Bent, Not Broken, page 4
I don’t know why I felt the need to share, especially to strangers. Maybe it was because they’d actually been willing to listen rather than immediately cast judgement. Or maybe it was because I had a hard time imagining these deer people as opportunistic backstabbers. Whatever the case, I quickly brought them up to speed.
When I was finished, both Kaya and Aysha gave each other a look before shifting into their beast forms – making me wonder if I was going to be forced to pummel sentient wildlife again.
However, the two of them – moose and deer – simply stood there, doing nothing but grunting back and forth at each other.
“Any idea what they’re saying?” Riva asked.
“No, but I get the feeling that’s purposeful.”
“Kinda rude.”
She wasn’t wrong, but I wasn’t about to give voice to that thought. No point in starting a fight over this, yet anyway.
Fortunately, they changed back a few minutes later, having apparently finished whatever discourse they were engaged in, once again leaving me standing in a field with a ghost and two nudists. Tell me that wasn’t a bar joke waiting to happen.
“You weave an interesting story, Tamara of Morganberg,” Aysha said. The cadence of her voice told me she would’ve happily sent my ass packing, but had apparently gotten talked into doing otherwise. “It is one we must ... discuss with the herd before considering.”
“But...”
Kaya held up a hand. “It’s simply the way things are done. You have to understand that you’re not the first to come here looking for our meadow.”
“I’m not?”
She shook her head. “Places of power will always attract those seeking to make it their own. Ours is no different.” I opened my mouth to speak, but she wasn’t finished. “I don’t believe that’s your intention here, but we’ve been burned in the past. Trust doesn’t come easy to the deer folk.”
“Especially not around the interstate,” Riva muttered.
I threw her some side-eye which didn’t go unnoticed.
“Your friend has something to add?” Aysha asked.
I waved her off, though. “No. She’s just extra chatty at times.”
“I see.”
Oh yeah, we were definitely going to have a talk once we got back to the car about the right and wrong time for distractions.
“We will take your request back with us,” Kaya continued, throwing a nod her daughter’s way, “to be discussed by the matriarch and her advisors.”
“This needs to be more than just discussed...”
“I don’t disagree,” Kaya interrupted. “And as such I will be the one to carry your words to our council. I will serve as your voice.”
Aysha let out a knowing sigh, dropping her measured formality for a moment. “She can be quite persuasive, trust me on this. Your argument is in very good hands. This is simply the way we do things here.”
I wanted to argue, but I also knew that was likely to do nothing more than make me some new enemies, and my dance card was already pretty full. “So what now?”
“Now, we ask that you respect our territory until we make a decision on our course of action.” For the first time since meeting me, Aysha lifted the corners of her mouth in the barest of grins. “Our fawn at Bailey University has your scent. Should we need you, we know where to find you.”
In other words, don’t call us, we’ll call you.
4
“That could’ve gone better.”
“It could have also gone a lot worse,” Riva said from the passenger seat, making me wonder for a moment what would happen if I slammed on the brakes.
“No thanks to you.”
“I can’t help it if I have opinions.”
“You’re just lucky they didn’t hear them.”
She shrugged. “I gotta admit, Bent, I was kind of hoping they did. The fact that they even knew I was there...”
She trailed off, looking wistfully out the window as we drove back to campus. It had been a full month since we’d returned from the Garden, home of the fae queen – me with my parents, Riva without her body. In that time, the only other person who’d been able to sense her had been Ralph Johnson, the police chief of High Moon as well as its resident mystic guardian.
My friend had tried to make the most of it at first, mainly by sneaking around my dormitory and getting into everyone else’s business. She’d also helped me out with a quiz or two, not that I was about to admit that in public. Problem was, living life as an invisible, intangible girl was a good way to go insane.
There was also the matter of her being tied to me. Riva and I were somehow connected on a spiritual level, likely Brigid’s doing. More specifically, as my friend explained it, the further she got from me the more it became like walking through thick mud. Her limit seemed to be about a hundred feet in any direction before she was stopped dead in her tracks and forced to turn back.
So it wasn’t like she could ditch me to go see a movie or window shop in town.
The thing was, I could see by her look that even being sensed had given her hope, and I had a feeling hope was something we all needed right then.
“We’ll find a way to make you seen and heard,” I told her, subconsciously reaching up and touching the pendant around my neck – a gift by my mother, made of a rare metal and in the shape of a monarch butterfly.
“And if we don’t?”
“Then we’ll find the fucker inhabiting your body and kick its ass.” I left off the unspoken maybe, as the truth was I had no idea if that was even possible.
“Just don’t break anything I might want to use later.”
“No promises,” I said, chuckling nervously.
Truth be told, I wasn’t looking forward to a rematch with the voider inside her body. Last time we’d tangled, she’d utterly wiped the floor with a combined Draíodóir / werewolf offensive before shunting me to another reality with barely a wave of her hand.
While in the Garden, Brigid had tried to fill my head with some garbage about me being the only one who could stand up to these things. However, considering how well I’d fared so far, I had a feeling she was full of shit. Hell, if I was being perfectly honest with myself, I’d have sooner mouthed off to her high and mightiness than face Possessed Riva again.
Too bad I likely had no choice in the matter. The gods blamed me for releasing these creatures from the void between dimensions. These voiders were apparently hell-bent on ensuring they didn’t go back by way of destroying the tethers connecting the multiverse, or some such crap. It was all Greek to me. All I knew was that I’d been ordered to stop these things or else.
An uncomfortable silence settled into the sedan, as both of us no doubt went down the rabbit hole of chasing our respective demons. So, rather than continue, I reached toward the radio only for Riva’s hand to intercept mine, causing the slightest feeling of pins and needles.
“Relax. I’m not putting on country or anything.”
“It’s not that,” she said, staring out the front. “Do you feel it?”
“Feel what?”
She shook her head and let out a sigh, an interesting expression for someone lacking lungs. “I’ll take that as a no. It’s ... hard to explain. All of a sudden, though, it feels like someone’s walking over my grave.”
It was a poor choice of words, especially considering what had happened to Riva’s parents. “What is it? Is it another of those windows?”
“I’m not sure.”
Riva’s portal sense, as I’d come to call it, had mostly been a constant since she’d realized what it was. However, there’d been one moment about two weeks back when it had seemed to go haywire.
All she would say was that a window had appeared from seemingly nowhere, flaring up like a supernova. When I’d asked her where it was, she’d said somewhere down in the Caribbean. Checking the news afterward, I saw that whatever she’d sensed seemed to coincide with a series of storms that had battered the southeastern seaboard, shutting down boat traffic and airline service.
Sadly, my bank account wasn’t quite up to the task for some tropical investigation. That was fine, though. Whatever it was, it seemingly ended soon after. When I next asked Riva about it, she simply shook her head and said it was gone, as if it had never been there to begin with.
Likely it was yet another portal that had fallen victim to the voiders, and in an awesome vacation spot no less. It was like these things had no shame.
Regardless, aside from that one glitch in the matrix, there’d been no other events of note ... at least until now.
Riva inclined her head for a moment before her eyes opened wide. “No. This isn’t like last time. I’m not getting a sense of location or anything like that. It’s just...”
“Just what?”
“For a second, I could’ve sworn I felt a breeze against my skin.”
Riva continued experiencing intermittent levels of sensation as we made our way back to Bailey University. I wasn’t sure what was going on, but as we parked and headed toward Lucien Hall I said a silent prayer that my roommate Portia wasn’t in. She’d already caught me talking to Riva more than once and I didn’t need her giving me any more pity stares while we tried to figure out what was...
“Yo, Bent! Wait up!”
I turned to see Justin Helferman heading our way. He was captain of the Bailey U. wrestling squad, a good friend, and just so happened to be the only other human beside Riva to know my secret – having helped me on the few occasions when the weirdness of the world had intersected with my college life.
“Dick under glass alert,” Riva said coyly.
“Will you stop saying that?” I hissed.
“Why? He’s cute and obviously into you.”
I narrowed my eyes at her. She wasn’t wrong on the cute part. Justin had a bit of a Chris Evans vibe to him after all, but still... “We’re just friends. I saved him from a mananan ... a Filipino vampire, and he’s helped me out with a few other things since then.”
“Helping you achieve orgasm could be one of those things.”
“Will you stop? Besides, he’s graduating this year.”
“Even better,” she said as he caught up to us. “You can fuck his brains out no strings attached and afterward be the one who got away.”
I ignored her, turning to face him – noting a few beads of sweat trickling down from his blond hair. Maybe he’d just come from the gym. “Hey, Justin.”
“Hey,” he panted. “Been looking all over for you.”
“Don’t blow this, Bent,” Riva said, sounding far too happy to be living vicariously through me.
“Will you shut up?”
Justin raised an eyebrow. “Riva?”
“Yeah.” Oh, it was so nice to have at least one person on campus I could talk to about this stuff.
He nodded. “Good, this is about her.”
“It is?” we both asked simultaneously.
He turned and took a look around before replying, “You’re not gonna believe this, but I saw her.”
“Wait, what?”
“Remember how you showed me some pictures of her on Instagram? Well, I was heading back to my room from dinner and I saw her.”
“That’s not possible. Riva’s been with me.”
“I kinda figured as much. But whoever I saw was the spitting image of her, like her twin or something.”
Twin? No way. It can’t be. Not here. “Are you sure?”
“Positive. I may suck with names, but I’m good with faces.”
I glanced Riva’s way. The fact that she wasn’t making a sucking face joke said a lot about the seriousness of the situation.
“Why didn’t he say something earlier?” she asked.
“She wants to know why you didn’t tell us sooner.”
He let out a sigh. “Are you kidding? I’ve been trying to call you for the last hour. Let me guess, someone left their phone in their room so they could go snoop around without their mom finding out.”
“Stay out of my brain, man.”
“Too late,” he said with a grim chuckle. “Anyway, I thought you should know.”
“I appreciate it.” Too bad I could already feel a cold chill working its way up my spine, even as I tried to convince myself he must be mistaken. I mean, I’d once been certain I’d spied a cousin on campus, only to realize later it was nothing but a close lookalike.
In that case, I wouldn’t have minded since I liked my cousins. When it came to Possessed Riva, though, it was the opposite. Though she was wearing my best friend’s skin, she was in actuality a creature so alien that the gods themselves feared her and her ilk.
“You okay?” Justin asked. “The look on your face is telling me you’re either worried or you ate one too many cafeteria burritos.”
I shook my head. “Once was enough for me to learn that lesson.”
“Sounds like a story to me,” Riva replied.
“Yeah, one I’m never telling anyone.”
Justin raised an eyebrow but said nothing. Fortunately, having seen at least a bit of the weirdness this world had to offer, he’d quickly acclimated to me having an invisible friend.
“It’s nothing,” I lied, ignoring the look Riva was giving me. “I was just thinking about the group of shifters we met. Weredeer, if you can believe it.”
“Don’t forget the big one,” Riva said.
“And a weremoose, too.”
“Seriously?” he replied. “Like, how does that even make sense?”
“No idea. Didn’t ask. All I know is they seemed willing to at least hear me out, which is more than I can say for my other efforts so far.”
“You should’ve let me come.”
I shook my head. “They were already antsy enough about me trespassing and ignoring all their deer pee markers. Not sure what would’ve happened if I’d brought company.”
Thankfully, he opted to overlook the deer pee part. “Fair enough, although if you ever need backup I’m there for you. You know that, right?”
I nodded.
“And you don’t have to worry about me either. I may not have werewolf powers, but I can sure as hell lock up an opponent better than you.”
I narrowed my eyes. “In your dreams.”
“Anytime you want to go, just let me know.”
Riva stepped in front of me. “Seriously, Bent, you need to invite this guy up to your room. Because if that isn’t an open invitation for hot sex then I don’t know what is.”
Sadly, it was far easier to ignore her than to keep a blush from rising to my cheeks.
“Um, anyway,” I said, trying to sidestep that minefield, “thanks for letting me know.”
“Of course. I’ve got your back.”
“Back, front, it’s all good with me,” Riva remarked.
It was all I could do to bite my tongue. I swear, I probably needed to be far away when Riva finally got her body back, lest I be utterly destroyed in the crazed orgy that was sure to follow.
“Just do me a favor,” I said. “If you see her again, keep your distance. If it really is her, she’s dangerous.”
He nodded before turning away. “No worries. Trust me when I say, if you tell me it’s dangerous then I know it must be dangerous. Already learned that lesson the hard way.”
“Speaking of hard...”
“I’ll catch you later,” I replied, talking over Riva despite knowing he couldn’t hear her. Then, as we headed into the dorm, I muttered, “Do you mind?”
“If it’ll help you finally get laid then not at all.”
Fortunately, Riva cooled it by the time we were heading up the stairs.
“How are you feeling?” I asked, before realizing the stupidity of such a question. “I meant...”
“Am I still feeling? Yeah. It’s weird. It’s like the closer we got to campus, the more it felt like I had a body again ... except none of the stuff I’m feeling matches what I’m around. Like right now, I’m walking but it feels like I’m sitting down.”
“Do you think...?”
“It could be her? I don’t know. But you heard Justin.”
I nodded, noting her lack of sexual innuendo. That meant she was as worried as I was. “Okay, let’s see if my room is empty. If not, maybe we can find a spot in the student lounge to talk this through.”
“Sounds good.”
There was no way I could deal with both this and Portia right now. She hadn’t been my first choice for a roommate. However, due to another friend transferring earlier in the year, I’d been tossed back into the random assignment pool.
Hell, for a while there I’d been convinced she was secretly a rampaging monster that had been haunting the campus. Good thing I hadn’t punched her lights out, since in the end I’d been wrong on that assumption. We were mostly cool these days, even if it was painfully obvious we’d never really be friends.
All thoughts of my roommate were quickly pushed aside, though, as I opened the door and had to do a double take, as Riva was already sitting in Portia’s desk chair.
“How’d you get in here before...?”
I trailed off as I realized she hadn’t. Riva, my Riva anyway, was still next to me, her eyes wide open and staring.
Oh no!
I did a doubletake, realizing my mistake in an instant. My Riva was still clad in the golden Amazonian gear she’d received during our time in the Garden. The person seated in the chair not only wore her hair differently, letting her long black locks cascade down over her shoulders, but she was wearing a simple white sundress – minus any shoes, despite it being the dead of winter in a dorm with shitty baseboard heating.
The woman before me was no ghost, but I also knew deep down she – it – wasn’t human either, despite wearing my best friend’s skin.
5
“Where’s Portia?” I asked, probably the absolute least important question at that moment.
“Not here,” Possessed Riva said, opening up the closest drawer and looking through my roommate’s possessions.
“Did you...?”
“Kill her?” she interrupted dispassionately, reminding me she was capable of reading my thoughts. “I saw no need. However, her attempts to bar me from entry rapidly grew tiresome. So I sent her elsewhere.”
