Beyond Your Touch by Pat Esden Read Free Book Online Page B

and thrashing his tail like a cornered rattlesnake.
    Olya’s fingers fluttered to her chest. “Oh, my. He does not like that,” she said. Her throaty Eastern European accent sounded even raspier than usual.
    Kate tsked. “It’s the cage time not the oil he’s fussing about. Serves him right, too. The beast shat in my bedroom.”
    Judging by the glare in Kate’s eyes, I suspected the cat was guilty of more than that single offense. She generally loved cats. Personally, his insolence toward her had just scored him top position on my cat-ranking card, not that I was much of a cat person.
    â€œIsn’t that Zachary’s kitten?” Selena asked when the three of us reached them.
    Olya gave the cat a second look. “My goodness, you’re right.”
    â€œDon’t worry about the beast,” Kate said. “Nothing’s going to happen to him.” She set down the lamp and the excess oil snaked across the floor of the cage, out through the cage’s mesh, and back into the lamp. The way the oil returned to its container was one of the cool things about it, not to mention that the oil was self-renewing.
    Chase crouched and peered into the cage. “You’re assuming the oil will react the same on a cat as it would on a human?”
    Kate nodded. “In fact, we ran extensive tests to make sure it would.”
    Normally, human bodies transformed from solid to ethereal when they went through the veil and entered the djinn realm. But coating a person in the Methuselah oil made their body ethereal in the mortal world and solid in the djinn realm. It had the exact opposite effect on genies. However, the oil had two problems. First, it only lasted from sunset to sunrise; and second, its strong cabbage-and-wet-sheep scent.
    â€œSo,” Kate said to Chase, “do you smell anything or do you think we’ve successfully de-scented it?”
    He leaned closer to the cage and took a whiff. “Nothing. Not even normal cat smell.”
    Selena and I also sniffed. Chase was right. There wasn’t a trace of anything.
    â€œGreat.” Kate wriggled off her rubber gloves. “That’s one step done.” Her gaze landed on me. “Did you find out anything?”
    â€œWe—” I started.
    But Selena cut me off. “You should wash the cat off before the oil turns him invisible. After all, he’s a pet not a lab rat.”
    â€œUnfortunately”—Kate strummed the cage’s mesh with her fingers—“once it’s applied, nothing can wash the oil off. From sunset until sunrise, this beast will be invisible—and incarcerated for the duration as well. If he’s a good kitty, I may give him a can of tuna in the morning.”
    The cat sprung from his corner, claws zinging against the mesh beneath her fingers.
    Clutching her hand, Kate jumped back. “Looks like somebody may get his manhood snipped instead of tuna.”
    â€œYou were asking about Bar Harbor,” I said, loud enough to steer the conversation back where it belonged. “We found someone who can do the magic or at least we think she can.”
    Olya gawked at us. “Flute-magic? Are you sure?”
    Kate stopped clutching her hand and rested it on her hip. “I’m assuming that there is a downside to this story. What did you say this man or woman’s name was?”
    â€œLotli,” Chase said. “She’s around Annie’s age.”
    I glanced at him. He certainly had that information on the tip of his tongue. I turned to Kate. “There was a Native—”
    â€œThey,” Selena interrupted, “I mean, we saw smoke following her music. But we lost her. Then we found out who she was.”
    I shot a look in her direction. Why hadn’t she let me just tell the story? She wasn’t there. She’d screw it all up.
    Kate frowned. “What exactly do you mean by ‘lost’?”
    â€œShe took off before