Ink burrowed under her skin, blue and purple snakes, the needle nipping incessantly forming stained windows. Daelin Long grit her teeth, thinking of old times, of stealing maraschino cherries from the parade of bars her mother had worked at, running off with her younger sister and brother, squealing and shrieking out into the night, all to get her mind off the pain. The ink gripped, searing, chewing up a more innocent version of herself, one that didn’t know about the horrors lurking in the woods.
Sabina Staley, Daelin’s new boss, sneered at the glowing pigments working their way into Daelin’s hand, managing the needle and ink. “Just a little more. Glad you’re not being a baby.” She yanked Daelin’s wrist straight, her black bubble-framed eyeglasses sliding down her steep nose, her green eyes glinting under the glaring utility light. “You’re off to a fine start in the Rifters and will be standing beside your sister in no time.” Her lips pursed as they usually did.
Praise. Daelin might not ever get used to it. Mostly she ached to get close to her sister again. They’d grown apart, evident by the secret life Charming led. “It’s not every day a girl gets to behead a ghost.”
“You’re not a girl. You’re a thirty-year-old, six-foot woman with a healthy wallop.”
“Not yet. I’ve another year until thirty.” The single brash bulb in the task lamp hanging from the ceiling blinded Daelin to the curiosities beyond the recliner she lay in. Shelves of leather-bound journals locked by crystal clasps. Cabinets of gadgets constructed from crystals, coils, and gears. Aviator goggles rimmed with inductor coils winked, creating enigmas within mysteries.
Daelin had sworn an oath to protect the world against monsters, the same one her sister swore. Charming remained missing, presumably on a dig with the Paleo Institute, but the reason didn’t sit easy in Daelin’s mind. She couldn’t name why. A wild four days involving phantoms and murders had passed since Daelin had moved to the dinky wilderness town of Settler, Oregon, from New York City. Her sister had persuaded her to take the county librarian position. Not that it took much convincing. Shaken after being laid off, robbed on the subway platform where she lost her severely needed severance pay, Daelin had no choice but to accept.
She had traded in skyscrapers for snowcapped mountains, the stench of the forgotten for the heady scents of juniper, sage, pine, and cedar, and the turbulent East and Hudson Rivers for placid twin lakes that reflected the majesty of nature, nothing but nature.
Settler sat inside the crater of a dormant caldera. Two craggy peaks marked the crater to the west. To the east, the crater walls had eroded to pine-covered ridges. Gold and East Lakes reflected the mountainous terrain and forest as well as the cinder cone that divided the two calm bodies of water. The town had tucked itself between the twin lakes and the twin peaks. Farther to the west the snowcapped Cascades rose, adding to the stunning vista Settler already claimed.
The town hovered at a population of one thousand residents. In the summer months, creatures visited from other worlds, intending to stay and feed upon this one. The tattoo ushered in a responsibility for them, making it part of Daelin’s job to defend against those threats, to protect the town and its people, and by doing so protect the world. “In all the dictionaries,” she whispered. She hadn’t imagined managing a rural county library to be so exciting and deadly.
Grabbing a cup of copper ink, Sabina dipped in the needle and added dots and lines, filling in the glass-like cobalt and violet panels with a maze of circuitry. The metallic ink leached under Daelin’s skin, crawling into crevices her thoughts had never reached, urging her to shriek.
She held back the scream, swallowing until it dissolved to a tremble. “How does the tattoo make me a Rifter?” she asked, speaking through clenched teeth.
“They’re permanent circuits that draw the energy from the gateway. The energy interacts with Rifter-sanctioned equipment, boosting its effectiveness. The panels also remember your training to make you faster, stronger, sharper. As you progress through the ranks, your tattoo will grow, revealing your standing to all other Rifters.” Sabina’s snow white curls fell over her brow. With the back of her papery wrist, she swept them out of the way. “Those of this world and not. You’ll be a great temptation to the nefarious creatures, a weakness to be exploited. Be very aware of that.”
Great. She’d be creature bait. Daelin would learn as much as she could as fast as she could to get this phase over with. “I don’t see your tattoo.”
“It’s only visible when wearing the transputer. When I’m done, yours will do the same.”
“The device resembling a watch?” Daelin had seen the Rifters wearing them last night when she helped them defeat a murderous ghost. Yeah, her whole idea of normal had changed since moving to Settler.
“It’s a bracer. You’ll get one and a journal in which to keep your notes.” She shrugged at the shelves beyond the glare of the light. “Listen, the rift is overwhelming. If I tell you everything now, you’ll drown. Your fellow Rifters and I will dish information slowly, as you need to know it. We’ll never leave you floundering without a paddle. All right?”
“OK.” What else could Daelin say? She didn’t know what to demand, only knew she had sworn to become a guardian of Settler.
Reading an old journal by Patrick Swit, the founder of the town and the Rifters, was how Daelin had been given the oath, I swear to guard and protect this world from all enemies who mean it harm and from all things born of the rift. To unswear is to die.
The list of protectors dated back to 1892. Currently, nine Settler residents made up the elite team, including herself and her sister. Daelin hoped it would bring her and Charming closer, a sharing of their adult lives to strengthen the bonds formed in youth. If her sister ever came back to town. Taking off without a word wasn’t like her.
With the completion of each circuit, the bruises and scrapes covering Daelin’s body from the encounter with the phantom eased. Her lips moved more freely, the stiffness in her face and legs faded as if she’d been dunked in a pool of pain relievers. “Ahh.” She shut her eyes.
Swabbing over the tattoo, Sabina cleaned Daelin’s hand and wrist then wrapped it. She pointed at the door. “Wald will mentor you through the initial phase of the Rifters. See him on your way out.”
The pledge Daelin had signed in Patrick Swit’s journal, the book explaining the origins of the Rifters, lay open beside the inks. Her signature looped below her sister’s. All the names had been scrawled in scratchy red. The color of blood, the color of warning and danger. The warning leaped from the page, pinching along her spine. The unsettled feeling grew and knotted her brow. Daelin sat up. The vinyl chair squeaked.
Sabina set the tattoo gun down, rising onto her feet, standing almost as tall as Daelin. “For now, your primary duty is to learn and to train.” Her long face mirrored her long nose. She gave Daelin a quick hug. “I’m glad to have you with us. There’s nothing to worry about. Everyone will see to it you’re trained well. Don’t be afraid to ask us questions, however, don’t question orders in this phase. It will keep you alive, and I’d prefer that outcome. Lesson one, what you must ingrain into your core, is to trust your fellow Rifters without question.”
Strands of Daelin’s black hair had broken loose during the procedure. She pulled out her hair stick, combed her fingers through her shoulder-length tresses, then twirled them back into presentable with the stick. “Understood.”
“The library closes at four o’clock sharp during the summer. I suggest you take naps before your Rifter duties, which start at sundown.”
“Yes, Ms. Staley.” Daelin straightened her sweater and jeans. The nights here resembled winter, not caring it was late June.
“Call me Sabina. It’s my preference, like you don’t wish to be called Darlin.”
Why had her mother named her Darlin Dae Long? The name cursed her from birth with silliness that prevented her from making a serious first impression. “Noted.”
“Now go.”
Daelin pushed herself off the recliner, much like a dentist’s chair, and hobbled out of the concealed room in Sabina’s office suite, limping less than earlier, exiting through a painting of a fog-smothered forest, which opened like a vault into the county commissioner’s official office. She traveled down two flights of stairs, watching her gold and pink flowered ballerina flats to make sure she didn’t trip down the granite steps. The interior of the county building recalled bygone eras, a homage to decades and centuries forgotten by the big cities. White tile covered the walls. Tan and ivory speckled granite squares made up the floor.
Double wooden doors across the foyer opened to the reception area. Inside, a counter constructed from blond paneling separated visitors from staff. In this case, one man, Wald Macadam, Sabina’s indispensible third hand. Ivory linoleum graced the countertop and a silver bell.
Wald didn’t sit at his desk in front of the typewriter. Yeah, a typewriter. The outmoded machine went with the rotary phone, apparently a set Caslow County couldn’t do without. Daelin slapped the bell.
From behind a wall, Wald limped, wiping crumbs from his lips, his face as bruised as hers. He had joined the Rifters ten years ago according to the date scribbled next to his signature under the oath. He must have still been in high school. What had he defended the world against in that time?
The ghost she had battled last night had used Wald as a shield and a weapon in an attempt to defeat her, slamming him down as a roadblock to thwart her, chucking him as a cannonball to hurt her. It had hurt Wald worse.
His sparkly hazel gaze smiled at the bandage on her wrist then rose to stare into her intentions. She didn’t quite know what they were, so didn’t know what he learned.
“I’ll pick you up at your place at 9:30 p.m.,” he said.
It sounded like a date. He smoothed the shorn hair around his ears, an uninspiring medium brown. The top was longer, mussed in stylishly messy waves, much like Earl Blacke’s, a man connected to Daelin’s sister and her disappearance, a man with a million secrets. What could be more secretive than a team of people who protected this world from creatures that came through a doorway of light in the woods? Daelin doubted she’d ever understand Earl or all the bizarre nuances of Settler.
“Try to get a nap,” Wald said. “It’ll be a long night. Either something will greet us from the other side or we’ll greet the sun.”
What a date it would be out under the moon waiting for doom, and she had never lived anywhere so obsessed with napping. “Should I bring anything?” For certain, she’d wear her winter clothes. Despite it being the end of June, Settler had yet to get the memo summer had started. Sitting at four thousand feet above sea level, the area only had two seasons: a long winter and August. August hadn’t quite arrived, although some afternoons hinted it might show up soon.
Wald wore slacks in a darker shade of gray than his cardigan and a black button-down shirt. His hazel eyes were slightly obscured by the swelling of his eyelids and cheeks. “No. I’ll bring everything we’ll need. The tattoo will help your injuries heal faster. That was some battle, huh?”
She reached out and patted the yellowing on his swollen cheek. “Your bruises don’t look as fresh as mine.”
“The tattoo.” He held his arm up. “I’ve been with the Rifters awhile. You were really brave. Bet you move up in the ranks quick.”
As long as she reconnected with Charming, Daelin didn’t care about the rest. “See you later then.”
She left the Caslow County offices, a three-story brick structure resembling a Victorian house complete with a steeple, the tallest building in town. Daelin checked her watch, ten to four. Instead of turning left at the corner to return to the library, she went right, traveling down Brucker Avenue, the main thoroughfare decorated for the founders day festivities that started tomorrow, Swit Days. At one end of the main street sat the fossil dig, at the other East Lake.
Between the natural landmarks, booths dotted the center of the street trimmed with clashes of music, splashes of vibrancy, and the scents of cotton candy and popcorn. Daelin waved at the shop owners she knew setting out specials on tables in front of their businesses. Downtown. Right. The rare storefront rose higher than one story.
Daelin’s new phone buzzed, the latest model everyone in the city had slept three days in line to get. It had been sent overnight by her brother. She pulled it out of her bag, checking the number, her brother’s. “Hey, Cobb. How are things in Atlanta?”
“Same as yesterday.” Cobra Moondae Buckley. He had the same troubles with his name as his sisters.
Their mother loved bizarre names. Darlin Dae Long, Charming Moon Knight, and Cobra Moondae Buckley. None of them had the same father. Their mother played drums in rock bands, loving music, loving her groupies. The chaos had created a strong bond between Daelin and her siblings, one she cherished.
Cobb’s normally sarcastic tones deepened, becoming serious. “I was able to get the location of Charming’s phone. I’m texting you the coordinates, which you can plug into your GPS app. It’ll get you within a yard of Charming. Umm…” he blew out a loud breath. “Look, is she all right? What’s going on?”
“She’s out on a dig with the Paleo Institute. I want to pop in and say hi. That’s all.” Daelin halted in the middle of her commute, an eight block walk. What else could she tell him? She couldn’t tell him about the doorway to other worlds in the woods. She couldn’t tell him that both of his sisters now hunted monsters. “So where?”
“Her phone isn’t out of town. Don’t you think that’s weird?” Cobb worked as an intern at a communications company.
Daelin tugged her sweater tighter against an icy breeze. “Maybe she dropped it.”
“According to the coordinates and an internet map of Settler, her phone is inside Blacke’s Ranch Resort and Spa. You know where and what that is?”
Yes, she did. Earl Blacke had disappeared the morning after the fight with the ghost. He claimed to have told Daelin everything he could about Charming. She had suspected what he could say and all he knew weren’t the same. Now she had proof.