Playing With Monsters

by Amelia Hutchins

  I looked at him, noting that the platinum blonde watched me with a careful gaze. She trusted me as much as I trusted her. My eyes gravitated to the brands on her arms, which I knew belonged to the Fae. They slithered just beneath her skin, moving seductively.

  “Hers aren’t real,” the tri-colored eyes man teased, his green eyes alight with laughter. “Mine are, if you want to touch them?” he offered, holding his arm out as I looked at his. I lifted my hand, but stopped before I actually touched them. “I don’t bite,” he said.

  “I do,” I whispered as I gave him a cool stare before I started to pull more roots.

  “I noticed, it was kind of hard to miss,” he said with a sexy smirk. “I occasionally attack as well when the hunger…comes,” he laughed.

  “Don’t get Adam started,” the blonde said. “He’s a relentless flirt.”

  “As if, Syn, I’m a freaking Casanova,” he replied.

  “Children,” the older guy admonished paternally and they shared a smile before they went back to pulling herbs.

  “Need a few corners for them, old timer?” the guy with the weird silvery eyes asked as he moved in closer and looked at the dirt with a smile.

  “Nothing I can’t handle, demon,” he said, and I was gone.

  I was up and moving towards the house at a dead run.

  “Shit,” I heard the old guy say.

  “Something I did?” the silvery eyed guy asked.

  “Demons; she’s from a coven that’s been running from them for centuries.”

  I watched them from the window, my eyes taking in their friendly banter as they finished curing the herbs and preparing the roots to be stored. They looked normal, even from where I stood peeking at them through the curtain. They laughed, and other than a few differences, looked like humans. I watched as the guy with golden eyes arrived and waved his hand, and a table filled with food and everything they needed to finish processing the herbs materialized. I finally recognized him. He was the prince of the Dark Fae. He had been all over the magazines for a while there, but what I couldn’t figure out was why a bunch of Fae and a Fae prince were hanging out with witches from the Guild in my garden.

  “It’s called glamour,” a deep voice interrupted my thoughts, and I spun around, pulling the curtain rod with me.

  “Get out!” I yelped as I wielded the curtain rod as a weapon, and he held up his hands as if he meant no harm. Yeah, right.

  “I’m not the kind of demon that has been preying on your people. I won’t hurt you; I don’t kill without reason, and I’m not here to hurt your coven.” He pointed out the window. “I’m in love with that little angel over there; she is my world. I’m half Horde Fae, Ryder is my brother and he is Horde Fae, not Dark Fae as the press believes. He’s with Synthia, and they have the most beautiful children together. Adam over there is the real Dark prince of the Fae and he was raised in the Guild, as was Synthia. Olivia, Adam, Adrian and Synthia were all raised as witches inside the Guild and have known what they truly were for just less than a year now. Synthia was a mere child when Fae, her own brother to be precise, killed her adoptive parents. It called Adam to her, because he was her familiar. That event also made her one of the best Enforcers the Guild had ever seen. Olivia was sent the Spokane Guild when her mother died during childbirth; her father was an Archangel. Adrian, he’s the one whose blood healed you, was Synthia’s boyfriend at one time, and Adam’s best friend, but Ryder made him an offer for power, and he took it. He’s a vampire, like Vlad, who I understand you met at one of Lucian’s clubs. So you see, we’re all misfits,” he said. “The thing is, Lena, we’ve all been mislabeled and misunderstood, and we survived. We’re not here to hurt you, or try to figure you out. We’re willing to help if you need it.”

  I watched as Lucian came in through the front door, as if he’d sensed my discomfort, and our eyes locked. He turned to the tall demon-fae, or whatever the hell he was, and growled from deep in his chest.

  “You’re making her uncomfortable, Ristan,” he warned, his eyes turning angry as he lowered his head in a slight tilt.

  “I’m just letting her know that she’s not alone. We’re not here to hurt her,” he replied; his strange eyes moved to mine and then he vanished.

  “I brought some groceries,” Lucian said, nodding to the bag in his hand.

  “You’ve been bringing me food,” I whispered as I exhaled. Great, I was a fucking charity case. “Thank you.”

  “Don’t thank me, Lena, I have my own reasons for needing you well-fed,” he whispered with a wicked grin on his lips. “How’s the pain from ignoring that hunger?”

  “It’s fine,” I growled, but it wasn’t. I already needed him again, and it was becoming down right embarrassing.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  ~Lucian

  I stood on the balcony, watching as the Fae continued to come and go from the property surrounding Lena’s cottage; none of them showed signs of giving up anytime soon. She’d kicked me out right after I’d kicked Ristan out, but at least I knew she had food. The thought of her being alone and starving was something that made my insides twist. She’d remained inside that cottage for a couple of days now, locked up to avoid the Fae who persistently waited for her. It had given me time to consider my next move, as well as giving her time to crave what we had between us. I could get sex anywhere, but it wouldn’t contain the chemistry that was alive between Lena and I. Perhaps that’s why I felt a pull to her.

  “Lucy, time to start ‘splaining,” Ristan said as he sifted in with the Horde King and his pet hellhound, Zahruk, close behind him.

  “I don’t have to explain her to you,” I growled, knowing they weren’t leaving until they figured out why so many un-hosted demons were converging on this place. I knew it because I would have done the same thing in their place. Demons are deadly, but the sheer numbers amassing here at the moment was something they wouldn’t let go.

  “Then explain why her cottage is swarming with demons trying to get in,” Ryder amended, his golden eyes locking with mine in silent challenge.

  “Ask them, Ryder,” I mumbled, noting the lights in the cottage being extinguished as she moved through it, slowly blowing out candles.

  “The type of demons swarming this area can’t speak without a host, and Gods forbid they take one,” he growled. “Something is going on, besides what we can obviously see.”

  “Magdalena was abandoned by her coven, why?” Ristan asked, changing the subject. I debated how much I should disclose to them about her. As much as I despised admitting to any fault or weakness, I would more than likely need their help this time and unless they fully understood what was at stake, I wouldn’t get them on board.

  “Because when her magic came online, she wasn’t with her coven, nor was she supposed to be awakened. She wasn’t selected for the Awakening. When she wasn’t selected, she came to me at the Metaline Falls club,” I said, smirking with the memory of her nervousness, even as she kicked the serving girl out. “The coven hangs on to their archaic rituals, and they have three steps that are followed to the letter. The first step is being chosen by the ancestors who are ritualistically brought back to choose which witch is ready to handle the power and magic. The second one is attending the ritual of awakening the magic. During that ceremony, they do another ritual that breaks the curse that limits their magic until they are of age and have been selected. Lastly, they go through the Harvest, which is to ensure that the next generation is created from the best bloodlines. Lena wasn’t chosen by the dead to receive her powers, but she did. She was in the abbey when they began the ritual to break the curse. She wasn’t among those who were selected; the ritual should have failed with her, but she managed to obtain her powers.”

  “You left out the Harvest, and the part where you fucked her, and she could be carrying your child,” Ryder injected.

>   “I can’t create children,” I replied, noting his wince as he probably thought about his own children. Unlike him, I didn’t want children. This world was a fucked up place, and my enemies were too many to add a child into the equation anyway.

  “Is that so?” he asked, his eyes slowly moved to Synthia, watching her in the distance as she laughed at something Adrian said.

  “That doesn’t bother you, his constant eye-fucking of your woman?” I asked, noting he tensed ever so slightly, giving away that he wasn’t immune to it.

  “She’s done with him, and I keep her well sated,” he announced, his eyes glowing with the hunger his breed was known for. Fucking kept them fed; they fucked, a lot. If humans ate as much as the Fae fucked, they would be obese. “Killing him isn’t an option; she’d hate me for it.”

  “Is that a job offer?” I asked, watching as his head shook a negative answer. “Didn’t think so; she’s a weakness, one your enemies won’t hesitate to use against you.”

  “Magdalena is yours,” he said, giving me his full attention. “Is that why those demons are around her, even now?”

  “She’s not a weakness, she’s just something to pass time with,” I answered harshly. “If she knew who I really was, she’d run. If she knew why I was here, she’d fight me. She’d lose, but Lena would try her best until she forced my hand. It’s bred into her genetics, through hundreds of years of bloodlines.”

  “Elaborate,” Ryder said.

  “To know the ending, you need to understand the beginning. Over ten thousand years ago, another was in charge of holding the seal. Think of the seal as a key, one that unlocks everything. It was created with the best of intentions; however, humans have an apt saying about roads to hell being paved with good intentions. The creation of the seal didn’t turn out as expected and it was discovered that it would bring hell, heaven, Faery and every other world into this one. It would be an apocalypse, one so cataclysmic that no would survive.

  “The first holder, or rather host of the seal, thought he could find love with a succubus, but she knew what he held within his soul. She used him to bring forth a child. The seal was released from him when he created life, a life she manipulated and twisted to bring forth chaos. Before the seal could realize its true purpose, the Gods were able to reclaim it and restore order. They then took the seal and placed it in a box, although if that box was ever opened, it would create a new seal holder, per se.

  “I was selected to be the keeper of the seal and I brought it with me when left the Underworld. When I first came here, it was to collect the souls of witches, to help power a ritual that would destroy the seal. The seal is too dangerous to exist and I looked for centuries for a way to eradicate it. Now that I had a viable plan to get rid of it once and for all, I just needed to put it into action.

  “I located a large coven just outside of Aberdeen, Scotland, one that was strong; the bloodlines were powerful as they descended from the first witch created by Hecate. In the midst of the ignorance and hatred of the time and witch trials that were spawned from it, they stood strong and were a force to be reckoned with. That’s when I met her.

  “Katarina appeared to be pure of heart, untainted by greed as most of the others in her coven were. Where they wanted power, she just wanted to live and thrive. She was the most intriguing creature I had ever met, and eventually I started courting her. She never took from me, never asked for anything. I admit that I fell in love with her; she was everything to me,” I whispered, hating that even now the emotions made a twinge of regret tighten my heart. “I was going to explain what I was to her, bind her to me; make her immortal. I never got the chance. Her coven discovered enough about me to figure out what kind of threat I posed to them and the games began. Over a period of weeks, they turned her against me and she changed. I didn’t understand at the time what was going on, the change in her demeanor, how she was almost frightened to be around me and was forcing herself to stay.

  “Understandably, I was curious and suspicious of her behavior. Being in love with her didn’t change my purpose. I needed the power her coven would provide. I never stopped trying to identify the ones who held enough power that we could reap for our cause. In the end, not even love could stop me from my end goal, but then I had a bigger threat to worry about.

  “One night, as I watched them, I found the coven performing a ritual I’d never seen before. As I watched the ritual play out, I realized that the spells had been designed to try and destroy me. They discovered that night the foolishness of their actions as I killed Katarina’s brother mid-chant. He was the high priest of the coven and as we interrogated the rest of those who participated in that madness, I discovered what they had learned about me, and what Katarina had been up to. Stringing me along, keeping me occupied while they worked on a way to destroy me.

  “As I slaughtered them, I learned that she was at my house, waiting to complete the curses her coven had set in motion; waiting to curse me back to where she’d thought I had come from, and the box containing the seal was well-hidden, but she was a strong witch. I am sure it sensed her power and called to her, or she discovered it through her magic. Doesn’t matter how she found it, but she did.

  “The moment she opened it, she released it into herself. The seal was never intended for a human host; they’re not strong enough. I finally found her as she wandered around the forest that surrounded the meadow we’d once lain in for hours, making love…Her mind was fractured by the seal, and as I began listening to her words, I noted she was cursing me. I think she knew she wouldn’t survive the seal’s possession, and she was using what little time she had left, trying to complete the coven’s curse.

  “At the time, I was enraged by her betrayal, devastated at what I knew she had become, and there was nothing I could do to save her. I confronted her, and she admitted that she and her coven were sending me back to hell. The fools had no idea that their silly curses couldn’t keep me there, and I made damn sure she knew it. She changed tactics and cursed herself to be reborn until she killed me. I was angry and amended her curse so that I would always be able to find her and the seal. After I killed her, I returned her body to the coven members who still lived, but I’d modified some of the details of the memories of those who bore witness and helped Katarina and her family. Unfortunately, due to their actions, I had to abandon the original plan and try to find a way to destroy the seal under the changed circumstances.

  “You have to understand; the seal is sentient. It’s not like the relics that you are looking for. It has its own awareness and we discovered, after it passed from the first host, that it has become evil and thrives on destruction and chaos. It wants to be freed. Killing Katarina, I had hoped would be the end of the seal as it could only be sustained by an immortal being.

  “I discovered when Katarina reincarnated the first time and came into her powers about sixty years later, that the seal is attached to her soul. It found the one thing within her that was immortal, and clung to it. Every time Katarina is reborn, the seal has the opportunity to awaken and as long as I can find and kill her reincarnation before she comes into her full power, the seal remains dormant. If I fail to find her before she reaches her full powers and the seal awakens, I may not be able to stop them from unleashing hell to our worlds. Up until the last reincarnation, the reincarnations seemed to arrive every fifty or sixty years or so. This makes it very hard to manage as it isn’t predictable. Right now, I know she’s been reborn again and she was one of the witches that just came into her powers. This is why I am here; I have to find which one she is, and end this.”

  “So you can kill her, again?” Ryder asked. “You loved her.”

  “I love her, still,” I laughed coldly. “The original was the love of my life. She cursed me, and every time I find her again, she tries to find new ways to try and destroy me. With every reincarnation she gets faster, smarter. After I killed her first r
eincarnation, the coven moved on me. Fled the country. And when I felt the pull again that told me she had been reborn, I had a bitch of a time finding them again. I finally located them outside Port Royal, Nova Scotia.

  “Around this time, I realized the connection to her maturity and coming into her full power as the trigger for the seal. I couldn’t risk her coming into her powers before I figured out which one she was or where she was if they ran again, so the idea of the Awakening was, shall we say, ‘suggested’ to the high priestess. She thought she was protecting the coven from irresponsible young witches that might be unwise and attract monsters; she had no idea that was giving me time to stop a far bigger monster.”

  “Do you love her every time?” Ristan asked, his eyes narrowing as he considered exactly how fucked up the whole situation was.

  “No. There have been a few I grew fond of or cared for; however, I can’t really say I have loved any of them,” I mumbled absently. They weren’t my Katarina. She had been lost to me the moment she’d turned against me. I’d never allowed myself to truly care for them, knowing I would be the one to end their lives and some of their deaths had been downright sadistic, depending on how badly they betrayed me at the end. Betrayal wasn’t something I had any tolerance for.”

  “And yet you continue to kill them, even though you care for them?”

  “If you had to choose between Olivia and the entire existence of Faery and any other world connected to yours, what would you choose, Ristan?” I asked without judgement.

  “I wouldn’t choose,” he said, but I knew he already had.

  “You choose the many, even if you have to sacrifice what you love,” I replied. “I didn’t choose to do what I have because it was easy. The seal was my responsibility and it was released while under my watch. Until I can find a way to destroy the seal without accidentally ‘turning the key’ and releasing the horrors, I will have to keep finding and killing her reincarnations. Another thing to consider is what would happen if another creature figures out what is going on with the seal and got to the reincarnation first. I remember what happened when the succubus twisted the seal; you have no idea the chaos the seal can create, much less the seal trapped in the form of a corruptible human with the power of the witch.”