The Interloper Bk. 01

I nodded numbly as four other witches knocked me aside and water splashed my pants, soaking into my skin.

"What do I do?" The words seemed forced from my throat, not entirely of my own volition.

Was this a panic attack? No, no, I had one of those in the bug infested cave when I almosted died. This was . . . helplessness, my mind supplied. This was what being helpless felt like, because I knew there was nothing I could do for Fever.

And then she screamed. One that begged for the pain to go away, to stop, and for the person she loved to be with her. I knew the sound, and I knew what to do.

Cherry. Probably Duke. I needed to get them.

I ran like there was fire on my ass.

***

Seven hours later, sitting on the cold, wet bamboo my knees drawn up outside of my room with a violently angry Caster, a tight-faced Duke, his wife, and their two kids, I was exhausted. Everyone in the compound came to see Fever after word got out, but Cherry turned them all away, and when Fever needed her significant other, Duke had taken over the job. Still, the people hadn't come empty handed and hundreds of well-wishing gifts of potions, food, and other things I couldn't name lined the corridor for what seemed like miles.

"I know this isn't the best time to say so," Duke started. He sat on the other side of the wall, his back pressed to the ruined sheet coverings with his wife curled into his side, their arms wrapped tightly around the two sleeping girls between them. "But Fever and Blue were working on the missing persons' case. We've had opie-janet disappear so far."

That many? Holy hell. I'd heard snippets about the case here and there, but I hadn't really paid attention. 24 though? That was . . .

"You want us to take over?" Caster growled, fists clenching and unclenching at his sides as he stomped across the creaking hallway like a child having a tantrum. I still wasn't sure why the incubus was here, other than to show solidarity for his fellow demon CEM. Whatever the reason though, I'd discovered something else about Duke and Caster during the few hours we'd been together: they hated each other's guts.

"The other envoys all have their tasks and while I could pull them away, they're already deep into their assignments," Duke whisper-growled, eyes narrowed with his fangs peeking out from his lips. "You're the only ones without anything in depth or pressing."

I knew why. I was still a human, and no matter how fun and interesting the last month had been, my loyalties still remained with my country on Earth.

"But if this is so important, why not pull together the citizens?"

Duke looked at me, his eyes drawn. "Not everyone would be able to set aside their grievances to solve this issue. I would have contacted the individual Churches but those who have gone missing are from all over." Duke sighed. "I'm not asking if you want this assignment, I'm giving it to you. You will start tomorrow."

Actually all I had to do tomorrow was eat, sleep, and go to the bathroom. The whole patriarchal side of this world was really starting to grate on my nerves, and I was about to rip Duke a new one that was equal parts pissed off feminist and tired, angry bitch when the tapestry to my room slid open.

Ship stepped out in her damp orange dress smeared with purple slime and other things I wasn't too sure about. Her headpiece was skewed, tendrils of blonde hair falling out and clinging to her sweat soaked skin. She looked worn, but there was at least a smile on her face. "We stopped the water. Fever is safe."

"And the egg?" Duke's wife asked softly. I think those were the first words I heard her say. After I'd burst into Duke's family dinner, past his guards, and told him about Fever, the vampiress had calmly gathered her girls and come with us. She'd sat and held her husband's hand through the worst of Fever's screams and the terrifying gasps that had followed.

Ship turned to the vampiress and nodded. "We were able to save the egg, too."

There was a collective sigh of relief, one I felt down to my toes. I scrambled up from the floor and hugged the hell out of the Ship. Fever had been my first friend here, and even though I'd only found out she was pregnant a few hours ago the fact that she and her child were safe was one of the happiest moments of my life. "Thank you so much, Ship," I said, squeezing harder.

She returned the embrace with far less force. "It's all thanks to you, Tilly. If you'd have waited, Fever and the egg would have died."

I felt a warm hand on my back and pulled away from Ship to see Caster crowding my space. His dark eyes were unreadable, but they were pretty much always that way. The only hint that anything was going on with him were the near violent swirlings on his midnight skin. He looked like the Van Gogh painting The Starry Night come to life with far little less stars and a whole lot of night.

My lips parted to maybe ask him to take his hand off me or what was wrong—I'm not sure—and he hugged me. It wasn't the I'm-trying-to-unhook-your-bra type of hug either, but a genuine one of relief where his muscles sagged and his voice came out a bit shaky. "Thank you for saving my cousin."

The hesitation I'd felt when he first touched me dissipated, and tentatively I wrapped my arms around him and hugged him back. I wanted to say something that would calm the shaking in his muscles, stop the rapid fire beating of his heart against my chest, take away the worry and panic that had eaten at him for hours, but I was stunned. Fever and Caster are cousins? They don't look related at—

My thoughts stopped as I took in a deep breath. Caster smelled so good. The kind of good that made a girl loose her panties and her mind in the same breath. And he felt good. Thick, corded muscles, strong arms enveloping, surrounding, conquering me. Wetness raced from between my legs and down my thighs as I moaned and writhed against him.

"Pull back, Caster," someone called from a distance. "She is not yours."

Caster's answer rumbled through me as something solid and cool greeted my back. "She is."

"She's lost!"

"No," Caster whispered, dipping his head low. "She's found."

His kiss was equal parts gentle and brutal. He sucked my lips playfully before nipping them with his teeth, and parting them with his tongue. The demon didn't taste right either. Not that the taste was wrong, but it was too good. As if this was what I'd been waiting for all my life. Caster's arms around me, his tongue in my mouth, all felt too right and too normal and not at all like the near-forced attraction back at the cave. Caster felt . . . right. A salve to an ache I never knew I had, but one that I was now painfully aware of.

I tilted my head back, drawing him deeper, lengthening the kiss. "More," I gasped, letting my arms roam across his back as I tilted my pelvis and tried to take him inside my body through two layers of clothes. I could do it too. I knew I could. We would fit.

Suddenly I was cold, freezing, and Caster wasn't in reach. I stumbled, falling onto the went bamboo flooring as shiver after shiver wracked my body. They were the shivers tinged with pain, like needles being driven all over my skin in waves. My soul had been ripped from me, all the happiness in the world torn and shredded down the middle along with all I was.

"I warned you," someone whispered viciously. I looked up to see Duke looming over a dazed Caster sprawled on the floor. "I could kill you for that."

Caster shook his head like a dog coming in from a rain pour. "She didn't say no."

"You didn't give her a choice."

"Because I had one in this?"

"She does not know better."

"She can learn," Caster growled.

"She is human."

"She is mine."

Duke's wife removed herself from her children, and for the first time that night came over to me and set a cool hand on my shoulder. "Are you alright?"

If I could follow the conversation Duke and Caster were having at all, then no, I wasn't great. "Could be worse." It could always be worse.

Ship was beside me in the next second, though concern wasn't exactly what she was throwing off, more annoyance than anything. The look she gave me was weird, hard. "Idiotic demons," she hissed, shaking her head.

Ship helped me up with a supporting hand while Duke's wife untied the scarf around her neck. There was a grisly scar where her neck met her shoulder, like she'd been bitten by a wild animal and it'd tried to take out half her throat. "Here." She wrapped the scarf around my shoulders and rubbed her cool hands up and down my arms. "Better?"

To say I was surprised was an understatement. If not for her strangely hued eyes and the fangs peeking out from her lips, I'd have thought she was human. "My name's Penny." Not a totally uncommon human name.

"You're a vampire?"

She smiled and removed her hands as Duke continued to yell at Caster who was beginning to yell right back. "Now I am."

The way she said it was a might too cryptic for me. It was sort of like a parent saying, "Don't go into the basement." Not because there were dangerous tools or no lights down there, but because the dead bodies stacked in the corner would freak me out and then I'd have to join them.

I turned and glanced at Ship. Bad idea because she was looking at Caster and Duke like she wanted to strangle and kiss them. Awk-ward. "Can we see Fever now, Ship?"

The witch turned back to me and her look softened. "Yes, but she's still a bit drowsy. I can give you five minutes."

Penny gripped my hand and led me into what was now Fever's room. With the water damage and the slime coating everything, there was no way I was sleeping here. We found Fever on the bed with Cherry laid down beside her. Her eyes were closed and she looked worse for wear. But there wasn't a weird yellowish tint to her skin and she wasn't leaking from every orifice now.

Releasing my hand, Penny went and knelt beside the bed. "Fever?" she queried quietly.

The fire demoness stirred and shifted her head. "Hey, Pen." Her gaze was a bit cloudy, but when it touched me her eyes seemed to clear. "Tills . . ." her voice cracked, "Thank you so much."

Tears rushed out of my eyes as I nodded my head. "No thanks necessary. Just make sure it doesn't happen again."

Her laugh was wane. "Can't make any promises."

We didn't stay past the five minutes because Fever could barely stay awake for two of them. Cherry thanked me and Penny before crawling back into bed beside his woman.

As we left Fever and Cherry, Penny stopped me with a soft hand on my arm. "Would you like to stay with Duke and me tonight?"

"Yes," I nodded quickly. "Yes, thank you. That would be so great. Let me just pack a bag."

CHAPTER EIGHT

Duke was still agitated the next morning over breakfast. Whatever fight he and Caster got into had definitely soured him. On the plus side, his family made up for it.

"But Mrs. Rose says that the Dragon Rising wasn't really about dragons, but djinns," Cream, the older of the twin girls by three minutes (she'd proudly told me seven times) gushed around a bite of food. "Have you met a djinn yet? Daddy says that they're all on Nagios because djinns are demons. But Fever's a demon and she's here so I think they're djinn here too. I haven't met one, but I will next week! We're going to Turning to see the Point djinn sect."

If she took a breath, I didn't see it.

"Cream," Penny said to her daughter, laying a gentle hand on the girl's shoulder. The girls looked like the spitting image of their mother, all pale cream skin, round faces, high cheekbones, Cupid's bow lips, wide amber eyes, and thick brown hair that curled at the ends. "I want you and Chlorine to get ready for school."

There was a brief moment when mother and daughters had a silent battle of wills before the little girls dutifully hopped down from their seats and left the room through a side door. The maids came in a second later to clear the girls' plates, brown uniform skirts dragging softly against the stone floor the only sound in the room.

I took that moment to breathe and digest. There hadn't really been time for that this morning. The girls had woken me up, much to the chagrin of their nanny, by jumping on my bed and singing a song that really didn't translate right. No time for me to get a shower or change, but at least I'd been able to brush my teeth and wash my face so I only looked shitty instead of awful. Which still made me completely out of place in the dining room. It wasn't formal or anything, but with the red colored stone work that graced the floor and walls and what I could only assume was green wood for the high beams and the table and six surround chairs (their designer had an interesting vision), the place looked way too nice for my crusty jean-like pants and t-shirt.

"Penny, would you leave us?" Duke said politely, setting his napkin on his empty plate. The vampire looked normal in his customary suit and tie, the only appearance of his stressful night being the slightly paler tint to his skin and the dark bags hanging under his eyes. Dude needed blood like I needed a shower.

Smoothing a careful hand down her maroon bandage dress, Penny nodded and rose. "I'll go help the girls get ready."

An ominous silence settled over the breakfast table as the click of Penny's heels faded. "I meant what I said yesterday, Tilly," Duke began, "You and Caster will take over the missing person's case."

"Okay."

"You both need to be on your best behavior. Think before you act. Follow the customs."

"Okay," I said pointedly. It wasn't like I went out of my way to screw up every situation, things just happened.

"There will also be no sex between you and Caster—"

"There never was. But thank you for—"

"—and if I find out there was, I'll place you under house arrest—"

"—having such faith in me. House arrest? Who I have sex with isn't any of your—"

"—and make the next week hell for you. And everything you do is my business."

"—business. So please get the hell out of my panties!"

He blinked slowly. Once. Twice. "Are you done?"

"Are you?" I shot out, hands slapping the table with enough force to make my palms sting. "This might be your planet and your home, but like I told Caster when he pulled his patriarchal bullshit: my body's mine. You have no dominion over it."

A smile creased the planes on his face, brightening up the shadows that had settled there yesterday. "Remind me what you were studying in college."

"I am studying Women's Studies. Call this a break."

"That explains it." I didn't pretend not to understand exactly what he meant.

With his palms flat on the table, Duke pushed himself out of the chair. "I'll have your room cleaned by the time you get back. In the event that doesn't happen, you're welcome to stay here."

"Thank you." I pushed my plate forward as the maids came back out of the woodwork to quickly and efficiently clean away the remnants of our breakfast. "I'm going to meet Caster in the back courtyard. I'm guessing he knows where we're going."

Duke's hands balled into fists on the table, and I could feel the violence emanating from him like a heater on high in a car. His golden-blonde hair practically glowed. "I wasn't able to tell him, so I'll tell you. The two of you will be going to the houses of the most recent missing persons. It will probably take you a week."

Meaning I'd have to pack a bag and hope I didn't forget anything.

"I've called ahead and booked lodging for you and Caster on this trip. Two rooms at every location. One for each of you," he added, like every second I was near Caster my clothes came off and I started writhing on the floor. "Olive will send you the information later this afternoon, so please have your CD with you."

CD was short for Communication Device, which was the magical equivalent of a cell phone in a spinning top. Took me forever and a day to figure out how it worked. It was silver and black with three functions. Tap the top, spin it, and it would write and and recite whatever message it received. Tap it twice, spin, and it would write out the message you want and then sent it to whomever you choose. The third was for emergencies. But since I forgot the things of my bike during every emergency, I hadn't been able to use that function.

A slimy slither to my right heralded Duke's personal secretary. Olive was sort of like Cherry with the reflective scales that changed color with her mood, except her's were usually a cobalt blue and she had a much longer tail that Cherry's, with a wicked looking spiked ball at the end. Arm like appendages peeled from her sides as she handed me a thick stack of papers in a muted lime green. "Thanks."

Olive nodded. She didn't talk, at least not that I'd heard.

I flipped through the stack quickly before looking up and raising a brow at Duke. "These aren't in English."

He'd straightened to his full height and was whispering to a maid, but he stopped the moment I spoke and turned back to me. "I think you'll be fine. You don't seem to have any issue with measurements. Reading should be fairly easy if you've truly been studying our alphabet like you told me."

Was he trying to call bullshit on me? Tough luck, because I usually did what I put my mind to. Snapping the papers closed, I shot him my best eat shit grin. "It'll be a breeze." With that, I left the dining room to pack, meet Caster, and not fuck his brains out.

***

"'Til mother calls us home," Caster intoned, a goodbye to our final family of the day. We'd been working for five days now, seen fairies, giants, goblins, satyrs, yet each story sounded eerily familiar. Their child came home from school, went to their room or a quiet place, and when the parent went to go find them they were gone.

Shutting the CEM tomb on my lap, I looked up into the tear streaked faces of Infinity's parents. Dutch and Carol were sand elves from the Glass clan. Like most sand elves they were tanned to a golden glow that practically shimmered in the sunlight, their hair was bleached blonde, ears pointed, fingernails overly long with eyes a mix of colors that donated their elf heritage.

They were beautiful creatures but right now, the parents in front of me looked frightened and distraught. Infinity was their only child, and as Caster had told me, elves had a hard time conceiving. The girl might be the only child they ever had.

Caster and I stood up at the same time, and I gave a final nod to the distraught parents before me. "We'll do everything we can to find them," I said quietly.

I didn't think they heard me.

We were near an expansive ocean that looked either light pink or blood red depending on the depth. It was where the Glass clan lived as the second largest sand elf tribe in Ray. Tribe used to make me think of ratty teepees and loin-clothed men. Not so much on Yenos. The Glass clan lived in a giant sand castle that the Little Mermaid would have killed for. Everything was made from the sea or the sand and held together with magic. It took us almost half an hour to find our way back to our bikes with the help of our guards. Plenty of time for me to marinate on the interview we'd just conducted and review our past seven. I kept coming back to the same thought I had for the last five days: why teenagers?

I could see a group of teens running away, but they'd all do so at the same time. And there would have been signs from the kids. Hoarding food or money, feeling unsettled or restless in their life. There was none of that.

What if they were killed? There could be a serial killer on the loose hunting teens. But in all the crime dramas I watched (my only point of reference on this missing persons' case) there were similarities. All born on the same day. All female. All the same ethnicity, height, school, disease, something they all had in common. I had yet to find a single similarity among all of them besides that fact that they were in the weird teenager, not-quite-adult-yet age range: 17-22.