by C C Solomon
He gave a slight smile and sat back. “No.”
I had to admit. That one word stung a bit. But, as I always did, I brushed aside any feelings. “Well, what do you want me to do? Marry Felix and be a housewife?”
His eyes darkened again. “I would hope not.”
Well, that was an interesting reaction. As weird as the guy was, Felix was very likable. What the hell had Felix done to him? “Care to elaborate? Yes, he’s half-angel, but he’s also part demon. So, you should like him.”
“Daughter, you must know that demons aren’t all friends. In fact, the words don’t go together. Your Felix has an interesting family history. One you probably want to keep clear of. Even if he may not know it himself.” He took another sip of his whiskey.
Well, that was cryptic as hell.
“Francesca, I want you to take your rightful place with the fae. I’m going to work on a way to return your memories. If you are to really be protected from our—well my, enemies, you will need an army behind you. Your mother’s court can give you that.”
“You think my big brother’s going to give me the throne?”
“No, but I can help you with that. Stay here with me. We will come up with a plan. I’ll work on getting your memories back.”
Felix’s face popped up in my mind. I could see him now pacing back and forth in our hotel room, waiting for me to return.
I had to admit, I wasn’t okay with leaving him behind. Even when I’d stayed with Nadia, I’d still been comforted with the notion that I could go see him whenever I wanted. I knew that if I stayed with Herrod, he would probably make it very difficult for me to come and go as I pleased. Especially if it was to see Felix. And this was all assuming I even trusted this guy. I didn’t know for certain that he was my father. Sure, there was a bit of resemblance but that didn’t mean anything. For all I knew he was the enemy. I was in no mood to be manipulated by another demon.
Also, I kind of wanted to see this mission through. I was invested now. Being a hero wasn’t my thing but something rubbed me the wrong way about monsters that liked to chomp on kids. Even I had a limit on how much I could ignore.
I was going back. If this guy really was my dad and he really cared about me, then what was a few more days for him to wait until I stopped those predators from hurting more kids. I stood up. “Sorry, Herrod. I’ve got to go do a good deed to balance my energy and all that. Sorry to disappoint you. We can meet again. You have a number I can call?”
Herrod stood up as well. He dug into his jacket pocket and pulled out what looked like a shiny, golden credit card. He passed it to me.
All that I saw was an old looking symbol. It looked close to Japanese lettering except I knew that it wasn’t.
Herrod pointed to it. “Draw that symbol and you’ll get my attention. I would give you a flower from the field but it takes much longer to get my attention with those. This is quickest.”
I was slightly surprised he was being so understanding. I thought he would try to stop me but he seemed unbothered. “You’re okay with me leaving?”
He gave a slight nod. “You’ll be back.”
“So confident.”
“You are ambitious. And you will find that fighting for Misandre’s unimpressive court is not worthy of your time. You’ll need to get all the aid you can find. I have that to give. In the meantime, if you must mingle with the angels, be careful of that town.”
“You know about those demons?”
He cocked a brow, giving me a look that said ‘obviously.’ “Wraiths are more than you think. Powerful ones will also manipulate your mind. Have you believing all is well while they are eating you alive.”
“And here I thought that was what the paralytic was for.”
“Yes, but if they want aid in getting more victims, they can manipulate a person to doing their bidding. Never let your guard down around them.” He snapped his fingers, and a portal appeared behind me.
I headed to the portal, walking backwards. “Thanks for the chat. It was very informative. I’ll be back for sure.”
I turned to cross into the portal.
Herrod called my name. “You should know, that that town is well aware of their wraith problem. So, you should ask, why have they not dealt with it?”
I gave him a curt nod before crossing over. He had a good point. That floosy mayor had to have known what she was dealing with when we found the skin that first night and definitely the night Faith and I killed that skinwalker. Yet, she acted surprised and confused. What was with the act?
It seemed I learned more from this visit than I anticipated. I would definitely be back and I expected more answers.
Chapter 17
Felix wrapped me in a bear hug so tight I almost passed out. I wiggled in his arms. “Can’t breathe,” I said into his shoulder.
He put me down, gently and looked me over with concerned eyes.
“I’m fine,” I grumbled but a little pleased at the attention. Darn, this man made himself too likable.
“What’d he want?”
I yawned and flopped down on my bed. I gave him a quick recap, omitting the part where Herrod admitted he was my dad. Instead, I stated that he used to know my parents and made a promise to look out for me. I felt like crap lying to Felix but there was a nagging feeling in my gut that said telling my true identity was not a wise decision. At least not yet. Felix was a trustworthy guy but he was acting a little off and on lately and I didn’t trust Azrael fully. They already hated me because I was half-demon. If they found out I was the child of a demon King, well, who knew what they would try to do. I wanted to be in a better place before I told them the truth.
I kicked my shoes off and unbuttoned my jeans, far from concerned about flashing Felix because I already knew what he would do.
Except he didn’t turn around.
I paused and raised my brows. “Turn around, you perv.”
He chuckled, slowly turning and heading to his bed. “You can’t blame me. When a woman gets undressed in front of me with no warning, what do you expect?”
“I expect you to turn like you always do.” I kicked my jeans off and grabbed some sleeper shorts I’d left on the bed, quickly putting them on while giving Felix’s back the stink eye. He really was changing.
“By the way, we’re paying a visit to the mayor tomorrow,” I said, laying my head on my pillow.
Felix turned slightly to me. “Why?”
“Because she knows more than she’s letting on. She’s got an infestation of wraith and she’s not dealing with it. That puts her people in danger and all the foolish tourist who come to this town. The kid disclaimer isn’t enough, especially when these things go after paranormals as well. I want to know what her deal is. No more games.”
The following day we reconnected with Azrael and Faith over breakfast in their room. I gave them the abridged version of my meeting with Herrod, also leaving out the lineage part. Azrael gave me a look of pure suspicion but I ignored the angel. I really didn’t owe Azrael or any of those tarnished halo wearing know-it-alls anything. They’d manipulated me and withheld my truth from me. I trusted the angels only as far as I could throw them. Which in reality was pretty far since I was a super strong faerie but that wasn’t the point!
As I got up to head to the mayor, Azrael stood as well, still giving me distrustful eyes. “You will tell us everything you discussed later, right.” The angel said this more than asked which only pissed me off.
I rolled my eyes and walked to the door. “I’ll tell you to mind your own business.”
Azrael growled and I heard them loudly say to the others. “We don’t even know if we can trust her. He could have manipulated her mind while she was with him.”
I paused at the door and glared back at them, ready to give Azrael a verbal beat down.
Felix raised a hand and headed my way. “I trust her. We don’t need to keep talking about this.” He gave me a wink and opened the door for me.
I stepped back, a
little impressed—okay turned on, by his cocky assuredness. I don’t know. Maybe I kind of liked this new, edgy Felix.
We decided to walk to the mayor’s office since it wasn’t that far and it was nice out. Azrael kept giving me the stink eye but Faith seemed unbothered, maybe she was starting to take a liking to me. Maybe she didn’t care. It was probably the last option.
Fatih walked up to Felix’s side and glanced at us with concerned eyes. “So, what’s the plan? We tell her she’s got a wraith problem and bounce? I mean, we’re sticking around to help clear them out. Find the nest. We should come with a plan. Let her know her town police force is trash.”
I nodded waving my hand dismissively. “All that sounds good. Let’s do that.”
Faith narrowed her eyes. “Okay, you are incredibly unhelpful. I’m asking, how do we sus out a wraith nest? We need to come looking like experts not some new and diverse Scooby-Doo and the gang.”
I snorted. The image of the four of us creeping around trying to solve a supernatural mystery popped in my head. If only we had our Scooby. Well, no, we had Yusan. That made me cackle harder. “I’m fine with that.”
Faith twisted her lips in annoyance. “Okay, woman, well I am not. We have a reputation to keep up. Felix and I are part of the Six. People expect big things from us and if we look all disorganized, then that could bring down the good that Lisa, Charles and Erik are doing. It could ruin Amina and Phillip’s legacy.”
Felix frowned and looked down at her with quizzical eyes. “Since when do you care what others think?” He looked over to Azrael. “This your doing?”
The angel gave a nonchalant shrug. “She isn’t wrong.”
This was their doing.
Faith stopped walking and placed a hand on her chest, her face fixed in shocked. “How about maybe I care about doing this right. I’ve grown over the past year. I’m not just a bartender. I’m a bartender with a passion for justice.”
We all stopped walking as well and looked at her with disbelieving eyes. I was still getting to know Faith and although I wouldn’t call her cold-hearted, she certainly wasn’t a bleeding heart either. I always figured she was a do-gooder because of Felix. Maybe I was wrong. Could she really be some justice warrior inside and all her fighting with the Six had just uncovered it?
She relaxed her face upon seeing our expressions and began to walk again. “You guys are assholes.”
I chuckled and began to walk again as she stormed past me.
Azrael caught up to her. “Perhaps we can tell them for now that we will help them find the nest. We certainly are better equipped to do so.”
We definitely were better fighters. So far, I was underwhelmed by the weirdos in town.
My thoughts were disrupted as I slammed into Felix’s back. He didn’t seem to notice as he stood still, looking across the street.
I followed his gaze but nothing was there except for a row of shops on the street and a few people walking about.
“What is it?”
He kept looking, a frown etched on his face. “I thought I saw…myself.”
I looked around. Crap, one doppelganger was bad enough but we really didn’t need two to distract us. “Where?”
“He disappeared. He was there one moment waving at me with a dumb, dopey look on his face and then he faded away.” He glanced back at me. “You think it’s evil if it looks friendly?”
Before I could answer, Azrael spoke up. “Yes. And your definition of friendly needs to be examined. The doppelganger is only giving you what he thinks you are. It is a pale imitation. It doesn’t know how to be its own being.”
Felix pushed his hair back from his face. “So, I look that dumb?”
I smiled and patted him on the shoulder. “No. Seriously, why are these face stealers popping up now? And in this town? I bet you the fearful mayor knows.” I poked Felix in the back to get him moving and he immediately started walking again.
When I glanced back there, I was smiling and waving back at me in the same spot Felix’s doppelganger had supposedly been. I stumbled over a bump in the sidewalk and fell into Felix’s back again.
He turned as I righted myself again and he lifted his upper lip as I assumed he caught my evil twin across the street. He moved towards the street to approach it.
“Ignore it for now!” Azrael called back as they continued to walk. “It’s a waste of time to approach it now. It’s trying to distract you.”
How did the angel know? Azrael didn’t seem to be an expert before, now we were being told to ignore evil beings out to kill us and take our places? Easy for the angel to say. Once again, I was reminded that I couldn’t trust the angels. Just like my dear, old, alleged dad said.
Either I was going to have to use some violence to get these angels to tell me the truth or chuck it all and go to Herrod. Assuming I could really trust anything he was saying, he seemed pretty open to telling me what I wanted to know. Mostly.
When we got to the mayor’s office with no more incidents, we were told to wait in the lobby as she was in a meeting.
I slouched in my seat. “Like she has real work to do.”
“Actually, I do. And now I’m free,” came a tight, female voice from behind me.
I turned to find Mayor Yasmine coldly staring at me with an arched brow and hands on her full hips.
I shrugged. She wasn’t going to scare me with her principal glare like I was kid getting caught talking about her.
She tilted her head to the door behind her. “Come into my office, all of you.”
We gathered in her office, Faith and I sitting in two leather chairs in front of her desk as she perched on it, starring down at us. “How can I help you?”
Azrael spoke first, back turned to us as they studied books on Yasmine’s bookcase near the left of the room. “Do you know you have a wraith problem?”
I sat forward. We needed to put it all out there. “And doppelgangers.”
Yasmine looked at all of us with unperturbed eyes. “Yes, well not doppelgangers.”
I shook my head quickly, annoyed with her seemingly unshocked response. “And you didn’t want to tell us?”
She narrowed her eyes as she looked down at me. “And why would I?”
I grabbed my chin and looked up at the ceiling. What was this woman’s angle? Earlier she seemed all innocent damsel in distress. Now she was a cold smart-aleck. “Uh, because we are guest here and it’s dangerous.”
She huffed with an amused look. “Everywhere is dangerous. Even before the world changed, does a city with high crime advertise that in their tourist promotions?” She spread her hands out in front of her body. “Come to our town, you just might get shot. No. No one does that. And when you encounter crime, we wouldn’t tell you about the details of the crime problem here. You are right, you are a guest here. Not the police come to investigate. Although, maybe that is what you’re here for and you just haven’t told me, yet.”
I studied her as she looked around at the four of us with expectant eyes. She had been playing us all along. She knew we were here to find out what was up with this town. The question then was, why did she hide it? What would she have to gain by not working with us to solve her supernatural crime problem?
Azrael turned around, hands behind their back as they stood erect. The angel’s face remained neutral. “I take it you know the truth of why we’re here? Why hide that?”
It was like he’d read my mind. Wait, could angels read minds?
Yasmine smiled. “Because we don’t need your help. Things are just fine here.”
Either she was crazy or she wanted her town full of wraiths.
“You’re a wraith, aren’t you?” Azrael demanded, taking a step forward.
Damn it, he kept taking the words out of my mouth. Although, at this point, it was pretty obvious.
I jumped up, not waiting for Yasmine to respond. There wasn’t a need to, she was still smiling, which seemed like a very inappropriate reaction to Azrael’s question. And if she
was so calm about wraiths in her town, that got me to wondering if maybe the nest was actually the town. “You’re all wraiths, aren’t you? That’s why you want tourist to come here? Easy prey.”
Yasmine raised her shoulders and threw her hands out to the side. “Mystery solved. Aren’t you so smart?”
“Why didn’t you eat the other angels?”
“In due time. They’re so happy to be here, though and they can bring us more to eat.”
“Also your doing.”
I heard Felix swear behind me. “Is that why you offered to let us stay longer? Wanted more time to get in our heads and make us pliable?”
She pointed at him, affirming his guess. “Well, you are tough nuts to crack. Although I wasn’t going to eat you.” She batted her eyelashes at him. “I know, I know, you must think us monsters, but what choice do we have to survive? We didn’t ask to be this way. Without bodies, we can’t live.”
I chuckled before conjuring my sword. “Don’t play the victim. No one just became a wraith when the event happened. You guys were demons and spirits who took advantage of magic returning and found a way to take skins and live again.”
Yasmine glared at me crossed her arms. “You know everything, it seems.”
I pointed my sword at her. “I know enough. This ends now.”
Felix jumped in front of me before I could bring my sword down.
I looked up at him in shock. “Are you serious right now?”
He turned from me and eyed Yasmine who was looking up at him like he was her hero. “Is this really the nest? Everyone who lives here is a wraith?”
She grinned again, this time showing razor-sharp teeth. “Yes. Do you want to join us?”
“Fuck no. I just want to make sure that everyone we kill is actually a wraith.”
She hissed and in one quick motion jumped in the air and landed behind her large oak desk. “If you think you’re going to get out of here alive, you are mistaken. This town is now warded, you won’t even be able to teleport out. I assumed after your most recent killing that you would be on to us. The town is on alert about you and behind that door is a lobby full of my people ready to kill you on my orders.”