One Bounce Away from Crazy, page 13
“Sit!” I told the giant-sized mutt. “Stay!”
He sat on top of Bella. He stayed.
And the three of us stood panting as the vamp fought uselessly to rise.
Justice finally joined us, standing outside of biting and clawing range to stare down at Bella. “I will consider our differences resolved,” he said, his voice soft and not unkind. “I will also give you this…I am sorry for my part in any offense paid to you. I didn’t mean to offend. You have my ongoing and sincerest respect. However, in the future, if you attempt to take out a lingering hostility on me or my people,” he glanced at Elvo. “…or dog, you and I will have a problem. You will pay for that problem with your life. Do we have an understanding?”
Bella rolled her eyes up to glare at him. “You will die soon, Guide. Your people will die alongside you. I will personally drink all of your blood. That is our understanding,” she spit out. “It is the only one we need.”
Justice sighed. “Why must you be so stubborn, Bella?”
Her upper torso moved in what I thought might be a shrug. “It is one of my most endearing qualities.”
Justice laughed and, reaching down, he pulled my paring knife from her throat. As she struggled to get her fangs into him, he glanced at me. “Vampire incapacitation lesson one.” He ran his finger over the spot where Bella’s neck met her shoulder. “This…” he inserted the blade there and Bella went limp, her eyes rolling back in her head. “Is the spot where you want to get them. As long as that blade is in there, she won’t wake up. But if you remove the blade…” He yanked it free and Bella roared her rage, flailing around beneath Elvo’s enormous butt. “I’ll kill everyone you know!”
Justice smiled, motioning for Elvo to lay down. He did, draping his enormous form over the vamp like a fluffy bear rug. The vamp grunted as he compressed her chest, fighting to breathe. Elvo laid his big head down on Bella’s head and sighed, looking as if he were going to take a nap.
Justice reinserted the blade. “Got it?”
I nodded. “Got it. Can we go to the armory again? I’m really tired of fighting with my kitchen knives. It’s humiliating.”
“What did you do with the knife we got you?” he asked, disgusted.
“We had a little vamp problem in my kitchen.”
When his eyes went wide, I quickly added. “It’s taken care of. Though I hope ugly linoleum is bloodstain resistant.” I had a thought. “Does the Bureau offer damage reimbursements?”
He sighed.
Kimmie shoved at Elvo until he got up and lumbered back toward the door. She pulled the butcher knife free of Bella’s kidneys, examining it. “This is actually a good blade.”
I nodded. “I bought it from one of those TV shopping channels. It’s a Ninja Warrior 5XS. That means it’s five times extra sharp, which seems kind of redundant. I mean, how sharp do you need a knife to be?”
Justice dropped an arm over each of our shoulders and walked us to the door. “Do I want to know how you ladies got here?”
Kimmie glared at me. “No. It will be better for our relationship if you don’t ask.”
He nodded. “Noted. Let’s go arm up. It looks as if we’re going to be paying Nicholas a visit. But first, I need to talk to Douglass Prince.”
“The guy who’s on vacation?” I asked.
“Yes,” Justice agreed. “Anil called him back to help us.”
“What does Douglass have to do with this?” Kimmie asked, frowning.
“He became Mira’s guide after Shannon was killed.”
I lifted my brows.
“Shannon was a guide. She picked a fight with the wrong shifter and ended up as shifter kibble,” he explained.
“Ew,” I said.
“There wasn’t much left of her when it was over,” Kimmie agreed. “They never really found a body. Just parts.”
“Shannon always did have more testicular fortitude than sense,” Justice responded. “It’s a shame. She was a darn good guide.”
Douglass Prince lived in a small house built under a grass-topped mound of dirt in Aere. The front door was painted a stark white and had three rectangular windows across the top. On either side of the door were long windows that were probably meant to maximize light in a structure that was nearly devoid of it. As if to prove what a good decision it had been to live basically in an underground bunker, a line of mature trees hung broken and battered around the mound. A powerful force of nature had clearly ransacked Douglass’s little slice of heaven.
Catching my line of sight, Justice nodded. “Wind is both friend and foe in Aere. If you can afford a home below the surface, you’re lucky. If you can’t…” He shrugged, apparently not feeling the need to finish the thought.
I could imagine the struggles of those who lived above ground in the strange place.
The white door swung open on the third knock. A man who looked to be in his thirties stood on the other side staring at us for a beat, before surging out to grab up Kimmie and lift her above his head.
My hand was on my blade before it registered that Kimmie was giggling like a school girl.
“Kimmie, my love, you’ve finally come to take me up on my offer.”
She pushed on his shoulders with a laugh. “Unhand me, brute. I did no such thing.”
The man, whom I assumed was Douglass, turned his grin to Justice. “Haven’t seen you in a while old man.” He followed the statement up with a punch on the arm that made Justice flinch. Douglass’s gaze dropped to me. I brandished my tiny knife. “Don’t punch me.”
His grin widened. “Well. Hello,” he said, his booming voice filled with innuendo. Glancing at Justice he said, “Old man, you brought me a present.”
Justice glared at the other man. “Step back, Juggler. This is Rae. She’s a new traveler and doesn’t need your games confusing her.”
“Juggler?” I asked, frowning. “This isn’t Douglass?”
The man performed a deep bow, sweeping an imaginary hat off his head of gleaming black hair. “One and the same. I’m at your service, Mistress Traveler.”
“He’s called Juggler for his unfortunate ways with women.” Justice said, stepping closer. His warm bulk invaded my comfort zone, edging me back. “We need to speak to you about Mira,” he told the other guide.
Douglass’s…Juggler’s carefree manner disappeared in the blink of an eye. He frowned, his gaze finding the ground. “I still can’t believe she’s gone.” Then his gaze lifted to me, understanding lighting his gray eyes. “You’re her replacement.”
I nodded. “I am.”
“Ah, you’re a lucky woman, Mistress Traveler. Mira was one of a kind. It’s quite a gift she’s given you.”
“Is it, though?” I asked, regretting the question as soon as I asked it. The man’s face transformed quickly from pain to anger. I held up my hands, hurrying to explain. “I don’t think the transference went quite as planned. Things are a bit off.”
“Off, how?”
“She bounced over me,” Kimmie said, the touch of a frown finding her pretty face. “And now I can’t bounce myself.”
Juggler’s eyes went wide. “You’re lyin’.”
“I’m not.”
He rubbed a square hand over his bristly face as if considering the information. “That is bad,” he finally said.
“It gets worse,” Justice said. “She’s bouncing without meaning to, and she somehow bounced both me and Kimmie out of a bad situation. It nearly killed her.”
Juggler’s gaze grew speculative as it fell on me. “Mira was a good traveler. Maybe even a great one. But that…” He shook his head. “I’ve never heard of a traveler carrying two others in their first weeks without dying from the effort.” He stared at me as though trying to see beneath my skin.
When the perusal went on too long, I fought the need to fidget or snap at him.
“What might Mira have been mixed up in that could have altered the transference to Rae.” Justice’s voice wasn’t harsh, but it was firm. He clearly believed Juggler knew something he wasn’t telling us.
“Not a thing,” the other guide said too quickly.
“I know she was seeing Bella. Seeing her too often if Mickel’s memories are to be believed,” Justice countered.
To his credit, Juggler didn’t try to pretend he hadn’t known. He sighed. “I told her to stay away from that nastiness. But she wouldn’t listen.”
“What killed her?” Kimmie asked, her voice deceptively soft. “How did she die?”
Juggler’s surprise seemed genuine. “I don’t know. I was out of dimension when she died.”
“That’s handy,” Justice said, anger sparking in his gaze.
Juggler’s rugged face reddened. “Do you think I don’t regret her death every single moment? Do you believe I wouldn’t have done things differently if I could? I was working with my other traveler when she succumbed. If I’d been there, I might have been able to stop what happened.” He scanned me a glance filled with regret. “And I could have claimed her rightful replacement.”
Justice’s back stiffened. “Rae was assigned to me. If she’d been rightfully yours, she would have been given to you.”
I didn’t like being spoken about like a possession and opened my mouth to tell them so. But Kimmie interrupted. “Juggler, if you have a problem with the way resources are divvied up, talk to the Bureau about it. In the meantime, both Rae and I are in danger unless we can figure out how to fix this problem. And we can’t fix it until we understand what caused it.”
Juggler seemed to consider that for a beat and then nodded. “Here’s all I know. Mira was seeing Bella. She was seeing her more and more lately. But I didn’t get the impression it was for emotional feeding. I believe she was following a hunch. She was quieter than usual in the weeks before she died. Secretive. She always had something to do when she wasn’t working. But when I asked her about it, she wouldn’t tell me.”
“Surely you could make a guess?” Justice asked.
“I could guess,” Juggler agreed. “But my guess wouldn’t be any more valuable than yours. If she was seeing Bella for reasons other than the emotional fix, there was really only one reason she’d be doing that.”
“Information,” both Kimmie and Justice said.
“Information about what?” I asked. I hated feeling like the only one in the conversation who had no clue what we were talking about. But my gut was telling me I already had enough knowledge to guess. So, I put it out there. “This is about Nicholas, isn’t it? About the blood drinking?”
Juggler snagged me with a look that was filled with respect. “Well done, Mistress…”
I held up a hand. “Just call me Rae please.”
He nodded. “Rae it is. I admit I had some suspicions along those lines. When Shannon was killed, something changed in Mira. She lost her zest…became driven to prove something.”
“She was trying to find out how Shannon was killed,” Justice said. It wasn’t a question. He’d read between the lines.
“Likely, yes. But whatever is going on with Nicholas, it’s bad and its dangerous. Both women were very good at what they did. Both were fearless and powerful. And now both are dead.”
“We need to talk to Nicholas,” Justice said. “Something about Mira’s final moments caused a displacement to occur when she transferred her Travelership to Rae. If we don’t find out what it was, Rae will be a danger to every other traveler and herself.”
It was on the tip of my tongue to suggest I just quit. I’d had a good life before I’d tripped over Mira. I could go back to that life and be just as happy. I shoved the follow-up thought that I’d be miserable knowing I could have helped people. Saved lives. Retiring from the force had been the hardest thing I’d ever done. I’d saved lives and cleaned up a little part of the world as a cop. And then there were only empty days lining up ahead of me, filled with small jobs and unimportant aspirations.
Mira had given me a second chance to do what I loved. What I was good at. I didn’t want to let that go. Something in my expression must have clued Justice in on my thoughts because he shook his head. “Sorry, Rae. There’s only one way out of this gig.”
I blinked, realizing what he was telling me. “Travelers can’t retire?” I asked, a spark of anger mixing with a touch of fear at the thought.
“They can,” Juggler said, the hint of a smile curving his lips. “It’s just a less pleasant and much more permanent form of retirement.”
Death.
I sighed, trying to hide the shock his words caused. I’d always hated feeling trapped, and it appeared I was well and truly trapped in the traveler gig. But what was done, was done. Then I had a thought. “What about expelling? You said Kimmie could be expelled.”
The three of them shared a look. “That’s a fate worse than death,” Kimmie finally said. “You don’t want to go there.”
I tried, but couldn’t get any of them to explain further. “Alrighty then,” I muttered beneath my breath. “I guess we need to fix this.”
“That we do,” Juggler agreed. “And I’m going with you.”
18
Monster Mash
Even given the half hour we spent while Justice argued with Juggler about coming with us, we found ourselves all too soon in the monster dimension again. To everyone’s delight, Kimmie was able to finally kick off the damage caused by my bouncing over her, and found she could bounce herself as well as Elvo, leaving only the two men for me to carry. I felt a little light-headed when we landed, but it passed fairly quickly. It seemed I was adjusting to the bouncing, which was a vast relief to me, and a source of consternation for both guides.
“Mira never mastered multiple fast bounces or bounces with multiple people,” Juggler told us. Your girl here shouldn’t be able to do that.”
I narrowed my gaze on him. “I’m not his girl. Also, I’m standing right here. Please stop talking about me as if I’m not two feet away from you.”
Juggler lifted his hands in surrender, grinning his roguish grin. “My apologies Miss…Rae. I mean no harm.”
I scanned the horizon, fascinated by the difference in the terrain around us. Unlike the forest environment from before, the land spreading out around us was flat and barren, dotted with scrub trees and even scrubbier brush. In the distance, a craggy range of hills, like small mountains, wrapped the horizon. The air was steamy, hot enough that we were all shiny with sweat almost from the moment we landed. High above us, the strident cry of large birds with light bodies and dark heads had me reaching for the new knife Juggler had loaned me. I didn’t like the way those birds were circling us, and hoped they weren’t as big as they appeared up in the sky.
“I really wish we’d taken the time to go to the armory,” I told Justice again. He only shook his head, likely sick to death of hearing about it from me.
Ignoring the local wildlife, Elvo headed directly for a small pond nearby and drank his fill, before wading into it up to his broad shoulders.
Smart dog.
I looked at the men. “Where’s Nicholas’s hidey hole?”
Juggler harrumphed. He ran his fingers through the dark mop of his hair, pushing it off a wide, unlined forehead with a widow’s peak. “Nick doesn’t hide. We’re in his territory now. It will be only a few minutes before his scouts pass word of our appearance.” He jerked his head toward the birds above us.
I knew I hadn’t liked the look of those birds. “We should come up with a plan, then,” I said.
Justice and Kimmie shared a look and she nodded. She turned and whistled at Elvo and then looked at me. “Good luck.”
“What? Where are you…?”
She was gone before I finished the question. And she’d taken Elvo with her.”
I looked at Justice.
“Plan B,” he said. “One plan is never enough.”
“Maybe you could share Plan B with the rest of the class?” I said.
“No time.” He jerked his chin toward a rising line of dust in the distance. “Rae, I need you to play dead. Can you do that?”
“Dead? Why?”
He grimaced. “It’s an ugly thing to admit, but men generally assume women are weak and unintelligent. They’ll underestimate you. We’re going to tell them we landed here by accident and that you’ve been badly injured.”
Juggler nodded. “They’ll take you to the healer because Nick needs women in the compound.”
“What’s to keep them from killing you two?” I asked.
“I’m guessing they’ll want to have a bit of fun with us later,” Justice said.
“Fun?” The way both men avoided my gaze, I figured it out. “They want to make you watch.”
Juggler nodded. “And, before you feel the need to say it, I’ll say it for you. Men are pigs.”
“That’s being unkind to pigs,” I murmured. “Why wouldn’t they just kill us all right here? What do they have to gain by taking us in?”
“Long story short,” Juggler said, his gaze sliding to the quickly approaching enemy. “Information from us and things you probably don’t want to think about from you. They’ll turn us and add us to the army if they believe we’re amenable, but if they find out what we are…”
“They’ll kill us,” Justice added. “Just know this and keep it foremost in your mind as this plays out. We’re your prisoners. You were taking us to Aldwen Prison when we attacked you. You’re lucky to be alive.”
“They’re not going to believe that story, I haven’t been attacked.”
Juggler stepped closer and placed a hand on my shoulder. “Sorry about this darlin’.”
Justice’s head jerked up. “What are you doing? No!”
Sharp, fiery pain burned through my side and I gasped, looking down at the small blade he’d inserted into the area above my hip.
With a growl, Justice shoved Juggler away and caught me as I started to sag. “Have you lost your mind?” he yelled at the other man. “I was thinking of a fist fight. A few bruises. She could have faked the rest.”
