Demon Peepers

by Belinda White

  Dunwood held up the cross. “But this will help me see what’s real instead?”

  I nodded. “Yes. The royals absolutely hate them. Any human caught with one in Faerie is severely punished.” I just hadn't know why until recently.

  “Well, if we are caught in Faerie, I rather think that having a clover will be the least of our crimes,” he smiled.

  “You have a point.”

  Our private conversation was interrupted as, one by one, the congregation started to arrive. I had been right, there were a lot of regulars missing today. Some people just weren't willing to go all that far out of their way for a Sunday sermon. But that was okay too, because it meant we had enough clover crosses for everyone who showed up.

  In total, counting us and the rest of the congregation, there were sixty good, Creator-loving souls in the clearing that day. All wearing a nice green clover (including our tattoos, of course). Taz and Rose both looked happy. Which I took as a good sign.

  This should be every bit as powerful as Titania’s bunny sacrifice. Rose and Lily had taken major exceptions to her choice of targets. Some might think the connection was unintended. They would be dead wrong. With the queen, the results of her actions were always planned and very much intended. That sacrifice was more than just a rift widener. It was a warning to the rabbits.

  With any luck, this morning would not only shrink the rift back to its original size, but perhaps even a little smaller. The preacher really did us proud. And those of the congregation that did show up were definitely the most devout and Godly of people. That helped.

  We had set up the altar and podium right in front of the rift-hiding cross, where we figured it would do the most good. That way all the Hallelujahs and the hymns would be aimed directly at Hell's gate. Kind of evil of us... but in a very good and Holy way, I thought.

  Since Jed had mentioned to him that this day would kind of serve as a memorial to my parents who had been killed there, the pastor had settled on a lovely speech about rejoining our loved ones after the earthly lives we lived. Everyone here over the age of twenty-one had lost someone special in their lives, and there truly wasn't a dry eye in the house when he had finished.

  The pizzas arrived right on time, and everyone milled around and ate their fill as they all complimented us on the cross, and the great job we had done setting up our wilderness church.

  "I especially love that fragrant flower border around the seating area," Mrs. Anderson said. "The scent reminded me of all those lovely walks in the woods my dear Harold and I used to take before he passed. And then with the sermon today... well, I just feel so much better." She reached out and patted Taz on the shoulder. "I just wanted to say thank you dear, for arranging all this. Your parents were here today. I just know it. And they are very, very proud of you."

  I had a hard time swallowing the lump in my throat from the woman’s words. She had directed them at Taz, of course, but in reality, they were meant for me too. Even if she didn’t know it.

  We really hadn’t explained to people exactly who I was. People who remember the Hunt daughters, remembered Taz and Shaylee. Me, they didn’t know at all.

  Once the pizza and drinks had been devoured, they left one by one as they had arrived until only the pack and Dunwood remained. Well, us and a ton of bee-laden flowers. I looked at them, only now realizing the problem with Coyote and Mac's plan.

  We couldn't move the flowers without getting a million and one bee stings. And according to Dunwood, we couldn't just leave them there, as this was supposed to be back country. No signs of humans, God’s country, etc.

  "If I remember bees right, they go pretty dormant at night," Jed said. "I say we leave the flowers right where they are and come back for them tonight."

  "Sounds good to me," I said. I figured that Coyote had been listening in on our conversation, because it was at that exact moment we popped.

  Chapter 12

  I'd like to report that me kissing Dunwood changed everything, but it didn't. That wasn't to say it didn't work. It did—to a point.

  Because what really counted at the end of the day was that Dunwood kissed me back. Big time. He just turned out to be super reluctant to take it further than that. At least for now. He certainly didn't sound like he was opposed to the idea, but his parents had been really old fashioned, and their upbringing had sunk into him. Dunwood was definitely not the rebellious type. His parents had said he should wait until after marriage, and that was good enough for him.

  That's right. The man that I had picked out of this entire world of choices was a virgin. Which left me a very frustrated Benandanti indeed. Now there were a lot of ways that Dunwood and I were very similar, but this wasn't one of them. I had been raised to live each day as though it were your very last day. Back in Faerie it very well could be. Here, too, but not so much.

  Here I have a pack that has my back. A vast improvement, even if it takes some getting used to.

  Now don't get me wrong, I still planned to press forward. At least now I knew that he was attracted to me and that he liked girls. That was enough of a start, for now anyway. If we survived the Faerie raid thing, I figured it was worth trying again. Sometimes the whole escaping death by the skin of your teeth thing worked as an aphrodisiac with men... women too for that matter.

  Until then, it might help not to be distracted with the whole sex thing. Plus, it gave me a little added motivation. No way was I going to let Dunwood die a virgin. No way.

  With Queen Titania pretty much distracted with the rift on this side of the Faerie gate, we could only assume that the Erlking was just as distracted with the rift on his side as well. At least, that's what we were counting on.

  As the queen's personal guard of choice for years, I had accumulated a lot of favors from a lot of Faeries. Today, those stored up tokens could prove very useful.

  The way Cin had explained it to us, she wouldn't have any trouble popping the people out, but we had to get her to them first. It seems that she could only "lock onto" people that she knew. She said it had to do with their aura and soul.

  Because of this, our mission was still risky. We would need to get in and to the humans without being noticed. Once we were noticed, the humans would be put on lock down and there was no way we would get near enough to them for Cin to be able to get a line onto them to pull them out.

  The problem was that the humans were scattered throughout the entire realm. Some in the Seelie Court, some in the UnSeelie Court, and some held by high ranking Fae who chose to live outside the courts. Truthfully, I didn't see us rescuing them all. I just didn't think it possible.

  But the Fae have grown used to counting on humans for the mundane things in life, so there would always be a few human souls that would be safe from the tithe to begin with. Our plan (well, my plan actually—Dunwood wanted them all) hinged on getting enough of them out to totally wreck the Royals' chance of a huge tithe, and thus a huge influx of power.

  Cin's popping ability gave me real hope. Which, in itself, was a dangerous thing.

  I sat pouring over the map that Shaylee had helped me make and smiled. She had been privy to a lot of information the royals didn't readily share with humans. Or even other Fae, for that matter. There were passages in Fae that I never knew existed. That no human knew existed. That would help us with our element of surprise.

  Timing was an issue. Faerie time is far different from human time. We had debated when it would be best to go in, but had finally decided on an early morning strike. It may not be early morning there, but it would be here. And that should mean we would be about as rested and ready to go as possible.

  Of course, that had been assuming we could actually the sleep the night before. In times of old, I had no problem sleeping before a mission. But then, that was back when I really didn't have all that much to live for. Now I did.

  I was running on a couple of hours of sleep, but my adrenaline level was so high, I really didn't think it would matter much. There would be plenty of t
ime to sleep later, providing we survived the day, of course. If we didn't, my sister was going to be so very pissed with me. But then, come to think of it, she'd probably be pissed if we survived too.

  When I heard a voice call out my name from the ground under my tree, it wasn’t one of the two I’d expected. I looked down to see Lily standing there. But not the Lily I had grown fond of. This one was... different.

  I lowered the ramp and went down to join her. Hopefully her unexpected appearance wasn’t the start of a new crisis. I had rather urgent plans for the day.

  "Your grandmother have you cleaning the chimney?" I asked. After all, that is what it looked like. The girl was sporting the color black from head to toe. Her beautiful brown hair was now a dull black. No shine at all. And her mode of dress wasn't that of the teenage Lily I knew either.

  She was wearing a shapeless dark—yes, okay black—house dress that fell all the way down to her shins. It wasn't that she looked dirty, but all that black had to be for a reason. Cleaning chimneys was the only thing I could think of.

  Lily gave me a wry smile. "Funny, ha-ha," she said. Then she gestured down her body. "This is called the goth look. I used to dress like this all the time until just a few months ago."

  She had turned sixteen a few months ago and that meant she had gained her fur form then too. I was guessing that was when the change had taken place. What I couldn't guess was why she was returning to this very unflattering look. So I simply raised one eyebrow and waited.

  After taking a deep breath, she blurted out, "Hey, it's a fashion choice, okay? Stop staring at me like that!"

  I lowered my eyes, still waiting. She had to have come out here for a reason. If she didn't tell me what that was soon, I was going to have to find some way to get rid of her. I couldn't risk her telling Taz about my coming visitors.

  She finally got the hint.

  "I need to ask you something," she started, her eyes not meeting mine. "How old were you when you became a royal guard?"

  Tough question. "I’m not really sure," I said. "Time is different here from there, and the queen never exactly celebrated her humans' birthdays."

  "But you were young, right?" she asked. "Younger than I am now?"

  I nodded.

  "Then maybe you can help me convince Gran that I can handle what's going on and actually help too? All of them are treating me like a child, and I have ways that I can help with the rift."

  Something clicked in my brain. "Is that why you are dressed like a witch?"

  Her eyes widened and she glanced back towards the house. "Be quiet when you say that word. Gran hates everything witch related with a passion." She paused. "Besides, most witches dress just like anyone else. Dressing in goth fashion doesn't make me a witch."

  I was starting to get suspicious as to where this was headed. "I never said it did."

  "So, can you help me? With the pack?"

  Thinking about it, I shook my head slowly. "The pack has known you a lot longer than I have. I'm sorry, but if they don't think it is safe for you to help with this, then I respect their decision."

  "Arrgh! I thought you, at least, would understand. But no, you're just like them. Well, I'll prove you all wrong!"

  With that, she flounced off towards the house. I was deliberating whether or not it would be a breach of confidence to tell Rose about our conversion when Dunwood arrived. He was a few minutes early, and dressed in a green mangled pattern he called camouflage. I nodded appreciatively. The greens should mingle pretty well where we were going.

  Cin popped in a minute later wearing a silky red robe and nothing else. Being a were-creature myself, I immediately was on board. Dunwood, however, raised an eyebrow in question.

  She shrugged at him. "Yes, I plan to go in naked." Then she laughed as both of Dunwood's eyebrows shot up. "As fox, Dunwood, as fox."

  Then she looked at me. "There are foxes in Faerie, yes?"

  I nodded, looking all of us over one last time. This just might work. I had chosen to dress in my old guard uniform. My hair was much longer than the shaggy style I had worn back in the day. You wouldn’t think that in a few short weeks it would have grown so much. But with the whole rapid aging thing, I couldn’t keep it short if I tried. I was hoping that from a distance anyone who saw me would mistake me as another royal guard and let us go our way in peace.

  Plus, my guard's uniform had another advantage. It had been spelled to blend with the forest where I did a lot of my work spying for Titania. Granted the spell wouldn't work nearly so well when I was traveling with a human and a fox, but still every little bit helped.

  I was a bit curious when Dunwood handed each of us a foil wrapped bar. Maybe it was a military tradition?

  Dunwood caught my curiosity. "It's just an energy bar." He unwrapped his and gestured for us to do the same. "You always eat something right before a stealth mission. A stomach growling can give away your position to the enemy."

  He had a point. As we ate in silence and our own thoughts of the upcoming journey, I took the time to evaluate my new team. I had to admit, I still wished I was going in alone. I cared for these people, something that I hadn't allowed myself to do over there. Over there, caring got you hurt. Here, I'd let my guard down. By the end of the day, I’d know if that had been a mistake.

  I knew that I was feeling tight and ready for a fight. My adrenaline was off the charts. Dunwood seemed to be in much the same shape I was in. He was hiding it pretty well, but the pulse in his throat gave him away.

  Cin was another story. She seemed relaxed and laid back, like she had nothing more scheduled for the day than a walk in the woods. Of course, she had the ability to pop in and out of existence on a whim. Dunwood and I did not. We were dependent on her for any emergency evacuation that we might have need for. And trusting another person is one thing, trusting them with your life was another.

  I munched my bar. It was actually pretty good, but I had to ask. "Why do they call them energy bars? I thought you didn’t have magic here."

  Dunwood chuckled. "No magic involved, I swear. They are supposed to give you energy, as they are a mixture of protein and sugar. Better than a candy bar because you don't have that large spike of sugar and then a crash an hour later. But basically, they're breakfast—for me anyway."

  Actually, this brought up a good point. We had spent most of the night together planning, with me teaching them everything I could about Faerie. But I had mainly stayed on the subject of how the paths worked and what kind of plants and creatures to look out for. I realized now I had left out a very important fact.

  "I'm glad you brought these, Dunwood. One because I was hungry and didn't even know it. And two, because they reminded me of something the two of you really need to know before we cross the gate."

  They both looked at me expectantly. "You never eat or drink anything in Faerie that you didn't personally bring in with you. No matter how delicious it looks, or how good it smells. Nothing." I looked each of them in the eyes to stress how important this was. "Things aren't always what they seem over there, okay? Even with our tattoos," I rubbed my arm in reflex. The site of my new clover still bothered me a bit. "It just isn't safe."

  "Got it," Dunwood said. Cin just nodded, happily swallowing the last of her bar.

  All in all, our plan was pretty simple. Of course, we were pretty much making it up as we went along. That's about all we could do once we crossed the gates. There was just no way of knowing what was waiting for us on the other side.

  Chapter 13

  The first choice we had to make was which gate to enter by. There were arguments for and against most of them, but we had finally decided to have Cin pop us over to another state and enter from there. A gate we had never used before. Luckily, it was one Shaylee had known about.

  I should probably note here that normally it takes a Fae to open the gate. Titania's personal guards were the exception to that rule. A lot of the missions she sent us on required us to enter and leave Faerie on a regular
basis. Of course, we were always on Titania’s leash while on this side, so escape was never really an option for us. But it did allow us a certain measure of freedom that the other humans just didn't have.

  We could work the gates. It was tricky and complicated, but it was possible for a human to do so—if they had been shown the way and given plenty of time to practice. I'd had a lifetime, so it was now a moment's work for me.

  The thing is that when a Faerie gate opens, the courts know it. Sometimes they react to it, other times not. We didn't want to take any chances. I had called on Shaylee and MacDougal for help with that issue. At the precise moment we opened our gate, they would also open gates. Their gates would be nearer to where Titania would expect us to come from.

  We were hoping that if the Fae sent out a welcoming party, they would send it to the wrong gate. If nothing else, it should divide the welcoming party into thirds, which would increase our chances greatly.

  With our stomachs now not in danger of growling, Cin popped us down a state to a Kentucky nature preserve that happened to host a gate. The Fae loved to hunt our animals, especially if they were supposedly protected by us.

  At precisely seven o'clock on that bright and sunny morning, three gates opened into Faerie at once. Faerie gates can be a tricky thing at the best of times. While the gates in our realm usually stay in the same place, once you cross them—you could literally end up anywhere in Faerie. Things change there. Things that really shouldn't, like space and time... and passages.

  We got lucky though. Once we crossed, it only took me a few seconds to get my bearings. We were about a mile from the Seelie Court, and well within the queen's jurisdiction. That was good.

  I had hoped to start with the easiest task first. Not that I didn't expect trouble from Titania's court, because I did, it's just that the dark court, the UnSeelie, really had some nasty creatures. Plus, it was kind of the devil you know kind of thing. With all the time I'd spent in the queen's court, I knew it best.