‘To me?’ asked Juliet.
‘No, not to you. To Nicolas.’
Instinctively, Nick looked over his shoulder as if someone were watching him. He felt suddenly freaked out. ‘Somebody else knows what I’ve been going—’
‘Stop asking questions, the both of you. I’m making the call now.’ Tamara moved towards the end of the confined room, where there was a small doorway into a kitchen. Because she kept turning away and walking slightly into and out of the room, Nick didn’t hear all that she said. He only picked up, ‘Yes, come here as soon as possible,’ ‘I hardly care what I was supposed to do,’ ‘That’s not my problem, James,’ ‘No, you can explain it to them,’ and ‘You are wasting time now; set off already.’
Tilting her head to Nick, Juliet whispered, ‘Do you know anybody called James?’
‘No,’ he answered automatically, though it wasn’t strictly true. He’d known someone at school called James, but couldn’t see how he’d be connected. His brother Tommy had a friend by the same name, too, but again, no apparent link.
‘He’s on his way.’ Tamara informed them amiably, as if she’d done a favour. She sat back down. ‘Now, Nicolas,’ she began, very sombrely, ‘I honestly don’t know what you meant about my ancestors’ true past, but before you leave my home, you will tell me everything.’
There was a tense moment. Nick gritted his teeth. ‘I’ll tell you if you help us.’ The image of Kerra’s torn throat assaulted his mind’s eye.
Tamara appeared to notice his distress. ‘When my friend gets here, we will discuss a plan. I see that you are unhappy, and I don’t like to see people upset, but you have both taken me unawares. I was not appropriately prepared for this myself.’ She closed her eyes for a long moment, then gradually opened them. ‘I have a feeling this is going to take longer than I had hoped. I will need to make some calls and rearrange my evening appointments.’ The witch got up and walked to the kitchen, her mobile in hand.
As soon as Nick heard her on the phone, he whispered to Juliet, ‘Are we safe here? Do you think we should leave?’
Juliet tutted quietly. ‘Tamara’s been helping me learn how to use my ability. I trust her.’
Nick began to question Juliet’s judgement, considering who she’d dated. ‘It seems Tamara’s been lying to you,’ he said, and sensing Juliet’s doubt made him feel somewhat guilty. Annoyingly, he was becoming hypersensitive now that his numbness was gone. He wanted to grieve the loss of Kerra, not sit here feeling resentful towards Juliet. He kept getting the urge to say, ‘Oh, and thanks for undermining me,’ but it wouldn’t help; he’d probably just become more emotional.
‘Let’s wait and find out why she’s been lying. I don’t even want to consider the possibility of more betrayal right now, so I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt.’ It was plain to Nick that Juliet was less confident in her words than she made out.
‘Fine.’ And so they waited. Tamara offered them both a drink when she was done making calls. Juliet accepted a glass of water, and after Nick watched the witch run it from the tap, he accepted water, too. He hadn’t noticed how dry his mouth had been until he gulped the drink ferociously. The liquid took away the taste that had fomented during his interrogation. Tears always turned his mouth sour.
A knock sounded at the door. Tamara said, ‘He’s here,’ and went to answer it. From where Nick was sitting, he couldn’t see the newcomer enter, but he heard his deep and monotone voice.
‘Tamara,’ the new addition said as a greeting, sounding not so friendly.
‘Don’t look at me like that, James,’ Nick heard the witch say. ‘I am not to blame for this.’
James entered. The man was so tall he had to arch his neck, and his curly hair rubbed against the ceiling. Some tendrils from his mini afro rested across his gaunt face.
Nick shot to his feet and took a step back. ‘You?!’
‘Yes. Don’t wet yourself. I know you’ve seen me before.’ The man held up his palms in a mocking ‘calm down’ gesture. ‘Sit back down so I can explain.’
‘You were there when Kerra was taken,’ Nick went on. ‘You were running away from the hotel. Are you working with Austin?’ His body had woken up completely, and he could see Juliet perched towards the end of the couch, ready to react. Nick hadn’t accurately grasped the man’s height the times he’d seen him before; he must have been near seven feet tall.
Tamara walked around the curly-haired guy and stood in front of him. ‘Nicolas. Please sit again. You’ll soon discover that none of this is quite so simple as you imagine.’
Nick waited for the new arrival to sit first. When James placed himself down in the chair across from Tamara’s corner, Nick reluctantly re-joined Juliet on the couch.
James looked ridiculous in the tiny chair; with such long legs, his knees poked up high, and his gangly arms hung almost to the floor. Another thing Nick hadn’t noticed before was the man’s eye colour … or eye colours, more accurately. One was a piercing blue, and the other was the same colour except for an unnaturally bright orange splodge covering half of it. Is he wearing contacts?
Once Tamara was seated, she said, ‘I’ll introduce my friend.’ She laughed and turned to James. ‘I was so taken off guard that I referred to you as my superior earlier.’ She huffed, as if the notion was ludicrous. James chuckled in a low tone, but he sounded unhappy like before. ‘Let us move on … Juliet, Nicolas, this is James Rea.’
‘My surname is spelt R-E-A, but pronounced ray,’ James clarified in a miserable manner, though Nick failed to see the importance of it.
‘Seeing as you were stalking outside my house the other night, I get the idea you already know who I am,’ said Nick.
James’s face was still. Only his lips moved. ‘I do. I also know a little about Juliet.’
‘Then just start explaining already.’
‘Okay,’ the newcomer began. ‘Tamara and I know you both have something to do with Aldrich Grendel’s death, and I’ve been watching you, Nicolas, for a while now.’
That sent prickles up Nick’s spine. ‘Are you undercover, working for the police or something?’ he asked, but then remembered the way this man had vanished around the corner at the end of his street.
‘No. I’ve been trying to protect you.’
Nick huffed through his nose. ‘You realise I was nearly killed today? I would have been if Juliet hadn’t saved me.’
James’s expression revealed that he’d had no clue. Red crept up his neck.
‘Why are you trying to protect me, anyway?’
James cleared his throat. He flicked his eyes from Tamara to Juliet, then landed them back on Nick. ‘Because you’re an oracle.’
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
DREAD FORMED IN Juliet’s gut. Tamara’s obviously been hiding things from me. She sat waiting next to Nick, wondering what his response to James would be.
‘An oracle? That’s what the por—’ Nick stopped.
Juliet half turned to him. They hadn’t told Tamara or James about the portal yet.
‘What the portal called you?’ James said, and laughed a little derisively. ‘Portals can’t talk.’
The newcomer gave off a bad vibe, Juliet decided. He had a downtrodden aura about him and he came across petulant. The way he was sitting with an air of boredom gave the impression that he had little regard for others. His long face and gaunt cheeks created shadows on his face, painting him sinister, and the mini ashen afro he had for hair was not a common style: Its slight middle parting made it look like the pretentious hair of a male catwalk model.
‘Oh … excuse me for not knowing that portals can’t speak.’ Nick threw his hands up, startling Juliet out of observing James. She was shocked by Nick’s bitter sarcasm and began to worry about him. He’s been through so much today … He needs rest, his family, support, alone time … The list went on. But we need answers and a plan more. ‘I still have no idea what’s going on,’ said Nick.
Juliet asked suddenly, ‘So you know he ca
n see the future?’ At her voice, Nick jolted; even though she was sitting next to him, it seemed he was so absorbed in getting answers that he’d forgotten she was there.
‘He’s an oracle; he can see the future, the past, the present. With practice he could use his power so quickly and easily that he could tell you what the people next door are doing right this second, or people on the other side of the world.’ James gave his moody eyes to Nick. ‘But I’m guessing, Nicolas, that you haven’t gained anywhere near that level of control yet.’
‘Erm … no.’
‘I didn’t think so.’ James’s mismatched eyes swivelled to find Juliet. ‘And Juliet, I know you’re soulless.’
‘That’s what the voice at the portal called me ...’ Juliet said, realising she’d parroted Nick.
James laughed again. ‘Portals can’t talk.’
‘I never said they could.’ Juliet bristled. What’s with his attitude? ‘Anyway, you said portals, plural. So there are more than just the one we came across?’
James appeared to stiffen up. He didn’t answer.
As a nudge, Juliet lifted her eyebrows expectantly. Still, he remained silent. ‘Fine. You’re obviously not going to answer. But if the portal wasn’t communicating with us, then who was?’
‘That’s why I’ve been keeping an eye on Nicolas.’
That makes no sense. ‘You’re saying you don’t know who was on the other side? How can you know what they called us if you didn’t know what they said?’ After saying it, she figured Tamara could have told him. The witch apparently had known who Nick was. Juliet felt the muscles in her face tighten.
‘We have an idea of who you spoke to through the portal, and our intel overheard a conversation with this … person.’ James peered over at Tamara, who nodded for some reason. ‘Our intel told us this person had spoken with a soulless woman named Juliet Maystone and an oracle called Nicolas. With portals, your thoughts can be directed through to the other side, so whoever is over there can hear you telepathically … in your head.’
‘We know what the word means,’ said Juliet impatiently.
‘Thoughts can be sent either way, and someone who is used to the process can direct their consciousness through to a select person, and even use the portal to hear general thoughts. That’s what appears to have happened to you two. The person on the other side picked up on your passing thoughts and found out about your abilities, found out what you both are. But it’s not an easy thing to do, because the person whose mind you’re trying to read can guard their thoughts by directing them away from the portal.’
‘That’s what I did,’ said Nick. The wonder in his voice was only an undertone in his delicate state. His theory about the portal had been correct. ‘How do you know we’re linked to Aldrich’s death?’
Before replying, James frowned and peered to the side. ‘The intel I spoke of …’ he began, his deep voice painfully monotonous, ‘… they are fickle. They traded with the person on the other side of the portal while they thought it most benefited them, but now things have changed. They are willing to trade info with us, too. They are weasels and will try to keep both sides sweet, which means they don’t tell us everything.’
‘Hardly weasels!’ interrupted Tamara with a short cackle. ‘You are funny, James.’
James’s mouth quirked a little. Apparently it was an inside joke they weren’t willing to share. With no energy to ask, Juliet showed she was waiting for answers by putting out one hand with the palm facing the ceiling.
‘So, our intel,’ James continued. ‘They told us the person you spoke to through the portal had been using Aldrich, and that he had based his portal on Aldrich’s land. By matching up the dates our intel gave us with the date Aldrich’s remains were found, we figured it couldn’t just be a coincidence that you two had visited the portal on his land.’
‘Aldrich killed my mother,’ Nick said quickly, as if justifying the murderer’s fate.
‘Okay …’ James dragged out the word in sarcasm. ‘Believe it or not, I’m not here to get either of you in trouble for Aldrich’s death. If the person we suspect was on the other side of the portal chose to use Aldrich, then Aldrich could not have been a good man.’
‘Who do you suspect this person is?’ asked Nick.
‘I can’t tell you.’
‘You can’t, or you won’t?’
‘Both.’
Nick started to sound a little unstable. ‘You know the portal exploded, right?’
‘Yes, that is something our intel shared. Apparently you angered the person on the other side so much that he destroyed his own portal in rage.’
Juliet remembered the explosion and wondered, fearfully, what kind of ‘person’ had the power to spontaneously explode something in anger.
‘What did you do to enrage this person, Nicolas?’ asked James.
‘I don’t know. I didn’t give them my full name, like I said, and also they wanted me to go through to the other side. I didn’t trust them, though, and then Juliet and I had to run off.’
James frowned and gazed about in thought. ‘So they tried to lure you through, but you didn’t fall for it? And then you ran off, which probably angered him …’
‘I suppose …’ Nick replied, sounding less than convinced. ‘Aldrich thought it was an ancient god called Moloch on the other side.’
James peered over at Tamara, who slowly closed her eyes, seeming to age twenty years with one facial expression. ‘You’re proving to be quite useful, Nicolas,’ said James in fake surprise. ‘What you’ve just told us corroborates that it is who we suspect. This person has posed as Moloch before.’ Then, as if he’d said too much, he snapped his mouth shut.
Juliet was half expecting Nick to mention the missing children, but he didn’t, and she didn’t want to be the one to share that news either. Those poor kids … and their families.
‘Whose intel are you talking about?’ asked Nick. ‘Yours and Tamara’s?’
‘Not Tamara’s. It’s intel that my kind use. We live in the Otherworld.’
His kind? Lives in the Otherworld? Juliet’s mind repeated, maybe running it past herself to confirm she’d heard correctly. Tamara’s living room looked very bland all of a sudden, as Juliet’s imagination went on a little journey, thinking of another world and its possible inhabitants, remembering her soul—My soul is in the Otherworld! He might know a way for me to get it back …
Throwing aside the fantasies, she scrutinised James, wondering what he was. She turned to Nick and found him squinting at the tall, curly-haired man.
‘Your kind?’ asked Nick.
Tamara began laughing. ‘I am so very glad I did not have to explain this all by myself.’ She shook her head slowly with a big smile. ‘Look at his ears, Nicolas, and tell me what you think he is.’
Juliet looked as well. Both of James’s ears were hidden by his curls when she first tried to peer at them. With a drawn-out sigh, the whatever-he-was swiped his hair aside to reveal one ... very ordinary-looking ear. Juliet frowned and tried to discern a difference. She supposed they were slightly pointed, if she was being really picky, but it was nothing drastic.
‘An elf?!’ said Nick in a doubt-laden voice.
‘Half-elf,’ James corrected. ‘My father’s human and lives in Northern Ireland. My mother is a pure-blooded elf who lives in the Otherworld.’
What is going on? Exasperated, Juliet turned and gazed at the nearest doorway, maybe expecting Santa Claus to walk in and take James back to the North Pole, or a TV crew to show up and tell her she’d been had. But of course, nobody arrived. Then she thought, Why shouldn’t I believe? I see spirits, and I know there’s a Spiritworld. Maybe James thinks I’m the alien in the room …
‘You’re an elf called James?’ said Nick.
‘Half-elf; there are big differences.’ His deep voice sounded sulky for a moment. ‘And it’s the human name my father gave me.’
Juliet heard and felt Nick blow a mass of air from his mouth. ‘And let
me guess … your human dad’s got blue eyes and your elven mum has luminous orange eyes?’ He laughed hopelessly away to himself, in a way that made Juliet want to comfort him.
‘Yes,’ James answered plainly, which killed Nick’s laughter.
‘Oh.’
‘Are your ears supposed to be pointed?’ said Juliet, making it obvious she thought they weren’t. James turned more sullen than he already had been and glared at her. Confused, Juliet looked to Tamara. The witch, wide-eyed, shook her head stiffly with an expression that seemed to say, ‘That was the wrong thing to ask.’
‘Your ears are beautiful, James,’ said Tamara in a frank tone; she made it sound as if it was stupid for James to think otherwise. ‘And they look pointed to me.’
The half-elf’s gaunt face brightened a little. He rubbed one of his ears self-consciously. He’s like a big child, thought Juliet as she smiled at him apologetically.
It was getting cold inside, which was surprising considering four people cramped the tiny living room. Tamara must have noticed the low temperature, because she got up and said, ‘I’ll light the fire while you two ask the many questions I’m sure you have.’ In no hurry, she walked into the kitchen and out of sight. Thudding and clopping could be heard as she moved chunks of wood about.
‘So …’ Nick aimed his voice at James. ‘You call your own world the Otherworld?’ He sounded tired, ragged.
‘No. On that side we have another name for it, a name I’m not going to share with you. But around humans I call it the Otherworld. And there are reasons it was given that name.’ James seemed to have gotten over his ear insecurities. Now he stuck out his chin, lips pursed in between speech.
‘So how many people know of its existence?’
James’s curls bobbed about as he shook his head. ‘We are getting sidetracked here.’ He stopped and rubbed his forehead with his long fingers. ‘I’ve already told you more than I’m supposed to. I don’t know why …’ he muttered. ‘What we should do is discuss what happened today, how you were almost killed, and then I’ll tell you how we can move forward.’
A Body Displaced (Lansin Island 2) Page 22
