“Don’t say ass!” A great, thunderous voice boomed across the clearing. It sounded like an angry goddess.
“Yes, Mama.” The little girl’s tail popped out from behind her and it flicked the ground sulkily.
Middy wanted to ask the child where her parents were, but that bellow pretty much answered the question. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to know
who
the girl’s parents were at this point, especially with that pointy little tail.
Or the horns that were peeking out of her curls.
“You two don’t have the sense that Morrigan gave a stone. I swear!” A voluptuous woman emerged from seemingly nowhere.
Middy had to admit, she was a little jealous. The woman had an ethereal presence that made her look like a goddess.
For all Middy knew, she might be.
Or a demon.
“Okay, people, do we see the angry horde?” Her lavender wings sparkled in the sunlight, making it hard to look directly at her. “What possessed you to land so close to Shale Creek?”
Middy pointed at Dred and he scowled.
“Of course! It’s always the man’s fault.” She smiled. “Let’s get you to the church on time!”
Grace began chanting and noticed that in the second she’d looked away, Sera Ann had wandered out of her circle of transport and was currently taunting the fairies inside the Loudun/Shale Creek fairy ring. Sera Ann was tossing them oatmeal raisin cookies that she’d smuggled in her pockets.
Raisins gave fairies the runs, but they loved cookies. So, she was just being cruel.
It would serve her right if they left their displeasure in her shoe. Not that she wished anything bad on her child, but it might teach her a lesson.
Grace huffed in mid-incantation through her teeth and it was a sound that Sera Ann recognized. It was what she always heard before her mama popped her on the rump, or made her clean out the hellhound cage. She scurried into the circle that Grace’s magick had wrought and they disappeared.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Things to Do in Loudun When You’re Dead
Dred was off his game. Probably because he’d died and gone to Hell. They were currently in the dark ruins of a seventeenth-century convent, but all he could think about was the fact that he’d only gotten his witch to come once.
Of course, they’d been interrupted by an angry mob of vil-lagers intent on beating them both to death with various vegetables and farming equipment, but that was neither here nor there.
“You’re so pretty,” Middy said to Grace as she reached out a hand to touch her wings.
Grace promptly retracted her wings, but took Middy’s hand in her own. “Sorry, only my husband gets to touch my wings. It’s one of those things.” She smiled again. “And you’re pretty, too.”
Dred was watching this display intently. They were holding hands. They were talking about how pretty the other one was. Yeah, baby. The seventeen-year-old warlock that was always present in the back of his mind was jumping up and down like a cheerleader on Red Bull.
Dude, they are
so going to make out. Don’t miss this action!
He was almost ashamed to admit that the grown-up part of his consciousness just shrugged and nodded his head, hoping to catch the action, too. Yes, there was a tiny, rational part of his brain that wanted to bitch-slap him for being so juvenile, but it was kind of intrigued as well.
“Not happening, Dred,” Middy warned.
“I didn’t say anything.”
“No, but I was in your head an hour ago and I know exactly what you’re thinking. Of course, I did grow up with the Trifecta of Doom. So, what’s dancing through that devious brain of yours is no surprise to anyone.”
“It would be hot.”
“I know she’s smokin’, but no fantasizing about my wife. At least, not without me,” a dark-haired man said as he stepped from the shadows.
“What are you doing? You were supposed to be watching Sera Ann!” Grace scolded.
“Oh, like I can keep her anywhere she doesn’t want to be.”
“Why not? You’re the Devil, for fuck’s sake.” Grace sighed.
“The Devil?” Middy and Dred exclaimed at the same time.
“First Merlin, now the Devil. It keeps getting better,” Dred growled.
“You saw Merlin?” Middy asked.
“That’s not something you want to hear about, girly.”
Caspian cut the unspoken question off at the knees and nodded sympathetically to Dred. “I thought that was just wrong. But he’s the Bigger Boss, so what can I do? And call me Caspian.”
“Thanks,” Dred said and genuinely appreciated the sentiment. “Sorry about ogling your wife.”
“It happens.” Caspian grinned and shrugged.
“Now that you two are done jerking each other off, can we get down to business? And I’m Grace, by the way.”
“Wait, so Merlin is like the Boss of Bosses?” Middy asked.
Dred cringed at the reference. Caspian did, too. What made it worse was that Caspian and perhaps all of them had been privy to his cock talk.
“Boss of Bosses. God. Whatever. Anyway, we can dicuss semantics later. We’re of the all things to all peoples sort of philosophy.” Grace looked around. “Where the hell is that child?”
Dred imagined that she was much like all children, and finding that the adults were not paying her any mind, she’d run off to find some fun of her own. Even though she was the daughter of the Devil, he hoped that she didn’t run into any trouble. She was kind of cute and a little bit like what he imagined his own spawn would be like.
“I can see the path of your thoughts. If you’d like to baby-sit, we’d like a date night next week.” Caspian grinned.
“What are you talking about?” Grace asked.
“Man talk. Mind your business, woman!” Caspian demanded playfully. Then he said in a softer voice, “She wears the tail in this family, but I’m good with that.”
“You certainly wear the horns,” Grace shot back and then blushed. “I’m still not seeing Sera Ann.”
“So, where are we?” Middy asked.
“This is the ruin of an Ursuline convent that was the scene of mass possessions in the 1600s. It’s not visible to anyone outside of the magickal realms. There was so much pain and suffering here, greed and just general evil, it slipped from the world of men.”
“Ugh, then why are we here?” Midnight frowned.
“This is where Merlin told me to go. He said we’d find a clue to the lamia and how to stop it here,” Dred said.
“A clue? Is this a treasure hunt? Why are you ruling types always so damned cryptic?” Middy huffed.
“There are certain rules; we’re not even supposed to be here now,” Grace said.
“Oh. Well, thanks?” Middy seemed to be at a loss for words.
“Yeah, well, seriously, guys. This lamia thing is on the apocalyptic scale of doom, just so you know. You have to stop it or everyone is screwed. Yeah, no pressure, right?” Grace rolled her eyes.
Sera Ann poked her head around the corner. Dred saw her horns before he saw her very large, violet eyes.
“Daddy?” she asked softly.
“No,” Grace answered for him. “Whatever you found, you can’t keep it.”
“What is it?” Caspian asked her.
She emerged with a baby gargoyle in her arms. It wasn’t old enough to have developed its humanoid features and was still almost birdlike, but its eyes were huge, blue, and obviously sentient. It blinked with long lashes and let out a pitiful wail and snuggled deeper into the child’s arms.
It wasn’t plump like a baby should be, but thin and un-dernourished. It also had stumps sticking out of its back where its wings should have been. They were caked with dried blood and oozing with infection.
The effect that the sound had on Middy was instanta-neous. Her eyes filled with tears and Dred felt as if something had stabbed him in the chest. He realized it was her pain at seeing the creature suffer. Damn that bond! He thought he was only supposed to share her feelings when they were fucking. That he could deal with. This was shit of another color. Perhaps it was during any extreme sensation?
He didn’t want to know that about her. It would make what they had to do all the more difficult, unless he really did marry her. His mother had given Middy the potion; it wasn’t really a question of “if ” anymore. It was when.
Dred knew she deserved better than what he had to offer her. That realization in itself was something new for him. He’d always thought any witch should be pleased to have him, down on her knees thanking Merlin for her good luck. Not Midnight Cherrywood. She deserved to be loved.
He kept saying that to himself, but why, he wasn’t sure.
Perhaps he should try to love her. It wasn’t as if she was unlovable; it was just that Dred didn’t want to be in love.
Love was a weakness he couldn’t afford. If he was really going to give Middy what she needed, he’d have to give up spying for Godrickle, and that just wasn’t something he could do.
Dred watched her as she held out her arms for the baby gargoyle. Sera Ann squinted at her for a moment as if judging her worth, but something about Middy earned her approval and she carefully handed the hatchling over to Middy’s waiting arms.
Midnight held the child close to her heart as the tears rolled down her cheeks in a caravan of sadness. She sank to the floor, rocking back and forth, and words Dred couldn’t understand poured from her mouth in a kind of litany.
He realized it had a cadence to it, but he knew it was no language he’d ever heard spoken.
She rocked faster and the hatchling’s tiny claws grasped her shoulders, drawing tiny spots of blood on her shirt.
Middy didn’t notice. Though he did feel the pain in his chest ebb as Middy’s rocking slowed. Those strange words became a hum and when she collapsed against the wall, her arms limp at her sides, the hatchling was still clinging to her.
Its bright blue eyes were bold jewels in a chubby face, humanoid features had replaced the reptilian, and its wings were fully formed and whole, fluttering like twin butterflies on its back.
Dred tried to go to her and it growled at him like a rabid dog. He ignored it and when it nipped at him, he growled back. He took Middy into his arms. “Midnight!”
Her head lolled against his shoulder and her eyes fluttered. “What happened?”
“I don’t know.” He looked at Grace and Caspian, but they shook their heads in unison.
“Mama,” Sera Ann began. “You were right to help them.
Look what she can do!”
“Middy is the key,” Caspian said decidedly. “Only magick wrought of purity and sacrifice could heal wounds like that. And only the same can stop a lamia.”
Merlin stuck his head through the remnants of a window.
“You’ve been here long enough. Time to go. Or Bad Things . . .”
“Coming, coming.” Caspian shook his head.
“Did she have some bad seafood?” Merlin said, nodding to Middy.
“No, she healed this baby gargoyle though.” Sera Ann plucked him from Middy like a recalcitrant puppy and held him up for Merlin’s inspection.
“Give me that. There’s still another clue. The portal is closing. Move your”—he paused to look at Sera Ann before he decided on his vocabulary—“bottoms.”
Dred was suddenly alone with Middy as the strange crew vanished. That had been weird, but he supposed weird was a relative term. He lived in a magickal world, so logically, nothing should surprise him.
“Midnight, are you okay?”
“My back hurts,” she said softly.
This was another one of those brutally honest moments he didn’t want. Dred had a feeling that he knew what he was going to find if he looked at her back, specifically, her shoulder blades. He was sure that there would be blood and infection. He had to get her out of here.
“It feels wet,” Middy said.
“Lean forward just a bit.”
She made a small sound of protest.
“A little more. It’s okay. It will be okay.” Not that he had any right to promise that, because he didn’t know. He couldn’t make okay happen either and that irritated the piss out of him.
“I think I’m bleeding. Wait, where’s the hatchling?”
“Middy, you don’t remember? You healed it.”
“Good,” she whispered as he pulled the back of her shirt up to reveal the open wounds on her shoulders.
“At what cost to yourself though? Did you know you could do that?”
“Dred, seeing it suffer like that, it just broke my heart.”
“I know. But you didn’t answer me. Did you know that you could do that?”
“No. I don’t know if I could do it again either. All I could think about was how it had suffered and my magick was suddenly hot in my veins like lava.” Midnight was quiet for a moment. “Is it bad?”
“There’s no infection, thank Merlin for that at least,” Dred said. He knew a pitiful healing spell that was good for skinned knees and bar fights, but nothing else.
He did what he could and enchanted her shirt to act as a bandage until he could get her to a Magick Medic.
“Do you think maybe I could have an aspirin spell, too?”
He pulled her to him gently and rested his chin on the top of her head as he spoke the words that would ease her pain. That at least was something he could do.
“Hey, if you keep holding me and petting me, I might start to think that you like me.”
“Never said I
didn’t
like you, Middy.”
“So, dipping my hair in potions and causing my yogurt to sour—that was all you liking me?” Middy asked as she settled against him.
“I was a snot-nosed kid who didn’t know what to do with his obsession with a certain witch’s silky hair,” he admitted.
“You’re full of unicorn piss.”
“Don’t forget vinegar.”
Middy laughed. “I love you.” She said it quietly and sin-cerely, unlike her initial unhappy eruption. “I know it’s probably the potion talking, but it feels so real.”
“What do you want me to say?” Dred asked, his voice equally soft. He didn’t know what she wanted from him.
“You shouldn’t tell someone that you love them with any expectation they’ll say anything. Love is a gift and whether you want it or not, mine belongs to you.”
“Thank you.” He wanted to give her something in return, he wanted to say it back, but he just couldn’t have those feelings. Not for her, not for anyone. He wouldn’t lie to her.