Trish raced over to my side and helped me up. "I'm sorry. Are you all right?"
I gingerly shook myself out. No broken bones, no bloodied knees or nose. I felt a little woozy from all the magical sparkles I'd been decorated with, but other than that… nada.
"I think so. Can you try to coax my sister out of the tree? I'm going to look for Mistletoe."
While Tish made chucking noises at Kitten, I began hunting through the overgrown foliage. Pixies could be hard to spot when they chose, and I had the feeling that Mistletoe was trying to keep well out of sight. The gang of pixies who had already marked their territory here were probably waiting for him to come out in the open so they could attack him and drive him off. Maybe calling him by name would work.
"Mistletoe! I've got a message from Feddrah-Dahns for you." I whistled, hoping to catch his attention. Sure enough, on the third try, there was a rustle from beneath a huckleberry bush, and out flitted a pixie. He was no bigger than a Barbie doll, but pale, almost translucent, flickering with specks of neon light. He flew up to look in my face. I slowly held out my hand, and he lighted on it, warily playing with the bag strapped to his side.
"What do you want?" he asked in Melosealfôr.
"I've come searching for you. Feddrah-Dahns is staying at my house, and he was worried about you. And the horn." I whispered the last. Elves were skilled in speaking Melosealfôr, and no way was I letting Tish find out what Mistletoe was carrying. Or what I hoped he was still carrying.
He settled down in my palm, his wings tickling me as he crossed his legs, his face suddenly serious. "I have what you seek, Lady. My Lord entrusted it to me, and I managed to retrieve it. But before I could get to him, the goblin came at me. I flew as fast as I could to hide my tracks and got lost. I fear they might be able to tap into my Whispering Spell and have been loathe to use it again."
I couldn't see anyplace on the pixie where he might be hiding a unicorn horn, at least not one larger than a toothpick. I was about to say as much when Tish wandered over, Delilah in her arms.
"I caught your sister." She blinked as she noticed Mistletoe.
He gave a little hiss when he saw her, but otherwise kept still. "I see you found him. Can you do something about the others? They're getting on my nerves, and pretty soon we're just going to have to move—which of course, they'd love."
"What am I, an exterminator?" I mumbled under my breath, but decided since Tish and her husband had done us a good turn, we owed them one. "Hold on." Turning back to Mistletoe, I leaned in. "Listen, I have to help this elf. Will you sit with my sister if I can get her to change back?"
He blinked, warily staring at Delilah's all-too-interested gaze. She looked like she was eying a giant chew toy. "Don't like cats. Cats eat pixies."
"Cats eat pixies, all right," I said, squinting at my sister. She was squirming as she watched Mistletoe move around in my palm. I leaned over and deposited him on a thick rhododendron branch. "Wait here."
Delilah clambered into my arms as I reached for her, her claws digging into my shoulder through the capelet. I petted her, calming her down, listening as her motor raced along with little huffs and sniffs. After a moment, I could feel the energy shift and quickly deposited her on the ground. More slowly than her first shift of the day, but still almost quicker than the eye could catch and in a cloud of mist and vapor, she returned to her normal form, her bright blue collar becoming her clothes. As she crouched on the ground, I reached down and took her hand, hauling her to her feet.
"Welcome back. Great gods, that looks like it hurts."
"Nope." She coughed, then spat out something that suspiciously looked like a greasy hairball. I grimaced. Couth, she was not. Being part cat meant fending off feline problems, including hairballs, fleas, and using a litter box.
"You okay?" I asked as she hacked out the last of it.
"Yeah. I sure didn't expect that. What's going on?" She looked around, saw Mistletoe, and clapped her hands. "Is that him? Did you find him?"
I nodded. "I want you to take him out front, keep him company while I dispatch the pixie problem back here. I promised Tish I'd at least give it a try."
"Hey, I'm not a problem," Mistletoe said in English as Delilah scooped him up and followed Tish to the gate, with the pixie protesting his innocence all the way. As she opened the gate, Tish gasped and jumped back as Morio pushed his way past her. He ignored her as he strode over to my side.
"You're late," I said. "We have a pixie infestation here. I promised the nice elf lady that I'd try to do something about it. What, I'm not sure. Most of my spells aren't meant for dispatching pests."
"I couldn't find my bag this morning and thought I lost it," Morio said, patting the black bag slung over his shoulder. He never went anywhere without it. The bag contained a skull that was his familiar. When he shifted into a fox, if he didn't have his skull nearby, he couldn't shift back. For his full-demon form, it wasn't so important. "Pixies, you say?"
I nodded. "Look at the residue dust they've left around the yard."
Morio's dark eyes gleamed. They shifted to topaz when he shifted into his natural form—his demon self. Lithe and compact, he was tightly muscled but neither tall nor bulky, and his long, sleek ponytail gleamed jet-black under the cool sun. Oh yeah, he was mighty fine. Mighty fine in bed, too. He had a way with his hands that was hard to match, even for Trillian. Both of my lovers managed to complement each other, and I was one hell of a grateful witch.
"I might be able to do something," he said.
Just then, a dart pierced the right side of my neck. On reflex, I slapped the sting and brought my hand away to find a tiny spear plastered to my skin. Giggling from the branches of a nearby maple gave away my attackers' positions. I spun around to find myself facing a row of five pixies, lined up on the branch like birds on the arm of a streetlight.
"Okay, knock it off!" Another titter brought another sharp sting to my left cheek. Sure enough, there in the hedgerow, another group of the pests were eyeing us, armed with a bevy of spears and darts. At least they looked uncomfortable; the hedge was holly, and the glossy leaves looked like they were poking into the pixies' backs.
Morio swung around and held out his hand. "Foxfire!"
A thick, green cloud of light spewed out of his hand toward the hedge. At first, the pixies just laughed, but then one shook his head and said something to the dude next to him. I couldn't hear what they were saying, but there was a sudden rush as they tried to vacate the branch before the vaporous cloud engulfed them.
I glanced up at the tops of the trees. The branches swayed in the wind, and I quickly summoned the currents of air to me, gathering the energy deep in my solar plexus, where I let it swirl and churn. Then it was a simple matter of aim, focus, and shoot.
Unfortunately, I'd managed to suck up a little more wind than I wanted to, and the resulting thrust of air not only knocked the pixies every which way but blew me off my feet. I went sailing backward through the yard to land hard with my back against the trunk of the maple. The shock froze me into place—for about thirty seconds.
The second oops came when I realized that I had landed off balance. I tried to catch my breath so I could right myself, but it just wasn't going to happen, and I crashed like tall timber, once again falling face-first in a patch of the pixie dust that coated everything.
Cripes, I thought, breathing the rich scent of wet, sour soil and pixie powder. I didn't want to hurt them, just shake them up. And I really didn't want to hurt myself. I wasn't a masochist.
As I sputtered, spitting out a blade of grass that had gotten stuck in my teeth, Morio helped me to my feet, a crooked smirk hiding behind his grin.
"You okay?"
For the second time in the past hour, I checked. No broken bones. No bloody knees or nosebleeds. "I'm wet and cold and muddy, but I'm okay." I glanced around, looking for the pixie brigade. "Where the hell are they?"
"I think you scared them. A few were blasted over the fence; the rest vanished. Wherever they went, you can bet we're not going to find them," he said. "Pixies may be annoying, but they aren't stupid."
"Yeah." I felt like grumbling but decided to quell the thought right there. I let out a long breath and looked at Morio. He looked good, though a bit tired. "Give me a kiss, babe."
Morio slid his left arm around my waist and casually drew me in, his lips curving around mine like they might be tasting a fine wine or an aged cheese: gently, with finesse, taking their time to explore every nook and cranny of the new flavor.
I leaned in for more. He was my second. My lover, my partner in magic, and also my friend. We stood silent, just lightly touching, as he sniffed my neck and trailed a chain of kisses down my bare chest, stopping where the bustier crested just above my nipples as it thrust my boobs up in a lovely decadence of cleavage.
"Trillian was called back to Otherworld," I whispered as his tongue explored my neck. "I'm afraid for him."
Rather than blow me off with a "He'll be all right," Morio pulled back. "He can't go. He's got a bounty on his head."
"I know" I said, staring past him at the hedgerow. "That's why I'm so frightened for him. There's something brewing. I can feel it, and Trillian's caught up in whatever's going on. Sometimes I wonder if he's been telling me the whole truth. If he isn't playing a bigger part than he lets on."
As I gazed at the unkempt bushes, I couldn't help but think of Father, and where he might be now. He'd deserted the Guard when Lethesanar turned them against her own people. My father was no coward nor a traitor. He was loyal to Court and Crown. But when the Crown abused her power, he'd stepped away and pledged his heart where it belonged—to the throne, not the madwoman who sat on it.
Morio let out a long sigh. "I don't know if this means anything, but a man came to my apartment, looking for Trillian not long ago. I don't know why. Maybe he thought we room together or something. He wasn't human, but some kind of Fae. He insisted that he had to talk to Trillian. I wasn't sure who he was, and the man refused to give me his name, so I played dumb. I told Trillian about him the next morning, and he looked as though he'd seen a ghost when I described the man. He wouldn't speak of it after that."
I thought for a moment. "Earthside Fae or OW?"
"I don't know, but he wasn't dressed quite right. My guess is Otherworld."
"Then it could be a spy, come to track him down and kill him. Or someone from Tanaquar's army to give him an update. Whatever the case, Trenyth called in the middle of the night to order him back to OW." I shivered as the cloud cover closed in again, cutting off the sun. "Come, let's take Mistletoe home. So much has happened in the past twenty-four hours."
"And so much is about to happen, I fear." Morio wrapped his arm around my shoulder and walked me to the gate. "The Degath Squads may have been our focal point the past few months, but there are demons aplenty living in the area who follow Shadow Wing." Degath Squads—or Hell Scouts—were Shadow Wing's vanguard.
"That's true," I said.
Morio sighed. "I'm very much afraid that they're planning something. Menolly should watch the bar carefully. The portal is well-known, and the demons are becoming bolder."
"And there are new portals, ones we know nothing about yet, and they are open targets for the enemy." As we returned to the front yard, I noticed that Tish was sitting on the front steps, talking to Delilah. Mistletoe was sitting on Kitten's other side, pointedly ignoring the elf.
"Don't talk about this in front of Tish or Mistletoe. Not till we get home," I said. "Feddrah-Dahns knows about the Demonkin; that's why he sent me the… gift that he did. But we have to watch what we say when we're out in public."
I turned to Tish and, with a beaming smile that I didn't feel, said, "We did what we could. I think we ran them off, but you never can tell when it comes to pixies. We'll take Mistletoe with us."
Delilah stood and dusted the butt of her jeans. "We're good to go, then?"
I nodded. "As ready as we'll ever be. Mistletoe, would you prefer to ride with Delilah or with me?"
The pixie glared at Delilah, then sniffed as he gave me the once-over. "I'll go with you, my Lady. I don't fancy riding with a cat."
Delilah gave a little hiss, laughing when he jumped. "Get a grip. I've never once changed while I was driving. Promise and cross my heart."
Mistletoe let out a choked gulp. "That hiss doesn't lend confidence, you know. Very well, I'll ride with you, but you have to behave. I mean it—one misstep, and His Royal Majesty will run you through. I'm a valuable member of the court!"
Delilah put on a straight face as she scooped him up and deposited him on the passenger seat of her Jeep. "I'm sure you are, M'Lord Mistletoe. I'm sure you are."
Morio followed me in his Subaru. As we headed home, I couldn't help but wonder how things were going to shake out.
Cryptos were everywhere now, far fewer than the human population of course, but they seemed brighter, shinier, louder. They stood out. It looked like the Freedom's Angels had already decided to start their own private war. Now, all we needed was for Shadow Wing's armies to begin their invasion.
Chapter Eleven
By the time we got home, Feddrah-Dahns was munching his way through a patch of tall grass that Iris had set him on. It would save her the trouble of weeding and give him a nice spot of lunch. He told us she'd left for the shop, along with Maggie, so it was just Delilah, Morio, Mistletoe, and me. And the unicorn. Feddrah-Dahns's eyes lit up when he caught sight of the pixie, and Mistletoe flittered over to land on the horned beast's shoulder.
