by Kimbra Swain
“I’m inclined to say no, because of the severity of the crimes. However, considering we do not have separate facilities in this county for female inmates, I will allow it,” he relented. “Are there any other grievances?”
“I have a note to make for the court,” Lysander said.
“Go ahead, Mr. Lysander,” Chastain said.
“When the authorities searched Miss Bryant’s home a hooded cloak was taken. The cloak is not listed in evidence. The defense would like to note this missing item, and make aware to the court of the mishandling of evidence,” Mr. Lysander explained.
“Where is the cloak?” Chastain asked Blake.
“I will consult with the A.B.I. who conducted the search and discover the whereabouts of the cloak. It is not essential to the prosecution’s case,” Blake explained.
“Very well, the court notes that the cloak is missing. Please provide the court with the description for the record,” the judge instructed.
“I have the paperwork completed,” Lysander responded.
“Anything else?” the judge asked. The courtroom was silent. “Very well. The trial is set for December 10th.” He banged the gavel, and the short hearing was over.
December was still two months away. I would go mad in that trailer for two months. Thankfully, I had no intention of staying once I tracked the wolves and killed them.
I stood, leaning to Levi across the railing separating us from the spectators. “I don’t want to talk to him,” I said.
He looked pained, but nodded. We allowed everyone to leave the courtroom ahead of us. The only people remaining in the room were Levi, my father, Lysander, and Remington Blake. Levi held my hand the entire time. Father turned to lead us out of the courtroom.
Blake stepped forward, “May I have a moment in private with Grace?” He asked Lysander who shrugged and looked at me. I knew better than to say anything about the case.
“Good luck getting rid of the boy,” he laughed and went to the door with father. Levi stood firm.
“Very well,” Remington said.
“What do you want?” I asked.
“Easy, Grace. I just wanted you to know I tried to get out of this,” he explained. “It’s hard to prosecute a case that you don’t believe in.”
“You shouldn’t be talking to me about this, Remy,” I said.
“Yeah, I know. You never let me explain everything to you,” he said.
“Yes, I know. I got to find out about your wife from the woman at the grocery store which cemented me as the biggest whore this side of the Mississippi River. I’m clear on it all now, Remy,” I spouted at him.
“Grace, let’s go home,” Levi said.
“Yes, let’s,” I replied as we walked to the door, following Lysander and my father out of the room. We turned the hallway into another problem. “Mother fucker!” I spouted.
Dylan Riggs stood in the center of the hallway. Father and Lysander passed him without a word. Amanda Capps stood at the door, waiting to escort us out of the building. Levi kissed me on the cheek. “Talk to him, Grace,” he said walking away.
“That enthrallment shit doesn’t work on me, Dublin,” I said. He walked past Dylan and patted him on the shoulder.
I stood in the middle of the hallway in a stupid dress with stupid shoes trying to be something I wasn’t. I was at the height of vulnerability, and Mr. Sandy Hair stood between me and escape. At least he wasn’t smiling because I wouldn’t be able to handle that from him.
He walked up to me leaving only 6 inches between us. “You believe me, right?”
“What are you talking about now?”
“About Stephanie and the pictures,” he said.
“It doesn’t matter, Dylan,” I said.
“It matters to me,” he replied.
In that moment, I wanted to call to my father and say take me home, rather than to admit to Dylan, that I absolutely believed him. Which would lead to all sorts of admissions of how I truly felt about him. Staring at my feet, I didn’t respond to him.
He leaned closer and said, “You engaged to Levi now?” His hand brushed over mine with the ring.
“Yes, I am,” I replied dryly.
“You are right, Grace. I should stay away from you,” he said. For a moment, I dismissed it, but realized he meant it. “Good luck to you. I’m selling my property and moving out of Shady Grove.”
“Dylan?” I stammered.
His lips brushed my cheek, “Beautiful Grace.” He backed up two steps, turned and walked away. I wanted to call him back to me, but he slipped around a corner disappearing down a side hallway.
Levi watched him in confusion as he went out the front door. He rushed back to me, “What did he say?”
“He said he should stay away from me,” I muttered.
“He was supposed to go with us,” Levi said.
“Huh?”
“Your father said he would go back with us,” Levi said. “What did you say to him, Grace?”
“Nothing. He wanted me to admit that I believed him about Stephanie, but I didn’t say anything,” I responded trembling. “Levi, he’s leaving.”
“Isn’t that what you’ve wanted all along?”
“Yes. No. We have to get out of here. I want to leave,” I cried.
“Okay,” he said taking my hand. When we got to the door, two officers opened them for us as we stepped out into the heat of the day.
The crowd erupted in jeers and taunts. The few protestors from earlier had surged into a throng of angry voices. They had signs with my picture, a bullseye on my head.
“Baby Killer!”
“Trailer Whore!”
I latched on to Levi, tucking behind him. “I don’t have enough magic for this,” he muttered doubting himself.
Father and Lysander pushed through the crowd. People screamed at me as I passed. I buried my face in Levi’s back. Wrapping his arm behind him, he held tightly to me. The crowd surged in on us at my right. Levi turned his back to them blocking them and forcing me to walk in front of him as he pushed us harder toward Lysander and my father.
“Grace!” I heard Dylan’s voice behind us over the screaming. I tried turning to see him, but Levi held me in place. Dylan’s voice, faint over the noise, sounded desperate.
“No, keep walking, Grace,” Levi urged me forward.
“Gun!” I heard Dylan’s voice again as a shot rang out. Levi pushed me to the ground falling on top of me. I looked behind us and watched Dylan wrestling with a man who held a pistol in his right hand. The crowd panicked, stampeding around us as we laid on the ground. Screams of terror filled the courtyard.
Levi dragged me off the ground. “Help him,” I muttered, as I wrestled with Levi to move toward Dylan.
“No,” Levi said with his arms around my waist, hauling me to the car. I fought with him, digging my nails into his arm when the second shot rang out, and Dylan’s body went limp.
“No!” I cried out. “Dylan!” With a passion, I struggled against Levi, wrenching his arms off me. Lysander was screaming for us to get in the car. Dylan didn’t move as the gunman stood up and ran into the panicking crowd. Dylan’s blue eyes were fixed on me, but there was no life behind them. I felt a cool hand on my neck, and the world suddenly winked out.
I woke up in my own bed in my double wide with a warm dog at my feet, and a changeling by my side. I remembered that my father had a mean Vulcan death grip. I rubbed my shoulder where the muscles had tensed up when he put me to sleep.
“Is he?” I asked quietly.
“Lysander is trying to get information. We don’t know anything yet,” Levi said.
I grabbed his shirt crying into his chest. “You saw it,” I said.
“Yes,” he whispered embracing me gently.
From the other room, I heard a news report on the television. I jumped up running into the room to hear it. Lysander stood talking on his cell phone, but paused when the report began.
“At the courthouse in Lowden County, after a p
reliminary hearing for the trial of the child killer, Grace Ann Bryant, the former sheriff of the county, Dylan Riggs was shot while wrestling a gun from a man trying to shoot the accused. We have confirmed through sources that Sheriff Riggs died on the scene,” she continued to speak, but the world went silent for me. Lysander hung up the phone, and his lips moved. He spoke to me, but I couldn’t hear him. The world started to spin.
Behind me Levi guided me to the recliner, but my knees buckled. He scooped me up before I hit the floor and sat me down. He moved his lips, too. I couldn’t hear him either.
“Dylan,” I muttered. The single word broke the silence.
Lysander coaxed me. “Grace, we don’t know for sure. The hospital is giving me conflicted reports. I’m still checking,” he said.
“Tell me what to do,” Levi said.
“Shut up!” I said.
They both clamped their mouths and stared at me.
“Who was the man with the gun?”
“Colby’s uncle,” Lysander said.
“See that he gets a good lawyer,” I said.
“But Grace,” Lysander said.
“You heard me!” I said.
“Okay,” he replied.
“Where is my father?” I asked.
“He went back to the Otherworld,” he said.
“Good. Dublin, get out of that suit. We have a werewolf to catch,” I replied.
“You sure?” he said.
“Did I fucking stutter?” I shouted.
He hurried to the front bedroom.
“As my lawyer, I suggest you depart before you see me leaving this house when I’m supposed to be confined here,” I said.
“Grace, don’t do this. I’ll send out a group of warriors from home to track them down,” Lysander said. “You need to stay here. They tried to shoot you.”
“Will a gunshot kill me, Lysander?”
“No, but then you’d have to leave,” he said.
“I’m leaving, anyway. At this point, I might just go home,” I couldn’t believe the words came out of my mouth, but I couldn’t stand the thought of being here anymore. Not if Dylan was dead.
Lysander, shocked that I would even consider going home, grabbed his phone and briefcase hustling out the door. In my bedroom, I found a pair of black pants and a navy t-shirt. Pulling my hair back in a ponytail, I stared at myself in the mirror. For a moment, I began to cry for Dylan Riggs, but I sucked it up because there was work to do.
Levi waited for me in the living room. “Ok, Dublin, grab that guitar and play the lullaby,” I said staring at the unmarked car across the street.
He nodded, heading toward the porch. The sun sank in the west, and the night turned cool. I felt the power swirling around as Levi played. He could have controlled the crowd at the courthouse, but he needed the confidence to do it. Nothing I can do about that now. I heard him play the final chord. Reaching down, I removed the ankle monitor, frying the circuits with a small surge of power. I was weak and needed to recharge.
Walking out on the porch, I nodded to Levi. “Got your gun?”
“Yes,” he said. I pulled a handful of bullets out of my pocket. “Silver?”
“Yes,” I replied. “Walk and load.” I grabbed my Kimber from the truck, then we walked out of the trailer park in the darkness. No one would see us because they all were napping. Stopping at the nearest oak tree, I recharged my tattoo.
I offered my hand to Levi. Taking it, he nodded as I put my hand back on the tree, opening a way to the Otherworld. We stood in an earthen corridor. The hallway smelled musty like damp soil. Gangling roots made up the earthen walls and lanterns hung from the undergrown branches. Voices drifted toward us from ahead.
“Whatever happens, don’t stop for anything. Stay with me, and do not get distracted by anything here,” I replied.
We hurried down the corridor. I touched roots as we past them, looking for the residue power I’d used on the surface the night we found the children. The trees were conductors, and as I touched one on the surface, it resounded through a network below in the Otherworld. It created a signature of my power, so I looked for that signature. Once I found it, I placed my hand on the root of that tree.
An Otherworld guard turned the corner on us and said, “Halt!”
“Levi, get behind me,” I shouted.
The guard threw a spear at us and my red shield flared before us.
“Stand down!” I ordered him.
“You have no authority,” he snarled.
I released the spell holding my glamour. Platinum locks cascaded down my back, and my eyes sparkled a deep turquoise. My casual clothes transformed in to an iridescent silver gown as a large crystalline crown formed on my head.
“I said, stand down!”
He hit his knees as another guard approached who mimicked his stance. Turning to look at Levi, he swallowed. “Do I need to bow?”
“No, Dublin, let’s go,” I said. I placed my hand on the root shifting us back to the earthly plane. When we arrived in the forest near where we found the children, my glamour popped back into place, and I was back to my trailer park queen self.
“That’s completely amazing, by the way. I know you aren’t in the mood, but you are magnificent, Grace,” Levi said.
Kissing him on the cheek, I said, “Thank you, sweet boy.”
We walked silently through the woods as I pumped magic around us to conceal our approach to where it happened. I felt the residual of the deaths, but nothing more.
“See anything?” he asked.
“Nothing new. You?”
“Nothing,” he said.
“I guess we will just have to track down Amanda Capps,” I replied.
Alerted to a presence, Levi and I both pulled our guns. One by one, black robed figures stepped out from behind the trees.
“Um, Grace,” Levi said.
“Sanhedrin,” I replied. “Put the gun down.” We lowered our weapons as twelve robed figures surrounded us.
The male directly in front of us removed his hood. His face was ancient with craggy wrinkles and bushy eyebrows that reached down over the tops of his pale blue eyes. “Gloriana, daughter of Oberon, we have matters to discuss,” he said.
“Caiaphas, high priest of the Sanhedrin, you realize you can trim those eyebrows, and you might be able to see better. There’s a girl in town that could really shape those up for you,” I replied.
“So irreverent,” he replied with condescension. “You and your changeling will come with us.”
When he waved his hand, we suddenly appeared in a marbled room. Large columns of granite surrounded the circular room. Levi and I stood in the middle. Caiaphas stepped on a raised platform, as he was flanked by twelve robed figures. Another courtroom, another group of zealots, and another life-threatening situation. Fanfuckingtastic.
“What do you have to say for yourself? Killing children for sport?” he accused.
“Kai, baby, you know I didn’t kill those children. There is a feral wolf in the area. My partner and I were hunting it when you so rudely interrupted,” I replied. I remained indignant to him, because if they set all of this up, I had no recourse anyway. I might as well get my word in for the record. They recorded everything for future Sanhedrin because most of my kind and those supernatural beings like me would outlive the judges. Their prolonged lives did not match our immortal ones.
“There is no wolf,” he replied. “The investigator for the state works for us, and she presented the evidence to us before taking it to the earthly authorities. We gave her full permission to pursue the law.”
“Convenient that she has the evidence that you supplied her. The Sanhedrin is the only earthly entity who possesses my hair, which I gave graciously when I signed my contract. A contract, by the way, I have not broken,” I reminded him.
“We did not give her the evidence,” he said.
The Sanhedrin were not known to lie especially before the court. “Swear it!” I demanded which was within my rights
.
“I swear that the judges you see before you and our organization have no desire to remove you from this area. It’s convenient having a fairy queen nearby. You deter the vilest of creatures just with your presence. No, dear Grace, we have no desire to remove you. Swear to us that you did not kill the children,” he said.
The torches flicked around the room, and they waited stoically for my answer. My mind raced with possibilities of who was trying to frame me when a frightening thought came to my mind. “I swear on my life and power, I did not kill Colby Martin and Elizabeth Shanteal.”
The room shook with my oath, and Caiaphas was surprised by the power of it. I could have faked a flimsy oath with they would have felt pass through them as a wave of power. However, a truthful, specific oath based on someone’s life, not just their power, was the deepest oath a person, fairy or any other being could make.
“We are satisfied,” he replied waving his hand. Levi and I reappeared in my trailer. Rufus barked at our sudden appearance, and I shushed him.
“If they didn’t do it, who did?” Levi asked.
“There are several candidates,” I replied as Levi handed me an orange soda from the fridge. Laying back in my recliner, I closed my eyes, reviewing everything I knew.
Levi sat on the couch, patiently waiting for me to continue. He drank a Sam Adams. My cell phone rang, and it was my lawyer.
“Hello Lysander,” I replied.
“Any luck?” he asked.
“Why are you asking me this? It’s better for you, if I don’t talk about it,” I said. “Besides how did you know we were back? Do you have someone watching me?”
“Attorney-client privilege, my dear,” he replied.
“Still, I’m not talking about what we found,” I said.
“Grace, did you find the wolf or not? If you didn’t, I’m sending out a raiding party,” he said.
“No, I didn’t find the wolf,” I replied.
“Fine. Stay home. I received confirmation that Dylan Riggs passed away on the scene at the courthouse. His will stated that he should be cremated. The coroner released his body to the funeral home. His church is having a memorial in a couple of days. I can get permission for you to attend,” he said with no emotion. I wanted to slap him through the phone. Pissant mother fucker.