The Interloper Bk. 01

No way I was fighting off a dozen plus naked women. Bouncing up to my feet, I broke into a run, pushing past my discomfit. I clutched the animal skin to my breasts, bounding over party-goers that'd decided to camp outside and skirting a few milling around. The women were right on my ass, and with a roar so was Rain. Which of course got the other centaurs' attention.

Done.

Back broken.

E-fucking-nough.

I mentally patted myself on the back even as I straddled my bike and started the engine. It'd taken me weeks to throw in the towel, finally admit that this wasn't working and wouldn't work. Faeries, elves, demons, and centaurs aside, I'd done my best and more and now it was time to go. Wherever those pills took me was a hellauva lot better than between a woman's legs or on Rain's dick.

I shivered as I sped away, both from the memory and the cold. Clutching the make shit cloak tighter, I tried to fight the winds's pull on the fabric, but on a sharp turn it was snatched. So naked I rode, trying my best to elude the stampeding centaurs and trick my body into thinking it was warm instead of on the edge of hypothermia as my chattering declared.

My coping mechanism? Denial and delusions. I was fully clothed with not a drop of sex-cretions leaving a puddle on the seat of my bike. There was no way I had sex with a centaur because gross. No first time lesbian experiences were had. Especially not in front of an audience. And there was no way, in a bajillion years, I was pregnant. Wasn't happening. In fact all I remembered was going to the gathering, talking with Rain, leaving, and spending the rest of the evening binge watching Dance Moms. This was all just an elaborate hallucination brought on by lack of sleep, a week on the road, and a very deprived libido.

The thoughts nearly worked.

Nearly.

It wasn't until I was skidding to a stop and flinging myself off my bike and toward my room that my perfect little fantasy started to crack. I flashed a group of guards and several maids my birthday suit, and instead of politely looking away, they stared. Hard. So hard that it was impossible to ignore my lack of clothing or the obvious sex signs in the form of love bites, scratches, handprints, and dark smudges where fingertips had gripped a little too hard on my body. And let's not forget the semon drying on my legs.

Snatching a curtain off a rod and tearing a hole in the wall, I wrapped it toga style around myself and took in my first deep breath of the day.

Denial and delusion were turning out to be shit friends.

I looked down the corridor to the labyrinth of hallways that lead to my room, turning my head and glancing at the ones leading to Duke's office. It was a waste of precious seconds that I didn't have, but I needed it. Needed to figure out what the hell I was doing.

The pills. They still seemed like the best option given I trusted Duke and Rain as far as I could throw them. Bu there was still a gaping hole of nothing where the pills were considered. Well, not nothing. A few dozen missing kids and only one link in the form of black alchemist bags. Still, what if the drugs didn't transport me anywhere. What if they killed me and turned my body into steam so there was no evidence? Or what if they did take me somewhere but it was a desolate planet where man-eating whatevers roamed free.

Seconds turned to minutes as I stood staring into space and contemplating my three options: swallowing questionable pills, help from Duke, imprisoned by Rain. It wasn't until I heard the thunder clap of hooves that I snapped myself out of it.

"Human," Rain thundered from the courtyard a few hundred yards away, the sound carrying through the halls.

Rain wasn't an option, and I didn't have the time to run to my room, get the pills, and then run over to Duke's offices. And I wasn't going to run over to Duke without some sort of back up plan considering that asshole might have set everything up.

Questionable pills it was.

I hiked up the makeshift dress and sprinted down the hallways, hoping I knew the compound better than Rain. My breathing labored, thighs burning, I pushed myself to the absolute limit, pausing only long enough to slide the tapestry-door to my room aside. Blood was beating in my ears, deafening me, and my vision zoomed to my bedroom at the top of my spiral staircase and the small pouch I'd hidden inside a tiny hole in the mattress.

Slamming the curtain back into place, I watched it shimmer and disappear, hoping that Rain wouldn't know how to open it. I took the stairs three at a time, forcing my muscles to make the climb.

"Why did I buy you clothing if you were just going to tear down my curtains?" a voice said from my bed. A scream leaked from my lips before I could bite back the sound.

"Jesus Christ," I swore, glaring at Duke. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Waiting to see if you followed my directions." His voice was calm, expression neutral. His eyes raked me from head to toe as I looked between him and the bottom level. "You did not."

"Your directions were shit," I seethed. "You know what would have been better? 'Hey, Tilly, make sure you don't eat or drink anything at the Gathering, because then you'll lose your mind and have sex with a horse-man!" I couldn't have stopped myself from screaming the last if I'd tried.

Duke hissed, thick braid of gold swinging agitated behind his back as he stood. I had a clear view of his fangs and could feel the anger radiating off him. "I didn't think I needed to tell you not to have sex with a centaur, Tilly. That should have been self-explanatory."

"You should have told me about the lament and the—the other thing."

"Lament and Mother's Release," he bit. "Neither of which make you have sex with centaurs. The only thing they do is take away your inhibitions and allow you to do what you wanted without things like morals and conscious stalling you."

"That's not true—"

"It is," Duke growled, coming closer to me. "If I'd known you wanted to have sex with a centaur, I wouldn't have let you go. But you were very vehement that you would not open yourself, that you would not participate, that you would 'say hi' and leave. That is what you said, but it was my mistake to put that trust in you. A human."

I blinked hard, recalling our conversation. "At Gatherings you can choose to open yourself to another and connect with them . . . But that is not what you should do."

"What should I do?"

"Go. Do not stay . . . Congratulate him on his new position while giving your condolences about his father . . . Then leave."

"I'll say hi to Rain and leave. Doubt I'll want to sit and have tea or anything."

"That's good to hear."

I fumbled, trying to turn it back on him. This couldn't be my fault. There was no way I'd wanted Rain. "Y-You were vague. You should have said—"

"I said do not stay!" he roared. "If you felt uncertain or were unclear on anything else you should have said something. I was not vague. I told you it was an orgy. I told you I did not trust the Chief. I told you to be careful. You assured me you would. This. Is on. You."

The clap of hooves sounded in the distance, a warning. His eyes flashed behind me to the door and he sawed his fangs over his lips. "You'll go to Janos. The witches will watch you to see if the connection holds."

"But Rain—"

"Will agree," he cut me off. "It is an acceptable alternative, though I'm sure my actions will have repercussions. Get dressed quickly. I'll come back and pack you a bag after you're off planet."

All my irate anger, my fear that Duke worked against me, that my only option was taking a pill that might kill me, faded. Tension leaked out of my muscles, and I was suddenly exhausted. A little foolish too.

Duke left, heading down the stairs with deliberate steps. How had this become my fault? The only thing I'd voluntarily done was train to be a CEM. Rain forced me to go the the Gathering. I was forced to stay in this world. None of this fell on me.

Except the sex.

I tried to remember the past night and found the pieces perfectly assembled for me. I'd gone from guarded to free in the span of a few minutes, that sudden weight allowing me to confess secrets even I didn't know I had. Like how I did want Rain. How I did wonder what a woman felt like. How I'd always wanted to try doing it in front of an audience, with two men, and—

Groaning, I covered my eyes. This wasn't the time. Rain was a few minutes away at best, a curtain was still the only clothing I had, and I couldn't let Duke find those pills when he packed me a bag. Thinking on it now, those pills would just be another nail in my coffin. Duke and Caster trusted me, but I hadn't given them the same treatment. I still saw them as Vampire and Demon, still saw myself as better than them because of my humanity. Whether I realized it or not, it was the truth.

Pushing away from the bed, I wiped wayward tears from my eyes and went to my wardrobe for clothes. A minute later I was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, forcing my feet into a pair of boots.

"Tilly, come down here. We don't have much time."

"Almost done," I called back to Duke, reaching for the pills in my mattress and stuffing them in my back pocket.

It was a quick skip down the stairs and then we were out the door, moving across the grass to the red tents. Duke barely looked at me, eyes focused on the hallway Rain was most likely going to come out of. I kept my eyes firmly to the ground, mostly angry at Rain but also a little angry at myself.

The tents came clearer into view, pretty with the backdrop of the waterfall. Not so much surrounded by centaurs. "Shit," I muttered, as I looked over my shoulder and saw more coming from the hallway.

In another fifteen seconds, we were surrounded.

"Magistrate," Rain greeted, coming to stand in front of us.

Duke bowed low and I quickly followed suit. "Chief Rain, a pleasure to meet you."

"It seems you have my Gathering partner."

"Is she?" Duke asked with feigned innocence. "I was under the impression that she was my CEM."

I bit my tongue against a claim over myself and let them do their male posturing. There was no way Rain was letting me go to the witches, and there was no way Duke was letting me go with Rain. That much was apparent. For whatever reason, I'd become a pawn in the tenuous alliance between them.

Rain stomped his hooves, glowering before smoothing his expression into practiced boredom. "She opened herself to me and we connected. As I explained to the human—Tilly," he corrected to illustrate a point, though I wasn't sure what that was. "She must remain with me until a witch can ascertain if she is carrying or not. You must know how important a centaurian child is to the tribe."

"But you understand," Duke parried just as smoothly, "that her status as a human and an envoychanges things. We are not sure how her body will react if the foal takes or not. It would be in both her and the babe's best interest to be under the constant care of witches, should complications arise."

How had my life gone so . . . wrong in only a matter of months? Not just my life. I'd had common sense before, an ability to reason and understand. I studied women in different cultures, understood the hold traditions had on a community. The species and planet might be different but reactions to ingrained societal norms rarely changed.

It was time to throw myself on the sword. I'd made this mess, and I needed to clean it up. "Rain, I—"

"Chief," a centaur to my left interrupted, glaring at me. There was such visible hate in his eyes, it made my muscles tense and prepare. "You call him Chief."

I took a careful look around, peering intently into all the faces surrounding me. Hate, anger, loathing, and even a touch of fear was what most held in their eyes and the lines of their face. God, I'd have to watch my back constantly, listen to the biting words and bitchy retorts of these and other centaurs in the tribe. If I went with Rain, would I even be with him? Would he just keep me locked away from everyone?

For that matter, if I went to the witches what would happen? Would I get the same treatment? Would it cause a rift between them and the centaurs? I'd thought my options changed, that going with Duke and trusting him when I'd failed was the right course of action. But fuck it. My failures were my own, as were my successes. I wasn't a pawn to be used in a pissing match and I wasn't one to leave myself at the mercy of others.

This was my life and my choice and no one was taking that from me.

Duke said something and Rain deflected. I took the moment of distraction and reached into my back pocket, grasping one of the pills tucked into the pouch. Before I could think more about my choice I opened my mouth and threw the pill down my throat, dry swallowing.

"What is that?" someone yelled.

Rain made a move toward me and Duke intercepted. They said something to each other, before one of the men surrounding me grabbed my arm. I stared into the guy's eyes, seeing a million reflection of myself in this moment. Hands that weren't hands tugged at my skin, my bones, my very soul in a move I'd felt what seemed like a lifetime ago in a photo booth. The centaur's grip loosened or maybe my body did. Didn't matter. The floor opened and I watched a million and one versions of myself fall through space and time. Again.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Pressure. I wasn't good under it. I needed time to think. Days to puzzle out, rage at, sob over, and get through it. Overnight I'd gone from aspiring CEM with a smidgen of saucy badassery to orgy participant who slept with the wrong dude and might be pregnant and trapped on a whole new planet. That was a lot to digest first thing in the morning with sex clinging to every inch of me and territorial men issuing demands.

The displacement helped. Free falling for the second time gave me a moment to think. Breathe. Figure out what the hell I was going to do, how I was going to do it, and whom I would do it with, to, or for.

Still, it was a split second.

I blinked from one planet to the next. At first surrounded by pissed off centaurs and the next—

My body landed first, mind taking a second to catch up.

First thought: It is a time-space travel pill!

Second: Whew! Thank God I'm not dead.

Third: Where am I?

I was pretty ecstatic over my first two thoughts, less thrilled about the third. It was another half-second before I realized I was sprawled on the ground, my legs apparently not able to support my weight during a spacetime-dimensional jump.

Lord, did it smell. A scent I'd become very familiar with throughout college: alcohol, sugar, sweat, and hormones.

Gah! What was that noise? Some cross between what'd you'd think to hear in the land of cutesy pixies and winged fairies and a noise that had to be pumped through all seven levels of Hell at soul crushing volume.

Blinking open my eyes, I tried to understand what my body was telling me. I wasn't dead, wasn't on some horrid waste of a planet ten seconds away from being hunted by man-eaters, and wasn't back home.

I was in a foggy dance club.

To be précise, I was in a foggy dance club surrounded by gyrating teens of all species: some drinking, others smoking, and at least a dozen making out in the open and in semi-dark corners.

Climbing to my feet, I craned my neck and balanced on my tiptoes, trying to find any clue as to where the hell I was. A few faces stood out in the crowd, ones I'd memorized during the past week. Onyx, Infinity—most were here.

That's when I hit pause.

Just paused my life, glazed my eyes over, and didn't do a damn thing. The universe had finally thrown me a bone. Party. Alcohol. Zero accountability or responsibility. No one had been kidnapped, everyone looked safe, nothing and no one was on fire so taking a breath, a pause, and living for two seconds with myself instead of everyone else was what I did. I worked my way through the crowd, head down, ignoring my instinct to stop and ask questions and throw accusations at teens whose files I'd looked through, whose parents I'd interviewed. All in good time.

The bar took up a wall that went so far to ends it sort of blurred. It was less crowded than I expected and no one was behind it. I looked up at the liquor bottles displayed on set-in checkered shelves and thought about reaching over and snatching one.

"What would you like?"

I jumped, spooked, and whipped my head back and forth in an effort to locate the person attached to the voice. No one stood close, or even seemed to be giving a damn what I was doing. "Uh..."

"To drink," the voice supplied again, politely. Without a visible body.

Un-paused Tilly would have had a million questions, instigated heavily by the fact that everything she'd been working toward for the last month and all the conspiracies she'd entertained fell flat in comparison to the reality: teens being uncaring a-holes who did stupid teen shit like run away and party.

But I was on pause.

"Something strong and sweet. Surprise me."

Bottles, glasses, and instruments moved in midair, reminding me of the dinner scene in Beauty and the Beast sans the singing. It was less a production and more an order being filled. The result: a layered red, blue, and green drink in a tilted glass with tendrils of smoke curling around the sides.

"Here you are," the voice said as the drink moved closer to me.

I took a sip and sighed in pleasure. It was good. Relaxing. Felt like my prize after one helluava long marathon. I couldn't pin the flavor of the alcohol, but I knew I liked it.

Two more made sure I freakin' loved it!

Loved the party. Who didn't love a good party? And this music? I was finally starting to get it, feel the beat and find the rhythm. My hips and feet carried me to the dance floor. I lost myself in a tipsy haze and a sea of bodies and it felt liberating.

"Hey!" someone shouted.

My eyes bulged at her tail fin, curled up and encased in a bubble of water that seemed to float above the floor. I looked up into the young girl's face, trying to reconcile the Disney Ariel version I had with the woman in front of me. Almost everything on her face contained a piercing, and her eyes were a glowing purple like a jellyfish. There was no hair on her head or anywhere on her body for that matter; instead swirling tattoos graced her arms, neck and scalp.

She didn't look familiar.

"Hey!" I screamed over the music, goofy grin on my face.

"You're new, right?" she bobbed her head, a look of constipation—no, curiosity taking over her features. "When'd you get here?"

"A little while ago."

"Cool. Who invited you?"

"No one invited me. Found a pill and took it."

"You... found a pill and took it?"

I swayed, drunk on the paused life and three very good drinks. "Yuppers."

"Did someone see you take it? Did you tell someone where you got it from?"

This girl was starting to kill my buzz with all the questions. Shrugging, I melted into the crowd and away from her; but she followed, hot on my heels. "What's your name?"

"Tilly."

"Where are you from? Where did you find the—"

"Look, Fam," I spun, my drink spilling over the sides. "I'm on pause. I get a few more songs and another drink before I do any work."

"Work?"

I didn't just hear the play button, I felt it. Thrusting my half-empty drink into the hand of a swaying teenager, I squared off with the floating mermaid, forcing myself sober. A lot easier said than done. "I'm a Traveling Envoy of the Magistrate. My partner and I have been on a missing person's case, but it seems no one's missing—just partying."