by Amy Lane
“That’s saying something,” Nicky told him sincerely. “How do you know we’re going to need all that science stuff, by the way?”
Edward had been wondering the same thing.
“Look at him,” she said, nodding at Edward. “He’s practically got a frock coat and those little steampunk extend-glasses. You do need a science station, right, Edward?”
Edward felt his face wash hot. “I understand some witches just sort of throw things in the pot—”
“But you are much too sensible for that,” Cory said with a regal tip to her head. “We all understand.”
“It’s a good thing you don’t have to do any of that,” Nicky muttered in disgust. “You’d probably blow us all up.”
Cory let out a snort. “Like I need a spell book and a cauldron to do that.” She grew serious and turned to Bracken. “Nicky and I can help the boys cook up the hex bags—I want the elves to stay clear.”
Bracken shrugged. “I’ll sit in the outer room.”
“Bracken—”
“You’re keeping our shields running too,” he said implacably. “I will be nearby.”
She let out a frustrated sigh. “Arturo—?”
“I’ll be listening for Sam,” he said, nodding. “I’m not sure what’s going to happen when that boy gets here, but I’m pretty sure it will make ‘very interesting’ look like an afternoon sorting your socks.”
“She doesn’t wear socks,” Nicky said blankly. “She makes them for all of us but doesn’t wear them herself.”
“That, birdman, is the point.”
“You’re all hilarious,” Cory muttered, then scrambled to her feet to give Nicky and Bracken a hand up. Renny—the girl who preferred to be a cat—had slid her sundress back on, and she stood too, checking to make sure her hair was in a ponytail. Once they were all standing together, Edward got another shock.
Nicky was a smaller than average man—maybe Edward and Harry’s size. Bracken was well over six feet tall.
Cory and Renny were tiny women, standing five foot one or two at the most. Cory had wide hips—hell, she’d borne twins—and a smallish bosom, and was, in general, a lot smaller than her sizable personality.
“What?” Cory asked, wiping at her mouth self-consciously. “Did I spill food down my shirt?” She checked that too.
Edward did it unconsciously—he came from an age where men bowed to women. Mullins followed suit, and so did Beltane and even Francis.
“Thank you, my lady,” Edward said when he’d straightened. “We came asking for a favor, and you’ve given us everything. You’re our salvation. We… we’re in your service.”
Cory nodded in return. “Do you boys have any idea that there is a ring of vigilantes rescuing victims of human trafficking? The victims have turned up, safe and sound, counseled and placed with foster families—but the men can never be found. Sometimes, the smallest of children talks up a storm about a fluffy white cat.” She stuck out a gentle finger and booped Francis on the nose. Francis turned his head and blushed. “You’ve saved a few half-elves who have found their way to us,” she told them. “Good guys have to stick together.”
With a sigh she walked to where Nicky had placed the car seats in the shade and crouched to kiss her children on the cheek as they slept.
Edward got a good look at the little girl this time, and realized that she looked… well, almost completely elfin. There were no freckles, no broad cheekbones. When her eyes had been open, they’d been brilliantly blue.
Two people approached from the steps as Cory straightened—Jack the irritated werewolf and another tiny woman, this one Latina with a soft, heart-shaped face and enormous sloe eyes.
“No playing in the garden today?” the woman asked sadly.
Cory shrugged. “Not today. Thank you for lunch, Katy—I was sort of hoping you and Jack would join us.”
Katy shook her head. “No—I like this new kitchen job. Sometimes, it’s just nice to sit in the kitchen and eat with your husbands, you know?”
“It’s a perk,” Cory said, and then her mouth quirked. “It’s a perk for shy people who don’t like to meet strangers.”
Katy gave a lethal grin, and Edward’s heart stuttered a little. She was stunning. “You know Teague, my lady.”
Cory met Jack’s eyes over Katy’s shoulders. “Yeah. Teague.”
Jack shrugged. “Do you want us to keep them outside?”
Cory let out a sigh and fidgeted. “I…. It’s a lovely day,” she said plaintively. “Or rather, a lovely late afternoon, almost evening.”
Edward looked around and realized she was right. Lunch had stretched on—stories had made it longer. Evening was perhaps an hour away on this early spring day.
“They’re just going to want to play outside for a bit before it gets dark,” Cory said. “I… the shields are being poked at constantly, though. I don’t want some sadistic pus-pile jumping out and grabbing one of them instead of Mullins.” She looked over her shoulder. “No offense, Mullins.”
“None taken, my lady. If I may—they can’t actually touch children. They can lure them, they can tempt them, but they can’t touch them. They can’t cross thresholds, so the house is safe.
But even in the gardens, I’ll be honest—I didn’t even know elves existed until recently. I don’t think they’d go after an elfin child even if one was given to them in a box.”
Cory gave a sigh of relief before speaking to Katy. “Excellent. Just don’t wrap them in any boxes and they’ll be fine.”
“Not a problem, my lady. And you know me and Jacky—we stay close.”
“You’re the best,” Cory said with a hug. “Thanks, you guys. I think Teague and Arturo are going to be checking the borders, so make sure you keep in touch with them. At the first sign of wonkiness—”
“We take them inside and watch a movie. We’re good at the nanny thing, Cory. You know us.”
“And I’m a micromanaging hosebeast.” Cory shrugged and then turned to the group. “Okay, folks—we’re going in through the garage. You can get the full Green’s Hill tour later—you’ll love the place, I’m sure, but right now, let’s make some fuckin’ magic.”
What Might Have Been
MULLINS LOOKED around the “new vampire room” in surprise.
It was, essentially, a stainless steel vault, with scouring marks on every surface. They’d passed through the garage, much bigger than he’d expected, to a landing. A set of stairs led up from the landing, but they’d taken the set that led down, into the roots of the hill.
And yet not cavernous.
Even while underground, the feeling of this place—from the grounds to the garage—was that of complete freedom.
They’d leveled out to what appeared to be a giant sitting room, complete with couches in black and oxblood leather, big fur rugs, and a giant wide-screen television in the center.
And two on the sides.
“Pardon the decorating,” Cory said as they passed through. “For some reason—”
Bracken cleared his throat.
“For reasons of controversial conclusions based on human behavior,” Cory corrected, “most of our vampires are male. About seventy-five percent. I can’t even… well, I could probably explain it, but then people would argue and other people would discuss, but we’d be here all day. Anyway. Lotsa guys. So their sitting room looks like a man cave. I’ve commissioned a sitting room designed by the female vampires, but you know. Busy. They’re getting to it. But that’s why that room is so frickin’….”
“You’re their queen, Cory,” Nicky said delicately behind her.
“Male,” she finished flatly.
“You’re queen of the vampires?” Beltane said avidly. “Awesome! How’d that happen?”
Cory gave them all a look so filled with pain, Mullins felt his breath stop. “Terrible, terrible loss,” she said quietly. “And more time than we have to tell.”
He remembered then, Emma’s story that Green’s lover, Adrian, had b
een a vampire. Perhaps their story was like his—filled with tangles of lovers, filled with regret.
He was glad that they’d seemed to find some peace, though. This place—this lovely, chaotic, peaceful fairy hill—was such a balm to his soul.
He wasn’t sure what had been racing through Edward’s mind since they arrived—there’d been no time to exchange their thoughts in private.
But Mullins knew that for his own peace of mind, seeing the people here—bawdy, gentle, kind, stern, sometimes all in the same breath—had opened his eyes somewhat.
Cory had given him a gentle absolution for his sins.
Yes, Edward had forgiven him, had put his wrong in the context of being young and stupid and filled with remorse. But Cory had told him that it wasn’t just a lover’s kindness. She’d told him that the world was large enough for a man to be both evil and repentant. That Mullins’s transgression was minor. That his soul, his feelings, were important, not invalidated because he’d screwed up.
He wanted to cry. He wanted to exult. He wanted to celebrate that his humanity had never really been gone—that he’d been a victim of his own guilt.
But mostly what he wanted to do was grab Edward’s hand and thank him for his faith, for the implicit faith that had never once wavered, that Mullins was a man worth loving.
Unfortunately, first, they had things to do.
“So, here we go,” Cory said with a shiver. “Gotta tell you, guys, we really hate this room. Elves can’t come in here because of the metal, but the werefolk can, so I’m going to have Teague and Renny and a couple of other weres in the corners. Don’t mind them—they’ll read a book or something. I just need my people in here while we work.”
“But they can ride in cars?” Edward asked, and Mullins was both proud of his practical brain and eager to get started. Of course, though. He was worried about his brother.
“Half-elves usually can,” Cory said frankly. “They’re not great with long trips. Green needs a special herbal infusion in all his clothes to fly, and all the cars are washed with it.”
“So when we painted our house with lead paint about sixty years ago—”
Cory looked at Francis with sympathy. “Oh, you poor baby. Yes—that would have made him sick eventually, just like human children if they ate it. For right now, there will be a few elves outside and one in the panic room—”
“You have a panic room for a….” Beltane looked around. “Panic room?”
Cory shook her head. “You guys, just… just, you do not want to know. Anyway. There will be someone monitoring us from outside in case something tries to get in. Are we good now?”
Everybody nodded.
“Now, is there anything you need?” she asked.
“My case from the back of the minivan,” Edward said. “You can’t miss it—it’s nylon over a wooden base that has a core of plastic cubicles, each one is marked—”
“It’s out here!” Bracken called from the open door. “The brownies also brought some sort of staff that is totally disgusting and feels like a live snake.”
“Yeah!” Edward called, trotting out of the room to retrieve the items. “You might not want to touch that.”
Mullins snickered, and Cory caught his eyes and winked. “Everybody’s got their stories, right?”
“Well, this is the one that almost got Harry killed,” Mullins told her. And then, as Edward brought the case in and organized, asking the air occasionally for an item they’d forgotten, such as linen squares and ribbon, he told her, relating the boys’ adventures as he’d seen them through the small bit of glass that had tethered him to Edward’s reality.
“Ohh…,” she breathed happily, Nicky nodding by her side, “I really want to meet Harry when he’s feeling better. Me, him, Teague—we could do some serious damage.”
Nicky grew sober. “No, please, beloved,” he said softly. “I thought we were beyond—”
She shook her head. “Never beyond that,” she told him. “What kind of mother would I be if I killed the part of myself that made them?”
“Lady Cory!” Edward called, interrupting. “My lady, may I ask you something?”
“Of course,” she said, stepping forward and away from the uncomfortable thing Mullins hadn’t meant to bring up. “What do you need?”
“It’s not necessary,” Edward said humbly. “The thing is, Emma had only Suriel and us to bring Leonard fully into the human world. This time it was going to be myself and my brothers, and we were going to spread our power around, grant him the same long life we have.”
“But Harry is out of commission,” she said gently.
“I could call Suriel—”
Cory looked over his shoulder for a moment, her eyes unfocused. “It’s done,” she said. “He’ll be down in about an hour.”
Edward nodded, unfazed. Of course he was—he and his brothers had learned telepathy as their first spell.
“Anything else?” she asked kindly.
“Help,” Edward said, and Mullins could tell the admission cost him. “I… I think I could protect you all from getting power-stripped, but God, if we could just have some more power feeding us… I….” He gave Mullins an unhappy look. “You don’t understand. We watched Emma and Suriel do this, and it was… huge. There was so much power involved. I’m… I just can’t let him down, is all.”
Cory nodded gravely, then stepped forward and took his hand. “Look—we’ll put an elf on every corner, if you want. You make as many hex bags as you think necessary, and someone will be there to anchor them. We’ll make the first Goddess get/wizard combined ex-demonizing task force—I’m there. It’ll be a hoot. But I think you’re forgetting the main ingredient that saved your father, and it’s the thing Mullins is going to need the most from you now.”
“What’s—”
Cory held up a finger. “’Scuse me, my pocket’s buzzing.”
Edward jumped. “So is mine,” he muttered. He pulled out his phone and looked at Mullins. “It’s Emma,” he said softly. “I’ll have to tell her about Harry.”
“She’s going to want to be here.”
Edward shrugged. “I should probably ask the Lady, or Green, if they can come.”
Mullins nodded, gesturing to him to proceed, and went to work on the hex bags himself. The ingredients were divided into five categories—one for each point of the pentacle. Earth, wind, fire, water, and spirit—of course.
Edward’s cunning little box—Francis’s creation—had put the items into separate sections for each category, because Edward was exceedingly clever that way, and Mullins was about to reach into the box when Edward held out his hand. “No touching!” he snapped. “Mullins, this spell is for you. You could completely contaminate it!”
Mullins yanked his hand back and blew out a breath. Edward had put everybody to work on some part of the spell—Nicky was firing up the distillery, Cory had started warming up the cauldron. Even Renny was busy wiring together a tiny strainer so they could use some of the items to infuse the potion like tea.
He was completely superfluous, and with a sigh he wandered past Cory, who was talking excitedly to someone named Max. “Look, asshole, I don’t care how fast he was going. We’ve got fucking demons banging at our shields! Yes, they’re real. What, you think you’re a shapeshifter and you know everything? No, it surprised me too. But the point is they’re not going away until that little car thief gets his ass on the hill and donates blood or spit or hair or something so we can complete this spell. I don’t know why a spell. It’s just how the God people roll, man, I don’t know what to tell you.”
She paused and took a deep breath. “Is it worth your job?” she asked, and like everything Mullins and Edward had said, she seemed to take it seriously. “I’d rather you keep your job. You’re handy where you are. But if it’s a choice between losing your job and detaining that kid for another hour, I’m going to have to say retire, sweetie. I’m sorry. Max, this shit is getting fairly out of hand. Do you need an elf there
to do a mind-wipe?” She paused. “Seriously? It’s that late? Fuck! Where in the fuck did my day go! Yeah, sure—baffle your guys with bullshit for ten minutes and I’ll send Marcus and Phillip to do a brain wipe when they wake up. Jesus fucking Christ—I could swear we just sat down in the fucking garden to eat.”
She hung up and looked around. “Edward, do you have a time frame, here? Any specific pull of the moon that’s gonna make this shit go easier?”
“Midnight’s always a kick in the ass,” Edward said, “but anytime we’re ready to roll is good.”
Mullins covered his mouth, because even Edward was affected by the Little Goddess.
“Excellent. It’s seven o’clock now, apparently—the vampires are almost up. If we can get this show on the road by ten o’clock I will be really fucking excited.” She went back on the phone, and Mullins wandered out the door.
Bracken was sprawled on one of the ugly couches in the common room, reading something on his phone. He looked up as Mullins wandered in and gestured with his chin to the nearby chair. “Too much going on?” he asked perceptively.
“I’m not allowed to touch anything,” Mullins said, tail twitching as he sat. “And yes.” He shrugged. “I… I’m used to hiding away from chaos, you know?”
A slight smile flickered over Bracken’s beautiful features. “She tries to do that. Doesn’t always work.”
Mullins nodded. “I can see that. What’s that room for, anyway? I know she said it was the new vampire room but—”
Bracken shook his head. “Oh, little demon. So young. So naïve. So totally not prepared for what a new vampire is like. Especially when the whole damned kiss is about to wake up and get up in our business.”
Mullins let out a little moan. “I miss Edward’s house,” he said softly. “The family was big enough. This… this is exhausting. It’s intimidating. It’s… confusing. All of the brothers are in disarray. Edward’s trying to convince his mother not to come. Bringing Leonard back took three people—and Leonard.”