The Horned Mage: Books 1-5

by Hayden Harper

The succubus atop Reagan reached between Reagan’s legs with a smoky appendage and pushed up inside of her. Its flickering face turned to regard us as I felt the man, the man who I was now convinced was my father, come up behind us.

  “Congratulations, Master,” the succubus purred. “This one’s carrying our grandchild.”

  And that monster was raping the mother of my child!

  Emerald flames leapt to life in my hands and without thinking I hurled a torrent of green fire at each of the women’s attackers. Crimson fire exploded around each of them, meeting my flames as the force of the impact shoved both of them off of Caroline and Reagan. Reagan scrambled upright and tried to get to Jadeite, but my father grabbed Jadeite and lifted her up into the air.

  “Enough!” he commanded. “Knock that off or I’ll have to hurt your newest quarry. You’ve already got three—it would probably be a good lesson to you to focus on quality over quantity.”

  My fists shook, flames still licked up from them. The succubus and incubus’s red fire shields lowered, revealing that my attack had accomplished nothing other than to get them free of their victims, both of whom were now sobbing. Caroline was an absolute wreck and I couldn’t blame her.

  “You hurt any of them and I’ll kill you,” I snarled.

  My father grinned at me. “Fierce little thing, aren’t you?”

  “I mean it,” I snapped.

  He laughed. “I don’t doubt that you do. But there’s three of us, one of you, and a lot of collateral damage we can do to these mortals you care about. Snuff the flames, kiddo, or I snuff her.”

  Shaking with impotent rage I let the flames slowly die out.

  “There, was that so hard?” my father asked. “Not exactly how I pictured meeting you for the first time, but every relationship’s got to start somewhere. I’m your dad, Caleb. Most call me Graeme. Not my real name, of course, but unlike mortals I don’t go around tossing that information out like candy. Kind of too late for you though, isn’t it, what with your name up on that website. I’ve got to say, your wyld hunt is very impressive. Quite a bevy of beauties you’ve collected there.”

  “My wyld hunt?” What the fuck was that? “That’s what you want to talk about?”

  “Of course not,” said Graeme—I was not calling this bastard my father now that I knew his name, or one of them. “I want you to come with me and bring my grandchild with you. I’ve been trying to find you for years. And now that I have, it’s a two for the price of one bargain.”

  “I’m not going anywhere with you.”

  Caroline screamed.

  The incubus had engulfed itself in crimson fire and emerged from the corona as an enormous hound made of solidified shadow and wreathed in smoke that stank up the house like rotten eggs. Its eyes burned—literally burned—like embers as it pinned her to the ground beneath its taloned paw and bared its dripping fangs in her face.

  They were like my girls—empowered by Graeme’s magic. And unlike me, he was a full blooded fae of some kind. Demons with fae magic. Did he have demonic magic to match them?

  Green flames leapt to my hand but Graeme raised up Jadeite again and began choking her. “Ah-ah. We just talked about this. Put the fire out.”

  “Leave them alone.”

  Graeme sighed. “Kiddo, sit down before you hurt yourself. You don’t even know what the hell you are. You belong with us. We’re your family. Your true family—not that broken down bitch over there. You should have been raised by us.”

  My mind raced. I needed something to turn the tables. More power. Was Lexus or Sarah nearby? Victoria was our best fighter but it was more likely that one of the other two would be near the house. Or had they kept their distance deliberately so as not to interfere with my date? Either way, they’d have felt my panic by now and know that I needed help. All three would be converging on my location as soon as they were able.

  I needed to stall for time and give the girls a chance to get here. Together we might actually stand a chance against these monsters.

  “So why wasn’t I?” I demanded. “You got rid of me and then show up here after nearly twenty years and just expect me to come with you?” Never mind that these monsters had just been torturing two of the most important people in my life.

  Graeme’s face twisted, as if he couldn’t decide which expression he was supposed to use. “We never got rid of you, son. I’d never have gotten rid of you. You were stolen from us.”

  Chapter Ten

  Who the hell would be crazy enough to steal a child not only from this monstrosity of a fae, but two demons as well? The fae were notoriously protective of their children since they rarely reproduced and even more notoriously spiteful. And that wasn’t even touching on the two rape machines holding our stepmother and adoptive mother prisoner.

  It clicked. “My mother took me from you, didn’t she?”

  A cambion is created by an incubus and a succubus transplanting a man’s seed into a mortal woman via rape. A changeling is created by the coupling of fae and mortal. I had the two requisite demons and the fae for my particular genetic combination, but not the mortal part. She was what was missing from this equation.

  Graeme nodded. It was a slight nod but the effect was dramatic because of his antlers. Was that how I looked when I nodded?

  “She is the most spiteful mortal I have ever met.” He flashed his fangs. “But she gave me you.”

  Jadeite suddenly kicked out with one high heeled foot. The spiked shoe flew off and crashed into a lamp. The lamp fell over and shattered, revealing that it had been placed over some kind of intricate design laid into the side table it had rested on. A pulse of magic shot through the house, strong enough to nearly knock me off my feet. I staggered and heard the sound of several other objects around the house breaking.

  A second pulse of magic followed, this time centered on Jadeite. It rushed out and over me and this time I did fall to the floor. The spell rebounded off of something and doubled back to Jadeite. Bounced off of her and shot out with an even stronger pulse than before.

  Graeme let out a roar and threw her.

  I was on my feet and airborne, moving faster than I’d ever thought I could. She crashed into me and we fell into the sofa. Magic pulsed off of her and sent vibrations coursing through my body hard enough to rattle my teeth. I fell off the sofa and took her with me.

  The demons broke into smoky shadows and swirled through the room shrieking and then the pulsing magic forced them out. Graeme snarled at us and stomped forward, fighting against Jadeite’s magic. Pulse. Pulse. PULSE.

  He stopped, teeth bared, as if the waves of magic were a physical force pushing him out of the house. I could see his cloven feet struggling for purchase on the hardwood floor.

  Reagan groaned and tried to get up. Graeme’s eyes fell upon her, then flicked up to us, a look of fury and satisfaction burning within them. He snatched her up and threw her over his shoulder.

  “No!” I tried to get up but the magic knocked me over before I could get my footing.

  He turned and walked briskly out the front door, coming to stop outside the threshold where it appeared the effects of Jadeite’s spell ended. “I will return for you someday, son. But for now, I can at least see to my grandchild.”

  A three sets of three howls sounded. It was a sound that should have chilled the bone but it made my blood run hot. My girls were almost here. I couldn’t let him take Reagan and they were almost here. Just a bit longer.

  I raised and hand and shot a gout of green fire at Graeme. One of the demons swooped in front of him and blocked it with its own red shield of flame. My attack broke into smaller, harmless streams like water sprayed upon a rock, splashing out in every direction but the one I wanted it to go.

  Light shown behind them both, white with faint blue and green traces. I smelled wildflowers, pine, and blood. And then they were gone, taking with them the light, the smell, and Reagan.

  The girls arrived in their wol
fhound forms, massive with shaggy white fur, glowing from within with a green light that spilled out their eyes and mouths and tried to make it through their coats. Each was about the size of a horse and they padded around Jadeite’s front lawn in eerie silence, noses to the ground as they sniffed the area the fae and his companions had just been, only to look up and around in confusion.

  My girls didn’t lose the scent of their quarry when they went on the hunt. It was as much magical as it was instinctive. But they hadn’t had his scent before and now that they did have it…but distance had never been a factor before.

  It didn’t matter. I hadn’t held them in place long enough. They were gone.

  The pulsing spell stopped. Caroline screamed and Jadeite wept.

  I got shakily to my feet. I’d failed. I wanted to join them.

  But I didn’t get to do that anymore. I could, and would, beat myself up over my failure. But later. In private. For now, we needed to regroup and find a way to get Reagan back.

  We piled into Sarah’s car and headed back toward our place. It was smaller, but our little garage apartment felt more like home than Lexus and Jadeite’s house and had the power of the land behind it. We’d be stronger there and we needed that.

  It was a tight fit with all of us. Sarah and Caroline doubled up in the front seat with Sarah holding her weeping mother tight to her while Lexus and Jadeite held each other and shook. Victoria looked on both, still and calm. If I didn’t know any better I’d have said she was completely unaffected by this. She was tough as nails and didn’t wear her heart on her sleeve.

  It was the slight set of her jaw, the clenched fists, and the intensity in her eyes as she took in the stepsisters that told me as much as our bond did that she was hurting for all of us and absolutely furious. When we came across Graeme again she’d be the one to go for his throat before he had time to utter a single word.

  I filled them in on what happened and another subtle shift came over Victoria and she appraised Jadeite with a new appreciation.

  “You booby trapped your house with a spell?”

  She nodded. “A ritual to repel uninvited supernatural entities. I-I didn’t think it would hit Caleb so h-hard but he’s….”

  Yeah, I was. My grip on the steering wheel tightened. Because I was less than half human Jadeite’s spell had hit me pretty hard. Because I was less than half human, those monsters had shown up on Reagan’s doorstep looking for me. How had they even found out about her?

  I made to pull into Eleanor’s driveway but couldn’t because someone had parked their car right in the entryway without pulling up. I parked in front of the house instead and stood guard while the girls got out. I didn’t think that Graeme or the demons—his wyld hunt?—would come after us but I wasn’t sure.

  Voices reached me from the house-end of the driveway and I spotted Eleanor talking to another woman. Eleanor was leaning on her cane and dressed in one of her usual sundresses, backlit by the security light the effect made her seem somehow…wizardly. I was more into Firefly than Lord of the Rings but I was reminded of that moment in The Two Towers before Gandalf revealed his true power to Wormtongue and that possessed horse king. Only she was a hell of a lot more beautiful than Gandalf and wore the smile of a well-mannered southern lady about to bite through your neck and rip your head off.

  The woman she was talking too had her back to us but was slight, wore tight jeans and a cropped tank top, and had long black hair that hung freely down to the middle of her back. Her bare arms were covered from the shoulders all the way to the tips of her fingers in tattoo sleeves. I couldn’t make out the details from here because of the lighting but even so I could tell that they were intricate.

  She turned around, revealing a glistening belly button piecing, and a face that said she was maybe in her early thirties. A cigarette dangled from her lips, the tip glowing orange.

  She eyed me with analytical dispassion as we made our way up the driveway, taking in our rumpled and ruined nice clothes, the still shaking Caroline, and the expressions on our faces.

  When she spoke the cigarette’s burning tip bobbed up and down. “Fuck. Guess he beat me to you.”

  “You’re here about Graeme?” I asked.

  She cocked her head. “Is that what he’s calling himself now? No not really. I’m here for you.” She gave me a once over. “Guess you turned out okay, all things considered.”

  My heart froze for a moment and pain lanced through my chest and shot through every vein in my body as I suddenly knew who I was talking to.

  “You’re my mother, aren’t you?” I asked.

  She shrugged. “Someone had to be.”

  Chapter Eleven

  We were in Eleanor’s living room once again and we all had tea. The woman who claimed to be my mother had asked for coffee instead, earning a small frown from Eleanor, and then produced a flask and poured something that looked a lot like whiskey into her mug. Eleanor had introduced her as Sable Mire.

  “Where have you been?” I asked.

  She snorted and took a sip of her coffee before answering. “What you really mean is, ‘why did I give you up?’ It’s because I’d have been a shitty mother and was only a teenager. I wasn’t about to leave a baby with Sir Horny and his demonic associates but the whole reason I’d agreed to be a part of the experiment was to learn enough awesome magic to go out and learn more. Baby on board wasn’t happening. So. I sealed you up to keep their influence from affecting you and from attracting them and put you up for adoption. You probably grew up with parents that actually wanted kids and knew how to take care of them.”

  I glared at her. “Not really.”

  Caroline was asleep in a guest bedroom after being given a particularly aromatic draught of Eleanor’s tea which I’m guessing had some kind of sleeping spell put on it. She might have had something to say about our current conversation had she been awake, not traumatized, and in her right mind. She was recovering but the wounds to her psyche weren’t small. This would definitely not have helped.

  The woman, Sable, shrugged. As if to say ‘Oh well, I tried.’ She didn’t seem to have an ounce of guilt about sealing away my magic or giving me up.

  I was having a hard time connecting this woman and the very concept of motherhood. At least she seemed to be honest.

  “Why was it so important to hide me from them?”

  She raised an eyebrow. “You’re kidding right?” She threw a glance at Eleanor. “I thought you said he was smart.”

  “He’s young and inexperienced,” she replied stiffly.

  Sable rolled her eyes. “Bullshit. I had plenty of experience by the time I was his age.”

  “Will you answer the damn question already?” I snarled. I hadn’t meant to snarl. I was so worked up right then it felt like I was about to explode. This—this was all going wrong.

  “You did get the part about how you were conceived by a pair of demons and Sir Ruts-a-lot has made them his wyld hunt? You would have grown up with them and fae don’t get mortal needs. Your father certainly doesn’t know the first thing about human babies. You would have been raped before you could walk.” She took a long, deep sigh. “Kid, I deal with a lot of dark creatures. A lot are just misunderstood or play by different rules. Demons are not one of them. Demons are fucking evil. Those kind, they love to hurt the innocent and the wounded. Children and rape victims are their absolute favorites. You would have been both pretty damn quick and probably would have gone insane without your daddy ever knowing better.

  “So I sealed you. I hid you. Gave you as decent a chance as anyone gets starting out in life. And got the hell out of Dodge.”

  “And now you’re back,” said Victoria. “Why?”

  “Well you kind of blew up the whole hiding thing in spectacular fashion,” Sable said, throwing up an arm. “Showing off how you made your wyld hunt your own personal harem on the internet after getting on the news and breaking the spell I’d put on you? It was only a ma
tter of time before you were found.”

  “What I want to know,” Lexus said. “Is why they went after Mom? If they wanted Caleb why not just come after him here?”

  Sable shrugged. “He probably sent his demons to spy on you as soon as he heard about you. They’re really good at that. Is there any reason why your mom would be of particular interest to…Graeme?” She said the name like she was testing it out and gave it an accent that I couldn’t make my mouth reproduce but which made it sound closer to how Graeme himself said it.

  “She’s pregnant,” Jadeite said. Then after a pause added, “With Caleb’s child.”

  Sable squinted at each of us, looking around the room, then pointed as she addressed us all in turn. “You,” she pointed at Lexus and Jadeite, “are stepsisters. It is your mom,” she pointed at Lexus, “who is pregnant with his child,” she pointed at me, “and you” she pointed at Sarah, “are his adopted sister.”

  Finally she fixed her gaze on Victoria. “Are you the only one he’s not in a severely dysfunctional relationship or do you bring your own special brand of crazy to the mix?”

  Victoria glared at her.

  Sable grinned. “Werewolf. Got it. And mated. That had to have been fun. Wait…” she pointed at all of us. “You’ve all been infected with lycanthropy? On top of having his magic bind you together?”

  “Not me,” Jadeite said. “Thank God.”

  I flinched. I didn’t mean to but that had hurt.

  “So you’re all mated to him then? Is it mutual?”

  I was about to say that I had no idea when Victoria answered again. “Yes.”

  “All to each other?”

  She answered, “Yes,” again.

  Sable fell back into her chair and sank into the cushions. “Fuck. That is one hell of a combination there. Might explain why you aren’t fucking insane or completely under his control.”

  I sat up straighter. They weren’t? All of this was news to me. I’d had no idea Victoria thought that I was mated to them all back and I’d suspected that the girls were mating to me but hadn’t known for sure. Maybe I should have asked for clarity.