I swallowed the lump in my throat as I watched the four men who had surrounded us and shook in fear that I was trying not to let show on my face. I had good reason to be afraid. If those weapons that they were holding really were Cold Iron, and I had no doubt that they were, then we were in great danger.

My father had once told me that there were four commonalities among the Fey and all of their cousin species. That this was the reason that many people grouped Fey, Púca, Nymphs, Satyrs, Fauns, Selkies, and other cousin species together under the term Fey. The first two are our longevity and youthful appearances, but those are just the similarities that people can see.

The third of these common attributes is that we have a magically enforced compulsion about spoken words. We can’t lie, and once we make a spoken promise we are bound to it. We can’t avoid it, alter it, or break it. The final and most currently relevant similarity though is a weakness to Cold Iron. Just being close to it can make us sick, touching it burns, and if we somehow get any in our bloodstream, such as by being cut by a Cold Iron weapon, it is a deadly poison that burns its way through our veins, giving a slow and painful death.

A lot of people think that it can interfere with magic too, but that is a myth. Fey usually can’t use magic while around it only because it makes us too weak and sick to have the energy or concentration to use our magic. Magic can still be used, it just takes determination to do so, but even if I were trained I didn’t think I’d be able to do it right now. Aside from the fear, which had thankfully given me a brief reprieve from any thought or desire to have sex, I could already feel that weakness and general malaise washing over me as one of the men brought the tip of his sword within inches of my throat.

How had they gotten Cold Iron? Although it looks like raw iron and possesses many similar properties it’s not truly iron but a different element entirely, and it is only very rarely found on the Material Plane. It usually comes from the Iron Plane so, barring the type of luck usually needed to win the lottery, they would have needed someone who could travel there to get it, or know a strong enough Metal Mage to create some. Either way likely took time though and I was beginning to suspect that Mitchell had been planning this little ambush since Mom, Dad, and Aunt Merry left Toronto when I was a baby.

I guess that the how of it wasn’t really important, they had it and those blades were uncomfortably close. My eyes turned toward Jessica beside me and I saw that she was in the same situation that I was, scared stiff with a sword uncomfortably close to her throat. We both took an uncertain step backward, only to find ourselves back to back with Merriwynd and Brianna as Mitchell repeated, “Where is the Muse?”

“She has a name, Mitchell, and you damn well know it. She was married to your best friend,” Merriwynd spat back at him bitterly from behind Jessica.

“If he really was my best friend then he would have told me just how valuable that bitch of his was, I had to get him shit-faced before he confirmed my suspicions. Where is Bliss Woodward, Merry? If you don’t tell me then we’re going to find out just what Cold Iron will do to one of your kind, starting with your friends.”

“She’s far out of your reach, we took her to the Forest Plane a long time ago, and I haven’t seen Bliss since she went into hiding.” I managed not to gasp in shock but I was pretty stunned. She just told him exactly what he wanted to know. She couldn’t lie any more than Jessica or I could, or could she? Dad was only half Fey and he could lie if he really needed to, though it was difficult for him. I only hoped that Merry could do the same since she had mentioned only being half Fey as well.

Maybe she was acting? Acting was a different matter, as Jessica showed me before we left Vancouver. It’s why she’s a method actress, because when she becomes that person in her head it’s not really lying and sort of tricks the compulsion. The only reason we had made it through airport security was that she had shown me how to put myself in a frame of mind where I wasn’t just pretending to be her, but actually was Jessica Rabbit. Then I remembered that Merriwynd had lied to him when introducing us, she hadn’t given our real names. My heart soared, though it didn’t really make our current situation any better.

I was distracted from those thoughts as Mitchell cursed. “Shit! Okay, guys, it looks like we’ll have to rough them all up until one of them swears to take us to the Forest Plane and track the Muse down for us. Sam, start with the one with the big tits but don’t kill any of them until we have a volunteer.”

I could only grimace in expectation of the pain to come as I realized that they couldn’t get that promise from any of us. Even if any of us were inclined to do as Mitchell wanted there was no way that we could. None of us were aligned to the Wood element, so I doubted very much that, even if any of us could travel between Planes, any of us could take us them there.

Jessica was aligned to Earth and had no magical abilities at all other than her shapeshifting. Merriwynd was aligned to Air and to travel to an Elemental Plane a person needs to have a very strong alignment to that element. Brianna had informed us earlier that her demonic ability to teleport between Planes was limited to only the Infernal Plane or other Planes that she was familiar with, which at the moment was only the Material Plane. As for me, I was aligned to Ice and maybe Divine, but I had no ideas what magical abilities I might have or how to use them consciously yet.

Consciously is the keyword there. As the man in front of me smiled cruelly and moved the flat of his blade toward my face I panicked once again. I was scared stiff and wanted nothing more than to hide away from all of this.

Okay, I know what you’re probably thinking, that’s not very manly, but tell that to my breasts. I wasn’t exactly a man anymore and any thoughts of fighting my way out of this made me feel sick to my stomach for some reason and my mind just went blank on how I could do it. Suddenly I felt that tingle that I had associated with magic and the man’s cruel smile changed to a look of utter confusion, the Cold Iron less than an inch from my face as he proclaimed, “She’s gone!”

In the momentary confusion that followed, I smelled sulfur as Brianna’s physical presence at my back was suddenly gone as well, just in time for me to duck under Sam’s probing blade as he searched for a sign of where my head had been just seconds earlier. Men’s voices yelped in surprise behind me and a moment later Brianna appeared behind Sam and the man who still had his sword uncomfortably close to Jessica’s throat, swiftly grabbing both of them, yanking them backward, and vanishing along with them in another puff of sulfur and smoke. I turned to see that the other two men were gone as well, along with their swords, and that Aunt Merry now had her gun trained on Mitchell.

Brianna reappeared in her true form and looking like she was ready to collapse but she stubbornly remained standing as Jessica asked, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, that just took a bit out of me,” she admitted wearily. “I’ve never really teleported between Planes that many times in such a short time. That and carrying a pair of big guys as passengers for two of those jumps was a bit tiring. Normally, I have time between jumps to recharge my energy a bit. I left them in the den of a pack of wild Hellhounds that I stumbled across a while back, I doubt that those swords are going to do them much good there. Any idea where Crystal went?”

Desire flared through the fear for a moment as Brianna spoke my name and I had to take several deep breaths and calm myself before I did anything rash. She looked so tired and vulnerable, but she had just pulled all of our asses out of the fire and turned the tables when even Merriwynd hadn’t dared to move. Once I had gotten control of myself I squeaked, “I’m right here.”

“You can turn invisible?!” Jessica sputtered, looking toward the source of my voice with a shocked expression.

“I doubt that it is true invisibility, it’s probably more like some sort of illusion acting as a cloaking field to hide her from sight,” Aunt Merry commented as she kept her gun trained on Mitchell. “We can worry about that later. Now, I’m going to ask you one time, Mitchell. Do you still have it or not? How you answer will determine what I do to you.”

Mitchell was glaring at her but as Brianna approached him with a smile that showed her fangs and flexing her black claws, he gulped and quickly nodded. “I figured that I needed to keep it in case you or Dairen showed up for it without calling first. After we dealt with you and got the Muse I was going to sell it for some quick cash. I’ve been maintaining it all these years so I should get something for all my work,” he said bitterly, taking a keychain with a key attached from his pocket and tossing it toward Merriwynd.

His body tensed as if ready to pounce as the keys sailed wide but Aunt Merry didn’t fall for such an obvious ploy and she didn’t even make a move to try to catch them, keeping her gun trained on Mitchell’s head. Instead, she said, “Crystal, drop the illusion and pick up the key please.”

“Ummm… how?” I asked, having no idea how I’d created the illusion in the first place, let alone how to get rid of it.

“You should be able to feel the magic of it around you and since you seem to have tied the spell to yourself you should sense that it’s connected to you, like a sort of magical tether. Just look for that tether and think about breaking it,” the Fey woman told me carefully.

I could already feel the magic of the spell around me but it took a few minutes to find the tether that she was talking about. I could almost see it, like some string made entirely of light. The moment that I thought of breaking that string, I could feel the magic around me dissipate as I turned visible again. “That is so cool,” Jessica said as she hugged me.

My sister and I just held one another for a few minutes while Brianna and Aunt Merry discussed what to do with Mitchell. Jess was shaking, and I think that I may have been too as the reality of what had just happened, and our close call with torture and death, hit me. Once we had both managed to calm down a bit we broke our embrace and I bent down to pick up the key from the floor. It was a simple Dodge keychain with a single key attached and I figured that it was for a vehicle of some sort. “So, what are we going to do with him?” I asked, glaring at my father’s former friend.

“No loose ends,” Merriwynd said with a grim look before turning to Mitchell. “I figured that someone had to have revealed Bliss’s true nature to the Chimera Syndicate, and since it wasn’t me or Dairen it had to be you. As much as I’d really like to shoot you for betraying us, it will be cleaner if there isn’t a body or blood left behind for the police or PDA to look into. I’d love to see you burn and suffer in Hell for what you did and, since the Infernal Plane is what the idea of Hell was based on, I think we’ll go with Brianna’s suggestion and drop you there with your buddies.”

“I should be good to go now that I’ve had a few minutes to rest,” the half-Demon agreed. Then she turned to Mitchell and asked, “Any last words, Asshole?” She didn’t give him a chance to reply though, as before he could even blink she had reached in and grabbed him. An instant later the pair disappeared in a puff of smoke and a whiff of sulfur.

A moment later Brianna reappeared alone and said, “Well, now that the scumbag has been taken care of, why don’t you tell me what’s going on? I gather from what was said that this Muse is Crystal’s mother?”

The half-Demon had said it casually, seemingly more for confirmation than out of any real interest, but Merriwynd whirled on her, eyes immediately narrowed in suspicion. Her tone was threatening as she replied evenly, “And if she is?”

Brianna shrugged and looked the Fey right back in the eyes. “I don’t give a shit one way or another, Merry. I just want to know what I’m getting myself into. Sure, people like that asshole who lived here might want to use someone like that for their own benefit, but really, given the opportunity, they’d use any Paranormal like that, not just Muses, because that’s what scumbags do. I know that from experience, and I helped Paranormals fake their deaths for a reason. I don’t want to see anyone being killed or used just for being what they are, I got my fill of that living on the streets. I like you guys, I want to stick with you and make sure these girls are safe, but you mentioned the Chimera Syndicate and that concerns me.”

“What’s the Chimera Syndicate?” Jessica asked before I could.

“It’s a Paranormal crime syndicate,” Brianna explained with a sigh. “They have cells in cities all across North America and I’ve had a few close calls with them before. If it’s illegal, dirty, or immoral they’re probably involved up to their eyeballs. They’ve got their hands in the Paranormal slave trade, assassinations, drugs, prostitution, the Paranormal black market, and pretty much any organized crime that you can think of. That’s probably where those idiots got the Cold Iron weapons.”

“Everything will be explained when we get to where we’re going, and that won’t take long,” Merriwynd said as she and Brianna both refused to be the first to break the staring contest that they now had going.

“How do I know that I can trust you?” Brianna asked cautiously. “I thought that Fey can’t lie, but you obviously can. You did it when you introduced us, when you said the kid was dead, and probably when you told them where the Muse was as well.”

The blue-eyed Fey let out a sigh but still didn’t break their eye contact. “I didn’t tell any lies, merely selective truths. Before we left Vancouver I started associating the three of you with Fey-sounding nicknames, similar to your names, in my mind. When I introduced you I was using those nicknames since he didn’t ask what your names were, but rather ‘who are your friends,’ and friends often use nicknames. Dairen really is dead and Seth is legally dead and no longer physically exists, she’s Crystal now, so that wasn’t a lie either.”

“Uh-huh, so you didn’t lie, you just misled. I assume you did the same when he asked where she was,” the Asian half-Demon replied with a smirk.

“When he asked where Bliss was by name, I told him the truth when I said that she is far out of his reach. Then I offered other truths to put him on the wrong trail,” Aunt Merry explained. “I certainly wouldn’t risk taking her to the Forest Plane, if the Winter Court found out a Muse was living there she would be in great danger, but Dairen and I did indeed take her there a long time ago, for a visit. Also, in all honesty, I haven’t seen Bliss since she went into hiding, because the first thing we did was change her identity. She hasn’t gone by the name Bliss Woodward since we left Toronto.”

As Merriwynd finished speaking Brianna broke eye contact, mostly because she was laughing her ass off. Finally, she managed to gasp out, “Oh you sneaky bitch! How did you get so good at telling the truth without telling the truth?”

“I’ve had a while to practice,” the Fey offered with a shrug. “Now let’s get what we came for and get out of here.” She quickly led us through the door to the double garage and the first thing I saw was an unimpressive blue pick-up truck. After she had led us around the front end of it to the other side of the garage though my heart nearly exploded in my chest and I let out an embarrassingly girly squeal of delight.

“Is that a…” I didn’t finish my question, because I knew damn well what it was. Sitting there was a gleaming black 1970 Dodge Charger R/T in what seemed to be pristine condition. In fact, the chrome was practically spotless and I was pretty sure that it had recently been waxed. Mitchell may have been a colossal dick, but he sure knew how to take care of a car.

Aunt Merry nodded, and it almost looked like she had tears in her eyes as she spoke. “When we first came here to live in the Material Plane, your Dad was fascinated about his mother’s culture, but the thing that interested him most about the human world was cars. His first job was as an apprentice mechanic. It took him a few years, but he managed to save up enough to buy that monstrosity. He and Mitchell put a lot of time and work into it; finding parts in junkyards, getting it running, banging out dents, painting it, replacing the worn vinyl upholstery with real leather. It was his first car and he was driving it when he met your mother, he would have wanted you to have it.”

I couldn’t seem to find the words and I just kept staring at it in disbelief. Jessica just grinned, hugged me, and said, “Sweet. I won’t have to ride on the back of a bike anymore, no more getting soaked in the rain.”

“And I promise not to throw it or blow it up,” Brianna joked. I could see by the look on her face that she still felt guilty about doing that to my bike though.

I was conflicted by that, and Brianna’s presence in general. Sure, I was still a bit mad about what she did to my bike but at the same time, I liked her. She could be impulsive and reckless, but at the same time she could be sweet, caring, and thoughtful and she didn’t take shit from anyone unless she knew that she deserved it. The more time I spent with her, the more I found myself liking her. Not in that ‘I want to fuck her brains out’ way, but actually liking her.

Oh, don’t get me wrong, there was sexual attraction too, but then I was attracted to practically anything with a pulse these days. With her though, there was more to it than that, and it seemed to make me want her even more. When she had saved our asses by teleporting those guys with the swords away, even though it had obviously strained her, I had been ready to rip off my clothes and give in to my constantly churning desire right there and then, regardless of who might be in the room to see it.

“Before we leave we should check it for any tracking devices or spells,” Merriwynd cautioned, snapping me out of my thoughts. “If Mitchell was keeping it in case Dairen or I came to claim it unannounced, then he probably would have rigged it so he could follow us.”

With that, we did a thorough search of the car inside and out. I couldn’t feel the tingle of magic anywhere on it and Aunt Merry assured me that if there was any sort of spell on it I would be able to sense it with my alignment to the Divine element. After we confirmed that there was no magic we went on to a physical search. The inside of the Charger was as spotless as the outside, with a cherry wood steering wheel, all leather upholstery, and it looked like the car was the automatic transmission version, which was great since I hated driving standard.

The only thing in the glove compartment was the vehicle registration, which I would have to get changed when I got it insured. The trunk only hosted a pair of spare tires, a jack, a tire iron, a first aid kit, and a few flares. The only thing we found in the interior was a small electronic device that I couldn’t identify on the underside of the driver’s seat. We found that when the wand-like device that Brianna had extracted from her purse and was waving about started beeping like mad. She had waved it over the entire length, breadth, and underside of the car but that was the only time it beeped, scaring the hell out of me as I was searching under the floor mats.

I just stared at Brianna as my heart raced before gasping out, “What the hell is that thing?!”

“It’s a bug sweeper,” she said with a shrug as she felt around under the seat. Once she had found the device she threw it on the ground and stomped on it as hard as she could, leaving it shattered and a crack in the concrete.

Jessica gave her a confounded look. “You carry a bug sweeper in your purse?”

The half-Demon just shrugged as if it were an everyday thing. “Hey, in my line of work you learn to be prepared for anything, you should see what else I keep in there. That’s why I use a shoulder bag instead of something smaller, I need the space.”

Neither Brianna’s device nor the physical search found anything else until I popped the hood. That was where I found a GPS tracker that was certainly not standard issue for a 1970 Dodge Charger. I quickly removed it while the others kept searching for any other surprises. Finally, with the device removed and the car completely searched we were ready to leave. “Shotgun!” Jessica called out before anyone else could.

“We’re not going all that far,” Aunt Merry advised with a chuckle as she reached into her small purse and pulled out her cellphone. A moment later she was talking to someone as she stepped between the front of the car and the garage door. “Hey, Grundle, it’s Merry. I’m ready to come home with Tiffani’s special cargo. There’s a garage door right in front of me, is that solid enough? No, we’re not going straight home, we’ll need to go see Jimmy first. Okay, we’ll see you in a few minutes then.”

While we waited Aunt Merry explained that Grundle was a Gnome, one of the Earth elementals. Unlike other elementals, Demons, and other people with a strong enough connection to travel to whatever their elemental Plane is, Gnomes don’t simply disappear from the Material Plane and reappear on the Garden Plane. They instead create a sort of tunnel from one Plane to another. They can also use this ability to connect two distant places on the Material Plane by creating a tunnel from one to another through the Garden Plane. Grundle apparently called these tunnels ‘the backroads’ and used them to deliver goods from one place to another.

“In other words, he’s a smuggler,” Brianna said with a laugh when the explanation was over.

“And he’s proud of it. He’s a good sort though. Mostly he carries things that we Paranormals would rather the normies not see going through customs and occasionally people who need a new start. He’s the one who was delivering the letters and mementos from Dairen to your mother,” Merriwynd said as she turned to smile at me and Jessica.

A moment later the garage door in front of us began to shimmer and a picture formed of a dirt path through a lush garden with all sorts of flowers that I had never seen before, the occasional stands of trees, and even a babbling brook. Walking toward us along that path was a tiny man. When he finally stepped into the garage I discovered that he was only two feet tall with dark brown skin and an emerald-hued beard that went down to his knees. He was wearing a brown leather vest over a baggy viridian shirt and pants, and brown leather shoes. He also wore a pointed hat atop his head that matched the shoes and vest.

Aunt Merry quickly introduced us and then Grundle was all business, “Everyone, get in the car. And whoever is driving, make sure that you stick to the path unless you want to be stuck on the Garden Plane while I eat and rest enough to create another backroad.”

We all got in the car, Merriwynd and Brianna taking the back seat with Grundle while Jess got the coveted shotgun position. It was a strange feeling sitting in the driver’s seat. Not only was this a classic muscle car in seemingly great condition, but it was dad’s first car and, in a way, it made me feel so connected to him. The big fuzzy dice and the old pine tree air freshener hanging from the rearview mirror made me smile. He had had something similar in the car assigned to him by the PDA. I quickly adjusted my seat and mirrors as best I could and then I turned the key in the ignition.

The engine roared to life and I felt a surge of excitement run through me. I was even able to ignore the desire that built up as I saw Brianna in the back seat through the rearview mirror. “There will be plenty of time to give in to those urges later,” I told myself firmly as I took in the feel of the car around me and put it in gear. I eased on the gas since I wanted to get a feel for the car before going flat out, and since I was going to have to keep to the path and I didn’t know where the other end emerged.

The drive only took a few minutes before I saw a change of scenery ahead. There was some sort of gravel road and, much to my delight, a thick blanket of snow to either side of it. That did make me think about getting winter tires put on the car as soon as possible, but I couldn’t wait to get outside and feel that snow and ice all around me. Still, I didn’t stop the car until we were solidly on the gravel road and I saw what appeared to be a barn in the rearview mirror.

Once I had put the Charger into park and turned off the engine I practically jumped out of the car to run into the snow and just revel in the comforting feeling of being surrounded by my primary element. It appeared to be early afternoon and we were on some sort of farm by the look of it, though nearly a foot of snow blanketed most of the fields. There was a shoveled path from the gravel road to the nearby green and white farmhouse though. It felt so nice and so right and I just wanted to play for a while. I turned to the others in glee as they emerged from the car and grinned, asking Aunt Merry excitedly, “Is this where my mother lives?!”

They were all smiling at my sudden eagerness but Merriwynd shook her head. “No, it’s a bit of a drive to where we live, but there will probably be snow there too. We’re here to see Jimmy, he’s creating new identities for you and Jessica, and maybe Brianna as well if she feels that she needs it.”

The half-Demon shook her head. “It should be safe for me to use my birth name, I haven’t really used it since I ran away. I’ll need ID and shit though.”

“Jimmy can probably help with that too,” Merriwynd agreed with a nod. “He’ll need to get pictures of Jessica and Crystal for their driver’s licenses as well anyway.”

Grundle coughed politely and once he had our attention he said, “Well, ladies, it’s been a pleasure but I should get going home for a bit to rest.”

“So, how much do we owe you?” Aunt Merry asked, reaching for her purse.

“Don’t you worry about that, Merry, it’s all taken care of. Tiffani and I made an arrangement, so I’ll probably see you at the club tonight,” the Gnome said with a grin. “Take care, ladies,” he added before walking over toward the barn to open another portal. He and the backroad disappeared a moment later.

The moment he was gone Merriwynd motioned for us to follow her as she led the way to the farmhouse. “Come on, girls, it’s time to get you set up for your new lives.”