by Lil Hamilton
“That’s cause you’re young, darlin’,” Dill said. “You only take notice when a spell smacks you in the head, not when it is designed to subtly suggest you do not do something.”
I shrugged. “Yeah, true enough.”
“Which would be odd how?” Lan asked.
I glanced at him, taking in his stoic expression and intent eyes. It was disturbing that I found this dangerous look sexy on him. Ah, the Bad Boy humans talked about and obviously I was not immune to its lure. “It means that she pissed off some fae and is on the low, or that she is aware any threat to her is likely to come from the fae.”
“Is that so unusual? She is half fae. You, I assume, have shields to ward against demons and fae that most would not.”
Hell yeah. If I put any more wards of protection and security spells on my house even I wouldn’t be able to enter. None to ward from sight though. I was a fae with diplomatic standing and so needed to be out in the open.
“Yeah, but I’m a half-breed bred from two powerful races. While this makes me distasteful to both, it means I carry some hefty power on my own. A human fae half breed is a threat to no fae. Under our assumption she is Unseelie, she is even more meaningless. This ward is a Seelie construct; weak, unskilled and enhanced by witch earth magic.”
I pulled my hand away, feeling the oily cling of the residue from the very fact there was witch spells in it. They infused their personal essence into spells, which was just icky. I shook my hand and then wiped it on my pant leg. “So she may not be able to trigger a spell without human witch enhancements, such as rituals, herbs and such, but the spell is the sort no Unseelie would have been able to do, as they don’t do magic in the ritual sense of the word.”
“Which means she is an unregistered Seelie half-breed,” Lan concluded.
Smart and gorgeous. I like that in a demon.
“The question is; why isn’t she dead already? The Queen doesn’t allow her people to breed with lesser races. She is big on racial purity.”
“You’re babysitting a fae with a vampire husband and little half-breed children,” he remarked dryly.
He had a point; unfortunately it made my father’s desire to attract new blood clear. While demons were restricted to the Hells, the fae gained power.
“The wards are all torn to shreds,” I said.
“Then someone had a strong interest in finding her and kidnaping her,” Dill replied. “The place is not ransacked. There is no lingering scent of blood. All the signs they broke in to take her specifically.”
“Yeah, it certainly suggests that. No quick grab here. This was thought out and planned.”
I turned away and began to explore the rest of the room. Lily was a reader. That was abundantly clear. She had stacks of books on the end table by her couch and a bookcase overflowing with them, lining each shelf in two layers with a few wedged into empty spaces. I picked up a few, noting the majority were mystery novels. Well, now she was the main character in her own mystery.
“The Queen permits relationships that benefit her politically and link her to this border realm. A Master vamp and one of her lower ranking nobles was beneficial. I’m not sure how Vincent swinged it and I don’t want to know. However, vamps are high on the list in this realm and humans are at the bottom. I think it has been clearly established that humans genetic makeup is very malleable and no one can predict how a pure bred fae or demon will have if they breed with humans. One thing for certain is the decrease in power, but whatever mutations result is unknown. Besides any ruling that allows fae to frolic freely with humans would make the demons wary. And make the humans nervous as well. That is not to say the fae cannot frolic with humans. Our race has a long established history of doing so. Only that they cannot have a child with one,” I said to Lan.
“So the Queen would punish the parent by killing the offspring?” Lan asked. Even though his face was stoic I felt he was disgusted at the idea. I frowned slightly, rolling around my mind, smoothing out my shields and trying to figure out exactly how I knew what he was feeling. Not visually or sympathetically, but empathetically. Like I touched a bit of what he was feeling. Stupid marking.
“She’d definitely kill the offspring and then punish the parent for an indefinite amount of time. Unless the resulting offspring was useful to her in some way. Sometimes the parent does the killing first to save themselves the punishment.”
Fae time was not border realm time. Human years I was about a two hundred or so, give or take a few years for miscalculations. I always forgot the variations. It was so hard to say. Fae time was relative to the fae patch, and so meaningless. Lived years I was about five hundred years old. That was to say I had spent five hundred years in various fae realms while only two hundred human years had passed. Being tortured for an indefinite length of time was literal and could be a moment that stretched on forever. Depending on the patch of fae a person was in, of course. Death of the offspring of such a union would then be considered the utmost compassionate act.
“And these humans call our kind evil.”
“Well, my piece of demon cake, evil is as evil does, which makes a great deal of us evil.”
“Uh, Ray, you might want to check this out,” Dill said, standing in front of a closed door.
“What is it?”
“No easy answers, love, but I smell infected human vamps, one born vamp and leaching witches. Plus the demon. The place is layered with scent trails. All fresh. But behind this door I smell magic so strong it is raising the hairs on me.”
“Hmm,” I said approaching the door carefully, letting my aura flex.
“Leaching witches?” Lan asked, making me jump because he had approached from behind me without me hearing him. But I felt him, in my aura and my space. I took a few rapid steps forward to give us separation and then hissed when I came in contact with the spell beyond the door.
“Black mojo, demon,” Dill said. “Witches that use magic to leach energy from others, like little psychic vampires, giving them enough karma smut to mar their aura black.”
“So what if they have a black aura?” Lan said. “I have seen the shades of their energy, but there does not seem to be any significance to it.”
Clearly a Demon Hunter didn’t consider these factors when hunting down witch covens who enslaved demons. Generally they all had black auras.
“Demons and fae don’t belong in this realm, so our energy isn’t affected like a mortal’s energy. They don’t live long but they do live many times over. The whole reincarnation thing. One life is but a slice of their whole existence giving them a fragmented existence through time. The only way they can gain admittance into their afterlife is to get their karma in balance otherwise they just go through it all over, fumbling around until they figure it out. Whatever ‘it’ is. I don’t know much about the system, but bad karma comes back at a person in this life or the next,” I said.
“Are you certain? I was under the impression humans believe they go to heaven.”
“Wow. Seriously, man? Are you that indifferent to humanity? They have amazing and vast belief systems. I could get into it, but I usually only indulge in those conversations while stoned and hanging out with philosophy majors. Witches are very certain about the reincarnation thing, but if it is not the case, then that bad karma will hit them way sooner. Then they might go to some sort of human hell. Either way, it‘s not a price they want to pay any time soon.”
“Black witches though can steal enough energy to prolong their lives, thus delaying the backlash,” Dill said. “Or extending their current slice of their life path. A loophole.”
“So what backlash is there in this life?” Lan asked.
I stepped closer to the door, feeling the distinctive hum behind it. Damn stupid fae witch had left her circle on. And worse, there was no way she made the circle herself. “In this life? One of pain and physical aging. I’m told stripped of their stolen energy the pain is unbearable and they are ghastly looking. So they must steal energy constantly
in order to maintain an existence with less pain and a pretty face. If they die, well then there goes their magic, their memories and god knows how that sooty karma will smack them in the next life. I hear told it knocks them right out of the cycle and into limbo.”
“Our witch is white as snow,” Dill added.
“Which is most odd, because most maintain a very grey existence. Most things in life are rather grey. Using violent magic to save yourself still grays the aura. And our girl has been doing mercenary jobs herself, or she would not have been going after rogue vamps. Thus her soul should be a very sooty grey. Or even black, just not the soul sucking leaching black.”
“So?” Dill asked.
I shrugged. “So she is fae enough that the cosmic rules don’t apply to her, or she has a way to re-balance her spirit.”
“How’d she do that?” Dill asked. “And what the hell is behind this door, I swear the energy is like bulging outward.”
I delayed mentioning what was in fact behind door number one for a moment. “Inter has explained the energy structure of a black coven to me a time or two, not that we mess with covens. A black witch can purge her aura onto someone else, as in the head of a coven pushing the smut down to lower witches. It is done because the head of the coven is the strongest, thus able to leach energy better. Shares energy and sloughs off the smut. But I doubt that’s what this girl is doing. I think the witch karma doesn’t apply because she is not mortal and so that means is not in the reincarnation clause of the universe.” I paused to scowl at the door like it was offensive to me. “Now, behind that door is an open circle. Not a ritual circle, but a doorway to Faerie. Not made by her. And this means she is an unregistered Seelie half breed.” I said the last with an annoyed sigh.
The list of suspects was increasing exponentially and the danger of the Queen getting informed of the situation increasing. This was getting bad. This was getting into territory that could get me into trouble. And not the fun sort of trouble I preferred. I needed to ensure all the fae in my area followed the Accords and I certainly had jurisdiction over all with any Seelie blood to them. However, if helping this particular witch became contrary to the Queens desires, then I was in a tight spot because I was under her rule as well. In fact, if she ordered me to not act, I had no choice but to obey as I was oath bound to do so. My only choice was to make sure I found this witch and very quietly got her to the Hells.
“It’s totally possible they found her and are trying to kill her then. This could be a fae thing,” Dill said. “Could be she’s in Faerie of her own accord.”
“Definitely could be, cat boy,” I said. “More the pity to me and my demon cousin. But the demon is alive and so is she. So if it is the fae and they know of this mating thing, they are looking to snare the both of them.” I glanced at Lan. “Because of my… situation I might not be the best to ask the Queen about her position on the subject. Usually she would inform me of these situations, so maybe she is not aware of this half-breed. However, I can do some investigating as to who set up that circle for her. I’ll just take a short trip to the flip side, while you guys search her things. Fact is she could be there. That‘s enough distance for my cousin to feel out of touch with her.”
I took a step to the door and Lan grabbed me around the upper arm dragging me around to face him. “I can’t permit you to go in alone.”
I shook free from his hand and gave him an icy glare. He was a Hunter and I was a Princess of the Blood, it was simply his nature to guard and protect those of royal blood. When I had first left the Hells, soon after demon royal guards had shown up, sent by my father, to be my honour guard. I had declined. Almost every year he tried to shove some of his guards on me. Just maybe one of those ways was to inflict these mate potentials on me.
“Hey, not that I wouldn’t want back up in fae territory, because actually that’s a fine idea at the best of times, but a demon aura will flare any wards nearby. My quick peek to where she has a link to will be seen an intrusion, which would attract a great deal of unwanted attention.”
“No.”
“Not your call. Seriously, if you could feel Faerie like I do, you would know that your presence would be very disruptive.”
Dill nodded. “Heavy. A demon can’t even fully extend their aura. They have more compact energy weight that pulls around them.”
“Yeah, exactly.”
Lan pulled me close, gripping my shoulders, his aura flexing. I heard Dill growl in the background and I winced as the situation was flaring his instincts. “My aura will be masked fine, if you expand yours over it. That is the way of the fae shield. If you think you will leave my side before our bond is decided you are mistaken. I will not allow it.”
I felt the heat off his hands, the intensity of his gaze. My anger sparked at the idea he would not allow me to do it and for a moment I wavered telling him off because I hated it when people tried to tell me what was best. Reverse psychology worked quite well with me; tell me not to do one thing and I will do exactly that. Just because I was aware of that did not make the inclination less attractive. The only thing that calmed me was the pressure of his hands on me, making me immediately aware he would do anything to prevent me from going without him and his flare of protective instincts. I knew if I refused the brute would drag me out of the apartment and I was not entirely sure I could prevent the embarrassment of his success.
“Fine,” I said and he visibly relaxed. “However, this shadowing me business is less than amusing. As soon as I discover how to reverse this tentative link we have we will both be better off.”
His hands tightened again and he leaned forward. “You just explained how witches are metaphysically tied to this world and you think you are not tied to yours?”
He released me and stepped back one step, which he knew would calm me down. Although what difference it made when I was going to envelop him within my shields I did not know.
I looked at Dill. “I won’t be long.”
“You better not,” Dill warned. “I’d have to come get you and you know how I hate the fae world.”
“Yeah, yeah, magic smells.”
Dill was the only shape shifter I knew of that could go into fae of his own accord. He said it was because he was old, which I took to mean ancient and back then shape shifters had shifter magic. In truth it was because he was born from the wild magic so it accepted him.
I stretched my aura, trying to ignore how Lan’s essence curled within its confined, brushing against me. It felt damn good, but I wasn’t about to admit it. With him at my back we stepped into the room and out into an open field.
Chapter 9
A demon in Faerie is like tossing a meat boulder into a lake of crocadiles.
I blinked and let my eyes absorb the scene. There was a stone path that led to a small cottage. The entire area was surrounded by trees. The lighting was about what one would expect at dawn and even a little misty, not nearly as dark as most regions. I stretched my awareness out, with a brief pulse of energy outside of my shields. And discovered that was all there was; the cottage and maybe an acre of woods. A very small bubble within the realm of Faerie, smaller even than the area I held with my will, but also quite a bit more isolated. Whereas I had ’squatters’ on my little part of the fae world, as in a clan of sprites, and three marked gates to link to other fae locations, this place was vacant and I felt no other gates. How stupid was that? No patch remained ‘undiscovered’ forever. Unless, of course, the owner moved it around quite a bit.
“Well,” Lan said. “Not quite as threatening as I anticipated.”
Just the thought of him coming into this plot, roaring, sword drawn, to find a wee peaceful little cottage made me snicker. Not that some patches didn’t look sweet as sin and were twice as dangerous. “Did you expect her to have a circle right into the Queen’s Seelie Court? Or did you just expect to be assaulted by rabid sprites and stinging fairies?”
“I’ve been into Faerie before and this is rather pleasant.”
>
I narrowed my eyes at him. “You sure you want to be here?”
“I’m fine.”
I glanced at him, looking so feral as he scanned the area and I snickered again. He flashed me a dark look. Although he was right, pleasant vacation homes were not the norm and some of the regions in fae were so not pleasant or so very pleasant it brought tears to your eyes. “She has a secure patch here, but very isolated. And, yeah, very… simple.”
“Isolated how?” he asked, maybe because in the Hells things were just as connected as in the mortal realm. Connected in a pattern which appeared more chaotic than the mortal realm, but was still one solid piece of reality. You could safely walk through the Hells without worrying you were stepping into a different patch of reality. They had some distortions with space and time that messed with the senses, but even those fluxes had a pattern within the whole.
I shrugged. “Faerie isn’t like the Hells.”
“Really?” he mocked.
“I know what you think, demon, that when you have been here it seemed as though it were illusions and tricks. It isn’t entirely so. When you are here and you walk into a patch of fog or through a door you end up in another secure region of Faerie. All Seelie fae control vast regions of Faerie, and they have many links to other patches. What keeps this little cottage like it is, is the will of the fae that claimed it. Not our little witch for certain.”