Warmongers and Wands

by Dunbar, Debra

  “Can you go somewhere else?” I scowled up at him.

  “I thought you’d want my energy to help with the spell.”

  He pouted. The demon, a war demon of all things, was pouting.

  “I do, but I won’t be ready to cast the spell for a while. I’m not fast. I can’t do these things on the fly. I might not be able to do them all under this moon and astrological conditions, but I’m going to try. Either way, it’s going to take me hours of prep at a minimum before I’m ready to charge anything. So, go…chop a tree, or grab a rabbit for dinner, or read Tiger Beat or something because I can’t work with you watching me like this.”

  He grumbled something and headed off. By the time he’d returned and started dinner, I’d made some progress. At this rate I’d possibly have one enchanted weapon by nightfall. Hopefully the werewolves would hold off for a few days so I could do the frying pan and a fork as well, otherwise it was going to have to be me and my stun-gun nippers to the rescue.

  The smell of roasted meat was starting to permeate the cabin. My stomach growled, but I pushed on, almost done with the inscribing part of the spell. After dinner we’d charge it. I hated to do these things on an empty stomach.

  Hadur stiffened, dropping his spoon onto the table and pivoting toward the door.

  Shit. It wasn’t even dark yet. I hadn’t even had time to charge the spell on the nippers. Damn it all, I felt so helpless here in bed with a broken leg and nothing but a frying pan to defend myself with.

  “Someone crossed into the circle?” I asked. I wondered if I was strong enough to do a quick enchantment on the frying pan. I doubted I could bluff my way out of this one as I’d done with Stanley. How many had Dallas sent for me? Would my sisters ever find my body? Or the smashed truck? And what would happen to Hadur? He’d remain trapped here and now that the werewolves knew where he was and his situation, they’d ensure no one stumbled upon his cabin ever again.

  He came to stand protectively in front of my bed. “A group. I can’t tell how many. Maybe six, maybe ten. I don’t think it’s more than twelve.”

  I gently eased my splinted leg to the floor and stood, holding onto the bedpost and checking to ensure my paisley shirt and butt-wrap covered all the important parts. “You go intercept them. Diebin and I will take care of whoever makes it past you to the cabin.”

  Suddenly I wished Diebin had stolen a shotgun and some shells from Walmart. A fry pan wasn’t exactly a distance weapon, and I wasn’t in any shape to be grappling hand-to-hand with any foe, let alone a werewolf. Hopefully Hadur was badass enough to take on half a dozen of Dallas’ finest. If not, I wasn’t going to let them kill me, not without giving a few of them some serious concussions with my frying pan.

  Hadur went to the door only to have it fly open, smacking him in the face. There was a flash of light that made me gasp and cover my eyes, and a voice shouted a spell of protection.

  I nearly cried, because I recognized that voice.

  “I’m okay, I’m okay!” I called out. “Stand down. I’m okay, and with friends.”

  I blinked open my eyes and saw them—all six of them. My sisters were piling into the cabin, knocking aside chairs and the table in an effort to all squeeze into the room. Hadur was pinned half behind the door, looking bewildered. Diebin had run and hid in a corner. I didn’t blame him. My sisters had that effect on people.

  Everyone erupted into conversation at once. Ophelia sat a black bag on the bed and immediately started checking me over. Glenda poured something from a thermos and shoved it into my hands.

  “What the fresh hell is that shirt you’re wearing?” Sylvie asked. “It looks like you stole it off a bad ‘70s porn actor.”

  “Are your toenails painted?” Babylon pointed at my feet. “Nail polish? When did you get all girly on us, Wynnie?”

  I held up my hand, the one not holding a cup of whatever it was that Glenda was urging me to drink, and asked everyone to please settle down.

  “I’m okay,” I repeated once they were all silent. “Besides a broken leg, that is. My truck went off the side of the mountain. Hadur found me and brought me back here and took care of me.”

  Everyone turned to look at the demon who stared back. “It’s like a coven crammed into my cabin,” he commented. “A loud and intimidating coven.”

  “Thank you for helping my sister.” Cassie approached him. “Thank you so much for taking care of Bronwyn. When I think that she could have died in that crash, or lay there in that truck for days waiting for us to find her…”

  “Yes, days.” I snapped. “Four days. Did no one notice I was gone for four damned days? What the hell?”

  Everyone looked down at their feet.

  “I’m so sorry, Wynnie,” Cassie finally said. “I left a few messages on your phone, but sometimes you just don’t call back right away. It wasn’t urgent. I figured you’d call when you got a chance. You’re kinda…you’re kind of a loner. I don’t want to constantly be all up in your business.”

  She was right. If it wasn’t urgent, sometimes it did take me a while to return a call. And I did occasionally go a week without talking to my sisters, even Cassie. “Well, you’re forgiven. Maybe I need to start wearing one of those emergency alert necklaces or something.”

  “A GPS tracker,” Adrienne suggested. “Some people put them on their dogs.”

  Great. Bronwyn and the pet Beagle, both with tracking collars. I felt so loved.

  “How did you all finally find me?” I asked them. “Did the werewolves send you a message? Did someone see my smashed truck from the road?”

  Cassie’s eyebrows went up. “Well, let’s see…you didn’t show up for family dinner tonight and weren’t answering your phone. None of us had heard from you in a few days, so we got worried. Ophelia did a divination that showed you were hurt and trapped somewhere, so we got really worried. She and I managed to do a tracking spell with Lucien’s help, and it brought us here.” She turned to smile at Hadur. “Sorry for the entrance. We weren’t sure what was going on or what we were going to find in here.”

  “Is Lucien with you?” I seldom saw Cassie without the demon any more.

  “No, Ophelia got something in her divination that led her to believe him coming along would be a bad idea, so I had to convince him to stay behind with Aaron.”

  “I’ll bet that went well,” I drawled.

  “Let’s just say that there’s probably going to be a lot of sex on the agenda tonight.”

  “So why is this Hadur living in the middle of the woods—on the side of a mountain owned by the werewolf pack inside the town wards?” Glenda asked.

  “With a raccoon!” Adrienne squealed, kneeling down to better see Diebin. “Oh, look at you, you cutie, you! I know you! You’re the little guy who was stealing Joe Swanson’s chickens, aren’t you? Come here so I can give you a hug.”

  Diebin hesitated, then dashed forward into Adrienne’s arms. She stood, cuddling the raccoon, who seemed absolutely enchanted by her. That’s the way it always was with Adrienne. And this was far more adorable than her cuddling spiders or slugs.

  “Hadur is a demon,” I told my sisters. “Someone summoned him two hundred years ago and never showed up to complete the deal. He’s been trapped here in a summoning circle since then.”

  “And he made a deal with our new friend here to bring him food and supplies from outside the circle.” Adrienne added, scratching Diebin behind the ears. “Smart boy. Very smart boy.”

  I wasn’t sure if she meant Hadur or Diebin.

  “A demon.” Cassie took a step back from Hadur. “What sort of demon?”

  “War,” he replied. “I know your bonded demon, Lucien. And no, we do not get along. I’m sure that’s why your sister’s spell advised he not come.”

  “But you can’t leave the cabin?” Cassie asked.

  “I can leave the cabin, but not the confines of the summoning circle.”

  “It’s just under an acre,” I told her.

  She frowned.
“That’s big. I mean, I don’t know much of anything about summoning demons, but from what I do know, the circles tend to be no bigger than a twelve-foot diameter, not nearly an acre in size.”

  “So…what does that mean?” I asked.

  Cassie shook her head. “I’m not sure. Maybe the summoner meant for him to be here long term, or possibly forever? That’s why the size is bigger than normal?”

  “Right,” I scoffed. “How nice of her. ‘I’m going to confine a demon for all of eternity in a remote area of a mountain, but I’m a nice witch so I’ll make sure he has a bit of room to stretch his legs.’”

  “Can we discuss this later?” Ophelia asked. “Maybe after we get you somewhere we can X-ray that leg and get a cast on it?”

  “I can’t just walk out of here, in case you didn’t notice,” I told her. “I’m assuming you guys hiked in. And I’m also assuming nobody mastered teleportation spells in the last four days.”

  Ophelia scowled. “Shit.”

  Everyone turned to look at Cassie. We always turned to look at Cassie. She’d taken care of us when Mom hit the road. She was the one who hosted Sunday family dinners. She was the strongest among us, the one who now “ran” the town in spite of our elected mayor and sheriff.

  “I can’t teleport, even with Lucien’s help,” Cassie said. “Maybe a helicopter?”

  “And where would someone land a helicopter?” Sylvie spoke up. She’d been mostly silent until now, checking out the books over in the corner and also checking out Hadur.

  “People do rescues for climbers and boaters with helicopters and those basket things that they lower down,” Babylon chimed in. “Who do we call for that? If we had a cell signal here, I’d Google it.”

  “There’s a state emergency helicopter for transporting critical accident victims,” Ophelia said. “Maybe they have a basket thingie?”

  “But it’s not really an emergency,” I added. “How much are they going to charge for that? Guys, I don’t think my insurance is going to cover airlifting me off the side of a mountain, and in case you didn’t notice, welders and farriers don’t make the big bucks.”

  “We’ll chip in for it,” Cassie replied. “Ophelia’s right. We need to get you somewhere to get checked out, X-rayed, and a cast on that leg. We can’t carry you up the side of the mountain, and we’re certainly not getting a truck down here and back up again. Hell, we barely made it down here. Sylvie bitched the whole time about snagging her pants on briars and rocks.”

  “That was you bitching about your pants, Cassie,” Sylvie shot back. “It’s my shoes I was worried about, not my pants.”

  “Maybe I should just stay here.” I glanced over at Hadur who was wisely staying out of the way and remaining silent. “Ophelia can get a portable X-ray machine and cast my leg here.”

  “And leave you here in the middle of nowhere for the six weeks it takes for your leg to heal?” Ophelia argued.

  They all shot quick surreptitious looks at Hadur. I knew what those looks meant. My sisters didn’t like the idea of leaving me alone with him for weeks. A demon. A warmonger. I was hardly the weak flower of the family. I welded. I forged horseshoes. I didn’t give a damn about snagging my pants on thorns or breaking a heel in the woods. But I was their sister, and right now I had a broken leg. That made me someone to be pampered and fussed over, someone who they weren’t going to leave for weeks with a war demon in the middle of nowhere.

  Hadur held up his hands. “I will do everything in my power to keep Bronwyn safe and help her recover, but I agree that she should be in a place with skilled healers. And I fear that she may not be safe here.”

  “What? Why?” Cassie exclaimed, turning to me.

  It all seemed so silly in the light of day, but Cassie did need to know, just in case there was an issue with the werewolves—with Dallas.

  “I was working on a welding job up at the pack compound, and that storm was coming in. I left right when it hit, and going down the mountain, my brakes suddenly failed. Nothing. Flat to the floor nothing. No parking brake either. I was trying to steer the truck in the pouring rain and hopefully do a controlled crash when a rockslide knocked my truck off the road and I went over the cliff.” I shuddered at the memory.

  “And you think the werewolves did something to your truck?” There was that look in Cassie’s eye—that look she got when she was two seconds from setting an ex-boyfriend’s pants on fire.

  “I take good care of my truck,” I told her. “I mean, maybe it was an accident, but maybe it wasn’t. Then Hadur had Diebin take a note I’d written to someone, and he evidently took it to the werewolf compound. Last night Stanley shows up, insisting that I’m supposed to let him carry me out of here and to the compound in the middle of the night. He said Dallas sent him, that Dallas had sent a message to you. It just felt…weird. I was scared and suddenly with the accident and all I got paranoid. I told him I wouldn’t leave unless you all came to get me yourself.”

  Just saying it made me feel like a complete idiot. What if the brake failure had truly been a mechanical issue? What if Dallas’s motives had been reasonably benign? What if I was freaking out over nothing?

  “Now I’m even more positive that you’re not going to remain here,” Cassie insisted. “Dallas has been pissed at me since the thing with Shelby. I can totally see him doing something like this to break our focus and resolve.”

  “I’m calling for a helicopter,” Ophelia said, getting out her phone.

  How mortifying to be air lifted out in a basket. I’ll admit when I’d told Hadur I wanted my sisters to come and rescue me so I could get home and get real medical attention, I hadn’t thought about the logistics. And I hadn’t thought about leaving him here, all alone, possibly with a bunch of werewolves who might want revenge for his protecting me from Stanley’s attempt to haul me off the other night.

  “First, you’re not calling for anything here because there’s no cell service, remember?” I told her. “Secondly, I’m not leaving. Ophelia, you can X-ray my leg with a portable device and bring stuff to cast it here, can’t you? I’m fine otherwise. I’ll heal in…” I looked at Ophelia.

  “Twelve to fourteen weeks. Or sixteen depending on the break.”

  Ugh. That was a long time—a really long time.

  “Four if you drink the smoothies,” Glenda countered, waving a hand at me to get going and drink the one still in my hand. I took a sip, nearly gagging at the taste. Maybe twelve weeks would be preferable to this disgusting stuff.

  “I’m not leaving you here,” Cassie snapped. “You need medical attention. You need to be home where we can help you, where you’re not in the middle of nowhere. You need to be where I’m not worried about werewolves attacking you in the middle of the night.”

  I eased down onto the bed, trying to decide how I was going to get my splinted leg back on the mattress while I was still holding a frying pan and a smoothie. Mattress. Huh. How had Hadur managed that one? I couldn’t see Diebin dragging a mattress through the woods from some store. Was this one of those straw-stuffed pioneer mattresses, because it didn’t feel any different from my mattress at home. If it was, though, where had he gotten the straw?

  None of these were questions I needed immediate answers to, so I put them aside, slugged down the horrible smoothie, handed Glenda the empty glass, and gently eased my leg back onto the bed. “Not leaving. Figure it out, girls, because I’m not leaving.”

  “Is she always like this?” Hadur asked.

  “Yep,” Cassie told him. “Always.”

  “Fine.” Ophelia put her phone away. “I’ll come back with equipment and something to cast your leg. And crutches.”

  “And my smoothies,” Glenda added. “And some healthy meals because I don’t think you’ve been eating right.”

  “And reading material.” Sylvie held up one of the Fifty Shades books. “I’ve got a whole library of kink. And some vanilla stuff too, just in case rope play isn’t on the menu with a broken leg.”


  “Diebin knows where we all live and how to reach us if you need to send a message,” Adrienne chimed in, kissing the raccoon on the top of his head. “He knows us all by name, so just tell him who the message should go to.”

  “Yeah. And if you need me to raise the dead, then just call me.” Babylon drawled. “No? No one wants me to raise the dead? Figures.”

  “I’m not leaving you,” Cassie insisted. Again, the message was that she wasn’t leaving me with Hadur, in the middle of nowhere, hurt, with possibly a werewolf attack in the future.

  I rolled my eyes. “I’ll be fine. As soon as Ophelia is done with me and I manage to choke down a couple of Glenda’s smoothies, I should be feeling okay enough to defend myself. Heck, I was almost ready to enchant this pair of nippers when you all got here. And Hadur isn’t going to let anyone hurt me. He’s a demon. He’s a freaking war demon. Some pansy-ass werewolves aren’t going to get past him.”

  “I’m not leaving you.” Cassie walked over and sat down on the edge of the bed. “Ophelia can bring back some clothes for the both of us. I’ll sleep here with you. He can sleep somewhere else. Like outside the cabin somewhere else.” She glared at Hadur.

  Seriously? I wasn’t like this when she had started banging Lucien. My sister, the hypocrite. “You have a job—a lawyer job. You can’t stay here with me for twelve to fourteen or sixteen weeks—”

  “Four,” Glenda announced.

  “Four weeks,” I corrected. “You have a job. And I’ll be fine.”

  She bit her lip. “I’ll work from here.”

  “With no cell service and no electricity. What are you going to do, file briefs via smoke signal? Or send Diebin in with a packet of handwritten notes every day?”

  “Mack and Russ will cover for me. The law firm partners are sphinx. They’ll understand. I’ll…I’ll take a leave.”

  “We’ll take turns,” Babylon told her. “If each of us stays for a week, rotates staying here with Bronwyn, then you won’t have to deal with those sphinx assholes you work for.”