Nine

nine

Zhen

With the bond throwing an absolute fit and not many leads to go on, I had Jake take us to the Airbnb. He dropped us off like a litter of kittens and then doubled back where we’d come from. He, at least, could still go see some of the crime scenes and get a better look at things.

Me, on the other hand, I got to cuddle with my wife. Normally, I was quite happy cuddling with Kris, but I wanted it to be for fun reasons—not necessity reasons.

If our bond proved to be the doing of a being and not an accident, I’d be having sharp words with that person. Via sword point.

The Airbnb was honestly quite nice. It was a traditional log cabin on the riverbank—no garage, just a gravel driveway and a place to park. The keypad on the front door worked perfectly and let us in, which was a relief, considering Jake had already driven off. My first step inside gave me nothing but good impressions. The door let us right into the living room, with two oversized couches and a stone fireplace against the wall. No TV that I saw, but that didn’t mean much to me. I wasn’t a huge TV watcher.

A galley kitchen with a large island was on the far wall of the open room, but to the left was a hallway—presumably where the bedrooms were. Right now, one of those couches looked perfect to me.

I dropped off our bags right inside the door and flopped on the three-seater, then opened my arms up to Kris. “Cuddles?”

Her grey eyes lit up in a silent laugh as she plopped herself right onto my thighs. “You look just like a child asking for ice cream when you do that.”

“I am adorable.”

“Uh-huh.”

That was not a sound of agreement, but I didn’t care. Right now, Kris sitting with me was my priority. She was so warm and squishable and by far one of my favorite people. I nuzzled into the side of her neck and sighed happily. Oh look, bond settling down already. It was like a fucking magic trick.

She put both arms around my shoulders, hugging me to her. “Better?”

“Yeah,” I said with a sigh, relieved now that the agitation and pain in my chest had died down. I knew from experience we’d need to stay like this for another half hour at least. Otherwise, we’d just repeat this circus. Once a day was once too many.

“Soooo…Zhen.”

When she had that tone in her voice, it usually prefaced something she’d been thinking about. And generally a smart observation that I should pay attention to. “Yeah?”

“I didn’t feel the bond act up.”

I blinked, then pulled my head back so I could look at her face. “What? Seriously?”

“Yup. I didn’t feel anything, not even after you called me.” Her lips pursed in a thoughtful way. “Were you stressed when you left with Jake?”

“Yeah. I was admittedly a little stressed before our test. I didn’t think it was that bad, but maybe it was higher than I realized? I mean, I’m still not okay about how you were almost eaten, so I’m trying not to worry because we don’t know for sure yet, but the odds of it being an EFT are pretty damn high—”

“EFT?”

“Evil Flying Thing.”

“Ah, gotcha. Continue.”

“And every time I’ve encountered an EFT, something bad has happened. Either I get hurt, or someone else gets hurt, and usually it’s, like, this multi-day hunt that just wears me out to my very soul.”

“Ah-ha, so you’re very stressed about just the possibility.”

“You better believe it.” I could tell from her expression that she was putting pieces together. “I know you mentioned stress might be a factor in all of this?”

“I think, from today’s events, it’s become clearer that it is. Because I was in my happy place. I was buying a book to read. No stress on my end, and I was fine.”

“Huh. Shit.” I let my head thunk back onto her shoulder. “But life is stress, so that’s not helpful.”

“Tell me about it. Still, I feel like we’re on the verge of a breakthrough. Want to call home and fill them in?”

I thought about it and realized she was right. “Yeah, we better.”

Kris pulled her phone out of her pocket, dialed Grandma’s number, then put it on speaker before she held it between us.

Grandma answered. “ Kris ! How are things ?”

“Ah, well, we might be up against an EFT—”

She made a groan of dismay and let out several choice curse words. “ Never a good thing. Zhen’s always gotten hurt when flying things are involved .”

“Precisely why I hate them,” I agreed. Seriously. Guns and bows might level the playing field some when it came to EFTs, but most of these creatures were nocturnal. Try hunting something in the dark. While tripping over gravestones. It was no fun, I tell you.

“ Oh, Zhen, you’re listening. How are you, hái zi ?”

“Peachy keen. Except, you know, EFTs. And not being able to get a mile away from Kris before the bond starts pitching a fit. Y’know, the usual.”

She let out a gusty sigh. “ Backsliding ?”

“Yes and no.” Kris met my eyes as she spoke. “Boss, you know how you said stress might be a factor?”

“ Right, I did. Has that been proven ?”

“Well, I’m not sure if we can say it’s a hundred percent, but something happened today that inclines me to think you’re right.” Kris explained what went down over the past hour, finishing with, “And I’m still fine. Zhen’s glomped on to me like I’m the source code for world peace.”

Who said she wasn’t? I’d totally end all wars in order to hug Kris. She was excellent at hugs. Oh, wait, if people around the world knew this, then I’d have to fight them off to have hug time, which would start a war all over again. Seemed counterintuitive. I might’ve been too sober to figure this out. I decided I should come back to this thought when I was drunk to see if it made more sense.

Grandma made that humming sound she did when given something interesting to think about. “ Then I really think stress is a part of this. Oh, wait, wait. Son ! Come here, I have Zhen and Kris on the phone. They might have figured part of the bond out .”

I heard footsteps approaching the phone before my father joined in on the call.

“ Hey, you two, ” he greeted warmly. “ How goes it over there ?”

I repeated everything we’d just told Grandma, and he listened intently before responding.

“ EFTs, eh ? Never fun, those. Did you find a medicine man ?”

“I did!” Kris’s chest puffed out a little. She was (rightfully) proud of herself. “He even wrote a book on local myths. I have it and his phone number. I hope to talk to him soon.”

“ Good, good. He’ll have more answers for you than I will. I’m not as familiar with the mythology of that area of the Appalachians. ”

I questioned what I’d just heard cause whuuuut? “I thought you knew this stuff like the back of your hand.”

“ If we’re talking more the Cumberland Gap area, sure. But the mythology changes depending on where you are in the Appalachians. ”

“Oh. Shit. Well, that’s good to know.”

“ It’s why I told you to find a local medicine man. They’d be more up to snuff than me. Anyway, seems like stress is definitely an indicator. Nothing else has been constant on this trip ?”

“Not time, not distance, literally nothing.”

“ Huh. I wonder if this is like a ghost marriage bond ? Where emotion plays a part in it. ”

“Could well be. I mean, it functions like a marriage bond in other ways too, so I don’t see why not. We figured, might as well tell you the information with hopes that it helps your research.”

Kris chimed in. “We’ll still keep updating the spreadsheet, of course, but maybe it’ll help?”

“ At this point, any information helps. All right, sounds like you two aren’t coming back soon .”

“Entirely depends on how fast we can hunt down the culprit and kill it,” I said with a shrug he couldn’t see. “Which right now is completely up in the air.”

Grandma made a sad sound, like a deflating balloon. “ Kris, I could really use you back soon. I know people are dying over there, and of course that takes priority, but I have so many intakes. ”

“I can absolutely help you with that. I’ve got wi-fi here in our Airbnb.”

“ Oh, thank you, honey. I’m just falling further behind. You can type so much faster than I can .”

That wasn’t saying much. Grandma’s typing speed could be best calculated when compared to a snail. Probably because she had such a hard time seeing. That said… “Mom’s not helping?”

“ She is as much as she can, ” Dad said. “ But her friend has had some life emergencies this past week, so she’s barely been home. I came over today to help. ”

Dad wasn’t really an office worker, so that said something about how dire the situation had gotten.

Kris, though, was clearly all over this. “If you can scan and email me any of the intake forms, I can process everything on this end. As well as call the clients and get things scheduled for appointments.”

There were twin breaths of relief over there.

“ Thank you, hái zi. ” Grandma’s relief was apparent in every syllable. “ That takes a load of worry off my mind. ”

“I’m happy to help, you know that. Dad, if you’ll go over to my desk, I’ll walk you through what I need you to do.”

I loved that she called my father Dad, too. I knew it tickled him pink. With no daughters of his own, he’d adopted Kris pretty quickly. Considering how shitty her own father was, I thought Kris really enjoyed having a father who actually cared about her.

Listening to her patiently walk my dad through the steps of how to send her information, I was starkly reminded all over again of why my grandmother had hired Kris to begin with. She was definitely needed. Day-to-day operations suffered when she wasn’t there.

We really, really had to figure this out. For my sake, and Kris’s, of course. But also for all the people who depended upon Kris. We truly had to figure this bond out and how to work around it. What we were doing right now wasn’t sustainable in the long run.