Portals (3 page)

“I've seen and heard some interesting things over the last fifteen years, I can tell you that. But then I don't have to say that to you, do I?”

He looked from me to Thulu, but neither of us was going to give him any information or ammunition. Thulu already had one arm around me and he took my hand in his free hand, giving my cold fingers a squeeze. A glance at Thulu showed me he was maintaining a pleasant, polite expression. I hoped mine was equally polite, but right then I'd settle for a bland, non-panicking expression.

“I was transferred to the San Francisco field office about eight years ago. When the portals opened, maybe I wasn't as shocked or surprised as some of the others were. Then, I saw your grandmother's name on the list of victims killed during a family barbecue – a barbecue attended by fairies, elves and other creatures that had recently come through the portals. While the local police had jurisdiction over this, we flagged it because of the off-worlders involved. I requested the case and my superiors agreed to let me liaison with the local police on it.

“Fiona, I know you're not going to want to talk to me. I know you're suspicious and afraid. But I also know you have a connection to the off-worlders. Sure, the higher-ups have contact with the elves and the others. But down on the ground, in the local field offices, we don't. The police have very little information in this case. Your friend, Tyler Jones, has used his power and influence to keep us, all of us, as far from your family as he can. But we need to know whether this is a threat to anyone else. Is this a trend? Are other humans in danger?”

“Humans are not in danger from the person responsible for killing our family,” said Thulu firmly.

Brown leaned forward. “How can you be so sure?”

“Because he's dead.” Thulu's voice was flat.

“I see,” Brown sat back and looked at the two of us. He took a sip of his water and pulled his phone from a pocket, prepared to type in his notes. “Won't you please tell us what happened?”

I didn't want to tell them what happened.

“It’s in the reports,” I mumbled.

“I’d like to hear it straight from you, though,” Brown kept his voice soft.

Didn’t he understand that I didn't want to relive that horrible afternoon? Even though Nana Fae, Mama Deb and Evan had not gone through the Light, and I still saw them on a regular basis, it wasn't the same. They were still dead. And I didn't want to remember the horror of their deaths.

Thulu hadn't been there, except at the beginning. He’d been tossed through a portal as soon as Gabriel had materialized. So, that pretty much left me as the only human who knew exactly what had happened and why.

I wished Aela would show up. Tiny, fairy princess and fearsome warrior, with her deadly bow and no-nonsense attitude. Barbie meets Xena, Warrior Princess. She could tell these cops what they wanted to know much easier than I could. She'd protected me from Gabriel, which had probably looked funny at the time. But Gabriel hadn't been laughing as he stared at her tiny, poisoned arrow, one of the few things that could actually kill him.

But, of course, I didn't know how to call Aela, and I wondered if these cops would believe her even if she showed.  Did they know that fairies didn't – couldn't – lie?

Where was I to start? Maybe if I sat there long enough without saying anything they'd get bored and go away. Of course, I knew that was a futile wish.

Thulu and I looked at each other, and he gave my hand another squeeze.

“Some of the people who came through the portal had come to my parents' house for a barbecue –” Thulu began, as Brown made notes.

Brown held up a hand to stop him. “Why were they coming to your parents' house for a barbecue?”

“Because we invited them,” I said.

Brown exchanged a look with Lassiter, before giving me a stern look.

“Fiona, you know that's not what I meant.”

I attempted to look innocent, twirling a strand of blonde hair around one finger. I shrugged.

“Shall we try again?” asked Brown.

I sighed heavily and looked at Thulu. He took over.

“As you know we have a detective agency. Two months ago, a client hired us to find some relics that would help him close a portal to another world. At the time, even La Fi and I didn't know about the portals.”

Brown interrupted, “Who was your client?”

Thulu shook his head. “Sorry. Client confidentiality. Besides, it's irrelevant. Anyway, the client informed us that there were portals to all these other realms. And that there was one particular race looking to come to Earth. This race, called Light Ones, needs the energy from positive emotions to survive. Their feeding ground was at war and they were planning to use humans as a new energy source.

“The portal to that world is different from other portals. Our client has monitored and kept it closed for thousands of years. After a while, the magic weakens and has to be renewed. When that happens, our client uses the relics to close the portal. The time in between varies, but it has to be renewed every few hundred years. Only this time, the relics used to seal it were missing.”

“Thousands of years? Your client isn’t human.” It wasn’t a question. Brown looked up from his typing.

Thulu shook his head.

“So these Light Ones wanted to invade Earth.”

“Well, that's a bit melodramatic, but basically – yeah.” Thulu said.

“And when this client told you all of this about the portals and other worlds, you had no problem believing him?”

Thulu and I exchanged a glance.

“Yes, we believed him,” Thulu continued, without elaborating. “He explained that the Light Ones will do anything they can to keep their hosts happy. If that means supplying them with drugs to keep them happy, that's what the Light Ones will do. Eventually, the host will burn out, go insane, sometimes die.

“So, obviously La Fi and I were motivated to help the client find his lost relics. The leader of the Light Ones, Gabriel, was doing his best to find them, too, so he could open the portal completely. When he realized we could find the relics, he decided to coerce us into giving him the relics once we found them.”

Brown and Lassiter were nodding.

“And killing your family members was part of that coercion.” Brown wasn't asking.

I breathed a sigh of relief. Thulu had explained it just fine. My relief was short-lived. I wasn't going to get off that easily.

“So walk me through this.  Exactly what happened?”

My heart sank again.

Thulu continued, “Gabriel showed up at my parents' house.”

“Wait,” interrupted Brown. “How did Gabriel know to go there?”

“Lynda-Jean, one of the people killed at the barbecue, had been approached by Gabriel. She told him we'd be there.”

Yeah, she told all right. She'd betrayed me, Thulu and the family. All because she hated me and couldn't stand the fact that her son could see and hear the dead just as I could.

“Why would she do that?” asked Brown.

“Well, because he looked very much like the angels we've been told about all our lives. There was no reason for her to not trust him,” Thulu said smoothly. And that was true. Although, there was a lot more to it than that and somehow I doubted that Gabriel had the presence of mind to ever act angelic.

“So Gabriel shows up at the barbecue. Did he fly in? Did he appear?” prompted Brown.

“No,” said Thulu. “Gabriel was one of those who could open various portals to other worlds. He opened a portal to our backyard and stepped through with two other Light Ones. Gabriel created an enormous, violent wind that slammed us all back. Some of us were caught on tables, but most of the others landed against the block fence. I only caught a glimpse of this before Gabriel tossed me through the portal, where I was followed by a Light One who took me through a succession of portals. I was kept there for hours before being returned to the backyard.”

Such simple words. Words that did nothing to convey the sheer terror and horror of that scene. There was a long silence.

“The autopsy showed that three people had sustained injuries by being thrown. But the fourth person, Lynda-Jean Holt, had her neck snapped. It also showed that her throat had been grasped by a very large hand. What happened to her?”

“Gabriel killed her.” I said.

Brown stared at me thoughtfully.

“The coroner said whoever held her by the throat had enormous strength and the imprint of the hand was very large. Inhumanly large. Continue, please, Fiona.”

I sighed. “Gabriel had to be at least eight feet tall and tremendously strong. That's how he could pick her up so easily. He put some sort of immobility spell on all of us first. So that everyone was frozen in place after he smashed us with that wind. When he killed Lynda-Jean, he simply twisted her head, snapping her neck.”

I didn't want to say anymore. I didn't want these men to know any more about what we could do.

Brown sat back and gazed thoughtfully at Thulu and me.

“Very well, that accounts for some of the injuries at the barbecue. What the police find curious and I do as well, is that no one else was injured. How is that possible?”

I shook my head. “There were injuries. Everyone was injured, except for those in the house. The thing is, the elves got there and immediately started healing everyone. Those that had been dead too long were the ones that could not be brought back, even by elven magic.”

“So the elves were able to revive some of the dead? Is that what you're saying?”

“Yeah, but only a couple.”

“But the elves actually revived the dead? Was that like mouth-to-mouth?” Brown looked up from his typing.

“No, it was magic. It only worked if the victim's brain hadn't been deprived of oxygen too long.”

“I see. How did the elves know to come?”

“Ceil, the pixie, went to get them. She was one of the guests that day.”

“Yes, these guests. How did you meet them?”

I shrugged. “They came to our office.”

“So, they were clients, too?” Brown stayed unflappable, in spite of my efforts to give him as little as possible.

“Not exactly. It was more of a networking type thing. They wanted to get in touch with our client.” I held up a hand to forestall him. “And no, we don't know how they knew to come to us.”

“So you invited them to your family barbeque?”

“It seemed the polite thing to do. They were guests here, after all.”

“Uh-huh.” Brown’s tone said he wasn’t buying it, but it was true. We had just invited them, sort of on the spur of the moment.

“Okay, so you had these off-worlders at the barbeque. This Gabriel shows up and kills your family and your guests – magical guests – do nothing?”

“No, Aela killed one of the Light Ones.”

He looked at me steadily.

“You know this,” I continued. “It's in the report.”

“Yes, it is. This Aela is a fairy?”

I nodded.

“The very tiny kind?” He held his hands up about a foot apart. Aela was closer to ten inches tall, but who was I to quibble?

I nodded again. “With wings, yeah.”

“And she killed an eight foot creature strong enough to snap a human's neck.”

Another nod.

“I suppose you'll say she used magic?”

“No, actually she used a special poison on one of her arrows.”

Brown's eyebrows shot up.

“That must be a very powerful poison.”

“Maybe. It works on Light Ones, but doesn't hurt most of the rest of the races, including humans.”

“Interesting,” he mumbled to himself, as he went over his notes.

“And now this Gabriel is also dead? Did the fairy kill him, as well?'

And now we were getting into trickier territory. I looked at Thulu. He picked up the story.

“No, actually, that was done at the portal. Please understand that some of this goes back thousands of years between these other races. Their battles are not ours – not human battles. But we were going to be invaded as you said. Gabriel showed up to force the portal open. The other side, which was basically everyone else, wanted the portal closed. They didn't want Earth invaded. Gabriel lost. Now, he's dead and the portal is closed.”