Rogue, Renegade And Rebel (In Her Paranormal Majesty’s Secret Service Book 1)

by Michael Anderle

  Now the wraiths all turned to her with interest.

  Jennie smiled. “I thought that might get your attention.”

  Jennie briefly explained to the wraiths the situation with the paranormal court and the lies the queen had been telling throughout the years. She told them of the battle in New York and her purpose in England now. How she was being targeted by the queen’s people, and she would do whatever it took to get an audience with the queen and fix what had been broken.

  When she was finished, she waited for a response from the wraiths.

  “You must allow us our own parley,” Canute told her.

  The instant Jennie agreed, the wraiths vanished into thin air. She felt them flutter by as they exited the chamber and left Jennie and Baxter behind, the sudden gust extinguishing several of the candles.

  Jennie glanced at Baxter. “They’re discussing it. At least that’s something.”

  Baxter chuckled. “They’re usually not so welcoming?”

  Jennie shook her head. “You laugh, but this is the most welcoming they’ve ever been. You should see them when they’re hostile.”

  “I’d rather not.” Baxter turned back to the wall the wraiths had disappeared through, checking that they weren’t listening in. “What was that contract, Jennie? You’ve had dealings with these wraiths before?”

  “Many years ago,” Jennie confirmed. “A simpler time. They asked for a favor, and I helped, no questions asked.”

  “And promised you’d stay away forever?” Baxter asked.

  “Yeah,” Jennie replied. “Not my best agreement, considering how valuable they could be in all of this.”

  “Valuable how?” Baxter shook his head. “All I can see are spooky Halloween specters who look like the grim reaper and have a reluctance to help those around them. They’ve been buried down here for years, why would they care about the surface world?”

  “I have my theories,” Jennie replied ominously. “Besides, in case you didn’t know, wraiths have an uncanny ability to turn invisible and vanish onto a plane undetectable by other specters. That skill would definitely be useful given our task ahead.”

  Baxter pawed at his eye. “Couldn’t you just use Rico? He had that ability, too.”

  “Yeah, that was a strange one,” Jennie mused. “I’ve never seen that ability in a specter who wasn’t a wraith. It’s hardly like we can use him, though, is it? Not only is he ludicrously bound to the crown, but he’s half a world away. I’m not in the business of dragging hostages around for the sake of it. That would make me no better than the scum I clean up most of the time.”

  Baxter grinned. “It would be fun to do. Wouldn’t it?”

  Jennie rolled her eyes, but her smile stayed on her face.

  A few minutes later, the wraiths came back into the room as a rush of wind and materialized like impossible shadows.

  “Well?” Jennie asked optimistically. “What’s your verdict?”

  Canute shook his head. “Your quest is of no benefit to the Wraiths of Great. Your request has been denied.”

  Jennie’s jaw dropped. “You’re kidding me? After everything I told you, you’re going to sit down here and do nothing? You’re going to waste away in the crypts and let chaos reign above?”

  “We have had our day, mortal,” Canute replied. “Our interest lies down here, with the others of our kind. Family is of the utmost, and there is no family for us anymore on the surface world.”

  Jennie was speechless for a moment. “But—”

  “Leave us in peace.” Canute’s order came out as a blast of sound that echoed around Jennie and Baxter at an unbearable volume.

  Jennie clapped her hands to her ears and attempted to latch onto the wraith in a desperate attempt to stop what she knew was coming. She sensed his power as a great black orb of energy, but she was already too late.

  The shadows of the wraiths grew into one large smoky mass that whirled around the room like a tornado. The wind whipped Jennie’s hair about, and Baxter held her arm for dear life as the walls of smoke closed in.

  The room disappeared in an instant, replaced with the bright blue of the afternoon sky in the next moment. The wind vanished as quickly as it had come, and everything was quiet.

  Jennie raised her fist at the mausoleum entrance. “Cowards!”

  Then she stormed away.

  Chapter Sixty-Two

  Covent Garden, London

  Jennie stood at the large bar counter and vigorously shook the cocktail shaker. The repetitive action was satisfying. The ice inside rattled and drowned out the thoughts in her head.

  “You shake that thing any harder, you’re going to break it,” Baxter warned.

  “I don’t get it,” Jennie pondered aloud, moving to stand right next to Baxter. The cocktail shaker’s exterior flicked beads of condensation. “It doesn’t make any sense. Why would they refuse?”

  Baxter wiped the condensation from his cheek. “Other than the fact they’ve got a signed paper saying they’ll never have dealings with you again?”

  Jennie’s arms lowered, her eyes flashing with anger. “I don’t need a literal answer, Bax.”

  “Well, I didn’t need a shower,” Baxter replied.

  Jennie opened the shaker and poured the liquid inside into a long glass. There wasn’t meant to be that much froth in a Pina Colada, but Jennie was past caring. She just needed something to take the edge off her anger and confusion.

  She took a sip through her straw. “They know I can end their pitiful existence with a snap of my fingers.”

  Baxter frowned. “How do you kill wraiths?”

  “Just like that.” Jennie snapped her fingers. “Poof. Gone.”

  Baxter cocked his head and shuffled sideways to allow Jennie to sit beside him. “Have you somehow mastered exorcism in the thirty seconds we’ve been apart since this journey started?”

  “Hey, I’ll have you know Sandra taught me some of her skills,” Jennie replied.

  Baxter chuckled. “Oh, really? Enough to kill a specter?”

  Jennie glanced away. “In theory.”

  Baxter threw his arms up, then relaxed them on the back of the couch. “I still don’t get why the wraiths were so vital to your plan? So what if they can turn invisible? I saw you defeat dozens of specters in the subway. Remember? With powers like that, they stand no chance.”

  Jennie shook her head. “That was an untrained group of wannabe rebels. They’d been together for a few weeks—a couple of months, tops. The paranormal court has been around since the turn of the millennium, and they have the training to show for it.”

  Baxter had an idea of what that meant. “Damn.”

  Jennie nodded. “Yuh-huh.”

  Baxter tried his best to think of a solution, his brow creasing with concentration. “What if we find another specter with invisibility?”

  Jennie stared down her nose at him. A lock of synthetic hair fell onto her face, and she took the whole wig off. “We’ve been through this. Name one.”

  Baxter could only think of Rico. “Er…”

  Jennie shrugged. “Exactly. The wraiths’ power is invaluable. Unless we can find something else even semi-useful, we can’t get near them.”

  “Shit,” Baxter cursed. “We’ve reached a stalemate.”

  “Not exactly,” Jennie replied.

  He frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “A stalemate implies neither party can advance,” Jennie told him. “ As far as I’m concerned, the court is still working toward hunting me down. They haven’t been slowed.” She glanced at the clock on the wall. “And by the looks of it, they may also have our only three allies. Shouldn’t they be back from their reconnaissance by now?”

  Baxter was alarmed to see it was approaching the evening. The others had been gone most of the day. Surely Lupe would need to come back soon to grab some food and rest?

  “Yes, it looks like it might already just be the two of us,” Jennie murmured.

  “Don’t forget me, Rogue.�
�

  Jennie and Baxter sat up and turned around, alert to invaders in her home. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the fresh-faced diplomat standing in the doorway with a broad smile on his face.

  “You were right,” he told her, a small laugh escaping him. “You were right.”

  Westminster, London

  “I don’t like this,” Carolyn muttered to Lupe and Feng Mian. “I don’t like this.”

  Karl and Mona led the trio down the narrow streets of London. They were far from the beaten track, and the walls closed in on them, making Carolyn feel claustrophobic. It was dark out, and the shadows grew. Along the way, they passed dozens of storefronts, small, independent stores that sold fringe items like flowers and herbs, vaping equipment, antiques, books. All the stores were closed and locked up for the night.

  Hardly a soul came past. Carolyn occasionally glanced from Lupe to Feng Mian, wondering what the hell they were even doing heading to a part of the city they didn’t know with these strangers. She didn’t know much about the spectral world, but she had learned enough to say with conviction that specters put a lot of stock in trusting other specters.

  “Relax,” Lupe assured her. “If things go badly, we’ll be okay. We owe it to Jennie to see what these guys have to say.”

  “These guys were following us, Lupe,” Carolyn hissed. “What clearer sign do we have that we shouldn’t be here with them? Let’s just ditch them and run. They’re not even looking at us, and they’ll never know.”

  She was right. In the last fifteen minutes, Karl and Mona hadn’t turned around once. It was as if they just trusted the trio to follow them.

  “What do you think, Feng?” Carolyn asked.

  Feng Mian shrugged and remained silent.

  Carolyn sighed. “Great.”

  “If they were so bad, why didn’t they draw the attention of the queen’s men to us?” Lupe was slightly out of breath, his short legs struggling to keep up with everyone else. “They had us dead to rights. They could’ve just taken us in the park, alerted the rest of the troops, and had us. I don’t know where they’re taking us, but I don’t think they’re lying.”

  Carolyn stared daggers at the back of their heads. “We’ll see.”

  The moonlight bathed the streets in a mystical glow. Occasionally the light from someone’s bedroom would illuminate a stretch of street. Carolyn kept as close to the shadows as possible, only stopping when Karl and Mona paused at a junction and peeked around the corner.

  “The crown,” Karl mouthed, and nodded at the corner.

  Carolyn became aware of the glow of a group of specters as they walked nearby. Ice ran down her spine. They couldn’t afford to get captured. Jennie needed them!

  To her surprise, before they came into full view of the loyalist group, Karl and Mona ran ahead hand-in-hand. They stood on the far side of the group, meaning the specters had to turn away to talk to Karl and Mona.

  “Splendid seeing you all, ladies and gentlemen,” Karl called in a thick English accent. “Wonderful night, isn’t it?”

  Mona allowed a specter with a large stomach and a monocle to kiss her hand.

  “It certainly is, Karl,” a woman with a thick bush of brown hair agreed. “Although, I’m surprised to see you both on this side of town. I thought we had to stick to our positions since the court went on lockdown?”

  Karl laughed and waved a hand. “You’re absolutely right, Deidre. It’s just, we’re on orders, right now. It turned out Southside is actually low on ammunition. You know Thomas. He got us out of bed and told us to run over to central and acquire some stock. So, here we are.” He bowed low.

  “Out of ammo already?” the monocled specter asked suspiciously. “What the bloody hell have you been using it all on?”

  Karl put his hand on Monocle’s shoulder and used it to lean on to laugh. He raised his head and made eye contact with Carolyn and Lupe, giving a gentle nod with his head. “Go. Hide,” he mouthed.

  “It’s a funny story, Franklin,” he told the specter. “One which I don’t have time to tell you in full. Suffice it to say, our new recruits have been slightly trigger-happy in their training this time around.”

  Franklin gave a satisfied nod. “Blasted recruits. No respect for our resources until it’s been drilled into them. Tell you what, Karl. Next time I see you, I’ll be sure to lay down the law on the hatchlings. Tell them what’s what. Thomas may be good enough to sniff out the enemy, but he has no clue when it comes to teaching civilians how military life works.”

  “Oh, so true,” Karl agreed, slapping his shoulder and dragging Mona around to the back of the group with him. “Ah, well. Sorry to break up this little catch-up, but we do have things to do. We’ll be sure to be in touch soon. Maybe you and Lisa can come around when this has all blown over and we can get lunch.”

  Franklin gave a hearty laugh, cheeks coloring red. “Lunch! Good one!”

  Karl and Mona slipped away to the next street where Carolyn, Lupe, and Feng Mian were waiting.

  “Nice cover,” Carolyn praised.

  “Maybe that’ll help with your trust issues,” Mona smirked, hiking her cocktail dress off the floor and meeting stride with Karl.

  “Depends on what lies ahead,” Carolyn told her.

  “Well, good thing we’re here then, isn’t it?”

  As they rounded the corner, Karl held up the hatch to an underground entrance, something that reminded Carolyn of the entrance to a storm shelter.

  Mona raised an eyebrow. “You know we can just float through, darling?”

  Karl pointed at Lupe. “Not with that one.”

  “Oh, you’re right.” Mona chuckled. “I forgot you weren’t one of us.”

  As Karl ushered them down the hatch, Carolyn caught the whisper of his words. “Oh, darling. No one else is quite like us.”

  A wooden staircase led them down into the basement of the building. There was a smell of dust in the air, and the lingering stink of rotten fruit. Karl and Mona took them through a back door, then through a series of interconnecting chambers until they were lost in the labyrinth beneath the street.

  How many hidden tunnels and pathways does London have? Carolyn thought back to what Jennie had told them about London’s secret history. She knew it had been the heart of England for centuries. But how many hiding places were there below the thriving city where bankers and lawyers sat on their thrones in high-rise buildings and the streets were flooded with traffic? She wished she knew.

  Karl paused outside a door with several padlocks. “I’m sorry, mortal. This is as far as you can tread. Your specters must come with us.”

  Lupe’s eyes narrowed. “You best be kidding, asshole.”

  They held each other’s gaze for a long moment before Karl’s face softened and he broke into laughter. “Of course, hold on.”

  Karl floated through the door, and a second later, the handle shook. The sound of unlocking came through, and the door opened for him. “There, see? We’re all good.”

  Lupe strode past him and into the room.

  The room was small, with nothing else inside other than a heavy-looking wooden chest, and a round metallic grate on the floor. Karl and Mona stared expectantly at the lid of the grate.

  “Are you kidding’ me?” Carolyn exclaimed. “How much farther are you taking us? You’re leading us into a trap, aren’t you?”

  Karl and Mona shook their heads. “It’s just down there, I promise you. Open the lid, head on down, and all will be revealed.”

  Carolyn looked hesitantly at Lupe. “What do you think?”

  Lupe considered the grate for a moment before shrugging. “I think I built an army of specters in an abandoned subway line. This is as good a place as any for the Brits.”

  “There, see?” Karl urged brightly.

  “We’ll see.”

  Lupe raised the lid off the grate, and the air from the hole gasped into the room. A small ladder was revealed. He heard mumbling from below, along with shuffling and the so
und of footsteps.

  Lupe turned and made his way down the ladder, using his phone screen to light the way as best as he could.

  When he reached the bottom, Carolyn and Feng Mian jumped down, landing silently beside him.

  All the noises stopped. The silence pressed in on them.

  As far as Lupe could see from the faint light of his phone screen, there were no walls nearby. No doors, no furniture, nothing.

  Metal grated across the floor above, and darkness began to close in.

  Lupe was alarmed to see Karl was pushing the grate back over the hole. “You son of a bitch!” he shouted, rapidly climbing the ladder.

  But it was too late. Something heavy was dragged across the floor, followed by a heavy thud.

  Lupe couldn’t lift the grate.

  “Oh, great!” Carolyn exclaimed.

  “Is that meant to be a joke?”

  Feng Mian appeared at the bottom of the ladder and began to climb. He passed through Lupe and was nearly at the top when a pair of hands came out of the shadows. The assailant dragged him off the ladder and dropped him to the floor.

  Lupe jumped down to check on him. Carolyn also rushed to his side. Feng Mian had a sinking feeling. Although they couldn’t see them, they were all aware of specters watching them from the darkness.

  “Who are you!” Carolyn shouted.

  Dark chuckles were their only response.

  Chapter Sixty-Three

  Westminster, London

  Pain blossomed on Carolyn’s face. She could sense specters all around her, although she had no idea how many there were. She spun on her heels and another fist connected with her temple.

  “Fighting in the dark? Real brave—” She cut off as another fist connected.

  Beside her, Feng Mian grunted as one of their number attacked him. Or many of their number. It was impossible to tell.

  “Show your faces!” Carolyn demanded, holding her arms up to guard her face against the blows.