A Witch, a Fairy, and an Esper

by Ross Homer

  I stared at her. This was happening far too fast. “Whoa, Ms. Stanley. There are too many gaps in this story. How do you know what caused that…that mess? The total destruction of those people?”

  Nissa replied, and repeated, “I’m a fairy. I am telepathic. Remember? I said all this a minute ago. That’s one of my abilities. That is how I happened to be in your mind.”

  Nodding, I said, “You’re why I felt strange all day. Well, I hope to hell you enjoyed it in here.” I tapped my temple.

  “No, actually, I didn’t. I don’t enjoy being in anyone’s mind unless, well, unless I’m making love with him. But that’s an entirely different subject for a different time. I stayed as far out of your mind and thoughts as I could. I will not lie about that. I will tell you that Elsa is first and foremost in your mind all the time, believe it or not. You two are like a fairy book love story.”

  She actually let tears run down her cheeks. “Like you two, it took me most of my life to find my other half. And right now, when I really need him, he’s in London for six weeks.”

  Shit. Her emotions were right on the money. I thought I was going to cry, too. And in that moment, I knew she was telling us the truth.

  Nissa captured me with her eyes. “Being a fairy is pretty strange, as you can imagine. My husband is human. He had a rough time accepting it, too, in the beginning. But he has and dammit, I miss the hell out of him.”

  I stood and went over to my office window and stared angrily out at my small part of Seattle. My comfortable life had been set on its ear with Nissa’s revelations. I’ll be honest; I did not like it but then most people don’t like it when their entire worldview changes in an instant.

  My back still towards her, I was unable to keep the irritation from my voice as I asked, “So…now that we’re all some kind of fairy world creatures, why do you know so much about this case?”

  She came over and stood beside me then lightly put her hand on my shoulder. I felt instantly better about everything and my anger disappeared in a flash. Looking at her, I knew she’d done something to me.

  Before I could speak, she said, “Please don’t be angry with me or this revelation. We are who we are, and that is, we are all humans, despite far too many who want to divide us. As I said, my husband is human. He doesn’t care if I’m a fairy or anything else. I love him; he loves me. Simple. I’m still young enough to have a baby or two with him if it suits us. And I have a small admission to make. I just eased your anger.”

  Those gray eyes drew mine like a magnet. I said, “Yeah, I guessed as much when you touched me. So, you witched me, a witch. Big fuckin’ whoop.” I shrugged her hand from my shoulder and immediately felt my irritation with all this returning.

  “Please don’t resist so, Jo. You had no control over where you came from. None of us do.”

  Completely surprising me, Elsa, and Nissa, I broke down into sobs. Nissa pulled me into her arms as I said between hiccups, “I saw what they did to that innocent woman. You saw it too. I don’t want to live in a world with creatures such as these.”

  Holding me tightly, she whispered, “You won’t if we work together and find them and who called them. You and Elsa and me.”

  She continued to hold me while I sobbed. Now I was embarrassed at losing it in front of her. So much for me being big and tough.

  I knew she wasn’t controlling my emotions now and I finally regained some control over them.

  Stepping over to my desk for several tissues, I dabbed at my eyes and said, “I’m sorry about that. I’m usually in better control of myself.” I blew my nose.

  “Stop that, Jocelyn. Just…stop. What did I just say? We’re all humans on this planet and we’re allowed to have emotions. You are not a robot or at least you didn’t feel all hard and metallic while I held you.” She smiled softly at me and added, “You’re also not what I’ve heard the Littleton Corporation is working on although you seem to think you’re supposed to be unfeeling.” She looked over at Elsa and added, “I know you’re not a cyborg or whatever they are.”

  “I know, dammit. Okay? I was floating along just fine until you came along and swamped my little boat of life.”

  “What the hell did I just say? Stop that. You’ve never been one to feel sorry for yourself so don’t start now.”

  Elsa came over and put her arm around my waist. I felt my emotions suddenly mellow out. What the ever lovin’ hell was going on in my life? A fairy and…what was Elsa? Human? For some reason, I knew she was more than that. I’d known it since we met but I never once pursued it.

  As badly as I wanted to tell both of them to just fuck off and leave me alone for a while, I just couldn’t. I was in love with one and genuinely liked the other already.

  “Oh, alright!” I snapped at them. “You two bitches get the hell out of my mind. Yeah, Elsa. I know you’re more than you say. You’ve both just managed to totally destroy a really good mad.” I turned to Elsa and kissed her hard. “And you can do that anytime you want. Okay?”

  “Thanks,” she replied, smiling. “You were getting loud and I knew I needed to help a little.” She returned the kiss, lightly brushing my lips with hers.

  I dried my eyes and went back over to my desk. With a flick of my fingers, my coffee cup was full and hot.

  I said, “Alright. Enough. Nissa, let’s talk about what Elsa and I have fallen into.”

  Nissa had returned to the couch and raised her cup at me. In an instant, it was full again with tea like she liked it. “This case was assigned to a Seattle Serious Crimes team earlier this morning, after Albertson returned to the precinct. He wasn’t included and your lovely ex-husband pitched a holy shit fit about it, too.”

  “I’m not surprised. This kind of thing screams ‘demons’ and he’ll have chapter and verse in his Good Book about them and no doubt about how much he deserves to find them.”

  Nissa had to set her cup down. “You should have seen him, Jo! It was like he’d turned into some kind of a Knight Templar. All that was missing was his sword and a cross pattée. He stormed into the captain’s office and raged at her about how this was his case. I think she almost lost her pelt over it. Oh…you didn’t know. She’s a Selkie and actually keeps her pelt at home.”

  All I did was shrug. It was all I could do because she was right. Here was even more strange shit to deal with. A Selkie? One of those human-seal creatures? Nissa started laughing so hard I took her the box of tissues.

  She grabbed a couple and sopped up tears. “The world you are now entering is going to be amazing to you.”

  I said testily, “No shit, Sherlock. We’ll talk about it later. Please, oh Fairy Queen, or whatever you are, please continue.”

  She did. “Anyway, when Albertson left her office, he was red with anger. I thought he was going to have a heart attack. I know he went into the locker room and punched one of them. Most of us heard it.”

  “I’ll bet,” I said. “He got that mad at me a couple of times back when I was married to him.”

  “I’m sorry for that, Jo. I’m pretty sure we all thought he might pull his weapon on her. Thankfully, he didn’t.” She paused and then added, “All that hatred and anger packed into such a pretty man. What a shame.”

  “Good. He’s got a wife and three kids now and doesn’t need to lose his job or go to jail.”

  “We know. But…we now have the case. I saw the photos from the crime scene. They were difficult to look at.”

  “You should have been there in person. Oh…I guess you sorta was.”

  Nissa nodded.

  We drank our coffee and tea in silence for a few minutes. I broke it when I asked, “Since you seem to have a handle of sorts on this, can I ask, now what?”

  She said, “I want to go back to the house in full daylight. We should be safe now.”

  I looked at her and then whispered half facetiously, “Right. Vampires and the like sleeping during the rest of the day?

  She chuckled, “You know there is no such thing, but th
ese creatures are called nightwalkers for a reason. They are only active from dusk to dawn. We’ll be safe until the sun goes down this evening. I hope we can discover something there that can tell us how they got into our realm. I also want to see if I can find them. If so, I can either try to send them back to where they came from or kill them. I dislike killing creatures like that. Think of them as predators, like bears and like bears, they generally will take advantage of a situation. On the other hand, what I saw from the photos this morning makes me wonder if they were used to send a terrible message to anybody else who needed it. If so, I want us to find out who ordered it and take care of it.”

  I made an instant decision. “Okay. Let’s go over there. Elsa, I need you to stay here and run the office.”

  She came over and kissed me again. “I’m definitely not going to argue about that, Baby. Please be careful.”

  “You know I will. Now…my car or yours, Nissa?”

  “You drive. I need to concentrate on these creatures and how on Earth they got here. And why.”

  I picked up my bag but before we left my office, Nissa stopped me and said, “One more thing. That dream you had this morning?”

  I nodded slowly. Oh lord, was she in that too? I know I turned red.

  “The woman in it was not Reiko.” She nodded at the door.

  “Oh,” I said, amazed that she knew that much about the dream. “Really?”

  “Yes, really. You were thinking about it when I came in and I was added to the mix.” She winked at me. “While you can’t remember much about it, it was clear as day to me. I withdrew and let it go. If you need to remember all of it, then you will.”

  Elsa was the other woman in my dream. Now I wondered why I’d have such a hot dream about her. As far as I knew, nothing was going to change between her and me. We were lovers deeply in love. On the other hand, I frequently dreamed about her. But that hot?

  Later, I knew I should have paid more attention to all of it instead of the scalding sex part.

  Chapter 4

  As we reached Sato’s driveway, Nissa asked, “Can you glamor both of us? Will it take too much from you?”

  “No. I can do as many as four people for a short time. You and me? A couple’a hours will be no problem.”

  “Good. There are still cops here and considering how Albertson was acting this morning, I’d rather not be seen.” She pointed at his car.

  That made me wonder about what happened at her office. But then I didn’t want to be seen by him or the others, either. “I can understand that. Neither do I. I’ll park down the street away from the house.”

  When she nodded, I drove past the house a little way and parked on the other side of the street.

  “What the hell is he doing here?” Nissa asked. “He’s not on this case anymore.”

  “Hell if I know. Some kind of powerplay?”

  “Could be. Let’s get going. The sooner we find out how they got here, the better for all concerned.”

  Getting out, I cast the glamor spell and then I couldn’t help myself. I got back in and squirted a little of my normal perfume on my neck just to be mean.

  When Nissa smelled me, she chuckled. “I like that. But…why the perfume?”

  “You see Bob standing over there? Yes, I’m being childish, but he tried to push his way into my house this morning. Screw him. He may get a whiff or not. I don’t care. Color me ten-years-old.”

  I always found it odd that while no one could see me or anyone with me while we were in glamor, I could see Nissa just fine. As we passed Bob, almost close enough to touch, I saw Nissa grin as Bob caught a whiff of my perfume.

  Poor Bob looked all around but he couldn’t see me. Then he got this strange look on his face and said, quietly, “You’ll pay for this if I can catch your fat ass, Jo.”

  It took everything I could do not to laugh at him. Especially when Nissa looked at my butt and grinned again. She whispered, “Why…your arse isn’t the least bit fat.”

  I wasn’t sure if he heard her or not, but I didn’t care. We got past him and several others who appeared to be looking on the ground for evidence.

  The car was gone and so were the bodies. The blood from them was still there and that didn’t help me at all.

  Nissa stopped me on the porch. “I wonder where they went? The nightwalkers. I shouldn’t think too far from here. At least I hope not.” She walked to the end of the porch and stared into the trees. “No. They are not anywhere around us. Interesting.”

  I replied, “You’re the boss on this one. I still have no idea what they look like. I’m not sure I want to, either.”

  “I’ll give you a hint, anyway. They are the most hideous things you can imagine.” She paused and then added, “You’ve seen pictures of very deep-sea fish? The one who live thousands of feet down? How ugly to us they appear? Nightwalkers are much, much worse than that.”

  “Oh. Thanks for that image.”

  Entering the house wasn’t a problem since the front door was still hanging wide open. There was a repair crew in the driveway who was going to fix it. Nissa and I slipped around them with no problem.

  The torn-up body that had been there was gone, like those outside, but not the blood. We skirted a photographer as we passed the stairs. Going up was for later.

  We looked through the main living room, dining room and kitchen and found nothing but high end furnishings. A den had the usual desk and chairs. Bookcases lined the walls and were full of books in English and Japanese.

  As I looked around at the bookshelves, I thought about different spells I could use to find things when I whispered to Nissa, “Want to look for a safe?”

  “Only if you can do it without fire and brimstone.” She grinned, though.

  “Naaaah… It’s gonna take thunderbolts and lightening. Very very fright…”

  She cut me off. “Let’s not be making any Queen jokes. Go ahead.”

  A quick incantation and no safes or other hidden compartment were highlighted. “None here,” I told her. “Maybe upstairs?”

  “Could be. Let’s continue down here before we go up.”

  There was even a sitting room that was like the rest of the downstairs; expensively furnished. Placed around were photos of Sato and his pretty wife as well as Reiko and some guy. Brother? Boyfriend? I didn't know. There was a large painted portrait of Sato himself looking down from above the fireplace.

  Standing alone in the kitchen, I said, “I don’t quite know what we’re looking for, but I don’t think it's here anywhere.”

  Nissa turned slowly in a circle. “I don’t either. One or both of us should be able to see some kind of enchanted portal. Or sense one. I am doing neither. Do you sense anything odd? I mean other than the deaths out front?”

  “No. I guess we need to go up, now.” I pointed upstairs.

  We left the kitchen and carefully went around the photographer as we approached the stairs.

  The blood from the woman killed there was still splattered across and up and down the steps. I hoped to hell she never saw it coming.

  We passed the spot and went up to the second floor. There was a hallway leading both right and left. We went to the right, first.

  Nissa said, “Sato and his wife died up here. We assume the woman was his wife. Her face was unrecognizable. Like the woman on the stairs, we’re going to need DNA and fingerprints to tell us who they were.”

  From the large amount of blood we found in the hall, it was obvious that whomever she was had been ripped to pieces like the others. Nissa took my hand and dragged me past it.

  The first room was an empty bedroom. It was neatly kept up and the attached bath was dry and clean. A guest room? Reiko’s bedroom? We moved on. The next door in the hall opened into another bedroom also neatly maintained. Next to it was a full bath. It was also clean and dry.

  Further down was an office. Someone had died in here, too. As we entered, I turned and saw six bullet holes across the wall behind me. I assumed Sato had been
in here.

  As in the hallway, blood was splashed and smeared across the desk and wall behind it. The chair was destroyed. Blood had dripped from the ceiling. A revolver lay on the floor.

  “Sato’s office?” I asked Nissa.

  “I don’t know but from the way blood is all over in here, I’d say yes. The nightwalkers tore him apart much like the woman there in the hall. Hell, all the victims. The pictures of Sato showed not much of him survived. Try and focus on anything that may be that portal.”

  Right. Ignoring the blood all over the office was going to be difficult. After I cast another spell, we found there were no portals in here, either. I was also losing strength and didn’t know how much longer I could hold the glamor.

  I told Nissa, “I don’t know how much longer I can keep us unseen. I know for sure I can’t cast anymore spells.”

  “Don’t worry about it. I’ll use what little I have to see if there’s a portal in here. You just concentrate on keeping us invisible.”

  “Right boss,” I said with a mock salute.

  The last room proved to be their bedroom. It, like the other one, was neat to a fault. I stopped and looked back down the hall.

  “Three bedrooms?” I asked Nissa. “That doesn’t seem right considering the size of this place.”

  She pointed up. “There’s a third floor. The stairs should be behind that door at the far end of the hall. Let’s go. Shit!”

  Bob and two other investigators were coming down the hall towards us. I heard Bob say, “I swear these doors were closed earlier.” He stopped and went to the rail to the first floor. “Yo, Chaz. You been up here yet?”

  We heard a male voice reply, “Not yet. Why?”

  “These doors are open. Did you see anyone come up here?”

  “Nope. Been busy taking more pics.”

  “Okay. Keep your eyes open.”

  Then I saw him sniff the air. Shit. My little game backfired on me. He followed his nose and almost walked into me. I barely had time to move at the last second and almost tripped over Nissa who was trying to get out of our way, too.