Hell Sucks: A Reverse Harem Urban Fantasy (Selena Pierce Book 2)

by Lucy Auburn

  Tae Min

  I didn’t know what was happening to me.

  The day after we brought the demigod with memory issues into the lab, I woke up at four in the morning feeling jittery and too-awake. Dragging myself to the mirror in my bathroom, I stared at my reflection and touched my skin in wonder. Every pore, every inch of me, seemed to glisten like a still-damp oil painting.

  I had a flurry of texts from my mother in Korea; she was worried about me, and wanted to know if I was eating, if I felt better, if I’d spoken to my aunt yet. Staring at my phone, I tried to figure out a way to comfort her, worried that I’d made a mistake in asking her. My mother knew more about what had happened to me as a child than I did; for me it was mostly memories and stories composited together in retelling, but for her it was something she’d witnessed from the outside. I’d thought, in calling her, that I would get answers. Instead I’d just drawn someone else into this vortex of worry.

  Inside my head, I felt the fox’s snappish grin, and could almost see his cleverness reflected in my own eyes. There was something about my face that felt different, almost fae-like, and I remembered from old childhood stories that the legendary nine-tailed fox often glamoured and hypnotized its victims. In most of the stories the kitsune or kumiho was a woman, but I’d found a few tales about the men as well, and they often used their supernatural good looks to steal and defraud others.

  Staring in the mirror, I saw the trickster taking over in the new suppleness to my skin. Even my vision was 20/20 now, and it frightened me. I took a scorching hot shower, desperately trying to rub my skin until the glamour was gone. By the time I stepped out the sun was rising and I was pink all over. When I looked at my reflection this time I looked normal—at least for now.

  But as I drove myself to work, having decided to get in early and do some research, I felt something growing in me. A desire, brand new and frightening in the way it felt like it was coming from outside my mind but also somehow controlling it.

  The fox in me wanted to use his glamour to make love to a woman. He wanted to rut and fuck, to sink his teeth into bare naked flesh, to lick and thrust like a wild animal. Though the fox spirit was new, its instincts were all grown up: it wanted money and power, sex and more sex. A living thing beneath my skin, it told me that it wouldn’t be kept dormant for long.

  By the time I parked in the employee lot behind the Collective, my skin felt flush all over. Looking into the rear view mirror, I saw a strange spark in my eyes, and no matter how much I blinked it didn’t go away. So I had to sit there in the car until the glamour drained from my body, feverishly hoping this was the last time it took over against my control.

  It felt like I was going through puberty all over again—and if so, the timing couldn’t have been worse. I had an epidemic to prevent and patients to tend to; Iva was starting to regain her senses and fine motor controls, and Damen was getting restless, his memory loss making him snappish. I couldn’t afford to be anything less than at full strength now, while I was tending to a demigod, a dark hunter, and half a dozen demon-possessed infected, all with a council of ancient fae breathing over my shoulder.

  There had to be some way to mitigate the effects of the fae DNA inside me taking over. I decided that would be what I’d do first thing: try to get a handle on my own issues before tackling anyone else’s. Taking out my phone, I texted my intern to let her know that I’d be conducting an early morning experiment in my lab, and then I headed there first. The whole way through the building I ducked and weaved around as many people as I could, keeping my eyes down and turning my face away. I wasn’t sure what effect my glamour would have on them, if any.

  Inside me, the nine-tailed fox was hungry and eager. But I wouldn’t let him take over; I refused to give up control. Scrubbing in for the day and throwing on a lab coat, I grabbed all my research in one place and prepared to force myself to a scientific breakthrough. There were ways to make shapeshifter powers dormant during the fae awakening—it was something I’d been called on to do more than once, when a fifteen-year-old pimply-faced fae showed up at my door, dragged in by his or her parents because they were tired of trying to wrangle a young hawk or a pubescent lion. The powers could often be forced down for a short period of time, letting fae kids live relatively normal lives until their adolescent brains caught up with their overpowered bodies.

  What I could really use was a binding spell, and I knew just the protective witch to do one. But I wasn’t ready to tell the world about what was going on with me; not yet, anyway. Besides, if my powers were bound then that would include my ability to heal myself quickly, and I wasn’t sure that I’d survive the current chaos without that ability.

  So I had to either delicately remove the fox from my body, or somehow beat him—literally outfox him. One way or another, I would figure out a way out of this. I just had to hope that I’d be faster than the clever fox inside me.

  Selena

  The mirror felt heavy in my arms. I cradled it as we walked into the front doors of the Collective, inquiring after Tae Min. His intern let us know that he was in his lab, working on an experiment. Uneasy at the thought of leaving the possible Key with a near stranger, I decided that I’d just hold it and wait for him to show up. So I leaned against the wall across from his laboratory, wondering what in the world he could be up to that was so secretive.

  “I’m going to go check on Fira,” Elah said, pushing up off the wall. “Contact me if you need me.”

  Before he left he reached out to cradle my elbow and leaned in to kiss me softly on the cheek, his warm amber eyes meeting my gaze head-on. Heat pooled inside me at his touch, and as he walked away I snuck a look at his backside, biting my lower lip. I hoped that if all this was done—if I truly held the Key in my arms and the Godspring could pass by without incident—then maybe I really did deserve to have everything I wanted. Sinking into Elah’s warm arms seemed like a good idea. After all, I wouldn’t have to worry about my mother anymore if she was well and truly locked in the Underworld; I could keep the secret of my birth to myself, and repudiate that side of me.

  It occurred to me that maybe I was wrong; maybe I could share the whole truth of me with Leon and Elah, even with Tae Min, even maybe with Petyr. Maggie was so sure that the ambassador wouldn’t be able to keep the information from the Elders, but Naomi worked for the fae, and she had accepted me without too much difficulty. Of course, I hadn’t had much of a choice once we ran into one of my mother’s dark fae followers, but there had been a kind of relief to letting it out of me.

  Other than Naomi and Maggie, there was only one person who knew who I really was, and his memory was gone. Glancing at the doors between me and Tae Min, I wondered if he had any updates on Damen; I hadn’t heard from him since the night before. I hoped to visit him once I dropped the mirror off to be studied and locked away. I didn’t know if would be more painful if Damen recognized me or if he didn’t; despite our last moments together, I had no idea why he’d fought for me, or how he felt about me. There were too many unknowns in my life. It would’ve been nice to find solid ground beneath my feet.

  I knew I would have to make my choice soon: to tell Elah and Leon about Persephone, or to get closer to them while keeping a secret. For now, though, I just wanted to stop the apocalypse in its tracks.

  Small wishes.

  It was a relief when Tae Min came out of his lab, because it meant that I wasn’t alone with my thoughts anymore. He looked startled when he saw me, even though I’d texted him on the way in. “Selena. What do you need?”

  I stared at him, wondering what had caused the hollows beneath his eyes. Maybe it was just treating the sickness getting to him. “We found... well, I’m not completely sure that it’s the Key, but it’s something. And we thought you should take a look at it.” Noticing the tiredness in his eyes, I observed, “Doctor, scientist... what don’t you do?”

  A brief flit of a smile crossed his face, barely seen before it was gone. “I’m just the first l
ine of defense in these cases. If someone really needs to look at it, we have other scientists who come in, including a few human ones. But I’m the only one who can spontaneously regrow skin or live through being poisoned if it turns out that any strange paranormal objects have teeth.”

  “Oh.” Blinking, I wondered just how often things like that happened. “So you’re the lab guinea pig as well. Busy man.”

  He smiled again, more solid this time. “Come on into the lab and we’ll take a look. What exactly is it? I assume it’s somewhere inside your jacket.”

  As we walked into the lab, I set the mirror down on one of the clean metal tables there and unfolded the jacket. While I was doing so, Tae Min surreptitiously pushed a case of test tubes inside a cabinet, and I tried not to eye them too hard. It seemed like something was going on with him, and I was concerned—but I didn’t know how to voice that concern to him. Somehow I didn’t think telling him that he looked tired would go over well. I just had to hope that whatever it was, it looked worse on the outside than it actually was, and it would be over with soon.

  “A mirror,” Tae Min said, looking down into his reflection in it. “What makes you think that it’s the Key?”

  “It was hidden. There was... something about it.” I decided not to mention my borrowed dark hunter senses to him; it felt like airing out my dirty laundry. “Also, when I looked into it, the words ‘I am the Key’ appeared on its surface.”

  Tae Min flipped the mirror over, murmuring, “Interesting. Its back appears to be a metal alloy of some kind, and it’s very thin. It’s definitely fae work—quite possibly something important. I’m not sure how we’ll figure out if this is the Key, but if it is it should be able to bridge the space between realms. And if not...”

  “If not, the Elders just sent us on a wild goose chase, and I found a mirror that lies to you. Which wouldn’t be a surprise at all.” I shifted back and forth on my feet, wondering if I should ask him the next question. “Do you have the time to look into it? If you don’t, I could take it to Petyr—”

  “I’ll be fine,” he said, cutting in. “And if you want to visit your friend Damen, I have some good news about a possible way to restore his memories that I’m hoping will work. It took some finagling to get approved, but it’s the best chance for him.”

  My heart did somersaults in my chest. “Will it work?”

  “I can’t be completely sure.” There was sympathy in his eyes. “I know he’s... important to you in some way. But I’m going to do all I can. You don’t have to worry—he’s in good hands.”

  I watched as Tae Min put the mirror away in a spelled lock box, telling me it would be safe there for now.

  31

  Selena

  It was strange to look into those electrifying eyes and not see recognition reflected back at me. Even when Damen and I first met and he was my captor, or when he first used his powers to keep me from leaving my room, there’d always been a spark in his eyes when he looked at me.

  Not so now. Now he seemed more like a wild animal pacing the confines of a prison than a powerful demigod, and his focus was solely reserved for Tae Min. As we walked into the room together, he barely even glanced my way. His eyes skipped straight over me to the doctor.

  “When am I getting out of here?” There was a sharpness to his eyes that I didn’t recognize, and it made me uneasy. “I have work to do. A mission to complete.”

  “What mission?” Tae Min asked, approaching him casually and in a friendly manner, which didn’t seem to relax the demigod one bit.

  “It’s none of your concern.” Damen’s tone was biting. “In fact,” his eyes traveled over my way, but there was nothing comforting in their depths, “it’s neither of your concern. What is she doing here? Isn’t this the woman who found me?”

  Tae Min looked over at me, and I took a cautious seat on the chair furthest from Damen’s bed. I decided to let the doctor take it from here; I felt such a deep ache when I looked at Damen that I didn’t think I could talk to him without breaking down.

  “She found you, yes,” Tae Min explained, as he took Damen’s vitals one by one. “But you actually know each other. Have you started to be able to access those memories at all?”

  His eyes studied me, piercing and deep. I met that gaze head-on with the hope that I might spark some recognition. Finally he said, “I have no idea who she is. But I do know that I have important information that has to go into the right hands—and the longer you keep me here, the worse things get.”

  “Very well.” There was a thinking look on Tae Min’s face, and I got the sense that gears were turning. “But isn’t it important for your mission that you remember the past few months well?”

  Damen frowned. “Yes.”

  “Well, from our information, you’ve known Selena for almost three months.” That caused a startled look to cross Damen’s face. This time, when he looked at me, I felt his curiosity and hoped it would help things along. “There’s a treatment for memory problems that we can use on you in the Realm of Light. If you go with us agreeably, we can get your memory back faster—and it might very well help this mission. If it’s as important as you say, don’t you think you should be able to recall everything about it?”

  “Very well.” Crossing his arms over his muscular chest, Damen fell still, no longer pacing the confines of his room like it was a jail cell. “But if this treatment takes longer than a few hours, I don’t want it.”

  A fleeting smile crossed Tae Min’s face, and he gave me a triumphant look. “It shouldn’t take longer than four hours at the most, and now that I have your consent we can leave right away.” He turned and asked me, “Selena, mind coming along? Your face may spark some memories and help things go faster—not to mention give us definite proof that the treatment is working.”

  Though my heart ached at the thought of going with a version of Damen who didn’t know me, the hope that he might remember me was too much to bear. “I’ll go, if it’ll help.”

  “Great. Let’s just get the ambassador then, and we can be off.”

  Elah

  I felt guilty about what I was doing even as I did it.

  Standing outside Tae Min’s lab, I gathered my shadow form to me and waited for the right moment. When Selena and the doctor came out, I swiftly moved near the door and made sure it didn’t close all the way by wedging my foot against it. I watched as they headed down the hallway to another room, trying to ignore the churning in my stomach.

  This was for the best. The dark hunter Naomi agreed with me. If she were here, she’d no doubt do the exact same thing. Some things weren’t meant to be studied; they were meant to be destroyed.

  Once the hallway was empty, I pushed the door to the lab open and slid inside. There was no one here, so I let my shadow form drop and moved through the room, searching for the mirror. I had no doubt that the doctor would have put it away somewhere; he was a cautious man, after all. Scanning the room with my eyes, I caught on a wall in the back with a series of lock boxes made out of metal. This would be the most likely place for the mirror to be kept, but there were over twenty possible options. I could melt the lock on each of them, but it would be reckless and risky. For all I knew, the things locked inside were too dangerous to let out.

  What I needed was precision, and there was one person I knew who had that. With a sigh, I reached out into my pocket and pulled out the terrible thing I’d been given when I first came to Earth: a touchscreen phone. It was a strange thing, brightly colored and annoying, but I diligently charged it every night if only because the detective told me to. Sometimes he sent me missives on the thing; I read them but rarely replied, hating the tiny letters that one had to press in order to send a response.

  It had none of the elegance of a communication amulet, or the convenience of teleportation. And it couldn’t compare to the romance of the rainbow messenger birds we used back home; it didn’t even sing or fly.

  But it had the dark hunter’s number programmed into
it. With a little bit of luck and a lot of trial and error, I managed to open up the strange little envelope on the screen and send her a message with only one misspelling in it.

  Naomi

  By the time Leon, Leo and I were done checking every damned hotel room in this haunted place of horrors, I had cobwebs in my hair and a permanent scowl on my face. I saw the scowl in every mirror in every bathroom that I checked for ghosts, and my hatred of this mission only intensified. It didn’t help that Leon’s double was a more annoying, teenage version of him; more than once I caught him glancing at my cleavage, and I swore his eyes glued to my ass anytime I took position in the front.

  Five ghosts and five salt-filled banishing fights later, I walked out of the still-open front doors and into the late morning sun, brushing salt out of my hair. Behind me, I heard Leon and Leo bicker briefly before the detective thankfully pulled his annoying double back into him. He walked out beside me, rolling the stiffness out of his shoulders and neck.

  “That pregnant ghost was unexpected,” he observed. “I didn’t think you could turn that pale.”

  I scowled at him. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  Leon chuckled. “Fine. Then let’s talk about something else.” I felt it coming before he said, “How about Selena. I thought you said you don’t do straight girls.”

  “She’s not straight,” I responded, keeping my voice light. “And I thought you were going to stay out of this. That was the agreement we came to after she disappeared.” I tried hard not to think about those first few days, or how frantic and angry I’d felt when she was just suddenly gone without a trace. Before Leon could say anything else, I headed him off. “I don’t know what it is yet. It might not be anything. So don’t get weird.”