by M. L. Ryan
Rachel gave me a big hug. “Well, since your car was totaled, at least you won’t have to worry about going to the DMV right away for a new driver’s license. That’s one less thing on your immediate to-do list.” She got up and grabbed her purse. “Come on, let’s make a run to the mall and get you some stuff. You can pay me back later.”
“Please, haven’t I’ve been through enough? Taking me there is just cruel.” I knew the mall was like heaven to her, but I despised the place when I was in the best of moods. There was no way I was stepping foot into that retail hell-hole today.
Begrudgingly, Rachel relented and we went to Target instead. Cortez insisted he accompany us. Aiden had sent word that Alex and Sebastian should be in Tucson by mid-afternoon and Alex ordered Cortez to “not let me out of his sight” until he got back. It worked out well. Cortez’s presence limited Rachel’s shopping extravaganza and I got most of the essentials — clothes, shoes, toiletries for me and food and a litter box for Vinnie — all in one convenient location. It wasn’t as wonderful as shopping on-line, but it wasn’t horrible either.
As we loaded my purchases into Rachel’s car, Frank called back. The good news was the Rav4 was covered, but because it was five-years-old, I’d only get Blue-Book value. The bad news was I hadn’t updated the value of my personal possessions in a while, and my insurance would only be paying a fraction of what everything was actually worth. At least I’m alive, I thought once again. I was really getting tired of reminding myself of that.
The first thing I did when we returned to Rachel’s was set up Vinnie’s litter box. He jumped in immediately, and I rewarded him for not fouling Rachel’s new apartment with a meal of some intensely fishy-smelling canned cat food instead of his usual diet kibble. Between being out in the rain, mouthed by a coyote, shoved in a box, and forced to hold in his bodily functions for hours, he deserved something special.
At two-thirty, Alex and Sebastian finally arrived. When Cortez answered the door, Alex burst into the apartment and wrapped me in his arms. “Carisa, are you alright?” he implored when he finally released me. His large hands cupped my face as he carefully looked me over. I assured him I was fine with a fervent, lingering kiss.
Eventually, Cortez cleared his throat and Alex and I came up for air. “If you don’t need me, Alex, Rachel and I will get out of your way for a while. I’m sure you have a lot to discuss.” He wasn’t just being polite; he knew I couldn’t say everything I needed to with Rachel there. She would always think the fire was caused by lightning.
Once they cleared out, Sebastian began to pepper me with questions. “What happened last night? Lyjwix was responsible for all the attacks? How did you overpower him?”
“Slow down,” Alex ordered. “Give her a chance to breathe. She’s been through quite an ordeal.” He took my hand in his and frowned when he noticed all the marks on my arms from the cactus spines.
“I had a little run in with a cholla and I lost,” I explained, trying to down-play how I became the human pin cushion. He must have realized what he could see wasn’t the extent of the damage because I felt the warm, electrical tingling as his magic rose. He closed his eyes and let his palms hover over me and within a few moments, all the uncomfortable, red holes were gone. I pulled my shirt up and admired my now unmarred stomach. Magical healing. Sweet.
I recounted the details – even the nastier ones – of my encounter with the now-departed Head of Trans-Dimensional Affairs. They listened intently, interjecting a question here and there, but mostly just letting me describe how the crazy guy almost killed me.
Sebastian shook his head when I had finished the grim tale. “His motivation was so convoluted.” He turned to Alex and continued. “Lyjwix was upset because a member of the royal family had a relationship with a human, so he tried to scare Hailey into parting ways with you. Then, when Hailey was discovered to be Yterixa, he decided she must die? The lack of reason is unfathomable.”
“I never even suspected him,” Alex fretted. “I’ve never particularly liked the bastard, but it is difficult to comprehend that he was responsible for everything. That’s a whole lot of anger just because he thought your ability to bend somehow demeaned his family’s legacy.”
“That reminds me, in Azeryx, Lyjwix told me you had issues with him because he once accidentally stole your girlfriend. Is that true?”
Alex produced a derisive snort. “He told you that, did he? Lyjwix did date one of my ex-girlfriends, but when she broke it off, he kept hounding her. She tried to remain pleasant, but no matter how many times she rebuffed him, he continued to send flowers and follow her around. Eventually, she asked me to tell him to keep away from her. I did, and he stopped. He hardly stole her. I wasn’t even dating her at the time.”
“I kinda thought the story was bullshit, that’s why I never mentioned it. But wouldn’t he be concerned that the lie would be discovered? I mean, I know I didn’t ask you for your version, but I could have. I wonder why he brought it up at all?”
Alex shrugged. “Who knows? Perhaps he thought he’d take the chance that even if you did ask me, you might believe his revisionist version to explain my obvious disdain towards him.”
“That’s nuts,” I said.
“Exactly,” Alex agreed. “There’s no way to assign logical thought to an irrational mind.”
“True, but somehow this would be easier to swallow if at least some part made sense.”
Alex and Sebastian wanted to go over and see what was left of my home, but I had no desire to see in the light of day what in the dark was too much to bear. When I balked at accompanying them, Sebastian insisted, warning that if I didn’t go now, it would only get harder the longer I avoided the scene of the crime.
We piled into a Jeep they had commandeered from the local Xyzok motor pool, and the closer we got to my place, the more agitated I became. “This is not like getting back on a horse after a fall,” I complained as I sulked in the back seat.
Alex glanced back at me in the rear-view mirror. “No, but the principle is the same. Remember the first time you ate Chinese food after the Angelica incident?”
Like I’d forget. After I’d impaled Angelica’s eye with one of the Asian eating implements, I had recurrent nightmares in which hoards of white laboratory rats — all with chopsticks protruding from their cheeks where their whiskers should have been — chased me through a maze. The scary part was when I reached the center of the labyrinth, with nowhere left to run, the rodent’s heads fell off and Angelica’s grew out of the bloody torsos. Needless to say, I avoided any place where I might encounter the utensils and broke out in a cold sweat if I even smelled Asian cuisine. Alex and Sebastian tolerated my phobia for a while, but when they finally forced me to sit down and eat Chinese take-out without benefit of a fork, I hyperventilated and passed out face-first into my Mongolian beef.
“Fine,” I grumbled. “But if it looks like I’m going to faint, make sure one of you is there to catch me this time.”
As it turned out, my anxiety was unfounded. It looked less…intimidating…now that the blazing inferno was extinguished. All that remained was the now blackened bathtub, the burned-out shell of my beloved RAV4 and the concrete slab of the foundation. Everything else was gone, reduced to charred bits strewn haphazardly here and there.
Shaking my head slowly, I wondered aloud, “How the hell did I do this? I’ve wrecked things before, but I’ve never completely obliterated anything. Or anyone.”
Sebastian peered thoughtfully into the ashy rubble. “The only explanation I can come up with, my dear, is the energy you would have funneled into transforming magnified the intensity of your destructive power.” He shifted his gaze to me. “If you can reliably harness that skill, you will truly be a force with which to be reckoned.”
Recalling the miniscule bits of Lyjwix that covered me and my living room after my paranormal assault made me shudder. “I don’t think I want a repeat performance.”
“Well,” Alex began, obviously t
rying to change the subject. “It could be worse. You have some insurance, and the reward money will help with the shortfall.”
“Oh fuck,” I groaned and covered my face with my hands. I had completely forgotten about the check. “I never got to the bank; it was in my purse.”
I peeked out between my fingers and scanned the area of the rubble that I thought was the place in the house where my purse had been. It was hard to really tell, though; it all looked pretty much the same at this point. Wet, ashy and unidentifiable. Alex poked around a little to see if, by some miracle, the handbag had managed to survive and protect the check in the process. It was no surprise when he came up empty.
Alex returned to my side and draped his arm around my shoulder. “I know you were counting on that twenty-five thousand dollars, carisa.”
I sighed deeply, and the smell of sodden, roasted house lingered in my nose as I inhaled. “Twenty-five thousand, three hundred and fifty-six dollars and twenty-two cents,” I lamented. I took one last looked at the carnage and said with as much positive energy as I could muster, said, “Well, nothing I can do about that now. I still have whatever I originally had in my savings account, but I’m not gonna lie. That reward money would have really come in handy.” Particularly now that I have to buy a new car. I plastered what I hoped looked like a genuine smile on my face and added, “The first order of business is to find somewhere to live.”
As I began to discuss potential rental options with Alex, Sebastian interjected, “I would not worry too much about that, my dear.”
“I do if I don’t want to pitch a tent somewhere. While I’m not completely opposed to camping, it will be way too hot for a couple of months. Maybe Alex doesn’t care, but I need air conditioning to remain sane.”
Sebastian smiled and patted my shoulder. “You will not have to brave the desert heat. You and Alex can stay at my place here in town.”
“You have a place?” I glanced quizzically at Alex, but he seemed as confused as I was. “Since when?”
“Since yesterday morning. And it is more than big enough for all of us. Even your wretched cat is welcome.”
This was news to me. Sebastian had never indicated he was in the market for local real estate. In fact, I couldn’t recall him ever expressing anything but disdain for Tucson. “I thought you hated it here; you’re always griping that it’s too dry, there aren’t enough trees and the local politics is maddening.”
“It has grown on me,” he said. “I find I am now invigorated by the low humidity, appreciate the beauty of the surroundings, and am amused by the governmental bombast.”
“Okay,” I drawled. Far be it for me to understand the capricious nature of Sebastian’s brain. “So, where is the new Casa de Kess?”
Sebastian turned around and pointed at the dwelling on the other side of the property.
“You bought the big house?” I blurted out.
With satisfaction, Sebastian replied, “I did indeed; and completely furnished.”
Alex jumped into the discussion. “It’s got to have six-thousand square feet. Why does one person need all that space?”
Placing his hands on his hips, Sebastian scowled at us both. “I hardly think, particularly given the current circumstances, that my choice of domicile should be an issue. Cannot you just be thankful that you will have somewhere to reside while your former residence is restored?”
He’s planning on rebuilding the guest house?
“I apologize if I sounded ungrateful. But, come on, this seems so out of the blue. We’re just…surprised. When did you decide to buy it? I didn’t even know it was on the market.” Had I been aware that it was for sale, I would have spent a lot of energy worrying about being kicked out by the new owners.
“Negotiations began a few weeks before we left for Coursodon. I had observed that the previous mortgagee was never around, so I made them an offer too profitable in the current dismal economy for them to decline. The house is spacious, but I envisioned utilizing it as a Xyzok hub for this region. The four extra bedrooms will come in handy when missions are being planned, and as I mentioned, you are more than welcome to use one of them until you can move back into your cottage. There is ample space for the three of us to coexist temporarily without getting in each other’s way.”
Alex grasped Sebastian’s hand in both of his and shook it. “That is most kind, Sebastian. We appreciate the invitation and accept your gracious offer.”
“Yeah, thanks, this is great,” I said, hopefully conveying more conviction than I really felt. Not that I was ungrateful; I was thrilled my little house would be rebuilt and I wouldn’t have to leave Maris and Ferris and all the other critters that made a habit of stopping by. But try as I might to spin the situation in a positive direction, I still had a niggling feeling of disaster just waiting to happen. It seemed like only yesterday when I was a normal, run-of-the-mill, chinchilla-milker, blissfully unaware that there was anything other than “us” in this world. Now, I was unemployed, up to my eyeballs in Courso intrigue, and able to turn into a bird. Hell, until recently, I had never done anything even remotely illegal and in the last few months, I’d killed two people. Not innocent people, but I’d killed them nonetheless.
I followed Alex and Sebastian toward the big house. As Sebastian unlocked the ornately-carved wooden front door, he began describing his plan to redecorate, including converting the den into a BDSM wonderland. Rachel had always intrigued him, he explained, but now that he realized she was into that kind of thing, he knew she was the woman of his dreams. He vowed to stop at nothing to make Rachel his.
I stared daggers at Sebastian’s back as he stepped ahead of me into his new house. If that arrogant, womanizing bastard thinks I’m going to stand by idly while he tries to seduce my best friend, he’s crazier than Lyjwix and Angelica put together.
That night, as Alex and I slept in our chosen bedroom – the one farthest away from Sebastian’s – I dreamed once again that I was at my graduation ceremony. This time, however, I was receiving a Ph.D., and the title of my dissertation was “Applying the Economic Satiation Effect to the Inter-Spacial Mating Habits of Dung Beetles: A Retrospective Analysis.” I had no clue in what field my degree was awarded, but nothing screams intellectual rigor like combining three or four unrelated disciplines into one research topic. As I was handed my diploma, the scene morphed. I was now in a dark, windowless room. Through the shadows, I could just make out Rachel, who was shackled to a conveyer-belt connected to an airport screening device. She was naked except for three tiny mortarboards that covered her privates like a bizarre, geometric stripper’s outfit. I heard a voice at the far side of the room; Sebastian was describing, in excruciating detail, how he planned to make certain she wasn’t sneaking more than three ounces of liquid in her carry-on. Incensed that he would question my friend’s truthfulness, I bent into my hawk form and tried to rip him apart with my talons. Unfortunately, he magically transformed my claws into Pokémon-themed finger puppets, which proved quite ineffective as weapons. Still unwilling to accept defeat, I flew frantically around the ceiling while attempting to come up with a new plan. Sebastian closed the distance between himself and Rachel, and anxiety took over. My intestines emptied, and Sebastian slipped in the copious pile of bird shit I’d just delivered upon the floor. In slow motion, he tumbled forward, hitting his head on the X-ray machine with a sickening crunch.
I awoke covered in sweat, my heart pounding. Staring into the darkness, I replayed the nightmare over and over in my mind. I was fairly certain that living in the same house — no matter what the size — with my former body-mate for the months it would take to rebuild my cherished home would suck big-time. But at least it would be easier to keep him away from Rachel. Could I really harm Sebastian if he hurt her? Oh, I knew he’d never inflict any physical pain, at least not without her permission. Still, I was sure whatever he had to offer was not in my best friend’s best interests. What the hell, I lamented as I rolled over. I’ve already offed two, wha
t’s one more between friends?
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About the Author
M.L. Ryan is a professional woman—which is not to say that she gave up her amateur status, but rather that she is over-educated with a job that reflects her one-time reluctance to leave school and get "real" work—and she spends a lot of time in that profession reading highly technical material. She has many stories rolling around in her head, and she finally decided to write some of them. She prefers literature not saddled with excruciating symbolism, ponderous dialogue, or worldly implications. She also doesn’t like plots so reliant on love at first sight that it makes her feel like her head might implode. M.L. Ryan lives in Tucson, Arizona, with her husband and teenage son, three cats, two dogs and an adopted desert tortoise.
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Books by M.L. Ryan in the Coursodon Dimension Series:
Special Offers
Special Rewards
Special Attraction
Special Passage
Special Deceptions
Coming soon, Book 6!
Other works by M.L. Ryan: