Warrior from the Shadowland

by Cassandra Gannon

  She winced and shrugged helplessly.

  Melanie pinched the bridge of her nose. “Uriel, honey, ix-nay on the azingphay, okay? At least, around my cousin.”

  Uriel didn’t let the interruptions deter him from his mentally rehearsed speech. “…And I would like to formally welcome you to my family, Sullivan, grandson of Parson.” He opened his arms in a sort of open air, long distance hug. “Brother.”

  Melanie somehow managed to laugh and cringe at the same time as she took in her cousin’s horrified expression. “Sullivan, if you’ll just listen…”

  “No. No, I’ve heard enough gory details. I can’t believe you have such terrible judgment. Wasn’t Brad, bad enough? Do you see the shirt that this basehead is wearing?” Sullivan gestured towards the ‘Sexy Grandma’ lettering plastered across Uriel’s chest. “Has he hypnotized you?”

  “No, I just really, really…” Melaine shrugged, helplessly. “Love him.”

  “Melanie, I swear to God…” The phone on Sullivan’s desk rang and he expelled a frustrated breath. “Don’t move.” He warned her as he picked it up. “What?” He barked into the receiver.

  There was a pause as he listened to the person on the other end for a beat. “Wait, what?” He looked stunned. “Beheaded? Who the hell would behead someone in this town?”

  Uriel looked over at Cross, meaningfully.

  “Shut-up.” Nia hissed. “I mean it, Uriel.”

  “Yeah.” Sullivan ran a hand through his hair. “Yeah, I’m on my way. Don’t touch anything.”

  “Sully?” Melanie frowned as her cousin hung up the phone. “What’s going on?”

  “Someone beheaded a lab tech over at the hospital. In the same serology lab where we arrested your boyfriend there.” Sullivan grabbed his jacket and headed for the door. “I hafta go over there. Can I trust you to watch the prisoners, Mel? I mean it. Don’t elope or something while I’m gone. This is important. We haven’t had a murder in Mayport Beach since the ‘70s.”

  Cross’ jaw firmed. That could only be the work of a Phase. Probably the Air House coming to see what happened to their six dead comrades.

  Shit.

  “Sullivan.” Nia called as the cop went striding off without bothering to wait for Melanie’s response.

  He turned back to glance at Nia. “Yeah? What?”

  “If you see anyone with a yellow streak in their hair,” she pointed to her highlight, “don’t trust them. They’re probably dangerous.” She must’ve been thinking the same thing as Cross. When decapitated bodies started popping up, it was a good bet that some Elementals had hit town.

  Sullivan eyed her seriously for along moment. “We’re gonna talk.” He warned and went stomping out.

  Cross glowered down at her. “I don’t think you should talk to him. He’ll be too interested whatever you have to say. Why do you have to be so pretty?”

  She gave him a haughty sniff. “We’re still not done discussing our ‘azingphay,’ so don’t bother trying to sweet-talk me, Cross, of the Shadow House.” Still, she stood on tiptoe to kiss the side of his chin as she headed over to Uriel. She had a grip on his hand to prevent the headaches, so Cross allowed himself to be pulled along in her wake. “Alright, what topic should we tackle first, Uriel?” She inquired. “You somehow having a human Match, the fact that Gion was here a little while ago, or the beheading at the hospital? They all have the potential to be super fun, so I’ll let you choose.”

  “Maybe Gion was the one who beheaded the lab tech.” Cross suggested. There weren’t a lot of murder sprees, natural disasters, and other assorted badness that he couldn’t picture Gion, of the Air House inflicting on the world. After all, the guy wasn’t called Darth Vader by most of the Elemental wiseasses just because of the black cape.

  “Why would Gion bother, though? Why would anyone?” Nia sighed. “My whole rebellion is falling apart. I never expected any humans to be hurt. And Tharsis will be so upset. He thinks humans are just adorable –He spent his whole career studying them!-- and now one’s been chopped up because of us.”

  “Not because of you. Because of the Air House.” Cross corrected, firmly. “Or it could’ve been the Reprisal. It’s not just you drawing them to town, either. Not if you’re right about the Quintessence hanging around this place. I told you that thing will bring all the crazies out from under their rocks. Everyone’s going to be looking for it.”

  “Melanie will help us with that part.” Uriel had apparently picked the topic that interested him and -surprise, surprise- it was his little blonde Match. “She has a computer with blood data on it.”

  “Well, it’s not really mine. It’s the taxpayers, but yeah. I have access to DNA records.” Melanie headed over to her desk, fishing her keys out of her pocket as she went. “Here, cowboy.” She tossed them to Uriel. “Go let your friends outta their cell.”

  He gave her an adoring smile and headed off to free Ty and Tharsis.

  “Why can’t your brother just use Water pressure to bend the bars or something?” Cross asked Nia. “I was expecting them to be gone by the time we got here.”

  “Our cells are Plexiglas.” Melanie sat behind her desk and booted up her computer. “That was grandpa’s idea, back when my grandmother was the dispatcher here. Now I get why he thought of it. You guys are like all kryptonite-y around plastics, right? At least, that’s what Uriel said about the handcuffs when we were in the backseat…” She trailed off and focused intently on her Jensen Ackles wallpaper.

  Cross and Nia exchanged a glance. “Handcuffs?” He mouthed.

  Nia leaned closer to him. “If we Phazed, I’d let you try that.” She offered, persuasively. She let her body slide past his as she walked towards Melanie’s desk. Her free hand brushed across the front of his pants, just long enough to nearly kill him.

  Until that moment, Cross hadn’t known it was possible to feel your pupils dilating. Arousal roared through him. He reached over to grip a wooden chair back as tightly as he could, expending pressure so he wouldn’t crush Nia’s fingers. Her other palm was still caught in his. Cross felt his energy sizzle out into the room and fought to control the urge to Phaze.

  Right now.

  The chair splintered under Cross’ grip and Melanie’s head snapped up.

  “Oh, great. You’re paying for that. You guys are –like-- stronger than humans or whatever. You should be more careful of our stuff. And our heads. I’m already going to have to pin this murder on some made-up human suspect and now you’re breaking the furniture, too? Not cool.”

  “Sorry. Cross is just tense because he refuses to Phaze with me.” Nia sat down on the edge of the desk, right next to a mostly dead fern. She raised a “what can you do?” sort of shoulder. “I keep telling him…”

  Melanie cut her off, gaping over at Cross. “Are you crazy?”

  “Yes.” He told her, seriously, still breathing hard.

  Nia rolled her eyes.

  Melanie waved that aside. “You have to trust me on this, big guy. Alright? I know what I’m talking about here. Phazing is for sure something you wanna try. I completely support it for our new national sport, in fact. You should sleep with that girl.” She pointed at Nia. “Why would you refuse her, when she’s so cute?”

  “Because, I’m crazy.” Cross kicked aside the assorted chair debit and scowled at Melanie. “Didn’t you listen to Uriel? I’m wrong. I could hurt her.” Even he could hear that that sounded pretty maudlin.

  Melanie glanced over at Nia. “He’s sort of got a whole dramatic, self-denial, emo thing happening, doesn’t he? Are you guys not over emo, yet?”

  “He’ll come around.” Nia said, confidently. “Do you really think you’ll be able to say ‘no’ to me forever, Cross? I am pretty cute.” She grinned, impishly.

  He ignored that because he had the real bad feeling that she was right.

  Shit.

  “Nia.” The door leading to the holding cell area swung open and Ty came rushing forward. “There you are. I’ve been so wo
rried.” She threw her arms around her cousin and hugged tight. “Are you alright?”

  “I’m fine. Are you guys okay? I heard Gion showed up.”

  “He did. But, then Ty had a panic attack and he left.” Tharsis came over, his too perceptive gaze on Cross. “You been taking care of my sister?”

  “I’d die for your sister.” Cross knew when he was being measured. Over and over in life, eyes had skimmed past him, adding up the sum of his parts and finding him lacking.

  Tharsis slapped a hand on to Cross’ shoulder. “I’m going to hold you to that.” He warned, good naturedly.

  And, for once, Cross saw only wary acceptance in someone’s face. Tharsis wasn’t going to try to keep him from Nia. That was good, because Cross knew that Nia loved her family. She wouldn’t like it if he was forced into a swordfight with her twin. But, it also felt… nice that the Water House seemed willing to let him try and prove himself before coming after him with swords.

  Ty gave Cross a very tentative smile and, having seen some of her history, Cross figured that was amounted to a “welcome to the family!” party being thrown in his honor.

  “Ty.” Nia didn’t seem surprised by Cross’ sudden popularity. Instead, she focused on her cousin. “Honey, you had a panic attack in front of Gion? God, Thar, he’ll tell Parald.”

  “I don’t think so…” Tharsis began, thoughtfully.

  “Gion knows about the Quintessence.” Ty interrupted. “We have to find it before he does.” She looked over at Melanie. “You are Uriel’s Match?”

  “He’s my Match.” Melanie corrected. She gestured towards the computer. “Here, you’re the hacker, right? Go to work.”

  “You’re taking this all very well, Melanie.” Nia mused. She glanced down at the fern on the desk, which seemed to have doubled in size and general wellness since Melanie had been sitting there. “Are you sure you’re a human?”

  “She’s mostly human.” Uriel reiterated. He came to stand next to Melanie, as Ty began typing on the keyboard. “Her grandfather was Wood Phase. Parson, one of our Elders. He left us and never returned. He must’ve come here and Phazed with a human. They had children and Melanie is of their line.”

  Everyone’s mouths dropped open. Having a human Match was shocking enough, but interbreeding? Humans and Phases couldn’t interbreed. It said so in every Elemental biology text ever written. Yet, Melanie existed. Defy all their laws and confirming that interbreeding could actually happen.

  “Surprise.” Melanie shrugged. “I was kinda freaked out, at first, but after the pine trees, and the Phazing, and the memory thing… Well, the ‘finding out that grandpa was part alien’ thing was just sorta ‘meh, whatever.’ Ya know?”

  Cross squinted, trying to decipher that.

  “We aren’t aliens.” Uriel sounded like he’d been patiently repeating that all day. “We are Elementals. We control the interconnected…”

  “I know, I know.” Melanie held up a hand. “Sorry, I know you’re touchy about the UFO stuff.”

  “There are no aliens in this galaxy.” Uriel said the words with Melanie mouthing along.

  Tharsis swallowed. “This is… amazing. I mean, really amazing.” He leaned forward to study Melanie, careful to not actually make contact with her body and set Uriel off. Phases really did not like other Phases touching their Matches.

  As it was, Uriel stiffened slightly at another man standing so close to Match.

  Cross knew exactly how he felt.

  “Everyone always said that humans and Phases couldn’t interbreed.” Tharsis shook his head. “But, here you are. Proof that we can find Matches outside the Elemental realm.” He was quiet for a long moment, just staring at her and Cross realized that the guy was being serious for once. “Thank you, Melanie.” He finally whispered. “I thought, I must have lost my Match in the Fall. Seeing you, though… It shows me that she could still be out there.”

  “You’re welcome.” Her mouth curved. “You might want to not mention your criminal tendencies to your dream girl when you find her, though.”

  “The Council won’t like it.” Cross felt compelled to point out. “Interbreeding with humans is just not a plan they’re gonna support.”

  “Not even Job has the authority to overrule the will of Gaia.” Uriel pulled Melanie closer as if Cross might try to steal her away. “I was led here to my Match and now I’m bringing hope to Phases everywhere. If we have Matches, we can stop our extinction. Have you considered…”

  “Oh, shit!”

  Cross was used to hearing that word in his own mind as he dealt with the world around him. He wasn’t so accustomed to hearing it bellowed by little red headed Water Queens.

  Ty slammed her hands down on the desk and squeezed her eyes shut. “It set us up.” She breathed. “Nia, it set us up!”

  Nia blinked. “Um… Okay.”

  “Don’t you see what the Quintessence did?” Ty exploded from her seat. “Why it donated that blood here in Mayport Beach? That’s the part that never made any sense to me.”

  “That was the part, huh?” Melanie muttered. She leaned over to rub the leafy surface of her fern and made a “whoa” sound as it tried to curl around her wrist. “Crap. Look at this, Uriel. I’m that Batman villain Uma Thurman played, all of a sudden. I hated that movie, too.”

  “You are developing some Wood Phase powers, my love.” Uriel grinned, proudly. “I told you the Phazing might affect your dormant energies.”

  “Ty?” Nia prompted when her cousin just continued pacing. “What are you saying?”

  Ty slammed her hands on the desk and dropped her head down in frustration. “I’m saying that if Elementals become extinct, we take the rest on the universe with us. Which is something not even the Quintessence can recover from. I’m saying that, being a Divine creature, it somehow knew that humans could give us Matches. I’m saying that we haven’t been tracking it. It’s been leading us here to her.” Ty gestured to Melanie. “So we’d see how to save ourselves and not end the world again.”

  That was the longest speech Cross had ever heard the girl make and by the expressions on Thar and Nia’s faces he wasn’t alone in his shock.

  Ty was pissed.

  “It used me.” She bit-off. “It thinks it can pop-up just long enough to get me to see it and a follow It down the rabbit hole.” She pressed the heels of her palms against her eyes and swore softly. “We have to start the whole search over.”

  “It’s not in Mayport Beach?” Nia looked stunned. “You mean, it’s not here, at all.”

  “I don’t know.” Ty murmured, tiredly, “It might be here. Or it might be in Albuquerque. Or in Bora Bora. Or on Neptune. But, I do know that the blood is a dead end. It’s cheese in a mouse trap, Nia, drawing us here so we could find out about the humans.”

  “Well, it is good news for you people.” Melanie pointed out. “What with your extinction and all.”

  Ty didn’t appear to hear that. She shook her head. “I should have seen it. I had all the research. All the evidence of human DNA in Elemental lines. It’s why some of us were immune to the Fall. I just never took it to the next step of considering Matches. There has to be Elemental DNA in the human population. How else would the genetic immunity be passed to children unless somewhere, at some time, Elementals and humans interbred? Humans would have to be potential Matches. I’m such an idiot!”

  “Yeah, I totally would have put that together.” Tharsis deadpanned. “Moron.”

  Ty was silent for a moment. Then, she gave a small laugh and looked over at her cousin. “I just really detest you, Thar.” Her tone held such affection that Cross knew it wasn’t just Tharsis and Nia who treasured Ty. She adored them right back. No wonder Job spent so much time with the Water House. They made you feel less lonely just by surrounding you with their open, real love for one another.

  Cross wrapped an arm around Nia, who still seemed shell-shocked. “You okay, baby?”

  “I was so sure…” She dropped her forehead against his
shirt and sighed. “I was so sure we could find it and fix things.” She sounded lost and sad, and it broke his heart.

  Cross pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “The Quintessence is out there. We’ll just have to look harder, baby.”

  Ty, Tharsis, and Nia all stared at him with identical hopeful, turquoise eyes. Cross realized that he was somehow being asked to promise Virginia that there really was a Santa Claus. What’s more he wanted to offer them some reassurances. Wanted Nia to go back to her usual scheming self, and Thar to keep his sudden optimism for the future, and for Ty to stop pacing. “Um, Ty? You said that the Quintessence poked its head up, right? So, it has to --you know-- be here somewhere. Even if it was just trying to manipulate you guys, it exists. That’s the most important thing. You can find it.”

  Ty digested that for a beat. “I can find it.” She echoed. Her gazed narrowed behind the cat’s eyes lens of her glasses. “It set things up for me to follow the breadcrumbs. Me. It knew I was researching humans and it used that to get me right where it wanted me. The Quintessence thinks it’s smarter than me, but it’s not. I might not have a lot else, but I’m smart.”

  “You have plenty else…” Nia began.

  An explosion of power cut her off.

  Overhead lights blew out. With a surge of energy, a small army of Reprisal soldiers filled the police station. And all of them were armed.

  Shit.

  Chapter Sixteen

  The element of danger adds zest to it all.

  Walt Whitman-"In the Sleeper"

  Nia’s eyes widened as she took in the mass of Reprisal soldiers filling the police station. Her mind went blank for several heartbeats, stuck in a “what the hell is this?” brain freeze as she tried to process the invasion. When she started thinking again, she immediately panicked that they’d come to murder her cousin. “Ty!” She screamed.

  And then Nia was being shoved backwards, so she landed on the far side of the desk. She hit the floor with a ‘thud’ and had the vague thought that this was the second time that day that she’d been under a desk during a fight. Only this time Cross had pushed her there. Nia poked her head up and saw her that Match had pulled his sword free.