Chapter 17

  The girl finds that she’s in a new world and our hero disposes of a Vampire

  Elena Novikov, known as Loretta Sanger in New York, sat sipping tea with her feet on the ottoman in her tiny but exquisitely clean and elegantly decorated efficiency apartment. The big screen television on the wall between the two tall double hung windows was showing waves crashing on the shore of a black sand beach overhung with palm trees. Her eyes were focused on the Russian language fashion magazine, though even with its risqué layouts and aggressively nihilist anti government articles it wasn’t making much of an impression.

  At last she tossed the rag aside and sat sulking, she still couldn’t get the damned cowboy out of her head. He was at least ten years older than her and not her type at all! She liked brooding young intellectuals though she rarely got to pander to her own tastes in men. She might be an illegal, a covert agent of the Sluzhba Vneshney Razvedki or SVR, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, but her current cover was as high price call girl. A cover she was likely to remain in for some years yet. In New York it was a very useful cover, she was ‘invited’ to a lot of diplomatic parties as one of the party favors. It was a good thing she enjoyed sex, was a great deal tougher than she looked and took a lot of drugs, not the recreational kind, but a powerful cocktail of anti-viral, anti AIDS, and antibiotic drugs that she got through her ‘control’ Viktor Ushakov.

  She stretched a hand out in front of her, a strong slim hand, nails meticulously manicured. It was hard to believe that that hand had killed three people. The SVR was mainly an intelligence agency focused on economics, politics and social movements, but it was also an anti terrorist organization. And terrorists, particularly the big shots, tended to have high libidos. Jihadists in particular might expound very conservative values concerning women, but they often wanted a blonde whore to prove their manhood on, which had put her in ‘position’ to liquidate several threats over her short career.

  Her phone buzzed discretely and went silent, a text message from Vanessa, the woman who Loretta had ‘replaced’ in Viktor’s ‘stable.’ Vanessa had moved on to DC, last Elena had heard the woman had been the mistress of a Senator. The message was very brief, friendly, the level they had exchanged every once in awhile, it was an invite to a weekend party in DC. The invite was probably real enough, but there were two character groups that looked like fumble thumb inclusions, but weren’t.

  The cowboy flushed from her thoughts, Elena got up and walked to the expensive Yamaha electric piano under the big screen TV and started to tinkle on the keys. In her minds eye she saw her parents as she had last seen them. Laid side by side, only white sheets to cover their pale nakedness as they lay forever stilled on the rust spalled white enamel gurneys.

  She remembered her hefty, stiff, smelly aunt telling her that they hadn’t been NGO lawyers, but Federal Security Service or FSB agents working to break a terrorist plot. That the ‘enemy,’ a cabal of the CIA and Chechen rebels had destroyed her world, her aunt had known someone in the FSB, a week later the fourteen year old orphan was in a special school where she had been immersed in a world she had never imagined.

  Elena Novikov had been a minor piano prodigy and a brilliant student. The SVR had seen the swimming medals and the rough country survival skills her parents had taught her on their long camping holidays. That along with a near perfect complexion, long legs, huge brown eyes and honey blonde hair had condemned her to training as a whore and killer. As always Elena had excelled, she had earned her the nickname, Killer Kitten.

  Five years on Elena was a hardened cynic, and a practiced professional in a harsh field. She was almost certain that her Aunt had lied about everything. Her parents certainly hadn’t been FSB. Russian’s were past masters of secrecy and you didn’t use married couples as agents. Her Aunt probably had known someone, who knew someone, but in truth she’d sold her niece into a sort of slavery for a nice chunk of money.

  The SVR didn’t involve itself with human trafficking directly, but it did turn a blind eye to it unless it was carried out by enemies of the motherland. Individuals like Viktor Ushakov did deal in white slavery, his background in the KGB and then in the FSB had made him a dangerous and ruthless man with contacts in all the wrong sorts of places. He wasn’t a human trafficker in the sense of running a ring but he was a broker between the rings and New York gangs and pimps who needed ‘workers.’

  Disgusted by Viktor and the trade, Vanessa had provided tips and leads to local police when she could. Elena had continued where her predecessor had left off. It was the least she could do and it did some good. As a SVR agent she was supposed to cultivate a broad circle of contacts, and Vanessa and now Elena had contacts in the strangest places.

  She glanced at the message as her fingers rippled across the keys of the piano, Vanessa was warning her that something was ‘up’ at the SVR headquarters in the Embassy on Wisconsin avenue in DC. What did that mean? Vanessa wouldn’t have sent the message unless it at least touched Elena.

  There was a burble from the disposable phone, Viktor calling, “Loretta?” she answered.

  “Hey kitten, I have a job for you, you liked the cowboy, I need you to get your hots on and go ride him like he’s a bucking bronco, Vitally will get a couple of good shots and you’re done.” Elena looked at the cell phone, Viktor was crude at the best of times, he’d suddenly reached new heights in lows, and she didn’t like the finality with which he said ‘done.’

  Had her little treasons been discovered? Viktor wasn’t really SVR any longer, he’d probably kill her if he found out. She’d lived with that knowledge for some time, it sat in an empty spot in her soul and didn’t matter, though if it came down to it she’d fight, would kill Viktor if she could. But she still loved her motherland, was still loyal to the SVR, and Viktor was an SVR asset...probably.

  “You hear me girl?” He tried to cover his anger at her delayed answer.

  “I am not sure he’s the type to pick up a whore Viktor.”

  “Give it away for free then girl. Just get it done, we need the lever. This is for your mother not the money.” He cut the call.

  For her mother, in other words for Mother Russia? What was the cowboy involved in? Last night she’d been told to take a run at him but it had seemed like it was a favor for some Russian ex pat big shot.

  She frowned, wandered back to her sleek little Mac and let her fingers and mind do some wandering using an internet connection she pirated through the coffee shop next door. It only took a little while for her come up with some interesting links.

  Elgin Chalmers, of Beauty, Wyoming, was in New York as a tribal representative in a land deal negotiation ongoing at one of the mid rank law firms. Only one other player meant anything to her, Dmitri Andropov of Double Eagle Financial, she grinned at the black double headed eagle on the company crest, its outline was all but identical to the gaudy gold red and white crest embossed on her official commissioning letter as an officer of the SVR, folded away in a safe deposit box in Moscow.

  Then she saw another name she recognized, Zephyr Samson-Smith, a high power lawyer who did pro bono work helping sex workers get a second chance.

  There was feeling of a presence in her room and the hair on the back of her neck stood on end. She pushed back from the bar that the computer sat on and casually put her hand in her pocket, she grabbed the butt of her Glock pocket pistol, wondering what kind of life did she live that she usually carried a gun even in her own appartment, also wondering if she was getting crazy paranoid.

  She turned and found herself staring into a pair of azure eyes in a coffee brown muzzle with tall mobile ears, ears with long white tassels. The cat’s dark cream body was slim if heavily muscled; his long tail was mostly dark cream with a coffee brown tip like his head and feet. He looked like a classic Siamese, grown the size of a small mountain lion.

  How the hell had the beautiful monster gotten into her room?

  With a gentle “Mrowow,” the huge house cat rolled to his feet and walked slowly, elegantly, towards her, he had to weigh almost half what she did, about the same as a large dog breed. He didn’t try to wind around her like his smaller brethren but did brush his length on her leg, as he walked around her, the incredibly long prehensile tail wrapped around her, finally sliding past and tickling her nose. Then he strolled away, exploring her room like a landlord making sure everything was still in order.

  He vanished into her luxurious bathroom, Elena followed pistol all but forgotten at her side. He inspected everything, making approving mrows every once in a while. Passing her as he left he gave her another body massage, his tail stroking her in an oddly affectionate way.

  She wasn’t sure what to do with him, she liked cats but pets weren’t a good idea in any of her professions. Should she open the door and just let him out? Was he the pet of someone else in the building?

  Turning with a smile, “Or I suppose I should I say your pet?” She frowned, the cat was nowhere to be seen, the apartment was empty. Completely empty, there was no sign of the cat or how he had gotten in or out.

  There was a knock on the door and Elena almost forgot to pocket the gun before opening the door. On the other side was Valery a dark haired ex college student, current call girl, they went to some of the same parties, they’d done a few ‘lesbo’ acts as warm ups before the real action started at a couple of parties. They were friends and confidants, at least that was how Valery saw the relationship. Elena saw it slightly differently but couldn’t help trying to help the other girl.

  Valery was wide eyed and a bit pale, “Did you hear?” she almost whispered, looking around as if afraid about being overheard.

  “Hear what?”

  “About yesterday?”

  “The big bang, who didn’t?”

  “It was the HP! Its only getting out now, girls from the HP, they say there was some kind of battle, a magical battle, one says she saw the HP fall into the ground with the flames of hell roaring up around it as it went!”

  HP was shorthand of the whispered stories about the Horror Palace, a mythical New York bordello where all sorts of horrors abounded. Though a couple of girls Elena had met over the years had claimed they worked out of the ‘Palace, they never said where it was and no one else seemed to know. One of the legends about the ‘Palace was that people who talked too much about the ‘Palace or found it by accident, disappeared never to be seen again. While Elena had no experience with the reality she was Russian enough not to utterly reject stories that delved into black magic.

  It turned out that Valery didn’t know a whole lot more than she had blurted out in the first seconds. A couple of discreet calls confirmed the story, to the point of certainty. Valery hovered around as Elena did some digging, not liking the rumors that were rippling through the Big Apple’s underbelly. Valery was obviously shaken, but that wasn’t surprising, Valery wasn’t really made for the life of a call girl, what Valery needed was a fiftyish executive in need of a mistress or trophy wife.

  Valery, was sitting on the ottoman looking at her hands, frowning, she looked up at Elena, “Why are we doing this?”

  “This?”

  “Whoring...why did I drop out of college? I had a plan!”

  Elena blinked, “You ran out of money?”

  Valery shook her head, “I had a....a grant really from my granddad’s trust. Full ride through college to a PhD if I could make it,” Valery ended in a soft confused whimper, she was shaking like a leaf, tears pouring down her cheeks.

  As Valery started to slip off the ottoman Elena stepped forward and caught her, letting the older girl slide to the floor. Valery curled up, whimpering, “What have I done?”

  Elena wanted to slap the girl, instead, “Valery, you said it was unlimited, you just go back, a little older, a whole lot wiser.”

  Valery seemed to accept this, her sobs eased but she continued to lay there, to stare into some unknowable place, finally she spoke, Elena couldn’t make it out, “What honey?” she asked gently, though she really wanted to give the other girl a good shake.

  “I worked for the HP, Elena.”

  “What!?” Elena yelped, shocked that Valery could surprise her like that..

  “Yeah, I think, I think it was some kind of drug, or hypnosis. A couple of years ago, during break I went to a party. A real swinging party, lots of sex, there was a man, an oriental in a sharp suit. He hit on me a couple of times, I turned him down. The third time something happened, before I knew what had happened I was naked and getting screwed by a stranger and not minding it. There was this woman who came to me later, she told me what to do, and I did it, no questions asked.”

  Having gotten it all out Valery shut up, shut her eyes and was asleep almost immediately. Elena stood up, went and got a pillow and a cover, lifted Valery’s head to put it on the pillow and covered the noticeably skinny body. It was possible this had happened just in time to save the girls life.

  Elena looked at the time, if she was to carry out her orders regarding the cowboy she needed to go. If she wasn’t then she had to figure out what to do instead.

  -o-

  Elena arrived at the older and somewhat down market hotel where she had intercepted Elgin the day before. The doorman who’d given her a very old-fashioned look yesterday opened the door with an avuncular smile today, not recognizing her out of her working clothes and paint. Today he saw the teenage daughter of one of the guests, coming back from a shopping trip. She smiled sweetly back and went through into the lobby. She had Elgin’s room number, she’d use the house phone to leave a message and leave.

  The phone was ringing when the elevator tinged and Elgin strolled out, he was frowning. A woman Elena had noted sitting in a lounge chair stood up with a restrained smile of greeting. Standing together they made a handsome couple, his hair short and bright blonde, hers dark red brown, in modest heels the woman was tall enough to almost look Elgin in the eye. She was mature in the right way for him, probably a few years older, sharp, stable, professional.

  The phone stopped ringing and the machine told her to leave a message. She hesitated for a moment, then spoke, “Hi, this is Loretta. Look, yesterday was no accident, someone sent me to try and compromise you, you need to know someone is out to get leverage over you, be careful.” She hung up the phone still watching Elgin and the woman, something inside of her numb.

  She didn’t want to move, leave, she’d have to walk right past Elgin and she suspected, or was it hoped? that he’d recognize her, even out of character. Turning she walked casually to another grouping of lounge chairs nearby, half shielded by some plants in hip high ceramic pots, and sat down as if waiting for someone to come and meet her.

  Elgin and the woman had moved and were looking at something on a laptop computer the woman had produced, on one of the high bar tables by the front entrance, Elgin was still facing the entrance, looking up every once in a while to scan the lobby as if waiting for something.

  Elena tried to relax, settled in to wait, then one of the waitresses from the bar area appeared with a glass and bowl of nuts. A few years older than Elena, she smiled in a friendly way, “Hey there, your cute uncle said he’d be with you in a few,” set down the tray and departed.

  Elena stared at the tray, the drink was lemon sour, no vodka, what she drank at parties most of the time, what she had ordered when they were out the night before.

  It wasn’t Elgin who came to talk to her first. The tall woman strolled over, bag and coat clipped closed, ready to leave. Elena stood up, no point in trying to act stupider than she felt, “Hi?”

  The older woman looked Elena up and down, her expression neutral, but her hand came out, “Hello Elena, I’m Zeph Smith-Samson, I’m a lawyer working on a case with Elgin.”

  Elena felt shock ripple through her body, how did they know her real name?”

  “...experience with girls in similar situations, if you ever need help please feel free to contact me.” Elena only heard the last part of the offer; she had been staring across the lobby at Elgin, who was studiously ignoring her and Smith-Samson.

  “Uh, thanks, I’ve heard of what you’ve done for other girls.” Elena, tried to mentally shake herself back into some semblance of her normal self. She straightened her shoulders, looked into the lawyer’s eyes, which she realized were very like those she saw in a mirror. Big, ‘nut’ brown eyes, “In fact we’ve met, I was at the party the Kamaratstan Ambassador put on last year.”

  The big brown eyes widened, “Oh?” then hardened, “Oh! That son of a bitch of a princeling needs reining in!”

  Elena couldn’t help smiling, grinning really, “Most definitely.” The grin faded quickly, the son of a bitch had been hosting a terrorist, Loretta’s date, he’d died with his boots on, as the saying went.

  “I heard about some excitement the following morning?” the lawyer said, her eyes going wide again.

  “Oh?” Elena said, but she let herself smile faintly in satisfaction. Then her eyes wandered back to Elgin and she felt sad and lost again.

  Zeph had a very good lawyer expression, the faint smile, hint of condescension while waiting for enlightenment, but her eyes scanned Elena again and then fixed on her face searchingly.

  Elena tried to respond in kind, but figured she just looked sullen, the sullen adolescent facing off with an older sister.

  There was an electronic beep and Zeph looked at her watch, “Damn it, I have to go.” She looked back at Elena, her expression kind, “Look, I think you have a crush on Elgin. Us women, the mature sex, are supposed to get over that stage at some point, but I’ve never quite figured out when. I think he likes you more than he lets on, but he’s not exactly well practiced around women. His mother vanished when he was twelve and he’s always been skittish of girls, though he used to moon over the pretty ones when he thought they weren’t aware of him. I’m not his mom, not even a sister, but I care for him even if he frightens me spitless at times. Be gentle and be careful.” Then Zeph almost ran for the door, yelling for a taxi.

  Leaving Elena speechless and staring, what had Zeph meant by ‘frightens me spitless?’ Americans could be arrogantly loose with their mother tongue but it seemed unlikely a high powered lawyer would be. Elgin seemed to appear out of nowhere, she tried to smile, “Hi.”

  “Hello.” His face was still, watchful.

  “Elgin. Look I came to warn you....” He nodded, pointed at the lobby phone, “I heard.” His jaw worked, “Was the plan to call the police and catch me making love to an underage girl?” He growled, his eyes still fixed on her face.

  She blushed, “I’m not underage, and not the police. But...” She looked away with a shrug, “I’m sorry, I am a...” she stopped with his finger on her lips.

  He swallowed, grimaced, looked down at her with intensity, “I know what you are, or at least some of it Elena. I am Elgin, I’m a cowboy because of circumstances, it’s not what I am, you work for the SVR as spy and ...call girl, that’s not what you are.”

  How did he know that? But she realized that somehow it didn’t matter that much to him, that he was looking at her, addressing her, as Elena. The tall young man with the clear blue eyes was looking at her with an intensity that left her shaking. Not with fear but with desire, she wanted to throw herself at him, wrap her arms and legs around him and lose herself in kissing him.

  He was staring down at his hands, his jaw clenched by some powerful emotion. Not able to help herself, she reached out to touch a hand, strong and long, the skin was rough, hardened by wind and sun, not soft like an intellectuals. It was a shock when his hand turned to cup hers and his thumb came around to stroke across her knuckles, all but making her gasp.

  “I’m sorry Elgin.” She didn’t know what else to say.

  He looked at her, “For what Elena? For doing your job, doing what you had to. I know your parents were killed in a hit and run and your aunt lost no time in getting rid of you. My...I...had assumed you were trafficked but that doesn’t feel right.”

  His thumb ever so gently stroking her knuckles, Elena could hardly think, she said the first thing that came to mind, the truth, “My aunt sold me to the training directorate who are always looking for new cannon fodder. She had told me that my parents had been agents of the FSB, murdered by Chechens and the CIA, and I believed her. At the start I was the perfect conscienceless sex and killing machine the trainers could mold to their will.”

  His other hand came up to stroke her hair, “Damn her, damn them,” he sighed, “but then I’m sure they went over that cliff long before you.” His voice was soft, gruff, caring.

  From somewhere deep inside she drew on strength she would have hardly believed possible, slipping her hand from his, stepping back. It was a shock to see disappointment, sadness in his eyes at her rejection, she wanted to step back, step closer, have him wrap her in his arms. She continued to back, “I’m sorry Elgin, I have to go, something is going on and I need to find out what. I’m not an American Elgin, I am an agent, a spy, and worse. If the FBI ever found out I’d never see the light of day again.”

  Now Elena saw what Zeph had meant when she said Elgin could scare her spitless, his face was no longer sternly gentle, strong but infinitely understanding. Now his eyes were icy slits and his face carved out of some hard, fine grained stone, “Trust me Elena, I would never tell them, and there is nothing on this world that would keep us apart if that were our destiny.”

  Choking back a laugh, wanting to believe but knowing she had to run, she shook her head, “Elgin, its not that easy, we’re just people, the powers in this world would crush us, crush you.”

  He smiled faintly, advancing after her, “I am one of the powers in this world Elena. Though few know it, the world is changing, and I and others who have been myth or forgotten for thousands of years walk the Earth again. I had to destroy a monster yesterday and in doing so killed dozens of innocents. The FBI, the ATF, the whole of Homeland Security would try and hunt me down if they knew what I was, what I have done, what I will have to do in the future.”

  Now he was just saying crazy things! But were they crazy? The Horror Palace had been blown into the stratosphere, Valery said she’d been spelled into becoming a sex toy by someone from the Palace. That monster cat had teleported in and out of her apartment.

  Elgin stopped her retreat with a gentle hand on the shoulder, but now he was no longer looking at her, instead he was frowning at something behind her. Then his eyes got very round. She started to turn, he shook his head slightly and spoke without moving his lips much, “Don’t turn, look at the desk clerks, the other guests.”

  The man and woman at the desk were staring in the same direction as Elgin, their eyes wide, faces empty of expression, “What’s happening?”

  “There’s vampire by the front entrance.”

  “A vampire?” She wanted to laugh. But in the coffee shop she saw a woman and her three children staring emptily in the same direction. The barista’s foaming tin was frothing all over the place as she stood uncaring, waiting.

  “The premier predator of humans, fortunately they’re very rare, territorial, solitary and not terribly smart. On the other hand their very presence hypnotizes humans and they can take a lot of damage, unlike werewolves cutting their head off does not slow them down much, a good strong dose of sunlight, a hot fire or getting yanked into the shadow realm by someone else are about the only permanent solutions.” He was talking almost as if to himself.

  Now she caught a whiff of something rotten and there was a chill that went deeper than just ordinary New York winter cold. She could still hardly believe it, “A vampire, really?” She realized she had reverted to snobbish ‘club gurl’ speech patterns.

  His grin was faint but real, “Really, a vampire, a very young one fortunately.”

  “Fortunately?”

  “You any good with that pistol you have tucked away in the back holster?”

  She almost denied it, but, “What’s the range? Thirty feet, center of mass from a fast draw eight times in ten.”

  He looked approving, “I do like girls who are good with guns. Try not to look into its eyes, but you should have time to put it down for a few seconds before it locks onto you. It’s overloaded by all the potential food. Whoever sent it doesn’t understand vampires.” He looked down at her, his face confident and calm, “Go.”

  Her hand went for her back as she dropped into a crouch and spun to get on target. The massive manlike figure with its pale face and dark, ragged clothes, was unmistakable. She had an impression of glaring red eyes and gleaming white teeth, a hand rising, a body tensing to spring.

  The Glock 39 was a subcompact 45 caliber weapon with a six round magazine, it wasn’t a lot of shots but each one had the most stopping power available and she hadn’t been boasting when she told Elgin how good a shot she was. The kick was massive, but so was the end effect. The pistol bucked in her hand, once, twice, again, again, again, the vampire had started to lunge her way by the second shot, without seeming to have noticed the first that she was certain had hit. She ejected the magazine and reached for her backup, six rounds it had noticed.

  As it fell it started to shriek, an inhuman, ear piercing sound that felt like knives driving through her ears deep into her brain. Elgin jumped past her as she fell to her knees, pistol fallen from nerveless fingers, as she clapper her hands over her ears to try and cut some of the pain.

  The sound stopped, just cut off.

  Sagging Elena looked up, the thing, the vampire, and Elgin, were nowhere to be seen.

  People were beginning to shake themselves, look around. She saw her pistol on the tiles, and the empty magazine, she crouched down and scooped it up. There was nothing she could do about the six shell cases though fortunately they had mostly landed in and around the decorative planters.

  There was a shriek, children crying in fear and pain, the two in the coffee shop were holding their ears. The barista was cursing, trying to figure out what had happened to her machine. The other ten or twelve people in the lobby were looking around, some holding their heads, others with their eyes squeezed shut.

  Elena jumped when Elgin spoke softly from behind her, “We should get out of here before people start to recover and questions are asked.”

  She glared at him, there was no way he could have gotten behind her without her seeing him, and what had happened to the monstrous scarecrow figure of the vampire? “Damn it, how did you do that, you related to a big damned Siamese cat?” She almost snarled at him, her heart racing.

  He blinked, “Humph? How do you know about Humph?”

  She stared at him, “I don’t know Humph, I do know that a Siamese cat the size of a Labrador Retriever invaded my apartment this afternoon, and then vanished again.”

  “That’s Humpfrey, my cat, he’s harmless...unless you had a Chihuahua?” There was a gleam of laughter in his eyes now, though his mouth was perfectly serious. He was guiding her rapidly to the elevators.

  “You sent your cat to spy on me?”

  “No one sends Humph anywhere, he tends to appear and disappear pretty much as he wants. But he’s a good friend, he’s saved Zeph’s life a couple of times.”

  Elena was feeling more than a little overwhelmed as he punched his floor number into the elevator’s control panel. It came as a shock a few moments later to realize she was leaning against his warm torso and his arm was draped protectively around her shoulder.

  “Life’s going to get interesting,” she whispered.

  “Going to get?” he sighed with a tired smile.

  The elevator binged and the door opened, he lead her out, still all but tucked under his arm. He was utterly defenseless against her, maybe she should have elbowed him in the short ribs, put him down at least for a few seconds as she made her escape, but as the SVR agent training spooled out the scenario Elena the person snuggled a little closer to the man who spoke about vampires as if they were a standard hazard.

  His room wasn’t big or particularly well appointed but neither was it tiny. There were two beds, one of which had a large cream and brown lump laid out on it. Humph turned his head to give the couple an approving azure gaze, “Yowrp.” Then he settled back into his interrupted cat nap.

  “Uh, Elena, you’ve met Humph, Humphrey Chalmers to be formal.”

  He dropped his arm from around her shoulder, pointed at the lounge chair and desk with chair in the corner, “Have a seat.” He rubbed his brow, suddenly looking tired.

  “What did you do with that thing downstairs?”

  “I translated it into the shadow realm,” He grimaced, waved a hand, “A kind of manifold universe that links this one with many similar ones. Though the vampire is actually a creature of the shadow realm it’s very sensitive to the translation, when you hurt it, put it down for a few seconds, I had the chance to drag it through and it disintegrated.”

  He closed his eyes, grimacing, “Damn it, would you shut up!” it was as if he was speaking to himself.

  Elena approached, “What’s the matter?” She touched him.

  Then she was standing somewhere else, a hot gritty wind made her wince, not far away a small brown man, wearing only a sort of white kilt with a gold belt leaned on a spear with a long, sharp bronze head. A little further away a huge creature stood staring at them. A griffin, a griffin with the head that was furred and somewhat doglike, or maybe, Dragon like, its eyes were brilliant blue and the body massively muscled.

  Spinning around she gasped as she saw a pyramid nearby, a pyramid with polished faces of red rock. People dressed like the small brown man moved around the temples that surrounded the base of the vast structure, some looking and pointing her way.

  “Elgin!”

  “He’s not here,” the voice was oddly similar to Elgin’s.

  She spun to face the brown man, her pistol suddenly in her hand, “Who are you, what have you done with Elgin?”

  “Elgin calls me Cutter, I’m one of the voices in his head.” The little man had a very beaky nose, and his hair had some white in it and had receded some.

  “What?”

  “Elena, a bit more than a year ago Elgin got himself killed.” The man waved at the Griffin, “The Iffrit saved him, brought him back to life, but for a reason and with a purpose. The Iffrit arrived on Earth when there was nothing but cooling oceans with some scum. Oldest is effectively immortal, a creation of a civilization that existed before the current one exploded out of the singularity, he understands and can manipulate the universe at the quantum level. But he’s an alien machine and while he can interact with humans he’s not always good at it without help. Prior to Elgin I was his imago on Earth, an agent, like Elgin I got myself killed in a rather stupid way at an age where I could adapt to being a combination of weak and fallible human and indestructible machine.”

  She looked at the creature / machine, it stared back at her with blue eyes very similar in color to Elgin’s. “What if I tell you I don’t believe you?”

  “You are in a simulation Elena, your mind linked to the Iffrit’s he, and I know that you know I’m not lying, though we are holding things back and always must.”

  “What are we doing here?”

  “I have been trying to convince Elgin that you are a very bad mistake. The Iffrit’s not the only alien to have arrived on Earth over the eons and while he is effectively their sovereign, many of them are always pushing against his reins. I had more than one concubine over the centuries I served as the Iffrit’s agent and several of them suffered terribly because of the connection. I have been trying to convince him to let you go, to forget you. The Iffrit could wipe any memory of you from Elgin’s mind, so he would not suffer the grief the loss would cause him. But Elgin has refused because we can’t do the same for you, and the thought of loosing you is like a knife in his gut.”

  “Oh!” Elena said softly, suddenly misty eyed, though she made sure to keep ‘Cutter’ covered by her pistol.

  The grimace made the beaky nosed man even uglier than before, “Damn hormones! You do know that love, emotions, are programmed into us, are more chemistry than ineffable mystery?”

  She couldn’t help grinning, “I may know that intellectually, but the emotion says you’re full of crap Cutter.”

  “The cascade reactions you set off in each other are almost unbelievably strong, the Iffrit calls it a remarkably inconvenient genetic accident.”

  “Why doesn’t he talk for himself,” She challenged Cutter..

  “Because as he say’s, Cutter’s usually better at it,” The voice boomed from the Iffrit, suddenly lying on its stomach less than twenty feet away.

  Cutter gave the Iffrit the finger then slouched over to sit familiarly on one of the huge forelegs.

  She studied them, “You said you were one of the voices in Elgin’s head, where are you when you talk to him?”

  Cutter waved his hand around, “Here Elena, folded away in the interstices between the dimensions of the real world, in a very real sense ‘in’ Elgin’s head.”

  “Why now, why is this happening now?” she demanded.

  The Iffrit sighed. “There’s a lot of history even Elgin’s just starting to learn, suffice it to say that around the time of the rise of early Roman civilization one of our enemies trapped me in one of my own creations. That trap shut what you think of as magic away from humanity till it unlocked recently, it also destroyed Cutter’s physical body.”

  Cutter shrugged, “You don’t look too upset, Elena, that’s a bit cold, but understandable. The Iffrit and I are really two aspects of the same being. I am part of the Iffrit now, but as time goes on Elgin will learn and take up his full burden, he will be the other aspect of Iffrit and I will fade to a passive memory instead as have hundreds before me.”

  Elena blinked, “I’m sorry, I’m sure Elgin di...”

  Cutter waved for her to shut up, “It’s not for Elgin to decide, it’s my decision in the end. And let me put it this way, several thousand years of life are enough, the several hundredth time you see a village or city in flames, its inhabitants, every last man, woman and child butchered you tend to want to withdraw from contact with humans forever.”

  Elena put her pistol away, “So what do you want me to do?” She felt empty, her heart heavy in her chest, “You want to wipe my memories of Elgin so neither of us suffer?” She couldn’t help sounding bitter.

  Cutter was gone and she was floating in space alone. Far away she could see a blue crescent with a silver white crescent riding off its shoulder, seemingly not that far away a yellow sun roiled as it swung through the void.

  “You don’t have to do anything. At the end of every argument the fact is that I will do what I feel is best,” the Iffrit sounded distant and bored floating only a few feet away, frighteningly huge. He sounded like an Olympian god, ready to do with humanity what he wanted.

  She suppressed her fear response and stared the monster in the eye, “That’s not true is it? You have more limitations than you are willing to reveal.”

  He sighed, “It’s complicated.” An idle flip of a wingtip set him spinning slowly in place.

  “Four thousand years out of the loop has left you more vulnerable than you’re used to.”

  “Your people swarm across this world, inventing this and that, and now magic is returning. I thought that I had time to take up the reins slowly, to insert myself in a few places where I could wield the subtle power I would need. A few days in New York have shown me that I was an arrogant fool to believe that. Cutter is right, you are going to be vulnerable and a target if you become Elgin’s partner. At the same time my simulations, or should I say intuition? Tells me that you complete him in ways that I do not fully understand and that you are an asset to me and to humanity. I am going to have to learn to work with humans in many varied ways and you can help. I cannot give you the protection being my agent gives Elgin but I can certainly provide you with protection that none of Cutter’s women would have comprehended, let alone used effectively.”

  She watched the Iffrit, “Okay I suppose. Can you protect our children if we have them?”

  A blue eye gleamed at her, “You can be assured that I will protect them with every fiber of my being, I was created to raise the young.”

  She was standing with her hand on Elgin’s shoulder. He dropped his hand from his head, his frown clearing, he looked at her, “What happened?”

  “I had an argument with Cutter and convinced the Iffrit to keep out of our relationship.”

  His eyes widened, then got wider as she wound her arms around his neck and pulled his head down for the kiss she had wanted for some time now.

  It was just as good as she’d imagined it would be.