by B N Miles
Jared stepped into the room, followed by Jessa. It was a small space with two chairs, just enough room for the two of them to sit side by side. There was a huge Plexiglas divider breaking the room in half, at least an inch thick, and marred by scratches and marks. There were phones on the right and left, and a small little wooden shelf for them to lean on. The wood was scratched, dented, and written over in pen. Jared could almost feel the years and years of anxiety in this place, people coming to meet with loved ones through a thick divider, forced to touch the glass instead of a hand or a shoulder.
Jessa leaned against him and whispered in his ear. “If I ever end up in a place like this, just shoot me.”
He grinned and put an arm around her. “I suspect that if you’re ever arrested, I’ll be right there with you.”
She laughed a little, but her laughter died off as the door on the other side of the room opened and Mondo was led in.
He wore a brown jumpsuit and chains around his wrists. The guard, an overweight man with a baton hanging from his belt, got Mondo seated and locked his wrists to a metal ring set in the shelf in front of him. The guard took the phone down, put it in Mondo’s hand, and nodded then left the room.
Jared took his own phone down and Jessalene picked up hers.
Mondo stared at them from the other side of the Plexiglas. He looked haggard and tired, like he’d lost weight. His pale skin was somehow even paler, and he didn’t smile.
“Hello, Mondo,” Jared said. “How’s jail treating you?”
“It’s great,” Mondo said. “We get three square meals and plenty of time to exercise. Ain’t I looking in shape?”
Jared smiled. “I need to ask you some questions.”
“I figured. Why else come see me?” Mondo shook his head. “How are my employees?”
“Free,” Jared said. “As far as I know.”
That seemed to take a small burden off his shoulders. He relaxed a little and shut his eyes for a moment, letting out a breath. “Good,” he said. “That’s good. Tell them to come visit me. Ah, hell, I know they fuckin’ won’t, but still.”
“If I come across them, Mondo, I’ll pass that along.”
“So what do you want, Marshal?”
“Your Dryad.”
“What about him?”
Jessalene spoke up. “We want to know where he is,” she said. “I don’t know a Dryad named Hank, and I’m a member of the largest clan in the area. So he must be independent.”
Mondo shrugged. “Far as I know. Like I said, he just came and went as he pleased. Didn’t talk much, didn’t socialize. I always wondered what a Dryad wanted with a bunch of Goblins. But he worked hard, I paid him fair, and that was that.”
“We need an address. Do you have it somewhere?”
“Yeah, I got an address,” Mondo said.
“We need it,” Jessalene said. “I’m not sure you realize this, but Hank’s the one that killed Wen Bet.”
Mondo leaned back for a second, his eyes wide. Jared felt the Goblin’s aura lash out at him, and he let out a shiver. He could tell right away that Mondo was shocked to hear it. If Mondo was the killer, he was an incredibly gifted actor.
“That makes no sense,” the Goblin said. “He was always so… polite. Quiet. Kept to himself.”
“What do you know about Hank?” Jared asked.
“Nothing. He showed up one day looking for work after we put an ad out in the paper. He seemed good enough, so we took him on. Figured it was odd that a Dryad wanted to work for a bunch of Goblins, but didn’t question it.”
“Did he say anything about his personal life?”
Mondo shook his head. “Not that I heard. Maybe he talked to the boys more, but I don’t know. Like I said, he kept to himself.” Mondo hesitated. “Although he did call out sick a few times.”
“Really?” Jessalene asked. “Dryads don’t get sick.”
“That’s what I thought,” Mondo said. “But what could I do? I just said okay, and didn’t pay him for the day. Left us shorthanded though, which was annoying.”
“Any clue what he did on his days off?”
“No clue.”
Jared nodded and looked at Jessalene. He didn’t know anything at all, and that much was obvious. Jessa was frowning at Mondo like she wanted to reach through the Plexiglas and strangle him. Jared put a hand on her knee and squeezed before turning back to Mondo.
“Listen, we need his address,” Jared said.
“I’ll give it to you.” Mondo’s voice was defeated, crushed by his time in jail. “I know what my future holds if I don’t cooperate. I just hope you know that I had nothing to do with killing anyone. We just cleaned the place.”
“I believe you, Mondo. I just hope a jury does, or at least that you get a prosecutor that’s willing to give you a decent plea.” Jared let out a breath. “Give me that address, and I’ll see what I can do about getting your crew to visit.”
Mondo perked up. “Really?”
“Really. No promises, but I’ll make some calls on your behalf.”
“That’d be amazing. Wow, I’d love to see the boys again.” He laughed and almost looked like the Goblin they’d first met. “All right, well, all my employee addresses are in a box in my garage. It’s underneath the motor oil on a shelf toward the back. There’s a spare key underneath a little garden gnome next to the back door, you can get in that way. There won’t be anyone around to stop you.”
Jared nodded. “Thanks, Mondo. I appreciate that.”
“No problem.” He hesitated. “And put in a good word for me. To whoever needs to hear it.”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
Jared hung up his phone, but Jessalene hesitated. He could see she wanted to say something else, maybe berate the guy, but as soon as Jared put his phone down, Mondo deflated. He looked older, broken, tired. She shook her head and hung her phone up.
They stood and left the room together. Wyatt was hanging around outside, leaning up against the wall, staring at his phone. Cassie was sitting on the dirty floor, staring at the ceiling. She looked bored, and perked up as soon as they came out. Lumi lingered apart from the two of them, inspecting her nails with a neutral expression.
“How’d it go?” Cassie asked, getting to her feet. “Your Captain wouldn’t talk to me. He’s kind of rude.”
Wyatt frowned at her and shrugged, but didn’t say anything.
Jared laughed. “I bet you didn’t make that easy,” he said. “Mondo told us where he keeps his employee files. They’re back in his garage, but it shouldn’t be an issue. He says he has an address for Hank in there.”
“Perfect,” she said. “Easy.”
“We’ll go right now,” Jared said. “Grab the address.”
Wyatt gave him a look then sighed. “Forging ahead,” he said.
“That’s the plan.”
“Just be careful,” he grunted, and lead the group back through the security door, the sad waiting room, and out into the parking lot. He got into his black MetaDept sedan and drove off without so much as a goodbye.
Jared lingered in a lot for a second then looked at Cassie. “What did you say to him?” he asked.
“Nothing.” She grinned at him. “Just tried to make friendly conversation.”
“You pissed him off,” he said. “Maybe scared him a little.”
“I just told him that my family’s going to come looking for me, sooner or later. He didn’t seem to like that.”
Jared sighed. “Is that even true?”
“Probably not.” She laughed. “But the idea of more Worldhoppers clearly makes him want to throw up.”
He shook his head and got into their car. Cassie rode up front and Jessalene sat in the back with Lumi.
“We need to hit up Mondo’s garage,” he said. “Find those employee files. Somewhere in there is an address for Hank. I don’t know if that’ll lead us to the guy, but it’s the best we have for now.”
“Let’s head over,” Jessalene said. “It’
s not far.”
Lumi remained silent, staring out the window. Jared wondered what she was thinking about all this, and how much more she knew that she wasn’t sharing.
He couldn’t pressure her, not right now. When they’d slept together and came together, he’d gotten a glimpse inside. She was fragile right now, confused, not sure what she was doing. She wanted to run from her family, hated them for what they’d done to her, but they were also all she knew. Jared was afraid that if he pushed her too hard, she’d tumble right back to the comfort of her old life.
He wanted to avoid that, if he could. From what he’d seen, her old life wasn’t a good one.
Jared started the car and pulled out, heading toward Mondo’s place.
33
Lumi found a cardboard box on a shelf underneath a bunch of motor oil. It was packed with paper, with no organization at all, and some of the oil had seeped down into the box, soaking some of the pages. The cardboard sagged in her hands, and the Amazon logo looked like it was frowning.
“This is disgusting,” she said in her odd flat tone.
“I know,” Jared agreed. “But our Dryad’s in there. Come on, toss it in the trunk, let’s get out of here.”
The group trudged back through the detritus of Mondo’s garage and got back into the car. Lumi slammed the trunk shut and climbed into the back. They headed back into the city, back to Jared’s house. His thoughts were distracted, so he barely heard the girls talking idly, mostly just Jessalene trying to catch Cassie up on stuff she’d missed, coming from a different world.
“What’s it like?” Lumi asked suddenly, interrupting their conversation.
Cassie hesitated. “What do you mean?”
“The Miles,” she said. “I’ve always wondered.”
Cassie cleared her throat. Jared glanced at her and he could tell she was a little uncomfortable. “It was strange,” she said. “It’s hard to explain.”
“I’ve read accounts,” Lumi said. “And they all sound different. How did you experience it?”
“For me, it was a long, broad hallway, almost like a subway tunnel, but not underground, and not outside, if that makes sense. I just knew it was indoors… but it was big, with a tile floor, tile walls, and a tile ceiling.” She stopped speaking for a moment, her eyes clouded over, and she took a deep breath. “I left my world through a well on my family’s property. It’s this ancient artifact we kept safe and hidden from the world, part of my family’s power. I’m probably the first Grim to actually go inside.” She smiled a little bit then continued.
“I fell into the well, but didn’t get wet. I found myself lying on my back on the ground of that tunnel. The tile felt freezing cold, so I got to my feet and just started walking. The tunnel branched all over the place, and I just kept wandering around for what felt like hours. I didn’t see any other people. I tried shouting, screaming, running, but nothing changed.
“And then I found a door. It was huge, like the size of a castle’s gates or something. I stood in front of it and kicked it and pulled at it, but it wouldn’t open. I tried pulling, pushing, everything I could think of. I even shifted and tried to break it down that way, but that didn’t help. I eventually just sat against it and cried for a while. I don’t really know how long.
“But I heard a voice after a while. It was really faint, almost like a whisper. I listened until it got stronger and stronger.” She stopped talking then, and her silence stretched on for a few minutes.
“What did it say?” Lumi asked gently.
“It asked me what I wanted,” Cassie said. “Over and over. ‘What do you want, what do you want,’ just over and over. I tried to ignore it at first but then I just… answered.”
“What did you tell it?”
“I told it that I wanted to go somewhere I’d be safe. Then the voice stopped talking and the door opened. Nothing came out, just blackness, like a total inky dark. I stepped through and found myself here, in this world. In a field that I think corresponds with my family’s home back on my world, probably the exact spot where the well is there.”
“Hm,” Lumi said. “Fascinating.”
“It was horrible.” Cassie’s voice was low, almost a whisper. “As soon as I started walking in there, I felt this terrible dread hanging over me, like I wasn’t supposed to be there. And that voice… it wasn’t comforting. It sounded aggressive. It sounded like it hated me. But then it sent me here.”
“How do you know the voice sent you?” Lumi asked. “The door could have opened for another reason.”
Cassie hesitated and shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t think I’ll ever know. I’m not going back to that place.”
Lumi nodded slowly and looked like she wanted to ask another question, but Jessalene put her hand on her thigh. Lumi looked surprised and Jessa just shook her head once. Lumi frowned, but stopped talking.
Jared drove them the rest of the way in silence. He could tell they were all absorbing Cassie’s story. He hadn’t known that her trip to this world was traumatic for her. She hadn’t talked about it at all. He figured it had been nothing, like closing your eyes then opening them again. But now he understood why she’d been keeping it to herself.
The Miles was a legend in Magi circles. There were rumors of powerful Magi accessing them and gaining incredible power. The Miles was the space between worlds, the space between the priori itself—like wormholes in existence, tunnels through the stuff of the universe. It was considered holy by some, and horrifying by others. Since it was the space between the priori, there were those that believed it was created by some terrible God that hated magic and the stuff of the world, so he created a pocket of existence just outside of reality.
The theory didn’t matter, at least not to Jared. What mattered was Cassie’s experience of the place. He’d make sure she wasn’t sent back to her own world and never had to travel through that place again.
They arrived at the house not long later. He parked, got the files from the trunk, and went inside. Cassie disappeared upstairs to shower and Jessalene plopped down at the kitchen table. Lumi lingered for a moment before coming over to help.
The three of them pulled out the oil-stained pages and began to go through them.
“His handwriting is awful,” Jessalene complained.
“This is a guy that keeps his files underneath leaking motor oil,” Jared said. “You can’t really expect cleanliness.”
He noticed Lumi crack a smile at that, which made him grin. They kept going through the pages, one after another. Most of them were names and addresses for random people, some clients, some employees, although it was hard to tell the difference. According to a few papers they found, Mondo’s business was actually doing pretty good. They had a steady grass cutting operation going on, and they got some decent mulching and other odd jobs here and there to keep it all supplemented.
They went through the papers for nearly three hours. It was a jumbled mess of garbled handwriting and slick oil. But eventually, Lumi sat up straight, her nose nearly on a piece of relatively clean white unlined paper with scribbles all over it. It had been folded a few times, but the creases weren’t deep, and the writing was in black pen.
“Here,” Lumi said, holding up the page. “I think this is it.”
Jessalene took it from her and frowned. Then she laughed and held it out to Jared.
It was a list of names and addresses. Jared didn’t know if they were clients or workers. But one name toward the bottom caught his eye.
Hank. Just Hank, no last name, nothing else, and next to it was an address in South Philly. “He’s in the city,” Jared said. “And not far from here.”
“Well then, I guess I know what we’re doing tonight,” Jessalene said.
Lumi frowned at them. “Breaking down his door?”
Jared laughed. “No,” he said. “Surveillance.”
She sighed. “Again? Do you love being boring, Jared?”
“Yes,” Jessalene answered for him. “Yes, he
does.”
He grinned and shook his head. “No, I don’t,” he said. “But we’re working for the Marshals, which means we have rules to follow. No kicking down doors and torturing people.”
“Sounds terrible,” Lumi said, making a face. “When I was a Fist, I could just take what I wanted.”
“I’m sure you could,” Jared said. “But you’re not a Fist anymore.”
She hesitated then smiled. “And that’s a good thing.”
Jessalene sighed and stood up. “I’ll go tell Cassie. She’s been upstairs for a while now.”
“Think she’s okay?” Jared asked. “It’s not like her to hide away.”
“I think talking about that place made her uncomfortable.”
“I didn’t mean to push,” Lumi said. “I was just curious. I’ve never met anyone that’s been to The Miles before.”
“I know,” Jessa said, and put a hand on Lumi’s shoulder. Jared stared in surprise. “Don’t worry. She’s tougher than she looks.”
Lumi smiled up at Jessalene and Jared’s eyes nearly bugged out. They stayed like that for another beat before Jessalene pulled her hand away and headed upstairs.
Lumi watched her go then turned back to Jared and frowned. “What?”
“That was a nice moment.”
“No, it wasn’t.”
“Yes, it was. I thought Jessa hated you.”
Lumi shook her head. “She does. I mean, I don’t know.”
“Didn’t look like it.”
“Do you want your girlfriend to hate me?” Lumi asked, leaning toward him. “You did just fuck me, you know. Maybe she should.”
Jared grinned. “I have a feeling my girlfriends aren’t too concerned about that sort of thing.”
She smiled back. “I think you’re right.”
“No, I’m happy to see you two getting along. If you’re going to stay here for a while, you’d at least have to tolerate each other.”
“I know.” She stood and stretched, and Jared’s eyes roamed her body. He remembered his cock sinking deep between her legs, the look on her face, the pure lust in her eyes. And the intense, overwhelming pleasure of their shared orgasm. “I know how you feel about them.”
