Chapter 6
CHAPTER SIX
After Trefoil and Meadow went home, Kipa armed the security system.
I looked around for Raj, wanting to make sure he was comfortable in his new bed which was a large, fluffy bed big enough for a St. Bernard.
Raj wasn’t quite that big, but I wanted him to have plenty of space.
But when I peeked in the corner of the living room, I saw that he had already conked out and was snoring lightly, his favorite squishy toy cuddled under his chin.
Smiling, I closed the blinds. Next, I checked on the ferrets. Elise was staring out of the cage—a massive affair that gave them as much room as I could manage. There was a sadness in her eyes that worried me.
“Are you okay, Elise?” I asked.
She shivered, her sable-brown fur rippling. Templeton is gone.
Panicking, I reached for the latch. “What? What happened?”
No, she said, her words echoing in my head. I don’t mean he’s dead. I mean… He finally let go, Raven. He couldn’t hold on to his human side any longer. This afternoon he told me he was going to give in to the pull. That he’d be happier.
I opened the cage, peering beyond her. In the back, Gordon and Templeton were cuddling as they slept. They looked calm and peaceful. I held out my arm, and Elise crawled up onto my shoulder, then down into my arms. I carried her over to the table and sat, cuddling her.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I wish…”
Don’t say it, she said. We know you’ve tried. All these years you’ve tried your best. You’ve searched for an answer and you never gave up on us.
“I’ll still search. As long as you’re with me, I’ll try.”
I wanted to cry—the ferrets were special to me.
Decades ago, someone had cursed them, turning them into ferret form, and I’d found them out in the forest. I brought them home, and I’d been searching for a reversal spell ever since, trying to return them to their human forms. But each year it had been harder for them to resist the lure of sliding fully into their ferret forms. The hope and the memories had been so difficult for them to bear.
Gordon had given in first, and now…Templeton.
“I love talking to you, Elise. Try to hang on.”
Elise let out a sigh. I’ll try. For a while longer. But it’s lonely now, without Templeton. It would be so easy to just give in and enjoy life as a ferret—to forget about the past.
“If that’s what you want, please let me know first. But until you’re ready for that. I’ll continue to search for a spell to negate the curse. I can’t promise I’ll succeed, but I promise to continue trying.” I hugged her, and she stared up at me, a faint glimmer of hope breaking through the sadness.
I promise, she said. I think I need to sleep. Will you talk to me more? I know you’ve been so busy, but it might help me hold on.
I’d slacked off during my training—it had been so intense and such hard work. Feeling guilty, I nodded. “Every single day that I can, we’ll talk for a while. Now, sleep and rest. I’ll talk to you in the morning.”
As I returned her to her cage, I caught sight of Templeton.
He shifted, stretching and yawning before he curled up with Gordon again.
Elise slowly approached them, snuggling into Templeton’s other side.
She gave me one last look before closing her eyes and drifting off.
Teary, I latched the cage and whispered, “Goodnight, Elise.”
Kipa was waiting for me. His brow crinkled as I let out a sigh. “What happened? Everything all right?”
“Templeton let go. Elise is the only one holding on to who she truly is. It’s going to be lonely for her,” I said, pulling off my ankle boots. I shimmied out of my fishnet stockings and draped them over the back of my vanity chair. “I feel so guilty. I’ve tried so hard, but...”
Kipa wrapped his arms around my waist, leaning against me as he kissed the back of my head. “Is it possible there is no curse-breaker? Are some curses irrevocable?”
I rested my head against his chest. “I don’t know.
I suppose there are some that can’t be reversed.
I feel so bad for them—especially for Elise.
Should I just tell her that I found out it can’t be reversed?
Give her closure and let her go into her ferret?
Is it wrong to keep hope alive? It’s been so long. ”
“I can’t answer that,” Kipa said, spinning me around. “I can’t make that choice. All I can do is support you in whatever way you need. I’ll back you in whatever you choose to do.”
I thought about it for a moment, then slowly shook my head.
“I can’t lie to her, not even to give her some sense of closure.
I can’t stop looking until I know it’s too late.
” My sight blurred as tears welled up. I could handle the nastiest of monsters.
I could handle death. But when it came to the innocent—to those who didn’t deserve the shit that happened to them—it always hit home and made me want to cry.
Kipa gathered me up in his arms and carried me to the bed, where he laid me down. I let out a soft breath as he slid off his shirt, then his jeans. His cock rose erect as he watched me. He closed his fist around his shaft and squeezed, and I shuddered, leaning back to spread my legs.
“I want you,” I whispered. “I need you now.” I slid my hands over my breasts, squeezing them and then pushing them together as Kipa’s breath quickened. I was such a tangle of sorrow and desire that it was hard to separate the two.
“Close your eyes,” Kipa ordered. “Stay still.”
I did, welcoming the velvet darkness that surrounded me when I obeyed.
As I lay there, he began to stroke me with his tongue.
I caught my breath, trying to keep from moving.
Ripples of desire raced through me, sparking the fire between my legs.
It raced through my body, from head to toe, awakening every fiber of my being. Shivering, I let out a soft moan.
“Quiet,” he said, his voice strong and commanding.
I held my cries in, trying not to break the growing silence.
I jumped as he lowered his head between my thighs and began to lick, circling my sex, playfully nipping.
Before I could sink into the sensation, he slid his fingers inside me, and I tightened around them, gasping as he began to thrust with them, teasing me higher.
“You’re wet,” he whispered. “Do you want me?”
I nodded, biting my lip, trying to keep from crying out.
“Then speak. You want my cock deep inside you, girl?”
“Yes,” I tried to control my breathing. His musk filled my senses. All I could think about was Kipa and his cock, I wanted to ride the wolf.
“Come inside me,” I whispered. “Please. Please come inside.”
“You need a good fuck?” Again, his voice bordered on the feral, and I could feel his inner wolf breaking through to claim me. “Tell me, should I fuck you? Should I mark you as mine?”
I opened my eyes to find him staring at me with ragged lust. He let out a growl as a wicked smile crossed his lips.
“Fuck me, my Lord of the Wolves. I need you.” I threw my arms around his waist, trying to pull him down into me. “I’m yours—only yours.”
Kipa laughed, feral and wild. “Then open yourself to me—body and soul.”
I thrust upward as he plunged, driving himself deep inside me, filling me with every inch.
Squirming, I groaned, grinding against him as he lowered his head to take my breast in his mouth.
Every touch was fire. Every touch was a spark, lighting the kindling until it caught hold, eclipsing everything else.
As he penetrated every corner of my being, I let go and began to soar.
And together, we blazed through the night, my sadness vanishing in a sea of passion.
Morning came, and Kipa was already up and making breakfast when I woke.
I took a shower, then—after a glance at the weather forecast—found a simple knit dress that was still goth-cute.
Black with grommets and buckles on the shoulders and sides below the bust, the dress also had a corset-top with laces.
But it was cool and lightweight, and I wouldn’t fry in it.
We were supposed to hit the mid-eighties today, which I wasn’t looking forward to.
I put on my makeup—heavy eyeliner and shadow, and pale lips—and brushed my hair back.
But it was so warm, I decided to pull it up into a high ponytail.
It fell to my waist, a deep brunette with purple streaks.
My birthmarks on my arms were showing, but they were beautiful and I seldom ever tried to hide them.
Raj was waiting for me to turn on the TV.
I had the feeling his former addiction was two shakes away from returning, but right now I didn’t have the heart to squash his excitement.
He so loved his ‘TV friends’ and, even though we’d had several discussions about how they were make-believe, and that it was okay to love them but we needed to understand the difference between fiction and reality, it never seemed to fully click.
To him, they were real, and he laughed when they had fun, and he mourned when they were hurt or got into trouble.
Raj had several powers, but they seldom emerged. I had thought being around V?in?moinen might help them emerge. But the ancient bard had told me that—with gargoyles—their powers couldn’t be rushed. Eventually, Raj might gain some control over them, but that was a long way off.
“Raven and Kipa have to go to work. If Raj is a good gargoyle, Raven will take him for a walk in the UnderLake Park when she gets home,” I said.
Raj danced around, almost knocking over an end table. “Raj loves walks. Raj loves the park. Will Kipa come too?” Raj had become bonded to Kipa over the past few years, though not anywhere as strongly as he was bonded to me.
“Kipa might,” Kipa said. “It depends on how work goes for Kipa today—but he’ll try. Now, Raj should eat his breakfast while Raven and Kipa get ready for work.”
With a butt wiggle, Raj obligingly headed over to his bowl and began to eat.
“You look ready for the weather,” Kipa said, giving me a kiss. “Enjoy last night?” he whispered.
“Always,” I said. “What’s for—ooo! Waffles.”
“And eggs and sausage. Come and eat now.” He led me to the table, where we proceeded to eat breakfast. “You think we’ll have to interview families today?”
“Probably—oh! I just remembered the information that Trefoil emailed me last night.” I pulled out my phone, but Kipa held up his hand.
“Remember our agreement?” he asked.
I sighed and pocketed my phone, turning my attention to my breakfast. We didn’t have our phones in Kalevala. At least not usually, and only select messages managed to make it through to the Other Realms, usually from the gods, meaning my mother, who served the Morrígan, and then Herne and Ember.
When it came time to return, we had agreed to keep up the tradition of an electronic-free breakfast, where we could sit and talk together unless we were running late.
“All right, so what do you think now that we’re back after almost two years?” Kipa asked. “The city seem any different?”
“It’s recovered more than I thought it would.
I wonder just how that’s going—I’ll have to ask Ember.
” I shuddered, remembering the massive battle between Typhon and Echidna and how they had managed to send Ember, Angel, and me into the realm of Caer Arianrhod, leaving us to find our way back.
It hadn’t been quite as personally traumatic as my run-in with Pandora, who had taught me exactly what torture felt like, but it had traumatized the city and forever changed the race of the Dragonni.
“I think there are still dragons around, but they don’t make themselves quite as known.
Not now that they’re mortal. I mean, it takes a fuckload of firepower to take down a dragon, but they can be killed now,” Kipa said.
“I think the city feels both more open and yet…there’s a tension that I sense.
A fear…I don’t know what it is, but it’s an underlying thread that I sensed when we returned last time, and now—this time—it’s even more pronounced. ”
“I don’t think I’ve noticed it. What do you think it is?”
“I’m not sure, but I feel like something gritty and darker is coming and people are trying to prepare for whatever it is.” He shrugged. “Maybe I’m just blowing smoke out of my ass, but I think…something’s looming, Raven. And we’re back just in time to see it unfold.”
Kipa didn’t often talk about premonitions or omens, so this concerned me.
I decided to have a talk with Ember as soon as I could.
Meanwhile, it was time to leave for work.
I finished my waffle while Kipa made sure Raj’s lunch was ready.
And—after turning on the TV and giving Raj his favorite toys—we headed out for work.