Pandora: An Urban Fantasy Anthology by Weldon Phaedra

Author:Weldon, Phaedra [Weldon, Phaedra]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Caldwell Press
Published: 2018-07-28T16:00:00+00:00

The Strange Truth

The Stars Are Fire: Eight

Sitting in his house, a cup of tea in front of him, his cell at his ear, Tully felt the world had somehow righted itself. It was only when Rachael stepped out of his bathroom, dressed in Cherish's jeans, white shirt, and sneakers, did he realize he'd been wishfully thinking.

"Yeah, this is Detective Art Tully. I need to check on a body." He watched her pour herself a cup of tea and take the seat opposite him at his table. He didn't say anything while he asked about the body of Jeremy Donavan. When he got the news, he wasn't sure whether to be happy or sad.

"Well?" Rachael said as he disconnected.

"Cremated this afternoon. I won't know for sure till the morning because the crematorium is closed. It's after midnight." Tully put the phone on the table and sipped his tea. It tasted of bitter leaves and honey.

"If it's true, then he'll be forced to leave Jeremy alone for eternity. But that won't stop him from looking for me. And now that I'm not surrounded by an iron fence, he'll be able to see me. I should leave here."

She started to push her chair back, but he reached out and grabbed her wrist. "Not until I have answers."

"I don't think you'll like them, or believe them."

"Try me. I'm sitting here talking to a woman who looks exactly as she did when she disappeared twenty years ago. And I found the murdered body of a boy with pointed ears and eyes as sharp as a cat's with the same creepy immortal affliction. But his ears weren't pointed before he vanished. I've yet to come up with any kind of motive or suspect for his death."

She put her hand on his. Her skin was warm and smooth. "You won't be able to arrest or prosecute the man that murdered my Jeremy. No one in this realm will."

"You care to elaborate?"

Rachael picked up the phone and pressed the button. The time showed in numbers. 1:52 am. "Ebon is an elf lord in the realm of the Faerie, Detective Tully. He is also one of the few of his kind to still carry out the Wild Hunt."

"You've mentioned that." He decided to table his Faerie argument for a bit until he got her story.

"The Wild Hunt. It's a time-honored tradition for the Faerie Lords to take their hounds into the mortal realm and find more for their stable and more for their beds. Jeremy and I didn't know anything about this. Never even dared to believe other realms existed. Not until that night."

"The night after the movie?"

She pulled her hands away and clasped them on the table. Her fingers were thin, her nails shiny. "We'd stopped outside the theater. He proposed to me that night. We'd been together two years and never wanted to be parted. I was so…so happy. So was he." She sniffed. "That's when the Hunt came."

Tully took a chance on a hunch. "The motorcycle gang.

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