Bella Flores Urban Fantasy Collection

by R D Martin

  Sheets of paper wafted through the air as though Wallace had thrown a ream of paper instead of a book. She looked at him, raising an eyebrow in question.

  "The Water Window is powerful, but it is also destructive. Anything inorganic can touch and pass through it without a scratch. For organic items, the more complicated the cellular structure, the more likely it is to be destroyed. A piece of paper can make it through easy enough—"

  "But a human would die in an instant," Bella finished for him, watching the last sheet of paper touch down. Now she understood why the Water Window wasn't more common. "But how did I make it? How is it here?"

  "I don't know. I'm as stumped as you are," Wallace said. "Regardless, we have an opportunity here. I want you to think of the Finder. Picture him as clearly as you pictured your rooms."

  Bella nodded and began trying to picture the Finder, everything from his spiky tufts of hair to the wrinkles in his skin. As she did, the image in front of her changed. Her room disappeared in a riot of color that twisted her stomach to look at. The swirling picture moved faster and faster, blurring as it did, until all the colors mixed into a single churning mass.

  "Concentrate, Bella. Think only of him and picture him in your mind. Don't imagine where he is. Let the magic fill that in."

  "I'm trying, but it's like there's something fighting me." Sweat beaded on her forehead as she tried to force the image in her mind to appear in the Water Window. Colors would slow, begin coalescing into a recognizable pattern, then just as she thought she saw the outline of the Finder, it was like the image was hit by a train and shattered into nothing.

  "That's his wards. He doesn't want to be found, but the Water Window is stronger. Push through them. Make the Window show you what you want to see."

  Bella growled and ground her teeth together. If he thinks this is so easy, why doesn't he do it? Her muscles tensed and her body shook as though a live wire were attached to her feet. She pushed the image at the Window, forcing the mass of color to slow and form the picture she wanted. Her hands balled into fists at her sides as a pain shot through the back of her head. She could almost see him. The Window was just on the verge of clearing. One more good push and…

  The image snapped into clarity so suddenly she almost fell from the lack of pressure against her. Bending over, hands on her knees, she took great gulping breaths as the pain in her head eased. It didn't disappear, but it was nothing two aspirins or a stiff drink couldn't fix.

  Bella? Is that you? As always, when the Finder spoke, it wasn't words being heard. Rather, it was images the mind interpreted as words.

  "Hello, Finder. It's nice to see you again," Wallace said before she could reply. The Finder rose to his full three-inch height and turned to look at him.

  Representative. It has been some time. I was unaware my Prime was with you, though that explains the Water Window. You have become stronger since our last meeting.

  "Not me. Bella was the one responsible for this. I still don't have the ability."

  Interesting. You are definitely your father's daughter, full of surprises. Though he never had the strength to break through my wards.

  "It's true, then? You worked with him and the Imperium?"

  Of course not.

  "What?"

  I worked with your father, that is true. And he worked with the Imperium. But I never worked with them.

  As far as she was concerned, that was splitting hairs. "Why didn't you tell me? Why didn't he tell me?"

  He was planning to. He just believed you were too young to understand at first. Later, when you left to attend college, he believed you wanted nothing to do with our world again.

  "So, why didn't you tell me, then? I've worked for you for two years, and you've had plenty of time."

  True. However, I predicted two outcomes if I told you. The first, and most likely, involved slinking away from magic. If that happened, I believe the rupture would occur within five years. The second outcome, though much less likely, would be your hunting down of your father's executioners and dying in the process. The rupture would still have occurred in five years.

  "So you believe in it, then? This explosion of magic Wallace says Dad was trying to prevent?"

  Most assuredly. My predictions have shown there to be one hundred percent certainty that magic will erupt if nothing is done. Your father and I were working toward a path we believed would stop the eruption by harnessing the magic and siphoning the pressure.

  "That's what Wallace said the Imperium was doing too."

  That's not true.

  "Wait, what?" Bella looked back and forth between the Finder's image and Wallace. The man's forehead creased, and as far as she could tell, he looked confused. "What do you mean? Wallace said—"

  What he believed to be true, the Finder's thoughts interrupted. However, those above him wish to control the eruption. If they control magic, they control the world.

  Even Wallace looked shocked, though it only confirmed what Bella believed about the Imperium. If her father worked with them, there might be a few decent people there, but there was a reason it had such a harsh reputation.

  "So, is that why you disappeared? You thought they may try something?"

  Not at all. I do not approve of their goals, but they serve a purpose. And I did not disappear, though to you I suppose it must look that way.

  "Then where are you? I'll, I'll come get you. You need to be here to vote. They want to put me on trial for murdering the Algonde. They probably want to try me for killing you too."

  Ah. That is inconvenient. I had not thought he'd move so quickly. If he's speeding up his plans, then I will—

  The Finder's image in the Water Window shook as though someone was tapping the floating rectangle.

  "Whose plans? What's going on? Who is he?"

  The image shook again, and this time Bella felt pressure building up at the base of her skull.

  He's come. Your Window broke through my wards and he's using it to leverage them open. You must end the spell now.

  "End the spell? How? Who is he?"

  End it NOW. The Finder's thought slammed into her like she'd just run headfirst into a brick wall. Her world became one of pain as she grabbed her head and fell to her knees. Somewhere, deep in a crevice of her mind the pain hadn't reached, she heard screaming and knew it to be coming from her.

  Before she could close her eyes against the pain, she saw something, a hand reaching for the Finder. Whatever was attacking his wards had broken through and was grasping for the small Moab.

  She wanted to scream, to cast a spell or do anything to help, but the glass shards of pain tearing through her mind kept her from doing more than watching as the hand reached for him.

  A glow appeared around the Finder, expanding until it surrounded his entire body. As the hand came in contact, it froze, stopped from moving any closer. The long, graceful fingers and even longer nails wrapped around the shield protecting her employer, vibrating with power as they squeezed against the magic. Light glinted off a large gold ring and Bella gasped.

  The ring was large and ornate with a deep red gem in its center. She'd seen it before, worn by the leader of the Vampire Council, Darius.

  The image in the Water Window blurred, fuzzing out in a static of color as the Finder and his attacker's hand became little more than outlines. The edges of the Window twisted, warping as magics fought. She tried to force it to stay open, to let her see what was happening, but whatever the Finder had done was fighting against it.

  A loud screech, something higher than her own cries, issued from the window. There was a flash of green, the only color not washed out by the portal's magic, and then the entire thing disappeared.

  As it disappeared, so too did whatever had invaded her mind, leaving behind little more than the throbbing memory of pain. Already on her knees, Bella fell on her side and curled up. This time she knew. This time she was sure. She didn’t need to feel the release of his energy to know the truth. The Finder wa
s dead, and there was no doubt about it. But unlike before, this time she also knew who killed him.

  Her eyes blurred as tears formed. It didn't matter if they came from the pain or the loss. Right now they were the same. Her employer, her friend and teacher, was dead and any hope of having him save her was gone. The dam holding back the tears broke, and she wept. Tears streamed and pooled on the floor, and try as she might, she couldn't control them. She wasn't sure she even wanted to. She was lost in a sea of monsters that wanted to kill everything, and her hope of salvation, her guiding light in the storm-tossed sea, had just winked out.

  22

  Bella stared unblinking into the empty space where the Water Window once hovered. It hadn't taken long to cry herself out. She'd needed the release, but she still didn't feel any better. Wallace had tried to be comforting, something she was grateful for even if she didn't say it, while Cat had been more pragmatic. He'd left her alone to sort out her feelings herself, even leaving the room, though his excuse for that was his never-ending search for food.

  Part of her tried to deny the Finder was dead. He was old and powerful, more powerful than she'd ever suspected. He would have had wards in place, guarding him even when at his weakest. Old ones were hard to kill for a reason. Even she had wards, though to be honest, hers were more to tell her if someone was nearby than for protection.

  But she'd broken through them with her spell. She hadn't meant to, though. Creating the Water Window had been a fluke, a onetime thing. She didn't know it could cut through shields and wards like a hot knife through butter. She just did what Wallace told her to do. Was that her fault? Was any of it her fault?

  Questions kept whirling through her mind, bouncing off the inside of her skull like hundreds of rubber balls. If the Finder was in so much danger, why hadn't he warned her? The Moab could predict the future. It would have taken him two seconds to say something before disappearing. Hey, Bella. I think something might try to kill me on this trip, so if I disappear, don't look for me. Okay? That wasn't too much to ask, was it?

  And the hand. It definitely belonged to Darius. She wouldn't mistake the signet he wore for anything else. But why would he attack the Finder? They were old friends, weren't they? He'd even promised to help her find her missing employer. Maybe that was what he was doing? Was that his attempt to rescue the Finder, and she bungled it?

  No. That didn't seem right. The Finder wouldn't have tried to hide from his friend, nor fight him off if he was being rescued. But if that was the case, then why had Darius been helping her? He'd been on her side from the beginning, hadn't he? He was there when the Finder first went missing. He'd been kind, listening to her worries and giving her advice from the very start. Why would he do that? Was he trying to get close to her? Maybe he thought she could tell him where the Finder was hiding?

  Her shoulders slumped, and she shifted her position. Cat had returned, though he kept his distance, and curled up on the corner of the bed.

  "What are we going to do?" she whispered, though not to anyone in particular.

  "What do you want to do?" Cat replied.

  She looked up at her familiar. His emerald-green eyes seemed to bore into her as he stared back. "I, I don't know."

  "Well, that's a problem, isn't it?"

  His ears twitched and Bella couldn't tell if he was trying to be sarcastic or sympathetic. Since he was almost never the latter, she settled on the former. "Not helping."

  "You didn't ask for help, you just asked what you would do."

  "Okay, smart guy. I'm asking."

  "I'm not sure I want to help."

  "What, why not?"

  "Partly because I don't want to feed into this self-pity trip you're on, but mostly because I'm tired of being ignored."

  "When have I ever ignored you?"

  "Since birth." Bella scowled and was about to retort but was interrupted as Cat continued. "Well, maybe not that long. But for the past few years at least."

  "What do you mean? I feed you when you ask, don't I? I take care of you. When you got hurt, who catered to every one of your whining little whims?"

  "I'll thank you to remember that I got hurt saving your life, but that's beside the point. Listening to me is more than just opening the odd can of food, which, by the way, we must discuss. This new brand is awful. They don't even use real—"

  "Can you get to the point already?"

  "The point is, I've been telling you for years that you are talented and powerful, and have nothing to prove to anyone."

  "I haven't been trying to prove anything."

  "Really? Why are you here?"

  "Here? I'm here because my boss, you know, the dead Moab, told me to come."

  "No, not here as in here at the Conclave. I mean here, as in sitting on the floor in Wallace's room brooding about a dead inchworm."

  "That's not fair. And stop calling him an inchworm. He took me in. He taught me—"

  "Gar taught you."

  "Well," Bella huffed. It was true. The Finder had promised to teach her, but it had been Gar giving all the instruction. "That's beside the point. The point is, he believed in me when no one else did. He took a chance on me."

  "Why?"

  "What?"

  "Why did he take a chance on you?"

  "Why? I don't know. Maybe he saw something in me? Maybe because he's known me longer than you? Maybe he was just being kind?"

  "And you think you owe him for that?"

  "Don't you?"

  "No," Cat replied, shaking his head. "No, I really don't. And that's the problem. You took a job working for the inchworm that has almost killed you dozens of times. Did he ever thank you? Give you a pat on the back and say excellent job? Did you even get a bonus for all your work?"

  "That's not the point."

  "Then what is?"

  "He believed in me."

  "You said that. But then, if he believed in you so much, why don't you believe in yourself?"

  "What does—"

  "Look at what you've done. You've fought beasts and monsters, killed creatures too powerful for others to resist, retrieved artifacts so protected anyone else would have died getting."

  "That's not—"

  "And through all that, was he there to hold your hand?"

  "That's not fair. It was my job to—"

  "Yes. Your job. Something you did on your own. You're trying to live up to some expectation you believe he has, or maybe had, for you instead of just trying to be the best you can be."

  "So? Is there something wrong with that?"

  "Not if you're a child. But unless you've turned back the clock, you're not anymore. You're a grown woman who should act like one instead of a scared little girl, too afraid of the world to step out on her own. Grow up or go hide. I don't really care which, but decide."

  There was no condescension in the words, no derision, and he delivered them without raising his voice. Yet it still felt as though he'd slapped her across the face. She'd been scared for so long it was hard to remember a time when she wasn't. She'd been scared about being unemployed and hadn't questioned the job offered by the Finder. She'd been scared about losing her boyfriend, William, and look how that ended. And she was still scared.

  "You're right, I'm scared." She wanted to yell, but the words choked in her throat. "I'm scared of failing everyone. I'm scared of being a failure."

  "As you should be," Cat said, rising to his feet. He hopped down from the bed and took a seat on the floor across from her. "Being scared of failing makes us fight to succeed, but you will always fail if you're fighting for someone else. You need to forget what everyone else expects from you and concentrate on what you expect from yourself."

  "Great. So how do I do that?"

  "Ask yourself the question again."

  "How do I do that?"

  "No, not that question. The first one."

  Bella thought for a moment before answering, "What are we going to do now?"

  "That's it. Now change it. Ask yourself wh
at you will do."

  "How is that going to help?"

  "Just do it."

  "Okay. What am I going to do? Happy?"

  "I will be once you answer it."

  "If I had an answer, I wouldn't be asking, would I?"

  "If you had an answer already, you'd be a cat. Now ask it again and keep asking yourself until you know the answer."

  He stood and turned, his tail lashing through the air like a whip, and walked toward the door. Pausing at the exit, Cat looked over his shoulder at her. "Figure out what you need to do and I'll be here for you. But whatever you decide, make sure it's what you need, not what anyone else needs."

  Before she could say anything, Cat slipped out through the door and disappeared.

  But what do I need? It irked her that he was right. She needed to do what was best for herself and not what everyone expected her to do. The question then was, what did she need? Getting out of this place would be a start, but what then? Maybe find William, see if their relationship was beyond saving? Talk to Gar, let him know of the Finder's death. Maybe they could work together. He would probably be willing to continue teaching her if she wanted, right?

  Bella shook her head. Too many questions flooded her brain, most of which she couldn't answer, at least not yet. It was time to focus on the most pressing one first. How was she going to get out of this place? She was the prime suspect for murder, and she doubted Darius was the kind to just let her walk out on her own. Even if he wasn't the killer, she suspected he might have had something to do with it. But how was she going to prove it?

  Cat may be right, but I can't do this on my own.

  23

  Bella stepped across the threshold into the antechamber and shivered at a wave of cold that made midwinter Minnesota seem warm in comparison. The hair at the nape of her neck stood on end, and she clenched her jaw to keep her teeth from chattering. Some part of her remembered creating this, but it was the first time she was seeing what she'd done. Well, the first time seeing it when she wasn't out of her mind with fear and burning adrenaline like a marathon runner.