White Witch (Haven Book 1)

by Lil Hamilton

  I put up with a lot of this bull because I was not full fae. The irony of it was, Seelie spent a lot of time and effort subtly insulting and mind buggering each other and most of it didn’t even faze me. I had a very demon temper, but slow to rouse and also an off center sense of humour to balance it out. Most of these mild games amused the hell out of me. We could sit, silently, to the end of the earth and instead of being insulted I would have to hold back on giggling. Like a staring contest. I always lost those to fits of giggles. Liona was the cold, aloof sort of Seelie fae. Not the happy, dancing party fae. She had to embrace her happy fae within.

  Today though it was a little irksome. It was fortunate that she simply didn’t have the skill to really tick me off, cause that tended to result in spontaneous violence. The one time I had gone all demon I got the living crap beaten out of me by vampire thugs and so it was that Vincent knew my weakness. Get me all riled up and I was a lot easier to handle, assuming you were all right with some causalities. Which, it turns out, he really, really was. He had tons of peons.

  “You have seriously blundered,” she said finally, butting out her smoke.

  “Huh.”

  “You will stop pursuing this girl,” she said, giving me an icy stare.

  “The girl your husband wanted to Turn? That girl? Or some other girl?”

  She nodded. “You expect me to deny it? She wasn’t to be Turned, however. We knew she had Seelie blood.”

  That didn’t sound good at all. It downright chilled my blood. If Liona knew, then she could have sold that information to any number of fae informants. Why did it seem I was the last one in the city to know there was a witch half-Seelie running around? Made me feel rather left out or inept. I had to content myself with the fact I was the only one not looking for her. I looked when there was trouble, not before.

  I took a long drag off my smoke and let out a stream of it into her face. “Must I remind you that you have no authority to demand I do anything? I’m here to make you follow the rules, not the other way around and that is why I’m the one with diplomatic immunity. This girl, as you say, has Seelie blood and as fae born she is under my protection. I’m obligated to find her. If you know what has happened to her then you understand that even if she was just a faeling, like the others who have gone missing by the way, I would still go to all this effort to find her. Damn it, Liona, why wouldn‘t I? What if it was your daughter? Would you want me to back off then? Frankly, the fact a harvester has taken a Seelie half-breed should make it more vital for me as our representative to get retribution.”

  To give her credit she didn’t even bat an eye at my blunt words and usually she at least got a heated flush when I forced her to acknowledge my authority. She lit another smoke and glared at Sebastian. “Honestly, do you have to be so obvious as to have them around you?”

  “That one would be kin,” I said dryly. No need to announce my cousin mating said witch. Not until I knew what she did. Maybe that is what this was about after all. If Liona knew Lily’s heritage why else would she be demanding I stop looking for her if not because she also knew she was now mated with a demon and no longer worth the effort? Worst case scenario that I was trying not to contemplate was that she knew who Lily’s father was, and the Queen had told Vincent to take her, or arranged Warren to take her, in order to punish her son for his little bastard. It would be like the Queen to do so. Liona would warn me to back off then. Unless ordered directly I would still have the choice to do so, but the punishment of interfering with the Queen’s games would be long lasting and severe.

  “I can feel him from here. All those black currents wearing away at everything.”

  I flicked a look at Bas. He did have a greyish haze to his aura, which was restrained for a demon. There was also a sense of energy being pulled gently towards him, but this was the effect they had on the border realm.

  “Their effect on electricity is only the first effect of their influence. They suck all energy from this reality. It is why they do not belong here. Why they can never belong.”

  I smiled widely. “Such a racist. You should be in the Queen’s court. You’d fit right in. I think some right wing humans would say the same for you, yes? Apples and oranges.”

  She narrowed her eyes to slits and I felt the charge in the air around her. Cranky. “It is not the same. We do no harm.”

  I rolled my eyes. As if. Just no direct influence on our environment maybe.

  “And they ask for no land rights. Mostly because it makes them insane, but still, at least we can have this place as a home away from home… but for them? Just a vacation spot.”

  “Only the High Bloods, Ray. The lower bloods, of which there are a whole lot more, have little trouble staying in this realm. They pay a price for it, but they can bide here.”

  “So? They’re none of my business,” I said. I had bigger concerns than low blooded demons crossing the borderlands. Just as I had very little issues with Unseelie fae. It was the higher ranking ones that caused me an infinite amount of problems.

  “You are so dense. They are breeding, Ray.”

  I frowned. She had me right confused. Sure fae had their hate on when it came to demons, but what did she care about what lower blooded demons were doing? Or who they were doing it with. She mated with an earth bound demon race. “So what? I’m sure someone keeps track of all that. Unseelie get it on with humans as well you know. A lot. The Warrens is packed full of faelings. And that being said, so do the Seelie when the Queen permits it. Case in point, you, and your brood.”

  It was a relatively new phenomenon. Before the fae and demons had been outed they rarely had any sort of relationships with humans. They were rarely seen by humans. Then the war was brought to their cities and streets and the Veil had been lifted. When they were all outed there was no reason to live separate from humanity and that led inevitably to some co-mingling. The Queen had a non-breeding rule for Seelie, unless she permitted procreation, but the Unseelie were not so bound. Conception was rare, unless it was a fertility fae, and it was frowned on, but it happened. Happened enough that those humans with anywhere from one sixteenth to a half fae had to be registered and in Haven and they far outnumbered the fae residents. Had their own sub culture. I quite enjoyed partying with them.

  She leaned forward. “Can you use magic in the Hells?”

  “What the hells does that matter?”

  I was completely losing control of this conversation.

  “Just answer the damned question.”

  Ooh, snarky. Liona rarely showed such signs of impatience. Usually she wore a façade of elegant boredom and disdain. If she wanted answers she often tried to use her fae influence or subtle spells. She had long since learned they didn’t work the way she wanted to with me, nor did mine really work on her, so when we butted heads I did tend to rile her up.

  “It should be obvious. With the status quo fae have little power in the Hells and demons no control over reality in Faerie. I’m both and so have more control in both, but less than the pure. That reality is far from what Faerie is so it is vastly different, but I do have a sort of magic there.” I could spin a spell in the Hells, but something in the atmosphere made the spells slower or at times to misfire. I could go all demonish in Faerie, but they were complete blackouts most of the time and I never recalled what I had done.

  “Just so. And so we make war in this little strip of reality. Then your father destabilizes the situation by making the natives aware of us. We did not need to play nice, but it is easier. A good strategy so we are not attacked by humans while at war with demons.”

  “We have little trouble in that department after centuries of propaganda humans have a rather positive response to us. So much that they permit some of us permanent residence, which they don’t grant to demons, even if demons could live here.”

  “Yes, we had that advantage. Until the demons permitted their lower bloods passes to this realm and they are not seen as a threat to most human governments. Then they br
eed little half breeds, which are more immune to fae abilities and have strong abilities to affect this border realm. Do you see the potential threat?”

  Rather seemed like evening the playing field to me, but then I was bias.

  “Very minor and not intentional. Not like the Queen hooking up the lower court in this realm with every shifter or vampire she can find.”

  She leaned back and smiled thinly. “And so there it is. Our Queen loves her chess. She perceives one move and blocks it. One ups it, in fact. My children are half fae born, half immortal vampire. They can spin a fae spell and have vampiric abilities. If they went to the Hells, they would also retain some abilities, because vampires have thinned demon blood. And a firm stake in this realm. More power in this realm. And this is where the battles are fought and won.”

  “Yeah, that sounds like her.” I grimaced. Why did this sound like a slow invasion of the border realm? That was an unpleasant realization. What could possibly make this mission worse? It was all about finding Lily but not about her at all?

  “Well, then step it up a bit and take her next logical leap.”

  “I’m afraid I don’t think like her and logical is not the word I would use.”

  She waved a hand dismissively. “Based on the situation and the facts then.”

  “After she made counter measures, defensively, then she would then go on the attack, quietly. To her there is no truce,” I said thoughtfully. “If she knows about the demi-demons and their activities, then she knows demi-demons can mate with other breeds and the fae. She knows my father did. It would just be a matter of tracking them and watching them to see.”

  “And then?”

  “And then, instead of killing the offspring, she would see what advantage could be gained. If they had any fae blood she would claim them as under her rule and use their demon blood as a way into the Hells or to perfect warriors against them. She is very long term that way. She would bind them to Faerie, as she bound me.” I had long worried, and rather still did, that the Queen would decide to make me into her assassin in the Hells. That is what would happen with any fae-demon breeding. I was important to her, in a way, for other things. But breeding some disposable troops to directly attack the enemy? That was a goal worth quietly attaining.

  “And so she has been tracking the demi-demons and their offspring. She will use that as well. But also, of course, she watches those the demi-demons may find attractive to mate with, in particular those that would give her the best advantage. One with fae blood would be enough, one with Seelie blood more likely to have a pull on a demon. A stronger tie to Faerie. She watched you when you returned from the hells and at least twenty years after that, to see if you had mated.”

  That didn’t surprise me in the least. I had actually expected it. It just made my point about Lan, or any demon. The Queen would let me mate up and then separate us, to have more power over both of us. She would do so for anyone of her court. Ensuring loyalty by finding weakness or creating weakness. Any attachment to someone else was a weakness.

  “So she had Lily monitored. No wonder the girl was paranoid. She had been found and tracked.”

  Vincent had been watching her for longer than I thought. Liona wouldn’t be able to deny the Queen that favor.

  “Then the girl mates. But not with a lower blood, but a pure blood. She would have created useful offspring with a low blood. With a high blood the possibilities are greater. How can she resist the temptation to see if this bond, this undefined and unexplainable link of the very essence, can be used against them?”

  I let out a slow hiss. “So she suggested Vincent take her in.”

  “No, first to test her skills. Run a few experiments. Then when mating was confirmed, to take her in. By then she couldn’t be found. The slavers are the ones that had beaten them to the punch.”

  “That is why Vincent never went after them.” I wanted to smack myself in the forehead and mutter ‘duh’. The only reason he would not go after the coven is if it worked for him somehow.

  “Precisely. There was no point. One of her operatives did the deal. The Queen hired this coven to handle it from there. I don’t know what they are doing to test out the strength of the demon bond, but I have heard about the demon slayings. So walk away, Ray. You don’t want to interrupt her little games. And I know they are more extensive than just Lily. I know there is more being played out there. The other operative has been in Haven since you were recalled to Faerie and I doubt that was a coincidence. You know how the Queen loves to play you all against each other.”

  That was good advice. Unfortunately, her game apparently was to have control over a demon to kill competitive covens, just to see if it could be done. Then, more long term, to take any offspring and use them to her benefit. It was my job to make sure the fae did nothing illegal, or could become public, so their land rights were not revoked. And, hell, might as well tack on preventing war with demons again. “What coven was it?”

  She scowled and didn’t answer right away. Just glowered. A sign of her lesser fae breeding. No court fae would have tells like that. I bet I could kick her ass at poker. I was queen of the masquerade. I could play fae with the best of them, but I was far more emotional and unstable than any of them.

  “You do realize the risk I am in for even telling you this? I am not of the inner court. I am of little use to the Queen, except by the link to this border realm. That is very little use at all. I have to be careful in order to protect my family. Vincent, like all vampires, has this arrogant belief he is at the top of the food chain. He doesn’t care about fae politics, or understand my position. He doesn’t understand the value my children will have to the Queen.”

  It was my turn to glower at her. I hated the way my people saw their offspring. Liona would fiercely protect her blood, as was expected, but she would also skilfully use them to improve her political standing.

  It was precisely my more emotional nature that enabled me to fake sincerity. I could put feeling into my words even when I had no sympathy at all for her. If you were a player in the game then you had to accept the rules.

  “No, but I do understand, Liona. More than you realize. I know this place you have made yourself here is better and safer than any place you held in Faerie. I wouldn’t want to see your children become pawns in the fae war. I cannot ignore this. The Queen doesn’t need to know I know her hand in this. She need only see that I’m doing my job and going after a coven that calls demons and kidnaps half-breed fae. Normally she would expect me to go after such a coven, one who dared take one of our kind. Who would dare cull our faelings and sell them on the open market like cattle.”

  “If you get this girl back then what will you do? You cannot keep her from the Queen. You cannot keep her safe. As far as the Queen sees it someone in her court disobeyed her ruling and that means that woman ought to be put to death. Using her to further her understanding of the demon bond is but a bonus. A diversion. And perhaps she will keep them alive to breed. Better to let the demons handle it,” she said, her tone low and harsh. Her anger was real, but beneath that was fear of the Queen’s retribution.

  “I’m trying to keep this mess simple, Liona. Without letting humans know the undercurrent. If I get her back I will give her over to the demons. They will take her to the Hells and she will be safe there. That will be that.” I leaned forward. “You know as well as I do the Queen is not an idiot. A freakin psychopath, yes, but not an idiot. She knows that even if no one cared one damn bit about this chickie, Inter would definitely pay attention to an enslaved demon. She knows demons would be hunting her down as well. So while this is her little experiment, she knows it will end with the authorities being alerted. I know she will have her end covered and no witch will remember her operative or her influence on them. She will have her research done and the witnesses killed or locked up. Likely Lily will be a casualty, so we gotta move soon to save her. If she were looking for something long term, the she would be conducting this experiment damn far
from Haven. And Lily would be out of our reach for certain.”

  “That is because the Queen is not here. She has to use operatives and those people may screw up. She does not care, Ray. With just one inner courtier’s visit and the memory of Lily will be wiped from all our minds. And Lily and her demon lover will be dead. So while you have scrambled to find her, following whatever trail Vincent or the other operative left behind, that trail is already disappearing. A courtier will come for clean up if the Queen decides this Seelie half breed is worth keeping. Have no doubt she is trying to track who the parents are.”

  I took a long pull off my drink. Liona was unfortunately very right. It was how the fae got things done. When things went off course and totally fubar, people were sent in to make sure no one remembered it that way. All we had going for us is that our investigation was not official and hopefully not known. I would keep Vivica pretending to look into Vincent’s business, so anyone paying attention will think we were still on that angle. Always good to put up a good front and move on many angles.

  “All the more reason to get her out before this little experiment is finished, or before the Queen decides these two star struck lovers are her new favourite toy.”

  Liona was silent a moment. She finished her smoke and butted it out.

  “All this and I don’t know who spawned this woman. I don’t know why the Queen let her live when her Seelie heritage was revealed. Of course, I suspect the reason. I suspect someone in the high court strayed. And like you, that means she might have to tolerate it. I suspect more than that. I can’t stop you from investigating it. I can’t stop you from going after the missing faelings that coven has been taking in the first place. Part of me doesn’t want to anyway. So it is best you do bring her to the Hells. Safest bet. When the Queen comes down on you for it, you had best not mention my name.” She stood up and looked down at me. “It is the Nihilo Coven, but you already knew that, didn’t you? That‘s all I know. Lily is with Nihilo. Word of advice for you though, that other operative is in the Gutters, if I were you, I would stay out of there. You won‘t find him or her unless they want to be found anyway. Go after the half breed if you must. Shut down the coven operation under the pretence they are slavers, but stay out of whatever that other operative has been doing.”