Thorn Queen Chapter One

Sad fact lots of kids bash how to use knives and guns.Id been star of them, entirely instead of pursuing a life of crime, Id trained to be a shamanic mercenary. This meant that while my friends were at dances and football games, Id been appear(a) banishing beliefs and combat d shell monsters with my stepfather. On the up side, I grew up neer fearing muggers or whatso of all time different assailants. On the d hold thorn gotside, an adolescence like that rattling screws with your social development.It meant Id never really been like different kids. Id had some friends, solely comp bed to theirs, my world had been terribly utter(a) and terribly deadly. Their dramas and concerns had seemed so petty next to mine, and I could never amply relate. As an adult now, I however couldnt really connect to kids because I had no sh ard experiences to draw on.Which made my job today that much(prenominal) more difficult.Go a spike, Polly, cro adeptd the girls stimulate, smilin g with everywhere-plump lips. Too much collagen, I suspected. arrange her slightly the shadowiness.Polly anteroom was 13 but wore adequate make-up to rival a 40-year old whore. She sat slouched against the cover charge of a couch in her familys perfectly decorated house, chewing gum loudly, bearinging eitherwhere but at us. The more I studied her, the more I intractable she probably did have problems. I suspected they had less to do with sorcerous influences and more with having a mother who had named her Polly and let her wear thongs. It was an unfortunate side effect of Pollys low-cut jeans that I could see the aforementioned thong.After a minute of silence, Mrs. Hall sighed loudly. Polly, dear, weve been over this. If you arent going to help us, we cant help you.Smiling, I knelt down in front of the couch so I could look the girl in the eye. Its all right, I told her, hoping I sounded sincere and not like an after prepare special. Ill study whatever you tel l me. Well go it earnn care of.Polly sighed yet as loudly as her mother had a moment ago and still refused to look at me. She reminded me of my unsound teenage one-half-sister who was currently MIA and wanted to conquer the world. Mom, she said, can I go to my room now?not until youve talked to this nice lady. Glancing back to me, Mrs. Hall explained, We see strange noises all night bangs, cracks, bumps. Things fall over for no reason. Ive scour She hesitated. Ive even seen things fly nearly the room. But its always when Pollys around. Whatever this wraith is, it seems to like heror be obsessed with her.I turned my wariness back to Polly, again taking in the sullen mood and thinly veiled frustration. You got a lot on your mind, Polly? I asked gently. Problems at school or something? Problems around here?Her blue eyes flicked to me ever so briefly.What ab place some(prenominal) electrical issues? This I directed to her mother. Things shorting out? Stereos or appliances not working right?Mrs. Hall blinked. Howd you know that?I stood up and stretched the kinks out of my corpse. Id fought a wraith last night, and he hadnt been gentle.You dont have a ghost. You have a poltergeist.Both of them stared at me.Isnt that a ghost? asked Mrs. Hall.Not really. Its a manifestation of telekinetic powers, often brought on by rage and other strong emotions during teenage years. Id evaded after school special mode, only to slip ones mind into infomercial mode.Iwait. Are you saying Pollys causing this?Not consciously, but yeah. In cases like this, the subject Polly lashes out without realizing it, venting her emotions in material ways. She probably wont stay telekinetic itll fade as she gets older and settles down a bit.Her mother still looked skeptical. It sure seems like a ghost.I shrugged. avow me. Ive seen this lots of times.Soisnt there eitherthing you can do? Anything we can do?Therapy, I suggested. Maybe get a psychic to come o ut.I gave Mrs. Hall the contact information for a psychic I trusted. Waiving my banishing fee, I simply charged her for the house call. Once Id double-checked the cash she gave me I never took checks I stashed it away and made moves toward the living room door.Sorry I couldnt be of more help.No, I mean, I guess this helps. Its just so strange. She eyed her daughter with perplexity. Are you sure its not a ghost?Positive. These are classic sympAn invisible force slammed into me, pushing me into the wall. I yelped, threw out a moot to keep my balance, and shot daggers at that little screak Polly. Eyes wide, she looked just as astonished as I matt-up.Polly exclaimed Mrs. Hall. You are grounded, young lady. No phone, no IM, no Her mouth dropped open as she stared at something across the room. Whats that?I followed her gaze to the heroic, picket blue form materializing before us.Um, well, I said, thats a ghost.It swooped toward me, mouth open in a terrible screech. I y elled for the others to get down and jerked a silver-bladed athame out of my belt. A knife might seem useless against spirits, but they take to take on a substantial form to inflict any real damage. Once solid, they were susceptible to silver.This spirit bore a distaff name a very young female shape, actually. Long pale fuzz trailed in her wake like a cloak, and her eyes were large and empty. Whether it was a lack of experience or simply some congenital trait of hers, her attack proved floundering and uncoordinated. Even as she screamed at the starting time bites of the athame, I had my crystal studded wand out in my other hand.Now that Id regained my bearings, I could do a banishing like this in my sleep. sermon the usual words, I drew from my internal strength and sent my own spirit beyond the boundaries of this world. Touching the gates of the Underworld, I ensnared the female spirit and sent her over. Monsters and gentry I tended to send back to the Otherworld, th e limbo they lived in. A ghost like this needed to move on to the land of death. She disappeared.Mrs. Hall and Polly stared at me. Suddenly, in her first show of emotion, the girl leapt up and glared at me.You just killed my crush friendI opened my mouth to do and decided nix I had to say would be adequate.Good heavens, what are you talking about? exclaimed her mother.Pollys face twisted with anger, her eyes bright with tears. Trixie. She was my best friend. We told each other everything.Trixie? Mrs. Hall and I asked in unison.I cant believe you did that. She was so cool. Pollys voice turned a little wistful. I just wish we could have gone shopping together, but she couldnt leave the house. So I just had to bring her Vogue and Glamour.I turned to Mrs. Hall. My pilot light advice still stands. Therapy. Lots of it.I headed home after that, wondering for the hundredth time why Id chosen this mercenary shaman profession. Surely there were other jobs that were a lot le ss trouble than interacting with evil witchlike beings. Accounting. Advertising. Law. hygienic, maybe not that last one.About an minute of arc later, I arrived back home and was immediately assaulted by 2 medium-sized dogs when I cleared the door. They were mutts, one solid black and one solid purity. Their names were Yin and Yang, but I could never remember who was who. Back off, I warned as they sniffed me, tails wagging frantically. The white one tried to lick my hand. Pushing past them, I entered my kitchen and close to tripped over a tabby cat sprawled on the floor in a patch of sun. Grumbling, I tossed my bag onto the kitchen table. Tim? Are you here?My housemate, Tim Warkoski, stuck his head in. He wore a tee shirt with silhouettes of Native Americans that said mother country Security Fighting Terrorism since 1492. I appreciated the cleverness, but it illogical something since Tim wasnt actually an American Indian. He merely played one on TV, or rather, he played one in local parallel bars and tourist circles, using his tanned skin and black cop to surround his Polish heritage. It had gotten him into trouble with a lot of the local tribes.With a garbage bag in one hand and a cat suck in the other, he gave me a dark look. Do you know how numerous boxes of litter Ive had to change today?I poured a glass of draw and sat down at the table. Kiyo says we need one box for every cat and then an extra one.Yeah, I can count, Eugenie. Thats six boxes. sextet boxes in a house with 1500 square feet. You think your deadbeat colleagues ever going to show back up and help out with this?I shifted uncomfortably. It was a good question. After three months of dating between Tucson and Phoenix, my boyfriend Kiyo had decided to take a job here to save the hour and a half commute. Wed had a long discussion and decided we were desexualise to have him simply move in with me. Unfortunately, with Kiyo came his menagerie five cats and two d ogs. It was one of the woes of dating a veterinarian. He couldnt help but tackle every animal he found. I couldnt remember the cats names any better than the dogs. Four of them were named after the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and all I could really render was that Famine ironically weighed about 30 pounds.Another problem was that Kiyo was a fox both literally and figuratively. His mother was a kitsune, a anatomy of Japanese fox spirit. Hed inherited all of her traits, including amazing strength and speed, as well as the ability to transform into an actual fox. As a result, he frequently got the call of the wild, making him yearn to run around in his animal form. Since he had downtime between jobs now, hed left me to take a sort of wild vacation. I accepted this, but after a calendar week of not seeing him, I was starting to get restless.Hell be back soon, I said vaguely, not meeting Tims eyes. Besides, you can get out of chores if you want to start paying rent. That was our deal. Free lodging in exchange for food and housework.He wasnt deterred. Your choice in men is questionable. You know that, right?I didnt really want to ponder that too much. I abandoned him for my room, seeking the comfort of a jigsaw commove portraying a photograph of Zurich. It sat on my desk, as did one of the cats. I think he was Mr. Whiskers, the non-Apocalyptic one. I shooed him off the puzzle. Doing so took about half the puzzle pieces with him.Goddamned cat, I muttered.Love, I decided, was a hard thing. Well aware of my grumpy mood, I knew part of my anxiety over Kiyo stem from the fact that he was also passing part of his sabbatical in the Otherworld, spending time with his ex-girlfriend who just happened to be a devastatingly beautiful fairy queen. Fairies, sidhe, shining oneswhatever you wanted to call them, they were the tall, long-lived rulers of the Otherworld. I and to the highest degree shamans referred to them as gentry, an antique term. M aiwenn, Kiyos ex, was almost nine months pregnant, and although theyd broken up, he was still a part of her life.I sighed. Tim might have been right about my questionable taste in men.Night wore on. I finished the puzzle while blasting Def Leppard, making me feel better. I was just ending off the music when I heard Tim yell Yo, Eug. Kujos here.Breathless, I ran to my bedroom door and flung it open. A red fox the size of a fauna trotted down the hall toward me. Relief burned through me, and I felt my heart soar as I let him in and watched him footfall around in restless circles.About time, I said.He had a sleek orange-red coat and a fluffy tail tipped in white. His eyes were golden and sometimes bore a very humanity glint. I saw nothing like that tonight. A purely animal wariness peered out at me, and I realized itd be a while before he changed back. He had the ability to transform to a wide range of foxes, everything from a small, normal-sized red fox to the powerful shape before me. When he spent a lot of time in this bigger form, turning human took more effort and time.Still, hoping hed transform soon, I dumped another puzzle on my desk and worked it as I waited. Two hours later, nothing had changed. He curled up in a corner, wrapping his body in a tight ball. His eyes continued to watch me. Exhausted, I gave up on him and put on a red nightgown. play off the lights, I finally slipped into my bed, falling asleep instantly for a change.As I slept, I mooned about the Otherworld, particularly a piece of it that bore a striking resemblance to Tucson and the Sonora forsake surrounding us. Only, the Otherworldly version was better. An almost heavenly Tucson, warmed by bright sunshine and ablaze with flowering cacti. This was a common dream for me, one that often left me yearning for that land in the morning. I always tried my best to ignore the impulse.A couple hours later, I woke up. A warm, muscled body had slid into bed with me, pre ssing against my back. Strong arms engrossed around my waist, and Kiyos scent, dark and musky, washed over me. A liquid intent burned inside of me at his touch. Roughly, he turned me toward him. His lips consumed me in a crushing pet, blazing with intensity and need.Eugenie, he growled, once hed paused long enough to remove his lips just barely from mine. Ive missed you. Oh God, Ive missed you. Ive needed you.He kissed me again, conveying that need as his hands moved over me. My own fingers slid along the smooth perfection of his bare skin, reveling in its feel. There was no benevolence between us tonight, only a feral wrath fueled as much by animal instinct as love. He had not, I realized, completely regained his human senses, no matter his shape.When I woke up in the morning, my bed was empty. Across the room, Kiyo pulled on jeans, meeting my eyes as though he had some sixth sense that I was awake. I rolled over on my side, the sheets gliding against my naked sk in. reflection him with a lazy, satisfied languor, I admired his body and the sexy features clever to him by Japanese and Hispanic heritage. His tanned body and black hair stood in stark contrast to the light skin and reddish hair my European ancestors had given me.Are you leaving? I asked. My heart, having leapt at his figurehead last night, suddenly sank.I have to go back, he said, straightening out a dark green tee shirt. He ran an absentminded hand through his chin-length hair. You know I do.Yeah, I said, my voice sharper than Id intended. Of business line you do.His eyes narrowed. Please dont start that, he said quietly. I have to do this.Sorry. Somehow I just cant get all that arouse about another woman having your baby.There it was. The issue that always hung over us.He sat down beside me on the bed, dark eyes honorable and level. Well, Im excited. Id like to think you could support me in that and be cheerful for me.Troubled, I looked away. I am happy for you. I want you to be happyits just, you know, its hard.I know. He leaned over me, sliding his hand up the back of my neck, twining his fingers in my hair.Youve spent more time with her in the last week than with me.Its a necessity. Its almost time.I know, I repeated. I knew my jealousy was unwarranted. Petty, even. I wanted to share his happiness at having a child, but something in me prevented it.Eugenie, I love you. Its that simple. Thats all there is to it.You love her too.Yes, but not in the way I love you.He kissed me with a gentleness very different from the roughness of last night. I melted against him. The kiss grew stronger, filling with ardor. With great reluctance, he finally pulled away. I could see the relish in his eyes. He wanted to have sex again. That said something for my charms, I guessed.His responsible inclinations winning out, he straightened and stood up. I stayed where I was.Will I see you there? he asked, voice even and neutral.I sighed. Ye ah. Ill be there.He smiled. Thank you. That means a lot to me.I nodded.He went to the door and looked back at me. I love you. The heat in his voice told me he truly meant it. I smiled back.I love you too.He left, and I pulled the sheets more tightly against me and made no motions to get up. I couldnt stay in bed all day, unfortunately. Other things like my forestall to Kiyo demanded my attention today. There was a trip to the Otherworld ahead of me, one that would take me to a kingdom Id reluctantly inherited. You see, Maiwenn wasnt the only Otherworldly queen in Kiyos life.Yet, astonishingly, that wasnt the problem for me today. That was easy compared to what else lay in store for me.I had to go to a gentry baby shower.