The elves turned as she entered and she sensed them relaxing slightly. Jess’s eyes traced her form and although his face remained impassive she could feel that he was not only relieved to see for himself that she was still in one piece but also pleased to see her. She moved to stand next to him, gravitating to his side without thinking. She wasn’t sure of the best greeting under the circumstances so she erred on the side of caution and went with a very formal, “Good morning captain Zarethyn, commander Jessilaen.”
Zarethyn nodded tersely, “Greetings Aliaine. I am pleased that you are attending this meeting with us in your capacity with the Elven Guard. We have had no success in convincing the human police to work with us and attempting to run parallel investigations is proving both frustrating and futile.”
“Ah, well,” Allie mumbled, “yes I can see that. From the beginning it’s been essential for us all to work together, but it’s so easy to get sidetracked. And the human police understandably are trying to work within their own system.”
He gave her an odd look, tilting his head to one side. Nervous under the scrutiny she kept talking, “You should know, I mean I hope it’s alright, I came here this morning. I had an appointment with detective Riordan and his partner. Oh and also the police mage. Well I had the appointment with Riordan but the other two also showed up. Anyway. About getting my car back. But they wanted to talk about the ritual murders and why I thought they might be connected so I was trying to convince them that the cases might be linked.”
“Were you?” Zarethyn said, sounding impressed. “Were you indeed?”
She blushed, feeling Jess’s approval. “Yes, I was. I know it’s probably not my place and all, but it’s just so important…”
“And did you have any success?”
“I don’t know, but they were willing to listen at least,” she said feeling tired. What if she was wrong in the approach she’d taken with the police? That could set things back instead of moving them forward.
The Guard captain nodded thoughtfully, clearly pleased with her initiative. Jess reached a hand out, clasping her shoulder in a reassuring grip. His voice in her mind was uncertain, “My love why did you not tell me that you planned to do this? I could have assisted you.”
“I didn’t exactly plan to do it, it just happened – I mean the opportunity presented itself,” she thought back embarrassed. “But when they were asking questions about the ritual I wanted to get them to see it the way I do, the way the energy is building. I wanted to help you, to help see the joint task force reformed. Because I’m tired of sitting on the side watching everyone fight while whoever is doing this keeps getting away with it.”
Zarethyn was frowning. His eyes going between the two of them, and she realized it must be obvious that they were communicating in some way and that her face was probably broadcasting her feelings as well as if she were announcing them. She blushed again and then felt even more foolish for being so obvious in her reaction to his expression. Jess ignored both his brother and Allie’s distraction, continuing the conversation. “You are still in great danger. We are doing our best to protect you and track down whoever is behind this, but it is not wise to keep pushing yourself out into the front lines. I appreciate your desire to help Allie, but you risk yourself too much already. Think of the consequences you have already dealt with, the physical damage, the tromluithe, the recent attack.” He shook his head slightly, his expression grim. Zarethyn looked fascinated.
She knew tromluithe was what the elves called panic attacks and she fought back a grimace at the reminder that if not for Brynneth, a medic with the Guard and Jess’s close friend, she would still be suffering the crippling anxiety. Her fingers traced the design on her badge and she bit her lip, thinking that she never would have been maneuvered into her current position working with the Guard if she hadn’t needed a way to trade for that healing…She shook her own head slightly. “No Jess. I have to start fighting back. Maybe all I can do is little things, a push here and a nudge there, but I can’t do nothing. Sitting back and doing nothing but wait for other people to act got my best friend killed and Bleidd shot. I don’t want any more blood on my hands.”
“At least wait until you have recovered from the strain of the spell you cast and are able to defend yourself,” he pressed.
She would have been annoyed but she could sense his genuine fear for her. Without thinking she spoke out loud, “I don’t think we have time to waste waiting.”
Jess’s eyes widened slightly when she spoke and his hand tightened on her shoulder. Zarethyn stepped closer, his voice calm, “Do we not?”
“Forgive me,” she said, looking away. “I don’t know why I said that.”
“You and Jessilaen were conversing, yes? Using the spellbond you have which ties your mind to his?” he asked, his voice politely curious.
“Yes,” Allie agreed, glancing up at Jess who was looking steadily at his brother.
“Fascinating. Forgive my negligence in this matter, I have been greatly distracted by other things, but this connection has not weakened?”
“No,” Jess answered, his voice clam but his emotions suddenly uneasy. “It has strengthened in the months since Allie cast the spell which amplified the bond we already had.”
Allie did not miss the emphasis that Jess put on that last. He was making it clear to his brother that he believed they had been joined in some way before she had cast the spell. She struggled to keep her face impassive as Zarethyn nodded thoughtfully. “Jess,” she thought to him, “what is wrong?”
“Nothing is wrong,” he thought back, his eyes never leaving Zarethyn. “There are many who believed what you did would fade on its own and some few who advocated finding a way to undo it. I have endeavored to explain that it is wasted effort to undo what is merely the amplification of something that occurred naturally.”
“Fascinating,” the Elven Guard captain repeated. “But perhaps a discussion for another day. As to the matter at hand, you say you don’t know why you said it, but do you believe it to be true?”
Allie leaned into Jess without thinking and he wrapped his arm around her shoulder. She tried to choose her words carefully, “Do we not have much time to waste? No, I don’t think we do. I think the killer who is still out there is too dangerous to allow to stay free-“
“That much we agree on,” detective Riordan said.
All three turned to find the detective standing in the doorway leading back into the station holding the security door open. Allie wondered how long he’d been standing there, a concern clearly shared by the Guard captain who nodded stiffly at the human police officer. “Detective Riordan. I’m glad to hear you acknowledge that we have some common ground.”
Riordan made a face at that and Allie suppressed a wince. Obviously things between the two groups had deteriorated far more than she’d realized. Riordan stepped back slightly, holding the door open so that they could enter, “I’m sorry about the wait Captain, Commander. We were running some information down and got a bit sidetracked. Ms. McCarthy I didn’t realize you’d be attending this meeting.”
“Aliaine is the cultural intermediary for Crannuiane Outpost’s Elven Guard,” Zarethyn said, his voice so cold Allie half expected frost to form on the walls around him. “Her presence is essential here.”
“Yeah,” Riordan said, his own tone less than friendly, “then it’s a shame you haven’t dragged her along to all the other meetings in the last week.”
Allie reeled slightly as the air filled with anger and resentment, thick and heavy. Zarethyn and Jess both stiffened at the detective’s words, but it was Jess who spoke, “Detective don’t end this meeting before it begins by insulting us. If the meetings thus far had proved at all fruitful perhaps it would not be necessary to have an intermediary involved in this one.”
Riordan’s lips thinned but Allie could sense that he wasn’t going to apologize, and that the elves were peeved enough already to be willing to leave. For an instant she struggled with
the urge to just let things play out and then she kicked herself. “Detective I volunteered to come here hoping that I might be able to help.”
“And is that part of why you came here earlier?” Riordan said.
Allie smiled, shaking her head, “No, but I understand why it looks suspicious. I had arraigned to meet with you on my own before I had any idea you were meeting with the Guard too.”
“And I suppose the Guard had no idea you were coming here?” he said sarcastically, stopping in front of the same room Allie had been taken to earlier.
“No, detective, I did not,” Zarethyn said his eyes glittering with suppressed fury. Allie wasn’t sure what had happened but she hadn’t anticipated that the normally easy-going, polite detective would act so openly confrontational.
Allie took a deep breath, trying not to get overwhelmed by the miasma of negative emotions or allow them to influence her. Despite her best efforts though she felt herself getting angry, and unexpectedly she thought she heard the voice of her friend Syndra whispering “channel your inner bitch”. She reached out and took Jess’s hand, desperate to ground herself. “Okay listen. Everybody is mad at everybody else. Fine be mad. You don’t trust each other. I can see that. I came here earlier to find out about getting my car back not to advance some kind of Elvish-agenda or whatever you’re accusing me of. You were the one who wanted to talk to me at that meeting about the murders, which is fine by me, but let’s not act like it was my idea. I don’t have any idea what’s been going on with you all or why everyone is at everyone else’s throats all of a sudden. What’s the plan here? We all just stand around and insult each other, we waste time fighting with each other, and watch the bodies pile up?”
“Ms. McCarthy…”Riordan started, but she could sense him wavering so she pushed.
“No, really. I just want to be on board with the plan, so the next time I get shot or whatever and you all stand around arguing over whose jurisdiction it is while I bleed to death I’ll know not to take it personally,” she said, her voice unnaturally high in her own ears. Jess inhaled sharply and she could feel his horror at the very idea, while Zarethyn turned his glare onto her. She refused to wilt under that formidable look. Swallowing hard she forced herself to keep going. “It’s essential that we work together. You think I want to be in the middle of this? Because if any of you think that, you couldn’t be more wrong. I want my nice normal life back where no one tries to hurt me and I go to work and go home and don’t have nightmares about the terrible things I see and sense, but that isn’t possible is it? The Elven Guard is committed to finding out what’s going on with these rituals before they are completed and both worlds are damaged. Detective you have dealt enough with the Guard to know that it is not wise to insult them, to question their word or their honor, yet you seem to be out to pick a fight. I don’t know why, but at this point we don’t have time to bicker like kids over who gets to be in charge. You all want to know what I think? Well let me tell you whether you want to hear it or not: I think this has to be solved as quickly as possible and I think we will never succeed unless we work together.”
Zarethyn’s anger had run out like water midway through her impromptu speech and he was regarding her now with the same intense scrutiny of earlier. “You have said that twice now. Are you so certain?”
Riordan was also watching her intently and she sensed his anger had broken as well, replaced by a mix of fear and worry. The fear concerned her, but she didn’t have time to think about it. “Yeah I am. I don’t know why. I just…it’s this feeling I have. If either group could solve it alone I think it would already have been solved. But whatever’s going on here…it’s going to take all of us to figure it out. And we don’t have time. I don’t know why I think that either, and I know I sound crazy right now, but I just know…feel…that time is running out.”
There was absolute silence for a minute, so complete that Allie could hear the distant sounds of phones ringing and people talking elsewhere in the station. And then detective Riordan nodded stiffly, “Alright. Chalk it up to too much coffee and stress and not enough sleep in the past few days. I am…sorry…if I offended anyone.”
Zarethyn’s head went to the side, still looking at Allie, and she could sense that he was impressed for some reason with her. For her part she was embarrassed that she had lost her temper and said some of the things she had, but it was too late to take them back and at least they seemed to have snapped Riordan out of his weird mood. The Guard captain turned to acknowledge the detective, his own tone also stiff, “Apology accepted detective. Aliaine is correct that we would be foolish now to let our own personal quarrels sidetrack us from focusing on what truly matters.”
Jess’s hand tightened in hers and Allie felt a wave of love and approval from him. It prompted her to reach out and question him as Riordan opened the door and ushered them into the small room. “I don’t understand. Why are you happy with me for getting pissed off and snapping at everyone?”
She saw his lips twitch into a small smile as they walked over to the table with its cluster of seats. “That was perfectly done my love. You said exactly the right thing to get both the detective and my brother, two very stubborn people, to back down and actually listen.”
“Oh, I guess I’m lucky it worked out that way then,” Allie thought back, sitting in one of the chairs facing the door. Jess took the seat next to her, with Riordan and Zarethyn sitting opposite. As they sat Jess gave her an inscrutable look, sliding his chair closer so that he could more easily continue to hold her hand.
“Will your partner be joining us?” Zarethyn asked, obviously not wanting to start if the other detective would be joining them late.
“Yes, he should be here any minute,” Riordan said, watching the door over his shoulder, “He just had to confirm something.”
A moment later the door swung open and both detective Smythe and the police mage Sam walked in. Allie tensed seeing Sam and looked at Riordan but his expression remained calm. Everyone stood and greetings were exchanged; Allie barely noticed, too busy hoping Sam behaved around the two elves.
“Sorry for the delay,” Smythe said, sounding like he meant it. He walked over to his partner and handed him a folder, which Riordan took with a resigned look. “We got back here as quickly as we could.”
The elves nodded politely. Allie sat awkwardly suddenly feeling very out of place and acutely aware that she really had no idea what she was supposed to do here. Her earlier outburst was entirely out of character for her and while it may have helped get the Guard captain and detective working together – or at least listening to each other – she doubted that it would help for her to keep lecturing people. She shifted in her chair, as the elves sat patiently at attention and Riordan shuffled through the paperwork Smythe had handed him. Sam sat against a wall away from the small table, his cane upright in both hands, a brooding expression on his face as he regarded the elves.
Finally Riordan sighed and closed the file. “Okay, so the cases are connected. Where do we go from here?”
Allie felt the shock that rippled through the elves, a feeling she was sure was plain on her face, but both Zarethyn and Jess stayed outwardly impassive. When he spoke the Guard captain’s voice was unperturbed. “What has changed detective?”
Riordan pursed his lips, looking unhappy, but again what Allie felt from him was fear. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Sam leaning forward, regarding her intently and she tried belatedly to strengthen her shields and block the other emotions out. After a moment Riordan said, “Ms. McCarthy asked us this morning if there was any connections between the woman who shot her and the new ritual killer, because we had already found out that the shooter had a previous relationship with the first killer.”
Jess’s eyes narrowed, “You failed to share that information with us.”
“At the time it didn’t seem to relate to anything except a possible motive for Ms. McCarthy’s shooting…” Riordan began, but Jessilaen interrupted.
“Which you knew we were investigating, since she is a member of the Elven Guard and the other victim is an elf.” His anger was plain, and Zarethyn gave him a warning look. Elven culture rejected strong expressions of emotion and the elves prided themselves under most circumstances with projecting an aura of stoicism. Clearly Zarethyn, while also angry about being excluded on this, did not feel it merited an obvious show of such anger. Jess caught his captain’s eyes and took a deep breath, leaning back in his chair.
“Yes, and I am sorry we didn’t share what we knew when we first found out,” Riordan said with surprising sincerity. “At the time we were pursuing a separate investigation and sharing information wasn’t our top priority.”
“And that has changed?” Zarethyn asked again.
“Yes it has,” Smythe said quietly. “Not only is the shooter a former girlfriend of Walters, but she knew Standish as well. They went to high school together and appear to have remained friends afterwards. That was what we were running down that made us late getting back here.”
“Indeed,” Sam said suddenly. “It’s a bit convoluted, and suffice to say Ms. Blackstones’ family is far from cooperative as they are quite thoroughly convinced that the Elven Guard was involved in her death, but it’s more than enough evidence to convince us.”
“Why should her family believe that the Elven Guard had a part in her death?” Zarethyn said, not trying to hide how much the idea offended him.
The humans exchanged glances, and finally Riordan said, “It’s hard for them to believe that some other random person killed her with a bladed weapon, when everyone knows the Guard carries swords.”
Into the Twilight: a Between the Worlds Novel Page 5