Silent Siren by Fitzsimmons Ash

Author:Fitzsimmons, Ash
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ash Fitzsimmons
Published: 2022-10-02T00:00:00+00:00

“Of course I’d appreciate your help,” Aunt Lily told Yven as the greenhouse appeared from thin air, “but you certainly don’t have to. There are a great many people in a small house,” she murmured, cutting her eyes toward the cottage, “one of whom snores like a chainsaw. Thought you could use an escape.”

He grinned, then followed her into the warm greenhouse and stepped aside to brush the snow off his pants. We’d had to slog through drifts almost hip-deep in places, and as he was the tallest, he’d been a gentleman and blazed a trail.

As soon as I closed the door, a thick vine sped toward us, brilliant green against the wooden floor. “Hey, Sally!” I said. “You didn’t catch a chill last night, did you?”

The vine rose and circled me twice, then tightened its coils in what I took to be a floral sort of hug.

“Good to see you, too, girl,” I told the slithertrap, stroking the headlike end of the vine. Most of the enormous plant remained hidden beneath the greenhouse benches, and her leaves rustled in the shadows as I petted her. Though I could kill the hardiest cactus on my best day, at least one plant in the universe had decided we were friends.

Another vine shot toward Yven, who, though perhaps not as comfortable as I was in treating a predatory plant like an overgrown green puppy, greeted her all the same and patted the vine when it landed on his arm. Aunt Lily, who had raised the monstrous thing from a seed, just shook her head and started toward the rear of the long building, where she kept her workbench, mailboxes, and ledger.

“You know,” said Yven, following her down the central aisle, “if you truly have a backlog, there are three more DPP agents up the hill who could be drafted—”

She laughed in disbelief. “Uh, no. I’m sure your colleagues are fine people and good at their jobs, but I’m not letting a bunch of Interdiction cowboys loose in my facility.”

“They’ve had basic certification. We do have overlapping training areas.”

“I’m aware of that, but absolutely not.” Smirking at him over her shoulder, she added, “You’re forgetting that my little brother was in Regulatory. I’ve heard plenty of stories, kid.”

Aunt Lily put on one of her many instrumental Christmas CDs, and as the two of them began to tackle the orders in the inbox, I looked for a place to work. A pile of twenty-pound potting soil bags seemed like as good a spot as any, and I made a practiced gesture in the direction of Aunt Lily’s stack of tarps. One of them rose and flew across the greenhouse to cover my makeshift lounge, and Aunt Lily glanced up with mild disapproval. I thought she was about to chide me for the display, but all she said was, “See that you don’t drag that thing over the bushes, dear. You don’t want those oils on your skin.”

With a combination of tentative spellcasting and brute force, I fashioned the bags into a sort of earthy-smelling couch.

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