Chapter Two #2
Felicity’s brow furrows as she looks at me, up and down. “If demon exist, what else exists?” she finally asks.
I can’t help but smirk at her. “That’s a loaded question, Princess,” I tell her. “I couldn’t possibly list them all…well, I could, but it would take way too much time.”
“Fine,” she clicks her tongue. “Vampires?”
I shove my hands into my pockets. “Yes.”
“Werewolves?”
“Indeed.”
She pauses for a moment and then her eyes go wide.
“Angels? God? Is the Christian God real?” she perks up, eyes and body language curious and excited.
“I’ve never truly believed, I find myself more drawn to the earth as a deity honestly, but if demons exist…
” She’s rambling and something warms in me.
Do I find this cute?
No, surely not.
I shake the feeling off.
“Angels, yes,” I reply. “God? That’s a bit more complicated.”
“Let me guess, too complicated to explain right now?” she asks with a raise of her brow and a look of disappointment on her face.
“Correct. It’s time for me to take you to Madam Daeval,” I inform her.
She tightens the robe around her body. “She sounds…intimidating, she’ll help me figure out what I am?”
“She will. It might take a while, so the sooner we get there the better,” I step forward and grab Felicity’s arm, prepared to open another portal.
“Wait! I need to get dressed!” she insists. “Do you have…any other clothing? I don’t want to meet this…whatever she is…in my pajamas, much less a robe.”
I grumble and shake my head. “Do I look like I keep women’s clothing lying around in every size and shape for every occasion?” I ask her.
She flinches and I instantly regret it.
I sigh. “Fine, give me a moment.”
I disappear from the room in a flash, and when I return, I’m holding a dark red dress with puffy sleeves and cinched waist. “This is all I could find in your size.”
“It’s beautiful!” Felicity gasps. “It’s like right out of a movie.” She smiles widely, and I feel like I’ve done something good.
Should I care about that?
I try to ignore the pull I feel toward her. The desire to pull her into my arms, and not only sink my teeth into her luscious flesh, but kiss her. Kiss her hard and deep.
Felicity seems unbothered by my presence, unlike most humans typically would while getting dressed.
She peels off the robe and I see her in all of her naked glory. Her soft curves, her breasts that slope downwards naturally and every little dimple on her round ass.
“I might need help,” she tells me.
I can’t take my eyes off her.
Not until she’s pulled the dress on, but cannot lace up the back.
“If you insist,” I say slowly. I step over to her in the gown that perfectly accentuates her hips with its long skirt, and start to pull on the laces at the back.
“How old are you?” Felicity asks me. “And are you…well, you’re a demon, but are you a man?”
My heart squeezes in my chest, and as she turns to look at me after I’ve finished lacing up the back, I see that she has not a single hint of malice in her expression.
“Yes, I am a man,” I tell her. Saying those words causes a rush from my tail to my head.
“You’re…” she stumbles over her words for a moment, her face flushing. “You’re very handsome.”
I can’t help but reach out and brush one of the half-dry tresses of her hair behind her ear. “You’re beautiful, Felicity.”
“Thanks, Merc,” she smiles. “I can call you Merc, right?”
My expression falls. “If you must.” I sigh and grab her arm. “Let’s get going.”
Felicity stumbles over her own feet as I open up the portal in front of us and pull her forward.
“Not this again, they make me dizzy!” she complains.
I roll my eyes, but then think for a moment. How long would it take to get to Madam Daeval’s if we didn’t use the portal? Far too long.
“You’ll get used to it,” I insist. “But I’ll let you step in instead of pulling you. It’ll feel more natural.”
“If you say so,” she says and then steps forward into the portal.
I watch her move. The way dress billows out around her hips and ruffles in the magic of my portal.
I can practically taste her as she walks in, and then, disappears.
I follow behind her and the next second we’re standing in front of a storefront back on her plane of living.
“Nope, I don’t think that made me any less dizzy,” Felicity says as she puts a hand on her head. She looks wobbly on her feet.
I find myself stepping over and putting my hand on the small of her back.
“Are you steady?” I ask her.
She places a hand on my other arm and nods. “I’m okay now. This is it?”
As if we aren’t standing in front of a darkened storefront in a seedy alleyway with the words Madam Daeval in golden letters that are usually illuminated on a banner.
“Yes. She’s not going to like my being here…she prefers to stay neutral to the crime syndicates, but she’s the only one who might be able to tell you what you are,” I explain.
“Might be? I thought you said she would be able to, for sure?” Felicity asks with furrowed brow.
“I’m hoping so, but it could be more difficult than that,” I tell her. “After all, I can’t discern what you are…just that your blood is like…mmm golden honey is to a bee.”
I see her skin grow darker in the dimness. “Okay, but you don’t get to taste it until I know what I am.”
I glare at her. “I know, I know.”
I turn around and lead Felicity down the alleyway to the side door of the business.
“Is she even open?” Felicity asks.
I smirk. “She will be.”
With several raps on the door, I see a light flick on casting underneath said door. A slight grumbling can be head on the other side before the locks click and the door pulls open just a fraction of an inch.
“Who is it? I’m closed for the evening,” Madam Daeval insists.
“It’s Mercurius. I need a favor,” I tell her.
“Mercurius…I thought you didn’t need help from mere witches,” she sneers at me, but there’s a humor in her voice.
“I don’t, usually…” I say slowly. “You owe me, remember? I got you the tongue of—”
“Okay, okay. Don’t go airing my business in the open!” Madam Daeval opens the door and reveals herself. A woman who looks no more than twenty years old, but is older than most humans by five or six times.
“Who is that?” she says quickly, looking alarmed when she lays eyes on Felicity.
“My…it doesn’t matter, she needs your help,” I say and shuffle inside with my hand around Felicity’s wrist.
Felicity tugs away from me, and looks around the room at all the jars and bottles of natural and supernatural body parts, herbs, and fungi.
“I’m Felicity,” she tells Daeval and doesn’t seem to shy away from any of the things many people would find disturbing. She barely flinches at the sight of a human hand in a jar just a couple feet from her head.
“I thought you were the one who needed the favor,” Daeval croons and folds her arms, looking at us both curiously.
“It’s for her, and I…hold a stake in the matter,” I say as my lips curl upwards slightly.
“Very well, come here then,” Daeval motions to Felicity.
Felicity steps closer. And reaches her hand out to Daeval when she reaches toward her. I watch as Daeval holds her hand and flips it over a few times, running her fingers up and down her arm.
“Hmmm,” she hums out. “What is it you seek? Your future, your death?”
“Neither,” Felicity insists. “I just…want to know why I am the way I am.”
Daeval tilts her head to the side. “Whatever do you mean, child?”
Felicity laughs. “Child? I think I’m older than you.”
“Looks are deceiving,” Daeval reminds her. “I’m old enough to be your great, great, great, great, great, great grandmother.”
Felicity looks at her with wide eyes. “Really?”
“Really…now, can you explain what you need me to do?” Daeval asks. “I was just about to drink some tea.”
I lean against a wooden beam nearby that bisects the room. “She wants to know what she is,” I say. “She’s clearly not human, I know that from her blood.”
I expect that Madam Daeval may have to do a few tests, maybe draw some of that blood to use in a spell to figure out what Felicity is. We could be here a while.
And I said she wouldn’t be a distraction…
Possessiveness looms all around me as I watch Daeval still holding her hand and practically caressing her arm.
Madam Daeval suddenly laughs however. “Are you ill?” she asks and then continues laughing. “You really don’t know?”
Felicity blinks. I blink.
“What?” we both say at the same time.
“I thought it was quite obvious, but…I suppose I can ask a few questions,” Daeval settles herself and clears her throat. “Are you drawn to either the sun or the moon?”
“The moon. I love moon bathing, the sun gives me headaches and I get too hot,” Felicity explains.
“I see. And do you have any dreams that seem to come true?”
Felicity gasps. “Yes! I thought I was just…” she waves her hand around. “I don’t know, but at least a third of my dreams come true at some point.”
Madam Daeval nods. She reaches into the pocket of her apron and pulls out a pin. “This will only be a prick.”
I swallow hard as I watch Daeval turn Felicity’s hand over and prick one of her fingers. The way Felicity gasps slightly makes my blood boil inside of me.
“Calm down, demon,” Daeval mumbles. “It’s just a pin prick.”
I growl in response. “Just tell us.”
Daeval swipes that droplet of blood off Felicity’s finger and rubs it around between her fingers before she pats the palm of her hand.
“Yes, just as I thought. You’re fae.”