Playing With Fury

by Annabel Chase

  “Not inherently. They’re peaceful unless provoked.”

  “Then why are they here and not in Otherworld?”

  “I found a report that documented a faction of digger demons being harassed by a larger group of mole demons. There was a dispute over territory and the digger demons were displaced. I can only assume that’s the faction here now.”

  “Thanks, Neville. That’s good to know.”

  “I’ve taken the liberty of adding the additional information on the fodiens daemon to the app as well. If you should encounter another one, test it for me and confirm it works, would you?”

  “I’m sure it’ll be the first thing I think of when one of them has its beady eyes pinned on me.”

  “I’ve also been looking into the tremors,” he said.

  I nodded approvingly. “You’ve been very productive.”

  “The records show an earthquake as recent as 2011. It registered 5.8. There were minor ones before that,” he said. “Those were more along the lines of what we’ve been experiencing…”

  “So Mother Nature’s having another hissy fit,” I interjected. “No big deal.”

  He wore a grave expression. “Except it might be. I offer you one word—Mount Sinabung.”

  “That’s two, Word Wizard, but I’ll indulge you. What’s Mount Sinabung, other than a mountain that sounds like it’s made of cinnamon buns?” I paused. “And now I’m hungry.” Maybe I’d stop by Holes next door and grab a bear claw to go.

  “It’s a volcano on the island of Sumatra.”

  I frowned. “Sumatra? Like the sex manual?”

  Neville clapped a hand over his face. “There are so many things wrong with that question, I don’t know where to begin.”

  I folded my arms across my chest. “Tread lightly. I know your password to the wizard forum. You could very easily find yourself with an unflattering avatar.”

  The wizard blew a raspberry. “Agent Fury, given that you still turn your computer off and on again to resolve every possible technical issue, I highly doubt you’ve figured out my password.”

  A smile tugged at my lips. “Princess Leia4eva,” I said. “With an exclamation mark at the end.”

  His mouth dropped open. “How?”

  “I’m a trained agent, Neville. It’s my job to be nosy.” I leaned my hip against the desk. “Now, what’s Sumatra?”

  “Not a sex manual and neither is the Kama Sutra for that matter.”

  “Interesting. You sound very knowledgeable about what is and isn’t a sex manual. I’d expect that from my mother, but not you.”

  Neville pressed his lips together. “The Kama Sutra encompasses far more than sex. It’s a guide to living your best life.”

  “If you’re having mind-blowing tantric sex every day, I’m pretty sure you are living your best life.”

  Neville pressed on. “Sumatra is an Indonesian island. The volcano had been dormant for four hundred years and suddenly became active in 2010.”

  “And you think what? The tremors are a sign that the dormant portal is suddenly going to become not-so-dormant?”

  “That is a concern, yes.”

  My mind began to churn, along with my stomach. “But we check the stats there every day. We’ve been recording them and sending them off to headquarters. Wouldn’t we see something was off?”

  “I suppose.”

  Neville seemed genuinely concerned and he wasn’t one to worry needlessly. “What do you think we should do?”

  Neville held up a finger. “I’m glad you asked. I propose we try to track the origin of the tremors so we can determine if they pose a threat to the portal.”

  “Isn’t there a federal agency that handles that?” I asked.

  Neville crossed his arms. “In Chipping Cheddar, don’t you think that federal agency should be the FBM?”

  He made a good point. Under the circumstances, it was best to avoid the involvement of a human agency. “How are you going to track it? Is this where you toss around words like ‘triangulate?’”

  Neville’s eyes turned to slits. “Why?”

  “I just need to know when I can zone out.”

  Neville shook his head. “Fine, let’s return to the subject of your invisibility.”

  I sat on the edge of the desk. “That’s more like it.”

  “Should I fetch refreshments? I know how you think eating stimulates your brain.”

  “To be honest, I’ve lost my appetite,” I said.

  “My, this truly is an emergency.” He started clicking away on the keyboard. “As for you, I can offer you search results for fury malfunctions.”

  I chewed my lip thoughtfully. “Don’t do it on the FBM server. Use incognito mode. I don’t want them to get wind of any problems.”

  “An excellent idea. If you’re on the fritz, we don’t want the bosses to know.” He began typing feverishly.

  I sat on the edge of his desk. “I don’t feel on the fritz. I feel normal except for the fact that no one can see me.”

  “Welcome to my world,” Neville muttered.

  “Aw, Neville. Are you the Jan Brady to my Marcia?”

  The wizard squinted at the screen. “I didn’t mean in reference to you. I only meant in general.”

  He sounded so serious that I immediately felt guilty for mocking him. “Do you really feel invisible?”

  “I sometimes feel overlooked, I suppose. Being an introvert doesn’t help. It’s why I enjoy my online communities so much. I feel more seen there than I do in real life, even though no one actually sees me.”

  “I’m sorry, Neville. I see you. Honestly, I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

  “That’s because you rely on me for work,” he said. “If it weren’t for my role here, I doubt you’d pay me any attention either.”

  “Neville, that’s not true.” Even as the protest left me, I wasn’t sure I believed it. Would I hang out with Neville under different circumstances?

  “It’s no big deal,” he said. “I understand. You have Clara and Sassy. The members of your family that you actually like. There’s no room in the barn for old Neville. Might as well put me out to pasture.”

  I struggled to find the appropriate response. “I’m sorry you feel that way. For what it’s worth, I enjoy our time together and even if they replaced you—or me, I’d still want to hang out with you.”

  His eyes grew round and hopeful. “Really?”

  “Really.” I pulled my chair from my desk and scooted closer to him. “What made your thoughts take such a dark turn?”

  He resumed typing on the keyboard. “It was chatting with Wili. She has such a presence. She looks so unassuming, yet everyone talks to her. As much as I enjoyed our time together, it made me feel inferior.”

  “No one can make you feel inferior, Neville.”

  “Oh, I know all that, Agent Fury. I only mean that it reminded me how insignificant I feel at times. I live here and yet Wilfrieda seems to have made more friends during her brief visit than I’ve made in years.”

  “Socializing is within your control, you know. Spend more time offline. Seek out friends you can meet up with for Dungeons & Dragons or a Lego challenge or a book club meeting.”

  “Or maybe I could go to The Cheese Wheel with you and Clara one evening. That might be fun.”

  “Sure,” I said halfheartedly. Neville and I already spent an inordinate amount of time together. As much as I liked the wizard, I wasn’t sure that adding him to my social calendar was the way forward.

  Neville leaned closer to the screen and a whoosh of air escaped him. “Oh, my.”

  I jumped behind him to peer over his shoulder. “What? You found something?”

  “It’s a fairly distressing story.”

  “How distressing?”

  “There was a fury named Allegra two hundred years ago.” He traced the line he was reading on the screen. “She had a breakdown in Boston. Her powers seemed to control her rather than the other way around. She wreaked havoc unti
l the organization…” He swallowed hard. “Until they eliminated her.”

  I reeled back. “They killed her?”

  “According to the records, she was deemed a threat. The fact that she was a powerful and rare supernatural made her all the more dangerous.”

  “Because she malfunctioned? Couldn’t they offer help instead?” I scanned the paragraph to see what went wrong. “Well, she wasn’t invisible.” She turned a dozen people to stone and couldn’t seem to stop. The FBM covered it up after they killed her, except they weren’t called the FBM back then. They were an outpost of the Royal Bureau of Magic. England had sent more than your garden-variety colonists to America, it seemed.

  “They failed to identify the source of her malfunction,” Neville said. “The report states that Allegra simply lost control of her abilities.”

  “I don’t think that’s what happened to me.” I felt too normal.

  “You can’t control your invisibility,” Neville said. “What if that’s only one step in the wrong direction?”

  “You think I might lose control of other traits?” The thought was unnerving, especially in light of my performance at the vampire keg party. Maybe I enjoyed myself a little too much.

  Neville continued to read. “There’s more.”

  “What now? Allegra also turned a basket of puppies to stone before the agents murdered her?”

  “No, this isn’t Allegra. It’s about a fury’s invisibility.” Neville leaned back in his chair. “I do fear, Agent Fury, that if we can’t restore you to your physical form soon, there’s a danger you’ll be lost to us forever.”

  “Lost as in…?”

  “As in no return to physical form. Ever.”

  An immortal lifetime of invisibility? I’d be like Alice. A ghost.

  My heart began to race. “Neville, we have to do something. I don’t want to be a ghost.” Haunting my family would get old very quickly. I didn’t know how Alice endured it.

  “It’s worse than that, I’m afraid,” Neville said. “You won’t be a ghost. When I say no return to physical form, I mean you’ll simply fade into the ether.” His expression clouded over. “Until you cease to be anything at all.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Neville’s research left me feeling nauseated and I exited the office to clear my head. The prospect of ceasing to exist was too horrible to contemplate. I was supposed to be immortal—not that I necessarily wanted to live that long. The idea that I could be blinked out of existence at my age was downright frightening. I felt as though I was standing on the threshold of my life and could see the road ahead. Of course, moving back to Chipping Cheddar from San Francisco had resulted in mild regression, but I was in my own house now and embarking on a serious relationship. I was making progress as an adult and I refused to let invisibility become an insurmountable obstacle.

  I walked along the promenade, as oblivious to the presence of the pedestrians as they were to mine. A seagull swooped down, skimming the top of my head and yanking my hair in the process. I cried out and swatted the bird away. Yet another downside to invisibility. At least bats had radar. There’d be no bats getting tangled in my hair, thank the gods.

  As I continued to walk, ducking occasionally to avoid the rats with wings, I created a mental list of everyone I came into contact with the day before I turned invisible. My routine was fairly predictable. On a typical day I could count on one hand the number of people I encountered. Of those who knew I was a fury, only my immediate family had an incentive to load me up with fury powers and I ruled them out.

  But, of course, it hadn’t been a typical day. I’d attended Mayor Whitehead’s party, which made my list of interactions longer than it otherwise would’ve been.

  Mayor Whitehead planned the party and invited me. What if she was somehow to blame for my current state—but how? The mayor was human and knew nothing about the supernatural world.

  Or so I believed.

  What if we were wrong about her? She unseated the incumbent mayor to the surprise of everyone. We assumed, of course, that she managed it without magic. Even if she did have one foot in the supernatural world, why would she target me? She had no reason to want me to embrace my full potential, unless she’d watched too many Batman movies and was in the market for a dark and broody protector of the town. It seemed unlikely.

  Then again, what if she wasn’t trying to trigger more fury traits? If she considered me an anticipatory threat, it was possible she was trying to sideline me before I could become a problem. Maybe invisibility was a fluke.

  Maybe she intended to kill me.

  I shivered and it had nothing to do with the chill in the air. As troubling as the idea was, I had to look into Mayor Whitehead. I could easily snoop around the mayor’s office without being seen so I might as well take advantage of it.

  I flew over to the mayor’s office and waltzed straight through the lobby and past the receptionist. Mayor Whitehead sat at her desk eating a salad. I watched as she dipped the forkful of lettuce in a ramekin of dressing and then ate it. Who dipped their lettuce in dressing? Maybe she really was a monster in disguise.

  I inched closer and examined the items on her desk. Lots of dull paperwork. Great balls of fury, and I thought FBM bureaucracy was a nuisance. The mayor had it much worse. Petitions. Budgets. Spreadsheets. A calendar littered with meetings.

  There was nothing that suggested knowledge of supernaturals and no references to me. It would be helpful to scroll through her phone, but it was directly next to the plate—too close for me to grab without being noticed.

  As though she sensed eyes on her phone, the mayor tapped the screen and selected ‘Happy Playlist.’ I smiled, recognizing the beginning of The Reflex by Duran Duran. Anton had been into all types of music growing up and I’d learned the names of songs and bands through him. The knowledge was like second-hand smoke, drifting into my room and seeping into my system every time he played a song.

  The mayor tapped her fork on the side of the plate, mimicking the rhythm of the song. As she swiveled to face the computer, I slid the phone off the desk and hoped the music continued to play while I scrolled.

  I started with text messages, thumbing through familiar names and guests thanking her for a wonderful party. No mentions of supernaturals or the FBM. I ignored the social media accounts; it made no sense for her to post anything suspicious. The apps were standard. No demon identification app on the mayor’s phone!

  I placed the phone next to the plate as the landline buzzed. “Mayor, you have a call on line one.”

  “I’m eating right now. Can you take a message?”

  Technically, she was reading an article about a sugar detox meal plan, but I wasn’t in a position to call her out.

  “It’s Hugh.”

  Hugh? As in creepy werewolf Hugh? Why would Hugh be calling the mayor? Husbourne Crawley was our man on the inside. The white wizard served on both the human and supernatural councils so that he could feed us information and protect our interests among the humans. Hugh was far too wolf-centric to serve in that role.

  The mayor set down her fork. “Thank you.” She clicked the speaker button on the phone. “How are you, Hugh?”

  “Excellent, Wilhelmina. And you?”

  Wilhelmina? Since when were they so close? When the supernatural council voted on whether to enlighten the mayor as to our existence, I was fairly certain Hugh voted against it. Did she know he was a werewolf?

  “Stressed and busy. The party threw me off my schedule and I’ve been struggling to get back on track.”

  “Nothing that a round of golf won’t cure,” Hugh said smoothly.

  What was he up to?

  “I’m afraid I don’t have time for golf, Hugh.”

  “How about dinner then? I have a prior engagement tonight, but we could meet beforehand.”

  My stomach plummeted when I realized his prior engagement was the supernatural council meeting. I’d have to attend while invisible and explain my condition to the
council members. Terrific.

  The mayor tapped her fingers on the desk, appearing to contemplate the offer.

  Say no! What reason could the mayor possibly have for agreeing to dinner with Hugh Phelps?

  “The earliest I can do is six,” she said, although I heard a note of reluctance in her voice. That made me feel a little better. Still, why go at all? Were Hugh and the mayor working together—against me? What possible motive could there be? Hugh and I didn’t particularly like each other—mainly because I refused his offer to be his chick on the side—but I couldn’t think of any reason he’d want me out of the way.

  “Six is perfect. I’ll meet you at Wedge. Our usual table.”

  Their usual table?

  Hugh’s mail order bride was a werewolf because his family was fixated on preserving their line, but I knew from experience that Hugh was open to outside relationships. Mayor Whitehead struck me as a smart, sensible woman. What could she possibly see in Hugh?

  “I’ll see you then.” She clicked the button and returned her attention to the salad. With a deep sigh, she dumped the remainder of the dressing on the salad. Well, there was one point in her favor.

  Dozens of questions circled the drain in my head as I vacated the office. I had to know why Hugh and Mayor Whitehead were having clandestine meetings.

  It was shaping up to be a busy evening.

  The restaurant was tucked away in a secluded part of town. The danger of them running into anyone important here was minimal. Hugh was the first to arrive and I noticed the hostess greeted him by name.

  “Your table is ready,” she said. “Would you like to sit now or wait for the rest of your party?”

  “I’ll sit. She knows where to find me.”

  Curiouser and curiouser.

  I trailed behind them and took a seat at an empty table within earshot. I nearly signaled the server to order a drink until I remembered no one could see me.

  Hugh ordered a dry martini with three olives and a glass of Merlot. So he even knew her preferred drink.

  The mayor hurried to the back of the restaurant, casting furtive glances around the room, probably to see whether she recognized anyone. Nothing screamed suspicious like hiding in a shadowy corner of a restaurant where no one would see you.