Familiar Stranger

by Michele Hauf

  —dead at his feet.

  “Jack, please, don’t let this happen.”

  Softer, bringing forth tears bloody and buzzing. Can the dead talk? Warmth pressed upon his mouth. A kiss? Not right. Too tender. He made to slap it away, but she caught his wrist. Something sat upon him. Buzzing, so much buzzing. He jerked his head to the left and the right.

  “Open your eyes, Jack. Look at me!”

  “No,” he gasped. No more staring down things that weren’t his own species.

  “Kiss me, Jack. Please. You are the one.”

  Those two words echoed in his tormented brain. The one? What did that mean? He wasn’t anyone’s—

  Yes, you are. You want to be. You can be!

  Allow it to happen. Believe.

  Mersey’s mother. The cat in the field. Fright made its way through Jack’s system at the memory of watching the cat drop the hematite ring on his windowsill.

  Warmth against his mouth again. Salvation. The buzzing segued to background cacophony.

  “I love you, Jack.”

  Touch her. Feel her. Know love. There is no other. You are the one!

  Yes, he knew it. She wasn’t dead. The demon did not get her.

  “Mersey?”

  “Kiss me….”

  But before Jack could embrace Mersey, a winged man materialized above them, arms crossed jauntily, and crooked grin just as haughty.

  “Ah, ah,” the faery chastised with a finger cutting the air. “Not so fast, my demented Jack Harris. This one is mine. It was part of the bargain.”

  “Bargain?” Jack looked to Mersey. He swiped at a bee.

  “A pity, really. He held potential as a warrior.” The faery hugged Mersey to his side, his wing curling forward to wrap possessively around the bits the white lab coat did not cover. “For your release from the forest, Jack—and that glamour you used to sneak into the Cadre—

  kitten here offered up her own freedom.”

  “No, she wouldn’t. Mersey? But all you have is your freedom.”

  “I—” Her head lolled to the faery’s chest. “Love you, Jack.”

  “Touching, but futile. Unless you have a claim to her, mortal, she is mine.” The faery glanced about the room and toed the inert body of Squire. Dismissing it all with a shake of his head, he then clutched up Mersey. “Shall we, my pet?”

  And the two of them disappeared.

  Chapter 30

  J ack remained inside the walls of the Cadre, deep in the dank air of the dungeon. The buzzing had given over but he continued to shake his head. The residual effects of the demon gaze clung heavily to his soul. He’d seen Mersey dead. An image he could never erase from his mind. He shouted, calling all the darkest shadows to the surface. Jack shuddered, his body clenching. He fell forward, pressing his hands to the stone floor. His cry matched that of his mother’s wailing in his head.

  “Not real,” Jack managed to say through his tight jaw. “Not…”

  Her kiss. He had not opportunity for a final kiss from the woman he loved.

  You are the one.

  And she was the one for him.

  And now, he did not have her.

  “Agent Harris.”

  Chainmail clishing, Jack looked up to a woman with long auburn hair, hands on her hips. Green eyes not so vivid as Mersey’s fixed him. She was flanked by a man to the left, and to the right by a woman sporting stern black-rimmed spectacles. The hum of insects faded into the background.

  “You’re on private property,” she announced.

  Back to the real world. Come on, Jack. Snap out of it!

  Right then. Mersey is gone. Taken by that…faery.

  Jack sniffed away the tears and punched the floor once. With a snap of his neck, he pushed up to stand. “And you are?” he asked.

  “Lady Aurora Maybank.” She crossed her arms. An air of refined grace surrounded her, yet beneath, he sensed her interior was hard as steel.

  “Your new worst enemy.”

  As if he had room on his slate for another?

  “I see. Sorry, I’m a bit put out, or I’d fill in your name on the list, but at the moment I believe I have enough enemies.”

  “How did you get inside our facility, Agent Harris?”

  Where the hell had the faery taken Mersey? To that bloody forest. He had to pursue.

  “Agent—”

  “I don’t recall,” he snapped.

  “It doesn’t matter. I know you had to be led inside, yet you didn’t show on the monitors. Whatever charm Mersey used, it was a good one to get you past the threshold guardians. But I can see you now.”

  He gave a mock bow. “Charmed, I’m sure.”

  “At the moment I must overlook the fact that P-Cell has infiltrated our private headquarters. Most pressing is where is Mersey Bane?”

  “Gone.” The word fell from Jack’s heart and splattered upon the floor before his feet. “With…the faery.”

  “Raskin Rubythorn?”

  “I don’t know what the hell his name was. The faery said Mersey had traded him the boon of her enslavement to rescue me from that sodding forest. Me? Can you imagine?”

  “No, I cannot.” Though, the tiniest smile appeared on the woman’s delicate-featured face. Or was that a shadow of the bees Jack still heard buzzing in his brain?

  “I’m in charge here, and you will respect our rules. The Cadre does not allow P-Cell into headquarters, so you will be expelled.”

  “For such a private establishment, you’re sure handing me the information, Miss Maybank.”

  “You will not leave with it, so it is irrelevant. Now, I know Mersey had been investigating a leak in London. But that doesn’t explain you. You and Mersey are—?”

  Jack shrugged. Sighed. “I love her.”

  The woman’s brow rose.

  “I do. I love Mersey Bane. And I know I’m not supposed to be here. And Mersey broke every rule in the book by bringing me in. And I did lead Beryth here, to the detriment of no one but Mersey. I take full responsibility for that.” He gestured to the glass ball at his feet.

  “Although, you do now have the dread demon crystallized.”

  “Crystallized?” She bent forward to study the ball, but didn’t touch it.

  “Are we using a new form of containment, Squire?”

  “Nuhuh,” mumbled up from the floor where Jack spied a tuft of blond hair. Poor guy, he’d taken a good whack to the head.

  “It’s in there,” Jack offered. He tried to get her to take it by nudging it toward her feet, but she wouldn’t. “I don’t want it, that’s for sure.”

  “We appreciate you helping us to capture the demon, Mr. Harris. Beryth has been tops on our most-wanted list for a long time. Squire will ensure the demon is stored properly. Won’t you, Squire?”

  “I’m fine!” called out from the floor behind the lab table. “Just a little groggy. Thank you, Lady Aurora, for your ever-lacking concern.”

  She ignored the sarcasm. “Now, Harris, if you’ll shuck off that ridiculous armor, I’ll arrange for you to be transported back to your home, minus the memory of your escapades behind Cadre walls.”

  Without memory of the Cadre? Well, bring it on. Nothing but ill luck had come of this adventure.

  But no way was Jack moving until all the ends were neatly tied up. He planted his feet and stared at the woman. “I go nowhere without Mersey.”

  “Please, Agent Harris, don’t make this more than it is. You did what you could, and we thank you.”

  Lady Aurora had a certain air about her that spoke command. But he was in love. And, he believed. That trumped all superior stare downs.

  “I don’t think you heard me, Lady Aurora. I know I just met Mersey a week ago. But if her mother hadn’t picked me, I still would have found her, I’m sure of it. I love Mersey Bane. And I’m not leaving until I know she is safe.”

  “We’ll see to her comfort.”

  “She’s been taken captive by a sodding faery!”

  Lady Aurora noticeab
ly stiffened at his shout. Jack could hardly care for offending the gentry.

  “Assign someone to lead me into the forest and ensure exit. I have a score to settle with the Rubythroat guy.”

  “It’s Rubythorn, and he’s a former prince of the Black court. Malicious mischief is his stock and trade. You’ll get nothing settled with him if he’s taken claim to Mersey. And if Mersey made a bargain—”

  “So you’re going to let the sprite keep one of your own captive because he can?”

  “It’s not wise to sever a bargain made with the sidhe.”

  “Bullocks.” It slipped and Jack didn’t care. “She’s mine.”

  “Is she?” She smirked.

  He pounded a fist against his chest. The chainmail clinked. “She is.”

  “Do you have proof that Mersey is yours? That you’ve a claim to her.”

  “I didn’t mean it that way. I just—in my heart. She’s mine. Here.”

  Outrage mellowing, he fisted his chest again. “I love her with all my heart, as tainted as that may be. Can’t you at least provide me with a guide? I’ll deal with the faery in my own manner.”

  “I’m well aware of P-Cell’s manner, Harris. Weapons are not allowed in the unaligned borderlands surrounding the St. Yve estate. Besides, the alliance between the Cadre and Rubythorn is very tenuous. I couldn’t send a guide along with you if I wanted to. Politics.”

  “I see.” Jack nodded. “She was right.”

  “Who?”

  “Mersey said your lot considered yourself her family, but it’s all a show. You don’t really care about her. You all are so big on studying the OEs, you don’t know how to relate on a real emotional level. With humans and with familiars—who are as human as they come, let me tell you.”

  “And you do know how to relate, Harris?”

  Jack clasped his hands before him. The ring Mersey had given him clinked against the chainmail. “I’m learning.”

  The ring.

  It is your claim to me, Jack.

  Mersey’s mother had known they would someday find each other. You are the one, Jack.

  Kiss me. She’d kissed the demons from his dreams. Could he ever give her the freedom she desired?

  He had to try.

  “What if I can find proof? A claim to Mersey.”

  “Then you’ve the key to getting her back.”

  Jack pushed the ring toward the end of his finger. It looked exactly like the other one he’d been given as a child. Could he use this one and save time? There was a rat’s chance in heaven the original even existed.

  “What is your proof?” Lady Aurora prompted.

  “You’ll see.” Jack unhooked the chain mail shirt and tossed it to the floor. It landed in a clatter upon half a dozen toppled crystals. Bare chest heaved as he took in a breath of bravery. He’d keep the leather trousers.

  “I’ll need a guide.”

  The woman nodded sharply. “Impossible.”

  “I’ll go,” came a weak voice from the floor.

  “Squire, you—”

  “If he has a means to get her back,” Squire said as he pulled himself up along the table, “I’m there. You may not care about Mersey, but I love her like a sister.”

  Jack turned to Lady Aurora. Not a blink. Not a smile. She gave a single nod, then turned, and with her entourage, walked out.

  “So.” Squire shrugged long fingers through his hair. “This is my first excursion outside the hallowed halls of the Cadre. Can’t—” he wobbled and sank to his knees “—wait.”

  Chapter 31

  “W here is it?”

  “I have no idea, Callahan.” Jack searched the roadway for sign of his home—the place of his birth. “I buried it when I was eight.”

  The man in the passenger seat sighed. Jack figured him for about twenty-five, and good-natured. Though his nose still bled. The demon had clocked him a good one. Whether or not the man was human, Jack didn’t want to know. He’d volunteered to help Mersey; that was all that mattered.

  “Well,” Squire said, “you know the basic area?”

  “Sure. And it was before an oak tree.”

  “That should make things easier. Just look for a big old…”

  Jack pulled up to the edge of an oak forest. Centuries-old oaks lined the border, surrounded by many younger oaks that had been growing for decades. Fall-browned leaves formed a canopy and shook down in plummeting sheets as squirrels scrambled at the arrival of a vehicle.

  “Oh, this is bad,” Squire said. “Easy as working formulas blindfolded and hanging upside down! All it is is oaks!”

  Squire sneezed. “Did I mention I’m allergic to pollen?”

  “I noticed. You were the one so wise to get out of the dungeon. Welcome to the real world, Callahan.”

  “Speaking of the real world.” Squire turned on the seat to face Jack.

  “Here we are, back in the real world. Away from Cadre grounds. So why don’t you just leave, Harris?”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “You’ve your freedom and your memory. If you leave now, you can have back your life. You don’t think Lady Aurora will actually allow Rubythorn to keep Mersey.”

  “I have no clue.”

  “Well, she won’t. It wouldn’t reflect well on her supervisory skills. So you go on. Mersey will be fine.”

  “Can’t.”

  “You want to return to ultimately get your memory wiped of Mersey? Dude, leave and you’ll still have her. Here.” Squire tapped his skull. “Any other scenario, and you’ll walk right past her and not even give her a second glance.”

  The idea of physically losing Mersey was unthinkable. But losing her in his memory? To leave now would mean walking away from his promise to Mersey. To always protect her.

  “Can’t do it, Squire. Love her.”

  “Then you’ll lose her.”

  “Yes.” Would he think of her when he smelled lemon in a supermarket? Just how encompassing could a memory wipe be? Would he lose this insufferable buzzing that hummed at the periphery of his sanity? “But I’ll know she’s safe.”

  “No, you won’t. Memory wipe, dude!”

  “Come on. We don’t have time for this. Every moment Mersey spends with that faery is another moment her spirit fades.”

  “Man, she must really love you, Harris. To trade her freedom for you?”

  Ignoring Squire’s remark, Jack stepped out onto the roadside. He plunged down the ditch and started across the overgrown field that sat before the forest.

  Did she really love him?

  What was love? It wasn’t about being the one. Or someone’s Mr. Right. He would always be Mr. Wrong, no matter what.

  Was it the need to make everything in the world around him right? The desire to erase his guilt? Or the compulsion to never stop until he again saw Mersey.

  None of the above, Jack suspected. He knew better now. Love lived in him and filled his every fiber. It felt like Mersey’s sighs. It tickled like her laughter. It was a feeling, not a memory, and he wagered no vicious memory wipe could ever erase that.

  He hoped not.

  He’d never felt this way with Monica. And Jack knew now that he never said anything to Monica because it wouldn’t have been the truth. Only a need.

  Mersey wasn’t a need; she was his soul.

  “Why didn’t you just keep the ring?” Squire set up post on a rotting oak trunk frilled with mushrooms, and itched furiously at his ankles. The noon sun coaxed rivulets of sweat down his forehead.

  “It scared me.”

  Jack inspected tree number seven. There weren’t a lot of oaks he earmarked for twenty years growth that edged the clearing. But there were enough.

  “And if you look beyond the nasty demon I saw that night, there was the other weirdness. The ring was given to me by a cat. Mersey’s mother. I can’t understand how her mother expected that the little boy she gave the ring to would actually hold on to it over the years and not lose it.”

  Squire shrugged, but
it was more a frantic splay of limbs as he wildly scratched.

  “Someone should have told me the rules.” Jack pressed his forehead to the tree and closed his eyes.

  If he had known then the ring would lead him to an incredibly amazing, smart, sexy woman, he would have had it locked away in a security box until he was older.

  “Too bad Mersey wasn’t here,” Squire commented. “She could have witched her way to the right tree. Even I can feel the energy here.”

  Energy? Jack closed his eyes and tried to tap into it. What did it feel like? What did Mersey feel when she located a ley line?

  “Jack.”

  “I’d do anything for her, Squire. Mersey is like me. We both strive to survive in a world we don’t quite belong in. She’s a part of the world I don’t understand, and I’m a part of the one she wants to belong to. I know I’ll probably never see her again after I’ve found her and returned her to the Cadre—bloody hell, I made a bargain, too—but I just want her to know how much I love her before that chance is taken away.”

  “Then open your eyes, Jack.”

  He did. And the sun glinted an inch before his nose—

  —on the curved black arc of a hematite ring.

  Pulling away a chunk of bark, with ring intact, Jack presented it like a triumphant flame to the sky. But his celebration lasted all of two seconds.

  There would be time later for celebrating—with the woman he loved. The bark crumbled away easily. Fitting the ring onto his finger above the one Mersey had given him, he marveled as the rings magnetically clicked to one another. As if destined to be together.

  “Let’s go.” He grabbed Squire by the shirt and pulled him onward. Wild lavender spotted the overgrown field. Jack stepped high to breach the grasses. They plunged down the ditch and up onto the gravel road. They didn’t get far. Crouched upon the crunched metal roof of the Range Rover, a stone gargoyle glowered. The passenger door had popped open as a result of the weight bending the frame sharply inward. And standing before the car? Ophelia, wearing a floaty white dress decorated all over with red roses and holding her hands in a clasp before her. Wispy gray hair curled at her ears. Jack had not noticed before how blue her eyes were, like gemstones lit from behind. Was she a faery?