Muted sounds, like a conversation, drifted across the vast swathe of darkness that had completely enveloped Nakoma. It wasn’t unconsciousness, but simply a complete loss of all other senses besides sound. As the seconds passed, the conversation became clearer, until finally the individual words became discernable. The sensation was like ripples on a pond finally smoothing out to leave a clear view of what lay beneath the surface.
“—Though it still doesn’t explain how in the name of Underland you came to be here,” a steady, clear baritone stated.
“He told me you knew,” another voice said. The pitch was garbled and made the words a bit hard to make out, but the voice of the speaker was distinctly feminine.
“Why did he not come himself?” the man’s voice asked.
“He cannot show his face until the time is right! Everything must follow his plan! So where is he?”
“I do not know. Have you tried looking in China first?” The man’s voice held a bit of sarcasm.
“You lie!” the woman thundered, the unnaturally warped tone of her voice magnifying her anger. “He is here!”
“You may torture me for answers all you please, yet I assure you, you will not find the answer with me. I am not so high-up as you wish me to be, and I do not deal with him directly. I am like you—merely a pawn on a chessboard. Although not quite half as unsightly, I dare say.”
There was a growl. “Then you will die!”
“Regretfully, I see no other option.”
The blackness ended with a terrifying roar and an abrupt crunch, receding as quickly as it had appeared. Nakoma once again found herself in the upstairs room of the townhouse, with the others who had gathered at the crime scene.
“What did you hear?” Kamali asked urgently.
“A woman’s voice…it was a bit distant, and the tone was unnatural, as if she spoke underwater, or with some sort of echo.” Nakoma answered slowly, bringing a hand to her head as if to clear her thoughts. For a moment, the room seemed to tilt like a ship at sea, but Nakoma blinked, forcing things back into focus.
“It couldn’t have been a lycanthrope, Lord Aldous,” Owen told the third stranger. “Their kind doesn’t bother with conversation.”
“I still don’t want to rule out the possibility,” Lord Aldous replied. He and Owen began an intense discussion about lycanthropes, and Nakoma tuned them out as she stood up to distance herself from the dead vampire, who was now more than halfway decomposed to ash.
“What else was there?” Kamali pressed.
“It seems it was just her and the vampire,” Nakoma said. “I will explain more in detail, but for now I need a moment, if you please. It is taking a bit long to recover as I have not done this in a while.”
“Captain Mubarak, if I may speak with you for a minute,” the Dracule muttered. Kamali nodded, and the two retreated to the far corner of the room, talking in low voices. Nakoma watched them go with a weary air, still rubbing at her temple tiredly.
“Uh, do you need a glass of water or something?” Thane asked with concern.
“All will be well momentarily, if you leave me be,” Nakoma answered with a hint of irritation at the intrusion.
“Okay, well, whenever you’re ready to talk about what you heard, I can just write it down…”
“Yes, yes, very well.” Nakoma shooed him away. However, it seemed as though just as soon as one annoyance left, another came to take its place.
YOU ARE READING
Dance with Darkness - Ghost Dance
Fantasía“So, what are you doing this weekend?” Maggie asked me. “Oh, nothing much,” I replied. Just working as an indentured servant and hunting demons while possessed by a ghost. No big deal, right? Lynnette Cromwell gets thrown into the supernatural wor...
