Outback Spirit

by Nicole R. Taylor

  “Oh, here we go,” she drawled, putting her hands on her hips. “What now?”

  “Drew never said what he stole, but we think it has something to do with the seal.”

  Eloise frowned. “Seal? What seal?”

  “The seal that lies underneath Solace. A place of power.”

  Her expression fell as she remembered the pulse of magic she’d felt as she’d crossed the highway her first night in town.

  “We don’t know what it is, but it’s what draws supernaturals here,” Kyne went on. “There’s a capstone in an old mine that runs directly underneath the centre of town. We don’t know what’s under it, but we decided a long time ago to keep it safe and secret. Whatever it is, it was covered for a reason.”

  Her eyes widened in shock as she realised she’d heard this before. Andante had told her.

  Eloise knew what she saw when she was lost in the outback wasn’t a hallucination. It was one hundred percent real. The pieces were slotting together, and it painted an awful picture. A key, a seal, ancient power… Andante had used the word ‘calamity’. It sounded bad. Real bad.

  “Drew stole the key,” she said, the words pouring out in a hurry. “He took the key to stop the Dust Dogs from opening it.”

  “A key?” Kyne stared at her, his eyes widening. “How do you know?”

  “Andante,” she replied. “She told me that a spirit used to live here. One older than the universe. The ocean… She implied the land was alive, that the ocean had a heart.”

  “Who the hell is Andante?”

  “The old woman in the cave!”

  “Eloise.” Kyne grasped her arm and shook her. “You were—”

  “I wasn’t hallucinating,” she snapped. “She told me they would come. The Dust Dogs will come, key or no key. And they won’t be the last. Not everyone who comes to Solace will have pure intentions, Kyne. Whatever is underneath that seal can never be let out. Never.”

  He stared at her in shock, their argument long forgotten. “Who is this woman? Where is she?”

  Eloise shook him off. “I don’t know. I passed out and I woke up in her cave, but she sent me back after we spoke. When I opened my eyes again, I was exactly where I’d been before. It was like I hadn’t moved at all. Then Coen’s kangaroo led me to him and Drew.” She grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the cars. “He’s in trouble. We have to go.”

  Kyne’s jaw hardened and he nodded. “Follow me in Hardy’s 4WD. You okay to drive back?”

  Eloise nodded. “Let’s go.”

  As she went to walk away, he hooked his hand around her elbow and tugged her back. “I projected my issues on you,” he said. “I’m sorry.”

  Eloise grimaced. “I just destroyed your life’s work. I’m sorry.”

  Kyne snorted and fished his car keys out of his pocket. “I had it coming.”

  Hardy ran across the outback, dodging trees and shrubs as he searched for Drew.

  That damn kid, he thought. Taking on the pack on his own. Being a hero was going to get him killed. If they got Drew out of this, then he’d have a thing or two to say to him about how asking for help wasn’t a slight on his masculinity.

  He’d woken Blue on his way out, who’d activated the Solace phone tree. Eloise had gone for Kyne, and the publican would wake Wally, then bring in Finn and the fae. Coen… well, there was no way to contact him, but Hardy gathered the Indigenous man already knew what was going on. He also knew Finn wouldn’t be pleased about helping the dingo shifter, but if Vera was right about what he’d stolen, then the fae were in as much danger as the rest of them.

  Hardy went north, fanning out from the edges of the shifter camp, while the fae, Blue, and Wally would watch the town borders. The Dust Dogs were on the hunt and he was the only one fast enough to outrun them and find Drew before it was too late.

  As he searched, he found traces of the pack. Tracks in the dirt, howls in the shadows, their putrid stench blowing in the wind. They were still out there, circling. Whatever had happened to Drew, there was still time. Hardy followed the shifters, using their tracks to find Drew’s trail.

  He smelled blood long before he found the source.

  Entering a clearing at the bottom of a treacherous incline, he saw two dingoes lying on either side of the open space, both broken and bleeding. The stench of blood was thick in the air and he held his breath as his throat burned.

  Drew was unconscious, his chest rising and falling in short, shallow breaths. His entire body was covered in scratches, puncture wounds, and gashes in various stages of healing. His left ear was torn, and clumps of fur were missing around his neck, and that was only half of it. They’d tortured and beat him before making sport of his death.

  Hardy squatted beside the dingo and placed a palm on his side, feeling his heartbeat. It didn’t sound good.

  “Drew,” he murmured. “Drew.”

  The dingo’s eyes didn’t open nor did he move. For a moment, Hardy deliberated the effects of vampire blood on a shifter, then decided against it. He could heal many ailments with his blood, but the more supernatural a person was, the less it agreed with them. He couldn’t risk it.

  Hardy turned his gaze on the larger dingo, suspecting its sheer size denoted it as the pack’s alpha. He could hear the beat of its heart and bared his fangs. He could end one of their problems right here, right now.

  A shadow loomed in the darkness and Hardy spun, his eyes misting completely black as his vampire side rose.

  “Leave him,” Coen said, walking barefoot into the clearing.

  “He’s the alpha,” Hardy argued, not surprised in the least to find him here. “Without him, the Dust Dogs will scatter.”

  “They’ll simply choose another.” Coen looked at the sky and squinted as if he was searching for something. “Drew fades. You better get him home.”

  “Home?”

  He nodded. “Yes. Home.”

  Hardy relaxed, his fangs retracting and his eyes returning to normal. Scooping up Drew, he held him close. With one final glance at Coen, he began to run.

  His vampire feet took him through the outback at lightning speed, cutting the hour-long trek down to mere minutes. Trees shot past, he leapt over rocks and fallen branches, skirted dense scrub, then topped a rise with a view of the town below. Then the lights of Solace were upon them and he was standing outside the Outpost before he’d taken another breath. Sometimes it was thrilling being a vampire.

  Kyne and Eloise were standing on the road beside the parked cars when he appeared.

  “Drew?” Eloise exclaimed, her gaze falling on the dingo in Hardy’s arms.

  “He’s pretty banged up,” he told the elementals. “I better get him inside. Wait for me?”

  Kyne nodded, his expression grave. “Do what you have to do. We’ll wait.”

  Hardy took off, flying into Vera’s dugout. He came to a stop in her lounge room, his sudden arrival making the witch squeal in surprise.

  “Oh my God,” Vera exclaimed as the vampire set the bloodied dingo onto the couch. “Oh my God.” She fell to her knees and stroked a pale hand over Drew’s furry face. “What have they done to you?”

  Hardy stepped back, wiping his palms on his shirt. The blood didn’t bother him so much these days. When he was new, it was another story—and one that didn’t have a good ending.

  “Can you help him?” he asked. “He’s still breathing, but his heartbeat is slow.”

  Vera looked up at him and nodded, his words snapping her out of her daze. “Yes. Yes, I have some things.” She rose and hurried into the kitchen where she started to bang about, taking jars from the overhead cupboards and filling a large glass bowl with water.

  “Is there anything I can do?” the vampire asked.

  “No. I just need some room. I’ll be okay.” She began to mix herbs into a mortar, then grabbed a pestle and began to grind.

  The kitchen filled with a pungent, earthy scent, and Hardy nodded. “I’ll be outside with the others. Holler if you need anyt
hing.” But the witch wasn’t listening.

  When Hardy went back outside, Eloise was arguing with Finn. His hands waved wildly in the air as the fae brushed her off.

  “What’s got you so worked up?” Hardy asked.

  “The little desert pea’s brain is still cooked,” Finn replied. “She’s gone mad.”

  “Shut the hell up,” Kyne said, glaring at Finn. “Listen and you might learn something for once.”

  Finn opened this mouth, but Hardy glared at him. “Let her speak.”

  Hardy watched Eloise closely as she told them about her strange encounter in the outback. How she knew about the seal, Drew’s stolen key, and her belief that the power they’d been protecting was an ancient spirit and something about ‘the heart of the ocean’.

  “Andante,” she told them. “She warned me they’d come.”

  “Who the hell is Andante?” Finn asked with a scowl. “Your brain sure fried good out there.”

  “Have you been listening to anything I’ve said?” Eloise raged, unleashing a new confidence that Hardy was really beginning to like. “The Dust Dogs won’t let this lie, Finn. After what happened tonight, they’ll come for the seal with or without the key. We have to stop them.”

  “I can see secrets are no longer sacred around here,” the fae drawled.

  Kyne fisted his hands into the front of Finn’s shirt and jerked him close. “If you don’t like it, you’re welcome to piss off. If you won’t stand with us when the time comes, you and your fae friends can leave.”

  “That’s a low blow,” Finn drawled. “You know we can’t survive long without the power from the seal.”

  “Oh, I know,” the elemental said.

  Eloise snorted at this new bit of information and glanced at Hardy. “Anything else I should know?”

  “Vera and Drew broke into your van,” he told her with a chuckle.

  “Why am I not surprised?”

  Finn shoved Kyne away and smoothed down his shirt. “Because stranger shit has happened.”

  “Vera already suspected it had something to do with the seal,” Hardy said, steering the conversation back to where it mattered. “Now that we know it’s a key, we have to find and protect it before the Dust Dogs figure out where Drew stashed it.”

  “I still don’t believe it’s a key,” Finn muttered, but no one was paying him any attention. “Fever dreams aren’t reliable.”

  Eloise glanced at Kyne, then held up her hand like she was asking permission to ask a question in a classroom. “I want to try and find Andante again. She knew all about the seal and the key. If anyone knows where and what, it’s her.”

  “And how does one find a woman who lives in a dream?” Finn asked with a roll of his eyes.

  “Coen,” she replied, not taking the fae’s bait. “He’ll know. He walks the Dreaming.”

  Hardy grinned. He liked Eloise. A lot. She caught on quick for someone who was just introduced to all the crazy Solace had to offer.

  “Let’s wait until morning,” he told them. “Give Drew some time to rest. He might have more to say after Vera has had time to work her magic.”

  “What about the Dust Dogs?” Eloise asked. “How much time do you think we have before they retaliate?”

  “The alpha was pretty torn up,” Hardy replied, “but he wasn’t dead.”

  “Shifters heal quickly enough on their own,” Kyne mused. “I reckon we’ve got a day, maybe two.”

  “Depending on their level of pissed off,” Finn remarked.

  Hardy looked up and down the road, then at the sky. The stars shone brightly, the lights of Solace not strong enough to blot them out. There was a streetlamp outside Wally’s, Blue’s pub, and the Outpost. The rest of the town faded into shadow outside the small ring…and underneath their feet rested the seal. He’d only seen it once, but it was more than enough to know it wasn’t supposed to be opened.

  “We have to prepare,” Kyne murmured. “Put some defences in place. If it comes down to it, we have to be ready to fight fire with fire.”

  Hardy nodded. “I’ll wrangle Blue and Wally. Finn…can we count on you?”

  The fae sighed, his silver eyes shining in the semi-darkness. “Yeah, sure.”

  “Then,” the vampire said, “we’d better get to work.”

  Chapter 21

  As the sun began to rise over Solace, underneath the surface sat the most unlikely pair of supernaturals to have ever met. An Irish witch and an Australian dingo.

  Vera sat on an old armchair in her lounge room too anxious to sleep. She rubbed her thumb over the piece of Tiger’s Eye she held and sighed. The polished surface of the stone was smooth, and the warm energy emitting from its core was helping. Well, at least she thought it was.

  Drew was asleep on the couch, a crocheted blanket draped over him. Some time during the night, he’d shifted back into his human body, his unconscious mind dragging him out of his animal side.

  It was much easier for her to treat a man than a dingo, but his transformation had revealed just how severe his injuries were. His left eye was black and swollen, a savage cut split his eyebrow, his neck was bruised and punctured in a mottled pattern of teeth marks, and that was just one part of his body. The rest was a patchwork of gashes, bites, and scrapes on a background of sunburned skin. Despite her best efforts, he was going to have a lot of new scars.

  Vera had a special herbal balm she liked to use to heal various cuts and burns, but she had never made so much before. It was a mix of Aloe vera, eucalyptus, and the ground up leaves and roots of a native plant called hop bush. Some added magic helped the process along, but she wasn’t a miracle worker.

  A soft rap at the door startled her awake. She shuffled through the beaded curtain and down the hall, finding Eloise outside.

  “I just wanted to check in,” the elemental said, her face shaded by the grey hat—a gift from Kyne—she now seemed to wear constantly. “How are you?”

  “Finally, someone who asks how the healer is and not the patient,” Vera replied with a tired smile.

  “I figured using magic to heal would be a big deal,” she said.

  The witch shrugged and stepped out into the matte light of dawn. “I’m tired, but it’s nothing. I’ve done everything I can.”

  “How is he?”

  “He’ll be okay. He was in bad shape, so it’s going to take time.” She looked to the sky, which was barely light enough to be called blue. “You’re out early.”

  “We’ve been working on a plan,” Eloise told her. “The Dust Dogs will be back, so we’re going to make sure we’re ready. I’m going to find Coen and track down Andante.”

  “Andante?”

  “The old woman who I saw when I was lost.”

  Vera raised her eyebrows and nodded. She’d heard all about it, but this was the first time it’d been taken seriously. Dehydration and sun exposure could screw with a person’s mind, but then again, with all the supernatural nonsense running around the outback, who was to say it wasn’t real?

  “Kyne told me about the seal,” Eloise added. “Drew took the key from the Dust Dogs.”

  “Well,” Vera said with a long sigh and clutched the Tiger’s Eye tighter, “then it’s only fair I tell you about the vision I got when Drew and I broke into your motorhome.”

  “I gathered you’d done something like that,” Eloise told her. “The best unkept secret in all of Solace…and that’s saying something.”

  Vera grimaced. “You wouldn’t let me touch you, so I had to get a vision somehow.”

  “Which was?”

  “Three knocks in the darkness, a figure standing over you and reaching out a hand, and a weird black mountain.”

  The elemental nodded.

  “You don’t seem surprised,” Vera said.

  “Those things have plagued my dreams for a long time,” Eloise told her. “I’ve seen most of them since being here; all of them just like my dreams. The knocks were from the kadaitcha I saw when I was lost. The hand reaching fo
r me was Coen when I stumbled into his camp. The mountain…” She shrugged. “Well, your guess is as good as mine, though probably better.”

  “Dreams and visions like these rarely make themselves known before it’s time. For now, we know you’re right where you’re meant to be.”

  “At least I know all the big secrets,” Eloise said. “I can help you do something about it.”

  “We all have our own secrets,” she murmured, thinking of Drew. “Even ones we keep from ourselves.”

  They were silent for a moment, taking in the early morning bird calls as a flock of parrots settled onto the gum tree outside Blue’s pub.

  “So, you’re going to find this Andante woman?” Vera asked. “Why?”

  “She knows things about the seal…and that’s what I wanted to ask you. Kyne said you were the best person to ask about finding Coen.”

  “Coen?”

  “Andante seemed to be someplace other than Earth, but still within it. It’s difficult to explain, but Coen knows the Dreaming and might be able to lead me there.”

  Vera thought about it for a moment. So much had come to light in such a short amount of time. Eloise’s arrival had triggered something huge, but what exactly was still to be revealed. No doubt there was more trouble coming beyond the Dust Dogs.

  “Has Coen ever given you anything?” Vera asked.

  “Kind of.” Eloise frowned. “Finn gave me a feather that Coen gave to him the day Drew hit him with that shovel.”

  “Good. Take it to the boab and call for him.”

  She blinked at the witch for a moment. “Is that it?”

  “That’s it.” Vera smiled, some of her anxiety fading. “Sometimes the simplest choice is all it takes.”

  “Thanks.” Eloise began to turn, but hesitated. “Are you sure you’re all right?”

  “Yeah. I’ll be okay.”

  “If you need anything…”

  The witch regarded Eloise for a moment before holding out the Tiger’s Eye. As it sat in the palm of her hand, she sent a pulse of purple magic through the stone, cleansing it of all the anxiety she’d seeped into it through the night.