Trouble in a Bottle-- first Chapter!

 You know the drill!  Here's the first chapter of Trouble in a Bottle, the second book in the Forgotten Hollow paranormal cozy mystery fantasy series!

Ceian, Betsy, and all the animals (PUPPIES!) are off having another adventure where Earth crimes collide with ones from off-planet!

The ebook releases September 18th and can be preordered here.

Here's Chapter ONE!

Chapter One

 

 

It had been a blindingly busy day at my teahouse, The Fainting Goat Tea and Spice. We’d been open for a month, and I’d almost felt like I had the swing of things. A week ago, birders came in for an odd migration. Apparently, this year was unusual in the arrival of some sort of rare coastal seabird, and the birders flocked, no pun intended, to Forgotten Hollow.

I’d lived in Forgotten Hollow for a whopping four and a half months but had somehow not known about this bird.

I liked birds, I guess. Never really thought about them. But now it was their fanciers, or at least a small group of them, that I could do without.

I stumbled to the front door of my cottage, wanting nothing more than to collapse on the sofa and watch I Dream of Jeannie with a frozen dinner and ice cream. A glance across the yard showed me that the barn door was open, so most likely Tiberius and his goat friends were inside. My friend Keith had created an automatic door opener for the barn to allow Tiberius to get in and out at will.

Tiberius looked like a large goat. In reality, he was a jinn, like me, and not from Earth. Unlike me, his natural form was seven feet tall, blue-skinned, with wings that reached about ten feet in width. I looked like a tall, green-eyed, slightly exotic woman of possibly East Indian descent.

I am a parolee here on Earth. After serving a hundred years in my bottle, for a crime I knew I didn’t commit, I’d been released here to prove that I could be a functioning member of a society. Any society. The Eltrisphere, a collection of worlds far from this star system where Tiberius and I came from, discovered Earth a few hundred years ago.

No one could find a good use for it, so they made it their secret parolee test grounds. They already had plenty in our own system, but enjoyed branching out.

The humans had no idea of any of this, and I had to keep it that way.

The only human person in Forgotten Hollow, or at least human-looking, who knew about the Eltrisphere or me was Keith. An aging hippy and a citizen of the Eltrisphere, he’d been secretly living on Earth for over forty years and was currently dating my dear human friend Betsy.

Keith and I worked hard to keep Betsy, Martha, and Jamie, along with the rest of the town of Forgotten Hollow, from finding out anything about us or our worlds.

It was for their safety as much as or more so than ours.

Tiberius was supposed to be my guard during my parole, and he still was—but he annoyed the wrong people on the Eltrispherian High Council, and so they changed him into a goat whenever he was awake. He became himself as soon as he fell asleep.

Not helpful and a big nuisance.

I looked around for the orange feline menace, but Lucie might be in the barn too. The puppies and their mom, Hadari, also from the Eltrisphere, were hiding in a section of tall grass in the abandoned next-door yard, but they kept jumping at each other and giving themselves away.

All was right with my world, aside from my complete exhaustion. With a nod at the yard, I opened the door, dropped my keys, and started swearing.

The contents of my cottage were floating. Mostly in the location they would normally be, but far closer to the ceiling than they should be.

My swears turned to screams as my jinn bottle dove toward my head. I caught it in one hand and shut the door with the other. I now had a gate on my driveway, so getting to the cottage unannounced was difficult, but not impossible. Who would sneak into my cottage and put a spell on everything? Keith, Lucie, and I should be the only magic users in Forgotten Hollow. Keith was currently out of town, but should be home soon. I seriously doubted he would do this.

I didn’t see the cat, but I yelled anyway. “Lucie? Are you doing this?” My bottle, far prettier than the one on that TV show, tried to pull free a few times, but finally settled down.

Lucie looked like a regular Earth cat, but he was also from the Eltrisphere. Unlike Tiberius, cat was his natural form, and a month ago, he and I both regained access to our magic. I’d been taking it slow and only rarely using magic. The hundred years that I’d spent in my bottle as a prisoner were without magic. When I first arrived here, I’d had my magic back for a few hours, but then my keeper, a cranky cherub named Xieth, took it from me, along with Lucie’s.

Tiberius looked like he should be magical, but he wasn’t.

Clutching my bottle and ducking when belongings hovering in the air swung too low, I stalked around the cottage.

Lucie didn’t have an approved way into the cottage if I was gone, but even before he got his magic back, he could pick locks alarmingly well.

The living room, kitchen, bathroom, my bedroom, and the guest room were all empty. If it wasn’t him, what happened to my stuff? Flying household goods weren’t common on Earth or the Eltrisphere.

Everything was slowly lowering when I heard the most annoying sound ever. The chime that indicated Xieth was calling to me.

I tried pushing the bookshelf to the floor. Xieth’s appearances came through a framed landscape painting of my bottle in a field on the wall, and the bookshelf would be noticeable if it were still floating. I had a minute or two to make things look normal.

Or say goodbye to my magic. And possibly my parole on Earth.

I took a few calming breaths as I tried to think of a spell to lower my belongings without smashing them to the ground.

As one, everything drifted back to its place, and Xieth’s horrible visage took over the landscape painting. I put my bottle back on the bottom shelf of the bookcase and stood up to face him.

“Ceian? What took you so long? Has something happened?” He scowled as he looked around what he could see of my living room.

I gave him my best exasperated and exhausted frown. “I was trying to get inside. It's been crazy at work.” My being successful in a business was part of my parole requirements. It was added proof that I was safe to return to the Eltrisphere worlds as a functioning member. I’d always liked tea and exotic spices, so that’s what I went into.

“Hmmm, nothing else? You seem frazzled.” He waved the fingers of one pudgy hand at me.

I put my hands on my hips. “It’s been a rough week at the teahouse. I told you two days ago about it.” Okay, I’d barely started whining at him about the birders when he cut me off and ended the call. But he often didn’t listen to me unless it was information he wanted.

A month ago, Xieth found out about some nefarious things occurring on Earth, ones not involving humans. I was still his parolee, but myself, Tiberius, and even Lucie were Xieth’s eyes and ears down here now.

“Ah, yes, well. Anything else? Anything important?” He was already looking down at his desk for whoever he had to annoy next.

“Nothing important for you.” I had to watch my words, and as it was, I did feel a slight tightening in my throat. Jinn couldn’t lie, not if we knew the truth. It could choke a jinn until they passed out or died. Or so the old stories said. I had no intention of testing them.

It was easier, in a way, to get around it with humans. But citizens of the Eltrisphere who knew of jinn restrictions could use it against us.

However, having Keith in my corner had proven helpful. He was a slanaigh, a species of powerful empaths and magic users, and had no problem with lying. He’d also been married to a jinn until she passed away long before he came to Earth. He would step in when he could, when dealing with people in Forgotten Hollow, to keep me from having to tell the truth or choke to death.

“Hrmph.” Xieth waved his left hand dismissively and held up a sheaf of papers. “Keep me updated on anything odd. Carry on.” He cut the call before I could respond.

I waited until the landscape painting reappeared and then flicked a switch on the side. I’d accidentally left the screen blocker off this morning, which meant Xieth could have popped in while things were flying about. I’d make sure not to do that again.

A while ago, Keith had made a blocker so that Xieth couldn’t listen without the screen being open. Then, a week ago, he added the screen blocker. When in place, Xieth couldn’t pop in until I cleared it.

On a day like today, that could have been catastrophic, but I didn’t want to use it too often, as both Keith and I were worried that Xieth would figure it out.

And also realize that it was beyond my current magical ability. He had no idea about Keith being on the planet, and we needed to keep it that way. But between the crowds at the teahouse and whatever set off my possessions and furniture flying, I was willing to risk the block for a few days.

I pulled out my cell phone and called Keith. Only got his answering machine. Before he left town for something a few days ago, he’d been working on fixing up the property next to mine. Hadari and her pups lived there some of the time, my barn the rest of the time. I was slowly introducing the massive black-and-tan Hadari and her startlingly fast-growing puppies to the citizens of Forgotten Hollow as my newly adopted dogs.

The only problem was that when I first met Hadari, she was called Brutus and was owned by a human criminal. A lot of convincing was taking place to make sure people didn’t think they were the same dog. My three besties, Betsy, Martha, and Jamie, were all sure that Hadari was much prettier than Brutus. Not to mention, Brutus had clearly been a boy.

All three believed it completely, even though none of them had ever seen much of Brutus. No magic needed, simply the power of suggestion, combined with adorable puppies.

I gave my cottage another round of checks to see if anything could have caused the flying. But didn’t find anything. Now that everything had landed, not a stitch was out of place. I should be more worried about it, but after this past week, I was too exhausted to care.

Why people who were in a rush to watch birds wanted to go to a teahouse every day was way beyond me.

Teas were for leisure, catching up with friends, and relaxing. Not seeing how quickly the tiny sandwiches and sausage rolls could be ingested and tea downed before running out looking for the lily-bellied sap sucker. Or whatever the rare seabird’s name was.

It wasn’t the bird’s fault, but some of the people chasing them so annoyed me that I couldn’t keep the birds’ real name in my head for more than a few moments.

Hannah said I had a mental block and not to worry about it.

As if thinking of her triggered it, my cellphone rang. It was Hannah.

“Ceian! I wanted to see if you’d like to drop by for dinner and try my new fruity and fabulous pie? Betsy and the girls said they’d be here in half an hour.”

Hannah was the owner of Hannah’s diner, the single most delicious place to eat in town, in my opinion. I glanced at my freezer, thought of the bland frozen food inside, and smiled. “I’d love to. Let me take a quick shower, check the animals, and I’ll be on my way. Thank you!”

“See you then! Ride safe!” She ended the call, and I ran for the shower. Yes, I should stay home and work out logistics for the next birder invasion at the teahouse tomorrow, but the temptation of an amazing homemade meal and a new type of pie was what this crazy day ordered.

Showered and changed, I reconfirmed that the switch blocking Xieth was in place, then locked up the cottage and ran to the barn.

I wasn’t worried about Lucie; he did what he wanted, like Earth cats. But Tiberius was a different issue. He had been a centurion guard before this goat thing happened and still had that mindset.

Sometimes he forgot he was a goat.

My swearing when I pushed open the barn door completely might have been heard on whatever distant planet Xieth lurked on. The place was in shambles, and there were no goats in sight.

“Tiberius? Where are you?” A month ago, I’d ended up with half a dozen normal Earth goats. Tiberius wasn’t as happy as he would have been with a group of armed centurions, but he found company in the goats. But not a hoofed foot was in sight.

Damn it. I wasn’t up for another round of evil people trying to get to me by grabbing my friends. I ran around to the side of the barn and found Tiberius and the six Earth goats snacking on the long grass that grew there. Or had grown there. It was over half gone now. I’d meant to trim it, especially since we seemed to have a lot of secret meetings out there in the past.

He looked up with a clump of grass in his mouth. “What? You were taking too long to trim this.” He swallowed. “And it’s tasty.”

“What happened in the barn?”

He gave a goat version of a shrug. “Lucie was up to something. Chased a bird or two into the barn, then they all took off.”

I rubbed my eyes. With my luck, my non-Earth cat was chasing some very rare Earth birds. “How long ago?” My stomach growled and reminded me that I needed food.

“Two hours ago? Maybe?”

No way that I could catch up or even try to find him. “Okay, I’m going to Hannah’s. If Lucie comes back before me, tell him to go into the cottage and wait for me.” I nodded at one of the goats who glanced up, then went back to eating. The Earth goats didn’t seem to care that Tiberius spoke to me, but they also usually ignored me unless it was feeding time.

Leaving the goats, I got my bike and walked to Hadari’s yard. Hadari and her babies were hoxien wolves. Massive black and tan dogs that looked like a Bernese Mountain Dog mixed breed; at least that was what Martha said when she saw them.

They were also one of the most universally feared animals in the Eltrisphere and should never have been brought to a planet like Earth. Two of the puppies, Hadari said they hadn’t chosen their names yet, bounced out of the grass at my approach, then dove back in. Hadari got to her feet with a wide doggie grin.

“Leaving again?” Her English was still hesitant sometimes, but much stronger than it had been. She usually spoke one of the common Eltrisphere languages, Sihlia to Tiberius and her puppies. Neither could be spoken in front of humans for obvious reasons.

“Yes, dinner. Can you keep an eye out for Lucie? I think he’s getting into trouble somewhere.” I wasn’t sure that he hadn’t been the one behind my possessions floating, but I had no idea as to the why of him doing it.

“Gladly.” Her toothy grin broadened. Unlike many human cats and dogs, Hadari and Lucie usually got along, and he often babysat the puppies. But Hadari was extremely aware of his ability to get into trouble.