Pandora: An Urban Fantasy Anthology

by Phaedra Weldon

  Rachael picked up the phone and pressed the button. The time showed in numbers. 1:52 am. "Ebon is an elf lord in the realm of the Faerie, Detective Tully. He is also one of the few of his kind to still carry out the Wild Hunt."

  "You've mentioned that." He decided to table his Faerie argument for a bit until he got her story.

  "The Wild Hunt. It's a time-honored tradition for the Faerie Lords to take their hounds into the mortal realm and find more for their stable and more for their beds. Jeremy and I didn't know anything about this. Never even dared to believe other realms existed. Not until that night."

  "The night after the movie?"

  She pulled her hands away and clasped them on the table. Her fingers were thin, her nails shiny. "We'd stopped outside the theater. He proposed to me that night. We'd been together two years and never wanted to be parted. I was so…so happy. So was he." She sniffed. "That's when the Hunt came."

  Tully took a chance on a hunch. "The motorcycle gang."

  She nodded. "That's what they looked like here. In this realm. They chased us, surrounded us, and then took us. Their leader, the largest of them, took the ring Jeremy gave me and made a cairn out of it and put it in the woods."

  "A what?"

  "A doorway between this realm and his. Something only the Faerie can use. But I could sense it. I knew it was there all those years. And the more I thought about it, I knew I could open that door. Because the ring was mine, given in love." Rachael laughed. It was a hollow sound and skipped into a sob. "They can't love. Not like we do. Oh they have lust. Carnal need of it."

  "Is that why they took you? They wanted to rape you?"

  "Oh…not me, Arthur. Ebon wanted Jeremy." She looked at him. "Ebon had been watching Jeremy for a long time. Waiting for him to grow up. He was a beautiful young man. Tall, elegant, and his face…exquisite. There were so many times I was surprised someone as lovely as him would even care about a woman as plain as me."

  Arthur had indeed seen the beauty in Jeremy's face. Even in death, the kid had been good looking. The thought that this Faerie came and took him made Art's stomach wretch, and he pushed his tea away. "So he wanted Jeremy."

  "I was collateral. I was…the carrot he dangled in front of Jeremy all those years. He turned me into a beast once we crossed the realms. Threatened Jeremy with my life if he didn't obey him."

  "Beast?"

  "We're nothing but beasts to them, Arthur. Beast of burden. Tools to be used and abused. No Faerie ever touched me. Ebon wouldn't allow his only leverage with Jeremy to be sullied." She looked at her hands. "So day after day, year after year, Jeremy allowed Ebon to use him. The bastard dressed him in fine clothing, took him to bed every night and in the morning the healers worked their magic on Jeremy's body." She paused. "Do you know what happens when you eat Faerie food, Arthur?"

  "No, I'm afraid I don't."

  "You saw Jeremy." She moved her hair and tucked it behind her own slightly pointed ears. "Jeremy's transformation was faster. Ebon used magic and blood to turn his paramour into a Fae."

  "Is that the same thing? Fae and Faerie?"

  "No. A Fae is a turned creature. Like the beasts and the hounds. They were human once and considered second class citizens. Only having a higher rank than a Changeling."

  "And that's what your parents saw when you allegedly came back."

  "Sounds like it."

  "Then why not make one for Jeremy? Why make you one and not him?"

  "Because Ebon didn't want to break apart Jeremy's soul. He wanted him whole." Rachael flattened her palms on the table. "I told you they can't love, not like you and I can. But they can obsesses. They can crave. And he craved Jeremy. He wanted Jeremy to love him. Worship him. Bow to him. And Jeremy did everything he asked, but only…" She held up an index finger. "Only if he was allowed to spend one hour a day with me."

  "And this Ebon let him?"

  "After the first two years, yes. But not like this." She wrapped her hands around herself. "Not like this."

  Tully wasn't sure he wanted to believe any of this. It all made sense, which scared him a little. Faeries? Hunts? Lords? But he couldn't deny her appearance in the impound yard, and witness to her return from death nineteen years ago. "Tell me what happened that night."

  "The Hunt comes every year, but the Lords of Chaos take their turns so as not to cull the herds, as they say. There are nineteen Lords, and Ebon had to wait his turn to come again. So did I. As a beast, I was given a bit of freedom at times, to explore the hillside beside Ebon's kingdom. One day I found the cairn because it sang to me. And when I sang back to it, I saw it open.

  "It frightened me so I ran away and expected to be punished. When nothing happened, I visited the cairn again and memorized my path to it. Wore other paths in the forest to it. And when Ebon's turn to hunt came, when he and his men left, Jeremy came to me and I spirited him away."

  "You went through this cairn?"

  "Yes. But Ebon knew his prize was gone and came after us. One of his men's spears struck true as we ran, but we kept running until Jeremy couldn't anymore. We hid in the alley…where he died."

  "And you were…" Tully's brain and imagination finally put the pieces together. He pushed his chair back and stood up. "You expect me to believe you were the motorcycle?"

  "I don't expect anything, Arthur. It's the truth."

  "People don't turn into motorcycles and back to people." After the story he'd just heard, Tully hated the way his voice sounded in his own ears. "And there aren't any such things as Faeries. It's all just myth and legend. I'll tell you want I think happened. I think you two got into trouble with that motorcycle gang and they took you like you said. I don't know where they took you, but you've been held hostage ever since and then you got away so they came after you."

  Rachael laughed. "You would deny the facts in front of you?" She pushed her chair back and stood and faced him. "Regardless of whether you believe me or not, if we don't get to that cairn before dawn and destroy it, he will come for me, and I'll be powerless to stop him. So will you." She abruptly looked sad. "And I wouldn't want him to take you as my collateral, Arthur." She turned and headed to the door. "We have to get to the woods out past the old white church."

  "Rachael, I don't—"

  "Don't rationalize it, Arthur. I'm not kidding. You've seen me. You've spoken to me. Lord Ebon cannot let you live. So we shut the cairn down or run for the rest of our lives."

  The Hunt

  The Stars Are Fire: Nine

  Apparently the old myth about Faeries and Iron was true. To a point. A lot of their allergy depended on the amount of iron within an amalgam. Some steels burned while others only created a barrier. The fence at the impound yard had had enough steel in it to prevent her from touching it. Tully's old service revolver had enough in it to burn her skin, though the wound healed pretty quick.

  His truck, though made of steel, wouldn't burn her as long as her touch didn't linger on the metal, but it would act as a shield to protect her from Ebon's mind. Because he made her what she was, he could tell where she was.

  "The only reason he hasn't come for me yet is because he's been searching for a new paramour." She smirked as they drove through town toward the old church and the woods beyond. "I like to think it's taking him a long time."

  "He'll take another young man?"

  "Or woman. The sex of the mortal doesn't matter to him. It depends on what he finds pretty."

  "I find it hard to believe that he'd allow someone to kill someone he cared that deeply for. Jeremy, I mean. He'd just let him die."

  "Oh…I doubt Ebon even knows Jeremy's dead, or that it was done by the hand of one of his own men. They don't sense death the way we do, Arthur. I wasn't kidding when I said if he found Jeremy's body intact, he would simply use a spark he kept from Jeremy's soul and bring him back."

  Tully shuddered at the idea of escaping one's rapist through death, only to come back and discover that not even death could end the suffering.


  Thunder cracked the sky just as a blinding light filled the road. Tully was just past the theater where Rachael and Jeremy were attacked. He slammed his breaks but the action caused the vehicle to skid on the wet, oily asphalt. His truck turned to the right just as something slammed into the driver's side and Tully yelled out as the lighter bed of the truck came up and then over as it rolled onto its top.

  "Arthur!" Rachael screamed at him as he hung upside down from his seat belt. She was pushing at him and patting his face. "We have to go! He's coming!"

  Who's coming? Thoughts rattled around in his brain as he fumbled for his seatbelt release. He had to keep conscious; they had to get to the woods. The ache spreading from the left side of his skull told him he'd struck his head on impact…but what had he hit? He hoped to God it wasn't another car.

  Rumbling like a swarm of bees came as he found the release and fell on his shoulders. His driver's side window was gone, so he pulled and pushed himself through it. He looked inside to grab Rachael, but she wasn't there.

  "They're coming!"

  Tully grabbed the side of his upside down truck and pulled himself into a standing position. His vision wavered a few times before he saw Rachael on the other side of the truck, already free. A glowing nimbus of yellow surrounded her.

  He turned to see a row of headlights approaching. Motorcycles. That explained the buzzing hum. A quick look around showed him he hadn't hit a car, or a tree.

  Then what?

  Rachael was beside him, pulling his arm. "We have to run now!"

  "I can't…" he stumbled after her. "I think I hit my head."

  She stopped and looked back at the approaching gang. "Arthur Tully, do you swear by the Realms of Chaos that you will protect me and my secret upon pain of death?"

  Tully blinked at her. "Rachael, I—"

  "Swear it!"

  "I swear. But what the hell did that mean?"

  Rachael wasn't there anymore.

  But the motorcycle was. The hybrid-looking masterpiece he'd seen in the alley and the impound yard. It came to life and revved its engine at him.

  Get on! We don't have time!

  The voice in his head was Rachael's. "How—"

  The bike pulled out ahead of him, then stopped. If you don't get on, they'll take you!

  Tully finally got on and his head rocked back on his neck as the bike took off before he had his feet or hands in the proper position.

  "Slow down!"

  We can't. We have to get to the cairn.

  Tully noticed they were still on the road to the woods. But the glare from behind announced the gang was in pursuit. He bent forward and tried to steer, but Rachael wasn't having any of it. Let me drive!

  "You ever driven a motorcycle?" he yelled, though he was pretty sure his voice was lost in the wind.

  You ever been one?

  Apparently she could hear him. He didn't like what the answer insinuated. Logically, he knew he was riding a motorcycle that had been—as of three minutes ago—a woman. He was so out of his element.

  They veered to the right and onto a dirt road. Tully knew this road. He also knew it had one of those bars across it to prevent traffic from coming in. As they approached it, he gritted his jaw, but noticed the bar was open as they sailed past.

  His teeth rattled as the bike hit pothole after rut. Mud coated his pants and his shirt as they splashed through puddles, but she never slowed down.

  Until they hit a dead end and the road became woods. The bike came to a stop and Tully actually fell off. He rolled over onto his side and almost threw up. Luckily, he kept it together, and managed to push himself up on his hands and knees.

  We have to go!

  "Rachael…" he said in a breathless whisper. He was panting as if he'd run all those miles himself. "A bike can't go any further."

  No, but I can.

  He heard a horse's whiny.

  Tully turned and looked up into the face of a magnificent brown mare. She pawed at the ground beside him and pushed him with her nose. Let's go!

  Light flickered down the road and he heard and felt the roar of a dozen motorcycle engines. He got up, grabbed her mane and pulled himself up onto her back.

  Hold on!

  They took off into the woods. Wet brush and low hanging tree limbs whipped at his face and front and Tully nearly fell off. He decided to bend forward like he would with a motorcycle and that helped a bit. It was too dark to see where they were going even though the sky was noticeably lighter. The sun was coming up.

  "So what happens if we destroy this cairn?"

  Ebon and his men will be trapped here. Once the sun touches them, they'll become ash.

  Tully frowned. "Really?"

  Yeah.

  "What about you? Will you become ash?"

  I'm Fae, not Faerie.

  Right. And she expected him to understand that while riding bareback on a talking horse through the woods.

  When they came to a natural clearing in the woods, the horse stopped and Tully went ass over end through the air.

  He missed Rachael's transformation back to human as he stood and dusted himself off. "There!"

  Tully looked at where she pointed, noticing she was naked once again. He saw a rotting log and one of the larger stones from the quarry nearby. He didn't know if this was the rock's natural resting place or part of the initial debris of the blast that opened the quarry fifty years ago. Moss and lichens covered the gray and white surface, indicating it'd been there a long time.

  "The rock?"

  "It's not the rock, it's what's on top of it. Here," she said as she ran to him and pulled him away. Now he was really aware she was naked. She smelled of earth and sweat as she put her hands over his brow. His eyes itched as if he were having an allergic reaction. "Now try and unfocus your eyes on the space just above—"

  That's when he heard the baying of hounds. It was something right out of a movie. He didn't hear the hum of motorcycles anymore, but the thud and pound of horse's hooves. They vibrated the ground under his feet and he turned in time to see a large, black, armored stallion as it leapt into the clearing and stopped at a skid in front of them.

  When the horse reared up, others appeared around the clearing, all mounted on dark stallions.

  Tully's eyes widened when he saw them. Tall, thin men with bright gold eyes and elongated ears, the tips of which poked through and past their thick tresses. They were all armored in black, except for the largest of them. Blood red armor covered his skin and clanked as he dismounted and brandished a sword. His eyes were the fiercest and his face the coldest. Tully had only seen that look in the eyes of sociopaths.

  The Faerie spoke something in a funny language as Tully stepped in front of Rachael. His hand went to his belt, but his gun wasn't there. He assumed it was still in the wreck of his truck. Something brushed the side of his head and when he wiped it away, his fingers came back bloody.

  "He is dead!" Rachael shouted in English. "You can no longer torment him!"

  The red-armored nightmare laughed as he threw back his head. "Then I will call his soul forth, little beast."

  "His body is burned. There is nothing you can do to him now. He is beyond your cruelty."

  Tully really wished Rachael would shut up. He felt like a piece of plywood between a charging bull and its goal. There really wasn't much he could do against this guy, or the dozen or so other horsed…Faerie…surrounding them.

  "The Sidhe have lost."

  "The Denn'ah Sidhe never lose, little beast." The red-armored knight stepped forward and looked at Tully as if seeing him for the first time. "I will have my replacement. I've spent the last hour of our Hunt searching for the two of you. This one will do. He protects you, just like my pet protected you. He is not as pretty…but he has fire in his eyes. I will have many happy nights breaking him."

  Laughter came from the circle around them.

  Tully's heart banged against his chest.

  "I don't fucking think so." The words came o
ut of Tully's mouth before he could stop them. After what Rachael described of what Jeremy went through for twenty years with this guy—there was no effing way he was going have that done to him. "I'd fucking die before I'd let you touch me."

  "They all say that," one of the others said in the quiet. The sun had just tipped the horizon and the light from it was coming through the trees. "And they all become pets."

  "We must leave now, Lord Ebon."

  You have to break the ring.

  Tully started to answer out loud when he heard Rachael in his head again, but he held his tongue. He didn't know if she could hear him when he silently asked her what ring.

  The one on the stone. I gave you the sight so you could see it. I can't. And you are bound to me.

  I'm what? Tully didn't chance looking at the stone to their left. He didn't want to take his eyes off Lord Ebon.

  You have to do it before he releases the magic!

  Tully swallowed. He had no idea what that meant, but he felt the force of her desperation behind it. And then he felt something else as Ebon raised his hand.

  Hands around his neck. He tried to grab them, but there was nothing there. Tully gasped as he stood where he was, held in place by something invisible but tangible.

  "No!" Rachael ran out from behind Tully and moved in front of him. "Please!"

  Ebon narrowed his glowing eyes as he shifted his gaze from her, to Tully, and then back again. "You've already bound this one."

  "Yes."

  "Just as you bound him."

  "Yes."

  The fingers released Tully's neck and he went down on his knees, gasping for air and coughing. His head pounded harder and his heart slammed against his ribcage. He went forward on his knees and saw the stone to his left.

  He heard Rachael cry out.

  "Beast! I should have killed you rather than make you Fae!"

  "My Lord! The sun is coming!"

  Through the coughing, he saw it—a single solitaire ring resting on the stone. It twinkled under the approaching sun and he heard a tone in his mind. It cracked and became crystalline as he turned his head to a rock by his hand.