Chapter 28

As I hung up from the salon, the office phone rang. ‘Nomo, Officer Barrington speaking,’ I answered briskly.

‘Bunny, grab Gunnar and meet us at the barrier closest to the Grimes’. There’s a breach, a big one. We’re going to need Gunnar’s brand of magic.’ Liv’s voice was grim. Before I could reply, she hung up; cockily certain that we’d come running because she’d summoned us. Annoyingly, she was right.

A breach? Big enough that they were struggling to close it? My blood ran cold. I bellowed at Gunnar, ‘There’s a breach by the Grimes’, we’ve got to go!’

I heard him get out of his chair so quickly it hit the back wall and met him at the door, Fluffy at my heels. I looked down. ‘No, Fluffy, it’s not safe.’ He barked; he didn”t think it was safe for me either. I looked at Gunnar uncertainly.

‘Bring him, he can stay in the car,’ Gunnar said.

I didn’t want Fluffy that close to the beast; if it had breached the barrier, it could already be through and making its way into town. That thought nearly made me piss myself – but there again, if the monster was careening through town, nowhere was safe.

Fluffy made up his own mind, ran to the door and burst through as soon as Gunnar opened it. Close behind him was Shadow. I didn’t have time to take my menagerie back, so I scooped up the lynx kitten and set him on the back seat with Fluffy.

Gunnar drove like a madman and we made it to the barrier in record time, bad roads and all. Shadow crawled under the back seat, hissing after a particularly bad pothole, while Fluffy yipped in surprise as he bounced up and down on the seat. Maybe I should keep their kennels in the SUV for emergencies, but I’d never intended for them to come with us in the first place.

There were three vehicles and several people milling about when we arrived. Gunnar and I shot out of the SUV, trying to shut our doors before the animals could escape. Fluffy didn’t like that and barked a protest as we dashed away.

Liv and four others were frantically working at the barrier, facing it with their hands up and chanting. The spot that Gunnar, Thomas and I had dived through when we’d found the dead hunters was gushing smoke and I recognized the inky air that was wafting towards us.

It was the same smoke that the beast had sent through the barrier after us. Fear made my mouth dry; my bulletproof vest wouldn’t save me from the monster. The magic users seemed to be stopping the beast from physically intruding, but they hadn’t managed to push it’s smoke back through the hole.

A tiny, outraged meow made my heart stop and I turned; sure enough, Shadow was at my heels. Fuck! He must have slipped out before I could shut the car door, though I could have sworn he was still in there! I scooped him up. ‘What are you doing?’ I hissed.

Liv came over to us, for once looking tired and very human; there was no trace of her man-eating flirtatious energy. ‘Bring your pet to work day?’ she bitched. She didn’t wait for me to respond. ‘We’ve been doing regular rounds. It’s pure luck that we found the tear before the beast made it all the way through. We made it in time, but only just.’

She pointed to a car parked alongside ours. ‘The witch that found it is resting in the car. She’s exhausted – she had to hold it off for more than ten minutes on her own. Luckily the rift was small or she wouldn’t have made it, but the thing on the other side has widened it.’

‘What can we do?’ I asked. If the witches were on it and the beast hadn’t come through, I didn’t know what she expected us to add to the situation. My fire magic had once driven the beast back, but there was no way Liv could know about that.

‘I need Gunnar to—’ Liv started.

Shadow hissed, then he clawed my arm and leapt away as I dropped him. He ran towards the rift and the dark smoky tendrils whipping through the hole. I ran after him. Stupid cat – he was going to get himself killed! He reached the black smoke seconds before me. I screamed, ‘Shadow! Come back!’ but he was a cat so he blithely ignored me.

Then something amazing happened. The smoky colouring that covered him somehow lifted from his tiny form, leaving behind the tawny-silvery colouring of a normal lynx. His shadow leapt at the invading smoke and there was hissing and roaring and yowling. It sounded horrendous, but I knew that somehow Shadow was fighting the beast.

We watched dumbfounded as he pushed the invading smoke back through the hole. ‘Seal it!’ Liv barked to Gunnar. ‘Now!’

‘Wait!’ I yelled. ‘Shadow’s shadow still needs to come back!’

‘Just seal it or we could all die!’ Liv roared. ‘The barrier is unstable!’

Ignoring Liv – she wasn’t his boss – Gunnar waited a beat until the kitten’s shadow dropped back to earth. The umbra hovered over Shadow for a moment before they melded into one and once again his fur turned dark like a melanistic lynx. I reached out in wonder, scooping him up securely and kissing his fuzzy – possibly demonic – head.

Gunnar wasted no time. He lifted his hand, mumbled something in Scandinavian and sent a beam of blinding white light straight at the rift. We watched with bated breath as his luminescent magical energy slowly closed the tear. He held his hand out until it was completely sealed then gave a rumbling groan and dropped to his knees.

‘Gunnar!’ I shouted.

He lifted his shaggy head and smiled weakly. ‘I’m all right, Bunny.’ The hell he was! His voice wasn’t much above a whisper, and he was swaying.

Liv sent her witches to finish the job, and they gathered in front of the patched tear chanting in unison. I put Shadow in the car then turned back to Gunnar. He was on his feet again. He came over to me, taking his time with slow measured steps.

‘What’s that for?’ I gestured at the witches.

‘An extra band-aid,’ Gunnar replied.

‘How long will it hold?’ I asked as Liv stalked towards us.

‘If the beast keeps pushing here, it won’t be for long,’ Liv said grimly. ‘We can’t spare a witch for round-the-clock surveillance – we’re already run ragged. What do you want to do?’

Gunnar sighed. ‘I’ll grab another camera.’ He already had some around town monitoring the other rifts and weak spots. Things were getting dire.

‘What the hell is your cat?’ Liv asked me, her eyes bright with interest as Gunnar walked away.

‘I thought he was a lynx kitten.’

‘Well, he appears to be far more. I’ll buy him from you,’ she offered.

I blinked, taken aback. ‘No thanks. He’s not for sale.’

‘Everything is for sale,’ she argued.

‘I’m glad Shadow’s on our side,’ Gunnar said as he came back with the camera and Fluffy. Shadow was now curled up on the dashboard, sleeping as though he were exhausted.

Fluffy rushed over and sniffed me to make sure I was alive. Once he’d reassured himself, he sat at my feet and looked alert. I patted his head. ‘Sorry, boy. I’m fine.’

Gunnar placed the camera so it faced the rift, though it would only show us a new tear if smoke drifted through again – and by then it might be too late.

I repeated my question to Gunnar. ‘How long do you think it will hold?’

‘Hard to say – anything from a few days to a week. Hopefully long enough to recover the gems and reset the barrier. Since the Grimes brothers live close I’ll ask them to keep an eye on it.’

‘I thought they were illusion witches?’

He laughed. ‘They are – some of the most powerful I’ve ever run into. But that doesn’t mean they can’t muster enough “real” magic to give us time to get someone out here if the patch fails.’

That was a relief: this was a remote spot and it had taken almost thirty minutes to drive here. ‘We need more eyes. Should we warn the public?’ I asked.

He tensed. ‘In some ways that’s a good idea, but we also have to protect the citizens from themselves. People will panic if they know the barrier is failing, and we can’t have them getting hurt. I’ve seen many a mob in my time and they’re never pretty.’

‘But the alternative is that the beast might break free and people get killed!’ I pointed out.

‘I know. This is one of the aspects of the job that will give you heartburn and, if you’re human, a stress-related heart attack. We have to find a balance, and that relies on choosing what looks like the best path. My gut is saying we still have time to find the gems before we have to warn the townsfolk – though we don’t have a lot of it.’

I nodded reluctantly. I hated people not knowing, but if we found the gems tonight we’d have started a huge panic over nothing. I guess doing my job – finding Aoife’s murderer and the gems – was the best I could do for now.

We turned to leave but before we got in the vehicle Liv stopped us one more time. She was visibly stressed. ‘Gunnar, Bunny, you must make finding those gems your priority. My people are drained and overworked, and I don’t know how much more we’ve got in the tank. You understand?’

Gunnar nodded abruptly. ‘We’re trying, Liv.’

‘Try harder.’ She eyed Shadow. ‘And find us more of those damned cats.’