Shattered Spells

Yutani pulled his long brown hair out of his ponytail and shook it loose, letting the silky mane fall down his back. Darkly charismatic, he was the son of the Great Coyote, and it showed more and more as the weeks went on.

“Maybe he has more of a conscience than he wanted to admit and sabotaged himself in order to get caught. Either that or he was too cocky. Arrogance creates overconfidence, and that leads to mistakes. I’m betting on the latter because of how many women he worked his way through.” He glanced at me. “Another case down.”

“And the first one in the new office!” I said, unaccountably happy now that we had moved into the new building. Yutani’s office was spacious, with plenty of natural light. As were all of our offices. Herne hadn’t stinted when it came to making our new digs comfortable. “Okay, are we done for the day?”

Yutani shrugged. “I suppose we can knock off early. What have you got planned for tonight?”

“Girls’ night with Raven.” I jumped up. “We’re going to hang out at the Burlesque A Go-Go and bother Vixen.” Ever since I’d met Raven, she and I had hit it off. I’d never had a best friend before, not even during the years before Kilnakarn captured me, but Raven…she and I clicked.

“So that’s why Kipa asked if I wanted to come over to their house and watch a movie.”

Yutani stood and stretched. I eyed him hungrily. He was muscled, yet lean—lanky in the way all coyote shifters were. But he smoldered. Beneath that smoking-hot body and face, his personality was equally intense. Yutani was more than most people could handle, but I gravitated toward him like the proverbial moth to the flame.

Over the past two months since I’d first joined the Wild Hunt Agency, we’d become more than roommates. We quickly became friends, and he had offered to feed me when my chi was low. He could handle the drain, given he was a demigod. It had taken all we had to keep that arrangement from sliding into a romantic one. Both of us were aware that we would probably self-combust if we went in that direction. But it was getting harder to ignore the attraction between us.

“Yeah. He won’t admit it, but Raven’s got that man by the balls. And he loves it.” I grinned, arching my back. “All right, I’ll be in late.”

“When you move out, I’m going to miss you, you know.” Yutani frowned. “I know you need to find a house of your own, but…”

“I know,” I said. “I’ll miss you, too. But we’re too much alike, and you know it. We’d be at each other’s throats eventually. There’s not much room here, for one thing. And…” I decided to finally name the elephant in the room. “You need a woman who can kneel, and I need a partner who wants me to stand tall.” I grinned. “I’m down for kink but…”

“But you were forced to grovel. It wasn’t a choice. I get it. I do, but I’m still going to miss you.” He smiled, a certain hesitation behind it. “No worries. I can still feed you chi whenever you need.”

I walked around the desk and, after glancing at the door to make sure it was closed, I leaned in, drawing my nose along his chest. “You smell damned good, though. I am a little hungry…”

“Top off for the evening?” He pulled me close and fastened his lips on mine.

Flames burning from my head to my pussy, I began to devour his energy, drawing it deep within my lungs. Gasping, buoyed by the sudden rush of life force, I swallowed it as it spread through my body. Wanting to continue but not wanting to be greedy, I forced myself to break away.

“Thank you. I mean it—your chi intoxicates me.” I could sense his own hunger, and that urge—his desire to ravish and plunder—set me on edge. But Yutani kept it in check. And until he found a new partner, I decided to help him by easing his need. I dropped to my knees and unzipped his pants, bringing out his cock. He was hard, pulsing with desire, as I took him in my mouth. I sucked hard, tightening my lips around him as I formed a firm suction. His cock pulsed in my mouth and he moaned as he braced his hands on my shoulders.

I wrapped my hand around his trunk, clenching tightly as I relentlessly worked him. I knew exactly how to bring a man to pleasure, and since we were in a hurry, I drove forward at a nonstop pace. Within moments, he stiffened, coming hard. I swallowed, as yet another rush of chi washed through me.

Empowered, I rocked back on my heels, feeling even stronger. He handed me a tissue and I wiped my mouth as he wiped himself off with another. Then he zipped as I stood.

“That was…” He stopped, holding me with his words and his gaze.

“Yeah, it was,” I said. I swung my purse over my shoulder and, with yet another wink, headed toward the door. “See you later, my dude.”

“Lyrical?”

I stopped, glancing over my shoulder. “Yeah?”

“Have a good time.” His eyes twinkled.

“Oh, I plan to, don’t worry about that.” And with that, I headed out for the night.

***

So, I’m Lyrical, and I’m one of the Leannan Sidhe—basically a faerie vampire. Unlike vampires who only drink blood, or succubi who only feed on chi, I feed on both. I prefer chi—drinking blood gives me the creeps. But either will suit when I need to satisfy my hunger. And like succubi, I also feed off the sexual energy of others.

I’m a princess without a kingdom, cast out by my family after a Kelpie prince captured me and kept me as his sex slave for two years.

I learned all too much about humiliation during that time. I did what I needed to in order to survive. And that was a problem for my parents. My great-great-grandmother is the Queen of the Limerick Leannan Sidhe, and my grandmother and mother are in line for the throne, as am I. My great-grandmother’s dead. We’re part of the Light Fae. But since my captor Kilnakarn is one of the Dark Fae, my family would rather I had died than lived to escape. From the moment Morgana, a goddess of Fae, saved me, I became pariah—outcast.

Morgana took me home, where my mother turned her back on me. So the goddess brought me here to Seattle and—after a rocky few weeks—she set me up at the Wild Hunt and introduced me to her daughter-in-law, Ember, yet another goddess of the Fae. I’m now nominally pledged to Ember, but it’s not formal yet.

So, I’m a princess without a kingdom, but at least here I can be my funky-assed self, and Yutani, son of the Great Coyote, feeds my hunger, allowing me to avoid preying on others.

Oh, the desire for the hunt is always there, but now I limit it to sex instead of draining others. I manage just fine most of the time, but deep in my heart, I know that one day I’ll have to face the torture Kilnakarn put me through.

I looked as forward to that as much as I would toward bathing in a river full of piranha. I’m plagued with nightmares, and some things—like Jason Momoa’s role as Aquaman—trigger me to the point of paralysis, but hey, we all have issues. It’s part of life. And I’ll deal with my memories when I can face them. Until then, I do my job and focus on my freedom. Because you never know what it’s like to lose it until it’s gone.

***

I was going to stop at home to change into my clubbing clothes before heading to Raven’s. It still was so surreal. Four months ago I had been chained, naked, to Kilnakarn’s bed in Ireland, wishing I was dead. Now, I was free. I lived near Seattle and owned a car and I had an exciting job that was on the dangerous side. I actually had friends who supported me. Given everything I’d come through, I gave thanks every morning I woke up.

I tossed my jacket in the passenger seat, then adjusted the mirror and eased out of the parking garage below the building, heading for the I-520 bridge. Seattle was getting back to normal after the dragons had bombed the hell out of it. Everywhere, signs of the damage remained, but a new renaissance was emerging from the rubble. New buildings were going up right and left, funded with the gold seized from several dragon lairs, and a tangible feeling of relief ran through the city.

I’d heard rumors that the vampires were returning to the catacombs—the underground part of Seattle they inhabited. When the dragons had been in control, they had gone into hiding, given the possibility that shadow dragons could exert control over them. It wasn’t a far-fetched fear. Shadow dragons could control the dead.

And the dragons? Now stripped of their immortality, they were no longer lording it over humans and Otherkin. In fact, the ones who had been friendly to us had retreated to leave us in peace. Those who had intended on using mortals as a private cattle ranch were still a threat, but if they were still around, they had gone undercover, given they could be shot on sight if spotted in the bigger cities.

I swung onto the bridge, grateful that work had let out early. It meant that I didn’t have to fight traffic. Luckily, the bridge had escaped damage when the dragons had risen to battle each other. At almost a mile and a half long, it was the longest, widest floating pontoon bridge in the world. It was relatively new, built less than a decade before to replace the older one that had been a disaster waiting to happen.

The waves on Lake Washington churned in the wind. I held the steering wheel steady as they crashed up and over the bridge, sending spray across the cars heading over to the Eastside. While Gaia had stripped the dragons of their immortality, she had also thrown a fit about the state of the planet and had tweaked the weather, trying to bring the warming of the Earth to a screeching halt. No one was sure what the changes would bring, but storms had already grown stronger and more frequent everywhere.

I swung a left after turning off the bridge, heading onto I-405 heading north to Kirkland. Raven lived near there, in the UnderLake district. One of the most haunted areas in the region, it was filled with ghosts of the past, but it also happened to be where Yutani lived and, by default, me.

When I got home, I stopped at the aquarium in which Dodo lived—Yutani’s iguana. She was a pretty thing. I tapped on the glass to say hello, then headed for my room. It wasn’t my décor at all, but he had outfitted it for his aunt Celia who came to visit a couple times a year, and since I was planning on getting my own place, I didn’t want to change it out to match my tastes. It was colorful, in shades of pink and dusty rose, and not at all what I’d pick.

I stripped off my jeans and tossed them in the hamper, then my tank top. For clubbing, my preferred costume was a pair of leather pants. I slid into them, zipping them up. Next came a pair of black platform boots.

“Boots first, then corset,” I said out loud, laughing. The opposite presented difficulties.

After my boots were on, I chose one of my leather corsets—a snug overbust black affair with steel blue skulls on it and matching lace around the bodice. The back was already laced. Since it zipped in front, I could slip right into it. The acrylic bones made it good for dancing, and with four rows of scalloped chains on each side and plenty of grommets, it made me feel both tough and sexy.

My makeup was still good, but I decided to emphasize the eyeliner and add a deep blackberry lip lacquer. I shook my hair out of the ponytail I’d started wearing to work. The long strands were a deep brown with a red tint, but I’d had sections lightened and streaked with a deep magenta. My hair fell down to mid-back, wild and wavy.

I fastened a silver belt around my waist—over the corset—and then pulled on lace elbow-length fingerless gloves. Finally, making sure my tarot-card necklace that Ember had given me was firmly around my neck, I added massive hoop earrings, and a four-fingered ring that made it look like I was wearing jeweled brass knuckles.

“I think I’m ready,” I said, standing back. “Yeah, I’m good.”

I looked hot and I knew it. The Leannan Sidhe were known for glamour and charisma, and I reveled in that power. Like any other trait—intelligence, kindness, strength—it could be used or abused. Whether it was used for good or ill was up to the owner.

Ready, I stopped in the kitchen to slap together a roast beef sandwich. I was hungry and though the club offered food, it usually took at least an hour to get your order, given how popular the Burlesque A Go-Go was.

Thus fortifying myself, I grabbed my keys and dashed back out to my car. As I backed out of the driveway, I flipped on my MP3 player and brought up my Let’s-Go playlist, and headed down the road to the throbbing strains of the Kills.

***

Raven was waiting for me. As I pulled into her driveway, she came dashing out to the car. I blinked. Instead of the emo-looking goth Lolita look that was her usual, Raven was wearing a platinum blond wig, a tight pink sequined dress that hugged every voluptuous curve she had, and a pair of spiked sandals.

“So, do blondes really have more fun?” I asked, laughing as she climbed into the passenger seat. “What’s with the dye job?” Raven had dark black hair with purple streaks—her natural color—and she usually wore emo Lolita skirts and corsets, along with platform boots.

“Oh shuddup,” she said, laughing. Raven was one of the Ante-Fae, a bone witch, and she was even more impetuous than I was. Together we made a dangerous pair.

“It’s a bad wig. I can’t be seen in Vixen’s club,” she explained. “The queen of the Ante-Fae has declared me persona non grata and Vixen was put on notice that I’d better not show up at their club. Even now, after returning from Wildemoone with Trinity and Apollo, Vixen still has to be cautious. Luckily, they love me as much as I love them. So when I go to the Burlesque A Go-Go, I wear a disguise.”

“Granted, you don’t look anything like yourself, but does that fool anybody who might be checking up on you?”

She shrugged, noncommittally.

I swung to the southeast, heading onto I-405 till we hit the turnoff to the club. As we eased into the parking lot, looking for an open spot among the dozens of cars that were already there, I noticed one car in particular. It looked like one of the old-fashioned sparkling blue Cadillacs with fins and torpedo-shaped tail lights. Even though I knew it was a replica, I still caught my breath every time I saw it. The ride was gorgeous.

“Rake’s here!” I clapped my hands.

“You two have been seeing a lot of each other,” Raven said.

“Yeah, but we’re not exclusive. For one thing, it would be hard for me to focus on one person. My hunger’s too deep and I’d break hearts if anybody got too attached to me,” I said. “And Rake’s not the domestic type. In my culture, in my kingdom—what was my kingdom—the men work to make the lives of the women better. Rake’s not a beta type.”

“And you want a beta type?” Raven asked.

I shook my head as I stepped out of the car. “No. But I don’t think I’d work well with an alpha, either. I think, after spending two years locked away, I want to breathe for a while. I don’t like being tied to one person. It makes you vulnerable.”

“Yeah, it does,” she said, following me toward the door. “I was terrified when I realized I was falling for Kipa. But…I couldn’t help myself. He’s gorgeous, and he’s a bad boy gone…kind of good. He had quite a reputation until he and I got together. In fact, he and Herne were almost at each other’s throats.”

“Oh?” That intrigued me. We stopped by the bouncer, who recognized both of us and motioned for us to go on in.

As unimposing as the club was on the outside, the inside of Burlesque A Go-Go was lush and opulent. The walls were covered with floor-to-ceiling velvet red curtains, and the dance floor was big enough for at least fifty to sixty dancers, with a raised stage in the center. The lighting shimmered like a modernized disco ball, in shades of purple, red, and gold. Tables lined the edge of the dance floor, with a massive bar at the entrance end of the bar, and behind the bar was the entrance to the kitchen.

A hostess led us to one of the tables near the bar, where Vixen was sitting. Vixen was a gender-fluid snake shifter who could literally change gender depending on their mood. They were a dangerous enemy to have, and an equally helpful friend. Raven and Vixen were tight, even though the decree banning Raven from most of the Ante-Fae establishments was still in effect. We settled down at Vixen’s table, the music practically vibrating through the floor.

I winked at Vixen. “How goes it?”

“It goes, it goes. So, how goes it for my friend Lyrical and her little Lolita friend?” Vixen winked at Raven.

“As you said, it goes,” I said, leaning back in the chair. “We wrapped up a case today, and that’s a good thing.”

“You’re in the new building, right?” Raven asked. She didn’t chance mentioning Kipa’s name here, since he was associated with her.

I studied the drink menu. “Yeah, we are. It’s nice. I gather the old building didn’t have a parking garage of its own, and was four stories high with other businesses sharing the space. This one’s two stories and all ours, and has a parking garage built beneath it. Talia said it’s super helpful, given no more running through the rain to get to and from work.”

“Didn’t the original building include an urgent care clinic?” Vixen motioned for the waitress. “What do you want to drink?”

“I’ll try a Reptilian Firestarter,” I said.

“I’ll take a Skeleton Key,” Raven said.

When we’d placed our order, along with an order for a big plate of fries, I turned back to Vixen. “Yeah, there was an urgent care clinic, but after the dragons destroyed the building, they moved elsewhere. There was also a daycare, I think…and something else but I don’t know what. They all moved to other buildings. Now the building belongs to the Wild Hunt, and it’s twice as much space as they had before. Everybody has an office, we have an armory, and a couple conference rooms.” I stopped, looking around. “So, is Rake here? I saw his car outside.”

Vixen grinned. “Not bad, took you ten minutes before asking about him. Yes, he’s here and he’ll be out soon. He’s in the back, moving around some boxes for the cook.” They were dressed ambiguously tonight, in a black satin pair of harem pants, with a colorful diamond-patterned patchwork silk bed jacket over the top. Vixen’s hair was sleeked back—they’d recently had it cut into a 1920s flapper-style cut, and around their neck they wore at least a dozen thin bead necklaces. All in all, Vixen was a flamboyant, eccentric figure.

Raven glanced at Vixen. “I still feel like a rat for coming here—”

“Oh, piddle. The queen has other things on her mind beyond what you’re up to. I haven’t seen one of her officers in here in months, and believe me, darling, I can smell them a mile away. I appreciate the disguise, but seriously, I think everybody’s over her old-school ways. The Exosan are numerous, and we aren’t going to put up with this bullshit much longer. Besides which, I’ve heard that she’s retreating to her home in a different dimension. I think she’s about ready to let it go.”

I blinked. Back home, that statement would have ended up with Vixen’s head on the chopping block, if they had been a member of our community. My great-great-grandmother was grim, and as hard as ice, and my grandmother and mother took after her.

As Vixen and Raven chatted, I looked around the club. There was something in the air tonight that made me uneasy. I couldn’t see anybody or anything that should have set off my alarms, but the fact was, they were ringing. I had learned the hard way to pay attention when they went off.

“I’ll be back in a moment.” I stood and began threading my way through the crowd, trying to follow the trail, but there were too many people to differentiate between emotions.

The Leannan Sidhe were good with precognition, and we were skilled at sensing emotions—most likely the result of being Water Fae, but too many people cluttered the energy here. Finally, still slightly unnerved, I gave up and went to the bathroom.

There, I stared hard in the mirror. The woman staring back made me smile. I was harder than before, capable of taking care of myself. I could put up a good fight, although I wasn’t an expert at any one discipline. But most of all, I had survived an ordeal that I thought, at first, was going to break me.

I locked myself in a stall and peed, then washed my hands, touched up my makeup, and—my spidey senses still tingling—I headed back to the dance floor.