Bella Flores Urban Fantasy Collection

by R D Martin

  “What do you mean?”

  “Humans,” Cat said, shaking his head. “Never thinking logically. Not a trait you’d ever find in a cat.”

  “Cat, tell me.”

  “What’s my name?”

  “What?”

  “I said, ‘What’s my name?’ Simple question, really.”

  “What’s that got to do with anything?”

  “As it’s my information to give, I get to demand the price. So, what’s my name?”

  “Fine,” she said, huffing a breath in exasperation. “Felix Labarde Jupiter Ramiro de Clepta III. Happy?”

  “Ecstatic,” Cat replied with a smug tone. “You know, it's only proper to address a superior being like myself with all due respect. I’ve been asking you for years to call me by—”

  “Cat,” she said, interrupting him, “if you don’t tell me now, I swear I will spend the rest of your life feeding you nothing but dry, stale cat food.”

  “Is that supposed to frighten me?”

  “No, but this is. Not only will I stop bringing in anything in a can, but I will mend the holes you’ve made in the apartment ward. You know the ones I mean. The small one under the counter, the two in the spare room. Oh, and the one in the living room. I know about that one too. No more holes for you to sneak in or out. No more leaving the apartment whenever you want.”

  “Please, I’m a cat. I can always find—”

  “And I’ll cancel our cable.”

  “What?”

  “Yep. No more soaps, no drama TV, nothing.”

  “You wouldn’t.”

  “Try me.”

  The two of them locked eyes in a battle of wills. The tension between them grew taut as each struggled with the decision they would make. It was Cat who looked away first.

  “Fine. I was going to tell you anyway.” Yawning as if bored with the conversation already, the familiar continued. “As I was saying, you know how to stop Chryso no matter what he is. Didn’t Ceto tell you that the blade could kill anything?”

  “Well, yes,” she admitted. “But it’s not complete, and who knows how long it will take Ceto to fix it, and we only have until tomorrow. Besides, I’m not sure we want to kill Chryso.” Even considering killing the man sent a shiver running through her. She’d never wanted to kill anything, not even Ronnie. At least his death had been an accident. But to consider murdering someone. Was that something she could do?

  “You know how to find the last piece, and judging from where we found the other two, it’s probably not going to be on the other side of the planet. And Ceto is, or at least was, a god. I doubt it’ll take her a week to fix it. And besides, if you don’t kill him, he will kill you.”

  “What?” Startled, she rose from her chair and turned, looking for invisible attackers.

  “Well, it’s obvious, isn’t it? You broke into his home, violated his privacy, killed his prisoner, and, last but not least, stole his shard. If he was ready to kill people for whatever he planned, what makes you think he’ll show any less restraint toward you?”

  It was a point she’d not considered before. Even if he didn’t know who they were now, he'd seen them before escaping from the dungeon. He probably had security cameras hidden somewhere and was having them combed through even then. It wouldn’t be long until he found out who they were.

  As the silence stretched she looked at William, hoping he’d have some kind of counterargument. However, she could see from the set of his shoulders and the frown marring his features he’d come to the same conclusion.

  “So we have to kill him, don’t we?” he said, voicing the very real fear they both were facing.

  “I… I guess we do?” she said.

  Resigning herself, she rose to retrieve Ceto’s map from its hiding spot in her room.

  With her drop of blood, the map flared with its golden light before highlighting a building in the center right. As Bella leaned closer, the map zoomed in to show her a building she knew so well, if she closed her eyes, she could picture the lobby decorated for the season and the way the cramped elevator jerked as it shuddered to a stop at each floor. It was impossible for her not to recognize her own building.

  “This, this isn’t right,” she said, confusion clear in her voice. “The map says it's here.”

  “Here? As in here, here?”

  “Well, I mean it’s showing it in the building somewhere, but that can’t be right, can it?”

  “I don’t…” He paused, then snapped his fingers. “Got it. We have two of the pieces here already. The map is just showing you where they are because they’re so close to it.”

  “I don’t think that’s how it works,” she said, shaking her head.

  “No, that’s gotta be it. You know the Ascunde spell, right?”

  She nodded. The Ascunde was a basic spell used for hiding things in a pocket of space existing outside normal reality, making it impossible to find until the spell ended.

  “Okay, so I’ll take the two pieces into the other room and hide them. You try the map again and see if we get a different location. Then we’ll know for sure, right?”

  She nodded again, though she felt somewhere in the pit of her stomach he was wrong. The map gave them the location of each piece one at a time, not just the nearest piece. He should know that. So why did he insist on trying this anyway?

  Leaning back over the map, she studied its glowing lines. There was no doubt it was showing her own building, but aside from that, there was nothing more. There were, she thought, eight floors of residences along with the lobby and basement laundry room. So ten floors in all where someone could hide the shard.

  A gust of wind rustled the edge of the map and pushed a strand of her dark hair in front of her face. Looking up, she could see the kitchen window was closed, so that meant the wind came either from her room, doubtful since she never opened the windows there, or the spare room. Wondering what he could be doing there, she paced through the hall until she stood in front of the door. Placing her hand on the knob, she paused with the door open just enough to see inside.

  Sitting on the floor cross-legged, it looked as though he’d already performed the Ascunde, not that she would be able to tell. The whole purpose of the spell was to hide something for a short time. What surprised her, however, was the glowing green orb hovering just in front of his face. Its glow gave him a sickly pallor and made him look as if he was about to puke.

  “Yes, sir. I know, but that’s not the point,” he said, speaking into the floating orb.

  “Regardless, your job is done. You’ve given us what we need and now it’s time to come home.” The voice replying from the orb was deep and craggy, as if it belonged to a very old man.

  “But what about Bella?”

  “Yes. Interesting. And you really think…”

  Whatever he had been about to ask ended as a thump and someone speaking interrupted him. Leaning closer, hoping to hear more before entering the room, she placed her hand on the door, causing it to move forward a fraction of an inch. It was enough to make dry hinges give a sharp screech of protest. Bella’s breath caught in her throat and, spinning in place, she dashed for the kitchen, stopping when she reached the table while hoping William hadn’t seen her. Seconds later, she watched him stroll into the kitchen as though he hadn’t a care in the world.

  “So,” she said, a slight quaver in her voice, “they’re put away?”

  William, continuing to shift his vision between her and the map, nodded.

  “And who,” she asked, “who were you talking to?”

  “Hmm?” he said, not taking his eyes from the map.

  “Who were you talking to? I heard someone’s voice coming from the room.”

  “Oh,” he said. “Nobody important. My uncle. He got us on the list to get into the party and wanted to know if we had fun is all.”

  “He must be important, your uncle.”

  “Yeah, well, he knows a lot of people. So, what did the map say?” he asked, leaning over
to study the parchment.

  She stared at his bent frame for a moment. It was obvious he was trying to change the subject, but why? And why say he was speaking with an uncle? It hadn’t sounded like any family conversation she’d ever heard. What was he hiding? Why was he hiding it? Didn’t he trust her? Hadn’t they been through enough together already?

  As burning as the questions were, they would have to wait. The Ascunde spell wouldn’t last long, so they needed to hurry.

  As the golden light converged, and the map zoomed in on her building once more, she breathed a sigh of exasperation. So the last shard was in her building, that much was certain now. Back at square one, she wouldn’t even know where to look. If only Ronnie hadn’t…

  Thinking of him, an idea occurred. What if Chryso sent him out for more than just finding children? What if they sent him out to find the shards as well? Excitement welled up and an electric tingle spread from the back of her neck until it covered her entire head. Chryso was torturing him, but she’d never stopped to ask herself why. Why would one monster torture another? She didn’t believe Chryso would do it for the fun of it, but what if he needed something desperately? Like maybe where Ronnie might have hidden a shard of the blade? Her face must have registered something because William’s expression changed and he stared at her with a puzzled look of his own.

  “What?” he asked.

  “Huh? Um, I, uh. I have an idea. It may be nothing, but I think…” She trailed off.

  “What? What is it?”

  “Uh, I need to check on something. Wait… wait here. I’ll be right back.”

  “Where are you going?”

  “Just, just wait. Wait here, I’ll be right back. Promise.”

  “What is it? Tell me. Where are you going? Bella?”

  His words seemed to land on deaf ears as, so lost in her own thoughts that she’d barely remembered to grab her keys from its hook by the door before it clicked shut behind her.

  Walking across the hall, she stopped in front of her neighbor’s door. With any luck, the building’s super kept the old lock instead of replacing it too. Her neighbor had given her a spare key long ago in case she needed anything while watching Samantha, but she’d never thought of using it until now.

  Sliding the key in slowly, keenly aware of the scrape and bump of metal against metal, she breathed a sigh of relief to find it fit at the very least. A slight jiggle and the door unlocked and smoothly swung open.

  Stepping in, she let the door close behind her before leaning against it with relief. She’d been worried that, even if the super hadn’t changed the lock, her neighbor would have if for no other reason than the string of men over the last couple of years in her search for The One.

  Surveying the mess still to be cleaned, she picked her way through broken furniture and destroyed possessions. This was the first time she’d had a chance to take a look at the damage of her fight with Ronnie. Someone had been in here since their encounter, creating piles of garbage and trying to make the place look less like a war zone. She briefly wondered what the person thought when they discovered the claw marks on the floor and wall left behind by Cat.

  Standing in the middle of the living room, she considered the best way to start her search, but quickly abandoned any idea of picking through the mess. Besides, if Ronnie had hidden the shard here, he wouldn’t have just left it sitting out. No one would be that stupid.

  Kicking some debris out of the way, she sat on the floor, crossing her legs into the lotus position. It was not a comfortable way to sit, but necessary for what she wanted to do. Settled, she chose a spot on the wall across from her and stared at it. At a pace so slow it would make glaciers jealous, she began working on excluding everything from her mind not part of that spot. Every thought, every emotion, and even the slight itch below her right knee was sliced away from her consciousness until it was the only thing existing in her universe. The spot, on the other hand, seemed to grow as if being fed by what she was excluding from her mind until it encompassed everything around her.

  As the last light of her surroundings disappeared into the spot, she spoke a single word and the world lurched. As if the darkness had been a bubble pierced with a needle, she found herself back in the apartment, though it appeared her vantage point had changed. Instead of sitting cross-legged on the floor, she was now standing and looking down at her own body.

  The Tuhinga Mua spell was both a very powerful spell and, at the same time, a pretty useless one. It allowed the witch using it to watch time as if it was happening in reverse order, though not with the same clarity as if she was experiencing it herself. People looked like silver shadows and were pretty hard to identify. Truth was, a security camera worked better for seeing the past than the Tuhinga Mua, but since there wasn’t one in the apartment, she’d have to make do.

  Experiencing the spell was always a bit weird, but watching herself sitting still as a stone in the middle of a room ranked pretty high on her weirdness chart. Reaching down, she tapped the white misty body in front of her on the shoulder, and as she did so, she felt the tap on her own. It sent shivers racing up and down her. The connection between her real body and this ghostly version would keep her from being lost in time, but it was unnerving, nonetheless.

  Looking at the apartment through the enchantment, nothing appeared to have changed, though she knew it wouldn’t have yet. No one should have been in the apartment since the super replaced the door. Concentrating on the door, she pushed against the barrier of time, making it speed up in reverse. A misty shape appeared, the super repairing the door and piling some garbage, she guessed, and disappeared almost as quickly as if blown away by an unfelt wind.

  More shapes flashed by and disappeared as well. Police, paramedics, and nosy neighbors. Then the fight with Ronnie played in reverse, though instead of his form being made of the same white mist as everyone else, his was more of a charcoal gray as though the evil of the Lank possessing him even bled through time. She wondered about it for a minute, but before she could even come up with an idea, his form disappeared.

  Cursing herself for not paying attention, she stopped pushing back against time and instead let it flow forward, only slightly faster than normal. Like watching a movie with no sound, she saw the ghostly Ronnie being let into the apartment by another adult who quickly disappeared into the back. A smaller misty form entered the living room from the hall, and before it could do anything, the gray form of Ronnie was on it. There was a flash and the little form disappeared.

  Though she knew there was nothing she could do about it, watching Ronnie steal Samantha away twisted in her stomach and squeezed at her heart.

  With the smaller shadow gone, the creature walked over to the couch and slid it away from the wall as easily as pushing aside a curtain. Either it hadn’t found what it was looking for or the large white spirit entering the room surprised it because the shadow turned and struck at it. Twice more it struck the pale white outline, sending it crashing into both the couch and the wall before it slumped to the floor. Rearing back, it kicked the outline now huddling against itself against the attacks.

  Standing over the white outline of her neighbor, the gray Lank was about to strike it again when something grabbed its attention. It turned its attention toward the front door, staring right through Bella in the process, raised its hand, and threw a ball of cracking energy straight at her.

  She didn’t even have time to react as the magical energy passed right through her. She knew it couldn’t hurt her, knew it was something in the past, but it didn’t stop her from bracing for the impact.

  The ball of energy flew with the force of a cannonball and exploded against the front door, sending it flying into the hall.

  Head pounding and heart racing, she uttered the words to end the Tuhinga Mua. She’d seen enough and didn’t have any wish to relive the fight with the Lank. There was a sharp jerk just between her shoulder blades and she found herself landing on her back on the floor.

  Bre
athing hard as though she’d just spent the last half hour on an exercise machine, she sat up and uncrossed her cramped legs. Beyond her anger at the Lank, beyond her worries about everything that had happened, or could happen, she felt a small sense of thrill. Ronnie had hidden the last shard here. He’d been coming for it on the night he attacked her neighbor and stolen Samantha.

  But why had he not found it? she wondered as she picked herself up. True, it wasn’t the most brilliant hiding place and anyone would have found it if left for a time, but why hadn’t he? It was obvious he expected it to still be there. Had her neighbor been cleaning and found it? Not recognizing it for what it was, she would probably have thrown it in the garbage.

  It felt like her heart was now beating faster than a race car on its last lap. Running across the room and into the kitchen, she yanked open the cabinet to the right of the sink. The benefit of living in cookie-cutter apartments meant almost everything, including garbage cans, was found in the same places.

  Some of her excitement died, however, when, peering into the depths of the white plastic bag, the only things she could see were a banana peel, some wadded paper, and clumped coffee grounds. Pulling out the bag, she emptied it on the floor just to make sure, but still didn’t find what she was looking for.

  If not in the garbage, then where was the shard? She immediately answered her own question. If it wasn’t in this garbage, then it had to be in the garbage room in the basement. She didn’t know the collection schedule, but the map said the shard was still in the building.

  Ignoring the mess she’d made, she sprinted out of the apartment and across the hall to her own. If she was going to Dumpster-dive, she wasn’t about to be the only one to get dirty.

  20

  “So,… no luck?” asked Cat as the apartment door opened.

  The tight ball in the pit of Bella’s stomach weighed her down heavier than ever as she trudged into her apartment. In her frenzied excitement to get to the garbage room, she hadn’t taken the time to consider she might be wrong. Everything seemed to fit. The map said the shard was in the building, and the misty visions of the Tuhinga Mua seemed to show the same thing, though to be fair she might only have seen what she wanted to see in the spell’s swirling mist. The only thing rushing down to the garbage room accomplished was to learn that the sanitation company the building used had taken the trash earlier in the day.