by J. A. Pitts
Her heart raced and she panicked. Without thinking, she took the first book within reach off the shelf and stuck her nose in it, not even paying attention to the pictures inside.
The man, tall, handsome, and a little scary, was too much for her to contemplate. Three long, drawn-out breaths later, she felt her heart beginning to slow. There was no way he was really smiling at her. He was so good-looking. His smile, she decided. That’s what it was. She could see falling for a smile like that.
“That book is quite advanced,” a smooth, male voice interrupted her reverie.
Trisha looked up, saw it was the hot guy, and looked down, seeing the book she was holding for the first time. The cover showed two women, tied together with intricate knot work and thin ropes. They were both nude. The title was Kinbaku. She glanced around, her heart in her throat, only to realize she was in the human sexuality section.
“It is an acquired taste,” he said, smiling at her. “It’s so rare to meet someone with such discerning appetites.”
She looked down, embarrassed. “I really don’t know anything about it.”
“I’d love to discuss it. Over coffee, perhaps?”
Trisha felt the heat rush across her chest and up her neck. Who the hell was this guy? “I don’t know,” she mumbled.
His smile faltered slightly. “I’m sorry. I was being too forward. My apologies. I’m not good at this.” He held his hands up and stepped back. “I must sound like a total jerk.”
She looked up at him. He looked cute, backpedaling like that.
“It’s okay,” she said, feeling brazen. “Maybe we can just sit and talk.”
“If you’re sure,” he said, his smile returning. “My name is Efrain. It is very nice to meet you.”
Eleven
After work on Thursday, Katie and I sat at the kitchen table with Jimmy and Deidre, while Stuart and Gunther hovered over the room divider. Jimmy had been working for a while now on some code his father had left him. Gunther and Stuart had been helping. Deidre said it was like a constant playdate with three cranky toddlers. They bickered and fussed, but in the end they cracked it—well, most of it.
Jimmy showed us his father’s scroll, explaining how it had been stashed inside a clay statue of a Valkyrie.
I got a shiver when he said it. There was a Valkyrie I’d met who made me forget my own name for a minute. I glanced over at Katie guiltily, but she was too busy examining the ring Jim had put on the table.
The ring was fairly plain, as far as the metalwork went. Looked like silver but showed no sign of tarnish. I didn’t touch it and neither did Katie.
I looked at her and took a deep breath. “Okay, before we touch this thing, I want to hear everything.”
Jimmy rubbed his eyes and leaned back in his chair. He was tired, I could see it in the set of his shoulders. Gunther and Stuart didn’t look any better. They’d been working this thing around their regular lives, and it seemed like sleep was the loser.
“Dad knew some of the history of the ring,” Jimmy said, keeping his left hand over his eyes. His right lay on the table, and Deidre covered it with hers.
“It’s old, that much we know. And there’s magic to it, though none of us can really tell what it is.”
Katie just watched him, her mouth set in a line.
“Dad knew the ring was recovered from a burial mound in Germany just before World War Two. A guy named Urho Vänskä documented several Nazi attempts to capture magical artifacts. Dad didn’t mention if this Urho was a member of any of the shadow organizations known to dabble in this type of stuff.”
Gunther grunted. “There are so many sects and cults out there, it’s hard to know who belongs to which ones. It’s not unreasonable for someone of Vänskä’s reputation to be a member of several organizations.”
“We know he was not above grave robbing and murder,” Stuart chimed in. “Real stand-up individual.”
I watched them. They’d been sharing information like this for a long time, since Katie’s folks disappeared. Well, Gunther had been raised in a monastery for a chunk of his life and had some tie to an order who knew of such things. I was fuzzy on the details.
Stuart had discovered the real world before he met Gunther in elementary school. That’s one of the reasons they became fast friends. His story was not clear either, but he had no love for the dragons. That much was sure.
Jimmy cleared his throat. “Anyway. There are rumors the Nazis intercepted the courier bringing the ring out of the country. They hunted several known organizations to extinction in their desperate search for mystical powers. Hitler was a total loon about the stuff.”
“Was Hitler a dragon?” I asked.
Stuart barked a laugh.
“No,” Gunther said, giving Stuart a stern look. “It’s not an unreasonable question. But our records indicate his rise to power was due to a vacuum caused when the local dragons managed to get themselves killed in a tit-for-tat exchange that had been going on since the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, who very well may have been a dragon.”
“Right,” Jimmy continued. “Apparently the Nazis didn’t know too much about the ring when they snatched it. There’s no evidence we’ve found so far to tell us what it’s about. The message says a young gypsy girl stole the ring and smuggled it out to France, where it ended up in the hands of a monastic order associated with the Knights Templar.”
“How it ended up at Black Briar remains a mystery,” Stuart added. “But there is more text to decipher.”
Katie nodded and looked at Jim hard. She was pissed to have been left out of something once again. I looked over at Deidre, and she noticed it, too. She’d practically raised Katie. She knew the looks.
I started to reach for the ring, but Katie casually covered it with her hand. “Anything else you’d like to add, Jim?”
Jimmy didn’t speak up, just held his gaze steady on Katie. There was a battle of wills there that had the potential to get ugly fast.
“Look,” Stuart said from the counter. “I know you’re frustrated, Katie, but we are where we are. We’re coming to you for help and guidance, bringing you in. Can’t you just be open to that?”
Gunther shuffled from one foot to the other with his arms crossed over his barrel chest. “We’re all undergoing an enormous amount of change. We’re all evolving.”
Katie looked over at him. A strange look flitted across her face, but she softened a bit. “Aye,” she said, with a sigh. “The world’s a mess and we need to stick together.” She turned slowly back to Jimmy, her eyes steely once more. “But Jim, so help me god, if you don’t stop hiding stuff from me, I swear I’ll fucking abandon Black Briar.” She coughed, and I saw that she was crying. “I can’t stand it anymore.”
Whoa. What the hell was that about? I reached over and placed my hand on top of Katie’s, but she didn’t look at me, just kept her gaze level at Jimmy.
“That’s bullshit,” he huffed. “This is where you grew up. This is home.”
I felt her tense under my hand. “Home is a place where you’re welcome and valued. This is stuff about Mom and Dad. I miss them too, you know. They’re my parents.” She was tensing her hands so tightly, her arms were shaking. “You got to have them a lot longer than I did, Jim. And now you’re keeping what little that’s left away from me. What gives you that right?”
“Katie,” Deidre began.
“No!” she shouted, leaning forward. “You are not my mother, Deidre. I love you, but this is between me and Jim.” She pulled her hand away from mine and held the ring out on her palm. “This is the shit that took them from us, you know that, right?”
He didn’t say anything, but I could practically see the steam rising off his face.
“They kept their secrets, and one day they just vanished.” She hiccuped and took a deep breath. “You’ve kept things from me, Jim. Things that nearly got me killed, nearly got Sarah killed, and I can’t live with that any longer.”
“You’re being c
hildish,” Jimmy said, leaning forward. “What the hell’s the matter with you?”
The room was boiling with anger and tension. The twins were studying their feet, and Deidre was watching Jimmy’s face. Her eyes sparkled with tears, but she didn’t say anything, just let the two siblings square off.
Something had changed in Katie. I started noticing it right after we fought the spirits out at Anezka’s place. Maybe it was my being trapped in walkabout, leaving her to face the haints alone; I didn’t know. But the nightmares had started again. And she’d been doing so well. The nightmares from the kidnapping and brutalization at the hands of the dragon and the giants had begun to ease. I’d seen them fade over time. I was thinking post-traumatic stress or something. She was hiding something from me, something important, but she wasn’t ready to tell me.
Not that I missed the irony here, with Jimmy and his secrecy. Seems the whole family was built in shadow.
“They told me to protect you,” Jimmy said, his voice taut and his face flushed. “She made me swear.”
“That wasn’t fair,” Katie said. “But she’s gone. Now it’s time for you to make a decision.”
“We’re bringing you in,” Stuart said. “Clean slate.”
“Is that true, Jimmy?” Katie asked. “Full disclosure?”
He looked down, not able to look into her eyes.
She stood, tipped her hand, and dropped the ring onto the table with a clunk. “That’s what I thought.” She turned on her heel and stormed across the kitchen. We all looked on in amazement when she slammed the door behind her.
The world dimmed for a minute, like the dark side had gained something here. I got up, glanced at them all, and followed her out. There was no doubt I’d choose her over them.
We didn’t talk about it. Not on the ride home, not in bed, not even the next morning. She was like a statue, cold and stiff. I couldn’t get inside the wall she’d put up. I knew that look, knew that defensive mechanism, seeing as I was an expert at it.
I lay in bed next to her, listening to her breathe. She hadn’t cried. Hadn’t done much of anything. It was like she’d gone on autopilot.
Jimmy had only been trying to do what he thought was best, struggling in a world that was a hell of a lot more complicated than any of us had imagined. And he honestly felt obligated to honor his mother’s wish to keep Katie safe, no matter what.
Even if that meant losing her, it seemed.
And that’s when the universe bitch slapped me again. I’d closed my eyes, drifting to sleep. My mind kept playing the scene with Katie so upset and Jimmy being his typical stoic self.
Then it wasn’t Jimmy, it was my da. And it was Ma sitting next to him, crying. And it was me ranting at him, pushing him away, rejecting his attempts to protect me from the world the way he saw it.
I got out of bed and padded into the living room wrapped in a spare comforter—my mind racing. I could barely breathe for the grief and nausea.
I was having a hard time focusing my anger with them. Finding it difficult to hold that grudge. I missed them, damn it. Even Da, with all his patronizing bullshit.
I couldn’t let Katie do this. Jimmy loved her, even if he was a douche sometimes. And Deidre thought she walked on water.
Black Briar was home. Safe. And now I had to choose between them and supporting Katie?
I was watching the night fade in the two windows along the front of the apartment by the time Katie stirred. I stood up, folded the comforter, and headed to the shower. No use letting her know I’d been up half the night. She had enough on her mind.
Twelve
I had Motörhead rocking the earbuds while I was browsing at the Emerald City Metal Arts Collective Friday morning. They ran a swap meet once a quarter, like a big-ass, three-day flea market for metalworkers. I liked to walk through and see what other people were doing, maybe pick up some supplies, or more likely ideas.
I needed to build that gate for Nidhogg, and I was feeling the pressure to make it something spectacular. I felt like Qindra deserved it.
Most blacksmiths make a lot of their own tools—tongs, wedges, bits, things like that. But there was always someone who wanted to just purchase the tool, not spend the time making yet another set of tongs. Unfortunately for me, most of my favorite gear was burned up when the dragon torched Julie’s place. I was really interested in finding some decent hammers. One guy had a couple of decent two- and three-pound jobbies, but nothing really sang to me.
The hot dogs at the concession area were starting to call to me, and I’d just decided to spring for something smothered in kraut when my cell phone rang. It was Julie.
She was pretty damn upset, and it took a minute before I could understand what the hell was going on.
Mary Campbell, owner of the Circle Q Farm, had called her an hour ago. Someone had broken into her place and killed one of her high-steppers—Blue Thunder. He’d been a beautiful animal.
“Brutal,” Julie said into the phone. “Ritual killing, and whoever did it left a message. The cops are here now.”
“Holy shit,” I breathed, hot dogs and kraut suddenly the last thing I wanted. “Are you with her?”
“Yes,” Julie said, and I could hear some voices in the background. “Mrs. Sorenson and I came out as soon as she called. Mrs. Sorenson is making tea, and Mary is lying on the couch. I’m interfacing with the police, but I’d appreciate it if you could come out.”
Her voice got quiet, and I had to strain to hear her. “I think this is a warning for you, Sarah.”
I slid down the wall I’d been leaning against. My legs just suddenly didn’t want me to be standing any longer. “Me?”
“No one else will get it,” she said, a sense of urgency in her voice. “But I think you need to see this.”
“Okay,” I said, letting my legs settle out in front of me, blocking one of the aisles to the food court. “I’m in Seattle. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
“Thanks,” Julie said. I hadn’t heard her this freaked out, ever.
I hung up and thought about who to call. Jimmy, Gunther, and that crew would have a better idea of a lot of cultlike signs and such. But I wanted to call Katie, and she wouldn’t come out if Black Briar was getting involved. It was too soon for her pride.
But something had to happen. It was early, eleven thirty. Katie was at her school at the moment, working on lesson plans. She’d knock off around three thirty, and maybe Jimmy and the crew would be long gone before then.
I climbed to my feet, swung by to grab a soda. I needed the sugar and caffeine to fortify myself. Then I called Black Briar.
The phone rang several times before it was answered by Trisha. I was surprised to hear her, but she told me that Jimmy had taken Deidre to her physical therapy.
“He’ll be back in a couple of hours,” she said. “I’m letting Frick and Frack watch some videos. They really like the music and the motion. They’re pretty damned smart.”
It would be cute, if I hadn’t personally murdered their mother.
“What about Gunther or Stuart?” I asked.
“Stuart’s out in the barn working on some gear,” she said, laughing. “I’ll call him. Bub can watch the kids a minute.”
I waited, amazed. Bub had made himself a part of the little bizarre family pretty damn quickly. Pride rose in me. I counted him as one of mine. My responsibility, mine to keep safe.
I’d made my way out of the hall and was heading across the parking lot to my bike when Stuart got on the line. I gave him a brief of the few facts I knew and asked him if he could gather Gunther and Jimmy and head to Mary’s.
“Glad you called,” he said, seriously. “This tiff between Jimmy and Katie isn’t good for any of us.”
I ground my teeth. This was a pain in my ass. “Look, Stuart. Jim’s being an ass here, you know that, right?”
He didn’t answer right away. “He’s scared, Sarah. Afraid to lose her, even with everything that’s gone on.”
I growled, let
ting my frustration echo out of me. “She was kidnapped by a fucking dragon, Stuart. How much worse can it get?”
He chuckled then, not that it was funny. “Yeah, you got a point. Look, I don’t like that they’re fighting, but you need to let the man come around as he can. It’s been hard for him keeping all this balanced, you know?”
“Yeah, I guess.” I rubbed my eyes. “Look, Stuart. The thing is, I need your help, and Katie doesn’t know I called you, yet. You know I gotta let her know. Gotta keep in her good books. I just need to make sure we don’t miss anything important here. If this is a warning to me, I’d like to have as much input and advice as I can get.”
“This is some serious shit.”
“Amen, brother. Look, can you work on Jimmy to apologize? That would make it all so much easier.”
The line was quiet for a moment. “Baby steps,” he said, finally. “I’ll do what I can. How soon will you be there?”
“I’ll be there in thirty or so,” I said. “Cops are still there now, so we’ll see what we can see.”
“Okay,” he agreed. “Gunther is at his shop and it will take longer to get that crazy girl he uses to help around the record store. But I’ll text Jimmy and have him and Deidre head to Circle Q from the doctor’s. How’s that work?”
“Beautiful,” I said, pleased. “Thanks, Stuart. I like having the backup.”
He harrumphed into the phone. Worried about me? “Just stay out of trouble, Beauhall.”
I laughed, and he cut off the phone. He still loved me.
I picked up my helmet, shrugged into my heavy leather jacket, and took a moment to make sure my new Docs were tied tightly. I was feeling pretty bad-ass, but was wishing I had Gram on my back. I didn’t like feeling threatened, especially when I couldn’t pull her into play.
The bike roared between my thighs as I popped a wheelie ripping down the service road to the main drag. I’d call Katie once I got out there and had an idea what we were up against. Better that way.
