Beyond the Spectrum

by G. W. BOILEAU

  He was still. And silent. Lying on the bed, shiny black shoes hanging off the end.

  Blood spattered the wall in a crimson stain that had run like paint droplets, and the white bedcovers were soaked in so much blood I wasn’t sure they were even supposed to be white.

  His head was missing.

  The rain pattered on the roof above, breaking the silence coming from Chris’s body. I swallowed, then squeezed my eyes with fingers and thumb.

  “Goddammit.”

  I had never liked the guy. But maybe because I hadn’t met him more than two years ago. Maybe I’d just never given him a chance. It didn’t matter what I thought of him in the end. He was a detective. And he did it because that’s what the good guys did. His entire life was ahead of him, a family, a wife . . . kids.

  I thought of myself as a young detective. I realized how similar I had been. Cocksure of myself, popular among the guys, funny and likeable. A real hotshot.

  I sniffed and wiped my nose.

  “I’m sorry, Chris,” I told him. “I should’ve been . . .” I shook my head and sighed.

  Nausea swelled in my stomach, then I stumbled out of the room, sickened, hopeless and—

  I flinched back from the living room. Someone was standing in the shadows. A woman. I couldn’t make out her face, but her silhouette was tall, lean and slender. She stepped out of the darkness and into a slither of light.

  She wore a skintight, lacy emerald outfit, revealing every curve of her body: her thighs, her toned belly, her perfectly shaped breasts. Her crimson hair was tied back, accentuating the fine features of her facial structure. High cheekbones, a perfectly smooth and round forehead, a thin, sharp nose, and full, luscious crimson lips, as dark as the night.

  Something moved behind her. I was sure I had seen something, but . . .

  She stepped toward me, her gate sensual and graceful, sexual, and frighteningly beautiful. An apparition of a dark angel. Surreal and dreamlike.

  “Good evening, Detective. My name is Aurathea Iliqen Carivell, and I am not of this world.”

  SIXTEEN

  “What do you want?” I asked the woman, unable to hide the unease from my voice.

  “I want to talk.” Her soft, feminine voice hummed like a Siren of Greek mythology. Her eyes were enormous, as richly green as her outfit, and bored into me as if she was looking into my soul. It disarmed me and I trembled before her gaze.

  “Who are you?”

  “I wish no harm upon you, human. I am here simply to talk.”

  “Okay,” I said, taking a small step back from her approach and reaching into my jacket pocket. “So let’s talk.”

  “I am an investigator, like you, seeking answers. I am a guardian of the threshold, and I am here seeking only the truth.”

  “Okay,” I repeated. “Maybe you can shed some light on what the hell’s been going on around here, then.” I fought hard to hold my composure, but everything in my voice showed fear.

  “One of my kind has crossed the threshold. A Chaun. A being of the fae.”

  “Of the fae? Not as in . . . fairy?”

  “That is a somewhat parochial term, Detective.”

  “Fairies? You’ve got to be shitting me?” I rubbed my face. “Well, your Chaun has crossed—what did you call it, the threshold? And now it’s running around killing innocent people.”

  “Crossing into the human world is prohibited by my kind, Detective. The Chaun would not have done so unprovoked.”

  “Well, that guy in the kitchen didn’t provoke it.” My fear was suddenly replaced by anger. I stabbed a thumb over my shoulder at the bedroom. “And I’m pretty sure that guy in there didn’t fucking provoke it either.”

  “Detective Gamble, I followed the Chaun into this world to determine why it crossed the threshold. What I have since discovered has been . . . disturbing.”

  “You’re telling me.”

  “The white room,” she said.

  “What about it?” I figured she meant the garage.

  “It was the first point of entry. I followed the Chaun into the room before your people arrived. And I found something, a flower.”

  “The Edelweiss? What about it?”

  “The flower had been plucked. The Chaun would not have picked the flower, Detective Gamble. Only a human would have done that. Which means a human has crossed the threshold.”

  “I know.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “Tell me how this is possible.” Her voice was suddenly eager.

  “The tech,” I said. “I thought the Chaun took it. The people working there made up some goggles which I guess opened up some kind of doorway into your world.”

  Her eyes widened, and she took a sharp breath, as if I had gravely insulted her. “It seems your kind have created a key to the gateway.” She looked away, considering this.

  “Okay,” I said slowly. “So what?”

  “The Chaun was not the first to break the threshold. The violation is not ours.”

  “And you think that gives this Chaun the right to go around killing people? Taking their heads off? For picking one little flower?”

  “No. The Chaun does not kill for no reason, Detective Gamble. The Chaun has been provoked. I do not know how, but its nature is peaceful—”

  “Peaceful?” I spat. “You’re out of your mind if you think it’s peaceful. Look around you, lady. It’s taking people’s heads off!”

  “It is looking for something,” she said.

  “Yeah. I figured it was after the tech.”

  “That is doubtful. The Chaun takes their heads to learn their thoughts. It has no care for gateway technology. It can move between worlds of its own volition.”

  “Hold on, there. Back up.” I held up my hands. “What are you saying? It’s somehow reading people’s minds after it cuts off their heads?”

  “Detective Gamble, the Chaun is a highly intelligent creature. As intelligent as any human. It is a mind reader, and if someone has done it wrong, it will hunt them and it will kill them. And in saying all of that, it is by far the least of your concerns right now.” She leveled her gaze on me, stern and dangerous.

  “How do you figure that?”

  “You do not understand the significance of what your kind has created.”

  “The tech? What about it?”

  “Many millennia ago, our kind came to this world. We wished for peace. Fae would play with human children, Leprechauns offered wishes, Unichauns and Centaurs grazed upon your lands. But the humans were not benevolent creatures. They abused our kind. Hunted us for our blood. Wished greed from the Leprechauns. But it was their thirst for understanding that drove a wedge between our two worlds that could never be undone. Humans desired to understand our magic. Fairies were captured, and dissected, and studied.

  “The fae sought refuge in the fae kingdom, and it was decreed by our four Queens that the land of the humans would be forever forbidden from all fae beings.

  “We did what we could to remove all traces and evidence of our ever having been in the human world, and then we left, forever . . .”

  “That’s a great story, but what’s your point?”

  “I am the guardian of the gateway. A protector of my world. Of my peoples. My sole purpose is to guard the threshold, and I have all authority to do what must be done to ensure it remains protected.”

  “What are you getting at?”

  “What I am saying, Blake Gamble, is that the key to the gateway must be destroyed.”

  “Well, destroy it, then.”

  “It is not that simple.”

  “Why not?”

  “The key must be destroyed along with any evidence of its creation.”

  “And?” I asked.

  “And you will bring this to me.”

  “Okay,” I said, thinking about that. “I guess I can try—”

  “Along with those who hold the knowledge of its creation.”

  “Huh? What do you mean by that?”

  “Listen to me well, hu
man, for I shall say this only once.” She took three steps closer. “My name is Aurathea Iliqen Carivell, Guardian of the Gateway, and I demand this of you. Bring all evidence of the key to me, along with the humans who created it, or face the consequences.”

  “What consequences?”

  She took one more step toward me, her stare becoming hard as stone. “War, Blake Gamble.”

  “War? What do you mean war?”

  “You underestimate the seriousness of what has happened here on this day. My kind are in danger. If humans discover en masse the key to the gateway, then they will come. And they will capture. And they will experiment. It is in your nature to seek answers, and to take that which is not yours. We will not allow it. And if it comes to it, we will fight . . . and you will lose.”

  “Hang on. You want me to hand over the remaining tech, along with Elise Daniels and Stuart Arnold, and you’ll leave us alone?”

  “That is my demand.”

  “And what happens to them once I hand them over?”

  “All knowledge of how the key works must be destroyed.”

  “Oh, that’s not gonna happen, lady.”

  “You would not sacrifice two humans to stop a war with the fae?”

  “No fucking way. But let’s just say I did hand them over. What happens to the Chaun?”

  “The Chaun is out of my control. It will not stop until it has found what it seeks.”

  “Oh, this is just great! You hypocrite. You come into our world, start cutting off heads, demand a couple of humans, and you’ll leave us alone?” I stabbed a finger into my chest a couple of times. “Well, I’ve got a counteroffer for you. You guys come into our world, and we’ll fill you so full of lead you’ll be using your shit for paperweights.”

  “Your guns are useless against us, Detective,” her voice pressed against me like an invisible force, her eyes growing wild. “If you go to war against us, a hundred thousand Chauns will descend upon this land, and they are nothing compared to the might of our warriors. We will slay your kind into oblivion, and take your world from you. Every man, woman and child will be slaughtered, and your filthy barabrian race will become extinct.”

  My jaw clenched. My fists were tightening. I thought about Chris. He was so young, his entire life ahead of him. He didn’t even get the chance to be a father. Her kind had taken that from him, and now she stood in front of me and threatened the entire human race? Well, that just pissed me right off.

  “Listen up, lady, because I’m only going to say this once. Remove yourself and the Chaun, or I’ll make sure the key to the gateway gets into the hands of every person on this planet. Then we’ll march into your shitty little home and dissect every last one—”

  “SSSSS!” she hissed out, and the shadow behind her moved. It came at me faster than I could think. A whip lashing, snapping hard around my throat.

  It took me a moment to realize what the hell had happened. Her hair. A crimson plait had lashed out and snapped around my throat so tightly it cut the words from my mouth and severed the air from my lungs. I clutched at the noose with struggling fingers. I couldn’t breathe. It was crushing my throat. I rasped where I stood, the hair extending from the back of the fae woman’s head like a snake moving from one tree branch to the next.

  I reached for my revolver, but another strand of hair snapped around my wrist before I even got to it. Then another coiled around my other wrist. It was impossibly strong. My arms were pried apart, stretching like a medieval torture machine.

  She stepped closer, the gate of an icy serpentine human.

  Then slowly, the hair pulled me onto my toes. I stared at her, furious, choking and gasping.

  And then she smiled and with no apparent effort, lifted me off the ground entirely.

  I hung in the air, feet kicking, lungs screaming, her strand of rope hair suffocating me, my arms spread out wide like a depiction of Christ. I was dying and she was smiling, confidence beaming with menacing power.

  She pulled me closer to her, until we were face-to-face, inches apart. Then she said in a smooth, sadistic voice, echoing in my ears, “You have until midnight to bring the humans and the key to me, Detective. Or we will go to war against you—and wipe out the vile human race like a cure for a disease.”

  And then, in an instant, she vanished, and so too did her bonds. I fell to the ground, air flooding into my lungs, gasping and coughing. I gripped my throat, and then, furious, enraged, I roared out, “I won’t do it, you bitch!”

  I got to my knees, still coughing. Then I saw her. Elise was standing in the doorway, rain falling down behind her, hands over her mouth.

  She had heard. She’d been there, watching, listening.

  Then she turned and ran into the rain.

  SEVENTEEN

  I fell into the driver’s seat and stared over at the petite woman beside me. She was huddled down in the seat, her knees up to her chest. Goose pimples covered her bare arms as she rocked back and forth.

  “How much did you hear?”

  She didn’t respond.

  “I’m not going to hand you over to them.”

  She looked at me, her eyes wide and filled with tears. “You don’t have a choice,” she said. “You saw what she was capable of.”

  I turned away, rubbing my neck and taking in a deep breath. I felt what she was capable of. I had been made helpless. Maybe Elise was right; maybe I had no choice. I was no match for these things. The Chaun was one thing, but now this woman? She had taken control of my body. Her damn locks of hair were so damn strong. I had no doubt that if she had wanted to, she could have torn my arms from my body without an ounce of effort.

  My entire body was trembling. I had faced my fair share of bad guys. Killed some of them. But I’d had a sense of control. Even if I seemed to be at a total disadvantage, I always believed somehow I’d escape, somehow I’d win. No one could ever beat me.

  Which is why, when my life fell apart two years ago, it had destroyed me. I’d lost all control, and I’d been trying to get it back ever since.

  And now . . . now it was all gone again.

  Seven people had died today. I was knee-deep in death, and fighting the things I’d thought only existed in the movies and fairy tales.

  Worse still, I couldn’t tell anyone—the police, the military, no one would believe me, that was absolutely certain. I almost didn’t believe it myself. It all seemed like some sick nightmare, all too real.

  I couldn’t do it by myself. I couldn’t fight the Chaun. I couldn’t fight the woman. I was helpless. As helpless as I had been on that awful morning two years ago.

  Tears stung my eyes. I turned back to her, my eyes welling. “You listen to me. I’m not letting anything happen to you, okay?” My throat tightened on the words. “It’s just not gonna happen. I don’t know how yet, but I will fix this.” I wiped the tears and turned away from her. What was wrong with me? I couldn’t stop the damn tears. They just kept coming.

  Then she reached over and softly touched my hand with her cold fingers.

  “Okay,” she said quietly. “I believe you.”

  I wiped my eyes again. “Okay, then,” I said, sniffing.

  I wanted to get away from this place. Get away from Chris’s body. Get away from that woman.

  I turned the wheel and drove away from the little house on Cass Place, with no direction. All I knew was that I wanted to be anywhere but there.

  I was lost in thought when Elise said, “What are we going to do?”

  She must have said it more than once because she was leaning forward, looking at me.

  “I—I don’t know yet,” I said. “We need the tech you created in that garage. The fae woman said the Chaun didn’t take it, and she sure as hell doesn’t have it. So where is it?”

  “I don’t know,” she said, sitting back.

  “Do you think Stuart has it?”

  “I . . . I don’t know.” She shook her head.

  “Okay. First things first, we need to find Stuart. T
hen we find the tech that was taken from the garage. Hopefully Stuart has it. Two birds with one stone. That’s the plan.”

  “Then after that?” she asked, and I heard the fear in her voice.

  “I don’t know. Find a way to protect you. Then hand it all over to that fairy bitch and hope it’s enough, all before midnight, which is . . .” I checked my watch. “A bit over three hours away.”

  “What if it isn’t enough?” she asked quietly, her throat moving as she swallowed.

  “I—” I didn’t know what to say to that. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it, all right?”

  She didn’t respond.

  “I need you to think real hard about where Stuart might be hiding.”

  “I wasn’t lying when I said I didn’t know,” she replied, stiffening.

  “I know,” I said. “I believe you.”

  I thought about what I had seen in Stuart’s townhouse, listing off items in my head, trying to search out a clue. The bills, the computer, the books. Nothing helped.

  “Tell me about Stuart. I need you to tell me everything you know about him.”

  She nodded. “Okay. I can do that. Where should I start?”

  “At the beginning.”

  She nodded and bit her thumbnail. Then she said, “Well, his mother is Taiwanese. His father was in the military, so they moved around a lot. His father died of tuberculosis when Stuart was a teenager, then he moved to the East Coast to study. Then he finished his PhD in computational and systems biology at MIT.”

  “You think he could have gone back to the East Coast, or Taiwan?”

  “I don’t know, probably not. He hadn’t spoken to his mother since his father died, and as far as I am aware, Nicholas and I were his only friends.”

  “Okay, what else?”

  “He’s a genius. And by that, I mean he has an IQ of one eighty. That’s why he struggles to make friends. He can be awkward sometimes.”

  “What else?” I asked.

  “He’s an insomniac. He says he can’t switch off his brain, so he has to drink himself to sleep. That’s how he lost his license.”