Masqued Tails

by Dawn Montgomery

  Shad was still laughing. “I forgot,” he wheezed, leaning against the wall. “I forgot to tell you she’s allergic to magick.”

  Jake had him against the wall, his fist twisting in Shad’s shirt. Alaya tried to grab them, but another sneeze wracked her.

  In a heartbeat Shad had Jake on his knees with his wrist locked in a position that should have shattered it. “Don’t ever touch me again. Devonshire won’t be awake for another couple of hours. This idea of yours about going into the sanctum is insane. I’ll laugh if I fucking want to and don’t ever presume to touch me again.” He lowered so that his face was next to the other’s. “I trust Maggie, not you. She seems to think you have a plan, but if I find out that you don’t or you give me the slightest reason to think you’re playing me for a fool, you won’t have to worry about Devonshire. I’ll kill you myself, puppy.”

  He shoved Jake to the ground and pulled Alaya with him down the dark hallway. Her sneezes slowly subsided.

  “How do you know Devonshire is sleeping?”

  “He has to. It’s part of his binding spell to the mansion.” Shad’s jaw clenched again.

  “How do you know that?” Her heart ached. Had he helped him?

  “I’ve been trapped since the beginning.”

  “How long ago?” They passed an empty room. The reek of mold and mildew filled her nostrils. Something skittered across the floor and she shuddered. The path led down. She heard his sigh before he answered.

  “Since long before you were born.”

  She halted. “You really are a Kitsune, aren’t you?”

  “Yes.” He turned to look at her, eyes shimmering in the dark and a fox-man’s profile.

  “I keep thinking this is some bizarre dream.”

  “I can’t tell you how many years I wished the same thing.” He turned and continued walking. “It’s not much farther.”

  “How would you know, fox?” Jake asked from behind them.

  “I can taste my --” He shut his mouth with a snap of his teeth and Alaya was left wondering what he’d intended to say. “Let’s just say I can taste freedom.”

  They reached a door and Shad moved as though to continue walking. “Stop.” Alaya held his arm.

  “What do you see?” Shad paused mid-stride and she pulled him back.

  “You were about to walk into a door.”

  Her three companions surrounded her, staring, by the way they didn’t focus their eyes, at nothing.

  “Back off, just in case.” Alaya brushed her palms against her jeans and touched the door. It arced like an electrical surge and then a bone-chilling scream erupted from within. Alaya sneezed and fell against the wall. They could see the door, couldn’t they?

  Shad shouldered against the door, shoving it open. They fell into a central hall.

  The scream halted in mid-wail.

  “I doubt Devonshire slept through that one, fox. We have to get our shit and get out.”

  “What does he mean, get your shit?”

  “Devonshire holds us with physical objects he’s tied our souls to.”

  Alaya shuddered. With her mom’s arcane collection, she’d found some pretty wicked shit, intricate spells that involved binding souls. The descriptions were enough to turn her stomach.

  “Well, let’s do it then.” She turned to look around the room. Everything was lit up as though on display. She walked closer to the sections. Each area had an object with a description below it.

  In this particular cordon there was a flute, silver and delicate. “Hey, listen to this, ‘Found in the forest. Left by a careless wood nymph. Bound to the structure of the house in 1862’.”

  “Bastard,” Maggie muttered.

  “What was bound to the house?”

  Shad stood beside her and stared at the flute. “The wood nymph. He used her soul to carve the mansion.”

  “Oh my God.” She knew her mythology. Trapping a nymph was killing them and forcing them to create this insane mansion. She took the flute and held it against her heart. The poor creature. The floor rumbled and Alaya gasped. “I’ve got a sharp learning curve here, guys, but I think you’d better find what you came here for.”

  A rip formed in the wall, tearing apart the seams like it weighed nothing. Terror, fine and terrible, blazed through her.

  “Did you see that, Alaya?” Maggie asked from somewhere behind them.

  “Yes.”

  “Okay, so it’s no illusion then.”

  “No.” Her knees shook.

  “Grab something to defend yourselves with,” Jake called from the other side of the room.

  Alaya scanned the room. A cane caught her attention and she sprang to it, jerking it from its perch on the wall. It settled comfortably in her hands and she swung it to test the weight. Good balance.

  “I will kill you all.” A maddened Devonshire tore through the wall. His body quaked with fury and the wall closed up silently behind him. She could taste the odd flavor of wrong, twisted magick, but could see nothing else out of the ordinary. Her companions stood their ground, but she could see that they were looking at something else, probably far more terrifying.

  “You,” he growled at Alaya. The cane felt comfortable in her grip and she held it and the flute like a baseball bat. He eyed the cane with surprise. When his face turned purple in fury, she started to worry. “What the hell is she doing here?” he roared at Shad. The fox went flying backward, held against the wall by an unseen hand. Time froze in fear for Alaya.

  A blurred shape launched itself at Devonshire and Shad fell. Two seconds. Two seconds was all it took for him to hurt one of them. A wolf tore at Devonshire’s body, ripping apart his throat.

  Maggie grabbed her arm and shoved her toward Shad. “Leave, now. The mansion opens in ten minutes. He can’t stop you.” She shoved something into her hands. “Take this, go, and for God’s sake, bury the damned thing when you’re free.”

  She shoved harder and Alaya stumbled. Devonshire roared behind them and the wolf went flying across the room, slamming against the wall with a sickening crunch.

  “Shad, get her out of here.”

  He grabbed her arm and dragged them back up the hallway. Heat flared behind them and Maggie’s scream tore through Alaya’s ears. “I can feel the heat,” she whispered, wondering if the numb fog settling in her mind was shock. She looked at her hand. A heart-shaped locket. Maggie had given her a locket. Her eyes filled with tears.

  “Physical manifestation of magick. I warned you. Now move it.”

  They raced through the mansion, slamming doors behind them. Each blew open seconds later and the bastard kept coming. He was a nightmare from her childhood. Nameless magick that could destroy everything. They reached the mansion’s entrance and she slammed against it. It wouldn’t budge.

  “Not time,” Shad huffed beside her.

  “There’s no time to wait,” she cried, slamming the cane against the door. The flute fell to the ground and the door rumbled. Alaya moved away, staring at it. Shad picked up the flute and held it against the door. The lock clicked and it swung open. Alaya swallowed and said a soft prayer of thanks to the nymph, dragging Shad out into the morning sunlight. “We’re going to make it.”

  A heavy weight slammed against her back and she screamed, falling onto the ground. Shad rolled with her and they lay in a tangle of limbs. She tried to move her leg, but it hurt like hell.

  Shad rose to his feet and stood over her with the cane in his hands. “Alaya, you’re gorgeous, beautiful, and possibly everything I could ever hope for in a mate, but if you don’t move your ass and get through those hedges, we’ll never get to find out.”

  “Leg’s broken.” She fell back onto the grass and pulled her weight toward the hedges.

  They moved backward slowly and Devonshire stalked them. He raised his hands and Shad cursed. Alaya grabbed his ankle and tripped him, rolling over onto him. Pain ripped up her leg to her spine and she bit her lip to keep from crying out. The fox screamed and she could smell b
urned flesh with a sickening clarity.

  She ran a hand down his body and found no burns or bruises. He shuddered under her touch and they moved again. Devonshire laughed. “You can’t escape, fox. You’re tied to the mansion, same as I am. No one escapes my collection, you know that.”

  Shad pulled them to their feet and shoved her toward the hedges. “Don’t listen to him, Alaya. Get the hell out of here.” An unseen force jerked Shad from her grasp, slamming him against a tree. The cane had fallen at her feet and she grabbed it, holding it in her hands to defend against the insanity roaring toward her.

  “You’ll never escape. I’ll find you again. I’ll kill your entire family if I have to.”

  Shad fell to the ground in a heap, and she screamed, swinging the cane at Devonshire’s head. The knobby end connected with his skull with a sickening crunch. The power of her hit reverberated up her arms, jarring her shoulders with impact. A shiny object went flying toward the hedges. Devonshire fell past her, trembling and shaking on the ground.

  Harsh screams echoed from the mansion and Alaya stumbled away from the still shaking form of the maniac. The walls trembled and collapsed on themselves and the scream of the mansion echoed from Devonshire’s lips.

  She took one step before she hit the ground. Pain tore through her and she fought back the darkness before it dragged her under.

  Chapter Twelve

  Shad watched the mansion tear itself apart while he struggled to Alaya’s too still form. She had to be okay. The magick backlash was whipping the local flora into a frenzy. Devonshire twitched and screamed as all the binds from the mansion rushed back into their original caster.

  Someone had his pearl. That was the only explanation. His bind wasn’t like the others. The bastard could only keep him permanently attached to the house for as long as the pearl remained within the walls.

  He crawled toward Alaya and a burn of magick crawled up his spine. Tears stung his eyes at its familiar touch. He groaned through the rush of power through his limbs and barked in glee as he emerged a fox. He sprang to Alaya’s side and licked her face and nose. When she moaned lightly, he settled against her and waited. He would protect her with his life. For eternity.

  He watched the mansion destroy itself, collapsing around the guests. Many of his fellow prisoners found their pieces and left, free to find their own paths away from one man’s insanity. Some of the guests stumbled around in shock. One or two of his fellow former prisoners guided them away from the mansion.

  Jake rose from the rubble, carrying the burned body of Maggie in his arms. Shad’s heart ached with a sadness so thick it was palpable on his tongue.

  He could tell the wolf was hurt, badly. Maggie, he didn’t know if she could survive that one.

  Jake stopped beside them and stared at the smoldering body of Devonshire. “Maggie will be okay. I’d know if she wouldn’t.” He looked at the fox, his gaze piercing to its depths. “I owe you.”

  Shad shook his head. The wolf owed him nothing.

  “I always keep my word.” A grin split his face. “Of course, I do get to pick how I repay you.” He shifted his hold on Maggie. “Besides, you need to tell me how this all started.”

  Shad eyed the wolf. Not in this lifetime.

  The wolf pushed on, carrying his small burden. Smoke rose from the collapsed walls of the mansion before bursting into flames. The body of Devonshire combusted. Shad watched them both burn until all that remained was ash.

  * * *

  Alaya stared at the blackened ground where the mansion had once stood. The landscape was still lovely, but the area marked by so much insanity would remain so for decades. Two weeks ago, she’d never have believed what one man could be capable of. Her heart ached, wishing to see Shad with everything she had in her.

  “How long will you be in the cast?” Maggie’s voice jerked her out of her musing. Alaya eyed the beauty. She was striking in a peasant skirt and blouse.

  She leaned on the cracked cane, using it to take the weight off her broken ankle. “Six weeks minimum. How are you feeling?” She hadn’t seen the woman since that night and she was still having nightmares about it.

  “I’m good. The burns took a day or two to flake off and it left my skin itching like crazy, but I’m finally okay again.” She coughed. “Of course the lungs take a little longer to get back to normal.”

  Alaya smiled, though it hurt to do so. He should have been here. Why wasn’t he?

  “He won’t be back here, you know.” Maggie pulled a shawl up over her shoulders, holding it tight.

  “No, I suppose not.” She didn’t blame him. Her last vision of him had been a black and red fox bounding off into the brush. “I wanted to see him again.”

  “I’d expect so.” They stood there, staring at the charred ground.

  “I have something for you. Couldn’t bring myself to bury it, honestly.” Alaya reached into her pocket and pulled out the locket. She’d bought a new chain for it.

  Maggie blinked and stared at the locket like a woman starving.

  “I’ve done a little reading in the past two weeks. Hold out your hand, please.”

  Maggie did and Alaya placed the locket in her palm, closing the woman’s fingers over the delicate heart. “I give you freedom. This locket is yours and no other’s.”

  Maggie stared at her closed hand with tears in her eyes. “You could have kept it, you know.”

  “Yeah, I know. I’d rather not trap anyone, if you don’t mind.” They both stared at each other.

  Maggie sniffed and wrapped her arms around Alaya. Embarrassed, Alaya awkwardly patted her shoulder.

  “Well then, you might have a use for this.” Maggie sniffed and moved back. “Hold out your hand.”

  Curious, Alaya did as she asked.

  Maggie placed a single pearl on the palm of her hand. “He’ll come find you soon.”

  She stared at the beautiful swirls of color on the pearl, marveling at its simple elegance. Alaya closed her fingers over the pearl and opened her mouth to ask Maggie to explain, but when she looked up there was no one there. Just the wind suddenly howling through the trees. She never did ask Maggie what she was.

  * * *

  Shad stood at the entrance to the Bellemore home with his tails twitching in nervous anticipation. It had taken three weeks to find her and every night he was tortured with dreams of her sweet pussy, her delicate touch. Gods, he could taste her skin still on his lips. Three weeks was way too long.

  According to Jake, no word on who’d found his pearl. Which meant he had little time before being called to a new master. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t stay away. He had to see her.

  He knocked on the door.

  When she opened it, he’d hoped for a lot of things. Her dragging him into the house and kissing him until they both gasped for air was not one of them. He spun them around and pushed her against the door, pressing his hips against hers, driving his hard cock against her. She moaned and wrapped her fingers in his hair, holding on with everything she had in her.

  “I’ve missed you,” she whispered against his lips.

  Shad moaned, inhaling her rich scent, wanting to bury himself in it. “I’ve missed you too.”

  She grabbed his hand and pulled it to her lips, tasting and nibbling the soft skin. He took in a ragged breath and placed butterfly kisses against her temple, her hair, anywhere he could touch. The little human had gotten under his skin.

  A soft weight pressed against his palm and his magick snapped back into place like a completed puzzle. He pulled away and stared at his palm. “My pearl.” His voice choked in raw emotion. Happiness, fear, love. “You found my pearl.”

  “Actually, I didn’t --” She never got to finish her sentence. Shad hauled her to the couch and kissed her breathless.

  He nibbled down her neck, unbuttoning her shirt as he went. His lips followed the soft curve of her waist.

  “No, we can’t --” she gasped.

  He ignored her, wanting to
taste every inch of her luscious body.

  “Well now, what have we here?” a strange lilting voice asked from behind them.

  Shad crouched and turned, ready to attack. Alaya scrambled to rebutton her shirt and struggled to climb up over the arm of the couch. She grabbed his shoulder to regain balance. “Mom, this is Shad.”

  Shad stared at the woman with a small mix of disbelief. If Alaya’s null ability was a calming balm to his soul, her mother was the hurricane. Magick poured off her in an explosion of color. The very air bristled with power.

  “I hope you say something soon, dear. Glaring at me won’t endear you to this family.”

  Shad blinked. He wasn’t glaring, not really. “It’s nice to meet you.”

  Alaya’s mother narrowed her eyes at him. “What manner of being are you?”

  “He’s a Kitsune.” Alaya scratched him behind his ear and he leaned against her. Most of his tension melted from tight shoulders.

  “Really?” She grinned. “Maybe one day you’ll show me your real form.”

  “Not until the wedding.” Shad grinned.

  “Wedding?” Alaya squeaked in surprise. “Shouldn’t you ask me first?”

  He leaned in, pressing his lips against her throat, and whispered against her skin, “I mate only once in my lifetime, and I choose to do so with the woman I love.”

  She turned to him, holding his face between her palms. “I don’t want to be with anyone else.”

  “Grandchildren, how marvelous!” Her mother laughed and left the room, taking her buzzing energy with her.

  “Grandchildren, huh?” Shad asked with a wicked grin.

  “I don’t want to trap you.”

  He held up the pearl. “I love you.”

  “I’ll die before you.”

  “Mate with me and you’ll live as long as I will.” His lips brushed against the soft skin of her wrist.

  “I snore.” Her eyes smoldered with heat.

  “I turn into a fox.” His teeth raked her wrist.

  “Right. You beat me, I guess.”

  “I’ll give you an eternity to figure out how to get the upper hand.” His tongue soothed the reddened skin.