Lost in Mist and Shadow: A Between the Worlds Novel (22 page)

“That’s good to know,” Riordan said, choosing his words carefully. “And are you staying with him or is he staying with you right now?”

Allie blinked at the unexpected question. “Oh, Well, ahhh. We’re dating. Sort of. The elven equivalent of dating I mean. But we don’t live together.”

“You believe Allie’s life may be in danger?” Jess asked, ignoring her less than coherent explanation of their relationship.

“I am concerned that if this escalates further the next incident may directly threaten her safety,” Riordan said seriously.

Allie shook her head, “No, I don’t believe that. I don’t believe this is someone who really wants to hurt me-“

“Ms. McCarthy…”

“No. And even if you are right that this is something that is going to get worse it only ever happens here, at the store,” Allie pushed the words out desperately, feeling as if her life was spiraling out of control. “I can ask my friends to come to work with me – my friend Jason was here most of the day with me and he would have been here now if I hadn’t told him to go after the cameras were fixed.”

“Your surveillance system is working?” Smythe asked, pocketing his phone.

“Oh, that’s right, it is. I forgot, it was fixed this afternoon. Let’s go in to the store and we can check the footage,” she felt foolish not to have thought of that sooner.

They all filed in, Smythe at the back telling Riordan the police wrecker was on its way to pick up Allie’s car. Allie felt Jess’s hand on her lower back; he had kept in physical contact with her since arriving and she knew it was meant to help her. He spoke quietly into her mind as they walked “
You should come stay with me my love it is the wise thing to do
.”

“
I can’t Jess. I can’t let this consume my whole life. I can’t be under Guard again, just because we don’t know what’s going on. Please. I am telling you everything now, I’m telling you as soon as things happen. But don’t make me a prisoner in my home or worse pull me away from it
,” she begged in her mind trying to get him to understand that she could not lose her life to save it. As they reached the main room she was distracted trying to divide her attention to talk to him and she tripped and rolled her bad ankle. Jess managed to catch her before she hit the floor, but it hurt badly enough to force tears from her eyes.

Embarrassed and too proud to admit how much it hurt she staggered the rest of the way to the stool she kept behind the counter and managed to perch on it and pull her laptop out, setting it up on the counter. All four of the police looked worried, but she ignored them, quickly starting the machine.

“Aliaine, are you alright?” Brynneth asked. Something in the way he spoke made her think that he already knew she wasn’t, but she didn’t want to ask for help in front of everyone.

“I twisted my ankle a bit. It’s nothing major, I just need to sit for a minute.” The words sounded forced and stiff, but she held back the tears and that was a victory.

“If you don’t mind me asking, I noticed the limp, what happened to your ankle?” Smythe asked. Riordan flushed at the question, looking uncomfortable, and Allie wondered what if anything he had told his new partner about her and about what had happened.

“I don’t mind,” Allie said, ignoring the indignant sound Jess made, “I was helping the police and the Guard investigate a series of murders in March when the killer kidnapped me. My ankle was broken during a sort of accidental escape attempt, and then later it was injured further by one of his accomplices. It’s never really going to heal properly, so I limp now and sometimes it bothers me more than others.”

“Oh,” Smythe said, “I’m sorry I asked. I didn’t mean to bring up anything upsetting. I thought it might have been an accident.”

“Don’t apologize detective. You were really nice about asking, and honestly you are a detective. Curiosity is your job after all,” she said as she worked to access the new camera footage.

Riordan smiled at that, but his eyes were sad. She wondered how often he thought about his former partner, someone from all accounts who had been his good friend, who had also been a murderer and who Riordan had been forced to kill
. It must be a bitter thing to live with,
Allie thought, the pain from her ankle making it hard to focus
I wonder if I should tell him that it was my charm on Walters’ gun that made it misfire that night?

“What?”
Jess’s voice in her mind startled her so much that she physically jerked, trying to cover it by shifting the computer so that the others could see the screen. She hadn’t realized she was projecting her thoughts to him, or maybe that he was simply able to read her more easily at this proximity. She felt herself blushing and looked down to hide it. “
You spelled his gun? That is why it didn’t fire?
”

“
Yes,”
she replied reluctantly, not sure what he would think about that. She had never told anyone afterwards about that particular detail of the night’s events. “
I know a little charm to keep a gun from firing. I wasn’t even sure if it would do any good, but I felt so helpless I just wanted to do something. When you told me later that Walters had pulled the trigger but his gun misfired, I knew why.
” Then she added defensively “
I’m not sorry I did it”.

“
Sorry? Why would you be? You saved detective Riordan’s life,
” Jess thought back, genuinely puzzled.

“I’m not seeing anything,” Riordan said, bringing Allie back to reality. She refocused outward, thinking again that trying to have internal and external conversations simultaneously was not easy.

“Hang on let me go back to when the cameras came on,” Allie said, quickly shifting the footage back to the point that afternoon when James had fixed the problem keeping the cameras from transmitting. As they watched the segregated screen went from four blank squares to four video images. “There. That’s when it first started recording.”

“Can you pull up just the image from the back lot?” Smythe asked, leaning forward intently.

“Sure,” Allie said agreeably, switching the view so that the single image filled the entire screen. Her car sat in its usual place alone.

Smythe reached up, tapping the screen gently, “Do these already look flat to you, Jim?”

Everyone leaned forward then, crowding the small space. Riordan frowned, “You know, I think you’re right. It’s hard to be sure with the angle but it does look like they’re already flat.”

“But that would mean whoever did this came right after I opened, or early in the day, and did it then. That’s just crazy,” Allie said.

The police exchanged worried looks and Allie didn’t need to be an empath to know this only increased their concern for her safety.

She closed her eyes, sighing. “Okay. Well, the cameras are working again, that’s something right? I’ll be extra careful and I’ll see about having friends come with me to work. I’m going to have to get rides back and forth anyway until I get my tires replaced. And if anything else happens detectives I will let you know immediately.”

Riordan nodded reluctantly. “Just be careful. Try not to go anywhere alone for a while. And keep in touch.”

Allie returned the nod as the two detectives headed slowly towards the back door, no doubt to wait by her car for the police wrecker to come pick it up. Allie tried to shield her thoughts so that Jess wouldn’t know how upset she really was
This is such a nightmare
she thought
I just want my life to go back to the way it was

She started to stand but Brynneth gently pressed her to sit. “Aliaine let me look at your ankle please.”

“Call me Allie. Please,” she said sitting back down reluctantly. “And you don’t need to. I know you can’t do much for it.”

“Let me judge that,” Brynneth said kneeling down and taking her ankle in his hands. “And I will call you Allie if you will call me Bryn as Jess does.”

She looked up at Jessilaen, startled that Brynneth would offer her a nickname, a sign of intimacy among the elves who were very particular about their names. Jess smiled encouragingly at her and nodded slightly. “Okay, Bryn, if you insist.”

The shortened name felt strange on her tongue after so long calling him Brynneth. It would take some getting used to, but she had to admit she liked him the best of the other elves that she knew. It was a bit flattering to know he was willing to give her his nickname, even if it was only in return for her offering her own. His hands were gentle on her ankle and she relaxed slightly as the pain receded.

“Allie when I told you that I could not heal the injury much further I did not mean that the ankle itself could never be healed again,” Brynneth said, his voice holding enough rebuke to make Allie flush. “You have been on it too much and have strained the muscles. This must be paining you a great deal.”

“Well I’m not the most graceful person. I wasn’t that graceful before my ankle was messed up, and that hasn’t improved anything,” Allie said, her honesty making Jess look away to hide a smile. “I have a tendency to bump my bad foot into things or catch that leg on stuff and twist or pull it.”

Brynneth didn’t even try to hide his smile. “I’m beginning to see your wisdom in choosing to ask for healing instead of money as recompense for helping the Guard.”

Allie winced, “Actually, about that. I wasn’t asking for that because of my ankle…”

She hesitated, and he looked up, continuing to work a minor healing on her ankle as he waited patiently for her to continue. The silence drew out though as she lost her nerve, unsure how to admit that she needed help of a different sort.

When it was clear Allie wasn’t going to say anything else, Jess spoke for her, hoping she would forgive him. It was not his place, but he was starting to understand how difficult it was for her to admit her weaknesses and knowing Brynneth as well as he did he was certain the healer would both understand and be able to help her. “Allie has been struggling with tromluithe – she calls them panic attacks – since being injured. She was hoping that you could aid her by healing some of the psychological damage.”

“I see,” Brynneth said slowly. “It is not unusual of course to struggle with the after effects of such trauma. My own specialty is healing of a more immediately physical sort, but I should be able to offer you some help. I am surprised though that your own gift has not compensated more for that than anything an outside healer could do.”

“My own gift is still not…I don’t have complete control over it yet,” Allie said.

Brynneth did not immediately respond, but looked thoughtful. “Your store is closed tomorrow, yes?”

“Yes.”

“Then if it suits you I shall visit you tomorrow and offer what healing I can to you,” he said. “As we agreed.”

“Haven’t you already been giving me healing to keep your end of our bargain?” Allie asked, puzzled, and realizing that she could have made a huge mistake by letting him help her when she needed his efforts with something so much more important.

“No, what I have done so far has been little more than basic first aid. You bargained for healing work, and on my honor I will give you the full measure of what you asked for.”

Allie nodded slightly, not sure what the difference was since it all seemed like healing to her. She wasn’t about to argue though, when she could very easily have just screwed herself by accepting minor healing for her ankle without stopping to be sure that wasn’t going to count as the healing he owed her. She had a sneaking suspicion that if he had been inclined that way Brynneth could have gotten her on a technicality and she felt both relieved that he hadn’t and stupid for not thinking more clearly. The hardest part about dealing with elves was the layers and layers of complexity that every simple thing took on….

“Alright,” she said, rubbing her temples, “so you’ll come by tomorrow. Could you…would you guys mind giving me a ride home tonight?”

“Allie,” Jess said, exasperated. “I am hardly planning to let you walk.”

Brynneth laughed out loud at that, and Allie blushed.

**************************

“We need to take a more direct approach…” the leader of the group spoke in a hushed voice to the woman she had pulled aside, while the others were busy getting ready for the meeting. The woman’s eyes sought out Jerry, and she frowned to see him smiling and chatting with another group member. The leader spoke again, impatiently, “Did you hear me? Pay attention!”

“Sorry,” she mumbled, still distracted.

The leader frowned, her face marred by the expression which seemed oddly out of place. “You’re attempts to throw her off aren’t enough. We need to try something more direct.”

“More direct? No,” she shook her head, “No let me keep trying. What I’m doing is working…”

“It is not working. She’s helping them – again! – and it was her help before that ruined everything.”

“No, it was Walters making deals with elves and not listening to you that ruined everything,” she hissed back, her eyes now darting around to be sure no one else was noticing this exchange. The meeting was supposed to show their solidarity to the group, to reinforce that they were all in this together, working to cleanse the earth of the corruption of Fairy. It wouldn’t do to have anyone notice dissent between the leader and anyone else. It could undermine her position and that was too great a risk. The leader herself might not realize that but she did; she knew how easily everything could fall apart now that the group was under pressure and so close to achieving their goal. “Listen, let me keep trying and I’ll make sure she’s too distracted to see what’s really going on. As it is they don’t even have any idea about us or what we are doing.”