Etheric Researcher: A Kurtherian Gambit Series (Etheric Adventures: Anne and Jinx Book 2)

by S. R Russell

  The alien moved his head back and forth in the gesture he had been told indicated a negative response to humans.

  John sighed, wishing he’d been able to hurt the alien a little more before he cried “Uncle.” He wasn’t normally a vindictive person, but for anyone who came into Bethany Anne’s empire, especially her backyard, and tried to jack one of Ashur’s puppies?

  He’d make an exception!

  He grabbed a harness across the being’s chest and dragged the whimpering male back to where Anne and Jinx stood.

  —

  Bethany Anne was trying very hard to be a good Empress. When Meredith had informed her that there appeared to be an issue of some sort between Anne, Jinx, and three aliens, she had sent John to investigate.

  When Meredith had updated her that Anne and Jinx were fighting the aliens, Bethany Anne had smiled and continued reading the report in front of her.

  When Meredith reported that Anne had disappeared and Jinx was extremely upset, she closed the document, asked for a visual of the location, and stepped into the hallway near All Guns Blazing. Enough was enough.

  —

  Jinx was frantic. She and Anne had taken out the aliens with ease, but then someone had said, ‘This one’s dead’ and Anne had clutched her stomach and disappeared. Jinx cast about desperately for some scent of Anne, some hint of where she had gone. Someone stepped close to her, and she spun to bite the interloper. Her top jaw was caught in an unbreakable hold, and it sank through her panic that she had attacked Bethany Anne.

  “I’m willing to forgive you once for that attack. Try to bite me again and I’ll throw you tail over nose across the room. We clear?”

  Jinx was now under enough control that she noticed the red in Bethany Anne’s eyes.

  “Clear,” Jinx acknowledged.

  “What happened?” Bethany Anne looked around at everyone for answers.

  >>Anne is at home. She appeared in the common room and ran to the bathroom. While I don’t have a camera of my own in the bathroom, the view from her camera is a closeup of the toilet, and she seems to be depositing partially digested food into it.<<

  Jinx barked sharply to get Bethany Anne’s attention. “Seshat says Anne is at home, throwing up in the bathroom.”

  “We’ll be back,” Bethany Anne told John and the others who had congregated at the scene, then grabbed Jinx’ fur and stepped into the Etheric. Having previously traveled to Anne’s apartment, she knew where she was going. She just stopped to look out and confirm the area was clear before she brought them out of the Etheric.

  Seshat had been monitoring Jinx’ camera, and when it showed the outside of their apartment she activated the front door. Not even a second later Bethany Anne and Jinx rushed into the apartment and headed for the bathroom.

  —

  Anne didn’t know how long she’d been heaving the contents of everything she’d eaten all week into the toilet. Well, not all week, she admitted to herself, but it sure felt that way. Lunch and breakfast had come back up, then an eternity of dry heaves and tears had joined that mess in the toilet.

  “You finished yet?” A quiet voice finally penetrated at a level she could understand. She felt a hand rubbing her back, and Jinx pressed so tightly against her side it was like they were glued together.

  “Bethany Anne?” Anne asked, turning her head slightly to see the Empress… No, this wasn’t the Empress, this was her friend Bethany Anne. Anne took a hand from the rim of the toilet and hugged Jinx tightly.

  “I killed him,” she whispered through a new bout of misery and tears.

  “And hopefully you’ll feel this bad the next time you have to kill someone,” Bethany Anne told the girl.

  “What?” Anne took her face from Jinx’ fur and turned shocked eyes to Bethany Anne.

  “Killing is necessary sometimes, but if it no longer bothers you, you’re not human anymore.” Bethany Anne reached for a towel on the rack next to the sink and handed it to Anne.

  Anne took the towel with a weak smile, and used it to wipe the sweat and tears from her face. “Does it still bother you?” she asked Bethany Anne.

  “Yes and no.” Bethany Anne turned and sat on the floor, her back against the tub, and gazed at the young woman in front of her. “I had to reconcile a long time ago that some people are so warped or evil that they have to be permanently removed from society. It doesn’t bother me to do that, because I know that I’m protecting a lot of innocent people in the process. What does bother me is that those people have let themselves get so sick or twisted that they force me to act to protect my people.”

  She watched Anne for an indication her message was understood. “Those aliens tonight…why did you fight?”

  “They were after Jinx!” Anne answered through her clenched teeth.

  Bethany Anne nodded. “You see? You didn’t attack them for shits and giggles. They made a decision that forced you to act. Now, you could have given Jinx to them—” Bethany Anne held up a hand to cut off what she was sure would be an angry retort from Anne. “Or you could have run away,” she continued, still holding her hand in the air, “but you decided long ago that you would do everything in your power to protect your friend, right?”

  Anne had calmed while Bethany Anne was talking. She looked at the older woman and carefully nodded her agreement.

  “Sometimes ‘everything in your power’ means someone’s going to die. You will learn to cope with it, but I pray you never get to a point where you enjoy killing someone.”

  “Do the Weres?” Anne wondered.

  Bethany Anne was quiet for several seconds while she pondered the question. “I really don’t know. You’d have to ask Peter or Jennifer. I think they take pride in the strength and skill that lets them triumph.” She shook her head slowly. “I don’t know if they enjoy killing someone.”

  “It’s a strange situation, isn’t it?” Anne commented.

  “What is?” Bethany Anne encouraged her young friend to talk.

  “Being happy that you protected a friend. Being glad that your training and skills allowed you to triumph, yet feeling upset that it resulted in killing someone.”

  Bethany Anne nodded, then stood and extended a hand to Anne. “You’re right, it is strange. However, you have every right to feel satisfaction in your skills and accomplishments. You two have been extremely dedicated, and have worked hard to acquire the skills you displayed tonight. That’s not going to stop me from assigning you a security team, however.”

  “What?” Anne froze, staring at Bethany Anne.

  Bethany Anne had shrugged off stares from Michael, so this one was easy to ignore. “We’ve just found out that Jinx, and I imagine any of the dogs, are targets. Sooner or later rumors of your project are going to surface, which will make you a target in your own right. I’m not going to find myself banging my head against the wall one day, trying to figure out why I wasn’t smart enough to assign you a security detail. That’s an oversight I’m fixing now. I’ll talk to Peter and find out who he’d recommend for a Guardian Marine detail for you.” She pointed a threatening finger at Anne. “No arguments.”

  Anne grabbed her toothbrush and loaded it with toothpaste, wanting to get the nasty taste out of her mouth. Before she turned on the water she asked, “Do I at least get a say in who the team is?”

  “Do you have someone in mind?” Bethany Anne was curious now.

  Anne spat the toothpaste from her mouth. “No, I just want to know what happens if there’s someone we don’t get along with.”

  “Oh,” Bethany Anne said, and nodded. “If you find someone who rubs you the wrong way, just let us know and we’ll assign someone else. You finished?”

  Anne rinsed her mouth. “Am now.”

  “Follow me,” Bethany Anne told her, and headed for the front door. It opened on Scott and Gabrielle standing outside the apartment. “I don’t think any of us are ‘happy,’” she made air quotes, “needing security, but at least we can arrange it so you get along with your
team.” Bethany Anne stepped between Scott and Gabrielle and put an arm around each of their necks, pulling them close.

  Gabrielle stuck her tongue out, while on the other side of Bethany Anne Scott displayed one of the goofiest smiles Anne had ever seen.

  Anne raised an eyebrow, pointed a thumb in Scott’s direction, and told the two women, “Wow, he’s got talent.”

  “Shush,” Gabrielle said in a stage whisper. “If his ego gets any bigger, he won’t fit through the doors.”

  Jinx listened as all four humans laughed at Gabrielle’s comment and let out a sigh of relief. Her human looked like she was going to be all right.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Monday morning saw Anne and Jinx walking to school in silence. Anne was tired, and Jinx was worried. Anne hadn’t slept well the last two nights—it was difficult to sleep when nightmares woke you up screaming.

  Anne had ended up with three different nightmares. The first one she understood and had almost expected: a replay of her attack on the alien. The other two were worse, and she just wasn’t sure which was more disturbing. In one, she didn’t kill the alien and the Stooges got away with Jinx. Then they strapped Jinx down and cut pieces from her to try and clone her. That was the first time she woke screaming.

  The other dream was disturbing on a completely different level. She was on an alien planet, and every time she looked at an alien it was instantly engulfed in flames and turned into a charred skeleton. Dream-Anne had tried closing and covering her eyes, but it didn’t help. Somehow she could still see the aliens. Male, female, child—it didn’t matter. She had no control over who got burned. What woke her screaming from that one was that she saw a Playground Ahead sign and couldn’t stop walking.

  Seshat says that almost everyone who deals with this kind of thing needs counseling to get better. After she said it Jinx cringed mentally, afraid of being told to mind her own business but needing to try to help her friend anyway.

  Sounds about right. Anne reached down to gently rub one of Jinx’ ears, acutely aware of the love that had given Jinx the courage to say those words.

  You’re not mad?

  If you had a badly broken leg and I told you that you needed surgery to have it heal correctly, would you be mad at me? This conversation made Anne realize how little they had talked since the incident. Just the fact that they were communicating again made her feel better.

  I don’t think so, Jinx answered.

  Anne grabbed the tip of her tail and gave it the briefest of tugs. I try to be at least as smart as you are.

  —

  School was…interesting. That was the only word for it. With her Kurtherian enhancements, Anne could hear most conversations held anywhere near her—all the conversations in the room she was in, actually. She wished she could conduct a poll. It would be interesting to find out if she were more admired or feared. By lunch period Anne had decided “feared” was in the top spot. It wasn’t the comments that led to this conclusion, it was that no one had been brave enough to ask about what had happened.

  I don’t know whether to laugh or cry, she told Jinx when they had found a place to sit and eat lunch.

  Well, you also kicked the asses of those Weres earlier this year. I’m guessing it all adds up, Jinx reminded her.

  Anne chewed the bite of pizza she had just taken, then nodded her head. I’m not going to pretend to be happy or proud of beating up or killing people, but I think I prefer being able to defend and protect myself. It beats living with so much fear you can’t even talk to someone you’ve known for months. I don’t want to be a bully, but how many undies would need to be changed if I threw one of the harmless fireballs into the middle of this room?

  Jinx almost choked on the piece of bratwurst she was eating.

  >>Research indicates there are laws against behavior that can create mass panic.<<

  Anne burst out laughing and couldn’t help but notice some of the people nearest her flinch at the sudden sound. Thanks, ladies, I needed that. What do you say we get out of here and see if we can’t track down that Stevie dude before class resumes?

  —

  The shop teacher, Mr. Jenkins, was middle-aged and overweight, and caused both Anne and Jinx to wrinkle their noses at the slightly rancid odor he emitted. He showed them to his office and invited them to sit.

  “Why don’t you come back here as soon as school’s out?” he suggested. “That time slot is the graduating class, and I can introduce you to Herman. He’s very promising.”

  Anne looked at Jinx, then back at the teacher. “Herman? We were told we should talk to a guy named Stevie?” Anne’s confusion turned her sentence into a question.

  Mr. Jenkins’ expression morphed from mild interest to condescending. “People will always try to put one over on you,” he informed them.

  “I got the name from a very highly recommended source,” Anne remarked calmly.

  “Look,” he sighed like he had to explain something obvious, “she,” and he emphasized the pronoun, “insists on being called ‘Stevie,’ but her name is Stephanie Kasyanov.” Mr. Jenkins had a sneer on his face and pronounced the name with derision.

  Something about this guy is not right. I’m going to let you do all the talking, Jinx told her friend.

  “I take it you have a problem with Miss Kasyanov?” Anne acknowledged Jinx’ message by asking the question.

  Mr. Jenkins snorted. “What isn’t a problem? Girls are supposed to take Home Ec, not shop. She’s one of those shifter types, and if you believe the rumors, she doesn’t like boys—if you get my drift. I could ignore all that, but you did catch her name, right? Ca-See-En-Off,” The teacher stretched and distorted the girl’s name. “She’s a Ruskie! Can’t trust them Ruskies any further than you can throw ‘em.”

  Anne just sat there silent and stunned. How the H-E-double-hockey-sticks did this man ever get a job as a teacher? She finally got her mind into gear. “Is the principal aware of your concerns?” she asked the man.

  “Hardly!” the man spat. “He salutes a rainbow flag, not Old Glory.” Mr. Jenkins looked at the American flag prominently displayed on the wall of his office.

  “Why work here, then?” Anne was truly curious what his answer would be.

  “Someone’s gotta keep an eye on ‘em,” he said, putting a finger to the side of his nose.

  Anne wasn’t sure what the gesture meant, but she thought she remembered seeing something like it in a movie. She nodded and tapped the side of her own nose, then stood. “I’d better head out before I’m late for my next class. See you right after school.”

  Mr. Jenkins returned her nod. “You’ll be glad you came to me for help.”

  Leaving Mr. Jenkins’ office, Anne ignored her next class and headed straight for the school’s office.

  What’s his problem? Jinx asked as she padded beside Anne.

  Just a sec, let me see if I can get them all. Anne was quiet for a few steps. I think he’s a homophobic misogynistic xenophobic redneck. I might be missing one.

  Jinx chuffed her amusement. Are those all real words?

  Yes, they are. If he’s also a racist, which I suspect he is, then he hates everyone except white American men.

  How do people live like that? Jinx was incredulous.

  Anne shook her head. Human history is full of people and societies that almost made a religion out of beliefs like that.

  Have I told you lately that humans are confusing?

  I don’t think I’ve ever argued the point, have I? Anne turned and stuck her tongue out at Jinx.

  Real mature, Jinx teased.

  It’s been a rough couple of days. I’ll take my distractions where I can find them.

  Jinx froze, her ears and tail drooping, then started moving again, hurrying to catch up to Anne. Sorry, I wasn’t thinking.

  It was Anne who stopped this time, and she knelt to be at Jinx’ eye level. Don’t worry. You tease about humans, but I think dogs truly have a different thought process. It just means it�
�s not your fault.

  That doesn’t make me feel better when I say something that is painful for you.

  Just ask yourself if you were trying to make me feel bad. If the answer is no, then I’m not going to hold it against you.

  —

  “Why aren’t you in class?” was the greeting they received when Anne and Jinx entered the office.

  “We’ve just come from a…let’s call it a discussion, with Mr. Jenkins, the shop teacher. It was disturbing enough that I felt it warranted informing the principal,” Anne told the secretary, then sat in one of the chairs lined up against the wall.

  “Disturbing in what way?” the secretary asked.

  “In a way I don’t feel comfortable discussing in a public place,” Anne declared as she swept her gaze pointedly around the open and very public area.

  The secretary gave Anne a disgusted look, but touched a button on her desk. “Sir? Anne Jayden is here to talk to you. Something about the shop teacher, Mr. Jenkins. Yes, sir. Thank you, sir,” the secretary finished, then stood. “Follow me,” she said, leading Anne and Jinx to the familiar office of the principal.

  Once Anne was seated with Jinx sitting next to her, the principal steepled his fingers. “What can I do for you ladies?”

  Seshat, can you break into the school’s system to run video here in this office? Anne sat, slightly embarrassed, as the principal raised an eyebrow at her.

  Seshat?

  >>What? Oh, sorry, you were serious? I thought you were being facetious! Meredith’s gravcarts could hack into the school’s system. Do you want the footage from your conversation with Mr. Jenkins?<<

  Please.

  As the video from her meeting with the shop teacher ran, Anne began to get concerned. The principal wasn’t reacting to the footage. No, that wasn’t quite correct. He was reacting, but he was showing exasperation, not shock, anger, and outrage.

  “You knew!” were the two words Anne uttered once the video had reached its end.

  “Most of it, despite Mr. Jenkins’ beliefs to the contrary,” the principal admitted.

  “Why is he still employed?” Anne wanted to be furious, but she had a sneaky feeling this was going to be one of those things she couldn’t do anything about.