Victor
"It sounds like she's awake," Ocean said.
"Hope you were right on her sizes," I said.
"I'm sure they'll be fine, for the time it takes to go from here to her house if they aren't."
"You're sure you're not going to come? Could be interesting, seeing how they manage to track these people down."
"No," Ocean said. "I'm sure the high technology they have is wonderful, but I'm going to try a bit of high magic instead. And as long as we find them and get back home, who cares which is better or faster?"
I nodded. It felt like more than that, like he felt out of place. Which was not the case, but if one felt that way, how could you convince them otherwise?
The door to her room opened, and she called out, "Did you buy me clothes?"
"Yes," I called back. "Well, Ocean did."
"Ok. Um. Thank you," and her door closed again.
Ocean glanced sideways at me, "She seems nice."
"At least she's not ga-ga over you."
"Yes," he mused. "Odd that. Not even when I first met her. Do you suppose she needs glasses? Or maybe she has no drive at all."
"Gods you are vain," I said, shaking my head.
"Vanity has nothing to do with it. It's simply a biological response. Either you have a sex drive or you don't. That's what mother use to say, anyway."
It would take a peculiar style of neurotic hubris to question the word of a succubus on the topic of sex. A style I did not possess, so I said nothing.
I ordered some food from the place downstairs. Ocean left shortly after that to engage in his own measures and means. And then roughly half an hour after she called out about the clothes, Alicja came into the living area, wearing the clothing Ocean had picked out for her. In blue jeans, boots, and a red blouse, over which she wore a vest of simple designs, the background being tan, the designs in faded blue. Her hair was up in her silk scarves, per custom. And she wore sunglasses.
"I guess they fit," she said, looking down at herself.
"You look good. The colors suit you," I said.
"You think so? The red is a bit bold, don't you think?"
It was, but it also set off her light brown hair. "No, I think he did well. But your house is only a short cab ride away. Breakfast?"
We ate, and talked little. She asked after Ocean and I told her he wanted to try his own methods. "Actually I think he just wanted to be away from us," I said. "It's a lot to take in and his reaction was a bit extreme."
"What about you? Any ... extreme reactions?"
"Not yet, but it could be that I'm simply in shock. Flabbergasted, as they say."
"I'm sorry," she said, setting her fork down and picking up her coffee, "who says that?"
I shrugged, "Someone must. I didn't make the word up."
"Yes," she said, with a slight grin. "I'm sure someone must."
A car was waiting for us downstairs and we drove directly to her house, where she ditched her purse for a day pack and shoved several items inside.
"I didn't know we were traveling," I said from the living room, looking over her family photos on the wall, and the shelves filled with memories and keepsakes.
"I didn't know I would be bound to an out-worlder," she replied. "Just want to be prepared."
"Out-worlder? I'm always inside one world or another."
She came out of her room, still wearing the clothing Ocean bought her, and the day pack. She scrutinized me and then said, "I suppose that's something. We'll build on that."
She smelled of lavender and vanilla, and something clean like meadow grass. Looking as she was, at this moment; resolute and perhaps a touch frightened about the future, she felt formidable and magnetized. It was a shame that we met like this, I might have liked meeting her without the weight of this bonding crushing it all. There was only one woman who grabbed me like Alicja did at this moment... but she's gone now.
"What?" she asked, and I shook out of my memories.
"Nothing. Apologizes," I said, and turned to walk back out to our taxi. "Just memories."
"You sure you're alright?" she asked, following me after locking up.
"Sure," I said. "I just got caught up in looking at the photos and memories in there, and got a little nostalgic myself. Not to worry."
A wan smile turned her lips, "Ducky."
After we were in the taxi and heading to her cousin's, she asked, "What was that Ocean was asking? He said you had been here two months already?"
Ah, how to say this?
"He wanted to know how I was feeling," I said. "And like I told him, I feel fine."
"Yes, but why wouldn't you feel fine?" she asked.
I shrugged, feeling trapped. I didn't want to lie to her, but I also didn't want to worry her with something that wasn't an issue.
Deciding that I wouldn't be thanked for saving her grief now, if something did happen, I told her, "It's not the same over here. Well, that's a bit obvious, but it's not where we live, Ocean and I. Sometimes we need to return and then come back, to acclimate. You understand?" I asked, glancing at the driver to see if there was any reaction, but he was listening to his music.
"Acclimate?"
"Yes," I said. Then as a hesitant thought, I added, "I'm sure that's the right word... maybe?"
"Sure, it fits in context," she agreed. Her scent changed, an infusion of fresh rhubarb, into her normal soft perfume, and a touch of minty fear; worry.
After a moment, she asked, "Have you had trouble in the past? Acclimating, I mean."
I nodded, wishing to get off the subject, "Both times. But it happened within the first two weeks. I had to return twice last time, before I was comfortable." I thought perhaps if I smiled, but the look in her eye told me to leave it. She was processing. A soft tang of ozone and linen tickled my nose; stoic analysis.
"You'll tell me if you're feeling like that, yes?" she asked.
"Yes," I agreed with a nod.
She gave a firm nod of her head in return, "Good."
Her cousin's lived in a house much like her own, what they call 'Shot gun' design. Both Mal and Sean were large young men. Well defined muscles attested to regular workouts, though I couldn't tell what kind of sport they used. We were led to the far back room, the master bedroom, which had been converted into an office with several computers. The place smelled of hot electricity and fried foods, and ... long hours.
"Is there a window we could open?" I asked. "It's a little stuffy in here."
"Oh, sure," Sean, the one with red hair, and a dark shadow of a beard said, and he reached past his desk and slid open the glass window.
"Thanks."
"No problem. So we got the heads up last night, from Alicja, and we found pictures of the two men who broke into her house. We were able to get them from the police arrest, and also from their social media accounts."
"Do I know what that is?" I asked, looking to Alicja.
"No," Alicja answered. "And that's not an issue. I'll explain later. Go on Sean."
"Right," he said, and turned back to the screen. "So we use a program that takes the images we have and attempts to find other images on the Internet which match. This way we find photos of the person, with other people. Then we do the same with the other people we find."
"Does it do that on it's own?" I asked, leaning forward to look at the screen, not sure what it was I should be looking at. Ocean would know. He's fascinated with these devices.
"Well, yes and no. Sometimes it gets a false positive and chases down the wrong avenues and we have to tell it not to, or keep it from going into certain areas. But for the most part, yes, in that â even with the errors, it's a lot faster than doing it ourselves."
Mal came back into the room. His dark hair, nearly black, cut short, and he wore a thin mustache. "We've already discovered several of his current Hunter friends."
"How do you know they are Hunter friends?" I asked.
"Well, because they told us on their social media posts. It's amazing how much personal information is posted in social media areas for the world to see. All we are doing is reading what they posted," Mal explained.
"We should have a large amount of information for you in two, maybe three days? Is that going to work?"
"Can you look for specific information?" I asked.
"Depends. What do you have in mind?" asked Mal.
"A hunting trip perhaps, a little over two months ago. Maybe a long trip out of town around the same time? Any of the friends who are Hunters being injured around that time?" I said.
The two of them thought about that, their eyes looking inside their minds as they put together the puzzle.
"We could look for breaks in posting, days when they didn't use their normal social time, that might be a sign as well," Sean mused.
"Sure," Mal agreed. "And a group of them with the same missing dates could be queried."
They got into a discussion with Alicja about a number of other things, but I didn't have the background to follow. What I did get, was they were much further along than I've gotten in two months.
Ocean would have liked to see this. I tried memorizing as much as I could, even the information I didn't understand, to share with him later.
Now, I needed to make better plans on what to do with these Hunters, because it looked like I was going to have them soon. How to get them back to the other side?