Wolves and the River of Stone (10 page)

Bubbles jumped and landed on my lap the instant I sat down again. “Oof!” I was instantly engaged in battle with the ten-foot tongue from hell. “It’s good to see you too, girl.” The cu sith poked her wet nose under my shirt and I yelped.

“I think she wants fudge,” Cara said as she took a bite out of the fist-sized chunk in her hand.

“Bubbles, down,” Nixie said. Everyone in the room stopped and stared as Bubbles jumped off my lap. “Now sit down and behave.” Bubbles plopped her rear right down and wagged her tail.

“Holy crap!” Foster said.

“Hell has officially frozen over,” Aideen said as she stared at the cu sith. “Why won’t you do that for me?”

Bubbles sucked her tongue in and cocked her head to the side before letting her tongue roll back to the floor with a wet smack.

Zola shook her head and said, “Enough. Let us discuss our problem.”

“Prob
lem?”
I said. “Just one?”

Foster hit me in the face with a wild toss of fudge. I laughed as it bounced off my cheek and disappeared before it hit the ground. I barely even saw Bubbles’s tongue move when it snapped out to catch the rogue fudge.

Nixie narrowed her eyes. “I think she’s part frog.”

Foster and Aideen giggled.

Zola sighed, muttered something about all Fae being the same no matter what bloody part of the world they’re from, and then said, “Fine, prob
lems.
Namely, Philip and his cult.” She twisted a pair of beads in one of her longer braids. “Secondly, the bloodstones and how to destroy them.”

Cara’s head snapped up. “Tell me you didn’t say bloodstones.”

“What’s a bloodstone?” Aideen said as she turned to Foster. “Do you know?” He shook his head.

“The book we read in the archive said they’re like a soulstone, only formed from demons,” I said. “Instead of trapping human soul fragments, it absorbs pieces of destroyed demons.”

Nixie nodded and I glanced in her direction.

“You’ve heard of them?” I said.

“Yes, they’re often red and quite beautiful, but they are cursed things. Most Fae won’t touch one since we are more sensitive to bloodstones than humans.”

“What do they do to you?” Zola said.

“They feel,” she paused to think, “alive. As if they’re trying to escape your grasp even though they are lifeless.”

I shuddered and thought of Zola’s demon dolls. Nasty, nasty, things.

Cara nodded. “It is also said they bring a curse against any Fae who is bold enough to touch them. It would curse you with misfortune far worse than you can imagine. Of course, it does not last long in the stories, as such a streak of misfortune tends to end in death.”

“But for humans?” I said.

“I’ve never heard of a human being cursed by one. For a Fae, though, the only way to stop the curse is to destroy the bloodstone.”

“Ah,” I said, “and that is no easy task.”

Zola gave me a sideways look with a small grin as I stole her words.

“Indeed, most of the damned end up dead before they can destroy the stone.” She paused and looked at Zola. “There hasn’t been a bloodstone recorded in decades. Where did you find it?”

“Ah made it,” Zola said without emotion.

Cara’s head jerked up. “How is that possible?”

Zola rubbed her cheek. “It is something of a long story.”

“Just give us the short version,” Foster said.

Aideen punched his arm and growled. “Respect, Foster. The fudge goes straight to your brain.”

Foster grinned.

“That is not a bad idea, Foster,” Zola said. “It was toward the end of the Civil War. A dark necromancer started a ritual to summon Tessrian to our plane. We came too late to break it. Now, though, Ah have to wonder if it was Philip that summoned the beast. Ah tried to warn Edgar and the Watchers about Philip’s cult, but they’re as thickheaded as Aeros.” Zola sighed and squeezed the bridge of her nose. “Never you mind that now. Tessrian though, Ah trapped her in a solitary crystal, a small soulstone.”

“I see,” Cara said. “So the demon itself, not merely a gathering of its remnants, was trapped in the soulstone. That would create a bloodstone instantly.”

Zola nodded. “Yes, but to destroy her bond to our plane, we have to destroy the bloodstone. And to destroy the bloodstone, we need a soulstone, the Devil’s Forge, and the Smith’s Hammer.”

Cara sat in silence for a moment. “It would make sense, binding a soulstone to the bloodstone in the Devil’s Forge, and using the Smith’s Hammer to destroy them both.” Her hand swept toward Foster and Aideen. “None of us can survive the heat of a volcano.”

“Nor would I ask you to try,” Zola said.

“I can,” Nixie said.

I raised my eyes to her as everyone else turned their heads. She was scratching Bubbles’s chin while she said, “I like the Devil’s Forge. The hot springs are always nice.”

“How can you possibly survive being close to the magma?” Cara said.

Nixie stopped playing with Bubbles and sat up straight. She looked between the fairies for a moment before speaking. “I like you all. And ... I trust you. I am a water witch, but that is a misleading name, and a name I dislike. I would like to share something with you, but it is not for the ears of others.”

“You have our confidence,” Aideen said.

“If you can’t trust your cousin, who can you trust?” Foster said around a mouthful of fudge.

Nixie smiled and nodded to herself. “Most of my people spend their lives in the water, that much is true, but there are many of us living below the surface of the earth. Our entire family is resistant to heat. That is an ... understatement,” she paused and smiled, seemingly amused by the word. “Some of our family lives in magma like others live in water.”

“How is that possible?” Zola said.

Nixie shrugged. “I don’t know, but I am also resistant to the heat of the Devil’s Forge.”

“I think I know,” Aideen said as she glanced at Cara. “It’s a story you used to tell us years ago.”

Cara frowned and shook her head. “I don’t remember.”

“Gaia’s children.”

Cara’s eyes widened. “No, that is a myth, nothing more.”

“What are Gaia’s children?” I said.

“In our stories, much like human fairy tales, forgive the pun, Gaia’s children were the offspring of elementals and Fae.” Cara looked back at Nixie and said, “The only problem is, no one I’ve met has seen an elemental, or knows if they even exist.”

I shook my head and said, “I thought all the Fae were considered elementals, no?”

Foster laughed. “No. The elementals Mom is talking about would eat demons for breakfast and give the worst of the old gods a run for their money.”

“As impressive, or maybe horrifying is a better word,” I said. “Yeah, as horrifying as that sounds, I guess it doesn’t matter right now.” I turned to my potentially half-elemental date for the evening. “Could you really survive contact with a river of lava, Nixie?”

She nodded. “Oh yes, I would not mention it if I wasn’t sure.”

“So, we just need a volcano,” Foster said.

“Oh, good, then I’m glad were in the middle of the Great Plains,” I muttered.

Nixie’s eyebrows furrowed as she said, “Why are you glad of that?”

Zola and the fairies laughed.

“He was being sarcastic,” Zola said.

Nixie nodded and reached for a piece of fudge.

“The fastest path will be the Warded Ways,” Cara said. “There aren’t any open vents close to us.”

“Even better,” I said with a grimace. The Warded Ways are like terrestrial wormholes. Wormholes from hell. I remembered a few years ago when Cara regaled us with a story about a Fae king who had the ability to create wormholes at will. The only problem was, the damn things were permanent and began to tear the world apart. It eventually led to the Wandering War and the death of the great king when he refused to stop making wormholes. In fact, it was Glenn who killed the king. After the war, Glenn used wards to seal as many of the wormholes as he could find. The Fae can open them when they need to and the world stopped falling apart, held together with magical duct tape. For his troubles, Glenn became the great and feared Lord of the Dead, Gwynn ap Nudd.

“Ah’ll speak with Aeros about the Smith’s Hammer while you two are at dinner,” Zola said. “If Nixie is still hungry after all the fudge, that is. Ah want to stop by the Pit and visit the archive again too. Cara, if you could find the nearest Warded Way to visit a volcano, Ah would appreciate it greatly.”

“That shouldn’t be difficult.” Her wings opened wide and closed slowly as she spoke.

“How are you getting to Elephant Rock?” I said.

“Ah’m not,” Zola said. “Ah don’t need to be there to talk to Aeros. We had to go there to get the artifact, but his own body is not so limited. Ah’ll call him from here.”

“Maybe I’ll put a sign out front and sell tickets.”

Zola snorted. “Yes, you do that.”

“Can I talk to him too?” Foster said. “I haven’t seen the old rock pile in years.”

Zola nodded.

Our conversation drifted away from demons and dark necromancers and focused more on fudge and all the other kinds of chocolate Nixie hadn’t tried. A few customers came in throughout our conversation, but no one needed much. I turned around an hour later as the bell on the front door jingled again and found Sam walking in with Frank in tow.

I smiled and hopped up out of my chair. “Hey sis!”

“I hear you have a date.”

I stopped with my arms halfway to Sam for a hug and raised an eyebrow. “Yes, I do, and please remember she’s in the back room and can hear everything you say.” I heard a lot of muffled laughter from the back.

Sam scowled and addressed the doorway. “I wasn’t going to say anything bad!”

Foster fluttered to the register and looked at Sam. “Uh huh, that’s like the sun deciding not to shine for a day.”

“It could happen,” she said sheepishly. She chuckled and gave me a hug.

I couldn’t help but watch her aura when she hugged me. It was so similar, but so different from the human aura she’d been born with. It had black and deep reds like a demon’s aura, but still retained the yellow and green pulses I remembered from when we were kids. She had always been a fighter, always adapting to whatever came her way. Becoming a vampire hadn’t changed that at all.

Frank waved as he walked toward the back room and then came to a screeching halt about two feet from the door. I saw his eyes widened and his jaw worked to speak. “H ... Hi.”

“Hello, journeyman,” said a soft voice.

I laughed. “Her name’s Nixie, Frank. Just say, ‘Hi, Nixie.’”

“Oh good, god,” Sam said as she took a few quick steps and gently smacked Frank’s head into the wall. A nice hollow thump echoed through the room.

Foster and Zola laughed as Frank rubbed his forehead. He turned around, blushing, and walked to the display case in the corner.

Sam sighed, shook her head, and said, “So, what are you up to?”

“Didn’t Vik tell you?” Zola said as she walked up beside the counter.

“A bit, but he’s still a little distant.” Sam’s eyes trailed to the back room. “He’s getting better, but he really took Devon’s betrayal hard.”

“Come on in and have some fudge. I’ll fill you in.” I turned toward Frank and said, “You can have some too if you stop ogling my date.”

“I wasn’t ogling,” Frank muttered.

Sam laughed, grabbed Frank’s arm, and dragged him into the back room. “Come on, I still love you.”

“Gag me with a shotgun,” I said as I followed them.

“Me first!” Foster said as he zipped through the door ahead of me.

We spent the next hour filling Sam and Frank in on everything we knew about the bloodstones, the Smith’s Hammer, Philip, and our pending travel to the Devil’s Forge.

“You don’t mind taking Zola back to the Pit?” I said.

Sam shook her head, “Not at all.” She took a bite of peanut butter fudge and turned to look at Zola. “You’re welcome to stay the night again if you like.”

Zola smiled, “It is much more pleasant than a hotel, and infinitely more pleasant than Damian’s couch.”

I coughed to hide a laugh.

“Good, let’s regroup in the morning,” Cara said.

“Frank’s taking me out for lunch,” Sam said. “So we probably won’t be here.”

“Going to snack on him in public?” I asked.

She narrowed her eyes at me, and Frank struggled not to laugh.

“No?” I said.

“No,” she said as everyone burst into laughter.

Finally, it was time for dinner.

W
e said our goodbyes and I walked Nixie out to the car for our trip to the restaurant. I opened the door for her and waited to be sure she had all of her hair safely tucked into the seat behind her.

“I’m out of harm’s way,” she said as I closed the door. I couldn’t help but smile.

We rode in silence to Highway 70 until Nixie said, “Where are we going for dinner?”