by Linda Wisdom
“There’s a purple person outside who said you have to wake up,” the teen whispered. “Do you think I’d look good with her color hair?” She hopped on the side of the bed, sending Maggie bouncing upwards.
“Maggie, get your lovely butt out of bed so we can go to breakfast!” Sybil shouted.
“No, you wouldn’t look pretty with that hair color, and honestly, Sybil, I just got to sleep!” That dream realm was too good to leave.
Actually, Declan was much too good to abandon. Why did Courtney have to wake her up? With him around, she’d never need a vibrator again. Except the teenager wasn’t about to let her laze in bed and relive every hot and heavy moment.
Sybil appeared in the doorway. She arched an eyebrow and mouthed Declan?
“I’m getting up.” Maggie pushed Courtney off the bed and got up.
“You said I could borrow something of yours. This is really cute. Can I keep it?” Courtney preened in a French-blue flutter-sleeved top and white Bermuda shorts. “Too bad we don’t wear the same size shoe. You have an adorable pair of sandals that would go great with this.” She’d clipped her hair up in a loose ponytail.
“I said you could borrow some of my stuff. Nothing in that statement meant you could keep it.” Maggie blindly pulled clothing from the dresser and her closet, and stumbled into the bathroom. “Give me five minutes.”
“I’ll give you ten so you can put on makeup,” Sybil told her.
“So what are you?” Courtney asked Sybil curiously.
“Courtney! Rules.”
“It’s all right, Maggie. I’m an elf.” She proceeded to explain her lineage to a fascinated teenager who looked as if she wanted to take notes.
“At least I can say all the words here,” she told Sybil. “Maggie put some spell on me that had me speak all sorts of stupid stuff, because she said I couldn’t tell anyone she was a witch.” She whooshed. “Before I’d call her something like a frying pan.
“And now I’m here, where everyone is magickal and I can call them what they are. That’s if Maggie tells me what they are. She said I’m not supposed to stare or ask them questions. But jeez, this is like a weird Disneyland. Some have fur, others have scales, or…”
She stared at Sybil’s gossamer wings that wafted soothing scents. “And all those ferrets running around. They sound like hyped-up chipmunks. Did you know there was someone outside throwing these balls of fire like baseballs?”
“You left the quarters after I told you not to?” Maggie peeked around the bathroom door.
“Just for a minute. She’s got more rules than school ever did,” Courtney confided to the elf.
“They’re for your protection,” Sybil told her. “This is a new world for you.”
“No kidding.” Courtney moved over to Maggie’s dresser and started to rummage through the jewelry box. A movement from Elle had her backing away. “Are we eating soon? I’m starved. They’ll have, like, my kind of food here, right? Nothing that’s squirmy or crawls?”
“Bacon, eggs, waffles, pancakes, and probably some fancy Danish.” Maggie walked out of the bathroom, pulling her lapis tank top down over the waistband of her cargo pants.
Courtney watched wide-eyed as Maggie strapped on a couple of knives and added her handgun. Elle skittered up her arm and took her place decorating Maggie’s bicep.
“I thought it was safe here.”
“It is, but sometimes you still have to be prepared for anything.” Maggie gestured to the door.
“So what do elves do around here?” Courtney asked, latching on to Sybil while Maggie followed. “Can you fly? You always smell so good. Do you wear perfume to do that or sprinkle it on your wings? Are you like pixies? Grant wishes? Are there any guy elves that look like Orlando Bloom?”
Sybil shot Maggie a panicked look. The witch smirked and slowed her steps a bit more. She was enjoying this way too much.
Luckily, Courtney was so focused on Sybil that she didn’t stare at the various Guard members they met along the way.
“Food.” The girl almost ran to one of the tables. Maggie snagged her by the collar and steered her to a corner.
“No need for a menu. Just let me know what you want,” she said.
Courtney thought for a moment. “Coconut pancakes, bacon, and two scrambled eggs?”
“I thought you didn’t eat eggs.”
“I changed my mind. I’m a growing girl, and I need protein.”
“My usual,” Sybil told her.
Maggie set up the orders. She almost inhaled her coffee, grateful for the caffeine, while Courtney, for once, sipped delicately.
“Where’s Mick? Sharing a cell with something nasty, I hope. The asshole,” Courtney muttered. She looked up in time to see Maggie and Sybil exchange looks. She set her coffee cup down. “He’s dead, isn’t he? Did…” she gulped, “did one of you kill him? Did he do something that made you do it?”
“He is dead, Courtney.” Maggie knew she couldn’t soften the truth, and it was better the girl know now. “But not by my hand or Sybil’s. I think something had been placed within him so that if he tried to tell us the truth, he’d be destroyed.”
Courtney looked down at the table, her fingers loosely wrapped around her coffee mug. “He lied to me. And he planned something horrible for me, didn’t he?”
“Yes, he did,” Maggie admitted.
“That’s why you showed up, pretending to be my cousin. And why you met Mick. You didn’t trust him, did you?”
“He was only using you, Courtney,” Maggie said gently. “I’m sorry.”
Courtney stared at the food that was set in front of her. “It’s not over, is it?”
“Let’s eat first.” Maggie poured warm syrup over her sourdough pancakes. She thought that the girl would pick at her food. Instead, she didn’t stop until her plate was empty.
“Men are scum,” she pronounced, on her third cup of coffee.
“Always,” Maggie and Sybil agreed.
Courtney glared at both of them as if they were teasing her. She relaxed when she realized they were serious.
“So did he like have a heart attack and keel over? Choke and turn blue?” She gurgled with laughter. “Blow up?” She stopped when she saw their faces. “He blew up?”
“Like an overfilled balloon. But he choked and turned red and purple first.”
Courtney paled and then turned a soft pea-green color. “You’re not kidding, are you?”
“I decided I’d tell you the truth from now on,” Maggie said, still working on her pancakes.
Sybil waved her hand over the table, and a small glass filled with pale-pink fizzing liquid appeared. “Drink this.”
“What is it?”
“It’s perfectly safe and will settle your stomach.”
Courtney picked up the glass and sniffed the contents. Judging it had to be safe, she downed it quickly. Her color soon returned. “That was really good. So what else aren’t you telling me?”
“Mal will have a stroke,” Sybil murmured, concentrating on her breakfast of fresh berries and yogurt.
“He’s too mean to die,” Maggie mumbled, her mouth full of pancake.
“Now what?” Courtney persisted.
Maggie winced at the higher pitch. “Just let me finish my breakfast. We’ll get out of here and walk around. I have a baby to see.”
By now, Courtney was fidgeting in her seat like a five-year-old child. It wasn’t easy for the witch to ignore her, but she did her best. Not even a restless teenager was going to interfere with her meal.
Sybil finished her food first. “I have appointments this morning,” she told them and then smiled at Courtney. “You’re in excellent hands, sweetie. Maggie may be grumpy at times, but I wouldn’t trust anyone else with my life.” The scent of lavender and vanilla lingered in the air after she left.
“What does she do?” Courtney inquired. “I can ask that, can’t I?”
“She’s a counselor.” Maggie decided it wouldn’t be a good idea to sa
y interrogator.
“Like a psychologist?”
“Sort of.”
“But you had her talk to Mick. Not that he probably didn’t need a shrink’s help,” she grumped. “No offense to Sybil, but she looks like Mick could run over her.”
“There was a book about a woman named Sybil who had multiple personalities,” Maggie said, now finished with her food. She stood up. “Our Sybil doesn’t have as many faces as that one, but she can handle the nasties without blinking an eye. Now for some walking. I haven’t trained in a while. If I keep that up, I’ll turn into a slug.” She laughed at Courtney’s look of horror. “Not for real.”
“How many live here?” Courtney looked around as they left the dining halls.
“About two hundred in all. Five teams of four Guards who cover this part of the country and points south, along with family members and support staff.”
“And Guards protect everyone,” Courtney guessed. “Even humans like me.”
“You’re a special case. We generally keep the peace among other races.”
“So what’s Declan?” She skipped ahead and walked backward in front of Maggie. “I’ve already ruled out vampire and shape-shifter, and he’s too gorgeous to be a troll or gargoyle. No pointed ears, so not an elf like Sybil. What else is there?”
“He’s a demon.” She enjoyed the girl’s reaction.
“You mean like—?”
Maggie nodded. “Actually, he’s half fire demon, and the other half is human. If you want to know anything more, you’ll have to ask him.”
“I think that’s enough for now. And you’re a witch, complete with wand and cauldron.”
“We’ve updated our look since those days. No pointy hats, ugly black dresses, or striped stockings now. Even my warts are gone.” She waved her hands over her face.
Courtney rolled her eyes. “Ha, ha.”
“You’re taking this all very well,” Maggie commented, waving at Meech, who had appeared across the main courtyard. “You’ve had a lot to process in a short amount of time.”
Courtney turned around to walk beside her. “When I was little, my mom used to read me this book of fairy tales that came from around the world,” she said softly. “She said that there were many things out there that I might not understand, but if I allowed myself to believe in the impossible, I could have the universe in my hand. There weren’t that many supernaturals around, but I knew that didn’t mean they didn’t exist.”
“Yet, you didn’t believe me when I first told you what I was,” Maggie teased.
“You didn’t look like my idea of a witch. And I wasn’t thinking pointy hats or warts, either.” She skipped to one side when a ferret raced up to Maggie and handed her a small scroll.
“The report you wanted,” he told her.
“Thanks, Bickie.”
He glanced at Courtney and raised his eyebrows. “Hey, babe.” Then he was off.
“Terrific. My former boyfriend was a psychopath, and now a ferret is hitting on me.” She mimed gagging. She stopped when Maggie turned the scroll to ash. “What did it say? It was about me, wasn’t it?”
She shook her head. “No, it was about Mick.”
“You said you’d always tell me the truth.”
“And I’m already regretting that notion.”
“So what did it say about Mick?” Courtney pressed. “He wasn’t human, was he? Not human like me.”
“No, he wasn’t,” she said slowly. She drew a deep breath. “I don’t know how anyone missed it, but he had a few drops of demon blood in him. So he lied to us. That’s how he got into the club without anyone stopping him.”
“I was dating a demon? What did he plan to do with me?” Her voice continued to rise in pitch.
Maggie gripped her arm. “But nothing happened. You need to remember that. And nothing will.”
“I don’t know what can be any worse than Mick blowing up, unless someone’s trying to kill me.” Courtney stopped short as the realization of what Maggie wasn’t saying sunk in. “Ohmigod! Someone wants to kill me?”
Chapter 19
Courtney bent over with her hands on her knees. “Why would anyone want to kill me?” she gasped. “I can’t breathe!” She started to wave her hands around, eyes bugging out, her mouth open to take in air her body seemed to be rejecting.
Maggie conjured up a paper bag and forced it over Courtney’s nose and mouth. “Just breathe in and out,” Maggie instructed.
The girl pushed it away. “Who wants to kill me? Why?”
Maggie returned the bag to its position and kept her grip tight. “Just breathe.”
“Is she all right?” One of the healers paused in her morning yoga workout and came over. “I can take her to the infirmary.”
“She’s hyperventilating.”
“Poor thing.” The healer gently rubbed Courtney’s back in long, soothing strokes while murmuring therapeutic words under her breath. A few minutes later, Courtney’s color returned to normal and she was breathing more naturally.
“Are you feeling all right now?” the healer asked, touching the teen’s forehead and cheeks with delicate fingertips. The diminutive shaman turned to frown at Maggie. “What did you say to her to cause this, Maggie? Humans are very fragile.”
Maggie held her hands up in surrender. “I’m sorry, Shayla. It’s not my fault.”
“Do you want to come to the infirmary with me and be checked out?” the healer asked Courtney.
“No, I’m fine. Thank you.” She managed a wobbly smile. “This is all new to me.”
Shayla didn’t look convinced. “Well, if you start feeling faint or anything, you make sure to have Maggie bring you to see me.” She shot the witch a warning look. She walked over to pick up her yoga mat and towel, and walked away.
“I haven’t had so much attention since the school expelled me.” By now, Courtney’s face was pink with embarrassment.
“Shayla is very caring and an excellent healer. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have piled so much on you at one time.”
“I asked for it. Where are we going now? The dungeon? Do you have torture chambers here?”
“Something a lot more positive. I think even you’ll like it.” Maggie headed for the bungalows housing mated couples. She stopped at one where a large female with bluish-white skin sat on the front step, rocking a tiny cradle.
“Maggie!” the female called out, her broad smile revealing jagged yellow teeth. “How wonderful you came to visit.”
“Hi, Reesa, I came to see our shared baby,” she said. “I’m sure you already know about Courtney. Court, this is Reesa, Meech’s mate. And this is Atisha.” She touched the side of the cradle.
Courtney leaned over. “Wow, she’s cute.”
Reesa laughed. “Thank you. Her hair’s coming in nicely. I imagine you thought she’d look more like me.” Shimmering, sleek white fur covered the baby’s face and body.
“Uh, yeah.” Courtney perched on the step, fascinated with the cradle’s contents. She reached out a tentative finger, laughing when the baby latched onto the digit.
“Don’t let her put—”
“Ow!” Courtney stuck her injured finger in her mouth.
“A baby’s teeth are very sharp,” Reesa explained. “Let me get us some coffee. I assume you also drink it?”
Courtney nodded around her finger. “You could have warned me,” she hissed once Reesa was out of earshot.
“I tried. It happened to me once, except my finger was almost taken off.”
“It’s a good thing I’m off guys, because no way I’d want a baby now. Even if this one is cute.”
Maggie and Courtney visited with Reesa and Atisha for an hour, Maggie enjoying the short time of normalcy. They hadn’t experienced much of that lately, and she hoped it would cheer Courtney up to spend time with a family. Judging by the teenager’s smiles and laughter, it was working.
It was even working for Maggie.
***
“You really are
going to throw the witch under the bus, cuz?” Wreaker waylaid Declan the moment he stepped inside the club.
After he’d left his father, Declan had escaped his apartment and driven as fast and as far as he could in hopes of blowing the meeting out of his mind. It wasn’t until he’d discovered he was halfway to New Orleans that he stopped to grab something to eat.
He had always known his sire was greedy for power. He would never have been surprised if Victorio traded him at a moment’s notice, as long as it pushed his father further up the career ladder.
Except this time, a human girl’s life was forfeit. Declan had always watched his back before. Now he’d be even more cautious.
“Don’t you have a woman to ravage?” he growled, heading for his office.
“Been there, done that. What else did Victorio say?” Wreaker’s question was couched in a casual manner, but Declan didn’t miss the sharpness in his cousin’s eyes.
“Just that the girl is more important than I thought.” He noted that Snips was rapidly coming their way. Did he know all this already? Was he one of Victorio’s drones?
“That kid was too cocky. When things got tough, he had no clue how to handle it. No wonder his inner grenade went off.” Wreaker slid into the office ahead of Declan. He immediately went to the bar and fixed himself a drink, and then sunk into a chair. “Once the blood thins, anything can happen.”
“He didn’t give off any kind of hint he was demon.” Declan glanced at the report Snips handed him, relieved to see there were no problems, even with the portal that the loyal Anton was still guarding. “Still no word about Alexi?” he asked in a low voice.
“None. We fear he is truly gone.” Snips cast a disapproving eye at Wreaker, who grinned back at him. “It is thought the missing drone is behind Alexi’s disappearance. That he took him back through the portal. But we can find no reason why.”
‘There’s always a reason. You just need to find it.” Declan signed several forms. “My cousin is not to associate with any females while in the club, nor to have the use of any of the private rooms,” he said only for the imp’s ears.
Something passed for a smile on Snips’s face. “It shall be done.” The imp left as quietly as he’d arrived.
