A Prison of Worlds (The Chained Worlds Chronicles Book 1) Read Online Free

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and then bonded with him.  The cure I know is only temporary without reams of
therapy afterward, and it doesn't really change that you’re a bad man.  I put
him in a temporary coma, transferred his money through several accounts,
changed faces, walked in a bank and physically walked out with it, changed
faces again and moved it bit by bit into other accounts.  I did this using
Kingston's own skills as a very unscrupulous but imaginative bookkeeper to
cover my tracks and set up alternate identities.  He was a very talented man.
    I
never did figure out why he vanished afterward; when I left him, he was safe
and sound in a hospital occupying a temporary bed in the coma ward.  I looked
into it afterward and he checked himself out a week after I checked him in, and
then just vanished.  His organization sort of fell apart, and I am guessing another
good fellow took over.  I did all of this not because I wanted to be a hero,
but because I was destitute and needed to change this status without harming
anyone that didn’t deserve it.  I am still not sure whether to be guilty about
what I did, so I usually avoid thinking about it.  Denial is comfort food for
the brain.
    So
when Jeremy dropped his bombshell I suppose it was silly to be surprised.  I
have always admired his skills as a sleuth, and although strangers may not have
noticed anything, to him I may as well have been waiving a red flag.  After a
moment’s reflection, I just sighed. “No comment.”
    “Anyway,
if people ever find out that you took out Kingston they may jump to conclusions
about your orientation.”
    Damn,
I hate politics.  Back home in post holocaust-ville all I had to do is worry
about whether our patrols would run across hostile neighbors.    
    “I'll
cross that bridge when we come to it.  I have plans in place but I kind of like
my life as it is.”  I paused a moment to clarify this statement. “As
frustrating as my research is.”
    “Dead
end,” Jeremy prompted politely, as he got up and walked into the back room. 
Once he left the room, I surreptitiously sidled over to where he had sat and
noted the scuff marks on the table.  I was going to have to buff that out as
well as get the carpet cleaned.  Sometimes, friends are a real pain in the butt.
    He
came back a moment later with a shirt and jacket that vaguely fit him, though
perhaps a little baggy.  He usually wore loose clothing so this was actually
not a big change for him, except the better quality material.  “Well, not
completely.  I am going through the last stack.” I winced at the thought of the
last twenty books.  “But I think in the time I have been looking for something
real about magic, I have found maybe five books.  And they weren't very
helpful,” I added sourly.  A couple cantrips and wards for evil spirits.  I could
light a cigarette with my thumb; home dimension here I come!
    “It
could be that I have a lead for you,” the rumpled PI dropped with nonchalance.
    This
perked me up right away.  “You found something?  Why didn't you say something
sooner?”
    “I
think there was something about bullet wounds,” he said, with a slight edge to
his voice.
    “Er...
right, sorry about that.”  I kept forgetting humans got worried over this
stuff.  People have actually called me insensitive.  Jerks.
    “There's
a new shifter in town.  Girl called Mei Ling.  Some kind of hot shot martial
artist bounty hunter.”
    “And
she interests me how?” I prompted.  Not that I doubted the man, I am just like
that.
    “She's
hunting some kind of witch or wizard.”
    “Huh?”
Disappointment flooded through me.  “The wizard is a villain?  That does me no
good.  An evil wizard is more trouble than they are worth.  They are
notoriously close-mouthed unless you swear eternal servitude to them or some
such garbage.”  I felt myself on the verge of pouting.  “Are you sure it's
actually a witch or wizard?  I thought they hadn't been outed