Portals

by Wilson, Maer

  “I had Raoul prepare dinner for us. I know you get cranky when you have not been fed, La Fi,” said Jones.

  I stared at him blandly, not taking the bait, and pitched in to unload containers of food that smelled heavenly. We all unloaded the boxes, bringing in plates and silverware from the kitchen.

  Thulu must have smelled the wonderful aroma because he soon joined us, nodding his head when Jones asked if he’d had any luck. He filled us in while we sat at the table, helping ourselves to vegetable and meat dishes and salads.

  “I found five blank spots. Two here, one in Chicago, one in Manhattan and one in Paris. The ones here each covered a small area. Maybe in one building or one location. One is definitely the jail where our two friends are staying. The other one was slightly bigger. The ones in Manhattan and Paris were larger, as well, taking in a couple adjacent buildings. The one in Chicago was the largest. I looked up the address and guess where it’s located.”

  Jones closed his eyes briefly before responding, “The Grant Corporation.”

  Thulu nodded. “Are any of Sarah Grant’s assistants alive? The ones that were with her when we were there?”

  “One of those we captured before still lives. I convinced my brother to imprison him, rather than immediately carry out his death sentence.”

  “Jones, this just keeps getting more confusing,” I said. “Are the daemon rebels working with the mutated ones?”

  “It would appear so.” Jones paused. “Actually this explains Satorah’s rebellion, as well as her following. She had a brother who was involved in the experiment and was banished. In fact, when she was listing her grievances against me, I was surprised she had not included that on her list. Now it appears that she was keeping any mention of them to herself. Probably so she would not alert me.” He pursed his lips in thought.

  “It would not have mattered. Since I believed they were safely imprisoned or dead, I would not have believed her anyway, or at least would not have attributed something from so long ago to her madness.”

  “Was the attack on the angels some sort of misdirection?” I asked.

  Jones shook his head. “Absolutely not. She has always hated them. Even more than the rest of us do. I do think she has been quite mad these last few centuries. I need to let my brother know this last piece of news.” He paused. “Also if Satorah is connected to the mutated daemons, then I cannot assume that they have no knowledge as to the location of our portal in the Himalayas. I shall return to Phaete and question Satorah’s assistant.” He turned to Aela. “May I trouble you for one of your warriors to accompany me, in case I need to get a message back quickly?”

  Aela nodded to one of her warriors. They had been seated on the table, having filled tiny plates with bits of food. He stood quickly, wings folded neatly and long cobalt hair tied back in a tail that hung passed his shoulders. His skin was slightly darker than Aela’s pale blue. Dressed in some sort of supple black leather, he made a rather striking figure as he bowed formally to Jones. His bow was slung across his back as usual with the fairies, and he wore a sword on one hip and a dagger on the other.

  “Keiron, at your service, my lord.” His voice wasn’t as high pitched as Aela’s, but it was still tiny. I realized that he was one of her regulars and always wore black.

  “Please finish your meal before we leave, Keiron.” Jones’s response was as polite and formal as the fairy’s.

  Keiron bowed again and resumed his cross-legged seat on the table.

  Of course, Lassiter followed the whole thing with interest and seemed fascinated with the tiny beings. He tried to hide it, but wasn’t very successful. They were pretty special.

  As I watched Keiron, I realized he was almost always part of Aela’s band. I wondered if he was her second or something.

  Aela saw me watching him, and smiled smugly at me when my gaze shifted to her. I swear, sometimes, I was convinced she read minds, although she insisted she didn’t. I drowned my suspicion in another bite of Raoul’s shepherd’s pie, tender lamb almost melting in my mouth.

  Jones and Keiron left before dessert, but I thought I might be able to scrape up enough kindness to save some for them. I went for a couple of plastic containers in the kitchen and scooped up chocolate mousse into one and the whipped cream into another and dutifully put them in our refrigerator. I caught the others watching me.

  “That’s for Jones and Keiron. For later,” I said defensively. Adding silently to myself, If I remember.

  I heard Thulu snicker and pointedly ignored him as I helped myself to a bowl of mousse and homemade whipped cream. It’s not my fault I love Raoul’s mousse.

  Chapter 22

  After dinner, Thulu returned to the study to work on more blank spots. Lassiter, Stuart, the fairies and I had just settled in the family room when Lassiter’s phone rang. An actual no-nonsense ring. No cool song for him.

  His face quite serious, he listened for a long minute. “I see, Captain.” A short pause. “No, sir. I’m not surprised.” Another pause. “Yes, sir. They do not appear to be human, sir.” Pause. “Yes, sir, it’s possible they were telepathic and able to communicate with each other. That would explain why they teleported out at the same time.” He listened again. “Yes, sir, I will see what I can find out from my C.I., but I wouldn’t expect too much from that source.” He shook his head. “Yes, sir, thank you, sir. I’ll let you know if I find out anything.”

  Lassiter tapped the screen on his phone and let out a large sigh as he looked at the rest of us.

  “So the mutated daemons have left. I’m sure you picked up on that. They simply disappeared. Cameras caught the whole thing. Any thoughts why they waited so long.”

  Something nibbled at the edge of my brain. “When did they leave?” I asked.

  “About twenty minutes ago.”

  “So just about the time Jones left for Phaete.” I turned to Aela. “Could they have sensed that Jones left?”

  “What reason would they have to do that?” she asked.

  I shook my head at myself. “I don’t know. This whole thing feels like some weird game that they’re playing with Jones and I’m not sure even he knows the rules. The whole thing doesn’t make sense to me.”

  Parker popped in to let us know all was quiet with our large extended family.

  There wasn’t much else to do, so we sat quietly waiting for Thulu or Jones to return. It was about fifteen minutes later that a portal began to form in its usual spot. I was relieved that Jones was returning. Things felt unsettled. I took a lot of grief about my inaccurate feelings, but they seemed to be getting more frequent and stronger. And they’d even been right. I was more concerned about that than I wanted to let on to Thulu and the rest.

  We waited for Jones to step through, but no one appeared. I looked at Stuart, who was frowning at the portal. Stuart stood and approached the portal when Aela called to him to stop.

  “Wait, Stuart, let me check this out first. This isn’t right.” Her little face was serious. She and several of her fairies unslung bows and nocked arrows, as they flew toward the portal. She motioned the others to stay and cautiously stuck her head through the portal. She immediately withdrew it, with a perplexed look.

  “It’s Jones’s study, but no Jones. How very odd. I’m going to go through and reconnoiter the house.” She pointed to two of her warriors. “You follow me and the rest stay here.”

  I called to Thulu to come out as she approached the portal again and disappeared into the swirling pastels, her chosen warriors flying on either side of her.

  Thulu stuck his head out, a question on his lips as he saw the portal. I quickly told him what Aela had seen and that she had gone to check it out.

  Lassiter had gotten up to look at the portal from several angles. He looked at us and asked the obvious question. “Well, if it wasn’t Jones, then who opened the portal?”

  I stared at the swirling colors and shook my head. Carefully avoiding the portal, Thulu moved into the room and stood next to me. We a
ll stared at the portal for long moments. The fairies had flanked the portal and were hovering, with bows drawn, arrows pointed at the portal. Lassiter had eased his gun from under his jacket and held it pointing to the floor. Stuart had followed suit and I went to the study to retrieve mine and Thulu’s from our gun safe.

  I went back to the family room, handing him his 9mm, while I held mine in one hand and pointed floorwise, too. We stood that way for a while.

  “I thought Jones said nothing could come into this house,” said Lassiter quietly.

  I flicked my eyes briefly to Thulu as he answered, “He did.”

  Finally, Aela returned, shaking her head. “Jones isn’t there. The staff said they haven’t heard from him since he called to have Raoul prepare dinner. I warned them to stay out of the library. I locked the doors from the inside, just in case, though.” She flew around the portal. The other fairies joined her as they examined it from all sides. Finally she shrugged her little shoulders. “Well, I have no idea how this got here. I think we should let Aurelia and Belus know, though.” She nodded at one of her warriors who popped out of sight.

  The rest of us stared at the portal. I wondered if this had anything to do with the area of space we were in. I turned to the TV and went to the news station.

  “…have re-opened in several areas across the globe. Again FEMA and The White House immediately announced a caution to not enter any portal. Should one appear in your area, you are to inform authorities. The Elven delegation will send trained personnel to close the portal. Could we have a replay from the FEMA representative?”

  The news anchor was calm and matter-of-fact. So was the FEMA rep, who said the same thing the anchor had just said. Don’t go through portals and call authorities.

  There was none of the awe and panic we saw last month when the portals opened across the globe. That time we’d been convinced it was Gabriel. My recent theory that he had not been to blame was validated by this latest rash of openings.

  Wondering why one opened in our living room, I eyed the portal. None had opened here during the mass openings the month before. I tried to think what was different then from now. I had a suspicion it had to do with Jones and his opening of portals into our house from his. I had another idea and quickly snatched up my phone to call Erik.

  “Hey, Dad. Do you have a portal in your house right now?” I asked when he answered. Thulu raised an eyebrow at me and the others looked at me speculatively.

  “No, La Fi. Should there be one?”

  “Nope, but if one opens, please don’t go through and call me right away, okay?”

  “Of course, but what’s going on?”

  “I’m not sure, but I think portals are opening spontaneously and we aren’t sure exactly where they might lead. I have nothing to back that up -” I stopped, as the portal in our house winked out completely. I shuddered to think what would have happened if someone had been going through it. Light Ones had died going through their portal when it collapsed on them. I knew with a human we’d have a lot more than glittery dust. The portal re-opened, swirling hypnotically.

  Erik said, “Oh, wait. One is opening now, La Fi.”

  I stared at the phone a moment, surprised that I’d been right. “Okay. As I said, please don’t go through it. Can you hang on a sec?”

  “Sure.”

  I looked at the others. “I think this one might go to Erik’s. He said that one formed in his house, just as this one opened here.”

  Aela flew over to the portal.

  “Aela, please don’t go through. The other one shut down so quickly. What if someone had been using it when it closed?”

  She looked at me thoughtfully and nodded.

  I thought for a moment and went to Carter’s toy box retrieving a foam ball.

  “OK, Dad, I’m going to toss a ball through the portal here. Let me know if it comes through on your side.”

  “Will do,” he responded.

  I looked around and then gently tossed the ball through the portal.

  After only a couple seconds, Erik said, “Yes, it came through here, La Fi.”

  “Okay, that’s what we needed to know. Again, please tell everyone to stay away from the portal. It can close with no warning and we have no idea what would happen to someone if they were going through.”

  “I understand. I’m alone at the moment, but I’ll shut the door to the family room and put a sign to not go in for now.”

  “That will work. Take care and we’ll let you know when we figure out what the deal is.”

  “La Fi, what is going on?”

  “The portals are opening up again, Dad. We’ll fill you in when we know more, okay?”

  “Sure. Thanks for the heads up.” Erik said.

  I disconnected and put my phone back on the coffee table.

  The others all began to speak at once, then stopped and one by one turned to look at me.

  “How did you know?” asked Thulu, looking at me closely.

  “I didn’t know. I was guessing.” I said. “It just seemed logical.”

  Thulu continued to watch me. The others were also looking at me, and it made me feel weird.

  “What?” I asked defensively.

  Lassiter shrugged, but Thulu was deep in thought and just shook his head. I frowned at him as I told the group I was going to the kitchen for something to drink.

  Thulu followed me in and started making a pot of coffee. I loaded a tray with several glasses of ice and sodas and a small bowl. I let Lassiter know Thulu was making coffee as I deposited the tray on the coffee table. The TV was still on the news station.

  “The elves have closed all the reported portals,” Stuart informed me.

  I nodded my acknowledgement as I handed him a soda.

  Jenna popped in at that moment. “Carter wants me to tell you he loves you.”

  I smiled at her and said, “Well, you can tell Carter, I love him right back, okay, sweetie?”

  She nodded and grinned and popped back out.

  I was still smiling as I realized Lassiter and Stuart were watching me. “Jenna was delivering a message from Carter,” I said by way of explanation.

  They smiled, although Lassiter shook his head.

  “I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to people talking to thin air.”

  Stuart spoke up. “Oh, I don’t know, detective. You’d be surprised what you get used to.”

  We exchanged knowing looks and Lassiter shook his head again.

  “How did it go with your situation?” I asked Stuart cryptically.

  He smiled and gave me a thumbs up.

  Thulu came in with a tray of coffee cups, the coffee pot and cream and sugar. He set it on the table next to mine as we all sat down, pointedly ignoring the large portal in our family room. I hoped one of the elves would be able to close it soon or it would disappear as the other one had.

  I poured a small amount of soda into the bowl so the fairies could help themselves, with their tiny goblets. I would have thought the carbonation would bother them, but they loved it. Go figure.

  Everyone had settled in, when Jenna popped in again.

  “Carter says to tell you good night.”

  Thulu choked, and I immediately looked to see if he was okay. He was carefully setting his coffee cup back on the table before he took a deep breath and coughed again. I waited to see if I needed to pound him on the back, but he took another large breath and seemed fine. He looked at me, a stunned expression on his face, before turning to Jenna.

  “Jenna, did Ally tell him a story?” His voice sounded strange, and I watched him out of the corner of my eye.

  “Oh yes, Papa Thulu. She told him and me the bestest story ever about a puppy.” Her smile was wide. “I love stories about puppies.”

  “Well, tell Carter, we said good night and sweet dreams,” I said.

  “Yes, please tell Carter, we love him and said good night,” Thulu added. “And thank you very much, Jenna.” His smile was a bit strained, but I waited
until Jenna had popped back out to fix him with a stern gaze.

  He lifted his hand to forestall whatever I was going to say, though.

  “I could hear her.”

  It took a few seconds for what he said to sink in. When it did, my mouth dropped open.

  “You could hear Jenna?” I asked in surprise.

  Thulu nodded slowly. “I heard every word she said.”

  “Wow,” was about all I could manage.

  “What does that mean?” asked Lassiter.

  Thulu was silent for a moment before carefully speaking. “I think our gifts are expanding. I think La Fi is gaining strength with her feelings and hunches. And obviously my gift has expanded to include being able to hear the dead, when before I could only see them. And smell them.”

  The idea of our gifts expanding was mind-boggling.

  “La Fi,” said Aela, “what am I thinking?’

  I rolled my eyes at her and started to give her a smart-assed reply, but I stopped because I had a flash of her painting her nails a metallic gold.

  “Um, you want to paint your nails metallic gold?” I asked tentatively.

  She beamed at me, pointy, needle-like teeth gleaming white. “You got it.”

  “But I’ve never even had a glimmer of being telepathic,” I protested.

  She shrugged her shoulders. “Well, I thought you were either telepathic or psychic. Although I think maybe both for you.” She nodded slowly. “Sometimes your feelings, your intuitions, are based on what you might have picked up from someone else’s mind, but I think other times, you are tapping into a psychic link, not connected to anyone’s mind.”

  “How do you know so much about it?”

  “Because I study human psychic phenomena, La Fi. There is more to me than just being a fantastic warrior. I have a brain too, you know.”

  I stifled any urge to smile and nodded gravely.

  “This does not surprise me, your highness. You are very wise,” I said formally.

  She looked at me suspiciously, but I held her gaze and she finally nodded graciously. “Anyway, while others were skeptical of your feelings, I have found they are sometimes uncanny. I have believed in you all along.”