The Horned Mage

Book 3

Defiled Bonds

By Liam Lawson

Copyright © 2020 by Liam Lawson. All rights reserved.

Table of Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter One

Stepping into a backyard with a swimming pool and a pair of gorgeous girls in bikinis should have been enough to lift my mood. It lifted something all right, but just because they got me horny didn’t mean I wasn’t still nervous. I took a deep breath. I didn’t have anything to be nervous about. Changes were an inevitable part of life. Some things, such as the two bikini-clad girls before me, were definitely changes for the better.

Scarlett and Absinthe looked up the second I stepped out into the backyard, already unbuttoning my shirt so I could join them by the pool. They’d been hovering over our neighbor, Thomas Morrow and his tablet, looking at what I couldn’t tell. It looked like he had a whole duffel bag full of gadgets and stuff set out beside his lounger. He’d started coming over when we’d started using the pool. At first just to look at the girls, and they were worth looking at, but slowly Thomas had become our friend.

Scarlett reminded me of a cheetah with a lean, athletic body and tight figure with a feline face dotted with a few freckles. Her yellow bikini, which offset her light Latina complexion wonderfully, only helped with the comparison. She’d been the most eager to make use of the pool when I’d first moved here. Now, I could count on finding her with Absinthe in the pool at least once a day.

Absinthe was also athletic and slender, but not in the same way as Scarlett. Her hips and bust suggested that she’d be a lot curvier if she didn’t work out as much as she did. Or hadn’t grown up with a werewolf’s metabolism. She lacked the definition of a professional athlete but was flush with healthy strength, the kind that came from regularly using your body and she’d only become more toned since she’d started joining Scarlett and me on our morning runs and added a swimming regimen to her schedule.

Like me, Absinthe was Caucasian, but her skin was golden from years spent outside. Whereas my hair is black though, hers was a rich chocolate color. She’d been a part of the Road Wolves, a motorcycle club and werewolf pack rolled into one, before she’d found herself mated to me and Scarlett, her werewolf magic mingling with my own weird magic to create something…I have no idea what we’d done to ourselves, actually. Her bikini, like most everything she wore, was black and edgy.

Both girls were possessed of fiery green eyes, a color that had superseded their original coloration when they’d magically bonded to me, and which more and more often were prone to glowing when their emotions ran high. Like a wolf’s, but no wolf had ever had eyes this particular shade of green. Those eyes lit up at the sight of me, glowing in time with a low pulse of happiness laden with lust that brought a smile to my lips. I don’t care who you are or where you come from, literally being able to feel that people in your life want you is one of the best feelings in the world.

Thomas took note of my arrival too, though less enthusiastically. He’d realized quickly that while the girls liked him well enough and genuinely thought that some of his techie stuff was fun, they weren’t interested in him as anything more than a friend. That they didn’t mind him checking them out probably didn’t hurt either. A part of me was a little bit relieved when I realized that there was no chemistry beyond friendship and one-way-lust between Thomas and the girls. I had absolutely no right to be jealous, but the potential for it had been there. I’m a hypocrite, you understand. A sick and twisted hypocrite.

Both girls, through no fault of their own, and maybe more than a little fault of mine, were magically bonded to me and loved me. Absinthe had once called us a menage a troi. We all lived together. We slept together, though not all at once, in part because the bed was small, in part because Scarlett didn’t technically live with us and spent most evening back at her mom’s house, and in part because…I don’t know. It had just never felt right.

I think they’d do it if I asked, but that’s exactly why I wouldn’t. They’d both do just about anything I asked. Our relationship was decidedly skewed in my favor in terms of power and that made me very nervous about treating my girls right. Not the least of which because while they were in love with me, I was head over heels for Scarlett’s stepsister and my best friend, Soraya. I did say I was a hypocrite, didn’t I?

“Caleb, Caleb,” Scarlett called, pulling away from Thomas and Absinthe to hurry around the pool toward me, only to stop halfway there and step out into the grass, away from all of us.

Small pulses of pleasing power answered her footsteps. The land here liked us. That was what Eleanor, my boss and landlord, had told us when I’d been pressed to explain how the magic of this place reacted to me and how I’d drawn upon it to power my spells back when Absinthe’s pack had been trying to rip me to pieces. Long story.

“Check this out,” Scarlett said, eyes brimming with emerald energy. She took a breath and let it out. I may have been paying more attention to her small but pert breasts than what she was trying to do but even I couldn’t miss her suddenly going up in flames. Green flames, just like the kind I conjured.

I almost ran to her side, but the flames died down as quickly as they’d arrived. In Scarlett’s place stood an enormous white wolf-hound the size of a horse, lit from within with green energy that spilled out its eyes and mouth. Eleanor said that I’d somehow turned Scarlett and Absinthe into a type of fae hound called a cuth sith. Only Absinthe had already been a werewolf when I’d worked my magic upon her, and she’d been biting both Scarlett and me while we’d had our one and only three-way. It was probably the most brutal sex I’d ever had. The werewolf magic had mixed with mine and now, instead of turning into a giant wolf or fae hound, the result was this cross between the two. Only they’d never been able to transform without the aid of my spell-fire before.

Scarlett opened her mouth and grinned at me, enormous pink tongue lolling out the side of her mouth.

“We can change on our own now,” Absinthe said, coming to stand beside me, Thomas in tow, holding up his iPad. Was he recording this? I guess if the girls were okay with it, who was I to judge? I still did lawn work for Thomas’s father on the weekend so technically his dad was my boss. And he may have helped me figure out how to actually connect to Eleanor’s wifi when we’d first moved in when I’d proven myself technologically illiterate.

“And that’s not all,” she went on, beaming at Scarlett. “Show him.”

Scarlett bobbed her hand and danced in place, for all the world like a two-ton puppy. She came to an abrupt halt and threw her head back. I expected her to let out some kind of howl but instead she let fly a stream of green fire from her mouth.

“Damn!” Since when could werewolves or cu sith do that? I’d done a bit of research on both since I’d taken up living—kind of—with two of them. The cu sith were amazing and dangerous hunters but they didn’t have anything more to do with fire than werewolves did. “Wow, oh wow, what the hell?”

Scarlett gave a yip and went up in flames, bounding out of them in human form to throw her arms around me. “We’ve got fire too!”

“And can keep our clothes on when we shift,” Absinthe said dryly.

I guess it would get annoying if every time you transformed you either had to strip naked or ruin your clothing. Still, I couldn’t help giving her a cheeky grin and saying, “That’s too bad.”

She punched me in the arm though not with any real heat.

I turned to Thomas, giving the still-recording iPad a nervous glance. “You got any idea how this is happening?”

He shook his head. “Not a clue, man.”

His eyes drifted past me and I turned to find Eleanor Hardin walking out the back door in a flowing white dress, a big sun hat over her steely blond hair, and a tray laden with glasses of iced tea balanced in one hand. “You kid’s thirsty?”

Eleanor was one of those beautiful women who are utterly ageless. There was only a minute flaw in her beauty. The very first time I’d seen her she’d been carrying a cane. I’d thought she hadn’t needed it. Mostly I’d been right, but every few steps there’d be a slight hitch that would interrupt her otherwise flowing and graceful movements. I wasn’t brave enough to ask what had happened, but I knew it had something to do with her knee. Eleanor was a renowned arcanologist, sort of like the magical equivalent of Indiana Jones, and lived an adventurous life, mostly using her house as a way station between crazy adventures.

I’d been hired as a house sitter and part time intern, helping out with paperwork when she was here and keeping the place clean and running when she wasn’t. Truth be told, it was the cushiest job I’d ever had and considering I was getting my own rent-free place to stay over her garage with Absinthe, easily the best paying. I suspected that she was mostly keeping me around out of a sense of curiosity about my magic and heritage, but if so, who cared? I was benefiting in a very real and tangible way. Hell, I was actually learning to shape my fire into more than just blasts and balls under her tutelage. Without a doubt, the day a bunch of werewolves had run me to ground on her property had been one of the luckiest of my life.

She was also the sister to one of my professors and I was pretty sure he hated my guts. I deliberately hadn’t Googled her or pried into her background. It seemed like a bad idea to look a gift horse in the mouth when she’d effectively saved me from homelessness.

“Are you our boss or our caretaker?” I asked, gratefully taking a glass of tea.

It had taken me a little while to figure out, but if I wasn’t the first to say yes to food or drink, then Absinthe and Scarlett automatically turned it down and they always waited until I’d had first bite or sip. Now I said yes to everything edible so that they felt they had the option. I think it was a werewolf thing because it hadn’t been an issue before Absinthe joined us.

“I’m allowed to be a bit of both,” Eleanor said, lowering the tray after the girls and Thomas had taken their own sweet tea.

I downed half of mine and felt a restorative energy fill me, flowing up and down my spine from my stomach and into the rest of my bones, easing tensions I hadn’t even been aware of.

Eleanor had a gift with tea. I think it was one of her magical affinities.

I took another gulp and set the now empty glass back on the tray, realizing as I did so that there were more items on it.

I frowned. “Is that a syringe?”

Eleanor grinned and took a seat on the pool-side lounger. “It is. And these are cotton swabs and sandwich bags. We’re going to get to the bottom of what you are.”

I eyed the syringe’s needle with more than a little skepticism. “We are?”

“Dude, don’t wimp out,” Thomas said. He was still recording with his iPad.

“Are you going to record everything?” I asked with more than a little exasperation.

He bobbed his head up and down. “Hell yeah. You might not realize this, but you’re living the—“ he stopped himself from swearing, turning the foul word into a cough at a look from Eleanor—“the life, man. It is my solemn duty to document everything.”

“Right,” I said slowly, still eying the needle. “Whatever. Do you really need to stick me with that thing?”

Eleanor scowled at me. “You and the girls fought an entire werewolf pack to a standstill. You can’t tell me you’re afraid of needles.”

“No,” I said way too fast. “Not at all.”

The girls and Thomas snickered.

My ears burned. “Maybe a little.”

Eleanor offered me a sympathetic smile and patted the space beside her on the lounger.

Reluctantly I took it. Letting her study me was part of our arrangement after all. And it could mean answers. I’d actually looked up how much DNA tests costs and they weren’t cheap. Also, they had a hard time detecting magical heritage from inhuman sources without specific equipment that required specialized training. Needless to say, those were even more expensive.

“A friend of mine owes me a favor,” Eleanor said, cleaning off a spot on my forearm. “We’ll know what you are by the time I’m back from Portugal.”

Eleanor was currently on some quest that had taken her from Brazil to Spain and in the next few days, to Portugal. She was kind of closed lipped about it but had said that it had to do with conquistadors. History had never been as interesting before Eleanor started talking about it.

I gave a nod and bit down on my cheek as she drew blood into the syringe. Then she took my face in one hand, popped my mouth open, and swabbed my bitten cheek with a bit of cotton. She paused with the swab halfway to a plastic baggie then reached back to my face and popped my mouth open again. I’d thought that she was going back for more saliva but apparently something else had caught her attention.

She drew close, close enough that I had trouble seeing her face. “Your teeth are sharper.”

I flushed. I’d hoped no one would notice. They’d gotten sharper after I’d first broken my curse. I’d thought that was where the side effects had ended. I’d been wrong. They’d been getting a little bit sharper each day since and they weren’t the only things changing.

Eleanor tilted my head and examined the six-pronged antlers growing from my head. At first, I’d thought they’d been a side effect of the curse that had been on me for as long as anyone could remember. I was beginning to suspect that I’d been wrong about that too.

“They’re getting sharper too,” Eleanor said, reaching up to tap a single prong. She scowled, an expression she sometimes got when she was deep in thought. “Are they darker than before?”

I tried to nod but she had too firm a grip on my head, so I settled instead for, “Yes.”

And she wasn’t the first one to notice. Soraya had commented on both my teeth and antlers today when we’d been hanging out. It wasn’t something we’d done as often as we used to. Back before I’d started sleeping with her stepsister, Soraya was the most active ingredient in my social life. We’d been watching our favorite episodes of Firefly when she’d commented on them. She said the changes made her nervous.

“Have you noticed any other changes?” Eleanor asked, not unkindly.

I glanced at Thomas and his iPad.

“I’ll send you a copy of this, Ms. Hardin,” he said, and she nodded her thanks without looking at him and then beckoned for me to go on.

“I’m running now,” I said. “I didn’t used to but now I feel restless if I don’t. Um, I’ve been craving meat.”

Scarlett popped down on the lounge behind me and wrapped her arms around my shoulders, pressing her small breasts into my back and laying a quick peck on my neck. “We all have.”

The gesture wasn’t overtly sexual, Scarlett wasn’t radiating lust or intending anything when she’d done that, but I still felt a pulse of desire shiver through my body and my member throbbed in response between my legs. Both Absinthe and Scarlett exchanged a look, sensing my reaction at the same time. Together they burst out in giggles. Thomas blushed and looked away but kept the tablet trained on me. I wasn’t showing, was I? Oh wait, craving meat—ha ha. I got it.

Eleanor shook her head but was still smiling. “Anything else?”

I blushed. I didn’t want to admit the next thing, especially not in front of a camera, even though I knew it was probably the most relevant.

Absinthe answered before I could deny anything though. “He’s insatiable. Gets a hard on at the drop of a hat. Stamina, recovery…” she trailed off suggestively and threw me a wink.

I blinked at her, dumbfounded and unsure whether to be bursting with pride or humiliation.

“I’m pretty sure he’s a bit bigger down there too,” Scarlett said with a smirk.

Pride and humiliation. Who knew you could feel both at once?

“Really,” Eleanor said. “Would you mind letting me meas—”

“No!” I threw my hands over my lap.

All three girls burst out laughing.

“I’m kidding,” Eleanor said, wiping away a tear. “I’m kidding. But this is all good to know.”

“Good for who?” I muttered under my breath. Nobody answered me so I changed gears and hopefully would get them off the subject of how I freaking horny I’d become. “Do you have any idea what’s happening to me?” 

She stopped laughing and seemed to think about it for a bit.  “As best I can tell, whatever curse was placed upon you was, in fact, sealing away your heritage. Not all of it, obviously, but quite a bit. And your magic doesn’t work like a traditional human with regular affinities. You have affinities of course, but they are unusual. You’re very good within your affinities but can barely cast any spell outside of them and I think that’s only going to get worse. Without the curse holding your heritage back, it’s trying to catch up. It’s almost like you’re going through a second puberty.”

Oh, my Dear and Fluffy Lord. I planted my face in the palm of my hand. That was so much worse than before.

“It’s kind of a blessing, really,” Eleanor went on. “Could you imagine how much worse off you’d be if everything that’s happening to you had happened when regular puberty had set in?”

Despite myself I shuddered at the thought. It would have been nonstop sex and fire. I’d have been completely out of control.

“Whoever put that curse upon you, they may have been doing you a huge favor,” she said.

I scowled and lifted my head. “I doubt that.”

She shrugged. “It’s possible. We won’t know for certain until we get the reports back from the lab.” She stood up and collected the now empty glasses and tray. “I have to go finish packing. You kids have fun.”

I was too mortified for fun. Naturally that meant the girls chose that moment to grab me beneath my arms and with preternatural strength, they hurled me into the deep end of the pool.

I came up sputtering and indignant, ready to give them what for. At least until they joined me in the water. They came up, pressing me against the side of the pool with their bodies and took it in turns to kiss me. Slowly. Sensuously. Until my brain was much and my brain surrendered control to the smaller head.

“You know,” Thomas said from the side of the pool, still recording us with his tablet. “Y’all could make a killing doing that naked for the camera.”

He was forced to flee as the girls splashed water at him and leapt from the pool, chasing him back to his own yard and slamming the gate behind him.

I leaned my head back against the edge of the pool and let out a deep sigh. My life was weird as ever, but things were definitely looking up.

In retrospect I was a fucking idiot for jinxing us like that.

Chapter Two

Riddle me this, what does every beginner level class have that every student hates? The answer: group projects. Prof. Hardin had just assigned us one and by happy coincidence I’d ended up in Soraya’s group. Hardin seemed more than a little miffed when he realized how that had worked out—he’d intended the groupings to be random and definitely knew that Soraya was the only reason I was passing his class—but left us well enough alone to get started, warning us that we’d have to find time outside of class to work on this and that he was giving us today just so that we could coordinate our efforts. How the hell this asshole was related to Eleanor was beyond me.

He sat watching us with cold eyes from behind his desk at the front of the class, checking over some papers with a red pen. I admit I was not the best student, but he seemed to really have it out for me ever since I turned down his offer to let him study my curse. To clarify, I wanted my curse broken so I could actually use magic like a normal person. Prof. Hardin wanted to keep my curse around and study its effects on me and my magic and had been less than forthcoming when he already had the means to break it. Means which, unknown to Prof. Hardin, his assistant Lilian She had provided me with. He’d been less than pleased to discover that I had gone and broken it on my own.

Why Lilian had bothered to help me I don’t know, especially since if Hardin found out it would probably cost her job as his TA. Not that she really needed it from what I knew about her, which wasn’t a lot but still a hell of a lot more than everyone else in Woodhurst, let alone Forrester University. Lilian was a tall, elegant Chinese girl a few years older than me, and easily the most terrifying individual I had ever met.

Let’s break it down from the top. Remember those meth dealers Scarlett used to run around with? Lilian ate them. Because she turns into a giant fucking snake. Also, she used to be their boss. So, there’s another reason to be afraid. I’d seen her work some form of water magic similar to my fire magic once. It had been brief and was probably the single most impressive display of raw magical power I had ever seen. With a flick of a single finger she had conjured a blast of water with enough force to knock a grown man off his feet and throw him several yards back. A finger. And did I mention the giant fucking snake thing already, because if I did really I feel that it needs to be repeated. Drugs, murder with a possible touch of cannibalism, and more magic than I could shake a stick at. Fucking scary.

She’d helped me. She probably wouldn’t be so nice if she knew I’d burned down her meth lab back before I knew any of this stuff about her. There was no way, looking at her now as she fretted about the classroom that anyone would be able to tell what a powerhouse she was. Several students asked her questions and she had to ask them to repeat them several times. Then after giving an answer she’d stare out the window and completely lose track of what was going on around her until something forced her back to reality. I’d never seen her like this. It was enough to make her seem normal.

“Quit staring at her,” Soraya snapped at me.

I blushed and turned back to her group. “I’m not staring at anyone.”

“You are,” Soraya hissed. “Are you thinking of adding her to your harem?”

“No!” I answered too fast and too vehemently. The two other members of our group stared at me.

“Whatever,” Soraya said. “Focus.”

Naturally that was when Prof. Hardin chose to call me up to the front of the class.

Soraya groaned. “What did you do now?”

“No idea,” I said, offering an embarrassed shrug before answering the summons of the dread overlord. I mean seriously, he was acting like his desk was his personal fortress and his chair a throne.

“Sir,” I said when I reached him. My adoptive father, piece of work that he was, liked manners. All men in authority had been ‘Sir’ to me since I’d been thirteen and taken out of foster care.

“You’re not doing well in my class, Mr. Marshal,” he said.

No surprise there. But didn’t need amazing grades. I just needed to pass. Nobody looked at grades after school, just the degree you’d earned.

Apparently, my thoughts must have shown on my face because he scowled. “I don’t think you realize the severity of this, Mr. Marshal. You are teetering on the edge of failure.”

Failure? How? I’d done every assignment and passed. Not well, but I had passed. The only thing I could think of that would be dragging me down was the hands-on work we’d done a few weeks ago, at which I had totally sucked. I could work my affinities without any problem, but the harder I tried to follow the formulas laid out for my purely human peers, the less my magic cared to do what I told it to. But those grades had been mostly centered around participation, or so I’d been reassured by Lilian when I’d voiced my concerns to her. She was still my TA after all, even if I thought she might turn around and eat me if she suspected I knew the truth about her.

“Do you think you’ll be able to qualify for a new scholarship if you’ve failed a class in only your second semester?” he asked.

I’d only been able to pay my way this far because the curse I’d been under had qualified me for a scholarship. When I’d unthinkingly broken it, I’d lost my qualification. Next semester there’d be no scholarship to help me out and as much as I was enjoying working with Eleanor, my pay was mostly being given a place to stay rent and utility free. I was saving up from my weekend yard work gig, but there was no guarantee I’d have enough to pay for next semester just from that income.

“I’ll get by,” I said.

He made a sound in the back of his throat. “The sad thing is I believe you. You’ve a gift for acquiring talented friends.” He glanced past me at Soraya and I blushed.

Then I felt stupid for blushing. She helped me get by, no doubt, but I was pulling my weight. I wanted to puff my chest out and stare this man down, punish him for talking down to me. My magic rose inside of me, answering my heating emotions, and I squashed it down. I don’t know what it would have done but putting a spell on my professor was a surefire way to fail the class, if not get myself expelled.

“How’s your arrangement with my sister working out?” he asked all of a sudden.

I blinked. That was out of left field.

“Good,” I said.

He snorted. “Good. I guess she treats her guinea pigs well. Enjoying her sweet tea?”

What the hell? I knew that the Hardin siblings didn’t get along, didn’t even speak to each other, but I hadn’t thought it would be like this. Which I guess I should have. I don’t have good luck. Yes, I am involved with a pair of gorgeous women and have some really cool magical abilities, but they’re all intertwined and creating a complicated mess. Why should my living situation be any different now? It hadn’t been simple or easy in foster care or after I’d been adopted. Why the hell had I been stupid enough to get my hopes up now?

A hand fell on my shoulder and I looked down into a mass of wavy locks. Soraya had joined me. “Hey, class is over. Come on and I’ll catch you up.”

We left Prof. Hardin fuming in his seat and made our way to Happy Burger, our usual hangout after his class. Happy Burger had hands down the best burgers in Woodhurst and just as hands down the worst mascot. Someone had tried to make a black and white smiley face on a hamburger, but the result looked like a pedophilic snowman. It was nightmare fuel, plain and simple, but the food was good enough to keep us coming back.

“You were right about him and his sister not getting along,” I said.

She gave me a look that said, quite clearly, ‘I told you so.’

“I know,” I groaned. “But I didn’t exactly have a lot of options at the time.”

She rolled her eyes. “You are the luckiest bastard alive, you know that?”

Sure as hell didn’t feel that way. She had been paying attention, right? Between the meth dealers and a motorcycle club comprised of werewolves, to say nothing of my broken curse, my life had been in a constant state of danger and flux all semester.

In all fairness things were finally looking up for me. “Got to say, the pool in the backyard is nice.”

She groaned. “Only. You.”

I grinned, then my grin faltered. “I thought that the Hardin siblings don’t talk to each other.”

“As far as I know they don’t.”

“Then how did Hardin know I’m living with Eleanor?” I asked.

She shrugged. “Welcome to small town life, Caleb. Everybody knows everybody’s business.”

That was a disturbing thought.

“Except…” she trailed off, biting her lip. She was adorable when she did that.

Soraya Cabal was one of those girls that didn’t know she was beautiful. Her face was elegantly leonine, and impression only strengthened by her mane glossy black curls. She was short and exceptionally curvy in the best possible ways. Not that anyone could tell because she wore heavy, frumpy clothing that hid them and hung from the widest parts of her body. The effect was that she looked kind of chunky when in fact she was a knockout. And she was brilliant. Generous. And I was staring at her lower lip.

I jerked my gaze away when I realized what I was doing.

“Except?” I prompted.

“I feel like I barely see you anymore, we’re not hanging out like we used to.”

“It’s kind of been a crazy semester,” I said.

“Yeah, you keep digging yourself into trouble,” she said.

“I’m pretty sure trouble goes looking for me,” I said.

“Whatever, I get it. Emergencies are emergencies, those aren’t what I’m talking about. Outside of our Happy Burger routine, we barely see each other anymore. You’re always with Absinthe or Scarlett now.” She wasn’t looking at me anymore, preferring to stare straight ahead.

We reached Happy Burger and went in, inhaling the wonderful aroma of burgers and fries. It was a shame the mascot outside was so creepy because the food was amazing. At least it wasn’t a clown, but the grinning cheeseburger looked like it needed to stay at least 500 yards from schools and playgrounds.

“We hung out yesterday,” I said. “We watched Firefly.”

We made our way to our usual booth. “Yeah, but that’s the exception now, not the rule. When was the last time before that that we just hung out like we used to?”

I tried, I really tried, to remember and couldn’t. “Uh….”

“Exactly,” she said. “I just feel like we’re drifting apart and….”

Her head whipped around, whipping her hair behind her in an arc as she stared out the window. “Okay, my turn to pull the emergency card, Caleb. Got to run.”

And she was up and off, out the restaurant before I’d even had a chance to finish processing what she’d said. Well that sucked. I mean, it was totally fair, and I had no right to complain considering how often I’d done this to her lately, but it still sucked. Scarlett was in school until the afternoon and Absinthe had started a new job at a tattoo and piercing parlor. What the hell was I supposed to do with my afternoon now?

I stared after Soraya. “Huh, so that’s how that feels.”

Chapter Three

Scarlett once told me that there wasn’t much to do in Woodhurst apart from sports and parties. At the time I hadn’t thought much of the comment. Now I understood the truth of it.

I’d never thought that a track meet would gather so much attention. I mean, it’s basically a bunch of people running in circles around other people who take turns doing the same stunt over and over. In a small town like this, those stunts, such as spinning in circles to throw a weight, tossing a javelin, or pole vaulting, were minimally represented and not exactly impressive. I don’t mean to sound pessimistic or arrogant, but I could have done what these students were doing, and I hadn’t had any training. It gave the whole thing an anticlimactic aura.

But I wasn’t there for those events. Hell, I wasn’t there for any of the main races either. Absinthe and I had come to support Scarlett, who had started killing it on the track team since I’d made her go back to high school to finish off her senior year. Part of the school’s requirement had been participation in a sport, and she’d started track because I agreed to run with her in the mornings. Even without the supernatural enhancements Absinthe and my magic had given her, Scarlett was fast. Now, she was preparing to participate in several events for the chance to go to State. I didn’t really get how it all worked, if that wasn’t already obvious, but I could hear the capital “S” in State and understood that to be her ticket out of town if she chose.

My stomach fell. I knew that she wouldn’t choose to leave me. That wasn’t arrogance, it was reality. With our bond I wasn’t sure that she actually could leave me. I certainly didn’t have the money or the grades to transfer to a better school out of state. What would happen if she got offered a scholarship? Neither of us were good students but didn’t she deserve the chance to compete with the best if the opportunity presented itself?

The enthusiasm of the crowd pushing in on us from all sides ripped me from my reverie and back to the present. I sat with Absinthe to my right and Scarlett’s mom, Ms. Estrada, “Call me Valencia,” to my left. Soraya was supposed to be here with us but was nowhere to be seen. I’d asked Valencia about it, but she’d waved off my concern. The resemblance between her and Scarlett was unmistakable, though Valencia was possessed of both softer, fuller figure and face. It was easy to see where Scarlett had gotten her good looks from.

Valencia had given me a huge hug when we’d met up at the high school, thanking me for talking her baby girl into going back to school and for being such a good influence. She’d then given Absinthe a much colder reception in the form of a single once over and a question. “How old are you?”

Absinthe took it in stride. “Twenty-six.”

Valencia pursed her lips and didn’t speak to Absinthe any further. Apparently, I was a good influence and Absinthe, the twenty-six-year-old biker chick who was just as stuck with me as Scarlett, was not. Considering Scarlett used to run around with a couple of meth dealers who’d probably been at least Absinthe’s age, I didn’t think much of her judgment. Then again, maybe Valencia thought that Absinthe was going to steal me away from her baby girl and ruin all the good I was being attributed with doing. I should have felt worse for Absinthe than I did but I’ve got to confess, it felt pretty good to be treated like the good guy for once and not a total fuckup.

Especially in light of the way Scarlett’s friends were glaring at me. They sat on the other side of Valencia, occasionally throwing me a death glare. I came to find out that they all thought that I was cheating on Scarlett with Absinthe, and unlike Valencia, blamed me. I made it a point to ignore them.

Track meets, it turns out, are giant waiting games. Sure, there’s always an event going on, but if you’re only there to watch one person, then you are going to be waiting a damn long time. Scarlett though was in several different races, which wasn’t necessarily unusual, I was told, but to be in such a broad spectrum of events was kind of odd. Of course, I knew why she was able to pull it off. I had to wonder if the judges did though. Not all supernaturals were allowed to compete in human sports and some even had their own leagues. Maybe she could get away with it because, as far as I knew, there had never been a cu sith-werewolf hybrid before.

Every time she’d go up, we’d cheer, and I swear Absinthe and Valencia were competing with each other to see who could cheer for Scarlett the loudest. They’d just got ready to scream their lungs out for Scarlett once again when Soraya showed up. And she wasn’t alone.

Two tall men accompanied her, one black, one Latino, and both well-dressed, though not so much that they stood out from the crowd. The Latino man wore gold jewelry and touched up his black attire with touches of red. His face held familiar leonine features that drew my attention away from his companion. Soraya’s father.

I didn’t know much about Angelo Cabal, other than he specialized in contract magic like Soraya wanted to, and that he’d left Valencia a few years ago. He’d left Soraya behind as well, to be raised by her stepmother. For some reason Soraya idolized him. As evidenced by the huge grin she wore as she came up to us.

“Caleb, my dad’s here.” She was practically bouncing in place.

I met the man’s eyes and extended my hand for a shake. He took it, and had a firm grip, but something about it felt slimy. He laughed as my hand slipped away and looked past me to wink at Valencia.

“Hola, Bay.”

“Angelo.” She bit off the name. “What are you doing here?”

“My nina said her sister’s competing in the track meet. Hottest place to be in town tonight.” It was the only thing going on in town tonight. His grin suggested he knew this. I guess he would be familiar with this place. How long had he been gone again?

“I asked him to come,” Soraya said. I don’t think I’d ever heard her so cheerful.

In all fairness, I’d been primed to dislike her dad since she’d first told me about him. She rarely brought him up or was open to talking about him but when she did, you’d think he’d made the heavens and the earth and his decision to basically abandon her with her stepmother made perfect sense. You can blame all my years in foster care, but I can’t stand parents who leave their kids. I’m honestly not sure what I’d do if I ever met my birth parents, whoever or whatever they are, but I knew what I wanted to do to this man. He might have left her with a woman who cared deeply for her instead of putting her into foster care, but he was still hurting my best friend.

Valencia gave Soraya a strained smile. “That’s sweet.”

“Isn’t it though,” Angelo said, beaming. He pulled Soraya close to his side in a hug.

“I didn’t realize you cared about Scarlett so much,” Valencia said.

“I adore that girl,” Angelo said. “And I always love coming to check out all the fresh talent.”

Valencia’s eyes flashed with anger. Angelo didn’t notice. He was too busy checking out the runner girls warming up below. Including Scarlett, who was about to race. Unfortunately, I’d forgotten he particular event.

“Can we talk?” Valencia didn’t wait for an answer, she grabbed Angelo by the upper arm and pulled him away.

“Who’s your dad’s friend?” Daisy or Carina—I forgot which was which—asked Soraya.

“Mr. Glow,” she said absently, staring in the direction her father and stepmother had vanished. “I’m going after them.”

She took off into the crowd without a backwards look.

The signal for the race went off. Absinthe and I returned our attention to the track as Scarlett took off. She was glorious, sprinting all out and giving everything she had. This was her final event for the evening—and therefore she had nothing to hold back for. Her competition quickly fell behind. Absinthe and I cheered as loud as we could, our voices joining in the tumult. Woodhurst liked having a champion who made the completion eat her dust.

It surprised nobody when she finished first by a good margin. Absinthe and I took off from our seats at the same time, making our way down the stands to the field as Scarlett, staggering from exhaustion, made her way off the track proper. We met her in the grass, heedless of her running mates, and pulled her into a three-way hug.

Cheers and congratulations spilled from us and we pulled her close. She was sweaty and smelled it and we didn’t care.

We came apart and she beamed at us. Then, as she looked past us, her expression faltered. She looked up into the stands, looking for where we’d told her we’d be sitting. I looked back—our segment of the bench we’d been sitting at was empty. No Mr. Glow, Daisy, or Carina. No Angelo, Soraya, or Valencia.

“Where is everyone?” she asked.

I had no idea how to answer that, so I tried for the truth. “Soraya’s dad showed up and got into an argument with your mom.”

Scarlett bit her lip. “Daisy and Carina?”

“Not sure,” I said, scanning the crowd. “They were seriously crushing on your stepdad’s friend though.”

I continued scanning the crowd, looking for any member of Scarlett family or friends that had come with to support her and stopped when I found Angelo. I started to say something, then froze.

He was standing on the stairs that cut up through the metal benches and across from him was Lilian She. What the hell did those two have to talk about? Where was Valencia?

“Did they even see me?” Scarlett asked. “Don’t—how will they know I’m not a fuck-up if they didn’t see?”

Oh shit. I hadn’t even thought of what running track might mean to Scarlett outside of simply keeping her in school or competing. Something inside my chest splintered.

Absinthe threw her arms around Scarlett before I could, pulling her into a sudden and tight embrace. “They saw you, Sweetheart, they did.”

Sweetheart? That was new.

Scarlett shuddered in her arms and sank into her. She pulled her head up just enough that she could look over Absinthe’s shoulder as she addressed me. Her eyes were watery with unshed tears.

“Take me home?”

I nodded and together Absinthe and I guided her back to the parking lot. Which was where we encountered a problem.

Absinthe had given me a ride her on her motorcycle and it only fit two. We’d been under the impression that Scarlett was going home—as in with her mother—after the meet.

“You two go on ahead,” I told them. “Get home, get relaxed, I’ll walk or bum a ride from someone.”

Scarlett nodded and after Absinthe gave me a quick kiss on the cheek, they both swung up on the bike and took off.

I was almost out of the parking lot when Valencia pulled up beside me in a huge SUV. “Have you seen her?” she asked without preamble. “She’s not answering her phone. Is she all right?”

“She’s fine, Ms. Estrada,” I said. “She’s just…she’s hurt. Absinthe and I were the only ones who saw her last race.”

She grimaced and for a second looked as if she might be ready to cry. It was easy to see where Scarlett got her looks from. They made the exact same expression when they were fighting back tears. Their noses did this little wrinkle that emphasized the feline characteristics of their features. Scarlett had always put me in mind of a cheetah, and would continue to do so after tonight, and her mom shared some of those qualities.

“Where is she?” Valencia asked.

“Absinthe’s giving her a ride back to our place,” I said. “We came on her motorcycle and there wasn’t room.”

Valencia looked me up and down. “And gentlemen that you are, you sent them on ahead.” She sighed. “You don’t mind her being there right now?”

I shook my head and noticed her eyes flit up to my antlers. They tended to draw attention from people who weren’t used to being around me.

“Hop in,” she said. “I’ll give you a ride home. Tell her to call me.”

“Will do, Ms. Estrada,” I said, hopping in.

She rolled her eyes at me. “It’s Valencia. Don’t call me ‘miss’ anything again.”

The ride home was awkward and silent. I was eager to get out of the car when Valencia pulled up in front of Eleanor’s house. She opened her mouth like she wanted to say something, then closed it and shook her head. I was almost halfway up the driveway when she called after me.

“You take good care of her, alright?”

I turned and gave her a nod.

She drove off.

When I walked into the loft we shared over Eleanor’s garage, I was greeted to an absolutely glorious sight. The girls had only made it halfway onto the bed and were rapidly sinking to the floor amidst their discarded clothes. Scarlett still wore her sports bra and her legs were spread wide with Absinthe’s hand vanishing into her panties. Absinthe was topless but still had her jeans and motorcycle boots on. Their lips were locked in a passionate kiss that broke as the door closed behind me.

They stared at me, their heavy breathing and sweat doing fascinating things to their breasts. Scarlett blushed and turned her head away, but Absinthe smirked.

“See?” she said, glancing down at my abrupt and eager erection straining against the groin of my jeans. “I told you he wouldn’t mind.”

My mind was completely blank. Absinthe’s hand began to move in Scarlett’ panties again, causing her to whimper and clutch at the biker chick’s toned arm. They’d never touched like this before, at least, not anywhere I’d ever seen. The only time anything even close to this had happened was when Absinthe had first come after us when she’d accidentally mated to me.

“Your mom wants you to call her.” I don’t know why I said it. It just sort of popped out.

Fortunately, Absinthe did something with that unseen hand that made Scarlett toss her head back and gasp.

Absinthe smirked, then glanced at me and rolled her eyes. “Get naked and get over here.”

She didn’t need to tell me twice!

An instant later I was completely nude and stripping off Absinthe’s pants, thong, and boots in almost a single go. Her sex was enflamed and beaded with arousal. I rose slightly and ran my tongue along its length.

She moaned, then reached around to pull me away, with shake of her head. “Please. It’s about her tonight,” she gasped. “Not me.”

I understood and threw myself into Scarlett, pressing my lips into hers. She tasted Absinthe on my tongue as I pulled her up onto the bed. As we kissed, Absinthe navigated around us, stripping Scarlett of her underwear until we were all three naked in bed.

I positioned myself over Scarlett. Absinthe spread Scarlett legs apart and got behind me, reaching between my own legs to fondle my balls a moment before taking my erection in her hand. Her fingers were slick with Scarlett’s fluids. The realization made my member twitch in her grip

I swear I could feel her smirking behind me as she guided me to Scarlett’s bare, soaking entrance. As the head made contact, Scarlett let out a moan. Her glowing green eyes opened to meet mine and with Absinthe’s guidance, I slipped into her ready, welcoming passage.

She was wet and tight, gripping me hard as I slid deeper and deeper into her until I bottomed out.

Absinthe pressed herself into me from behind, her breasts against my shoulder blades, pebbled nipples crushed into my skin. Her lips brushed against my ear. “Pound her.”

I did. I gave Scarlett everything I had, ploughing into her over and over again. We kissed but my rhythm became too much and our lips came apart. Only to be replaced by Absinthe as she slid around me and captured Scarlett’s mouth with her own once more. A hand reached between us to cup one of Scarlett pert breasts, fingers pinching the dark nipple. My hand took the other breast and mirrored Absinthe’s movements.

All the while, I drove myself into her with everything I could. I poured myself into her, everything I had to give. I was so proud of her. She’d done something amazing tonight, supernatural aid or no, and she deserved so much better than family drama as a reward. She was more than just my best friend’s little stepsister. More than an accident that was now stuck with me.

Absinthe and Scarlett broke their kiss and two pairs of smoldering green eyes looked up at me, blazing with lust and adoration and something else. Something more.

Absinthe’s hand slithered between Scarlett and I to the place where our bodies joined. Scarlett broke eye contact as her entire body exploded. Her back arched, trapping Absinthe’s hand between us as her passage clenched down on me with powerful muscles. Fluids gushed over my erection and down my thighs.

I exploded a moment later, burying myself into her. Absinthe now had both hands between us, and I had no idea how. One played with my balls while the other circled Scarlett’s clit, all the while Scarlett and I rode our mutual orgasm, feeding off of each other’s pleasure, each of us prolonging the moment for the other until we collapsed together in a sweaty heap.

Absinthe allowed us a moment and then rolled me off of Scarlett to the side.

We both blinked at her with barely comprehending eyes as she delivered her trademark smirk and moved between Scarlett’s thighs.

My now flaccid member twitched as she lowered herself, holding Scarlett’s gaze the whole while.

Scarlett hand grabbed mine and squeezed. Hard.

She was afraid. I could sense her fear radiating from her in sharp pulses in time with her palpitating heartbeat. But she held my hand and never broke Absinthe’s gaze. Not even when her entire body tensed up a second later as Absinthe’s tongue made contact with her bare, just-used sex.

“Oh-oh-OHHH,” Scarlett moaned. Her thighs trembled and Absinthe had to push on them to keep them from closing. Her hips lifted up, pressing her sex to Absinthe’s mouth. Her eyes closed as she bit her lip—only for another cry to escape her a moment later.

Absinthe went nuts, latching onto Scarlett and devouring her sex, doing who-knew-what with her tongue. Scarlett came again, a smaller, shuddering orgasm than the one she’d had with me. Another followed right on the heels of that one. And then other.

Gasping for air, Scarlett reached down and shoved at Absinthe’s head. “No more! Please, no more. I’m too sensitive.”

Absinthe, her grinning lips soaked with a mixture of Scarlett and my fluids, rose up and flopped down on the bed on Scarlett’ other side.

They kissed. A slow, gentle kiss, pull of passion but also deliberate, conscious choice. This wasn’t the pair of them caught up in the moment or trapped by my magic. Something was growing here. Between them and between the three of us.

I sighed and wondered what the hell I was going to do, because I was quickly falling in love with both of these girls. My rising erection gave me an immediate answer at least and I rolled back atop them to continue our lovemaking.

Chapter Four

Scarlett didn’t go home all weekend. She stayed with us, making love, swimming, doing something that actually resembled homework, and basically laying low. It was relaxing in a way that was utterly unfamiliar. It felt like it could become normal very easily. Three people all staying in a tiny garage apartment should have felt cramped, especially with two of them being women and only one bathroom between us. Okay, sure we could use the amenities of Eleanor’s house, but we tried not to use them and really didn’t need to. We seemed to unconsciously coordinate with each other, drawing strength and comfort from one another’s presence.

Absinthe’s former alpha had said that I’d stolen her away by proving myself to be an alpha her inner wolf was willing to follow. Absinthe had also infected both Scarlett and I with her werewolf virus and even though my own magic had mutated it, I had a feeling that the werewolf magic wasn’t gone so much as absorbed. Nobody said anything about wolves or packs, but I couldn’t help recalling the physical language the Road Wolves had shared between them as we shared our space together. We knew when someone was thirsty or hungry, when they needed the bathroom, or wanted to make love. 

The girls spent another afternoon with Thomas by the pool fiddling with his tech while I was forced to catch up on all the homework I’d put off, but otherwise it was just the three of us. It all just worked for us. Some of the magic of Eleanor’s land, which she hadn’t satisfactorily explained to me yet, other than to say it had something to do with fae magic, might have had something to do with it. That magic liked having me on her property and I’d been sleeping better since moving there. But not nearly so well as I did with Scarlett and Absinthe curled tightly into me those two nights together.

I went to Hardin’s Monday morning class fresher and with more energy than I’d ever felt. I was downright chipper. I wasn’t really looking forward to hearing all about Soraya’s adventures with her dick-head dad, but hey, at least I’d get to spend some time with my best friend.

Except that Soraya wasn’t there that day for class. She texted after, saying she was catching up with her dad. I couldn’t really blame her for that but her timing sucked. Our group was meeting up after class to knock out our project for the evil overlord masquerading as our professor and there was no doubt whatsoever that she was the brains of the outfit.

I tried not to let her absence get me down or worse, be jealous that she was spending time with her dad. I had less than a leg to stand on there. If Soraya wanted to spend time with other men that was more than her prerogative and if that man was a family member…maybe I struggled with it because my adopted father was such an asshole. I couldn’t imagine Nicole or me actually wanting to spend time with the pretentious authoritarian. Angelo Cabal gave me similar vibes. Controlling, manipulative, and completely self-absorbed. I sighed as we sat down to work and I explained the situation to my fellow students.

It turned out we weren’t as dumb as we thought. Without Soraya there to guide and direct us and, okay, do all the real work for us, we actually had to apply ourselves and didn’t do half bad. I broke everything up into pieces and we worked on our individual parts simultaneously so that we could adjust the presentation as needed and double check each other. It took most of the afternoon, but we knocked out almost the entire project. What was more, we all seemed to understand at least the portions of the theories we’d individually worked on to create the presentation.

I texted Soraya on my way home to update her—she’d care far more than any of us that she’d missed today—and resisted the urge to whistle as I strolled. Things were going well. Really well.

Absinthe’s motorcycle was in the driveway when I got home. Didn’t she have work today? I usually didn’t see her until closer to dinner time. I heard her and Scarlett before I saw them, voices raised but not shouting. The conversation stopped as soon as I opened the door.

They were standing in front of our beat-up old sofa. Scarlett was shaking in place and looked about ready to throw herself at Absinthe. And not in the fun way. Her head was lowered, she wasn’t breaking Absinthe’s gaze, and her teeth were bared. I couldn’t make out Absinthe’s expression

“What’s going—”

Scarlett rushed over, interrupting before I could even finish the question. “Daisy and Carina are missing.”

Who the hell were Dairy and Carina?

Absinthe must have read my mind because she said, “Her friends that went with us to her track meet.”

Oh right, them. I vaguely recalled them now. I hadn’t bothered to pay them much attention. Mostly because they had a chronic case of stink-eye every time they’d looked my way.

Absinthe went on. “They haven’t been in touch and Scarlett is worried.”

Scarlett was speaking almost before Absinthe had finished. “It’s not just me they haven’t spoken with. They haven’t been home since the track meet. Even Daisy’s little sister doesn’t know where they went.”

Absinthe let out a slow breath and spoke, with the air of someone who has been making the same reasonable argument over and over to someone who doesn’t want to hear it, “Sometimes people just want to be alone for a while. Even really social people need space every now and then.”

“I get that,” Scarlett said. “I do, but that’s not them. And they wouldn’t both need it at the same time.”

“Maybe they’re together?” I suggested.

“Scarlett shook her head. “Not without me.”

“Maybe they’re together-together,” Absinthe said.

Scarlett made a face. “No way. They aren’t like that.”

Absinthe shrugged. “You would have said you weren’t like that last week. How about now?”

I looked between the girls. There was another conversation going on here that I wasn’t getting.

Scarlett looked away from Absinthe and couldn’t meet either of our eyes, cheeks burning. “That’s different.”

An awkward silence followed. I felt a very strong urge to fill it. So, I said the first thing that popped into my head. “You girls smell, right?”

Both of their heads whipped around, green eyes glaring at me. I held up my hands. “Sorry! Sorry, that came out wrong. I meant, you can, like, scent things. When you transform, like dogs or wolves.”

Scarlett nodded before Absinthe, but both of their heads bobbed. “I don’t have anything going on right now. If we got something of theirs, we could head over to the track, you guys could shapeshift, and see if you can pick up their scent or whatever.”

Scarlett lit up at the idea. Absinthe rolled her eyes but didn’t shoot it down.

It was a long shot. I didn’t know a lot about smells but there had to be hundreds of different scents there and the girls had been gone for several days. Chances were good that there wouldn’t be a trail to follow. But at least Scarlett would know that we’d tried, and it would be a good test of the girls’ abilities. There was so much we didn’t know about ourselves.

And so, an hour and a half later, we’d swung by both Daisy and Carina’s houses, grabbed a dirty article of clothing belonging to each girl, and were at the track behind Woodhurst’s high school.

It was empty without all the citizens of Woodhurst trying to fill it up, almost unrecognizable. Like it was an actual field or meadow that just happened to have a track and bleachers. It wasn’t wild, exactly, but I could sense that if people left it alone, nature would quickly reclaim it. A few years without upkeep and all traces of mankind’s presence here would vanish completely.

“Ready?” I asked the girls, but they were already transforming, immersing themselves in green flames and stepping out a moment later as giant wolf-dog-monsters. I wondered if they’d have been so eager to transform if their clothes didn’t go with them. Absinthe probably wouldn’t have cared, she’d been a shapeshifter for years. With Scarlett…who knew?

I held out the borrowed clothes. “Okay, girls, smell time.”

The horse-sized canines exchanged a glance full of feminine irritation but stepped forward to sniff the clothes. Then their noses went to the ground and they began sniffing, making their way first up the bleachers to where we’d all been sitting Friday night.

It was quickly apparent that they weren’t having any luck. The giant wolf-hound that was Scarlett lowered her ears and tail in dejection. That was anticlimactic. I glanced at the clothes still in my hand. I didn’t know either of these girls, didn’t really care about either of them for that matter, but I had kind of wanted to find them. I couldn’t say why, it just seemed like something I should do. I imagine it’s the same way a dog feels when it sees a car go by and has to bark and chase it. Compulsive.

That’s the only explanation I can give for what happened next. Compulsively I reached for my magic and it leapt at my touch, rushing from me to leap into my girls. Both of them flared with internal green energy and let out three bone-chilling howls in tandem.

Their noses went to the bleachers and then they were off. I raced after them, barely keeping pace with their rushing forms. They’d caught the scent and now that they had it, it called to them, pulling them like iron to a magnet with me tied to the both of them. We flew across the ground, heedless of what was in our path. We circled the school and then dove into the woods that surrounded everything, tearing northward until we reached the freeway. We didn’t cross, staying in the woods off to the side, running parallel to the road, hidden from sight.

Adrenaline coursed through me, an excitement that was becoming more and more familiar. I’d first felt it the night I’d gone after Scarlett’ necklace, tracking it down at the meth lab run by Lilian’s pet drug dealers. Little pieces of this feeling had resurfaced during our morning runs when I’d chased Scarlett down before throwing her into bed. I was on the hunt and it felt good. Electrifying even.

I should not have been able to keep up with the girls, but my limbs moved with a mind of their own, heedless of things like physics or fatigue. I was flying, keeping pace with them, and the vegetation seemed to shape itself around our passing to give us the swiftest route to our destination. This was powerful, primal magic and it drove us with reckless abandon until we finally slowed, instinctively knowing our targets were nearby.

We passed an exit and I realized just how far we’d come. I didn’t know how long we’d been running, but we were over twenty miles north of town. I hadn’t done a great job of timing myself on my morning runs but covering this much ground on foot, even running, should have taken several hours. We’d started in the middle of the afternoon and the sun was only just now getting ready to set.

I wasn’t even winded.

Had I been growing stronger and faster with my curse broken? Or had this been the effect of whatever spell I’d cast back at the high school? I would definitely be testing that out later. Hopefully the same forces that brought us here would help us get back. I was not looking forward to a twenty plus mile hike down the highway in the dark.

But the spell wasn’t done with us yet. I followed the girls to a backroad just off the highway until we came to a rundown gas station-cantina set up. It didn’t look like it was open but an eighteen-wheeler with a corrugated storage trailer had parked itself in the back. The truck stood out to me. It was too new for this place and though it had clearly been on the road, it was too well maintained to have been left here for long. But if this place was closed down, then why would a trucker stop here? There was a truck stop just south of town—no need to find somewhere like this to park.

Without speaking I took the lead, the girls falling into step on either side of me. We moved silently, our footsteps not even a whisper on the ground as we crossed the parking lot and took a look inside the gas station. Empty and dark. The shelves made me think of the bones of a hollowed out carcass without the usual snacks and paraphernalia lining them.

The girls shook their heads and continued on around back, toward the cantina. It was dark inside, but I tried the door anyway. Locked.

I stepped back and gestured at it. “Ladies first.”

Absinthe, recognizable by the dark saddle pattern and mask on her back and face, gave a chuff of amusement, and then slammed herself into the door. I’d half hoped she’d break it clear off the hinges, but the lock gave way first and the door simply swung wide. Scarlett hurried in after her and I followed.

No alarm sounded, which was fortunate since I hadn’t even thought to check for one first. The inside was dark, a little dusty, but not completely unused. The bar off to the side was clean and a couple of tables had chairs seated around them instead of stacked on top. Cigarette butts littered the floor near the bar from which hung….

I blinked, trying to make sense of it. It looked like someone had hung old bras and panties up along the edge, alongside worn dog collars and leashes. It was all kind of grungy, especially the dog stuff. My stomach tightened and churned. I’ll readily admit that there is something sexy about lingerie and collars and all that kinky stuff—this wasn’t sexy. This wasn’t lingerie. The panties were all practical wear, no lace or trimming. One of them even had a little cartoon kitty on it. Likewise, those leashes and collars were the kind meant for actual dogs. This was real, not some fetish-wear, and the implications made my stomach hurt.

Something sounded from a room in the back.

The door to it looked too new for this building and once more out of place. Scarlett leapt at it and something gave with a clang. Gasps and screams echoed from the other side, but the door held. Absinthe gave it a try and the door shuddered. Scarlett followed right on her heels and the door popped open in a cloud of sheetrock dust.

Inside looked was a renovated party room. It had been lined with old towels and bare mattresses, but it was the girls that caught my attention. They ranged in age from preteen to maybe early twenties, nearly two dozen of them. Most of them were Latina but there were a few Caucasian and black girls in the mix. All were in various states of undress and pulled back to the far side, as far away from the door as they could get. Daisy and Carina were holding some of the younger girls behind them.

The room reeked of sex, body odor, and fear. 

“Come on,” I said. “We’re leaving.”

“No,” shrieked several of the girls. Another called out, “You’ll make it angry!”

I frowned. “It,” not “him.”

The exit door slammed shut, despite the damage Absinthe had done to it, and a high-pitched giggle echoed through the building.

Daisy stepped forward, positioning herself between whatever was in the cantina with us, giggling, and the rest of the girls. “This place is haunted!”

“Shit,” I groaned.

Everything went dark.

Chapter Five

“Who the hell haunts a gas station?” I asked the sinister giggling that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once. 

Scarlett made a sound in her throat.

“Okay, yeah, this is technically a cantina,” I said to her, eyes scanning the empty room and finding no one.  “But it’s attached to a gas station. I mean, come on. That’s pretty lame.”

A chair stacked on one of the tables flew through the air of its own accord and smashed into me hard enough to take me off my feet and shatter the ancient furniture. As soon as I hit the ground the dog leashes from the bar whipped free, striking like lightning, the metal bits punching deep into my flesh before the things wrapped around me like snakes, binding my arms to my sides. They squeezed, biting into my skin with way more force than they should have been able to produce.

The giggling turned manic but was almost lost amidst the screaming girls in the room behind me and the three chilling barks from Absinthe and Scarlett. 

Tables flew through the air at them and the cu sith smashed through them, snarling and snapping at the air. One of the leashes found its way around my throat and began constricting my airway. Now that just wasn’t going to do.

Green fire leapt to life in my hands and roared over my body, incinerating the leashes in a flash, and unfortunately, my shirt in the process. I leapt to my feet, ready to throw around some more fire, then realized my shirt hadn’t been the only casualty. The hems of my shorts’ legs were on fire.

I quickly beat at them, trying to get the flames out while the giggling turned into full blown laughter. This thing was laughing at me.

Anger coursed through me and green flames returned to my hands. “Where are you, you little shit?” 

A chair flew at me. I blasted it with fire. The burning debris still crashed into me and knocked me flat on my ass once more.

Okay, lesson learned. Fire was good for warding off attacks from flesh and blood things because they didn’t want to get burned. Inanimate objects weren’t likely to be completely burned away before reaching me. Fire was for playing offense way more than defense. But how the hell was I supposed to go on the offensive against this thing? I didn’t even know where it was.

More random objects flew at me and I scrambled away across the floor, feeling significantly less badass than I had only a few moments before. I managed to avoid another chair but took a musty coaster to the face. A coaster. A freaking coaster. Oh yeah, I was not nearly as bad ass as I’d thought.

Absinthe, recognizable by the saddle pattern on her back, leapt at the wall, clawing through it to the wood beams beneath like it had been made of sand. A shadow detached itself from the general darkness there and raced along the wall and up to the ceiling.

“There you are, mother fucker.” I let fly a blast of spell-fire.

The shadow dodged and my flames splashed across the ceiling, lighting it on fire.

“Dammit.” But even as I cursed, Scarlett leapt up onto the bar and opened her mouth, releasing a jet of spell fire from her throat like some kind of canine dragon. Her blast caught the shadow dead on. The laughter turned to shrieking.

I stared at her. Oh, right. The girls could breathe fire now.

I started to cheer and then the entire service bar was ripped free of the ground, catching Scarlett in the gut as it jerked up and swept across the entire cantina, destroying every table in its wake and smashing me and Absinthe into the wall. It ripped back, striking the stunned Scarlett again before reversing once more.

I threw up my hands and blasted it with fire. Absinthe opened her jaws and added her own blast to mine. The bar ignited, then so did the alcohol still contained inside of it and the whole damn thing exploded.

Burning splinters stabbed into me and those that were too big simply smashed me into the wall. I felt several things crack behind me and pink insulation material fell atop me like snow. Only to go up in flames the second the burning debris made contact.

Immediately I was being smothered. Green flames exploded around me, shielding me from the heat but it wasn’t the fire that was killing me; it was the smoke. The air was so thick with it and other tiny bits of crap that trying to get oxygen back into my just-squashed body wasn’t happening.

I tried to get to my feet and more objects smashed into me. A beer bottle smashed into my antlers and rained broken glass down on me even as the impact jerked me sideways.

The girls from the party room were screaming. I had to get them out.

“Scarlett,” I called, or tried to call through my coughing, “Absinthe!” I jerked a hand at the direction of the imprisoned girls.

Fire and a wall of smashed tables had blocked them in. We needed to get them out before they roasted. The fire might not be hurting us, but they sure as hell weren’t immune to it. And again, there was the smoke to contend with. Finding the shadow in all of this was going to be next to impossible. 

My girls seemed to understand my command and both cu sith wolves threw themselves at the barrier trapping the would-be-slaves, smashing through it and continuing on through. I didn’t know what they were doing but that wasn’t nearly as important as keeping the shadow ghost thing off of them. Fortunately, I had an idea of where it was going to be.

Sure enough, it tried to race after the girls into the room, slithering along the wall. I let forth another blast of emerald flame and caught it square on, earning a shriek that made my ears ring. Something hit me from the side. From behind. From the other side.

I felt more than heard the sound that followed from deep inside the party room turned slave quarters. For a moment the already thick air become heavier with more dust, and then a gust of fresh air washed inside, pushing back the cloud of smoke even as it fanned the flames higher.

Absinthe and Scarlett had smashed through the wall.

Why not? At the right spot it wouldn’t be much more than wooden framework and sheetrock. It wasn’t like there was any power coming to this place so any wires worked into the walls wouldn’t have been an issue. Hell, the way we reacted to fire and heat, would getting electrocuted even slow them down?

It didn’t matter. The girls—all of the girls—were out. Now I needed to follow suit.

No sooner had I started running than my legs went out from under me. My face slammed into the floor, only for me to be dragged by my ankles into the air. I craned my neck to look at the ceiling. The shadow hovered there, twisted into a face filled with jagged teeth and glowing eyes. A poltergeist.

Fuck. This wasn’t just some ghost. No wonder it had been kicking my ass.

Poltergeists were to ghosts what werewolves were to regular wolves. Sure, both were dangerous, but one was a hell of a lot more likely to rend you limb from limb. I wasn’t certain how much good my fire was actually doing against it. It had screamed every time one of us had hit it, but I honestly couldn’t tell from this angle if it had been hurt at all.

I guessed there was no time like the present to find out. I called fire to my hands and let fly from both palms straight into the poltergeist’s grinning face. It shrieked and I fell, blasting it with fire until I hit the ground and once again had the wind knocked out of me.

My flames cut off, but the damage was done. The poltergeist, as well as this stupid cantina was completely torched. Wait, my brain said through a haze of pain, it’s also a gas station. Gas explodes.

I bolted. Every ounce of pain and fatigue forgotten in my mad scramble to get outside and away from the inevitable explosion that was bound to follow. I don’t actually remember the next few seconds but suddenly I was outside, collapsing in the parking lot. Absinthe and Scarlett were still in canine form when I looked up, standing in front of the huddle of girls as if defending them from something. I followed their canine gazes over…and up.

I had hoped that I’d never see Lilian She in her snake form ever again. That hope was thoroughly dashed by the massive serpent raised before the girls, poised as if to strike. Easily the length of three school busses, there was no doubt in my mind that Lilian could tear through Scarlett and Absinthe like tissue paper.

The massive snake’s head turned to take me in and then jerked back. I saw recognition in those cold eyes followed by a flash of unadulterated rage.

The air grew heavy, clinging to me like a sticky cloth. Lilian flicked her forked tongue out and the air coalesced, the moisture in it suddenly concentrated in an enormous wave that crashed forward across the parking lot, ripping me from the ground and slamming into the burning building behind me. I was carried along with it, unable to breath or even tell up from down as I was driven backward.

I hit something and stopped moving. The water receded and I sank to the floor, hurting in ways I hadn’t known I could hurt. My ass had been well and thoroughly kicked.

I struggled to rise to my feet. It took me three tries but eventually I made it. The cantina was filled with a steam so thick it was all but impossible to see through. Still, I found my way out. I was too stunned and exhausted to even consider what might be waiting for me outside.

But when I got there, Lilian wasn’t waiting for me. The sound of sirens reached my ears over the calls of girls and the bark of giant dogs. Scarlett, identifiable by her all white coat, ran up to me. Her fur was matted with dark stains in several places, but she moved all right. I almost fell into her.

She shifted herself beneath me and I couldn’t tell what she was trying to do until Absinthe came up behind me, grabbed me by my shorts, and lifted me up and onto Scarlett’s back. The back of my shorts ripped away, caught on her fangs as she released me, and I held on for dear life as Scarlett started running, flashing my bare ass to all who watched us go.

I fell onto Scarlett’s back, holding as tight as I could and turned my head to the side, unable to focus on where we were going. We were going so fast and I was so tired that I almost missed her.

Lilian She stood in the woods, all but invisible against a narrow tree. Her arms were crossed, and her face was a mask of cold fury. A certainty came over me then, a piece of understanding that could be nothing but cold, purest truth.

Lilian She was going to kill me.

Chapter Six

“So,” I said the next morning, spread out by the pool on a lounger beside both Scarlett and Absinthe. “Last night did not go as expected.”

We’d slept in the nude but had thrown on some clothes to come out to the backyard, more out of habit than necessity. Between the privacy fence and Eleanor being gone we could have stayed naked and it wouldn’t have bothered anyone. But none of us was feeling the naked vibe. We were sore and tired. The thought of our usual morning run hadn’t even occurred to us. Despite our exhaustion we were still up at our usual hour and found we couldn’t go back to sleep. So, we’d tossed on comfortable clothes and come out to the pool for breakfast and…I don’t know what.

The girls had healed up a hell of a lot better than me, but their every move was lethargic, and they devoured every scrap of food we had. Me? I was doing better than I’d expected but apparently super healing wasn’t one of my powers, at least, not on the scale Scarlett and Absinthe operated on. I was covered in scrapes and bruises and had hacked all night long. Thankfully that had calmed down. It should have been a lot worse. I knew that, but it still sucked.

Contrary to all this crazy violent stuff that had been happening since I broke my curse, I really didn’t get into a lot of fights. Right then, I understood that if I tried to square off with anyone I would lose. It made me feel vulnerable. I didn’t care for it.

“Haunted gas station, weird but I can kind of get it,” Scarlett said. “But where the fuck did that snake come from? Shit, that was nasty!” She shivered with revulsion.

I’d never told Scarlett about Lilian She. I guess I thought that if she didn’t know she’d be less likely to get into trouble with her. I sure as hell hadn’t planned on getting in the snake lady’s way ever again. But Lilian knew I’d been there. She’d recognized me. My girls weren’t safe from her any longer, if they ever had been.

“That snake’s name is Lilian.” I brought a hand up and rubbed my eyes. “She’s…she’s the TA in my Magical Theory class. Also, a drug dealer.”

“Also, a human trafficker,” Absinthe said.

I glanced over at her and found her looking at me with narrowed eyes.

“She’s the water mage that made the Road Wolves back down when they cornered you on campus when they were looking for me,” she said, not asking, but clarifying.

I nodded.

“Wait,” Scarlett said. “Wait-wait-wait. You go to school with that thing?”

“Yeah.” I sighed. “She was Bullet and Dicario’s boss. She uh, ate them.”

Scarlett blinked at me. Then she was on her feet. “What the fuck?”

She stormed over to me, face rigid with anger, teeth bared. Then all at once it seemed to go out of her. She sank onto my lounge and buried her face in my chest, shoulders heaving.

“I-I thought you’d killed them,” she whispered into my chest. “I-I-I was terrified for you.”

I froze. How the fuck did that make sense? Awkwardly I patted her on the back.

“Um, no. As far as I know I’ve never killed anyone,” I said.

She nodded. I looked over her head at Absinthe who was watching the whole thing with a neutral expression.

“So,” she said slowly. “Is Lilian our enemy then?”

“If she wasn’t before, she is now,” I admitted. “I kind of torched her meth lab before but she didn’t know it was me. I’m guessing she might have an idea now.”

“So, we need to get ready for a show down then,” she said. “Do you know what she is? I don’t know a lot about spells, but I’ve never heard of one that lets a mage make that kind of transformation.”

I shook my head. “Not a clue.”

“So then, figuring out a way to stop her is our top priority,” Absinthe said. “I’ll do some research while I’m at work today, see what I can find. You should take your time off today to do the same.”

I nodded in agreement. “Shit. At least we managed to get those girls out.”

Scarlett adjusted herself so that she was leaning back into me and produced her smart phone. “I should give Daisy and Carina a call, check on them.”

She put the phone to her ear and Absinthe produced her own. I threw her a questioning look. She held it up and showed me she’d pulled up Twitter. “Best source of local news.”

Learn something new every day.

 Scarlett scowled as she pulled the phone from her ear then placed another call. And then another. Finally, on the fourth she got an answer. I couldn’t quite make out the words that were being said on the other side and I tried not to eavesdrop, but Scarlett was suddenly back on her feet, shouting, “What do you mean she’s been arrested?”

“Oh, my God,” Absinthe said, was staring at her phone.

I looked back and forth between them. “What’s happening?”

Scarlett shoved her phone into her pocket. “Daisy and Carina have been arrested for soliciting.”

“All the girls from last night have,” Absinthe said. “Those that weren’t deported.”

Deported? I thought back and remembered the number of Latina girls who had been in the mix last night. Come to think of it there hadn’t been many white girls. Latinas, a few black girls, and a bare sprinkling of Caucasians.

Absinthe noticed my puzzlement. “Lots of girls who end up being trafficked are illegal immigrants. They think they’re getting a legitimate job or that they’re going to be meeting up with family. Next thing they know they’re forced into prostitution. It’s a lose-lose for them. Texas is kind of a gateway state. Lots of ports, airports, highways, and Mexico on the border.”

I hadn’t realized. Suddenly I felt very stupid. I didn’t care for that feeling any more than feeling weak. Hot anger boiled inside my stomach and spilled out of me. “So why the hell weren’t the fuckers who kidnapped those girls arrested?”

I wanted to hit something. Or maybe set something on fire.

Absinthe shrugged. “I didn’t see anyone there, did you? I mean, obviously someone put them there, but how are the police supposed to track them down? Besides, soliciting is a felony offense. I don’t know the full deal with human trafficking, but I know pimping out a girl’s a misdemeanor. Can’t be that much difference. Also, it’s a lot easier to make soliciting charges stick.” She snorted. “Pigs get everything wrapped in a tidy bow.”

I’d never really heard Absinthe say anything about the cops before and there was a venom in her voice that was unfamiliar. “You don’t care for cops, do you?”

She laughed. The sound was so unexpected that I almost flinched. “My brother and I were with the Road Wolves since we could ride. No, I don’t care for cops.” She leaned back. “Not the idea of them, just…it’s just a job, you know? They’re there to punch the clock just like everyone else. It’s not justice, it’s bureaucracy.”

Scarlett stomped her foot and stormed back over. “I can’t get in touch with anyone. Not even Mom or Soraya.”

Soraya. Oh shit.

“Scarlett, Soraya’s dad, your, uh—”

“Stepfather?” Scarlett interrupted. “Ex-stepfather? It’s okay, it’s awkward for everyone. Just call him Angelo. That’s what I do. What about him?”

“He was talking with Lilian at your track meet,” I said. “They knew each other.”

Scarlett went very still. “And you think that….”

I called Soraya’s phone. It went to voicemail. I shoved my phone in my pocket, resisting the urge to hurl it into the pool.

“I think he might be involved,” I said. “I mean, it’s kind of a big coincidence isn’t it? He comes into town after how long, talks with our local drug dealer, and your friends go missing.” Something else occurred to me. “And both of them were hanging around his ‘associate,’ Mr. Glow. Looked damn smitten too.”

Absinthe smirked. “Smitten?”

I rolled my eyes. “And Soraya’s spending all her time around this creep thinking he’s a good guy.”

“That actually might be the safest place for her,” Absinthe said.

Scarlett and I whirled on her.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“He’s still her dad,” Absinthe said. “He probably wants to keep her out of everything. I’d be more worried about Scarlett being around him.”

Okay, that made sense. I didn’t like it, but it made sense. I pointed a finger at Scarlett. “You’re not going anywhere near him.”

“Oh, shut up,” she said. “If that fucker hurt my friends, I want to be the one to rip him a new asshole. And he’s staying at my house. With my mom!”

I took a deep breath. “We kind of got banged up last night. We’re not ripping into anyone any time soon. I think Lilian could probably tear us apart. Her and some help? Best thing for us might be to lay low for a bit.”

I hated the words. They tasted sour, like bile, as I spoke them. But they had to be said. “Absinthe’s going to work. You are going to school and then coming straight back here. And I’ll…I’ll do some research.”

I sucked at research. In part because I didn’t enjoy it. I made myself do it more often than I liked because it was necessary, but rarely was I ever actually fruitful. Okay, that wasn’t fair. I’d done alright with my last group project. I’d understood more than I’d thought there.

A knock sounded on the gate that lead from our host’s backyard to the Morrow’s. There was only one person that could be. Absinthe got up and opened it, revealing Thomas, who was holding an energy drink in one hand and a tablet in the other. His hair was wild and greasy, and his eyes had a slightly glazed quality to them.

He took us in slowly, blinking his reddened eyes. “I heard talking and—damn, what truck ran over you guys?”

“Don’t ask,” Absinthe said.

“What she said,” Scarlett followed.

He looked at me and I shrugged.

“Guess this isn’t a good time. I’ll swing by later then.” He turned to go, then stopped. “By the way, the police are starting to look for a serial arsonist. Not sure whether it’s a rival criminal or a vigilante, but they aren’t happy about whoever it is. Y’all wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”

He closed the gate behind him before I could answer.

I looked from Scarlett to Absinthe. “Low profile, understand?”

“What about my Mom?” Scarlett said.

I sighed. “I’ll swing by your place. I can say I’m looking for Soraya since she’s not answering her phone. Should be believable.”

She scowled but nodded. “Text me as soon as you know anything, okay?”

I agreed and hoped that I wouldn’t come across as the world’s biggest creeper in the process.

Chapter Seven

I walked to Soraya’s house a little while later, having showered and dressed. I may have spent more time on my hygiene than was strictly necessary. I didn’t want to go over to Scarlett and Soraya’s house looking like a total slob. On the other hand, I didn’t want to look like I was dressed to impress. I finally settled on a button up and a pair of jeans that I hoped struck the right balance. Then I realized I was wearing pretty much what I wore every day and wondered what the hell was wrong with me. Maybe living with a pair of girls was having an effect on me?

On an unrelated note, button up shirts are a life saver when you have a rack of antlers growing from your head. Seriously, trying to get into a pull over t-shirt without shredding the neck was next to impossible. 

It didn’t help that everything took me twice as long to do because I was so tired and sore. Even so, by the time I was ready to head out, I felt significantly better. When I stopped to examine why I felt a little pulse from the earth beneath my feet. I still didn’t know what Eleanor had done to this place to make it react the way it did to me. Something to do with fae magic. Apparently, it liked me and was helping me to recover. How much worse off would I have been if I hadn’t rested here last night? Scary thought.

I wished the place farewell under my breath when I left, and I swear I felt an answering pulse of magic that took the barest extra edge off the aches suffusing my chest and arms.

In hindsight, walking might not have been the best idea. It was getting close to summer and the air was hot. Not so much that a few minutes outside would roast you, but a walk across town would definitely make you aware of it. Especially if you were covered in dozens of cuts and scrapes, as I was. The resulting sweat ran into each of my injuries and managed the truly irritating feat of making them all both itch and sting at the same time. By the time I reached Soraya’s house, something that didn’t normally take me this long to do either, I was ready to sit down. I sensed another shower in my near future. Maybe a sandwich too, though that might require a trip to the grocery store and more walking, so…maybe not for a while.

There was still research to do later, so there was something “fun” to look forward to. At least it meant I could be still and rest for a while.

I realized that I was stalling. Dammit. Why did I have to be so good at procrastinating? This had to be a normal thing for people in small towns, right? Everyone knew everyone and would come over and knock on each other’s door. Right, sure. Except that I hadn’t grown up in a small town and I was pretty sure that if Soraya really wanted to talk to me that she would have called or texted or answered when I had.

This wasn’t all that weird, I told myself, for the hundredth time. Both Soraya and Valencia’s lives could be in danger with Angelo in the picture. With Soraya not answering her phone this was the only way to check in on them, especially since I wasn’t about to let Scarlett anywhere near Angelo.

With a deep breath I knocked on the door. It was a plain door. Hell, it was a plain house. Not too nice a neighborhood but not run down either. Far enough away from the college campus and high school to avoid the chaos of students but not so far away as to be disconnected from the town proper.

The door opened a little way and Valencia stuck her head out, blinking in the light. “Caleb?”

“Hi, Valencia,” I said. “Is Soraya around?” I swear by my pretty floral bonnet I sounded just like an elementary school student. Can Soraya come out and play?

“She’s having a father-daughter day with Angelo,” Valencia said. “They left a little while ago.”

I grimaced. “I thought it might be something like that.”

“Did you have plans today?”

“No, nothing like that. It’s just…” shit, what was it “just?” “Just” that I don’t trust the bastard? That I think he might be involved in human trafficking? That he might be a danger to her, Scarlett, and maybe his own daughter, too? I really should have been thinking about this on my way over.

“Just…are you okay, Valencia?” It still felt weird calling her by her first name. She wasn’t that old, she’d been a teenager when she’d had Scarlett and was only in her early to mid-thirties, but it didn’t help. Calling one of my friend’s—and kind-of-sort-of girlfriend’s—parents by their first name felt odd.

Her eyes widened a little bit. “O-of course.” There was a stutter there that made me not believe her and her words came out a hint too fast. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

I decided to take a chance.

“It’s Angelo,” I said. “Something’s not right there. I think…I think he had something to do with that prostitution ring that got busted on the news this morning.”

Valencia swallowed.

Realization dawned. “You know something about that already, don’t you?”

Her entire body stiffened as if someone had run a current of electricity through her. “Why don’t you come in? We shouldn’t talk about this outside.”

So, there was something to talk about. That was…something.

I stepped into the entry hall—only for someone to slam into me from the dining hall entry to the left, knocking me to the ground. Whoever it was they were huge, and strong, easily pinning me to the floor. Before I could react, pain shot through my neck.

I stiffened, tried to scream, and couldn’t. It was as if someone had poured molten metal into my veins, the agonizing heat spreading from my neck into my chest and arms and throughout the rest of my body from there. The extremities had it the worst, tingling with agony like burning needles.

The figure pushed himself off of me and I found myself staring up at the face of Mr. Glow, my blood dripping from his mouth. His name seemed suddenly appropriate because his eyes and the inside of his mouth, beneath the coating of my blood, were glowing with yellow light. That light pulsed, contrasting with his dark skin, and making his fanged smirk all the more sinister.

“You are the boyfriend of this one’s daughter,” he said from his position standing over me. He spoke with an accent I couldn’t quite place that made his t’s sound like d’s and emphasized his vowels. Something African for sure, but I didn’t know nearly enough to place the region.

He chuckled. “And you are friends with Soraya. You know, that is never going to work out for you.”

I started to call on my magic but once again I was too slow. My entire body and mind felt like it had been given a coat of lead that I had to fight against to move. The glowing vampire narrowed his eyes, and something pulsed inside my veins, the heat that had faded with his bite returning sharp and electric.

“Ah-ah, no spells from you little mageling.” He put his foot on my chest and cocked his head, as if considering me. “You know, I don’t know what any of these women see in a weak little thing like you. But we have all day to find out. We are going to have some fun, yes?”

He stepped back and my body jerked, as if there were strings running through my blood veins, yanking my body like some sort of puppet. “I know just how to get rid of you. None of the girls from this house will ever want to see you again after today. Give me your phone.”

My hand, twitching and spasming, obeyed. The more I resisted, the hotter the pain flowing through me grew. My blood was on fire.

Mr. Glow seemed to think it was amusing. He laughed as he took my phone. “You keep trying to fight but don’t worry, I am going to take you to heaven. Or she is, first.” He jerked his thumb at Valencia. “You’ll take my cock after you’re through with her.”

What? Wait, seriously, what the fuck?

He fiddled with my phone and then held it up, clearly recording us.

“What is your name?” he asked me.

I tried not to answer but pain flared through my body.

“What is your name,” he asked again, more forcefully. “Come on, give it up. The world wants to know.”

“Caleb.” The pain fell away, leaving sweet numbness in its place. “My name is Caleb Marshal.”

Mr. Glow made a hand gesture and Valencia came closer, stepping into the camera’s view. “And this is your girlfriend’s mother, yes?”

Pain again. I nodded.

“Say it.”

“Yes.”

He grinned and turned the camera on Scarlett’ mother. “And what is your name.”

“Valencia,” she said.

“You’re full name.”

“Valencia Estrada.” She cringed as her last name was put on the video.

“And you two think each other are pretty hot, right?” Mr. Glow asked. “Tell the truth now.”

“Yes,” I answered and was a little surprised when Valencia didn’t tell him what he wanted to hear.

She was visibly resisting his power over her, sweat beading on her forehead as she trembled.

“Tell the truth,” Mr. Glow repeated. “You know it is going happen. Give in. You know you’ll like it better that way.”

“Yes.” Valencia gasped, closing her eyes and turning her head.

Was she actually telling the truth or was she just giving Mr. Glow what he wanted to hear?

“Now say hello to your girlfriend and daughter, you two lovebirds. Say her name, tell her hello.” His glowing grin split his face like a jack-o-lantern.

In tandem we both said “Hi, Scarlett.”

“That is good, now kiss. I know you been wanting too.”

We jerked on our magical strings until we faced each other and with our eyes closed, pressed out lips together. There was no heat to the kiss. No passion. No lust. It was just flesh touching flesh.

“A real kiss,” Mr. Glow said. “Show the world how you really feel. Make it hot.”

We kissed more vigorously, tongues invading each other’s mouths. It was still empty, but it must have done something for Mr. Glow. “Alright, that’s it. Now time to start taking off your clothes. Caleb, strip.”

With shaking hands, I removed my clothing.

“Did you fight a woodchipper coming here?” Mr. Glow asked, shaking his head as I stood naked in front of him. I tried to cover myself, but pain flared through me and the invisible puppet strings yanked my hands back to my sides, exposing me to the camera.

I’d never really hated anyone before then. Bullet and Dicario had been aggravating and I’d been furious with them for hurting Scarlett, but I hadn’t hated them. Not the deep, burning kind of hatred that stirred within me now. If I had the chance, without hesitation, I would kill Mr. Glow. I didn’t have anything to be ashamed of, but I didn’t want to share my body with the world. And I sure as hell didn’t want to be naked in front of Scarlett’ mom.

“All right now Ms. Estrada, it’s your turn,” he said. “Make it sexy.”

I don’t know how much effort she genuinely put into trying to be sexy but despite myself my libido finally raised its head. Valencia slowly removed her top, exposing skin a shade darker than her daughter’s hazelnut and cream, and breasts that filled a bra in a way Scarlett’s never would. But as wonderful as her breasts looked, I couldn’t get past the bruising on her ribs beneath them.

Mr. Glow had been hitting her. The heat that had momentarily flowed through my loins died.

Her pants followed next revealing underwear that matched the bra and thighs covered in bite marks, caked with bits of dried blood. The panties dropped with a shake of her hips. Her bush was thick but not wild. I’d never seen a full bush before. I hadn’t actually been with that many girls and all of them trimmed or shaved down there. Finally, the bra fell to the floor.

“Uh oh,” said Mr. Glow. “I don’t think he finds you very attractive. He is not hard from looking at you. Why don’t you help him out, Valencia.” He emphasized her name at the end for the camera, taking visible delight in the way she flinched. “Get on your knees and suck him.”

She obeyed, shuffling forward and looking up at me, so that the camera couldn’t see, with shame in her eyes. She took my soft member in one hand and brought it to her mouth, taking it all the way in.

I gasped. I couldn’t help it. Her mouth was hot and wet. She sucked me in with an unexpected degree of effort, her tongue swirling at the underside of my cockhead. Damn, she was good at this. My body responded, my member hardening in her mouth until she couldn’t fit it all. She brought her hand to the base of my erection and began to jack up and down at the point where her lips couldn’t go any further.

My fingers buried themselves in her curly hair. Whether to stop her motions or to encourage her I don’t know. I threw my head back, eyes closed and moaned.

Mr. Glow’s chuckle, much closer than it had been before, brought me back to the moment. He was standing right next to us, filming down from overhead so that the camera could see exactly what Valencia was doing to me. 

I looked away from him and down, at the exact same time that Valencia looked up, her mouth still wrapped around my member. Our eyes met. My magic didn’t so much leap as give a little hop inside of me, sending a little pulse of the lust she’d begun to stir inside of me into her. Magic thrummed, invisible and almost intangible between us. A trickling current that connected us, unbeknownst to our captor.

Caught off guard, Valencia let out a moan that vibrated through my length and earned another laugh from Mr. Glow.

“You are getting off sucking this white boy’s dick, Mama? You are a special kind of slut.”

Valencia flinched, nearly snapping the connection between us but with a groan of effort I sent another pulse into her. She looked back up, meeting my eyes once more. Lust and confusion stirring in their dark depths.

I didn’t know how the hell this was supposed to help us, but it was a metric fuck-ton better than working in the void created by Mr. Glow’s commands.

I tried to tell her with my eyes what I was doing but I don’t think she understood. More power passed between us anyway, growing to a palpable thrum and eliciting another moan from her around my shaft. Suddenly Valencia popped free of my member and rose up, faster than I could react, and pressed her mouth against mine in a fierce kiss, full of fire and passion.

I could hear Mr. Glow talking beside us, but his words were lost to me, unintelligible nonsense from far away. Valencia’s naked body pressed into mine, trapping my wet erection against her belly. Our kiss deepened and then broke as we embraced each other, panting. My cheek pressed into hers.

“I can stop now,” I whispered, knowing she’d understand what I was talking about. “Just let him force us if it’s easier.”

She whimpered and shifted her hips to press her damp pubic hair into my hip.

I didn’t want us to continue with that empty, puppetry façade of sex, but I didn’t want to make this any worse for her than this already was.

“No, not that,” she panted in my ear. “I’ll take this instead….”

We fell together to the floor. I was distantly aware of Mr. Glow standing over us, encouraging us as we wrestled, pressing as much flesh against each other as we could. My mouth captured hers and I rolled her onto her back. My veins burned—it didn’t matter; a new fire had arisen inside of us.

Valencia’s legs wrapped around me and I thrust, not quite making the mark. My erection rubbed against her sex. She was hot and dewy. Her hand reached down between us and guided my member to her entrance. Magic pulsed between us, hot as her passage. I thrust into her, burying half myself inside of her in a single stroke.

She wasn’t as wet as I was used to, and given the circumstances that wasn’t surprising, but I could feel moisture pooling around my flesh as her body welcomed my intrusion. Valencia threw her head back and moaned. I withdrew until just the tip remained inside and thrust again. And again.

Each time was met by a gasp or a moan. Dimly I was aware of Mr. Glow hovering over us, commenting and recording with my phone. His magic pulled at me, unaware of its own loosening grip. My magic replaced his, pushing it out as it welled up inside Valencia and me, throwing fuel onto our lust and feasting upon the resulting energy.

We vibrated with it. I made to kiss her neck, then thought better of it. Mr. Glow had bitten me there, so he’d probably done the same to her. What kind of vampire was he? I’d never heard of any that glowed from inside like he did.

I adjusted course and caught Valencia’s mouth with mine, swallowing her moans and dueling her tongue as I continued to thrust into her. We broke the kiss and she let out a shriek. I adjusted myself and took her heavy breasts in my hands, massaging them before capturing a hard nipple between my lips.

My magic welled, feeding on the miniature orgasm that shivered through Valencia’s body, a precursor to what was to come. It lashed out at the bonds holding us, on the trickle of lust that was flowing down from the magical connection between us and Mr. Glow, eroding his hold and rejuvenating my energy.

I pulled my mouth from her breast and was surprised when Valencia threw her hips up at me and rolled us over so that she was on top. She rode me, bouncing up and down, throwing her head around so that her mane of curls whipped through the air. She screamed, shrieked, and raked her nails down my chest, reopening several scratches that had just healed and leaving little angry trails.

She slammed down one more time, harder than the others, and her passage clenched down on me. Her screaming stopped and her body went completely rigid. I took the opportunity to regain control, flipping her back over and driving myself into her once again, driving this orgasm into another. This time she did scream, a high-pitched sound that cut out halfway through as she ran out of breath. But not energy. Once more she ran her nails down my back and I snarled.

I grabbed her hands and pinned them over her head. She didn’t orgasm again but her sex spasmed and a fresh wave of wet heat washed over my length. She liked this. I slammed into her, holding her wrist in place. Her legs, which she had wrapped around me when I rolled her over, gave out, falling to either side, giving me easier access to her sex. I took it. I took her.

I came as she did, spilling my seed deep inside of her.

My magic rushed into her with my seed and I called it back. My magic stalled, confused. It wanted to claim her like it had Scarlett and Absinthe. No, I commanded it. No.

It lashed out, angry. No, more than angry. My magic was furious. It wanted her.

I grasped that fury and redirected it. The eroded bonds holding us gave way. I rolled from Valencia, gasping as I struggled with the power that had risen in me. I needed to channel it, control it, or she’d be taken. I couldn’t do that to her. Not to her, Scarlett, or Soraya. Not if I could help it.

Chapter Eight

Mr. Glow laughed as he fiddled with my phone, no longer recording us. “And that’s a wrap,” he said, looking up, light spilling around his fangs as he grinned at us. “You two are an internet sensation. Don’t worry, boy, I’m not done with you. There’s always an audience for big black men breaking in white twinks.”

He reached down and unzipped his pants. Lust poured from him in waves as his dick, which was glowing from the fucking piss hole, fell out. Suddenly I had a target for my magic.

Fire answered my call, fueled by the energy I’d just gained from the sex I’d just had with Valencia and siphoning off bits of Mr. Glow’s own lust to turn it against himself. I erupted in green fire and readied to throw a blast at him.

Mr. Glow was suddenly in front of me, moving faster than my eyes could track and backhanded me so hard I flew across the room. My fire leapt at him, but it wasn’t a direct hit. The heat blistered his skin but didn’t melt it. For a moment I was too stunned to call up a second blast.

He reached down and stroked himself, smirking. “Don’t fight it. You know you want it.”

Something purple flashed into the room, straight at the vampire’s groin. With a silvery flash and a spray of blood, Mr. Glow’s severed dick fell to the floor.

He screamed and fell back, hands going to his bleeding crotch. He tripped over his own feet and fell over backwards. The purple glow darted backward, snatching the dick up off the floor and came to a stop, hovering a yard away from me in the air.

It was the pixie that I’d rescued from Lilian She, the one who had agreed to a magical contract with Soraya, binding the two of them together. Her wings beat an easy rhythm that didn’t quite match up with the slight rise and fall or her flight. In one hand she held a pair of scissors as big as she was. In the other, she held Mr. Glow’s bleeding penis.

With a grin she opened her mouth wider than it should have been able to open, revealing a row of razor sharp, piranha-esque teeth, and took a bite off the side of the head.

“Fuck,” I whispered in utter horror.

She smirked at me. “Hello again, hunter.”

The vampire rose up, madness in his burning eyes. “You!”

He launched himself at the pixie, shrinking as he did so until he was a yellow ball of light about the size of a baseball. They crashed into each other and the pixie dropped the severed penis. But not the scissors. They flashed silver between the yellow and purple balls of light that ricocheted around the room, smashing holes in the wall, moving too fast for me to follow their movements.

I tried to ready a blast of flame but there was no way I could hit them. Even if I did, I’d also hit the pixie. I dismissed the fire and hurried to Valencia’s side. She lay on the floor, completely unconscious. Was that a mercy or a sign that something was seriously wrong? I needed to see her eyes, to know that they hadn’t turned as green as Scarlett with my magic. I couldn’t have claimed them both. I couldn’t have.

A window shattered, showering us with glass and I threw myself over Valencia to shield her. Everything was quiet after that. The house eerily still without the combatants disturbing the air and smashing everything.

I looked up and found the pixie smirking at me again. Violet blood trickled from a spilt lip and she held one of her arms. Her scissors were nowhere to be seen. That was probably a good thing.

“You are hunting prey that is much bigger than you,” she said.

I laughed. “You’re one to talk.”

She puffed out her impressively busty chest. She was naked, but I was beyond the point of doing more than noticing. “I am quite capable of taking care of myself.” She grinned. “I’m tricksie like that.”

Footsteps sounded outside. 

“My lady is here,” the pixie said.

Sure enough, the door flew open a moment later and Soraya entered. My hopes died an instant later as Angelo followed her in.

“What the fuck?” Soraya shrieked.

I was abruptly very aware that I was naked with her unconscious, and also naked, stepmother in the middle of her newly wrecked living room, which reeked of blood and sex. And from the scratch marks on my chest we’d clearly been going at it.

I held up a hand. “This isn’t what it looks like!”

“It looks like you just raped my ex-wife,” Angelo said from behind Soraya.

I rose, ignoring my own nudity, rage coursing threw me as I started toward him. Broken glass bit into my feet and I didn’t care. Didn’t even feel it. I held his gaze as I approached, ready to give him what for, when Soraya stepped in front of me.

“Put some fucking clothes on!”

“He—I didn’t—”

She cut me off. “I know you didn’t rape her now put some fucking clothes on or so help me I will castrate you, Caleb Marshal.”

Considering what her pixie had just done to the glowing vampire, I hurried to get dressed, grabbing my dropped phone and trying to keep an eye on Angelo as I did so. The pixie spilled purple pixie dust over the sleeping form of Valencia and then lifted her as if she were weightless and floated her back toward the bedrooms.

As soon as I was dressed, I started to try and explain myself, but Soraya grabbed me by the arm, nails digging into one of my reopened injuries.

“Ouch! What the—”

“You know damn well what,” Soraya snapped as she dragged me past Angelo and out into the front yard.

“That wasn’t what it looked like,” I said in a rush as she let me go.

She got right up in my face and shrieked at me, “It looked like you had some new problem with your magic and fucked my stepmother. Dammit, Caleb! The only woman in my family you haven’t fucked is my Goddamn pixie!”

I looked away.

Soraya gasped. Then hit me in the chest. Hard.

“You son of a whore! What the fuck is wrong with you! How does that even work, she’s not even as tall as your dick.” She slapped my chest. Then slapped my chest again.

The third time I stopped her arm mid-strike. “Will you knock that off and listen to me dammit!”

She kicked me in the balls.

I doubled over, pain shooting up inside of me sharp enough to make me nauseous.

She bent over so that she was once again in my face and screamed, “Go away!”

She left me doubled over and stormed back inside. It was all I could do not to crumple into a ball.

Fuck me sidewise with a disease-ridden cactus. This day couldn’t possibly get any worse.

I had to tell her what had happened to her stepmom and what her dad was up to. I tried and failed to straighten so that I could stand upright. Yeah, that wasn’t happening. Damn, I hurt everywhere.

I staggered toward the sidewalk and started making my way back home. After a few minutes I could walk relatively upright again and pulled out my phone. At the very least I could text her. She might not listen to what I had to say, but if I made the message short enough, she’d see the first few words when it popped up.

I started to text her when something wet formed around my mouth. I dropped my phone and it clattered to the ground. My hands went to my face and encountered an orb of water pressed over my mouth and nose. I clawed at it and splashed water aside, but it couldn’t get any air.

My hands ignited in green fire and I slammed the flames into the water, sending geysers of steam up, but the water was replenished as quickly as it evaporated. I needed air. I drew on the power I’d managed to gain from the sex I’d just had and poured on the heat. More steam billowed. But I still couldn’t breath and without oxygen my focus dwindled. My flames weakened.

Water spilled down my nose and throat. I gagged. Choked. My vision went black at the edges. And then completely black.

A sensation of utter bliss suddenly came over me. Some distant part of me remembered hearing that something like that happened when the brain was deprived of oxygen. The darkness became light and I….

Chapter Nine

I came to, coughing.

My head hurt. Like my skull was split open and someone had taken a jackhammer to my brains through the open wound kind of hurt. And my entire body felt weak. Breathing was a conscious effort, made more difficult by the sudden urge to cough. By the time I’d finally caught my breath I couldn’t even lift my head. 

I was sitting. On the ground. My tailbone hurt so I might have been there a while. Chains were wrapped around me, holding me against a wooden support beam. And I was soaking wet. Unfortunately, it was too warm to be refreshing.

“Are you done, now?” asked a familiar voice from somewhere in front of me.

With a grunt, I managed to pull my head upright. Lilian She sat in a metal folding chair about ten feet away from me. We were in a house or a cabin of some kind that looked like it was still under construction. Her face was expressionless, an unreadable mask.

“I’m usually pretty good at managing my emotions.” Lilian’s tone was husky and hollow, nothing like the usual upbeat sound when she spoke in class. Combined with our less than well-lit surroundings, it gave her an almost spectral vibe. “Empathy is not something I usually allow myself to experience, let alone be ruled by. And you slipped right inside my guard. Helping you break your curse may end been the biggest mistake of my life.”

I swallowed. Or rather, I tried to. My throat and mouth were too dry, and I ended up coughing again instead.

“Y-you,” I rasped. “Empathy?”

I couldn’t make form whole sentences yet. I hoped my words were enough that she understood my meaning. So much had happened that I’d almost completely forgotten that way back when she was the one who went behind Hardin’s back to help me break my curse.

Her tongue flicked out, long and forked, tasting the air between us.

I flinched.

She scowled when I did so, as if I’d offended her. “I won’t make that mistake again with you.”

She rose and glided across the floor toward me until she was standing at my feet, towering over me. It was easy to forget just how tall she was under normal circumstances.

“Let’s start with the simple basics. Lie to me, and I’ll bite something off.” She bared her teeth at me. They were white and human, not sharp or hooked, but I’d already seen her forked tongue and she’d eaten Dicario and Bullet before. “Say yes if you understand.”

I managed to wheeze out a, “Yes,” and her tongue flicked out again. When it returned to her mouth her lips curled up into a menacing grin.

“You mean that,” she said. “Good. I can taste your fear. It’s like a sour candy. Who are you?”

What was she talking about? She knew who I was. “Caleb Marshal.”

Her grin died. “What are you?”

I swallowed, this time managing to give my throat a healthy coating of saliva. “I don’t know.”

Her lips twisted into a scowl. “Maybe you didn’t understand me the first time.”

She dropped down beside me, grabbing one of my hands, and twisted my pinky finger. It popped out of its joint with searing flash of pain. I screamed and she forced my hand up, twisting it away from the chains despite my best effort to hold back, until my finger was just in front of her mouth.

“It’s much easier to bite off digits when they’re already dislocated,” she said, meeting my eye. “What are you?”

Something skittered across the floor out of my line of sight.

Lilian lifted her gaze away from me to peer into the shadows. Her tongue darted out once more and her nostrils flared. After a moment, she returned her attention to me. “Same question. Give me a better answer, Caleb.”

“I don’t know what I am,” I said. “I haven’t been able to find out. But—but I’m having a DNA test done on some blood and saliva. I should find out pretty soon. I think I’ve got some fae blood in me.

She reached up and tapped a prong on one of my antlers. “More than some. These are darker than I remember. Do you know why?”

I shook my head.

She reached for my injured hand. “Out loud.”

“I swear I don’t,” I said in a rush, eager to stop her from dislocating or even eating one of my fingers. Damn this day sucked! It even had a vampire.

Her hand stopped just inches from my own. “That’s better. There’s that taste I love.” She flicked her tongue out again, bringing the twin tips dangerously close to touching my face. “You released that pixie and burned down my meth lab, didn’t you?”

I nodded my head, then added, very quietly, “Yes.”

She bared her teeth and let out a hiss that was more feline than serpentine. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done? Why are you attacking me?”

I started to answer but was stopped by the smell of rotten eggs. No, not rotten eggs. Sulfur. It was quickly joined by the pungent odor of ammonia and the sharp stink of wormwood. Together the smells were utterly overpowering. So much so that it was a struggle to breathe through the thick cloud they created, invisible but no less permeable for that.

Lilian’s tongue flicked out, caught a taste of whatever was on the air, and snapped back into her mouth as she rocked back on her heels, gagging. Her suddenly very human tongue was being scraped against her teeth in what was clearly an effort to remove the taste of the odor from it. She staggered back, eyes widening as her head swiveled every which way.

A faint purple light appeared over her head, one which Lilian didn’t seem to be aware of. She hissed and bared her teeth, staggering across the room. The light over her grew brighter until I could make out the familiar shape of the pixie Lilian had once imprisoned hovering in the midst of it, pixie dust sprinkling down from her wings over her one-time captor.

Lilian’s hisses grew louder and the smell more powerful—I could barely breathe through the thickness of it. Finally, Lilian bared a mouthful of fangs at me and then fled, sprinting out of my line of sight, pixie trailing behind like some mischievous kite.

The chains binding me shifted and pulled, then Soraya was kneeling beside me, a pair of bolt cutters in her hand. “How the hell do you always manage to get yourself into these situations?”

I wanted to say something pithy and clever but all I managed was a pathetic giggle.

She gave me a concerned look.

I swallowed down my sudden urge to find everything hilarious and said, more seriously, “I’m fine.”

She scowled. “Sure, you are.”

“How’d you find me?” I asked. “I thought you hated me.”

The chain gave way to the bolt cutters and fell to the ground with a clinking clatter. She grabbed me by the elbow and hauled me to my feet.

“I’m plenty mad at you,” she said. “So, fucking mad you don’t even—but Trixie told me a bit about what happened with the adze.”

“The what?”

She rolled her eyes. “Mr. Glow. The glowing vampire. That’s what he’s called. An adze.”

“Huh,” I said. Just thinking about Mr. Glow made my gorge rise. “Did the pixie—er—Trixie, manage to kill him?”

Soraya shook her head and helped me across the room. “Nope. Hurt him but he’s still around. We’ve got to get Dad away from him and you away from Lilian. Why the hell didn’t you tell me she was some kind of monster?”

I shrugged. “It sort of seemed safer to pretend she was human.” What was that part about getting her dad away from him?

Soraya stared at me then went off in Spanish for a good thirty seconds before saying, “Caleb Marshal, you are the biggest fucking idiot I have ever known.”

“I know.” I started to hang my head, then jerked it upright. “Is Valencia okay?”

Some of Soraya’s heat left her and she let out a long breath. “Yeah. She’s sleeping back at the house. I set up wards to keep the adze out so she should be safe.”

Right. Unless Angelo himself made a move, which seemed a disturbingly real possibility. I had to say something to Soraya about her father, but…dammit, I hurt to much for this conversation. More, Soraya wouldn’t want to hear any accusations leveled against her father without hard proof. I didn’t have any. My hand throbbed with pain and it was an effort to keep upright, even with Soraya supporting me.

“How did you know where I was?” I asked. “And what did you do back there to Lilian?”

“Trixie explained what was done to you and Valencia and then guided me to you,” Soraya said, narrowing her eyes. “Apparently once a pixie’s tasted your essence they can always find you. Did you know that?”

I swallowed and shook my head. “Learn something new every day, huh?”

She scoffed and we stepped outside into the afternoon sun. It was too bright and too warm. For some reason it felt like it should have been dark, maybe raining or overcast, something sinister. Snake monsters didn’t dislocate your fingers under a bright afternoon sun on a gorgeous day like this one. She’d had me in a house that was under construction, just far enough away from the neighbors to avoid suspicion. I wondered what other uses the house might have served throughout Lilian’s criminal enterprise.

The pixie returned, darting out of nowhere to hover in the air before us looking more than a little pleased with herself. “Bitch is on the run.”

“Seriously,” I asked, “What the hell did you two do to her? Is it hard? Can you teach me?”

Soraya made a face. “It’s a much weaker variant of the ritual Saint Patrick used to clear out all the snakes from Ireland. It’s long, complicated, and easily countered. Once she realizes what was done, Lilian will set up some kind of personal ward against it. It almost didn’t work. I had to rush things when she heard us sneaking around under Trixie’s veil and Trixie got the drop on her while she was distracted by my spell.”

“So, it was a one-shot wonder?” I couldn’t bring myself to hide my disappointment. For a moment I thought we might actually have a weapon to use against her.

“Afraid so,” Soraya said.

Damn. How the hell had I gotten myself into this? It was worse than the meth lab and the Road Wolves put together. Between Angelo Cabal, who was a powerful contractor mage and also Soraya’s father, oh and a slaver, Mr. Glow, the glowing vampire rapist, Lilian She, who seemed all but invincible, and me with no real way to counter or stave off any of them, it seemed like it my life, and the lives of those I cared about, were being measured in out in minutes. How long before any one of them made a move and ended one or all of us?  

I pushed the thought from my exhausted and aching mind. There was no way to tell.

Chapter Ten

The tattoo and piercing parlor Absinthe worked at wasn’t far away, so we headed there, much to Soraya’s distaste. She’d never come around to liking Absinthe. Probably because Soraya had never spent any real amount of time with her. I had the distinct impression that she was angry with Absinthe but for the life of me I couldn’t quite understand why. I mean, Scarlett, Absinthe, and I had explained our situation—more or less—back when Absinthe had joined us. It wasn’t Absinthe’s fault that she’d mated to me and gotten all wrapped up in my magic. For all that it complicated had things, I really was in no position to complain.

Especially not when, as we entered the cool, dark interior of the tattoo parlor and she caught sight of me, Absinthe swore and pulled me into an embrace. “What happened to you?”

At her touch, a wave of tension rippled through me and poured out, leaving my muscles suddenly loose and my body limp. I was tired and aching and my head felt like it had been split open with a hatchet, but her arms felt good. Rejuvenating. I let out a moan and pushed myself into her, wrapping my heavy arms around her.

My magic reached out to her, touching the seeds it had planted inside of her and transmitting little pulses back and forth between us that seeped into every fiber of my body. I imagine that the feeling wouldn’t have been unfamiliar to a long-time smoker taking a drag of a cigarette after going a week without. She was my nicotine. Her and Scarlett both. My body and my magic were both letting me know that they wanted my girls, that they were good for me in more ways than I had previously thought. Around them, I would recover faster.

Awareness of my surroundings slowly returned. We weren’t alone in the shop. Thomas sat on the customer side of the counter, a tablet and portfolio in front of him. He gave me an appraising look and closed the portfolio, hiding away whatever it was he’d been looking over with Absinthe.

Soraya brought them up to speed, blushing as she told them how she had discovered me and her stepmother after Mr. Glow had taken control of us and then how Lilian She had kidnapped me. Absinthe interrupted only to ask if I had bonded Valencia, which caused Soraya to stiffen beside me and Thomas to lean forward on his stool.

I shook my head. “No. I managed to control my magic this time.”

Both girls let out matching sighs of relief.

Absinthe noticed my dislocated finger. It throbbed but I hadn’t really given it much thought until she picked it up. Pain throbbed through my hand as she gently examining the finger. Without warning she slammed the bone back into the socket.

Not going to lie, I shrieked like a little girl when she did that.

Both Soraya and Thomas winced, whether at the sound I made or the sudden, wet popping of my finger, I couldn’t tell.

I glared at Absinthe through watery eyes. “Ouch.”

She shrugged. “You’re welcome.”

I took several deep breaths and then addressed Thomas. “So, what brings you here? Thinking of getting a tattoo?”

Thomas got a little smile on his face. “Not for me. Absinthe and I were discussing…” he trailed off as he caught her eye and once again took in my condition. “I guess it’s not important at the moment. It’ll keep.”

“The real question,” Absinthe said, “is what are we going to do?”

She and Thomas both looked to me and I had a brief flash of déjà vu. During the group project for Prof. Hardin’s class the other students had looked to me the same way. I hadn’t even realized it, but I had taken over the project in Soraya’s absence. And now it was happening with her right next to me and she was giving both Absinthe and Thomas a disbelieving look.

“I’ll tell you what we’re going to do,” Soraya said. “We’re going to find my dad. With him on our side, taking care of Lilian or Mr. Glow should be nothing.”

Absinthe and I exchanged a glance.

Soraya caught it. “What?”

I took a deep breath. I didn’t want to do this. I really, really didn’t, but if anyone was going to say something about this to Soraya it had to be me.

“Your dad, he’s a contract specialist mage, like you, right?” I asked.

She nodded. “Yeah…”

“And he would know enough to recognize an adze, right?”

She narrowed her eyes.

He went nothing. “I think the adze’s like Trixie. A contracted supernatural working for your dad.”

Anger flared in Soraya’s dark eyes. I readied myself for a storm of Spanish. It never came. Through that fire, I could see the wheels turning in her mind, pieces of a puzzle clicking into place.

“He’s under it’s control,” she said. “That’s the only explanation.”

I grimaced. “He would know a lot about how to avoid being bespelled by something like an adze, right?”

“Everyone makes mistakes,” she snapped.

Thomas cleared his throat. He met Soraya’s resulting glare with a dispassionate look. “Adze don’t really do long term control very well. Only short term by ingesting the blood of their victims.” He glanced over to Absinthe. “That’s probably why you didn’t sense that Caleb was in danger like you did with the Road Wolves. The adze had consumed his blood.”

Absinthe nodded. “But what about after, when he was with Lilian?”

He shrugged. “Maybe a powerful enough mage can block it? Just guessing here, I really couldn’t say.”

“Can we focus please?” Soraya was almost shrieking. “Just what are you trying to say about my Dad, Thomas?”

“I think,” I swallowed. I did not want to have this conversation, but it was my responsibility far more than it was Thomas’s. “I don’t think your dad is a victim here, Soraya.”

She whirled on me, whipping her mane of curls behind her. “The hell he isn’t.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Absinthe said. “Because whether he’s under the adze’s control or working with it on his own, can still get through the wards you set around your house and hurt your stepmother.”

Soraya yanked out her phone and began texting. As she did, a thought occurred to me. If Valencia’s house was still vulnerable, then that meant that Scarlett was too. She’d be heading right there after school. As Soraya tried furiously to get in touch with her stepmother, my fingers flew across my screen as I texted Scarlett.

Scarlett was one of those people who answers her texts almost the instant they arrive. I got no response. I checked the time. Her school would have just let out and she didn’t have track practice today because of the meet she’d just run in. She should have been free to answer it.

“Absinthe,” I started to say but she answered me before I’d finished my sentence.

“She’s not answering my texts either.”

Soraya scowled. “Why are you texting Valencia?”

“Not Valencia,” I clarified. “Scarlett. She’s alone right now, the easiest target.”

Soraya looked like she’d been punched in the gut.

“It’s alright,” Absinthe said, grabbing her arm to help support her. My body felt cold and exposed in the now empty places where she’d been touching me.

“We’d be able to sense if she’s in danger,” Absinthe said softly. “We’ll be able to get to her.”

Thomas cleared his throat. “Not necessarily. Your danger sense didn’t work with the adze after it consumed his blood or with Lilian. If either of them gets the drop on her you might not know until it’s too late.”

This just kept getting better and better. I texted Scarlett again, not expecting a response but still aching with still more worry when one wasn’t forthcoming.

A giggle floated down from above us. I looked up to find Trixie the pixie—and wasn’t that a sickeningly dumb name?—hovering overhead, a hand over her mouth failing to stifle her laughter. “You’re all so big and so clueless it’s so funny!”

“Trixie,” Soraya called, fear transforming into anger in a cutting instant. “You know something about this?”

“More than something,” the pixie sing-songed. “But nothing’s free. You want to know about the she-snake hiding from the hunter’s magic? I know this thing. You want to know about your father and the adze?” She lowered her hand from her mouth, revealing a vicious smirk. “I know this thing too.”

“What’s the cost?” Soraya demanded.

I looked back and forth between them. I guess I’d thought that with the pixie bound through a magical contract to serve Soraya that answering questions would be a natural part of their relationship. Apparently I was wrong. Trixie indeed. Bitch.

“A boon for each answer,” Trixie replied, floating down to hover at eye level with Soraya. “To be called upon when I so choose.”

Soraya narrowed her eyes, raw anger burning in their dark depths. If I were that pixie, I would not have been hovering so close.

“A single boon,” Soraya said. “You told me the snake was your enemy. Anything we learn that could hurt her is already a boon to you.”

The pixie pouted but seemed to consider this. “A boon then. I say when.”

Soraya visibly grit her teeth. “You say when. Now tell me.”

“The she-snake is like our hunter here, blessed thrice over with magical affinities. Water, truth, and obfuscation. She can taste a lie and hide herself from the eye and from magic. She could be in this room and we’d not know it.”

Now that was utterly terrifying. It also explained the interrogation and how she’d got the drop on me earlier.

“And my dad,” Soraya said. “Tell them my dad isn’t the enemy. I’ll pay your boon just to prove him innocent.”

The pixie frowned again, a deep and genuine frown, all trace of humor gone from her. “The adze is your father’s creature. It is at his mercy, not the other way around.”

“You’re lying,” Soraya screamed. “Why would you lie about that?”

“You know I cannot lie,” the pixie whispered, but in the quiet after Soraya’s outburst, her voice reverberated like a thunderclap.

Pain exploded through my chest. Not physical pain, but sharp and distinct. I sensed Scarlett calling upon our bond, using the magic it provided her with. I felt her fear and sensed that she was hurt, though not how badly. More powerfully still, I felt her magic tugging at me, letting me know unerringly what direction she was in.

I glanced over and caught Absinthe’s eye. She felt it too.

Simultaneously we rushed to the front of the shop.

“What’s going on?” Thomas asked, hurrying after us.

“Scarlett,” we said at the same time.

I continued. “She’s hurt.”

Absinthe pushed her way outside and expelled a gout of green flame from her mouth. The fires engulfed her and emerged as an enormous, saddle-patterned giant canine. I climbed aboard, fingers digging into the mane of fur about her neck and shoulders.

Thomas made to follow me onto her back, but Soraya pulled him out of the way. “There’s only room for two on her back and that’s my sister in danger.”

Thomas looked like he wanted to argue but instead gave a nod of understanding. “I’ll catch you up.”

I met his eye and gave him a nod of thanks. He returned it. I really didn’t know much about Thomas, but I knew then that I trusted him.

Without another word, we took off.

#

Scarlett was waiting for us back at Valencia’s house, a little bruised but already healing. From what Scarlett told us, she’d been attacked by Mr. Glow on her way home from school. The werewolf magic Absinthe had infected her with had already healed the wounds he’d managed to inflict, though not the trauma of the event.

If trauma was the right word. Scarlett was in a rage the likes of which I’d never seen. To hear her tell it, Mr. Glow had sucker punched her out of nowhere and nearly dropped her then and there. Apparently he hadn’t realized what she was and she’d got him right back, transforming and, depending on the telling (we heard it at least seven times), nearly burning him to a crisp or ripping off a body part (usually his arm). Maybe she really had. Either way, there was no way she was topping what Trixie the pixie had done to him. Just thinking about that made me want to squeeze my legs together. If nothing else about the last few days gave me nightmares that would.

We caught Scarlett up on what had happened to me, including and most embarrassingly, what had occurred with her mom at Mr. Glow’s direction as we all headed inside to check on her mom

“He did what to you two?” Her voice ignited with a series of Spanish curses I had never thought anyone capable of producing so quickly. She cut off when we reached her house and discovered that, although Valencia’s car was still in the driveway, there was no sign of her. Vlencia still wasn’t answering her texts or calls. Angelo and Mr. Glow had her.

Scarlett whirled on Soraya, storming over to her stepsister and getting right up on her face, eyes glowing with emerald fury. “Your father and his pet vampire are hurting my mom!”

Soraya had never been one to back down, especially not from her younger stepsibling, but here she shrank in on herself. Her eyes fell to the ground, unable to hold up under the weight of Scarlett’ gaze.

“It’s always you, isn’t it? Always fucking you!” Scarlett shoved her sister with more force than her lean frame suggested she should be capable of and Soraya stumbled back a good yard before falling on her butt.

“Why can’t you be more like Soraya?” Scarlett demanded, imitating her mother’s voice. “Focus on your grades so you can go to college like Soraya. Stay out of trouble and read books like Soraya. You’re more her daughter than I am, and you let that man—”

I grabbed her from behind and spun her around. Scarlett didn’t resist, instead burying her face, wet with streaming tears, into my chest. She screamed, “He has my mom!”

My magic rose within me, answering her rage with my own. It had been building in me from the moment we discovered the underwear and dog leashes hung out like trophies at the abandoned cantina. I wanted to crush Angelo’s throat beneath my foot while I poured fire down on his face until even the skull crumpled into ashes.

My magic urged me to hunt him down, to set Absinthe and Scarlett upon him the way I had set them to tracking Scarlett’ friends before, and then once we’d tracked him down, burn him. Feed them his charred remains. No one would ever find the body. Everything wrong he’d committed would be avenged. The thought was as satisfying as a home cooked meal.

I almost gave in to it. I was reaching within myself to call upon my hunting spell when I caught sight of Soraya’s face.

Tears ran down her cheeks in twin rivers. She was about ready to come undone.

After everything she knew he had done, Angelo was still her father. 

He deserved everything my magic wanted to do to him and more, but he was still her father. If I did what I so very much wanted to do to him in return for his evil—and there was no doubt in my mind that what he was involved in was evil—Soraya would never forgive me.

I took a deep, unsteady breath. What had been done to Valencia and me was done. I’d stop him, but I wasn’t going to rush in, metaphorical and mystical guns blazing, and simply end him. If only because the last time I’d used the hunting spell without thinking we’d gotten banged up pretty good fighting that poltergeist.

No, if I was going to hunt him, it had to be on my terms. Not his and certainly not my magic’s.

I stroked Scarlett’s hair until she stopped sobbing. She looked up at me, eyes no longer glowing but rimmed with redness from crying.

“I’ve got a plan,” I told her. “But I need you for it to work. Are you up for it?”

Slowly she nodded. “If it gets Mom back, yeah.”

“Alright,” I said. “Here’s what we’re going to do….”

Chapter Eleven

It probably said something really bad about us that no one even once suggested that we call the police.

Instead we set our trap and waited. Scarlett had called Angelo in tears, telling him she’d been attacked and couldn’t get in touch with anyone. He’d asked where she was, and she’d told him. I’d made it a point to clear the furniture either out of Eleanor’s living room entirely or at least push it to the sides. Hopefully it would avoid the damage that had been done to the last home I’d fought in. Not that there should be much of a fight.

Eleanor had all kinds of useful materials in her office, though calling it an office was a bit of an understatement. More like workroom, laboratory, and studio all rolled into one. Technically we weren’t supposed to go in there. Technically I didn’t give a rat’s ass because our lives were on the line and Soraya needed the material to lay a ritual trap for restless spirits, aka, the undead. This included Mr. Glow, as adze were a type of vampire. Given that he was a strain from Africa though, and not the more familiar Eastern European variety, we weren’t entirely sure how the spell would affect him. In theory he would fall over and become a corpse until the spell was lifted. In practice all we needed was a few moments of distraction and we’d roast him.

Scarlett and Absinthe were transformed and lying in wait on either side of the entryway, hidden from the front door’s view. Soraya and me hid further in, her ready to set loose the spell, me to support the girls with fire. The land’s power coursed through me, invigorating me and fueling my magic. That was the main reason we had to do this here. I wasn’t in good shape. Whatever crutch I could get I would take.

By concentrating our efforts, I hoped we’d be able to take out Mr. Glow easily. I may have struggled with him by myself, but I’d been weakened and caught off guard and Scarlett had gotten away from him on her own. That said something about his abilities compared to my werewolf-cu sith girls.

The sound of a car parking up the street reached my ears and a moment later Trixie appeared in front of me and Soraya. Apparently veiling herself and scouting for Soraya was worked into their contract because she hadn’t argued with Soraya’s orders.

“They’re here,” she said. “Angelo’s staying in the car, but Mr. Glow is headed for the front door.”

We nodded.

“He’s not like an Eastern European vampire,” Soraya whispered. She was breathing hard, holding a crystal rod in one hand and a heavy stone bound in a rope made of twisted sage leaves in the other. I couldn’t begin to wonder about what they did exactly or how they interacted with the bits and pieces of other things she’d scattered throughout the house. Apparently they would all work together to create a magical cage, or a literal “dead zone” for the undead. “He doesn’t have to wait to be invited in.”

She’d said all this before, but I didn’t call her on it. I could taste her fear and hated that a part of me found it arousing. I wanted to make her my prey, to run her down and claim her for my own. I held my tongue, shoved down my completely inappropriate desires, and let her process. Whatever helped to calm her down wasn’t something I was going to interfere with.

It was a shame that the sun wouldn’t roast the vampire. As summer drew closer night was taking longer and longer to arrive. Hopefully he’d at least be weakened by its presence outside. At the very least, Trixie said that the damage she’d inflicted would have taken a lot of energy for him to recover. I tried, and failed, not to think about what that might mean for Valencia.

Hs shadow fell over the door window and without hesitating he shoved it open, breaking the lock and nearly tearing the frame from its hinges as he burst inside. His eyes glowed with yellow light and his fangs were bared. There was something manic about his appearance that should have made him terrifying. Except that he’d been so much more horrifying before, when he’d been completely in control. By contrast, this fury bespoke weakness. 

Once he’d been in control. Now he wasn’t, and he was less frightening because of it. Or at least, I thought so. Soraya apparently didn’t agree because she let out a little yelp and dropped the crystal rod to the floor with a clink.

Scarlett and Absinthe leapt from their hiding places and Mr. Glow’s savage expression was replaced by one of unadulterated panic as the girls bore down on him, green flames licking from their open maws. Absinthe reached him first, going in low to take his feet out from under him.

She was abruptly airborne, flying over Scarlett to land in the empty living room behind Soraya and I. Flames roared from her mouth and she snapped at the air.

Not the air, I realized a second too late. At a shadow. Either the poltergeist from earlier hadn’t been killed or this was a new one. If it was the same one, then that confirmed Angelo’s involvement in the human trafficking operation we’d broken up. Either way, the empty room provided few things it could hurl about, especially with Absinthe’s fangs and flames brought to bear upon it.

I rushed to her aid, remembering exactly how dangerous that thing had been before. If it got loose the entire house would be weaponized against us. With Mr. Glow in the picture there was a good chance we wouldn’t survive that.

Mere feet away I blasted the pair of them with my fire, energizing and strengthening Absinthe and torching the poltergeist. The land’s magic raced through me and laced my fire with still more strength. But the shadow in the fire didn’t stop wriggling or trying to escape Absinthe’s fangs or shrieking.

Shouting behind me alerted me that something was coming my way and I ducked just in time as Scarlett and Mr. Glow tumbled past, grappling and biting each other. I split the difference of my fire between my girls, bathing them and their opponents. Mr. Glow’s shrieking joined the poltergeist’s. There were few things in the world, magical or otherwise, that liked fire.

Nobody yielded. They struggled, thrashed, bit, slithered, and clawed. Blood flew, theirs and the girls. My flames sputtered. I was exhausted and the continued stream was proving difficult to maintain. I pushed on. If either one got loose, we were dead.

Chanting sounded from the entryway and a burst of energy washed over us with a little tingle. Soraya had pulled herself together and cast her spell. The poltergeist ceased resisting and Mr. Glow momentarily stiffened. That was all it took. The girls ripped them apart.  Mr. Glow lost limb after limb, each ripped away and hurled across the room in arcs of gelatinous blood. Once apart from the main body and exposed to my flames, they ignited, erupting into clouds of sparks and ash.

The Poltergeist’s end was less dramatic. The more Absinthe bit at it the less of it there was until my flames simply evaporated it.

The girls turned toward me, doggy grins on their muzzles. We’d done it. My plan had worked.

I grinned back at them. “That wasn’t so hard.”

The now familiar click of a gun made me whirl around.

Angelo had Soraya in a headlock and was pressing the muzzle of a gun into her temple.

Terror and rage filled me. To my back, both girls snarled, the sounds like twin truck engines rumbling through the house. It made my chest rumble and fueled my anger.

“You are going to stay right there,” said Angelo, taking a step back.

I took an unsteady step forward.

He brandished the gun but didn’t remove it from Soraya. “I mean it. You are going to stay right there and me and my little girl are going to have a daddy-daughter heart-to-heart.”

He stepped back and once again I stepped forward.

“Are you fucking deaf, boy? I will fucking kill her.”

Soraya stiffened in his arms. He didn’t seem to notice.

“The moment you hurt her, you die,” I said, the heat came out of me not in an explosive burst, but controlled and concentrated, my words cutting like a plasma torch.

“Bitch, you need to reexamine the fucking playing field,” Angelo said. “I have a hostage. I will kill her if you don’t do what I say.”

“What you have is a temporary reprieve.” The words sounded so much calmer coming out than they felt inside of me. “I do what you say, you’ll kill her when you’re gone. You’re only alive so long as she stays unhurt.”

Angelo shook his head and took another step back. I followed, matching his step. The girls didn’t bother. Scarlett, green flames lighting up her pure white coat, came to my side, teeth and flames bared. Absinthe turned around and vanished into another part of the house. Instinctively I understood that she was moving to cut off his escape route.

Another step back into the empty doorframe.

I matched him with another step.

A gunshot tore through the night.

Angelo and Soraya toppled over. The gun in his hands clattered harmlessly to the ground. Soraya screamed and kicked her way free of her father just as I reached her, and she grabbed hold of me.

I pulled her close and reached out with one hand to let fly a blast of flame at Angelo, but he was already on his feet. Blood blossomed from his shoulder where he’d been shot. Absinthe came around the side of the house and Thomas stepped out from the neighbor’s bushes across the street, his father’s rifle aimed and readied to be fired again. I’d been surprised to learn he was such a good shot considering he spent almost all of his time on the computer. I’d been further surprised that he’d been so willing to involve himself in our problem. My estimation of Thomas grew quite a bit that night. 

Angelo whirled around, disoriented and agonized. I was sorry the shot hadn’t killed him. I had asked Thomas to set up there as a last resort, just in case. I hadn’t actually expected him to have to use the gun and halfway hadn’t expected it to be effective. Effective or not, it had been much too close to Soraya for my liking. Or was Thomas so good a shot that he’d deliberately targeted the shoulder so that Angelo wouldn’t be able to shoot Soraya? I’d have to ask him later.

Angelo fell, but then was back on his feet, gun in his other hand. I threw Soraya to the ground and dove atop her as the gun went off, expecting to feel pain at any moment. It never came.

I raised my head and to find Angelo running down the street, propelled to inhuman speed by some sort of magic. Absinthe rushed across the street and returned to human form in a burst of green fire. I’d expected her to give chase, what was she…Thomas lay unmoving on the ground. She fell to her knees beside him.

Scarlett was at our side a moment later.

“I got her,” she said. “Absinthe’s got Thomas. You go after Angelo.”

I wanted to argue, but he was running. There wasn’t anything I could do here. If he got away now, this whole thing would start over again. My girls would be in danger. Soraya’s family would be in danger. This had to end now.

My magic leapt to fill my body and senses as I took off after him, propelling me forward with the same urgency as before, when I’d been following the girls. I was on the hunt. I knew without actually knowing where Angelo was going, knew from a thousand miniscule details that I’d never be able to point out to someone else, that I was gaining on him.

I pursued him until we were in the park Scarlett and I had run through back when I’d lived with my other roommies, before Absinthe had come into our lives. Next to the pond Angelo whirled and fired the gun wildly in my direction. I dove, taking cover behind a picnic table. It wasn’t great cover, but Angelo’s aim wasn’t especially good. Apparently, he wasn’t a lefty.

“Die you son of a bitch,” he shouted, firing again.

I scrambled for better cover. His aim wasn’t great, but he could still get lucky and the wooden picnic table wouldn’t actually stop a bullet. I came up behind a tree, breathing hard and calling green fire to my hands. This bastard was going to fry.

I took a deep breath and spun around the tree, ready to let fly a blast, only to find him running again.

He didn’t get very far.

From the shadows stepped Lilian She. Her eyes were flat, face expressionless.

Angelo screamed and shot her. The bullet hit her high in the chest. I know this because it left a tiny hole in her shirt. That hole was the only evidence that the bullet had connected. Lilian didn’t even flinch.

Angelo turned and began to run back my direction. I couldn’t blame him—I was definitely the lesser threat. I let fly the flames in my hands, creating a blazing green wall between us. Angelo screamed on the other side, realizing he was trapped.

I couldn’t see him behind the flames. Unfortunately, I could see Lilian’s enormous head as she rose high overhead in serpent form, lit from beneath with green light. I felt my spine turn to water as I watched her raise higher and higher, ignoring the sound of gunfire and screaming beneath her. And then she lunged forward, the strike too quick to follow.

When her head rose again, a pair of legs kicked wildly from her mouth. The giant snake shifted its weight and the legs disappeared down the throat. Angelo was gone.

My flames died. There was nothing I could do to hurt Lilian. I was exhausted, drained in every sense of the word. It was all I could do to stay on my feet as my eyes adjusted to the dark and she strode forward, once again wearing her human guise. Her t-shirt had been fixed in her transformation.

Angelo Cabal had been the worst thing I’d faced, apart from Lilian herself, and he hadn’t even been able to damage her clothes. I was so fucked.

She stopped a few yards from me, letting her forked tongue flick out from her petite, human mouth, tasting the air around me. Her eyes narrowed as she gave me the same look she’d given Angelo.

“Stay out of my business, Caleb. Final warning.”

She turned and walked away.

Chapter Twelve

Thomas wasn’t dead.

That was a huge relief. He was in the hospital. Ambulances and police had arrived very shortly after the neighbors reported the gunshots. We’d all been questioned. We all kept silent except to ask for a lawyer. At least Scarlett, Absinthe and I said nothing. I don’t know about Soraya. She wasn’t speaking with me.

No lawyer was forthcoming and come morning we were all exhausted but let go. I was told a thorough investigation was to follow. I couldn’t bring myself to care.

Valencia had been found and also brought to the hospital. She was going to be let out soon and had been directed to see a therapist. That sounded like a good idea to me. Scarlett and she spent a lot of time crying together when we visited. Soraya was there too but left as soon as she saw me and Absinthe. I didn’t know what I was supposed to say to her. Her silence hurt, even if I couldn’t fault her for it. I had been in the center of the storm that had destroyed her family and killed her father.

We followed up our visit to her by going over to see Thomas. He’d been in intensive care for a few days but was now in the clear. He had a long recovery ahead of him. Fortunately, he lived most of his life online anyways. Being in the hospital was killing him though. I swear he was madder that he didn’t have regular internet access than about being shot.

“I swear you’re like a junkie not getting his fix,” Absinthe said to him.

He glared at her from his hospital bed. “You joke. There are things I need to be taking care of, including your project don’t forget.”

I glanced at Absinthe from my position at the foot of the bed. Scarlett held herself to my left arm. Since her mother had been hurt, she’d become a lot more…I didn’t want to say needy because that wasn’t it. She needed constant contact with me or Absinthe. If she wasn’t with one of us, she was with Valencia. I wished I knew how to help her. For now, all I could do was accommodate her.

At my questioning look, Absinthe she giggled. It was the first time she’d laughed since our throw down with Angelo. 

Absinthe wouldn’t meet my eyes after I pulled my gaze from the top of Scarlett’ head to give her an even more lost look. “What have you been up to?”

Thomas rolled his eyes. “Your girls asked me to start a website for you. About you actually.”

I raised an eyebrow. “About me? What’s so interesting—”

“Really?” Thomas cut me off. “If I could, I would throw my pillow at you. You have the kind of affinities every guy dreams about, a pair of hot girlfriends and will probably have more judging by the way your magic works, and you have crazy stupid adventures. And did I mention the hot girlfriends?”

Absinthe blushed. “We’ve been posing, like models. It’s like a model site, like a…Playboy Mansion blog, but with you instead of Hugh Heffner at the center of it.”

“Uh huh,” I said, not really understanding.

“It could solve our money issues,” Absinthe said. “Scarlett, Thomas, and me will manage it while you’re in school.”

“Right. You’re not, like, naked or anything right?”

“No!” Absinthe fixed me with a fierce look. “Nothing like that. We just, model stuff. It’s like you’re a brand for our portfolios.”

Portfolios? I really had no idea what they were talking about.

“It’s already live,” Thomas said. “The girls wanted to surprise you and I need to get out of here to monitor the launch and traffic. I guarantee there’s a thousand bugs with it right now. And…I’m sorry to say this, but what happened with you and Valencia will only drive more traffic to the site. We need to be able to take advantage of that.”

Scarlett stiffened against me and I wrapped my arm around her.

Thomas swallowed. “For better or worse, that video is out there now. Your name and hers are out there. If we’re using you as an online brand there’s going to be some audience crossover.”

I had nothing to say to that. 

#

The girls and I walked home from the hospital together. It was weird, thinking of Eleanor’s place as home, but it really was. More so than anywhere else I’d ever stayed and not because of the generous host or even the magic that responded so well to my own. The girls flanking me had helped speed up my recovery and while I was still sore, I was doing a hell of a lot better than Valencia or Thomas. Neither Absinthe nor Scarlett had come away with so much as a scratch. Not that they were unharmed.

We walked along the frontage road near the highway that bisected the town. The hospital was just off an exit, awkward to get to without a car. Between us we only had Absinthe’s motorcycle and we couldn’t all fit on that. One of the girls could have transformed and let the rest of us ride on her back but that didn’t strike me as a good idea in the middle of the day. Law enforcement already didn’t like me, and I really didn’t need to give them any more reason to put me under the microscope.

I stopped my walking to watch the cars on the highway speeding past. The girls slowed and then stopped, looking back at me with puzzled expressions on their faces.

“What’s wrong?” Absinthe asked.

I shrugged. “I feel…what the hell did we accomplish? This whole thing was such a fucking fiasco.”

The girls we’d rescued from Angelo’s human trafficking business? Deported or arrested. Daisy and Carina had court dates to determine whether they needed to spend time in a correctional facility, never mind that they’d been kidnapped.

Valencia and I had been…I didn’t know what we’d been. She’d clearly been raped by the adze, Mr. Glow, before I’d come into things. That didn’t make me feel any better about what had happened between us. Or what had been done to us. How much had been Mr. Glow’s control and how much had been my magic? Was I honestly any better than that monster with what I’d done to Scarlett and Absinthe? At least Mr. Glow was dead. It didn’t actually change anything but there was some small comfort in that.

To top it all off, I’d gone and killed my best friend’s dad. No, it would have been better if I had. Instead I’d let Lilian kill him. I don’t know if I could have roasted him before she’d devoured him or not. I do know that I had allowed her to eat him. Somehow, I’d sensed that he was her prey and had cornered him for her. I hadn’t been the murderer, just the accessory, and that sickened me in a way that twisted my brain into knots inside my skull.

“Mom’s alive,” Scarlett said. “And Carina and Daisy aren’t being sold so that they can be raped every day for the rest of their lives.”

“And the fucker responsible is dead, so there’s that,” Absinthe said.

I snorted. “Yeah, there’s that.”

“Soraya will come around,” Scarlett said.

I blinked at her.

She shrugged. “Bitch is as crazy about you as you are her. She’s just confused as all hell right now.”

Absinthe rolled her eyes. “What’s not to be confused about? I didn’t even like girls before this. I mean, maybe as some sort of dominance play or to get a guy riled up, you know?” She gave a small, rough laugh. “This last week was a raw deal. It happens. But…I don’t think I’d change things. I mean, the rape and slavery shit, yeah, but being with you guys…”

My shoulders shook a little. I wanted to believe her. I felt much the same. I loved these two women. They were mine. And, I guess I was theirs, too. But how could I trust that what she was saying was genuine and not something my magic had twisted her into believing? Of course, in her case the werewolf mating thing could have already had her falling for me. Same question though.

Scarlett pinched me beneath the ribs. I’d grown leaner since breaking my curse so there wasn’t a lot there to pinch. I still jumped at the sudden sharpness.

“You’re going to put yourself in knots,” she said. “This week has sucked diseased monkey balls. We’ll get better though. We’re all better together.”

She leaned into me and nuzzled my shoulder. Absinthe came around to my other side and imitated her. Damn. I didn’t know whether to puff out my chest or break down crying. Definitely not the latter, I decided, fighting back tears. They weren’t an option. For better or worse I had to be the strong one.

My phone chimed with a text. I grinned when I read it.

“Eleanor’s back in town in two days. She said she’ll have the results of the DNA test then,” I said.

No sooner had the words left my mouth then my phone began ringing and my adopted sister, Nicole’s, face filled the screen. I winced. I hadn’t called her since before this whole thing with Angelo started and suddenly, I felt insanely guilty. I told her about everything that went on in my life. She was my go-to confidante in a way that Soraya couldn’t be.

I answered the phone with a forcibly cheerful, “Hey, sis.”

“Caleb,” she said. Was she sobbing? “I need your help…”

The Horned Mage’s adventures continue in Everyday Evil!

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