Demon Peepers

by Belinda White

  Dunwood proved to be a valuable asset to the team. Several times, even with my advanced sense of smell, he alerted us to Fae presence before I realized they were there. A couple were really close calls too. All that time in the human realm, plus the years it had added to me, had started to make me soft.

  The human housing compound was actually just outside the boundary of the court. It appeared to be mid-day in this realm, so we had some waiting to do.

  We spent the day finding the best places to hide should that be needed, and basically waited until dark. The queen's court followed a fairly set schedule. The queen (when in residence, which I fervently hoped was not the case at the moment) would dine one hour prior to dusk. So, by the time hard dark had arrived, all of her humans were usually back at their housing compound and quarantined for the night.

  That nightly quarantine was what we were waiting for. Once the human servants had made their way back to the compound, the plan was for them to find us waiting.

  But on our way to the compound, we ran into our first wrinkle. At least I had the comfort of knowing that even Dunwood hadn’t sensed Viola’s presence before she stepped onto the path in front of us.

  Drawing my swords, I waited for her guards to join her. They didn’t.

  That was curious enough as it was. Even more curious was the fact that Viola didn’t draw blade or sword. She stood there unarmed, with all of our weapons trained on her.

  Finally, I nodded at her. “Viola.”

  “Steele,” she returned. Then she hesitated. If she wasn’t going to sound the alert—and I would have thought if that were her intention, she already would have—I couldn’t guess what she was doing there.

  “You’re walking into a trap.”

  I just looked at her. Her words could serve two very different purposes. One, they could be true and she was paying back the favor of my sparing her life. Two, there was no trap ahead, but there would be wherever she sent us.

  As she didn’t know about our fox companion’s unique ability, I thought it might be worth the risk of trusting her at her word.

  “Have they moved the human camp?” I asked.

  “Yes. Just after you left with the princess and her party. Titania said you were soft and wouldn’t be able to resist trying to save them. She’s had troops waiting in that compound ever since.”

  Sounded like something Titania would do for sure.

  “Can you take us to them?”

  Another hesitation. “I do not dare. But I can tell you that they are in the Seelie Court’s dungeons.” She gave half a smile. “The queen was at least nice enough to move out some of her more... unpleasant décor before moving them there.”

  That was a relief. The original design wouldn’t have been a very comfortable place for any non-Fae. For any Fae either, for that matter. Titania loved inflicting pain on her prisoners.

  I smiled at her. “Can we come back for you once we get them out?”

  A single tear leaked from her right eye as she shook her head. Once again, she opened her tunic to expose her left breast.

  “Titania has put me and my girls on a permanent leash. If at any time we annoy her enough, she has the means to end us in an instant.”

  Swallowing, I just looked down at the ground. There simply wasn’t anything to say.

  “But there is a cost I would charge you for my warning,”

  I had rather expected there would be. But then I had been hoping it was to take her with us. I waited.

  She chewed her lip a good minute before going on, “I have a child. A lot of the humans do. The queen has been... breeding us this past year.”

  I was starting to understand why she was so willing to help us. If Titania had been breeding the humans, it was with once goal in mind: tithe-bait. Hell paid so much more for innocent souls. The younger, the better.

  “Are they with the others?”

  “For now. The queen is having a nursery built to move them into. Luckily, you have come before the change. I’ve been dreading losing access to our children.” Her voice caught and she stopped.

  If we got them out, the others might be able to keep their babies, but either way it went, Viola would lose hers.

  “I’m so sorry, Viola.” I could feel my eyes grow moist.

  She shook her head again and took a deep breath. “I want your promise to raise Kylee as your own. I want her protected by someone I trust.”

  That was a lot to ask, but I understood her reasons. If our situations had been reversed, I would have been asking the same.

  I couldn’t help but glance at Dunwood, who had stood silently by my side through this whole conversation. My agreement would greatly affect our relationship. His face showed nothing. He was going to make me decide on my own.

  Not that there was really a choice, as I saw it.

  “You have my word,” I said. Was that a hint of a smile on Dunwood’s face? I forced myself to push that hope to the side. There were more important matters at hand.

  “But you should know that I will leave her with the humans until we’ve managed to close that rift. She’ll be safer with them for now.”

  “But should you win, you will honor my condition?”

  “I will.”

  “Then that is all I can ask of you. For if you and your pack lose this battle, there will be no safety for any human. Your realm or ours.”

  She wasn’t wrong.

  GETTING INTO TITANIA’S dungeons would have been impossible if Cin hadn’t been with us. Once I got her close, she popped in and out in a micro second and then popped us all in.

  The Seelie dungeon was not like the Unseelie one. Here there were no windows. One door, and one door only, led onto a staircase from the queen’s castle down deep into her cellars. There were actually three levels of dungeons. She had placed the humans on the very lowest of levels.

  Any hope of rescue would have ended then and there had it not been for the Kitsune. With her help, however, we were among the humans in a very crowded space in the blink of an eye.

  To say they were startled would be an understatement. But several of the older humans knew me and helped to calm the others.

  After that, it wasn't hard to convince them of the need to leave. Most of them had already lived through at least one tithe, and all the others had heard the stories. None of them wanted to wait around and see if they would be chosen for this one.

  Especially with Titania's urgent need of power at the moment. Chances are, she planned a mass tithe and then a mass recruitment (read that as kidnapping of a new human staff). They knew their chances of surviving until the morning of November first weren't good at all.

  A few humans had been kept back for the night's entertainment. With the queen not there (which was confirmed by her staff), that entertainment was likely to be bloody. The Fae were funny that way. If possible, we would come back for them, but we had known going in that we wouldn't be able to save them all. Luckily, the ones chosen for the night weren't relatives of the ones here, so we had minimal complaints about leaving them behind.

  We gathered them all together in the center of the dungeon. Fifty humans all together. And, yes, Kylee was among them. I made sure of that.

  It was actually more than I had thought there would be. Titania must have already begun her recruitment. There were a lot of faces I did not know, so the last month must have been a busy one. Plus, there were five babies in that number too. She was definitely breeding for the tithe.

  I walked over to Cin. "Can you handle us and all of them?" I whispered. Hopefully we could make it in one go. Otherwise, the ones left behind might do something stupid. Like freak out when half of the others disappeared and they were still left behind. None of them knew how we planned to get them out. They were probably expecting a midnight run kind of thing.

  She smiled and nodded. "Can do. All I need to know is when and where to deliver us."

  "You know how you said you needed to know someone before you could lock onto them?" I asked.
She had already made a point to wander through the small crowd and get a bead on everyone there.

  "Yes. Do you want me to pop them out and then come back? It would only take an instant." She was way ahead of me.

  "If we moved, could you find us? Even over here?"

  "Not a problem. But where do they go?"

  "Do you remember Taz's old cabin and workshop?"

  Cin nodded.

  "MacDougal will be waiting for them there. Make sure they know he is a friend before you leave." I stopped to count heads again. We weren't ready for this many. And we still had another stop to make before our job was done. We could find ourselves with double this number.

  My sister was literally going to kill me. Good thing she'd gotten me set up on eBay selling my bows, so at least I could help pay for their food. I had a lot of work waiting for me back home. But then, we hadn't faced the creatures of the UnSeelie Court yet. I still had a good chance of not having to face her.

  “Would it be possible for you to drop me and Dunwood off out where we met Viola first?” I knew with her speed, the humans would barely miss us before she would be back and they would all be on their way.

  She nodded, and in a heartbeat Dunwood and I were back on the trail. Alone. We didn't even speak, just started walking. We still had work to do.

  Cin was fast. She really wasn't kidding about that instant thing. She was back with us before we had much more than gotten out of the Seelie Court. Of course, that had required dealing with a couple of hapless guards, but I was fine with that.

  There was too much at stake if we left a Fae alive and they blew the whistle on us. Besides, Fae guards were the worst of the lot. And these two were worse than most. I had no qualms about taking their lifeforce. They had taken countless human lives in the years I had known them.

  I had expected Dunwood to complain about the finality of my way of dealing with them, but he didn't even blink an eye. In fact, I thought I saw a glimmer of approval.

  I was wiping my sword down when Cin popped back in next to us. Dunwood almost shot her. It might have been funny, but then I had my gun drawn too. No, we weren't wound tight at all.

  I'm not sure what bothered Dunwood the most about our next destination. He may have been most afraid of running into the Erlking once again, with very different results this time. But I knew for sure what bothered me the most. We were about to enter the court of the redcaps.

  And by the Creator did I ever hate the redcaps.

  Chapter 14

  There was another reason I dreaded the raid on the Unseelie court, besides the possible run-in with the Red Caps. I wouldn't be so complacent about leaving humans behind there. At least, not one particular human.

  I have said before (probably repeatedly) that you never let a Faerie know your emotions or they will use them against you. This was a lesson that I had learned the hard way. I was eight at the time of the first tithe that I can remember. A very young and innocent eight.

  Titania had already placed me in combat training, and I was good even then. Quick as quick can be, she used to say. The queen paid me special favors and compliments, and I let my guard down.

  There was a kitchen cook—human of course—named Teresa that I was extremely fond of. At the time, I was allowed to stay with the humans in their compound rather than the guard barracks. Teresa was as close to a mother as I guess I'll ever come.

  She had a young son, just over a year old. At night, before sleep, she would gather him and me up and tell us wondrous stories of the other place, the world of humans. I loved her, and I let it show. Too much.

  When the time came for the tithe, I had begged the queen to spare Teresa and little Juan. I can still remember her cold, hard smile as she told me that was too much to ask—even for me. I could have one of them, but only one.

  Teresa had heard the queen's words and implored me to have her son spared and let her go to the tithe. Not the choice I wanted to make at all, but I did her bidding, promising my stand-in mother that I would raise Juan as my very own. That I would look after him.

  Like I said, I was a very innocent eight years old.

  As it turned out, I wasn't allowed to keep my promise. Just after the tithe, Titania traded little Juan to the Unseelie court in exchange for another cook, saying her court had no need for small children running around under foot. Especially ones without mothers to keep them in their place. That was the moment I truly started hating her.

  If Juan still lived in that court of evil, he would be leaving today with me. Or I wouldn't be leaving at all. Today, I paid my debt to Teresa.

  I'm thinking it was more Dunwood's military training than his law enforcement training that helped us get so deep into the Unseelie court without being noticed. He was good. In fact, he was every bit as good as I was, and I'd been practicing stealth my entire life.

  Of course, there was another explanation for our early success... we were walking into a trap. It didn't feel like a trap, but the Fae are very good at hiding them. The whole manipulation thing that they've had centuries to perfect. Either way, we made it to the human compound within the dark court without any issues. By that time, I was getting a bit worried.

  My first goal was to find Juan. It was a good thing I had a few Fae that owed me favors, because he wouldn’t have been found with the rest of the humans. The Erlking most likely had been told of our connection, and he wasn’t taking any chances.

  So, we paid a visit to an elderly Kelpie. This one owed me multiple favors, as he was in the habit of eating the Fae that wandered too close to his lake. Some of those Fae had been from Titania’s court. None that I would have willingly risked my life for, but when the queen sent me on a search and rescue mission, it wasn’t like I had a choice.

  Three times the trail had led me to Sysil the Kelpie. And a nasty creature he was too, although he did try to throw a glamour. That didn’t work on Titania’s guards. At least no glamours from any non-royal Fae worked. She made sure of that.

  The important thing now was that three times I had let Sysil live. But each time, I had collected proof of his... indiscretion. Should that evidence find its way to the queen, his life would continue, but he would wish it would end.

  I left the others out of scent range of the lake and went to the shore with blades drawn. Just because he owed me favors didn’t mean he wouldn’t try to kill me, should he get the chance. In fact, it greatly increased the odds that he would.

  When he appeared before me, it took him a minute to recognize me. When he did, his already ugly face twisted into something a lot more gruesome. No meal for him here.

  “I thought I was rid of you for good,” he rasped. Living underwater much of the time obviously wasn’t good for one’s voice.

  “Not quite. But grant me but two favors and all three of your markers will be accounted for.”

  His shaggy brows drew together. “What be the catch?”

  I shrugged. “This is the last time I plan to be in Faerie. What need have I of the markers of a Kelpie?”

  He thought for a minute, then nodded his agreement. “Speak your wishes.”

  My eyes glared into his. “They are not wishes but demands. Unless you wish to spend eternity in the queen’s dungeons. She was really quite partial to that Brownie, you know.”

  He growled. “So be it. How do I break your bond on me once and for good?”

  My demands were simple. First, the location of Juan. Second, that he would keep silent about my visit. After tonight, I really didn’t care who he told, but he would. However, having the alert of my presence go out tonight would not be good. And a dead human holds no markers.

  By the time I returned to the others, I knew exactly where to find Juan. He was in a guard shack just inside the human compound. According to Sysil, he was a favorite of the Erlking. Much like I had been a favorite of the queen. I truly hoped that wouldn’t be a problem.

  My first goal was to get the bulk of the humans out. They should be found in the large barracks i
n the center of the fenced in area. The difficulty was trying to figure out how to get into the compound—the dark court's security was much stronger than the Seelie court's. And the consequences for taking it on much worse as well.

  Cin's idea of simply popping us in made sense to a point. But there was no way of knowing the situation we were popping into. So that was out. If they got alerted that we were here, the chances of having time to gather the humans and get them out were practically non-existent. And after tonight, you could count on the Fae to have safeguards up against Kitsune tactics. They learned fast.

  "Okay, you no want me to pop us in. But I'm fox. I climb tree and go over fence, find people and then pop you in. Sound good?" As she had to change into naked human form to speak, Dunwood was predictably looking in the opposite direction.

  Dunwood and I were trying to think of any possible holes in her plan when, in an odd twist of fate, Juan showed up.

  "You're Steele, aren’t you?" Juan asked through the fence. It was dark, and he was well hidden. By the time I recognized him, he had two firearms pointed at him. I was very grateful that Dunwood wasn’t the trigger-happy sort.

  The Erlking had done a good job of hiding him from me all those years. I hadn't seen him grow up. But it was a very close resemblance to his mother's face that peered at me through the links. I took a deep breath in relief. He was alive. I hadn't totally failed Teresa yet.

  "Yes," I answered, then nodded to my companions. "And this is Dunwood and Cin. We are here to take all of you home."

  Juan grinned and looked at Dunwood. "THE Dunwood? The one that held a gun to the Erlking's head?"

  Dunwood's look was grim, but he nodded. That seemed to make Juan very happy. "Follow me, there's a small hole in the fence that I use of a night to go exploring. It's taken me months to get it done."

  I could believe that. The material the Erlking used for fencing was almost unbreakable. I was just glad he hadn't charged it with his version of electricity.