“Come on in. And can I say what an honour it is meeting you here, Mr and Mrs Hunter.” Thadius was the politest man I knew, even though what he did for a living was completely dubious. I don’t think even Laura knew exactly how he came by the type of information he traded in. Either did I, nor did I really want to find out.
“Call me Jenny, please,” Mum twittered. She’d always had a soft spot for polite men.
Dad smiled and waved to a space above the door, not knowing really where to look, usually getting the space slightly wrong. This time was no different. I’m sure he was used to that feeling with the — now — three of us having conversations with people he couldn’t see.
“Just call me Gary.” I was sure Thadius already knew that. I was more than sure that Thadius knew more about Dad than he could remember about himself.
My parents needn’t be so cheery. What we were here to ask Thadius wasn’t going to make it into the pages of Good News Weekly. I needed to know more about the Light-Portal, how on earth I created it in the Grey-Mists and why the hell I had this ruby etched into my palm. Not easy answers to come by and that was why we were now walking along Thadius’ spartan corridor towards the hidden door at the far end. I hated to think about what weaponry was hidden behind the plaster walls, currently aimed at us. Anyone who had to protect himself like Thadius did, had to be doing things governments didn’t like. I’d run here at the first signs of an apocalypse. Safest place in Melbourne.
I fisted my palm and sunk it deeper into my coat pocket as the hidden door swung open. Whenever I’d started thinking about the Light-Portal, the ruby that had been etched into my palm tingled. The way it had when I was in Black John’s world and I’d inadvertently opened the portal in there. God knew what world we’d be opening if I did that. I wasn’t going to risk that happening again. Opening a portal in the Grey-Mists was one thing. Opening one on Earth could be a catastrophe
The door, which was no more than a recessed rectangle, seamlessly morphed from the smooth wall surface and Thadius rushed towards us. Well, towards Laura, really. He looked more dishevelled than normal. His thick, black hair hung heavy over one eye, his shirt was crumpled and was only tucked in on one side, as though he’d finger combed his hair and rushed to try to make himself presentable.
He gathered Laura up in his long, gangly arms, pushing his face into her hair, “Thank God you’re all right.”
After a stunned moment, Laura’s arms wound around his back and she pressed her body into his, “I’m okay, Thadius.”
“I thought I wasn’t going to see you again.”
“I’m here. I came back.”
Thadius pulled slightly away, hands on her shoulders and not letting go, “I can’t tell you how much…” He blinked, realising that he was standing in the middle of a group of people, two being our parents watching him with very interested expressions on their faces. Thadius cleared his throat and gestured around him, “Welcome to my…”
“Domain,” I ended his sentence.
He sent me a shadow of a smile and indicated the open secret door. “Yes, domain. You are always welcome here.”
We stepped into Thadius’ inner sanctum. I oriented myself in the low-level lighting which supported the dozen or so enormous blinking computer screens lined up on a tidy metal workbench. Despite the fact he worked on his own, matching chairs were pushed neatly beneath the bench in front of each screen. The whole room was super-high-tech and was probably insulated with some kind of titanium alloy no amount of radio wave could penetrate. It was neat, dust free, and completely at odds with the dishevelled man himself whose gaze kept returning to my sister.
“I’m glad we can finally talk to you under less stressful circumstances,” Mum said.
“But you’ve never met Thadius before,” Laura said.
Mum turned a raised brow to my sister, “Well, I didn’t exactly say that. In fact, we met him a few times. He came to visit you every day while you were…indisposed.”
“Dead, you mean,” I muttered.
Laura ignored me and instead turned a bright gaze on Thadius, “You did?”
Mum nodded, “He came to the hospital every day. He was very concerned with your progress.”
To my astonishment, a blush worked up Thadius’ neck. It was the first time I’d seen him truly uncomfortable. This, combined with his appearance, made me realise how bad he had it for my sister. He liked her soooooo bad. If she didn’t get this kind of body language, I was going to hit her over the head with a blunt piece of wood.
A smile lit her pale face, “You were?”
Thadius shoved his hands into his pockets and cleared his throat, “Of course. You’re a good…friend.”
“Are you kidding me!” I gestured between Thadius and my sister, an exaggerated quizzical expression on my face. Couldn’t anyone see what was happening?
Mum flicked me an annoyed glance, “Cassie, that’s enough. I don’t know what’s gotten into you lately.”
“What planet have you been on, Mum? Look, they like each other. It’s as plain as day. Thadius, would you like to go out with Laura, and Laura would you like to go out with Thadius? Arghh, I feel like I’m cross between a wedding celebrant and a relationship coach. Just get on with it, so we can do what we’ve come here to do.”
A flush crept up Laura’s neck. I can’t believe my kick-ass sister was so shy when it came to dating.
“Cassandra! I don’t care how angry you are at the moment, but you owe your sister an apology. Unlike you, who doesn’t even want to find a man, or at least a physical man you can live a full life with, Laura has found someone she’s interested in and it’s none of your business how they go about lighting their fledgling romance,” Mum said.
Elliot flinched and my anger ignited. I stabbed my finger at Mum. “Maybe she should read a mills and boon romance to get some ideas, or maybe I’ll just reserve a room for a night at a hotel so she can get it on…and how dare you bring Elliot into this.”
“Cassie, your mother is right. You have been angry since we came back,” Elliot said.
I faced him, “No, she’s not right. She’s never had to deal with something like this because she’s spent her whole life running away from what she can do. She’s never had anything like this…” I held out my palm showcasing the ruby tattoo, “…happen to her.”
Startled, Thadius took my hand in his, rubbing his thumb over the ruby etched into my palm; family argument and embarrassment apparently forgotten. He withdrew thick-rimmed black glasses from his shirt pocket and placed them on his face. They only served to make him look more intelligent, in a geeky sort of way, “How did you get this?”
I pushed my anger away, concentrating on the reason we were here, “That’s the question we were hoping you could answer for us.”
I explained what had happened while we were in Black John’s world and how I was left with a tattoo of the ruby on my palm before I came back into my body. By the time I’d finished updating Thadius, he’d ordered pastries and coffee from the bakery around the corner and I was licking the icing from a donut off my fingertips. The sugar helped ease my anger at my situation a little. I might need another donut to calm all the way down.
“So the ruby gave you the power to open the Light-Portal,” Thadius summed up.
“It would appear so,” Elliot said.
When no-one answered and Thadius looked lost, I knew only half of us had heard what Elliot had said. I didn’t want to recognise the despair that tugged my gut.
“You said you found the ruby in Elliot’s house when you were in Black John’s version of 1930’s Melbourne?” Thadius said.
It sounded highly fantastical, and if it hadn’t happened to me, I would have laughed it off. But it had happened, and I had found it. Unerringly easily at that. “In Marie’s jewellery box.”
Thadius studied me through narrow eyes for a moment, “Elliot’s wife, Marie? That’s interesting.”
“Why would it be there in the first place? Marie d
idn’t tell Elliot where she hid it. Everyone was unaware where it was, yet Cassie inherently found it,” Laura said.
“And?” I asked. I really didn’t want to hear her answer. An unsettling feeling that I should run and hide and keep on hiding edged into my mind.
Laura pursed her lips considering me, “I think it’s more than a coincidence you found it, if you want the truth, Cassie. It’s just too convenient to be pure chance. In Marie’s jewellery box, of all places, in an effectively made up world. And the fact you were able to bring it back into this dimension. There’s no crossover from the Grey-Mists into the third dimension earth.”
“Agreed. Nothing is a coincidence. There must be something we’re not seeing here,” Elliot said.
I didn’t want Elliot to know I’d been snooping in Marie’s bedroom. I didn’t even want to dwell on why I’d found it and why it had burnt its essence into my palm. I didn’t want to think anything about it, really. I decided to change the subject. “More importantly than that, we really need to find out exactly what escaped from the Light-Portal from Black John’s world. It was some type of demon. Huge. And evil.” And really, really. smelly.
“More to the point, where did it escape to? Did it stay in the Grey-Mists? Did it go to another dimension? We need to find out. There’s no telling the destruction it could be doing right now,” Laura said.
“I need to know about my grandson. And his connection to Black John’s grandson, Leonard,” Elliot said. “Can you ask Thadius to run a check on them both? Cassie, I need to know. What did Leonard hire Thomas to do?”
We all faced Thadius. So many questions. I only hoped he could find the answers because they’d completely evaded me.
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