Almost nothing Rina remembers about her life is true. Rather than the ordinary librarian she believes herself to be, she’s actually a sorceress who fled from another world to ours when creatures from an alien dimension devastated her home and killed her family. Now they’ve pursued her to our world, summoned by a sorcerer who plans to open a portal and invite monstrous entities from the void between dimensions to overrun this planet. Rina’s former bodyguard, a cat shapeshifter who was once her lover and still yearns for her, helps her true memories to awaken. She must come to terms with the truth about her past so that together they can save their new home from the fate of their old one. (ebooks are available from all sites, and print is available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble and some from Angus and Robertson) Chapter 1   Nightmares belonged in the bedroom. So when Rina glimpsed a tendril of shadow writhing at the edge of the library’s parking lot, she knew something was wrong. She grabbed her friend’s arm. “Whoa, you okay?” From behind her gold-rimmed glasses, Patricia Doyle followed the direction of Rina’s gaze. “It’s just Mr. Rodriguez.” Of course it wasn’t the oil slick monster from her dreams. The shape Rina had imagined she’d seen morphed into a man in his sixties wearing his usual faded jeans and shabby denim jacket. He shuffled out of the shadows onto the pavement. She unclenched her grip, and her shoulders sagged. “Why so jumpy?” Pat asked. “You’re the one who used to have the idiotic habit of walking home alone after dark.” Rina didn’t want to mention the revival of the nightmares she thought she’d smothered months before. Never mind walking home–if she raved about dark tentacles coiling around her, she would sound too unstable to drive. She couldn’t claim to be nervous about being the last to leave, given that former “idiotic habit” and how often the two of them strolled out to a deserted parking lot after shutting the library for the night. So she only shrugged and smiled. Pat dug her car keys out of her purse. “We still on for tomorrow night?” “Sure.” They spent most Friday evenings together, something she didn’t want to miss. “Why not?” “I keep thinking you might have a date one of these weeks.” Pat seldom missed a chance to lament their pathetic manless existence, pointing out that at least she had the excuse of being a single mother. When Rina laughed and shook her head, Pat asked, “Don’t you ever crave anything more exciting from life than a girls’ night out?” As usual, Rina answered that question with a firm negative. Pat headed for her SUV, her short, mahogany curls bouncing in rhythm with her brisk pace. After the SUV pulled out, Rina started toward her forest-green compact, dangling her keys. Mr. Rodriguez ambled from the row of trees at the back of the lot into the light and planted himself between her and the car. “Ms. Cassel? I got to talk to you.” She paused, feeling her nervously fixed smile evaporate. She certainly had no reason to be uneasy about this man. He spent hours every day in the library reading magazines and newspapers. Skinny but not scrawny, with dark eyes and gray-streaked hair, he was familiar to the staff and never caused trouble. She didn’t know whether he was homeless or just retired and in need of a place to hang out. Despite their long but casual acquaintance, though, his accosting her at this time of night with that worried tone of voice made her pulse quicken. “Can I help you with something, Mr. Rodriguez?” He started to speak but doubled over, wheezing. “Are you all right?” Catching his breath, he waved away the question. “Sure, I’m fine. This is about you, not me. Something feels wrong. You got to be careful.” She forced a dry laugh. “Is this another one of your premonitions?” “Don’t laugh, ma’am. You know I can sense things sometimes.” A chill snaked up the back of her neck. Granted, the previous fall he’d spent an afternoon telling everybody who would listen that a hurricane predicted to sweep past Virginia and out to sea would make landfall right on top of Maryland instead. It had. Weather prediction was notoriously chaotic, though. The meteorologists had miscalculated, that was all, and he had made a lucky guess. On the other hand, there had been the car key incident just last month. No, she wouldn’t think about that. She shook her head. “And you know I don’t believe in that stuff.” He gripped her hand. His fingers felt icy despite the warmth of the May evening. “Please listen, I know there’s danger somewhere. I don’t want anything to happen to you.” She didn’t believe for a second anything was about to happen. Still, when she had panicked about not being able to find her keys that other evening, he’d told her they were on the checkout counter in the library where she’d accidentally left them while rummaging for something else in her purse. And he’d been right that time, too, even though he hadn’t been anywhere near when she’d dropped them. Coincidence, another random hit. But it couldn’t hurt to humor him for a minute. “Okay, what’s the danger? What should I do to protect myself?” He frowned as if trying to puzzle out an answer. “I don’t know; I think it’s got something to do with a necklace.” Her pulse stuttered. “What necklace?” She owned only one of value, which he had never seen. With a gasp, he squeezed her hand painfully hard, and his legs crumpled. He collapsed to his knees on the pavement, almost dragging her down with him. She dropped her oversized shoulder bag and hooked her free hand under his elbow. She caught a whiff of the cigarette smoke that always permeated his clothes. “Mr. Rodriguez, what’s wrong? Can you stand up?” Leaning on her, he lurched to his feet. Though she stood five feet six, and he wasn’t much taller, she staggered under his weight. “Are you sick? Let me get you some help.” He shook his head. “Just dizzy. I’m all right now. You just be careful.” Rina struggled to hide her impatience. After all, the poor man was obviously ill and maybe not in his right mind. “Thanks for worrying about me, but what can I do if you don’t even know what I should be careful of?” “Somebody wants to hurt you. I don’t know who. But you got to watch out.” Labored breaths punctuated the words. “Okay, I’ll be careful.” Not that she had any idea what further precautions she could take. She didn’t walk from the exit to her vehicle alone when leaving the library at night, even though the parking lot was small and well-lit. She locked the car doors while driving, chained and bolted the door of her rented duplex every night. In the fifty-year-old residential neighborhood between the library and home, she didn’t expect to be mugged anyway. After dark she drove the few blocks instead of walking to and from work only to keep Pat from fussing. The nightmares, visions of earth and sky cracking like eggshells to hatch horrors, made her more nervous than the streets did. “Now let me call 9-1-1 for you.” Dizziness, difficulty breathing, poor circulation in his hands–suppose he was having a heart attack? She picked up her purse and fished in it for her phone. He straightened up and looked her in the eye. “No, thank you. I don’t need a doctor.” “Are you sure?” She unlocked the driver’s door of her car and paused with her hand on the latch. Light rain began sprinkling her face and bare forearms. “Don’t worry about me. You just keep your eyes open.” No point in asking any more questions. Aside from the mention of the necklace, he obviously had nothing except a vague “sense” to communicate. His other “guesses”, or whatever they were, had been specific. “At least let me give you a ride so you won’t get wet or in case you feel dizzy again.” “No need. Goodnight, Ms. Cassel.” His back straight and head high, he walked out of the parking lot, crossed the wide lawn in front of the redbrick library building, and turned up West Street toward downtown Annapolis. Rina decided not to persist any further. She couldn’t force him to accept help, and he looked well enough now. With the rain picking up, she got into the car and switched on the windshield wipers. The spatter of drops grew to a steady stream by the time she’d made the five-minute drive home. Pulling into the driveway of her half of the duplex, she noticed movement in the shadows on her front stoop. She flashed on an image of an ink-black blob oozing from a pit. As soon as she stepped out of the car, she let out a shaky giggle when the illusion evaporated. She recognized the long-haired cat who had been hanging around the yard off and on for the past couple of weeks. She couldn’t blame him for seeking shelter under the roof overhang, especially since she had set out more than one bowl of milk for him on occasional evenings. There was no chance of confusing him with any other neighborhood stray. He was the largest domestic cat she had ever seen, maybe close to twenty pounds, his coat an explosion of copper-toned fluff. His golden eyes glowed up at her as she scurried through the rain to the front door. Though he didn’t wear a collar, he was clearly used to people, judging by the way he sat calmly while she rushed past him into the house. In the foyer she toed off her shoes in the tiled entryway. She crossed the beige carpet and headed up the stairs to the master suite where she slept alone, as Pat took frequent opportunities to mention. Rina liked that arrangement perfectly fine. She liked her tidy bedroom with off-white walls, neatly made queen-size bed, and bookshelf holding rows of paperback mysteries alphabetized by author. She liked the uncluttered attached bathroom, with nobody else’s junk scattered around or hair in the drain. After drying her face and rubbing a towel over her head, Rina stripped off her wet blouse and put on a T-shirt. When she opened a window to let in the night air, the noise of the rain came with it. Was the cat still huddled on the stoop? He looked too healthy to be living on the streets. Maybe he was one of those house cats that made the rounds of the neighbors scrounging food, with their owners oblivious to the con job their pets were running. Yet she couldn’t help worrying about him out there in the rain. Muttering “pushover” to herself, she hunted through the kitchen cabinet and found a can of tuna, the contents of which she dumped onto a paper plate. When she opened the front door, the cat was still there. He padded over to her as if he’d been expecting her. With a single meow in acknowledgment, he began nibbling the tuna as soon as she put it down. “You need some water with that, don’t you?” She went inside, leaving the inner door ajar. The screen would keep the cat from coming in, not that she expected him to try. He was still eating steadily when she returned with a bowl of water. He lapped up a few swallows, then returned his attention to the fish. She stretched a tentative hand toward him. When he didn’t flinch, she stroked down the length of his back. His tail flicked lazily. He didn’t narrow his eyes, fold back his ears, or show any other sign of hostility. His damp fur felt soft and smooth, with no mats or scabs. In the middle of his meal, he … Continue reading Sealing the Dark Portal by Margaret L. Carter