Tales from the Oriceran Universe: Fans Write For The Fans: Volume 1 (Oriceran Fans Write For the Fans)

by Michael Anderle

  Chapter Seven

  My first text went to Stacey to let her know I was ok, the second to the sheriff with photos to confirm success.

  Reaching the Jeep, I put my gear in it and headed for home. I had not forgotten my earlier orders from Stacey. First thing when I reached home was to clean and put up the equipment. Next was a long hot shower. Then I pointed the Jeep back toward town.

  It was pushing one in the morning when I pulled around the back of the 5th Wheel. It had already shut down for the night. After slipping through the back door, I headed for the bar. Stacey was drinking a beer with a shot of Hot Damn whiskey. I rapped on the doorframe between the front and back room to let her know I was there. Her wards had already warned her, but like I said earlier, not a good idea to surprise her.

  “What did you find out there, Jed?” she asked.

  I could tell she was still feeling down about losing the kid and knew what info she wanted.

  “Took out six Pukes and destroyed all of their poison, plus confirmed that Baron is the boss. Will be going after him later,” I whispered, placing my arms around her as she melted against me. Her body finally relaxed some, knowing that I had cleaned up the mess for now and avenged the kid.

  She spun around and looked up at me, and I leaned in closer. Our lips came together lightly at first, the passion building slowly. We both wanted to remember life after dealing with death. Breaking the embrace, she headed for her office and living quarters in the back. She grabbed a bottle of Even Williams 1783 as she passed the bar and disappeared into her private quarters.

  I didn’t have to be knocked upside the head to figure out that I was supposed to follow, and I followed quickly.

  My problems would wait for another day.

  The End

  For Now

  Author Notes

  I want to thank everyone at LMBPN publishing, especially Martha Carr and Michael Anderle for making this story possible. I was fortunate last year to have a story published in Tales from the Kurtherian Universe Fans Write Volume Two.

  The first story was much different than this one. My father had become very sick, and I stayed in the hospital with him almost every day for over three weeks. Didn’t know if he would come home or not at that time, but the result kept him bedridden with a very severe flare of his Alzheimer’s. That story was therapeutic in dealing with the situation in ways I would not have believed at the time it was submitted.

  I received many responses from people who had experienced the same thing or were also going through it at that time. These people thanked me for helping them. I couldn’t believe it. That the emotion of that little story resonated with so many was very humbling. I want to thank everyone that contacted me; you made it possible to continue with my writing, knowing that I had made a difference. Update: My father passed away on September 15th, 2018. I was fortunate enough to care for him at home on the farm. I know it was a blessing to keep him there for my mother during his final days. It was not easy, but I found the strength from friends, family, and fans of that first story to endure the deterioration of my father’s health. Thank you.

  Several things are real and a part of history in this story. The Cornbread Mafia did exist with Johnny Boone at the head of it and became public knowledge in 1989. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornbread_Mafia. The 5th Wheel bar still operates in Raywick, KY. I grew up in this area and know it well.

  All of this would not be possible without Erika, Sarah, and Natale. These three talented organizer/authors have done the heavy lifting to make all this come together. They are amazing, and I have been blessed to meet all three. Thank you!

  I write these notes at the 20booksVegas gathering and over the last few days where I have talked, laughed and learned so much from everyone. Sometimes when you deal with others online, you wonder how they will be in person. I am happy to say they are just as awesome in real life. A big shout out to all my fellow JIT members. You are a wonderful family, and the journey continues.

  Tim Bischoff

  Just A Little Magic

  By Kat N Snow

  Talents are funny things. Some have them very strongly, and others have just a bit. Mostly it depends on what you do with them. Do these girls have enough?

  Dedication

  Dedicated to my dad, who had so many sci fi and fantasy books around the house when I was a kid that it was easy for me to transition from fairy tales to them.

  Chapter One

  “It’s in the eyes. Always can tell that way.” Sara took a sip of her drink.

  “Oh, please! You don’t really believe that, do you?” Her friend Lydia made a face.

  “Yes, I do. Look around the room. The guy at the end of the bar—watch his eyes. He isn’t comfortable here. You can tell by the way he stares at the top of the bar, then glances up, and his eyes flit from one person to another and back down.”

  Lydia watched him for a minute and agreed. “Okay, I’ll give you that one. What about the one next to him?”

  “The good-looking elf? He’s taken. Watch how his eyes continually go to the woman across the room. They are together.” She grinned.

  Lydia argued, “How do you know he isn’t just thinking about hitting on her? Why do you think they are together?”

  “He isn’t nervous; it’s more checking to see that she’s okay than planning something.”

  At that point, the woman he’d been watching walked over to the elf, and they got their stuff together and left.

  Lydia looked at Sara with a grimace. “Are you sure you aren’t using magic on these people?” Sara laughed, “Don’t have to. Already told you—it’s in the eyes.”

  Suddenly she looked down at her drink and asked, “The redhaired woman near the wall. Is she still staring at me?”

  Lydia glanced in that direction. ”Yeah, do you know her?”

  “No, but look at her eyes. Something is very wrong there. Let’s go.”

  They finished their drinks quickly and grabbed their bags. Casually walking toward the door, Sara glanced around the room and saw the redhead wasn’t there anymore. Where had she gone?

  Lydia closed her eyes for a second as they neared the door. “She’s outside. Careful…”

  Having a small amount of magic in a world where some had a lot could be both a blessing and a problem. Knowing there were others with much stronger magic made you careful. Not having enough magic to do much made you even more careful. Sara could read people somewhat with her magic, but she had enough psychological ability that she rarely used the magic. She thought it was rude to read everyone she came in contact with, and it was also exhausting. Sometimes it was confusing as well because she only caught a glimpse of feelings. Lydia could feel more if she concentrated. She also felt intent if they were thinking of something specific. If she wasn’t paying attention, it was just mental noise and she ignored it. Neither of them had enough magic to do much more, but what they had came in handy sometimes.

  They decided to try the back door. It was closer to where they’d parked anyway, but as they neared it, Lydia stopped. “Nope, she moved back here. Are you sure you don’t know her? Stole her boyfriend or something?”

  Sara shook her head. She had no clue what the problem was. A table of people gathered up their things as they passed and Sara grabbed Lydia’s arm. “Let’s walk out with them.”

  That worked out well; nobody bothered them as they got to the car. In the car with the locks engaged, they thought it was all fine until the voice came from the back seat. “Start the car and drive to the back of the parking lot. Now!”

  Sara did so with shaking hands. She wondered what the woman wanted with them.

  “Okay, which one of you reads minds?” the redhead snarled. Sara and Lydia looked at each other in confusion. “Neither of us,” Sara squeaked out.

  “Don’t lie to me! I know one of you does!’

  Sara stared straight into her eyes and answered, “If either of us could read minds, would we have gotten in the car?”
/>   The redhead sat back in the seat. “Fuck. He lied to me.

  “Okay, what’s going on?” Sara relaxed a bit. This obviously had nothing to do with either her or Lydia.

  “Never mind. You can’t help me.” The redhead started crying quietly.

  Lydia turned in her seat. “Probably not, but if you tell us what the problem is, we might have some ideas. And what’s your name? I can feel you have magic. Why can’t you do anything yourself?”

  “Oh, I’m Kate. And yes, I have some magic, but I’m a warrior. I don’t have anything mental like you two. You want someone killed, let me know. Joke.

  “I don’t know how you can help now, but I’m out of ideas. I met this guy a few nights ago. Seemed perfect to me, but boy, was I wrong. I didn’t know at first, but he was from one of the dark families. When I found out, I walked away. Later I realized my grandmother’s necklace was missing. I went looking for him last night, and he just smirked and said he had no idea what I was talking about. The stone is an artifact, and I’ve got to get it back. I’ve never tried to use it, and I have no idea what it can do. And it was my gram’s! I need to know where he has it. I thought if I could find someone who read minds, they could check him out and tell me. One of my friends said she knew a guy at that bar who knew someone. He said it was you two.” She started crying again.

  Sara sighed. “It’s just a bar game I play. I can get a feeling about someone, but that’s the extent of my magic, and it doesn’t always work. Mostly I’m used to watching faces, so I’ve gotten so I can see things about them by watching their eyes. Wait, do you have anything else that belonged to your grandmother? Lydia might be able to at least get a direction from it.”

  Kate got excited and started looking in her purse. She pulled out a tiny teddy bear. “Would this work? I gave it to her when I was a little girl, so I took it when she died.” She smiled sadly and handed it to Lydia.

  Lydia sat back, closed her eyes, and concentrated on the bear. She smiled a little. It held happiness. She tried to attach the feeling to the grandmother. “The only thing I get from this is her feeling for you. She loved you a lot. But I’m sorry, no direction.”

  “Where does this guy hang out? Maybe we could get something from him if we were near him.”

  Kate’s eyes went wide. “After last night, I shouldn’t go near him. I’m not sure what would happen! He might get angry, and things could go badly wrong. I don’t want to start a war, just get my necklace back!”

  Lydia rolled her eyes. ”I didn’t mean you should! I meant, if we went to wherever he hangs and he saw you across the room, we would be near him and pick something up from him that way. Like, one of us can stroll up near him and flirt a little to keep his attention and… What?”

  Kate had held up a hand to stop her and looked from one girl to the other, then explained. “No offense meant, but neither of you looks like the kind of girls he goes for. You both look like nice little secretaries who just got off from work after a long day. Your hair looks blah, no makeup, and your clothes are just… No, it won’t work. You don’t look like rich girls out for a good time.”

  The girls looked at Kate, giggled since they knew what she was talking about. They had only stopped for a drink at that place. Neither had planned on being out for the night.

  Sara laughed. ”Not a problem. Come with us to my place and I will show you why.”

  Chapter Two

  Kate sat on a white couch looking around in shock. Sara’s condo made hers look like a blue-collar starter home. Mostly white and shades of gray, it had a fireplace and an entertainment system that played softly. Kate still hadn’t figured out where the music was coming from or where the speakers were, but it sounded like a band playing softly close by.

  Sara called from the bedroom, “The bar is stocked if you want something while you wait. We shouldn’t be too long.”

  Twenty minutes later, out walked two women, one dressed in soft black leather and the other in deep-blue suede. The shoes alone had cost a mint. The messy dark-brown bun Sarah had worn was now long shiny curls. Lydia’s blonde ponytail was a well-cut side-swept bob. Their makeup was perfect. Both wore simple jewelry that was quite obviously real.

  Sara twirled and grinned. “Think this will work?” They posed. Kate felt stupid about what she had said.

  Sara’s face sobered. “The way you saw us at the bar? We had just gotten off work. It’s very casual dress there, mostly because I want to be comfortable when I work and I own the company. It’s a specialty card company, so there are only a few of us, but it pays the bills. You might have heard of it? BEA cards?”

  Kate giggled. “I’ve bought several of them. Everyone loves those! I’ve always wondered what the initials stood for?”

  “Well, not everyone.” Sara grinned. “Getting an explosion of tiny stars or flowers at a bridal shower or balloons at a birthday is probably fine. Getting spiders from an ex-boyfriend is probably not!” They all laughed at that one. “The initials stand for ‘Blow ‘em away,’ which was what we talked about doing and hoped for when we started the business.”

  “Why are you doing this, then? I don’t have any close friends who would help me with this, and after what I did at the bar, I thought maybe being working girls, you’d understand what it meant to lose something important. But…” Kate looked at them.

  “You don’t have to be poor to understand family. If I’d lost something my gram gave me, I’d be going crazy trying to find it—and the item is an artifact. Now let’s get a move on. We don’t have all night!” With that, Lydia and Sara headed for the door, Kate jumping up to join them.

  Chapter Three

  “Okay, this was where I met him, so it’s a possibility. But it will take a while to get in.” Kate looked around. The bar must be jumping since the line outside had about thirty people in it.

  Sara looked at Kate. “You go in first. Stand at the end of the bar and look for him. If he is there, stare at him and think about the necklace when you see us walk in. As for getting in…”

  Lydia walked up to the bouncer and gave him a hug. It was amusing to watch. Even in heels, she barely came up to his shoulder. “Hi, Jimmy! How’s it going?” He grinned and hugged her in return, doing the same to Sara. “Wow, it’s been a while. Where have the most beautiful girls I know been?”

  Lydia turned to Kate. “This is my cousin Jimmy. Jimmy, my friend Kate.”

  He looked at her and said, “Three gorgeous girls! Kate, you have any problems in here, let me know. Any friend of Lydia’s is a friend of mine.”

  Sara turned to Kate and said, “Go ahead on in. Be there in a minute.” Jimmy opened the door for her and some of the people waiting groaned. They could hear the crowd complaining after the other two girls finished talking and hugged Jimmy again and were let in.

  Once inside, they looked around. Kate was at the bar, and a man was talking to her. Sara softly told Lydia, “Well, that worked out well, as long as she doesn’t give us away. That’s our guy with her now. I can tell he thinks he’s pulled one over on her. His face looks serious, but his eyes say he thinks the whole thing is funny. If he does this kind of thing a lot, he may not even have realized what it was. Let’s do this. I will go right, you go left.”

  Sara walked up to the bar and leaned toward the bartender, giving her low-cut leather shirt just enough tautness to expose more cleavage. It brought the bartender’s eyes to her, and also the eyes of the guy who was with Kate, which was what she had been hoping for. As she stood back up after ordering her drink, she made sure to brush against him. Turning slightly, she looked into his eyes and apologized. After getting her drink, she backed off several feet and waited for Lydia.

  When they got far enough from the couple, she whispered to Lydia, “Get anything? I did. It’s definitely him, and his eyes went straight to my necklace.”

  Lydia snorted. “Seriously? With all that hanging out? To the necklace?”

  Sara lifted her chin. “They are not ‘hanging out,” as you s
o rudely put it. They are carefully exhibited to their best advantage. Worked, didn’t it? Even though it wasn’t exactly what his eyes were drawn to.” She grinned. “Seriously, did you get anything?”

  “Not really. All I got was a box with other jewelry. No direction, no intent. Not about the necklace, anyway, but he isn’t done with Kate. Nothing specific about why, just that he feels like he has her reeled in for something. Maybe more jewelry, but I don’t have a clue.” Lydia sighed. “Sorry. And um, I think your ‘necklace’ did its work. Look who is coming this way.”

  Sara glanced at the bar where Kate had been. She had disappeared into the crowd, but the guy was walking toward them.

  “Hi there, ladies. Haven’t seen you around here before. I’m Rob. Can I buy you two a drink?” He was smiling pleasantly but looking at Sara’s cleavage.

  Sara raised an eyebrow. “Eyes are up here, pal, and no thanks.”

  He chuckled and apologized. “Sorry. I was looking at the lovely necklace you have on. It’s very different.” And it was, which was why she’d worn it. Instead of being a diamond or other precious stone, it was a deep purple opal set in white gold. But it wasn’t an artifact, it was just a necklace. He obviously hadn’t taken Kate’s for what it was. Why was he stealing them, then?

  Sara looked at him in the eyes. “When I was at the bar, I thought you were already with someone.” She still got nothing except amusement.

  “Ah, the little stalker girl? Just someone I dated once who won’t go away. She is always coming up to me about something or other. Did I leave my sweater at your place, or would I like to have dinner at her place? We didn’t click, but she keeps coming back!” He had a rueful look on his face. Sara might even have bought that story if she hadn’t already heard the truth from Kate—and if he hadn’t kept stealing glances at her necklace.