ATHENA HESITATED TO answer the unknown call on her cell, but she picked up on the third ring.
“Have you spoken to the client?”
Athena felt a little thrill at hearing the other woman’s voice. She hadn’t been kidding about finding forceful women attractive under normal conditions, but these were hardly normal conditions at the moment.
“Hi, Kayleigh! I mean, yes, it’s done, and the client is... amenable, but under certain conditions that will require me to vet you before a physical meeting is possible.”
“We’re willing. Within reason, of course.”
“Of course. Um, okay, so the client wants you to go somewhere that is not physically near their location, and because I’ve been compromised already, that location is my house.”
“Really?”
Athena could just imagine that exquisite eyebrow arching up.
“Yes,” she sighed. “My client is... Well, ‘paranoid’ is an understatement. I’ve never actually met them myself, so I honestly don’t know if they’re a ‘he’ or ‘she’. I took over the account from the previous lawyer when he retired, and the client contacts me through an internet connection, one of those voice over the internet phone calls, using a VPN of some kind, heavily encrypted, not that I could do anything about light encryption...”
“You’re rambling,” KC interrupted.
“Sorry. It’s just that I’m getting close to that time of the month...”
“Do you need me to pick up some tampons for you or something?”
Athena blushed furiously. “No! Not that time of the month; my other time of the month... I think I mentioned that I’m half Fae, and because I am, I'm stuck with a geas that turns my Cupid powers back on me once a month, and I sort of go into, um, you know, estrus...”
“You’re in heat?”
“Not yet, but I’m getting there. Anyway, that’s not your problem. Just be at my house tonight at nine. If you’re not already there.”
“We’re not.”
“So, I’ve just been imagining you two stalking me today?”
“Yeah, unless you visited the Delaware Agriculture Museum today.”
Athena blinked. “Really?”
“Oh, yeah, Mack is a huge history nerd, but that’s okay because I can write this off as a business expense on our taxes.”
“Because he’s a writer doing research. Got it.”
“Is your estrus going to be a problem tonight?”
“No. No. I mean, well, maybe... Going into heat kinda leaves me a little scatter brained, you know? I’ve got ways of dealing with it, and, um, maybe you guys might like to, you know, ‘lend a helping hand’, so to speak?”
The line was silent for a moment.
“We’ll see you at nine, Athena, but anything more than getting vetted by your client isn’t something that I can guarantee.”
The call ended before Athena could say anything else. “Reggie will be so jealous if this works out for me.”
Chapter Six
Dover, Delaware
Friday, May 3, 2019
ATHENA LIVED IN THE very last house at the end of South Bay Drive. In fact, the road turned into her driveway as it passed in front of her house. To the east was the Delaware Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. To the west was a small strip of land facing Kitts Hummock. Her closest neighbor was about a hundred yards north, and she didn’t have any neighbors or any kind of development to the south.
The house itself was a typical two-story beach house with an attached garage. Athena parked her Lexus RX 450 SUV inside the garage. The other bay was empty. She’d been thinking about getting an old Jeep like the one she’d driven in college, but she was so busy she didn’t know when she’d ever get to drive it. The Lexus was a good car, the kind of luxury vehicle a successful lawyer was expected to drive. On the other hand, she missed the freedom her old Jeep CJ had represented.
She laid her head back and closed her eyes for a moment. Her thoughts drifted to Kayleigh MacMurray and Mack MacDuff, and she found herself fantasizing about being entangled between the two of them in her king-sized bed. Athena sat up with a start, nearly breaking off one of her manicured nails as she forced her way out of the car. Nearby was the freezer she kept in the garage, which she flung open and stuck her head inside. The shock of the sudden cold was enough to clear her thoughts.
After a moment, Athena gained enough control of herself to gather up her things and go inside the house, but she was so flustered that she forgot to close the garage door. She was on a mission. She knew she had to take the edge off before she devolved into a drooling idiot again. Athena had developed tools over the years to help her cope with her short periods of estrus. Dating was one tool. A weekend of sex with another paranormal would solve the problem, but when that wasn’t possible, she engaged the use of her other “tools”.
Half an hour later, she returned downstairs, remembering that she’d left the garage open as she reached her kitchen. Athena had changed from her usual conservative business suit to a bathrobe. Her intention had been to shower after slaking her thirst. Now, she had to shut up the garage first. The garage door button was just outside the kitchen door. When she opened the door, she noticed for the first time that a blue SUV was parked in the driveway behind her car.
Curious, Athena cinched her robe tightly about her waist and padded out into the garage, stopping at her Lexus long enough to retrieve the gun she kept locked in the center console gun safe. The pistol, a Springfield Hellcat, and the gun safe had been gifts to her from one of her lovers, a policewoman in the State Police. The relationship had ended amicably with Athena introducing the woman to another one of her lovers, the man the policewoman had wound up marrying. However, before they’d “broken up” the policewoman had done everything necessary to ensure Athena could use the weapon to defend herself.
Stepping out of the garage, Athena held the pistol down by her leg as she examined the strange car. The driver side door opened, and Kayleigh MacMurray stepped out.
“You’re early!” Athena blurted, feeling instantly like an idiot.
“Is that a gun in your hand or are you just happy to see me?” Kayleigh quipped.
Athena blushed as she tucked the pistol into her robe pocket. “I wasn’t expecting you three hours early.”
“Yeah, I got a premonition that we should go ahead and get here as quickly as we could.”
“Premonition? Wait, are you precognizant?”
Kayleigh shrugged and wiggled her hand. “Yeah, I have prophetic dreams, visions, and intuitions.”
“And you had a premonition about me? What was it?”
“See, my intuitions aren’t very clear.” Kayleigh paused and chuckled to herself. “To be honest the dreams and visions can be really confusing, but one thing my intuitions are always correct about is where we need to be and how urgently we need to be there. I have no idea why we’re here, but considering our primary line of work, Mack is scouting your perimeter right now.”
“You said you were paranormal security contractors?”
Kayleigh shrugged. “That’s probably the technical way to put it. What we actually do, most of the time, is hunt down dangerous monsters, critters and people alike, for bounty money.”
“Is that profitable?”
“Has been recently, but we’ve been... I guess you’d say ‘lucky’. Back in October of last year, we wound up at this farm in West Virginia to help a couple deal with a persistent Big Foot problem, turned out to be a super rare type of lich/demon hybrid that could have paid for your law school.”
“Wow. I didn’t know bounty hunting was such good money.”
“Usually, it isn’t. Most of the time we’re bagging critters, I mean, magical critters, but they’re not worth more than a regular paycheck waiting tables in a bar.”
A large white dog came loping toward them from off the beach. Athena stuck her hand into her pocket, grabbing her pistol in surprise. Kayleigh held up a placating hand.
“Please don’t
shoot my dog.”
“Your dog?”
“Well, he’s actually a wolf, but he’s still mine.”
The animal was huge, Athena realized when it stopped next to them and nudged its head under Kayleigh’s hand. Kayleigh ruffled the wolf’s ears.
“Um, so, where’s Mack?” Athena asked, expecting the big man to arrive following the wolf-dog.
Kayleigh pointed to their canine companion. “This is Mack.”
Athena’s eyes bulged. “Mack’s a thrope?”
“Yeah, well, partly at least.”
“What about you?”
“I’m a Mage/Dhamphir.”
“That’s, um, that is...” Athena closed her eyes and focused on breathing for a minute. “Yeah, okay, so, I was right in the middle of my estrus management routine...”
“Explains the sex smells,” Kayleigh teased.
“I was, um...”
“Mastering your domain?” Kayleigh offered.
“Yes, exactly. Now, I need to take a cold shower...”
“Then, Mack will wait to return to human form until you’re back in command of yourself.”
“Huh?”
“He’s naked, if you haven’t noticed.”
“Right!” Athena took another deep cleansing breath. “I’m gonna go hit that shower now. Uh, you can move your car into the other bay of the garage if you want, and you guys just feel free to make yourselves at home, okay?”
“Roger that.”
Athena nodded and padded quickly back into her house. She didn’t bother to return her pistol to the gun safe in the car. Mostly because she forgot that it was in her pocket.
“THAT WAS FUN,” KC CHUCKLED as she moved the 4Runner into the garage. Mack was still in wolf form, but he sat waiting out of the way as KC maneuvered their vehicle into the spare bay. Once the car was fully in the garage, Mack lifted himself up on his hind legs, assuming his human form as he did so, and hit the button to close the garage’s double doors.
“You shouldn’t be teasing somebody suffering under the burden of a geas,” Mack scolded. “Neither of us knows what that’s like, but I can imagine it’s not a lot of fun to be under a compulsion like that.”
KC shrugged. “On the other hand, I’m sure that on the rest of the days of the month Athena is extra scrupulous about how she uses her abilities because she knows first-hand the affect she can have on somebody. Isn’t that the point of geasa? To limit the potential abuse of powers?”
“You still shouldn’t be teasing her.”
“Oh, Mack, you’re such a big bighearted softy sometimes,” KC sighed as she cupped her husband’s face in her hands, “but I wasn’t teasing. I was flirting.” She glanced down. “Oh, so, now you’re on board with teasing?”
“That is an automatic biological response to stimuli,” Mack sniffed. “Which should be hidden by pants.”
“I dunno about that. I kinda like looking at you this way...”
“Let’s not over burden our hostess.”
“You do realize she was naked under that really thin robe, right?” KC glanced down again. “I didn’t think that got past you, and I was right! I do so love being right.”
“Give me my dang pants, woman!”
KC laughed as she retrieved a bundle of clothing from the back seat of the 4Runner and passed it to Mack. “You’re so easy!”
Mack only grunted in reply as he slipped on the tee-shirt and blue jeans. Before he could put his retort into words, though, KC handed him the two duffels containing their gear.
“You take these; I’ll grab the groceries.”
An hour later, Athena came downstairs dressed in a V-neck sleeveless tee and khaki shorts. Her hair was still damp from the cold shower she’d told them she was taking.
“What smells so good?”
“That would be Chicken Marsala with a side of Spaghetti Cacio e Pepe,” Mack replied as he finished garnishing a plate of food, which he set on Athena’s kitchen table.
KC was already seated at the table, her eyes glazed and staring off into space.
“What’s wrong with Kayleigh?” Athena asked as she approached the table.
“I’m dreaming,” KC replied.
“Dhamphir thing,” Mack explained at the sight of Athena’s confused expression. “KC doesn’t actually sleep, but she does still dream. It’s just that her dreams take the form of a waking hallucination.”
“And they always come either just after sunrise or just before sunset,” KC added. “Right now, I’m sitting at your table with you and Mack and Rey and Luke Skywalker.”
“Young whiny Luke or old grouchy Luke?” Athena asked.
“He kinda fades between the two,” KC giggled. Then, she shook herself like a wet dog. “Okay, I’m back.”
“Dreaming about Star Wars again, eh?” Mack chuckled as he placed a plate of food in front of KC.
“Well, the last movie comes out this year, so I’m excited!”
“I wouldn’t have taken you for a sci-fi geek,” Athena chuckled.
“My parents are both college professors, so I was raised to be a super nerd,” KC explained.
“Tuck in while it’s hot,” Mack directed as he placed a plate in front of Athena.
She didn’t have to be told twice. “Writer and cook, too?”
“I went to culinary school after I got out of the Marines.”
“Were you a cook in the Marines?”
“No, I was in JSOC... er, Joint Special Operations Command. I was a Scout Sniper cross-trained in Close Quarters Combat and Intelligence.”
Athena’s eyes widened. “Wow. I wouldn’t have guessed that, but I suppose it makes a logical sort of sense.”
“Weapon class thropes tend to get funneled into Special Ops whether we want to do that or not,” Mack said with a resigned shrug.
“What about you, Kayleigh? CIA training?”
“No, just the family business,” KC replied.
“You just said your parents were professors.”
“They are. My father is a theoretical physicist. He’s also a Mage and a Myrddin Council-certified wizard. My mother is a mathematician and economist. She’s also a Dhamphir from a long line of Romanian monster slayers and demon hunters. It’s a bit cliche, but that’s my family.”
The three of them continued to chat about their lives and families until almost time for Athena’s mysterious client to call. Athena ushered Mack and KC into her downstairs home office. Most of the ground floor of her house was taken up by the oversized two car garage, the kitchen, and the dining area. The rest of the first floor was taken up by the home office and a living area that ran the width of the back of the house and faced the beach and ocean view.
Right on time the computer sounded an alert that a call was incoming, and Athena answered. “Hello?”
“Hello, Athena. I take it Hieronymus and Kayleigh are present?”
The voice coming from the speakers was understandable but extremely distorted, sounding as if a chorus of people were all speaking in unison.
“We are,” Mack responded.
“Athena, turn the webcam to where I can see them,” the voice directed. Once she’d complied it said, “Thank you.”
“You can see me,” Mack stated.
“Yes, but there are shapeshifters and illusionists in this world who can fake the appearance of a loved one. I will ask you a series of questions to determine who you truly are.”
“And how do I know that I’m speaking with my Uncle Dick?” Mack challenged.
“Dick?” the voice repeated.
“Richard Jones is the only name I know you by, Uncle Dick.”
“Please don’t call me ‘Dick’.”
“I don’t know, sir. The wife and I have kinda gotten used to calling you that. Would you prefer ‘Uncle Llewellyn’?”
“What is your father’s full name?”
“Hieronymus Aloysius MacDuff, and you didn’t answer my question, Uncle Dick.”
“And your mother’s full nam
e,” the voice pressed on, ignoring Mack’s taunt.
“Marian Eugenia MacDuff. Nee Llewellyn, that is.”
“What is your father’s occupation?”
“He was a cowboy. A rodeo cowboy, a bull rider and a bronco buster, but he’d become a clown by the time I was born. The heavy make-up helped to hide the fact that he wasn’t aging as fast as his peers.”
“And your mother?”
“A nurse. When we weren’t on the road, she worked with my Aunt Rosalee in the group home, taking care of the kids.”
“How did your parents die?”
“Officially, they were murdered by a drug addict in a mugging gone wrong. My father was shot twice in the heart and once in the head, and my mother was shot four times, twice in the heart, once in the head, and once in the stomach, but I’ve never believed any of that.”
“Why not?”
“Because my father was a werewolf. The only way three .45s could have killed him is if they were made of silver, and if a junkie’s got at least three silver bullets, he’d have sold the slugs for drug money. Easier than robbing a man as big and ornery as Al MacDuff.”
“What about your mother?”
“Silver or lead would have killed her, I think, but I don’t honestly know because I’ve never had anybody from her side of the family around to tell me who or what she was.”
“What do you think she was?”
Mack sighed heavily. “Growing up, Uncle Silas and Aunt Rosalee told me they thought she was an Aes Sidhe, a mortal high elf, and that’s what I thought, too, but recently I experienced a transformation that I’ve never manifested before: I turned into a glowing hybrid form werewolf with eagle wings. Then, my friend, who can sense these sorts of things, is surprised that I didn’t know I was half-Nephilim. So, Dick, what’s up with the Llewellyns and being angels because I really want to know, and while we’re at it, I’d really like to know why my mother’s brother cut all contact with me!”
“Mack, you’re glowing,” KC said.
“What?” Mack exclaimed.
Athena grabbed a compact from a desk drawer, opened it, and handed it to Mack.
“Well, that’s new!” Mack exclaimed.
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