Phro, always up for a challenge—hell, anything since most people can’t see her—chuckled. “Keep thinking little guy.”
The sprite turned back to me. “You can see spirits. You have a goddess with you. What else can you do?”
“Why do you assume I can do anything?”
He tilted his head and let his eyes run over my body. Twice.
Oh goddess.
“You are obviously not human, but some sort of magical creature. What kind?”
I was getting used to the question, but still hadn’t found an acceptable answer to it. Technically, I’m the daughter of the goddess Ariadne and a human serial killer. My mother gave me the ability to peel dimensional layers, astral project, call bees and outlift Mr. Universe. She gave me long, heavy copper-colored hair with a natural white crown and streaks that reflected the sun like a mirror.
My father gifted me with a bit of a mean streak. Hopefully that was all, since he was one of the worst serial killers to have ever walked this earth.
I narrowed my eyes and leaned over the table. “You’re so old and full of wisdom, you tell me what you think I am.”
With that, he clapped his hands and flew up to float in front of my face. “I think you’re a hot fantasy package wrapped in a layer of icky, prudish haughtiness. And you don’t
truly
know what you are!”
“Get out of my face.” I resisted the urge to flick him. “That’s a lot to assume from so short a time.”
“I’ve had a lot of time to learn to read humans and other creatures.” He landed, took two steps and stopped to spin and place a hand on his hip. Maybe he had fantasies of being an actor. He had the drama-queen act down pat. “You also stink of one of the lesser hell dimensions.”
My mouth fell open.
Castor snarled and plucked the vampire up by the back of that ridiculous cape. “Maybe you’re smelling yourself.”
The thing hissed, turned his head as if to bite my brother, and this time I did flick him. Right out of my brother’s hand and into a wall. A trail of dust swirled around him and I quickly pulled my brother back, motioning Blythe and my sister to follow. This creature was a complete unknown. I’d heard sprite dust can make a person sneeze. Vampire sprite dust was liable to eat right through the sinuses.
“And I thought the fairies were rude,” he was mumbling as he got to his feet. He smoothed his tiny hands down his cape, spit on his palms and slicked back his hair.
I bit the corner of my lip. Met my brother’s amused eyes. He had to turn away.
“What do you mean ‘I stink like the hell dimension’?” I asked.
“I mean, you smell like the rotting insides of a bull.” He stomped to the edge of the table with tiny clicking feet and stared up at me, crossing his arms over his chest. “You stink of blood and bile and the poison of demons is running in your veins. Your wounds aren’t healing, I can smell them. They tie you to that place.”
I’d fought demons from that dimension recently. That was why I’d taken so long to heal. Or at least, I’d thought I was healing, albeit slowly. Blythe’s healing magic had taken a hit along with the rest of her magic, so there’d been no help there.
The demons excrete a poison from their claws that infects a wound and sends black spiderweb lines over the skin. As for being tied to the place, maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing. Not if it could help me get to Nikolos faster. I was about to launch into what we wanted when the vamp chuckled and flew into the air close to my face.
“Oh, I know who you are! You are nothing more than the walking dead.”
“I assure you, I’m very much alive.” Tact. What I needed here was tact. I thought of Nikolos, trapped in some kind of hell, and my heart started pounding. “I need your blood,” I blurted again. Elsa kicked the back of my boot.
“I know that and I know why. Everyone knows of the Minoan who gave up his life to save all the humans.” He shuddered. “Not too bright, was he? But you won’t live to cast that spell, much less go in after your precious warrior. Don’t you know that all the baddies out there hate your guts? You’re a walking dead woman.”
“All the baddies?” And this guy was supposed to be an ancient? I narrowed my eyes. “How old are you?”
“Nearly as old as that goddess you have there.” He looked at her. “Goddess of the hunt?”
Phro merely crossed her arms and lifted one eyebrow.
“Well, I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I’m just not that popular.” I took a deep breath.
Tact,
I reminded myself again.
He clucked his tongue. “You killed the Dark One.”
“Are you talking about the Dweller on the Threshold?”
He nodded slowly. “I like that.” Fluttering his cape, he grinned. “What a deliciously dark name! Not that it matters to you, but his coming has been celebrated and planned for centuries. All creatures of the night sensed his arrival and were preparing for the coming time of darkness. It was to be wondrous! Finally, the smarter and more powerful creatures would rule over the humans.” He snarled, tiny eyes disappearing as he squinted. “But you stopped it. Everyone’s out for your blood, and they’ll get it.”
“Are you out for my blood?”
He shrugged. “No, blood from the magical does something horrible to my stomach. But trust me, your time will still come. There are other more powerful beings helping to right things.”
I sighed and tapped my foot. “Enough of this. I want my warrior back and I want your blood to do it. Are you gonna share or not?”
Elsa did more than sigh. She pulled her gun back out. “I don’t see why we’re giving this thing a choice.” She pointed the Glock at his tiny head. “I’m a cop and I know what you’re doing with those white flowers over there. I can certainly find a way to lock you up.”
“A cop. With lovely, tasty, human blood,” he said. “I like a woman with an ego and yours is obviously huge.” He stuck out his hip and gave her a sultry look. “Have you ever heard the saying about six inches being all you need?”
“Oh you did not just say that to me.” Elsa flipped off the safety. “How about I shove six inches of this gun up your ass?”
I cracked up. Couldn’t help it. Putting my hand out to stop her, I swallowed back more laughter because it still hurt my smoke-damaged throat. “Let me just get him, okay?” I was trying to figure out how to grab him and what to put him in when I heard Blythe muttering another spell.
Just then, the entire tabletop lit up. Then one corner of the warehouse. Then another.
“Blythe! The damned flowers!” I had no idea what burning magical datura would do to us, was pretty sure I didn’t want to find out either. For the second time in one night, we were facing fire. “This fire crap is getting old—stop with the magic!”
The vamp squealed and fluttered higher. “Oh my treasures! My beautiful treasures!” He ripped off his cape and started beating at the flaming doll furniture. Then he left us entirely for his flowers. The destruction of plant life would have rendered a regular sprite or pixie useless. Tied to nature as they were, they’d feel the pain of the tortured plants. I started to feel a little sorry for the thing when he moaned.
“He’s disgusting,” Blythe yelled over the suddenly loud sounds of pots exploding. “Don’t you see he’s six inches tall? Do you get what he was saying?”
“I got it, Blythe.” I rolled my eyes. Scanning the flowers, I caught a glimpse of red zip by, heard mini-thunder cussing. I looked around for something to trap him in. We weren’t leaving without him. “I’m tired of the fire. We need to find Sophie before we even think about attempting that dimension spell.”
“I was just trying to bind him,” Blythe muttered, biting her lip as shiny tears filled her ridiculously big eyes.
“Without your yellow binding stone?”
“It’s in my purse with the cookies and Tic Tacs!”
“Dammit, Blythe,” I growled. Here I had to deal with more smoke since I had to go in after the little vampire. Again, I saw him flutter by, slapping around the useless cape. I ran for him. All I could think to do was rip off my jacket and wrap him in it, and he nearly got away twice. I hoped his dust didn’t eat through leather. “We’re out of here!” I pointed toward the door.
Luckily the front of the place hadn’t gone up in flames yet, so we ran outside. The smoke-free night air felt wonderful on my overworked lungs. I stopped and took a deep breath, then coughed. Crap. The thing in my hand struggled and twisted like he was trying to bite me. I’d had it. Holding the wrapped bundle up to my face, I used short, succinct syllables to get my point across and shook the black, wrapped bundle. “Bite me and die.”
The vamp went still.
“What now?” Castor asked. He pulled off his brown jacket and handed it to me. “We’re all out of places to live.”
I started to turn down the jacket but took in his frown and just smiled my thanks. Shaking my head, I knew what I had to say even though my stomach twisted into knots before the words left my mouth. “We have Nikolos’s home.” They all knew I’d returned to our motel in Alligator Flag to a letter next to the keys to his truck, his business and his home. The note had only said he hadn’t expected to find love again, that he was sorry and his belongings were now mine. That was it. But knowing he’d followed me into the swamp that day, knowing he would be sacrificing himself…it tore me up.
Elsa laid her hand on my arm. “You forget, sis, I was with you the last time we went there.” She squeezed. “We’ll get a hotel.”
I swallowed hard, straightened my shoulders. “No, we need the security. He’s got all those cameras and the magic is hard on evil.”
Blythe was nodding. “She’s right. Brad Pitt beat his own head in and jumped out the back of Nikolos’s truck when we tried taking it in there. It’s perfect.”
Castor had started to hold out his hand for the vamp, but hesitated, hand in air.
Elsa stopped next to him. “Brad Pitt did what?”
“Shape-shifter,” I said. “A ghoul with a hard-on for Brad Pitt.”
Castor held out his hand again, chuckling.
No way would I risk this thing with him. I gave him the “as if” eyebrow lift. “Elsa can drive while I hang on to it. We still don’t know what its bite can do. For something so small to have survived all this time, it could have a bite more deadly than the Dweller Demon’s poison. We can’t risk you.”
This wasn’t a new argument between us and I watched a fury I was becoming too comfortable with darken his features. Pure, fed-up exasperation dripped thick from his words. “You can’t seem to get it through your head that we can’t risk you either.”
I was tired of putting out or running from fires, tired of breathing smoke and tired of all the obstacles keeping me from going after Nikolos. I opened my mouth and the words just poured out. “I’m not the one who’s supposed to change the world. I’m not the one with the army of guards surrounding me. I’m not even important enough to warrant real spirit guides!”
“Hey,” Phro broke in. “I resent that.”
“I don’t give a shit. Fred told me he wasn’t supposed to be with me before he disappeared. Oh, and before that, his face and his body blurred into someone else’s entirely. He’d been lying to me my entire life. Phro is a trapped goddess who just hangs around because she’s bored. You know what that means, Castor?” I stepped closer to him. “It means I’m not supposed to even be here. I’m not trying to solicit sympathy either. It’s pretty damned obvious I was put here to make sure your ass made it through the Dweller battle.”
“And now what?” he threw back. “You have no purpose? Is that what you think? You’re an idiot.”
It reminded me of a time Nikolos had said the same thing, the exact same way. I started to sputter and then shut my mouth. “Screw this discussion. I’m sick of it. I don’t know why I’m still here. All I know is that Dweller of yours—”
“Not mine.”
I held up the hand clutching the sprite. “That Dweller let a lot of what this vamp called baddies out and we need to find them and put them back. I need Nikolos back for purely selfish reasons and this nasty little creature chewing through my jacket is going to do that for me.”
The vamp started to argue and I shook my hand until it lay still again. I took a deep breath. “Look, I’m exhausted. Let’s just go to Nikolos’s house and crash.”
I wondered if they could tell I was holding my breath. Nikolos’s home did affect me. Badly.
Chapter Three
We were the most pathetic bunch in the world. Bedraggled, droopy and stinking of smoke. The looming sense of even more oncoming disaster sat heavy on us, my Jeep holding the silence like a place of worship. Glancing around, I took in the black streaks decorating Blythe, the disheveled and sleeping Castor, and the frown line in my sister’s forehead as she glanced in the rearview mirror.
She turned into the long driveway leading to Nikolos’s home and I braced myself. He’d built his house over a ley line and magic rose from the earth like serpentine tendrils to taste for friend or foe. The first time I’d come onto his property, the probing had felt faintly sexual, but now all it did was make me feel sad. Okay, and still slightly violated. The little vamp started muttering and wiggling. He was surprisingly strong. I wrapped the jacket tighter. Hadn’t thought about him and the magic here.
Castor suddenly sat up. “What the—”
Blythe leaned back, a faint smile peeking through her exhaustion. “There’s a ley line here. Isn’t it just the loveliest thing? I think maybe my magic could work here, that I can find my balance again.”