Sebastian (Bowen Boys) (13 page)

“That was fun.”
He chuckled at her. “You know that in the past few days, I’ve arrested a doctor and a clerk, and I don’t even work for this town yet?”

“Yet?”
She nodded. “You took the job? That’s fucking awesome. The best news I’ve had all day. Congratulations. Is Walker happy?”

They were moving back within the next month.
They had decided to keep the house in DC for other things, but to move back here for good. He was excited. She’d been offered the chief of police job last week. The man who did it now was retiring soon. Of course, she’d have to run for it if she wanted it next term, but she would be a shoo-in. The life as a CIA director was too boring for her, she said.

“He’s thrilled.
Khan and he have been working on the clinic set up as well. They are spending a great deal of time together. It leaves me enough time that I can get to know my newest sisters-in-law. I like Ama.”

“Me too.” She laughed.
“The doctor? Did that pan out like you’d thought it would? I know that Doris was a little afraid to help you.”

“She did really well.
When she realized that all the nurses in the room with her were agents, she relaxed a bit. It also helped her to know that the meds he was going to put into her had been approved by Walker. She was getting a good dose of vitamins, not the shit he’d been giving her.”

Anderson had been feeding her
aspirin. Heavy doses of it, too, nearly ten times what a normal dose would be. The babies were simply bleeding to death from it, and her body was reject them. Aspirin was pretty lethal to all paranormals anyway, and to unborn children, it was toxic.

“I read in the paper that several more women have come forward.
That has to help in the case.” She nodded again, and he thought she looked distracted. “What is it? Something wrong?”

“Why do you smell like you’ve burnt something?”
She got up and leaned over him, careful not to touch him. “You do.”

Sebastian leaned back in his chair.
He had to tell her because he liked her and he needed to talk to someone. She looked at him with a raised brow, something he noticed that Walker did a lot, too.

“I’ve been talking to a demon.” She sat back down in her chair and crossed
her arms over her chest. “It’s not what you think.”

“Since you don’t know what I’m thinking
, why don’t you enlighten me? And just so you know, I heard about the visit from Bill the Cat.” They both started laughing. “Next time you see him, ask him where the names came from.”

“I will.”
He told her the entire story with the exception of the blood. He was still trying to work that one out. He looked down at the small mark in the middle of his palm and tried not to think about what it resembled. He was sure it wasn’t a pitchfork.

“So you don’t
know what help he needs?” He told her no. “Then he could want you to give him Ama long enough for her to have his kid.”

“No
, he said he didn’t want her. I believed him. He seemed…I was going to say he seemed scared, but I think he really was. Especially after he found out about the king and queen stuff.” She nodded. “If you want to know the truth, it scares me, too.”

“Me too.
I mean, I love you both to death, but I have all sorts of problems with thinking you guys are going to be required to leave us as soon as this thing with Wanera is over.” He and Ama had thought of that, too. “When is the ball thing?”

“Next week.”
He smiled. “We’ve been practicing with our wings. They’re pretty neat. Not terribly useful, but neat. I think little George got the biggest kick out of it. And I swear to you we didn’t take him off the ground.”

They had been playing with him in the yard and Ama had taken off while he held little George. He’d laughed so hard he’d nearly made himself sick. When they took him home
, he’d jabbered to his parents that he had “flyed.” It took them twenty minutes to assure Walker and Caitlynne that they hadn’t “flyed” with him anywhere.

After he’d agreed to give her a statement in the morning
, she went home and he walked around the store. Trevor watched him closely but never said anything, and he wondered if Trevor thought he was next, or that Sebastian might think he had helped Debby steal from him. It was nearly closing time when Trevor finally approached him.

“
Is she coming back?” Sebastian shook his head. “Good. Sorry, boss, but she was a bitch. I’ve never worked with a more controlling, lazier person in my life.”

“She was all that.
I had actually been thinking I needed a change of management anyway. You wouldn’t know who’d want the job, would you?” He hoped that Trevor wanted it but didn’t have a clue. “The pay sucks and the hours are long. But there is one perk.”

“Oh
yeah, what’s that?” Trevor smiled. “Is it that whoever takes it gets to be your number-one guy? Or is it something like we get to be best buds and I get to be invited to that nice house you have?”

“All the above.”
They both laughed and Sebastian smiled again. “Nah, the perks are that this person would get a bigger discount, and if he proved to me that he wouldn’t sit behind the counter and order others around and would actually sell, I’ll give him a percentage of his sales. But that part would be a perk, not for everyone.”

Trevor nodded. “And if I knew someone who wanted this job…when would he start? And how much more is the pay?”

Sebastian asked Trevor what he made now. He had accountants do the payroll stuff for him so he really had no clue. When he told him, he looked around the store.

“I’ll expect him to work as hard as he does now and he’ll have to be trustworthy.
Because as you can see from what happened today, I don’t put up with thieves.” Trevor nodded. “I could probably pay a good assistant manager…ten dollars more on the hour. But I want to make him understand he has to be worth it.” He thought about how many more hours he was going to have to put in because he was short one person. “And as soon as possible to start.”

“Good. I’d hoped you say that. And I can start tonight. If you want me.”
Sebastian smiled. “You do, I take it.”

“Oh yeah. And so you know, I would have gone twelve more bucks an hour.”
Trevor smiled.

“So you know, I’m going to make more
than that in sales for you. So stick that in your hat.” After agreeing to some smaller terms, Sebastian had an assistant that he liked and one he was sure was going to double his sales in a matter of days. He went home after they closed together, already making plans to start interviews in the morning. Life was good all of the sudden.

Chapter 1
3

Wanera was still sitting at his desk over an hour after he’d told everyone he was headed to bed. He couldn’t believe that he’d nearly gone to the human world and taken the queen of faeries for his bride. What an idiot.

The knock at the door had him picking up his pen so he could at least pretend he’d been working. When Bill walked in
, he put it down on the desk and smiled at him. Bill sat in the chair across from him and smiled.

“You know.”
Wanera nodded. “You are not mad that I went to talk to the lady faerie? She was most pleasant to me, and she is the one who gave me the tea. I so wish I had gotten the recipe. You would have enjoyed it.”

Wanera had had Sebastian write down what he had needed to get
, and the man had given him the tea bags. He had even told him how to mix it up. Apparently there was a steeping issue that some people didn’t get.

Wanera handed his friend the little box of assorted flavors and the container of sugar.
He’d even been gifted two mugs with the name “Bowen Computers” with a little computer on the side.

Bill was so happy that he told him they would have to try to make it.
Wanera pulled the little notepad out and told him how to go about it. Sebastian had been surprised that he’d written it down, but he had wanted it to be right. Wanera hadn’t said anything but he had a feeling that soon he’d have to either sell his little friend or hide him in the human world. He had a feeling he, himself, would be dead within the month.

The first cup of tea hadn’t turned out so well.
The water had been hot, but they had poured it over the tea bag a little too close to the fire, and the little handle thing that hung outside the cup had caught fire and nearly singed both their brows off before they got it out. With the second cup, they’d been a great deal more careful.

They each had three cups.
It had taken them to the third cup to figure out the sugar. The first cup after the fire they’d put in five tablespoons, and nearly had their bodies go into sugar fits. The second they’d only put just enough to fit between their thumb and finger, and had added little pinches until they liked it. The third cup they had put in one tablespoon and had loved it. They made a list for the next time one of them was in the human world.

“I like the chamomile. But I don’t care for the orange tangy.
It’s much too…I’m not sure. But I like the Earl Gray, too.” Bill nodded as he wrote it down. “Oh, and I don’t know about you, but the raspberry smells really good. Let’s try that the next time.”

“Do you think there are more flavors? I bet we could look it up.” They ended up in the epi
center and were laughing at some of the blends that people came up with. They both decided that they wouldn’t care for milk in their tea, and maybe they would try a lemon slice. After debating about it for several hours, they ended up ordering several boxes of tea from a website, as well as several mugs that they both liked. And, of course, they had to get mugs for all the others, too.

He was headed back to his room when he turned to Bill. “Thank you for this. I
didn’t realize that I needed a friend so badly until you walked in the door.”

“You are very welcome
, my lord. It was most enjoyable for me as well.” He stood there for a minute. “Sire, do you think she will wait the entire month that she gave you?”

“No. I think she’ll be back here in the next couple of weeks.
And in the morning, I’m going to make plans for all of you to go to the human world. Especially you. I don’t want her hurting you, and we both know that she will.” Bill nodded. “The man from today that I visited and the woman who gave you tea? They are the king and queen of faeries. I know that they will keep you safe. I know it. He gave me his name, and I gave him my blood.”

“You did?”
Wanera nodded. “That means he can come and go…you think he will harm us, my lord? Do you think he might be like Lady Darkness?”

“No.
No, I don’t. I think he is so far different from her that they would be mortal enemies if they were to go to battle. And I would bet that the king would win. He would have goodness on his side, something we don’t see a great deal of down here.”

“From you we do.”
That humbled Wanera. “You are a good man in a bad place. If you asked the Mistress of Darkness, do you believe that she would let you go?”

“No.
Do you?” Bill shook his head. “She’ll kill me. She doesn’t want to come here and run this place, and if she has to, she’ll kill me as payback. I really hate my life.”

“Not your life
, my lord. Never that. You simply hate where you are in it. But things will change. You’ll see. Things have a way of working around to themselves.” Bill nodded and walked away.

Wanera went into his room and thought that it might work around
, but he doubted it would work in his favor. Rarely did things work that way. He went into his bedroom and looked around. There were things there that he’d been given over the decades. Things from his...what he now considered his friends, like posters they’d ordered, movies he’d never watched, as well as books. He had hundreds of books. He pulled one down now and decided to reread it just for the fun of it.

As he was settling down in his bed
, he thought about what Bill had said. And he was right. He did hate where his life was right now, but wasn’t really sure what, if anything, he could do to change it. Life wasn’t about choices when you were a demon lord.

~~~

“Has he taken a bride yet? Or even tried to find him one?” Darkness paced along the floor and turned when the thing on the floor said something. “Sit up and speak so I can hear you. I swear to shit, you things are as useless to me as Wanera is right now.”

“No
, my lady, he has not. Neither found a bride or looked for one. There doesn’t seem to be any activity of him going or coming from the human world at all.” The thing dropped back down to the floor.

She couldn’t understand what the fuck Wanera was doing giving his things names. It was the stupidest thing she’d ever heard of.
Not to mention they were too stupid to remember them anyway. That’s probably why they had on those ridiculous name tags, so that they’d remember who they were when he called them. Still, why call any of them to you when you could have one or two of them follow you around all the time?

She felt the air stir and had just enough time to back away when her boss stepped into the room.
The thing she’d had in the room with her disappeared. She thought that he’d kill them, but the small scream still made her wince. She’d have to go and create more of them now. Always a time-consuming job. She bowed before him.

“My lord.”
She waited for him to give her leave to lift her head, but he only stood in front of her. After several minutes she began to think he was testing her, and stood as still as she could. Winning tiny battles with him was always a huge victory for her.

“You’ve been lazy.” Her head shot up
, then back down. “What have you done about the counts I told you I wanted doubled by the end of the period? I can tell you, nothing. There has even been a small decrease in counts.”

Her mind scrambled and she could come up with nothing.
She tried to think who was slacking, and no one was. All her subjects’ numbers were up over last quarter by three percent. She was trying to think of a way to tell him this when he started to speak again.

“Wanera’s numbers are the best so far.
He had an overall increase by nearly ten percent. While your numbers have dropped almost double that over the past two quarters alone.” She felt her hatred of Wanera boil over. “Maybe I should put him in charge and give you his realm. I know that you’d hate it as much as he does.”

“He does
, too. And he’s named his things. I was there a few days ago and he’s put name tags on them as if they were real. And he’s not found a bride. Nor has he tried to find himself a replacement for when I have to kill him.”

Her
heart began to pain deep inside of her chest and she put her hands over the area, only to wrap them around the unseen hand around her throat. Then she felt herself being lifted from the floor. She closed her eyes when her face was level with his, his eyes blazing red and hot. She whimpered when he shook her.

“Look at me,” he commanded
, and she opened her eyes. “You think you’re in charge now? You think you decide when one of my subjects would die? What gives you the right, nay the power, to think that you of all people would have the say in anything?”

He tossed her away
and then stomped to her. Darkness curled in the corner around the broken desk and paperwork. He lifted her this time with his hand, higher than before as he tightened the grip he had on her heart. He was going to kill her; now he was going to simply kill her.

This
time when he tossed her across the room, she went through a wall and hit the fireplace beyond it. Her body was broken in so many places that she doubted she’d be able to crawl from him, much less walk. When this time he picked her up, he did so by her leg and threw her harder against the stone of the fireplace. She lay there bleeding.

His finger came out and ran along her
face. The searing pain ripped through her, but she could only whimper again. He’d broken her jaw and she knew that speaking was going to be out of the question until she had time to heal herself. When he stared down at her, she knew that he’d marked her as one that could not be trusted. The long line of a scar would never heal over, and her face, her lovely face, would be ruined.

“When I say something to you
, you’ll do as I say, not as you want. Understand me?” She simply looked at him, unable to do more. “Starting tomorrow you’ll be replaced. I’m sick of your ways. And if Wanera names his beings and gets the results that he has, then perhaps all my subjects will need to follow his example. He gets the things I asked of him; you, however, do not. You are lazy and of no more use to me.”

He stood up.
His arms spread out and his dark wings fluttered slightly. But it was enough. The room’s contents were suddenly aflame and all her things, all her dresses and boots, her hats and bags, all the things that she’d loved, were burning brightly. She watched as her silk sheets melted off the fiery bedframe. The television burst and the contents spilled onto the charred carpet beneath it. She would bet that everything in the other rooms was getting the same treatment. When the fires began to die down, he knelt down to her again.

“One day
; you have twenty-four hours to get out of my sight and to the lower pits to work the coals, or I will do to you what you’ve threatened Wanera with.” He smiled at her. “I hope you don’t make the time, Darkness. The thought of peeling your skin off you an inch at a time, hearing you scream, begging me to end you, makes me hard as stone.”

When he stood this time
, he disappeared as quickly as he’d come to her. She lay there waiting for her body to mend itself, for all her bones to come together after being shattered and crushed, for her bloodied body to become whole again, the ragged cuts and tears to become seamless. She touched the open wound on her face.

“This is his fault.
Wanera went to him and told him what I’d done.” She sat up, still sore but healing much quicker now that the major injuries were healing. “I will not be put to work like a common whore. I will not serve this way, even if I have to throw myself into one of the hottest pits to avoid it.”

It took her two hours to heal to where she
could walk, and another three before she felt she could take on Wanera. The entire time she planned and worked out how she was going to take him down, thought gleefully on how he was going to scream and beg her for mercy. Her lips curled into what she hoped was a terrifying smile, and she thought about what she was going to do to that thing. The one that had dared all those decades ago to not acknowledge her when she’d walked into a room. He was going to be her first victim. That thing was going to regret the day that he’d ever met her. Both him and his master.

But first things first. She had to find
her things. They hadn’t all been killed by the master, she was sure of it. One or two would have felt him coming and hidden. She found one, injured, but not badly enough he couldn’t crawl away from her when she found him.

“Get up.”
He pointed to his left leg, where most of it had burned off. “If you can crawl away from me, you can do what I want. Find me that thing of Wanera’s that he treasures. The simpleton thinks that giving them a name will help him somehow, but I’ll show his fucking ass.”

“My lady, I cannot go to the other realm hurt. They will kill me.
” She flashed her heat at him before she could think. Killing him had been a great pleasure until she realized that now she needed to find another one and hold onto her temper.

The next one she found died as she was telling him what she wanted.
So did the next one. By the time she found two hidden away in the counting room, they were so terrified that they had wet themselves. Disgusting animals.

“Get to Wanera’s realm and find the one he uses the most. I think he calls him
....” She shivered when she thought of putting names to her things. “I think he’s called Dog or some shit. Bring him to me now.”