by Jayne Hawke
He made a grumpy harrumph and, swinging his hand at me in a ‘so be that way’ gesture, shrank out of sight. I saw the big wolfhound that was Ethan grinning and panting over a pile of dobhar chu, his death magic back in hiding.
“I was hoping to make a pet of one of those, you know,” I said to him crossly, walking over to scratch behind his ears. “I guess I do already have a dog, though...”
NINETEEN
“Are all elves like that?” I asked the pack.
We were back at the pack house recovering from our injuries. I was eternally grateful for the wonderful hot showers at the pack house.
“No. That one seems like he has a few screws loose,” Dean said drily.
“Elves are normally very uptight snobby dicks. They know they’re excellent warriors and believe they stand above the rest of us because they watch over the balance or something. I’ve never known one to smile, let alone play. Like Dean said, I think someone dropped that one on his head as a baby,” Cade said.
“So, what am I supposed to do about him?” I asked as I settled into my seat at the kitchen table.
Ethan placed a mug the size of a breakfast bowl in front of me. It was almost overflowing with marshmallows. The scent of decadent hot chocolate with a splash of spice reached me and brought a smile to my face.
“You’re too good to me,” I told Ethan.
He grinned at me and put his own hot chocolate down as he sat next to me.
“We are going to figure out who he’s bound to and go from there. You’re part of the pack now,” Ethan said.
“I-” I started.
“We know you can handle yourself, but being part of the pack means we all look out for each other. Is it really so offensive that we care enough to want to help keep you safe and happy?” Ethan said.
He had me there.
“I doubt he spent more than his first century in the Wilds if he’s bound,” Dean said.
“Who do we know that binds elves?” Ethan asked.
“Is slavery normal for the lords and all?” I asked.
Ethan’s lip curled.
“Not entirely. It’s complicated. Deals are cut. Fionn, a lord down in London bound an entire bloodline of witches a couple of centuries back. It’s usually done in the form of a trade. The lord or lady gives some poor desperate being what they want in return for the binding,” Ethan said.
“So Sin has to go and kill whoever his lord tells him to?” I asked.
“Basically,” Ethan said.
That sounded like a miserable life.
“You said he wouldn’t have spent more than a century in the Wilds, why?” I asked Dean.
“Because he was very likely traded to the lord as a child,” Dean said.
“Elves are proud and powerful, and trying to train a fully grown one is incredibly difficult. Even if they are bound and locked into a contract, they frequently keep looking for loopholes. Whereas if they’re born into it, then the lord can manipulate and control them,” Ethan said.
I was increasingly horrified at the lords and ladies of the fae. It was so cutthroat and cruel. These were people they were talking about. Sin seemed a little quirky, but he was still a person.
“What would I have to do to break his bond with his lord?” I asked.
“You really don’t want an elf bound to you,” Ethan said.
“Why not?” I asked.
“Because you’re a good person and you’d hate it. You’d be responsible for everyone he chose to kill,” Ethan said.
“Surely if I didn’t tell him to kill people...” I said.
Ethan shrugged.
“It could be that assassination and murder is all he knows. You saw him, he thought that setting a small pack of dobhar chu on us was fun,” Ethan said.
I took a sip of the rich hot chocolate and thought about it. Ethan wasn’t wrong, this Sin clearly had a very twisted sense of humour. Still, there was a small chance that I’d be able to help him. Would it be so wrong to explore that? Maybe if I freed him from his lord he could go back to the Wilds and enjoy a normal life doing whatever elves did.
“He won’t be able to return to the Wilds,” Dean said.
“He’ll be considered to be tainted,” Cade said.
“Is there no chance for him to live a nice happy, normal life?” I asked.
“No reason he couldn’t stay an assassin. Sometimes people just need to be killed,” Kerry said as she strolled into the kitchen.
I wrinkled my nose. It sounded so cold when she put it that way. Logically, I knew that I killed people sometimes, in self-defence or to protect those that couldn’t protect themselves. It just felt different somehow.
“I always wanted a pet anyway,” Kerry said with a sharp-edged grin.
“You are not having a pet elf. You wouldn’t walk it or look after it,” Ethan said drily.
Kerry pouted.
“I might.”
“It would make a mess everywhere and it’d be up to me to clean up after it,” Ethan said.
I had to laugh. Everyone quickly joined in the laughter with me.
“At least life is never boring,” Cade said as he set a platter of sandwiches down on the table.
“You guys must keep an entire supermarket in business,” I said looking at the food before me.
“We’re not that bad,” Cade said as he put the platter of cheeses and cold meats down.
I looked between him and the mountain of food.
He grinned at me.
“Just be glad he didn’t try and bring one of those dobhar chu home to cook,” Dean said as he piled his plate high with sandwiches.
I grabbed a couple of chicken sandwiches as my stomach growled.
“Surely they’re not edible?” I said horrified.
They looked so greasy and unappetising.
“Anything’s edible if you try hard enough,” Dean said.
I put my sandwich down.
“Hard pass,” I said.
“Are you going to eat that?” Kerry pointed at my sandwich.
I took a big bite out of it, not willing to lose it.
“Yep,” I said with a grin.
“Dobhar chu is a normal food in some places. They roast it like goose,” Ethan said.
“Where are these places? I think I need to avoid them,” I said.
Everyone laughed. It felt good to unwind with my pack after the weirdest morning in a long time.
TWENTY
“I thought we could have our own private movie night,” Ethan said as he led me to his office.
There was a door I hadn’t noticed the last time I was in there. It blended in with the rest of the wall.
“This is my little sanctuary,” he said.
I let him lead me into a dimly lit room with a large squishy sofa and a huge TV. The left wall was covered in bookshelves, which were jampacked with books. We padded across the deep carpet and curled up together in the middle of the sofa. Everything about the room was made for comfort.
“Anything in particular you’d like to watch?” Ethan asked as he put his arm around my shoulders.
“Are there any good superhero movies?”
“I have the new Black Dragon movie that I haven’t seen yet.”
“Perfect,” I said as I leaned my head on his shoulder.
He pressed a button that turned the lights off completely. The opening credits rolled across the screen of the TV. It felt like a private cinema experience.
The movie was the best yet in the franchise. I hadn’t really known much about Black Dragon before that movie, but I loved every second.
“That was so good!” I said.
“Agreed, I can’t wait for Shadow Witch,” Ethan said.
We leaned into each other. It was natural. He stroked along my jawline and dug his fingers into my hair, pulling me close. The rest of the room faded away as I lost myself in him. His teeth grazed my bottom lip, encouraging me to open my mouth while I slowly ran my hands over his strong muscular shoulders a
nd down over his chest. Ethan’s hands cautiously moved down over my ribs, and I realised I wanted this. It had been so long since I’d been with a man, and I needed him.
He broke the kiss and began slowly kissing down my neck, delicate kisses that left goosebumps in their wake. Heat pooled in my abdomen as I tried to restrain myself from ripping his shirt off. I wanted to feel his skin beneath my fingertips and his muscles wrapped around me. Ethan pulled me into his lap and took control, pulling my shirt up over my head. His breath caught when I ran my fingertips over the top of his pale jeans. My heart was hammering against my ribs as I resisted the urge to rush this.
Ethan’s phone rang, killing the moment. He groaned and reached over to look at who was ringing. I nibbled on his ear lobe, drawing another delicious groan from him.
“I’m sorry, Kit, I have to take this,” he said huskily.
That was what I got for dating a businessman. I climbed out of his lap and gave him a little room to take his call. The shadows pooled in the hollows of his ripped muscles as he stood and paced in front of the couch. I admired his tight ass and chewed on my bottom lip as I pictured digging my fingers into it.
Ethan leaned in and kissed me hard.
“I wish I could stay, but they need me. There’s no one else that can handle a job of this level,” he said softly.
I kissed him tenderly.
“Go and be my hero,” I whispered.
“We’ll continue this soon,” he said.
Whatever it was that Ethan had to handle must have been big. The pack all went with him as back up. I was a little pissed to have been left in the dark, especially as it had felt like I was really integrating into the pack situation. There must have been a good reason, something that required cu sith instead of someone like me.
I couldn’t relax when I got home. I was torn between frustration at them for not even telling me what they were up against and concern over their safety. The whole pack thing was new to me. I wasn’t used to worrying about anyone but Matt. I didn’t know how to handle the concern and the feelings that welled up with it. Finally, I settled into scrubbing the kitchen. Sin had made good pancakes, but he’d made a huge mess while doing so.
What had my life come to when I was cleaning up after a fae assassin that had broken in to make me pancakes? I laughed at the ridiculousness of it. If only Mom and Dad could see me now. I wasn’t sure if they’d be proud or despairing of me.
My mind flitted to the address I’d found written in Mom’s handwriting. She could have an entire life hidden away that I’d never known about. Had Dad known? Just how many secrets were hiding within my family? Sighing, I pushed the thoughts aside. No good came from chasing those lines of thought. I needed to focus on the present and hold onto the happy memories that I had of them both.
As I wandered around the house, I couldn’t help but keep noticing entryways that Sin could use. There was a high chance that he wouldn’t be there to make me pancakes next time. Ethan had been so eager for me to move into the pack house, and part of me thought it would be a good idea. For Matt’s sake, if nothing else. I stopped and looked at the door to my parent’s room. I wasn’t sure if I was ready to let those memories go. That house was my childhood home. It felt like I was giving up on Dad if I left it.
TWENTY-ONE
I was looking back through the books on blood magic when my work phone rang. Ethan had given it to me when I’d officially joined his business as a merc. Frowning, I picked it up and saw a number I didn’t recognise.
“Hello?” I answered.
“Kit MacGowan?”
“Yes.”
“You’re required. We have word that a ‘Nadia Ruelle’ is under attack, and you’re the only person in the area. I’ll text you the address.”
“What exactly am I fighting?”
“We suspect it is the bloodletting murderer.”
I cursed under my breath.
“The address will be with you in ten seconds. I suggest you get there quickly.”
“I don’t have a car!”
“It’s within running distance.”
And with that they hung up.
I cursed prolifically as I ran to get my boots on and gather up as many weapons as I could muster along with a health potion and a few protein bars. My phone buzzed, showing an address only three blocks away from here. A chill ran through me at the idea of the murderer being so close to my home, the place where Matt slept.
Locking the door behind me, I jogged out through our front gate and tried to pace myself as I headed across the street towards the rougher part of the city. Thankfully, I wasn’t returning to the same area Ethan and I had gotten into the fight in, but it was still a less pleasant area. Focusing on keeping my breathing and steps in an even rhythm so I didn’t tire myself out, I allowed my mind to wander a little.
The houses around me weren’t that dissimilar to my own, old brick houses with overgrown patches of garden in front of them. Rooves sagged with the weight of years of neglect. As I headed deeper into the rougher area, I started to notice old dried blood on the broken bricks that sat where small tidy walls had once marked the boundary of a garden. The cars were fewer and further between, and those that were present had seen better days. I jogged past an old silver car with heavy rust patches just above the wheels. The next car was missing the wheels and half of its windows. The interior was thick with damp mould.
Turning to the right, I checked for any sign of an ambush. The bushes were becoming thicker and wilder now. Heavy thorns ran down along the twisted branches that held small black berries. I could feel the magic hiding within the berries, tiny little webs that were slowly unfurling as the berry grew. To my surprise, a taste formed on my tongue when I pressed my own magic against a berry - a bitterness like an unripe blackcurrant followed by a cold metallic tang. Wrinkling my nose, I pulled my magic back into myself.
A heap of small skeletons sat outside of a broken wooden door that had once been the entrance to a family home. The bones were bleached white from age and entirely stripped of any meat or magic. They looked to have been rabbits and other small game once upon a time. Now they would be tools for the local witches.
Magic swelled around me as I took the last turn and found what should have been an oasis in the city - a perfect square of green sitting in the middle of the neighbourhood. When the fae had first formed it, I was sure it would have looked like the other beautiful little parks in the city, brilliant green trees that provided shade during the warm summers over a blanket of soft thick grass. Where the flower beds had once been was now a mess of black-leaved shrubs which had smoky magic lazily hanging in the air around them.
Something told me not to get too close to those flower beds. The magic felt wrong, corrupting. A glance across the small square showed that the rest of the area had been taken over by similar shrubs and trees. It was a place of poison and darkness now.
I could feel the witches watching me as I slowed and looked around for the fae I was supposed to be rescuing. The curtains twitched, and I felt sharp crystalline threads of magic poking against the edges of myself. Natural defences burst forth, forming what felt like a hard crystalline armour that stopped the witches from digging any deeper. The armour was a mix of my witch and god magic. Shit. I hoped that hadn’t just given away who and what I was. I pulled them back as much as I could, holding my magic in from deep within me rather than blocking access to it. I hoped that would mean a slow drain of blood magic into the neighbourhood watch of this little corner of Mayberry and no further indication of what I was. I didn’t like the idea of letting myself be sipped at by anyone and everyone in sight, but it was better than drawing even more attention to myself.
A cry came from behind the broad trunk of a purple tree. I shot over there and hoped that I wasn’t too late.
TWENTY-TWO
I found what I imagined to be my client – or whatever she was, I’d never really asked our role in these people’s lives – hung by her feet and dripping
blood from her neck. Charming.
A witch stood over her, a webwork of simple, almost schematic tethers sucking the blood itself up as fast as I could drain out. Well, at least she wasn’t a vampire. She smiled at me, a mother’s beatific indulgence to a child found somewhere it should be. I responded by breaking her link to the blood and replacing it with my own, the crystalline barbs of my spellbreaking latching onto the woman’s death throes almost before I could notice.
She was dying, and that was a fact. I wasn’t, and that was a fact, too. Better my life draw from her death than the other way around. As I broke the assailant’s tie, I realized that I could break those of all the witches drawing from me just as easily. I almost did, gathering them in a pincer of hard, sharp threads, intent on saving the energy they had been drawing off, before I glimmer of simple truth hit me.
I needed magic, and they had it. They had initiated a link to transfer it. It was hardly unfair to tug a little on those threads. I envisioned a barb on the far end of each line, slipped it into each and every witch who had tried to sip from the deep, broad pool my parents’ blood had given me, and began to pull.
Some lines were slippery, oily like cheap salad dressing. Others were rich and heavy like melted ice cream. One in particular had the fibrous slurry I had to imagine was a dozen witches’ magic dribbled into one, a woman who was nothing on her own and simply dragged down those around her. I tasted every flavour imaginable, a melange of tangy and bitter, sweet and salty, blood and bile and bone. A dozen women were giving me their power. They’d be left weak, helpless, and I loved it. Payback was a bitch, and they’d all tried to leave me to die at the hands of an even worse monster standing in this hideous excuse for a park.
Said opponent, meanwhile, was standing in stunned silence, watching what I was doing. It was pure blood magic, nothing suspicious. Nothing anyone could tell the hounds. It was just that I was a black hole and she was a mosquito with a drinking straw. She was afraid.
