by Martha Carr
CONTENTS
Dedication
Legal
Oriceran Map - USA
Oriceran Map
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Author Notes - Martha Carr
Author Notes - Michael Anderle
Other Books
Other Books A
Social Links
Series List
DEDICATION
From Martha
To everyone who still believes in magic
and all the possibilities that holds.
To all the readers who make this
entire ride so much fun.
And to my son, Louie and the wonderful Katie
who remind me all the time of what
really matters and how wonderful
life can be in any given moment.
And finally, a special thank you to
John Nelson of the Austin, Texas
Police Department
who patiently answers all of my questions.
I hope I made you proud.
Thank you for your service.
From Michael
To Family, Friends and
Those Who Love
To Read.
May We All Enjoy Grace
To Live The Life We Are
Called.
PROTECTION OF MAGIC Team
JIT Beta Readers
Erika Daly
Kimberly Boyer
Keith Verret
Alex Wilson
James Caplan
Kelly ODonnell
John Raisor
Joshua Ahles
Mickey Cocker
If we’ve missed anyone, please let us know!
PROTECTION OF MAGIC (this book) is a work of fiction.
All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Sometimes both.
This book Copyright © 2017 Martha Carr and Michael T. Anderle
Cover Design by John-Paul Balmet
Cover copyright © LMBPN Publishing
LMBPN Publishing supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.
The distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
LMBPN Publishing
PMB 196, 2540 South Maryland Pkwy
Las Vegas, NV 89109
First US edition, August 2017
The Oriceran (and what happens within / characters / situations / worlds) are Copyright (c) 2017 by Martha Carr and LMPBN Publishing.
CHAPTER ONE
Leira grasped at her mother's hand, trying to reestablish the magical connection and find her grandmother one more time. But the hum of energy was gone.
"She was right there! I know it was real." Her heart was pounding. Leira looked around the patio as if she expected to see Mara standing by the corn hole game or lying in one of the hammocks near the fence. "Who the hell was that other woman? Is my grandmother in danger?"
Estelle watched them from the dining room inside, smoke curling around her red bouffant. She stubbed out a cigarette and left her perch to go see about a customer.
Eireka put her hand on Leira's knee, firmly pressing down. "She was there, you're right," she said, gently. She wasn't sure how to tell Leira and chose her words carefully. "My mother, your grandmother..." She took a breath, trying to keep the fear out of her voice. "That place we saw... She's in a place called the world in between. Have you heard of it?"
"Yes, Correk's mentioned it," she said, distracted. Leira kept looking around, wanting to believe she could find Mara, trying to shake off the dread from the dead woman. It was making it harder for her to channel the magic. She shook her head. "I don't know. He didn't say much. Made it sound horrible."
Eireka let out a shudder, her hand shaking on Leira's knee. Leira snapped her head around, studying her mother's face, just like she had done so many times to perps in an interrogation room. People always gave away so much information before they ever uttered a word.
"You're afraid. Tell me why," she said, sharply. It had been too many years without her mother and too many cases using her skills to get what she needed. The fastest route possible.
Eireka gave her daughter the same look in return. "I'm not a suspect, my dear, and I won't hide the truth from you."
Leira softened and asked again, this time more gently. "I'm sorry, habit. That fucking ghost that was with her. Wait, not a ghost. What the hell was that?" She shook her hands. "You're right. Tell me what's happened to Nana." The word, Nana, sounded strange to her after four years of not having a reason to say it. No one to say it to. The ache pounded in her chest.
"I'll tell you what I know. It's not much. There's a place between Earth and Oriceran, like a purgatory that captures both the living and the dead and holds them there, forever."
"I know, Correk's told me about it. Sounds more like hell."
"Well, you're right. Your Nana used to tell me stories about the place when I was little. She said it was the most feared place by anyone on either planet. The newly dead are said to never get the chance to pass through completely to the other side and the living are suspended in time, watching their loved ones grow, get old and die."
"They're in there together?"
"Yes, for all of time. Able to see both worlds but not really...anywhere."
Leira sat back, trying to take in the idea. Her eyes grew wide. Four years. Her grandmother must have been trapped for more than four years. Her body began to shake. "This is worse than death," she whispered.
Eireka didn't say anything, just kept her hand on Leira's leg, doing her best to ground her. It took Leira a moment to realize her mother was pushing energy through her leg. Leira made herself take a longer look at her mother's tired face.
She wasn't used to having someone else to be concerned with, worry about, wonder how they were doing. There was Hagan but he had Rose who did a far better job of hounding Hagan to eat better, get a little exercise. Not that it had much of an effect.
But her mother was here, sitting next to her. Leira finally noticed the pain in her eyes.
"Your mother is trapped in the world in between," she said. "I'm so sorry. This should be one of the happiest days for you."
Eireka's eyes filled with tears and she brushed a dark lock of hair off Leira's forehead. "Oh, baby girl, it is. It still is. Nothing can steal this away from me." Eireka shook her head, clearing away the rush of memories and of regret for things that she had missed. "But, my mother is trapped in an eternal waiting room and with the dead shoving her around. No," she said, shaking her head again.
"Not good enough. I don't accept this." She stood, clenching her fists, the same defiant stance that Leira so often took. It startled Leira to see, even without her mother there when she was growing up, she was like her.
"No! We are Berens women," said Eireka. "We don't accept our fate. We do something about this. Leira, we're finding a way to get Mom out. You got me out, there has to be a way."
Leira took her hand. "Not that I'm not on board with the whole idea. I'm known for go first, find out everyone thought it couldn't be done, later. But, getting you away from stupid humans was difficult and now, we're moving into magically impossible."
"We're going to need help." The two women said it in unison, their one eyebrow arching the same way.
Estelle almost dropped the tray she was carrying, startled at the mirror images of mother and daughter. She clamped down on the cigarette trapped between her teeth, set the tray down with a thump on the top of the bar and yelled, "You need food! You're wanting eggs! Eat up because the lunch crowd will be here soon and I can't hold them back from sitting out in the sunshine."
***
"I smell food." Correk shut the door to the cottage behind him, looking at the two determined women standing in front of him. "Curious," he said, walking past them toward the food on the bar.
Leira looked at her mother. "Correk!"
"Good a place as any to start!" Eireka followed Correk over to the bar where he was already loading up a plate.
"You'll get some bacon, I told you that already," he said, annoyed with the troll peeking out of his pocket.
"Is he a good idea to have out here in the open with normies so close by?" Leira did her best to casually glance up at the row of windows.
"You mean the humans? Those are still your kind. Normies." Correk laughed. "Try leaving the troll behind when there's food. I've told you, any magic but yours doesn't work very well on him. Besides, he felt the disturbance and was wailing in there." Correk frowned and raised his eyebrows, waiting for an explanation.
"Yum fuck!" The troll was halfway out of Correk's pocket, a leg hitched over the opening when Correk plucked him by the scruff of his neck, depositing him in Leira's hands.
"Saved by Yumfuck. You need to feed him and put him down for a nap."
"I thought we got the kibble for just this reason."
"Try telling a troll that he's going to eat bland dog food when he can smell bacon. I'm not sure even a spell would keep him in his nest." Correk picked up a plate and scooped up the bacon, hesitated but then mumbled, "why not," and put another piece of bacon on his plate. "Craig and Lucy told me about something called an, all you can eat breakfast buffet. I would like to try that."
"You must have the metabolism of a hummingbird."
"Very astute of you and accurate. Same reason you are able to eat my leftover pizza, and yes, I noticed, and still get into your skinny jeans."
Leira stood by the plates, not moving, looking at Correk.
"What? What is it? Do I have something on my face?" He rubbed his hand over his day-old beard. Two women sitting at a table by the closest window smiled and waved at him. Correk looked confused and waved back. "What is going on with everyone this morning? This is related to the troll's outburst, isn't it? Someone want to tell me more?"
The troll squirmed in Leira's hands as she handed him back to Correk. "You have a pocket. Just give him some of your eggs."
"Insufferable," said Correk, spooning eggs into the troll's wide-open mouth.
"Yum, fuck," chirped the troll.
"Who taught him that?" asked Eireka.
"Your daughter," said Correk, laughing. "It's his name, now."
Leira ignored what Correk was saying, intent on telling him about Mara. She shifted her weight, not sure how to say it. Finally, she blurted it out. "I found my grandmother!"
Correk stopped mid-bite, turning to look at Leira. "I was only inside for an hour. How is that possible? The two of you need to be careful using magic at all, much less so close to your home, and out here." His annoyance was growing. "Well, where is she?"
"The world in between," said Eireka, gravely. "We combined our energy, not exactly using magic and apparently opened a space just big enough for my mother to show herself. That's it," she said, waving her hands. "We didn't get any kind of real message." There was a sound of disappointment in her voice.
Correk put down the bacon he was holding and wiped his hands on the napkin. "This is bad news, I'm sorry. I know how much you hoped to reunite more of your family. I'm really sorry, Leira."
"Now, hold on there a minute." Leira sat down on the bar stool next to him as Eireka pulled one around to face both of them.
Correk looked at the two of them suspiciously.
"You know it's not possible to get someone out of there. Even finding them, or take it another step, seeing them is very difficult from this side. You may have to find comfort with knowing where she is and do your best to let go." He looked at the two women in front of him and rolled his eyes. "What am I saying? Of course you won't drop it. Okay, fine, ask me. I was sent here to help you. Better than watching you do something dangerous without any kind of help."
Eireka hugged him around the neck. Leira felt a pang as she hesitated, unable to so easily do the same. Still, a smile came across her face.
"But, I'm still going to sit here and eat while you grill me, Detective."
"Special agent," said Leira. "Eat away, but try and swallow before you answer anything."
"Tell me what you saw," he said, tearing off a piece of bacon and sliding it into his pocket. A loud trill sounded. "Love of bacon knows no boundaries. More powerful than a portal," he said, sliding an entire piece into his mouth. The two women at the other table laughed and waved again.
Leira looked at her mother. "It's the elven blood. He gives off a kind of magnetism that makes humans loopy," said Eireka.
Leira looked at Correk, a grease stain across his cheek. "I don't see it."
Eireka smiled, looking at the two of them. "That's because you're part elven too. I'm surprised you haven't noticed men paying a little more attention to you."
"She doesn't notice much unless it involves a case, and particularly a dead body, and then she's on it. Or if you try to eat her Doritos." Leira elbowed him in the ribs, making him spit out the piece of bacon he had in his mouth. He ate it anyway.
"Gah, I do not see the appeal at all!" exclaimed Leira.
Eireka put a hand on each of them. "This makes me happy. You made another family, Leira. I wasn't sure what happened to you and after you stopped coming all the time..."
The smile dropped off of Leira's face. "I'm sorry...I was wrong...I..."
"It's okay, it's hard to know what to do with crazy." Eireka did her best to give Leira a reassuring smile. She didn't want to tell her daughter about the spell she used to keep her away just yet.
Correk wiped off his mouth. "Tell me what you saw in the vision. Exactly what you saw."
"A little too much," said Leira, shaking her head. "Nana was in a room but not like you or I might be. It was more like..."
"Two separate dimensions," said Eireka. "That's how I knew it was the world in between. I've had contact with others from that realm. There's a certain feeling that comes with it too. A cold chill that feels like an emptiness. Words fail, really."
"There was something familiar about the room. Can't quite place it though," said Leira.
"Was she easy to see? Did you see any clouds around her?" asked Correk.
"You mean like a weather pattern? No... you mean something sinister." Leira's eyes narrowed. "Yes, I saw Nana get pulled away by something and suddenly there was this woman there, begging me for help. A dead woman."
"What gave you a sense that she was dead?" asked Correk.
"The hole in the center of her forehead was a giveaway but even without that I would have known. I don't know, it was a feeling. Like the life force was gone from her. How did she do that to my grandmother?"
"Desperati
on, most likely. It can be a very powerful force. Was there a sense of darkness?"
"No...no there wasn't. Just sadness and an aching need. What a horrible fucking place," whispered Leira.
"The world in between has existed for as long as there have been portals. There are many ways that have been written about how to get sucked into the void but the most frequent one is attempting a portal when the gates are not open. There is a slight time glitch that occurs when the two worlds are pulling apart or coming together."
"Like that first night you sent me back and it wasn't that long after I left the guest house."
"That's right. That space sometimes leaves a random opening to a void." Correk gave off a shudder. "We know a few things about the glitch, like you can't arrive before you leave, on either side. There's no kind of time travel."
"No, there's something worse." Eireka looked grim. Correk put a hand on her shoulder.
"I'm sorry. I know this is difficult."
Leira took a long look at Correk but stayed quiet. Who do you know in the world in between?
"Has anyone tried to see if they can use that glitch to their advantage?" asked Leira.
"It's wise not to try and play with the time line. I've never known it to end well," answered Correk.
"Has there ever been anyone to escape the world in between?" Leira sat back. Estelle was bustling behind the far end of the bar, getting ready for the lunch crowd that would be there soon enough.
"Don't mind me," yelled Estelle, not even bothering to look up. "No need to stop talking just because I arrived on the scene. I'm as good as a bear trap at keeping a secret, anyway." She stopped for a moment, bothering to take the dangling cigarette out of her mouth, blowing a perfect O into the air, one hand resting on her hip. She let out a cackle and took in a long drag, working her jaw as she blew out several more O's into the air.