Not Just Another Fae (Vegas Fae Stories Book 4) (4 page)

We'd both been on the raid that freed Ella from her
imprisonment by the dark Fae's Mages. Which was good, as it made breaking the
spell and freeing them possible. But, now we're back to her having no time for
a relationship. Shit, I can’t win.

I should mention that there aren’t any real taboos about sex
among the Fae. Quite frankly, jealousy just doesn't exist. As a matter of fact,
some deals require more than just a handshake to close, if you get my drift.
Still, having been raised on this side of the magical fence, I still had a few
old fashioned human values. Which is not to say that I'm a monk or anything. I
have had a few encounters. But I just couldn’t hop into bed with every Fae that
was available, because that would be damn near every female Fae I'd ever met.

Then there was Diantha. She was a human. Although she'd been
enhanced by magic and granted what could best be described as immortality. Once
known as the Oracle of Delphi, I'd rescued her when she'd been stranded in the
form of an old woman without the amulet that gave her youth and beauty. You
don’t always get what you wish for when dealing with the Fae, which she had learned
the hard way. Still, she was my friend, and one of my staunchest supporters. We
were what you might call, friends with benefits, as well. But as to a long term
relationship… Well, let's just say that I doubted that was going to work where
she was concerned. But, back to the current situation. Like I said, he did have
a point.

"Nice place," she said a few minutes later as she
walked back up the hall. "And thanks."

"Anytime," I replied. "Sure I can’t get you anything
to drink?"

"I really do have some things to get back to," she
said as she reached the door.

"I understand," I said, following her back to the
driveway to open the gate.

She stepped up to the SUV and then stopped and turned toward
me. "Maybe a raincheck?" she asked with a slightly mischievous grin
on her face.

"I'd like that," I replied, and then gave her the
gate code. Okay, so maybe I am her type after all.

She got in the Tahoe and I watched as she started it up and
drove away.

"So what do you think?" I asked as I walked into
the kitchen to start the coffee.

"I think she likes you," Charlie said.

"Not about her," I countered as I opened a
cabinet. "The missing Weres." I rummaged around a bit, finally
settling on a white mug with the logo of one of my favorite local restaurants,
Fat Choy, on the front.

"Something was out there," he said. "I
thought I sensed it when we found the Were's fur and blood but now I am sure of
it."

"What is it?"

"That I do not know," he replied.

"Is it something evil?"

"Perhaps," he replied. "I do not know what
the creature is, only that it is old, and dangerous."

"And you didn't think to tell me this before?" I
said as I filled my cup with freshly brewed coffee.

"It is but a memory," he replied. "One that
took time to realize."

"A memory?"

"One of my sire's… or perhaps of his," he said. "I
do not know."

A memory of his sire's? Some kind of genetic memory passed
down between generations? Damn, that dog never ceases to amaze me.

"So what else can you remember?" I asked.

"Nothing yet. We must return after the rain if we are
to learn more."

Not much to go on. But I guess it was better than nothing.
Gaea's warning to Nikki suddenly came to mind. Unfortunately, I still didn’t
know what it meant. What was this thing part of it? What about the missing
Weres? Could they even still be alive?

Charlie woke me at zero dark thirty, which was a little
after 3:00 a.m. according to my cell phone. The rain had stopped. The sky was
clearing a bit and he wanted to go back out to see if he could find anything
more of the creature he believed was out there. I figured we had a couple of
good hours before sunrise, so I dragged myself out of bed and threw on some
clothes. With so little to go on, I had decided not to tell anyone of Charlie's
suspicions. There would be plenty of time to let people know if we actually
found something.

Armed with my Walther, seax, and of course, my sword, we
headed out to the car for the drive back to Cold Creek. The sword I carried had
been given to me by Ouranos, father of the Titans, after our battle with the
other High Fae, Marissa, on Olympus. It was the same sword carried by Cronus,
and later, by Zeus himself. Thanks to an Angel, I had learned how to
dematerialize and materialize it at will. A nice touch, as carrying a sword
around, or even just the hilt, could be problematic in today's society. My gun
and seax were easy to hide, but modern clothing just didn’t have all the loops
and folds necessary for concealing big weapons, especially in the Vegas heat.

A short time later, we were back on the road and nearing the
spot we had turned off earlier. At Charlie's direction, we went up the hill a
little farther to another access road. Unfortunately, this one was pretty wet,
but I was able to get far enough off the main road that my car wouldn’t be too
visible. Stepping out onto the muddy road, I waited for Charlie to come up
beside me.

"Well," I said. "It's your show. Which way
from here?"

"This way," he said, bounding off into the desert.
"Toward the tree line."

I may look fifty in my human form, but inside, I'm still Fae,
so running isn’t an issue. But even with the added power, jogging through mud
is not my idea of a good time. I followed Charlie along a muddy road that
bordered a wash, still full of water from the run off. He made a left into a
copse of trees next to a few boulders and stopped. Looking around, my Fae eyes
not hindered by the dark, I saw that we were above the elevation of the town,
and about halfway between it and the Lee Canyon road. In other words, in the
middle of nowhere.

He started sniffing and running around, as if trying to
reacquire whatever scent he had been tracking. Then stopped again near a rock
strewn area on the other side of the wash.

"Here," he said, stopping next to a pile of larger
stones.

Walking over, I saw what he had found. It was a leg... or at
least part of one. The foot was still attached but the leg had been severed a
foot above the ankle. No sword had done this. It looked more like it had been
bitten.

"It is from the male Were," he said, alert again
as he inspected the area around us with his senses.

"What the hell kind of creature is big enough to eat a
full grown Werewolf?" I asked.

I never heard if he answered, because a noise behind me made
me turn. I had a glimpse of something large, then I felt like I'd been hit by a
train and found myself flying through the air. The ground came up quick and I
landed hard. Getting up slower than I would have liked, I saw the thing as it
tried to catch Charlie. It was huge and towered over him. He ran between its
legs, just missing the large clawed hands that reached down to grab him.

It was some kind of Demon. Shit, it could have been
someone's bad dream for all I knew. It was like nothing I'd ever seen. It was
big. Real big. Maybe 15 feet tall, it reminded me of the Minotaur, but nastier looking.
It stood upright on its hind legs and had claw-like hands. They were rough and
prickly, which I had discovered when it smacked me aside. Its back was covered
in spiny protrusions from head to waist, and sported a long thin tail, with a
spiked tip that moved like a whip. The head was covered in some kind of thick
hair, which reminded me of porcupine quills, and its eyes glowed red as it
tried to find its elusive target. As big as the damn thing was, it was fast. But
what bothered me most was that I'd had no warning that it was here. I should
have sensed it. What the hell was this thing?

Running back toward Charlie, my sword appeared in my hand,
electric sparks rolling over the blade. As I passed the creature I swung, the blue
blazing sword biting deep along the creature's flank. With a thunderous roar,
it turned its attention from locating him to me. Faster than I believed a thing
that large could move, it lunged toward me. I turned to avoid it but its tail curled
around my leg and once again, I was tossed to the ground. As I tried to get
back up, I felt something burn, and looking down, I saw the creature's spiked
tail had cut me open from the hip to below the knee. Blood was everywhere and I
dropped back to the ground, burning pain coursing through my leg. Damn! Why
hadn't I worn my Fae armor?

Trying to stand again, my leg gave way. I did the only thing
I could think of and rolled onto my back. Pointing my sword at the creature I
summoned every bit of magic within me. Tesla would have been proud as I pointed
my sword like a gun, bright bolts of lightning shooting out from the blade, exploding
when they came in contact with the thing's hide. The creature roared loudly,
the electrical discharge causing it obvious pain. I felt myself becoming
weaker, my leg now feeling like it was on fire, but it had the desired effect.
The creature gave a last ear splitting growl and then simply began to melt, dissolving
into the ground. When the last of it was gone, I saw Charlie running toward me and
then everything went black.

****

I was still groggy when I woke up. Trying to focus, I
noticed I was in my downstairs bedroom and I had an audience. I tried to lift
my head to see what was going on, but all I got was a wave of vertigo, so I laid
back down.

"He's awake," I heard a voice say. It took a
moment before I realized it was Mal. I tried to focus as he leaned over the bed
and looked at me.

"What time is it?" I asked. "And what are you
doing here?"

Mal was one of my best friends. We'd worked on the force
together and since retiring, we both had P.I. businesses. Mal did mostly
computer security and recovery work and we referred business to each other on a
regular basis. He was human for the most part, but had enough Fae blood in him
to know what I was, as well as being Sendy's companion.

"You've been out of it for a couple hours. It's almost
10:00 a.m.," he replied. "Sendy brought me to you after Charlie
summoned her. You were passed out in the desert and had lost a lot of blood. But
you're home now. Just relax and let them work on your leg."

"How bad is it?" I asked, once again feeling the
pain from the wound. I glanced down to see a blonde woman wearing bloody gloves
performing what looked like surgery on my leg. Alf, the Imp, was observing her
progress. Still having trouble focusing, it took a moment to realize that the
person working on my leg was Jennifer, the Werewolf.

"What the hell is going on?" I asked. "And what
is she doing?"

Suddenly I felt something on my chest and Charlie's head
appeared.

"That was no ordinary creature in the desert," he
said. "She is here to heal you."

"It was a Gallu, a type of Demon," Alf said, his
head turning toward me. "This one has been able to remove most of the poison.
Once the rest is purged, you should begin healing."

"I don’t understand. Why didn't you call a Fae healer?"
I asked as I patted the big dog's head.

"You told us not to call the regular Fae," Mal
answered. "Charlie said the Weres had a doctor and said we should call
Martin. Alf offered to help as well, so that's what we did."

"I told you not to?" I asked, not remembering
anything after the creature had disappeared. "Why would I do that?"

"You said it might not be a good idea for the others to
know that you had been injured," he replied. "Made sense to me at the
time and Sendy was able to locate Martin and bring the Doc to us. So it seemed
like the right thing to do."

"I did?" I said aloud.

Although I didn’t remember, it kind of made sense. While I
wasn't that worried about my image, it wouldn't do to let just anyone know that
there was something out there that could inflict this kind of damage to me. No,
with my loss of status also came the loss of perceived power. While I had
already dealt with some of that; knowing that there was something out there
that could hurt me this bad would only encourage my enemies. Although I had
other friends I knew I could trust, I must have thought it was safer to hide
this, even from them.

Why had I'd told them to call Martin? I'd done something
similar for him before. One of his pack members had tried to make a move
against him by stealing an ancient scepter. It was a mark of office and its
loss could have hurt his position as leader. Only a few of us had known it was
stolen at all and I'd been the one to recover it. Word of that incident never
got out and I knew I could count on him to return the favor.

"Don’t worry," I heard Mal say. "Martin said
to tell you that his folks will not betray your trust and that you're not the
first non-Were she's worked on. From what I've seen, it looks like she knows
what she's doing."

"Where is he?" I asked.

"He went back out to where we found you," Mal
replied. "Sendy showed him where it was. He said he wanted to do a more
thorough search. Other than your blood and a few muddy prints, there was no sign
of the damn thing when we got to you and we didn't have time to look for more."

"I believe it hunts only at night," Charlie added.

"Okay," Jen said as I saw her stand up and stretch.
"I think that's the last of it. Let me irrigate it one more time and then we
should be good. You say I don’t need to stitch him up?"

"There is no need," I heard Alf reply. "Just
hold the skin together. It will heal quickly now that the dead tissue has been
removed."

Dead tissue? What the hell had that thing done to me?

"I wouldn’t have believed it if I didn’t see it with my
own eyes," I heard Jen say a minute later. "His tissues are regenerating
faster than I thought possible."

"Where did this Gallu come from?" I asked.

"I cannot say, but it is an ancient creature," Alf
said. "A predator as well. Its spines and bite contain a poison deadly to
both Fae and humans. Once infected, the victim will become paralyzed and is at
the creature's mercy. It is fortunate that you are one of the High Fae. That
was all that kept the poison at bay."

"He's right," Jen added. "It pumped some kind
of corrosive venom into the wound. Nasty stuff. I've never seen anything like
it. Fortunately, I was able to get it all. Your body started healing itself as
soon as the last of it was removed."

That was just one advantage to being Fae. It takes a lot to
kill us and we heal fast. Although to be honest, I was luckier than most. Being
a High Fae, my body could repair itself quicker than others of my kind. Of course,
that wasn't to say we were invincible. But it did make us pretty damn hard to
kill, unless you knew what you were doing. Which made me wonder where this
thing had come from, but more importantly, what the hell it was doing here? I
was going to have to talk to Nikki again about her conversation with Gaea.

"You're right, the pain is already fading," I said
to her, still little groggy. I was finally able to sit up without getting too woozy.
"Thank you."

"Don’t thank me," she replied, nodding at Alf. "Your
friend here told me what to look for."

"Yeah," I said, appraising the Imp, wondering how
he knew so much. "He's just a wealth of information at times."

"I shall take my leave now," Alf said as he picked
up the bucket. His wings flapped furiously as he started to lift it. "We
must burn anything the poison has touched. The sheets and clothing as well."

"I'll help with that," Mal said as he picked up a
garbage bag from next to the bed.

"Wait a minute," Jen said, pulling a towel and
other rags from under my leg and throwing them in the bag. Next, she carefully
pulled off her gloves and threw them in as well. Then Mal cinched it up and
followed the Imp out the door.

"I appreciate you fixing my leg," I said as she
turned back to me. "Alf may have told you what to do, but it was you in
there digging that crap out."

"Don’t thank me yet," she replied with a chuckle
as she sat down on the bed next to me. "You haven't seen my bill."

There was still pain when I laughed, so I laid back down.

"You need to rest," she said. "I know you're
some super Fae and all that, but I took a lot of crap out of your leg. Even
though it's healing, it's going it's take a while to fully mend. Try to rest a
bit. I'll let you know you when Martin gets back."

"Sounds good," I said, my eyes closing.

****

It seemed like only a moment later that she was calling my
name.

"Robert," she said. "Martin's here and your
leg is already looking a lot better. Do you think you can try and stand?"

"Might as well give it a whirl," I replied,
sitting up. There was no sign of the dizziness so I turned my body and placed
my feet onto the floor. Standing, I testing my weight. It was still a little
numb but other than that it seemed okay. I knew from past experience that it'd continue
to heal, so I'd just try to take it easy on it until then.

"Wow, I wish we healed that fast," she said as she
knelt down beside me, running her hand over the already disappearing scar. Then
a twinkle came to her eyes and a smile lit up her face as she looked up at me. "You
might want to put on some clothes before you go out there, though."

It was only then that I realized I was naked.

"Oops," I replied, trying not to blush. "Could
you grab some pants from my room?" I asked as I sat back down and threw a
sheet over myself. "It's just up the stairs.