by Claudy Conn
Not good. Not good at all.
Tara had destroyed the portal and arrived to point a finger and set the demon spawn on fire.
She grinned at me and shrugged. “Earth, wind, water, and … fi-errr.”
We turned and saw a line of the demon wolves. As they began their charge at us I cried out, stabbing in every direction.
“Eeww … fire … do the fire thing,” I told her as slugs slithered out of the dead were bodies.
“You can do it too,” Tara yelled at me. “You have Fae blood and witch blood.”
I pointed a finger, and nothing. Nothing happened, and a slug was slithering my way. I pointed and pointed.
Kian was suddenly at my side, and his voice even through the din that roared around us was comforting and more importantly bracing. I had begun to think this was a battle we were about to lose. “Just think, fire. Ye don’t need a spell, lass … just think, fire.”
I did what he said and at first was only able to produce a flame the size one would get from a match, but throwing it at the slugs made them haul backwards. Okay, they couldn’t take fire of any size.
My skill improved over the next few minutes.
It was a constant and endless stream of black giant slugs.
I had planned to kill Carsen Banks and his evil, murdering wolves. I had trained for that … but this, this was something out of my league.
I saw Banks and started for him. I concentrated on getting to him, and that was a mistake. A slug flew through the air at me. Its mistake.
Kian sliced it in half.
Another mistake. It didn’t die. Instead, it began to multiply. They were smaller slugs, but there were more.
And the trouble was they just kept coming, unafraid, undeterred by what had happened, was happening, to their brethren. The slugs that were left just kept multiplying and charging us.
“Don’t slice them,” I shouted to Tar and Kian.
She laughed. “No shit!” Then she said, “Come on, witchy woman—use your magic. Burn them, just burn all of them in your sights.”
Before I could, one of the gross things jumped and landed on my chest.
ON MY CHEST!
I screamed like a sissy.
Cowardly, I know, but it was my gut reaction. I scream for spiders, snakes, and apparently giant slugs.
Black slime dripped down over my chest as it dug its claws into my neck. At first I thought it was trying to hold on, but, no—it was trying to ooze its way into my pores and into me.
All at once it released me and screeched with pain. Tara had burnt it until it was nothing but ash, catching some of my flesh in the process.
“Hey!” I objected to the singeing pain.
“You’ll heal.” She shrugged and laughed as she moved on to her next target.
Here was the thing. We were winning in a sense, that sense being we were killing them one by one, sometimes, two by two, but the problem was they just kept coming.
The damned slugs were multiplying faster than we could kill them.
Watching them, I asked Kian, “Are they sentient? Are they thinking creatures?”
“No, they are drones for something larger … and worse, much worse,” he answered.
“What?”
“This is new for me. I have heard of them—never before encountered them,” he answered and flicked his wrist, burning nearly twenty of the disgusting things.
I was covered in black slime and searching the crowd of slugs for Banks when I finally found him.
I moved at hyper-speed and knew instinctively what was about to happen. I had to plunge my blade into Banks before he managed—
Satisfaction comes in many forms. I had some then—for a moment.
I was on him, driving my silver blade into his heart, softly telling him, “For my parents, for my clan … for me!”
If I had been hoping for closure, it was dashed in that moment.
Banks’s body collapsed to the ground, but as I looked at it, I realized it was no more than a shell.
Carsen Banks had already been dead.
In his place was something else. A black slug larger, more evolved than all the rest, with an insect’s head and many arms and legs, writhed out of that body. It stood some six feet tall and made a sound that was a bellow—could it be laughter?
I couldn’t help myself as I stepped back and away. I was shocked, horrified, and for a moment stunned.
Kian put one hand on me. His other held his Death Weapon. He shoved me behind him. Tara came to stand beside him, and both of them kept me at their back.
Right before our eyes that huge, slimy insect began to grow. I mean, it was already too big. By the time it was done, it was ten feet tall for sure, maybe more.
I really wanted to puke.
Antennae grew, curled, and adorned the black-red, scaly face. Cold insect eyes stared at us, and Kian said, “It looks like an insect, but it isn’t. It’s a demon with demon powers.”
His shape was that of a male with an erection as large as a horse’s, and I gagged for a moment as I saw it look Tara over.
Kian growled at the thing, “It is over, demon.”
“I am Valmod of Orega. I am the vanguard leader. We shall not be defeated. We shall take over this realm for our own. We are conquerors.”
“Are you?” Kian said and charged at him.
The demon didn’t have super-speed, but apparently he was prepared with something else. He went invisible.
“What?” I said.
“He is near—I can smell him,” Tara said.
Kian didn’t speak as he made a sudden lunge to the left.
We heard a wail of pain, and once again the demon appeared. It went down to its knees and told us, “Do you think this is over? Even if I die, do you not know that more of my kind are ready to pick up where I left off?”
“If that is true, we will be ready for them,” Kian told him.
Then the demon did something that worried me. He laughed, and worse, he vanished.
The next half hour saw us going about the business of disposing of bodies and cleansing the air around my family home.
“Though Valmod was wounded,” Kian told us, “we can’t be sure he will die. Demons are tricky things.”
“If he does die, do you think more demons will come?”
“Don’t know, but if they do, we will be ready for them, love,” Kian said. “After we finish here, we’ll go see Queen Mab.”
I sighed. I had accomplished what I had set out to do. I had honored my parents and my clan and destroyed Banks and the pack he had led on their murderous rampage. Was it what I wanted? How did I answer that even to myself? What I wanted was my family back. What I got was the satisfaction of knowing their killers had been destroyed.
Kian put his arms around me and said, “For now, little love, it is over.”
“I have a bad, bad feeling,” I answered.
Tara laughed and said, “Witchy girl knows,” and then she laughed again.
~ Epilogue ~
KIAN, TRUE TO his word, shifted us to the Daoine Royal Palace, and we visited with the queen. I wasn’t sure what she thought about Kian choosing me as his mate, but her face looked stone-cold disapproving.
Queen Mab eyed me and said, “Come here, hybrid child.”
I did, bowing low just like Tara had taught me.
The queen raised a brow, and her lips looked as though they wanted to smile. She said, “Rise and sit here with me.”
I did and waited until she was ready to speak to me.
She said, “Matters are dire. We Fae, Seelie and Daoine alike, are constantly fighting battles, and all traditions and rules no longer seem to apply. I am pleased to welcome you to Daoine as a treasured ally. Your skills have not finished growing in power.”
Tara, who was sitting at her other side, then received a severe lecture that made me want to hide. Honestly, it was awful.
Later, so much later, Kian took me to his private retreat in Daoine. How do I describe
what a magical place that was? It was styled like a castle but really not much larger than a cottage and surrounded by exquisite landscaping. My mouth dropped open, and I don’t think it closed until he had me in his huge bed and in his arms.
“Do ye like it here, love?” Kian asked as he stretched out beside me.
“I like being with you,” I answered truthfully. I wasn’t sure how I felt about Faery.
His hand moved to my breast as he bent his head to lick my nipple. He whispered hoarsely, “I have a fancy to fuck the hell out of ye here … in m’own bed. I have a fancy to fuck ye till ye can’t think, can’t say anything but m’name and then fuck ye some more. Do ye ken?”
“I ken … so when do we get started?” I pushed myself against him, bucked for him, opened for him. All else was forgotten. The horrors had been put aside. There was only Kianet of the House of Hara, and, oh … hot damn, but he filled me. Oh, how he filled me.
* * *
Dreaming. It had to be a dream, I thought as I rolled over and spooned my Kian. I closed my eyes and fell asleep, and again there it was.
The horror of what we had just experienced played out in my mind’s eye. I stood over their dead bodies … dead … we had killed so many creatures … dead. Black, swirling clouds reached for me, and I fought them off.
Carsen Banks was dead at my hands. Had he suffered enough? Tentacles slapped at my body, clawed tentacles, and I heard his screeching voice tell me I was no better than he. That wasn’t true. That isn’t true. It couldn’t be true.
Valmod the demon reared its head. Evil, evil coming. Evil would always come.
My witch whispered that Valmod lived and waited somewhere in the earth, gaining strength.
I woke up. It was a dream—a nightmare. Valmod must be dead. But would more like him come?
Not dead, my inner witch insisted.
I snuggled against Kian, and for the moment that was all I needed to do. Tomorrow was another day, a thing my mom had always taught me.
I hadn’t been able to bring her and my dad … our clan … back, but we had served their killers with justice. I was satisfied. For the moment, I was satisfied.
* * *
Valmod crawled into the earth and called on what was left of his powers. He needed to sleep and recoup his strength. He dreamed of the day he would find them … the hybrid and her Fae cohorts. He would take them unawares. He would use their bodies and discard them and then move on with his army to conquer the Human Realm. What delicious food they would be. But for now, he needed to sleep and heal.
*** *** ***
The son of Seelie Fae royalty
and the daughter of a Fios and a Druid High Priest
find themselves facing the demon
Harley and Kian had hoped they’d vanquished—
and Valmod is stronger than ever. Here’s a sneak peek at
Awakening—Bray (unedited)
AWAKENING
It slumbers hidden in the dark
Where shallow life is empty—stark.
It bellows vengeance while it’s caged.
It is primal and quietly enraged.
It breathes, it lives, it craves,
In anguished need and hollow waves.
Danger-sex-destruction awaits;
Valmod awakens to the sound of the Fates.
—Valmod of Orega
~ Prelude ~
VALMOD LOOKED AT Kian and Harley one last time. The Daoine Fae Kian and his hybrid mate had defeated him, temporarily. They thought they had destroyed him. They didn’t know what it would take to kill him.
In this form he was nearly invincible even though this form was one that humans despised because he appeared no more than an insect—a large slug, in fact. He sneered to himself, for one day they—these inferior humans—would know better.
He slithered into the earth and set himself a new goal. Harley and Kian believed he had been defeated, and in a sense they were not wrong. He had lost this first battle, perhaps, but not quite. His essence was still intact. His life-force was still viable, but now this form, one that had always been his, felt oddly unfamiliar. He felt dissatisfied.
In his realm, he could shift between two forms … one he had just displayed to his enemies, that of a tall and regal Orega, again, a very large insect to humans. He had occupied the form of a werewolf, and he had enjoyed that body.
In his native world, they lived and worked and even reproduced but without the weight of emotions. In his realm, they bred to reproduce and were subservient to their queen.
Here, in the body of Carsen Banks, he had been intrigued by a sense of hedonism. He had been seduced by pleasures. Now, he had no choice but to shake off these wayward thoughts. He had to concentrate on what mattered.
He called on what was left of his powers, and he had powers remaining that were dormant deep inside him, ever-ready.
He was completely depleted. He scarcely had energy to burrow into the ground. What he needed now was time and rest to recoup his strength and his dark powers.
It would take months to regain the magic and physical strength he would need to return and conquer. However, he still possessed the ability to draw on fantasy and illusions that came with deep sleep. They would be Carson Banks’ dreams, so integral now in his mind, but he looked forward to those dreams and fantasies. He had learned to revel in the pleasure a werewolf’s body could give him.
Harley and Kian were nothing to him now. He would not draw attention to himself by seeking revenge against them—at least, not immediately. Instead, the first thing he would do when he left the earth and entered the world again was to relocate.
He would emerge strong and ready. He would take the body of a passerby, and after he grew even stronger, perhaps then he would take on the hybrid Harley and her Royal Fae mate, Kian.
He imagined the day he would subdue her and use her body and then discard her, like the trash she was. All that would have to wait.
First, rest in the mineral-filled earth and regain his might. He had it all planned. He would insinuate himself amongst the humans, and he would be a dominant force this time. He would take city by city and be a force in the human world.
He knew how to accumulate their money. He knew how to work the system. And he knew that with great wealth came power.
One day he would enslave all humans—and all supernaturals. One day he would conquer and be supreme ruler.
What a delicious life he envisioned for himself. Revenge was something he could wait for. Revenge was naught compared to the enormity of his plans and the future undertaking he set for himself.
First, however, he needed sleep and healing.
* * *
Months later …
Valmod woke, stretched, and considered the slowly moving clouds obscuring the crescent moon. He stared at the outline of the Adirondack Mountains on the horizon. He took a whiff of the sweet scent of the coming spring.
His time had come.
He had waited just long enough. He needed a host, someone big and strong with the ability to handle power—a supernatural of some kind.
That night, Valmod witnessed the creature’s transformation during the height of the full moon and smiled. That was what he needed, that young and vibrant wolfen—what this realm called werewolves. He sniffed the air. This one was different … stronger than Carson Banks.
He would take control, and then he would gather others and begin somewhere else. He knew of a place that fitted his mood. He had traveled to Canada, where there was a village at the foothills where he could start.
Ah, yes, in the wilds of the Rockies he would start his army, train them, and when they were ready he would launch them.
He had researched many areas when he had first arrived in this Realm. There was a place where magic vibrated off the trees and in the earth. It was a place that housed many supernaturals in quiet harmony. He sneered.
He would take pleasure in disrupting that harmony.
Golden, Canada, was where he woul
d begin again, but first he needed …
He slithered towards the abnormally large wolf panting after his transformation. He jumped with a terrifying screech because he was a warrior, and he entered its body through the werewolf’s ear.
The wolf howled in a rage as the man inside the wolf fought off the intrusion.
Neither the wolf nor the man stood a chance against him. He took hold of the man’s mind, usurped the wolf from him and became.
He was Valmod, and this was his right.
Unlike the werewolf, who could only transform during the full moon, Valmod shifted back into human and stood, fists clenched. He liked this body. It was big and it was strong. He would gather more werewolves, and they would make the journey to Golden. He would give them the power of morphing from man to wolf at will. They would no longer be subject to the whims of nature. He would remove the pain.
Ah, and when he was ready he would lift himself up and strike down Harley and Kian.
And the Universe would become his.
~ Prologue ~
WENDY MCCHAUNCEY STOOD back and watched her brother as he and Bray worked on their Harleys. Big bikes, she thought with a half-smile, for big boys!
Bray gave her brother a shove and looked up. His gaze locked with hers, and she caught her breath in her throat. It was always like that when those silver eyes of hers twinkled into hers.
Stevie pushed Bray back, and they called jibes at one another. With those two, the tomfoolery never stopped.
So much had happened since she had first laid eyes on the Seelie Prince Bray of Dagda, son of the legendary Prince Breslyn. She had only been five and he, eleven and fond of announcing, as did her brother, that he was nearly twelve. He, like his father, was fond of humans and the Human Realm and broke all sorts of Fae rules when he met her brother and they became fast friends.
Then there was the awful business with the wicked Siloam.
That had all been so long ago. She was now twenty-one and Bray was twenty-seven. Not much had changed … because she still adored him, perhaps even more deeply than she had ever felt before.