Murder Between the Worlds: A Between the Worlds Novel (18 page)

“If there’s nothing else I need to get started on this. This book is over 500 pages of cramped handwritten everything. It’s going to be a lot to go through and I don’t know yet if it’s coded.”

“Coded?” Riordan sounded as tired as she felt. “What do you mean coded?”

“Most grimoires were written in code. Sometimes runic alphabets, where you have to know the runes to read it, sometimes substitution codes, where you need to know that one word or phrase means something else, sometimes key codes, where a key aspects of each spell or ritual is left out. It’s all to ensure that the book can’t be used by anyone but the proper owner,” Allie said

“If it’s coded, can you, um, break the code?” Riordan asked.

“I have to,” Allie said grimly.

Zarethyn nodded abruptly, as if he had decided something, “Read the book and see what you can uncover; we will decide how else to handle it based on what you find. I believe you are correct in your evaluation of the gravity of your situation and the risk to our investigation should you be harmed. It would be best for you to come back with us to the Outpost, you can be protected there with less risk.”

“No way,” Walters said, as Riordan shook his head and added “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

The Elven Captain frowned, “It is the best course of action.”

“How about we put her in human protective custody?” Walters said “She’d be safer with us, and then there’d be no conflict of interest.”

“Conflict of interest?” Jess’s voice was dangerous

“Hey, I call ‘em like I see ‘em,” Walters said

“She would be safer at the Outpost.” Zarethyn started before Riordan interrupted him.

“In human custody…”

“Stop! Just stop,” Allie said, standing up and clutching the book. Jess stood up with her, his hand on her back. She couldn’t help but draw comfort from the touch, a steadying presence as she spoke. “I can’t just put my whole life on hold indefinitely until this is solved. I have a business to run if I’d like to keep paying my bills. I don’t want to be horribly murdered but I can’t run and hide either.”

Since the police, Syndra notwithstanding, hadn’t been protecting her so far anyway, she turned to the Elven Guard Captain, “I am deeply grateful for the offer, but if you cannot continue protecting me here then I will have to take my chances and get the book read and annotated as quickly as possible.”

He shook his head, and Allie’s mouth went dry. If he decided she qualified as a denizen of Fairy he could, theoretically, take her into his custody whether she wanted to go or not. But when he spoke it was with a grudging admiration, “From this point on, you will always have at least two Guards with you at all times, and another full squad assigned to patrol the area you are in, until this is resolved and the killer is captured.”

She wanted to argue with him, because it felt like a ridiculous amount of resources being wasted on her, but she sensed it would be futile. The elves wanted vengeance for Aeyliss’s death and they would do whatever it took, including babysitting her en masse, to find whoever that was. It offended her innate desire for personal freedom to think of having so many Guard with her all the time, and Gods knew how she’d explain it to Liz.

“That’s a lot of effort for one person,” Walters said, echoing Allie’s thoughts.

“All things are part of a greater pattern; we cannot always see what the pattern forms. For whatever reason Aliaine is the key to what is going on here, on different levels. She will lead us to understanding the pattern and solving the crime.” Zarethyn said calmly. Walters and Riordan both looked dubious, but the other elves, even the one who did not know Allie, were nodding. She had forgotten how much elves relied on synchronicity, the idea that things that appeared related, even if the relation was inexplicable, were in fact somehow linked on a deeper level. She wondered if his belief that her involvement was synchronous was why he was willing to let her make her own decisions about where to stay, and she wasn’t sure if she should be grateful about it or worried about the added pressure for her to find the answers they needed.

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

When he finally finished his shift and got back to his apartment, Walters put his fist through a wall. He’d managed to keep it together in front of his partner, but inside he’d spent the rest of the day fuming. Bad enough that she’d found the book and immediately told the damn elves, but worse that she’d quickly put several pieces together about the ritual itself. He’d worked hard to make it look like there was no timing pattern and that dumb bitch turned right around and pointed it out to everyone. Up until now no one had realized the girls weren’t entirely human–and damn if it wasn’t a stone bitch to find each one of them–and there she went pointing it out.

How’d she even know
? He thought, hitting the wall again.
How’s she fitting it all together so quickly? Fuck! I should have killed her when I first realized she’d be trouble
. He was starting to wonder how he could do it, if it was worth risking shooting her, with the chance that ballistic evidence might trip him up where he’d always been so careful before, when his private phone rang.

He grabbed it convulsively, and the familiar voice was speaking as soon as he turned it on, “Don’t panic. Everything’s under control.”

He took a deep breath, wanting to yell, but knowing better, “I can’t see how. She has the book, she says no one else can read it and she holds onto it like it’s stapled to her hand. And the Guards are always within touching distance, especially that one blond one.”

“I have a plan. You may not like it, but we need to throw them a red herring.” He had no idea how his contact could stay so calm.

“I could kill the mixed blood girl and steal the book,” he suggested, trying not to get his hopes up.

“No. Absolutely not. You just said yourself she’s never alone and it’s too dangerous to try to orchestrate anything on your end.”

“You don’t think doing nothing’s a bigger risk?” he said, wishing he’d get permission to kill her and knowing he wouldn’t.

“No. Leave the girl alone. If she is the only one who can read the book then we need her alive.” The voice was flat.

“I’ve done everything for the cause that needed to be done. No matter how unpleasant, I did it. I think you’re letting your feelings get in the way now, and keeping us from doing what we need to do. We should take a vote,” he pressed.

“We don’t need a vote. I’m in charge on this and I’m handling it. And don’t think I’m letting personal feelings get in the way. First chance you have you need to kill someone else, make it look like the ritual, but it won’t be. It’ll throw them off and make them question everything. And I know exactly who you need to kill.”

The voice was resolved; he knew that tone and lowered his head, waiting to hear the plan. There’d be no arguing with it, and he chaffed, knowing that whatever it was he would be expected to do it without complaint.

He was getting really tired of handling all the dirty work and taking all the risk, but being expected to take orders without ever having his own opinion listened to.

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

She read until her eyes crossed and her neck cramped, but once she began she felt a desperate urgency to finish that pushed her to keep going. By mid-afternoon she was so tired she couldn’t focus to remember what she was reading and a dull headache had started behind her eyes, but still she pushed on. Finally Bleidd appeared, ignoring the disapproving looks from the Guard–both strangers to Allie–and gently took the book out of her hands. She protested weakly, “Bleidd, I have to…”

“You need to eat and take a break before you collapse,” he said, setting the book down carefully on the couch next to her. She sighed, resigned, and allowed him to pull her to her feet and guide her back to the kitchen, with the two Guard following like shadows. Liz was at the counter fixing tea, and without thinking Allie said, “Hey Liz, can I have some too?”

As soon as she spoke and saw her cousin’s back stiffen she remembered their earlier fight. She stood awkwardly, feeling foolish, but Liz replied, “Sure Allie, hibiscus okay?”

“That’d be perfect, thanks,” Allie relaxed slightly. Bleidd was grabbing crackers and peanut butter out of the cabinet so Allie went to the refrigerator and pulled out a block of cheddar and some leftover ham, meeting him at the table. “Are you hungry Liz?”

Liz waivered, then shrugged, “I have to be at the theater early so I should probably eat something now.”

Allie pulled out a chair gesturing for Liz to sit as the other woman walked over with the tea. Bleidd had already poured himself a glass of milk and was slathering peanut butter on a cracker while pretending not to watch the two cousins. For a moment they all sat fixing little cracker sandwiches, eating, sipping drinks and not talking. Finally, feeling like she was doing an awful lot of apologizing and unsure if she should be, Allie said “I’m sorry we fought Liz, I don’t want us fighting, especially not now.”

“I just don’t understand why you’re so suddenly obsessed with this guy,” Liz muttered sipping her tea, “You’ve only know him a few days. It’s unnatural, like he put a spell on you or something.”

“No spells, Liz, really, I’d know, but yeah it is weird. I can’t explain it either.” Allie shrugged, biting into a ham and cheese cracker. She chewed thoughtfully for a moment, “It’s like he balances me somehow, like I–I don’t know–like I’m drawing on him to ground myself in all of this chaos. He makes me feel sane.”

Bleidd made a small noise and both women looked at him. His expression was distinctly unhappy. Allie felt uneasy, seeing it, “What? Why the weird look?”

He hesitated, and she pressed, “Come on Bleidd, you’re freaking me out.”

“It’s probably nothing, “he said forcing himself to drink something from his glass. “Just for a moment there it almost sounded like what you were describing was what elves call “soul friends”, it’s a bond that can form between two people who are very close for a long time; the two join on a psychic level that allows for an exchange of emotions, wordless communication, that sort of thing.”

Allie felt nonplussed, “I’ve only just met him, really, and we don’t know each other well at all in practical terms.”

Bleidd grimaced, “I know that. It’s impossible anyway–it takes years to form such a bond and it’s exceedingly rare. And no offense to you Allie, because you know your background doesn’t matter to me, but I think such a bond is only possible between full elves.”

“No offense taken,” Allie said, still feeling unnerved.

Liz looked perplexed. “But couldn’t that be why she’s so head-over-common-sense for this guy?”

“I doubt it, it was just a random thought when she was describing how she felt with him,” Bleidd shook his head. “Just forget I mentioned it.”

“There are no random words, it’s all synchronicity–isn’t that what the elves believe?” she had meant it to be teasing, but he looked taken aback at her words.

“I do not understand how this could be important for you to know, “he said slowly. “It occurs only between full elves–not even between other Fey–and only very rarely. It takes years, sometimes decades to form. How could this be?”

Allie shook her head, “Don’t look at me, this is the first I’m hearing of it, and I was just teasing about the synchronicity.”

“Synchronicity moves in all things,” one of the other Guards, a darker blond who looked strange standing in the kitchen in full armor, said solemnly, “It is the pattern behind all expressed reality.”

Liz shifted slightly, “So this soul friend thing, is it always between couples or what?”

“No,” Bleidd said. “The only ones I have ever known who had such a bond were sisters.”

The Guard who had spoken before nodded slightly. “I knew two close friends who formed such a bond, and I had heard of a married couple as well, but I did not know them myself.”

Allie shook her head, “I think we’re all getting sidetracked looking for an explanation that isn’t there. I love you Liz and I don’t want to fight with you, but I didn’t hook up with him because of some mystic whatever. Blame it on hormones, or pheromones, or wanting to feel alive after almost dying or whatever else, but it wasn’t a magic spell or some sort of freaky soul bond making me do it.”

Liz looked down at the table’s worn surface, her fingers tracing the wood grain, “I guess I’m just not used to you acting like…”

“Syndra?” Allie suggested, and they both giggled. The tension was still there, beneath the surface and Allie knew that a lot of things were being left unsaid, but at least some effort to mend things was being made.

“So you found the book?” Liz asked as Allie went back to eating. She hadn’t realized how hungry she was until Bleidd had dragged her in here, but now she was ravenous. She nodded, chewing as she made another cracker.

Liz kept tracing the table’s surface, “I still can’t believe that Grandmother even had that kind of book. She wouldn’t ever talk about dark magic at all. The idea that this whole time she had an entire grimoire of it right here in the house is unnerving.”

“Be glad you can’t read it,” Allie said, shaking her head, “It’s macabre stuff, even early on.”