Serve

by Laura Wylde

  “How about your hair?”

  He shook it out vigorously. “Okay,” I said, still determined to catch every move.

  He picked up the water pitcher in the middle of the table and poured a glass of water. “Taste it,” he said.

  I tasted it. Ordinary, filtered water. He held up his palm, fingers outstretched and passed it over the glass. The water glittered with a light sprinkling of gold. “Taste it now,” he suggested.

  I hesitated. The water glittered so much, it almost seemed carbonated. I took a small sip, then opened my eyes wide. “This is delicious! What is it?”

  “Liquid sunshine. The nectar of a dozen different species of flowers. A gift from the fairies.”

  If it was a trick, I had no idea how he had performed it. What had passed into the glass was sweet, energizing, sparkling and a little euphoric, like soaking up the sunshine on a beautiful spring day. All my reserves, all my walls of logic and reason, came tumbling down. The only way I was going to retain my sanity was to accept what the strange NYPD Unit was saying. If they said Todd was a phoenix from a family of leprechauns, whose business was booming all over the city, it must be the truth.

  Thaddeus

  The poor little girl was beaten. You could see it in her eyes, the way her shoulders slumped, defeated. I knew the look and my heart reached out to her. It can’t be easy surrendering everything you believe to be true and accepting the impossible. I saw that look on the first police chief we had been forced to reveal ourselves to, over a hundred years ago, and I’ve seen it on others since. People it was necessary to show our shape-shifting abilities to, and people who had accidentally seen us shift.

  Like the others, she was full of questions. She wanted to know how many others like us there were, how many different interdimensional species were here, which ones posed a threat and how we dealt with them. We explained we were called to duty only when something peculiar was involved with the case. She compared us to the X-Files and Adonis had chuckled self-consciously. “Something like that,” he agreed.

  We explained that once we determined mythological or demonic creatures were involved, only shapeshifters worked the case. Other shapeshifters included the bear clan, badgers, lynx, and a few wolves. “And coyotes?” She had asked.

  I was going to thunder an answer, but Todd, who liked to keep things jovial, interjected quickly. “The coyotes! No, none of our law enforcement agencies hire coyotes. By the way that they are, they do best at thwarting the laws. What coyotes there are that will work a job, go into things like private investigating for insurance companies or crooks, finding cheaters, criminal defense, real estate and accounting. They make good spies though, when you can keep them on your side.”

  “What will you do when you catch the cave trolls?”

  “We will kill them,” said Adonis dispassionately. “All of them. They are from the underworld. They have no rights in either this dimension or the other.”

  She asked how they got through if they weren’t welcome in either dimension. We told her about the portal in Selvestovia. The veil between the two dimensions was thin in Selvestovia; so thin, the castles of the fabled land could be seen on Earth from a certain vantage point between two towering cliffs. It was declared a neutral zone for those who resisted gate-keeper laws. It attracted all kinds; necromancers, dark magicians, vampires, gargoyles, harpies and wraiths who made their pacts with the underworld in a bid for power.

  “Why don’t you seal the portal?” She asked.

  “We can’t without destabilizing the entire veil,” Adrien explained, showing her a projection on his image viewer that looked much like a meteorologist chart. “All we can do is go after the illegals who leave Selvestovia.”

  “You’ve never tried entering Selvestovia and cleaning it out?”

  The very idea of entering Selvestovia made me want to jump out of my skin. The black hordes, squirming and writhing in their own slime, ravenous teeth gnashing, pouring unrelenting from their hovels buried deep in the crumbling bowels of the castle still burned through my mind as freshly as this morning’s visit to Turtle Pond. “No! Nobody could survive Selvestovia! It belongs to no world and all worlds. No law but one law. You’re on your own.”

  I knew there was a hysterical edge to my voice and tried to control it by scratching at my throat as though it itched. As she patted my arm, I felt my loud, panicked breathing even out. “Let’s not talk about Selvestovia,” she suggested. “Let’s talk about our strategy for removing the trolls. I believe there is more than one cave entrance, but they are underwater. There seemed to be water gurgling from the caves past the main chamber. If we find their escape route, we’ll be able to seal them off on all sides.”

  Adonis shifted uncomfortably in the smooth-surfaced bench seat. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to confront them around water. That’s where they are strongest.It would be better to lure them out of the tunnels, on to solid land.”

  “We send our squadron into the tunnels and flush them out on the other side. There will be a crew waiting at the entrance to make sure none escape. The element of surprise will be on our side.”

  “You don’t have the element of surprise anymore. They saw you. They’ll be sniffing around to learn who you are. We should stake them out above the bridge and bring the fight to them on land.”

  Tara’s chin stuck out stubbornly as she drummed on the table with her short, carefully rounded fingernails. “We don’t know where the boy is. He could be in one of the caves. Adonis, why are you so adamant about not going in the water?”

  His chin could look just as stubborn, and he could elevate it higher. “It’s just not a practical solution. It gives the trolls an advantage.”

  “It’s more than that. You refused to send your team into the marsh. You hesitated about going under the bridge. You avoided going near the pond. What are you afraid of?”

  They slithered over the landscape, black mouths dripping with blood, black eyes gleaming with malicious joy. Behind them was a wasteland of death, twisted in agony. There was no despair greater than failing to protect. I felt the scream of regret that would not wash away, claw at my throat. “He lost someone!” I cried.

  I was immediately sorry for my outburst. Tara couldn’t understand even though she flickered between cool professionalism breaking down into comradely warmth. Todd punched me in the ribs to let me know I had chosen the wrong moment to have a paranoid episode, then said quickly, “there is a good reason we stay out of the water. We don’t have webbed feet.”

  She gave him a look that bordered on exasperation. “I don’t have webbed feet either, but it doesn’t keep me from going in the water.”

  I tried to make up for my mistake. “We can go in the water. We can swim. But we can’t shape-shift in the water.”

  She was receiving so many explanations, she had forgotten her original question and settled on the perplexity of why we wanted to keep the fight on dry land. Adrien finally gained everyone’s attention simply by turning off his phone and laying it down on the table, an action so extraordinary, we all fell silent. “What they are trying to tell you is, if we are in the water, we have to remain in human form. That’s a disadvantage. Our strength and our skills will remain human. We can’t shift into phoenixes because we have talons. We navigate the water like eagles. We can skim over the surface and shallow dive, but that’s it. No webbed feet, no remarkable swimming abilities. No super- powers.”

  We were all impressed. Adrien rarely put together more than two sentences at a time. For him to string so many together was remarkable. Better still, his detailed account of why phoenixes were reluctant to go in the water, deflected Tara’s attention completely away from Adonis’ painful phobia. “Okay. Then we send in a task force to squeeze them out. We’ll have the main artillery waiting on the banks. Who do you have that’s as powerful in the water as they are on land?”

  “The bear clan,” Todd said positively. “The bear clan can fight underwater.”

  “Bu
t they won’t be able to squeeze through the grate in bear form,” pointed out Adrien. “And there is no fighting room for bears or phoenixes in the tunnels. Not until you draw near to the main chamber.” While we contemplated what tangled website he might have surfed for information, he added, “I saw it when I was having that…” He touched his head, then pointed at Tara. “That connection thing. That vision.”

  “Let’s put the badgers out on patrol to search for another entrance,” I suggested. “Nobody will notice them shuffling around at night in their badger form.”

  Now that we had all come to an agreement on something, Tara pulled herself up from the bench seat with those light, swift movements little girls have, and planted her hands flat on the table. “It’s getting late. We have a full day tomorrow. I think I should go home and get some rest.”

  We all stood at once, not nearly so lithely, but with as much gallantry as we could muster on a dime. “We’ll go with you,” said Adonis instantly. “To make sure you’re safe.”

  She laughed. That little dame was able to bounce back from a military assault. I don’t know where she got it from, but it made me feel more stable when I was around her. “I don’t think that will be necessary,” she chuckled, shouldering her handbag.

  I took both her little mitts in mine, swallowing them completely in my mutton sized palms. “It would make us feel better, sweetheart. You have to forgive our old hearts. We were bred to be chivalrous. We were bred to be protectors. Please indulge us.”

  A smile quirked, then flitted across her face. It was a very charming and interesting face. Her green eyes looked startling in a black curtain of lashes, with black, spiky points tumbling all over her head. Her nose turned up slightly and was covered by a layer of freckles that became more scattered as they traveled down her neck. It was amazing that much fire could be wrapped in that small a package and even more amazing that package had managed to exist so long unnoticed.

  “It’s your funeral,” she laughed, shrugging into her jacket in a tough-girl act. “Although I’m sure it will be a boring one. The most dangerous thing I’ve seen around my apartment is a pissed off Chihuahua. If you give him enough time, maybe a week or two, he’ll chew your leg off.”

  Good spirits are what Murray’s peddled and good spirits are what we felt as we sauntered back out to the streets.Tara took my arm like the natural lady she was underneath all her armor, with Adonis on the other side, more paranoid than I was on a bad day. Todd whistled and played an imaginary flute just ahead of us, while Adrien bounced around on his toes, shadowboxing.

  Kids. They were just kids. Especially Adrien. Todd had a few good years on him, enough notches on his belt to make him a seasoned soldier, but he was only first generation, with no resurrections to draw from. Adrien didn’t have that much. He was only twenty-eight in both earth years and phoenix years. His ancestors were human. Like Todd, he would be first of his line.

  I’m a guardian, not a gate-keeper, and never question the wisdom of the ancients when they start messing around with new DNA to improve mental functions, physical strength, personality traits or just plain aesthetics, yet I’m old enough to know that when they start introducing new phoenix lines, they are concerned about the future. Their brewing and concocting aren’t random, creating the wild kingdom people thinks exists, the one where only the fierce survive. It’s all about balance to the ancients. Whatever has become dominant must succumb. Whatever has become weak, must be defended. Sometimes, though, I don’t know why they didn’t just design all sentients to be harmonious.

  As I watched the two youngsters play, one of my ancestors growled at me, “If there were only peaceful sentients, the gate-keepers wouldn’t need phoenixes, dunderhead.” That was a good point. Everyone needs a purpose. As long as there was evil to be fought, our purpose was clear.

  It had begun to rain, a light patter that ran down the sidewalks, weeping. The rain made the evening sky even darker and left long, black shadows between the street lamps. I gripped my coat tighter around my neck. I didn’t trust the mood of the black night. Tara, however, had only one thing on her mind. Not how to flush out the trolls, but how quickly it could be done. “Couldn’t the mer people help you in a search?” She asked breezily.

  Adonis’ eyes flashed with alarm. “No! We cannot willfully expose the mer people to danger. Ever. You don’t understand how they are. You shouldn’t even know about them. You shouldn’t learn about any of them without their consent. It can put you in a dangerous position.”

  We were nearing Tara’s apartment building with its small, trim yard and wire fence. The trees rustled slightly as they shed their gorged leaves of water, and a cat darted across the sidewalk, kicking away an empty beer can from under its feet. Something dark flickered by the lamplight; once; twice; three times; and the trees rustled more ominously. This wasn’t a flashback. This was real. “Adrien!” I shouted. Two pedestrians turned a corner, looked our way, then continued. The bushes began to yield to a squat, drooling thing dressed in metal and leather. A weapon glinted in its hand.

  The weapon was the most horrifying I had ever seen. It had a series of deeply curved, sharp blades that wrapped around the back of the hand and was held by a handle. The metal was egg- shell blue and glowed with its own inner light. When I shouted, Adrien side-stepped quickly and aimed with his booted foot at the head of the slower-moving troll. The impact rocked the troll for a moment. He braced himself with his knuckles, struggling to retain an upright position when Adrien kicked him again.

  Three other trolls came out of the bushes. Instinct took over. I couldn’t shapeshift on the open street and draw the attention of potential witnesses, but I had years of hand-to-hand combat in situations just like this one. I sped by one of the monstrosities, then turned suddenly, straddling its back and slapping the heels of my fists into its ears. It howled with pain, bucking me like a bronco, but I clung harder, more determined, governed by centuries-old rage. I pressed my fingers into his eyes, gouging at them. He threw me off. I rolled with the punch, then stood ready for the next assault.

  There was blood running down the troll’s eyes. He groped blindly for one of his brothers who wasn’t doing that well either. Adonis had managed to kick its legs out from other it and had smashed its kneecap. The two began backing up toward their avenue of escape, which didn’t concern us as much right now as the two that were still on the loose.

  Todd and Adrien were still fighting toe to toe, keeping their eyes focused on the blue, gleaming metal. They weren’t too shabby for youngsters. Adrien was a good kick boxer. Although he hadn’t learned yet how to deliver a bone-shattering blow, he was able to daze the troll enough to keep it in a corner. Todd was a free-style fighter. He depended on the strength in his massive biceps as he threw his arms around, landing crushing blows through pure power. But he had no art, and his artlessness nearly killed him.

  He pulled back his fist for a satisfying troll head-crack. He was already in mid-swing when he saw the dreaded multi-bladed knife aiming for his ribcage. Bless the designers of leprechaun DNA. Todd did one of those twinkling moves where he flashed three seconds into the distance, or the future. I’m not really sure what he does, but one second, he was about the be disemboweled, and the next, he was ten feet away. The jump saved his life, but the metal still grazed him. A long, clean slice began just back of his armpit and curved around his last rib. Under the rib, the cut was deep enough to ooze and drip down to his belt. He held his hand over it wincing, determined not to cry out in pain.

  I stood stunned as the troll turned to me, grinning a hideous yellow smile, its blood- stained weapon crying out for more blood. It lunged, and I fired my forty-five. It staggered backward, snarling, and I fired again. Screeching and clacking to its companion, it hopped away, clinging to the dark shadows and disappearing into the brush.

  There would be no more troll chasing tonight. We had something far more serious to worry about. Although phoenixes have rapid powers of healing, the metal had been forg
ed with magic and we had no way of knowing if this would affect Todd. We needed to get him back to the precinct and back to the private care only shapeshifters know how to give to shape-shifters.

  There was no longer a question of whether Tara should come with us. They had traced her to her apartment. They had been waiting in ambush. We didn’t even have to insist. She agreed, sniffling a little the way women do when they want to be brave but they’re falling apart inside. I don’t know how they pull themselves back together, but they do, proving just how brave they can be, and Tara wasn’t any different. She wiped under her nose where it was dripping with the rain and mingled tears and clung to Todd as we helped him home.

  I wrenched open the linen closet and pulled out several crisp, white sheets, spreading two of them over the bed just before Adonis and Adrien heaved Todd down on it. The undercut was still bleeding more than normal for a phoenix. It should have started closing by now.

  I ripped strips off one of the sheets to staunch the blood flow. I was applying a lichen moss- based potion to pull out any toxins that might be inhibiting his natural healing process, when Adrien brushed my hand aside. “Tribal remedies again?”

  “It works on poisons.”

  He poked at the wound, squeezing the sides. The blood flowed clean and red. “It’s not poison. It’s magic.”

  He was gone about ten minutes. Adonis and I wrapped bandages around Todd’s chest the old-fashioned way, waiting for his natural healing processes to kick in. At least, it wasn’t gushing. Just seeping slowly. Already the lichen moss was full of blood and needed changing. Tara hovered by the edge of the bed and twisted her hands. Her freckles stood out on her sad, pale face. “Will he be alright?”

  “When the bleeding stops,” I said with more conviction than I felt.