A Mate Worse Than Death by J.L. Ray Read Free Book Online Page B

she tried not to be too disappointed. Very few Nattys got the chance to see or hear the other realms. They saw plenty of crossover from the Supers who had come over and then outed themselves, but they rarely crossed over themselves, and if they did, well, let’s just say the trip rarely featured a round-trip ticket. Tony figured she should have been glad to let Cal handle it, but she had always been fascinated by the idea of the otherworlds. She felt like she needed to see the other side, or an other side.
    By the time that Cal got in, at almost 8 a.m., Tony had had time to review t he list and divvy up the calls.
    “You sleeping in these days?” she arched a brow at him as he dropped into his Mage-E-Boy chair, which despite being magically reinforced to hold a full-grown ogre, moaned its displeasure. His parents had brought it over from Fairie, and he loved it, but Berthell had wanted it out of her house. She claimed it backtalked her.
    Cal shook his head and slumped over the desk after he gave his chair a pat to try to calm it down. “Berthell isn’t sleeping well. I will be so glad when Newman pops!”
    Tony looked at him, a dawning look of horror on her face. “Pops? POPS?”
    Cal shook both hands at her, open-palmed, in an attempt to calm her down, “Not that kind of--look, he’ll come out, okay? Ogres, well, we say--Pop!”
    Tony stared at him, bug-eyed. Then she muttered, “And you wonder why I don’t want a date with a guy. That might lead to...”she threw out her hands, “Pop!”
    Cal mustered up a strained smile and tried to change the subject, “Whatcha got there, pard?”
    Tony stared at him a minute, then decided to let it go, “I’ve got a list of contacts from Lt. Azeem. Some are Mundanes, and some are living on other planes of existence. Guess who gets which list?”
    Cal shook his head, “Don’t be sore, kid. It is what it is. The Ones who didn’t come over don’t, well, they ain’t got...”
    “What, Cal?”
    “They don’t play well with others, if you know what I mean. They make the GOOENsters look like Sunday school teachers, y’know?”
    Tony cracked her first smile of the day. “I’d pay good money to see a GOOEN teach Sunday school.”
    Cal thought about it a minute and started rumbling. “It’s a picture!” He added more seriously, “How about I just go use the Booth and try to contact without travel? If I can get the right Operator on the horn, I might not have to go realm jumping.”
    “Oh shit!” Tony smacked her forehead. “I bet the Lieutenant didn’t even think about how close Berthell is to...uh,” she paused, “ can I say pop?”
    “Sure! She would. Why not?”
    “So, my point. You better talk to the Lieutenant first, huh?”
    In the end, Lt. Azeem decided that calls might tip off a potentially guilty party, but also that Cal should not, in fact, be out-realm this close to Berthell’s due date. All offspring are precious to the Supers, though of course, for some Supers in other realms, that is because they’re precious items on the dinner menu. Not so for the Supers in Mundania, who had more trouble procreating here than in the Fairie Realms. In any case, Azeem didn’t like the idea of having to tell Berthell exactly why he had sent Cal off at the worst possible moment for her. Also, for some of the more violent Supernaturals, the stress of birthing could cause regression to former bad habits, habits like dismemberment and mayhem. So having Cal in the birthing room with Berthell was non-negotiable. He had to be there, or the Geas might be activated and put Berthell down.
    “Detective Newman,” Azeem growled, then stopped.
    “Sir?” she asked, trying as hard as possible to be respectful, laid back, and upbeat while inside she was saying “Oh please, oh please, oh please.”
    The Lieutenant sighed, but continued, “I will need for you to go out-realm, but I don’t have personnel right now to send with you. I have a call in to someone who is free to