AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Threatening? Of course not. Why would I threaten my kin?” But her face was clouded, and she looked ready to smack me a good one. I held her gaze, not backing down. We were similar in looks—violet eyes, raven hair, but I was taller and my Fae heritage was closer to the surface than hers. On the other hand, she had eons of magic under her belt and the cloak of a queen on her shoulders.
“We’ll consider your advice.” I folded my arms across my chest. “Anything else?”
“Better not be or I’ll fry you for breakfast,” Smoky said casually, tipping his chair back so that he was balanced against the wall. “No one threatens my wife and gets away alive.” He gazed at Morgaine, an impassive look on his face.
She narrowed her eyes and though she didn’t look his way, I saw a hint of fear creep across her face. So she was afraid of dragons. Well, she’d better be. Smoky could take her down with one nasty swipe of his claws, and he had his own forms of magic to guard against hers. If it came to a showdown, my money was on Dragon Dude.
Morgaine apparently decided it was not a good day to die. She turned back to me without saying a word to him. “Let me know what you decide, but make it quick. There are currents brewing and I wouldn’t want to be caught walking between two worlds when they spill over.”
“Consider us warned.” I gently motioned to the door.
Morgaine let out a low hiss. “Stupid girls. Stupid, stupid girls. You think just because you’re fucking dragons and cavorting with demons that you’re safe? You think that having the blessing of that ancient husk of an Elfin Queen is going to offer you shelter? Think again, girls. You’re playing on the wrong side and when the fire comes bearing down, you’re going to get your fingers burned.” And with that, she swept past me and stormed out the door, slamming it behind her.
I looked back at the others. Smoky was examining his nails. Morio was finishing up his breakfast. Iris was washing the counter. Only Delilah looked at me, and her expression—a mixture of worry and irritation—mirrored my own.
“So much for that,” I finally said. “Okay, let’s go bag ourselves a goshanti devil.” But inside, I was mulling over the thought that our own kin were proving to be more problematic than the demon menace.
At least there were some things we could still control, I thought as I grabbed my capelet and headed for the car. Give me a fight with a simple demon or devil any day, over the whims of a pissed off Fae Queen.
CHAPTER 4
The air smelled of salt and woodsmoke, cedar and moss as we headed out to the car. Delilah called shotgun, so Morio climbed in the back. I tossed the bag of ritual items into the trunk and slid into the driver’s seat. As we pulled out of the driveway, Iris waved to us from the front steps. Her fair face, and the hope in her smile, reminded me once again why we did what we did. Why we stayed here and fought.
“So, you really think Nerissa has a chance of winning the council seat?” I glanced at Delilah.
“I think we’ve got the odds on our side,” she said. My sister was on the recently elected Supe Community Council and had vigorously been campaigning for Nerissa over the past few months. “If people aren’t scared off by Taggart Jones. Andy Gambit has been pushing him as the front runner in the Seattle Tattler, and all he is, is a mouthpiece for the Freedom’s Angels. We’ve been trying to find the evidence that ties them together but haven’t been able to, though we know it’s there somewhere. Jones is pushing an agenda to strip away all the rights in King County that the Fae and the Supes have won.”
“Andy Gambit has his head up his ass, or he would if I had my way,” I mumbled. Gambit was a yellow journalist with a grudge against anybody who wasn’t one of the “earthborn”—a loose faction of wacko groups who were all militantly bigoted hate mongers. I’d been on the receiving end of his barbs more than once.
“We should encourage Menolly to have a word with him.” Delilah giggled. “Of course, he’d just turn around and use it to fuel the flames.”
“And flames like that we do not need,” I said. “No, we need a more devious plan to undermine Gambit and his xenophobic pack of cronies. We’ll have to think about it for a while.”
The thought of actually toppling Gambit from his position as god of yellow journalism tickled me fuchsia. Maybe we could lure him into a compromising position and publish the pictures. Spread the love, so to speak.
Shaking away the thought until a more appropriate time, I said over my shoulder, “So, Morio, what’s the plan once we get to Harold’s?”
He leaned forward, eyes gleaming in the rearview mirror. “Scour the earth with the salt and your Tygerian well water, then exorcise the hell out of it. I’ve got the litany to free the dead memorized.”
I glanced at him through the mirror. Over the months, I’d come to realize that the youkai actually enjoyed the escalating turmoil. He wasn’t one for words, but I could smell him. Not exactly aroused, but a hint of excitement lingered in his scent. He lusted for the chase, especially when it involved magic. What scared me a little was I was beginning to notice the same reaction in myself.
Delilah must have caught his scent, too, because she glanced back at him. “Where did you first learn death magic?”
Morio remained silent for a moment. When he spoke, his words were terse. “I learned it while growing up.” He lapsed back into silence and I sidled a look at Delilah, who shrugged and went back to gazing out the window.
As the pavement passed beneath our wheels, fat drops of rain began to splatter down and then the skies opened up and a bone-drenching downpour pounded the road. I slowed, careful to avoid hydroplaning so we didn’t go sailing into any other cars. Driving in Seattle was crazy enough, but the rain created hazards I’d never thought of back in OW.
Of course, back home I’d never ridden in a car, either, or had to learn to drive anything more complicated than a cart. Riding horses came second nature to me. And horses and carts didn’t usually go fast enough to skid on the roadways there. We didn’t do concrete back in Otherworld. Though cobblestones presented their own problems when wet.
“Wouldn’t you know it? We’re going to get soaked to the skin.” I frowned, wondering if I should try a little weather magic, but a flash of the deluge I might create if my magic backfired nixed any further thought in that direction.
Delilah snorted. “So what? In the past months, we’ve been covered with demon blood, viro-mortis slime, venidemon guts, mud, sludge, and who knows what else? What’s a little rain?”
“Don’t forget pixie dust.” I grinned at her. “And I’m sure we’ll be nose deep in oozing green ichor before we’re done with the job. I’m just glad I found a talented dry cleaner.”
I turned left onto the street leading to the ruins of Harold’s house. The morning had taken on a gloomy presence and the last place I wanted to be was here, but if Morio was right and the goshanti devil usually didn’t come out during the day, we’d better use the daylight while we had it.
I pulled next to the curb behind a prowl car. The uniformed figures of Lethe and Finias, two OW Fae who had been assigned Earthside to help out with the FH-CSI—the Faerie Human Crime Scene Investigation team—were standing guard. As we climbed out of the car, Finias strolled over to greet us.
