As Wicked As They Come

by Emma Dean

  He chuckled darkly at that. “Despite how much I would enjoy a tussle with you, we don’t have the time. My name is Dagon, now let me free so I can put some clothes on and take you to where you need to go.”

  Mika didn’t know what to say or do. “Corbin is going to be here soon.”

  “Yes, call him and tell him you are coming with me. Where I’m taking you, he cannot go.” Those glowing orange-red eyes stared her down and waited for her to make the decision.

  This glorious male specimen was naked as the day he was created, and Mika let herself look once. “Fine, but the blood beasts come with me.” She pressed her hand to the circle and thought the word to release it.

  The glittering red fell down like a wave over glass, and still Dagon did not look away from her. Then before her eyes he simply…disappeared. She could still feel his presence even if she couldn’t see him and Mika narrowed her eyes.

  She took out her phone and called Jess. The second the phone picked up Mika didn’t bother with hellos. “So, Lucifer has one of his dogs watching me.”

  The silence on the other end was answer enough. “Sorry, Mika. I didn’t honestly think you’d find out.”

  Mika sighed. She should have expected this. “Is the dog loyal to him or the dean?”

  “Don’t call me that,” Dagon demanded, reappearing with clothes on this time.

  “Hellhounds guard hell,” Jess explained. “They are loyal to those they choose to be loyal to, but their job first and foremost is to guard the portals and help the dead. Sometimes, they help those whose time hasn’t yet come. You can trust him,” Jess insisted. “He’s been watching out for you since spring.”

  …Since spring.

  Mika vividly recalled those glowing red eyes she’d seen in the hall during that dodgeball game, the ones that had mesmerized and called to her. She’d nearly went down a dark tunnel just to find out who they belonged to.

  Glancing over her shoulder, she studied Dagon and those strange eyes that reminded her of Jessica.

  “Fine, but next time Lucifer decides to butt his nose into my life, warn me, cuz.”

  Jess sighed. “All of you are a pain in the ass.” Then the hunter hung up.

  “Well?” Dagon asked, folding his massive arms over his chest.

  Mika couldn’t help but admire the way the black shirt hugged every single muscle he possessed, tucked into a pair of black cargo pants and topped off with black combat boots. Even in this form he was barely more than a shadow.

  “I need to let Corbin know.” Mika texted the raven that she was fine, and that she would be right back. Then Mika took out one of her power stones and slid her finger across her witch blade to smear the blood over it. She placed the bloody quartz on top of one of the gravestones. “So he can track me,” she warned.

  The glowing red hellfire simmered until it simply made his natural brown glow with an inner light. “To be expected.” The hellhound held out his hand. “Are you ready?”

  Mika stared at that hand, wondering if she was making a huge mistake. Even though Jess said she could trust him, Mika still wasn’t sure.

  This was a hellhound. The last one she’d met had tried to kill her, Lucien, and Ethan and had chased her through the hidden tunnels of the school until she thought she was going to literally die from a heart attack.

  But she also remembered how kind those eyes had been as they watched her, how benign the shadows had been until she felt like they were a comforting blanket. This male had saved her life by calling Corbin in time to help her when the Hellfire Society had captured them.

  Mika placed her hand in Dagon’s massive one. “Let’s go.”

  Whether she was ready or not, Mika didn’t have time to waste. She looked up at the nearly full moon just before Dagon pulled her into that dark nothingness.

  23

  When Mika could breathe again, she released the hellhound and nearly stumbled on the rocks. Dagon managed to catch her again before she fell off the edge of the cliff.

  “Good puppy,” a female voice purred.

  Mika looked up and saw a familiar face, the one she’d been working with nearly every day. “Aine.”

  “I heard you were looking for me,” the goddess said, settling back into her throne of boulders. She crossed one leg over the other, exposing her creamy white thigh with a slit to her hip in that silky black dress.

  Aine eyed Mika with speculation.

  “Where are we?” Mika looked around and saw nothing but rocks and ocean. They were everywhere and nowhere under the night sky. She didn’t even recognize the constellations.

  “Tell me why you are searching for me, and I will show you,” Aine stated, calmly watching Mika and the hellhound. “I’ve been in hiding for centuries. You’re stirring up memories in your search and I don’t like it.”

  Mika stared at the goddess in disbelief. “You don’t like it, sister?”

  The hellhound actually flinched.

  “You know what I don’t like?” Mika demanded, standing up straight and summoning the blood beast with barely a thought. “I don’t like stumbling through life terrified that if I were to touch someone they would die. That my touch would kill those I loved. I don’t like how I seem to be the last blood witch, and everyone just assumes I will rule.”

  Aine fidgeted slightly on her throne.

  “I don’t like how you can apparently know when I’m searching for you but refuse to answer the call. I don’t like how you abandoned me.” The blood beast snarled beside her, the size of a hellhound now and just as terrifying as it was the first time Mika had seen it.

  She was breathing hard. Every word she spoke peeled away a layer of that numbness until her rage and fury burned bright and it was all she could do to hold onto that power instead of unleashing it upon the world.

  Mika wanted to watch it all burn to the ground so bad. She wanted to see those who had created the red tape and asinine rules suffer as she had suffered until they begged her for mercy – until they begged her to make it all stop, promising that they would do anything to make it stop.

  “I can see my mother in you,” Aine murmured, waving her hand.

  Suddenly the night was gone, and the room was filled with sunlight, making the gold glitter from every surface.

  Mika blinked and that rage faltered.

  Aine looked almost mortal in her trendy jeans and loose flowing white shirt. Delicate gold necklaces hung from her neck, tiny gold earrings glittered in her ears, and rings covered every finger.

  “We’re on my ranch in Australia,” the goddess said, standing from the throne now made from solid gold in a massive sunroom, as if she held court here regularly.

  “Australia.” Mika glanced at Dagon, but the hellhound watched Aine closely like the goddess might turn on them at any moment. He didn’t seem bothered by Mika’s beast either.

  So, hellhounds could teleport just like demons.

  Interesting.

  “It’s the last place anyone would look for me, as far from my birthplace as possible,” Aine admitted. “What is it you need from me, Mika?” The goddess walked through the house and out into the bright sunshine. Mika felt so out of place as she followed.

  She was still furious, but she was also taken aback by the sudden change in demeanor. Had her words actually made Aine feel guilty, or was this another play?

  Mika decided to cut to the chase. “I need a vial of your blood.”

  The goddess paused to inspect some of her plants. “Blood of a god is potent stuff. Why do you need it?”

  “To free the Morrigan from her prison.”

  Aine looked up in shock. “She’s alive?”

  Mika didn’t know what to say. Had Aine really managed to isolate herself so well she had no idea what was going on in the world?

  “For now. Someone trapped her in another realm.” Mika eyed the goddess and put a hand on the beast’s head to calm them both. “Why did you disappear?”

  Aine glanced at her before turning her attention
back to the garden. “You don’t know what it was like, watching everyone I loved hunted and killed just for being born a certain way.”

  “I do actually.” Mika crossed her arms over her chest. “I’ve seen the memories even if I haven’t lived it.”

  “The memories don’t infuse your body with terror,” Aine insisted. “They don’t wreck you with grief as you watch your mother disappear, and your sisters slaughtered before you. We were betrayed by those we loved and when I saw we were losing, I ran. There was no one left to take with me. The queen I’d been advising, Morgana, had already been torn to pieces as hell was unleashed upon her island.”

  Aine cut a yellow rose from the bush before moving on to the next one.

  “Well, we survived,” Mika snapped. “No thanks to you.”

  “Obviously,” Aine agreed. “I don’t have the same power I used to. People barely remember who I am and hiding myself away hasn’t helped. I had no idea you existed until I heard murmurings of my name for the first time in centuries.”

  Mika encouraged the blood beast back into the ruby as she thought. “Did my aunt’s spell affect you?”

  “It affected everyone on this plane who wasn’t prepared.” Aine sighed. “Until I heard chatter from the other gods about a female witch who could take Lucifer’s blood without his permission. I knew then what you were, and it all came back.”

  “And you left me to rot.” Mika wanted to tear this spoiled princess to pieces. “How could you?”

  Aine whipped around and suddenly her eyes looked just like the Morrigan’s – endless black that promised madness if one looked too long. “I am a goddess. I do not have to explain myself to you.” Her voice rippled through the universe, promising the pain of a thousand blades.

  This was a goddess and not just some powerful witch.

  Mika glared at Aine. “Your memory would be ashamed of you.”

  That made the goddess falter and suddenly she looked almost mortal again. “My memory?”

  Mika pulled the necklace over her head and tossed it to Aine. “She taught me how to wield the beasts.”

  Dagon stepped closer to Mika now that the beast was back in its cage. He completely dwarfed her. Mika glanced at him only once before putting her full attention back on the goddess.

  “Do you know what will happen when you free the Morrigan?” Aine asked, studying the blood crystals like they held nightmares instead of memories.

  “She will help me find who trapped her. Her power will make her daughters on this plane more powerful.” Mika sighed, suddenly exhausted. “I need her to help me protect any future blood witches. I refuse to have my children hunted down and slaughtered.”

  Aine tossed the crystals back and Mika caught them without looking. Then the goddess pulled a glass vial out of nowhere and focused on it. Slowly it filled with a blood so dark it was nearly black.

  “Bringing gods and goddesses back onto the playing field, especially with so much time away, always creates chaos and a shift. You don’t know what will happen when you free her because there is no earthly way you can. But you’re right, I owe you the chance.”

  Then she tossed Mika the vial of blood. Aine studied her for a moment and the warmth of the Australian spring trickled through the garden, brought by a gentle breeze.

  “There’s going to be another war,” Aine warned, looking to the hellhound again. “Whoever attacked us won’t like that you’re pulling us from the cracks and gaining strength.”

  “Are you going to hide from it?” Mika asked, tucking the blood into her belt. It was too valuable to let out of her sight.

  Aine smiled and tossed the rose to Mika next. “I’m not sure. I suppose it depends on if my duties as advisor to the queen are called upon. It’s the one call I cannot deny.”

  Mika wanted to crush the rose in her fist, but she cradled it gently as she bared her teeth at the goddess in annoyance. “I don’t want to be queen.”

  “And I don’t want to be a goddess. We all have our burden to bear.” Aine shrugged. “Good luck, Mika.”

  Dagon took her hand. The ranch and the sunshine disappeared. Mika held her breath as they traveled through that nothingness until they were back in the moon-bright cemetery.

  “If you call, she will come,” Dagon murmured, his deep voice making the very air shudder with its foreignness.

  “Only if I call as a queen.” Mika didn’t like it at all, but it was a card she had if she really needed it. Aine wouldn’t have told her if she had no plans to honor it. And if the goddess was telling the truth, she couldn’t refuse it.

  There was a screech from above and Mika heard the raven before she saw him.

  “Mika!” Corbin shifted mid-air and landed on his feet beside her. He swept her up in his arms and held her close. “Where did you go?”

  “Australia.” She handed him the yellow rose. “I got you something.”

  Corbin just looked flabbergasted as he took the flower from her. “I don’t understand.”

  “The goddess asked to see her,” Dagon stated, arms crossed over his chest as he watched them.

  Corbin eyed the hellhound. “So, you’re the one who called me.”

  “Yes.”

  “And did you get the blood, Mika?”

  “Yes.”

  She stood between Corbin and the hellhound, wondering at what juncture would she stop collecting males like Pokémon cards. With the way the raven grinned at the hellhound, Mika could honestly say she didn’t know, but this was about all she could handle at the moment.

  Morgana appeared out of nothing, grinning at Dagon. “I told you he would be a good ally.”

  And ironically, he completed the list the queen had given Mika of acceptable males when she’d first met the ghost witch.

  “I see you finally showed yourself,” Dagon told Morgana.

  “As did you.”

  “Do you think she’s mad she can’t have him?” Corbin whispered into Mika’s ear, wrapping his arms around her.

  “Probably a little.” Mika smirked when the ghost witch and the hellhound both turned to glare at her.

  “Witch queens usually ended up with many suitors,” Corbin murmured, sliding his hands under her shirt. “A hellhound could be very useful.”

  Mika slapped his hands away, sneaking a look at Dagon and Morgana. Yup, they were both watching with those looks on their faces. “You’re just saying that because you want another pair of eyes watching me at all times.”

  “It’s not my fault you’re a pain in the ass to keep track of.” Corbin laughed when she smacked him again. “Hey! You know I’m right.”

  She turned and headed back for Oleander House. Maybe she should just give up now and let the ones stupid enough to ask for the blood bond have it.

  “See you around, Mika,” Dagon called after her before he disappeared into thin air.

  “Very useful,” Corbin repeated as he jogged after her. “He teleports too.”

  “Apparently.”

  Morgana appeared in front of Mika and she didn’t bother stopping. Mika walked through the ghost and decided she needed a quiet night. Maybe Lucien would watch a movie with her after dinner tomorrow while Ethan worked on his latest project.

  “You have all the ingredients,” Morgana stated, trailing after them. “The full moon is in two days.”

  “I know.”

  Corbin gave the moon a feral grin. “And then we unleash the Morrigan on the world.”

  The thought should have terrified her, but she found herself grinning as well.

  Soon, another hunter would step onto the board.

  And for the first time since she discovered her power, it wouldn’t be Mika it was hunting.

  24

  “I really don’t think making poisons before making antidotes is a smart idea,” Lucien told Ethan. “And why do you need so many poisons in the first place?”

  Mika smiled as she watched Ethan and Lucien bicker like an old married couple.

  “There can never be too
many poisons,” Ethan tried to explain. “All current and known poisons have antidotes. So, if I want to make sure someone stays dead, I use a poison they can’t possibly have the antidote for.”

  “Who the fuck do you plan on poisoning?” Lucien poured them all more wine, dinner plates empty and in a pile.

  Dessert was waiting but no one had taken it out yet.

  These nights were always slow and enjoyable. Mika loved not having to rush through everything this semester. Despite the urgency of the spell to free the Morrigan and gathering its ingredients, she didn’t have any projects or homework due. She didn’t have to attend every practice and game.

  It was…freeing.

  “Cassandra comes to mind,” she mused.

  Ethan chuckled, pulling her in close. “Cassandra for sure. Though poison doesn’t always have to kill people, Lucien. Sometimes poison is the perfect cure for something.”

  “Hm, we’ll see.” Lucien tapped one of the long petals of the neon pink flower. “What does this one do?”

  “It glows in the dark.” Ethan murmured the word and his workroom in the conservatory went completely dark. “Flowers that light paths would save energy. I’m trying to get some of my vines to do the same, but it’s not working as well as I want it to.”

  “I’m sure you’ll figure it out.” Mika kissed his cheek and pulled out the dessert. “You managed to turn plants into reliable spies. You can pretty much do anything given enough time and motivation.”

  “Why don’t you concentrate on your weather magic?” Lucien asked, taking the chocolate cake from Mika. He pulled out one of his hunting knives and started cutting into the moist cake.

  Ethan fidgeted and Mika put her elbow on the table, resting her chin on her hand as she watched them both. They were kind of beautiful together.

  “I could,” Ethan admitted. “There are a few classes on it, but I just haven’t.”

  “You control it really well,” Mika reassured him. She of all people knew how it felt to want to hide how strong you really were, how easily it could isolate others.