Demon Peepers

by Belinda White

  We followed him, but before we got to the break in the fence, Dunwood pulled me aside.

  “You know this guy?”

  I nodded, then thought about it. “Well, I knew him as a child.” Actually, it was more like I knew him as a baby, but I didn’t think that would mean much to Dunwood. “His mother fostered me. I’m not sure I would have survived if she hadn’t taken me in.”

  “Can we trust him?”

  He saw my hesitation and his lips thinned. “I’ll take that as a no,” he said.

  “The Erlking has kept us apart for many years. The Fae don’t like us to form family attachments here. I really don’t know what he’s grown up to be. But he’s human and he knows the tithe is coming.” I hesitated another second. “And I owe his mother.”

  Dunwood took a deep breath but nodded. I noticed he didn’t holster his gun. Taking his cue, neither did I.

  The hole was a tight fit for Dunwood, who was by far the largest of all of us, but he made it. The man could contort himself when he needed to. Good to know for future references. Once through, Juan led us to the main barracks where all the humans were sleeping.

  A quick count totaled only ten. Humans didn't last as long in the dark court, and Shaylee had curtailed the king's ability to "recruit" more as neither he nor any member of his court could cross the faerie gate without breaking their agreement.

  "Is this all of them?" Dunwood asked.

  Juan nodded, grinning ear to ear. Something was very wrong. Then I smelled them. Red Caps. We were surrounded. I didn't want to give myself away just yet, so I took a moment to try to count the different scents. There were at least twenty of them. And twenty red caps were an almost undefeatable number... even if you had an army. Which I did not. All I had was a sheriff and a fox.

  I looked at Juan. "Why?"

  Juan just kept on grinning. "You say you want to take me home? I say, I am home. The Erlking has treated me well over the years. And he swore to me that if I delivered you to him when you came for the humans, that I would never have to worry about the tithe." He shrugged. "It's enough for me."

  "So be it." I nodded grimly. "Cin? Them not us, okay?"

  The fox beside me nodded shortly and then disappeared. Along with every single one of the red caps.

  Juan's face fell. "What in the Dark Lord’s name?" He started backing up, but we had him bound and gagged in a matter of seconds. We were just finishing up with him when Cin popped back in.

  We woke up the humans and gathered them around the fox, explaining that we were taking them to the human world. Unlike Juan, they all wanted to go... desperately.

  One of the men looked at Juan. "He is a traitor. Do not bring him, or we might as well stay here. He will bring us back to torture and pain."

  A woman nodded. "He used to go along with red caps on raids. He has spilled too much human blood. He is one of them now."

  I walked over to Juan and removed the gag. "Do you still wish to stay?"

  His eyes were wild. "No. You have to take me with you. If you go with all the humans, he'll torture me... forever. I've seen him keep people alive just so he can have another day's fun with them. Please, for my mother's sake, you have to save me."

  Teresa would have still loved him, even as the monster he had become. I could not leave him to the torture and pain. Juan blanched when I drew my sword.

  A few seconds later, all of us stood outside the redecorated barracks outside of Taz's old cabin. MacDougal came out and took them in to get them situated in their makeshift headquarters. We would sort out all the hard stuff tomorrow.

  I cleaned the blood off my blade and glanced at Dunwood. "Is there going to be a problem?"

  The sheriff just shook his head. "What happens in Faerie, stays in Faerie as far as I'm concerned."

  I nodded, swallowing down the sudden lump in my throat. His approval meant the world to me. I had known what I was risking when I killed Juan, but I owed it to his mother. Dunwood didn't know the whole story, but he seemed to understand anyway. Good man.

  Cin came out of the barracks, back in human form. It was okay, because she had taken the liberty of borrowing a pair of MacDougal's sweat pants and a t-shirt. The little leprechaun owned at least a dozen pair, all in various shades of green, of course.

  There was one question that still needed to be asked. "Cin, where exactly did you pop the red caps?"

  She gave us a beautiful smile of innocence. "Oh, there is group back home that owes my family big debt." She shrugged. "Debt now paid."

  Dunwood and I just looked at each other. Okay, note to self: don't ever piss off a Kitsune. Or a Kitsune’s family.

  "How will they get back to Faerie?" Dunwood asked. "We don't want those things running around over here for long. Especially if they really are as dangerous as Steele says they are."

  Cin lifted one shoulder. "No worry. They on hour long rubber band."

  "Rubber band?" I asked.

  She nodded, drawing her hands from the center of her body out to the sides. "When I pop them, I stretch rubber band energy. In one hour, band unstretches, and they back where started from."

  Good thing I had taken care of Juan, then. I had been a lot more merciful than twenty pissed off red caps would have been.

  I was just getting ready to ask Cin to pop us home to rest, when we heard gravel spewing from the driveway. Something was coming fast. We whirled around and realized just how much trouble we were in.

  Chapter 15

  My sister could only have found out from one of three people. If a godling was a person. MacDougal, Coyote, and Shaylee were the only ones we left behind that knew where we were going. And from the look on Taz’s face, she knew exactly where we’d been.

  Not that we could have hidden the sixty new humans milling around in and out of the workshop slash barracks.

  I could tell Jed was taking in all those new people that we would have to deal with, and from his expression, the wheels in his brain were already turning. Taz, however, only had eyes for me... and Dunwood.

  "Do you two not understand what a pack is?" she yelled. Usually Taz is pretty easy going. Whether it was the new life I was sure was growing within her or simply our current situation, she definitely wasn’t her usual self tonight.

  “And you,” she shouted, shifting her eyes to drill into Dunwood’s. “You’ve known me for years, and you know I can handle myself. And most of all, you know I just got her back. No way should you have taken her into Faerie without me knowing. And going.”

  "This wasn't a mission for the pack," I said, holding my ground. "This was a... what did you call it, Dunwood?"

  "A covert operation," he said. "And we were as safe as possible, what with our backup and all."

  He looked around and started. "Where did...." Dunwood trailed off and shut up.

  "And just where is this wonderful backup?" Taz asked. “And if the mission was so very safe, why did it have to be a two person one?”

  "Look, sis, the truth is that we were safer going in alone than going in with the pack. Although she chose not to face your wrath, which I’m totally starting to understand, Cin was there and fully capable of popping us back here anytime things got what you tend to call dicey."

  “You mean to tell me that Cin can pop in and out just like Coyote?"

  "Well, it’s a little different from Coyote, but yes.” I mean, there was that whole naked shifting thing. “And she can do it without the moral dilemma that Coyote faces about doing acts of outright good. Without Cin, we wouldn't have been able to do what we did tonight. But with her, we managed to save sixty human souls. In one day."

  I glanced over at Dunwood. He looked tired, but proud. Whether my sister wanted to admit it or not, we did good today.

  "Look, I may agree with you, but this is still something that should have been discussed with the pack, before you went—not after. If this was the best way to handle the situation, I would have backed you."

  "Let me get this straight, you would have agreed to le
t me go into Faerie without you?" I asked.

  Taz fidgeted. I may not have known her long, but I did know her. After all, the same blood flowed through both of our veins.

  "Okay, I'll give you that one. But only if in the future you agree to run your mission plans through the pack before acting on them. I have been known to show reason, you know. And there just might have been some way we could have helped that you didn't know about."

  She glanced behind us through the open doorway into what appeared to be utter bedlam. "Like perhaps coming up with a plan on how to handle living arrangements for sixty humans that were just pulled from Faerie."

  Now it was my turn to fidget. "Yes, well, I really hadn’t thought there would be that many. I was guessing half that number, but Titania must be ramping up her tithe recruitment plan. But when you look at it, getting them out was the hard part. This is totally workable. Right?"

  Jed, who had been silent up to this point, simply laughed. "You might want to tell that to MacDougal in there," he said.

  I glanced inside as well. Yeah, MacDougal definitely had his hands full in there.

  "They do know he's a good Fae, right?" Taz asked.

  It took us the better part of an hour, but we eventually had everyone squared away. At least for the evening and night. Kylee was settled in with her foster mom, and seemed to be doing well. My real duties with her wouldn’t start until we had that rift closed. I had to admit, though, that the little girl’s smiles and laughter were already tugging at my heart. I’d have no problem raising her as my own.

  Taz’s old workshop had been remodeled back when they had brought Shaylee and me from Faerie. It was large and had worked as a barracks of sorts for several women. However, now we had a mixture of sixty that included men, women, and children of both genders. It would take a while to sort things out. Those who were fairly recently recruited could be taken back to their homes tomorrow, and the others... well, we'd figure it all out after we all got some much-needed sleep.

  Everything would be better after the light of dawn, right? Well, in most cases that may be true, but not this time. Dawn only brought us a fresh disaster. A deadly one this time.

  But before the dawn came, Taz commandeered MacDougal’s cabin for an urgent, impromptu pack meeting. I really hoped it wasn’t going to be a long one.

  AS THIS WAS AN OFFICIAL pack meeting, Coyote popped in Rose and Lily. Rebel opted to miss it.

  Once we were all situated in the cabin, which by the way was a tight fit, I just had to ask the question that had been burning in my brain since my sister had showed up. How had she found out? Did we have a traitor in our midst?

  I know and respect that Taz is the Alpha, but I needed to know if there was a member or members of the pack that I couldn’t trust in the future with secrets. Sometimes you had them even from family. Today was a prime example.

  “So, how did you find out about the raid?” I was speaking to Taz but looking at Coyote when I asked. Of the ones we had left behind, he was the one I was betting on.

  I was wrong.

  “’Twas me, I’m afraid,” said MacDougal. “But I didn’t give the information without due stress, I’ll be telling ya.”

  Taz nodded. “He’s right. I threatened him with Jed’s tranq gun if he didn’t tell me where you were.”

  “But how did you know she was gone?” Dunwood beat me to the question.

  She took a deep breath. “I went looking for her. When she wasn’t in her treehouse, and she wasn’t patrolling, I became worried.” She gave me a hard look. “Up until now, she’s been very considerate in telling me when she’s going to be gone. It keeps me from worrying.”

  “But why were you looking for me?”

  Taz grew silent.

  “I think I can answer that,” Rose said. “After the memorial service at the rift went so well, Pastor Rand suggested that we hold the wedding there. I was trying to discuss that possibility with Taz when she stormed off toward your tree. Unless I miss my guess, she was trying to rally the troupes to convince me it was a bad idea.”

  Rose put one hand on Taz’s shoulder in support. “I understand your feelings, I truly do, but you said yourself that the clearing looked lovely for the service. And with all that love in the air, no one even noticed the evil." Rose paused, gathering her arguments. "And according to Coyote, the rift did shrink. Right back to the size it was before the horrific sacrifice."

  "I'm still not getting married with all of Hell for an audience." Taz looked to Jed for support, but he was acting as though he was oblivious to the whole conversation. "I don't care if Pastor Rand did suggest it. It wouldn't have been past you to plant that seed inside his brain."

  Rose bristled. "I most certainly did not. But I do agree with him for a lot more reasons than he can ever know." She patted my sister’s hand and changed her voice to a more persuasive tone. "We have to close that rift, dear. You know that. According to Steele, that rift took a lot of power to create—and an unheard of collaboration between the king and queen, who hate each other with a passion. If we can close it, chances are they won't try that again. There’s too much power involved."

  I could tell that Taz saw the logic involved. I was betting if it was anyone else's wedding but hers, she’d be right there beside Rose arguing for the wedding venue from Hell too. Which most likely was ultimately what clinched it.

  My family is Benandanti. God’s goodwalkers. The safety of the village comes before the wants and desires of the wolf or woman inside. That doesn't mean she had to like it. But when she turned to Jed, I knew what was coming next.

  "It isn't just my wedding, it's your wedding too,” she said. “If you say no, then the answer is no... period, and we'll just have to find some other way to close that blasted rift. I mean, there has to be another way, right?" Everyone there could see the hope in her eyes.

  Jed came over and hugged her. It’s possible that it was simply a show of support, but I was betting it was so that her arms would be restrained when he answered her. "Personally, I think it's a great idea. Let's do it."

  "You really think your parents would approve?" She was grasping at the last of straws and, from the desperation in her voice, she knew it.

  "They are Benandanti," he said. "They will understand." He pushed her out to arm's length and looked into her eyes, smiling. "We'll have a beautiful wedding, I promise you. But the wedding is only one day. Our life after that day is the true beauty."

  Yes, well, tell that to a bride whose dream wedding just crashed around her ears. But like it or not, their wedding was going to be held right there in that clearing. Even if we managed to close the damn rift before that date, there would be too many wheels in motion to stop it at that point.

  Although, it would mean one more round of invitations. Maybe Taz would be okay with simply calling them this time? It would take less time and save money on postage too. Besides, they already had two invitations.

  "Okay," Taz said, looking a bit dejected. The short pack meeting had definitely not gone as she had hoped. "Let's get started planning a forestry wedding."

  A lot of our prior planning would still be good to go, even with the change of venue. The cake and food wouldn't change, just their delivery place. But with the wedding to be held at the rift, we would have to be ready for all the elements, not to mention Queen Titania and her host of Fae, could throw at you.

  I was betting it would be more than bees this time. But I’m not stupid. I kept that thought to myself. Perhaps we could find enough iron to ring the clearing? It would work on Titania and her Fae, but if demons had managed to slip through (small though they would have to be), the iron wouldn’t even give them pause.

  The tables and chairs weren't a problem, as the church agreed to loan them to us. Pastor Rand probably still felt guilty about the whole flooded church thing. Not that the flooding was in anyway his fault. More of an act of God type of thing. Which kind of made one wonder. Heaven’s way of fighting Hell?

  The large party t
ent wasn’t a problem either as Jed had already had another one on order when we had decided to have the wedding at home. Then Jed sweetened the deal.

  "It isn't like the whole town is coming. We have under twenty-five guests total, including family. The tent we bought will hold all of us with room to spare. So technically, as long as we have the tent wall down facing the rift, Hell won’t be able to watch anything. I’m betting the love and goodwill won’t have a problem making it through a thin layer of fabric.”

  He glanced over at Rose, who nodded. “I don’t see how that would be a problem at all.”

  Jed smiled at Taz. “So, no devilish witnesses after all. And since we own the tent, the artist in you can go nuts on the inner walls."

  Jed was a smart man. Or perhaps he just knew my sister well.

  Her distraught look was replaced by a thoughtful one. Definite improvement there.

  “I could paint the inner tent walls with a fabric paint and totally give them more of an indoor feel. And it would take my mind off the whole rift thing too,” Taz said.

  “See, we have a plan,” Jed said, his shoulders finally relaxing. The others might not have noticed his tension in the last few minutes, but I had. "The tent is supposed to be delivered tomorrow afternoon. And if you need help with the painting, I'm pretty mean with a brush. As long as you don't want it to look like anything in particular, that is," Jed said.

  Taz smiled at him. "I'll keep it simple, I promise. But yeah, if you could paint the base coat for me, that would really help. Can I borrow your computer for a bit? I saw some stencils online a while back that would be perfect for the trim around the doors."

  "Just remember that time is limited, so simple is good." He looked at her gleaming eyes, and repeated, "Simple is really good."

  "Sure thing, love, simple is the name of the game."

  I had to turn my head to hide my smile. Maybe Jed didn’t know Taz quite as well as I had thought.

  Chapter 16