Redemptive Blood

by Tamara Rose Blodgett

  Kiern, their leader, explained Della’s history, and what really interested Adi was how there really was a Hansel and Gretel.

  Della killed the witch from the story.

  But according to the trolls, Della was even worse than the last witch.

  Kiern strides toward them, and Adi sits up straighter in her makeshift stump chair. She can't help but respond that way when he's around. He's got a presence, a commanding air around him.

  He's a good troll, Kiern told them.

  Like Adi would know the difference.

  “Red. Female.” He nods first to Slash then to Adi. “Della will soon be ash, to fertilize our great woods.” His expressive eyes light on the greenery surrounding them.

  Adi squints through the smoke at the elevated pyre. Della's body is a charred, smoldering mass on top. The goop of her body is still sinking into the wood pilings that hold her up and the stones stacked underneath her body.

  Burn, baby, burn. Adi shudders.

  Kiern smiles at the trolls’ handiwork and the expression is a horror of twisted, meaty lips and square yellowish teeth. Although he is gentle, Adi can still close her eyes and see the clubs driving up and down like engine pistons on Della's body until they became bloody stumps of battered wood and what was left of the witch was a mangled, unrecognizable mass.

  Her stench fills the forest, but the trolls’ magic exits the vapors of her remains in a direct pipeline through the trees, sucking up the residual smoke that lingers like a vacuum into the sky.

  “So she stole your magic and kept you prisoner here?”

  Kiern nods. “I am sure your male has explained the oddity that no other nose-driven species is aware of our existence?”

  Slash pushes away the handhewn wooden bowl, dark from a thousand meals and smooth from a thousand spoons, and leans back in a hacked-out tree trunk that's now a chair—a loose match to the one Adi sits on.

  “I did mention how odd it was to Adi.”

  Kiern folds his beefy arms, covered in a downy coating of hair almost resembling the wolfen form of their males. He studies the two of them for a few seconds. “To effectively keep us prisoners in our own woods, she needed to hide our presence. Della possessed powerful spells, but she was trapped in a crone's body—forever—unable to venture from these woods. And she is not the only witch who seeks out Troll dens. Our magic is powerful, and they aren't especially worried with what they must do to suppress us.”

  “Or butchering parents to take their kids.”

  Kiern nods, leveling his gaze at Adi. She's mesmerized by his brilliant eyes. Though they're a deep, rich emerald, they glow as if they possess their own light. “Yes. And that would have released her to do far more damage. But because of your bravery, she could not.”

  Heat covers Adi's face, and she self-consciously places her hands on her hot cheeks. “I thought I'd nailed her, but she's some kind of zombie or something.”

  Slash laughs, touching her thigh briefly before moving his hand away.

  “There is no such thing as living dead. A human fable.” A dark chuckle escapes him. “A silly one at that.” He meets their eyes. “A powerful sorceress must be ended by fire to be well and truly dead. Until that occurred, a part of her still lived.” His heavy knuckles pass over his chin, rasping at a square jaw loaded with dark stubble. He inclines his head in Adi's direction. “It's not your fault. You couldn't have known.”

  That doesn't stop Adi from feeling like she wasn't thorough enough.

  “Or taking her head.”

  She and Slash look at Kiern. His solemn expression tells her all she needs to know.

  “I don't think I was up to that.” Adi scoops her wet hair back then lets it fall behind her with a dull thump at her back. Her hand falls to her rolling stomach again.

  She's taken two showers in one day. Thanks to Slash and his insta-change, she has a bruise on her ass and was knee-deep in the human layer he sloughed off with his rapid-fire shift. Adi was forced to go into the bitch's house again and to wash off all the yuck.

  Her fingers tighten on her unicorn backpack. She'll be damn glad to get the hell out of here.

  A huge thundering crash has them jumping out of their stump chairs. Adi's eyes dance over everything, coming to a screeching halt at Della's cottage.

  It's caving in on itself.

  With a wildly beating heart, Adi frowns.

  Kiern grins.

  Slash moves closer to her until their bodies touch.

  As Adi watches, the wood roof, covered in moss and forest debris, folds and falls into a giant hole that's opened below the foundation like a huge mouth.

  The gross contents of the cellar where Slash had hung like a slab of meat erupt, pouring eyeballs, organs, and the random brain out of the hole like a slow-moving geyser of bloody sludge.

  Adi clutches her stomach, slapping her other hand over her mouth to keep from upchucking.

  A moment later, the soup from within the cellar is a swamp of decay from which a great tree begins to rise.

  All the things that made it a house turn into something else. Something natural.

  Adi licks suddenly dry lips, her hands slowly falling to her sides.

  The black pot-bellied stove that had a screaming tea kettle on its top cants to one side then falls over onto the forest floor at the base of the massive tree. Thickening and deeply furrowed bark beginning to carve up the sides of the massive trunk like brown water streaking upward.

  The iron door of the stove flops open on squeaking hinges. The dark, cavernous insides reek of burnt logs.

  The stove sinks into the ground as though it's fallen in quicksand, and the forest topography rolls over it like a giant emerald hand that scoops the stove from the surface, then a living shroud of lichen, moss, leaves, and needles remove it from sight. Where the stove landed, elegant, lime-green stems spear the ground as they rise, slowly opening to reveal deep blooming throats of pure black, gleaming like dark, sightless oblong eyes in the woods.

  “Oh, my Moon,” Adi breathes.

  “It's beautiful, isn't it?” Kiern says in his melodious voice.

  Adi nods, turning to him. “Why is this happening?” Not that she misses that horrible cottage.

  “Her magic fades, daughter of the moon.”

  She blinks. “I've never heard that expression.” She thinks it's beautiful, poetic.

  Kiern's smile is wistful. “You are young.”

  “That's what he says.” Adi jerks a thumb at Slash, who chuckles.

  “Laugh it up, guys.”

  Kiern lifts a hand, but Adi only sees it in the periphery because she's utterly transfixed by Della's house giving way to the spectacular tree.

  “What is this... becoming?” Her eyes go everywhere—there's so much to look at.

  Kiern has come to stand beside Slash. “This is our home.”

  The giant tree continues to grow and fill out in both size and detailing.

  Adi giggles as the ground swallows a white toaster expelled from the soupy hole. In the next breath, star jasmine rises from the spot, twining up the base of the tree. Its petite flowers burst open along the swirling vine, filling the forest with sweet fragrance.

  Adi shakes her head in wonder. “I don't know what's real and what's fake.”

  Slash squeezes her against him. “What does your nose tell you?”

  “My nose told me all kinds of crap about Della, too, and I couldn't have been more wrong.”

  Slash tucks her head beneath his chin. “We both were. Della was like a spider, Adrianna, and we were caught in her web.”

  “Consider yourselves fortunate. There’ve been many before you, many who did not love as you do, did not have just the exact combination of circumstances to cause Della to put her plan into motion.”

  Adi gazes up at the tree, which is nearly as high as the tops of the other trees.

  Finally, she has to step back because the trunk has expanded to where they stand.

  Kiern gives a delighted laugh t
hat is really strange coming from a troll.

  “What?” Adi's awestruck.

  She's never heard laughter so light, so free, so happy. But his is all of that.

  The other trolls gather around, many with their faces streaked by tears of happiness.

  “How long has it been since Della made you prisoner in your own woods?” Slash asks quietly.

  The top of the tree shoots through the gap in the forest as though the space were custom-made for it.

  The apex of the trunk appears to shimmer like a mirage of brown, tripling as green leaves burst from all sides with a crisp, whistling hiss, like knives of emerald released from their sheaths.

  “Beautiful,” Adi says softly, having the sudden urge to reach up and touch the new bright-green growth.

  Slash nods, but sweeps her backward with a strong arm just as a massive root erupts from the undulating ground beneath them.

  “For one thousand years, we’ve been prisoners.”

  Adi gasps, turning to the much-taller troll. His eyes don't spin like a Were's, but they're no less captivating. The ethereal shade of blue that outlines green irises stares inquisitively from a brutally fashioned face.

  She swallows, suddenly aware that a magical tree is growing in a forest where a killer witch once lived—and Adi's standing next to the first troll she's ever seen in her life.

  A violent troll.

  His gnarled brows knot as he watches expressions morph on her face. “Don't be afraid.”

  “I'm okay.” She takes a deep, stabilizing breath. Slash is with me.

  They turn their attention back to the tree.

  A roughly rectangular door has formed at the base. It is integral to the tree itself, standing at a height and width Adi thinks would be perfect to accommodate a troll.

  “She cut this tree down with her magic. But that is the trouble with magics that alter the natural order. Once they depart, that which was before, returns.”

  “A thousand years,” Slash repeats in a quiet voice. Adi can hear the ring of grief in his tone. To be a natural creature here and have your home stolen by some whacko?

  “We will celebrate,” Kiern says, breaking into Adi's thoughts and clapping Slash on the back.

  He stumbles forward and turns, wearing the first real smile she's seen since the Della mess.

  “We want to be a part of your... celebrations,” Slash hesitates, and Adi fills the void with “We'd love to.”

  She gives Kiern a big smile and discreetly elbows Slash.

  He frowns, and she turns her smile to him, which she knows damn well is a baring of teeth.

  “Yes, all right.”

  Kiern gives another whack on Slash's back. “I don't think they know their own strength,” he mutters as soon as Kiern moves toward the tight cluster of trolls gazing at the tree.

  Adi shakes her head. “Nope. But they're good.” Her hands skate up and down her bare arms, trying to warm them. “They killed Della.”

  Slash nods.

  “We can stay and be polite, but I will say that it's a pretense. They killed our enemy, and they want us to share in their happiness.” He turns Adi to face him. “However, I will be traveling the nearly seventy miles to the Northwestern pack. Tonight. With my mate at my side.”

  Adi opens her mouth, and he kisses her softly, saying against her lips, “No arguments. You carry our whelp. I will protect my family.”

  Slash covers her stomach with his palm. And Adi lays her head against his chest. “Okay, ya boss.”

  He kisses the top of her head. “They've fed us, and you showered.”

  “I smell pretty good for an illusion,” she quips.

  Slash tilts her chin upward, caressing her lower back with his fingers, and Adi tries to ignore the smell and sights of the tree continuing to grow all around them.

  “That's the thing. I believe every bit of the witch's illusion to lure supernaturals to her dwelling was real.”

  Adi feels her frown, pulling slightly away from Slash and searching his stern face. “Then why can her house just disintegrate, and the trolls magic takes over?”

  “I don't know.” Slash's scar is bright-red today. Adi has noticed that after a shift, it seems freshly made, as if it has to heal again for the very first time.

  “But I know I don't want to stay here any longer than we must, Adrianna.”

  “Fine. But they killed Della.”

  His lips pull at the corners. “You keep mentioning that.”

  She crosses her arms. “Well, they get a pass for like... forever. She was a nasty skank ho bitch.”

  Slash laughs, wrapping his arm around her.

  “What?” she asks, lightly punching his side. “You're not going to hassle me about my expression or about how young I am?”

  He squeezes her shoulder once. “No.”

  “Why not?”

  Slash leans over her as they walk slowly toward the newly formed tree. “Because I heartily agree.”

  “You ʻheartily agreeʼ?” Adi laughs. “Oh Slash. And you tell me my expressions are weird.”

  He doesn't reply, but Adi loves the smile that creeps over his face. A rare occurrence.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  Tessa

  “Is this the last of our gear?” Tessa asks, cataloging the pathetic little bit they still have with a single sweep of her eyes.

  After the Suburban 4x4-ing through the rainforest and getting stuck in the river then being hauled, beaten, tied, and thoroughly soaked, Tessa has a backpack with maybe three outfits and zero cash.

  Things aren't looking up. “Dammit,” Tessa mutters, dropping her ass into the nearest chair and flinging her long legs out.

  “I don't know,” Laz replies casually, “I still have my human costumes.”

  Tessa sits up straighter in the plush chair and frowns. “Human clothes?”

  “Yes,” Laz replies, running a finger over the neat pile of jeans and T-shirts. Each one has been precisely folded, and he plucks the entire pile from the same place Tessa had gotten hers, a low table by the front door to the cabin.

  “Are you saying...” Tessa closes her mouth then opens it again. “Are you saying you didn't wear clothes in Hades?”

  Laz faces her. “No. Clothing is unnecessary.” His expression goes far away.

  Tessa laughs. He's got to be kidding. Then she remembers how he always seems to eventually run around without clothes. Somehow. With all that they'd gone through, the reason for his random nudity hadn't occurred to her. It gives new meaning to “being comfortable in your own skin.” She smirks.

  “It is very warm.”

  Her smile grows wider. “Clearly—it's hell.”

  “Yes.” A ghost of a smile plays over his full lips, and his skin darkens to that lightly sunburned look that seems to follow the varied range of his emotions.

  “You know, Laz?”

  “Hmm?” His eyes peg her like a moth to a board, and matching heat rises between her legs, at her core. From her heart. That last steals her breath more than anything before it ever could.

  She has protected herself without fail. And in many ways, more than the physical. Tessa figured there would never be a male for her.

  Now there is. And what a male he is: Funny. Hot—protective.

  A demon.

  She frowns. Then finishes her observation. “You're not a subtle guy. I can tell when you're all lusty—I can see when you're emotional.”

  He nods, unperturbed by her insights.

  Tessa crosses her arms, flopping backward in the chair again.

  Laz's eyes hood, never leaving her form. “The demonic do not have need of subtlety. What we need, we take. What we want, we claim.”

  The slits of his eyes darken further.

  “Is that so?” Tessa asks coyly, widening her knees.

  Laz's skin flushes red, his eyes widening and flipping to inky discs. “Yes,” he hisses, and his forked tongue flicks out.

  Her breath quickens, and they move at the same time,
crashing against each other in a tangle of body parts. His fingers thread her still-damp hair, jerking her so tightly against his body that she can't breathe—or move. She doesn't want to. His tongue plunges inside her mouth, and Tessa moans, grinding her pelvis against his, feeling his hard length—and his need for her.

  Laz caresses her with his tongue, causing her to shiver at the delicate, erotic stroke of wet heat.

  A loud rapping sounds at the door.

  Breathlessly, Tessa pulls away with a groan. “Maybe they'll go away.”

  Lazy spirals of steam leak from Laz's mouth as he chuckles. “Not without special encouragement.”

  “No, you don't,” she says, poking a finger in his tight abs.

  He smiles, and his eyes pale to glacial blue, like an iceberg getting ready to calve. Laz's beautiful gaze sweeps her as though he's starving and Tessa's a tasty morsel.

  “I have clothes on now. They should consider themselves fortunate,” Laz chimes from behind her as she charges toward the door and places her hand on the cold bronze of the lever.

  Their eyes lock.

  He slaps his palm on the door just as she would open it, and Tessa gazes up at him from beneath a heavily muscled arm, core throbbing from their unfinished business.

  “Maybe it is that Lanarre bastard, Neil?”

  That's cold water on her libido. Neil.

  “I heard that, foul demonic!” Neil says from outside the door.

  A slashing grin appears on his face. “Then be appraised of my desire to have an excuse to end you.” Laz covers the door handle, and Tessa releases the knob as he jerks it wide, whipping her behind him as he does.

  “Laz!” Tessa almost stumbles.

  “As though my Redemptive would face an unknown foe.”

  Moon.

  Drek fills the doorway, staring at them as if they're apparitions.

  “Hi,” Tessa says, trying to tramp down on whatever residual lust might be scented. But she gives up immediately. Too much to get rid of. Drek will just have to scent it.

  Laz remains ominously silent, fingers clinging to the top of the wood casement that surrounds the door.

  Drek's eyes hover over Laz's casual stance of hanging around the threshold as though meeting old friends.