Chapter 6
Chapter Six
Once Dax Ballar left the castle with a promise to return with his coven the following night, Bodach drove to nearby Carmel-by-the-Sea.
It pained him to make this trip, but he had already used up all the favors owed to him by the other immortals in the local area.
Aosda, the ancient mage who had helped him in the past, had even banished him from his territory after their last encounter.
If he did not call on this outcast, he would have to travel to hot, humid Mexico and endure the seediest and greediest of mortals, vermin-riddled hotels, and the pig swill they considered food to petition help from an immortal far less likely to provide him with aid.
Of course there was Canada, which was basically the same but freezing instead of sweltering.
He had already offended so many immortals to the north they likely still offered a bounty on his head.
At least Mirry wouldn’t take offense over him breathing her air, since she was held in almost as much contempt by other Fae as he was.
He stopped in front of the looming wooden gates of a magnificent structure that appeared to rise up out of the stone boulders left behind by glaciers.
It had every exclusive feature expected in this region of California, including a helicopter pad on the roof and five different water elements including an artificial fall in the extensive gardens.
The intensive care unit in the basement was top of the line, although that wasn’t for the owner.
On the front lawns rare orchids surrounded huge statues of forest animals that appeared to have been sculpted by giant claws.
Several burglars and con men had actually come here trying to take advantage of apparently lax security, much to their immediate regret.
None of the locals realized the being that owned the property had actually been in residence since the last ice age, and could smell an unfamiliar mortal approaching her property from a mile away.
Bodach had fond memories of the place in its many incarnations.
Over the millennia the grandiose mansion had been presented in other guises as primitive as a shabby native village to as impersonal as a fish cannery.
For some reason mortals became obsessed with the owner, who fascinated them almost as much as they did her.
Turning the property into a palatial structure that might have belonged to a reclusive celebrity would last for a few years until the owner became bored.
Then it might end up being a futuristic laboratory, a monastery, or even a no-kill animal shelter.
He pressed the button on the call box, and when a mortal answered he said, “Special delivery from Bodach for your mistress.”
His true name was still held in respect here; the gates screeched a little as they opened to allow him to drive up to the mansion. There two enormous mortals stood waiting by the front doors, which they opened for him after bowing deeply. He tossed his keys to one of them before he strolled inside.
The interior of the mansion’s front foyer had been painted and decorated all in the same shade of snow white, so walking through the front hall had to be done slowly so as not to collide with the large objects that had been strewn there.
They included a carved alabaster baby elephant, several ten-foot-tall Asian porcelain vases and a massive, low-hanging chandelier made of milk glass.
Brandy snifters filled with white chocolate candies added a cloying sweetness to the rather chilly air.
On the roof, enough package A/C units to cool a two-story mall kept the mansion at a frosty forty-eight degrees Fahrenheit inside.
He opened the first door he came to and stepped inside a sitting room decorated in every shade of blue imaginable, and closed his eyes for a moment to adjust to the blinding color shift.
“Love what you’ve done with the place, Mirry.
Monochromatic never looked more modern.” He shuffled forward until he found something to sit on, which turned out to be a tufted cerulean velvet settee.
“I brought you a little present, too. Do you have a moment to chat? I need your expertise, if you’re willing. ”
The Fae giantess who stepped out of the wall had transformed her matching garments to the same intense brilliant blue as the chamber, making her appear as if she were clothed in a ten-foot-tall pillar of laser light.
As her all-blue glamour dropped, it revealed her short mane of brownish-black locks, which curled around big, blunt features.
That gave her the look of a giant gorilla, unfortunately aided by the fact that her hair matched the thick, curly dark pelt that covered the rest of her skin.
Atop it she wore a custom-fitted sapphire gown the size of a tent, which like her entire wardrobe had been custom tailored for her.
“Heya, Gobbie. Long time no see. Wondered if you were still breathing. Heard you pissed off that old mage’s snuggle bunny.” The floor shook slightly as the giantess came over and dropped onto a massive couch made of lapis lazuli.
Mirry’s apish features were thanks to her sire, the Fae King of Nightmares, who had long ago spawned Neanderthals by dallying with some primitive mortals.
He had much later become infatuated with Mirry’s mother, one of the last Fae Phrygians, an ancient colossal race.
Their mating had been forbidden, making it all the more difficult to resist each other.
Like Bodach, Mirry had been outcast from Elphyne as soon as the dark court discovered her existence.
Unlike him, however, her parents still held her in their favor and ensured she had whatever she desired while in exile, including all the mortals she could capture.
“You know nothing can kill me,” he chided.
“That one might be able to. She’s destroyed and remade the mortal realm at least three times since the volcanoes stopped erupting every month.” The giantess tapped her chin. “She’s been a real bitch to everyone lately, too. I wonder if she’s going through their form of menopause or something.”
“Never fear, I appeased her,” Bodach assured her. “I’m sure she’s quite smug about rescuing my former mortal servant. That should keep the busy body content for another few centuries.”
Mirry nodded. “Good, then you’re not here about her.”
“I wish I could still talk to her boyfriend, but the old mage is done with me.” He tried to look pathetic. “What I really need to find is another melia willing to bargain with me. I’ve yet to solve the riddle that’s perplexed me for close to a thousand years.”
“After you killed their most powerful spell caster? Honey.” She snorted a laugh. “Those forest wretches run for their pocket universes the moment they smell you, Gobmeister.”
“I was rather hasty back then,” Bodach conceded.
“That’s pretty mature of you to admit.” Mirry folded arms thicker than his torso. “Also, you do recall that despite my exile I am still a dark Fae princess, and not of the tree hugger variety on either side. Don’t piss me off by making that mistake.”
“I would never forget what you are, dearest. Yet no one has spent as much time in forests as you, or knows as much about melia and their potions.” He removed one of his golden badges from his jacket and let it sit on his palm until his body heat roused the spider inside it to sprout legs and raise itself.
“I need a poison for my little matriarch and her offspring that will take effect inside one of the melia-created mini-worlds. My own concoction didn’t work. ”
“I do love a challenge. Hang on.” The giantess rose and went out to the hall.
A short time later she returned with two thugs dressed in powder blue tuxedoes. The mortals pushed in two heavily laden carts. One held tea, sandwiches and every pastry known to mankind, and the other had been stocked with hundreds of tiny, corked vials made of stone, glass, wood and pottery.
“Hey, minion mine,” Mirry said, frowning. “What did you guys do with my special delivery?”
“We placed it in your bed chamber, madam,” one of the thugs said as he poured two cups of tea and placed them on the table between her and Bodach.
“Good. Take the rest of the day off,” she told them, making a shooing gesture.
Once they had left she rose and went over to inspect the various potions.
“All right, so what do you want to do to the mortals in question? Poison to kill, maim, paralyze, drive mad, or turn a pretty shade of some inhuman color? I think I’ve got a couple that’ll shrink them, too. ”
Bodach pocketed the spider before he went to join her. “I need it to kill, and then enslave the corpse.” He inspected the food. “Are these egg salad?”
“Chicken. It came first, by the way.” Mirry rummaged through the bottles.
“Still can’t keep your trousers zipped, can you?
Even with the dead. Shame, shame, everyone knows your name.
You should just watch like I do. I don’t get all sweaty and sticky that way, and I can skip combing the knots and gore out of my pelt later. ”
“Good advice.” He took a bite of the chicken sandwich, which tasted of mayo, celery and white chocolate, and then replaced the remains on the serving plate. “But I’m not going to use it for sex with mortals, dead or otherwise.”
“If you’re planning to use it on that bunch you cursed in that Scottish monstrosity of yours, they can’t pass through the barrier and come to you, just like you can’t go to them.
Also, they can’t die.” She picked up one vial, studied it, and then put it back.
“Unless you’ve captured a melia willing to break the enchantment, of course, in which case you should probably first go to Mars, do it remotely, and then plan on living there for a few eons.
” She chuckled. “Or maybe Kepler-1606b would be better. At least that one’s probably habitable. ”