Gremlins are Malfunctioning

by Susan Lain

  Shiloh closed her eyes, a dreamy expression of pure contentment on her face. "Yes, I've seen their world many times. I hear them too." She opened her eyes, locked gazes with Alek and pointed at him squarely in the chest. "You. You are like me. You hear them too, don't you?"

  Alek's chest deflated. Resignation set in. "Yes. I've heard them since I was a kid. But I've never caught so much as a glimpse of their world. Not awake or in dreams."

  The feet of a chair scraped the floor sharply as Eliot stood and strode out of the house. Alek heard the front door slam shut, the deep sound echoing in the corridors and halls. Alek fisted his hands, praying that Eliot would be willing to give him another chance.

  But this rare chance, here in this living room, Alek couldn't miss, not when they might discover what was in the traffic circles in the mythkin world.

  "Shiloh, you've seen their world. If I name a couple of places here in ours, can you tell me what's there on the other side?"

  A rough, warm hand landed on his arm. The shaman shook his head and met his gaze with a level, serene one. "Go after him now or lose him forever."

  Alek was shook to the core. He'd faced tough choices before. He could either get answers or he could find his partner. Alek was torn between what he wanted and what he needed. He had no doubt that if he made the wrong choice now, he'd regret it for the rest of his life.

  In the end, the choice was simple. He had lived with the extra sense his whole life and not known anything definite or factual about it. The yearning to learn more gnawed at his insides.

  Yet his feet were moving out the door before his head even caught on.

  His heart was running the show now.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Eliot got all the way to the car before he had to bend over and throw up in the bushes. He couldn't help it. Good thing the owner of the estate was deceased and wouldn't be around to shout about it or complain. He wasn't sure if it was the whiskey or the lies that upset his poor stomach.

  Wow. That had been one hell of a doozy. Alek's big secret. Right from the start, Eliot had suspected Alek wasn't telling him everything. But even he hadn't imagined this. Alek had an extrasensory ability related to mythkin? It was insane.

  Speaking of which, Shiloh had been locked up in an asylum due to her own so-called visions. What kind of experiences had Alek had?

  Eliot chuckled bitterly as he recalled Alek in the car, asking Eliot if he heard something. Alek clearly had, something Eliot could never know. And those angry quips about humanity. God, Eliot was so stupid. How could he have been this blind and dumb?

  How could he have thrown aside all his instincts telling him not to trust Alek?

  He slammed his palm to the ground, the sharp pebbles scraping his skin. He knew why. It had been the attraction and the sex. The awe-inspiring, monumental, earth-shattering sex. Eliot had chosen sex over common sense. Now he reaped what he had sown. Some seeds. He would have laughed, but there was no humor in his heart.

  "Eliot."

  Startled, Eliot wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and stood, facing Alek.

  Before he knew what was happening, acting on pure instinct, hurt feelings, and a shot of adrenaline, Eliot tensed and took a swing at Alek. His knuckles connected with Alek's jawbone.

  God, that hurt! Eliot's whole arm jolted as pain slammed into him, like he was the one who'd been hit.

  "You fucking bastard," Eliot cursed out loud, shaking his bruised and bloodied hand that ached like hell. "You miserable lying weasel."

  "Jesus fucking Christ, Eliot," Alek muttered, staggering back and spat out blood, his lip busted.

  Once Alek had straightened up, Eliot pushed him back with a shove to his chest. "You vile, loathsome toad. You untrustworthy snake."

  Alek actually chuckled hoarsely. "With all those references, I'm starting to think you don't like animals."

  "Just the human kind," Eliot retorted venomously and pointed a finger at Alek. "Just you."

  Alek raised his hands in surrender. "I'm sorry. This isn't easy for me."

  "Easy?" Eliot shook his head, trying to wrap his brain around Alek's words. "No. This was real simple. You had a choice to tell the truth. You didn't. I don't know what you imagined would happen if you told me but if you pictured bad things, like hate or judgment, you would've been wrong."

  "That coming from the man who just slugged me in the face," Alek quipped dryly.

  "No. No, you don't get to blame me for that." Eliot closed the gap between them and rose on his toes to be eye level with Alek. "People have died, and you still kept this from me?" Eliot released a disbelieving laugh. "Even when Baz clearly knew?"

  He watched as Alek closed his eyes and licked his lips. Eliot had never seen Alek so nervous. Rattled, yes, and even afraid once. But this was different.

  "I've told exactly two people in my life about my sixth sense," Alek finally confessed, his gaze meeting Eliot's. An odd plead glimmered in the blue depths. "My mother and Baz. I told my mother deliberately because I was a child and I trusted and loved her. Baz found out by accident. Thankfully for me, he never made me feel like a lunatic."

  Eliot said nothing, merely shifting weight from one foot to another, hands crossed over his chest, his eyes burning with angry light. He couldn't speak. If he did, he'd say cruel things that wouldn't help the situation. He waited for Alek to continue.

  Alek sighed in obvious frustration, hands on his hips. "Don't you see how easily it could have been me in a mental institution, same as Shiloh? My mother could have decided that instead of me being an eccentric child I was mad." He sighed, his eyes closing briefly. "In the old country, our traditional beliefs say that a soul can leave the body and wander about into other worlds. Heaven, hell, and beyond."

  Not having any knowledge of Armenian religious beliefs, Eliot chose not to comment.

  "When the soul wanders," Alek explained, "it's called 'having a vision,' or tesil gnal in our language. When the soul takes flight, it is invisible, but it can become visible—and assume the form of animals or inanimate objects. Good spirits can also appear as animals. Which is sort of what I've always heard: animalistic noises."

  No longer could Eliot remain silent. "Do they speak, like, intelligibly?"

  Alek shook his head. "I've never heard any words I'd recognize but…I've distinguished enough to know that their communication is more than mere signal vocalizations."

  Eliot gasped. "That's why you've believed from the start that the mythkin are sentient."

  Alek nodded, an adamant dark glow in his eyes. "Yes. I recognized the mythkin right away as the source of the sounds I'd heard since I was a child. When MERF recruited me, I figured this was my one and only chance to conduct research, both for them and for me. And I might be able to prove to everyone that the mythkin are not simple animals."

  Eliot frowned in confusion. "Yet when we were at the MERF labs you acted like you were in the minority about that. Like you didn't believe the mythkin could be intelligent."

  Alek clenched his fists, radiating some gloomy emotions Eliot couldn't clearly define. "I'm a scientist. To prove my theories, I needed facts and evidence to support my claims. Until I had that, I couldn't let them know about me, about my sixth sense. I had to keep that a secret."

  A part of Eliot understood and could relate. Keeping private things close to heart was rational and important. Private things, such as being gay or a submissive. Some things weren't meant for others and revealing them could make things hard.

  Alek started pacing and glancing back to the mansion. "Until Shiloh's declaration today, I never knew there were others like me out there. Except…her life experiences vastly differ from mine. I never lost my sanity. My mother believed I was normal, as based on her beliefs. She never told me I was deranged, never made me feel unwanted or unloved."

  "And Baz?" Eliot asked reluctantly but he had to know.

  Alek harrumphed, his gruff tone vexed. "He's the only sub I've ever had who's been close to me. I don't typi
cally let people past my defenses."

  "I've noticed," Eliot cut in with a low, sour tone. He shouldn't have felt jealousy or envy. Was Alek such a prize to possess? Was he worth the heartache? Eliot sighed inwardly. Regardless of who or what Alek was, Eliot's heart already hurt.

  Alek watched Eliot under his brow, worrying his lower lip. "Being close to someone and…being in love with them are two different things. Baz might not be the sharpest tool in the shed but he's a good man. He's fiercely loyal. When I heard noises that he didn't hear, he was fascinated. He kept my secret. I knew then I could trust him."

  "Where does that leave me?" Eliot asked quietly. "Why couldn't you trust me?"

  Alek shook his head angrily, threading a hand through his hair in irritation. "I don't even know you."

  Eliot grimaced. "You knew me well enough to fuck me. But I guess that's different."

  This was the end, Eliot decided. It had to be.

  He stepped past Alek and headed back inside. Shiloh had answers to his questions. Alek was a non-issue. Eliot must have fantasized the emotions he thought he'd seen in Alek. Heck, Eliot did too much of that, seeing things that weren't there. And Alek was the one who was supposed to have extrasensory perception, not him.

  "Eliot—" Alek called out behind him but Eliot increased his pace. He was done talking. "I'm sorry."

  Alek's soft words, barely audible, should have made Eliot feel better. But they served as a reminder that Alek had chosen not to trust Eliot, not even when their lives had been in danger. He had made a choice. Now Eliot made a choice, and that was keeping Alek at a distance as nothing more than a colleague he needed to solve this case.

  *~*~*

  Shiloh and the shaman still sat at the kitchen table drinking tea when Eliot returned, Alek in tow. More books had been opened and notebooks with sketches of half-done effigy mounds in messy heaps between the girl and the shaman.

  The tense ambience was thick enough to cut with a knife. Funny how that knife seemed to be lodged in Eliot's heart.

  "I'm usually a nice person," Eliot said with a cold voice he barely recognized as his own after he'd downed a cup of tea to rid himself of the lingering taste of vomit. "But people are dead and others seem to be out to kill us. Shiloh, what the hell is going on?"

  At first Shiloh blinked, as if hesitant. She pushed her hair behind her ear, seeming pensive. Finally she nodded, sharing a look with the serene old man. "Shaman Viho Gazing Mustang, my dear friend here, used to live at Erect Rock Reservation. He warned the oil companies building the hazardous pipeline that to disturb sacred ground through such a violent act would be disastrous, and not just for the environment."

  Alek, looking gruffer than ever, growled. "You knew the mythkin existed there? That the eruption could happen?"

  The shaman nodded, his white braids shifting against his plaid shirt. "Yes. I told them not to drill on hallowed land. That the spirits would be offended. They did not listen."

  Shiloh took the shaman's hand and smiled softly. Eliot could tell the two shared a bond of caring and friendship. The kind he'd thought he shared with Alek. Apparently not.

  "Tell them the whole story, Viho," Shiloh urged gently.

  The shaman nodded. "For centuries my people sensed a potent spirit living in the earth. We feared its power. We used ceremonies and rites to placate and keep it dormant. We hoped it would continue to sleep and not be roused by humans tampering with its home and hearth."

  "Viho is the Keeper of the Sacred Pipe Bundle of his people," Shiloh interjected fondly.

  The shaman smiled and patted the girl's hand. The fatherly gesture warmed Eliot's soul.

  It was Shiloh who continued the tale, her voice serious and somber. "Ever since my visions began, I've sensed a being of immense power there too. I told my father, but he didn't believe me. That was when he first sent me into an institution."

  Eliot held his breath. "What is this creature?"

  "A mythkin, yes, but unlike any of the others," Shiloh whispered. "I call him…Crimson."

  Eliot's brain seemed to freeze. A mythkin with a name? That implied a sense of self beyond what they'd dared to believe. He didn't risk a look at Alek, though, his feelings still too raw. Even so, he knew they both had to be thinking the same thing.

  Also, Eliot had to ask the question: why had Crimson chosen to connect with Shiloh? All mythkin had a dual nature, existing in two (or more) dimensions. Perhaps the creature had felt drawn to Shiloh because of her duality—a boy at birth, a girl at heart. Shiloh had a foot in both worlds. Might that have been the initial common ground between them?

  "What type of mythkin is it?" Alek demanded to know, his hands on the table fisted, his whole posture on edge. Eliot thought about calming him but let the man stew in his own shit for a change.

  Shiloh's lips quivered. She seemed scared. "Crimson is a tar titan."

  Alek inhaled sharply. "The Loreblast site was replete with tar sands oil after the eruption."

  "Yes." Viho met Alek and Eliot's gazes. "Crimson's awakening and Loreblast itself were a direct result of the illegal and unethical oil drilling. He is the most powerful mythkin I've seen. And his first contact with humanity started in violence and ended in bloodshed."

  Eliot blew out a breath, tears welling in his eyes. "He hates us."

  "What does it—he want?" Alek questioned.

  "The end of humanity," Shiloh replied, her soft, deep voice an omen of darkness to come.

  "You must take care," Viho warned. "Crimson is composed of tar sands. He is highly toxic. His physical presence is lethal to humans, animals, plants, all life on earth."

  "There is more," Shiloh whispered. "Crimson is old. He was old when this world was new. His power extends over lesser forms of life. Humans and mythkin. Crimson's mind is strong. He is capable of enslaving others, bending them to his will, compelling them to do his bidding."

  "What kind of mental powers does he possess?" Alek demanded to know.

  "He can charm his victims," Shiloh explained. "He can entrance a person to trust him, to adore him and fight for him, to worship him. His mind is…all-encompassing. His sphere surrounds you…" Her voice faded as her gaze turned inward.

  Again, Eliot was left puzzled by the bond this girl had formed with the tar titan. Shiloh seemed particularly susceptible to Crimson's allure. He wondered what the true story behind their relationship was. Were they friends, lovers, or familial? Or was she merely a whisper from beyond the veil?

  Was this mysterious tar titan aware of Shiloh at all times? The creature sure seemed to not care that Shiloh was revealing information about it.

  "Like nature itself, Crimson is neither good nor evil," Viho declared wisely. "He has been wronged by humanity. Acting on instinct, his sole purpose is to stop humans from inflicting more harm on his habitat."

  Alek snorted. "His habitat? You mean all of nature and this very planet we cohabit?"

  "We're not licked yet," Eliot interjected, casting a vicious glare at Alek who shrunk under the gaze. "How can we stop him?"

  "Wait." Alek stopped Eliot with a single look. It wasn't mean or derisive. Eliot could tell the guy had something on his mind. "Shiloh, over the past two weeks gas gremlins have behaved in an unusual manner—"

  Shiloh nodded. "Yes, Crimson has tried to exert his control over them, but they resist."

  "How?" Eliot and Alek asked simultaneously.

  "This world is far more mystical than most humans believe," Viho advised. "Energy comes in many different forms. One of them is the power of the earth itself."

  Eliot frowned in confusion. He looked at Alek who wore a similar expression, shrugging.

  Shiloh snickered. "Have either of you ever heard of ley lines?" When both Eliot and Alek shook their heads in reply, she explained, "They are unseen paths of mystical energy that connect certain special geographical locations, landforms and landmarks, if you will."

  "Natural or manmade?" Eliot asked, finally starting to grasp the idea behind the theory.

/>   "Both. Energy alignment does not distinguish between such things." Shiloh and Viho both seemed to be of the same mindset. "The only requirement is that the locations are aligned."

  Eliot chuckled. "That's why the gas gremlins behave out of character here, in Washington D.C., and nowhere else. Major Pierre L'Enfant and Andrew Ellicott were responsible for the city plan upon which D.C. was constructed. And what did they design?"

  Alek brow cleared. A ghost of a smile emerged. "Long, wide straight avenues, with traffic circles intersecting them." He snapped his fingers. "Ley lines. Landforms and landmarks."

  Eliot looked at Alek, buzzing with newfound enthusiasm. "And the gas gremlins must be tapping into the power in those places, allowing them to resist Crimson's influence on them. It was never about what was in those places specifically, only that they existed. Oh my God, Alek, they've been trying to warn us of the danger all along."

  Alek nodded, his cornflower-blue eyes burning with an electric flame. "That's why the gas gremlin in my car was so scared. They must all be terrified."

  "Wait." Eliot paused for thought. "Crimson hates humans. Why would the mythkin care if we are destroyed? They're not even aware of us or, if they are, they blatantly ignore us. Plus, they are incorporeal. What could possibly harm them? I know we can't."

  Out of the blue, Shiloh burst into laughter. "Not aware of you? Come on. They've studied you from beyond the invisible wall for ages and more directly, in our human phase, since Loreblast, waiting to see how you'd turn out, good or bad."

  Alek gasped. He opened and closed his mouth. He seemed to have trouble forming words. His eyes grew misty, something Eliot would never have imagined seeing if he didn't right then see it with his own eyes.

  "T-they are…sentient then?" Alek gave a watery laugh. "I knew it. I freaking knew it."

  "They also need us," Viho chimed in, grave and profound. "Loreblast cannot be undone. Our two species must from now on learn to share this world. Without them, humans will lack the ability to use electricity and machines. Without us, the mythkin cannot endure."