Rebels and Realms: A Limited Edition Urban Fantasy Collection

by Heather Marie Adkins

  Monica took a piece of cheese. "And we've left it—whatever it is—to prey on the spirits of our pets, ancestors, and children inside the shield, and—" She looked at the slice in her hand and lost all desire to eat it. The baby in her arms had no such problem and reached for the cheese. She took a bit off and gave it to her. "It was feet away from where our children play. Our children go there! All. The. Time!"

  "But none of us got hurt! Why can't any of you see that! We put the hunters in our way because this is what they want—they live for this!" Kyla put the pickles in the fridge and closed it with purpose. "And we don't want that life for us or our kids. And there are people that are close to the Texas Area Master that agree with that."

  All three women glared at Kyla. Kyla plopped in her chair, put some of the ham, cheese, and a bit of the honey comb on her plate, and made a show of not looking them in the eye. After a few moments she finally met their gazes and strained to look disappointed.

  "What? I thought y'all would be delighted at the news."

  Monica placed the baby in the walker. "No one was supposed to know about it. That was the deal. We let the kids get the Hunting out of their blood, off the radar. It was risky enough to talk us into having low-level hunters come in here, but if we were going to let someone as high as an Area Master know, we might as well let them actually hunt."

  "And let our kids end up like the girl on the greenbelt? No thanks," Kyla said.

  "We built a low-level safe environment precisely, so they didn't end like that girl, Kyla, and it was your job to keep it that way," Cammie said.

  Kyla clenched her teeth, but everyone in the room saw that she was moments from pouting. " I am doing my job! What we have here is good. As long as we keep quiet and let the police do their work we will be fine. We have folks just high enough in the pecking order to keep us safe and you don't have to hunt to do it. I would have thought that was good enough."

  She knew that it would never be good enough for these ungrateful bitches, with all that "we want to be powered, but don't want to Hunt" bullshit.

  "But it isn't. We need this taken care of before the Area Master takes all of the specters of all of our loved ones away from us and we never see them again—if they don't take our protection completely," Monica said.

  "Or you can just give up being powered," Kyla said. The women glared at her. Kyla sat back. "That will solve this whole issue. Whether the kids will hunt, finding the right neighborhood that will accept you, hidden hot spots under bridges lurking like trolls."

  "Why the hell would we give up being powered?" Cammie said. "I mean, I don't want to hunt, and I don't want my kids out in the wilderness, but the Hunt has been good to my parents and gave me a good life. My husband works in the Hunt industry."

  "So you want the money without the mess." Kyla rolled her eyes and took long drink from her glass. The other mothers' eyes flinted around the room, not really sure where to look. Kyla was so done with this.

  But it was only another couple of weeks.

  "Let's just agree to keep the kids from the hot spot until the police are done," Cammie said, and the other mothers nodded. "That's not going to be easy, especially for you, Meg. I know Hank has been practicing her swing for a week now."

  Meg let out a long sigh and allowed it to tilt her head all the way back. "She's been at it for long before that. What if the Area Master or the Shaman want to know more?"

  "You're starting to sound like Luke now," Kyla said and popped a pickle in her mouth. She went back to the pantry and looked at the little pink shoe on the fridge. It wasn't the real one—that was safe—but even this little reminder brought a smile to her face.

  There was a knock at the door. They all stared at it for a moment. Paley, Tommie, and Aby ran down the stairs and bolted straight for the door. The women waved their hands no, but they had already opened the door. A tall black woman in a plaid shirt, jeans, and high heels smiled at them. She opened a wallet that had a card with her face and a hologram with a winged sun and revolvers over it.

  "Hello, I'm Lilith and I am a Hunter. Do you know what that is?"

  They all nodded numbly as the woman strolled in with an easy strut, pulling something out of her ID holder.

  "You guys watch HuntStream?" she asked, and all the girls nodded. The woman handed out small square stickers to all the girls. They stood there looking up at the Hunter.

  "Are you really a Hunter?" Paley asked. Her mouth didn't quite shut.

  She lowered to a knee until she was eye-to-eye with the little girl.

  "I am. Do you want to see my worst scar?" the woman said with a smile and delight that usually comes when offering praise.

  Paley's head turned to her friends, whose eyes were wide with excitement and awe. They all nodded slowly up and down and took small steps as the woman reached under her thick wavy hair and pulled it up in bun on top. Her hair was shaved underneath.

  "Do you always wear your hair like that?" Paley asked.

  "For almost eighteen years now.” The woman turned her head left to show them the spider pattern that began with a circle three inches behind her ear and went out like a web behind her lobe, down the nape of her neck, and crept in little veins above the short hairs.

  Kyla recognized that face immediately. Lilith was not her name.

  "That's Mama Ray LaCoure," Cammie mouthed to Kyla. "She does dangerous Hunts."

  "I know," Kyla mouthed.

  Monica stared at Kyla, hairs away from frantic, pointing at Mama Ray behind a shielding hand and mouthing wide, "She is a master Hunter! She knows the Shaman and the Judge!"

  Kyla waved Cammie away, exaggerating her face and gaping her mouth to make up for her lack of volume. “I know."

  Tommie pursed her lips, doing a bit of mental math. "If you add my age and Paley's age, that's eighteen. Were you a kid?"

  The woman's face broke out into a wide knowing grin. This was the point where the word "old" came into the conversation. "No, I had two children. I was twenty-seven at the time."

  Paley shook her head. "I haven't heard of someone that old healing so well. Can I touch it?"

  The woman leaned back and laughed. It echoed off the walls and made the girls jump a little. "Of course you can touch it."

  The woman extended her head to Paley and the girl reached out and touched the circle. There was a zap of spectral energy and Paley pulled away and all the girls oohed and then leaned in to touch her scar.

  Kyla took a deep breath, steeled her nerves and walked around the table to the woman. Ray—she was sure that was her—was pulling out coins out of her pockets and gave them each one.

  Aby and Tommie both took one and looked it over. It was brass and bigger than a quarter.

  "This is an old-timey gun!" Tommie said.

  "It's a Colt 1851 Navy Revolver. That was the year they made this model. That's even older than me." She gave them a wink. "Why don't you give some to the kiddos up there?"

  The girls ran upstairs and came back empty-handed. Ray looked up at the younger siblings peeking over the half wall. Ray smiled and waved. The kiddos lowered a little and giggled.

  "You can find us on the Crypto LaCoure channel. Tell your friends." Ray gave them a few more keychains and they ran up the stairs with their bounty.

  Hank's head was still over the half wall, looking down at the Monster Hunter.

  "Where's your sword?"

  Ray looked up and locked eyes with the little girl for a long moment, then made her hand glow. All the children gasped and leaned in as the specter glow left her hand and made a long narrow-sheathed sword about two feet long. They oohed and ahhed. The eyes of the little one that asked about the sword got a little wide and her lips curled into a knowing smile. That little one wanted this life. She wanted the Hunt.

  Kyla looked at the sword that appeared in the Hunter's hand. She'd used spectral power before, but she had never seen anyone create anything from it, or rather summon anything from it. She snapped herself out of her moment
of awe and cleared her throat.

  Ray turned to Kyla. "You must be Kyla Pulter!" She withdrew the sword and extended her hand and Kyla shook it.

  "And you look like Mama Ray LaCoure," Kyla said. There was a barely audible gasp from the ladies at the table. Ray considered her for a moment and gave her a slow sly wink.

  "I get that a lot. I'm here about Stacy Beauacy, the Hunter that—" She looked over at the little girls looking at their swag and walked over to the table with the women. Monica extended a chair and Ray sat down and pulled some peperoni off the plate. It glowed and vaporized in her hand.

  "Oh, that's good," she said.

  The women took a step back, eyes fixed on Ray. She was able to ingest food by touching it, so she was high level. That could be good, but then how many others knew their secret.

  Kyla walked over to the table and leaned in between Ray and the food. "I don't know what I can tell you about her."

  Ray reached around her and picked up a piece of cheese. "What you hired Hunter Stacy to do would be an excellent start. May I?" She popped the cheese in her mouth and filled an empty wine glass and downed it in a gulp.

  The women's heads snapped to Kyla and she shook her head. She rounded on Ray with hands on hips.

  "I'm sure that the kids appreciate seeing you, and we don't get a lot of Hunters around here—"

  "Until lately," Ray interrupted. She poured another glass of wine slurped it up with her finger.

  "Until lately, yes. But I don't know her, didn't hire her, and would appreciate it if you left. High specter levels draws all kinds of undesirables and we would rather not have that sort in our neighborhood."

  Ray noticed that the other women had gone pale and their eyes focused on something over the edge of their wine glasses, but not at Ray or Kyla. She got up slowly and looked down at the blonde woman.

  "As long as you know what you are getting into and how to get out of it, I'll get out of your hair." Ray walked to the door, her heels clicking on the tiles as she made her way to the door.

  "Don't worry, we have everything under control," Kyla said, louder and with less confidence than she intended.

  Ray waved goodbye to the kids upstairs. "For their sake, make for damn sure that you're right."

  Ray walked down the front path and took the right side that took her around the cul-de-sac. She tapped the comm piece imbedded in her skin.

  "What's your take on that, Christian?"

  The was a pregnant pause from the comm. In all areas other than combat, Christian Brandt was a man that thought first and spoke second. Responding at the speed of smell irritated Ray, who was used to Anna's quick-fire responses and the cross talk between her daughters. But experience was on Christian's side and solo missions like this one were key.

  "Everyone knew something, but Kyla outright lied to you. How did you know that they hired the Hunter?" he asked.

  "I didn't, but they were the first powered I encountered." Ray stopped at a path that took her out of the cul-de-sac and connected to the greenbelt running path. "They looked coffee klatch-y enough to slip the beans on who did if they didn't."

  Christian chuckled softly. "Especially to Mama Ray LaCoure."

  Ray rolled her eyes "Can you hear how hard I rolled my eyes there?"

  "My volume was down, sorry. What do you see?"

  Ray clicked her cheek and examined the fences that lined the path. "Standard seven-foot wood fencing typical to most new construction in the last decade." She walked down the to the greenbelt itself. Joggers waved as they went by and the occasional dog ran up, begging for attention and affection. She rubbed bellies and behind ears and sent them on their way. "The fences have back gates and about a good dozen or so kids are out tumbling and bumbling about."

  "It's a great day to be outside." Christian's voice took a thoughtful tone. "How many were in the house?"

  Ray did some mental math. "There were the three that came down, a baby, and another four or five upstairs tearing stuff up."

  "On a beautiful day like this? What's the over/under on all the kids outside not being powered?"

  A smirk spread on Ray's face "You guessed already the answer is—"

  "None," they said at the same time.

  "But if this hot spot gets hot enough—" Christian said.

  "The kids will see it and be affected by it. So that means—" Ray started.

  "The dogs already see it and feel it."

  "Uh-huh. I love it when we think alike. Give me an overlay from the day of the attack." Ray put on her sunglasses and waited for the glowing line to slide down the lenses. The current people disappeared and were replaced with the folks from that day. Ray walked down to the edge of the little creek running through the bank. She jumped down the bank, scanning the area.

  "My skin is tingling, Christian. There's spectral power here—a lot of it. But I cannot see a thing. Is anything coming up for you?"

  "Nothing. The only thing coming up even slightly powered is you, and that is barely coming up. Not the house, and it was chockful of powered... or the children coming at your ten."

  The girls emerged from the house with a cloud and giggles and screams a few doors down from Kyla's. They were throwing invisible balls in the air, reaching down for things that weren't there and sitting and talking to imaginary friends.

  Ray tuned her sense, straining to see anything powered. When nothing glowed in her vision, she lowered her glasses to see the greenbelt as it was that day. The trees, plants, and insects—things that should have an aura that glowed like a lone light in the night sky was dark.

  "I reckon that only you and about a dozen or so people would have been able to even notice that." Ray could hear Christian take a sip of his tea. She had hunted with him on comm to know that was a calm, measured move. He never met a puzzle he didn't pick up, study, and solicit its secrets from. The lack of typing and tapping the map told Ray that whatever this was, the Shaman of Texarcana was involved.

  "What aren't you telling me, Christian?" She popped her glasses back and feigned like she was looking for something in the grass.

  "Nothing that isn't covered by attorney/client privilege." He had a smile in his voice.

  "You only have one client, Peaches."

  "Then you know who you have to ask. But if you ever want to figure out what happened..."

  The little one that asked about the sword broke out from the gang and was practicing and round swing with a wooden sword. Her footing was backward, and she kept falling over.

  "...follow the Hunter's trail," Ray said and make her way down to the girl.

  "This is Henrietta—Hank for short. A few years back, she found out that Hank was a nickname for Henry and took it for herself. Her mother was secretly pleased about the name and that one of her wanted to be a Hunter. Oh..."

  Hank stumbled, sticking her sword into the ground to get her balance, and right through a frog. Ray groaned and watched as Hank gently picked up the frog in a cupped hand and gave it enough power to carry on as a fully formed specter. She was apologizing to the frog when a jogger went through Ray and the indication alarm went off. Ray watched Stacy Beauacy from before the attack ran down the path in runner’s capris and a short-sleeve top that you could get at any sporting goods store.

  "I can't tell if she's wearing armor or not," Ray whispered. " It's not powered or modded at any rate." Hank was still practicing her swing, so Ray went along the creek, keeping an eye on Stacy as she ran along the path above. Instead of the foot bridge, Stacy hopped off the path and slid down to the creek ahead of Ray. After about a quarter mile, Stacy vanished.

  "Did you lose your connection, Christian?" Ray said. Nothing. Ray adjusted her earwig. "Christian, can you read me?

  "No, but—can’t—her—you—back—" Christian's voice went all choppy and that was all Ray could make out.

  "Say again, Christian, I can't hear you." Ray walked to where Stacy vanished.

  "R- can -me?" Christian's voice went firm and Ray realized that she
was within feet of the oval Fish and Anna found on the map and the sky was getting darker by the minute.

  She reached down to summon her spectral sword. She felt her spectral power leave her body, but it didn't stop at the sword's length. Ray felt her hand back around her and the power was leaving her body, flowing in a stream and going to the ground.

  She took off her shoes, cracked the heels, and pulled out hand knives. Her bare feet sank into the warm ground and she could feel the movement under her feet. She lowered into fighting stance as the tentacles burrowed up from the ground.

  6

  The Hidden Room

  Anna parked the car at the parking garage on Fifth and Lavaca, crossed Sixth, and walked up Lavaca a block uphill in the Austin heat. She made the left to the double doors of the York Rite Temple on Guadeloupe, a hundred-year-old sandstone building—a hard contrast to the new construction going up. It had wood-paned windows and a marquee that brought to mind velvet ropes and movies that played overtures and had intermissions. No movies here, but there was a theatre company that did a lot of medieval and Shakespearian plays. And every time you bought a ticket you had to give a password to some random person leaning on the wall of the building's entrance. They picked that up from the Area Master's office and today the keeper of the gate was a guy with a gray T-shirt vaping something that smelled a lot like gummy bears in huge clouds two feet long.

  Anna lingered a moment to take a long inhale and figure out what pocket she put her ID. Vape Doorway Guy gave her a nod without looking at her.

  "To the Hunt, hunter!" Anna said with a bright smile and a wink. "That smells yummy. What is that?"

  Vape Doorway Guy started at the words and gave Anna a long look. He coughed on his draw when he realized he was talking to the daughter of a Shaman and jumped to his feet. He gave a small bow. "Juicy Jubes from Specter Clouds, Lady Anna. Good nic pull without dulling your specter senses." He took a long inhale and blew out a long stream of vapor. "It's a local company, but it's as good as the HuntVape brand your sister pimps on SCN."