“This is Jess,” Cora told me. “We’re in the basement of her home.” She held me tighter. “You’re alive. I was so scared.”
I’d spoken to Jess on the phone once, but this was the first time I’d met her in person, and I liked her from the start.
Mordecai stepped from the jail cell and kissed my forehead.
I must go. I’m willing to bend and possibly break the rules to keep you safe, but I need to try to keep from interfering in the actual battle as much as possible. Also, the fewer people who see me, the better.
He left, and a little of my heart left with him. I didn’t get to say goodbye.
Cora closed the door before Harrison could come out. My connection to her told me she smelled what he was and was understandably concerned.
“I’ll vouch for him. He was enslaved by an evil wizard, but the two of us killed him.” I shrugged. “I disabled the asshole but couldn’t kill him. Harrison managed to end the bastard’s existence. He’s been a friend to me ever since. He’s given me no reason to believe he’s a bad guy. I’ll vouch for him.”
Cora looked to Jess, who stood with her arm crossed, glaring at Harrison.
“A friend of Kirsten’s is a friend of mine,” Cora told Jess. She looked back to Harrison, “This is not my home. I’m a guest here as well, but I’ll do what I can to see that you’re made welcome.”
“My King trusts Kirsten,” Jess told him. “If she calls you friend, then so does my pride.” She uncrossed her arms, unlocked and opened the door, and looked at me without turning her back to Harrison. “We have food upstairs. Amy will find out what you want and feed you.”
“We’ve just come from a feast. We need information more than we need food.”
I should’ve returned to the Earth realm sooner. I’d been gone eleven Earth-days, and all hell had broken loose. Gang wars in every city, hundreds of home invasions a day, people slaughtered in the streets. The federal government along with every state government had declared a state of emergency. Curfews were in place, but the police weren’t capable of enforcing them.
Congress was debating whether to pass an emergency ruling to temporarily suspend the Posse Comitatus Act, so the military could step in and enforce the peace. The governors had pulled in the National Guard, but there were only enough of them to defend government buildings and the neighborhoods of the elite. When civilization came back online, I was certain heads would roll over that, but there was nothing to be done about it in the moment.
But honestly, the first ten minutes upstairs were all about reconnecting with Cora. She and the pack were bunking with an all-female pride led by Jess and supported by her girlfriend Amy. Just as RaeLynn kept everyone fed and happy, Amy made sure everyone had everything they needed, and I immediately felt protective over her. Unlike RaeLynn, I don’t think Amy could’ve fought anyone and won.
Next on the agenda was checking in with Lauren, who was in a pride safehouse outside of Cambridge. She’d been worried about me, and I wanted to tell her everything that’d transpired, but it would need to happen face-to-face. Cora set us up on an encrypted video call, but I wasn’t going to talk about my new status over technology. I just needed to be sure she was okay, and our conversation assured me she was. My heart rested easier.
“Nathan and his pride are about six miles away,” Jess told me when I’d disconnected the call with my daughter. “Randall and his pack, as well as Patrick and his, are there as well.”
“Abbott tells us he moved his people to a number of fortresses and safehouses, so they aren’t all in one place,” Cora told me. “Aaron and Abbott are spying, figuring out how to reach the head of the hydra. We’ve only been here about…” She shook her head. “Fifteen hours.”
“I feel as if I should bow to you,” Jess told me. “I’m not allowed to bow to someone unless my King does so, or tells me to, but it feels wrong to not acknowledge your power.” She looked to Cora. “You too, now that the two of you have reconnected. It’s like you’re Consort to the Queen.”
Cora looked at me and tilted her head. “Queen? I felt a difference in our power, but I figured you’d just gained more while you were gone. Is there something you should tell me?”
“She’s Queen of the Woodland Spirits,” said Jess. “Mother Nature.”
I shook my head. “I’m the Harlequin, which is basically another name for the Goblin Queen.” I looked to Cora. “It’s a long story, and one I’m not comfortable with. I didn’t know people would be able to sense it in this realm.”
“The Amakhosi is coming,” Amy warned. She brushed her dress down around her, and I suddenly wondered how many times he’d fucked her.
I tried to remember the protective feeling I’d had for her earlier, and I asked, “Amy, would it be okay if I hugged you?”
“Oh, Queen Kirsten, of course it would.”
I hugged her with my eyes closed, and held her. She needed protecting. She belonged to Nathan, and I’d protect anyone who belonged to him. I opened my eyes and looked to Jess. “I know she’s more than just yours, she’s your girlfriend, but I’m feeling protective of her, as if I should avenge her pain, somehow.”
Jess gave me a sad smile. “I see what our King sees in you. I’m glad you’re staying with us.” She chuckled. “And since I’ve been told you aren’t bisexual, I feel confident in assuring you that what’s mine is yours. I know you have agreements with our King, so we are yours, in a way.”
“Nathan, Randall, and Patrick are on their way here,” said Cora. “You should greet them outside.”
My power signature grew exponentially when I stepped off the porch. It was as if the building’s walls interfered with me gaining power from the very Earth and sky, the plants and trees, and even the woodland creatures. It didn’t seem logical, but I filed the information away.
I’d felt the members of Cora’s pack from inside, and I gave them a smile, truly happy to see them.
“Ya’ll really should still be in the bunker,” Cora told them. “But I get it. I need her energy, too.”
“We’ve been worried,” Ranger said, and he stepped to me and hugged me.
Kenny hugged me next, and then I was in the middle of the pack and we were all sharing energy, and the next thing I knew, I was bawling my eyes out because the energy was stronger and more magical than ever.
But all good things must come to an end, and I stood straighter and calmed the energy when I heard a vehicle turn off the main road. This was apparently a long driveway, so it took a good two minutes before they came into view.
By then, I stood between Cora and Jess, with the wolves and lionesses spread out behind us.
Nathan, Randall, and Patrick were in an SUV I didn’t recognize, but that wasn’t surprising. What was surprising, however, was Nathan’s welcome. He stopped four feet from me and bowed at the waist in an acknowledgement of my power
I had no idea what to do or how to react, so I gave him the same motion back. He stepped to me, drew me into his arms, and said, “Take us somewhere.”
I stepped into the nothingness, into the tiny world I’d constructed, and let him keep holding me. I knew he was about to rip my heart out when he pulled away, but I soaked in his energy for the moments I had them.
Except, he didn’t use his words to hurt me this time.
“This solves everything. The Amakhosi can mate with Mother Nature. The King of the Jungle with the Queen of Nature. We can be together.”
His excitement was contagious, but I dialed myself back before I got carried away. Even if he’d worked through his issues around me torturing the Celrau, what guarantee did I have that something else wouldn’t set him off next month? Not only that, but I remembered my jealousy only minutes earlier, and I knew it would fester and grow if I had to be monogamous to him but he couldn’t be to me.
“I love you,” I told him. “But I can’t give you monogamy.”
Instead of getting pissed, Nathan laughed. “Of course you can’t. Mother Nature draws energy fro
m sex, from freedom. Your power belongs to every wild thing on the planet.”
“Not just this realm,” I told him. “It’s a long story.” We stared at each other a few moments, and I finally said, “It seems too good to be true. Do you even want me back? How do I know you won’t turn on me again?”
“I’m sorry I hurt you. This conversation is going to take longer than we have. We should get back. The war is out of control and there’s much to catch you up on.”
“I’m the Harlequin. Not Mother Nature, not some Woodland Queen.”
“You are all of the above and then some, but I’ll call you by the title you’re most comfortable with.”
I nodded and took us back.
Randall stepped forward and also bent at the waist. He held it a few seconds before standing straight again. “What shall we call you?”
“Kirsten. I’m still Kirsten.” He looked doubtful, and I sighed inwardly. “If politics require it, I suppose I’m the Harlequin, but I’d hoped to only have that title in Alfheim. I wasn’t prepared for it to follow me home.” I took a breath and stood taller. “Since it has, I guess I’ll have to own it, but I need some time to figure everything out. It’s new, and unexpected.”
“Unfortunately, time isn’t a commodity we can offer you,” said Patrick. “There’s a bunker here with a control room. Let’s go down so we can show you where everyone’s positioned and let you know what’s happened. We’re in a holding pattern right now, so it’s a good time to get you caught up.”
Chapter 8
Two of the Drake security tech-geeks, Chance and Lou, were in the control room, and I hugged them both. Lou gave me a transmitter and held up the tiny little earpiece. It looked like a freckle, and I held my head so he could put it on the inside part of my tragus. My hair was in a ponytail, so it was out of the way. I’d probably need to shower and work on it at some point, but not yet.
Smartboards lined the wall, and I looked them over.
“Here’s the timeline,” Chance told me, and turned to the back of the room. “Three major storm systems hit eighty-five percent of the U.S. over a thirty-hour period, and severely impacted every major city. Storm systems in Europe and parts of South America took out the power in more than three-fourths of their mid-to-large-sized cities. Power is out on the majority of four continents, and estimates say it will remain out to most of the large cities at least another three weeks. At that point, we hit below fifty percent, but it could be months before power is restored to everyone.”
“We’re running on generators here,” Nathan told me. “We have them at Drake Security, but using them would’ve drawn too much attention. Here, we’re far enough in the sticks no one will see or hear.”
“We don’t light anything aboveground at night, just to be safe,” said Jess.
“Right,” Nathan agreed. “The satellites are still working, and it would be easy to spot electric lights in the middle of nowhere. Even light spilling through windows.”
“Who made the storms?” I asked.
Chance crossed his arms. “The Egyptians called him Set, the Greeks called him Typhon. God of storms and Chaos.”
“We don’t know that for a fact,” Nathan said from his position near the door, “but it’s the general consensus.”
“I thought the gods weren’t supposed to get involved in our fights?”
“They’re gods. They don’t always follow the rules.” I spun in surprise and shock at Ryan’s voice. I’d taken note of everyone in the room and hadn’t seen him.
“Do you make yourself invisible? What the fuck?”
He smiled. “Something like that.” A sigh, and he stood and walked to me. I got the sense he was tasting my energy, or perhaps running it through a filter.
He leaned forward at the waist, much as Nathan and Randall had, and said, “Erlkönig. It’s been ages since your kind was felt in this realm. Much begins to make sense.” He stood straight again and met my gaze. “You didn’t know?”
“There wasn’t anything to know until it happened. If the demon hadn’t bitten me, if we hadn’t needed to take extreme steps to save me...” I shrugged. “It may never have happened.”
“You might be right. It wasn’t your birthright until the situation forced it. Of that I’m certain. You own the energy because the energy needed to find someone. Things are out of balance, and the worlds adjust as necessary to keep themselves in balance.”
The room felt too formal, too much like politics were at play, and I didn’t want to have to watch my words. I found a seat and stretched my legs in front of me. Was this why Nathan so often took a casual pose? I’d thought it was him making a point of not being threatening, but perhaps it was him trying to tone things down?
I found out the RTMC was the only group on our side who was still in Chattanooga. Everyone else had cleared out. Nathan had long ago built the bunker here, and put in a huge safehouse six miles away, because this little town was far off the beaten path and no one would find us here.
“We can’t stay in hiding,” I told them once the sitrep was given. “Every day, more innocent people are killed. Evil is winning. Just the home invasions, and the gangs walking the streets shooting anyone who looks at them wrong… even without the Celrau and Demons doing their damage, the humans who’re taking advantage of this are…” I crossed my arms and tried to protect my hurting heart. There are no gangs in Trezevant, Tennessee, and the energy here was still good, but I could sense the darkness taking over, even from here.
How had I gone from needing a single cedar tree to being able to feel all of nature?
“How do we turn things around?” I asked. “It appears the bad guys are winning.”
“Let’s handle some internal matters before we get to that,” said Ryan. “Aaron Drake hired me as a consultant, but morale has sucked. The first few days, Mordecai let Cora know you were alive for the time being and he thought you were fighting the venom, but even if you managed, he’d have no way to keep you alive if you left his pool. And then she stopped hearing from him. For well over a week, no one knew whether you were alive or dead, but we feared the worst. Nathan went to Cora, and I believe the two of them grieved a few days. Nathan helped Cora with her energy — helped her learn to balance it with the pack when she didn’t have you to help.”
My head spun to Cora, and she shrugged. “It was hard. My heart broke, but the world wasn’t slowing down to let us have time for our grief. We had to decide to fight now and be sad later, but I’m not sure either of us was really pulling it off.” She rolled her eyes. “I could feel the energy you’d put into the land when I was home, and I didn’t want to leave. I think that’s why Nathan stayed in the farmhouse. We finally had no choice, though. The world is fucked and we have to help fix it.”
“I’m sorry.” I looked at Nathan and back to Cora. “I wish I could’ve gotten word to you. Mordecai told me that leaving before a set number of hours would be rude. I don’t know for sure how long it took me to get through the labyrinth, but I’m certain I wasn’t there eleven days. I’d guess half that many days. Perhaps less.” I shook my and repeated. “I don’t know how long I was in the labyrinth. It was always daytime. It felt like days, but there was no way to know. I napped a few times, but that was it.”
Bringing up the labyrinth reminded me of Harrison. “I brought someone back. A good guy who’d been held as a slave by the sentinel in the Labyrinth’s center. His father was the King of the Imperators, and I believe he’ll be more than happy to accept the title now, so Isaac doesn’t have to. He’s downstairs at Jess’s home. I thought it prudent to keep him out of sight until I could explain him. I killed the sentinel, but he wasn’t going to stay dead. He was one of my worst nightmares come to life. Harrison made sure he stayed dead.”
“Harrison has been gone a long time. He was assumed to be dead,” said Nathan. “He was, indeed, supposed to be king centuries ago. Assuming his time as a slave hasn’t fucked him up, I’ll be happy to invite him to join our fight.”
I breathed a little easier, but then nearly jumped out of my skin when a tune started playing.
Chance leaned to touch a keyboard, and Aaron’s face showed on a portion of one of the smartboards.
“Kirsten. Thank goodness. We were worried.”
“She’s the Erlkönigin,” Ryan told him. I’d learned the extra in on the end denoted queen instead of king, and I was sufficiently impressed Ryan knew the correct word form.
Still, I didn’t want this getting out, so I stood and crossed my arms. “No. Not over technology. I don’t care how secure it is. Enough.” I looked around the room. “That goes for everyone. None of you can tell secrets that aren’t yours to tell, and this is my secret.” I narrowed my eyes at Ryan. “You may not have to follow the Concilio’s rules, but I’m asking you not to tell people, and especially don’t tell anyone over technology.”
He sighed. “I have to tell our record-keeper. Our people are going to know, but I’ll think carefully before I tell anyone else.” He looked at Aaron on the screen and back to me. “The Dragon King needed to know. The Abbott will need to know as well. You should give Aaron permission to share it with his wife and the Master Vampire.”
I shook my head and looked to Cora. “I don’t suppose anyone knows where my phone is?”
“Sorry. I don’t. You can use mine if you need to call someone.”
Chance looked to Lou, who pulled something out of a drawer and walked to me with a box. “Burner. Already charged. It has our app on it. No GPS or Wi-Fi hardware, so no way for it to give away your location. I can configure it to your phone number, if you’d like.”
I shook my head. “A burner is fine for now, though I’ll want a way to check texts and such. We can figure that out later this evening. Meanwhile, please get this number to Aaron.” I looked back to the screen. “Can you ask Abbott to have Kendra call me when she rises, please?”
“Yes. It’s early. Abbott isn’t up yet either.”
Unhuman Acts Page 6
