1 Chapter 1

1

Big Bend region

Early summer

Clay Chiles huffed along, scrambling up the steep slope. Loose rock littered the terrain, ready to roll from under his incautious feet. Ahead he saw Aron, his partner and teammate, striding upward as easily as if he were on level ground.

Damn him! Blasted elf can still outlast me. I’ve been working out like a fiend, even learning as much of the Elven ways as I can, but I’ll never reach his level.

He stopped for a couple of seconds, gasping in deep breaths. After a dozen or so, the ruddy haze darkening his vision faded and his heartbeat slowed a notch or two. He dragged a rumpled bandana out of his pocket and mopped his face. The humidity must be starting to climb as the summer monsoon season approached. Hell of a time to be tramping around in the high desert of west Texas

About ten yards above him, Aron halted and looked back. “You okay, Clay? Shout out if I go too fast. There’re times my pace is too much, even for Haldane and the rest of my band. I’ve been roaming alone a long time, too closely focused on my own endurance, which I know is unusual.”

Now Clay had enough breath to talk. “It’s okay. We need to make all the speed we can. If there’s a gate somewhere up here, the sooner we find it, the better. I’ll be all right in a minute. Just spent too much desk time the last couple of years. I’ve gotten soft. Back when I was a patrol officer, this kind of stuff was easier.”

Aron chuckled. “I doubt many of your human team members could keep up with either of us, so don’t beat yourself up. I’ll slow the pace. It wouldn’t do much good to discover the gate and be too worn out to attempt the closing spells.”

During the past several months, a plethora of nasty strangers, real other-world aliens, had been showing up in the southwest sector of the United States. They were causing major problems for the border patrol, especially the Paranormal Operations Unit or POU, which Clay had headed since its inception, now over two years ago.

When the elves’ old enemies, the Trogues, had begun to appear a few months earlier, Aron had arrived from Middle Earth, where his Elven kin held sway. He’d come to help humanity in a struggle they seemed perilously close to losing, bringing his band of handpicked Elven warriors with him. Fortunately, several had been close when some Trogues took Clay prisoner, recognizing him as the leader of the opposition. Aron had directed the tricky rescue effort. About the same time, Aron convinced Clay his long lost father really was an elf. That made the two of them very distant kin.

Once the president and the Secretary of Homeland Security finally recognized the serious nature of the situation, they’d dispatched military units to the Big Bend area to round up and do away with the Trogues before they spread too far. The military operation freed most of the POU and their elf allies to search for the space-time gates allowing alien entry and manage the mission of sealing them.

Aron thought he had a fix on the nearest one, where the Trogues had entered, so after driving as close as they could, he and Clay began hiking to the rugged site. Few knew what such a gate might look like or even if it would be visible. The most effective manner of sealing one was an even greater mystery, although Aron carried Elven lore related to such efforts from the distant past.

So much of this entire struggle consisted of learning by doing. Evil aliens might seem a natural part of the paranormal border patrol’s mission, but this new breed had powers and strengths no one had come across before. Most of the conflicts now involved new and previously unmet situations. About all they could do was try to build on each new experience and work by trial and error, implementing what they learned with each encounter.

Clay edged up a few more steps until he reached Aron’s side. The elf laid an arm across his shoulders. “I’m not trying to show you up, anam cara. We aren’t in competition here. Sometimes I’m less aware than I should be of others, though. I’ve been so long alone it isn’t easy to match myself to a partner.” He exhaled a slow breath, then tightened his hold into a half-hug.

Speaking in an earnest tone, he went on. “Stop me; give me orders. This is still your operation. I’m not taking the ultimate leadership from you. Anyway, you’re my spirit-shared mate. When you feel the need, remind me I’m not alone, but part of a new unit—us.”

“Yep,” Clay replied. “It’s a time of learning for me as well, made harder by the other challenges we face.” He exhaled a long breath.