by Alan Baxter
She grinned again, remembering something Alex had said not so long ago. You’re like some strange cross between Batman and Catwoman. Except neither of them eat the bad guys they bring down. She glanced at the bag on the passenger seat, bulging with cash from the game and quite a few other items of value from the night’s victims — watches, rings, necklaces and more. She preferred the Catwoman comparison.
There was something about thin days that made her hungrier than any other time and made the sating of that hunger more satisfying too. Something to do with her full half-dose of Fey blood, she presumed. The days made Fey power stronger and that must affect the needs of the Kin, first generation especially. Everyone knew the urge to feed was at its strongest on those days. Most Kin dens tried to manage it, insisting some members resist feeding to prevent too many deaths at once, which might risk discovery. It had been hard for Silhouette to avoid feeding until the dangerous twenty-four hours had passed, but she had certainly made up for it.
The last thin day had been the December solstice when they had been sucked through a vortex of Fey power into Obsidian. She sighed. That had ended well, all things considered, but Alex was still having trouble dealing with it. It had taken a terrible toll on him.
Then Imbolc had come around, a time of renewal in the northern hemisphere of her birth. She lived on the other side of the planet now, so it was actually Lughnasadh that just passed. She had trouble getting her head around it. But still a time of change. They waited out the day and night, terrified of Fey retribution, but nothing eventuated. A few days a year of extreme vigilance was a small price to pay in the long run, and since Alex had truly committed the Fey anchor stone to the Void, it would only ever be those few days forever more. But the threat did nothing to help Alex’s ongoing trauma with the events surrounding Obsidian.
Her thin day hunger, deferred but finally sated, made her feel strong. It was weeks until the next one. Perhaps she would wake Alex when she got home and they could celebrate the event. First she would fuck him silly, then introduce him to some old Pagan rituals, a bit of Kin magic to help him refind his focus. Perhaps help him shake off his melancholy, if only for a little while. She knew his road to recovery was likely to be long and undulating, but she was determined to do all she could to ease the journey.
She pulled off the highway and onto twisting roads leading between the green hills of dairy country. A soft smile played at her lips as she thought of the different ways she could wake Alex to immediately dispel any annoyance on his part at such an early rousing. Dawn smudged the sky pink and purple, the hearty sun about to breach the horizon behind her, as she pulled along the dirt driveway of their house, and her heart froze.
The front door stood open in the dim half-shadow of early light. The ice around her heart cracked as it began hammering double time. The hairs on her neck rose. She killed the engine and braked to a halt twenty metres from the house. ‘No, no, no …’ muttered under her breath. Maybe he was up early … She knew it wasn’t true. If anything, getting Alex out of bed before noon at the moment was hard, his mood lethargic and sullen. Something was wrong.
She slipped from the car and smoothly flowed into her feline form as her feet touched the ground. Her clothes melted into soft grey fur, her features rounded out. She dropped to four paws and padded low and stealthy through the shadows of hedges towards the house. A low growl rose in her chest as an aroma sent shivers of panic through her. The sickly sweet stench was unmistakable. Fey. It wasn’t possible. Shouldn’t be possible.
Anger and grief battled for primacy in her mind as she slunk through the obviously empty house. The sick-candy scent grew stronger as she moved towards the bedroom. There had been many Fey here. The soft early light showed damage and burn marks across the bed, carpet and curtains and Silhouette tipped her head back and roared. Alex had clearly fought, but he was nowhere to be seen. Barely an echo of his presence remained, buried in the horrible, overpowering remnants of Fey manifestation.
Silhouette stood up onto her hind legs, morphed back to her human shape as she ran for the kitchen. She snatched up the phone and dialled with shaking fingers.
After two rings, the phone was answered. ‘Sal’s Pizzeria, can I take your order?’
‘It’s Silhouette. Put me through to the Commander right away.’ Her voice trembled with rage and fear.
‘May I take your order please?’
‘Oh, fuck me.’ Silhouette squeezed her eyes shut. There was protocol for a reason. ‘Large thick crust, half supreme, half meat lovers, anchovies all over and a bucket of Coke.’
The voice at the other end became casual. ‘Thanks, Sil. Sorry, you know how it is.’
‘Sure, sure. The Commander, please!’
‘Just a sec.’
There was a click and the most frustratingly lame smooth jazz hold music piped through. Silhouette tapped her foot, ground her teeth.
‘Silhouette?’ The Commander’s voice was gruff and thick with sleep.
‘They got Alex!’ Silhouette cursed the high panic in her tone. She sucked a quick breath. ‘The Fey, they’ve been here, there’s been a fight and Alex is gone.’
‘Sil, are you …’
‘Yes, I’m fucking sure! How did this happen? Yesterday was the day, not today!’
‘Silhouette, take a breath, please. This is serious, but let’s try to stay calm.’ The Commander’s voice betrayed no further hint of his sudden awakening. ‘Now I don’t doubt your assessment, but are you sure they’ve taken him?’
‘He’s not fucking here!’
‘You’re sure? There’s no … body?’
‘What?’
There was a pause, then, ‘Are you sure they haven’t just killed him, in cold revenge?’
‘How did they get him today?’ Silhouette demanded. ‘This can’t happen!’
‘I’m sorry, Sil, really I am. But search — make sure he’s been taken.’
Silhouette paused, teeth clenched in frustration. The Commander had a point. She started moving from room to room. ‘I’m looking now, but I can’t feel him.’
‘If they came for Alex, took him away, there must be something else at work, no? Fey are complex and evil, they operate on the bigger picture. If it’s not simple revenge, what are they doing? I know this shouldn’t have happened, but as it has, let’s reduce the angles and decide on a course of action.’
Silhouette shook her head, terrified that Alex might have been killed. ‘They know about the Obsidian situation; their ridesprite escaped Nicholas Haydon. They know Alex truly cast the anchor stone into the Void. It is genuinely lost.’ She shivered as she moved from the house towards the garden, searching. ‘You’re right, Commander. If they came, why didn’t they just kill him?’ A more horrible thought occurred to her. ‘Unless they’ve taken him somewhere to make him suffer …’
The Commander sighed. ‘Perhaps, Silhouette. Keep looking. It’s morbid, I know, but make sure if you can.’ There was noise and movement on the other end. ‘Sil, hold on a minute.’ The Commander’s voice became muffled. ‘What is it?’
A conversation ensued and Silhouette took the opportunity to move quickly around the overgrown gardens. There was no trace of anything out of order. The Fey had obviously surprised Alex while he slept, there had been a fight and Alex had come off worst. She was relieved to confirm that his corpse didn’t mark the end of the confrontation, but it terrified her to think what that might mean. What did they want with him? Were they going to torture him for revenge? Had they abducted him to Faerie? But it wasn’t a thin day, so they couldn’t have gone back. Only on thin days could the Fey travel between realms.
Her heart tremored as the thought of facing Fey rose in her mind. But she loved Alex and she would go after him, even if it meant going where she least wanted to ever be. She would follow him to Faerie if she had to. But they couldn’t have gone back today.
‘Silhouette, are you still there?’
‘Yes. Commander, what are we going to do?’
> ‘Well …’ The Commander’s voice was strained. ‘Something’s come up here, I have to go, but …’
‘More fucking important than this?’ Silhouette was astounded.
‘Silhouette, calm down. I have to go, but a team is on its way and they will conduct a full survey of your house and grounds. We will find out all we can about what’s happened to Alex and we will act.’
Silhouette bit down on anger rising like a wave of lava. ‘Commander, I’ll go after him if I have to, whatever that entails.’
‘I understand. And we’ll help. A team is coming. Other things are happening, Sil, you know how it is. They always are. Hang in there.’
Silhouette breathed heavily into the phone, impotent and furious.
‘Wait for the chopper, Sil. We’ll sort this. It’s what we do, right?’ The Commander tried to inject confidence and authority into his voice, but Silhouette could hear his concern. And if he was afraid, she was beyond terrified.
‘Okay.’
‘I’ll call you back a bit later.’ He hung up without waiting for a reply.
The wait for the chopper was excruciating, but it gave Silhouette time to confirm there was indeed no trace of Alex anywhere near the house. She stood in the centre of the recently erected stone circle, supposedly a safe space for them to retreat to should the Fey set off alarms by arriving. The circle was an expensive and powerful construction, the rock imported from Scotland, the wards created by the best teams in Armour. As were the other wards throughout the house. None of it had worked.
After Obsidian, Armour had really stepped up to ensure Alex’s recovery and protect his and Silhouette’s future. It was partly because Alex was valuable to them, but it had quickly become apparent that Armour genuinely wanted to help him as he had helped them. And they wanted him to join up full time, of course. Silhouette was glad for their new allegiance. But as she stood among stones that buzzed with magesign and ancient power, a deep sadness welled in her. All the effort had proven useless.
A thrumming rose through the hills and a sleek, black helicopter appeared over the ridge. She watched it descend on approach and eventually settle on the grass not far from the house. She remembered the last time a chopper had come from Armour. That had been the start of the whole Obsidian debacle. She wished Alex had never taken that job, but it was easy to wish in hindsight. She had encouraged it at the time.
Black-clad operatives hopped out as she ran, half crouched, to meet them.
‘We have to know what happened,’ she shouted over the rotor noise to the first of them. ‘Please, any tiny clue.’
The dark-skinned woman nodded, gave Silhouette’s shoulder a squeeze. ‘We’ve got this. If there’s anything to be found, we’ll find it. We’ll get him back. I’m Gwen. I know we’re only supposed to use Jane and John Doe in the field, but we’re all operatives together, right?’
‘Silhouette.’
‘I know.’ Gwen gave a sad smile. ‘I should warn you, opinion is a little divided on the situation here.’
‘What?’
Gwen turned to the two men who had followed her from the chopper. ‘You guys head out to the property perimeter and work your way in towards the house. I’ll start inside.’
The two men nodded. They both had sour expressions. One looked at Silhouette with undisguised disdain.
‘What’s the problem here?’ Silhouette asked as the men ran off.
‘The long-haired fellow is Dan. He lost two good friends during the Obsidian Incident, killed by escaping Kin. The skinny guy is Jack. He thinks Alex should have stayed in Obsidian and sacrificed himself along with everything there, left it all in the Void.’
Silhouette was horrified. Alex had met with several fairly bluntly stated opinions since the Incident, she understood the anger of people who had lost friends and loved ones, but to suggest Alex should have cast himself into the Void was unconscionable. ‘He removed the most powerful item in Fey history,’ she said, aghast. ‘Alex saved the mortal realm from the Fey ever getting a permanent hold here again.’
Gwen nodded, mouth set in a grim line. ‘I know. I’m on your side. You can imagine, the flight here was … tense. But everyone’s experience of something like this is different.’
‘I need help here, not enemies in the people who are supposed to be my allies!’
‘They’ll do their job, I promise you. They’ve sworn as much themselves, don’t worry about that. Just don’t expect too much in the way of friendship. At least, not from them. Not now. They’ll come around.’
Silhouette watched the two men trotting out towards the fence line where Alex’s property backed on to broad, rolling dairy paddocks. ‘I’m glad you’re here,’ she whispered.
‘I am. Trust me, they’ll do all that’s required of them and I’ll do more.’
Silhouette nodded and led the woman away from the slowing rotors towards the house. ‘I’ll show you where he was taken.’
As Gwen set up complicated equipment in the bedroom, the unique Armour melding of technology and sorcery, Silhouette cursed herself again for leaving Alex. If she had stayed, perhaps they could have fought together. She racked her brain, trying to figure out what had happened. How it had happened.
Her phone interrupted her thoughts. ‘Hello?’
‘Silhouette, it’s the Commander.’
‘Oh, you’ve got time for me again?’
‘Sil, there are always a million things that need my attention, you know that. It’s just the nature of our organisation. But I am one hundred per cent committed to helping you guys. They there?’
‘Yes, setting up now. You couldn’t send a team who wasn’t glad to see the back of Alex?’ She heard the venom in her voice and regretted it. The Commander had been nothing but supportive, almost fatherly to them both since their return, but she boiled with rage, guilt, fear.
‘I’m sorry, Sil,’ he said. ‘Our numbers are thinned right now. Gwen is in charge and she’s on your side. The others will do their job.’
‘So she said. You really couldn’t find any others who don’t hate Alex?’
‘He made many enemies with his actions. Give it time. People will come to understand.’
Silhouette nodded, determined to not give in to her roiling emotions. She had never been as close to anyone in her many centuries of existence as she was to Alex and it scared her how much of an effect it had. But she was not some snivelling girl and she would fight to get him back. She intended to affirm that resolve to the Commander. ‘Any further ideas on how it happened?’ she asked.
‘Some ideas. What about you?’
‘It’s possible the Fey came through yesterday, when they could travel on the thin day. Their power is massively reduced if they’re trapped in the mortal realm on any other day and they can’t return again until the next thin, but it’s possible they planned exactly that to take Alex off-guard. Wait somewhere, come the day after we expected them. Even weak, if there were enough of them …’
‘I thought the same thing. Our wards and alarms?’
‘Nothing as far as I can tell. It’s clear Alex was surprised in the bedroom. They came while he slept and he got no warning.’
‘Bastards. But why do it like that? If they could avoid the wards, why wait and trap themselves here until the next thin? Why operate on a day when they’re so weak?’
Silhouette stared through Gwen and the equipment at the foot of her bed. The bed she shared with Alex. ‘I don’t know. I get that coming a day late would catch him unawares, but not the risk of having to stay here.’ She took a shuddering breath. ‘But if that is what happened, they must be somewhere in this realm still and that means we can find them, right?’
‘I hope so, Sil. With any luck Gwen and her team will uncover some clues to work with.’
4
Claude Darvill stared at the man before him with undisguised hatred. ‘Can’t be done?’ he asked.
The big civil engineer shrugged broad shoulders, gestured around. ‘Look at the terr
ain. And these conditions. Even if we could get a vehicle in here, you’re asking that we dig through solid rock. It can be done, but not by my team or equipment.’
Claude pulled the battered leather broad-brimmed fedora from his head, ran one hand over his sandy hair. ‘So I need a better team with better equipment.’
‘Yes, I suppose you do.’
‘Any chance you can recommend someone?’
The big man scowled. He clearly didn’t like Claude, but that was the least of Darvill’s problems. ‘You might try a more commercial outfit,’ he suggested. ‘Someone used to corporate development. But getting the required people and rigs out here? Big ask.’
Claude nodded, replaced his hat. ‘Right. Well, thanks a fucking lot.’
The engineer turned and walked away without another word. He climbed into the cab of his pick-up truck and drove away with a spin of tyres, snow and gravel spraying in an arc as he went.
Claude turned and whistled. Sigmund hopped from the driver’s seat of his battered four wheel drive and jogged over. ‘Gone to get his stuff?’
Claude laughed without any humour. ‘No, he’s fucking useless. Perhaps I under-estimated the scale of the groundwork required. We need a bigger and more organised outfit. Drive me back to town, Siggy.’
‘Right.’ The small man trotted to his car, blond curls bouncing.
Darvill stared after him, grinding his teeth. More like Shirley fucking Temple than a genuine assistant. He needed quality people around him, professionals. Time to use some more of dear old daddy’s real money and influence. He pulled his phone out, tapped a quick-dial number.
It only rang once. ‘Jean Chang.’
