by Lexi Blake
What I’d seen and experienced that night had caused me to nearly end everything a few months later. I didn’t like to think about that time, but now I was happy Liv and Nate had found me. They’d saved me that night.
“I’ll go into town and get a signal,” Gray promised. “I’ll find out where he is. The last time I checked he was still in Canada, though he’d moved into an area around Ottawa. I’m sorry, baby. When I turned, I lost track of him. Damn it. This is my fault.”
“What?” Trent was back and he had a frown on his face. “What’s wrong? Besides the fact that we’re at the edge of a Lupus Solum stronghold. I can smell at least five different wolves. All male. I would bet they’re a sentry group. They ensure no one is encroaching on the family.”
“Will they give us trouble?” I asked. Not that I would mind a little trouble. I hadn’t gotten any sex. I could use violence against the assholey as an outlet.
“Undoubtedly,” Trent replied. “But there’s something wrong with this place that isn’t about Lupus Solum. I also can smell something weird. It’s almost a non-scent. It’s bland and unthreatening.”
“It is a spell, Master Trent.”
I nearly screamed because no one sneaks up on me. No one. I turned, my heart in my throat, and there was Edward.
He frowned, his eyes widening with pure worry. “I am so sorry, mistress. I never dreamed my teleportation could frighten you. Oh, I was stupid. I will try from now on to make a sound or something to alert my mistress that I am here. I never wish to frighten you.” His hands flew to his small head where horns had begun to form. “Oh, and I am losing control of my form. I swore to never disgust you with my demon form.”
Lee moved to the small demon. He was only a few inches shorter than the probably several hundreds of years old butler. In that moment I could see the old soul in the young boy. “Hey, it’s nothing to be upset about, Eddie. I think your horns are cool. And Kelsey won’t mind. She’s not like some of the others.”
“The others?” I had to ask.
Lee’s eyes glanced up to meet mine. “Albert found Eddie when Dad and Papa went to visit some bigwig vamps. They were pretty mean to him. The wife couldn’t stand demons and insisted that he never lose control of his human form. Albert says it hurts if you stay in it for too long. It’s not natural.”
Eddie shook his head. “No, they simply had expectations. The mistress should be comfortable in her own home. I could not please them no matter how hard I tried, but I will do better, mistress.”
I wasn’t sure how he thought a tiny tent in the woods was better, but Lee was right. I was a sucker for a hard-luck story and I hated snobs. Here’s a clue. Don’t hire a demon butler if you don’t like demons. Assholes. Also, they hadn’t hired Eddie. He’d been auctioned off because demons suck. I got to one knee. “Hey, everything is fine. I don’t mind demonic form.” I gestured back to Gray. “I’ve seen this one in his a lot and he’s pretty darn cute with horns, if you ask me.” The small demon was shaking and I couldn’t help but reach out to him. “It’s okay. You can change now that we’re out of human sight. I prefer my butlers with cloven hooves.”
The small demon sighed, and his change was a smooth flow from human to red skin and tiny curved horns. His cheeks were perfectly chubby.
“You’re a satan.” I’d never seen one when he wasn’t working. All satans were lawyers. I’d certainly never heard of one who’d left the family profession, so to speak.
“I was the largest of my family. They couldn’t stand how tall I am. They called me a giant and said I wouldn’t come to anything,” Eddie admitted. “That is how I came to be on the block. My life was terrible until the moment Albert took me under his wing. I love working for the royal family. I do not wish to fail them.”
Yep, he was going to be able to pretty much get away with anything with me. “You’ve done a great job.”
“I have not, mistress, but I promise I will wow you with our temporary home,” Eddie swore, seeming to get himself under control.
Trent was busy sniffing the air. “Is there a reason I suddenly can’t smell Kelsey or Gray? Or anyone, really. I don’t like it.”
That made even a red-skinned demon pale, and I sent Trent a dirty look. “Did you listen to that exchange? I just got him calmed down.”
Gray’s lips quirked up. “Yeah, Trent, she convinced the guy that pitching a tiny tent in the woods was a good idea. Trust me on this. The little guy’s got her number. She’s got a thing for the underdog. You should go with it.”
“I placed several scent dampening wards around our site,” Eddie explained. “We have brownies in there. I would never expose them to danger. The wolves in these woods would view them as a sweet treat. They would likely view all of you as treats. Except Masters Trent and Casey and Lord Sloane. They would likely not be smart enough to know my mistress is the greatest threat of all, but I must protect my staff at all costs. I think you will find once you enter our domicile that your senses will be back to normal. Now, if you will all follow me. Master Lee, would you like me to carry your pack? I’ll have the staff come out and get the rest of the luggage.”
I didn’t need help. I pack light. I hefted my duffel over my shoulder, ready to see how bad the situation was going to be. If there were a bunch of brownies already shoved into that tent, it was going to be a long couple of days. “I got it, Eddie.”
Lee had already taken off his backpack, setting it down. He was shaking his head.
Edward stared up at me. “My mistress does not wish me to do my job? Shame. Shame on me. Shame falls on the servant who cannot perform his tasks…”
I dropped that bag real fucking fast.
Lee nodded up at me. “Albert is weird. Eddie here is way more normal for a servant. You should totally let him do his job or he’ll be sad.”
“Can I give him a sock or something? Like maybe that would free him.” It worked in Harry Potter.
“I would not suggest that,” Lee offered. “Not unless you want a weeping demon. Mama offered to free Albert once and he was not happy. He still brings it up when he needs her to feel guilty. Follow my lead on the butler thing. I got this.” He turned to the demon. “Thanks, Eddie. My shoulders were starting to hurt.”
Eddie’s whole face lit up. “I am proud to be of service in this, Master Lee. Let me show you all our beautiful domicile. It’s humble, but I think we’ll all be comfortable.”
He started to unzip the door to the tent and a light beamed from behind the flap.
“Wow, that is some strong magic.” Liv had dropped her suitcase and she moved in closer. “How are you hiding it? I barely felt it until now. That is incredible.”
I gasped because the flap to the tent came open and that was not a tent. That was a freaking mansion. The outside was far smaller than the inside. The inside was way more opulent. Three small brownies were waiting to greet us along with a medium-sized troll who was holding a tray of champagne glasses and one can of Dr Pepper. Somehow Eddie had managed to bring beautifully done marble floors, elegant steps, and a whole massive foyer into the woods. I could smell something delicious cooking. The scent wafted through the air and I heard my wolf’s belly growl.
It had been a couple of hours since our last meal, and honestly no private jet can carry enough meat to truly satisfy a couple of wolves, a demon, a highly active tween, and a couple of women who said they weren’t hungry but somehow managed to eat all the damn donuts.
Long story short—we could eat.
Trent started inside, his long legs taking him down the stairs. “Tell me that’s a brisket, Eddie.”
Eddie practically beamed. “It is indeed. Albert tells me it is the traditional way to welcome a wolf. A large amount of meat. I was told you in particular enjoy cow flesh. The brownies have been cooking Essie all day long.”
“Essie?” I couldn’t not ask.
One of the tiny brownies looked up at me, tears shimmering in her eyes. “She was a lovely soul but an even better brisket. We
will miss her.”
Oh, dear.
Trent just shrugged. “Well, she smells delicious.” He nodded back at Gray. “I think we’re good. All I smell is dinner and the serving staff. And lavender. Someone read up on our girl here and found out she likes lavender.”
I did. I also liked beef, and while I felt for Essie, I would hold her in my heart. And my gut. I started down the stairs.
Gray put a hand on my arm, stopping me from walking inside. “Tell me you’re not taking us to the Hell plane.”
I hadn’t even thought about that.
Liv moved in beside me, touching the walls of the “tent.” “This is an expansion spell, and a quite good one. It’s like the ballroom last night. Oh, you weren’t there. But you have to have experienced something like it.”
“It’s called a pocket universe,” Meredith explained. She moved down the stairs, obviously not afraid of potentially walking onto the Hell plane. “Do you have a witch here? She must be quite talented. This is as good as the ballroom. Sarah Day is powerful.”
Eddie bowed at the waist. “I thank you for the kind words, mistress. It is my work. I trained Mistress Day in this form of magic.”
Gray’s eyes had tightened, and I could plainly see he wasn’t as enamored of our demon butler as the rest of the party.
Still when I entered, he followed. We were greeted like royalty and for a moment, I let the thought of my stepfather drift away. I was surrounded by real family.
Chapter Six
Two hours later I stood outside the tent and surveyed the land around me. We were close to the river. I could hear the soothing sound of it rushing from my left.
It was hard to believe bad things happened out here. My human self still wanted the forest to be a place of peace, though my she-wolf understood there was no such place. Not on this plane. There were merely moments of respite before the fight began again.
“You are all right, mistress?”
I looked down and one of the brownies was standing beside me. Racha was her name. She was roughly two feet tall, with leathery brown skin, huge anime-like eyes, and a head of scraggly hair. She wore a plain gray dress and no shoes.
I like Fae creatures, well, some of them. Like the pixies, the brownies give me a sense of peace. These are helpful beings. I understand them. They live for their work, to serve those around them. It’s my job to ensure no one takes advantage. “I’m good. The dinner was delicious. Thank you so much. I wondered why the queen insisted I bring a crate of flavored cream with me.”
Brownies work in exchange for cream. It’s their dietary staple. Queen Zoey had become super popular among the brownie set when she introduced them to French vanilla and hazelnut cream.
The brownie’s eyes widened with obvious delight. “Oh, we’re all excited, though saddened because we’ve moved out of the seasonal cream offerings. We all loved the peppermint and eggnog flavors. But there is much to love about spring as well. This plane has many wonderful things to offer.”
I’d heard a lot about planes, and not the kind we’d flown in. “You’re from a Faery plane, right? The one Dev Quinn was born in?”
“Oh, no, mistress,” she said, shaking her head. “There are many Faery planes. I was born in a place called Tír na nÓg. My family fled during the great war. Our king was murdered by his own brother. He hated all Fae who were not sidhe. Because of that, I gathered my children and we made our way across the planes.”
I had to wonder where Shakespeare had gotten his plots because it sounded like Racha had been through something similar. “How did you move from plane to plane?”
Her eyes suddenly gleamed with tears. “Some planes are easy to access, but this one was incredibly difficult. We’d heard stories of Queen Miria’s kingdom and that we would be safe there. But the only way to get to the Earthling plane, and therefore to the lesser Fae planes, is to hire a planeswalker demon. My sweet father paid our passage.”
I dropped to one knee because I was fairly certain I wouldn’t like how he’d paid. “What happened?”
She wiped away her tears. “Nothing yet. Father is serving in Queen Miria’s court now, but when he passes on to the next life, it will be on the Hell plane.”
I might have Hugo look at that contract, but for now I wanted to understand. Gray had talked about the lower planes and someone wanting to unite them. That word plane came up an awful lot in his prophecy. “So this planeswalker demon can pierce the veil, so to speak, and he can get from the Fae realms to here?”
She shook her head. “The planeswalker demons gather energy from moving through the planes. When the Fae pierce the veil, they must use magic to get through places where the fabric of time and space is thin. The planeswalkers know that there are doorways that open at specific times. These doors allow us to move from plane to plane. The energy created by the door opening is what feeds the demon. They have maps of all the known planes. Thousands of worlds. I visited the Vampire plane once. My father used it to get to a refugee plane where we lived for a few years before we made our way here.”
“So there’s a whole plane of vamps out there?” What the hell did they eat? Who did they eat?
Racha nodded. “Oh, yes, and they have the most wonderful technologies, though they also have something called smog and it is terrible. They’re different from our Earth plane vampires.”
“So there are thousands of planes out there?” It was such an odd thought. “And some of them are considered lesser or lower?”
The door to the tent opened and Trent stepped through as Racha replied. “Tír na nÓg is considered the highest of the Fae planes. Queen Miria’s and the Unseelie sithein you know of are connected to the Earth plane. They are very isolated. Even more so than the Earth plane itself. But the lower planes only refer to the Earth plane and the Hell plane and their positions in proximity to the Heaven plane.”
“So if someone spoke of uniting the lesser planes, they could only be talking about the Earth plane and the Hell plane,” I mused.
“I would think so. Those are not terms I’ve heard used anywhere but here, though I can’t imagine how one would unify them,” she said, glancing up at Trent. “I would think unifying the planes would be a bad idea. Demons would have access to things Earth plane creatures do.”
The thought sent a chill through me, but I didn’t see how it would happen since Daniel barely wanted to make peace with the demons, much less unify his plane with theirs. And yet Gray talked of a being who wanted to do exactly that.
“I thought you little ones were supposed to stay protected inside,” Trent said, dropping to one knee. “There really are wolves out here, and not all of them realize how helpful you are, Racha.”
She smiled at him and I was fairly certain she would have blushed if she could. “I am safe enough. Edward has placed wards to keep the wolves away. The natural ones, that is. And his spells to mask our scent should help with the supernatural ones. But I thank you for your concern, Master Trent.”
He shook his head. “Just Trent. Please. I’m not one for titles. And thank you again for the meal. Have you made contact with any Fae here?”
She looked around as though she wanted to make sure no one was listening. “There are few here. They say these woods are cursed. We’re too close to the tower.”
The monolithic Devil’s Tower was several miles to our east. “What is it about the tower? I thought it was all Native American myths that there was power here.”
“Many wolves consider the monoliths to be sacred,” Trent explained. “Witches think they have power as well. There’s a reason both Lupus Solum and apparently a dark coven are in the area. I was hoping there would be more Fae here. They tend to be willing to talk to other Fae.”
“It’s too dark here. The lines of power that flow around here aren’t natural to us. But there are always forest folk,” Racha explained. “I’ve spoken with some of the moss folk. They live in the trees and downed logs by the river. They slept through the winter, but there has bee
n a disturbance in the woods since then. They’re afraid.”
“Of the wolf?” I asked, wondering how I was going to interrogate moss.
“They say there are worse things in these woods than the wolf,” she replied. “Monstrous things. Things they’ve never seen before. The wolf brought a monster with it, or so they believe. They also say the wolf is the largest they’ve ever seen, larger than any werecreature around.”
Trent stood again and gave me a long look.
I knew what he was thinking, but I couldn’t talk about it with tiny ears listening. “Thank you, Racha. Could you go and make sure our late-night snack will be ready? I need to talk to Trent. We’re going to take a walk and see what we can sense.”
And talk about the fact that those coven witches worked for a Hell lord, and while he might say he’s all about the prophecy, he’s been known to lie. A lot.
Racha bowed and stepped back into the tent.
The forest was quiet around us. Far too quiet. Trent’s whole body was tight. “The spell is bothering you.”
It wasn’t a question. It was obvious that not being able to use his senses was bugging the hell out of my wolf.
“It’s not natural. I can’t smell you.”
He lived by his nose. “Do you want to go back inside?”