“Would you mind if I lay down for a little while? I’m starting to get a headache,” Trixie asked, already pushing to her feet.
“No.” I hovered close as I followed her to my bedroom. I remained in the doorway, watching as she kicked off her shoes and slid under the blankets.
Trixie was nearly as tall as me and had always been this beacon of shining light and strength, but something had changed recently so that now she felt so much smaller and more vulnerable to me. When she was hunted by her brother, she’d been afraid and hurting, but there had always been an underlying strength and a fire of determination. Something had put out that fire and I was starting to suspect that it was me.
Refusing to let her go without a fight, I started forward with the intention of climbing into bed with her when my cell phone started vibrating in my back pocket. Trixie graced me with a weak smile, indicating that it was okay that I answer it before I joined her.
Stepping out of the bedroom, I paced to the living room. “What?” I snapped into the phone. Any distraction that took me from Trixie was unwelcome, but I was also hoping for some kind of good news that might lift her spirits.
“Well, aren’t you just a chipper fellow?” Serah mocked.
“I’m a little busy at the moment. What’s up?”
“I talked to a friend at the station. They haven’t been able to get anything from the blood and they’re very doubtful that they ever will. However, they seem to think they might be able to identify all the ingredients for the potion. I was wondering if that would help you in tracking the killer.”
I frowned at the sliding glass doors, watching the haggard man glaring back at me in my reflection. I looked like shit. “I don’t know. I don’t think so, but it doesn’t hurt. Have they found anything in Kyle’s records that identifies who his most recent clients were?”
“No. The man kept horrible records. It also looks like the killer might have been smart enough to grab any identifying paperwork before she left. They’re still digging.”
“I would—” Trixie’s scream halted the words in my throat and squeezed my heart in a vise. Instantly dropping the phone, I raced to my bedroom.
I stopped on the threshold of the room to find a goblin struggling to pick up Trixie as she fought him while a second goblin was climbing in the window. They’d followed me. I’d been so focused on getting home to Trixie that I hadn’t noticed that I was being tailed by goblins. Scooping up one of the hard-soled shoes I wore while out with Gideon, I launched it at the goblin climbing in the window. It smashed into his ugly face, knocking him back so that he was hanging by his claws on the window frame.
The other goblin roared in pain as Trixie plunged her fingers into his eyes. He released her to cover his face, but she couldn’t escape because her legs were tangled up in the blankets still. Leaping over her onto the bed, I grabbed the goblin by his large pointed ears and threw him into his companion in the window. Their collision knocked the one in the window loose. His scream echoed through the silent night as he fell three stories to the parking lot below.
The goblin who had attacked Trixie snarled at me as he threw one leg out the window. “You started this war when you attacked us! You stole members of my clan. I will take her from you.”
I jumped down to the floor, keeping my body positioned between Trixie and the remaining goblin. “I didn’t start this! I just wanted to ask you some questions! You attacked us,” I shouted back.
He thought about this for a second before narrowing his bright orange eyes on me. “We are not satisfied.” And then he was gone.
Rushing over to the now vacant window, I looked down to find him helping the other goblin to his feet before they disappeared in the thick shadows of the parking lot. Great! Not only was I trying to track down a serial killer, but I had managed to piss off the local goblin clan. Shutting the window, I stared at the wood frame for a second. I needed to lay down some better protective spells. The ones I had used were too specific, aimed at magic users and vampires. I needed something broader that would keep out goblins as well.
With a weary sigh, I turned back to find Trixie sitting in the center of the bed, the sheets a twisted mess around her, tears slipping silently down her cheeks. Dropping onto the bed, I pulled her into my arms.
“Are you hurt? Did they hurt you?” I demanded, my voice rough with worry.
She shook her head against my shoulder as she clung tightly to me. As we sat there, her crying grew worse instead of better, as if the incident were finally sinking in. I held her tight, my hands rubbing up and down her back. “I’m sorry, Trix. I’m so damn sorry. I never thought they’d follow me,” I murmured in her hair. I felt like shit, but I could still fix this. “I’ll put better protection spells around the apartment and then I’ll go to your place and lay them down there. I’ll put them down at Asylum as well. Those fucking bastards will never get close to you again.”
“I can’t do this anymore,” she whispered in a choked voice as her tears slowed.
Pulling away slightly, I looked down at her face, my heart stopping in my chest. “What do you mean?” I choked out as my throat started to close on me.
“I can’t stay here.”
“At my place?” I demanded, but some deep, fear-tinged voice said that she was talking about something far worse.
She shook her head and then raised haunted eyes to my face. It wasn’t just my heart that was breaking. “Low Town. I’m . . . I’m going back to my people.”
I released her with a hiss of air and jumped off the bed. Panic pumped through my veins and clouded my thoughts. With a wave of my hand, the overhead light came on so that I could clearly see her now. I stalked away from her to the opposite end of the room, trying to get a grip on my emotions. “Because of the goblins? I can protect you from the goblins. I’ll go to them. Settle this misunderstanding. They won’t bother you again.”
“That’s not it.”
“What? Because I’m back with the Towers. You’re leaving me because of the Towers?” I demanded, my voice rising despite my attempts to remain calm. “I had no choice. It was go back or die. Which do you want me to have chosen?”
“I want you to live,” she said, pushing off the bed. She violently brushed away the tears that had streaked down her cheeks. Some of the spark had returned to her vibrant green eyes. “I hate that you’re forced to be among them again, but I want you to live.”
“Then why?”
“I have to leave because of what you are!” she shouted.
It was like she’d shoved a knife through my heart. I had to swallow twice to get the words past the lump in my throat. “I thought you loved what I am.”
“I do.” Her voice wavered and tears returned to her eyes. “I love everything about you, but things have changed and I can’t stay.”
“What’s changed? We can fix this. Just tell me what you need.”
She shook her head, looking away from me as if she’d already given up. “You can’t.”
“Please, tell me. We can fix this!” I repeated, desperately clinging to the hope that there was still some way I could mend this rift between us.
“I’m pregnant.”
All thought halted with those two words. The world swam and my knees became jelly. I blinked and the next thing I knew, I was sitting on the floor in the middle of my bedroom. Trixie knelt in front of me with a worried expression on her lovely face.
“Breathe, Gage. You need to breathe,” she said, holding my face in her hands.
“How?” I wheezed because my brain wasn’t completely online yet. I knew the mechanics of how people created children but we had always been careful. Kids weren’t in our current plan—not that we really had a plan.
“Sometime after you had your little chat with Gaia,” she said with a gentle smile. “It seems our precautions were for nothing. I’ve heard that most elve
s are currently pregnant. I guess Gaia’s trying to make up for lost time.”
Dear Mother Nature had gotten me. I’d gone to her months ago to get her help for the elves after a witch’s spell had made them infertile. I thought she’d just make them fertile again, not nullify all attempts at contraception. It was even more startling to find that a human and an elf had successfully bred, since there were very few instances of it in history.
I stared at the woman kneeling beside me. Synapses started firing again. She was carrying my baby. Our baby. Trixie was having our baby. Joy filled my chest, blotting out all prior feelings of despair. We could do this. She was having our baby.
“That’s wonderful,” I breathed. I grabbed one of the hands cupping my cheek and pressed a kiss into her palm.
Trixie sat back on her heels and stared at me in shock. “You’re not upset?”
“Upset? No. I’m stunned and a bit muddled still, but not upset. I’m thrilled actually,” I said with a laugh as I pulled her into my arms. “We can do this. We can move in together. Get a bigger place. Maybe something in the suburbs with a yard. We—”
“No!” Trixie sharply cried, pushing violently out of my arms. She stumbled as she got to her feet and moved to the other end of the room. “Don’t you understand? I have to leave because of the baby.”
“No, I don’t understand. You think you have to go to your people because the baby will be half elf? We can raise the baby together here just fine.”
“No, I have to go back because it isn’t safe to stay with you!”
The rush of pain that returned to my chest left me breathless for a second. This roller-coaster ride of joy and pain was making me nauseous. She was alternately giving and stealing away hope with every sentence she spoke.
“Of course it’s safe to stay with me,” I said, pushing to my feet as well.
Trixie said nothing, just pointed at the window where the goblins had climbed through only minutes earlier. My stomach twisted and I swallowed back the rise of bile.
“That was an isolated incident,” I said evenly, tearing my eyes from the gouges in the wood from the goblins’ claws. “I know the proper protection spells. I can keep anything you can think of out of our home. Name it and I can block it out.”
“The goblins are an isolated incident, but how many isolated incidents have there been since we’ve known each other? Vampires attacking and the damn Low Town mafia. The Svartálfar and even the Wild Hunt. And that’s all without mentioning the Towers! Even if you don’t consider the Towers, there will always be something.”
“No. I won’t get involved. I—”
“You can’t actually believe that,” she scoffed, shoving one hand through her long blonde hair. “It’s who you are, Gage. It’s the man I love. You help people who are hurting. They’re drawn to you because they sense that you can help them and you can’t say no. But the problem is that the danger follows you and it hits the people closest to you.”
“It won’t. I’ll stop. I’ll just be a tattoo artist and nothing more. No getting involved. I’ll protect you and the baby,” I countered in a rush, desperate to convince her that I could be strong and responsible. I could keep her safe.
“What about the Towers?”
I backpedaled, my brain desperately searching for an answer that would convince her that she was safe with me. But I didn’t have one for the Towers. I couldn’t escape the Towers, not so long as I was alive. They would always be a part of my life. “I can shield you from the Towers. I wouldn’t be the only warlock to have a child or spouse. I can hide you, protect you.”
“But there would still be a great risk. . . .”
“Of course there’s a risk. There are no guarantees!” I shouted, my temper finally snapping. She wasn’t giving anything. She wanted perfection and I couldn’t give her perfection. “You’d have to worry about the Towers no matter who you were with. Everyone has to worry about the Towers! There are dangers out there that everyone has to deal with. You can’t escape that!”
“Yes, but it is worse because of who you are.” Her lovely voice was calm and even, unmoved by my rising hysteria. But then, she’d had plenty of time to think about this. She’d had time to work out all the arguments in her head. “You’ve had people within the Towers hunting you and it will happen again. When I chose to be with you, I knew that I was a target if they ever discovered our relationship. I happily accepted that risk for myself, but I can’t do that with our child.”
“Please, don’t do this, Trixie,” I said softly, but I couldn’t put any force behind it because I understood her argument. I couldn’t blame her for wanting to protect our child from the danger that followed me like a black shadow waiting to cast its dark pall over those I loved.
“I love you, Gage.” Her voice broke and the tears started down her cheeks again. “I love who you are and I’m so proud that you can help people with your gifts. I would never change that about you, but I think this is the sacrifice that we must make for your gifts. I’m sorry.”
I stood staring at her for several seconds, my brain locked in a useless loop of trying to find a way around her arguments. I needed a solution, a guarantee that she and the baby would be safe. But there wasn’t one. So long as the Towers existed, so long as I was cursed with this gift for magic, I couldn’t give her the safety she demanded.
“When are you leaving?” I asked, my voice was raw and rough as sandpaper.
“Soon. Eldon is coming to get me.”
A bitter, sarcastic laugh escaped me. “I’m sure your brother was thrilled to hear your news.”
“Eldon doesn’t hate you. You fixed it so that I am welcome among my people again and your actions have resulted in his wife being pregnant with their second child.”
I nodded because I was simply out of words.
“Our child will be happy and safe, I promise you.”
“But I will never see you or our child.”
Trixie didn’t respond because I was right. To keep her and the baby safe, I had stay away from them. I would never hold my son or daughter. I would never see their smile and their first steps. I would never hold Trixie again.
“Will you let me see you one last time before you leave?” I asked.
“Yes.”
I don’t know which of us cracked first, but in the next second she was in my arms, my face buried in her hair while her nails scored my back in her attempts to get as close to me as possible. Drawing in a shuddering breath to get a handle on my emotions again, I lowered my mouth to hers, but at the first touch of her lips, I knew it wasn’t going to be enough. Clothes were torn away, leaving us pressed skin to skin. That night, we made love again and again. Sometimes it was fast and violent, filled with rough and desperate caresses, as if we were in a rush to be merged at last. Other times, it was a slow exploring as if each of us were trying to memorize every inch of the other person so that it was imprinted forever on our brains.
It was shortly after dawn when I lay on my side beside Trixie. She was deep in sleep, her lovely face wiped clean of worry. I placed my hand over the slight mound of her abdomen where my child was growing within her. Was this Squall sleeping inside of her? When I met the little boy’s soul at Gaia’s, I’d instinctively known that he would be my son one day. I just hadn’t expected it to be so soon. Was this him now, so close to me and yet on the cusp of being stolen away?
A small smile tugged at the corners of my mouth. I’d find a way to keep them safe. Even if I had to tear down each of the Ivory Towers brick by brick with my bare hands, I’d keep Trixie and my child safe and at my side.
Part 2
Demon’s Vow
Chapter 1
Gideon appeared on my doorstep less than an hour after Trixie left for her own place. Luckily, I had been expecting him. There was no missing the surge of energy that hit, sending ripples out through the air like
waves across a pond while leaving behind a stinging, tingling sensation in the tips of my fingers. Whoever was stirring up this strange magic was getting better at it. And I had an idea as to what this person’s purpose was.
“Come in!” I shouted when the warlock pounded on my front door like some disgruntled bill collector. I was tying my tie while sliding my right foot in a shoe when he stepped over the threshold. He looked surprised to see me already in my uniform, but then considering all the bitching he’d endured on our last outing, he probably thought he’d have to dress me himself.
Lying with Trixie in my arms last night, all too aware of the baby growing between us, I had forced myself to face the hard reality that it was time to get my shit together if I was going to keep my vow of protecting her.
The first step was coming to terms with my identity.
“You felt it?” he asked as he shut the door.
“No missing it.” Dropping on the sofa, I propped my foot on the edge of the coffee table so I could finish tying my laces. “It felt close. A lot closer.”
Gideon grunted. “Charlotte, North Carolina, area. He’s moving north.”
“You sure the maniac is a ‘he’?”
Gideon gave a little shrug. “No, I guess it doesn’t have to be.”
Pushing to my feet, I grabbed my blazer and cloak from where I’d tossed them over the back of the chair. “I’ve been burned by that assumption already. A tattoo artist was murdered recently and the killer has gone on to stalk pregnant women in Low Town. A blood spell revealed that the killer was actually a woman.”
“Putting aside the fact that you’re doing magic that you shouldn’t be,” Gideon said with a weary sigh. He pinned me with what I’m sure he thought was a threatening glare, but it just didn’t work anymore since I was now using magic in his presence to serve the Towers. The whole situation had become too damned complicated to worry about Gideon hauling my ass in for illegal magic use.
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