Chapter 13
Chapter Thirteen
A six-foot, curvy blonde climbed from Ben’s barely used apprehension van and stretched her long legs. She was curvy all over but shapely and muscled as well.
The closer I got to her, the more familiar she looked. I strained my memory, trying to place her. I’d been Fiona’s age the last time I worked in Ireland. I had returned often enough to keep in touch with work friends.
The woman’s eyes swiveled in her head as she surveyed the grounds. Then her head turned on her shoulders farther than humanly possible. There weren’t many beings with that much neck rotation.
Luckily, Ben and the other passengers hadn’t gotten out yet, so they’d missed the head-swiveling show. An owl shifter’s greatest magick was the ability to scare the living shit out of normal people. Her large white wings and long claws were just extra.
A smile bloomed across my lips. “Ya could have flown in, Jessing. I wouldn’t have minded. I know how hard giant owls find being cramped up in vehicles.”
Jessing spread her arms. She managed a half-grin for me recognizing her, which told me she’d finally lost that edge of her seriousness that had made her keep her emotional distance when we worked together.
Her German eagle shifter family hadn’t been very affectionate with the owl shifter child they’d freakishly birthed. She’d been reticent to even make friends when Aran first met her.
“Hello, Aran. I was told you had a problem you couldn’t handle. Is that true?”
“No, I can handle it just fine,” I said, grinning at her. “But I’m trying not to kill everyone who comes after me. I’d rather solve this dilemma differently if I can.”
Chuckling, Jessing erased the distance between us and pulled me against her giant body for a hug. The woman wasn’t overweight at all. She was just large… and incredibly strong. I felt like a child in her embrace.
Shock and a slight bit of fear stiffened me for a moment, but finally, I made myself relax. “It’s good to see ya, Jessing. Ya look wonderful.”
“You don’t, Aran. You look tense. I’m here to help with that. My partner is also coming to help soon. However, he is a big man and requires a big portal. May we open one here on your grounds? This place is enormous. You must be very rich.”
I laughed as I pulled free of her fierce clutch. It made me feel sorry for her prey. “I’m not rich at all, Jessing. Didn’t ya hear? My ex-husband put me in prison for seven years. I bought this place with friends.”
“I did hear about your unfair prison time. Why did you stay in that place? It is the question no one can answer for me.”
My voice was soft but firm. “I stayed to protect my daughter from her power-hungry father who threatened me. In hindsight, it was not a wise decision. But ya can’t change the past.”
“Ezra always said it was a waste of magick that someone like you would let someone like your former husband lock both you and your magick away.”
I grunted. “Oh, that’s right. Ezra worked his way up the Shadow Breaker ranks after I left.”
“Yes, some would say that,” Jessing said with a smile.
“What would ya say?” I asked.
Jessing drew in air through her teeth. It was a terrible sound, and I looked away so she wouldn’t see me wincing.
“I would say the irate fairy felt he had unfinished business with you,” Jessing said.
“Well, he didn’t,” I said. “I broke up with Ezra long before I married Jack.”
“Why does your daughter now cavort with supernatural beings? An angel follows her everywhere,” Jessing informed me.
“Why do wolves howl at the moon? We’re a magickal family with destinies we can’t fight.”
Jessing stopped asking questions to laugh.
I grinned at her. “Are ya messing with me on purpose?”
“No, but I find it enjoyable. My partner would say that was wrong of me. He claims to be our moral compass. But that is only at work. At home, he likes that I am not a nice person.”
I ran a hand through my hair. Goddess, her partner was coming. I knew without asking Ben that Jessing was one of the two enforcers because she was already questioning me. She had been using our old connection as a basis to ask questions without seeming to interview me.
Why wasn’t Ben getting out of his vehicle?
“Excuse me a minute,” I said to Jessing. I walked to the van and tapped on the driver’s window. Ben dutifully rolled it down to talk. “Are ya going to sit in there all night and let the owl shifter torment me?”
“It had crossed my mind,” Ben said. “Where’s your impertinent shadow?”
“Try using a name. That flowery description applies to most of the people I call friends these days.”
Ben and I both raised our eyebrows. Then we burst out laughing. I leaned against the side of the van until I’d stopped. Ben’s low chuckling delighted me.
“When you’re done being amusing, I’ve got a troll and a leashed tiger cat in the back. He insists Mulan has to personally take delivery of it.”
“Right. Perfectly understandable,” I said, peering back through the seats. “Hello, Bo.”
“Hello, freen.”
Ben rolled his eyes at Bo’s mispronunciation. His expensive translator naga had been working diligently with Bo on his vocabulary building. The troll knew the word was ‘friend’ now... and I knew he knew. Not using it was a pleasant joke between us.
Ben had yet to adjust to Bo and might never adjust my ‘freen-ship’ with the troll, though I was hopeful.
“How’s yer wife doing, Bo?” I asked.
“ Two wives now,” he answered from the depths of the vehicle. “Both good in bed.”
I dipped my head to giggle at the oversharing and looked up to find Ben glaring at me.
“Ya’re very lucky, Bo. Let me go wake the Wu Shaman. She’s been feeling sick today. Hang in there. I’ll be right back.”
“Poor cat lady,” Bo said with genuine concern.
I straightened, bit my lip, and walked away from the van so I wouldn’t start laughing again. “I’ll be back in a few minutes, Jessing. We’ll work on yer portal problem then. Make yerself at home, but ask me before ya start hunting. Ya’re not the only predator on this property.”
“I ate before I came. There was a squirrel at the office.”
I picked up speed and covered the distance to Mulan’s house in half my usual time. I let myself back in without knocking and tiptoed down the hall. She was right where I left her.
“Mulan?” I called gently. She made a grumbling noise and rolled from her side to her back. “Bo is here with yer tiger cat. He won’t get out of the van with it until ya’re present to receive it.”
“Tiger cat is back?” Mulan muttered in her drowsy state. “Too much going on. I forgot about it.”
“Well, Bo is here with it. Yer tiger cat is done.”
Mulan blinked and struggled to sit up. I picked up one of her hands and tugged her upright. “How do ya feel?” I asked.
“Better than before,” she said. “You have healing magick.”
“A little. Yer staff helped more than I did.”
“Staff in closet,” she said.
“No,” I corrected. “It’s next to ya. It wanted to check on ya... and to make up.”
She rolled until she saw her staff on the pillow next to hers. The turtle shells clacked in hello without her touching them. Mulan, who still hadn’t woken up completely, reached out and patted it. I saw the brief affectionate exchange as a good sign.
“If ya don’t need my help getting up, I’m going to run back and let Bo know ya’re on yer way. One of my enforcers is here. I’ve got to go deal with her before she starts interviewing everyone she sees.”
Mulan waved me away with her hand. “I feel like myself again. No sickness.”
“Good,” I said. “Bo is calling you the cat lady. Don’t be mad at him.”
“Trolls have no sense,” she said with a sad head shake.
“No, he doesn’t mean it in a negative. I think it’s because he doesn’t know yer name. Or maybe he can’t say it. Anyway, the way he says ‘cat lady’ is sweet. Ya can tell he likes you. Just go with it, okay?”
Mulan motioned me away with both hands. “He is helping me. I will not harm him.” She sighed heavily. “How can I become mother when getting tiger cat back makes me feel tired?”
I chuckled. “I’m sure ya’ll figure it out. All women do. And Bo will always take back the tiger cat if ya don’t want it.” I paused a moment before issuing another order. “Take the staff with ya so the cat will get used to it. Ya don’t want the tiger cat running off when ya call yer magick. I also suggest ya turn it into a walking stick. It needs the sunlight, and ya need the help to steady ya.”
“Yes, mother. I am fine now. You can leave,” Mulan said with all the sarcasm she could muster.
I wagged a finger at her. “I heard that tone. I’ll mother ya if I feel the need. But I’m done being bossy for now. Just please do what I suggested so I won’t worry.”
Her response was to offer me a long-suffering sigh and a nod.
“How big a portal do ya intend to create?”
Jessing held her long arms wide to show that he would need a lot of room. “My partner is a male witch. He makes a big entrance. It’s his favorite thing, so I indulge him.”
How magnanimous of her when I was doing all the work.
I tilted my head to ponder Jessing. “Wait... wasn’t yer original partner a male witch? I remember that he didn’t like being one. Did he ever make peace with his power source?”
Jessing grinned at me. “You have an excellent memory for someone your age.”
I blinked at her. “Well, it’s not like I’m a hundred, Jessing. I’m only forty. Ma is in her sixties, and she has a wonderful memory as well. How old are ya, Jessing? Ya must be in yer late thirties. I was the youngest trainer the Shadow Breakers ever used, and ya weren’t a child yerself.”
“And listen to you! You can still do math. This bodes very well for the accuracy of your story, Aran. Many people your age don’t have such solid recall.”
I rolled my eyes without hiding it this time. Jessing had mastered the arrogance of the eagle shifter family she was born into. Back when I first knew her, I’d realized instantly that she considered herself too good to need any further instruction. The woman had complied with my training exercises because she’d sworn to her parents to do so. She was an owl shifter of her word.
She and her witch partner back then had gotten passed to another trainer after Jack dragged me away from my work... and out of Ireland.
My last memory of those long-ago days was an argument Jessing and I had over me not letting her eat a few trouble-making pixies. I emerged victorious in the argument that day, but Jessing remained unconvinced that my approach was right. She had conceded to peacefully moving the newly formed pixie group, but I was never sure she believed it was a better option than destroying them.
I briefly wondered how many pixies she’d ended up eating after I was gone. Then I told myself to let it go. Whatever she’d done or not done, I needed her. So I would not judge her by our shared past.
When I’d told Ben enforcers were always trouble, I hadn’t been able to describe what kind because it varied with the magickals. She’d been here less than an hour, and I’d already developed a theory about the owl shifter. Jessing irritated people into giving her the information she needed, which was the unvarnished, unembellished truth.
Goddess only knew what kind of man the owl shifter had partnered with for life. It was not uncommon for work partners to become spouses. Ezra and I were partners who became lovers. We might have become more if he hadn’t decided he needed a dozen other women to entertain him.
The Shadow Breakers had no rules against fraternization with peers. Their only rule was that ya couldn’t take a target as a lover.
I easily could see how it might simplify yer life to share work and home with the same person. Wasn’t that what I was doing with Rasmus? And what Mulan was doing with Conn?
Yet I still dreaded seeing what kind of man could handle the annoying owl shifter. He’d have to be twice as obnoxious to hold his own. That would probably make him twice as hard to deal with as an enforcer.
Sighing heavily, I walked the area near my fire pit and chanted to push the wards back. It surprised me that even Mulan’s wards obeyed. When I’d cleared enough space to suit Jessing, she pulled a tiny foldable cell phone from her cleavage and made a call. It took remembering what it felt like to get shot with an arrow and knifed in the stomach to keep me standing there.
A spiral portal spiraled in the area I’d cleared. The energy of it bathed us in silver light. Something fast shot out of the portal like a speeding motorcycle riding up between two cars. The owner of the speeding vehicle was a muscled man with green hair riding a surfboard that was glued to a round disk.
He flew what looked to be a victory lap around us while Jessing clapped and blew kisses at him. As he hovered in the air, I looked up and saw the disk under the surfboard for what it was.
The man had mounted his board to an automatic vacuum—the set-it-and-forget-it kind that did yer sweeping while ya were away from home. I’d seen friends control theirs with an app on their phones. It was a fine example of human magick that I wanted no part of. Running a regular vacuum was good enough for me and I still knew how to use a broom for sweeping.
My magick had always used weapons and tools that The Dagda gifted me with because I was his chosen descendant. Some witches still used brooms to direct their magick. Ma had one and had trained to use it but rarely did. She’d always had a familiar too, but her current cat had gotten lazy like a favored pet gets in old age. Ma’s familiar didn’t do normal witching any more than Ma did. Mostly, he kept her company.
Because of Ma’s lineage, I’d seen a lot of witch strangeness in my life, but I had never known a witch—male or female—to use a vacuum cleaner. Well, not until now. I couldn’t think of a single polite comment to make about it, so I pretended I saw such things all the time.
The green-haired male witch circled one last time and came to lightly land beside Jessing. He was her size in both height and girth. The girth didn’t look normal for him, though. It looked like he spent many hours working out to get his muscled arms and thick thighs the way a bodybuilder would. If his muscled male perfection was a spell, he could sell it and make a fortune.
“Hi, honey,” the male witch said in a low voice. He stepped off his weird broom invention and then gave her a tight hug.
“I missed you. I hope things went well,” she said back, returning the embrace.
“It went as well as we expected,” he said. He laughed loudly when Jessing made a face.
I forced a smile to my mouth as I closed the portal for him, reset the wards, and turned back to the loving pair. The Shadow Breakers sent them to help me solve my fairy problem. I was glad they were a united pair and not just normal partners.
But when I turned, he wasn’t where he was a minute ago. Instead, he was standing less than six inches away from me. I jumped a foot away from his hulking form.
“Goddess bless...” I exclaimed. “Give me some space, please. People are trying to kill me, and I’m jumpy. Ya’re lucky I didn’t zap ya.”
The green-haired male witch laughed. “You don’t remember me, do you, Aran.”
I shook my head. He laughed again and walked to stand by Jessing. “You helped me back then, and now I’ve come to help you in your time of need. And if that means killing your pursuers, so be it. ”
The male witch waved a hand and changed his surfboard vacuum into a normal broom, but a manly, rugged one with thick strands. Then, he magickly dressed himself until he looked like a modern pilgrim. The only recognizable thing remaining was his green hair.
Once his changes were complete, he patted Jessing on the shoulder and handed her his broom to hold. Then he walked close to me again. This time, he stayed out of arm’s reach. My reaction to strangers coming close enough to stab me wouldn’t be changing anytime soon.
“Who do you think is after you?” he asked.
“Since joining the Shadow Breakers again, I’ve made my share of enemies.”
“Like the military scientists after yer boss?”
“Yes. But also Ezra of Airing Dale,” I said. “Are ya planning to tell me yer name?”
The man laughed. “You honestly don’t know?”
I shook my head.
“I used to call myself a mage. You told me to stop pretending to be what I wasn’t and to embrace my witch heritage. After you left us, I spent two years wrestling with your advice.” He held out his arms and looked down at himself. “This is what happened when I finally took it.”
I looked him up and down. Memories churned.
I remembered him, but not like this... and still not his name. Whoever he’d been before was someone easily forgotten. All I recalled of his younger days was his debilitating fear and his constant complaining.
But I couldn’t say that aloud. It would be too rude, even for me.
“I remember Jessing and ya were partners back then. I never dreamed it would last. The two of ya could barely speak civilly to each other. I remember details of that time but still not yer name. I’m sorry.”
He turned to grin at Jessing. “I thought you said her memory was fine.”
I glared at him. “It’s been nearly twenty years. Forgetting yer name doesn’t make me senile.”
The man turned back to me and smiled. “And there’s the sassy witch who inspired me.”
“Quite teasing her, Hart. I already made her angry this morning. She’s getting tense.”
“Hart?” I repeated, looking him over again. “Goddess bless, ya look nothing like ya used to look. No one would link that pale, hesitant magickal ya were with the magickal I see standing before me.”
I reeled in shock when he snatched me up and spun me in a circle, laughing the whole time. My enforcers were pushy and nosy and remembered me way more than I did them. I would hate every moment of their inquisition.
When Hart finally let me go, I breathed out in relief.
Finally, I looked at Jessing. “Let’s go to the main house. We can talk privately there.”
“We would like to meet your ancient ones,” Jessing said.
“Ya will, but the only one ya can talk to is Rasmus. Zara is a special case. She’s here for reasons I can’t explain to ya.”
“Your daughter already explained the female guardian’s presence to us. She is being punished by her people, and you volunteered to rehabilitate her.”
I shook my head. What else had my daughter shared with the world? “Fiona’s lips are as loose as ever, I see. The only secrets that child ever kept were ones about her father that she shouldn’t have.”
Hart and Jessing both laughed at my complaining. “Your child turned out well. Your mother is very proud of both of you,” Jessing said. “What manner of being has taken it on himself to magickly train her? His energy does not reveal his nature. Is he like your ancient one?”
“I want to answer yes. Others call him an angel.”
Given what I’d recently realized about fallen angels, it was safest to let them believe Tony was like Rasmus. They followed their own rules and found creative ways to bend them when necessary.
Dylan and I had both benefitted from Tony’s rule-bending efforts, but his far darrig family had disowned him. Because of that, I was still on the fence about whether Tony’s angel powers were a good thing or not.
Since the angel worked with my daughter and had saved my life, I wouldn’t let Jessing and Hart hassle Tony. The last thing I needed were two enforcer statues adorning my foyer, even if Henry and Gale would find it hilarious. I had already received mocking comments about the new statue of Ezra’s sister. Demons streamed by it and covered their mouths to hide their giggling.
To Henry’s credit, he hadn’t asked who’d done the honors of freezing the female who’d deceived him.
And speaking of the deceptive fairy...
My sigh was loud as we stopped at my front door. “So ya heard about the bowman who shot me with the arrow?”
“Yes,” they both said.
Jessing held up her hand. “The being was a product of a genetic human experiment which you attempted to thwart. You stopped some of them from being made, but not all. The details were in the report of the initial incident.”
If the owl shifter wanted to prove that she’d done her homework on me, she had succeeded. “Right. So, did ya also hear about the fairy who recently stabbed me?”
Hart and Jessing looked at each other before shaking their heads.
Hart reached out and patted my shoulder. “We were occupied with another task. Are you injured? Is that why you called for help?”
“No, I wasn’t injured, but only because my guardian intervened. He inserted himself and took the stabbing for me. I survived, but he was injured. The fairy did not escape—or not completely.”
Jessing put a hand to her chest. “It is good she did not succeed in her murder attempt. Many stabbings are fatal. I heard that fairies are well-trained in close combat.”
“Yes, well, my fairy assassin is going to tell ya she did succeed. Her version of events was thwarted by powerful magick. I can’t even fully explain it, but the Dagda stone helped me heal. The bottom line is that she made a solid attempt but failed to kill me. As a result, we have tightened our wards and confined ourselves to the compound.”
Hart studied me. “We heard rumors of there being a kill-for-power contract on you. We have yet to confirm the rumors.”
I nodded. They knew little more than I did. “Do ya know if it was taken out by the Fairy Folk? Or by a particular fairy?”
“Are you referring to Ezra of Airing Dale?”
“Yes,” I said. “If I could repeat either of our battles over again, I would kill him when he tried to kill me. Ezra never deserved the mercy he received.”
“Why did you not take his head?” Jessing asked.
“Fiona’s angel stopped me from killing him the first time. The angel was the one who froze him. Until recently, Ezra was a statue decorating my foyer. I thawed him out, and he tried to kill me a second time. Instead of ending his life, I took most of his stored magick and weakened him. What happened was accidental, but it allowed me to stop him. Ya know the rest.”
“Then you sent him home to Ireland and hoped the fairies would take him back,” Hart said.
Jessing grunted as she turned to Hart. “I’m sure she did so to keep from killing him. His vicious tongue is as sharp as a blade.” She turned back to me. “Hart and I never liked him. Ezra was our supervisor for a time. We did not agree with his methods. He took great pleasure in cruelty and used excessive violence. We are willing to do what is necessary, but we do not get pleasure from the pain of others.”
Coming from an owl shifter who had once preferred eating pixies to peacefully moving them, that was some harsh criticism.
“Yes, well, I told ya my story because I captured the stabbing fairy. And she may be related to Ezra. I haven’t been able to confirm her story about being his sister.”
“We can do that for you,” Hart declared.
“She lied her way into my home in order to kill me. I have her dagger. I cleaned all the blood off it to protect my and my guardian’s magick. It never occurred to me that I might be ruining evidence.”
“Things happen,” Hart said with a shrug. “Most magickals would have done the same.”
I nodded in relief. Maybe this wouldn’t be as bad as I feared. Or perhaps I needed to believe that. I’m sure I would have to draw uncrossable boundaries eventually.
Hart and Jessing followed me into the house with raised eyebrows. I held a hand out to the statue of my fairy assassin. “Here she is. She claimed to be Ezra’s sister.”
“She is in stasis. Who did this? Did you?” Jessing asked.
The owl shifter pondered the statue, leaning in to sniff the energy surrounding the female fairy. Did it have a smell?
Jessing pulled back. “I cannot identify it, but at the deepest level, it smells powerful and ancient. It also smells Chinese. I know that sounds impossible, but that is what I smell.”
“It’s not impossible. Yer nose is very good,” I said with a grin. “I work with a magickal who calls herself a Wu Shaman. She is a Chinese witch, slash demon expeller, slash holy woman. I’ve never met anyone like her.”
Hart looked at me in surprise. “Jessing’s nose is always right. I’ve never known her to be wrong. Are you saying your Wu Shaman put the fairy into the magickal stasis we’re seeing?”
I nodded. “Yes, but she doesn’t know how, and the magickal tool she uses won’t tell her. Her staff is like the Dagda stone. It’s powered by a type of old magick only the gods understand. She and I use our magickal artifacts for our own purposes without really knowing how they work. Her freezing the fairy before she could leap through her escape portal shocked both of us.”
“Can the Chinese witch do this to anyone?” Jessing asked.
“No, but she’d like to be able to. She’s tried to repeat the process but has failed consistently. She may be carrying a baby. If true, it might have been the child helping her that allowed her to do it. Please say nothing of the potential child to anyone. It is not yet confirmed, and the father doesn’t know. I told you in confidence so you’d know I’m not holding anything back.”
Hart smiled at me. “Jessing could tell with one sniff if she was expecting. One of our daughters can do the same. It was a gift my darling owl developed when carrying our first brood.”
My gaze ran between them. “How many children do ya have?”
I blinked when Jessing’s face turned pink.
“A baker’s dozen,” Hart said with a laugh.
I looked over at the owl shifter. “Thirteen children must have exhausted ya. I had my hands full with just Fiona.”
Jessing shrugged. “My family moved to Ireland to help with them. None of my eagle siblings have conceived. Hart and I produced an equal assortment of eagle shifters and witches. They’re mostly grown. His family lured our six witches to England with promises of learning secrets. My family insisted on working with the six eagles. Matilda was our only owl. We refused to send her away. She learns what she chooses to. Currently, your mother is teaching her to make potions.”
“Really? Ma never told me.”
This time, it was Jessing who reached out to pat my shoulder. “We understand your ex-husband wouldn’t let you return to the land of your birth. And then you were in prison and couldn’t return. Life in Ireland went on without you, but not like it does here.”
My sigh was loud and forlorn, but I couldn’t help feeling sorry for myself. “I never stopped missing it. Ireland is home.”
“I did not say those things to make you sad,” Jessing said.
“Oh, I know. And ya didn’t. What’s yer nose saying about me?” I asked her the question mostly to change the subject. I didn’t want to dwell on what I’d left behind. My life was here in Salem for another four and a half years. I’d given my word and signed the same in ink.
“You smell like ancient magick, Aran, but also strongly of a virile, human male. Underneath that is the energy of the gods that I recall from when I knew you before. I have smelled similar god-magick on your child but not any virile human males yet.”
“TMI, love,” Hart said as he watched my reaction.
“No, I’m glad she didn’t smell men on my daughter. I find it reassuring.” I shook my head at my answer and chuckled as my face turned pink. “Ya’re good at discerning a person’s secrets, Jessing.”
The owl shifter beamed at my praise.
“So, back to the fairy,” Hart said briskly, saving me from myself. “I’d like to talk with her.”
“That’s not currently possible. I can tell ya that she has an accent like mine, but she covers it up. The fairy came here pretending to be the lover of a centaur. When she stabbed me, her true self emerged. She’s full of hate, especially towards me.”
Hart tried to use his phone to take a photo of the fairy statue. His phone photos turned solid black or had only the background of the foyer visible.
“The magick must be keeping her from showing up. Perhaps it is some new fairy defense,” Jessing said.
Hart nodded. “We may have to get an artist to draw her.”
The energy causing her to be invisible might also be a kind that developed a necessary knack for hiding itself. I tucked this away as one more thing to share with Mulan when we spoke about what I’d learned.
“I know someone who draws well,” I said, snapping my fingers. “I think he’s in the library upstairs right now. Wait here, please. I’ll return shortly.”