Before Surie could even finish her question Merriwynd had gotten to her feet and had her now reloaded gun trained on the half-Demon. “We can’t afford loose ends. Especially loose ends who could tell others what happened to Seth.”

“Whoa! Just calm down a minute! I came to help the three of you! I need to get the fuck out of here as much as you do, the Demons are after me now too because I helped the kid in the first place. Chief Little asked for one last favor before I skipped town, to bring the bike and the bag to the k… Seth. I guess that explains why I couldn’t teleport right to him though if he’s Manifested and changed that much. I wasn’t familiar with his new form so I had to focus on ‘porting to Jessica instead. I was afraid that the Demons had already gotten here and killed you. Look, there’s a note in the bag,” Surie explained hurriedly with her hands raised.

Surie had come to help us, at risk to herself. I couldn’t just let Merriwynd shoot her in cold blood, especially if she was on the run now too, just for helping us to fake my death in the first place. “M… maybe we should hear her out, Aunt Merry,” I suggested.

Aunt Merry gave a slight nod toward Jess, who grabbed the duffel bag that Surie had brought from where she had dropped it earlier and dropped it in front of the half-Demon. “You open it,” the Fey said carefully, gesturing to Surie with her free hand.

Surie nodded and, moving very slowly, knelt in the snow and lowered her hands to unzip the bag. It was hard to tell with just the moonlight to go by, but I could have sworn that the bag was filled with money. She took a folded piece of paper from the top and carefully held it out toward me. I took it and unfolded it to see what looked to be a hastily written note.

-Seth and Jessica,

Ed Little-

I used the light of the moon to read the note aloud and then let out a sigh. Merriwynd still had her gun trained on Surie but she hadn’t shot her yet, so the half-Demon kept her hands where they could be seen as she explained how things had gone wrong. Most of it she had pieced together after watching a meeting between the Demon who was supposed to pay the bounty for my death and the leader of the pack of Kadduran.

Surie had arrived early to case the meeting place. It was apparently a habit with her, just to make sure she wasn’t double-crossed, and this time it had proved to be a good idea. She had been supposed to meet with the Demon just after dark and while she was casing the place she saw the Demon already there and meeting with a Kadduran. The Kadduran had told the Demon that my death had been faked with the help of the person coming to collect the bounty.

Apparently, the pack of Kadduran had tracked me down and were about to attack Jess and me in our apartment when Chief Little and the PDA showed up, so they watched and waited from the top of the apartment building across the street for another opportunity. Kadduran can see in infrared and from long range so they were able to keep an eye on things and determine that I wasn’t really dead. They reanimated a dead bird to be their eyes while it was light out, follow us from a distance, and eventually give them the location of the safe house.

So, when Surie went to check out the meeting spot at sunset she discovered the meeting and overheard that not only were the Kadduran going to come to the safe house to kill us and then collect the bounty but that her name had been added to the hit list for trying to pull one over on them. Wisely, she got the hell out of there before she could be caught and contacted Chief Little. He had her meet him at PDA headquarters and had my bike and the bag of cash ready to go and, as soon as he finished adding the note, he sent her to help us.

As angry as I still was with her about my bike, Surie had come to help us when she could have just taken my bike and the money and run. That actually said a lot about her character. She might be a bounty hunter and half-Demon but she tried to help people who needed it and only went after those who really deserved it, from what Chief Little had told us. She seemed a decent person, not letting her Demon blood define her and I liked and respected that, enough that I had to firmly squash a very strong desire to strip naked again and get to know her better, biblically. As it was my panties were now soaked and I was afraid that everyone could smell the desire on me.

“Maybe we should… umm… bring Surie with us. It’s kinda my fault she’s on the run and she could be useful,” I suggested uncertainly as I awkwardly tried to keep my thighs firmly together.

“Actually, my name isn’t really Surie Rourke,” the half-Demon said with a sigh. “This is just the name and face I use for business, keeping my work-self separate from my real self helps to keep me safe in case shit like this happens. Still, there aren’t enough half-Demon bounty hunters in Vancouver for me to start again without people, especially Demons, getting suspicious. I’ll have to leave and create a new work identity wherever I end up going, but my real identity should be safe enough to use. My birth name is Brianna Sòng, and I look like this.”

Surie’s, or rather Brianna’s, features began to shift and change before my eyes. She lost several inches in height, going from around five foot seven to five foot four, her lean muscular build becoming curvier and stretching the leather outfit she wore around her now wider hips and larger chest, going from an A cup to at least a solid B cup if my guess was right. Her hair remained long and black, but her face softened, becoming prettier as her eyes went from orange to amber with a distinctly Asian appearance and her dark blue skin turned a light rose gold color. The black horns atop her head shrank a bit and turned crimson. The only thing that hadn’t really changed was the long black claws on her fingertips.

Merriwynd had gone from looking suspicious to pensive as she regarded the half-Demon and lowered her gun. “Demon shapeshifting, huh? What are your limitations? What other demonic abilities do you possess?”

Brianna lowered her hands and shrugged. “I can make myself look like anyone or anything I want, so long as my mass stays the same, so there are some limitations. Any taller than five foot ten or so wouldn’t work unless the person is really thin. I can teleport anywhere I’ve been before or to people I know by moving through the Infernal Plane. I’m fireproof and have fairly good regeneration, but other than that and the claws and strength I don’t have any other demonic abilities.”

“You used Fire magic though,” Jessica pointed out.

“That’s not a demonic ability,” Brianna said with a shake of her head. “Demons usually use Death magic. I’m aligned to both the Fire and Death elements but I only really have a talent for using Fire magic. It comes easier to me and, to be honest, the thought of using Death magic makes me uncomfortable.”

Merriwynd seemed to be deep in thought, considering things before she finally let out a sigh and looked Brianna straight in the eyes to ask, “How much is the price on Seth’s head?”

“Seventy-five grand,” the half-Demon replied without a second of hesitation. “It’s the same for everyone on that list, except the one they want alive. It’s over twice as much as any other hit on Paranormals out there, so a lot of the scum out there are ready to jump on it.”

The blue-eyed Fey watched the half-Demon carefully as she answered and then let out another long sigh. “I am going to trust you because you could have run off with all of that money and disappeared, leaving us to deal with the Kadduran on our own. If you betray that trust then you will wish I had killed you now. You can stick with us for now since you could be useful in helping to get anyone still pursuing Seth off our tail. I will be contacting Seth’s mother though to get her thoughts on this.”

I let out a sigh of relief. As pissed as I was with Brianna about my bike, I didn’t want her killed. She seemed like a decent person even if she could be a bit impulsive and didn’t think things through. I looked around uncertainly at our moonlit surroundings. I loved being here in the snow, I felt so at home, but I knew that we’d have to leave it behind if we didn’t want to risk another attack. I wondered if I would be able to be comfortable anywhere else, especially in a big city. I had never heard of a Nymph living in a city before, they were too connected to nature. That only begged the question; if my mother really was some kind of a Nymph like I now suspected, where the hell was Merriwynd taking us?

I was so lost in those thoughts that I barely heard Aunt Merry say, “We need to get going before anyone else shows up. Here’s the plan…”

Merriwynd and I sat in a large room in the Nordic Hotel in downtown Vancouver. The four of us had left the safe house by truck after packing all of the bags, including mine, and drove back to the city where Brianna had suggested the hotel. Apparently, it was a high-class hotel mostly geared to Paranormal guests and it had some pretty impressive wards that kept the guests safe from being tracked magically. Jessica had gone out, with Brianna in a human guise as protection, to find me some clothes that would actually fit.

Jess may not have been able to change her ears, eyes, or hair color or get rid of the tail, but unlike Brianna, she didn’t have mass constraints to her shapeshifting and her control over her actual body shape was pretty good. After a few tries and some intense scrutiny of my naked body, she had been able to copy my body shape and dimensions perfectly. She had even copied my new face. Since both of us had white hair we could have been identical twins if not for her red eyes and the ears and tail. Once those were hidden under proper clothes and the blue contact lenses she usually wore, the resemblance was uncanny.

Once we had gotten into the hotel room and I had stripped down for Jessica to copy me, not to mention for my own comfort, I had gotten a pretty good look at myself in the mirrored closet doors. I looked around seventeen (at the most), and was five foot four and absolutely gorgeous with a body that oozed sex appeal. Long, perfectly shaped legs for my height, and an hourglass figure with wide well-rounded hips and a great ass, an almost impossibly thin waist, and large yet firm breasts with large pink areolae and nipples like pencil erasers.

My skin was all milky white and free of any blemishes or imperfections and my snow-white hair cascaded in waves down to the middle of my thighs, though my long pointed ears poked out and I figured that I’d have to keep those covered in public. I also had ice-blue eyes set in a classically beautiful heart-shaped face with slender arched white eyebrows, high cheekbones, a delicate nose, cupid-bow lips, and a soft well-rounded chin.

I wish that I could say that I had looked in the mirror and panicked at the stranger looking back at me, but that would be a lie. This was who I was, who I was meant to be, and it just felt right to me even as what was left of my male ego screamed that it should feel wrong. The only things that I really had a problem with were the issues that my ears may cause with the normies if I didn’t keep them covered, and the fact that with my body and face and the fact that I was a Nymph other Paranormals might take me for a bimbo. I already knew that it was a given that they would take me for a slut since Nymphs do have a reputation.

There were several reasons that I wasn’t going to get clothing myself. First, while I didn’t seem to be uncomfortable in the city there were a lot of people and just getting to the hotel room I had been having a hard time clamping down on my desire to rip off my clothes and have sex with someone. Secondly, we couldn’t be certain that I wouldn’t panic and accidentally use my magic if something unexpected were to happen. Thirdly, Merriwynd had wanted to talk to me about what I could expect from being a Nymph and to explain the ins and outs, if you’ll pardon the expression.

So now I was getting a primer on being a Nymph. The first thing that she told me was that, unlike many Paranormal species, Nymphs don’t have a set alignment to an element like Fey usually are to the Wood element, Púca to Earth, or Demons to Death. While the most common Nymphs are born aligned to Earth, Wood, or Water, Nymphs can be born aligned to practically any of the ten elements, seemingly randomly. The only element that Nymphs couldn’t be born aligned to would be Death.

Nymphs usually Manifest when interacting with their element for the first time after the start of puberty. If I had been a more common variety of Nymph I probably would have Manifested on one of the camping trips with Dad and Jessica, maybe even when we had first found Jessica. Most children of Nymphs usually grow up with their mothers in the forests or near the element that their mother is aligned to. If they don’t Manifest by the age of sixteen they leave their mother to find whatever element that they are aligned to.

Next, I learned about Nymphs’ various abilities. It would seem that there’s more to us than just sex. Like the Fey and their other cousins, Nymphs have a youthful appearance and stop aging altogether once they’ve reached adulthood at around twenty years old. We’re also agile, dexterous, quick, flexible, and usually have some talent for using the magic of our elements. We have an aversion to physical forms of combat though since it goes against our natures. Apparently, we’re lovers, not fighters.

The last thing that I learned was that as part of their nature, Nymphs have several problematic compulsions and I would have to get used to that. First, of course, was the constant sexual desire that I had been struggling with since I awoke, which elevates when we’re around other people. Secondly, Nymphs have problems wearing clothes, and not just because of needing to wear only natural fibers. As I had already discovered, clothing feels unnatural, unnecessary, and just plain wrong. Even wearing clothes of the right materials for long periods can cause severe anxiety.

And then there was the compulsion to be near the element that we are aligned with. There’s a reason that you don’t see Nymphs in cities very often, they need to constantly stay close to the element they are aligned to. It is a part of who they are, part of their very identities. With all of that concrete and few natural areas to live comfortably without being seen by normies and either getting arrested for indecent exposure or something or revealing the existence of Paranormals, the vast majority of Nymphs can’t handle living in cities.

“So then why aren’t I having any trouble?” I asked uncertainly once Merriwynd revealed that to me. “Sure, I’d really rather be playing in the snow, but it doesn’t seem to be that big a thing for me.”

Merriwynd sighed and closed her eyes, speaking in a soft whisper that I couldn’t hear even sitting right across from her on one of the room’s two double beds. I could feel a tingling sensation coming from her as she did so and recognized it as a similar sensation to something I had felt when accidentally using my magic or when Brianna had used fire magic but hadn’t really paid attention to at the time. Finally, Aunt Merry nodded grimly, “That should keep any possible listening devices or spells from picking up what we’re talking about. I believe that you aren’t having issues because of your dual alignment.”

“Huh?” I queried in confusion.

“Between what you learned from Ed Little about the Demonsbane clan and your connection to them, and the fact that you used both Ice and Divine magic, I believe that you are aligned to both the Ice and Divine elements. You Manifested while in the snow, so that means that your primary element is Ice, but your genetic heritage on your father’s side gave you a secondary alignment to the Divine. Your mother, being what she is, may have encouraged this as well,” the blue-eyed Fey told me carefully.

I really hoped that this meant that she was willing to give me some answers now, so I asked, “My mother? What exactly is she? I’m assuming she’s a Nymph since I certainly didn’t get that from Dad’s side of the family.”

Surprisingly she did answer my questions. “Yes, she’s a Nymph, but she’s aligned to the Divine element. Divine Nymphs are what people call Muses, and you may be one to some degree as well given your alignment to the Divine. Muses aren’t like other Nymphs. Most Nymphs are aligned to secondary or tertiary elements, but the Divine is one of the two primary elements. It’s life, light, and creation and both it and Death are present in all things and part of all of the other elements except one another. This is why Nymphs aligned to the Divine can live comfortably anywhere. Hell, with your combination of Divine and Ice you could probably create ice and snow if you really wanted to.”

“Wait, I thought that Muses were a myth,” I sputtered, my eyes wide as I stared at my Fey aunt.

“Muses are very rare, the rarest of all Nymphs and maybe all Paranormals as well,” she admitted with a shake of her head. “They are powerful conduits for Divine magic, so connected to their element that their mere presence can cause others to become inspired to create or to consider things that they never would otherwise. Between those abilities and the fact that they can live among humans without the negative effects of being away from their elements, many people seek to use them for their own gain when one appears. That is why she was afraid of people using you against her, and why she had to leave Toronto, because people other than your father and I had discovered her true nature.”

The enormity of what she was saying hit me like a speeding bullet train. If you went by the myths alone, Muses were the golden ticket to fame and fortune. If you added in the facts that they could live among other Paranormals and humans without issue and were beautiful and youthful with insatiable sexual appetites, I could see very well why some people would do anything to possess one. And my mom was one of them. She had little choice but to send me off to live safely with Dad somewhere else. “D…do you think I’m one too?” I asked, nervously swallowing the lump of uncertainty that had lodged itself in my throat.

“I can’t be sure,” Aunt Merry conceded with a sigh. “I have never heard of a Nymph being aligned to more than one element before but from what I have felt when you used your magic, you are very powerful with both of your elements and it seems to come as naturally to you as breathing. No Nymph that I’ve ever seen has been able to cast magic like what you used within a day of Manifesting, even accidentally, it takes months or years of training.”

I stood at the baggage claim of Toronto Pearson International Airport and awaited ‘my’ luggage. I was dressed in a pair of white low-rise jeans, white leather sling backs with a three-inch heel, and a cotton candy pink silk halter top that left most of my midriff bare and clung tightly to my chest. Rounding out the outfit was Jessica’s leather jacket, which I couldn’t zip up, and a pale powder blue beanie that went nicely with my eyes and covered my ears.

Underneath my clothes, I was wearing white silk undergarments. I had been disturbed to learn that I was a D cup but I figured that it could be worse as I shifted my weight in the heels. I was surprised to be able to walk in the shoes, but apparently, my new sense of balance was pretty damn good, even if they were killing my feet.

Eventually, the four large and recognizable suitcases came through with my name on the tags, the first three being a set of large and rather non-descript black rolling suitcases that matched my carry-on bag. The fourth was a large hardcover suitcase but was bright pink with flower and carrot stickers all over it. I had barely managed not to groan as I took the last one and put it on the baggage cart with those belonging to ‘Seth’ and ‘Miranda’. Miranda Dunn was the false identity that Merriwynd had been using to travel, though it was currently Brianna playing that role, having shapeshifted to look like the glamour that Aunt Merry had used for that identity. Aunt Merry herself had assumed my former identity by using a glamour.

Who was I, you might ask? Well, I was Jessica of course. Given that my new face had similar features to her own and that my eye color, hair color, and height were all pretty close to that on her driver’s license I was pretending to be her while we left a false trail for anyone really determined to follow by flying commercial. As for Jessica, she was currently in a pet carrier that I had kept with me during the flight and she was not happy about it. She gave me an evil glare as I picked the carrier back up and gave her an apologetic look, saying for the sake of the crowds, “It’s okay, Jingles. We’ll be there soon and then we can get you out of that cramped little thing.”

After Jessica and Brianna had managed to get a couple of sets of clothes that had fit me and a few other things that we needed and returned to the hotel we had played a little bit of musical identities, driven the truck to the airport in our current disguises, and boarded the first flight that we could get to Toronto. Toronto wasn’t our final destination, just a false trail for the more determined Paranormal bounty hunters to follow. Aunt Merry did have business in Toronto but she had said that it wouldn’t take long and that soon after we would be in the wind and on our way to wherever home was supposed to be.

With our bags retrieved, ‘Seth’ handled the baggage cart while we made our way outside to catch a cab. It was snowing in Toronto and I smiled at that brief exposure, just enjoying the feeling of snow falling around me as we got in the cab and the driver loaded the bags. I really wished that I could have stayed out in it a bit longer but we didn’t have time to dawdle.

The ride to the hotel was a bit unsettling with the way that the driver kept looking at me through the rearview mirror. Seriously, he was old enough to be my grandfather, and even as a Nymph I had no interest in that. Well, maybe a little, but I was horny dammit. Still, after a four-and-a-half-hour flight in coach surrounded by people, many of whom did suit my new tastes, and fighting the urges to strip naked and get some goddamn sex the whole flight, it was a piece of cake by comparison.

Once we had arrived at our hotel we checked in, again under the name Miranda Dunn, and quickly made our way to our room. With another apologetic look, I let Jessica out of the pet carrier so she could return to her sort-of-human form and get dressed. She snorted indignantly as she put her clothes on and muttered, “I’m not a pet. I just played one on TV.”

“Sorry, Jess, but we all agreed that this was the best plan and I was as uncomfortable on that plane as you were. There were way too many people there, and the clothes and the need for sex were driving me crazy the entire flight. I don’t think I’m ever gonna get used to this,” I replied with a tired sigh.

She looked guilty at that and quickly hugged me. “I shouldn’t complain, I’m just feeling a bit overwhelmed with everything that’s happened, I can’t imagine how you feel, Seth. Damn, you’re going to need a new name. Seth is not going to work for a girl.”

“How about Elsa?” Brianna suggested playfully as she and Merriwynd changed. Merriwynd had exchanged the glamour of Seth for another that resembled a human version of her real appearance and Brianna used shapeshifting to do the same, looking like just an ordinary Chinese teenager. They were both changing into more casual clothes as well to not get too much attention, though Aunt Merry made sure to hide both of her daggers and her gun in a harness under her bulky jacket.

“Or Snowflake,” Jessica teased, forcing a smile, though I could still see her ears twitching slightly in agitation.

I groaned, but Merriwynd nodded with a slight smile, telling me, “Most Nymphs choose new names based on the element that they are aligned to. I traded messages with your mother via magical methods and she thinks that you’ll both need a new identity. Jessica can keep her first name but you’ll both use the surname of your mother’s current identity to make it easier for her to claim you as her kids. She already has a first and middle name picked out for Seth and she’s talking to one of our friends in low places about getting you both set up with identities that will pass even government scrutiny. Hopefully, they’ll be ready to pick up by the time we get there. For now, Seth, you should get used to being called Crystal.”

“Crystal huh, I guess that’s not too bad so long as it isn’t spelled with a ‘K’,” I replied thoughtfully. Yeah, definitely not with a ‘K’, that was too stripper-like for my comfort and I was going to get enough of those kinds of assumptions as a Nymph.

Once they were all changed and Brianna had transported all of our bags into a secure hiding spot where she was keeping her own valuables and our bag of cash, for the time being, we left the room, leaving only Seth’s suitcases filled with my old clothes behind. I couldn’t use them anymore and it would help provide a false trail by leaving them here along with my old wallet and ID. My other new change of clothes, my still-wrapped birthday gift from Jessica, and what few small personal belongings that I had wanted to keep were all stored safely inside Jessica’s carry-on bag that I had been using.

With all of that done, we made our way to the subway station to head to our destination. The subway was as bad as the plane, if not worse, especially when I factored in all the guys staring at me. It was pretty obvious what they wanted, and sadly I wanted it too, but I had to keep myself under control. Then there were the girls who, rather than staring, were glaring in poorly veiled jealousy. How in the hell did my life come to this?

I was glad when Aunt Merry announced that we had reached our stop and we were able to get off the train and then make our way out of the crowded station as well. Once we were outside I just stood there for a moment in the falling snow, drinking in the comfort that it gave me, and I continued to do so as we walked to our destination and I tried to put all thoughts of sex and all of my worries and fears aside. I felt marginally better by the time we reached a worn-down brick house. It was probably a nice place when it had first been built, it was large and boasted a double garage, but it had definitely seen better days.

As we approached the house Merriwynd said in a low whisper, “The guy we’re going to see is a normie but he knows about Paranormals since his sister is an Earth mage. He’s a mechanic and an old acquaintance of me and your dad. He knows that I’m coming and if this goes pear-shaped at least people will think that I’m in Toronto.”

“Can we trust him?” Brianna whispered back.

Merriwynd shook her head as she reached out to press the doorbell. She whispered barely loud enough for us to hear, “Not in the slightest. Why do you think I brought weapons?” After a few minutes, a large muscular man with graying brown hair opened the door and the blue-eyed Fey called out, “Mitchell! It’s good to see your face again. Is it ready?”

Mitchell narrowed his eyes at us as he noticed that Merriwynd wasn’t alone but put on a fake smile. “It’s good to see you too, Merry. I’ve been keeping her in pristine condition since Dairen left, just like you both asked. So, who are your friends?”

“Oh this is Jezibelle, Chryssana, and Bright, they’re friends from back home. We’re going on a sort of road trip together,” Aunt Merry replied casually, ‘introducing’ Jessica, myself, and Brianna in turn.

“I see,” the large man answered, trying to hide a frown. I did not get a good vibe from him at all. “Come on in, the keys are in the garage and she’s ready to go. I… uhh… would have expected Dairen to be the one to pick her up. How’s he and that kid of his?”

“They’re both dead,” she answered with a hurt expression on her face. There was just enough real emotion from Dad’s death to make it believable.

Mitchell’s frown deepened before he motioned for us to follow him through his living room and into the garage. “Sorry to hear that,” he muttered as he reached for the door to the garage, “they would have been useful as leverage. I guess that just leaves us with you then.”

As he opened the door two men emerged from the garage and at the same time the front door opened behind us where I turned to see two more men enter the room. They were all carrying black, metallic, and roughly made swords and looked ready to use them. Something about those weapons made me very uncomfortable, I felt sick just looking at them, but I didn’t realize why until Merriwynd gasped in horror, “Where in the hell did you get Cold Iron?!”

“I think that we’ll be asking the questions here, Merry,” Mitchell said with a smug-looking sneer. “Where is the Muse?”