by Robyn Bachar
Chapter Nine
“She’s got wings!”
My fuzzy thoughts seized hold of the word wings and I groaned. Lord and Lady, I was a damn succubus. How was that possible? Sure I’d had a few lovers in my time, and I was a fan of sex, but not so much that it made sense for me to become a succubus. Why couldn’t I have been transformed into something cool, like a vengeance demon? They were always fun at parties.
“Mistress, can you hear me?”
Frowning, I tried to blink the darkness away. It sounded like Harvey, but not. The voice was too smooth, like he’d gotten hold of a magical cough drop and it cleared up what ailed him. Plus that didn’t make any sense. If I was a succubus I shouldn’t still be in the shadow realm, because succubae were native to another hell entirely.
“Patience, darling, we can’t linger here,” Faust warned.
That startled me enough that I finally opened my eyes, and I spotted two figures crouched a few feet away from me. One I recognized as my sweetie, but the other was tall, platinum blond and naked except for a black nylon messenger bag strategically placed in front of his naughty bits. My frown deepened.
“Mistress?” he said.
Then I spotted the ears—the impossibly long, pointed ears. “Harvey?” He nodded. “You’re…”
“An elf,” he replied with a wide grin. “And you appear to be a faerie.”
That was a thing that could not be. To prove him wrong, I looked down at myself. I’d crash landed in an awkward heap at the foot of another bookcase, covered in moldy, ancient texts. My flames were out, but I didn’t see any obvious differences in my body. My broken arm had healed, but my hands appeared the same. Of course with my fireproof suit on there wasn’t much to see of me other than black fabric. Succubae had cloven feet, and I was relieved to see that mine were still human-shaped.
“Come here, and I’ll take us home.” Faust held a hand out to me, and though I had no idea what was going on, I trusted him.
I continued to feel strange as I wobbled upright and stumbled over to him. He caught my hands and held them, and the three of us vanished from Kris’s library and reappeared in our suite at the Drake.
“Harvey needs clothes,” I blurted.
Not much was making sense, but nakedness was an easily solved problem. Plus it was seriously distracting. I’d gotten used to his skinless state, and I’d never thought of the fact that he didn’t wear any clothing. Modesty was a human trait, and though I knew he was male, as a demon Harvey didn’t have any dangly bits to cover. I didn’t want to see if the same was true as an elf.
“Of course.” Faust nodded, and a suitcase appeared next to nude-and-improved Harvey. “If you would be so kind as to give us some time alone?”
“Sure. Just keep the volume down for once.” Harvey picked up his suitcase and turned to leave for his adjoining suite, mooning us both in the process. Devoted as I was to my honey, I did note that he had a nice ass, and then felt guilty for having looked.
“Why is he not a demon?” I asked.
“I assume it has something to do with your transformation, and the connection between you,” Faust replied.
“How so? I’m supposed to be a demon now too.”
He took my hand and led me into the bathroom, and I got my first look at my new self in the mirror. I did indeed have wings. Enormous, flaming butterfly wings. Fiera wings, just like my faerie relatives.
“Holy shit!”
I pulled my specs off to get a better look, and instead of glowing yellow eyes, I found that my eyes had returned to their original light green. Curious, I stripped off my suit and discovered that all of my ink was gone. All of my favors, wards and whatnot had vanished, leaving skin as blank as the day I was born.
“This makes no sense,” I said, shaking my head.
Faust cleared his throat—judging by his flushed face he must’ve been distracted by my sudden nakedness—and he unbuttoned his shirt collar. “I think I may know what happened.”
“Can I fly with these?” I asked. It was off the subject, but—wings!
“Yes, and I will teach you later, but first, I’ll explain what happened, and then you’re going to explain why you broke our agreement.”
He pointed an accusing finger at me, and I nodded dutifully. Then I leapt on him and kissed him, filled with joy and passion and general gratefulness to be alive and not a demon. He smiled and held me close. I was willing to bet he had previous experience in making out with a girl with wings.
“I love you,” I said.
“I love you too. Now pay attention,” he scolded. I nodded again, but was then distracted by the realization that my taste buds had probably been cured along with the rest of me.
“Wait! Food!” I gasped. “I bet I can taste food again. Quick, conjure something chocolate. Wait, champagne! And strawberries!” After all, this deserved a celebration, didn’t it? I’d always wondered what champagne tasted like.
Though exasperated, he obliged me. Faust conjured a silver plate with two glasses of champagne surrounded by chocolate-covered strawberries, and I descended upon it like a starving woman. The first bite was cold and sweet—pure heaven. While I indulged in the blissfulness of it, he used my distraction to continue his explanation.
“You’re my soul mate, and you’re faerie blooded. When you sacrificed that bit of soul, you didn’t become a demon because there was more faerie in you than human or demon, because of your connection to me.”
“And Harvey came along for the ride?” I asked.
“It would appear so. I assume because you didn’t become a demon, it altered your connection, and restored him to his elven state.”
I’d made the elves unextinct. I wasn’t sure how to feel about that…I wondered how Harvey felt about it. He’d still be lonely as before, and I doubted we’d be able to unextinct a female for him, but like faeries, elves could breed with humans. If we didn’t keep an eye on him we could have a gaggle of half-elves running around.
Kids…aww, hell.
“So I’m one hundred percent faerie now?”
“Quite.”
“But that means we can’t have children,” I pointed out, though it pained me to do so.
Faust pondered that silently while I eased the pain by gorging on chocolate-covered strawberries. Aside from the sterility problem, this was an amazing gift. It was like being reborn—I’d been given a second chance.
“I think we might be able to,” he said when he finally spoke up.
“How?”
His brow rose. “You do know where children come from, don’t you?”
I whapped his arm and he grinned mischievously. “That’s not what I meant.”
“Of course. You’re not a born faerie, and you weren’t involved in the formation of Faerie, so you shouldn’t be affected by the curse,” he explained.
“But aren’t you affected?”
“I’ve never had a problem fathering children.”
Right…Lord and Lady, I really was going to be Simon St. Jerome’s step-mom. Wrong. So very wrong. I shuddered at the thought, and forced my mind away from it, concentrating on the giddy idea that I would be able to live happily ever after with my soul mate. As long as the apocalypse didn’t happen.
“Can I still use my summoner magic?” I asked.
“Possibly?” he guessed.
Hmm. If I had super-powered warding spells, I could keep the demons out of our territory and not exhaust myself in the process. We’d have to try that later. I leaned close and nuzzled his neck. Much later…
“Patience,” he said, his tone scolding. “We agreed that I would kill the shadow demon.”
“I couldn’t let you. I couldn’t let you poison your soul like that. You’re not evil. I am.”
“Not anymore,” he pointed out.
“True. So this is what we’re going to do. First, you have to teach me how to turn these wings off before I burn the hotel down. Second, I’m going to need a dress. A white dress.”
“A white dress?” he repeated, confused.
“Yes. You promised to marry me, remember?” I reminded. “And then I promised that if we lived through this, we’d get married in Vegas. Harvey can be our witness.”
Faust grinned. “Then we had best get started.”
Epilogue
My honey and I popped into the room, and I had to admit that Zachary Harrison’s office was much more old-fashioned than I expected. Of course he had many offices, and this one was in his mansion in Oak Brook, one of his few buildings that didn’t have a faerie ward around it. Faerie wards were on my list of new least favorite things.
“This place doesn’t seem you. Have you thought of redecorating?” I asked.
Harrison’s blond head rose as he looked up from his computer screen, and he stared at me. “How did you get in here?”
“Flew,” I said, motioning at my wings. Faust snickered.
“Patience?” Harrison’s jaw dropped. I was getting that a lot lately.
“That’s Auntie Patience to you, buddy.”
I held up my left hand and showed off my blingtastic engagement ring and wedding band. They were very sparkly, and sparkly was on my list of new most favorite things. I had a lot of new favorite things. Becoming a faerie had damaged my brain and now my thoughts ran at warp speed, but for the most part it was positive change. I hoped.
Faust approached his nephew’s desk. “What my blushing bride is attempting to say is that Patience and I are soul mates, and now husband and wife, and that makes her your kin. If you don’t call off your assassins, you will become a kinslayer.”
The vampire scowled. “Is that all?”
“No. I need a new office. You should be able to handle that, being a real estate mogul and all. I’m thinking something with a view of the lake,” I suggested, and his scowl deepened.
“I encourage you to leave your other targets alone as well, because we should be focused on fighting our enemies, and not each other,” Faust added.
“Right. I’ve got the wards covered for now, but we still have a hunter problem,” I said. With my new faerie superpowers I could maintain the wards with greater ease and banish more demons, but I was still a one-woman army. As long as the Prometheans were out there, all magicians continued to be at risk.
“Your concerns are noted,” Harrison said, his voice a low growl. His attention returned to his computer screen as though Faust and I had ceased to exist.
That didn’t sound very cooperative. I began eyeing the office for something flammable.
Faust sighed. “You’re being stubborn, Zachary.”
“That runs in the family,” he replied dryly.
“You did agree to be a part of the new pan-magician council. If you continue with your plans you will put that in jeopardy,” Faust warned.
The vampire snarled and leapt to his feet, and it startled me enough that I jumped up and hovered thanks to my flaming wings. My sweetie put himself between me and his nephew, though it was unnecessary. I’d been able to kick Harrison’s ass as a summoner, I could do it as a faerie.
“I don’t care about the council, and I don’t care about being a kinslayer. My enemies will pay for what they’ve done,” Harrison said. Anger saturated his voice, and from my unique angle I spotted the gleam of madness in his eyes. Faust had said that Harrison had become unstable. It seemed like an understatement.
“Now, Zachary, I know you don’t mean that,” Faust scolded. “You’ll have to change your plans for Simon St. Jerome, because he is your kin as well.”
That sucked the wind right out of the vampire’s sails, and he froze.
“I know, right? The holidays are going to be wacky this year,” I commented. Faust sighed at me, and I smiled sweetly.
“How is that possible?” Harrison asked.
Faust opened his mouth to explain, but I was faster. “Well, when two people love each other very much—”
“Patience,” my sweetie warned, and I stopped. He turned his attention back to Harrison. “That isn’t your concern, Zachary. Now, I understand that you’re not well, and that you’re upset about losing Catherine, but—”
With an inhuman howl of rage Harrison grabbed hold of his desk and threw it at us. The thing was huge and heavy but he chucked it like a pillow. Faust and I dodged in different directions, and the desk splintered into several pieces when it crashed into the wall—it was an impressive display of temper, and I’ll admit, I was concerned.
“Get out!” he yelled.
I zoomed down, grabbed Faust’s collar, and ported us out of the room before the vampire could grab for him next. We reappeared in our hotel suite, our temporary base of operations, and Harvey looked up from his tablet.
“How’d it go?” he asked.
“Poorly,” I replied.
“If I’d had more time,” Faust began, but I shook my head. I hugged and kissed him, because I could tell that he was distraught over his nephew’s behavior.
“I know you want to help him, but he’s not listening. He’s going to need some major therapy.”
Harvey sniffed. “Don’t we all?”
“You’re not crazy. You’re special,” I assured him, and he laughed. I was still adjusting to the elven version of Harvey, but I had to admit that his laugh had greatly improved. It had gone from nasally chittering to a deep, masculine chuckle.
“So what next?” Harvey asked.
“Now we visit the Oberon and the Titania to inform them of the change in Patience’s condition,” Faust replied.
“Do we really have to? Can’t we have more honeymoon first?” I asked. We’d spent the weekend in Vegas, which hardly seemed long enough, but someone had to tend to the local wards, and that someone was me. Plus I didn’t want to deal with Lex Duquesne, because he’d only find a way to blame me for becoming a faerie, like it was against the law somehow.
“Yes, we have to. We might as well get it over with, and there is no time like the present.”
“Can I stay here?” Harvey asked.
“No. If I have to go, you have to go,” I argued.
He sighed. “Yes, Mistress.”
Technically I wasn’t his boss anymore, because I wasn’t a summoner and he wasn’t a demon, but I knew Harvey wouldn’t be comfortable calling me anything else. Just like I’d never be able to call him anything but Harvey, despite the fact that it wasn’t his True Name, and he didn’t look much like a Harvey anymore.
Faust popped us out of our hotel suite…and right into the library of Simon St. Jerome. I think we were all startled by that, but the Oberon and Titania were apparently having another chat with him, along with Mr. and Mrs. Black and Maxwell MacInnes.
“You know, for a woman who was so desperate to get away from vampires that she took a trip to a hell dimension and back, you really seem to spend a lot of time with the bloodsucker crowd,” I commented.
Everyone stared at me slack-jawed. “Patience?” the Oberon hazarded.
“Yup. I have wings now. Wings are cool.”
Aside from the giant flaming wings and green eyes, I didn’t look that different. I’d replaced most of my ink with new wards and fun things instead of favors. Faust had even added a few lines of text on my back, just above my wings. It was written in faerie, which I didn’t speak—yet—but I suspected it translated to “Property of Liam.”
I let him explain the story of my transformation—and Harvey’s, which was far more interesting in my humble opinion, because un-extincting an elf was a little like creating dinosaurs for Jurassic Park. The chroniclers appeared extremely interested, because learning magician history was their job, after all. Mrs. Emily Black seemed smug. Guess she enjoyed being proved right about the soul mates thing.
“And then Zachary Harrison threw a desk at us,” I added as he finished.
“He threw a desk at you?” the Titania replied.
“I did warn you that he is becoming increasingly unstable,” Faust said. “It is fortunate that you are no longer staying with him.”<
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“Why were you staying with him?” I asked.
“Hunters hit our place,” she explained.
“That seems to be going around lately. Where are you staying now?” I asked.
“The Duquesnes are currently our guests,” Mrs. Black spoke up. That explained why the Titania was at their place when Faust brought me to her for healing after my poisoned blade incident. War made strange bedfellows and all. “Where are you staying?”
I shrugged, the skin of my back tingling as my wings fluttered. “Technically we’re homeless. My place is trashed, his place is trashed. Harrison burned my office down. But faeries travel light, so we’re doing okay.”
“Have tablet, will travel,” Harvey added.
“We just wanted to update you. I’ll make sure the demon population stays in check, and we’ll keep an eye out for the hunters and keep the hell out of Harrison’s way,” I said.
“And pray for those who cross his path,” Faust added.
I nodded in agreement. I was glad that we were out of the vampire’s line of fire, but I had a sinking feeling that things were about to get ugly as far as he was concerned.
The Oberon snorted. “We can handle Harrison.”
“Really? He just threw a desk at us. You would’ve been gooey guardian paste on the wall,” I retorted.
Catherine Duquesne turned green, and I winced. As a newlywed, I sympathized, because I would’ve been upset if my honey had been squished by flying furniture.
“How do you suggest we handle young Mr. Harrison?” Simon asked.
“We try to make him go to rehab?” I said. The Titania snorted—guess she was the only one who got the joke. “Harrison is a you problem, not a we problem. I don’t think he’ll be stupid enough to come after us again, but if he does, we’ve got it covered.”
Simon folded his hands and eyed us calmly. “Perhaps, in the interest of magician cooperation, we should work together.”
