Inn Between Worlds: Volume 1 Read online

  The spell on Zee broke and she shook out her hands, focusing on the witch who froze her.

  She drew her power through him, felt his magic swirling through his blood, as real and tangible as blood cells. She grabbed onto the river of power, lit his blood on fire, gripping his heart with her mind.

  And squeezed it into a pulp.

  His eyes flew wide behind the mask. They were a deep, dark blue. Their light died and he crumbled to the floor.

  Zee went limp too, knees kissing wood two seconds later.

  No, not yet. Couldn’t let go yet.

  She focused, trying to see the magics, friend and foe, in the house.

  She flew across the room, too fast to teleport herself to safety, and slammed into the wall behind the table, arm flying out to catch her.

  Her forearm snapped in half on impact.

  The world went red and she didn’t feel it as she hit the ground.

  “Boss wants her alive,” a woman said through the haze of red.

  “The human?” another voice said. This one sounded male.

  “He can be leverage. Was there another witch or just her?”

  The woman screamed, short and shrill and a thump echoed across Zee’s ears like a shot.

  Zee opened her eyes. She hadn’t realized they were closed. The table had been pushed aside and the woman lay dead on the ground.

  “What the fuck!” the man yelled. “Who’s there?”

  Zee grinned, she knew exactly who was watching her back.

  For someone who claimed he hated drama, James sure did have a thing for grand entrances.

  She blinked, focusing on the arm laying in front of her.

  Huh. Some jagged off-white thing stuck an inch out of a ripped, leaky red hole in her forearm. It lay in a sticky pool of bright red liquid.

  The last time she donated, the blood was collected in a vial. This was just a waste.

  The floor burst into flames in front of her and legs appeared by her head.

  “Oh fires,” the proper British voice said, “always so dramatic.”

  She would’ve laughed at the hypocrisy if she wasn’t numb.

  The flames disappeared and the air unzipped across the room. The man jumped through and the slit in reality closed in two seconds.

  James kneeled next to her, holding his hands over her. “I am sorry, Sarah, I should have been prepared for him to run. We will track him.”

  “How?” she asked as his healing magic swept through her, knitting her arm and flushing the pain out in a few seconds.

  She sat up, staring at him so she wouldn’t look at the table. “They killed my dog.”

  James’ eyes flicked over her shoulder and his mouth stretched into a thin line as he met her eyes.

  He knew what Sasha had meant to Zee.

  Sasha was family. Two legs or four, you protect your family.

  “Professor?” Zee asked.

  “Right here,” he said after a moment. “I’m okay.”

  “Good. Can you get somewhere safe for the night?”

  “Yeah. I can get a hotel.”

  “Good. James?”

  “We will find this man,” James said. “He will tell us where his friends are. We will avenge her, I swear it to you.”

  She nodded. “You can figure out what reality he went to?”

  “I can not guarantee finding him. However, I have an idea.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  James took them through a portal and before Zee could blink, she found herself sitting on a stiff lounge chair.

  “Sarah.” James kneeled in front of her, resting his hands on her knees and looking her straight in the eyes. “Sarah, please look at me. I have to fetch someone. Will you be all right if I leave you here? Just for a few minutes.”

  “Where are we?”

  “This is called the Inn Between Worlds. It has been here longer than Parata.”

  “What… I don’t understand.”

  “It is a magical in-between place. It has been sitting between realities since before witches in our world could travel between realities. No one in the Agency knows of it. I barely learned of its existence and connected it to our reality last year.”

  Zee nodded, not tracking half of what he said.

  This couldn’t be happening.

  Sasha was dead.

  Her baby. The creature who’d been with her since she was twenty-one.

  That dog got her through some of the worst times in her life in the past seven years. Her order, who were closer than family, dying. Professor’s cancer scare. The attack by Kostos that left her with permanent scars.

  Even the more mundane things like her business struggling were easier with the big fluffball. And now she was gone.

  “Sarah,” James said, voice as gentle as he used on his patients.

  She could barely focus on his face.

  “Sarah,” James cupped her cheek, “I need to know you will stay here and you will not do anything rash.”

  His bright blue eyes made practically every female he turned them on melt but Sarah had always been immune.

  He was her friend, one of the best she’d made since she was a kid when making friends was easy, and to think of him as anything other than that made her gag a little.

  But she could see why girls fell for him. Those eyes bore into her, commanding her to pay attention and listen.

  She nodded.

  “Where are you going?” she asked as he stood.

  “I am fetching Nathan. I can not think of anyone better equipped to help with this.”

  She licked her lips and nodded again.

  Nathan was one of the only, if not the only, witch who could see the future out of their reality.

  Their reality had so much magic, so many potential paths for the future to take, that they were taught seeing the future was impossible.

  Except Nathan could to a certain extent.

  He could see possibilities, and even sometimes what would lead to them.

  And he could see what’d happened as well. Not nearly as rare, but extremely helpful on a case.

  “Stay,” James said again before disappearing.

  Zee looked around.

  She was in what looked like a perfectly normal hotel bar.

  The long wooden bar gleamed under bright lights and hundreds of bottles lined the wall behind it. The little tables dotting the room were the same beautiful dark wood and had different dark colored cushions with the same intricate gold pattern to make it clear they were the same set.

  She stood, stretching her arms far above her head and popping her back before walking to the bar.

  The bartender appeared in front of her and she didn’t even jerk.

  She wasn’t feeling much of anything.

  She’d like to keep it that way.

  “I need a drink,” she said, barely able to make her mouth work.

  Shock?

  Probably.

  “Yes, yes, you do,” the man said, nodding his head with slow precise movements. “What’s your poison?”

  She shook her head. “I… ugh, usually wine, maybe some rum, but I want strong and quick. My dog was just murdered.”

  Pity swamped his face and he turned, grabbing a bottle with golden brown liquid.

  “That calls for bourbon, the good stuff,” he said, pouring her what she was pretty sure was a triple and sliding it across the smooth top to her.

  “Ice?” she asked.

  “No. You don’t put ice in the good stuff. Maybe some water with good scotch. Just drink this straight. Trust me. Sip it, don’t shoot.”

  He poured himself a shot and held the glass up. She followed suit.

  “To absent companions,” he said, tapping her glass and taking a long sip.

  She took a drink and for a second thought her taste buds were as numb as the rest of her as the expected burn was barely a tickle.

  She took another sip, tasting it more, detecting the sweet caramel and vanilla as it poured over her tongue.

/>   No, it wasn’t her tongue, it was the drink. It really was just that smooth.

  She downed the drink a little too fast considering how good it was and tapped the counter for another.

  She glanced up as the bartender poured another drink and a bronze statue of a husky appeared over the mirror stretching from near the ceiling to below her line of sight.

  The husky sat, staring straight ahead with watchful eyes.

  Watching for danger as all good dogs do.

  # # #

  “Sarah?”

  The voice made Zee jump and she tried to get her bourbon glazed eyes to focus as she turned her head.

  James sat on the stool next to her and she giggled.

  The prim and proper Dr. James Morganson sitting on a stool with his expensive loafers dangling in midair made a sight.

  She laughed harder.

  “Samuel,” James said, turning his gaze to the bartender, “how much have you given her?”

  Sam shook his head. “Told ya before, Morganson, it’s Sam. And it’s not short for Samuel.”

  James narrowed his eyes and Zee giggled again.

  James had a thing about only using full names. Not knowing someone’s full one bugged him to no end.

  And on too many ounces of bourbon to count, it was fucking hilarious.

  Zee bent over the bar, laughing so hard tears leaked out.

  Or maybe that had nothing to do with the laughter.

  The thought sobered her and she coughed as she lifted her head.

  James had changed out of his three-piece suit to black slacks and a blue button down. That was about as casual as he got. She’d crashed at his place before and even his PJs were fancy satiny things she didn’t think anyone wore outside of movies.

  “Sarah,” James said, taking away her latest half full glass, “you need to stop drinking and sober. We have work to do.”

  “Where’s Natey? Can’t start without him,” she said, pretty sure she was slurring as she reached for her drink.

  James flicked a finger and her glass disappeared.

  “You are a controlling asshole,” she said, pounding on the counter. “Where’s Nate?”

  “Nathan is using the facilities and will be here momentarily. Mr. Bartender, would you mind serving her something to sober her, and a Gatorade?”

  She snorted.

  He couldn’t bring himself to call the man Sam so he made up a name basically.

  “What is it with you and the full names thing?” Zee asked.

  James sighed, meeting her eyes.

  “Names have power, my dear. You label your enemies. You label your friends. These help you define and therefore exert control over your world.”

  “So you insist on using my given name because you're a controlling ass? It makes perfect sense now.”

  “Your argument is flawed.”

  “Yeah, well, I'm drunk.”

  “Which brings us back to what started this ridiculous discussion. Stop drinking, Sarah. It is not helping you.”

  “And we're back to you being a controlling ass.”

  “I give up.”

  “Finally.”

  “Sarah, you are a horrible drunk, and you know this.”

  A glass full of something she could tell was magical appeared on the bar and Sam turned and pulled a Gatorade out of the little fridge on the far side.

  “I will take care of her bill,” James said.

  “I buy my own drinks,” Zee said with a sneer, taking the sobering concoction and downing it in one shot.

  Her head and vision cleared almost instantly and she grabbed the Gatorade and chugged.

  Based on past experiences with sobering potions, if she didn’t hydrate fast, she’d be in serious pain in about one minute.

  James looked at her and handed a strange looking card to the bartender. “You do not know what currency they take here. And a grieving lady should not pay for her own drinks.”

  “Sexist,” a jovial voice said from behind.

  “Nathan!” she said, slamming down the drink and swiveling around.

  Nathan was only nineteen when he was turned and could pass for a high schooler easily too when he was clean shaven. But for now, he’d grown out his blond beard enough to look manly and had his just as naturally blond hair cut and professionally styled. He wore jeans and cowboy boots to go with the Texan accent but had a designer rugged guy plaid shirt on that said he never got closer to cows than a cheeseburger.

  Nathan leaned forward and hugged her tight, half lifting her off the stool and setting her on her feet.

  He wasn’t much more than an inch or two taller than her, short for a guy, but he made up for it with enough trips to the gym to keep himself thick with muscle.

  “Hey girl,” he said, staring into her eyes as she pulled back. “I’d ask how you are, but I can see the pain. I am so sorry. I know how much Sasha meant to you.”

  “Yeah,” Zee said, grabbing the Gatorade and taking a long gulp. “I… can’t talk about that.” She took another long drink. “Where to?”

  “Down to business. I can respect that,” Nathan said. “Ol’ blue eyes here said the guy ran to another reality without a trace, right?”

  James clenched his jaw at the nickname but nodded anyway.

  “So we go there first and I try to get a vision,” Nathan said. “And step one is done. See, I’m helping already.”

  Zee looked between him and James.

  “We stopped by the house,” James said. “Nathan has already tracked the man to the next reality.”

  “Oh,” Zee said. “Good. I thought that’d take longer. Let’s go!”

  “Waiting on you, sweetheart,” Nathan said.

  She toasted him with her bottle of Gatorade before tossing back the rest of it. “I’m ready.”

  James nodded at Sam and led them through the doorway into a sweeping grand hall reminiscent of old timey southern mansions.

  “You said this was an in-between,” Zee said as James started up the stairs. “What does that mean?”

  “It means this inn sits outside of natural realities. It is a created one, much like Parata. However, instead of being a bubble off of a main reality, it is a reality in of itself, and it is not tied to any one reality. It connects to thousands of them, possibly more, with no explanation of who made it or how it manages that level of magic without imploding. It is a mystery; however, it is an extremely useful one.”

  They hit the top of the stairs and the hall stretched far on both sides, hundreds of doors with no numbers but different names, paintings and markings on them.

  “How do you tell where we need to go?” Zee asked.

  “Focus on the reality we want, and the inn will take us to the door,” James said. “It is really quite extraordinary.”

  “Quite,” Zee said with no small amount of mocking as her stomach lurched and Sasha’s face appeared in her head.

  She shoved the memory down.

  It was good to be sober for a hunt, but she wasn’t exactly thrilled about having to feel again.

  Still, the goal kept the emotions at bay.

  Find man, capture man, torture him into spilling where the Kings’ headquarters were, kill him after torturing him for a little longer for fun, then go into the headquarters and do it all again.

  Lather, rinse, repeat.

  Zee took a deep breath as James and Nathan each took a hand.

  “Do not say it,” James said.

  “Say what?” she asked.

  “Whatever crude joke you were about to make about being in between two men.”

  “I actually wasn’t going to make a joke. Not in a joking mood.”

  “Oh, I am terribly sorry, Sarah. I should not scold you so. You are usually…”

  “Yeah, I know. Do your thing. I’m sure I’ll get the sense of humor back.”

  No, she was pretty sure it’d died with her dog, but it seemed like something the old Zee would say.

  James squeezed her hand and focused his las
er gaze on the hall.

  The hall sped around them, almost like the doors were a dial being twirled, and snapped to a stop without warning.

  Zee’s stomach lurched and she doubled over as Nathan wobbled around next to her.

  “I apologize,” James said. “The first time can be quite unnerving.”

  “No need to tell me that. That’s how it goes with me and first times,” Zee said, not really feeling the joke.

  James didn’t even shoot her a glare, just rubbed her arm before letting her go and opening the door.

  A wave of dry, hot air hit Zee and she sniffed, backing away.

  “It feels like home during the summer,” Zee said.

  “It appears to be close,” James said. “Southern Utah. One of the national parks, I believe.”

  “What reality?” Nathan asked.

  “I am not sure it has a name,” James said. “The coordinates seem familiar, but I can not for the life of me remember from where I heard them.”

  “And we’re sure he’s in Southern Utah in this reality?” Zee asked.

  “No,” Nathan said. “We just know that’s where he went. We’ll have to track once we’re in there.”

  “Shall we?” James asked, lips drawn tight.

  “This feels like a trap,” she said.

  “I do not believe it is. The man is running. And has a good reason to be afraid.”

  “Yes, you’re terrifying. Good for you.” Zee rolled her eyes and pulled out her gun and one of her knives.

  Just in case.

  They walked out into the desert, the night not cooling it much. A giant arch stretched above their heads just to the south and the giggles of night hikers rang across the empty land, nothing to keep the noise from traveling far over the sands.

  “Arches,” Zee said, almost smiling. “I love this place. Not during the summer because damn, but it’s my favorite national park. I come here every fall. Sasha can’t…”

  She slammed her mouth shut and looked down, instant tears clogging her voice.

  Sasha couldn’t take the desert heat during the summer so they’d come during the fall and sometimes even then would only hike at night.

  “Sarah,” James said, hugging her to his side.

  She shook him off. “Nope. I can fall apart later. Got a guy to find.”