by M. L. Ryan
Not having electrochemical cells might have diminished the device’s usefulness had Alex not soon figured out a work-around, channeling magic to power the phone. Another uncertainty was answered as the device, once turned on, synched up with whatever satellite happened to be passing by. We were definitely in the human dimension. Alex punched in a number, and we all waited anxiously for someone to answer.
Alex was still sitting next to me, which meant I could hear much of the receiver’s side of the conversation reverberating from the earpiece.
“Who is this?” the voice said skeptically, but with an underlying cautious optimism.
“A fine way to greet me after such a long absence, Aiden,” Alex responded with a smile. A raucous cry followed, so loud that Alex yanked the phone away from his ear. “Nice to hear your voice, too, my friend,” he acknowledged when the joyful shouting died down.
Alex explained where we were, and that Aiden and Cortez should bring the appropriate vehicles as soon as possible to transport nine people back to Tucson. If Aiden was surprised at any of this information, his voice didn’t reflect it. He seamlessly transitioned from elated comrade back to Xyzok mode.
“Oh, and bring some of Hailey’s clothes as well,” Alex requested, eyeing my uncovered, goose-bumped legs.
“And coffee,” I called out, suddenly craving the dark, bitter brew. “Bring the biggest cup you can manage.”
Alex chortled. “Aiden says he’s on it.”
After finalizing additional arrangements, Alex disconnected. “It will be a few hours before they arrive, which will give us enough time to hike down.” He stuffed the phone into his pants pocket, crouched down, and lifted me in his arms. “You’re in no condition to hike,” he announced.
I wrapped my arms around his neck. “No objections from me,” I said, snuggling into his sinewy chest. I took a deep breath, and the scent of Cherry Garcia made me smile. If Alex again smelled like Ben and Jerry’s, we really must be home.
Alex insisted on carrying me the entire way, even at the spots where I used ropes when we ascended so many months ago. I was apprehensive when he strode to the edge of the first steep drop, but with a whispered, “I’ve got you,” he leapt off, landing gracefully—and upright—at the bottom.
“Whoa,” I sputtered, impressed with the feat.
A sly grin curved on his lips. “Did you think I might drop you?”
Double meaning notwithstanding, I assured him I had no concerns about his strength. As for his continued devotion, I supposed we’d have to figure that out later. This was not the time for that discussion.
Even when healthy, I’d have had trouble keeping up with my companions and soon realized an added benefit of being toted was making great time. We arrived at the designated rendezvous point before Aiden and Cortez, but thankfully, it wasn’t as cold at the bottom as it was near the summit. Ulut built a small fire, and Alex placed me near it to keep the chill away. The crackling lulled me into a blissful, dreamless slumber.
Gentle nudging pulled me to consciousness. I blinked twice to clear my foggy eyes and head, and only then realized I’d slept through two oversized Escalades driving within four yards of where I slept. Bex, who had woken me, helped me sit up and offered me a steaming mug of rich, black coffee. I inhaled deeply, savoring the heady aroma before taking the first, wonderful sip.
“Lord, I missed this,” I lamented, closing my eyes in reverence. When I opened them, Aiden stood over me, grinning.
“I brought it just the way you like it. Dark, strong, and complex; much like you, heroic human,” he teased as he handed me a pair of sweat pants, a flannel shirt, a pair of Ugg boots, and a down jacket.
“Not so strong at the moment,” I remarked, taking another, larger mouthful. Maybe caffeine is all I really needed, and this cup will miraculously cure my ills. “Who made this? It’s fantastic.” I didn’t recall Aiden liking the stuff, much less knowing how to brew it properly.
“Rachel did.” Noting my brows rising in surprise, he tacked on, “She was at Sebastian’s when Alex called. She’s been there the whole time you’ve been missing.”
Although otherwise engaged, the mere mention of the object of his affection’s name piqued Sebastian’s interest. “Rachel was there, you say? Why pray tell?” he inquired, trying to appear nonchalant for Aiden. I could tell this wasn’t a simple inquiry about who was hanging out at his house during our absence. The slight flush in his cheeks gave his true interest away.
Aiden eyed his boss, then Cortez, who was leaning against the closest vehicle, chatting with Ulut, and put two and two together.
“Oh, Cortez wasn’t with her,” he explained, placing extra emphasis on the “with her” part to make certain Sebastian knew nothing went on between the ex-lovers. “She stayed to oversee the construction of the guesthouse and to help us coordinate the search.” He leaned closer to Sebastian and, eyes twinkling, added, “She slept in your room.”
“Did she, now?” Sebastian drawled with a small, knowing grin. He turned and strolled towards the SUVs with a bit more swagger. That in itself was striking, as strutting was a way of life for the Xyzok.
Hearing about Rachel’s involvement during our absence gave me hope our friendship was salvageable. Using Sebastian’s bed aside, she wouldn’t have taken such interest if she still hated me. “How did Rachel find out we were gone?” I asked, slipping on the sweatpants and the sheepskin boots.
“She came to the house about two weeks after you disappeared,” Aiden responded, refilling my cup from a large thermos. “She’d been calling your cell phone, and when you didn’t respond, she worried you’d never hear her out if she didn’t do it face-to-face. I considered putting her off with some story of an undercover, private investigator thing, but it never would have worked. With a houseful of Xyzok scurrying about and Cortez and I obviously stressed, she knew something was up. I hope you don’t mind.”
“No, not at all. She deserved to know the truth.” Particularly since secrets are what caused the rift in the first place. “Crap,” I blurted.
Aiden seemed taken aback by my sudden outburst. “What’s wrong?”
“My mother,” I said, slapping my forehead. Even though we didn’t get along that well, since we were at Gera’s, I hadn’t thought about how she might react to my disappearance. “She probably called the FBI and reported me missing.”
“No, she thinks you and Alex have been vacationing.”
I almost spit out my coffee. “For six months!”
He grinned, and in the glow of the firelight, his freckles seemed to coalesce, creating the illusion of a deep tan. “Just for the last few weeks. At first, Rachel answered her emails as though they were from you. She didn’t call the house until recently, when she couldn’t reach you on your cell. I told her you were out of the country, and she couldn’t get you because you’d decided to forego useless technology that only suppressed actual person-to-person interactions.”
“And she bought that?”
“She seemed to,” he said, shrugging. “I think she said, ‘Typical liberal claptrap,’ or something to that effect.”
“Good thing my well-being didn’t hinge on her realizing I was in trouble,” I grumbled under my breath. “Speaking of which, what did you think happened to us?”
Aiden started to answer, but Alex interrupted. “I’d like to hear this as well, but let’s do it while we are driving.”
I finished dressing and gave Alex and Ulut back their loaned coats, with my heartfelt thanks. Alex lifted me up, but I insisted on walking to the Escalade.
“I’ve never seen these before tonight,” I noted, examining the gigantic, black SUVs. Now that I thought about it, there was always a seemingly endless array of new vehicles of every make, model, and manufacturer. “Do the Xyzok have a motor pool hidden somewhere that I don’t know about?”
“Sort of,” Aiden admitted. “There are guys at the Auto-Mall who supply us. We can get a hold of whatever is called for within half an hour.”
/>
“Courso or human guys?”
“Oh, human, mostly.”
It occurred to me that it must cost a hell of a lot to have multiple dealerships at the Xyzok’s beck and call, but then another explanation came to mind. “You don’t compel them to provide cars, do you?”
“Of course not,” he said, askance at the suggestion. “That is against everything the Xyzok stand for. They deliver the vehicles, and we magically enhance their dealerships so customers feel comfortable buying from them.”
“How does that not conflict with the notion that Courso should not use their power to gain an advantage over humans?”
Aiden looked at me like I was nuts. “We aren’t stealing from them. We get to use a wide range of vehicles and they get more sales.”
“Aren’t the customers being unfairly influenced?” I pointed out.
“No,” he said emphatically. “They aren’t forced to purchase anything, and aren’t paying more than they should, but when they do make a deal, they don’t feel like they’ve been screwed.”
I didn’t understand the distinction, but I was too tired and too anxious to get home to ask for further clarification or debate the ethics involved. I sat in the front passenger’s seat, with Alex, Sebastian, and Ulut in the back, while the rest crammed into the other vehicle with Cortez. Aiden jacked up the heated leather seats, drove away from Babo, and continued the story.
“When you didn’t come down off the mountain, we tried to raise you with the sat phone. When that didn’t work, Cortez and I went up to look. There was a patch of scorched earth where it appeared a lightning bolt struck, and we found some of your things, like Alex’s pack and some water bottles, but no bodies and no trace of any of you. The next day, Karttyx dispatched a special team of investigators, who determined you’d all likely transported to Dekankara.”
Sebastian snorted derisively. “Was she on the warpath?”
“Not as much as you’d think,” Aiden replied. “She was worried, of course, as we all were. She came back and forth from Courso regularly during your absence. In fact, she just returned to Alenquai a few days ago.”
“The way she guzzles spirits, I suppose that means our supplies have been severely diminished,” Sebastian complained.
Karttyx was quite fond of expensive, human alcohol, particularly my drink of choice, tequila. In a pinch, however, she’d drink almost anything. She looked like a mild-mannered, kindly grandma, but like all the Courso, she could drink any human under the table. Three tables, probably.
Aiden laughed. “Don’t worry, I hid the scotch.”
“My boy, you are a saint. You can’t imagine how I have yearned for some of the 1926 Macallen I purchased at auction just before we left.”
Aiden lifted his eyes to the rearview mirror and grinned at Sebastian in the backseat. “I didn’t just bring coffee,” he announced. “Reach in the center console. There’s a bottle of Glenmorangie and two glasses.”
As they took their first sip, both Alex and Sebastian groaned with the same sort of pleasure I expressed over my cup of joe. “You, Aiden, are getting a huge raise,” Alex proclaimed.
We drove for a while in silence, the guys relishing the fifteen-year-old single malt, and me downing the contents of the thermos.
Eventually, Aiden broke the silence. “I’m glad you are all back, safe and sound, but how did the Jyryxahal end up mixed up in this, and who the hell is Prytx?
34
By the time we hit the outskirts of Tucson, Alex and Sebastian presented a fairly detailed synopsis of everything that occurred.
Aiden listened intently, and when the story was finished, he shook his head. “The deputy went too? That’s a surprise.”
While our disappearance remained a secret, Agnes’ was a hot local news story. Aiden hadn’t connected our vanishing with hers because the police didn’t find her car near the turn off to Babo where she left it. Instead, it was discovered across the border in Nogales, some weeks after she was reported missing.
“The authorities believed the vehicle was stolen or carjacked in Tucson and the perp must have killed her. They had no way of knowing it was taken from the side of the road sixty miles south.”
“I suppose the fate of Agnes Cunningham will forever remain an unsolvable cold case,” Sebastian offered.
“The sheriff said, ‘It is like she fell off the face of the earth’,” Aiden recalled. “He didn’t realize how right he was.” After a moment, he asked, “What about the deputy’s family? Won’t they wonder what happened to her?”
I had the same question after she revealed her decision to remain in Dekankara. “Her parents died a few years ago, and she was an only child,” I explained. “She wasn’t too concerned about anyone pining over her demise.”
It seemed a bit selfish on Agnes’ part, if you asked me. I didn’t like her, but she must have had friends. Her cryptozoology buddies, for example. Although, they probably believed aliens abducted her and were thrilled she was living the dream. They wouldn’t be too far off.
A lively discussion about Prytx, and what to do with him, took up the rest of the ride home. Many options were available, from imprisonment for treason to forcing him to reveal the seditious members of the Glyzimutitch Zolmere. Aiden suggested they could arrange an unfortunate accident, thereby preventing Prytx from reporting any information about Dekankara, but Alex soundly vetoed that idea.
“Prytx helped us, and in the end, deserves some consideration for his aid. We will keep him under guard for now and wait to consult with Karttyx. However,” Alex cautioned, “we don’t know who else we can trust. This must remain our secret until we know who sent him.”
I almost bounced out of my seat when we turned into the long drive leading to the house. We were home. I might have been the only occupant of the vehicle who felt the pull of the familiar cactus and palo verde dotting the property, however. Sebastian was using Aiden’s phone for some important call, Ulut dozed, and Alex jotted down notes in a pad he found in the center console. I reminded myself I’d lived there longer than any of them, as a tenant in the guesthouse for three years before I met the Xyzok, then in the big house when my rental burned, and, hopefully, soon back to the newly re-built guest quarters. As the adobe abode appeared around the last bend of the driveway, I realized I’d been away for a long, long time.
Rachel stood outside the front door, her straight, blonde locks brushing the neckline of her beige, off-one-shoulder cashmere sweater. Her hair might have been longer than the last time I saw her, but her impeccable taste in clothes hadn’t changed a bit.
As soon as Aiden stopped the Escalade, I opened my door and got out. Even wobbly and weak, I wanted to walk under my own power when I re-entered my life, as it were. Steadying myself on the hood with one hand, I waved to Rachel with the other.
She dashed towards me, squealing as she ran. How she always managed to move so gracefully in four-inch stilettos was an enduring mystery, made even more baffling as she was doing so over cobblestones. I could roll an ankle barefoot on level ground.
“I’m so glad you’re not dead!” she announced with characteristic frankness, hugging me tightly. I swayed slightly in the clinch, and she immediately released me. “Oh, sorry, Aiden said you were injured. I didn’t hurt you, did I?”
I assured her I was fine, or would be soon enough. Alex and Ulut had also left the vehicle, and Rachel gave a similar enthusiastic squeeze to Alex, before looking questioningly at Ulut. I’d forgotten she’d never seen him as a man. Once introduced, I watched her expression shift from curiosity, to confusion, to skepticism, to shock, until finally settling on awed acceptance. The five stages of meeting a shifter, I thought blithely.
Finally, Sebastian got out. He was on the side of the SUV opposite the one where we stood, gazing across the hood at Rachel. For almost a minute, they said nothing, just stared dreamily at one another until, as if someone unseen nudged both to action at the same moment, they moved simultaneously toward the front of the car. Sebas
tian, having longer strides, reached there first, but Rachel ran the last few steps and leapt into his waiting arms.
Lifting her off the ground, Sebastian kissed her with the unrestrained enthusiasm of a returning soldier whose pre-war vow of celibacy remained intact throughout his absence. She returned it with such rapture that I had to look away, feeling like a voyeur invading their private moment. Then, without preamble, Sebastian swept Rachel into his arms, carried her across the driveway, and into the house, his lips never leaving hers.
“Okay, then,” I muttered as Sebastian slammed the front door closed with his foot.
Alex blinked. “Thank goodness there’s a lot of square footage between our room and Sebastian’s.”
I suspected not nearly enough and turned toward the guesthouse. “I hope it’s finished,” I mused, “but even if it’s not, it’s bound to be quieter.”
It was done, in fact, but I was so exhausted, I didn’t notice anything other than the bed. It was soft, cozy, and clean, and in it, I slept more soundly than I had for months. When I woke up, hungry and in desperate need of the bathroom, I was alone, but there was a note on the kitchen counter: Meeting with Karttyx at the big house. Call when you get up. I’ll have someone bring a real breakfast, but there’s coffee in the carafe and fresh muffins in the breadbox to tide you over. Alex.
I took a quick turn about the place—even with Sebastian and Rachel’s design improvements, it didn’t seem that much bigger than it was before I burned it down—but it was beautiful with a more efficient use of space. The floors were dark, hand-scraped hickory throughout, except for the travertine in the bathroom. Granite, swirled with the vivid blues, copper, and cream of a Van Gogh painting graced the countertops in both kitchen and bath, and all the furniture was sleek, modern, and undoubtedly ridiculously expensive.
Although famished, I decided I was too grubby to eat, and luxuriated in the heavenly shower. The eight-by-six-foot behemoth of marble expanded the original footprint of the dwelling, and I lingered under the numerous brushed-nickel jets, rain heads, and spigots until the hot water ran cold. I’d forgotten the joys of indoor plumbing.
