Thankfully, this conversation took so much effort and explanation, that it didn't give us time to address the elephant in the room, that, of course, being me, and why I had kept the knowledge of who Lucius really was to me from him. Because this was the first time I had spoken to Trice since that day. The one shortly after I had been imprisoned in the dungeon. Since then it had been one thing after another that had kept me from being able to speak to him and explain. Which I had to question why neither of us was taking the opportunity to do so now. Especially when we were alone and quite possibly would not get another moment like this to present itself.
But then I had to confess to be following Trice’s lead, as he too didn't seem to want to talk about it and knowing him, he would have simply asked if he had. In fact, the only time that we touched on this subject was when he explained to me what he was doing here. That after what happened in the field of souls, as he had called it, the King had charged him and his brothers with the task of finding anyone that had the ability to remove a hex. A person that apparently he was supposed to find here, as it was said this was his usual place to meet a particular female demon with whom he was having an affair with.
My last question I asked him before getting out of the bath was how this person was supposed to help in removing this hex, to which Trice’s cryptic reply was a simple,
“Ye wull see.”
A short time after this I found myself clean, fed, and well rested after Trice had suggested I get some sleep before the demon arrived. I thought this was a great idea on account of me being exhausted, but before my nap I had asked him where his brothers were if they had all been tasked with the same job of finding this hex removal guy.
It turned out that only a few hours before I turned up, word had reached the brothers that Lucius needed them back to help him find me. Of course, hearing this and I inwardly winced at this painful image of what Lucius had been through in the time that I had been taken. I had to wonder if he would have found us by now, and more importantly if he had found Nero?
Telling Trice about Nero had been one of the first things I had said, even before I found myself being unceremoniously showered in a bucket. Naturally, I then tried to get him to go and save her. Trice was clearly frustrated and worried for Nero’s life, as I was, and I could see it pained him to have to tell me that he couldn't do this. Before I could argue he held up a hand and explained to me why.
He told me that where I had come from, he did not have access to. I asked about the boat, thinking that he could simply take it back to where it had brought me from. But the moment he started to shake his head I knew that this was obviously not possible. He explained that this type of boat could only be called from the other side unless you had the right coin to bargain with, which he did not.
I couldn't help but wipe the frustrated tears from under my eyes, turning away from him so he wouldn’t feel guilty for being the one to tell me this. This meant that my last hope lay solely with Lucius not only finding her but getting to her in time.
After all this on my mind I had been surprised that I had been able to sleep at all. But then again, exhaustion won over worry. I woke up to the feeling of having my hair pushed back from my face and I opened my eyes to find Trice looking down at me.
“Time tae be getin’ up now, lass,” he told me softly, before his gaze dropped ever so slightly to my naked shoulders. I had got out of the bath and slipped under the covers on the bed, having no choice but to do so naked, as I didn’t have any other clothes to put on. Seeing this and making me feel self-conscious, my natural instinct kicked in and I folded my arms over the covers making him smirk. Then I told him,
“That's going to be a little hard considering I'm naked.”
“Och, ah will ney be sure about th' wee part, but as fur clothes 'ere I got ye some.” After this Trice got up after leaving a bundle on the bed so I could get dressed, but then my mind went over what he had just said, only making sense of it by the time he reached the door,
“Oi!” I shouted knowing he'd referred to his manhood as not being little but hard. Hence why his chuckle could be heard even after he closed the door. I got up and unravelled the medieval style dress that reached down to the floor and cut across my collar bone. It also had long sleeves that hung down well past the wrists and was a plain rust coloured red. But it was clean and warm and soft to my skin, meaning that I couldn't have been more thankful.
This was something I was soon on my way to tell him as I slipped out of the room, knowing I would meet him in the pub below. I had also plaited my hair and used a small strip of my already ruined outfit to tie off the end. Little flat shoes were of the type you strapped to your ankle and around your foot, meaning you could make them fit your size. I also looked as if I’d just stepped out of some movie about medieval England.
Once downstairs, I cautiously made my way to the bar area soon finding myself in the arms of Trice who suddenly had my back against the wall. He was also caging in my entire frame in what looked like an intimate embrace. He had a hand positioned next to my head and was leaning down into me making me believe he was about to kiss me. I placed my hand on his chest ready to stop him when he whispered,
“Thee Hexion demon is over mah shoulder currently feeling up th' drooling redhead wi' tusks.” As soon as he said this, I couldn’t help but sneak a glance to the side so I could see for myself. And he was right, there was a woman with an orange tone to her skin, had long red hair flowing past a very large backside. She was on the larger side and it was clearly working for her, as the demon with his hands all over her clearly couldn't get enough. I also had to say that for a demon his vessel was incredibly handsome! What with all those bulging muscles that look chiselled from stone combined with his devilishly handsome face, Gods, but he was a thing of beauty. He almost reminded me of Gaston from Beauty and the Beast. In fact, he almost didn't look real.
“Wow, I have to say that is not who I was expecting. I mean just look at the guy with all those…” It was at this point that Trice cut me off, and he did this by taking hold of my cheeks and steering my head in the right direction. I then saw hidden under the stairs was a small creature with green skin. In fact, I could barely believe what I was seeing as he looked remarkably like you would imagine a goblin to look like. He was also making the same exact movements that the handsome and musclebound demon was making when feeling up the woman.
That’s when it dawned on me,
“Oh, you have got to be kidding me,” I said once Trice had let go of my cheeks. He grinned down at me and said,
“Nae everyone kin be as handsome as me, lass.” I rolled my eyes making him chuckle and went back to looking at the goblin who, despite this despicable act of deceit, seemed to have the incredible ability to create any illusion of himself that he was able to project like a real being.
“We have tae be careful we dinnae spook him, as they're nae normally easy tae catch,” Trice informed me, as I watched when a waitress went past him catching his attention and making him for the moment lose concentration. This made his projection drop its hold and become like a vacant ghost, making the woman slap his arm in outrage because he had stopped showering her with his attention.
This gave me an idea, seeing as the little green guy obviously had a weakness. So, I winked up at Trice and told him,
“Maybe I can help with that but first, you have to buy me a drink, handsome.” He gave me a questioning look in return that made me chuckle.
After this I told him my plan and let him buy two pints of something called soul water mead. Then I muttered six words I never thought I would ever hear coming from my mouth as I played a waitress, walking up to him…
“Time to bag me a goblin.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter 29
Murderous Mistakes
“Well hey, aren’t you a cute thang,” I said wondering why the hell I had decided to put on a southern belle accent!? For starters, I didn’t need to disguise my voice and why I
picked the voice I did, I had no idea. Either way my plan worked as the goblin saw me and started to look very excited that I had shown interest in him.
He wagged his over pronounced eyebrows at me, ones that were so hairy they looked like he had to comb them. His nose was big, his chin was over pronounced like his eyebrows, and his ears were the size of side plates. They were also full of hair that looked as though he had twisted it around in his fingers from habit.
His beady yellow eyes scanned the length of my body and it made him look like a little menace or sex pest. He was also wearing a little dark green suit with a blue shirt, green bowtie, and to complete the look, he wore a wrinkled top hat that looked as though it had accidentally been sat on by bigger demons quite a few times.
The sound of a slap coming from behind me and the cry of a woman's outrage made me turn to see the redhead was trying to knock some sense into her now vacant partner, who suddenly looked about as interested in her as someone does when staring at a painted wall waiting for it to dry. Needless to say, she didn't take too kindly to this, which was when the ghost of her partner simply turned around and walked out of the door.
I turned quickly to see what the goblin was doing, to catch his fingers making a walking motion through the air, telling me this was how this puppeteer had made him disappear. The female demon stomped her foot in outrage and the weight of such made a few tankard's spill to the floor on the table next to her. However, by the time she made her way across the pub to the bar she already had three of the demons show their interest, so I didn’t feel too badly for her.
“So, you think I'm cute, do you?” the goblin said, turning my attention back to him and I was surprised to find he had a sort of cockney accent.
“That depends, handsome,” I said in a strange way because halfway through I forgot the accent I had started this off with. He raised bushy eyebrow which in turn raised the rim of his hat that had been resting on them.
“On what exactly, how much coin I have?” he said, insinuating that I was a prostitute and to be honest I couldn't be surprised considering I'd stopped and chosen to speak to him over all the others. I mean yes, granted I was in a pub filled with demons but there was definitely better choice than this little green pervert.
Suddenly Trice, who had been slowly sneaking up behind him, placed a meaty hand on his shoulder and squeezed, answering his question for me,
“No, oan how much ye enjoy pain.” This ended with a squeal from the little goblin man when Trice picked him up by the hold on his shoulder, plucking him off the floor. The next thing he knew he was being tossed into the room Trice had paid for. He quickly picked himself up off the floor, straightened his suit jacket, pulled down on his cuffs and then straightened his little hat.
“Hey, if you wanted a threesome all you needed to do was say,” he said waggling those eyebrows at me, making me look to Trice and say,
“This one is all yours.”
“Aye,” was his stern reply, folding his large arms across his chest and looking menacing. I also knew that he was putting on a show for the goblin.
“Okay, no threesome, but just so you know I'm not into dudes,” he said, looking Trice up and down and then finishing,
“But I can…should we say…pretend.” Then he winked at him.
“Euwww,” I said scrunching up my face, knowing that he meant he was going to bring back his projection hunk man if this was what Trice wanted. That would have been like getting it on with a sex doll and having some creepy little guy in the room controlling it.
“Don't knock it till you try it, chickie,” he replied with a toothy grin.
“You kin remove a hex,” Trice said getting straight to the point and at this, the goblin looked to have paled. Of course it was hard to look sick when you were already green but he managed to pull it off.
“I don't know what you're talking about, nope you most definitely got the wrong He uhhh, demon with no name there.”
“Wow, that was original,” I commented dryly making him give me a dirty look.
“Yer a Hexion demon, ah ken fur ah hae bin tracking ye fur days,” Trice said, making the little guy shake his head before looking at me and asking,
“What did he sa…?” I opened my mouth to answer only to close it again before looking up to Trice and asking,
“What did you say?” At this Trice growled which I didn't take as a good sign for our little green friend here. I knew this when he stomped towards him making the goblin back up quickly, bumping into the few bits of furniture that were dotted around the plain room.
“Okay, okay, so yes I'm that guy.” It was only on hearing this that Trice stop stalking towards him.
“Good, then you're exactly the guy that we need,” I said, making him ask,
“It will cost you, I don't do this shit for free you know!” He once again tugged down on his little jacket.
“But we don't have any…” Trice cut me off and said,
“We hae enough coin.” Making me whisper,
“We do?” His answer to this was to untie a small leather bag that hung from inside his jacket and throw it on the floor by the little demon’s feet. This made gold coins spill from it and scatter along the wooden slats. The goblin (who I really needed to start calling by his real name) frantically picked them up before any could get lost down the cracks. Once he was assured he’d got it all he threw his little bag up and caught it before lifting up his hat and placing it on the top of his head. This awarded us the sight of his bald head, except for the hair that brushed the top of his ears.
“Alright, so let’s do this and no names are given, that’s my rule, take it or…okay, okay…so come on then who's the unlucky bugger that's got himself a hex?” the demon said, after changing his tune when Trice was once again threatening. I released a sigh, knowing it was best to get this over with, making me say,
“That would be me.”
***
A short time later, I found myself on the bed once more with the back of my dress unlaced. I didn't think it was a good sign when the little demon sucked air through his teeth when seeing it. Or the fact that Trice had taken hold of my wrists and held me down.
“No touching anythin' bit whit ye hae tae...got it?!” Trice threatened, making the little demon hold up his hands and say,
“Hey, I'm working here,” as if this was a great insult. I turned my head to the side and watched as the little goblin started to remove his clothes, making me shoot Trice a worried look.
“Tell me we didn't pay him for anything extra?” I said making Trice smirk down at me before asking me to trust him.
“I do trust you, it's the hex removal guy over there I don't trust.”
“Hex removal guy, I like it…you know I might get cards made.”
“Really?” I asked falling for it.
“No sugar tits, what’s this look like to you…”
“Wow, you’re cranky…hey, did you just call me sugar tits?” Trice’s growl made him glance his beady yellow eyes at Trice and say to me,
“I wanna say yes but the big guy here looks as though I will lose an appendage if I say that.”
“Then don’t say it and just get back to work,” I advised him just as he was removing his shirt, and the sight I saw was one that now had me sucking air between my teeth. He was completely covered in hexes.
“Holy shit.”
“You like?” he asked motioning down his half naked body as he was wearing nothing but little briefs, showing me that even his skinny legs were covered.
“It's cheaper than tattoos, and these ones I get paid for,” he said proudly and then looked at mine and admitted,
“But this one here will be a doozy. In fact, I might make room for this one on my chest and make it my biggest one yet,” he said as if getting excited about the idea. Well, he could have it on his bloody ass for all I cared as long it was off me!
“I hope you've got good hold of her as I have a feeling she's going to be a fighter.”
“Erm…what now?” At this Trice’s response was a strained,
“Aye,” before he nodded for the goblin to do his work, giving me a piece of advice and a warning all in one,
“Be brave, lass.”
After this the goblin started to touch me and that was when I knew all experiences in Hell before this one had been a piece of cake.
For this was…
true torture.
***
“Tis a'richt noo, lassie, ah hae you...i hae ye.” The sound of Trice’s voice was what woke me from my unconscious state, for I had soon passed out due to the overwhelming amount of pain that I could no longer take. I came to with my back frozen, feeling as if it had been covered under a veil of ice and I was wrapped up in Trice’s arms. He was cradling my head to his chest, and I could feel his shirt was wet from all the tears I had cried.
Thankfully, I no longer felt the pain and I think this was down to what Trice had done, for as soon as the hex had been removed he had started breathing on my back. The goblin was still in the room and currently stood swinging his little bony green hips in front of a cracked mirror, admiring his new addition.
Like he said, it was in the middle of his chest and the biggest one of all, and what had looked painful for me looked barely even a cat scratch for him.
However, it was in this moment that the other two McBain brothers suddenly burst through the door, and they were awarded with the sight of me in the arms of their brother with my dress still untied and a half naked goblin dancing in front of the mirror. Their looks said it all, for surely even in Hell this would have been a strange sight to find.
“Brothers?!” Trice said in surprise to see them, but like I said it was nowhere near as surprised as they looked.
“Whit in a' th' Gods names hae ye bin daein'!?” Gryph asked, making me look up at Trice and say,
Roots Of Rage: A Vampire King Paranormal Romance (Transfusion Saga Book 9) Page 23
