The Other World
Clarence had ignored my advice about not chasing the dragoness around. If he really wanted to stop her, he should’ve sent his guards to find and watch Tops. Whatever Beal told her and Nic had been enough to send her on a rampage. I still wasn’t sure what Jon had done but Preston had taken it upon himself to decide that whatever it was, his murderer shouldn’t be apprehended. At least not right away.
My brother was back home. Crilus and Pierce had taken Baby Hex and went to stay with him while I tried to discern what hell had broken loose. Following Nic and Beal’s trail hadn’t been difficult. A dragon and a coconut. It wasn’t a combination you smelled every day. Luckily, I had run into Raiel who knew where to find them and even knew the nurse in question.
A winged shadow overtook the field I waited in. Nic was high up with a man over his shoulder and his big, leathery dragon wings out. I let out a long, slow breath. Part of me wondered if following his mother’s trail would’ve been more prudent.
Nic landed, setting the man down on his own two feet. The breeze carried their scents to me. Nic was teetering on the edge of enraged and the man who had smelled like a coconut on the scent trail now smelled like a big cat mixed with something more primordial. It wasn’t nice to go around sniffing strangers or to ask what their inner beasts were, but I almost gave in to it. If he was the big cat who had taken the body parts, he definitely wasn’t a ghost.
“Uh, hi, Mori,” Nic said, trying to sound normal but his speech was slower and more civil than necessary. “Where’s my mum at?”
“No one can find her,” I admitted.
“This is Beal. He’s mine,” Nic said, jerking his head in his mate’s direction.
“Raiel tried to explain that one to me. Apparently, he’s the ghost cat?” I asked, choosing my words carefully.
“Cat. Not ghost,” Beal said.
“He’s my mate,” Nic said as if that explained everything.
“What’s going on, Nic?” I asked.
Nic glanced at Beal who shrugged. A few minutes later, I thought I understood what had happened. Raiel was from somewhere over here and Beal had done him a favor which required him to go to Earthside. There he had scented Nic and attempted to deliver him three courting gifts. Only, his choice of gifts was a direct result of overhearing Chard and Jon saying that they needed to kill Nic to get money that one of them owed a hyena shifter. Beal left them alive to learn a lesson.
“And your mum didn’t think that was enough justice,” I nodded. “I get it. I think my parents would be the same way. If someone threatened one of my siblings, I’d probably go for the kill too.”
“What do I need to do to fix this?” Nic asked me.
I wasn’t sure there was a way to fix it. Jon and Chard were dead. Proving her innocence would take a long time. It would probably have to go through the courts. The fact that she never notified any authority of what was going on wouldn’t help her case.
“We bring her here,” Beal said as if it settled the matter. “Well, back to the village.”
“We’d have to find her first,” I pointed out.
“Then let’s not waste time,” Beal said and started toward the gateway.
“Wait! Do you even have a plan to find her?” I shouted after them because Nic followed on his mate’s heels.
“Yeah. I have her son. She’ll find us, probably. After she takes care of Tops anyway.”
“I swear to Juda and Frost and all the old bears –” I never finished swearing because the world went dark. The last thing I heard before I was yoinked out of my body was an elf shouting “Oh, shit! Wolf down!”
I was getting used to the ‘yoink.’ Dern never allowed a week to pass without pulling me into his kitchen. I lay there on the cool floor, wishing he would come up with a way to warn me before beckoning me to him. I wiggled my toes and took my time adjusting to being in whatever part of the Other World this was. Time here and on Earthside never quite lined up no matter what I did. You couldn’t guess time, and you couldn’t make it do what you wanted.
“Git on up here,” Dern sighed. “You gotta see what I think is gonna happen.”
I blinked my eyes open and glanced out the window. His backyard was ever changing. Today, two hell hounds tugged at opposite ends of a rope as if they were overgrown puppies having a go at learning to be dogs instead of the giants they were.
“Don’t worry about them dogs. Just get up here and look,” Dern insisted, nudging my foot with the toe of his boot. “Get up here before I call Ormund to put you up here. That’s what’s wrong with young folk today! No giddy up in your step.”
Sighing, I pushed myself upright and hoped the elves didn’t think I was dead and toss my ass on a funeral pyre. I joined him at the kitchen table where a huge baking dish was filled with water. Apple slices floated on the water and beneath the fruit a vague image was already forming.
“I hope this is important because—” I stopped speaking when the bloody hands of Nic’s mother came into view. I wasn’t sure how I knew they were her hands, but they were. The vision was so lucid that I could practically smell her and the blood of the canine on her hands as they dug in through the furry brown and black spotted belly.
“Holy Frost and Juda!”my wolf gasped inside his inner sanctum.“She did it. She found Tops.”
“Lady Annila,” Dern nodded at the pan. “She’s doing my sort of work. Just watch.”
