Maggie for Hire (2 page)

But tonight, the air was clear and warm; the kind of night where you don’t know where your body ends and the world begins.  I pressed my foot to the floor and hit 70 on the hairpin turn.  We drove off the edge of the cliff and soared out into the open sky.

Chapter 4

The car hit the ground with a thud.

“Crap.  Traffic.”

It was bumper-to-bumper in the Other Side.

The Other Side is pretty much every old book you’ve ever read come to life, settled in nice and cozy to the conveniences of modern living.  If you can imagine it, it probably exists over here.  The neighborhood we landed in had a particularly Victorian flair - cobblestone streets and Dickens-esque shops, bustle wearing bonneted ladies walking alongside the monsters of your nightmares.

We crept along to the backside of the police station.  A blue woman, and not in the emotional kind of way, an actual blue woman, came out and I popped my trunk.  She was flanked by two zombie porters.

“Nice one, Maggie.  Next time, try not to kill ‘em, okay?”

“Lacy, he’s a vampire.  He was already dead.  I just finished the job.”

She shook her head at me and then noticed Killian in my passenger seat.  “Well, well, well...,” she purred, “Who’s the six-pack-of-awesome-going-on-under-the-silken-tunic sitting there in your car?”

I think I sprained my eyeballs rolling them so hard, “He’s a fucking elf.  And he wants me to do a job for him.”

Lacy clucked her tongue, “You could do worse.”

“No,” I said, slamming the trunk closed after the zombies lifted the vampire skip out.  “No, I don’t think I could.”

“Listen, honey...”  Lacy interrupted herself to shout at the zombie porter, “Cut it out!  He’s a vampire!  He doesn’t have a brain!”

The porter removed his mouth from the vampire’s temple and continued to carry the carcass into the station.

Lacy shook her head, “The work ethic these days...”

I gave her a sympathetic shrug, hoping if I appeared to look like I cared, she’d finish the paperwork faster.

She ripped off the receipt, “Here you go.”

I smiled and tucked it into my jacket pocket.

“Check will be in the mail.”

“Thanks,” I said, climbing back into my car.

Lacy leaned inside my window, “Listen, honey, you be careful, you hear?  Rumor has it you’ve pissed off a bunch of people.”

“Lacy, I know what I’m doing,” I said.  “Just keep the work rolling in.  I can handle it.”

I gave her a little finger wave as I backed out.

“You cannot handle it,” said Killian.

“Yes, I can,” I said, my knuckles turning white on the steering wheel.

Chapter 5

I opened up the door to my apartment, keys jingling in the door.  My huge, orange tabby, Mac, came running up to me with sweet little “brrrows” of hello.  I scooped him up and buried my face in his fur.  There was nothing in the world this guy couldn’t fix.

I walked into the center of the room and set him down, flinging my bag on the floor and kicking off my shoes.

“Can I get you anything to drink?” I asked Killian as I walked towards the kitchen to get Mac his dinner.

“Ambrosia nectar?”

“How about a beer?”

“That would also be acceptable.”

I grabbed a couple longnecks from the fridge and popped the caps, handing one to Killian.

I stepped back into the kitchen and sucked mine down as quick as I could, my hands shaking a bit as I opened Mac’s dinner can.

Today had freaked me out more than I could ever let anyone know.  That vamp almost had me.  I rolled my car.  I owed an elf a favor.

I popped the cap on a second beer and walked back into the living room.

Killian was lounging on my fat, plaid couch looking like he was ready to move in.

“Your home is quite pleasant,” he said, waving his bottle in the general direction of everywhere.

My place was a cozy two-story, arts and crafts style cottage I had picked up earlier this year.  I had some extra cash and needed a change in scenery, so I met up with a nice realtor witch who was able to pluck my dream house straight out of my brain and, with a few tweaks, grow this place for me.  It was almost all I had ever hoped for, but to Killian, I just shrugged, “Yah... well.  It works.”

“You have many human items here, down to this delicious beverage we are partaking of.”

“I spend a lot of time on Earth.”

The truth be told, I had never quite felt right living in the Other Side.

My father had been an Other Sider, though.  He met my mom on Earth.  They set up house, had two kids, and for awhile, we lived the California dream.  But they had to move the family to the Other Side of the border after a little incident where I discovered I wasn’t quite Earth material.

Some guy on the playground made fun of my math skills.  So I tried to deck him.  He ducked and my hand disappeared. I punched through dimensions.  Most cultures would have thrown me a coming of age party, but evidently this Quinceañera involved packing boxes and a moving van.

My sister was smart.  She hightailed it back to Earth as soon as she could steal Mom and Dad’s keys.  Got herself a nice boring little job in finance.  But with my special little gifts, I was stuck living amongst the magical folk.

No matter what wonders lay on the Other Side, it wasn’t where I grew up and, color me crazy, I kind of liked the order found in a place that abided by the laws of physics.

But a girl has to pay her rent, and since my typing skills were lackluster, I went into the tracking business with my dad.  And business is business.

“Okay, Killian.  Tell me what I need to know.”

Killian put down his drink, “Tracker Maggie, there are terrible things that walk the night...”

“In plain speak, please.”

He breathed deep at the difficulty of translation.  Ah, elves.  Only they would get bent out of shape for having to say things as they actually are.

“We are in trouble and we need your help.”

I nodded.  Now we were getting somewhere.

“What kind of trouble?”

“There is an imbalance.  Echoes from this world are appearing in the other.”

“I don’t follow.”

“That invisible hand that threw your...car...”

I could see he totally wanted to say “moving vehicle” or “mechanical steed” or something equally ridiculous.  I wasn’t going to make this easy on him.

He shook his head in frustration.  “It has been some years since I took Human Dialects 401 at university.  I was once fluent,” he offered apologetically, “It is why I was sent.”

Yes, Human Dialects 401 is an actual upper level class here on the Other Side.  It’s a requirement for any Other Side language major, so that told me this guy wasn’t a slouch.  Sure, English wasn’t too far off for the elves, but sorting out American sayings from Cockney slang, Chinese euphemisms from Hindi cuss words, well... it takes a pretty smart cookie.  I spoke a little Elfish myself, but sounded more like a bad actor in a community theater production of
Julius Caesar
.

“It’ll come back to you,” I said as I leaned back and took another sip of my beer.  “Keep going.”

He closed his eyes again in concentration, “That force that threw your car... It has been happening all along the boundary.  My mistress, the Queen of the Elves, wishes to put a stop to it.”

Crap.

“The Queen of the Elves wants ME to look into this.”

Killian nodded.

“Why me?” I asked, rubbing my forehead, wishing that this was all just a bad fucking dream.

“Your family can walk within the two worlds thanks to your father’s powers.  Your family can see through the boundary and sometimes into the future thanks to your mother’s gift of sight.  The Queen has heard you possess both their gifts.”

He was right.  I did.  My specialty was portal creation, though.  I could get from Earth to the Other Side with a little more than a howdy do.

That said, I didn’t want to howdy anything he was doing.

“Is it too late to back out of that favor?”

Killian took my hand in his, and perhaps it was just the effects of shot-gunning two twelve ounce bottles in five minutes, but I didn’t punch him in the nose.

“Dear Maggie, we know the vampire who almost killed you today was no accident.  He was not like those you normally track.”

I thought back to the words the sucker had uttered as we had struggled.

“He said there is a bounty on my head...”

Killian nodded.  I hated that I knew he wasn’t lying.

“Any idea why?”

“My mistress believes it is because you are a child of your particular parents, parents with gifts of dimension travel and sight.”

Ah, family.

“So, this makes the bad guys want me dead or alive?”

Killian nodded again, “Or worse.”

He got me right where he needed me.  Dead I could handle.  It’s the “or worse” part that sends chills down my bones.

“Crap.”

I leaned back against the couch.  I was spooked.

“You are not alone in the Queen’s task,” Killian said.

“We’re all alone,” I replied.

“I am here on behalf of the elfin kingdom to aid you.”

I rose from my seat, “Show yourself out.  We’ll talk tomorrow.”

With that, I walked upstairs and went to bed.

Chapter 6

I woke up with Mac smothering my face.  I don’t know what it is about cats and the whole “the rest of the bed is not good enough for me, I want to be where your head is” action, but fortunately, he’s cute, so I let him live.

The sun was shining through my windows and I stretched to greet the day.

And then remembered the conversation from the night before.

What a way to ruin a perfectly good morning.

Desperate times call for desperate measures and it appeared to be time to pull out the big guns.

Time to visit my mom.

I walked downstairs and realized there was a man sleeping on my couch.  Okay, so an elf man, but a figure of the male species.  Killian, rather than showing himself out, had decided to spend the night.  God, the elfin men are pretty creatures.  I tried to ignore the way the sun and shadows lay upon his face, causing his sleepy bed head to glow like an angel’s halo.  It was nothing but elfin magic and I knew better.

Great.

The day was improving with each passing moment.

I stomped into the kitchen and fired up the coffee pot - Other Side or Earth, there is only one civilized way to greet the day.  While it perked, I fed Mac, since it appeared his highness was on the brink of starvation, and set about getting breakfast for us second class citizens.  I was slicing the bagels and fruit when I felt Killian’s presence even before he spoke.

“That looks good,” he said, wrapping his arms around me.  “Good morning, partner.”  He then walked over and helped himself to the coffee, leaving me standing there with a knife in my hand and the unfortunate decision whether or not to disembowel him.  Since it was before my first cup, I decided to wait until the caffeine kicked in.

“You’re still here,” I remarked dryly.

Killian shrugged, “Think of me as your own personal body guard.”

“I’m a tracker.  I don’t need a body guard.”

“Then why did you sleep with your neckguard on?”

My hand reached up and touched the Kevlar collar.  In truth, I had been so tired, I had just forgotten.  Or at least, I wanted to tell myself that was the only reason.  I had learned to fall asleep in it long ago.  The sun was up, though, and there wasn’t any need for it during the day.

“I just forgot.”

I twirled the dial of the locks, my fingers knowing the clicks to release the combination.  It opened slowly like a heavy door.  I took it off and placed it on the counter, rubbing where it had cut into my skin overnight.

I could see Killian’s eyes widen as he looked at my neck.  I had gotten used to that look.  Hellz, you’d think a guy had never seen a girl with scars before.  I had plenty more to shock him with.

It was just that the scars were on my neck.  A vamp gets your carotid artery and you’re done.  He’ll either kill you or turn you and there’s no going back.  One of those bastards almost got me.  Once.  I staked him good and enjoyed the sound of puncturing his heart.  Still, he left me with a mess of scars that no amount of makeup could cover and nightmares that still left me drenched in sweat.  That’s when I started wearing the neckguard.  It helped.

Killian raised his hand as if to touch one.  I involuntarily flinched away.

“Don’t.”

“What happened?”

“You’ll have to buy me a couple more drinks before you get that story out of me.”

He lowered his hand and nodded, before volunteering, “I could make them go...”

I cut him off.  I knew what he was trying to say, “What, and owe you another favor?  Not on your life.”  I pulled two dishes out of the yellow cupboard and made up breakfast plates for both of us, “Besides, they’re from a vamp.  There’s nothing anyone can do.”

Killian stepped back, “My apologies.”

I had accepted the horror of them long ago, “Yah, well, they cut short my burgeoning career as a supermodel...”

We both sat silently, lost in thought as we ate our breakfast.

“I think they make you look even lovelier,” Killian finally said quietly.  “Please pass the bagels.”

I suddenly felt very awkward.  So I lobbed the bagel at his head.

Chapter 7

Elves are not fans of driving.  Shoot, they could run faster than I could drive, especially in Other Side traffic, but Killian was buckled up in my passenger seat, ready to start our grand adventure ridding the world from the forces of evil, before I could shoo him away.

I had other plans.

“Listen, Killian, I appreciate the whole protection thing and stuff, but I’ve got an errand I need to run.”

“I shall go with you.”

“The kind of errand that I need you not to go on with me.”

“If it is of a personal nature, have no fear of offending me...”

Part of me thought about bringing him along just to see him suffer, but then the little angel on my shoulder started whispering about the fact he staked a vampire for me and I probably owed him.