Before Robert had even come to a full stop, Cookie rushed to the SUV and, one could argue, dragged the child out of the car and into her arms. “Oh, my goodness,” she said, swaying with the poor girl practically dangling from her embrace.
Elwyn laughed, as did Marika. She could hardly believe the events of the last couple of days. If she wrote a fantasy novel about it, an editor would say it was too outlandish. No one could suspend belief that much.
Cookie finally set her down and let the Loehrs embrace their granddaughter. Mrs. Loehr cried, her soft gray eyes a sea of emotion. While graying at the temples, Mr. Loehr still looked as dashing as he had the first time Marika met him four years ago when Garrett brought Zaire to the compound for his and Elwyn’s first playdate.
They walked Elwyn inside, not ready to let go of her. The rest of Team Beep followed.
An hour later, as they sat around the dinner table, Elwyn couldn’t get enough of drinking them in. Marika couldn’t imagine what she’d been through. She’d grown up in a different dimension, on a different plane. Terrifying in its own right, but how did she get there in the first place?
They all had so many questions, but to everyone’s credit, they kept them to themselves. At least for the time being.
Elwyn had showered, and Cookie found her some clothes. She was incredible at guessing sizes and made astonishingly good fashion choices considering her own attire bordered on manic with a sprinkle of colorblindness.
The girl was so lovely. No one could stop staring at her, including Marika. The scars on her face did nothing to subdue the beauty she’d become. But Marika was biased.
She still wore the bracelet that Osh had given her. Tarnished and covered in blood, it had survived what appeared to be years in a seemingly hostile environment.
“Where are Amber and Quentin?” Elwyn asked after she got a few bites into her. Amber was Cookie’s daughter, though Quentin was a little harder to explain. Marika had always thought of him as a stray they’d taken in after a demon had possessed him and left him homeless.
“They’re on their way home,” Cookie said. “They wanted to be here sooner, but they were in the middle of finals. I forbade them from coming back until they took—and passed—every single test.”
“They’re still at university?” Elwyn asked. “They must be getting their doctorates by now. I want a doctorate someday. Maybe in ceramic sciences. Or manga. And what about Zaire?” She looked at Marika. “I can’t wait to see him. Is he here? I bet he’s taller than I am now.”
An awkward silence followed her statement when everyone at the table realized at the exact same time that Elwyn didn’t know. She had no idea that she’d only been gone a few days on Earth. The same thing had happened to Charley when Elwyn was a baby.
“Elwyn,” Robert said, his mouth forming a grim line, “we don’t know how long you’ve been gone on the other plane. We called the doctor to take a look at you and hopefully shed some light on your age, but we’re guessing you’re somewhere around fourteen?” He looked at Cookie.
She agreed with a nod. “Yes. I’d say thirteen or fourteen.”
Mrs. Loehr nodded as well. “That would be my guess, too. I would’ve said twelve, but only because you’re so small.”
Elwyn put down her fork. “Oh.” She glanced down to study herself. “I’m sorry.”
“Oh, honey, no.” Mrs. Loehr leaned over and gave her granddaughter a hug. “You’re gorgeous.”
She pasted on a smile, unconvinced. “Has it not been seven or eight or nine years here?”
“Sweetheart,” Garrett began, his expression just as grim as Robert’s, “for us, you’ve only been gone three days.”
Elwyn blinked, letting the concept sink in. Then she stood and walked to the window overlooking the plains with the mountains in the background. After a few moments, she sat back down. “So, Zaire is still only five?”
Marika nodded, but she hadn’t expected the mischief on the girl’s face. “Good. That means I can beat him up. Finally.”
They laughed, but Marika wasn’t wholly convinced that her light-hearted acceptance was genuine. Still, that could wait.
Now that the hard part was out of the way, Mr. Loehr asked, “Ellie Bug, how did you end up in another dimension?”
The girl took another bite of her taco, a delicacy she’d once described as structurally bothersome yet strangely addictive, and said, “I went there.”
“But how, honey?” Robert asked.
“Like always. Only I couldn’t find my way back this time.”
Marika kept a close eye on Garrett. That cocktail may have worked wonders, but he’d still almost been killed. She handed him one of her tacos. When he questioned her by quirking a brow, she said, “I’m full. You’ll have to eat that one for me.”
He shrugged and carried on. “Okay, let’s pretend that we don’t know how you’re able to space travel.”
Elwyn giggled at that thought, but the description hadn’t been far off the mark.
“If you want to go from point A to point B, what exactly do you do to get there?”
She looked at him as though he were daft, then said, “Through the portals,” right before taking another crunchy bite.
He leaned back, as did Robert. “Right. The portals. And those are?”
She swallowed, took a drink of black coffee, then said, “The departed.”
“The what?” Donovan asked, deciding to join in on the conversation. “The dead people?”
“Yes. That’s how I’ve always done it, only I figured out—”
“Wait,” Robert said, his mind completely blown according to his stunned expression. “The departed? You jump through the departed?”
She took another bite then nodded as Robert and Garrett put their heads together, literally, and talked quietly.
They straightened and then Robert said, “I’ve never heard of such an ability, and I’m old. Like millennia old. How is that even possible?”
“I don’t know. I just figured out how to do it when I was a kid.”
“So, like…yesterday,” Garrett said.
“I guess. It’s your fault.”
He appraised her with an incredulous stare. “My fault?”
“Yes. We were playing hide and seek. I don’t know if you remember this, but I always won.”
“She did,” he said, confirming the fact to everyone at the table.
“That’s because I was trying to hide one day, and I kind of accidentally jumped through a departed.”
“Accidentally?” Cookie asked. “How old were you?”
“I’m not sure. Maybe three? That first time scared me, though. I ended up in the woods at night, and I didn’t do it again for a long time. Like a whole week.”
“You used to end up in my office all the time,” Garrett said, thinking back. “Even though I locked it to keep you out.”
“Yep.” She beamed at him, quite pleased with herself.
“You know what?” Eric said, his lean face full of contemplative thought. A dangerous thing for him. “I’ve experienced some crazy shit from you guys over the years, but a girl who can jump from dead person to dead person? I think that takes the cake. One of those pineapple upside-down things.”
He got up to grab another beer. Apparently, that’s what the guys did after such an ordeal, no matter the time of day, since it was barely one in the afternoon. He handed Garrett a bottle, too.
Garrett twisted the cap off then asked her, “Do you remember what you said to me just before you…what do you call it?”
She frowned. “I don’t know. I never thought about it. It’s like two pieces of a puzzle that I have to put together to be able to go through them.”
He shook his head. “How do you fit them together?”
She shrugged by lifting a brow. “I just do.”
“That’s okay. Do you remember the last thing you said to me?”
After finishing off her second cup of coffee, she lifted a slim shoulder. “I said
I’d find him.”
“Find who?” Michael asked.
“Osh’ekiel.” She said his name like it was a poem and absently cradled the wrist sporting her bracelet.
“You went looking for him?” Garrett asked, his smooth voice not the least bit condescending.
She only nodded, then added, “I never found him.”
“I have something for you.” Marika handed her the Osh doll. She worried the girl, now that she was older, would toss it away, thinking it childish. But she gaped at it for a solid minute, playing with its hair and coattails, then hugged it to her.
When Elwyn looked up again, she saw another member of the team standing in a corner. Her face brightened. She shot to her feet and ran over to him.
“Holy shit,” Garrett said beside Marika. “Is that who I think it is?”
“I forgot you’ve never seen him before. The one and only, Angel Garza. The most inappropriate flirt this side of heaven.”
Chapter Nine
When you are with your best friend,
it doesn’t matter whose idea it was
as long as your alibis match.
—Meme
Angel was a departed thirteen-year-old gangbanger. He’d died in the nineties and had the A-line shirt and thick bandana low over his eyes to prove it. The first time they’d met, he’d hit Marika with a, “How you doin’?” replete with a New York accent, even though he’d never stepped foot outside of Albuquerque, New Mexico. At least while he was alive. She’d been a bit in love with the little shit ever since.
She felt positively giddy as Elwyn ran into his arms. And a tad jealous. Humans could rarely touch the departed, but Elwyn’s mother and father could, thus the ability had been passed down to her.
“You grew up,” Angel said to her, taken aback.
“Are you mad?”
“Never. I’m just sad I couldn’t be there for you. I looked everywhere.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault, mi reina.” My queen. Marika sighed. He ran a finger along the scar across Elwyn’s cheek.
She covered it with her hand self-consciously. “It’s ugly.”
He removed her hand and replaced it with his own. “You are the most beautiful being I’ve ever seen. A tiny scar doesn’t change shit.” Ever the poet, that kid.
Elwyn sank against him, and Garrett leaned over to Marika. “Should I be worried?”
“Yes,” she answered. “With anyone else, no. But we are talking about Angel, who is as solid to Elwyn as you and I are.”
“So, exorcism tonight?”
“The sooner, the better.”
Elwyn brought Angel to the table and sat back down. Garrett nodded to him.
“Oh, that’s right,” Angel said, taking him in. “You can see me now. Guess I’ll have to watch what I say around you then.”
“Might be a good idea.”
“Did you find him?” Robert asked Angel.
The Casanova shook his head. “He may be up in the mountains.”
“Yes, which is why we sent you there to find him.”
“I was headed that way when I was ambushed.”
“Ambushed?” Elwyn asked, genuine concern on her face.
“Seems we have another beast running around. This one is smaller, but no less mean. Like a pendejo badger or something. He sent me packing with barely a word. It was more like a growl, actually.”
“Oh, yes.” Elwyn deflated. “He’s been following me, too. For several worlds now.”
“Following you?” Garrett said. “Sweetheart, why don’t you explain everything from the beginning? I get how you jump from departed to departed now. Kind of. But how did you leave this plane?”
“Well, I knew Osh’ekiel wasn’t on this one, so I decided to look on some others. Only then, I couldn’t find my way back. There are so many.” Her gaze slid past him to another place. Another time.
Robert nodded. “There are as many dimensions as there are stars in our universe.”
“So, a lot,” Eric said, helpfully.
Garrett sat stewing in a roiling sea of confusion. He just wanted to wrap his head around everything. Elwyn was the daughter of two gods. Was she automatically a card-carrying, secret handshake god? How did one get into the god club, anyway? Or maybe she was a demigod. How would that work?
She seemed to have completely different abilities from either of her biological parents. Like healing with her blood. Charley could heal with a simple touch and even bring people back to life. Or using the departed as a portal for interdimensional travel. Charley was the opposite. She was a portal, one that led to heaven, so those who didn’t cross when they died could when they were ready.
And Reyes…well, he was the ultimate enigma. He and Charley could dematerialize and appear anywhere on Earth, but Reyes, a portal in his own right, albeit one to hell, could exist on both dimensions simultaneously. Beep, as far as anyone knew, couldn’t. Why would their abilities be so different?
“It’s like looking through a kaleidoscope,” she continued, her mind far away. “And trying to find just the right pattern.”
Mrs. Loehr took Beep’s hand. “I’m so sorry, honey.”
“It’s my own fault, Grandma.”
“No,” Mr. Loehr said. “It’s not. You were given extraordinary abilities when you were born. It was too much, too soon. Too big a bite. From what I understand, your biological mother’s abilities came to her over time. She wasn’t just handed the keys to the kingdom. She was given one room at a time to explore and learn before offered another. And she had Reyes to help her navigate, not us bumbling, fumbling humans.”
A bubble of laughter escaped Beep. “I love my bumbling, fumbling humans.”
Mrs. Loehr had to turn away and wipe her eyes.
“Where did you go?” Garrett asked. “And how did you end up with the fiancé from hell?” He didn’t want to push her, but they did need to know what was going on and how to stop it.
“Oh, he’s not from a true hell dimension,” Elwyn said with a snort. “The Nepaui just like to think they are. But I’ve been to a few true hell dimensions. You do not want to go there.”
“Wait,” Marika said, “how many dimensions have you been to?”
“I don’t know. I lost count around one hundred.”
“And you jump through the departed there, too?”
“Yes. Turns out, the departed are everywhere. Sometimes, they are sentient beings. Other times, they’re more like ferns. Or begonias. Not all of the pieces always fit. Sometimes, I have to take the long way around to get to a dimension I can almost make out.”
Marika had a little drool on the corner of her mouth, she was so fascinated. Garrett handed her a napkin. She took it, glared at him, then asked, “Was there life everywhere you went?”
“Oh, yes. There is no death without life. I cannot enter a dimension that does not contain the departed in one form or another.”
“Fascinating.”
“Right? One place I went to was all water. The entire dimension. I didn’t even know it at first because it wasn’t like our water. It was much thicker. Like baby oil. But once I figured out how to breathe, it was amazing. Then I went to this one where the air was acid. It was horrible. I do not recommend that one. Then I found one that my mother had been to. A hell dimension with wraiths named after coffee drinks.”
“Yes,” Cookie said, excited. “Your mother named them.”
“You got out of it?” Robert asked, astonished. “Even your mother couldn’t do that, and she can—could—dematerialize.”
“I did, but only because I used a wraith to unlock the next dimension. I believe her name was Salted Caramel Macchiato, but don’t quote me on that.”
Garrett raked a hand over his short hair. “This is all so incredible.”
“But you want me to get to the point?” she asked.
“I want to hear everything. But right now, I need to know why that thing is on this planet and how to kill it.”
&
nbsp; “I told you. You don’t.”
“Beep,” he said, getting frustrated. “Have you seen this thing? I mean, maybe it’s grown since coming here.”
“I doubt it. You described Hayal perfectly. Would you like to hear how I know?”
Marika snorted beside him. He almost glowered at her, but the sound was so cute he couldn’t bring himself to sour her mood. “I would love to hear it.”
She stood, refreshed her coffee, then sat back down. Cookie beamed at the girl, her pride in the girl’s coffee-drinking prowess absolute. He fought a grin, trying not to encourage her.
“Okay, I ended up in a…well, a country for lack of a better word called Napau. And I was captured immediately by these huge creatures with horns and long, steely claws.”
“That’s them,” Garrett said, his stomach contracting with the image.
“How old were you then?” Marika asked.
“Not much older than when I left.”
“You were just a baby,” she whispered. Absently, she took hold of Garrett’s hand. He laced his fingers with hers.
“Long story short, I became a slave. But I accidentally saved my castern, my keeper, from an attack one night. That’s when she realized that while I might be small, I could fight. She sent me to train with her sister.”
“A slave?” Mrs. Loehr asked.
“Don’t worry, Grandma. I could’ve left anytime. I could’ve jumped through any one of a thousand departed. But by that point, I was just so tired and lost.”
Mrs. Loehr pressed her hands to her mouth.
“It was the first place where I felt like I could rest. Apart from all the training. And fighting. And maiming.”
“Let me get this straight,” Garrett said. “You fought them? Those creatures?”
“Often. I became their champion, and I caught the eye of the prince. He asked his father for my hand in marriage since I had no one to give consent. The king agreed. I did not.”
“You turned him down?” Cookie asked.
“Which,” Eric said, chiming in, “thank God. I mean, how would you even—?”
“As you were saying,” Robert said before giving Eric a disapproving glare. “You turned him down?”
“Yes, but it’s the law. Since I turned him down, we had to fight to the death.”
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