but under the circumstances, not hearing from him for two days has me concerned."

  Narcissa taps her fingers on her kitchen table; she hasn’t heard from Harold in three days. She figures he is investigating and purposely keeping quiet. Harold once disappeared for six months and no one knew where he was, one day he just popped up out of the blue and told people he had been at his cabin nobody knew he had.

  "I haven't; I say we wait another day or two and then send someone out to figure out what's going on. But I also agree with you on the Council front. There is a lot we didn't realize was going on. I realize the Council is seventeen people plus five backup delegates which makes a lot of personalities to wrangle, but I didn't know there were enough that were disgruntled that they would want to break down the way things worked. I also don't like this thing that I'm hearing in the whispered shadows about people trying to rebel against the Warrior King. While it doesn't directly affect us now it's something we need to keep track of because nothing good is going to come from that."

  There is a strata of MPs farther north several hours above where each of them live made of twenty Werecreatures of several kinds. That means any information they receive from them could come to and from the Were world as well. The Weres said they heard a rumbling. One of them was approached to 'help the cause’ as it was put. He firmly turned them down and said he had nothing to do with the Kingdom this far north as the North American King rarely heads that far into Canada. The person who approached him pushed but eventually backed off. None of them have heard anything since so they aren’t sure how seriously to take it. Knowing what Narcissa does about Harold's vision and what Lloyd told her she doesn’t find it a coincidence.

  "We've been looking into this for almost two weeks," Rex exclaimed. "We should have more information on this by now. All we know for sure is it's more than one person. Part of me wants us to get together with the Councilmembers we know we can trust but at the same time how do we know those are the ones we can trust and isn't that in fact going behind the back of those Councilmembers who might not be part of the problem, but we just don't know yet? I think Harold's plan is the best one. We will have Mabel call a Council meeting and will see who shows up, present our evidence, and see who balks at the idea."

  It is an aggressive plan but since none of them, or anyone else they talk to, has a better idea, it is what they should go with. Maybe if they catch the people responsible before her deadline is up everything can be prevented. Narcissa shakes her head at that line of thought. She doesn’t need to focus on hope when she should focus on solving the problem. She already made all of her final arrangements and shipped out all the stuff she could send. Now is the time to help put plans in place to save the Night World at large.

  "I agree, have her do it. Have her set it up for us as soon as she can. Let's catch them off-guard. We'll have to intensify our digging because we have to find something more tangible than the bits and pieces we have. Maybe if we all put our individual pieces together, I just don't know.

  There’s a crash downstairs. Narcissa's heart speeds up and her breath catches. She is sitting in her room, as Rex called her first thing in the morning before she heads downstairs for breakfast.

  "I heard that. Do you want me to stay on the line or do you want to call 911?"

  "Stay on the line." Narcissa strides a few paces to the corner of her room and grabs the staff her grandmother gifted her when she was born. The four-foot-long staff is a magic amplifier so to speak. It won’t make her invincible, but it will make her spells more accurate and potent. It is set to only her magical signature so no one else can try to use it. For anyone else it’s a walking stick. That is why she didn’t send it off.

  "Stay silent. I'm going to put you on speakerphone and put the phone in my pocket," she whispers into the phone and moves slowly out into the hall.

  "Okay, I'm going to hit record call on my end in case you need it for a police report later."

  She hears a couple clicks as she m
oves the call to speakerphone and slides it into her skirt pocket. Her skirt is billowy enough no one will notice. Slowly she makes her way downstairs.

  Her best bet is if whoever broke into her home sees her as feeble. If they underestimate her she can come out swinging. Sure, she isn’t as strong and agile as she was fifteen years ago, but she can still hold her own. As she heads downstairs she hears two male voices speaking quietly at the front of the house. One of them, if she isn’t mistaken, has a French accent. The other is a nondescript American one. She doesn’t recognize either of their voices which is both a comfort and a worry. When she gets to the base of the stairs she calls out, whoever it is must know she’s there. If they don’t, maybe her announcing her presence will scare them off.

  "Get the hell out of my house," she over-enunciates angrily.

  The voices go quiet, but only for a second.

  "Narcissa, my dear woman, would you join us please?" comes the French-accented voice from the front room. It’s light as if this is some kind of social visit and they didn’t just break into her home.

  Narcissa's heart pounds in her ears, making it harder to hear. Her breathing grows so ragged she’s positive Rex can hear it through the phone. As she turns the corner, preparing a spell to drop one or both of them to the ground, depending on how close they are to each other, she recognizes the American accent. Galen is a black MP. He is vicious, and strong; the strata enforcers have been sent after him on three separate occasions but by the time they got to his last known location he was always gone. Now here he is standing in her living room.

  "Galen, get out of my house right now!" The words are more for Rex than anyone else. She also slams the butt of the staff on the floor as she enacts one of the wards around the house and Galen goes flying, his back slamming into her front door, which she sees was pried open.